Big Changes!

So, big changes in our lives ahead...new baby and new house! The house is about 10 minutes north of where we are now, off of 4500 S. in Holladay. It's not quite finished, so we need to finish it up and should be in sometime around Christmas. The baby is due April 7th, and we have about a month until we find out the sex of surprise baby #6! It is taking me a while to get my head around the idea of 6 kids, and going through pregnancy again. In my mind I had checked off that box for good and was happy about it :). It's a short while in the big picture, though, right?? Did I mention I don't like being pregnant...hahaha, too late now.

Well, besides those two, energy and time-consuming things, we just had a big birthday for Zelle - 12! How can we have a 12 year-old? It's bizarre. She went to Young Women with me yesterday, and can go to activities and things now. Crazy. We also debated long and hard about a cell phone and finally decided that Zelle's the kind of kid that really responds well to the trust you place in her. She loves to rise to the view you have of her, and has been wanting a phone for a while now. It seems crazy to me to give kids this age phones, but it also means a lot to her, and is a way of showing trust and confidence in her...does that make any sense? Clearly, we're conflicted on it, but lots of things are scary firsts with your first child. Technology in general is really new territory for our generation because we didn't experience any of this as kids, so it's hard to know how to navigate our own kids through it. We had a few friends and cousins over for pizza, crafts, a movie, and outdoor games in the dark (hands down the favorite!). They played "ghosts in the graveyard with flashlights in the dark and LOVED it.

Last weekend we went to St. George and had a great time swimming, scootering around, doing a little shopping, and cooking hot dogs and s'mores over the fire. Natalie discovered she can climb out of her crib this weekend, so we ended up putting a heavy mirror over the top of the porta crib that she couldn't move and basically caging her in. I know, I know - sounds like nutty parenting, but the things parents will do for sleep and some down time :). We would probably never have done this with our older kids, but we didn't have any problem with it with "the beast," as we refer to Nata these days.

The weekend before, for conference weekend, our friends, Josh and Tiffany Madsen were in town, so it was fun to see them and meet all their kids - many for the first time! Then Mark got to go with Dad, and Ben and Joseph Grimaud to the priesthood session to hear Patrick speak. They loved it, of course - as did everyone - what a great talk! And the girls, Mom and I got to go to Jen's house to hear it on a live stream on their computer. It was really fun to see all these girls huddled quietly around the computer.

We are loving the beautiful fall weather and colors! What a great time in Utah. These October weeks are magical. Love to you all!