General Conference

Our Semi-Annual LDS General Conference was last weekend.  We always look forward to hearing from the Prophet and the apostles!  This conference was extra special because it was Savvy's first time being old enough to go to the General Women's Meeting.  Hard to believe, but this girl is growing up!  She was really looking forward to this night because it represented a whole night of "Mommy time" that she so often craves and needs.  To make the night longer, the ward Relief Society put on a dinner before the meeting, where they had a few activities for the young girls.  Cupcake decorating and notebook decorating.  So Savvy had her little decorated notepad to take notes during the meeting.  I also had mine that I brought from home.  What I continue to learn on this journey of parenthood, is how much my children watch me, and for better or worse, imitate me.  I started taking notes in my notebook as I always do, but this time, I noticed that Savvy was leaning over looking at what I was writing.  Then she got her notebook out and started copying word for word from my notebook.  As I witnessed this, my notes stopped being about me.  I started writing more neatly so she could read my handwriting, and I made my sentences more simple, with content that I thought she might appreciate.  She copied my notes the entire time!  On the way home, she reread her notes to me.  We discussed how we want to work on memorizing "The Living Christ:  The Testimony of the Apostles" as a gift to the Savior as Sister Marriott did, although it will not be by Christmas.  :)  I know we both felt the Spirit in that meeting.  It was nice for me to be with just Savvy to focus on her and her growing spirit.  Three or four times throughout the meeting, she cuddled into me and whispered, "I love you."  I knew that she was feeling the Spirit and was feeling loved...by me, and by a loving Heavenly Father.

Note the kitchen counter corner covered by part of a swimming "noodle" to keep Rhea from banging her head up.  My friend Analee gave it to us when she left for China.  :)

Watching Conference--the kids always have to get all "set up."

Savvy's drawings during Conference.  I love this of Jesus.  So simple, yet profound being drawn by a child.  I know what inspired that one, but I'm not sure about the octopus.  :)

Sunday morning before Conference, we got together with my stepsister Jennie, her hubby Christian and their three kids Emma, Xander, and Anie (spelling?).  They have been in the foreign service for years (I'm not sure exactly, but I think around 12-14 years).  They have been a wonderful, willing resource to answer our questions about life in the F.S. before we even applied.  They have been to Prague, Bejing, Vietnam, and now are off to Taiwan!  They've been here in D.C. for the last four years for different assignments that Christian has chosen to take for career purposes.  We fully anticipate that he will be an ambassador some day!  It's fun for us to be experiencing what we only talked with them about before.    

Not knowing when we'll get these kids together again, with us being in Angola and their family going to Taiwan next year, we can only assume that they'll look very different in their next picture together!