General Conference, Chaplain Conference, Travis' birthday, Joseph in trouble, and a chicken adventure

Sitting on a hammock 

Malachi loves the balls at the children's museum

Caleb showing off his dance moves at the children's museum

Austin made a play pen for Malachi with the kitchen chairs

Malachi wants to be a big boy and sit at the big chair

Malachi and Marley (the girl I watch in the mornings) rolled up in "blanket burritos"

Samuel in his full dress uniform for school

Betsy in her full dress uniform for school

Caleb showing off dance moves at the children's museum

Malachi wanted to pose for a picture too

Malachi picking up apples off the ground during general conference at Travis' mission reunion

Samuel told Austin to cut his hair, and she did

Malachi waving to me from the balcony of the house we rented in Utah

All the kids ready for our walk

Malachi got stuck in the lazy susan

playing at the park at the AFB in Cheyenne, WY on our way to Utah

Our big oak stool fell on Caleb's forehead, It got swollen so fast, his skin split, this is after icing it for 20 minutes.

Travis and his birthday cake

Me all "mummified" during the game "quelf" at our game night on Travis' birthday

Caleb playing at the rock wall place

Joseph climbing (well falling really) at the rock climbing place

Samuel climbing

Joseph climbing

Malachi has started giving everyone hugs

Malachi has started going down the stairs facing front, (scary)

batman pajama boys

The batman pajama group

Samuel riding his bike at the BMX park.

Malachi jumping at the trampoline park

Caleb jumping at the trampoline park

Joseph playing dodge ball at the trampoline park

Caleb playing with balls at the trampoline park

Samuel getting buried at the park

The girls getting buried halfway at the park

Travis' Happy Birthday

The last month has been really busy.  Oct 1st we left for Utah to go to General Conference/Chaplain Conference.  We stopped at the AFB in Cheyenne, WY and stayed the night.  It was a night little apartment with a full kitchen.  Caleb kept climbing into the lazy susan they had in one of the cupboards and getting stuck, the silly little boy.  We drove the rest of the way to Utah the next day.  We rented a house for the six days we would be there, that was right next to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, it was a great location.  We were having Travis' Mom, his aunt Nora, Uncle Nick, and Grandma over for dinner, so I quickly went to the closet grocery store and got the supplies, and we had dinner with them that night.  It was night to see them all.  The house we rented was a very nice house, but some of the stuff was not very kid friendly, no plastic dishes.  Travis' Mom stayed the night with us, and the next morning we went to the children's museum.  We walked there, and the kids had a great time playing for hours, we had brought a picnic lunch so we were able to stop and eat when we were hungry.  Malachi and Caleb loved the ball area best.  Travis' sister, Maia, and her son Julan were going to meet us there, but they were sick, so we missed out on seeing them.  That evening, Travis and I went to the dinner reception for the Chaplain Conference.  It was so nice to see all the other chaplains we know, and have good food, and wonderful inspiring talks, and music.  Saturday,  Travis' mom left to spend time with other family, and Travis took Austin, Betsy, and Joseph to the different sessions in the Conference Center, they loved having the experience of being there in person, sitting close to the front.  Sunday, another Chaplain Spouse and I took turns watching kids, so I went with Travis to the morning session, and she was able to go with her husband to the afternoon session.  I love conference, and listening to the prophet and apostles speak the word of God.  Sunday night, we had Travis' Mom, and another Chaplain couple over for dinner.  It was a nice evening.  Travis' Mom stayed with us for the next two days for the Chaplain Conference.  Travis and I left Monday morning to go to the Caplain Conference in the Church Office Building.  Right before we went to our first break, I started getting texts from Joseph telling me to call home right away.  I got out as soon as I could and called home.  Travis' Mom said she was taking a shower and Malachi got into the dishwasher tablets under the kitchen sink, and had eaten some.  When Austin was taking him up to her, he threw up, and she didn't know how to call poison control.  I told her I would call poison control and was on my way back to the house. As I was running back to the house, I called poison control, and they told me just to give him water, and keep an eye on him, that he would have a sore mouth, and upset stomach but should be fine.  They told me to call back in an hour.  I got home and took over care of Malachi.  He seemed fine, but Travis' Mom was a little shaken, so I took Malachi back with me to the conference for a while.  He was fine, and walked and played around, he came to the luncheon with me, and made a huge mess of my lunch.  After lunch I took him back to Grandma, and she took him and the kids for a walk around temple square.  I was able to finish out the Conference that day with Travis.  That night we had a BBQ at our house with some of our Chaplain friends.  We had fun, and even got to play a few games.  The next day, I stayed home with the kids for the first half of the day, Malachi hadn't slept well, and wasn't feeling that good, so I stayed with him.  I was able to go back with Travis after lunch to the final session of the chaplain conference.  It was awesome, several speakers from the quorum of the seventy, and Quentin Cook from the Quorum of the twelve was the final speaker.  Travis and I were sitting up front, so after he was done speaking we were one the first people to be able to shake his hand.  It was a wonderful experience and all the speakers and music throughout the conference were so inspiring and uplifting.  I came away feeling renewed, and peaceful.  That night we were supposed to have a picnic and explore Temple Square with Travis' sister Maia and her family and his mom, aunt, uncle, and grandma.  Maia's family got stuck in a traffic, and ended up having to go back home.  We were able to have dinner with everyone else, and had a nice evening.  The next morning we packed up and cleaned, and left town after stopping by the dollar store.  We made it to the AFB in Cheyenne, WY for the night, and were all ready to go swimming, but discovered there swimming pool was closed for maintenance.  The kids were pretty disappointed, but had fun playing at the park instead.  We made it safely home the next day.  Things got pretty crazy busy right away.  I had to prepare for a pressure cooking demonstration that I was giving, so I had to go to the store and buy the ingredients and take them all to the church while Joseph was at scouts and try out the recipe for lentil stew I was going to demonstrate.  Travis' had to go into work for a while, and I also had to pick up music that I needed to practice and get ready to play for a stake choir practice on Sunday.  While I was trying out the recipe for lentil stew, I discovered my pressure cooker was missing the rocker.  It lets the steam out slowly so the pressure doesn't get too high.  The pressure was starting to get too high, so I hit the little piece on top of the lid that the rocker normally goes on top of with my potholder.  It started spewing out steam like crazy.  Joseph was in there with me at the time, and told me I was going to blow up the church.  I hit the piece again with my pot holder and it stopped going crazy.  The pressure was back to normal and it finished cooking just fine, and turned out delicious.  Friday, Samuel and Betsy had school, but Joseph didn't.  I went to the store again, practiced the piano and cleaned house.  As I was cooking dinner, Caleb was with me in the kitchen playing around with our big oak stool, suddenly it crashed down, and the edge of it hit Caleb in the forehead, hard.  I quickly scooped him up, and yelled for Joseph to get an ice pack.  I yelled for Travis to come upstairs (he had been putting the basement back together).  His head was swelling so fast, that his skin was splitting.  Travis helped hold the ice pack onto Caleb's head while I held him as he was kicking and screaming.  He finally calmed down after we took the ice pack off after 20 minutes.  His eyes looked okay, and he hadn't thrown up so I didn't think he had a concussion, but he was sure sad for a while.  I sprayed my doterra owie spray on it every hour, and the next day it looked so much better.   I also baked Travis' 7 layer cake he has to have for his birthday every year.  Saturday I picked up a bountiful basket, made Travis' his birthday breakfast, and then went to the Relief Society activity and managed to give my pressure cooker demonstration without blowing anything up, so it was a success.  I came home and then Travis and I went on a date, while Marley's mom (the girl I watch in the mornings) watched the kids.  Travis and I went and saw the "meet the mormons" movie (it was great) and went to costco.  After our date, I made dinner, and then we had our game night with a couple of friends.  We had cake and ice cream, and played "quelf" it is a fun crazy game.  Travis, the birthday boy won.  I also got him a chain saw for his birthday.  Sunday morning Travis had ward council, and I practiced piano.  We had church, our ward choir practice, and then Travis did his Home Teaching, and then after dinner, I went and played the piano for the stake choir practice. Monday was filled with getting Travis ready for going out into the field for the next two weeks.  Although that evening we did go to a rock climbing place and had a lot of fun.  Betsy fell as we were going out to the car and scraped up her elbows and knees pretty good, but was okay.  Travis left early (3am) Tuesday morning.  For the rest of the week, Betsy and Samuel didn't have school, so I also had Marley all day long too.  It was a busy week filled with taking care of lots of kids.  Caleb started preschool on Wednesday, he loved it and had so much fun.  It is only on wed. for 2 1/2 hours at a lady in our stake's house, but he loves it.  We did make it to a couple different parks, and I taught lots of piano lessons.  Samuel loved riding his bike at the BMX park.  I also had Betsy and Samuel's parent teacher conferences.  They are both doing well in school, and just need to work on completing their homework.  Friday morning while we were at the park, I got a call from Joseph's school, saying that he had brought a pocket knife to school and was suspended for 3 days and that I needed to come and get him.  We left and picked up Joseph.  I guess he had forgotten he had left his pocket knife in his pocket from scouts the night before, and had just discovered it and was about raise his hand to go tell the teacher, when she spotted it in his hand, and sent him to the office.  I think it's stupid that they suspended him for 3 whole days, but that is their policy.  Saturday, we cleaned house, and Betsy had a costume party that she went to.  We made cookies and dropped some off at Travis' work to be sent to him in the field.  We picked Betsy up from her party and went to the trampoline park.  The kids had a great time, and Malachi loved jumping and then playing balls with all the different staff members.  Sunday was stake conference, we had to get to the stake center early, so I could play for the choir practice.  Luckily a sister in our ward sat with the kids while I played, then stayed with us during the stake conference, the kids were actually really good.  Malachi fell asleep in my arms for over half of it, and I was able to listen to a lot of it.  After Stake Conference we went for a Sunday walk, and ended up playing at the park for a little bit, where the kids buried each other.  After we got back, I was starting dinner when  our neighbor knocked on our door, and asked if we were missing a chicken.  We said yes, our chicken "baby"  has been missing for 8 days.  They said they found her, stuck in between two fence panels of their fence, near the gate.  She must have fallen in there when trying to get over the fence.  She was alive, but covered in poop and magots, and had a broken wing.  She has been without food and water for eight days, so she was very weak.  I tried cleaning her up for the next 30 minutes, and we gave her food and water and put her in a box in the garage.  I had to quickly warm up some leftovers for dinner, and then we raced out the door to go to another stake choir practice, this one for a veterans day fireside coming up.  The kids weren't very good this time, but we managed to make it through without  too many interruptions.  The people at the choir practice told me they were very grateful for my coming, even though it wasn't easy.  We got home late, and I quickly put the kids to bed, and then went to bed myself.  Waking up at 5am this morning wasn't easy to do, but when the doorbell rang, signaling Marley was here, I forced myself out of bed.  After getting all the kids to school, except Joseph who is suspended, I took "Baby" to the vet hospital where they cleaned her up even more, gave her antibiotics and told me they needed to keep her overnight, since she was in pretty bad shape.  And the adventures continue....