There Aren't Enough Days in the Weekend...

...Agreed?

 This weekend was phenomenal. Seriously. General Conference weekend is generally one of my favorite weekends (twice) each year. I usually really look forward to Conference, but this time I really, really looked forward to it. I don't know what it was- but I just felt I needed it more. It didn't disappoint. More on that in a minute.

The weekend was also especially exceptional though, because we got to see a lot of the people that we love, which is always so great. We saw my dad, Sharon, Dillon, Jack, and Grandma Shawna on Thursday as they passed through town. Grandma got to meet Flor for the first time, which was really fun. Flor enjoyed getting out of school for lunch, too. :)

Saturday night, the kids and I went to dinner with two of my Cheetah friends, Jess and Amy. Amy was in town from Arizona, so getting together was definitely a high priority. We met up at Texas Roadhouse and had a chaotic, but super fun dinner complete with gifts from Amy for each of the kids. Flor and Hals got matching headbands (Hals hasn't taken it off yet. And her first comment after we left was "I can't wait to show it to Landon!" Funny...) and Jace got cookies! Perfect gift for the little man.

Well, perhaps we should get rid of the paper underneath? And don't mind the "bib".

An adorable little dress for Jessica's soon-to-be-born baby girl! Yay!

Hals and her new bow.

The crew of us. So glad to have their help with the kiddos as eating out without Devin proved to be a large challenge. One kid for each of us, though and it worked out fabulously!

A few Conference pictures:

The kids wanted a few little snacks. Flor was kind enough to make sure Jace's mouth was sufficiently stuffed at all times. What a good sister.

Che, Landon, and Hudson, Grandma and Doyle, and Carlie and Tim came over for lunch on Sunday in between sessions. We had a great meal with them and a great time chatting. Nothing better than family + conference. Great combination.

That night, we went to Sarah and Daniel's house (cousins as well) for dinner. Great food, great company, and fun times with games. It was fun to see my cousin Rachel, too, who lives in Colorado. She was here visiting Sarah-- so it was great to spend time with them all.

Sarah and Daniel...game time.

Rachel and her friend--

We had to move the party over to our house so our ornery kids could go to bed...but the game playing continued

And-- I would just like you to note that Devin and Danny lost! This is the first time ever....they are both very competitive with games, so it was pretty awesome that they were the bottom two. Ha. I took a picture to document as it probably won't happen again.

 Today was also family filled as we had a funeral for my great-uncle. My mom & Dave were there, Mari Ann and family, Sue, Grandma & Doyle, Carlie & Tim, Che', my uncle Craig, and my Uncle Lynn and some of his family. It was great to be around them all. Devin stayed home with the kids, which was probably a good idea as they likely would have been naughty during the funeral and no one wants that. The funeral was great. 4 of the members of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles were there and it was extra meaningful to be able to shake hands with a some of them just the day or two after we had just listened to conference messages from each of them. I have been struggling with a some things lately and a few of these particular men said things in their talks that seemed to be directed exactly to me in their messages during conference. Being in their presence and shaking their hands gave me an extra helping of the Spirit that confirmed again to me what I had felt and heard. I have a testimony that these men are called of God.

After the funeral, we walked around the new City Creek Center (which was a zoo by the way) and everyone went to lunch, but I needed to get home to my kids, so I didn't stay for that. All in all, a wonderful weekend filled with two of my favorite things: Spiritual enlightenment and family (and cheetahs are practically family, so you count.) Can't get better than that.

Since so many things were so wonderful to me at conference, I thought I would share a few of my favorite talks and thoughts:

 Elder Ballard: I loved Elder Ballard's talk on the family. There was so much focus on family this conference but I felt his talk was so applicable and straight forward. He talked about the need to have order to everything and to have your family be the biggest priority in our lives. The biggest blessings and rewards come when this is so.

Elder Holland: Elder Holland's talk struck me too. The message to let go of past grievances was beautiful. I don't usually hold grudges against other people, but I sometimes do with myself. A few of my favorite thoughts from him:

 "Be Kind. And be grateful that God is kind. It is a happy way to live." 

"Don't dwell on old issues and grievances. Not toward yourself, nor your neighbor, nor even I might add toward this true and living church."

(I especially love this one): 
"Surely the thing that God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful. Especially to those who don't expect it and to those who feel they don't deserve it."

Elder Uchtdorf: I think this talk was a favorite amongst almost everyone. Elder Uchtdorf has just such a way with words. These quotes are already floating around facebook and I love them both, too: 
"When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it."


"Don't judge me because I sin differently than you."  (from a bumper sticker he saw).

Elder Oaks: Elder Oaks talked about righteous sacrifices. This talk was the one I felt most was directed at me. I won't say a lot about it here, but I feel like we are a little bit "in the trenches" right now as far as Flor's adoption and her adjustment process. This last week was particularly rough for a few reasons and I have found myself questioning things a lot. I know this is normal in the adoption process, but this last week was a "down" week. Please don't mis-interpret this. We knew going in that there would be challenges and there have been. We could just never prepare ourselves adequately enough because we will never know everything we will face ahead of time. We prepared the best we could, but we are still finding there are surprise emotions, regression, behaviors that we don't understand, etc. that can get frustrating. Before you think it- we don't regret our decision and never will, but that doesn't mean that every day is bliss (but when is it with parenting, ever?). We are dealing with a traumatized, uprooted child right now. The fact that she has special needs is somewhat a of a blessing in this situation, but it is also a curse in that she has no real way of expressing herself so that we can know what she is thinking and feeling. She has seven years of history that we will never fully know and we are still in the figure-it-out and get-into-a-routine phase. Very much so.  (On this note, please read THIS post by a woman named Jen Hatmaker. She is an international adoptive mother of older children as well and says things so eloquently. I don't feel as strongly about some of the things she talks about in her post, but it may give you an idea of some of the craziness that happens "After the Airport.")

Anyway, back to Elder Oaks. His talk of sacrifices reminded me that there are things in life that are worth giving up over something better. It is easy to get discouraged in our parenting. It is easy to feel like I am not good enough. It is easy to feel like my efforts go unnoticed. It is easy to feel like I can't ever provide everything that our children, particularly Flor, need. Just at the end of the hard week, this line alone came as a God-send to me. A reminder that He is aware of me and that He cares. I don't need recognition from the world for what we are doing, but the recognition from God that we are on the path that He wants us to be on- the path He directed us to...well, there is nothing quite as comforting as that.

"I also see unselfish Latter-day Saints adopting children, including those with special needs, and seeking to provide foster children the opportunities denied them by earlier circumstances....The Lord sees you also and he has caused his prophets to declare that as you sacrifice for each other and for your children, the Lord will bless you."

(Well, I hope that didn't come across as "look at me and how great I am with all that i am sacrificing!" Not what I intended. I meant to just share the experience of growth of testimony and how buoyed up I feel after the great talks at Conference.)

(if you want to watch any of the talks in full, each of their names should be a link to the video. I am sure the written versions will be up soon, too.)