I'm sure most of you know this past weekend was General Conference for our church. It is one of my absolute favorite weekends of the year! I love hearing from our Prophet and Apostles and receiving guidance, and answers to questions I have been seeking.
There were so many wonderful talks, I had a difficult time narrowing down my favorites. There were several that seemed so applicable to my exact circumstances. I really liked Elder Jorg Klebingat's talk on improving our spiritual confidence before God. I welcomed his urging for all of us to use the atonement 24/7 and repent quickly & often.
I also really loved Elder L. Tom Perry's advice to mothers and fathers. He talked about how faithful parents have never been needed more. His talk really touched me and reiterated to me how truly important my role as a mother is, and the significant responsibility I have as a mother.
Most all of the talks made me think about how I can be a better mother and how I can better teach Claire and any of my future children about Jesus Christ. I kept thinking about Sister Neil F Marriot's talk from the General Women's meeting. In her talk she shared her goal of memorizing the Living Christ by Christmas. This would be her Christmas gift to Christ this year. I was really touched by her talk and this goal that she had. I thought that would be a great way I could strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ as well as prepare myself to better teach my children about him. I decided I wanted to accomplish this goal as well. I started memorizing the Living Christ on Saturday night while Bryce was attending the General Priesthood meeting and I have worked on it every day since. Memorization has always been a fun challenge for me, so I have already memorized a little over half of the Living Christ, and will probably be finished long before Christmas. I hope by accomplishing this goal I will feel closer to my savior Jesus Christ, and I hope it instills within me a desire to continually learn more about his life so I can learn to be more like him and be better prepared to teach my children about their Savior, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world.
Happy Oktoberfirst! It's the first day of my very favorite month of the year. I decided to make it an actual holiday for our family, since I'm a mom and I can do that sort of thing. I also decided we would call it Oktoberfirst, sort of like Oktoberfest...but not. I know, I know, so clever of me ;). I was feeling extra festive in anticipation for October this year, so I made Claire a little witch hat headband and a Halloween shirt for her to wear all month long. I think she looks pretty dang cute in them, if I do say so myself.
We spent our Oktoberfirst with a trip to the grocery store this morning to pick up dogfood, carmel for dipping apples, and diet coke (you know, the essentials). Then we stopped by the craft store to pick up more thread for my sewing machine so I can finish up our Halloween costumes. After we got home I put Claire down for a nap and watched The Haunted Mansion while I did some sewing. If I wasn't already feeling the Halloween spirit before, I definitely am now :). 
When Claire woke up from her nap we played around with the self-timer on my camera so I could actually be in a few pictures with her on our newly declared holiday. I was cracking up at the pictures afterwards. There are about ten of these and Claire has the exact same face in every single one. She was pretty intrigued with the beeping noise the camera makes while the self-timer is on.
We spent the rest of the day playing with toys, reading Halloween books, and Claire practiced walking up and down the length of the couch while we listened to the Monster Mash Pandora station.
After dinner and her bath I put Claire in her newest pair of Halloween jammies. I had already ordered these pajamas for Claire before my mom gave her some, so now she is lucky enough to have 2 pairs to alternate between all month long. Now that this little skeleton baby is snoozing away I'm going to make some apple pie carmel apples and Bryce and I are going to finish the night off watching one of my favorite Halloween movies, Hocus Pocus. I really, really love this month. Happy Oktoberfirst!
Claire turned 38 weeks old today. I took these pictures of her yesterday while were at Beus pond scouting out some spots for some photo shoots I have coming up. I love all of the pixie hats I crocheted on her. I think she looks so cute in them! I'm happy we're finally getting cooler weather so she can wear them more often. This week she has been a busy girl. She gets into Rory's crate pretty much every day now and crawls from room to room all day long. She is still working on cutting her top two teeth. Her gums are red and swollen and one tiny corner looks like it has cut through but still nothing more than that yet. I had her drop her third nap for good this past week. Her third nap was getting really sporadic and I could tell she was ready to go down to two. Dropping her third nap has helped her go to sleep a bit earlier, so now she is in bed by 7 every night. She loves to stand and walk around holding our fingers. She stands up all the time and thinks that she knows how to walk by herself. When I try and set her down on the ground she just stands and keeps her legs stiff so that I can't make her sit down. It's pretty funny. She will probably figure out walking by herself before too long. Believe it or not, she only has one more week until she is 9 months old!
