Conference Weekend

So this post really isn't about General Conference, but that just happens to be a great way to encompass the whole weekend. Just know that I did love general conference and I look forward to watching the "reruns" possible while Charlie's sleeping.

This post is more to celebrate the visit of my brother's family (with their brand new baby boy), share photos from my new camera ( so Elizabeth can take the ones she wants), and talk about all the things we were able to do this weekend. I also think I figured out how I could make my pictures larger without getting cut off! Woohoo!

James and Elizabeth came into town on Thursday with their newborn baby only being 1.5 weeks old. Brave parents if you ask me. This is also the night that Max was expected to leave for hunting but luckily the time changed and he didn't have to leave until Saturday night.

These pictures are from Thursday but he is just so adorable I had to throw them in. He's pretending to do a magic trick in both of them!

Friday Max went to work in the morning and I got to spend a day at OMSI with James, Elizabeth, Gwenevere, Grace, and baby Everett! Some of my favorite people! We spent a whole lot of time exploring. Here are some pictures from that.

Wind in her hair

They were all pretty cute in the earthquake simulator. Dancing and holding hands. 

I love that they play together more now that they're older. 

Their whole family worked together and they almost made the complete arch!

Moving blocks with the big crane!

This was a pretty great musical instrument, and Charlie sure loves to hit things!

I love this girl!

Sisters!

Going to the moon

Everett is the youngest astronaut ever!

Money!

He was so alert!

Sand Time

I forgot how much newborns sleep (during the day) so I was constantly trying to get pictures of his pretty blue eyes when they were open. 

I know this is totally blurry but once again, I thought it was so cute how they played together. 

This was the pose Gwenevere gave me when I was taking her picture! Still a beautiful girl!

Then these two were just being so cute together again!

On Saturday, we stayed home to watch General Conference. Max was in and out all day trying to get some last minute, vital projects done at the house next door. We found a renter...woohoo...

During the afternoon session Charlie was napping so I was able to listen more closely while I deep cleaned the fridge...it desperately needed it and the thought of doing it over the last couple of weeks made me gag. Luckily this second trimester has brought some reprieve. Something that really stood out to me in conference was the many references to gender roles and how both men and women have a divine nature and both are needed in God's plan. It really left me feeling much more positive about being "just a mom" not that I've really had issues with that, but sometimes I feel that society makes me feel guilty for graduating college and not having a career. Anyway, great words were spoken on this topic!

We even watched the priesthood session at home and Max's dad and brother came over.

After the priesthood session, Max was planning on going over to his uncle's house to leave for his hunting trip while my grandma was going to take my family out to eat to celebrate our birthdays. Luckily Max's meeting time was postponed another couple of hours and he got to go out to eat with us. My red grandma took all my siblings and my dad out to celebrate our birthdays. It was great that James and Elizabeth were able to come too. We went to Old Spaghetti Factory and had a great time and stayed pretty late. WE then drove Max's to his Uncle's house and said our good byes. I really don't like spending time apart from Max, but for this particular trip, I was pretty excited. He has been so busy , and stressed, and sometimes frustrated with everything he needs to get done so I was pretty happy that he got to have a much slower paced weekend..not to mention that we could get some good meat out of it. I also love the extra butterflies I get when he arrives home! 

The next morning Charlie and I got up nice and early and went to my mom's house to watch conference there. This is where James and Elizabeth's family was staying. Also, because I am on my own for a couple days, I planned to take full advantage of my mom's cooking. She was making cinnamon rolls and I was not going to miss that! 

I think grandma enjoyed having all her children and grandchildren with her!

For the final session of conference, Charlie and I went home so he could nap and I could pay closer attention. when the final session was over we loaded up the car and headed over to red Grandma's house for a BBQ and get together so everyone could meet baby Everett. 

I practiced more with my new camera on all the kids. 

My cousin Timmy's action shot.

This is my cousin Aaron, Charlie gets most of his hand-me-downs from him because Aaron is exactly a year older. I'm worried Charlie will be bigger than him soon!

Lexi-girl

Kaden...walking around like a pro!

Micah...trick-or-treating

Everett opened his eyes again so of course I took more pictures!

Not-so-happy Everett

He just needed some Mommy cuddles!

Blurry again...but they are so adorable. 

Little Pumpkin heads

Grace is 3 months older than Charlie but Charlie looks like a giant.

They had some cousin Ring-around-the-Rosie time. They all had a blast!

Modeling his pumpkin hat.

Then Grace and Charlie had a grand old time pretending that the croquet mallets were vacuums. 

The night ended with Charlie sitting down to watch some baseball with his Uncle Daniel!

This was probably our most successful get-together at grandmas' house since Charlie's been born. He is such a busy boy that he is usually banging on the TV or piano but this time he was more interested in interacting with all the other kids. He  listened when I gave him instructions and he had a great time. I used to dread taking him to Grandma's especially without Max but he is just getting so much more independent that we all enjoyed ourselves. We stayed late because I wasn't particularly excited to go home to be alone. We also were able to spend more time with my sweet nieces and nephew! We eventually went home and that is the end of our weekend. We also can't wait to see Max when he gets home tonight!