March 29

I went to the physical therapist this week. My hip is rotating again, but it's rotating forward instead of backward, which is what it did before I was pregnant. So it'll probably mean several expensive dr. appointments, but I'm hopeful that it will heal faster and not be as painful as last time because I'm being much more careful.

We went camping at Valley of fire this weekend. The kids loved it and Seth was great. We cooked hot dogs and s'mores and then had donuts and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was a little cold at night, but the kids still slept fine. And they loved exploring and going for walks. We sat in the tent at night and told stories until we were tired.

We leave this weekend for Visalia. We'll all be there for conference weekend and then Bob will leave and come back home on Monday and I'll stay with the kids until Thursday or Friday because it's spring break. Then we'll come back with my mom and Dustin and everyone will come to our house for Easter weekend and Seth's blessing.

Danny turns seven on Thursday. I can't believe it. He's such a smart, kind, competitive boy. He's always at the top of his class with all his grades. He loves all sports and just started soccer again. He plays catch-it at recess and loves to come home and tell me how well he did against the kids in his class and against the big 5th-graders. His school participates in a national online learning game called "Ticket to Read" where they get tickets for how well they read stories online and take tests on them. He was recently listed on the homepage of the website because he had such a large amount of tickets. He's also excited to be baptized in one more year. He regularly pulls out his Book of Mormon at night and reads it to himself in bed. I'm so thankful that Danny is part of our family. He's such a blessing to have around.

March 22

The kids got their pictures taken this week. I keep recent pictures of the kids on the wall and we were missing Seth, so I got them in for pictures.



Seth laughed for the first time this week. That's a lot earlier than the other kid did it. He's smiling more and is very interested in watching his mobile.

My back is still hurting so I got an appointment with my old physical therapist this week. Hopefully he'll have some good ideas for how to help it.

Bob is just about done with his Masters. He's been working so hard on his final project. He'll present it at a conference this week and then he just has to write it up and he'll be done. He's so excited to be done with school. I'm so proud of him. I know I wouldn't want to do homework right now. I already did that. It would be so hard to get myself focused to do it again.

blessing

Bob gave me a blessing last night. Here are the main points I can remember.

• I will feel the spirit palpably when I need it and spirit will work stronger in my life and the kids' lives. And it will be stronger in our home
• I will see the hand of the Lord more powerfully in my life
• I will feel content and peaceful and know that things are taken care of and provided for in my life
• I will know when to push my body and when to lay off when exercising in regard to my back and hip
• My body will fully heal from childbirth

I was hoping for a little more direct guidance for what to do for my back, but I guess I'll just have to keep praying as I go along. Another neat thing is that I was looking through my old journals to read about when I hurt my knee in college and how that healed. As I was reading, I found what I wrote from a blessing my dad gave me. It said I would receive all the blessings in my patriarchal blessing even if I didn't recognize it at the time. I'd forgotten about that. I've always wondered a little because I didn't recognize Bob when I saw him. It was just a nice confirmation that I didn't just miss out on that blessing.

March 15

I started exercising this week. It's been so nice to start feeling a little stronger. But my hip has started hurting a little too. I'm not sure what to do for it. I think I'm going to ask Bob to give me a blessing to help me with it. I really hope it doesn't get as bad as it was. It just consumes so much of my energy when it hurts.

Seth is so easy still. I don't remember any of the other kids sleeping as much as he does. He takes great naps during the day that let me still get a lot done. And he gets up a couple of times in the night, but most of the time he'll just eat and go back to sleep. He started smiling last week and he is getting a little more interested in interacting with us. The kids just love him. Especially Aaron.

School has been going well for Aaron. And he seems like he's doing better than he was with his tantrums. He's still so impatient when he can't do something. He wants to be as good or better than Danny and Rachel at everything.

I have been so blessed in the last few months. There are always some hard times after a new baby with all the lack of sleep. And I'm usually pretty slow to heal after birth. This time I was especially slow and uncomfortable. But after prayers and blessings I was healed quickly. It was so nice to feel the love of my Father in Heaven. Some of my prayers and problems at the time seemed so unimportant, but Heavenly Father's quick response to my prayers reminded me that what I'm doing is important. And that he is happy that we chose to bring another spirit to our family and he is more than willing to help us when it gets hard.

Bob's birthday was Friday. He's 33 now. We got him a new game for the Wii. Danny was way more excited for Bob's birthday than Bob was because it meant Bob would open the new game that day. So when Bob came home from work he opened presents, we had Carl's Jr. for dinner and the kids played his new game. Then Bob and I watched a movie when the kids went to bed.