What a week! There aren't enough hours in the day to get things done! I have been working on getting Ben's Valentines package together and in the mail. I have a problem with just throwing things together and sending them. I want to make sure each package is special and meaningful to him. Some highlights we have had this week here are.... My kids all wrote new years resolutions. Amongst several goals this year, they all wrote they wanted to finish the Book of Mormon before Ben got home. I thought it would be fun to have a scripture Read-A-Thon on Friday night. I bought lots of treats and we set up camp in my bedroom. Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as I expected. We decided to make homemade pizza for dinner and it took awhile! We didn't end up starting to read until about 8:30pm. After about 1 1/2 hours, two of the kids were asleep! Max was the first to go and then Carter. But, fortunately, Carter finished reading the Book of Mormon before he fell asleep. I'm so proud of him for doing this. He is very faithful in reading the scriptures every night. The rest of us finished the book of Alma. We may need to have a few more Read-A-Thons before Ben gets home! Ben tried face chatting us so he could join in, but it wouldn't connect. He was very proud of the kids for doing this. I will make sure we finish before he gets home!

Another crazy thing this week.... At the beginning of the week,( I can't remember what day it was), I woke up to find blood all over in our hamster, Bob's cage. She didn't appear to have a cut or anything, so I came to the conclusion that it came from her mouth or the other end! This is never a good sign!!! After that, she started to act mental, so on thursday night after the kids went to bed, I let her go in our front yard. Now I thought she would run far away or another animal would put her out of her misery, but unfortunately, Bob was thirsty and decided to go to the pool for a drink:( Yesterday, Max and Jaxon White saw something floating in the pool and thought it was a giant bug. They fished it out, and realized it was our crazy hampster, Bob. I think the kids felt a little sad to find Bob dead. They gave her a proper burial and are planning her funeral. Will has already told me that he wants to be a speaker!

Max is injured again! He had been complaining that his heels were hurting for about 2 weeks. i just thought he had bruised his heels from playing basketball outside with no shoes or his vans on. He was in sever pain on wednesday night, so I decided to take him in on Thursday morning. Turns out that he has an inflammation going on on the back of his ankles. It is called Seivers disease. Apparently it is from him growing so fast and from being extremely active. He has to wear heel cups in his shoes and take ibuprofen on a regular basis until it gets better. Poor kid!

I finally got Milie's 1 year old pictures taken this week. It took 2 sessions because she was such a stinker! The first day was kind of a nightmare. It was difficult for the photographer to get many good shots of her. The funniest thing though, was that Millie broke a strand of pearls during the session and must have snuck one in her mouth, because later that night, I found a pearl in her diaper. I laughed so hard and had to take a picture of it. I know its kind of disturbing, but I had to do it! Sorry Millie you will probably hate me for showing this picture!

The second day was much better. The photographer had a cake and donut for her to dig into. She loved it! One more thing crossed off my list!

Today was fast and testimony meeting. Will and Kate got up and shared their testimonies. They did a great job. Will wanted to say something about the superbowl in his testimony. He was going to say, "I know some of you might be Patriot fans, but the Giants are going to win!". I'm glad he didn't say that! I am so proud of my kids and the choices they make. They are such good kids and I know Ben is proud of them too.

I have struggled a little this week in that I am feeling a little overwhelmed with all i have to do here at the house. I kind of snapped a little on Ben. I felt bad for doing so, but I guess it was nice getting some things off my chest. He was very understanding, of course and forgave me for being sharp with him. I miss him so much my body aches. He is in my thoughts so many times during the day. He has been gone now for over 3 months and it seems like it has been forever. I feel as though part of me is missing and I don't feel complete. Tomorrow is a new day and things will get brighter. Hopefully I can get Ben's package off tomorrow!