Conference Weekend

     Most trips we make seem very last-minute but hey, that's life for us right now. Last minute we decided we'd try to go to Grandma Prestwich's 80th birthday party. The party was Thursday night and then we'd spend the rest of conference weekend with the Sorensen family at the cabin. We were so excited to go! Long story short, I got the stomach flu the day we left. I braved the drive to my parents' house 2 1/2 hours away from us where we stopped to change Ashley's diaper and for me to get a blessing before finishing our journey to South Jordan. After stopping we decided I was too sick to continue the journey so we made plans to stay the night, made a few phone calls to apologize for not coming (Spencer's mom thought he was joking...) and I went straight to bed. It's a good thing we stayed because Spencer got sick shortly after I did. Ashley was fine but we were glad to have my parents to watch her while we moaned and groaned for 24 hours.
     Friday we decided we were well enough to finish the trip to the cabin at least. It meant a short weekend with the Sorensens but we were all looking forward to the visit so we figured we might as well go anyways. On Saturday I got the news that everyone at my parents' house now had the stomach flu! How terrible is that? We must have had some pretty potent stomach bug because we were so careful not to get anyone sick while we were there! It was crazy! Everyone is fine now (finally) and I think the bug died out with my side of the family. :)
     On the bright side, I have cute pictures of Ashley playing in the leaves at the cabin with her cousins! They were throwing them on her head while she laughed hysterically. It was so stinking cute. I just wish she could spend more time with them. They all adore each other.

 

        Oh man I love this cute kid. ;)

     Conference gave me a lot to think about. I could not get enough of it and I felt like I needed to hear exactly everything they said! It was amazing! One of my biggest things I want to share real quick is that I've realized I need to slow down and simplify. I've been trying hard to keep myself busy for several reasons. One of them being that I don't feel like I've accomplished anything if I don't have a big long to-do list every day that I can check things off of. I've made it ridiculously long and then when I don't get everything done I feel like a failure. I've been focusing on little things that make me really busy to the point where I'm annoyed when Ashley wakes up from her nap because I needed more time to do my to-do list. I've been annoyed that she wants to go outside and play now that the weather has finally cooled down. I've been really bothered when I don't get to all the stores I wanted to because of nap schedules or because I didn't get to shower yet.

     Since Pres. Uchtdorf's talk on simplifying and slowing down, I've really tried to focus on that. Who cares if I didn't get to clean out my fridge today? Is anyone even going to notice if I didn't dust? Will anyone say anything to me if I took Ashley to the park unshowered? Probably not... I'm proud to report good progress this week in slowing down and enjoying my time with Ashley. She won't be our only child so I should cherish the time with her right now while I can focus my attention on her. I know she notices the change in me too because she's less whiny, throws less tantrums, and is generally happier and goofier.

     I'm really excited for my progress and I'm really going to try to keep it up and just slow down and enjoy life. I'm use to being in such a hurry all the time and it's nice to take it easy and slow down to really notice what's going on and just have fun. My house isn't as clean but hey, I can deal with that if it means a happy husband, a happy baby, and a happy me. :)