Logan was baptized on Nov. 29th.  Janet's family and my Mom and Kevin came up for it.  Also in attendance were David's family, Carol, George, Grandma A. and Jim.  There were friends and teachers from church and then my friend Estee showed up with her kids and I was glad to see her.  The baptism went well and Dad was able to watch via Skype.  Logan kept saying he just felt "good" which we told him was the Spirit.  I've seen Logan spiritually mature a lot this last year and he was ready to be baptized.  Afterwards, all of the family went to Olive Garden but it was crazy with so many kids.  Janet's family came over for a short time afterwards and then left.

Thanksgiving was also good and we had a fun time seeing family.  Dad had been in and out of the hospital with kidney stones so my Mom, Kevin, and Janet's family stayed behind and had their own Thanksgiving to be with him.  I would have done the same thing if I had lived there.  Luckily, the weather was nice on Thanksgiving day and the kids were able to play outside while the adults talked.  George taught Cameron and Errolyn how to play some Shanghai game and they loved it and played it most of the day.

We just had our "Messiah" concerts this last weekend.  The Friday night performance was just ok, and many other things seemed to go wrong for me that night, including Allie's feeding schedule and her not wanting to be held by strangers.  But, the Saturday night performance was wonderful!  The choir and orchestra sounded amazing!  I have to admit that the dress rehearsal and performances were a bit stressful for me because I had a young nursing baby I was worrying about.  When the soloist on "He Shall Feed His Flock" sang "Take His yoke upon you... and ye shall find rest" I felt that to be true!  I prayed that Heavenly Father would make up the difference and asked to take his yoke upon me and when I did I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders.  I was crying through the end of the piece and was touched by many other choir pieces on and off throughout the rest of the concert.  "Worthy is the Lamb" is so powerful that you can't help feeling the Spirit during that piece as well as "Hallelujah." And I had fun conducting!  I generally just had a good time for the last performance and it was such a joy to conduct the Messiah for my 6th year in a row.  It was also fun to see Cameron playing the cello in the Messiah orchestra this year.  Errolyn and Cameron also played in the youth orchestra for prelude.  Logan and Errolyn sang in the Children's Choir and Cameron sang in the Youth Choir as well.  And then Mike did the sound, as usual.  It was the first time I felt that the "Messiah" was serving my family and helping them because of the unique opportunity it was affording them to use their talents and grow.  I also felt the prompting that because of the efforts they saw Mike and I making they were learning how to be future leaders and to be dedicated in service, which thought gave me comfort.

Every person in my family bore their testimonies today except Emma and Allie, of course.  Everyone had a different event in their life that made them feel the need to get up.  Logan, his baptism, Cameron his concussion and how he didn't realize how much of a difference seminary was making until he had to miss it for a week (oh yeah... Cameron had a concussion from playing soccer at church and had to miss school for a week... he's fine now), Errolyn bore a sweet testimony about watching me play violin for the Messiah prelude and watching me conduct and how she loved me and wanted to be just like me (I wish I'd recorded it... my jaw about dropped when she said that), and Mike about all of the blessings in our family's life recently, and me about some of the experiences I'd had with preparing for the Messiah. Many other people stood up and bore testimony about how they had felt the Spirit during the Messiah concert or how much they had enjoyed using their talents because of that.  Many people mentioned me by name, which was a little embarrassing, but I'm grateful that my efforts with the Messiah have touched so many lives. 

Allie has been nursing well!  It was a roller coaster of 2 months with pumping, cup feeding, frequent weigh-ins, etc. but she is now nursing well and gaining weight well.  Whew.  She's also been sleeping well and sometimes I'm able to get a 7-hour stretch of sleeping during the night.  Other than that, life is good.  I'm still getting ready for the Christmas season, but most of the busy work should be done this week.  :)