update on life

So I haven't posted in about a month, but there has been so much to post about....I started this hoping to preserve some of the stories of my life with my daughters - so some of those stories mixed in with other comments about life in general....
- C, who is now 7 months old, has learned to sit up, crawl, crawl up stairs (!!! panic moment for mom !!!) and pull up to standing in the last month. Last 2 weeks for the crawling and pulling up. She is growing up so fast - and she is so cute right now.....This is one of several pictures that I can label with "we have one brave/dumb/patient cat" - it's a bit blurry because they both moved as I took it. C. loves to crawl up to the cats and dog and pet them. She is pretty good about not grabbing fur - but Knox (the one in this picture) is the only one who lets her get very close. Well, the dog does when he's asleep, but then he usually wakes up and moves pretty quick.
- Both my brother and my mom have visited in the last month. Here are pictures of them with the girls. We love having visitors - M. especially - so if anyone wants to come see the mountains, let me know.Uncle Will with the girls
Grandma Cindy and the girls

- We don't have a picture of my mom and the girls up in the mountains because we didn't get up to the mountains because I sliced off part of my left index fingernail and nail bed while cooking dinner last Monday and spent far too long trying to figure out the easiest way to get a tetanus shot. I realized that I don't have a general doctor here - I have my midwife, and a pediatrician for the girls, but not a general doctor for us adults. Hmmm....should probably get one of those.....before the next crisis comes up. My finger is healing fine, by the way. And I was thankful for Grandma Cindy being here to help with the girls when it hurt like hell to touch my left hand to anything for about 36 hours.

- I preached at a NCD (New Church Development for those who might not know the Presbyterian lingo) for the first time. This congregation began meeting last October - and is by far the most contemporary/emerging church church I've lead worship in. It was a fun experience - there is definitely a lot of energy moving in worship there that it would be nice to see in some of the more traditional churches I have preached in. And I have all sorts of reflections on what it means to be a church with no building.....they rent space in a movie theater for worship for 3 hours on Sunday morning - all the stuff for that is stored in a trailer that someone hauls to the theater each week and then home again. They have recently rented office space (for the first 9 months everyone worked out of their homes) but all their groups - Bible studies, mom's group, etc. - meet in non-traditional places - coffee shops, restaurants, people's homes. I left feeling like many of us who are used to a church with a permanent building are missing out on being Christians out in the world - being visible in living and talking about our faith. And I should point out that reading the Bible in a group in a public space is pretty daring in Utah - the LDS "church" (the quotation marks are intentional - trust me, it's not a Christian church) actively discourages people from reading the Bible. And if you are LDS and do read the Bible, then it's the KJV and very hard to understand.

- I have been sewing some things for M. for fall/winter and enjoying it. I am working on a third set of pajamas and have fabric to do 2 pairs of pants and 2 tops and her Halloween costume. I love my new sewing machine - I hope I can still say that when all this stuff is finished.

-It is bed time. I am exhausted and must sleep. C has been teething and so I have gotten less un-interrupted sleep than normal recently. Hopefully that will change soon (like tonight...I hope)