Teeth and Sundays

Those two subjects go together, don't they? :) Last night Megan lost her first tooth! It was pretty exciting. We walked in to the ward chili cook-off (in which Ben placed third with his yummy chili) and a couple minutes later here she comes with her tooth out! She was thrilled. It wasn't bleeding or anything so it was definitely ready. She got her first dollar from the tooth fairy so it was a fun morning (thankfully, the tooth fairy remembered! She doesn't have the greatest record with our family...)

So here are our toothless girls. Kate lost her two top middle teeth last summer and then lost the one to the right. Now the one to the left is about to fall out and there aren't any new ones in sight. She has quite the whole in her mouth.

This is a cute one of Carli when we were outside playing yesterday. Nice messy face and all. :) Ok, now on to Sunday--today. Ben was not feeling well at all this morning. Usually I would leave Carli home with him so I don't have to deal with all 4 kids during Sacrament meeting by myself. However, he was down and out so I decided I would bite the bullet and just take them all with me and just pray it didn't turn into disaster (even with both of us there it usually turns into this). We walked in and I chose a side bench (so I could corral them in) toward the back so it would be a somewhat easy exit if I had to leave.

As soon as we sat down I noticed the lady in the next row back take one look at us and get her things and move (with her sister and her neice). I was half thinking, "Well, at least we won't bother them since they obviously think we will" and the other half thinking "How completely rude." Did she not think I would notice or did she hope I noticed?

I'm just not sure how to take this or feel about this. I'm actually pretty put-off that she would get up and move. There was one other occasion when we were sitting in front of her that she got so put out by us that in the middle of sacrament meeting she got up and moved to the middle.

Ok, usually sacrament meeting is a nightmare for us. Carli is now refusing to sit still and does not understand "being quiet" yet. Brandon would be up and down and talking and crawling under the benches and asking for things to do, but not wanting to do anything we suggested. Kate would have a sour attitude and fight with Megan and never be happy with anything there was to do in the bag of activities. Megan usually is humming or whining and also complaining, loudly. Yes, we have had a hard time controlling our children in sacrament meeting. Yes, I usually end up in the hallway with Carli and then there was that fiasco in November when Ben and I were speaking and I was up there taking my turn, Ben had to take Carli out, and the girls proceeded to come up to the pulpit and play around. Just thinking about it makes me want to scream right now.

Fast forward to today. I get in there and sit down with the kids and this lady up and moves. Whatever. I'm still praying that I can just get through sacrament meeting (actually ward conference so all the stake people are there). We get through the sacrament and everything has been smooth. The girls are coloring quietly (I had new coloring books so that probably helped a ton--but they actually shared and colored together), Brandon is doing origami, and Carli is coloring/playing with little dolls and looking at the hymn book. Ten more minutes go by, the youth speaker has finished and we're still doing great! Musical number comes and almost is at the end when Carli gets upset. The room is quiet enough to hear a pin drop besides the beautiful singing (mom and 2 daughters--they sang so perfectly together) and Carli starts getting loud and doesn't want to sit. I get up and walk out with her. I am freaking out slightly over what my other children are doing with mom not sitting next to them. I took one walk around the building with Carli and decided I had to go back in. The kids were still in there quietly coloring and doing origami! I wanted to kiss them all right then. Amazingly, we made it through the rest of sacrament meeting without so much as a shush to the kids. They were SOOOO great! Kate and Megan even had to go out to the bathroom and came right back in very reverently. I was so proud of them. Brandon made some cool origame projects, too!

Wow, I was just over the moon that I made it through all by myself! I almost feel like I could do anything now. Brandon is just doing so well. The girls were on their best behavior and Carli was a mellowed version of the usual. What a blessing today was from Heavenly Father. It was simply amazing how smoothly everything went today!!! So :P to that lady who moved. My kids were great today. Maybe I'll sit by her again next week and make her move again...am I terrible?