New Year and Church Changes

It isn't the best picture, but we finally got a picture of our family in front of the Christmas tree. Just in time for the New Year, which will bring a lot of changes for our family. 

Today was our last week of three-hour church (yippee!), though Alexander and I spent the afternoon breaking that schedule in (we had a rough night last night so came home for nap time). We're early adopters, what can I say? There have been many in our ward warning about the perils of using that third hour of church for napping instead of gospel study but I say, "Pish posh!" I see nothing in the guidelines about when to put in this "third hour" of church and we will likely continue to come home from church and head right down for our afternoon nap because, well, that is when nap time is! 

We have looked through the at-home manual for this coming year, however, and are grateful for the ideas inside of it to develop more meaningful scripture study habits. 

Today was also Zoë's last week in nursery. It feels like it was just last year that she would scream and cry about going to nursery at all. Oh, it was just last year. That's why! She loves nursery now and has been enjoying visiting the primary for singing time the past couple of weeks. I'm hoping this will be a smooth transition for her. It's hard to know, though because she's...not the easiest-going of persons.

Here are a few our of outtakes from our picture-taking session this afternoon:

Zoë was upset because Rachel had asked her if she wanted to be carried down the stairs (and she didn't). Even the asking of such a thing was so offensive that Zoë had a hard time getting happy again.

Each time I asked her to smile for me, her smile got worse and worse!

"Come, on, Zoë! Give me a real smile!"

"Is this a real smile?"

It's a good thing Daddy finally made his way downstairs to hold her or else we never would have gotten a smile out of her!

This Sunday was also Rachel's last week in primary! The announcement that all children due to turn twelve in 2019 would be leaving primary at the end of this year to begin the Young Men or Young Women programs was quite surprising! In the past children have moved up on their birthdays, so Rachel wasn't due to graduate from primary until July. But suddenly, here she is, entering the Young Women program:

I don't know what Rachel is doing here but...this picture needed to be included

We went to the temple preparation class for the youth a few weeks ago (on our anniversary, actually) and when we came home Rachel pulled out her Faith in God booklet and we finished up the last few goals she had left. She was recognized for her efforts in primary today and came home with a little necklace. 

We're looking forward to the New Year! Change can be very refreshing (especially when it means you get a later schedule for church and can sleep in a bit longer on Sunday mornings)! Of course, not all the changes of 2019 will be about church classes, but those will be some of the first changes we'll experience.

(I should probably also add that Alexander will be starting nursery in April! He'll be another screamer, I fear...)