What's been going down.

*Roarks Visit - Brock's family (except Branden) came to visit the weekend before last. It was a bit of a surprise because his mom was supposed to come on her own, but everyone else ended up being able to come at the last minute. They had to adjust the schedule a little and come a few days sooner than planned, but it worked out fine. We had fun with them. They had fun with Pierce of course. He's not the cuddly little newborn they used to enjoy, but I think they had fun watching him play and react to everything. It's always nice to be around family, and it's definitely nice to have extra people to watch and entertain Pierce. *Saying Goodbye - Our good friends, the Koons, moved back to Washington. We had a going away party for them on the same night that Brock's family arrived. (They took Pierce out while we had our party, and it was really nice to not have to worry about him.) We're really going to miss Dustin and Meredith and Tanner. We've had really good friends in every place we've lived, but we're usually the ones that end up moving not the other way around. We still have good friends here, but we had the most in common with them. It's good for them though because they're going back home to be closer to family. *Sleep Training - I've been having a hard time getting Pierce to go to sleep lately for both bedtime and naptime. I'm sure part of it is scheduling. Sometimes I end up nursing him when he's super tired which puts him to sleep, then he gets used to that and wants it every time even if he's not hungry. I am sort of anti "crying it out." I'm not completely convinced of that method, and it doesn't really work if you do it half-heartedly. I also can't bring myself to do it because occassionally he manages to put himself to sleep with absolutely no crying (like the nap he's taking right now) which tells me that there's something I'm not doing right all those other times. It's annoying and tiring when it takes an hour or longer to get him to go to sleep. I want him to be an independent sleeper but I don't want to make him cry it out. Is that possible? *Big Boy - Pierce is no longer wearing baby clothes. He is now a toddler in clothing size (12 months). His pajamas have rubber on the bottom of the feet to keep him from slipping when he WALKS! He can't walk yet! He's 6 months old! This is craziness! *Photography - I have a new obsession. I've always been interested in photography, but I never took any classes because I didn't have time and/or I didn't want to invest in an expensive camera. Now that I have my new camera which I love oh so much, I'm just jumping in and trying to learn as much as I can. I've been studying different websites and my camera manual to learn how to use the settings and what everything means. It's a little frustrating because the pictures I take with manual settings are still not as good as the auto mode, but I think I'll get there eventually. I would LOVE to do photography as a side job. *Talk - I have to speak in church this Sunday. My new camera has not helped much with my preparation time, but I think I kind of have an idea of what I want to talk about. The assignment is to speak on D&C 101:4-5. I don't really mind giving talks but it's still stressful. I should be doing that now instead of this, so I think that's all for now!