Our family was joined by Henry Micah Gerber this week! Megan's labor went FAST. She was uncomfortable all day Sunday, but contractions started for real around 7. Micah came into the world at 10:20pm on 10/20/2024 weighing 8.1 pounds and measuring 20 inches long. What a champ! Megan is a champ! What an evening! Bethany and I went to see the little family in the hospital on Monday. We are all in love with that little boy!

Beth and Ben didn't have school on Monday so visiting Micah worked out well for us! On Tuesday, it was back to school. Bethany had a hard week. Her energy levels were super low, she felt nauseous much of the time, and endured a lot of body pain. She made it to school only for a couple of periods here and there. Friday was her worst day. She pushed herself to go to school for the last half of the day and ended up throwing up, coming home early, and being in bad pain for the rest of the day. Her dad and Uncle Paul gave her a blessing that evening and she woke up Saturday feeling improved which was a great relief. Insurance did approve the growth hormone injections that we think will help. We are just waiting for the pharmacy to have them available for us. We hope that will be the answer we have been praying for. She did go to YW Wednesday night and dressed up a bit for the Halloween party!

On Friday, my sister, Amy and her family came to visit! They really came to visit their married daughters but we got to host and participate in the fun, too! It was great fun to see their whole family including their seven-week old grandson, Hudson. What a cutie! On Saturday we went to the Red Barn pumpkin patch in Santaquin. Sarah's family came, too, as did Mariah and Kolby. It was great fun! At home, we had spaghetti and apple cider doughnuts. They left today. We loved having them come, visiting, and making memories together!

Lyla walking with Mariah and Kolby

Benjamin went on a campout this weekend with the boys from church. They went to Topaz mountain, slept in tents, cooked over a fire, and hunted for topaz. Ben said he only found small pieces and didn't bring any home but reported that he did have a grand time stacking rocks. He had a great time and we're so glad that he got to go!

On Monday of this week, Beth and I got to check out the new Primary Children's Hospital location in Lehi. It's a half-hour closer to us than the one in Salt Lake City! There's also lots of parking and in a beautiful setting. All good! It wasn't fun to be in a room for hours while they took samples of Beth's blood every half hour. And it wasn't fun that they had a super hard time getting her blood to flow well for those samples. But it was great that we were able to get the test done. As I suspected, her growth hormone is very low even when stimulated. We hear from her doctor next week. Hopefully insurance will cooperate and we'll be able to give her HGH soon! And then hopefully it will help increase her energy and endurance. Those are the things to pray for!

We also found out on Monday that Kevin had COVID again. He started getting really sick on Sunday. It's great he went to the doc on Monday and was able to catch it so soon. The meds they have for it now are super helpful, though he didn't start feeling an improvement until Thursday and still isn't 100%, it's been a much quicker recovery than it might've been.

On Wednesday, Ben played in a short tournament to finish out the Utah Youth Tennis he's been doing. He played twice and lost twice, but his second match was much, much better. He had some great shots! I think he just needs some time playing with Cali and Chey and he'll be unstoppable. :) 

Thursday and Friday was fall break so No School! On Thursday, Sarah and Megan planned a Halloween party that we had at Sarah's because Kevin was sick. She made us all spaghetti dinner! Megan made caramel apples. Savannah showed us "Over the Garden Wall." It was a super-duper autumn celebration.

On Friday, we woke up to SNOW! WHAT??? 

But, never fear, Sarah and Megan were planning fun stuff for us again, and they got us all to go to an 11 a.m. showing of the movie Wild Robot. It was a good movie and we all liked it--even those who had to sit on the front row! 

From Friday night to Saturday night, Claire and Annaliese came over and hung out with Beth and Ben all day and they had a good time together. 

On Saturday, I got some house things done. Kevin got to watch football. We got to hang out with Mariah for awhile that night, too!

This morning, Ben got his patriarchal blessing! What a beautiful experience. There's nothing like a patriarchal blessing to make you think about the eternal nobility of your children--and also to see their lives flash before your eyes! For a moment, you see the adult decades of your child's life and the possibilities that lie ahead of them. It's humbling, and you realize once again what a privilege it is to be their parents and to be part of their lives. You feel that what you do is so so important and also not important at all because they will make their own choices, and also, God is there helping things turn out how they should. It's all pretty dang amazing and unfathomably immense, and I love that we get to have moments like these. Then after it's over, I love that I get to come back to the present moment where he's a teenager and I'm his mom and I promise myself to try to soak it up before he's on to the next chapters in his life. What a great kid!

Last week, Kevin and I went on a cruise! It was a week-long cruise and took us to three ports in Mexico: Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, and Mazatlan. We went with my mom and dad! It was beautiful! It was relaxing! It was fun! In the ports, we shopped and saw the sights and talked to the people. On board, we ate amazing food, talked to each other, watched the ocean flow by, and went to some great shows. Our ship had a small ice rink and we went to the figure skating show twice! Mostly I really loved spending so much time with my mom and dad.

Ensenada:

Cabo:

Mazatlan:

Boat pictures:

We were gone for eight days. Savannah did a great job supporting Beth and Ben when she was home between 3 and 9. She drove to concerts and helped dinner to happen. She couldn't be there in the mornings because she had to work and this turned out to be hard on Beth and Ben. Beth's health was particularly bad while we were gone and she couldn't get herself up for school. Megan came over and helped a couple of days and that was wonderful. Ben missed seminary on Monday because he was trying to get ready for his race afterschool. Then, after school, he ended up crashing his bike that he had brought because he was late for school in the morning, and then he didn't get to race at all. Yes, I blame myself for all these things. Perhaps I need to help them develop more independence (is this an oxymoron?). Perhaps I should feel good that they still need me. Perhaps I should feel guilty for leaving them when they do still need me. I should still do things for myself, but was my need greater than theirs? I don't know the answer to these questions. But I'm still glad I went. My kids survived with impact, true, but impact they can handle. We all learned things. We will use our knowledge to get better at all the things. And I really love being with them. So, it is not a sacrifice to stay close to home and keep helping them in all the ways that I can. Plus, in full confession, Ben missed two things we paid for this week--his Chinese tutor and his tennis lesson--and the tennis lesson he missed even though it was on Saturday and we were home. Sigh. Things just go wrong sometimes and we have to keep trying to get better! And look at these cute pictures from their choir concerts!