Olive's Halloween costume this year was Joy from Inside Out! Her favorite candy she had today was Snickers and fruit snacks!

At the school hoedown tonight!

Olive and Lucy had a breast cancer awareness walkathon today. They both won the prize in their respective classes for wearing the most pink. And they raised $400 together! It was a fun day!

I went to Olive's parent-teacher conference today. She's doing great! Her reading and writing are progressing well, she's doing well in Spanish, and she's testing at a 2nd grade level in math. Her teachers said she could improve by talking less with her neighbors during work time. We'll have a chat about that. Can't complain, this girl is a smart cookie!

Tonight Olive said, "Mom, Sierra and Sedona are Jewish. And Angelina is Christmas." She meant Christian. Ha! Then she asked what a Christian is, and we got to talk about the differences between Jewish and Christian and Mormon. I told her a lot of it comes down to the scriptures - that Jewish people only believe in the Old Testament, Christian people only believe in the Old and New Testament, and we believe in those and the Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants and in modern day prophets. She seemed to understand it that way. I love that she's interested.

Olive's new first grader shirt!

Chris and I have been talking with Olive a bit lately about The Book of Mormon. Chris mentioned to her that when she turns 7 she could shoot for reading the grownup version all the way through before she turns 8 and gets baptized. She was excited about that idea, and asked if she could read the children's version all the way through on her own before her 7th birthday. Of course! And today she brought me my scriptures and asked a few questions about them. I showed her all the books of scripture, and explained about their timing and locations. Then we figured out that there are about 17 weeks until she turns 7, and that if she wants to read the children's Book of Mormon before her birthday she'd need to read 3 chapters a week. So we made a checklist/bookmark, and she read chapter one to me. Chapter one is about how we got The Book of Mormon, so we were able to talk about that a bit. Then I told her about the prophet Moroni's promise at the end of The Book of Mormon, and told her that when she felt like it, she could go to a quiet place and kneel down and ask God if The Book of Mormon is truly His word. I told her I did that, and that I know the book is true and that Joseph Smith really did translate them, and that she could pray and find out for herself. She was so tender and excited about this challenge to read and pray. We hugged and she checked off chapter one on her bookmark. Obviously, it was one of our sweetest exchanges to date. I am so pleased with the little lady she is and her willingness to have faith. She is a really wonderful little girl.

Got Olive's school pictures back today, they're so good, she is just so adorable. I love her dark hair and eyes and her freckles. My goodness. Also, she's been trying to write her middle name on her schoolwork lately, but this time it was initials. So cute.