Church In the Bathroom!

I have to say it, the kids were pretty good at church today. We had an awesome sacrament meeting. Our ward struggles and we don't get those super awesome, spirit filled meetings all too often. Don't get me wrong, I love my ward, but... we get a few truly inspired speakers sprinkled throughout the inexperienced speakers and the "oops, I forgot to prepare" speakers. We don't often have a meeting where the spirit is felt strongly by all for the entire meeting. We had 3 youth speakers. Michael and Brendan are 10 and 11, respectively and both did an amazing job speaking about what they can do now to prepare for a mission later. Luke, 16 I think, also did a nice job as well, again speaking about preparing to go on a mission. The primary sang "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission" and then newly returned Elder Brandeberry spoke. I had the great privilege of being Josh Brandeberry's seminary teacher during his senior year. I still remember the flooding feeling of the spirit when I asked Josh, in class, if he intended on serving a mission. He could not have answered faster or more surely then he did with the "ABSOLUTELY, with out a doubt, yes." You can imagine what his talk was like if he was that strong BEFORE his mission. Not to mention, he ended his 30 minute talk by bearing his testimony in Mandarin Chinese. So cool! Anyway, I'm a little of subject here, but the point was it was a good meeting, the kids were good, and, drum roll please, Jaden told me he had to go potty! I took him and yes he was dry. He sat on the potty and pushed for a few minutes. He didn't go, but he did toot a little. He's trying!! About 30 seconds after we went back in and sat down, I felt his bum on my lap go very warm. We would have had success if we had held church in the bathroom!! Success would have been fantastic, but I would have missed out on the wonderful meeting today!

Daily Jake-ism

We went to the baptism of a friend, Noah, this afternoon. This was the conversation this evening while Jake was in the bathtub.
Jake: "Hey dad, I just pumembered (remembered), I know why its called a bafftism (bath-tism aka baptism)."
Dad: "you do huh? Why?"
Jake: "Because they have to plug it up like a baff (bath)"

Easter

Easter this year was amazing. Our dear friend, Audrey Dube, wanted to try something a little different this year. When she was a little girl, he dad would make a treasure hunt with clues that would take her and her sisters all over there 10 acre farm. The final clue would lead them to the stash of Easter eggs and candy. She had this great idea to do the same thing only on a smaller scale of course! She invited our family and 3 other families (the Irishes, the Smiths, and the Greenwalds) and we all went over to her house Sunday morning. We had breakfast first, and then the little kids got to go outside in the backyard and collect the 100 eggs (YIKES!!) that the Easter bunny had hidden in the grass. Then the big kids were split into two teams, boys and girls, each had the same clues, but in a different order and they raced each other to solve the clues and find the treasure. Girls won!! Even though the clues were hard and took several minutes to decipher, the kids said it was the best Easter ever!

Birthday Boy!

Well, a little late to tell the world, but Jacob is officially 5! He had a fabulous time at his birthday. He wanted an "army plane cake". Hmmmm..... ?? We looked at pictures and he was very insistent, he knew what he wanted, and mom just had to find a picture of the right plane. Turns out he was thinking of the SR-71 Blackbird. How does my five year old know these things!?! And why is it always BLACK frosting? Ugh! Anyway, we made a cake that he was happy with and he thought it looked "just right", so mom succeeded. He is happy with his birthday party consisting of Emma coming over for cake and a present. He isn't quite to the age where he is wanting a "real" party. Thank goodness for small favors! He got a new dress-up. Da-na-na-na-na-na-Da-na-na-na-na-na BATMAN!!!

Food and an Attitude!

A few days ago when the little boys, Jake and Jaden, and I got home from the gym, we were met at the van by a couple of surprise "visitors". As I unbuckled and unloaded the boys, 2 very angry robins swooped down in the grass right by the driveway. They were fighting and squawking and pecking and in general being VERY loud. Jake watched them in fascination for a minute and then turned to look at me. He raised his eyebrows way up and tilted his head down so he could peer up at me, put his fist on his hip, which he cocked out to the side and announced, "Mom, they have attitude!"...Do you think he's heard me tell his older sister and brother to "drop the attitude" a couple of times too many? That night when saying his prayers (ah yes, his infamous prayers!), he said "bless the birds that they won't have attitudes anymore and be nice and not screech at mom, I mean at the birdie's mom".
Recently, Jacob has been a very grateful boy. We had talked a little bit about prayers and I had mentioned that sometimes when we pray we can forget all of the things we have been given and we get stuck asking for something all the time. We talked about "thank-you prayers", were we just express our gratitude for the wonderful things we have in life. Jake really took that to heart and night time prayers have been thank-you prayers for several weeks now! He is grateful for a wide assortment of things. "thank-you for couches so we don't have to sit on the dirty floor" (thanks, bud, tell everyone that my floors are dirty....) "Thank-you for doors so we can like go through them... thank-you for cars to help us drive where we need to go to far away places... thank-you for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ... Thank-you for dads and moms for everyone, to help kids and babies to eat when they are hungry... (and my personal favorites) Thank-you for food to eat when we hungry so we don't have to eat dirt and grass... Thank-you for kids to help clean up the house when really old people are coming over like really old grandpas!" Truly humbling when you realize just how much we have to be thankful for isn't it?!?!

P.S. Check out those water SKIS Jaden has where feet should be!