Tender Moments with my children

Our primary program is coming up. I decided to practice the songs with Hunter to see how ready he was! I knew most of the songs for the program, however they were singing two songs ("My eternal Family" and "The family is of god") this year that were written for the program and are new. I'd learned both of the songs while I was still teaching primary earlier this year. I knew I was a bit rusty though on the lyrics. So, I set out on the Internet knowing I could find find an mp3 or something with the music and lyrics so we could practice. I found it and called Hunter over to me so we could practice. We started out singing the primary ones we knew well, " I lived in Heaven", I'll seek the Lord Early", "How firm a foundation", "Baptism", "Families can be together forever". He was standing next to me singing to start out. We got to "Families can be together forever" and he climbed on my lap to sing. I started to get a little emotional, but I was OK. I turned on "The family is of god" and we began to sing together. Without realizing it I had began to rock him gently back and forth. We got to the chorus, "God gave us families, to help us become what he wants us to be, this is how he shows his love, for the family is of God." I COMPLETELY lost it! I started bawling. I could no longer sing. The words touched me so deeply. The spirit seemed to pour out of my computer encircling my son and I. He very sweetly and tenderly continued to sing the following verses. My son must be used to the spirit touching me in this matter, he kept right on hugging me as he sang. In this tender moment with my son, I was reminded of my Heavenly Father and Savior's love for each of me. My testimony was strengthened. Especially my testimony of eternal families. I am so grateful I have my family forever. I know Heavenly Father placed us in families to help us grow, and it was an act of love. I am so grateful for my husband and the sweet kind example is to me and my children. I am grateful our marriage can last forever, I love him so much. I am grateful for each of my boys and the joy they bring me on a daily basis. I am grateful for my sisters, more than I tell them, more than they know. I am grateful we are close and do things together. That is so important to me. They are such a blessing and a strength to me. I'm grateful for my two brothers,and the happiness they bring me, even though I don't see Shered much, I'm always glad to see him. I'm grateful for my parents, for teaching me about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, so I could teach it my children. My want and desire to have an eternal family started with them. I am grateful for Will's family and the added joy they brought to my life. I know we can be together forever someday!! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Here's the words to the song, "The family is of God":

Our Father has a family. It’s me! It’s you, all others too: we are His children. He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,To live and learn here in fam’lies. God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God. A father’s place is to preside, provide,To love and teach the gospel to his children. A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share Their love for Father in Heaven. God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare, To nurture and to strengthen all her children. She teaches children to obey, to pray, To love and serve in the fam’ly. God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God. I’ll love and serve my family and be A good example to each fam’ly member. And when I am a mom or dad, so glad, I’ll help my fam’ly remember: God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

Pumpkin Land!

Pumpkinland 2009

Every Fall it's been a tradition to go to Vineyard Nursery for their Pumpkinland in the fall. I LOVE it there, I usually end up going a few times. We went twice this year. Once with just our little family and again with all my sisters. Ethan loves the animals, especially ducks...until one bit his finger! They have a fun little Halloween play yard and bounce sides/houses! Hunter loved climbing and jumping off things! I love doing stuff with my family, I believe that's what life is all about...enjoying each other and creating bonds to last into eternity.

RV/Fishing trip with Grandpa and grandma

This September we took the boys down to Manti to visit Will's parents. Hunter has been begging his grandpa to take him fishing! So we had a spontaneous fishing/RV trip over labor day weekend! The boys ABSOLUTELY loved every last second of it! Rocks, dirt, sticks, more dirt, fishing, junk food, camping... a little boys dream come true! We packed all up the RV and headed up manti canyon somewhere...with no reserved place to stay...on labor day weekend...I tried not to have a panic attack. As we all know, I need vacations to be planned out. Will and apparently his family does not :). We ended up staying at Fish Lake. By some miracle there was still a RV spot left. So we set up camp there for the night. The boys thought the campground was awesome and went out exploring it. Then they "helped" build the fire. They thought it was beyond awesome to sleep in the RV with everyone. (Hunter informed us that we need an RV now.) We got up early the next morning to fish some more. Hunter caught quite a few fish and was pleased as pleased could be with himself! Ethan had fun running around in nature. Grandpa kept trying to tell him to be quite, not to run by the bank of the river, not to throw sticks and rocks in the water...you can imagine how well that went...what do you expect from a 2 year old? :). Ethan and I slept on the way home, we were exhausted! It was DEFINITELY a fun camping trip with grandpa and grandma!

Best friends for life!

Hunter and Ethan had to find ways to occupy themselves while we packed up our house! Will had sort of adopted a neighborhood cat (mostly cause he kept feeding it!). The boys just loved it. Ethan's hands are by his body like this because Will kept telling me not to pick the cat up anymore! He kept trying to carry it around, but we were afraid it might bite him. He kept his hands like this to help resist his urge to hold the kitty! The sequence of pictures on the stairs are my favorite! This is so how it goes!!! One minute they are best friends and the next they have been banned to seperate rooms of the house so I can keep my sanity from the fighting! And they show CLASSIC Hunter "looks" when he doesn't want to do something. It was our fist real day at our apartment and Will was trying to get some pictures. Hunter didn't want to like Ethan right then, then finally he came around! Gotta love being a mom! Most of the time they really are best friends. Ethan follows Hunter everywhere, copying and playing everything he does. Hunter loves it most of the time. Ethan wants to be like his big brother so bad!! Oh man!!! I just love my boys SO MUCH!!!

1st day of Kindergarten!

Hunter's first day of kindergarten! He was so excited! His teacher's name is Mrs. Wood. He has morning kindergarten, and in his words kinderdarten is "totally awesome." He's so excited to go everyday so far. I'm so proud of my little boy, who's not so little and so eager to grow up! The thing he looks forward to the most is learning how to read. We couldn't resisit the photo op, so here's a few pictures! It almost made us late for the first day. Him and I ate breakfast at the school that morning, he thought that was pretty cool!

New Home!

Well we finally sold our house and closed on it Friday! Yeah!!! We found an apartment in pleasant grove that's letting us go month by month! We are still looking for a house. We have offers one one in pleasant grove and 2 in lehi! Hopefully one of those pan out soon. I'm sick of living in the apartment already! I'm not sure how people with kids do it! I'm constantly worried my kids are making too much noise or going to spill something! Our dining room is carpet....not the best for children They get "cabin fever" really easy here, there's not much room to play and be boys! But I am so grateful we sold our house. The apartment has a pool and playground, the boys and me love it! We are a lot closer to well, most everything! We should be able to spend more time together as a family.

Hunter starts school on the 27th. I can't believe I have a kindergartner. He is both excited and nervous. The school is bigger than he was expecting and is nervous about making friends. He is really excited about getting to be a big boy and learning how to read.

I'm cutting back my hours at work when Hunter starts school, I'll only work about 8 a week. I want to be able to spend time with my kids and be home when Hunter comes home from school.
Will's job is CRAZY!!! They've been working massive amounts of hours and his computer contracting business (System's Green) has more work than they can handle right now. Even through it's crazy, we are grateful he has work and a good job. We are working on a number 3 addition to our family...we'll let you know if anything happens!

More of the fun of $.82!

Who knew $.82 could be SO much fun!

They had so much fun playing with this! It's just cornstarch and water and food coloring! It makes a bit of a mess, but who cares!!! (nothing water and rag can't fix!)

My boys are growing up....

I had kinda of a sad realization the other day, my baby is no longer a baby. He's 2 going on about 6! He definitely is in the "independent stage". He wants to try everything for himself. He doesn't want to be left out of a single thing! He loves to help mommy do stuff. Whatever I'm doing he's right there saying "un help you?!" He gets SO SO proud of himself when he gets to help or does anything his self. Watering the flowers is one of the favorite "chores" of his. He waters the flowers then states, "flouwers firsty? need drink water?" Funny story.....the other night we are having dinner. I had made corn, which Ethan really likes. He is getting really good at asking for what he wants. He had eaten the first helping I gave him. Will was closest to the corn, so he said, "daddy un more porn?" Will kinda a little confused, said "what?" Again Ethan asks, "Un more porn?" Perhaps we need to work on the pronunciation of our words! Ethan loves Winnie the Pooh and Blues Clues. He has got the entire Blues Clues song memorized including the actions! It's so cute. The other day he was walking around singing, "Winnie the pooh, Winnie the pooh!" over and over again. Coloring is his new favorite activity. Only with a pen or marker though. He's gotten in trouble a bunch of times for coloring on his self. So he'll say, "mommy un color. un paper, un color (that means marker or pen). paper only, huh mommy?" He whole time he colors he reminds him self, "paper only!" Alright it's late, I'm tired, I'll do Hunter's update another day!

Frosting is of course the best part!

Ethan blowing out his candles! He was SO happy it was finally HIS birthday and HIS turn to blow out the candles!

Ethan's cupcake birthday cake we had at grandma and grandpa's. He loves wonderpets and blue's clues!

Last time the picture didn't post with the three cousins!

Ethan loves holding babies! He say's "so cute" over and over when he's holding them!

Three Cousins on Ethan's birthday dinner at grandma and grandpa's!

The park is the boys most favorite thing in the whole world.....actually the love outside! If Will built them a house in the backyard they'd totally live in it! These are from the park by the serra pool in orem.

We had homeade oreo shakes! TASTY!! Ethan loved getting to mix his!

What can I say......I LOVE HIM!!! It makes me want to kiss that face!

Eggs are for eating right.....?

Hunter when he found the spider man tatoos the Easter bunny left