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| Texas Rangers vs. Colorado Rockies. Dad, Mom, Amy, Calvin, Ashton, cousin Jeremy, & Dallen (Alec had 2 dates that night, so he stayed home and Jeremy got to come in his place!) |
The boys have been loving the weather lately. Dallen has been climbing in the tree in our backyard constantly and swimming like a fish! He loves to be outdoors. They all have. They recently found some great bird nests and one of the nests had two old eggs in it. One had a chick in it :(. It was pretty gross, but interesting to see (I won't show you the pictures...if you want to see them, email me and I'll send them :). They also had fun trimming the trees and making their own bows and arrows and the darn things worked! A couple of them have broke, but at least they know they could survive if they ever needed to try and make one!
Dallen gave his first talk in Sacrament meeting last Sunday. He was asked to do it last month, but instead of letting me help him with it, he freaked out and behind my back, called the Bishop and told him that he couldn't give the talk! So, he knew that it was coming...they were going to ask him to do it again. So, the counselor asked me if it would be okay that they ask Dallen to give a talk. I relayed to him what Dallen had done the month before and gave my permission to help Dallen understand about conquering fears and lessons we can learn from giving a talk. It's interesting how the Lord works. So, the subject Dallen was given was "Prayer" and it is one that is very dear to my heart and so I was excited to help him with this assignment. I would just say to Dallen "when you want, let me know and we can work on your talk"...then it came to be Saturday. He started freaking out again with fear and throwing the biggest fit (I thought we were through with fits!). Anyway, he told me he didn't believe in prayer and so we talked about that. You have to understand that of all our children at this age, Dallen's prayers are the most thoughtful for a 12 year old. I don't think he has ever had the same prayer twice. They are always heart-felt and sincere and for him to say that he doesn't believe in prayer, I just knew he was saying that because he was mad that he was asked to give a talk. I reminded him of his prayers and how I felt that he truly knows he is talking to Heavenly Father. I suggested that when he is ready, that he go say a prayer and ask for help with this and that I knew Heavenly Father would help. So, he stormed off. About a 1/2 hour later, he came back and he literally took the keyboard and started typing. I helped him find some quotes and together we found some scriptures, but he put it all together. I pointed out to him how fast it had gone with Heavenly Father's help. We had a great little conversation about his experience and he gained another piece of his testimony of prayer from this experience. The next day, he gave the talk perfectly. He said he wasn't nervous until the end when he looked up and saw all the people and then he said he was glad he didn't look up sooner. Very cute! I love those moments as a mom. Being able to teach my children about Heavenly Father and being able to share my testimony of the things I have found to be true in my own life, like the power of prayer and a Heavenly Father that loves me enough to help and guide me constantly. It's amazing!
We started a new allowance thing at our house. I am hoping this one works. We were on the right track with Derrek, Alec and Calvin, but there was just something that needed some tweeking, and I read "The Entitlement Trap" by Richard and Linda Eyer and they had the tweeking we needed. Anyway, it's been a week and for the most part, it has been good. I have really enjoyed not having to ask about homework, chores, brushing their teeth, etc. They come to me and let me know when they are done with these things. They found out that doing all their chores is important because if you one do half, you don't get credit for doing any. Anyway, it's been good for our family. It was a fun read, too, because they give an example in there of Dallen's friend (their grandson) and it was fun to read a story about Ashton Loosli.
My Ashton attended "Best of EFY" yesterday. Here they do it a little different than they do in St. George. Maybe it's because they have 10 times the amount of kids in St. George than here. Anyway, it is an all day event. It's for 14 and older. Alec and Calvin didn't want to go (surprise, surprise), but a couple weeks ago, Ashton came home from Young Men's and said he wanted to go. It was with our stake as well as two other stakes. That is still a lot of kids. They had two speakers, games, lunch, dinner, and a dance. Ashton was so cute. This was his first official dance as a 14-year-old and he came home and was almost in tears. I asked him what was wrong and he said that his legs hurt and I said "why?" and he said "from dancing side to side". That was such a funny answer to me. He told me later that he danced with two 16-year-olds. One asked him and he asked the other! He is so not like my older three! I couldn't get them to go to a dance for anything. I keep saying it is their opportunity to "legally" fraternize with the opposite sex and "touch" them! I am kind of glad Alec and Calvin didn't go. They seem to have very strong opinions, and that is fine, but I was glad that Ashton was able to have his own experience without that to contend with. He was able to go with kids from our ward that he knew and I was glad he found them! He also told me that he didn't get as sweaty as everyone else because he just danced the slow songs! Like father, like son! Very cute!
I get to go to BYU Women's Conference this week with Scott's sisters and sister-in-laws. It will, again, be so fun. I really love going. I have found that each year I go, it helps me on my next part of this journey in life. Last year the one thing that stood out was a picture that was presented there at the art exhibit of one of the 10-Virgins. I was having a hard time accepting that I can't be perfect and was being really hard on myself. I realized though, from looking at that picture, that I was that person. I am constantly filling my lamp with the things the Lord asks of us and I realized that it was enough and I am grateful for that.
Dallen gave his first talk in Sacrament meeting last Sunday. He was asked to do it last month, but instead of letting me help him with it, he freaked out and behind my back, called the Bishop and told him that he couldn't give the talk! So, he knew that it was coming...they were going to ask him to do it again. So, the counselor asked me if it would be okay that they ask Dallen to give a talk. I relayed to him what Dallen had done the month before and gave my permission to help Dallen understand about conquering fears and lessons we can learn from giving a talk. It's interesting how the Lord works. So, the subject Dallen was given was "Prayer" and it is one that is very dear to my heart and so I was excited to help him with this assignment. I would just say to Dallen "when you want, let me know and we can work on your talk"...then it came to be Saturday. He started freaking out again with fear and throwing the biggest fit (I thought we were through with fits!). Anyway, he told me he didn't believe in prayer and so we talked about that. You have to understand that of all our children at this age, Dallen's prayers are the most thoughtful for a 12 year old. I don't think he has ever had the same prayer twice. They are always heart-felt and sincere and for him to say that he doesn't believe in prayer, I just knew he was saying that because he was mad that he was asked to give a talk. I reminded him of his prayers and how I felt that he truly knows he is talking to Heavenly Father. I suggested that when he is ready, that he go say a prayer and ask for help with this and that I knew Heavenly Father would help. So, he stormed off. About a 1/2 hour later, he came back and he literally took the keyboard and started typing. I helped him find some quotes and together we found some scriptures, but he put it all together. I pointed out to him how fast it had gone with Heavenly Father's help. We had a great little conversation about his experience and he gained another piece of his testimony of prayer from this experience. The next day, he gave the talk perfectly. He said he wasn't nervous until the end when he looked up and saw all the people and then he said he was glad he didn't look up sooner. Very cute! I love those moments as a mom. Being able to teach my children about Heavenly Father and being able to share my testimony of the things I have found to be true in my own life, like the power of prayer and a Heavenly Father that loves me enough to help and guide me constantly. It's amazing!
We started a new allowance thing at our house. I am hoping this one works. We were on the right track with Derrek, Alec and Calvin, but there was just something that needed some tweeking, and I read "The Entitlement Trap" by Richard and Linda Eyer and they had the tweeking we needed. Anyway, it's been a week and for the most part, it has been good. I have really enjoyed not having to ask about homework, chores, brushing their teeth, etc. They come to me and let me know when they are done with these things. They found out that doing all their chores is important because if you one do half, you don't get credit for doing any. Anyway, it's been good for our family. It was a fun read, too, because they give an example in there of Dallen's friend (their grandson) and it was fun to read a story about Ashton Loosli.
My Ashton attended "Best of EFY" yesterday. Here they do it a little different than they do in St. George. Maybe it's because they have 10 times the amount of kids in St. George than here. Anyway, it is an all day event. It's for 14 and older. Alec and Calvin didn't want to go (surprise, surprise), but a couple weeks ago, Ashton came home from Young Men's and said he wanted to go. It was with our stake as well as two other stakes. That is still a lot of kids. They had two speakers, games, lunch, dinner, and a dance. Ashton was so cute. This was his first official dance as a 14-year-old and he came home and was almost in tears. I asked him what was wrong and he said that his legs hurt and I said "why?" and he said "from dancing side to side". That was such a funny answer to me. He told me later that he danced with two 16-year-olds. One asked him and he asked the other! He is so not like my older three! I couldn't get them to go to a dance for anything. I keep saying it is their opportunity to "legally" fraternize with the opposite sex and "touch" them! I am kind of glad Alec and Calvin didn't go. They seem to have very strong opinions, and that is fine, but I was glad that Ashton was able to have his own experience without that to contend with. He was able to go with kids from our ward that he knew and I was glad he found them! He also told me that he didn't get as sweaty as everyone else because he just danced the slow songs! Like father, like son! Very cute!
I get to go to BYU Women's Conference this week with Scott's sisters and sister-in-laws. It will, again, be so fun. I really love going. I have found that each year I go, it helps me on my next part of this journey in life. Last year the one thing that stood out was a picture that was presented there at the art exhibit of one of the 10-Virgins. I was having a hard time accepting that I can't be perfect and was being really hard on myself. I realized though, from looking at that picture, that I was that person. I am constantly filling my lamp with the things the Lord asks of us and I realized that it was enough and I am grateful for that.
This is that picture. I just love it. I hung it by my bed so that when I wake in the morning, I am reminded of who I am and who I want to be. So, I look forward to seeing what I will gain from this year's conference. The boys and Scott like when I go. They get good "boy time" and I come back happier!
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