Primary Talk

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my church, which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I want to give you a basic outline of our schedule, just for a bit of background to understand my story. Everyone meets together for Sacrament Meeting where we take the sacrament each week and sing songs and listen to members of the congregation give talks over the pulpit. Everyone gets a turn to be one of the members who gives the talks every now and again. We try to help people prepare for this opportunity from a very young age. (Which will be explained in just a moment.) After sacrament meeting, we split into different classes. The adults and youth go to Sunday School, which is a more interactive lesson generally taught by the same person each week. After Sunday School the men and women go to their respective meetings of Priesthood and Relief Society. Children stay with their parents until they are 18 months old. At that point, they join the nursery, where they play, have a snack, learn songs, and even have a short lesson of their own. When a child is 3 at the beginning of the year, they are moved into primary. Primary has several classes based on the child's age. Primary and nursery are held during the 2 hours after sacrament meeting while the adults are in their own meetings.

Anyhow, during primary, children are given the opportunity to give a talk at least once a year for the other kids in primary. Joshua gave his first primary talk on November 28. He did a marvelous job. He got up to the microphone, and spoke pretty boldly, no nerves whatsoever. In fact, he dictated he whole talk to me, with very little guidance from me. He did such a great job with it that I wanted it recorded so he can see it later on. So here it is.

"I have a work chart. I don't do it on Sundays because it's my service day. I can still help with the chores, but I can't put a sticker on my list. Instead, I do service for mommy. I feel happy and I love my mommy when I help her. When I'm helping mommy, I am helping Heavenly Father and Jesus, too. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Maybe it's because he talks about me in it, but I am still touched when I read it. Thank you, Joshua, for all of your service. You love to help anyone who needs help, and I hope you can keep this kind heart as you grow older. I love you Joshua. - Mommy

More Joshua Funnies

Joshua is just going through this really funny stage, right now. Tonight at dinner, he asked me if I was able to use glass cups when I was a kid. I told him I didn't remember how old I was when I started using glass cups, so he'd have to ask my mom.

Joshua - "Does your mom know more than you?"
Me - "Yes."
Joshua - "Why?"
Me - "All parents know more than their kids."
Joshua - "I know more than you."
Me - "You do? What do you know more than me?"
Joshua - "I know how to cook."

He then went on to list a few more. Apparently, I need to spend more time practicing my cooking. Or maybe I should just let him take over. That sounds like a plan to me. :)

Flocks

Did you know that the word "flock" is good for describing any number of things? Not just birds, but anything? Just ask my kids. Today, I had to put a few stones into a pile of stones. Joshua said, "Just put it with the flock of stones. It'll be nice there." :) But it doesn't end there. Flock has been used to describe paper, toys, food. You name it, we have a flock of it. Emily has picked up on it as well and has also started calling groups of things "flocks." Kids are so cute with the things they come up with.

Cranky Mommy

As I was working on my Christmas newsletter, I thought of a funny story about Joshua. Then I figured it was too self-deprecating for a good Christmas newsletter, and Peter thought I should include it here. Just so we can all look back and chuckle. Well, Joshua is really sensitive to my mood, among other things. I think he may just be a fairly sensitive kid. This makes him so so sweet. He is also very observant. He has figured out that some mornings, mommy just wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. When this happens, Joshua sometimes ends up telling me, "Look Mommy, I'm being very nice (or helpful) right now, so you don't have to be so cranky today." How sweet can you get? Of course, this almost always makes me smile... unless I've fallen out of the wrong side of bed. :) I am thankful to have the little reminder that I don't need to be so cranky. I am so blessed in so many things, I should be able to see through the sleepiness, and still crack a smile. Thank you for helping me out there, Joshua.

Funny Things

I've noticed a lot of people telling me I need to be more grateful for things everyday. Not people telling me to my face, but talks at church, stories in magazines, etc. I've also noticed that my Aunt Pam likes to put on her facebook things she is grateful for. I like that, so I think I'm going to try to start doing that on a regular basis as well. To start off with, I want to mention that I am thankful that my son, Joshua, says funny things. He thinks things through, and when you think about the limited information he has, his statements really make sense. But they are funny when added to the additional knowledge of a few more years of experience. For example....

The other day, we were talking about the German language. I told him that in German, they say "Nein" for "No." He thought about that for a moment, then asked, "What do they say 'five' for?"

He is so bright. And I am thankful for the smile that he always manages to bring to my face.

Follow The Prophet

Today, we had our ward primary presentation. It was Joshua's first program to participate in. He did a really great job. For his part, he was assigned "Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer." He decided, though, that he wanted to say "Jesus Christ is Our Savior and Our Redeemer." We talked about it, and he wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer for everyone, not just him. So thoughtful and knowledgeable.

One important thing to know about Joshua. He can project his voice with the best of them. He's the type of kid that will never NEED a microphone. When he got up to say his part, it was clear and loud enough for all to hear. It was really wonderful to hear. Because of his projection talents, we were also able to delight in his contribution to the songs. I don't think most people noticed, until we got to the song "Follow The Prophet." This is a song with a really fun to sing chorus. All the kids know the chorus line very quickly. Joshua, even as a Sunbeam (first year in primary when you are 3 on the 1st of January), knows it VERY well. He sang his heart out. Not exactly WITH everyone else, but definitely LOUDER than everyone else combined. This song has 9 verses. The kids sang 8 of them. Each time through the chorus, he became a little more obvious. The entire congregation was rolling by the end of it, and Peter and I were in tears from laughing so hard. He was able to keep up the volume for each of the subsequent songs. People throughout the congregation kept glancing at me and winking. I think they wanted to reassure me that I shouldn't be embarrassed. Thank you for your concern. I do appreciate it. I think if I hadn't seen another little girl do the exact same thing several years ago, I may have been mortified. But, as it is, I was just proud of him. Proud of him that he knew his songs. And proud of him that he loves the gospel enough to want to make sure that everyone knew that he knows that these things are true.

Emily is still in nursery, and will be there for another year. In our church, the kids get to go to nursery when they turn 18 months. Then, when they are 3 on the first of January, they move up to a class called Sunbeams. The Sunbeams meet with the rest of the primary, who are the children ages 3-12. The nursery kids don't participate in the program, so Emily was sitting with the rest of the family for the presentation. As she was sitting there listening, not so intently, she suddenly stopped what she was doing (she was playing with a nice girl who was sitting behind us) when she heard Joshua singing, and said "That's my boy." She likes to say that Joshua is her boy and Jessica is her baby. She is so funny. But even Emily recognized her brother's voice as he sang with all his heart, and at the top of his lungs, with all the other primary children.

Good job, Joshua. I hope to be able to hear you sing each and every year you are in the primary program... even when you are 11 years old. I love you, Joshua. Follow the prophet, and you will always be where you need to be.

Jessie turned 1!

Okay, so it probably didn't need the exclamation point in the title, since it was a couple weeks ago already, but it was exciting. 1 year ago, on October 22, this beautiful little girl joined our family. She is the most cuddly little person I have ever met. I couldn't ask for a happier child. We are so blessed to have her with us.



The pure joy that is my little Jessie

Apparently, when you have older siblings, you don't get to open your own presents. :) She didn't seem to mind too much, though.

Here she is figuring out how to tear open presents... Okay, so she already knew how to tear paper, but that is beside the point.

Jessie also happens to have figured out how to eat her cake without too much mess. Too bad... No great messy pictures this time. But we do have a video of her eating just the flowers in the bear's hair... and then her brother and sister promptly joined her when they realized they were going to miss out on all the pretty purple icing. In this picture, she had already begun destroying those nice little flowers. That is what she is putting in her mouth.


Happy Birthday, Jessica! We love you so much and can't wait to see what your next year has in store for us all.