Adorable

This little one needed a hat for winter.

And since she didn't have very much hair, I thought it would be adorable to make her a cabbage patch hat/wig.

And I was right. She's adorable!

It is Finished

I will never do one again on black cloth. Hold me accountable to this.

The Bed Movie

Every morning while I study my scriptures, the Peaceful Hero watches Jesus movies on our iPad. Friendly Hero joins in on Fridays. Their favorite movie right now is "The Bed Movie." As you see here.

They love this movie because of the bed. And I told them that I love this story. I have always loved this story because it's a story about friends who don't give up and get creative, a man of faith, and Jesus showing that he is awesome to the Pharisees and Sadducee. (Jesus 1, Pharisees 0).

The other day I come to find them playing the story. They carry the bed around and take the man to Jesus. The best part? They have to keep going back to Jesus because the man keeps getting sick. And isn't that what we do? Have to keep going back to Jesus.

Just so you know--the game always degenerates to dropping the chair every where and belly laughing. And then it ends for reals, when the chair lands on themselves. So our games do end in tears. Because they're typical little boys.

Love

Not many things better than sharing hobbies. Hopeful Hero spent most of the time talking to me about the book. She get's excited when we read to her.

The boys were playing with trains or LEGOs. It was a good Saturday.

Learners

The Visiting Teaching message this month is all about learning and teaching. And the new youth curriculum, that I am loving is all about learning and teaching, and learning by teaching. This month I have pondered a lot about teaching.

I went visiting teaching last night, and it was going to be a world wind blast, four appointments and we were going blitz right through it all and get it done. Well, two of the appointments fell through, and one I went to by myself.  I've thought a lot about learning and teaching and visiting teaching.

It took me back to the summer that I turned 18, my first experience with visiting teaching. A wise Relief Society President, wanting to include the high school graduates, assigned us visiting teaching companions. We were assigned to companions who went and taught the messages. They were to be our mentors, show us how to do it, and make sure that we did it.

And I see that mentors and mentees is how the gospel is lived and taught. Parents mentor their children, children mentor peers, we bring our friends to church, we have people show us about youth programs, youth teach each other, the honor bee and visiting teaching. It's all one big opportunity to teach and to learn together.

We don't make it to heaven on our own. It's very comforting. I have opportunities all around me to help lift, and some I can tell when I'm lifting and sometimes I can't. And others lift me up. And I'm excited to get to help those learn and have them teach me.

Here's me mentoring and teaching the next generation. We are going to be a great team!

Happy Birthday!

 I had an awesome birthday yesterday. You could even say it was a Golden Birthday. I made a list of 28 things to do since I was turning 28 on the 28th. It was fun! Sadly, all 28 things didn't occur. The one I was saddest about missing? A 28 minute nap. Yeah, some days, nap schedule's don't align to give Mom a break. But we had a lot of fun playing at the playground and getting 28 tickles out of Hopeful Hero. And saying hello to 28 friends and getting 28 Happy Birthdays. It was great!

Hopeful Hero playing with my neighbor. Isn't she getting BIG?

And she's sleeping really well. Not crying at night.--She is the easiest to sleep train, 

probably because we've learned how to teach it and encourage sleep.

I LOVE my Happy Happy, baby!

Digging with the black "X-cabe-ater"

Digging with all his friends. Rocking cool shades. 

We've got style at the Hero House.

Sleep Training

We've decided to start sleep training the Hopeful Hero. We've been talking a lot about what we want to do and when we want to start it. And we make the decision at night, when we have rocked our child for an hour after two or three bad nights in a row. Both of us look at each other and say, "They are old enough now at 3.5 months to learn this important self soothing skill." Then we leave the child, in their bed and walk away. It's how we decided the day for the Peaceful Hero, Friendly Hero, and now the Hopeful Hero. I've turned off the monitor and I'm going to do something fun for then next hour and pray for the strength to let her cry.

Wish us luck for the next few days!