My dad used to tell me often when I was growing up to "be a duck!" And what he meant by that was to let problems, or things that people did to me that I didn't like, roll of my back like water rolls off a ducks back. Other than "keep your perspective," I think I heard "be a duck," from him the most. And now I've been using it with Kade a lot! Anytime a situation or a person frustrates him he get really angry pretty quickly so we've been trying to teach him to be a duck.
Tonight for Family Home Evening, Brad demonstrated exactly what the phrase means. He had Kade pour some water on his head to show him that his hair stayed wet afterward and then, since we don't have a duck, he showed him a YouTube video showing how water rolls off a ducks back. Kade thought it was pretty cool! And he is trying to "be a duck!"
We also had a lot of fun with our friends at the zoo today!
This afternoon Brad and I got to take the kids to the church for a baptism for a young boy in our ward. They were both so excited to see him be baptized the way Jesus was and to see him receive the gift of the holy ghost. I loved seeing their excitement for this little boy and the excitement they had to know that when they turn 8 years old, they will be able to be baptized as well.
They, of course, loved the refreshments as well!
Tonight I was able to go to the General Women's Meeting broadcast at my church building. Before hand we had an ice cream social and it was so fun to visit with friends as we awaited the broadcast.
The broadcast was amazing! It was such an uplifiting and spiritual experience for me. I loved being able to share in that spiritual night with all woman ages 8 years and older. Because, as we learned, we all need each other! "As individuals we are strong. Together, with God, we are unstoppable!" -Sister Wixom
I was pretty emotional the entire time because the spirit was so strong. I was grateful to be there with good friends, but I dearly missed many of the amazing women I know in my life; my mom, my sweet daughter Tenley (I can't wait until she is old enough to go that meeting with me), my mother-in-law (I thought of her frequently throughout that meeting. She loved the sisterhood of Relief Society and she received so much joy from being a woman and sharing her love and compassion with others.), my sister, and my sister-in laws. I'm grateful to have close relationships with all of those women. They have all been such great examples to me in my life. I love being apart of this amazing sisterhood in the gospel.
I loved this video that was shown:
It's the tender moments that make your life as a daughter of God such a unique and special gift.
Kade was so excited to go to the gymnastics center with his friends Jackson and Jakoby today. They were off in their own little world by themselves most of the time. Tenley had a fun time too. She ran around by herself, jumped on the trampolines, jumped into the ball pit, played with stuffed animals, and almost used the rope swing! It was fun to watch her and to be with friends!
Kade and Tenley have been becoming best friends. They make up games together, chase each other around the house, read books to each other, and dance together. I love seeing their relationship grow.
Today I caught them in the car dancing to Kade's favorite song. The video is a bit shaky because I was...um...driving, but it is cute nonetheless!
Tonight Brad had to stay at school really late. It's been a long time since we haven't had him home for dinner with us.
Since the kids and I needed to pick him up when he was done, they were really excited to get to stay up extra late tonight, eat treats, and watch a movie. We had fun together, but we really missed Brad!
Although I try to not dwell on all of my imperfections, my children can sometimes make that hard to do. Tonight Kade pointed out that I was not acting like Jesus would.
We were getting ready to start Family Home Evening, but we were waiting for Kade to go to the bathroom because he had said that he needed to, but he kept playing with toys or talking to Brad and suddenly I raised my voice and told him to "Go to the bathroom now!" He frowned, walked away, and went and when he came back he said, "Mom, you yelled at me! Jesus wouldn't do that! You are not being like Jesus."
Oh man.
That hurts when someone points that out so bluntly.
But he was right, I was not being like Jesus. So I told him I was sorry and that I would try to be better, and, as Jesus would, he quickly forgave me.
I'm grateful that he is smart enough to recognize when I am not being like Jesus and I'm grateful that he is bold enough to tell me. It helps me try and be better!
Brad introduced the kids to the song "Sweet Caroline" this week and they love it. I really love that song! I hope someday to be able to hear it as I watch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
Today Kade, Tenley, and I got to go visit our friend who just had a new baby boy last month. He was so sweet and cute and little! We all loved holding him!
We've been having a lot of fun these past few days watching college basketball. After the first day of the tournament Brad had a perfect bracket! On ESPN he was one of 16,000 people out of a 11 million who predicted it perfectly. It was pretty crazy especially with some of the upsets! I was impressed. But, sadly, his bracket isn't perfect anymore. The kids have had fun watching and playing basketball too.
Every Friday downtown there are a bunch of food trucks with yummy food and today our friends invited us down to have lunch there. It was a nice, sunny day so it was fun to get out and go for a walk through the city, enjoy some yummy food, and spend time with friends.
We had a blast on our trip, but our days were pretty full with fun, exciting things. It was nice to have a quiet, relaxing day at home. Kade and I did go out to a park this afternoon to enjoy the sun a little bit.
He has such an imagination! We played house, then he drove me to the beach and we swam in the ocean and took a ride on a dolphin that dropped us off by some squids that we shot with our light sabers because he was Darth Vader and I was Princess Leia. Haha. It was fun!
Today we went to the City Museum and it was one of the coolest buildings/places I've ever been. I wouldn't really even classify it as a museum, it was more like a really fun playground. The caves were my favorite part to explore and the 10-story slide was way fun to experience! I felt so dizzy after that and it was quite the hike to the top of it but it was so worth it. Kade never wanted to leave. He loved exploring and he especially loved the slides. We were crawling and climbing everywhere so it was hard to get a lot of pictures. We had so much fun!
Kade's excited face in this picture says it all!
Tenley was a little scared at first, but she warmed up to it!
Going into the mouth of a whale.
This slide was steeper than it looks! I didn't know Kade was such a dare-devil!
It's hard to see the big airplane at the top of this picture, but Brad and Kade went all the way to the top.
This organ looked awesome. I really wanted to play it!
Had to climb all the way to the top to go down the 10-story slide.
Today we got to enjoy the day at the free zoo. I was amazed that it was free because it was awesome! It's very big and there are a lot of animals.
Kade had fun taking pictures.
Kissing the snake.
All Kade wanted to see at the Zoo was a squid. Luckily we found a big one! (He has a thing for squids right now for some reason).
The Zoo is in a big beautiful park. I'd love to visit her in the Summer or Fall.
Afterward we found a fun playground for the kids to play at called Turtle Park. They thought it was so cool to see such big Turtles and to be able to climb all over them.
We caught a glimpse of the arch, but there was a lot of construction around it so we just looked at it from the car.
For dinner we tried to find a yummy BBQ restaurant that a friend had recommended, but it had gone out of business. Luckily an Applebee's wasn't too far away and we learned that kids eat free there on Tuesday's which worked out perfectly! It was also nice to be pretty much the only guests in the restaurant and Applebee's is always so yummy!
Sleeping arrangements in our room worked out better than I thought they would. I wanted to bring a pack n' play for Tenley, but we didn't have room so we had the kids sleep together in a queen size bed. They loved it and since we wore them out everyday they fell asleep pretty quickly!
