Reflections of Christ Video

This is a great and inspiring short video about our Savior. These are live pictures that were taken to put up (I believe) in the Mesa, AZ temple and then set to some amazing music. I would call it moving, but that is not likely an adjective I would use. Therefore, I will just call it amazing. I hope you all like it as well.

Deep Thoughts, Shallow Brain Part 3

I was looking at something today and I saw this quote: "Adversity compels us to go to our knees; does gratitude for adversity do that as well?" I thought that was an amazing quote and it really made me think (I know gears turning in my head frightens many, sorry). I have not been through great adversity in my life. I have had a very great life filled with many blessings. Although it has been great, just like everyone I have felt adversity in my life. I think that it continually makes me a stronger, better person. I believe there have been times that I have thanked my Father in Heaven for my adversity, but maybe not enough. I believe it really has helped me to stretch beyond where I am at. If I look at the small challenges I have faced I do not think of how fun they are, but after going through them I see all that I have learned. I know that each challenge I have faced made me stronger and capable of so much more (not that I am asking for more). So, I believe that I will take that quote to heart and thank my Father in Heaven more often for the adversity that he gives me and for His desire to help make me stronger. Lastly I will try to always be grateful for His constant guidance to pull me through the adversity. Without Him by my side, it is doubtful I would be able to conquer it.

My House is Perfect

A did great helping me put away the dish rags today
T did a great job helping me vacuum the stairs

Okay, so that may sound like a little bit of an arrogant statement for the title to a blog posting, but I am afraid to say it is true. It may not mean what you are thinking though. The house is often the farthest thing from immaculate. We do not always do everything that we are supposed to exactly when we are supposed to do it, but when we are together things are perfect. You can see that A did not put the towels away perfectly. T did a pretty good job, but did not get every single tiny thing off of the stairs when he vacuumed, but they tried. They also helped with many more things throughout the day. I love that they are so willing to help and that they try to do what is right. I am not trying to make them sound like something they are not. They throw fits (often times in church or other VERY public places), don't listen, fight, etc., but they are such great kids and I love them. Tonight as I was tucking T in I was reminded of what was important. We spent most of the day simply cleaning the house since it got a little neglected with our travels and the outside work. We were a tiny bit late going to bed, so after prayers I was just rushing the kids to sleep. T said "Dad, could you read me a story?" I said, "not tonight, we need to get right to sleep, we have a lot going on in the morning and it is really late." T simply responded, "okay, Dad, I love you." After a few minutes of them being in bed, I realized once again what was important. I went back in his room and had him lay on my shoulder while I read him a story. Then I went in A's room and did the same thing. We were busy all day long, and really what is important at the end of the day is not the housework, the laundry, the dishes, etc. It is not important that we don't have a ton of money, what clothes we wear, the car we drive, or anything else. We have been blessed with all that we NEED. What is important is sometimes bending the rules to read my kids a story. I think I need to make sure I realize the important things more and more often. Kids are only little for so long, and it goes by so fast. Now I have even less time with them then before. So, I want to take advantage of every moment.

Pre-Memorial Day

Every year my parents and my siblings that live here get together on the day before Memorial Day. We meet as quickly as we are all able after church and head up to Cache Valley. We place flowers on the graves of my Grandparents as well as my Great Grandparents. Usually we go to American Fork and Pleasant Grove the previous Saturday. My Dad's parents are buried in American Fork, and my Mom's paternal grandparents are buried in the Pleasant Grove cemetery. Today, we went to Providence to visit my Mom's maternal Grandparents. We then continued on to Logan to visit my Dad's paternal Grandparents. Last we went to Richmond to visit my Dad's maternal Grandparents. My maternal Grandmother at the ripe age of 95 is still alive and sharp as a tack. My maternal Grandfather passed away about 10 years ago. He is buried in Colorado, however, and we did not think we could do that all in one day. After we went to the Richmond cemetery we all had a picnic with my siblings, parents, and their kids. It was a lot of fun and I think it is important for all of us to at least know SOME history of where we come from. It was neat to explain to the kids the significance of these people and why we were placing flowers on their graves. I also took advantage of the opportunity to snap their photos next to the graves. As we were driving home tonight there was a terrible accident on the freeway. We sat on the freeway for well over an hour while they brought in a Helicopter to take the victims of the crash to the hospital. Because of the job I have and how much I am on the road, this is about the 6th time I have seen the freeway shut down for a medical helicopter to land.

A standing next to the grave of her Great, Great Grandparents

T standing next to his Great, Great Grandparents grave as well

While I am no amazing photographer, I just noticed how beautiful the sky looked while we were sitting on the freeway, so I took out the camera and snapped a couple of pictures.

Yardwork!

So, today all we really did was yard work. It was actually quite of bit of fun and the temperatures were about right for it. We planted all the flowers in the front yard flower beds, mowed the lawns, weeded all the flower beds, weeded the garden, spread some "sunshine" (a manure, poultry, wood shaving mix called Nutri-multch), tilled the garden, and ate some food. We did at least wash our hands in between all the yard work before eating though. T asked why we had to use the mulch. As I was spreading 10 bags of it all over the garden before tilling it in, smelling the wonderful smells and trying to keep it off my clothes, I wondered exactly the same thing.

T was Grandpa's best helper today. He rarely left his side and was so happy to help. He really was a HARD worker the WHOLE day! It was so fun for him and I think that Grandpa was not only impressed at his work ethic, but he and T loved the time they spent together as well. I think T especially liked sneaking up on Grandpa with his water gun in the heat of the day. Grandma is out East watching my Brother and Sister-in-laws kids for two and half weeks.

A decided that she wanted to be my special helper. They both took breaks here and there. In this picture A thought it was the right time for a quick swing, but she was an amazing helper today. I cannot believe how willing they are to work. She loved it and was so worried as we weeded the garden (our big chore shown to the left of her) that she was getting the roots of the weeds out. We had a lot of fun. We might have violated child labor laws, but really there was no stopping them.

So, you could only see a slight bit of the garden in the last picture, but the whole thing was full of weeds from this year's heavy rain and snow fall. After I spread all the "sunshine" around, I tilled it all under. I took a picture of the tiller here that I affectionately think of as a beast. It is actually 24 years old and has only had 2 real tune-ups. That thing is amazing and just keeps on going. I have used it since I was eleven, not only on our garden, but on many neighbors gardens as well. It never stops working (knock on wood). The other thing is that it only has 3 1/2 horsepower, yet many times it feels as though I am really holding back 3 1/2 horses. I mean I am not the toughest guy in the world, but size has got to count for something. Especially size 15 feet digging into the dirt to hold the thing back. Anyway, hopefully one day I will inherit it because I am thinking it will still be working in another 20 or so years.

• The kids asked me how the mulch is made. When I explained what it really is, their eyes went as big as saucers, and they said, "W-W-W-WHATTT?!!!" Apparently their Daddy teases them enough that they thought I was just making it up.
  

Preschool Graduation

T & A holding their preschool diplomas with their caps on.

So, today was the kids preschool graduation. I always want to support them whenever I am able. So, I took the day off of school to attend the graduation. I am glad that I did. It was so much fun. It was not a typical graduation (at least what I would picture one to be). It was fun and cute and much more like a program the kids were putting on for the adults. They sang many songs to the parents and shared their favorite experiences in preschool. They shared what their favorite day in preschool was. A loved when they pretended to ride in the school bus and drive all over. T loved when they went in their pretend space shuttle and discovered outer space and all of the planets. I am so glad I was able to go and hear them sing songs and see them perform in other ways. They did a great job and it was great to be able to be there.

• When it was A's turn to speak into the microphone, she spoke way too loudly, which of course just caused people to snicker. When another kid did the same thing, she plugged her ears.

Deep Thoughts, Shallow Brain Part 2

So, I was standing around talking to a soon to be first time Dad about their soon to be baby. Another guy comes up and says, "Oh man your life is over now." All I could think is "that is quite possibly the stupidest comment I have ever heard in my life." I am not trying to sound dumb (for me it just comes naturally, I don't have to try), but life truly does not begin until you have kids. It seems to me that anyone who believes what this person said can only be described as selfish. They cannot see past themselves and their wants to care for someone else. Sure there are different stages of life and I think that we should respect those, but when the time is right kids will change your life. Sure they bring new challenges, but those only make you stronger and capable of so much more. The biggest thing is they bring the greatest joy anyone could ever know. I know that people who do not have children (and sadly some that do) MAY not understand what I am talking about. Life truly is about having a family. My kids truly are my best friends. I love playing with them, I love how forgiving they are, I love their funny sense of humor, and I LOVE their innocence. So many times in the world people focus on the bad. How quickly we are to call our car a piece of junk the first time it breaks even if it drove us 90,000 trouble-free miles before doing so. At work how often do people focus on a single mistake, but ignore the other thousand times someday has done things perfectly. Kids aren't like that, they look for the fun, exciting, happy, and great things about life. They aren't looking for doom and gloom, they are thirsty for the happiness and goodness that life has to offer. I obviously talk a lot about my kids. If you can't handle that I would probably find a new blog to read. They are my world. Really at this stage in my life, they ARE my life and my family will always be the source of my greatest happiness. I do not think I would have much of a life without them. My life would be "over" if they WEREN'T in my life. So what am I trying to say? I love being a Daddy. I love helping my kids learn new things, I love playing with them, I love teaching them the Gospel, I love just sitting and talking with them, I love eating meals with them, I love it all. I am certainly not the best Dad in the world. There are many, many times that I have no idea what I am doing, but they just seem to love me for trying. I have many things to learn in life, but I do know my love for my kids, that I want to be there for them as much as possible, and I am willing to show up and do my best to be a Dad each day. So, I sincerely express my gratitude and love to my Heavenly Father for the great blessing that he has allowed me by letting me be a Dad. To contradict what this person said, my life "began" four years ago. I have had many great experiences, but none so far have compared to being a Dad.

Co-Conspirators

Alright, so people always tell me how cute and innocent my kids are. I of course know they are good kids and take it as a compliment, but don't let them fool you. Underneath that cute, angelic facade of looks, personality, charm, sweetness, thirst for knowledge and general innocence lies two of the worlds greatest co-conspirators. One may ask what I am talking about. Well, after feeding the kids their breakfast I decide to go down and take a shower. I turn them on a short show on the TV to keep them occupied. When I come back up the stairs I see both of the with their chairs practically sitting on top of each other at the table. Neither is saying a word and they seem a little hunched over the table. I come around the front of them to see them shoveling some sort of substance into their mouth as if it were some sort of Olympic sport (because really Dad could come up the stairs at any moment). I quickly figure out that the cake leftovers that we had for dessert after Sunday dinner seems to have disappeared. There were at least 3 or 4 pieces worth when I went down to the shower. I asked them what they were doing. With star struck eyes and the sweetest voice she could muster A says, "Ummmmm....we were just eating the cake that you gave us Daddy." I asked, "the cake I gave you?" To which she responded, "Yeah, remember you gave us some yesterday." I said, "well did I give you THOSE pieces?" She said, "you gave us the whole cake silly." I responded "ohh, T what are you doing?" He stares straight into A's eyes for about 8 seconds before responding, "just eating the cake you gave us." Okay, okay, so I laughed and let them off the hook and just said to please ask next time. I mean after all it was a fairly creative explanation, and the cake was not really for anything. Secretly I love it when they are co-conspirators as long as no one gets hurt and as long as they don't make some sort of disastrous mess. So, I have no more cake (I really shouldn't eat it anyway, so they're really doing me a favor), but I do have a big smile in my heart as I laugh and think of my sweet little co-conspirators.

A Talk and A Prayer

So, T gave a talk in primary today and A gave the prayer. They are always so excited to do things like that. They are such sweet amazing kids. T spoke on strengthening the family. We wrote a short talk for him about letting our light shine by being good examples in our families and the world. We used a flashlight and turned off the lights to illustrate just how important our lights can be to others as well as to ourselves. He really loved it, and he did a great job. A gave a very sweet prayer in primary as well. She is so sincere in her prayers to her Heavenly Father. So primary went really well. The kids were also great in sacrament until about the last 10 minutes. I do not know where it all fell apart after that. T and A were fighting over who was sitting where and were somewhat pushing each other. Before I could stop them T pulled A's hair hard (something he has never done before). She let out a terrible scream. I calmed her down, then tried to get T to settle down. He settled down for a few minutes before he just seemed to come unglued about everything.

• As I was taking T out to the foyer today when he was out of control, he suddenly yelled out, "DON"T SPANK ME DAD!" Nothing like the feeling that everyone must think you beat your children. I am pretty sure I can count on one hand the number of times I have ever spanked them. The best part? I never even said anything to him about any sort of punishment. I also looked at him funny and whispered, spank you? He then started laughing. Many ward members were nice enough to give me a hard time on the way out of church today. One person was nice enough to share their experience though. Every time they would take one of their kids out for bad behavior he would scream, "save me bishop, save me!" I guess things could always be worse.
• As I was tucking T into bed tonight, I gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He said, "if you need to kiss someone so bad, maybe you should just get married silly." He then laughed hysterically. I told him that I would take that under advisement.
• I forgot to write a funny comment T made after singing in Sacrament for Mother's Day. When the Primary President's husband came and told the kids "good job," T responded "hey dude I barely even sang because I did not know all the words."

The Zoo

NO! I am not talking about the place we call home, or any place we seem to frequent. We went to the actual Zoo. Luckily we did not pick up any more animals than we already had on our way out and we certainly checked for stow-aways. We did not see any donkeys so we weren't quite so worried that someone was going to take my place. It was great to be able to go with our friends. They are probably beginning to wonder whether they might be our ONLY friends. They are not our ONLY friends, but lets just say I don't like to make the kids count higher than a preschool level. I always say it is the quality, not the quantity that counts and so really we have all the friends in the world. T most liked the Giraffes and Zebras and A liked the Turtles the best. She explained to me that at age five she will be getting one. I hope that her Mom knows that they are going to be having another mouth to feed in 6 months or so. Anyway here are a few pictures from the fun day out today.

I found it especially ironic and funny that T was eating a turkey sandwich while looking at the turkeys. Nothing like rubbing it in I guess. I can just imagine him yelling "who's the dominant species now, huh?"

All the kids at the end of the day. What a great time we all had.

T and A sitting on some Tigers. T is having a nice rest and A apparently is looking a little too closely at me because she appears to have to force herself to smile.

Nothing like a dead elephant's head the size of both of your kids put together.

• Treven was telling me that he wanted to watch Pocahontas. While his movie choices are vast he normally would not choose that one. When I asked him why, he said that he just wanted to see Pocahontas and Joseph Smith. See how Gospel minded my kids are. Even when thinking of a movie he thinks of past prophets. We just clarified that it was not so much Joseph Smith, but John Smith. I love the funny things kids say.