Wednesday, April 20, 2011

She's Contagious!

One of Abby's most endearing characteristics is her laugh. She has this deep chuckle that just makes me smile whenever I hear it!

A couple of weeks ago we were at the grocery store and I was playing with her and tickling her as I walked down the aisle. She was laughing so hard, it was really cute. A few minutes later a lady walked around the corner and said, "Excuse me, was she just laughing a minute ago?" I said that she was. "Oh, well, I was on the next aisle over and I found myself smiling for no real reason. Then I realized it was because I heard her laughing!" Then she leaned towards Abby and said, "Thank you for brightening my day!"

I'm so grateful for my happy baby girl!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A beautiful thing!

This picture was from a few weeks ago, but I thought it was cute so I wanted to post it. This is how I found the kids that morning after I was done cleaning up breakfast. Sam has taken off with reading and was putting his new skills to work! Very cute!



Perfect for a rainy day!

Yesterday we got a package in the mail from Grandma Lodge. It was full of Easter goodies and fun activities. It was a great pick-me-up on another cold rainy day. We are so tired of the cold! Last night we went to my brothers house for a family dinner and drove there in a blizzard! Where is SPRING???


Anyway, here are some pictures of the boys doing the craft project that they got...









Sam's Miracles

I'm going to apologize upfront, because this may be kind of a long story. I really wanted to record it for the sake of family records/journal and this is the best place for that. So, with that said, here goes!

A few weeks ago, Sam came to me and said, "Mom, I'm a little sad about something. Why don't I ever have any miracles in my life?" He's really been thinking a lot lately about things he learns at primary, church, FHE, etc. It's very cool to watch him learn the gospel. On this particular day he was thinking about the miracles that Jesus performed. I didn't want to let this moment pass without teaching him something. I sat him down and showed him his scrapbook from the NICU. He's looked at it lots of times, but this time I explained that he was very small and very sick when he was born. I told him how Daddy and I (and lot of other people) said LOTS of prayers and asked Heavenly Father to help him get better. I told him that Heavenly Father answered our prayers and that's why he is so strong and healthy. I told him that is a miracle, that he is a miracle. He really took that to heart and we both felt the Spirit testify that it was true. It was a very sweet experience.

Now, fast forward a few weeks.

Saturday night, after the boys' showers the bathtub would not drain. I fiddled with the drain and did all I could fix it. Joe came in and did what he could. Nothing changed. More than an hour later, Joe had talked to my dad and was heading over to get some tools and drain cleaner from him. Before he left, we said family prayer and Joe asked that he'd be able to fix the drain. During Sam's personal prayers he also asked that Daddy would be able to fix the bathtub. While Joe was gone and the kids were all in bed, I was downstair doing something. All of the sudden, I could hear the tub draining. It was strange, it had been clogged for about 2 hours by that time with absolutely no change, then all of the sudden it drained. I went in and told Sam that it was fixed. He looked at me, in awe, and said, "Wow Mom, Heavenly Father answered my prayers. It's a real miracle!"

The next day, we were talking about it again and he said, "Now I know of two miracles in my life, Heavenly Father helped me be healthy when I was a baby and he fixed the bathtub!" It seemed like such an odd comparison to me, like they shouldn't quite be in the same category. As I thought about it further though, I realized that it didn't matter. Prayers were answered and, no matter the outcome, my little boy is learning that Heavenly Father loves us and will help us when we need help.

It was all a very good learning experience for all of us.