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.
...a Tea Party!!!
I would love to say that it was all for Abby's benefit, you know since tea parties aren't exactly a "manly" passtime, but the boys were having just as much fun as her! Of course, they were sure to tell me that they were having hot cocoa at their tea party. Funny kids!
This was as we were getting ready for bed. I was trying to get a picture with the kids and the cards/gifts they'd made...but it didn't work out so well! Abby didn't want to stay put!
But, nothing cheers her up like some ice cream!
Here are few random shots of the bouncy toys, Andrew may be a little small, but it certainly didn't hold him back!
Joe said that the jousting was the funniest part of the whole night. As you can see, Andrew had a hard time just holding on to the big stick, let alone swinging it to knock Sam off. I guess that he learned pretty fast that falling off was the fun part and just started diving off the platform whenever Sam swung at him. Sam looks a little bored with the whole thing! Funny boys!
