The Culmination

You may have seen this on Facebook. Bryan altered it to remove his middle and last names, just for the blog.

But you didn't see this on Facebook.

The date says yesterday, because graduation here covers two days. Today is the final day.

Here's hoping that we all get to where we need to be, the camera works, the kids stay relatively calm while waiting through the long ceremony, and that Bryan is able to enjoy his last moments as a student.

Cap and Gown

As Bryan was tucking Cooper into bed last night he told Cooper something exciting.

Bryan: Cooper, I'm not going to school tomorrow.

Cooper: Why? Where are you going?

Bryan: I'm staying home with you. I can play with you tomorrow.

Cooper: (disbelief, then excessive grinning)

Bryan took his last final yesterday. The last final of the MBA program. Tomorrow he will dress up in a fancy black cap, black gown, and a blue hood. And we will cheer and clap.

And maybe cry.

Up A Tree

Once upon a time there was a boy who climbed a tree. He climbed high, so high that when his little brother called for him to return to the ground, he looked down and discovered he was stuck.

The boy cried out for help and the little brother sprang into action. He ran to the dad and the mom and alerted them to his brother's plight. Now, the boy had climbed trees in the past, so at first the parents believed that he could get down on his own. But the little brother was persistent and continued to summon the parents.

Finally the dad walked to the tree, followed by the mom. A crowd of children had gathered and were gaping up at the boy in the tree. The mom followed their combined gaze. She searched, then spotted the boy higher than she had expected.

The dad surveyed the situation.

Then he climbed the tree.

The mom took pictures.

After some convincing from the dad and some crying from the boy (and some yelling from the little sister for her daddy to "come down out of that tree right now!"), the dad was able to help the boy to safety.

One would think the boy would avoid climbing trees after such a bad scare, but no. During the same afternoon at the park, he climbed the tree twice more and was thwarted during a third attempt.

Perhaps climbing trees was in his blood...

Guess Who Picked Out Her Own Clothes Today?

On A Golden Springtime

Peter spoke in Primary yesterday. On Saturday I pointed him toward a few resources (The Children's Songbook, Doctrine and Covenants Stories, the scriptures) and he sat on his bed for a while and read.

On Saturday night I sat at my computer while Peter dictated his talk to me. He really wanted to type it himself, but I've learned that he gets more focused on changing the font and the size of the letters than he does on the actual writing. I made a few small suggestions as he went, asked chronology questions, but mainly stayed out of it. I would say that this talk is 85% him, 15% me, which isn't too bad for a seven-year-old.

When it came time to deliver it, he remembered to stand up straight, hold the paper down so it wouldn't cover his face, and speak loudly and clearly into the microphone. He even pronounced pastor and evangelist correctly.

Oh, and he insisted on writing his name at the end.

Jesus Christ Restored His Church in the Latter-days

Joseph Smith was curious to know which church to join. He went to a grove near his home and prayed to Heavenly Father to know which church to join. He saw a pillar of light and in it he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father said, “This is my Beloved Son, hear him.” And then Jesus Christ said none of the churches were true.

Joseph Smith History chapter 1 verse 19 says: 

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

The Primary song On a Golden Springtime says:

On a golden springtime, in a forest glade,
The Father and the Son appeared as Joseph knelt and prayed.
Awake, awake, O nations all!
Receive the gospel light!
The gospel true is here for you.
Receive its glorious light!

Then Joseph returned home and told his mom. He also told many other people. Some of them didn’t believe him and were mean to him.

Then one night when he was sleeping, the Angel Moroni came to visit Joseph Smith and told him about the Gold Plates. Joseph Smith helped him by translating the Golden Plates with Oliver Cowdery.

The sixth Article of Faith says:

“We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.”

Through Joseph Smith, Jesus restored the church. Some of these things include the Priesthood, covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Gospel.

 I know the church is true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Peter

Inspector Gadget

Tonight we went to this year's closing social for the MBA program. The majority of us spent the evening shivering due to the outdoor location and the cold temperatures. The entertainment for the evening included announcing Superlatives. The students had all voted  on who was "The Most Likely to..." of several categories.

There were quite a few, and I wondered if Bryan would be mentioned. Then towards the end he and another fellow tied for a category.

Want to know what Bryan was named? "The Most Likely to Own the Latest Gadget Before You Do."

It looks like his classmates know him pretty well.

Nature Preserve

We have a new hobby. When Cooper and Phoebe and I pick up Peter from school, we don't go right home. Instead, we drive around town and look at houses. Some of the neighborhoods around here have gigantic homes. Peter calls those "the ones I would get lost in." We've also looked at smaller homes, so now my children will call out "those are modest homes" or "those house are huge!" In addition to size, we make note of architectural style and materials used. Apparently we all prefer homes with stone accouterments.

On our drive today, we saw something that I haven't seen the whole time I've lived in this valley.

Mountain goats. Or at least, they were goats, standing on the side of a steep hill, grazing. I'm not sure if they were really mountain goats, but it was still impressive.

Can you see those white specks on the hill?

Want a closer look?

After oohing and aahing over our brush with nature, we pulled back onto the road (because I had pulled off to take the pictures), turned the corner, and saw deer. Here's one of them.

Who needs the zoo?

Ouch

Tonight as I was trying to figure out what to post, we heard a thump and Cooper started to cry. Bryan jumped and ran and I followed.

We've been putting the boys to bed in different rooms, one in theirs and one in ours. Tonight Cooper went to sleep in our room. I had checked on him about an hour before he cried out. He had been tucked in near the middle of the bed.

Bryan found him on the floor, just having experienced a long drop onto our hard carpet.

At first we thought that he had just been startled,  then I noticed a blue line on his temple and the beginning of a lump starting to form. We're not sure if he hit our nightstand or our bed frame. Either way, he's going to have a nasty bruise.

The silver lining? I got to snuggle with him as I held ice to his injury and he drifted back off to sleep. I don't like that he got hurt, but it's nice to know I can comfort him.

Mmm Mmm Better

I made a cooking discovery this evening. We've had a cold snap the last week and I wanted to make chicken noodle soup for dinner. I rummaged through the pantry and discovered that we had ramen noodles. I did something wildly out of character: I cooked without a recipe.

The end result? I made something that tasted quite a bit like chicken noodle soup out of a can, but better. The ramen noodles mimicked the canned noodles, so the consistency was right. Two out of three children loved it. The third used his noodles to create an artistic design on the table and then spooned the majority of his food into Phoebe's bowl. He finally choked down a few bites, but he tends to only like cereal and fruit and beans, so I was happy he even attempted it.

Hooray for throwing four packages of ramen noodles, a bag of frozen vegetables, a can of Costco chicken, six cubes of bullion, a few shakes of pepper, a few shakes of thyme, and twelve cups of water into a pot and ending up with a delicious meal!

Shining Brightly

Remember the song I made up to teach Phoebe how to spell her name? A few days ago we discovered that she knew it. Now, she can't connect the name of the letters to the shape of the letters, but she can definitely sing the song. And she's really cute.



She wanted to do the song again, but this time she voiced her baby doll. I'm including the second movie to share that she's just as much of a ham as her brothers. And they seem to appreciate it.