God Chose Me

Autumn is a very special girl. I really don't know what to think of most of what she says or does. She is so tenderhearted and thoughtful. She is a normal nine year old but there is something very special about her. She was so excited to get her scriptures last year when she was baptized. I have purchased many sets of scriptures over the years and decided to go with some hard cover less expensive ones so they would not get destroyed by the time she turned 12 or so. Well, she was not unhappy with them but not particularly happy with them. They were heavy and she had a hard time finding the books in them. So all she wanted for Christmas was "all-in-ones" as she called them. It was spelled out very plainly in a letter to Santa Clause that she needed this kind of scriptures to read better. So Santa was very happy to grant her her wish. It was all she wanted for Christmas after all. I often catch her doing what she is doing in this picture. She loves marking her scriptures. She is very organized about it. She has a color for scriptures she hears in primary, a color for ones from Sacrament meeting, a color for ones from FHE, and you guessed it a color for our family scripture study. She started a scripture journal. She said she wanted to be like me. She sees me keeping notes all of the time about the things I read. She started with the Book of Mormon and for every chapter she read she has been summarizing it. It is slow going for her. She does not understand a lot of the words but she is trying. I love her tenacity. She does not want to give up. When a few days go by and she has not read she gets back to it and lets me know she is trying again. What a wonderful habit she is forming. I do remember many of the children doing similar things at this same age. I remember their innocence and love for all things church related. But still, there is something a little different about this with Autumn. I have a strong desire to cultivate it, to continue with my own studying so she can see how she motivates me. I know that this study of the scriptures is helping her to develop her testimony.

Yesterday after church she came into my room with this little note. She had written it the night before but wanted me to have it. I think she had planned on giving her testimony in Sacrament meeting but didn't. She said she thought I needed to see her testimony and that she hoped it would make me happy. (Don't you love the pretty pink gems she added) What insight this little nine year old has. To know that God chose her to be with us at this time....what a blessing she is to our family and especially to me. It is hard to watch children go down the wrong path and make wrong choices. Sometimes I even think "Why am I even doing this?" This little note, this small little testimony is why. The lesson I learned from Autumn yesterday was that God chose me to be the mother of these eleven children, these very strong spirits who needed someone who would love them no matter what. I love my kids and oh how I appreciate now more than ever nine year olds! 

February's Grandparent Date

So our February date was to go bowling. We went to the local bowling alley and had fun rolling those "big balls" as Reagan called them down the lane. It took a few attempts for David and I to remember how to do this bowling thing. Actually, more like it took me a few tries, David did just fine. Everything went really well except for the couple of times that Jonathan pushed the reset button just as I was throwing the ball and lets just say things got stuck a few times. In the end all was well and he learned to sit and wait in between his turns. I think the older boys really enjoyed themselves.

 Luke was great at inputting all the information. He knew just what to do and got us started

 Here we are with are silly bowling shoes. 

 Adrian actually did really well. It helped we had the bumber rails up and he used those to his advantage.

 I love the look on Jonathan's face here. Everytime he was so excited that his ball made it all the way to the pins! It helped that Grandpa was his partner and I am sure that his added push helped it along.

 I was Reagan's partner and basically she said "It's too heavy, you do it". I did try hard to have her help every time until finally she just had had enough.

 And so this is where she went to pout when I told her no she couldn't push all the buttons. The last four frames I had Jonathan take her turn. As you can see, they tied. Funny how when we got home she told Toshia bowling was really fun and wanted to go again. Hmmm....I guess ice cream at the end erases all unhappy memories!

 Of course, Grandpa won over all and I came in second. Adrian was third with Luke close behind. 

 What date would be complete if we didn't have a treat. So off to Dari Delish we went for ice cream  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. Even though the sun was out it still was kind of cold and by the time the kids were finished with their ice cream they were shivering.

I couldn't resist adding this last photo. What a cutie! We had so much fun bowling with the kids. It really is fun to have this time with just them and hang out. Luke said, "This weekend I have not quit having fun, first bowling then ice cream, tomorrow the super bowl party....." 

Happy Times!