Strenghth in Prayer

 While watching General Conference both Don and I were impressed by the following talk:
Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of the Children by Tad R. Callister

In the talk it talks about prayer being a strength.  The spirit prompted me, telling me that our family needed to improve on prayer.  We pray at meal time and do family prayer at night.  But I felt I was in fact sending my children to battle every morning without their armor.  That one was easily fixed.  We have started family prayer before the boys march off to school every morning.  But the second thing I felt I needed to teach our boys the strength that comes through prayer.  I talked with Don about how to do this.  He suggested that when the boys come to me with a problem I tell them to pray about it.  Simple enough.
Only a day or so later Jaron came to me because Smally, his very small bear, was lost.  Here it was the moment we had been waiting for.  I told Jaron that he should pray to Heavenly Father to help him find his bear.  He was a little nervous to do it himself so I prayed.  After, I told him to just sit still a minute and wait for an answer.  I was saying a little prayer that it would work, because I knew this was a crucial moment for Jaron. Would Heavenly Father answer his prayer? I explained that answers usually come to my mind in forms of pictures, showing me where the thing is I need to find.  He said, "No Mom, he is telling my heart."  I told him that is great and asked where his heart said it was.  He shrugged as if it was still a question and replied, "Under the bed?" I said if that is where he said it was we should look there.  So we pulled things out and looked.  Sure enough THERE IT WAS!! We then thanked Heavenly Father for helping us. The other boys were there and witnessed our little family miracle.  I could tell they were just impressed with Heavenly Father as Jaron was.
This is a great story in and of itself. But a few days later Don and I left the kids with his sister Stacie.  When we came back she had a cute story.  The remote to the TV was lost and we all know how important the remote is. The boys suggested that they pray to find the remote because it had worked to find Smally.  So Bryson knelt and prayed and then listened.  Sure enough he found it.
So friends I testify that God hears and answers prayers.  Even those of little boys looking for stuffed animals or remotes.
 

Eldon Breaks His Arm . . . Again

On October 3rd I took the kids out to the park right by our apartment to give Don some quiet time.  He has been sick in the night. We were there only a few minutes.  Eldon was standing at the top of the slide and preparing to slid down on his feet, which he knows he shouldn't do and now he knows why.  He called out, "Look Mom," kind of giggling because he knew he was about to do something he shouldn't.  I looked down in defeat and missed the actual fall but in that split second I think that the following occurred. The slide was a little wet and he slipped and fell back on the slide.  He caught himself with his right arm.  I looked up and he was crying.  I immediately knew something was broken.  I quickly gathered the scooter he had rode to the park and asked him to walk home.  He did.  Landon however would not.  So I left Landon there and got Kayla (who I happened to just carry this time) and Eldon home.  I left Eldon home and literally ran back to get Landon, I figured I could get a little work out in for the day. When I got home I wasn't sure if it was broken or not.  He was pail and whimpering but not crying loud.  I woke up Don, poor Don who was suppose to be resting because he was sick. But I am grateful he was there.  Don can always do anything, I swear he has super human powers.  But that's another story. 
We decided to just watch a movie and see if it passed.  Movies make anything better.  And for the time it was completely still and he felt better, but as soon as he started moving it started hurting.  Don also was just gently pressing on his arm and that was very painful for Eldon.  He could move it just fine.  His grip strength was also weaker with the right hand. So I called the doctor to figure out if we should go in and then where we should go. We went to the KidCare/InstaCare in Bountiful. The whole time Eldon was trying to tell us he was fine and didn't need to go. Once we were there even he was very concerned about what was going to happen.  I told him we would take one step at a time.  I assured him that he was in charge of his body and I would tell him everything that was going to happen. 
They were really great there.  I let the nurse know that he was a little scared of doctors since the last time he went they asked him to sit on the table and then proceeded to cut him without the numbing stuff having worked, again another story.  But they were super awesome and got his arm taken care of.  The X-Ray clearly showed a buckle fracture on the large bone just above his wrist on the right arm. After the X-Ray was the toughest part since now it was time to splint his arm.  He was worried they were going to hurt him/cut him. He let them do it though and got a Slurpee after to make it all better. Here's to hoping that this experience eased his fear of doctors.
Our awesome Eldon didn't even take and medication, because he won't, but he has done good.  The day after was the worst, pain wise.  But we made it without any tears.
Eldon got his cast on on the 6th.  He did awesome.  He chose purple because he was Donatello for Halloween and wanted it to match.
It did so great with the whole thing and we got his cast off on the 3rd of November.  All is well with his arm.

Bryson is 7

I really can't believe Bryson is 7.  For some reason I expect Jaron to keep getting older but not the others kids.
Bryson chose to have a quit birthday.  We bought a new Wii game that he could play as much as he wanted on his birthday.  He took treats to school and had a great day there.  We went to McDonalds for dinner and then ate cake and opened presents.  He asked for his own set of Lego's so we got him Ninja Turtle Lego's so that they were easy to tell apart from all of Jaron's City Lego's.  This stayed with the theme of the cake too.  I used the modeling chocolate left from Eldon's cake and made Ninja Turtles.  They were super awesome if I say so myself. He also wanted brownie and cookie for his cake.  So it all around was a really good cake I thought.

Bryson is almost 4'3" his favorite things are:
Food ~ Taco Soup
Color ~ Red
Song ~ "I'm Coming Home"- Skylar Grey, because he likes her voice
Subject ~ P.E.
Things he likes ~ recess, Wii, build Lego's, play with action figures, play with friends

What a fun and unique kid he is.  He sure like to try to do new things and be funny. 

September 2014

So I am really quit sure that September was only a week long. We have all really gotten into the grove of school time.  Jaron gave his first of many reports in class.  They will monthly do a report on either a current event or a book.  He did great! 
Bryson had a field trip to a farm.  Bryson also is making great reading progress as HE has to read 20-30 minutes every week night. 
Eldon also is reading every day too.  Not quite a long as brothers but Eldon is the one that brings me a book every night so he can read to me.  I don't even have to ask him.  He is really determined to be as good as brothers at things.
Landon is sure a crazy kid running all over and doing great with his letter and kindergarten concepts that I am working on with Eldon.
Kayla is eating lots and moving more and more every day.  She sat up on her own around Eldon's birthday, although this isn't something she does on a consistent basis yet.
Don is working as hard as he possibly can and still doing a great job of being an awesome husband and father.  He did have to redo some management training since they have a new management program.  He was able to get that all done.
I am just loving my family and trying my best to keep everything organized and everyone fed.  But Don really has to even help with that a lot ; ) I was called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency.  That isn't as much work as I originally thought it would be so it is fitting in nicely to our family life.

Till next month!