Awesome!!!!!

Yes...I am awesome....and extremely humble, BUT that's another story.

Last night had to be the best FHE (Family Home Evening) that we've had in a long time. The success of the lesson caused me to reflect on one of my favorite conference talks by Elder Bednar:
 http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/watching-with-all-perseverance?lang=eng

Sunday afternoon as I left a home teaching visit, a family member of the home I was visiting passed me while I was on my way out...it was her father. He, being blind, was led by his teenage son. The next day, while outside, some dust got in my eye and as I struggled with trying to remove the dust I thought of that father and how lucky I am that I have my sight. As my eyes cleared, I looked up to see a beautiful blue sky with clouds scattered about and began to think about all of the beautiful things that my eyes were meant to see. That is when I got the idea for my awesome lesson.

There have been many a lesson that have failed (in my opinion) because they were too regimented or planned out but this time I thought I would try something different. First, we talked about the fact that the Lord created our bodies and their various parts for reasons. (Obviously because I have two young and silly boys....certain body parts were left out of the discussion.) We then talked about things that our specific body parts were not created for and ended with what useful things the Lord wants us to do with our body parts. Well I noticed a pattern in their answers with the DO NOT list which mostly involved kicking and punching etc...but I was so happy with the DO list especially when it came down to the final appendage which I saved to the end....our hands. Priesthood ordination, blessings, praying the "hands" list was by far the longest....finally we talked about the Savior and the things he did with his hands - the boys were so into the lesson it was AWESOME!  It helped them and myself to realize that even though there is so much out there for us to access or participate in....we were made for good.

So that's about it for tonight....the dirty dishes are calling. I'll end with a question/quote from Jaiden earlier this week:

"Dad....so when we get married in the temple...do we just go in and choose a girl?"

If only it was that simple.

Free????.......Blah!

This is for those of you who like to get free stuff.       

Denny's ( yep I said Denny's) offers a free meal on your birthday....and I like free stuff....and I live near 5 Denny's.....do you see where this is going? So yesterday was my birthday and the boys and I did the circuit and brought home a bunch of Denny's. One location made us dine in....and the manager was a total Richard...but the other locations' managers were all very pleasant. There is one drawback in that the free meal is a Grandslam breakfast = lots of grease. The dine in tasted pretty good and the boys enjoyed it because the last time they were there was when they were 5 and 7...they really enjoyed the 4 different refillable juice cocktails. Unfortunately the experience was all downhill after that. We got home, reheated our grub but didn't finish most of it. So my B-Day dinner = blah! But it was free blah so all is good.

I did get 51 packages delivered to our place earlier yesterday. Our shipment finally made it from Korea....no more camping out on the floor YAY! To be honest I will miss our nightly campouts but it's nice to have our beds here...and our summer clothes...and our hockey gear ETC!

So my long week-end will be full of unpacking but I'm sure we'll fit in some swimming, sports and other fun stuff! Hope everyone else has a safe and happy long week-end!

ENJOY!!!!

Same Old

Well I thought that I would have a lot of fun, interesting and cute stories to write about here in our new home....but honestly.....it's pretty much hum drum same old stuff day in and day out.

The boys are busy with afterschool programs and soccer 5 days a  week (Jaiden scored 4 goals his first game and Jordan scored his first tonight). They also have scouts and then the week end starts. Last week-end was jam packed...went by the church to help clean, then to a TV audition, then came home for a Saturday house cleaning, then off to public swimming, next was shooting some hoops at the nearby highschool followed by a movie (Hop) then home for dinner. Yep that was a busy day for sure
Sunday was fun. After church and lunch we took our neighbour Brian with us for our regular nature hike at Nose Hill Park. It's a huge park (one of the largest municiple parks in N. America) and has a ton of wild life.

On our previous visit we failed to get close to any deer but we were determined to find some this time around. Unlike most of the parks visitors, who stay on the pathways, we ventured into the woods and it wasn't long until we picked up on their trail. After about 10 minutes we spotted them and had fun trying to surround them. At one point we were about 20 feet away. So that was fun but it wasn't the highlight. On our way out of the park we noticed a dog up ahead had discovered something just off the path....it looked like a porcupine but we weren't sure. After making sure it was dead we turned it over and then examined it before pulling out a few of its quills as souvenirs. So it was a pretty interesting hike.

Jordan with deer-way in the background.

With the porcupine.

Cheeese!!!

Awwwww...so cute!

Peek-a boo!

Our explorers!

We concluded our week-end by volunteering at an English class that the Chinese speaking Elders run on Sunday nights.

So, that is about it...I'm too exhausted to be funny or cute (well actually I don't really have to try on that one:)
I did want to say how lucky I am to have such good boys. I volunteered in Canada's national election this past week and the boys came with me to our candidate's headquarters to await the results. They were so well behaved. My Jordan is such a people person...I seriously don't know where he gets it. Whether it's on a hike or in a room full of rowdy campaign supporters....he always makes it a point to say hello to everyone. Jaiden is doing a pretty good job of helping out around the house, lucky guy gets to go on a teepee campout at the foot of the Rockies next week for 4 days.

Sorry that this post is a bit lame....I'll try and stir up some excitement for the next one.