Parenting Payoff

Do you ever have those times when you wonder if your kids are listening to anything you are saying? I often feel this way during family night when I'm giving the lesson. Hyrum's two-year-old attention span is only about 2 minutes. During that whole two-minute segment of time it seems as if all he is concerned about is the "home evening treat" at the end. On monday night we went through our usual routine for family night and, as usual, during the lesson I didn't think that Hyrum was listening at all. Well this morning he proved me wrong. I was sitting at the kitchen table reading my scriptures while Hyrum ate breakfast when the following conversation ocurred.

Hyrum: "Mommy, what you reading about?"
Me: "I'm reading in the Book of Mormon about Jesus when he came to visit the Nephites in America. Do you remember our family home evening lesson when we talked about Jesus coming to visit the children. He blessed them and prayed with them?"
Hyrum: "And angels came down!"
Me: "Yes, and angels came down to be with them."
Hyrum: "They were yellow."
Me: "You're right, in the book they looked yellow, but angels wear white like we do in the temple."
Hyrum: "oh!"

I could hardly believe it when Hyrum talked about the angles. During our family home evening lesson we were reading from the children's scripture stories about Christ blessing the children and I read one sentance about angels coming down. I didn't pause to talk about it or wait for Hyrum to make a comment, I just kept on reading. At the end we re-emphasized a couple of points from the story, but never once did I mention the angels again. That means that Hyrum was actually listening the whole time! This was just one moment of many when I stop and say to myself, "I LOVE BEING A MOM!"

Summer Vacation

Here's our summer vacation in a nutshell...

Beautiful Redfish Lake surrounded by the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho

Family photo at the lake...smile!

We didn't get too far with Hyrum paddling, but he sure had fun helping.

He even got to watch Daddy catch 2 fish while out in the canoe.

William was a trooper to wear the life jacket the whole time.

I bought this wet suit for Hyrum 50% off at Savers (that made it about $3) knowing that the water at Redfish Lake would be really cold. It sure was cute on him, but it didn't help with getting him in the water. He barely even got his feet wet. Oh well, he still enjoyed throwing rocks, twigs, sand, shoes, hats (anything he could get his hands on) into the water.

Yummy food...

Sound sleeping (at least for Hyrum, maybe not the rest of us with William cutting his 1st tooth)...

And lots of time for playing!

We love Redfish Lake!!! There are so many memories for me here. My dad grew up coming to this lake, so naturally he raised us kids with vacations to Redfish Lake, and hopefully now we can continue the tradition by taking our family for years to come.

We hope you are all enjoying your summers!