Pictures and FHE

The whole purpose of this post is to share some pictures of the kids and give you a peek into what the children are like right now. Most of the photos are of Paia. She's starting to move from totally baby into something more transitional. She has a temper, gets her feelings hurt, checks her clothes out in the mirror (something I had never witnessed with the two boys), and jumps when she's caught picking a crumb up off the floor. Notice the picture (where I am conveniently axed) showcasing her thunder thighs.

The boys are really great right now. Leif is into learning shows and endangered animals, and Gus is entirely tazmanian devil -- climbing, biting, throwing and looking for hugs while he's in time out (don't worry, Nana, he gets the hugs). If the two boys have to choose a t.v. show together, it will take a good 5 minutes of bickering. Gus hates to agree on anything, and Leif's tastes are too high brow for Gussy's shows.

Tonight during family home evening, I had a flashback to Palmer family nights. Gus jumped off the couch, barely missing Paia. Paia sat crying and clawing at my clothes while I tried to give a 5-minute lesson, snubbing her daddy's attempts to comfort her. There was some bickering here and there. The questions we asked like, "What can we do to take care of our bodies," elicited responses from Leif like "read the scriptures" and "do the right thing" from Gus. Hmm. Are they getting it? At the end of the lesson there was a maze that the boys had to navigate by choosing the paths that represented righteous choices. Each step of the way, it reinforced why they needed to choose the way they went. When they had reached the successful end, Gus said, "Now can we try doing it again only going the other way?" A little "do as I'm doing" distracted this idea. As I jumped "high or low" and "fast or slow" I thought about our FHEs during my childhood -- some of them wonderful, and some that ended with half of us crying and in big trouble.

I'm grateful that our parents perservered in doing this, especially since I remember being quite a bit more obnoxious during these experiences than my own kids currently are...I know, just wait. Regardless, those memories are a source of comfort to me now and I know they bonded us and helped us gain testimonies of important principles. Even during challenging times with my children, I sometimes feel a little giddy, remembering similiar difficult Palmer children times and realizing that I have a real live family of my own that could turn out as wonderfully as the one I grew up in.