Friday Forum and Max--A Good Example!

I had to speak at the Friday Forum at UT Tyler yesterday. It's a program where students in Tyler (from the LDSSA group) get together for lunch every Friday and have a speaker too. Evan spoke last week on "Good, Better and Best Choices" in our lives and it was very good. He used grocery products to get his point across so it was very visual too.

I spoke on my "Life Lessons Learned" (the general topic is "What I've Learned")and I used several object lessons and President Hinckley's list of B's from his book,Way to Be, like Be Positive or Be Still or Be Involved to relate my ideas.

Anyway, I used "Max" stories twice! I love the story of Max putting together his puzzle and losing a piece, then saying a little prayer to find that piece. Then lo and behold, he finds the piece under the couch! What a faith-building experience for a child! That was a great example for asking for and receiving answers, to "Be Prayerful."

Then I used the story where Chris and Sarah and family come to Tyler to escape Hurricane Ike and Max walks in the house, we sit down on the couch and immediately Max says "Thank you for the bunk beds!" right out of the blue! We were so shocked but later realized that he had walked past Chris's room where the beds used to be and noticed that they were not there and then remembered that the beds were now in his room. And then I noted that when Max stayed with us, I might ask him if he wanted something and he would say "No, but thank you for asking!" What 2-year old does that? It's truly a mark of good modeling and parenting to raise such a polite little boy. Again, a great example to all of us for President Hinckley's advice to "Be Grateful."

I wanted to show you a cute family picture from our walk to see the turtles (who were on vacation, I think) and some beautiful Tyler Dogwoods and azaleas. Don't you just love this time of year when everything is in bloom? (Even in Vegas there are blooming trees somewhere--right, Katie?)

That Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Birthday

Here are some fun pictures from Max's "Cowboy Birthday!" We had so much fun at the party and so did Max, as you can see! I especially loved the cowboy barbecue dinner we had with such a great table-setting. Good job, y'all. I'll post more pictures later.

dad, you might like this.

Hey dad, I saw this on one of the blogs I like to read. It looks like there are a lot of messages like this. I think you might like this for your non-member friends.

y'all are invited

She swallowwed the ring!

Okay. So I was watching the Today show where they had a story on a guy who planned to propose to his girlfriend after she discovers the ring in her Frosty. Only problem is that she never even noticed the ring in her milkshake. She totally swallowed the ring! I had this funny feeling that they might be LDS and since where they were from or where they were going to get married was never mentioned by Matt Lauer, I went to the Today Show website and found the story on the local Houston station. And yes-- I was right; they are getting married in Utah at the Monticello temple. You somehow just know that those crazy Mormon kids do pretty crazy things.

Here's the link!



http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/29452328#29452328

A "Real Cute" Picture of Cooper?

Once again, we loved watching Max and Cooper while Chris and Sarah went to Utah for Sarah's cousin, Annie's wedding. We had a great time going on walks while Max rode his big wheels,riding the four-wheeler, feeding the horses next door, visiting Grandma Roma, making valentine cookies and cards, and just having fun playing together.

Max loved rummaging around in Chris' closet for new toys and one day he came up with the above picture and said, "Look Nana! I found a picture of Cooper!" "He's real cute!" I had to tell Max that the picture was one of his daddy when he was a little baby, just like Cooper.

Max replied, once again, "He's real cute!"

Another time, we were feeding the white horse next door carrots and we could feel the horse's hot breath on us as we tried to give him the carrots without getting our hands in the horse's mouth. We kept laughing as we continually dropped the carrot because the horse was so anxious for it that we were worried that he might bite our fingers. Max later told his parents that "we gave the horse carrots and the horse smelled me and then I smelled the horse!"