A Vast Capacity for Love

{image source}

"We are created in the image of our heavenly parents; we are God's spirit children. Therefore, we have a vast capacity for love—it is part of our spiritual heritage. What and how we love not only defines us as individuals; it also defines us as a church. Love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ." 

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Friday Night = Date Night

For as long as we've been married, Isaac and I have tried to have a "date night" once a week. That used to mean going out somewhere cheap--the dollar theater, or maybe Burger King [yeah, we're fancy]. But when Isaac was unemployed, we went from "cheap dates" to "free dates".

Sometimes we go out for some free fun, but usually we stay home with a DVD from the library. Sometimes I'll make some kind of treat, too. Last Friday night, Isaac decided that he wanted to bake some date-night food. He told me he was making blondies, and asked if I wanted chocolate chips in them--um, yes! So this is what came out of the oven:

[It says, "I  <3 toots="" u="">

Aww. Yay for staying home on date night!

[Since I'm pretty sure Burger King doesn't make blondies with chocolate-chip messages on request.]

I'm Too Little

Little Boy, age 18 months 

Little Boy's latest thing is to say, "I'm too little" when he doesn't want to do something. "No, Mommy. I'm too little." It's cute sometimes. But he still doesn't get away with it.

Because no, Little Boy, you're not too little to say "thank you." You've been saying "thank you" since you were 18 months old.

Little Boy's Favorite Christmas Present

...is this:

 
 His very own set of Lincoln Logs. That's Isaac's hairy arm in the shot--I'm a Lincoln Logs dunce (and my arm's not that hairy).

It's always been hard for me to picture things in 3D in my head. I just can't visualize a little log cabin easily enough to build it out of all those little parts.

But that's a good thing, because now Lincoln Logs are Little Boy and Isaac's thing. It's something for just the two of them to do together. And they do--they build little log buildings almost every evening when Isaac gets home from work.

Your Light

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

-Matthew 5:16 {image source}

My Baby-est Brother

It's my youngest brother's birthday today. I post more about my other siblings than about Blake, so I thought I'd introduce y'all. Here's Blake through the ages [sorta]:

 
This is the oldest picture I have of Blake. I stole it from my grandma [I'm pretty sure she had a double]. This is probably about...1991? Playing in my grandma's front yard.

 
He skateboards [this is from around 2002]. At least, he did. I'm pretty sure he still does. I think. Maybe.

 
And he snowboards [also from 2002]. Dad and Thane ski/snowboard, too. The girls...don't.

 
He's super cute with Little Boy [2007]. Little Boy calls him "Batey".

 
Like any sibling, he can be a stinker [2007]. But most of the time...


...he's a sweetheart. [Senior pic].

 
Did I mention that he drums? Oh. Well, he does. [This is the worst-quality video ever; I apologize.] He's playing Isaac's brother's drum set--I assure you that Blake drums much more loudly on his own, bigger set. Haha.

 
This is our most recent family picture--well, our most recent sibling picture. From left: Thane, Blake, Little Boy, me, and Kaylyn, with Isaac down below. You can kinda see in this picture that Blake and I look more like each other than like our other siblings [2009].

 
And this one's from Christmas Eve. Yeah, he's a little silly. But that's why we like him. 

So, there ya go. That's my mysterious, seldom-blogged-about little brother. Happy birthday, Batey!

One of Those Small Moments That Everyone Always Talks About

Hey, mothers--you know those moments when your kid makes you so happy and so sad at the same time?

I had one of those moments the other day. I was running errands, and Isaac was at home with Little Boy. When I got home, Little Boy was in his bed--it was naptime--crying. No big deal, usually, but we were about to leave for my parents' house, so I went to get him from his room.

 Now usually, if Isaac or I came home and asked Little Boy, "Did you miss me?", he would say yes--he would never say "I missed you" on his own. But on that day, when I went into his bedroom to get him ready to go, the first thing he said to me was: "Because I missed you so much!" [He doesn't really have a firm grasp on what 'because' means, either.]

 

And then my heart broke a little, because he'd missed me. But my heart sang a little, too, because he'd been able to articulate his feelings. And also because...what mother doesn't melt when their baby loves them?

The Best Tip EVER.

...just kidding. I had a really awesome tip in mind for Tip Tuesday this week. But I forgot what it was. So since my bloggy plans have been thwarted by my own bad memory, let's all enjoy a photo instead.

This is my brother, who moved home from BYU in December, with Little Boy:
 

Cute, huh? There's no way you can tell this from the picture, but I'm pretty sure this was the first time Little Boy said more than two words to Thane--and Thane had been home for at least a week. Silly kid.

A SunBEAM! A SunBEAM!

 Little Boy is a brand-new Sunbeam this year [Sunbeams is the Sunday School class for three- to four-year-olds].

And guess who the new Sunbeam teacher is!

Yeah, me. It's pretty fun, actually. I team-teach with another sister from the ward, and we have a small class [small as in "few in number," not small as in "very short"...because that goes without saying]. So we get to spend 40 minutes or so singing songs with them, and playing games, and coloring, and learning about Jesus. Good times.

And, if you don't know the Sunbeam song, here's a really cute version:
[disclaimer: I don't know these people.]

Who We Really Are Becoming

“The Lord knows who we really are, what we really think, what we really do, and who we really are becoming.” -David A. Bednar

A New Year--Time Flies

Being New Year's, I've been thinking about the last year. And that always makes me think of the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that...

 
This is Little Boy and Isaac around the time of Little Boy's first New Year.

 
And this is Little Boy and Isaac when we decorated our Christmas tree this year [I would've put up a photo from this New Year's, but as usual, I don't have any pictures uploaded that are less than two weeks old. And...I'm too lazy to upload any right now. Heh.].

 Don't Isaac and Little Boy both look so different? *sigh*...