I want to be a missionary now

Everyday that Seth comes home from preschool, I ask him what he did that day. He can't usually tell me much of anything during the car ride home, but later in the day and sometimes days later, he'll mention something about preschool. He has been talking about "Danny", a boy that he says is "bad", but he doesn't ever give me any specifics about what Danny does that makes him bad. So I don't really press the issue. I just tell him to be nice to Danny but to not do the bad things that he (Danny) does. So yesterday, Seth says to me, "I decided I needed to share the gospel with Danny." The thoughts running through my head were, "Oh, no! What did he say? And at preschool of all places?" Here is how our conversation went-

Seth: I was teaching Danny about Heavenly Father and Jesus.

Me: Really? What did you teach him?

Seth: Well, I was teaching him how Jesus died for us.

Me: Wow! What else did you teach him?

Seth: Well, he thinks heaven is far away in the sky. But I told him that when you pray heaven can be close around you. But he still thinks that heaven is far away in the sky. Next time I go to school I have to teach him some more.

Me: What are you going to teach him?

Seth: I'll find out.

"Yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things..."

Oh, that we all could be so bold. I have never done anything like this.

my boys

My two baby boys, Jonas on the left and Seth below. Two pictures taken at almost the exact same age in the exact same outfit. Resemblance? You be the judge. Seth's ears stick out farther, then and now. Jonas is more drooly. Seth has more hair, etc. Brothers.

Jonas is seriously on the move. He is really close to actual crawling, with his tummy up off of the floor. Which I am so happy about because right now he's like a little dust mop dragging his chest all over the floors of my house. Gross.

Seth has been in preschool for 3 weeks now. He seems to like it a lot. Although, most days he comes home and says "I got into a little bit of trouble today." It worried me the first few times, but when he explains his version of what happened, it seems to me that his teacher just has to keep reminding him to pay attention and follow directions which is what I do all day long. So I'm glad that he's getting practice to work on those important skills.

This is his (and Maryn's, by default) favorite show at the moment. For all you moms of four-year-olds out there, you need to check it out. It's way cute. It focuses on learning about letters, problem-solving, and how to read using fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Seth has known his letters for a while, but he is really interested in learning how to put them together to make words.

I love my boys!

I can't seem to keep on top of this...

I can't believe it has almost been a week again and I still haven't found the time to blog about anything. I have been having a good time keeping up with all of my friends' blogs, but can't seem to find the time to write anything on mine.
So here is something I have been thinking about recently - church marquees. We don't quite live in the "Bible Belt", I think we're a little bit too far north. But there are more different kinds of churches in my new hometown than I have seen while living in the West: Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, just to name a few. There is literally a church on almost every corner. Most of them have marquees displaying some sort of phrase meant to either uplift or chastise, usually in rhyming form. I always chuckle when I drive by and see a new one. For the life of me, I can't remember any of the funniest examples right now. Lucky for me, my brother is currently serving a mission in Oklahoma, just a few states over. He wrote a few examples of this in a letter to our family this week. I'm going to share them here because they are representative of what I see in my city.
"Stop drop and roll won't work in hell"
"Be ye fishers of men: you catch em, He'll clean em"
"What are your eternal reservations: smoking or nonsmoking?"
"Forbidden fruits create strange jams"
We drive by one particular church on our way to church every Sunday. This past week the marquee read "Does my creed show in my deed?" After I smirked at the rhyming, I really thought about what it was saying. Basically it poses the question, do you have integrity - are your actions consistent with your beliefs? Profound, even for a church marquee.

ketchup...no, I mean catch-up

Thank you to all who have continued to check my blog even though I haven't posted anything in a week. Time has flown and a lot of things have happened. I will attempt to give you the short version of the highlights (in random order):

~ Jonas has mastered the "army crawl" using his elbows and feet (not his face anymore!). He's still not very fast, which is good because I still don't have any safety gates for my stairs.

~We had our first house guests, my good friend Mindy and her baby Mayzie.

(I managed to not get a picture of Mindy, but here's Mayzie and Jonas.)

~ I purchased a new toy and have started an at-home exercise regimen with surprisingly great success so far! (And, no-I didn't pay that much for it!)

~ Seth started preschool. He goes for 2 hours, 45 minutes three days per week. He loves it, Maryn hates it. She cries whenever we drop him off and asks me when she gets to go to her preschool. I would do something special with her at home, but he is gone during her nap time, so she's sleeping.

~ I have been consignment and garage sale shopping like crazy. I have found some awesome deals that I'm pretty proud of and have splurged on some things that may prove not to be worth it. But that's the fun of it. My favorite purchase is these sneakers I bought for Maryn.

She absolutely loves them! She calls them her Care Bear shoes because of the hearts, I guess. I wish I had some to match.

~ I have started a new craft project. It's something I've never done and I'm really excited about it. I hope I can pull it off. Thanks to Mindy for the inspiration and advice. I will post pictures of my progress.

~ One last funny note, tonight we went to a grand opening of a restaurant here in town. There was a clown there painting faces and making balloon animals, etc. She was standing outside right by the front door as we entered. Seth was petrified and didn't want to walk anywhere near her. I have heard that kids can be afraid of clowns sometimes, but I was still really surprised at his reaction. I don't have any idea where this fear came from, I can't remember the last time he saw a clown in person. Anyway, after watching her out the window while we ate, Seth decided that he did want a balloon animal and his face painted. Hopefully his fear was cured. Here's what we came home with:

hit the road, Jonas

This evening while reading stories to the kids I looked over at Jonas and-in shock-realized that he was scooting along the floor! He was dead set on getting his hands on Maryn's sippy cup (since he's getting better at knowing how to use one). Seriously, it seems like he just barely learned how to sit up! Maybe this type of mobility is normal for six-month-olds, but I was still shocked. And now I'm so nervous about the fact that I don't have any baby gates for my two staircases!
We wanted some quick documentation, but our digital camera is really lame and doesn't take videos with sound. (We're still in the silent film era as you can see.) So, Jon added music to make it more fun to watch.

sometimes he surprises me

In the franticness that is the few minutes after church when the hallways are full and everyone is trying to locate all their family members, a friend of mine said to me "Seth said the funniest thing in Primary today, remind me to tell you about it". That was two weeks ago. I have been a little nervous (and curious) about it because you never know what your kids are going to say about what goes on in your home when they're in public. Today I cornered my friend at our ward party and asked her about it. Needless to say, I was surprised by what she told me he said...mind you, he has never said anything like this to me at home.

The teacher was talking about service and asking the children if they help their parents at home. Seth said:

"I always help my mom around the house."

"Really Seth? That's great, your mom is lucky to have a child like you who is such a good helper."

"No, I'm lucky to have her for my mom."