Helping the Blind to See

Anthony and I noticed that one of Peter's eyes was crossing and that he was blinking a lot more then normal! So we decided to take him to the doctor and we discovered that he is very, very farsighted! So we precieved to pick out some frames and get lens for him. He is so excited about his new glasses and loves to show them off to anyone. The doctor told us that his sight could improve as he gets older and that if we wanted to we could put in him contacts! Crazy! I couldn't imagine putting contacts in a three year old! Ne ways.. he absolutely loves his glasses and can see so much better! He is constantly pointing at things to us that we are guessing he never saw before!

FHE at the Park!

This Monday we spent part of our FHE at the nature park playground. The boys had a blast! They have some great toys there.

Andrew hated the slides though! He usually has no fear but lately he has been terrified of new experiences! I love this picture of Andrew! It totally shows his mischievous side!
There was a digger there but Peter's legs were quite not long enough. So Anthony stepped in to help him! We had a lot of fun!

Anthony even had to get into the action! He's just a big kid at heart!

Swing Time!

As part of our making our home ours, we decided to buy a swingset for the boys and other kids that come over to play on! We also have bought a lawn mower, a shovel, a rack, a hoe, two garden hoses, and I'm sure much more. It amazes us how much stuff is "required" to have when you have a house. Back to the swing set... Anthony had to work on another project (trying to fix the Geo Metro, that has been broke down since the beginning of March) so I "recruited" my brother James to help us put it together. The boys kept asking when he was going to be done, and he was so patient! Peter was so excited about his swingset! He just couldn't wait for it to be done. It took us about five and half hours to put it all together. CRAZY!!! By the time that we were done, I didn't know up from down or right from left! It was INSANE!!! But it has been so worth it! The boys love to go outside and play on it! Peter has gotten to be really good at doing the "horsie" (see-saw swing)! Anthony did make it at the end to help put the final touches on it! That's who took the picture!

Help Others Bump into the Church Online

At our graduation commencement Elder Ballard talked about spreading the word about the LDS Church through the Internet. He mentioned that there are people that the missionaries can't get to easily like those who live in closed neighborhoods. He said something to the effect that there is no easier way for someone to bump into the church than on the Internet. Read about his address.

He counseled us to get out and participate in the discussions about the church online -- like on news websites.

My Thoughts and Invitation

One thought I have (this is Anthony) is that while we may not have time to be actively participate in discussions online about the church, one thing we could do is make it easier for people to bump into the church through our blogs. (A note on that: Since probably most everyone who reads our family blogs is probably LDS, you might think about promoting the church through your "non-family" blogs (if any) because you are probably more likely to get visitors who are not members of the church to those ones. But I'm not saying not to promote the church on our family blogs either.)

On our family blog and my TipsForTheTaking blog I have posted a feedreader that shows the latest news from the church on the side of the page.

Here are a few resources I have found that might help other people "bump into the church" through blogs:

News Feed Widgets:

These can be posted on your blog to show headlines from the official LDS Newsroom:

• LDS NewsRoom Widget
• RSS Scroller Widget (Just put http://newsroom.lds.org/ for the RSS feed URL)

Icons relating to LDS or Mormons:

The thought here is maybe icons could be placed on the side of blogs and link them to LDS.org or Mormon.org.

• http://www.iconator.com/tags.php?tag=mormon
• http://www.iconator.com/icon.php?IconID=467046
• http://community.livejournal.com/lds_icons/

Other

• Other LDS things on WidgetBox

Articles you might enjoy

• LDS Web Guy's Article about Elder Ballard's Address at BYU-Idaho
  
• LDS News Article about Elder Ballard's similar address at BYU-Hawaii
  
• Quinton L. Cook's Appeal to the Media

Any Ideas?

If anyone knows of any other LDS-related widgets or graphics or something that can help other people bump into the church online, please post them.

Also any and all thoughts are welcome!

Donating to Myanmar Distaster Fund

In case anyone is interested, here is a link to the LDS.org donation site where you can donate to help out with the Myanmar disaster. Also, you can read this article about how the LDS church is responding to it.

My Boys!

Here some pictures of Anthony and the boys while they were watching a bunny in the neighbor's yard. The boys love Anthony so much and he is such a good dad to them! He has far more patience with them then I ever do and is always more willingly to attempt to explain things to the boys instead of, like me, just try to get them to stop whatever they are doing. Anthony teaches me each day how to be a better parent and what love is all about. Thanks for being a wonderful dad and example to me!

Fun in the Sun!

After eating a wonderful dinner and conversing for a while, we decided to go over Grandma Monsons to enjoy some more of the wonderful sunshine! My parents had bought a scooter toy at the DI for the boys and we all laughed at their delight of cruising down the driveway and then pushing it back up to the top and then going down again! Andrew was our only causality when he biffed it running after Peter down the hill. You can it see him falling in the picture of Peter. He skinned his face a little and cried a lot!




Everyone got into the action when a old wheelchair was pulled out for grown-up fun!



Anthony thrilled us all by popping wheelies and Aunt Rachal gave rides to Andrew while he wanted his turn on the "lion" as the boys called.

It's a BEAR!

After Stake Conference on Sunday, we decided to make a trip down to Firth to see Grandma Monson (Grandpa Monson was at work and then in meetings!) It was great to get out for a while and to send time with my family. The weather was so nice! FINALLY! We had a barbecue and just had fun talking to each other. Dinner was over at the Womacks house (family friends) and Peter and Andrew enjoyed playing with Grandma Shawna and Grandpa DeRay. The biggest entertainment for the boys was the bear! Andrew was actually brave enough to try and pet the "Bear" while Peter sought sanctuary on Grandma's lap.



Okay, so the "Bear" is really a dog, but that is her name and now my boys are totally missed up about whether she was really a bear or a dog. It was great seeing how the boys different personalities stood out with reference to the dog. Andrew was more adventurous and willingly to pet the dog and to even be near it. Peter on the other hand was more cautious and won't even get near the dog to attempt to pet it. We have thought about getting a dog now that we have a yard to keep one in but Anthony doesn't want to clean up after it (pooper scooper) and I worry about being too scary for Peter to handle. I know I need to stop coddling them on this and just do it so that they can learn to love animals. Ne ways... this has been a long discussion in our house lately!

Duck Pond

Now that we live closer to the duck pond, Anthony and I decided one day to take a bike ride down to the nature park to look at the ducks with the boys. It was a lot of fun to ride around the park and the boys had fun looking at the ducks. They weren't very hungry but it was still fun to try and feed them.