Alyssa's 4!

Wow, I cannot believe my Alyssa is 4 years old!!! She's growing up way too fast...but she's promised me that she will never be too big to cuddle with me. We had a fun day yesterday. In the morning Alyssa's cousins Jade and Whitaker came over to play. In the afternoon the three of us (Alyssa, Holly and I) went to Chuck E. Cheeses to play for awhile. After that Alyssa really wanted some cotton candy, so we made a special trip to Walmart to buy her some. Then we had her party. It was fun! We had dinner, opened presents, had a yummy ice cream cake, and then broke a piñata. Almost all of her aunts, uncles, and cousins came (except the ones that live in California), grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, and even her birthparents came and brought their kids. She loved all of her new toys, didn't care so much for the new clothes, and liked the cherry tomatos best for dinner, I think she ate about 20 of them. She had been begging me all week to do the piñata, so I think she had a really great night! Happy birthday Alyssa, I'm so lucky to have you as my little girl!

FHE

I loved Elder Bednar's talk last conference about being "More Diligent and Concerned at Home." He talked about being consistent with family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. He said that in his family, they would often read scriptures amid outbursts like, "He's touching me!" or "Make him stop looking at me." I had to laugh! It made me feel a lot better to know that I'm not the only one wondering if my children get anything from all the effort I'm putting forth to try to create righteous habits. Well, last week we had an FHE lesson on showing love, and by George, I think they got it!!! The next morning as I was changing the sheets on Holly's bed, she came in and started helping me. She then looked at me and said, "mom, I'm showing you love." Then Alyssa stood up on her bed, spread her arms as far as she could and said, "mom, I love you this much, and I love everyone in the world this much too!" It was adorable. A few days later I purchased some new swimsuits and showed them to the girls. One was pink and one was yellow. I let the girls choose which one they wanted. Alyssa instantly said, "I'll let Holly pick which one she wants." Then she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm being kind." My heart melted. They are such sweet little angels...most of the time, and they actually got something out of FHE. I'm on cloud 9!