Fun Family Home Evening

This evening it was my turn to say the prayer before dinner. I began my prayer by praising God and saying, "Our dear, kind, merciful, loving, forgiving, wonderful Father in Heaven...." Then went on to give thanks for everything I could think of, including the fact that he had blessed me with so much talent, such good looks, such an amazing home- which was far better than any of the neighbors, etc. I thanked him for the delicious dinner in front of us and for the amazing cook that I was for making it. I even thanked him for the fact that he loved our family more than any other family because after all, we were the chosen ones and while our neighbors were nice, they weren't part of us so they weren't nearly as good. At this point I almost lost it because it just so happened that Tyler Stetka, our neighbor and Aiden's best friend was having dinner with us. The prayer went on and on until Dallas finally said, "The food is getting cold!"

By the end, all the kids had tears in their eyes laughing so hard and Tyler was offended because he claimed I had insulted his mother. This of course was all in his mind because all I was doing was giving thanks for my wonderful talents (which just happened to be better than my neighbor's).

After dinner Amanda gave a lesson from two different stories- one from the Bible and one from the Book of Mormon. First, she read from Mark who quoted Jesus as telling his disciples to pray secretly without vain repetition and to be humble in their prayers. Then she talked about the rameumptom in the Book of Mormon and how people would get up there to thank God for blessing them so much more than other people. She reminded us of things we should say and shouldn't say, good and not so good ways to ask for things, and reminded us that God hears every prayer but may not answer in the way we expect him to.

Throughout the entire lesson all the kids were giving their imput and everyone was kind to one another. But what really made me think we had actually gotten through to the kids was when Aspen (Yes, Aspen!) chose the closing song and he chose a song about what? PRAYER!! He chose to sing "A Child's Prayer". Our harmony was off and the boys came in at the wrong time but I honestly felt that for one moment in our little home, in our small part of the world, everything was alright and that our children were "getting it". Our dinner prayer was a bit sacreligious but I know years from now our kids will think of it every time they read those two stories in the scriptures and will remember the fun memories we made tonight.

Side note about the pictures:

It was Ash's turn to chose the treat for FHE and he decided he wanted gingerbread houses. I copped out and bought graham crackers and valentine candy instead of spending hours cooking the gingerbread. Slacker mom, I know. Anyway, here are photos of our Cupid Houses.