Yesterday I read Alma 27. Alma the Younger goes about seeking to destroy the Church with the sons of Mosiah. He’s extremely good at this because of his gift with language. Did his parents ever think, “Ugh! He’s opening his mouth again!” or whatever? I wonder if there was ever a point where they could only see his power with words as a detriment. Later, after Alma repented and sought to restore any evil he’d done for the rest of his life, this gift is precisely one that the Lord needed him to have. Not only did Alma clearly articulate the gospel for the people in his own time, but he blessed us with his words. A large chunk of the Book of Mormon we owe to Alma and his gift for writing, communicating, thinking in the way that he did. I’m praying for some paradigm shifts. What do I see as difficulties (even defects?) in myself or our kids that could actually be great gifts? How does the Lord want these abilities or trials used? I have so much to learn.

While driving home from a little play-date Lincoln announced, “I will marry Kyrah!” Levi proudly responded, “And I will marry Hannah! We will be so happy!” So, it’s settled. Good to have those decisions behind us.

Our world has transformed into a soccer field. Everything is a soccer ball. Have you ever played soccer with two bouncy balls on a basketball court? Definitely worth trying.

After the temple yesterday we stopped at Cold Stone. The boys each tried a flavor on the cute tester spoons. Sharing our “Gotta Have It” size ice cream was such a joy for everyone (during Wesley’s “interview” with Levi today, Levi mentioned that his favorite part of all of last month was going to the temple and then getting ice cream on the way home). Levi miraculously fell asleep on the way back to Austin. He awoke wailing, “I want ice cream! I need ice cream!” then fell back asleep. Sometimes our similarities disturb me! He has been sounding out letters, finding words like “not” and “tip.” I love that he loves reading and words. He brims with goofy phrases: “Dad, you’re my biggest fan!” or “This food [vegetable frittata] is really, really yummy!” or “These berries are for you! We can chop them up and boil them and they will smell good to help Keller sleep!” He has transformed part of the toy room into a kitchen where he labors diligently with bowls and measuring cups, then sneaking into the kitchen for a bit of whatever I’m making.

Lincoln wants to know where everyone is. We can’t pray for someone without specifying at least their state, preferably what they are doing at that moment. (This proves difficult for President Monson, but even for our cousins!) He worries about keeping track of everyone, often checking on Levi and Keller then reporting back. We met our friend Eli at story time; Lincoln looked around and asked for him until he arrived. Then he shared my lap with Eli and Keller. I subbed in nursery today. He shared so easily and so well, just going with the flow. Sometimes, he gets this little glint in his expression that says, “I wonder what will happen if…” He loves to pick out reactions. Levi is especially entertaining to him. Good grief. Lincoln throws, hits, and screams in extremely premeditated ways. Levi has chosen biting as his retaliation. No one is really happy about the arrangement. He’s adventurous and likes to test boundaries. We put him in a big box with a toy hammer this week and he “fixed the roof” for a half an hour. He just needs an outlet. Don’t we all!

Keller wants to crawl so much. He swims and shuffles around on the floor. He likes to find something that he can push with his feet. That’s the only time he stops rolling around. The poor boy is probably a bit dusty (I do try to keep up on the floors, really, I do). He took a few decent naps this week, but usually just has too many things to do. Squealing, laughing, shimmying until he has a bald spot on the back of his head. He discovered the bathtub faucet and tries to grab the water. I love when they do this. He likes to hold my hand while he nurses. His hand flails around until he catches my fingers. He doesn’t want to hold onto my shirt or just clench his hand, he wants me right there, squeezing tight. So far, he’s pretty good at figuring out how to get what he wants. These boys arrived bound and determined.

Wesley had a conference in San Antonio on Tuesday. I sent cinnamon rolls with him to share with his colleagues; poor souls don’t have homemade food that often (Wesley: And Cassie’s cinnamon rolls are heavenly, “You want to taste something directly from Heaven?” –name that movie). We shared dinner with the missionaries and had book group on Thursday. We ran around crazy and seemed to see a lot of people and do more than we should have been able to do…and now the week drains into the next. To be completely honest, the boys are quite over-stimulated and I’m not sure how to bring us back into a balance. We’ve learned a lot from sharing our home and lives with others over the last few weeks. Still we struggled to act in the way that we should (especially for introverted and uncompassionate me!). I don’t know if Benjamin and Cheyenne had any benefit from being at our house every day, but I hope they felt the Spirit and I hope they felt loved. Much to reflect on. I’ll leave it there.