Father's Day

Last week, Jack was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting today.  We agreed, but I was nervous that it wouldn't go well, considering how much Jack enjoys getting a laugh whenever possible.  We had a chat and put a talk together.  Most of the words were his, though I helped elicit his thoughts and I organized everything.

Jack wasn't nervous at all about speaking.  He was the second of two Primary speakers right after the Sacrament, and during the Sacrament he began asking me to go to the bathroom.  I thought he might just be looking for an excuse to go sit in the congregation, but even if he wasn't, I knew there wouldn't be time for him to go to the bathroom and come back in time to speak.  So.  He had to hold it.  At the end of the Sacrament he even made a run for it, but someone else on the stand stopped him for me.  In the end, he was sitting and ready when it was his turn, and the talk went very well.  He did try to end the talk about halfway through, but we recovered.  Then when he was finished he didn't just say "amen." He said "AYY-MEEEN!!"  And he got his laugh.

The words of the talk are written below, and you can follow along as you watch a little video I made for Ben using one of Jack's practice sessions this morning.  The video uses pictures from the last several months.

"I love my Daddy.  I like how he plays with me.  And we play cars and trucks and trains and semi's and house.  I like to watch movies with Daddy.  And I like wrestling and tickling and being silly with Daddy.  Jibberish.

"Daddies are important because they have a very special love.  It's special and it lasts forever and ever.  Dads are also important because they like playing with kids.

"I'd like to be a Daddy when I grow big.  Heavenly Father wants me to have a family.  And one day, I want to be a good Dad, just like my Daddy."

Ben, you are a wonderful Father.  Thank you for all that you do.

We love you.  Happy Father's Day!

UPDATE: In case you want to know more about how I made the video: I used my phone to make a voice recording, then I downloaded that file on to my computer.  I then converted the file to an mp3 using this site.  I made the movie presentation using Picasa and selected my newly created vocal-recording-mp3 file as the audio recording.

Glimpses

In lieu of a typical post with lots of pictures and commentary, which require a considerable amount of time at the computer...

Eliza has always loved shoes but she's taken her love to new heights lately, wanting to sleep in shoes during her nap.  But the other night she saw a pair of Cat's old tennis shoes I'd gotten out when I was sorting through clothes and such, and she decided to sleep in those.

Last night Jack was having a blast falling down over and over again in the living room, while I was sitting on the couch feeding the baby.  I must not have been giving him the accolades he expected because he finally stopped and said, "Didn't you see me fall?" and before I could respond, he took a bow.

The kids watched "Annie" earlier this week.  This morning we'd planned to take the kids somewhere fun for a family activity, and when Ben told them they needed to get dressed, they went downstairs and we soon heard them belting, "It's a hard knock life.  For us."  Cat led the singing, of course.  We might not make it to that family activity...