More Cake and The Chosen

Yesterday was Daniel's birthday. My mom brought over an ice cream, cake, but we didn't eat it yesterday because I knew Corey wanted to take the kids out to Leatherby's. ...and we shouldn't have two huge servings of ice cream in one day. We did have the ice cream cake today - time for Daniel's birthday cake photo - 

I usually have the "Happy Birthday" on the cake facing me, or in this case, the "Daniel" facing me, but Daniel turned it around the right way, cause this is HIS cake! Ok, now take the picture!

Happy birthday yesterday! You are 4! A few more photos of this weekend - I pushed Daniel and Peter on our sun worn swing and playset yesterday. It was fun, they are cute. 

These kids are the simple and important things in my life. 

Today having breakfast - Three little boys, Peter is ready to say a prayer to thank Jesus for his breakfast.

We went to church today and it was a fast and testimony meeting which was wonderful. Corey shared his testimony with the congregation. After church, I don't know what they were talking about, but Corey and a sister named Debbie were talking and she mentioned the tv series "The Chosen" and how they are using the church's Bible Videos set out in Goshen. It piqued Corey's interest and so today we gave the show another try. My little bro Grant and sister Patrice have been telling us for months that it is soooo good, and we tried episode 1, and none of us really got it and the kids weren't willing to watch another one, so I didn't push it, but I did know that Grant and Trice loved it. At church, Debbie mentioned it is good, but you have to get past episode 2 or 3 before you're hooked. So we gave it a go today, made it past episode 1 and I kinda got who was who from the first time I watched it months ago, and then episode 2 we were like "ok, I get it..." and after 3, we just loved it, so we binge watched the rest of the season tonight - cause after each one, the kids were like "more!" and they loved it so much. Mel had to leave right before the last episode ended (it was 10:15 pm and we were already making our missionary late to bed) so we're going to have to watch that one again next week so Mel can finish it, it was so good! I'm really glad that the Church is working with them now and that they are able to use the set in Goshen! Very cool - Christians coming together and working together! yay!!! They did an excellent job with the Chosen, I love the actor for Jesus, he did such a good job portraying him - like I loved how he just gave a little wink like "it's ok, I get the joke!" when a friend says "Wow, I guess something good can come out of Nazareth!" I think the actor for Peter is very good - I loved the historical fiction of the backstory imagining why a net full of fish would have been an important miracle and an answer to prayer for Peter. Just really cool things that are fun to explore, like also to see some possible reasons why their rule under Rome would have been hard. We love Matthew, and we love Nicodemus. We felt so sorry that Nicodemus didn't choose to go with Jesus, but Jesus loved him and knew it was a hard thing he was asking. It would have been worth it had Nicodemus chosen to follow him, but Jesus gets it. He gets all of us!

I'm grateful for his faith in Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. I love how the Chosen gave us an idea of what a more human Jesus might be like. The kids loved seeing him with his back pack. And I think my favorite scene from the show was when Jesus and the apostles are setting off through a field, on their way to Samaria. Not really knowing where they’re going or why, the apostles — most of whom aren’t yet sure why they’re following this unassuming but inspiring carpenter — become alarmed when they learn they’re headed into foreign territory. As they start to nervously question Jesus’ leadership, he turns around, and says half-smiling, “Listen, if we’re going to have a question-and-answer session every time we do something you’re not used to, it’s going to be a very annoying time together for all of us.” As this article says, I love how all the apostles and Christ are shown as "real" people. "We’re so familiar with the traditional Gospel stories that we tend to forget that simple fact. Jesus had plenty of 'human' moments — moments that didn’t make the history books. He got annoyed. He was frustrated from time to time. He joked around and played games, laughed and cried." I love the new perspective that the Chosen has given me and my family about Christ's character. I love the restored gospel of Jesus Christ so much. He is real, he is resurrected, he was a man, he has a Father! They are separate beings! We can know them! We can become like them! The Bible and the Book of Mormon testify of them! The Book of Mormon, by the way, is the best friend the Bible ever had. It testifies that it is true. It gives us a second witness for Christ and his gospel. It is a marvelous work and we are thankful to be take part in it and enjoy the fruits of it's teachings. We often tell the kids "You'll have to decide for yourself when you are an adult, whether you will believe in Jesus Christ and his prophets or not. But just remember, that without Christ and his chosen latter day prophets, you wouldn't be alive. So if you do decide to leave, atleast remember to show some gratitude for it, cause you owe your life to it." We can honestly say that, because we seriously would not have twelve children if Corey and I had not gone to BYU, where we took a class called "Teachings of the Living Prophets" by Dale LeBaron, and the week after we were married, we had to turn in a research paper on "The Position of the Church on Birth Control". I now see that as divine providence guiding our marriage from the first week into our marriage, what timing! "Live together normally, and let the children come." - President Kimball. God has been so abundantly kind to us - here we are 12 healthy beautiful children later, I'm grateful and confused as to why this is my mission, but I accept it and glory in it. 

So there is my spiritual rant, it's late, I gotta go to bed. A few more pics though - while we were watching the chosen, the kids (Owen and Daniel) escaped to the neighbor's house and were gone for over an hour without us knowing, embarrassing, which is why we usually don't/can't binge watch stuff. Later, Peter was at the table eating yummy peaches. I bought a few flats of peaches, they were a good batch, so juicy, soft, and sweet. Mmm! 

 

And I got a kick out of Peter's attire. He's ready for a quarantine zoom call or office meeting - dressed on top... freestyle on the bottom

(aka just in his diaper). I took off his shoes after church, then his pants were too long and he tripped over them so Wes rescued Peter and took them off. He's such a cute kid. We saw a funny video on facebook recently of a little boy called Cade, of him making cookies with his grandma, it made me cry from laughter, so cute and funny! And I think Cade looks a lot like an older Peter. Cute kid, really funny video, they have more in Instagram and on youtube too, they are fun to watch. I love my kids, I love my family, I love my God and that he has provided a way for us to be together forever! Amen