Answered prayers

#1 

Madison had her dental work done last Wednesday.  A few weeks before her appointment we found out that our insurance wasn't going to cover having her put to sleep.  She needed a crown, 5 fillings, and 3 teeth extractions, but we were going to have to pay $400 if we wanted her to be completely knocked out for the procedure.  Madison is DEATHLY afraid of needles, so the idea of having her awake with that much work being done was terrifying to me as well as her.  After giving it some thought I decided to give Madison the choice: you can be put to sleep, so you won't have to feel anything OR you can be brave and stay awake and when we are done you can go to the store and get whatever toy you want.  I'm not really into bribing my kids, but in this case it seemed like a good financial decision.  

We were very straight forward with her and told her it was her choice.  She had about three weeks to think about it.  I was so touched that the night we had this discussion, without any prompting, she prayed about what she should do.  She prayed about it a few more times and decided to be brave and stay awake for the procedure.

When we went in to her appointment the dentist was very skeptical.  He said he's never had a patient older than seven have this much work done while awake.  The dentist we go to is LDS, so I told him that Madison prayed about it and this was her choice.  

The procedure went off without a hiccup.  In fact, the laughing gas made Madison so relaxed that she fell asleep.  I feel so blessed that something that could have been hugely traumatic and hugely expensive went so smoothly.  I really feel like Madison's prayers were answered,  and I'm so grateful for her faithful example.  (Plus the toy she picked out only cost $40, 90% savings, so worth it!)

with the laughing gas on, see her goofy grin

four teeth gone, the big teeth in the middle are her adult teeth that had already grown in

#2 

I've been working with Jaxon for a while to help him learn to write his name.  He's so funny because he knows his letters and their sounds without an issue, but his writing skills are pretty bad.  The big problem is that he gets so distracted by what he accidentally writes that he can't focus on writing his actual letters.  Like the other day he drew the cross line on his "A" too long and he went on and on about how it was a "race car 'A', right mom, see how fast it goes...."  Anyway, in my prayers I usually ask for help teaching the kids what they need to know, cause that's my job, right?  I know it's a minor thing, but I did pray to know how to teach Jaxon to write his name.  I was kind of at a loss to get him to focus.  

Then I came up with this:

I wrote his name and put boxes underneath to give him a visual of how big his letters should be

I gave him the paper and left him to it and the next thing I knew, about 3 minutes later, he was calling me in to show me what a great job he did!  Such a small thing, but again, a testimony that Heavenly Father listens to all our prayers and does care even about the little things.

And finally some fun pictures of the boys:

this is Colton's favorite game, wrapping up in blankets and playing "night, night"

the other day Colton insisted on wearing Jaxon's boot, he kept walking around in circles cause he was uneven

this is how Jaxon likes to shop, chillin' in the cart.  he's got such a tough life