A blast for three year old's birthday!

We had such a great time at our daughters' party. We had a friend from church be a clown for us and she was really good! The kids loved her, and so did all the parents.

We hardly had any tears - and the party was over before anyone could get too cranky. It was short and sweet.

We worked hard though, and I was so glad to have Ken home. I am so happy we chose to have it on Saturday so he could be there.

She felt wonderful, and she knew the party was for her, but she took everything in stride, and didn't seem spoiled by the attention.

She had a great day. I am very proud to announce that she used the potty correctly for the first time in her life that day. Yeah! The first step!!

I am very grateful for all the wonderful children and parents who came to help us celebrate. We feel loved!

The Wisdom of Jeshua, the Son of Sirach

Recently in my morning study of the scriptures I have been reading in the Apocrypha. Many of the books are amazing. Several of them are similar to the Book of Proverbs, written by King Solomon. One such book is the Wisdom of Jeshua, the Son of Sirach, written about 200 B.C. Several passages in there have described my feelings exactly about my sweetheart. These come from chapter 26:1-3.

"Happy is the man who has a good wife!

The number of his days is doubled.

A noble wife gladdens her husband,

And he lives out his years in peace.

A good wife is a good fortune."

Accordingly, I consider myself among the richest & most fortunate men in the world. There truly is nothing greater than Love at Home.

Grace's birthday

We washed our cars right before we had our party, so that is why Eliza and Grace look so bedraggled. I decided to at least help Grace look more presentable. :) We are planning a friend party for this weekend, so I can add more pictures from that next week.

Updates from Anji

A few days ago Joshua came up to me to tattle on Grace. He said, "Grace pulled her bed off." He and Grace like to jump on the mattress on the floor. It drives me insane.

There is a fixed punishment for taking off the mattress, so Joshua wanted to be sure I only punished Grace. I asked him if he had taken it off too. He said, "No." I smiled at him because he was so cute, and he couldn't help but smile back. I asked him if he was tricking me, his reply, "No!" His smile just kept getting wider and wider, and so did mine, so I asked him why he was smiling, if he wasn't guilty, too. Joshua said, "because your face looks kind of funny." I told him that I thought that was a really good response, then we went downstairs to put Grace's bed back together.

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On Friday Ken and I went on a date so I did a little more than I normally do to myself: I put on earrings and a necklace.

When Grace saw me she immediately noticed my earrings and she said, "Ooo! You have earrings! You must be a girl!" Joshua set her straight, "Momma's not a girl!" I didn't say anything to Joshua, but I thought to myself, "I'm not?" And I thanked Grace for realizing for the first time that I am a girl. I guess Joshua still has to figure that one out.

Family Update

Life is good and we are given cause to reflect on the blessings of Heaven as our children grow and we watch them progress in their lives. School starts again for us this week. It is unimaginable that Joshua is old enough to start Kindergarden... amazing. How the time flies!

Some of the more noticeable advances are that Grace is moving out of her booster seat at the table and Anji felt the baby move for the first time this week. Two wonderful events.

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Here are some funny things the kids have said recently:

Eliza has been really trying to be more sincere in her prayers recently. That is a good thing as you may recall from an earlier post that her prayers have been somewhat redundant. In one of her prayers this week she prayed for many things - including Heavenly Father himself. She said, "And please bless our Father in Heaven that He can be well in watching over us." That was very sweet of her.

You can often find out what is important to children based on their prayers. One such sneak into Eliza was a few weeks ago when she asked God to "Bless everyone's birthday." We all hope it was answered.

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Anji and I were thinking of going target practicing with a friend of ours yesterday. Joshua wanted to come with us but we told him it was our date night and he needed to stay home. He said to us, "But I want to go gunning!"

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Joshua had a few amazing epiphanies recently. He was thinking and then he said, "Chicken - it rhymes with Chicken! Really? Cool."

Another one was when he said, "Wait! In 50 years we won't be little!"

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Grace said to Anji the other day, "I can't wait to see the baby." We're glad to hear that - so are we!

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Joshua said to me, "Why are these nails always growing in my thumbs. I hate them!"

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We've been watching some Star Wars lately and so she is very familiar with the terminology - including the home system of Padme - Naboo. We were watching a DVD on the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple and Eliza said, "What? Naboo?!"

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We are all doing well and full of gratitude for the Blessings showered upon us. There is nothing better than a truly happy family.

Vacation Report

We just got back from our family vacation. It was a wonderful. Our itinerary was as follows:

1. Friday & Saturday Niagara Falls & Old Fort Niagara

2. Saturday Evening was the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra New York

3. Sunday was stayed in Palmyra and went to the Hill Cumorah & the Sacred Grove

4. Monday we drove to Boston & had a quiet evening

5. Tuesday was the USS Constitution, the Battle at Bunker Hill & Minuteman National Park at Lexington

6. Wednesday was Plymouth

7. Thursday was the New England Aquarium & the Battle of Concord

8. Friday was swimming and the trip home

We went swimming almost every day. For Eliza, it was truly the best part. She is a little fish. Anji and I also got to visit the Boston Temple several times. It was wonferful to be there again.

Some notable experiences with the kids were:

While we were looking out at the falls and seeing all of the mist come up as well as all of the foam down below, Joshua, amazed at the site, kept yelling, "Soap! Soap!" Through the eyes of a four-year-old it was the biggest bubble bath on earth.
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After visiting Old Fort Niagara, Eliza had a feather in her hair and was looking at herself admiringly in the mirror. She did some twirling and said to Joshua and Grace, "Can we play a game... about me?"

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Later on I asked her why she was so pretty. She just smiled and said, "It must be my feather. It's magical."

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While we were in the Visitors Center at the Hill Cumorah, we attended a part of the tour given by a Sister missionary. They invited us to come into the room with the Christus. We had been in it before and I remembered what it was like then with three small children. Hesitant to repeat that experience, my knee jerk reaction was to say no. However, I found Anji and I agreeing to go in - hoping the kids would be better behaved this time. They were "better" behaved. They were actually quite cute. My favorite part was when, after the Christus presentation when the Sister Missionary asked us what was it that Jesus asked us to do, after a long silence I whispered to Joshua, "Love One Another." Joshua repeated that. The Sister was pleased. However, Joshua continued to repeat it - about every 30 seconds. He would just say out of no where, "Love one another." He said it five times. We were certain the other visitors thought that something was wrong with him.

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In that same place, while the Sister was speaking, Eliza after examining closely the statue of Jesus Christ, noticed that he was wearing no shoes. She asked me, "Does Jesus have any shoes?"
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Some embarrassing things that Joshua said (none of the other kids said things like this):

While in the elevator in our hotel in Niagara Falls, we struck up a conversation with a nice man. He seemed like a biker or something. He was very nice to the kids and then Joshua asked, "Why are your teeth all gray?" Silence prevailed after a nervous chuckle on the part of the man.

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Later that day while we were going down to the Maid of the Mist, an African American gentlemen was operating the elevator. He was also very nice to the kids. Then Joshua asked, "Why are you all black?" Luckily for us, he laughed - as did the other African Americans on the lift. We were not laughing - but speechless.

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Later that day, on our way to Palmyra we stopped in a McDonalds. We were eating inside and the kids were talking to some older folks at a nearby table. Luckily for us (or them), children can be hard to understand at times, so when Joshua asked the woman, "Why are your teeth all gray?" this time the person couldn't understand him. Anji said, "He was saying how nice you are" and we quickly brought them back to us. He did get several talkings to that day.

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I knew it was sinking in but my fears came back to me as we were making our way down the 291 steps inside the Bunker Hill Monument. There was a very large man coming up the stairs. Joshua was right behind me. I was silently praying, "Don't say anything. Please don't say anything." He waited for the man to pass a few steps before saying to me, "Daddy, why are some people fat?"That was at least progress.

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On the Mayflower II, we were on the upper deck and Joshua was talking to a woman on the deck below. He happened to be wearing his Spiderman shirt. While talking with her he said, "I can climb walls." The woman responded in a playful tone, "Is that because your Spiderman?" "No," Joshua responded. "It's because I have stinky feet."

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On one of our stops, I think it may have been in Niagara, I asked the kids, "Are we a happy family?" Yes they all answered - except Joshua. I said "Why?" He responded back, "Because we're not half a family. We're a whole family!"

We love each other and are better because of our trip and time together. It also brought us closer to our roots and to the roots of America.

The following pictures are from Niagara Falls. What an amazing place!

Waiting to board the Maid of the Mist...


Horseshoe Falls...



American Falls from the Maid of the Mist

The following pictures are taken from Old Fort Niagara. It is the oldest continuing fort in North America. It was started in the late 1600's by the French, conquered and taken by the British in the French and Indian War, taken by the Americans after the Revolution, retaken by the British during the war of 1812, retaken by the Americans where it remains today.






Above is the the "House of Peace." It is also known as the French Castle. It may look nice but was designed to look like a home but be a fortress.



The below picture shows an image from owners in the past...

The following pictures are from Palmyra:


Grace playing on the Smith Family farm...

I had to take a picture of this. I have never been so verbally abused because of my faith as I was that night. The number of protesters and the types of things they said was so very offensive. It actually enhanced the evening though because of the clearly different spirit that existed emanating from them versus the one that came from the play. Light and Darkness are most clearly discerned when presented with each other at the same time. I am grateful for Light.

The kids playing before the play began.

Sleeping on the way back to the hotel that night.

The statue of Moroni on top of the Hill Cumorah.

This was the most frequent view we had of Grace. Running away...


Looking up in the sacred Grove.


The Boston Temple.

Click on this image and read it. It is the market on the Lexington Green grave marker. It is very moving.

This marked the line of defence that the Lexington Militia took on the morning it all began. At this very spot was the the place where our Revolution started.




Waiting in line to board the USS Constitution - the oldest commissioned Warship in the World (211 years).

The gun deck.
The flag on the bow of the ship has a flag hoisted that reads, "Don't tread on me."

The USS Constitution from the front.

On our way down from the Bunker Hill Monument. 291 steps...


On the outside looking up.

This is the top of the first monument erected commemorating the battle of Bunker Hill. It was to recognize the death of Dr. Joseph Warren who died in that battle and was erected by King Solomon Lodge in his memory. A replica of that original monument resides within the current monument.

The following pictures were taken at the New England Aquarium in Boston.






The kids were the most exited about the cuddle fish. A truly extraordinary animal.

The following pictures are from Plymouth.

This is Plymouth Rock. Legend has it that my great, great... grandmother Mary Chilton Winslow was the first person to step foot on this rock. Being there was another touching experience for me.

We are sitting in front of the stone that marks the final resting place of Mary's mother - along with all of the other known remains of those pilgrims who died that first winter.


Mayflower II - a relatively small vessel. I am even more amazed that they came in something like that.




The following pictures are taken from Old North Bridge in Concord.





The bridge that you see in this picture was the place of the first armed resistance and victory over the British.





On our way home today we passed this van. We liked the license plate. It represented our views entirely.

4th of July Pictures

We had a wonderful Independence Day - we hope you did as well. Here are some pictures that we thought you would enjoy.


Awestruck at the fireworks...

Waiting for the show...

At the church we had a picnic and bike parade for the kids. Eliza & Grace's bikes were decorated as fairies - you can see the wings in this picture...

Joshua's was decorated as an airplane. It was hands down the coolest bike in the parade.

You can see the fairie better in this shot.

What a blast!

Ken got to deliver the patriotic thought at the picnic. You can read it here.

God be thanked for the Liberties and Freedoms we enjoy in these Free United States of America!

Coman Family Update

Sometimes prayers can become a little repetitive for our kids. Joshua's prayer is usually, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you that Mommy and Daddy could come home safely. Please bless Mommy and Daddy to come home safely. Please bless us to have a good time. Amen." Pretty much 90% of his prayers are that - word for word. Eliza's prayers are similar, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the blessings. Thank you for Jesus and for everything. Please bless us to have a good day. Amen."

Some other repetitive exercises for the kids are the ABC's, counting, the pledge of allegiance, etc. So, at times, it might be possible for certain other repetitive mental pathways to cross at a synapse that was not intended and for something else entirely different to come out. Tonight, such a pathway crossover happened when I asked Eliza to say the prayer. She closed her eyes, bowed her head and said, "One, two, three, four, five, six... wait a second!" and then realized that something was out of place. Too funny!

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Earlier today I was playing with the kids. They were trying to give me raspberry's and I was trying to give them raspberries as well. I will state up front that they succeeded much more than I. They learned the power of teamwork today. They would fling their whole bodies over their sibling that I was trying to give a raspberry to in order to protect them and shield them from my lips. They would have made the secret service proud. Anyways, it being later in the afternoon my 5:00 shadow had definitely appeared. After one raspberry attempt on Joshua, he said, rather put off, "Hey, you hurt me with you poky things!" It made me chuckle.

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On Friday, I was doing some reading in the living room while Joshua was sitting on the couch. The sun was coming in through the curtains behind him. Rays of light were shining in. He did look like he was trying to do something and he could tell that I was watching him. He said to me, while his hands were grabbing something invisible, "I'm trying to grab the sunshine."

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Last week sometime Joshua and Eliza were talking to each other about moles. For our son, that was probably the first time he had heard the word "mole." He didn't know what it meant and Eliza said, "You know, those black things where your LONG hair grows out of?!" Kids have such a way with words.


I love my family.

Super Smell

I have always wanted a super power. I recently acquired one - super smell. I can smell a stinky towel a room away. I can detect mildew on people who live in houses with wet basements. (Mine included).

But least helpful of all, I can smell my couch the moment I walk into the house.

Today, after a long fight with lysol spray, baking soda, the vacuum, and the clothes washer and dryer, I can at last enjoy family home evening on my couch undisturbed by my new super power.