Brooks' Blessing (11/3/19)

On 11/3/19, we had Brooks blessed.  This is who came:
Mimi and Papa Lower
Beth and Keith Bailly
Kenny and James Lower
Ashley Lower
Isabel
Gayle Masters
Davis and Emily Ward
Brett, Mallory, Kayden, Fischer and Montana Stahl
Dave Pratt
Heather, Carly and Zora Polikoff
Barbie Griffis
Hsaio-Kun, Chia-Chi, Jaden, Minna and Ryder Tu
Venu and Family
Jacob Wilkes
Brandon ??? (David's co-worker)

In the circle there was:
David Bailly
Michael Jenson
Dan Murdock
Chris Thompson
Keith Bailly
Ken Lower
Kenny Lower
Dave Pratt
Brett Stahl

Porter got to hold the microphone and he was so excited to be a part of it.

Brooks Kendrick Bailly, by the authority of the Holy Melchizedick Priesthood which we hold, we give you a name, even the name of Brooks Kendrick Bailly, that you will be known throughout your life and we give you a priesthood blessing. Brooks, your entrance into this world and into our family has been anticipated and your spirit and your body have been prepared in such a way that the spirit of Jesus Christ could be made manifest more fully into this world.  Brooks you have been blessed with physical strength and spiritual strength, a body that is whole and pure is a tremendous gift and it comes with great responsibilities.  Brooks you were born at a time when the world is in tumult and there is a need for peace, a need for love, a need for solidarity of purpose and of kindness.  Brooks, as you evoke the powers of the priesthood throughout your life, through righteous living and kindness, you will be an example of the power of love to bring good things into this world.  Brooks, your brothers are aware of you and they will guide you.  And there will be times in your life when you will guide them.  I bless you, Brooks, with courage to be a leader even when you are younger, even when you have less experience, even when you are insecure.  Trust in the spirit of God to open your mind and to open your mouth to do those things that are most important.  Brooks, we bless you with the ability to lift your mother and to help her to feel the love and the trust that Heavenly Father has in allowing her to raise these boys in this time when great and gentle men are needed to bring equality and to bring purpose and to bring humility to the forefront of the endeavers of mankind.  Brooks we love you and we bless you with all these things.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

After church, a sweet friend of ours, Jacob Wilkes, sent me notes that he had taken from the blessing.  This is what he recorded:
Our sweet friend, Jacob Wilkes, recorded some notes during Brooks’ blessing. It is beautiful to go back and read them.

Brooks Bailly Baby Blessing Nov 3rd by Father David Bailly.
Your arrival was Anticipated
You have been Prepared so the spirit of the Savior may be manifested into the world.
You are born at time of tumult with a great need for peace, love, solidarity of purpose and kindness
You will evoke priesthood power through loving and kindness
Your Brothers are aware of you and will guide you. There will be times when you will guide them.
I bless you with Courage to be a leader at a young age
Bless you to open mind, open mouth, to Do those things that are most important.
Bless you with the Ability to lift your Mother, and let her feel Heavenly Father’s love as she raises righteous sons.
Great and gentle men are needed to bring equality, purpose and humility to the endeavors of mankind.

How sweet it is to re-read or listen to the blessings given to my boys.  They are each unique blessings and each of my boys are unique.  I love them all.

Porter and Siri (6/9/18)

Today Porter was using my phone and asking Siri how to make a girl like him. He had a few hits show up on the screen and asked me if I could open my phone and read them to him.  I open my phone and found this site wikiHow with 10 ways to make a girl like you. The first one said, “Have your own life.”  Porter asked me to explain what that meant and as I’m explaining it to him, he says, “That’s where I went wrong.”  Apparently he was a little too attached to Caitlyn and he feels that might be why she doesn’t like him the same way.  He was too eager to do what she wanted to do.  We went through a few of the other items including being neat, a.k.a. having good hygiene, which he thinks he’s doing pretty good at and being a friend and smiling and making eye contact.  He will definitely remember the things we talked about, and I’m sure he’ll implement them throughout his life :).

Teachers Among Us (12/22/19)

There are so many lessons I can learn from my boys if I will listen to them and if I will allow Heavenly Father to guide me. 
Tonight we were tossing a balloon to each other and when we caught it, we had to say something we loved about Christmas.  Here were some of the boy's answers:

Porter-
gingerbread houses

Mason-
donuts
cupcakes

Jonas-
celebrating the birth of Jesus
shorter church
the Christmas tree

There were more things said, but I loved that Jonas said celebrating the birth of Jesus.  I love this about Christmas too.  This celebration brings out the best in each of us.  We try harder to emulate Him in our actions, our words and our thoughts.  This month we have been reading stories from the life of Jesus as then putting an ornament on the tree that represents that story.  We have also started reading paragraphs from The Living Christ.  I love Him.  I am grateful that as I go through life, I can choose to be as He is.  Because I read the scripture and learn of Him, I can stop and think, how can I be more like Him. 

Lessons (12/17/19)

I had been feeling impressed to teach Porter about pornography, so I borrowed a book from a friend and we read it together and talked about pornography.  Over the next few days Porter would apply some of the things he learned to situations in life.  He'd talk about his thinking brain vs his feeling brain.  Then today we were driving down the road as a family and Porter said, “I think I saw pornography.  I used my thinking brain to look forward."  We had driven past a store on 2100 S that displays mannequins in lingerie.  He was absolutely correct that what he saw was pornographic.  And then he told us that he had also read about pornography in the Friend magazine and there was a kid that wrote a letter to a store that displayed something similar.  He said he wanted to write a letter to this store.  My heart swelled as I listened to him apply what he'd learned and want to do something about it.  I hope that he will always have the courage to use his thinking brain and the spirit to help him to "look forward" and do the right thing.