I couldn’t resist showing you just how adorable my kids are!

This is Fay and her little buddy next door, Auden. Yesterday Auden was going on the bus to take his dad to work and Fay swung an invite! They both had their little backpacks and snacks and stuff and it was too adorable not to document!

Last night, I put Carter in Fay’s bed to entice her to get in it (she’s rather possessive) and they ended up just playing the entire time we were doing scriptures. (I’m sorry! I know I was totally encouraging it by taking pictures. But I promise that most of the time I’m listening to family scriptures!) This picture shows perfectly how Fay works with Carter. She just tries to get some kind of response out of him. He looks pretty excited about the prospect of getting that finger in his mouth!

Still totally siblings! I love how much they look alike!

This is Carter playing with his toys. I don’t feel like Fay was anywhere near as intent on playing with her toys as Carter is. Boys will be boys. 🙂 I love how you can see how concentrated he is!

I meant to do this post much earlier in the week, as to be closer to Father’s Day, but it turns out that other things have priority.

I am so grateful for the men in my life! And I felt like it was so beautiful that we got to talk about the Priesthood in Relief Society this Father’s Day because I know that the privilege of holding the Priesthood of God is largely what has made my father and my husband the men that they are.

My Daddy is genuinely one of the greatest men I know.  He works harder than anyone else I know. He is brilliant, and yet so humble. He is patient and even tempered. And he loves Heavenly Father with all his heart.  I know that he does because he made sure that if we knew anything growing up, it was that living the Gospel is the only way to be happy. I can’t even count the number of times I asked Daddy why we had to do “such and such” a church thing and he responded with “Because I want Elisabeth to be in Heaven with me, so we are going to do every good thing possible so we can strengthen our chances.” He has never told me this in so many words, but I know that he takes his Priesthood responsibility as the head of his home very seriously. He knows that ultimately he will be accountable for how well he exercised that Priesthood for the welfare of his family and our Eternal Salvation, and he is determined to be able to answer to God in good conscience. I love my Daddy! And I fully intend to continue to do every good thing possible so as to strengthen my chances of being with him for Eternity!

Josh is the perfect husband. I have come to learn that there are many personality types that do not require the things that Josh has to offer, and so perhaps I ought to say that Josh is the perfect husband for me. But I figure, this is my blog. Obviously everything is from my perspective. So the original statement stands. 🙂  Being married to Josh has helped me to understand better what a righteous father’s influence can really be. I always knew I had a great dad; but now that I see from the other end of things (as the mother rather than the daughter), I see just how much of a blessing a righteous father who honors his Priesthood is for children. I don’t think I could ever quite explain it in words; but I feel his influence on our family daily.  When I’m at home with the kids we have a good time and I try my best to teach them good things and show them love. But when Josh comes home we really become a family, and that is because our family is the most important thing in Josh’s life.  He tells me about the mentality that guys he works with have, and I see that it is unique to be a family man. I am so grateful for his desire to be a family man! And I am Eternally grateful that he is the father of my family forever!

I know I didn’t put this in the title, but that is because it didn’t quite have the same ring. 🙂 But I don’t feel like I can really talk about how wonderful Josh is as a father without talking about his father. My father-in-law is another one of the greatest men this world has to offer. I obviously don’t know him as well as I know my dad, but I do know enough to see that he also feels very strongly the importance of his role as the father of his home.  I know that Josh is the man he is because he grew up with an example of a man who understands that in the end, our families are what are important. I am grateful to him for showing Josh how to be so wonderful. I am also grateful to him for inviting me into his family and showing me that I am just as important to him as one of his own children.

Carter is little. Two months old today. He is clearly not a father. But one day he will be. One day he will also hold the Priesthood of God, and be charged with the giant responsibility of making sure  his children are all in Heaven with him. (No pressure, buddy. 😉  )  As much as that is a huge responsibility on him, and on Josh and me to prepare him, I know that he is going to be okay. I feel like he is going to make it! He has the highest quality men there are for his father and grandfathers. I know that he is as important to them as he is to me, and with all of us doing every good thing possible (thanks Daddy!) we should have pretty good chances of being in Heaven together forever.

Happy Father’s Day!

We Monsons have been staying at home too much!  We haven’t really gone anywhere since we moved here! We did go to Utah for Christmas, but we haven’t had a chance to see anything outside of the Triangle in NC.  UNTIL NOW!!!!!

In the southeast corner of North Carolina, there is a city called Wilmington that is pretty well THE beach city for people who live around us.  It is only about 2.5 hours of driving to get there and it has tons of fun things to do!  I guess there is a UNC Wilmington, and I find myself wondering if I would have ever actually graduated from college had I lived in a beach town.  Good thing Provo doesn’t have a beach. 🙂

Anyway, Josh worked a half day on Friday, and we headed out of Chapel Hill around 12:30.  When we got to Wilmington, we checked into our hotel and the first thing we did was (at Fay’s request) go to the hotel swimming pool.Josh and I took turns playing with Fay in the water and holding Carter on the side.  This is Josh helping Fay to be a mermaid.  She kept declaring that she was a mermaid like Ariel!

At the pool they had music playing. This is one of the songs that played. I thought it was pretty groovy. You should leave a comment on what you think about it! If you do, I will tell you a secret about it!