2 things...

Thing 1

We have begun "the talk" with our girls; not by choice, but what are ya gonna do? One night last week, I used the word "chaste" in family prayer as I was praying for my girls, and inevitably *A* asked afterward what it meant. So we got into it. And a certain 3-letter word that rhymes with Tyrannosaurus Rex was used a bunch.

Well, we will just call it a tender mercy of the Lord that *A* then told me she knows what that word means and that a fellow Kindergartener told her.

Jaw dropping.

Breathing stops.

Snapped back to reality.

Would she have ever told me if this whole incident hadn't come about? I don't know.

Anyway, later that night as Bro. Mo. and I sat at the table playing our customary game of Gin Rummy together, he had to settle me down as I cried and felt I had totally handled the whole discussion with them in the wrong way.

But, I feel that it was meant to be. We had just had a lesson in Marriage and Family Relations class the Sunday before on the very subject of teaching your children moral purity.

So, tonight we had another discussion in FHE; this time more general and in the way the Lord tells the youth--we used the For The Strength of Youth pamphlet.

Its C.R.A.Z.Y. how young our kids are having to grow up. My Kindergartener knew about the birds and bees!!!!

We had a talk about the 6 swear words a couple weeks ago after *E* said a certain phrase with an abbreviated word in it.

Ever since they were 2 we have stressed our "family bad words"--stupid, ugly, hate, shut-up, etc. and haven't been afraid of saying them out loud so the girls know exactly which words are not to be said. So as I was discussing the swear words, I used our family bad words as examples to stress how much worse swear words are. Everytime I said 'shut-up' *A* would quickly cover her ears in shock that I had said it.

Well, we make sex and swear words such taboo topics in our homes for fear of driving our children to want to do those things, that they grow up learning about them elsewhere. So, we are talking about them freely in our home so our girls grow up "covering their ears" about everything they should know is wrong.

I seriously cannot remember having "the talk" with my Mom. She says we did and I believe her, but I don't remember a word of it. Our words need to be so engrained in our childrens' minds, that when they are faced with a difficult decision when we are not there to guide them, our words that they have heard over and over will guide them to make the right choice.

Thing 2

Saturday was *E*'s Achievement Day activity. Family was invited, so we made a picnic dinner of chicken patty sandwiches, tater tots and leftover Eegee's slush and went to Udall Park for the free Concert In The Park. We ended setting up our blanket/chairs in the very back of the front section.

About halfway through the first half, the Hungarian conductor had all the WWII veterans stand in honor of D-Day. Then he had them sit down one by one as he called out a gradually larger age in order to leave the oldest person standing. He then invited that 94-year-old man to conduct the Stars and Stripes Forever. Halfway through the song, I noticed the man got down and needed to get back to his seat. I had taken the older girls down to the very front to sit with the Achievement Day leader and the other people from our ward who were sitting with her. So I was standing behind Bro. Mo. tickling his ears (hee hee) and trying to keep the twins sitting, when

I looked up to see *E* standing on the conductor's stand leading the orchestra!!! in front of approx. 300 people.

And of all times to forget the cameras! (Bro. Mo. even asked me as we were leaving the house if I wanted to go back and get them; to which I obviously replied "No.")

So we watched her finish the Stars and Stripes and then it was intermission. The conductor introduced the old man and *E* by name and leaned down to her and aksed her age also. So I went to the front to get the girls and we talked to the conductor and I asked some people who had taken pics to e-mail them to me.

You should have heard the dialogue she had with herself on the way home, talking like she was a celebrity walking through a store with people recognizing her and coming up to ask for her autograph. Oh, but then the second person who asked for her autograph got turned down because she told them she had to finish her shopping.

She and the other kids had gone to the VERY front and were kneeling in front of the orchestra when the conductor came up to the group, reached out a hand to *E* and asked if she would like to lead.

No brainer! This is the child who has been bearing her testimony every month by herself since she was 3!

We were truly AMAZED!

(They aren't the best pics but I'll take 'em)

P.S. As we were battling our way through FHE tonight (it is a lot harder with the twins than it was before they were born, yet I still try to give the lesson as if it were still just the older two--hmmm, doesn't work) we witnessed Baby B come up behind the ever-cranky-lately Baby A, wrap her arm around Baby B's neck and pull her backward, tackling her to the ground in the true Baby B fashion. She is always crawling after Baby A on the couch or elsewhere and trying to pull Baby A back or tackle her--SO CUTE!