We are the parents of three wonderful daughters. We raised them differently than most people in the church. You see, we really believe in the words of the prophet Joseph Smith, “we teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves”. We realized early on that the were small human beings. Being to be taught how to make excellent choices, and when they don’t how to make reparations.

I could tell you great stories for hours about my wonderful daughters. There are three. And each is excellent. They all stumbled and fell and overcame hardships. But I don’t want you to become bored.

I’ll tell you one. When they were in high school, instead of competing they all loved each other and got along great. They were each others’ best friends. They began getting picked on in church by a group of other girls. It was difficult for them, and disheartening. Then as the youngest was graduating, one of the girls finally confessed the reason for her “mean” behavior towards her: She was jealous of the relationship she had with her sisters. The girl said her sister and her never shared anything and fought all the time. She wished for the same thing my daughters had.

They are grown and the last was married last year.True success stories each of them. Perfect? Never. Yet each made great choices and we are glad they did. It was the best white knuckler ride ever. And I’d go around again given the opportunity.

Braggedy brag? Anyday. Let me tell you about my girls.

And Angie, your seven year old sounds a lot like my oldest! Great fun!

Texasgal, that’s almost the funniest kid story I’ve ever heard!

Angie, you must be teaching those kids something good if your seven year old understands supply side economics!

I doesn’t really mean what I thought it meant.

What a precocious child.

What a whippersnapper.

I have some great stories about prohibition (see my patience post). A few weeks ago my seven year old was given 5 pieces of candy in primary. She gave four to them to her sisters. That was before we started this healthy eating business. Last week she was given a package of starburst by her music teacher. I heard her auctioning off the individual candies to the highest bidder. She got her 5 year old sister to pay $11 for one starburst! I confronted her about the ethics of charging so much. “I’m sure your little sister doesn’t realize that she could buy many packages of starburst for that much money.” She told me, “But she can’t buy any packages of starburst. Dad won’t let her. That’s why I had to raise the price. It’s called supply and demand.”

It is fair to aknowledge that all of us love our own kids the most and prefer them over any children on earth. But since everyone else feels that way about their children, we ought to tread lightly in our zeal, becuase geesh, it can sure be a turn-off to the very people we are trying to impress.

Loved the story about “that’s why they call him Jesus.” It reminded me of my nieces who were being loud in sacrament meeting. The six year old scolded the other two saying, “be quiet or Jesus will kill you!”

I had a good one this morning.

Celeste (the 3 year old) loves to read the story “No, David” where David’s Mom says No about everything, but at the end she says she loves him and gives him a big hug. We always talk about how Mommy’s and Daddy’s still love us even when we make mistakes.

Well this morning, after being warned not to eat in the family room, she dumped a huge bowl of shredded wheat (in milk so it was all goopy) on the floor. As she tried to help clean up, the mess got worse. So Mommy sternly said, “Thank you for your help, please wait on the couch.”

She did, and then said, “But remember Mommy, you still love me.”

The Spanish story reminds me of my six year old who was singing lullaby songs to my baby, trying to calm him down. Nothiing seemed to be working and he continued to cry and cry. Isabel sang varied songs at varied decible levels, before exasperatedly stating, “Maybe he wants me to sing in Spanish”

Bring on the gibberish. (That didn’t work either, shockingly).

After a lovely hour of painting, I was at the sink dumping water and cleaning paint brushes when I overheard my 3 year old second son identifying the colors in the paint strip. “Red it for stop,” he said, “green is for go and yellow is for ‘Hold on nelly-bell!’” It was then I realized that I needed to take a closer look at my driving habits!

Then one time, when my oldest was between three and four years old, I was bragging to the sister missionaries (who were over for dinner) about how he loved to “read” the scriptures. Corbin refused to echo read, but insisted on having his own time to “expound” the gospel according to Corbin. The sisters wanted to hear some of this so they asked Corbin to “read” some scriptures. Corbin took the Book of Mormon and began. On and on he spoke about Jesus and the Nephites and the Lamanites and Alma and being bad. Then he said, “Then they saw a sign . . . (dramatic pause) . . . and it said “closed” so they all went home.”

Then there was the time my oldest insisted he wanted to say his prayer in spanish (although he had only taken Dora the Explorer 101). He was so insistent and I didn’t want to fight about prayer so I said fine. Off he went, the gibberish pouring from his mouth. When he was done I thought I would be an incredibly sly, sneaky, and clever mom by asking him to to translate for me, thus getting a proper prayer out of him anyway. When I asked him to tell me what he had said Corbin looked at me with disgust and said, “I don’t know! It was in Spanish!”

Then there is the most recent one. My sister makes the BEST oatmeal cookies in the world! I asked for the recipe then make a big double batch. When Corbin got home from school the house was filled with the wonderful smell of baking cookies. I gave him one and enthused, “Corbin, have one of Aunt Sharlee’s famous oatmeal cookies!” After a bite Corbin said ruefully, “Well Mom, they might look famous but they sure don’t taste famous!” (disclaimer: my sister’s cookies are truly delicious – I just can’t seem to make them the same way)