Deaven's Snow Shoeing Trip

Deaven got a chance to go snow shoeing yesterday for the first time with his buddy Forrest. The Dudley Family is always great about including Deaven on some of their adventures.
Deaven had a fantastic time and we were even able to keep his little 45lb body warm.
What a fun day!!
We've had a few good Family Home Evening lessons lately that I thought I'd pass along.

One on "Handling Life's Pressures":

I had each family member draw themselves on two eggs, and put one in each basket.
Then we talked about things in life that could pull us down or make it harder to always make good choices. We taped those word strips to a brick. Then we each took one of our guys and placed them in a casserole dish to see what happened when we applied life's pressures to them.
Of course, they got crushed.
But then we talked about all the positive things we can do in our lives to build a foundation for ourselves, that would help stabilize us and keep us fortified during times of trial. We placed our remaining eggs inside the foundation and then applied the pressure of the brick again. The foundation protected us. (Of course, we all had fun breaking our eggs just for the heck of it when the lesson was done).
A lesson on the ATONEMENT:

Will stood at the top of the stairs and the kids and I stood at the bottom. I told the kids we had to get to the top of the stairs, to Dad, but we couldn't touch our feet to any of the stairs. I told them their was a way to do it.

The kids tried to pull themselves up by the railing and such, but concluded that they couldn't get up. Then Peyton, on her own, said, "Well we could pray for help". Once she prayed, Will came down the stairs and one by one, carried us up on his back.

We talked to the kids about their relationship with Christ being the same. We CANNOT become perfect and return to Him with out his help, but the wonderful thing is that He is ALWAYS willing to help us. Even though we at times feel we are too busy for Him, he is never to busy for us.