Elder Wilkinson

Back in October, I posted about how my brother was called and had left to serve a mission in the Oregon, Portland mission. His first area was literally 5 minutes from my home and his second area is to serve in my congregation! I get to see him every Sunday and I have had the privilege of signing up to feed him and his companion dinners! (And if there are any holes in the calendar, the meal coordinator calls me and I make them a to-go meal or have them over again!)

 We have enjoyed having him over and having him meet our friends (through dinners, random service projects, etc), both members of the LDS church and not. It's been wonderful to see him interact with our neighbors in particular. The kids love him and they come out to help with our yard projects every time the missionaries are here. Apparently the missionaries, both Elders and Sisters, are service starved because they all keep coming to help us lay rock and red brick pavers. They have put in about 8 hours of work each and our home has never looked better! We are so grateful! Sorry, all the outdoor work is done for now until our grass shows up - but I promise we'll call you when it gets here!

 These guys sure are great. It's been so much more fun to do my yard work alongside them!  

 

Everytime they come, Aaron is sad to see them leave. He often tries to go with them!

Lucky for us, we know he'll be back which cheers up poor Aaron. He constantly asks when the missionaries will come back. Right now, he is struggling with calling Tom, Elder Wilkinson. He keeps calling Elder Gray, Tom's companion, Elder Wilkinson because, obviously, Tom is Tom... So who else could this "Elder Wilkinson" be? He both of their names as Elders right about 50/50 but it's pretty cute :)

The Elder's have been such an amazing example to Aaron. I don't know how much his little brain will remember of his experiences with the missionaries but I know his whole life he will want to serve a mission, and seeing Tom on his mission will definitely be what fired the desire!

Aaronisms

Aaron is extremely proficient in talking - more so than most kids his age. That being said, he does have his own way of saying things in certain cases.

• Goose Driver = Screwdriver (his all time favorite - if he can get Grampa's or Daddy's, even better!)
  
• Hair Plane = Airplane
• New Brella = Umbrella
• Beer = Bear
• Spider Ants = Ants
• Leaves = Gloves
• Buggerfly = Any bug that flies
• Hiccup = Make Up
• Bassosauce = Applesauce
• Pack Pack = Back Pack
• Other Mama = Gramma (thank goodness we figured out what this one was. It hurt my feelings when he would ask for his "other mama")
• Oovie = Movie

Aaron has been learning to apologize better. He states what he did to whom, why it was wrong, how he will change in the future, and asks for forgiveness. This has really struck a chord with him. He even, one night, told Heavenly Father in his prayers in the evening how he had made mama sad and asked for forgiveness. I cried. What a sweet little boy we have! He is so eager to "make mama happy." Everytime he makes me smile he is over joyed because he "made mama happy." I love him to pieces!

We were teaching him about feeling the Spirit (Holy Ghost) and what we can do to have the Spirit in our home. He said he knew what the Spirit is... he informed us that the Spirit is in our home and that he fights crime in the sky. Haha! Did YOU know the Holy Ghost is a Superhero?!?
Afterwards, in his prayer, he prayed that mama teach dance and daddy clean up the dishes.
Done kid ... I like this plan!

This doesn't mean life is perfect though... oh no...

During quiet time one day, while I was in the shower, he did this ... it was during a particularly difficult week. We are still working to get it fixed - but until then his playroom is off limits. We are both going a little crazy from having no playroom. Notice how his cars are all lined up nicely. No glass injuries in him, thank goodness! He openly told me about the window (as he does with every wrongdoing) and showed me the wooden ball he had hit the window with to break it. Sometimes his honesty makes it harder because I want him to continue to be honest but I still have to punish the crime - I don't want him to start lying to avoid punishment. So far I've explained the because he told the truth, his punishment is lighter... hopefully it sticks. 

We caught the tail end of Eric's It vs Marketing throwdown at work this year (Eric was in charge with his buddy, Keros and they had a nerf war at the end). Aaron and his OCD ways had to make sure that all the bullets were picked up, and he totally wanted to play!

 Aaron is very popular and has tons of friends. He is always the leader, no matter how much older his friends are.

Aaron loves to dance - absolutely loves it. I was teaching some dance at Precoa for their Incentive Trip (The RC's are doing a dance) and Aaron wanted to join in the fun :)

shhh... the dance is a secret. Don't tell anyone in sales! 

Aaron also loves to sing!

As always, we are completely into whatever the grown-ups are doing :)

We have been doing tons of revamping on our yard and I'm so excited about it! Aaron has had such a blast outside!

 

He does random silly things like hide his shoes inside Daddy's shoes...

As always, he still falls asleep everywhere.

Or get dressed entirely backwards - underwear and all for when we go to the grocery store... At least he put on his shoes right! He was too proud of himself for me to say anything ;)

He is super patient with Audrey and lets her play with his toys (at least, for the vast majority of the time).
I can't imagine a better brother for her! She truly is lucky!

Easter!

I absolutely love Easter. I always have, but Ane makes it something truly remarkable! She and Mark put so much effort into making it so fun!

For brunch, Ane organized everyone by birthday so we could all have a chance sitting next to someone we might not normally sit by (since normally we sit by our kids...). How fun is that?!?

 

Then came the kids' egg hunt. Audrey was totally smitten with Courtney and loved going with her to find eggs! Aaron went with us and Julie.

Left is before the hunt and right is after.

 

Everyone collecting their prizes. It's chaos of the best kind!

To switch up the adult hunt, we all were tied at the ankle to our spouse... Such fun!

After the hunts, everyone was exhausted.

I enjoyed making Audrey's bow and Aaron's tie.

Sunday was fun. I made the baskets for Aaron, Audrey, and our neighbors.

  

 Eric wasn't feeling well so he stayed home with Audrey and Aaron and I went to church together.

He even came up with me to give the opening prayer for Sacrament meeting.

GP sent us an amazing ham that I cooked up for dinner. What a great season!