Life's blessings

Life.  What a sweet blessed experience to be able to live it.  No matter how long or short our experience may be on this Earth, truly what a gift it is to learn and grow!

I love being a parent.  There are definitely hard days and struggles, but then there are those rewarding parenting experiences that transcend any difficulties and make it all worth it.  A possible little glimpse of what Heavenly Father experiences with us when we do what He hopes for us and become a little more like Him.

This Christmas break has been a blast.  We've thoroughly enjoyed the fact that the kids are off school and Rudy's had a good amount of time off to spend together playing and having fun.  We haven't gone and done much, but we've enjoyed each others company and loved being together. 
Tucker and Cooper are such great buddies- I love to see them interact with each other.  Rarely do they fight or have arguments and most of their time is spent imagining worlds, begging to sleep in the same bed of their bunkbeds with their lighted pillow pets, working together building towers, reading books, or getting to the next level on a Lego Wii game. 

Tucker got some chapter books for Christmas and, with their begging to sleep in the same bed, we've recently realized that he's been reading a chapter to Cooper every night by light of pillow pet before they go to sleep.  So tonight, as we started hearing Tucker's voice we decided to eavesdrop on their new nighttime routine. 
We slowly snuck up the stairs listening to Tucker tell about Junie B. Jones' latest adventure.  However, as we got to the top of the stairs, he quietly announced to Cooper, "Ok, that's all for tonight Coop."   Shoot, we thought.  We missed it.  Just as we started to turn to head back downstairs we heard some of the sweetest conversation we've been able to hear since being parents...

"Cooper, who's turn is it?" 
"It's mine, I'll say it"
"Ok, Cooper, dont forget to pray for Kyla's pink eye and that she'll get all better and that we won't rub our eyes at night while we're asleep and if we do, that the goopy stuff won't make our eyes goopy".
"Ok, and I'll pray that we won't have any nightmares."
Cooper proceeded to say an unbelievably sweet prayer in his wonderful little helium voice about goopy eyes and a nightmareless sleep.
After their prayer, they both quietly started singing "I am a Child of God" and Rudy and I realized they were giving each other a second dose of our nightly bedtime routine in the quiet of their room with each other. 
After singing one of the sweetest renditions of "I am a Child of God" I think I've ever heard, Tucker asked Cooper to grab the scriptures.  We heard pages turn and Tucker ask, "what page are we on tonight?"  Cooper promptly responded that the one Tucker was on they read last night and they were on the next page. 
Tucker flipped the page and began summarizing the story he was looking at.  "See him? he's trying to tell people that Jesus isn't real.  See this guy? He wanted to know if Jesus was real so he prayed.
Cooper chimed in, "Yeah, and he knew that Jesus was real and the next day he told all the people and made sure that they believed him." 
After they finished sharing their scripture story with each other, they commented on how 'tonight was a short one'.  Cooper noticed Tucker's pillow pet wasn't in the room. "Tucker, I'm sorry to say your pillow pet is in the toy room.  Want me to go get it for you?" 
"Let's go get it together, we just have to be really sneaky!" 
At this point, with tears running down our cheeks, we realized if we stayed where we were right outside their room, we'd be caught!  We quickly tiptoed to our bedroom just before they exited their room and were whispering to each other in the hall.  They quickly got Tucker's pillow pet, snuck back to their room, and quietly start talking to each other about the fun they'd have together tomorrow.

We've had many sweet experiences as parents so far- hugs, kisses, cuddles, many "I love yous" and cute smiles, little acts of service, and prayers in sweet voices.  But tonight's experience will definitely be at the top our current list of reasons we're so glad to be on this earth and experience those blessed things that Heavenly Father has let us experience in our journey here together.