Monday, March 31, 2008

Portland or bust!

Wonders never cease! I got a good picture of the whole family, except of course I never like pictures of myself - and I had to "photoshop" myself into this picture since there was no one to take our picture all together.
First I took the picture of Billy and the kids, and then Billy took the picture of me alone and later on my computer I put the two together.

The Byington household is all excited right now! Just a few more days until we leave for our Portland Zoo trip!

I will have plenty of pictures and an update when we get back.

Until then,

Bethany

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Finding Faith

Billy has tried out a few churches in his lifetime, and we together have tried out a church the past couple years, however he never felt quite right with it? Billy has in the past, had some strong views/opinions on churches and religion, and he kept searching for that church that fit most of his views but had yet to find it...
As for me, I really wanted my boys especially to be involved in a church and grow up with those morals. It was something very important to me. So I would spend nights praying that hopefully one day we could find a church where we fitted, where we belonged, where everyone in our family felt comfortable with it and I didn't have to drag Billy to church every Sunday! (hah!)

So I was really surprised one day last month when Billy says that he's been thinking of trying out the LDS (Mormon) church. He has a couple good friends he had talked to about it, answered some questions for him, and he wanted to know more.
Then not even a couple weeks later we had our first missionaries from the Mormon church come to our door and so we set up an appointment to meet and talk. Since then they've come every Saturday to meet and talk with Billy and I. Billy wanted to find out everything about the church and learn about it before he made the decision to attend. But everything he was learning was things he believed and agreed with. Things were feeling very good and right to him.

Finally he was ready to attend church and we went Easter Sunday for the first time, but without the boys. Since we were going to meet and greet some other people in the church, see the boys' Sunday school room, etc. it was easier to leave them with my parents who were at our house for Easter anyway.

Billy is really really on board with all of this. 100%. He's not having any doubts or second thoughts or weird issues at all. He's taking it all very seriously.

Now he's planning on getting baptized in a few weeks! (And most likely me with him)
He said today that when taking sacrament (like communion) he felt an "odd" warmth or peaceful feeling come over him. It was his first time ever taking sacrament of any kind. He said it all just felt right, like it was a sign or message to him that this was right..the right path for him.

I'm so happy for him, for US, as this is what I have prayed for. To be INVOLVED with church and not just a back row infrequent Sunday attender only. To be a part of something, a part of our lives Monday-Saturday as well.

It's all just began but I will keep praying that it continues! That every Sunday he's just as inspired and enthusiastic with things as he is now. Like Billy himself said....it's a lifestyle change for us. Already the change in our family is noticeable. I complement Billy daily on his new outlook of things; his determination to stop swearing, treat each other more respectfully, raise the boys with these same morals, and more. And it's not just him that needed to work on things, I myself have been having to change some of my ways as well! I like to think of it as an "Extreme Family Makeover"! hah!

So for those who we haven't told yet, that's the truth of it! At first we were a bit hesitant to tell people about this new decision we were making - just because of the church it is and people's general view of it? However, as Billy says, it's nothing to keep secret or hide. It's going to be our church! We should be proud of this fact and shout it from the rooftops. :)

And so here I am, on my blog, shouting it from they uhh...cyber rooftops!

~Bethany

Monday, March 24, 2008

Happy Easter!

Easter has come and gone this year! It was fun, but I'm glad we can get back to our normal schedule once again.

Saturday was spent at my brother's baseball game, in which we came back afterwards and had ribs and corn on the cob that Billy cooked. Then we played Wii and more Wii, and watched the movie I Am Legend. Oh and my sister and I died Easter eggs.

Sunday morning Billy and I snuck out for an hour to attend services at a new church that we are going to start to attend. I hope to post more about that soon, perhaps the next time I post. Eventually I may be posting baptism pictures as well!
Then after church (the boys stayed back at the house with my parents to make things a little less crazy while we were meeting and greeting new people at the church, and talking to their class teacher, etc.) we did the Easter egg hunt and had Easter dinner! Yummy yummy!

I have TONS of Easter pictures, so I'll post the highlights with a link to the rest of them like I did with the Chuck E Cheese photos.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/Easter%202008/
(if it asks for a password: byington)

Enjoy!

~Bethany




Thursday, March 6, 2008

Look who's walking!

Baby Billy of course!

He actually started to take steps a month ago, but only very few steps and we'd have to make him walk, he was still too unsure about the whole thing.

However a few days ago, actually the night of the carnival I posted about last, brother had a sucker he wanted very badly. So I took the sucker to see if he'd walk to it.

To our amazement he walked 7 steps to get to the sucker! And then he did it over and over again.

Now I will catch him taking 2-3 steps in between furniture he's "cruising" on or to get to something just a tad bit out of his reach.

He's still not walking all the time or even most the time...but very close!

This video (hope this works!) is of him today walking to me. Sorry it's so short, but I guess I was sitting too close to him! I have other longer videos of the other night, however they are way too dark. My camera seems to have a hard time in low light situations. grrrr

So check out the video and enjoy!

~Bethany


Saturday, March 1, 2008

This is supposed to be fun?


Last night was the boys' school carnival. Naturally Billy had to work late that night which left me two options: 1) not go or 2) take the boys by myself.

I generally try to avoid anything I can which involves me taking all four boys out alone.

However, it just didn't seem fair to make them stay home because I didn't want to take them alone.

The boys, for the most part, were actually pretty good! However pushing a double stroller, especially when Owen is over the weight limit for it, through crowds of people is NOT easy. It was hot, crazy, loud and PACKED.

But the boys had fun, and that's all that matters right!?

The theme was red, white, and blue and people were supposed to dress up as such.

Of COURSE I took photos! Well as much as I could before it got too crazy, I missed the cake walk though. (We went through the cake walk three times, and won a pie and three boxes of cookies. fuuuuuun)

Enjoy!

~Bethany

Brayden getting his hair "dyed" with silver hair spray paint

Brayden getting a tattoo

Brayden and Owen's tattoos


Brayden racing a boy on the straw race car game

Alex racing a boy on the straw race care game

Owen showing off his loot!