I have been given much

Today in sacrament meeting I was a proud and beaming mom. Andrew and Madeline were asked a while ago to be the musical number for our program today. They have sung in sacrament meeting a few times before so it wasn't that big of a shock that they were asked to do it again. This time, Andrew really didn't want to sing. He did however want to play the piano. So he and Madeline hatched a plan to have him accompany her. We recently bought him the Hymns Made Easy songbook for piano so they decided to pick a hymn from it. He instantly zeroed in on Because I Have Been Given Much and our initial thought were that it was a song that was just too grown up for our little kids. But after a few times of him playing through it, we thought he could make it work on the piano. We then had to test Madeline out with the singing part. After reading it through and singing it a few times with dad accompanying, we decided that she could do it too. And after that we kind of turned it over to them. Andrew worked so hard on perfecting the piano. He has probably played the song at least 10 times a day for the past week and a half. Madeline also worked really hard on learning all the words--which like I said are pretty grown up for a six year old. We practiced a lot this week and I was so impressed with them. There was never a complaint or a fight during this time, just a lot of peace and harmony. During these practices, Ben would usually sit and watch while Sarah would stand by Madeline with a paper in hand to sing along. It was really a sweet bonding time for everyone. After practicing at the church one day, we talked about what the song means and how important it was for them to think of the meaning when they were playing/singing it. Well today was the big day and I was blown away. I couldn't believe the spirit that my two little kids were able to bring to that chapel. We were wrong to thing that little kids couldn't tackle such a grown up song. They were able to bring it a whole different spirit to it than anyone else could have. I was amazed with them and their hard work that they put forth to make this happen. But most of all I was amazed with their sincerity and love that everyone could feel as they performed this piece. I am so blessed to be the mother of such sweet spirits who are able touch my heart in so many ways. I was beyond impressed with them and all the hard work that they put into this and also how grown up they were as they performed today. They were determined to do it all by themselves and I loved watching these two little kids walk up to the stand. I loved seeing their backs, walking side by side and acting so grown up and mature. They got everything set up and ready all by themselves and then (in my extremely biased opinion) they wowed the entire congregation. We recorded their musical number tonight so that we could share--it's not nearly as good as the original performance, but it's still pretty impressive if you ask me:

And now to add my final two cents, I have been given much and I love these two so much. I thank them for being good sports and I thank everyone who made an effort to compliment them on a job well done. (It meant a lot to them) I'm grateful every day of my life to get to be the mom of such amazing kids because even if they are driving me more than crazy, they are my blessing from heaven who teach me how to love deeper than I ever knew I could.

*And just for the record, their musical abilities do not come from me--we have their father to thank for that!