To four year old Logan

Logan,

Oh my, you are a goofball. You have always been my sweet, tender, darling boy and then you had to go and turn four and turn into this goofy, button pushing, giggly boy! You love to be chased and you love to be tickled. You still have a serious, thoughtful side to you but I think that you are getting so comfortable with the world around you that you can be sillier than you ever have been.

I wanted to write about what a deep thinker you are. When you calm down from all your silliness you share with Dad and I some pretty amazing thoughts that are swirling around in that little blonde head of yours.

You're teachers at church just love you. Technically you should still be a sunbeam but we put you in Primary a year early. We weren't going to, we didn't want to be those parents. But you cried every Sunday after moving to Montana you did NOT want to go to nursery. You have always been uncomfortable around people you don't know well, but even after 10 months in the ward you just wouldn't go to nursery without a lot of tears. In the month of December, before you turned 3, every time we would tell you it was Sunday and we had to get ready for church you would break down in tears and scream and cry and tell us that you WERE NOT going to church. It became so bad. I couldn't bear that you hated church at such a young age! The Primary president knew all about you told us to just move you up to Primary early if we thought it would help you. I politely declined saying you would be fine. But that first Sunday in January you cried the most you ever had about getting ready for church, it was like you were traumatized! So before I could even think I said, "Guess what?? Today you get to go to Primary with Ethan!" You stopped crying immediately. "I do?? YAY!!" You were so excited you threw on your church clothes, immediately loved your Sunbeam teachers whom you had never met, and never complained about church again! (well, at least not for a very long time :)). Anyway, despite the fact that you shouldn't be in CTR 4 you are often the only kid in your class that shows up for Primary. You have had several teachers over the past year and a half but they have always been impressed by you. They tell me stories about amazing and funny things you have said. Here are a few:

One teacher started her lesson by telling a story: "There once was a boy that went into a store with his Mom. In the store he put a piece of candy in his pocket and took it home without paying for it. What did the boy do wrong?" You responded: "He ate candy, and candy makes you weak!" Haha, your teacher laughed but corrected you and said, "No, he was stealing candy!" We've been learning the 10 commandments at home and you immediately shouted out: "Thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt not covet!"

Every Sunday Dad reads Bible stories to you kids out of an illustrated Bible book set we have. You and Ethan know so many Bible stories because of it-some of them I have never heard of! One week in class your teacher started to tell a story out of the manual about a man she had never heard of. She started telling that story of a man who wanted to see Jesus but he was too short so he climbed into a tree so that he could see Jesus as he passed by. You got excited and interrupted, "yeah, that's Zacchaeus!" and then you proceeded to tell about how nobody liked him because he cheated people out of money, etc, and how Jesus wanted to eat dinner with him and he repented and changed and then the people liked him. Your teacher was amazed that you knew this random Bible story!

During singing time in Primary we were singing Nephi's Courage. We got to the line that says, "when I'm discouraged" and Sister Kaltschmidt asked if anyone knew what discouraged meant. You were the only kid that raised his hand. She asked you what it meant and you said, "discouraged means that you couldn't do something and you feel sad, but you can just keep trying and maybe you'll be able to do it!" All the adults made an "ahhh" sound at such a wise answer from a little four-year-old.

During scripture study you often get serious and start talking about thoughts you have been having. Sometimes I don't know what in the world you are talking about ;), but sometimes you say the most profound things! The other night you said, "Dad, Satan knows what is right, he just wants us to do what is wrong." It wasn't a question. Ethan, sitting on the top bunk, scoffed a little, "no he doesn't!" he said. Then we explained to Ethan that you were right-Satan knows exactly what is right, he just doesn't want us to be happy. You have such a wise spirit-you understand so much at such a young age!

You've learned this year about how a sign with a picture covered by a circle with a line crossed through it means that that thing in the picture is not allowed (like a no smoking sign). I was driving along with you kids in May and we crossed some railroad tracks. You noticed the Railroad Crossing Sign (the one with the two Rs and the crossing X). You said to me, "Mom! That sign said 'No Rs on the road', but that's silly," he gave a little giggle, "because Rs are letters and they can't drive!"