We laughed so hard we cried

Last night we were conducting our evening scripture study followed by family prayer. Steven and the kids were taking turns reading, and I was nursing the over-tired baby to sleep. We were doing our best to maintain crowd control and keep things reverent. Corben sat quietly in the rocking chair. Lauren was reading along. Logen was quietly listening.

.........then there was Hayden. Such a clown. Was she relaxing on the bed and being proper? Was she picking at her brother? No,......she was standing on a chair beside the bed conducting a silent opera....waving arms and opera singer faces and all.

We pleaded with her to get herself in check and just go along with us. We begged her to be reverent. We resorted to threats. She knew they were empty threats because we didn't want to ruin the sliver of peace we were trying to have at the moment. We were all doing our best to keep our composure, but let's face it....it was funny. I suspect Heavenly Father was laughing too.

We tried our hardest to keep it together, but then in the middle of her silent opera she burped, and it was all over. Steven promptly threw in the towel. He knew he wasn't going to win this one. Hayden had us all on her side. He closed the scriptures as nicely as he could. He set them aside trying not to show his complete utter frustration. He folded his arms and started to pray. The kids still were trying their hardest not to laugh(me too!). The harder we tried to stay quiet the harder it was not to laugh. In his prayer Steven prayed for us all to be reverent during scripture study and prayer. His pleas fell on deaf ears. I reached up to pat his back in quiet commiseration of his plight.....then Hayden patted his back too. His prayer stopped. We waited. We waited some more. He quickly closed his prayer and turned to me with tears streaming down his face and busted out laughing. Hayden had won him over. We all finished up the evening with a good hard laugh till you cry.

Too much fun!