In honor of Mason

Mason turned 12 on the 19th. Twelve. Wow--where did time go?

He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood in the office of Deacon on April 24th, and today was his first time passing the sacrament.

For several weeks he has been anxious as to the ins and outs of that responsibility, and he talked with the other Deacons and Stephen and I to gather more information. He created diagrams and ran them by the other Deacons to make sure he understood where to go. (He also is going to make an app so other new Deacons can reference it.) We talked about reverence and being unassuming and not being distracting.

Pre-Deacon haircut

Today I played organ, so had the chance to watch him as he passed the sacrament for the first time. He was the picture of humility and meekness, so serious and focused on doing it right. He gave me the sacrament, and as he looked in my eyes I could see the question in his, "am I doing it right? I'm so happy, Mom!"

Mason is really growing up. He is still silly and immature, but he is having more moments of maturity, and I get more frequent glimpses of who Mason will be. He has seeds of greatness in him--kindness, intelligence, spirituality, responsibility, a tender heart, creativity, a hard worker. I think he is seeing those qualities more in himself, as well, and he is rising to that potential.

He is so excited about Scouts--the weekly meetings, Eagle Scout projects, being with friends, camping.... He's going to organize some of his good friends to come over once a week during the summer to work on projects together, from building dry ice bombs to writing computer programs to programming robots.

After he helped me take care of our 16 chicks for a couple of weeks, with me turning more and more of the responsibility over to him, I offered him the ownership of the flock. We talked about what that meant, and after thinking about if for quite a few hours he decided that he would like to do that. The other kids were upset at first that he got his own flock, but I told them that I would happily give each of them their own flock if they can show me they can care for them responsibly. Mason has really surprised me with his care of his flock--he really is becoming more responsible! Hallelujah! :)

The geese and ducks are part of my flock, but Mason has been a huge help with them, too.

Years ago Mason, Sammy and their friend William created a comic strip they call "Dude". The other day Mason decided to animate one of the strips...

Mason and Elise recently competed in a local Kiwanis talent show, Stars of Tomorrow. Mason was a little excited/nervous beforehand:

And his performance:

At an informal recital: