Our Family Home Evening

For FHE a couple of Monday's ago we did our lesson at the dinner table. Grant chose a picture out of the gospel art kit to help with some obedience issues that we are struggling with at home. Madeline at times spends lots of time in time out as we struggle with power. We have this saying at home that we are teaching our children that they need to say: "yes mommy, yes daddy," well as you can imagine it works sometimes and sometimes it falls of deaf ears.

As we were explaining Jesus calling his apostles Grant told Madeline that when Jesus asked them to follow him, his apostles put down their nets and said "yes Jesus." Grant went on to explain what it means to follow Jesus and when we follow Jesus we are telling him "yes." We also talked about how Jesus obeyed his mommy and daddy and was a good example. Then Madeline pipes in, at this time I wasn't sure if she was listening or paying more attention to her food. "Jesus got M&M's because he made good choices and said "yes mommy, yes daddy." Grant and I had to chuckle and simply said yes he did. At home we have a good behavior jar and every time the kids make good choices we reward them with 5 M&M's, we finally found something that spoke to our kids, however sometimes M&M's are not an incentive to Madeline. The next day, on the way to school Madeline told me the whole story of Jesus calling his apostles. So I guess she was listening.

Anthony started piano lessons last week from a fantastic person in our ward. Anthony's piano teacher happens to be the primary choister in our ward and he has such a love for music and a love for children and he loves bringing the excitement of music to the children. Anthony is so excited.

I took Spencer to the doctor for his one year check up and he is officially 25 and 1/2 pounds. One pound heavier than Madeline. If he keeps his trend up he will be 30 pounds by the time he is 2.

I have been tagged by an angel

My angel that tagged me was Ginger.

How To Play This Game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. (Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!)
3 Joys
1. My husband, Grant
2. my children
3. Being able to start off the morning in the scriptures

3 Fears
1. Snakes
2. Heights
3. Messing up my kids and confusing them for life

3 Goals
1. To be with my family forever.
2. To get out of debt (next year!!)
3. For my kids to grow up to be happy & successful with strong testimonies of the Gospel!

3 current obsessions/collections
1. I am in a vinly lettering kick!
2. Pictures of my little family
3. Making FHE lessons for my kids

3 Random surprising facts
1. I have no cavities and never went to the dentist growing up
2. I have never broken a bone in my body
3. I had to have stiches under my chin from falling at school when I was 5

5 people I tag1. Alycia. 2. Sue. 3. Layla. 4. Wendy. 5. Any lurkers on board.

My Mother's Day

My Mother's Day was simple and nice just the way I like it. There were no fancy plans just quiet sunday spending time together. The best part of the day was the nap that I got after church. While I took a nap the kids decorated my Mother's Day gift. You see the nap served two purposes. I got some much needed rest and Grant was able to help the kids with my gift.

Anthony woke up this morning excited. He knew it was Mother's Day and he wanted to give me his gifts that he made at school. All week long Anthony and Madeline have been going through the house singing Mother Dear I love you so. They were even singing the song in the check out line at walmart and when they sing they don't sing at a whisper, they sing so everyone can hear. So all those behind us in line was privledge to hear two children sing Mother Dear I Love You So, only a kid could get away with that.

Here are some pics of my mother's day gifts. Today has been a great day just as every day is a great day!

This is a shirt that Grant and the kids got for me!

School Activity Pictures of Anthony

At Anthony's school all the Kindergarteners went to the zoo. I signed up to go thinking that I would walk along and take cute pictures of Anthony. Well the day before I read the paper again and realized that I was going to have my own group and be incharge of walking around with them, eating lunch with them, and basically educating them along the way. This was a little more than I thought, I was much more content and prepared with walking along taking cute pictures of Anthony. However, there were only three kids and one of them was Anthony that were in my group. The biggest problem was there were so many rude High School kids at the zoo which made it impossible to see some of the animals. I just do not understand how a teacher can justify taking High School Kids to the zoo, Kindergartners I can. These High School kids were not chaperoned which made things more difficult. The kids were certainly tired by the end of the field trip and having to walk back was interesting with 3 tired Kindergartners. The highlight of the trip for Anthony was being able to ride the bus.

Also last week Anthony was able to participate in field day at school. I walked around for about an hour cheering Anthony on and taking pictures of my cute son in action. After an hour I was tired and left Anthony with his 5th grader buddy and sat in the shade with the teachers and watched from a distance. Anthony enjoyed going around with his group paticipating in the different activities. There was no competition as they all recieved a certificate at the end. It was fun to see Anthony's smile on his face and to see him really enjoying himself.

Spencer Turned One!

On Saturday, Spencer turned a year old. We were going to go to the zoo, but figured Anthony and Madeline would enjoy it more than Spencer. We then thought of going to the park and then we stepped outside and was hit with the humidty so we decided instead to go get pictures taken of Spencer. For his birthday breakfast we made our usual pancake with a birthday candle, but he was more interested in his cocoa puffs and pushed it away.

On Sunday after church the kids decorated his cake and gave him his presents. Spencer didn't go after the cake like we thought, infact he didn't really start eating it until we gave him ice cream and stopped taking pictures. We managed to get a few pictures of him eating cake and ice cream. After he got all cleaned up, he opened his presents and we spent the rest of the time as a family enjoying Spencer's new toys with him.

Feedback from Spencer on his birthday was that it was good. My only clue is his smile and usual bubbly self.