A view of our Family

Well this past week was a busy one. I am glad to say the stomach bug is out of our home and hopefully gone for a long time. Everytime I turned around I was cleaning up messes. I am so glad that we have a washer and dryer in the home, I have never done so much laundry. However, through all the stress of having Anthony and Spencer passing the stomach bug to each other, Grant and I taking turns with head colds; we were able to see the Tender Mercies of the Lord. While we were all sick, Madeline never got sick. We prayed every day to protect Madeline from getting sick, and the Lord truly answered our prayers. With Madeline's back surgery tomorrow, the last thing I wanted was her to get sick and the surgery get post poned and then that would trickle down to her heart surgery geting postponed. However, the Lord watches over us.

On Friday nights we have a little tradition in our family. The kids get to sleep in the living room on the sleeper sofa. They get so excited when Friday comes around and they can sleep in the living room. When Grant went to go make sure everyone was tucked in before we went to bed, he came back and told me that Anthony was sleeping on the floor under the sleeper sofa (couch) and Madeline was sprawled out all over the top. I had to laugh. They get so excited to sleep on the couch and then in the end the hard wood floor under the couch is much better. It was as if our couch turned into bunk beds.

Also on Friday, Grant and I thought it would be nice to get out of the house and do something as a family. We were tired of being cooped up in the house and everyone was finally feeling better. There is a outlet mall (outdoor) in a town called Denton which is about 30 min north of us, and we thought since it was a nice evening to go and walk around the outlet mall and then go get a treat afterwards. We get to the outlet mall, and it is gone except a few antique shops. We were thinking what do we do now, we came all this way and there is nothing there. Well we saw this one shop called jumping party and it had a bunch of inflatable jump houses. Grant inquired how much it cost and I was surprised that it was pretty cheap. It was empty which was nice we had the jump houses to ourselves. Anthony was all for it, ran right in and started running around and jumping. Madeline was scared and it took 30 minuted of pushing her a long to get her warmed up to it. Spencer did not like it all and prefer the little toddler play area. The kids and the parents enjoyed chasing each other and jumping around for about an hour. After that we were all exahusted and hungry. We took them to McDonalds had a little dinner and then went home. It was a nice simple family activity that got us out of the house.

Today in primary, the kids were learning Tell Me the Stories of Jesus and as part of teaching the kids the song, the choirster asked a couple of kids what would they ask Jesus if he were here. Anthony was one of the kids, at first Anthony was stumbling over what to say and then he said he would asked Jesus to bless him. I just thought that was perfect and it brought a nice image to my mind of the Lord blessing the children and the joy on his face.

Well that is our week in a nutshell, now time to post some pictures.

My pile of laundry after a week of everyone being sick

Madeline tucking her baby in for a good nights sleep (notice the diaper on the baby)

Madeline and Spencer playing trains (I love the look on Spencer's face)

Madeline loves playing trains with daddy

In the morning Madeline has what we call "crazy hair"

This is how I found Madeline one morning, apparently she didn't want to go to school

Pictures of Madeline at the hospital after her pre-op appointment

Anthony decided to sleep under the couch sofa, and he stayed there the whole night.

A conversation with Madeline and with Anthony

Last night I was blessed to enjoy some private conversations with Anthony and with Madeline.

After family scritpure study and family prayer, I scooped Madeline up in my lap and explained to her that she was going to go to the doctor the next day to look at her back and for daddy to answer some questions. (Pre-Op for surgery). She then asked me as she always does, "no ouchies." I love it when I can say no ouchies, but my heart breaks when I can't. I told her I am sorry but you will have an ouchie (those darn blood work). She started to cry and inside I am crying also. I so wish I can step in for her, but I can't. She told me she didn't want to go, that she rather go to school. I explained to her if we say a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help her be brave then He will answer her prayer. So with her in my lap, with her arms folded I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help Madeline be brave. After the prayer, she was a little more content. We talked about how much Heavenly Father loves Madeline and we also talked about how Heavenly Father hears our prayer and that he will answer Madeline's prayer by helping Madeline be brave. After that her tears stoped and she was content. She still knew she was going to get an ouchie, but in her three year old mind she knew everything was going to be okay because she said a prayer. I am so greatful for my knowledge of prayer and for the love of our Heavenly Father. I am not able to take Madeline's pain away, but through prayer our loving Heavenly Father can send His love which ease our fears and fill our hearts with peace. Today Madeline woke up and excitedly got ready to go to the doctor. You see, her and daddy are going to have a special picnic at the hospital as well as see the minature train village that they set up there too. Madeline picked out her special yellow blanket for her and her daddy to use and was so excited to use her lunch bag to put her lunch in. Yes she may get an ouchie today, but the silver linning in the whole thing is a picnic (time) with daddy.

My conversation with Anthony started as I was tucking him into bed. Before he lays down he says his personal prayer. To help teach prayer, we always discuss some things he could pray about. If we don't he will say the same thing he said at dinner or the night before. One of the things he wanted to pray for was for Madeline to be brave at her doctor's appointment. The next thing surprised me. He wanted to pray for President Hinckley to come back. This started a conversation about the resurrection. I reminded him that President Hinckley is going to come back. We talked about how Jesus was resurrected and because he was resurrected everyone who has died when Christ comes again will be resurrected. We just have to wait until the time comes. I did tell him if you want to pray for President Hinckley, you can pray for his family that they will be comforted. I told him, even though his family knows they will see President Hinckley again they are still said because they miss him. Anthony then asked a question what does comfort mean. In a split second, I thought well how do you explain comfort to a six year old. Thank goodness for the influence of the spirit. I didn't know how, but Heavenly Father did. This is what I felt prompted to say. When someone you love dies, you have a sad heart. When you pray for someone to be comforted you are asking Heavenly Father to help their sad heart become a happy heart. After our conversation he said his personal prayers, asked to help Madeline be brave, President Hinckley's family to be comforted, and then he ended it with bless that our house will not catch on fire. After his prayer he said "Mommy, I know how much you don't like fire, so I asked Heavenly Father to not let our house catch on fire." The love of a child. It was nice way to end a busy day.

I am so greatful for the opportunties the Lord gives me as a mother to teach my children his gospel and the Plan of Salvation.

Tribute to President Hinckley

Here is a video I made of President Hinckley's testimony. I mainly did it for my children so that they would be interested in listening to his testimony when Grant and I sit down with our kids and talk to them about President Hinckley and the organization of the church. Hopefully there is sound.

President Hinckley FHE

Grant and I thought it would be a good idea to do a FHE lesson on President Hinckley and how the organization of the church works. Yesterday I was telling Anthony about the death of President Hinckley. He was sad and then he told me I don't care if it is President Monson or one of Hinckley's other helpers, I just want a prophet. I asked him who would the next prophet be and he said President Monson, so he already knew who it would be, but I thought a lesson would be a good thing to assure him that Lord will not leave us without a leader/prophet. I went to lds.org and under the newsroom section you can get the pictures of the First Presidency and Apostles. I saved them to my computer and I will print them out and will put them on the wall. We will take president Hinckley down and put Monson and Erying back in their positions of seniority and then talk about the process of selecting the new First Presidency. After that I have a matching game/timeline about President Hinckley's life and then on Byutv.org they have the video of President Hinckley and at the end of the video President Hinckley gives his testimony and I am going to play the video. Since it is on the internet I can scroll down to that specific clip, the hour long movie would bore my kids. Here is the link to the timeline/matching game. Here is also the link to the First Presidency and Apostles pics.

Here is the pic of what I am going to put on the wall.

Hope this will help the kids understand a little more as well help strengthen their testimony of the Prophet and organization of the church.

FHE Idea for Monday

So we are struggling with obedience in our home, mainly with Madeline. School is a wonderful thing they teach so many good things for our children, one of them is disobedience. Madeline is in a class of six boys and her. I have been to her class and I wonder how the teachers get anything taught. Watching the boys throw things, tell the teachers no, throw fits it is no wonder that Madeline does the same things at home. So I decided to have a FHE lesson on obedience, and to make it fun. I am going to start out by making chocolate chip cookies. My kids love making chocolate chip cookies. However, this time we are not going to follow the recipie. There will be some ingredients that I will exchange for another ingredient that might have either the same color or consistentcy. I may also add more sugar or add to much baking soda; things of that nature. The whole point is that in the end we did not get the chocolate chip cookies that we desired because we did not obey the instructions. I also planned to tell the story using clipart of Nephi getting the brass plates, and then there is a cute ghost story that is about obedience. I found some games called Finch Games where you can download incentive and other charts for a dollar. There is also lots of other fun games for FHE or for Sacrament Meeting. Hopefully this will be a start to helping Madeline see; I know we will repeat this lesson several times, we all forget and need reminders.

This Weeks Happenings

Well sorry there are no pictures this week. For the most part our week was quiet and uneventful. On Monday, I came down with a cold and so was not able to do FHE. Grant and I have made a goal not to miss FHE no matter what. We were going to watch a BOM movie and talk about it (I have a website that uses the videos for FHE lessons). Grant thought that Madeline wouldn't sit through a movie, which is probably true. Grant took President Monson's lesson from this months Ensign and got some popsicle sticks and some spare pieces of wood and they made bridges. Elder Monson talks about three bridges that Christ has built to help us return back to him. Obedience, Service and Prayer. As the kids built each bridge we talked about ways we can be Obedient, ways we can Serve, and things we could Pray for. Grant then had a picture of everyone and when the bridge was built we took our pictures and we walked across the bridges back to our Savior Jesus Christ. I thought it was a good last minute lesson and I think it helped the kids see by doing the things He has asked us to do we can return and be back into his presence.

On Thursday, it was my date night with Anthony. He was so excited! We went to the library and had fun reading books and working on being a better reader. While we were on our date, Grant stayed home with Madeline and they had their date at home. They played Twister (Madeline loves that game) and afterwards they made muffins together. On Friday it was Daddy's turn to have a date with Anthony. They watch Star Wars (V), don't know the name. I got pizza and ice cream sandwhiches for them. Anthony enjoyed watching the movie with his daddy and learning more about Star Wars. After the video they played Cars video game on the Playstation.

Saturday was filled with chores and grocery shopping. Madeline has been asking for me to get bananas all week long at the store. She loves bananas but she can't eat them for they make her tummy hurt. Every now and then we buy her some bananas. She was so excited when I came home with some bananas. Madeline's back surgery is still set for Feb 4 and so between now and then we will do whatever it takes and pray that she does not get sick. With Grant and I coming down with colds this week, we are just hoping and praying that Madeline doesn't catch it.

We will keep everyone posted on Madeline's surgery. Thanks for all your prayers, they are sure a strength to our family.

Madeline's date with Mommy and Daddy

On Monday Grant and I took Madeline for a date. We went to the mall that has an indoor playground, but it was too crowded. However, she had fun eating luch with us, going for a carosel ride and she saw a bridge over a money fountain and she had to walk across the bridge; to her that was the neatest thing. It was a reminder to me (again) that children don't need fancy dates just time. Spencer had fun, but in the end he was tired of sitting in the stroller. When I took Anthony on his date, I was telling her about it. She wanted me to make sure that Anthony would ride the horse and walk over the bridge. I had to smile. She associated those activities with the word date. I was taking Anthony on a date and that is what you do on a date. I can only imagine what Spencer is going to say when he can talk.

Spencer has two Mommies and the Tender Mercies of the Lord

Madeline loves to feed Spencer. Spencer does not like it when Madeline's feeds him. She gets the food on the spoon just fine and gets it in his mouth, but she takes a long time to do that and Spencer wants his food NOW!! However, Madeline loves being his mommy, I think Spencer would prefer if she wasn't, but he is being very patient.

Tonight it was Anthony's turn for a date with Mommy. For our date we went to the library, he read some books to me, we checked out some videos, and then we went out to eat. Anthony kept talking to me about what a beautiful day it was and what a great time it was to be with each other. He then ask me about what I did during the day while he was at school, and then he looked at me with his big brown eyes and out of the blue while I was answering his question he said, "I love you," and then he went on with our conversation. Anthony has big beautiful brown eyes and when they are big they can pierce your heart. It was one of those moments that made all the mundane motherhood things worth every penny. After our date while we were eating our treat he then again asked me what he liked most about our date. Anthony looks forward to dates with mommy or daddy. I have made it a goal to do them on a regular basis with Madeline and Anthony.

On the way home from school today, Anthony asked me what I like most about him, Madeline, and Spencer. I was caught off guard because he has never asked such question. Usually he rambles on about this or that about his day or about this character or that character on Star Wars. It was a nice conversation. Today was a day full of the Tender Mercies of the Lord. The Lord giving me a glimpse of the blessings and importance of Motherhood. Sometimes Satan throws doubts in my mind of whether I am doing any good as a mother; but then the Lord blesses me a son that looks up at me with his big brown eyes and says "I love you." I am on a motherhood high and when Satan tries to get in my way, I will remember the blessings of having Anthony, Madeline, and Spencer for eternity.

Cooper's went to China

Here are some pictures of us going to China. I did some research on China, showed the kids a map of china as well as an atlas so they can see where we are and where china is. I found are names written in Chinese and had each kid write their name in Chinese. I found what zodiac animal we were, and we made hats with our animal on it. I got some chop sticks and some marshmellows and tried to pick up the marshmellows using chop sticks. The kids's ended up just stabbing them. I set up an area in the living room as an airplane. Grant was the pilot and I was the flight attendant. I took the shopping cart wit a tray on it around giving the kids some herbal tea and fortune cookies. I told them what the time of the day was in China as well as the temp. Since it was snowing, before we got off the plane we bunddled up so we wouldn't get cold. We then went over to a different part of the living room where I had some chinese latterns set up and that is where we did our activitites. The kids had a blast. We are going to do this once a month, go to a different country and learn about it. I also made air plane tickets and had a place for them to check in and I punched their tickets.

Random Pictures of the Kids

I have included random pictures of the kids.

Anthony is doing great in school. He was tested last week for the gifted and talented program, we are hoping he gets in. He continues to improve on his reading and handwriting. I am amazed at how much he can read and how much he knows how to spell. He has taken off with star wars. He absolutely loves it! He saves up his money from his allowance to buy lego star war ships. He sits down and plays with them for hours. He is able to follow the instructions himself with no help from Grant or I. Anthony loves to talk to me about star wars. I absolutely have no idea what he is talking about. I recognize some of the names and with some of them I can tell you if they are good or bad. However, Anthony loves talking to me about them as if I know what he is talking about. He also enjoys renacting the battles in the living room. It is fun to watch him. We are still working on memorizing the Articles of Faith. It is getting easier because he can read some of them. When we introduce a new article of faith we also talk about what it means. I am amazed at how well he understands the gospel. I love to hear him teach Madeline about the gospel or talk to her about Jesus. Madeline will sit there and say "Oh okay" as if she understands completely what he is saying.

Madeline is enjoying school and has come along way since school has started. She will have back surgery on Feb 4. We went to the doctor over the Christmas break. He asked me how things were going and I told him she needed her rods extended. He asked me how I knew. I told him about my scientific method. I can no longer line her belly button with her button on her pants. He thought my method was pretty good. They are just going to make two little incensions and extend the rod and that is it. So this should be a quick recovery for her. Madeline is adjusting to being in primary. She goes, but not as excitiedly as when she was in nursery. Her teacher was called today to be the new primary president. So for now I am subing as the teacher until they can find a replacement. I am excited. I love making FHE lessons and for me this is like FHE only with more kids. I use Madeline's lesson manual as well as what they learn in sharing time for our FHE lessons. So while I am the sub, Madeline will probably be really excited to go to primary. Madeline loves to play games with her daddy. Her favorite game to play in Twister. She does pretty good. When it is her turn to call out, she always says either right foot or right hand; so Grant and I usually decide which hand or foot is easier to move. Madeline also is a little mommy to Spencer. If she hears him crying she will tell him it is okay Spencer, mommy is coming. She enjoys feeding him (Spencer does not enjoy her feeding him) and she loves to play with him.

Spencer is now sitting up as well as experiementing with table foods. He is still not much for vegetables. He will allow us to feed him one jar of baby food, but if we try to feed him two in one meal he will spit it out. So we usually give him one veg. and one fruit. He is still a happy, big, baby. He loves to be outside and he loves playing with his toys, especially the ones that light up. Right now he has four teeth that are coming in so there are days where he isn't so happy. He just turned 8 months.

I think that is all for now. Grant and I are doing the same things as usual, but having fun.

FHE another successful night

Here is an example of the goal tracker that I used.

Tonight for FHE we talked about goals. It was fun. To demonstrate what a goal was we made chocolate chip cookies. We did this for two purposes, I didn't have time to make a treat for tonight so I took this as my opportunity to do so. The kids had fun and enjoyed making the cookies. While cookies were baking we talked about how making cookies was much like setting a goal. I then read them a story from President Grant about how he learned to throw a baseball and then played for the championship team. We then all decided on what goal we wanted to accomplish and I made a goal tracker for them in the design of a football field. They can move their football down the field as they accomplish each step towards their goal. The kids had a lot of fun thinking of their goal and the steps they wanted to take to accomplish them. Overall I think it went pretty well.

Daddy showing his hat from the kids
Anthony with his risk game
Madeline giving her bath baby a hug
Spencer amazed at what his gift can do
Me and my label machine. I have labled my house

now there is no excuse for not putting things

where they go

Spencer on Christmas Eve
Madeline Enjoying her Hot Cocoa
Mommy resting from Christmas Eve Festivities
Madeline sitting in his walker from Santa
Madeline riding her scooter

Daddy and the Kids on Christmas Eve

Christmas was fun and the kids enjoyed unwrapping their presents. This year Santa brought Anthony and Madeline scooters and hot chocolate mugs with their pictures on it. The kids have enjoyed going to the park to ride their scooters. On Christmas Eve we did our traditional Christmas Even celebration. We got our Christmas jamies on and made smores in the fire place. Madeline made her smore, but didn't want to eat it; silly girl. On Christmas morning Anthony came and woke us up all excited about the gifts under the tree, he completely missed the gifts that Santa brought. We were finally able to presuade Madeline to wake up and Spencer was already awake. Anthony was really excited to get Star Wars risk. We have been playing it a lot. I still don't understand star wars and I plan on leaving this earth without understanding star wars. Anthony sure loves to tell me all about star wars and I love to listen even though I don't have a clue what he is talking about. Madeline was excited to get a couple of movies, since the movies were the ones that she loves to rent from the "movie" store. For New Year's this year we rang in by sleeping. Madeline had an early doctor's appointment that day (her back doctor) they are scheduling her next surgery, and when 9:00 hit I was tired so off to bed we went and when we woke up it was 2008!

Mom and Kids on Christmas Even

Anthony and Madeline on Christmas Even

Making Gingerbread houses

I bought a kit at the store to make a gingerbread house. This is the first year that we made one, the kids loved it. We used all of our Halloween candy. I think next year we will make the gingerbread instead of buying a kit. The kids loved take their lollipops and putting them upside down and using them as trees. The kids really love putting "glue" on the gingerbread house. They got a little carried away. When it was done drying the house was rock solid it would have taken a tornado to destory the house.

Spencer loves to jump & Squeal

Note: I couldn't roate the video so you might have to turn your head to see. Spencer loves to jump in his saucer. When you put him in, he will jump the whole entire time without stopping. Because we have wood floors it can get pretty loud in our living room with him jumping. Santa gave spencer a walker for Christmas and when we put him in that, he started jumping as if he was in his saucer, at least it is quiet. When you sit spencer on the floor he will jump or rock back and forth, he always has to be moving he cannot sit still. I wonder what will happen when he can learn to crawl and walk.

Spencer loves his light start stacker. Whenever you light it up he gets excited and squeals with excitement. It is so fun to play with him and watch him get excited.

Anthony & Gymnastics

Anthony receiving his award for good job at the end of parent day at gymnastics. I thought they would be cheap plastic medals, but they are really nice and heavy too. He is proud of his medal, which he should be. Gymnastics has really helped get out of his comfort zone and do things that he normally wouldn't do.

Anthony loves gymnastics. He goes every wednesday and each wednesday he is excited to go. He loves doing tricks on the trampoline and learning how to climb the rock climbing wall. He loves his coach, and I have to admit she is pretty awesome! This is a picture of Anthony during parent day at gymnastics.