Hey strangers! :) Long time, no blog....I know. But seriously, do you remember how fun this blog used to be? Lots of fun activities with the kiddos, some organizational ideas, some pics of some really cute kids ;), and more?! I do! And I have missed it! We just got settled into our new home this week and I am feeling anxious to get back to my old ways...at least for the next few months until baby Avery joins our family and I fall off the face of the earth again :) Anyway, without any further ado, here are our plans for our theme for this upcoming week....Winter Week!
One of the most fun things that we did last year was messy and kind of yucky to clean up after, but seriously so fun! Since we can't have a real snowball fight we got out some bags of big marshmallows and went at it! We pulled out the couches so we could each hide behind one, and then I put mittens in the middle of the floor. The goal was to run out and grab as many mittens as you could without getting hit. If you got hit, you had to drop the mittens and start over. We played this forever, and Skylar was getting pretty good at throwing by the end :)
One idea I saw that would be SO fun as soon as we do get some snow is to fill up squirt bottles with colored water and let your kids paint the snow. I think this would also be a good way to work on letter recognition, write a huge letter on the snow and have them tell you the letter and the sound it makes.
Last year I found a cute little poem on http://www.dltk-kids.com/ about snowflakes. The direct link is http://www.dltk-holidays.com/winter/m5snowflakes.htm and you can print out 5 little snowflakes to go with it. We laminated them and put them on popsicle sticks so Skylar could act it out with me.
Finally I found two fun things to make on Family Fun. The first is (what else?) a cute snowman treat. Here is the direct link:http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50093
And this next one is a fun, simple craft all my kids will enjoy. http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca
1.16.2011
12.31.2010
Word of the Year!
I cannot believe it is already time again to choose a word to focus on for the upcoming year! 2010 was a big year for our family, LOTS of twists and turns, amazing blessings and humbling trials. I think 2011 will have just as many changes as we will again be moving, welcoming a new baby to the family and who knows what else?!
As with the last two years I have done this, the word I have chosen came to me quickly and without a doubt! There are so many things I need to work on, but this one immediately struck me as what I want to focus on this year. My word of the year for 2011 is......
SERVICE!!
As I said 2011 was a very humbling year for us, and in the midst of it all our blessings and the service of others was what shone through. I am thrilled to take 2011 to focus on all the different ways I can serve in my life. First and foremost, serving my family. I am excited to serve my family, to help all of us become better and closer to our Savior. I am looking forward to serving in the Church, while we have been staying in Eagle Mountain we have not had the opportunity of serving in callings. I have been so surprised to find out how much I have missed it! I love the associations it brings, I love how much more I depend on the Lord to make up for what I lack. I am excited to serve in the Temple. I am excited to look past my little family and our needs and serve those in our community that have so little. On Christmas Eve this year we went to The Road Home shelter and donated a trunk full of toys and baby clothes. It was a life changing experience for me and hopefully my kids too. Often in our prayers now Skylar will ask Heavenly Father to bless the kids at the homeless shelter. We were so humbled and only wished we had done more. We have made a family commitment to do something each month (ie make blankets, put together hygeine kits etc) so by the time next Christmas Eve rolls around we will have a donation that really means something, that we have all worked for.
If you feel overwhelmed by New Year's Resolutions I encourage you to pick just one word, its a great way to feel your making a change without going overboard :) If you need some ideas, here are my words for the last two years!! Have a Happy New Year everyone!!
EMBRACE
BALANCE
As with the last two years I have done this, the word I have chosen came to me quickly and without a doubt! There are so many things I need to work on, but this one immediately struck me as what I want to focus on this year. My word of the year for 2011 is......
SERVICE!!
As I said 2011 was a very humbling year for us, and in the midst of it all our blessings and the service of others was what shone through. I am thrilled to take 2011 to focus on all the different ways I can serve in my life. First and foremost, serving my family. I am excited to serve my family, to help all of us become better and closer to our Savior. I am looking forward to serving in the Church, while we have been staying in Eagle Mountain we have not had the opportunity of serving in callings. I have been so surprised to find out how much I have missed it! I love the associations it brings, I love how much more I depend on the Lord to make up for what I lack. I am excited to serve in the Temple. I am excited to look past my little family and our needs and serve those in our community that have so little. On Christmas Eve this year we went to The Road Home shelter and donated a trunk full of toys and baby clothes. It was a life changing experience for me and hopefully my kids too. Often in our prayers now Skylar will ask Heavenly Father to bless the kids at the homeless shelter. We were so humbled and only wished we had done more. We have made a family commitment to do something each month (ie make blankets, put together hygeine kits etc) so by the time next Christmas Eve rolls around we will have a donation that really means something, that we have all worked for.
If you feel overwhelmed by New Year's Resolutions I encourage you to pick just one word, its a great way to feel your making a change without going overboard :) If you need some ideas, here are my words for the last two years!! Have a Happy New Year everyone!!
EMBRACE
BALANCE
12.13.2010
Just in case there aren't enough days to celebrate...
we created a new one in our family this year! I was inspired by a dear friend of mine (I love you Steph!) that has made the first day of October a holiday for her little family. I thought it was such a sweet idea that I copied her and we decided to kick off our favorite month of the year by celebrating December 1st! I had alot of fun ideas of ways to make the day special and I think for the most part it was pretty successful and a great way to kick off our Christmas season.
You know I love a themed breakfast, so may I introduce you too........SANTA CLAUS!!!
As you can see, MOST of the kids really enjoyed this....Kendall being the exception. She was really wanting some cereal that morning. But hey, this is a reality at our house, so there you go! :)
As the day went on we did several activities like writing our letters to Santa and going to the Dollar store and picking out hot chocolate mugs for everyone. Then that evening as we sipped hot chocolate from our brand new mugs we read our new book, "Christopher Pop-in-kins". This is a darling book that is very similar to another book about a little elf that likes to sit on a shelf :) Its darling and comes with the cutest little elf that I have been hiding around the house every morning, making sure the kids are being good before he reports back to Santa :)
All in all, it was a really fun day and something I hope we will continue to do year after year. I am a sucker for traditions so every year it seems I try to add a few more, and only a few actually stick. It was a great way to kick off our month of celebrating, rejoicing, giving and more!
11.15.2010
Tom the Turkey Family Home Evening
I had previously posted this FHE idea on my other blog, but we did it again tonight and it was a huge hit! I thought I would repost it here in hopes it can give some of you some fun thanksgiving themed ideas. This is a great lesson because there are so many fun things you can do with turkeys, but the content is the best part.
To prepare for this lesson I printed off the story, "The Turkey with the Terrible Temper", and printed off several turkeys. You need a brown, red, blue, green, purple and yellow turkey and then one white one that you can color brown with a feather in each of the above listed colors. As I read the stories to my children I show them the different colored turkeys to go along with the story. I can't remember where I initially found this story, so I typed it up here for you. I did make a few changes to the original, just a little different wording for my younger children.
The Turkey With the Terrible Temper
Once there was a little BROWN TURKEY who had a TERRIBLE TEMPER. He often flew into rages and ranted around until he was a nuisance in the farm yard. One day he lost his temper about some little thing and got so angry he flew into a rage and went RED as a beet. The other turkeys laughed at him and said: You're RED, RED RED as a BEET: RED from your head to the tip of your feet. Tom Turkey didn't like anyone or anything so he ran away and hid. He sat and sulked for a long time. When he calmed down and came out of his hiding place he was really RED all over. His head was RED and his neck was RED- he was RED from head to his feet.
He hurried to the edge of the farm to visit Dr. Owl how was wise and knew all the answers to everything. "You will have to learn to control that temper of yours!" hooted Dr. Owl. " If you don't remember in time you will end up being a very sorry turkey." The next morning Tom Turkey was brown again except that he had a red feather in his tail. He was very glad to be brown again, but he still thought it was everybody else's fault that he gotten so angry the day before. Tom's mother called him to help with the Monday wash.
But Tom got the BLUES as soon as he started working. He moaned and groaned until his mother said he was acting like a baby. You can guess what happened next- he lost his temper again. This time he went BLUE ALL OVER! As he was running away to hide all the other turkeys yelled: You're BLUE, BLUE from your head to your toe, BLUE all over wherever you go. This time Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed his mother for losing his temper.
By morning he was BROWN again but now he had a blue feather next to the red one in his tail. You can guess what happened the rest of the week. On Tuesday Tom didn't want to clean up the yard. He said he hated cleaning up with a PURPLE passion. Just as soon he had said he was in a rage he turned PURPLE all over. The Turkeys shouted: You're PURPLE, PURPLE, that's all we can see, you'd better go hide under your favorite tree. Of course Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed everything onto to everyone else. On Wednesday morning he was BROWN again but he had a PURPLE tail feather added to his the RED and BLUE one. He was beginning to feel ashamed that he couldn't control himself when he wanted to. He went out for a walk when he saw a big ear of corn that his turkey friend was eating. Tom was GREEN with envy.
He thought the farmer had no right to give someone else the cob of corn. And before he knew it he had turned GREEN all over, and was in another terrible temper tantrum. The turkeys all turned on him and yelled: You're GREEN, GREEN GREEN as the grass. Why don't you get wise and stop all the sass? And of course again, Tom Turkey went to his hiding place to sulk and feel sorry for himself. On Thursday morning he was BROWN again but now he had a GREEN feather amongst the other brightly colored tail feathers. But something was happening to Tom Turkey. He was really beginning to want to change. He wanted to keep his temper. He didn't feel like being ashamed of himself. He was determined to try hard and do just that. Of course all the turkeys liked to tease Tom and while they were playing a game of Gobble and Waddle someone called Tom a coward. Before Tom started to think he had flown into another tantrum.
This time his face turned YELLOW and his neck was YELLOW and the turkeys were saying he had a YELLOW streak down his back. They yelled: You're YELLOW, turkey. Just like we said, Why don't you go home and hide under the bed? Tom Turkey had turned YELLOW all over because he had forgotten to control his temper. But this time he sat under a tree and thought a long time about everything. He had only himself to blame for his mistakes. He was beginning to realize that he was the only one who could make things better. When he awoke in the morning he was brown again with a new yellow feather in his tail. He didn't say a word to anyone, he just went about his business and said to himself: " I can do it, if I try hard enough !" Mother Turkey asked Tom to keep an eye on the little turkeys when she went to the store on Friday. While she was gone all the baby turkeys ran through the house with muddy feet. When Tom saw what they had done, Tom almost lost his temper.
But this time he just held his breath as long as he could. He turned as pale as a ghost , but he didn't lose his temper. The turkeys yelled: You're WHITE, WHITE but your temper didn't show. Maybe you're changing, we really hope so. All Saturday and Sunday he kept calm and was tickled PINK to think he had gone two days without a terrible temper tantrum. He was still a little BROWN turkey, and a very happy one too. He reported back to Dr. Owl on Monday and Tom Turkey thanked him for his help. Dr. Owl told Tom he had earned the right to wear the brightly colored tail and that he should show it off proudly from now on. So when you go to the farm and see the turkey with his fan shaped tail all unfolded, remember this story about the turkey with the terrible temper.
I know, it seems a little long, but it held my 5 and 3 year old's attention....and thats saying something!! :) I just have to quickly say, I LOVE lessons and opportunities to teach our children that they have a CHOICE. They choose how they act, they choose to find happiness or not. I think it is very empowering for children, where they may often feel like they don't have many choices at all.
To prepare for this lesson I printed off the story, "The Turkey with the Terrible Temper", and printed off several turkeys. You need a brown, red, blue, green, purple and yellow turkey and then one white one that you can color brown with a feather in each of the above listed colors. As I read the stories to my children I show them the different colored turkeys to go along with the story. I can't remember where I initially found this story, so I typed it up here for you. I did make a few changes to the original, just a little different wording for my younger children.
The Turkey With the Terrible Temper
Once there was a little BROWN TURKEY who had a TERRIBLE TEMPER. He often flew into rages and ranted around until he was a nuisance in the farm yard. One day he lost his temper about some little thing and got so angry he flew into a rage and went RED as a beet. The other turkeys laughed at him and said: You're RED, RED RED as a BEET: RED from your head to the tip of your feet. Tom Turkey didn't like anyone or anything so he ran away and hid. He sat and sulked for a long time. When he calmed down and came out of his hiding place he was really RED all over. His head was RED and his neck was RED- he was RED from head to his feet.
He hurried to the edge of the farm to visit Dr. Owl how was wise and knew all the answers to everything. "You will have to learn to control that temper of yours!" hooted Dr. Owl. " If you don't remember in time you will end up being a very sorry turkey." The next morning Tom Turkey was brown again except that he had a red feather in his tail. He was very glad to be brown again, but he still thought it was everybody else's fault that he gotten so angry the day before. Tom's mother called him to help with the Monday wash.
But Tom got the BLUES as soon as he started working. He moaned and groaned until his mother said he was acting like a baby. You can guess what happened next- he lost his temper again. This time he went BLUE ALL OVER! As he was running away to hide all the other turkeys yelled: You're BLUE, BLUE from your head to your toe, BLUE all over wherever you go. This time Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed his mother for losing his temper.
By morning he was BROWN again but now he had a blue feather next to the red one in his tail. You can guess what happened the rest of the week. On Tuesday Tom didn't want to clean up the yard. He said he hated cleaning up with a PURPLE passion. Just as soon he had said he was in a rage he turned PURPLE all over. The Turkeys shouted: You're PURPLE, PURPLE, that's all we can see, you'd better go hide under your favorite tree. Of course Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed everything onto to everyone else. On Wednesday morning he was BROWN again but he had a PURPLE tail feather added to his the RED and BLUE one. He was beginning to feel ashamed that he couldn't control himself when he wanted to. He went out for a walk when he saw a big ear of corn that his turkey friend was eating. Tom was GREEN with envy.
He thought the farmer had no right to give someone else the cob of corn. And before he knew it he had turned GREEN all over, and was in another terrible temper tantrum. The turkeys all turned on him and yelled: You're GREEN, GREEN GREEN as the grass. Why don't you get wise and stop all the sass? And of course again, Tom Turkey went to his hiding place to sulk and feel sorry for himself. On Thursday morning he was BROWN again but now he had a GREEN feather amongst the other brightly colored tail feathers. But something was happening to Tom Turkey. He was really beginning to want to change. He wanted to keep his temper. He didn't feel like being ashamed of himself. He was determined to try hard and do just that. Of course all the turkeys liked to tease Tom and while they were playing a game of Gobble and Waddle someone called Tom a coward. Before Tom started to think he had flown into another tantrum.
This time his face turned YELLOW and his neck was YELLOW and the turkeys were saying he had a YELLOW streak down his back. They yelled: You're YELLOW, turkey. Just like we said, Why don't you go home and hide under the bed? Tom Turkey had turned YELLOW all over because he had forgotten to control his temper. But this time he sat under a tree and thought a long time about everything. He had only himself to blame for his mistakes. He was beginning to realize that he was the only one who could make things better. When he awoke in the morning he was brown again with a new yellow feather in his tail. He didn't say a word to anyone, he just went about his business and said to himself: " I can do it, if I try hard enough !" Mother Turkey asked Tom to keep an eye on the little turkeys when she went to the store on Friday. While she was gone all the baby turkeys ran through the house with muddy feet. When Tom saw what they had done, Tom almost lost his temper.
But this time he just held his breath as long as he could. He turned as pale as a ghost , but he didn't lose his temper. The turkeys yelled: You're WHITE, WHITE but your temper didn't show. Maybe you're changing, we really hope so. All Saturday and Sunday he kept calm and was tickled PINK to think he had gone two days without a terrible temper tantrum. He was still a little BROWN turkey, and a very happy one too. He reported back to Dr. Owl on Monday and Tom Turkey thanked him for his help. Dr. Owl told Tom he had earned the right to wear the brightly colored tail and that he should show it off proudly from now on. So when you go to the farm and see the turkey with his fan shaped tail all unfolded, remember this story about the turkey with the terrible temper.
I know, it seems a little long, but it held my 5 and 3 year old's attention....and thats saying something!! :) I just have to quickly say, I LOVE lessons and opportunities to teach our children that they have a CHOICE. They choose how they act, they choose to find happiness or not. I think it is very empowering for children, where they may often feel like they don't have many choices at all.
After our lesson we ended the night with our traditional turkey cupcakes. We make these every year for this fhe, and the kids always love it. All you need are:
Yellow cupcakes
Chocolate Frosting
100 calorie snack packs of Sandie's Shortbread Cookies
Candy Corns
Red and Black icing
And this is the finished product....(please ignore the dorky pic!)
There you have it!! I was inspired once again this Sunday to rededicate our family to having weekly Family Home Evenings. In our families and our homes is where some of the MOST important learning in this life will take place. The church has wonderful programs, but they are only meant to supplement that which is already being done in the home. I am excited for the challenge to teach my children the things my Heavenly Father would have them know, and create some wonderful memories in the process!!
So grateful....
I am so grateful today for so many things, I thought I would just list a few :) My friend that takes amazing pictures gave me the CD this weekend of the family pics she did for us a while back and I was so excited to see them. I love this family of mine, as crazy as we all are, as loud as we all are, I love them. I KNOW that the reasons my children were sent to me are two-fold: there are things as a mother they need from me, and their are probably more things that I need to learn from them. I love my husband. I love him so much more now than I did when I married him. We both have our flaws and our weaknesses, but we try hard to overcome them and we both just feel lucky to have each other. I feel a great responsibility to do these amazing people in my life justice, to be the mother and wife they deserve. At times it feels overwhelming, but I know I am not in it alone. I am surrounded by love and support, but mostly I am surrounded by a loving Father in Heaven that wants nothing more than the best for my family. By following the principles he has given me, through repentance, forgiveness and all the other help we humans need, his grace can make up what I am so deperately lacking. So today that is what I am grateful for. This precious family of mine, the motivation to do more and be better, and the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father.
11.10.2010
Don't be a turkey....Give Thanks!!
That is the theme this month at our house as I try to instill in my children an "attitude of gratitude". Here is what we are doing...:)
I made turkey feathers for every week day of this month and on them wrote something we should be grateful for. Example: I am grateful for the food we have, I am grateful for my family, etc. Then on the back of the feather is a corresponding activity. Example: Go to the store and buy cans of food to donate to the food bank, look at all our photo albums and pictures and talk about memories of our family. Every day the kids will get to pick one feather and the we will do that activity that day.
I had to enlist my husbands help on this one...he is such a good sport! He drew up this cute turkey for me and now this hangs on our wall for the kids to see every day.
Here are all the activities I did, in case anyone wants to use the same idea:I am grateful for good books. Go to the library and check out books about Thanksgiving
I am grateful for grandparents. Color pics and write letters to send to them.
I am grateful for good neighbors. Make and deliver treats.
I am grateful for this beautiful earth. Go for a walk.
I am grateful for my Daddy. Make turkey handprints for him.
I am grateful for the food we have. Go to the store and buy cans of food to donate to the food bank.
I am grateful for my family. Look at photo albums and pictures and talk about fun family memories.
I am grateful for the scriptures. Pick your favorite scripture story and read with mommy.
I am grateful for my body. Play ring around the rosy, tag, and the Hokey Pokey.
I am grateful for our new baby. Go to the store and pick out one new thing for baby.
I am grateful for Jesus. Draw pictures of all of the things he has taught us.
I am grateful for the Pilgrims. Learn about the Pilgrims and make a fun pilgrim treat.
There were so many more, we have been so blessed and I want to help my kids recognize that. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and I would love to know....how are you helping teach your kids about gratitude??
11.09.2010
Just what I needed....
A vacation to Disney World that is!! :) I have to tell you, as I'm sure you can tell by my month-long absence...I have not been feeling like myself lately. I am attributing it to feeling yucky and having ZERO motivation to do much of anything, but I finally feel like I am back to normal! I think the thing that really helped me was getting away with my adorable little family and enjoying each other and the magic of Disney. Was it the perfect vacation? Nope, not even close!! We started the day of our departure with 3 of us having the stomach flu, Kendall and Britton throwing up every 20 minutes from 2-8 in the morning! Luckily the dr hooked us up and we were fine for the flight. The kids would get tired and grumpy, and because of some complications I had had with my pregnancy the week before I had to take it easy and ride a scooter everywhere. The flight home was straight out of my nightmares and made us vow to NEVER fly for at least 3 more years with our children :) HOWEVER....take one look at these pictures and you will see precious memories made, bonds forged even stronger and a family that is SO far from perfect, but that really loves each other!! :) Enjoy and stay tuned for LOTS more posts with fun activities for the kids, crafts and lots more!!
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