Halloween Eves

Friday Elizabeth had a special spider/bat party in her class because they have been learning all about them. It was really a Halloween party complete with Bingo and candy and decorating sugar cookies, but they called it a celebration of what they'd learned...Elizabeth kept correcting me. She had a fun time. I was able to go and help in her class for a little while before going downstairs to Olivia's classroom for their writing center.
Friday night was our annual grown up Halloween costume party. This was our fourth one. We had a good turn out, but it was a little less than normal because many of the youth in our ward were busy with a dance that they put on as a service project for the ARC of Tri-Cities and another lady in our ward had a bridal shower for her daughter that night too. It was still a lot of fun though! We played some games, ate yummy food, and even had nice pictures taken of everyone. There were witches galore (four of them), Dopey, a Princess, clown, Clark Kent (aka Superman), and several other fun costumes.
Andy and I were fire and ice. He painted cool flames on his outfit with glow-in-the-dark paint, but they didn't show up well even in the dark, and I wore icy blue with snowflakes. Our kids went over to play with some friends who have older babysitting age siblings. It was great. Elizabeth actually went to her Nutcracker angel practice first and then Torrie dropped her off at their house.

Saturday morning Andy and I went to the Temple with my cousin who is going to Mexico on his mission. It was SO nice. The Temple is always nice. Then the whole afternoon and evening we shifted into a little opposite the Temple (at least in attire). Andy had practice for Nutcracker and then came home to work on some things, so I took the three kids to an outdoor trick or treating around a little mall in Richland. They did great. They stayed close to me and they all even carried their own buckets and didn't complain even though it was a tiny bit rainy.
Elizabeth-Jedi, Olivia-Butterfly Queen (she wouldn't be talked into being Olivia the Pig.), and Vincent-Frog.Our cute little frog, Vincent. He likes to jump and make frog noises too.Elizabeth's hood kept falling off.We came home and then delivered some plates of sugar cookies to the neighbors in costumes. I made way too many for the party on Friday night, so I had plenty to give away. We took them especially to those who helped the girls with their jog-a-thon pledges. I made some soup for dinner and then we were off to the trunk or treat at the church.
Our family at the church trunk or treat. We have a Jedi (the girl one with the diamonds over her nose), a butterfly queen, and a frog with Fire and Ice.
Can you see the cool flames Andy worked so hard on? They did glow a little just as it was getting dark.
Our buddy Nathan came with us to pass out the candy for us. It's too hard to take the three kids around in the dark with just one of us in such a busy place and Nathan really likes to hand out candy to trick or treaters and doesn't get very many where he lives. After we were done there, we went over to see Andy's boss and then to Andy's parent's house and one of their neighbors. Vincent likes to say Trick or Treat, Happy Halloween, and Thank You. He also likes to ring doorbells and say ding dong and trick or treat even before someone answers the door.
Today is actually Halloween, but we aren't doing anything Halloweenish today. We went to church and we are resting now before going over to Andy's parent's house for dinner and visiting. Then we'll come home and probably catch a few trick or treaters to pass some candy out to tonight.
Happy Halloween!

Cooperation means Teamwork!

Olivia's teacher selected her for a cooperation award. At the school they have C.A.R.E.S. which stands for Cooperation, Attitude, Respect, Effort, and Safety and they spend a month or so on each quality and then cover them all again. This award was supposed to be a surprise to Olivia, but when she brought the paper home that said her teacher picked her, I was reading it aloud to her, so it kind of spoiled it a little. I didn't read the part about the assembly, but once we were there, I'm sure she figured it out. It wasn't all bad that it wasn't a surprise since they call the kindergartners up there first and we were sitting clear in the back because it was the end of the school day and she is in morning kindergarten. She walked all the way to the front of the room FULL of people (the school has 600 students) and got her award and stood there for pictures with all of the other kids. My picture of that didn't work out, so I'll have to get a copy from someone else who took one. Not that most of the people reading my blog would know any of the other kids anyway.
Here is the award Olivia got. She also received a special pencil and a pin to go on her shirt that says Principal's Award of Excellence.Her teacher said that Olivia works well with others at her table and in the whole classroom. I'm so happy that she's getting along well in class.Because it's the Principal's Award, I thought I'd get a picture of Olivia with her principal.I'm just so happy she's doing well in school, even though she is the youngest kid in her class. She's so confident and happy.
By the way, there's something about seeing all the kids in the school in one room excited about listening to the principal and responding when he asks questions that makes me totally miss elementary school. It even makes me tear up a little. I loved all my teachers and it is fun to watch. There was a slideshow playing before the assembly of pictures the librarian took at Jog-a-thon and of the day the high school football players came during recess and the kids all cheered. They really do look up to those high schoolers. When an elementary age kid likes you, you feel like a rock star!

Jack-o-Lanterns

We spent the activity part of our FHE carving our pumpkins tonight.
It was fun and didn't really take that much time. The kids enjoyed it, even Vincent. Elizabeth and Olivia were the artists and Andy and I did the carving. All three kids helped pull the seeds and guts out of the pumpkin.
Andy helped Vincent and Elizabeth with their pumpkin. Vincent came to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin while Elizabeth was at school, so I told her they could share one. If I would have known that his pumpkin would only cost $1.17, I would have picked one up for her to have her own too.Vincent even pulled some of the seeds out. He likes wearing his apron. (Thanks, Tina. It's great to have one his size that's not pink.)I helped Olivia with her pumpkin. She picked this tiny one at the pumpkin patch last week.Our completed jack-o-lantern without the lantern part.We don't normally even carve them. We just let them sit there until after Halloween and then throw them out, except for five years ago when I put the pumpkin on top of the fridge to keep it out of Elizabeth's reach and it rotted on top and stunk up the whole house. It had to be thrown out early.
Note: The top of the fridge gets a little too warm for pumpkins. Yuck.
I'm working on keeping my blog posts shorter and not documenting everything we do. Maybe then people will feel like commenting??? =)

Pre-Halloween

We have had some of the best October weather ever. It's just barely starting to get all blustery and chilly. I love it when it stays the best temperature in the 60-70 degree range. I've been able to go around without a coat and it's so nice to not have one extra thing to grab on the way out the door.
Today is all windy and lousy, but I guess we've had it coming to us to make up for the nice October days. It has to feel like Halloween on Halloween after all.
I've just been wanting to bake and sleep and finish some projects. I have all these ideas of things to fill up my day with, but then my motivation leaves me most days. I'm still keeping up with our dinners and things. Our house is still tidy. Our clothes are still clean. I'm a little obsessed with clean clothes. I LOVE when ALL of the laundry is done and put away. Enough that I will stay up extra late sometimes to finish it all. Of course while it's going, I do other things too, but I like it all done. While I'm on the laundry topic, I love Shout to get stains out. I can let Vincent eat anything on Sundays at dinner at Andy's parents house (most weeks we go there) and spray it, toss it in the washer and it comes out fresh and white just like it was when I bought it. Seriously, such a huge relief. Shout just doesn't do well with blood. Good thing my kids aren't very bloody. It is great for jello, grass stains, chocolate, and anything else I've thrown at it. (Ad for Shout now done...)
Elizabeth started Nutcracker practice for her part as a palace angel. She is one of the two tallest ones, so she is right in the middle paired up with the other tallest angel. I was surprised by the height difference between the tallest and shortest angels. I guess it's like the Rockettes with the shortest on the edge and you can't even tell there is 10 inches difference in their heights. Elizabeth did awesome.
Olivia is loving school. She enjoys doing her homework and practices writing all the time. She is learning the special "sight words" that are sent home each week. She plays with all the kids in her class and is having a fun time. She is practicing her ballet all the time, but just once a week in class.
Both girls did a great job at our Primary program yesterday. I was watching them to see if they knew all the words to the songs and was a little surprised that they did. They each memorized their part and gave it well enough to understand. We love watching the Primary program every year. It's fun to see the kids who are messing around and those who try their hardest, like the Sunbeams who know their part, but no one can understand them at all.
Vincent is happy to play with his cars, trains, and even dolls sometimes. He likes to play with friends too. He is pretty good at occupying himself for a while and just likes to come and check on me if I'm doing something else. He likes going to the school to pick up his sisters and is always happy to see them. He likes when they share their Legos with him too.
Abigail should make her appearance in 13 weeks (three months). I'm starting to get Braxton Hicks contractions all the time, which just harden my tummy up and are supposed to be helping my body get ready to use those muscles. I don't really need to use those muscles (or any other muscles) with my c-section, but it's nice to know they are trying to be productive, I guess. I'm starting to fill out my maternity clothes a little more, which is much better than just looking chubby.
We are getting ready for our Adult Halloween Costume Party on Friday. It should be fun. We like to have people over and it's a fun night away from the kids too. We are having it then because the kids will go out on Saturday since Halloween is on Sunday this year. It's so nice to have so many likeminded people in our area who do it the same way.
Andy is busy with work and his practices for Nutcracker with Torrie as one of the party dads.
I'm almost done reading the Beverly Cleary "Henry" books to the girls. Next up is the "Ramona" series. I found a bunch of the books for a quarter each at thrift stores and I'm only missing one in the "Ramona" series. The girls like to listen to them at bedtime and I've forgotten what happens in them since I haven't read them since I was Elizabeth's age (or a little older), so they are fun for me too.
Tonight we are carving pumpkins for FHE. We just have the two that we got last week at Olivia's pumpkin patch field trip, so I'm helping Olivia with her tiny one and Andy's going to help Elizabeth and Vincent with the big one they are sharing. I wish I could find those votive candles I've been hanging onto since I lived at home. Of course, now that I actually want to use them, I can't find them anywhere.
Are you ready for Halloween?

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny

Andy here.
A week or so ago (Oct 6-9) I had to go out of town to fix another pump panel that got damaged during shipment. This time, the destination was George's Chicken in a podunk town called Edinburg, Virginia. I had a traveling companion on this trip. Forrest, the guy I work with, who built this panel, had to go so he could fix it. My job was to help him, and re-test the panel when it was done. The plane ride was uneventful, Pasco to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Washington DC. Our luggage, which included two heavy cases full of tools and parts got there too, which is always a bonus. We stayed in this town called Stephens City, VA. The next morning (Thursday) we arrived at the chicken plant.
We set aside two days for repairing the panel. We had to do that because we weren't sure how much we were going to have to replace. We knew that the right door needed to be replaced. We also knew that both doors wouldn't open all the way. We didn't know if that was because the hinges were bent, or if the enclosure was bent. Pulling the back panel (the white part) out of the enclosure and putting it in a new one would have been a major effort, but luckily it was just the hinges that were no good. Phew!
Forrest had to make a new right door. Here he is punching the holes for the switches and lights. This is time consuming because you drill a small hole, then a bigger hole, then use a hydraulic puncher (it put one of our cases over 50 lbs and cost the company an extra $100) to punch out the rest of the hole. In the background is the spare enclosure still partially shrink-wrapped. Since we only needed one door and the hinges, we left the rest there. Bob, our parts guy at Selectric, said that some 'Bubba' would probably make a smoker out of it. I repeated this to one of the guys at the chicken plant and got a chuckle. Then a few minutes later another guy came by and said, "I bet someone can make something out of that."
Here's what the panel looked like when Forrest was done. Then I had to power it up and test it.
This is Mike, our customer. He works for a company that builds pumps and they are installing a sanitation system in an addition at this plant. The panel we fixed controls nine different pumps. We also built a smaller panel that controls two more pumps, it's that white, shrink-wrapped, box, to the right of Forrest. Mike asked me to check to make sure it wasn't damaged, I figured it would be silly to come 3000 miles and not be willing to spend an extra ten minutes doing that.
Before long we left George's Chicken and cruised around for a while. One of the places we looked at was Harpers Ferry, West Virgina. Virgina, West Virgina, and Maryland come together near here. Also, this is where the Shenandoah River dumps into the Potomac River. There's an old bridge you can walk across. This picture shows some supports from even older bridges. In the front is the Potomac River, in the back is the Shenandoah River.
This picture is facing Maryland. Two tracks come out of the tunnel. At one time, both tracks came onto the bridge I'm standing on, but a footpath takes the place of one track now. The train is on the newer (but still pretty old) bridge.
The sun went down while we were at Harpers Ferry, so we went and got some dinner, then went back to our hotel.

Friday morning, we went to Washington DC. We didn't drive into the city, but instead parked and rode the subway in. I knew there wasn't time to see everything. One of the first places we went was the Lincoln Memorial.
This is the view from the front of the Lincoln Memorial. At the far end of the reflecting pool is the World War II Memorial, then the Washington Monument, and far off, is the US Capitol
A Park Service lady said we should go around to the back of the Lincoln Memorial because it was nice, so we did. This bridge goes across the Potomac River. At the far end is Arlington National Cemetary. Those gold sculptures on the big pylons were interesting, giant gold naked ladies, standing next to giant gold knights on giant gold horses. According to the plaque, they were gifts to the United States from Italy.
After a while, we made our way over to the Capitol Building.
It was getting late, so we couldn't tour the Capitol, but the visitor center was still open. It was full of these fancy statues, that represent different states. I thought I had found the statue for Washington because it was a statue of Sacagawea, but she was representing North Dakota. We didn't have time to hunt down Washington or Oregon's statues.
There was a passage from the Capitol to the Library of Congress, so we went over there.
The inside of the Library was fancy. There were lots of neat books, and some cool exhibits, but photography wasn't allowed in the exhibits.
That's the end of the pictures. We were getting tired so we got back on the train, found our rent-a-car and went back to our hotel. The next morning, our plane left at 8:30, so we had to get up pretty early and drive back to the airport. The cheapest plane-ride home, also happened to be the longest, Washington DC to Denver to Orange County to Salt Lake to Pasco. When I added up the flying time, it was only about an hour longer than our trip out, but we had a four hour layover in Orange County, so we were traveling for fifteen hours. We had a bit of good luck with our big tool cases. Because we used up some parts, there was extra space, and we were able to spread the tools around so that both cases were less than 50 lbs. Also, Forrest got to meet a couple UFC fighters in the Orange County Airport, and that made the long layover a little less annoying to him. It was a successful trip. We fixed everything we went to fix. We didn't lose any luggage. We saw some historical sites. We didn't get mugged on the subway. And nothing went wrong at home while I was away.

Punkins

This morning Vincent and I went with Olivia's class to the pumpkin patch. It is always so fun to see how excited the kids are to ride the bus since our school doesn't have buses except for field trips.
Olivia getting off the bus.Vincent and Olivia going out to the pumpkin patch on the hay ride.Olivia picking out her special pumpkin.
She picked this tiny one. They have to carry them on the bus, so I think that's why she picked a little one.
Olivia took Vincent through the maze. I was surprised how quickly the kids figured it out this year. The cute little boy next to them sits right next to Olivia at their table.
Olivia on top of the hay pyramid. I did send her with a jacket, but she put it in her locker when she got to school and left it there. She didn't complain of being cold, so I guess she was fine.
They have a little barn with a petting zoo. They have a reindeer this year along with normal farm animals like a rooster, cows, pig, sheep, bunnies, and goats.
Olivia and Vincent by the bunny cage. Can you tell this is after the hay pyramid? Some kid was throwing the hay down on the other kids and Olivia has it all over her hair.
She's just cute waiting in line to go.
I love being able to go to these field trips with the kids. The teachers have it all organized and arranged so we just show up and keep track of a few kids and write their name on the bottom of their pumpkin for them. I'm just glad I'm not a kindergarten teacher who gets to go twice in one day (once with morning, once with afternoon.) It is tiring.
Time for some pumpkin muffins and a nap. =)

School Events

Thursday morning I worked on some PTA things and had to deliver them to teacher mailboxes at the school, so Vincent and I went a little early to pick Olivia up from school. We were done early and went to look around at the Book Fair that was there and Olivia's class happened to have library that day too. We love the Scholastic book fair at our school. I like the Spring one even more because it's buy one book-get one free, but this one is nice too. I worked there on Tuesday morning and every volunteer gets a little money to spend on books as a thank you. I bought "Goldilicious". This is a fun book that goes right along with Pinkalicious and Purplicious and it's finally in paperback. I was just looking up the link for that and found Silverlicious. Great. I sent a little money with Elizabeth to pick something out that afternoon during her library time too.
Here is our fun librarian reading to Olivia's class. Olivia is the third from the right edge in a dark brown and blue dress.
Thursday night was Family Involvement Night at the school which the teachers are in charge of. Each grade set up fun math games, there was a book walk, cheerleaders read stories, and the book fair was set up then too. PTA did offer dinner, but I didn't have to help this time with that.
The art teacher helped the kids make bracelets in the school colors (red, black, and white.)
Andy and Vincent did some matching games while they waited for the girls to finish their bracelets.
This was a fun numbers game called Countdown. Each time you roll the dice (two of them), you can flip either number you roll or add or subtract from them to get a number 1-10 and put it up. When someone has every number up, they win.Friday was the Jog-a-thon at the school for the girls. I was helping because it's a PTA event, so Vincent went over to my mother in law's house to play for the morning. Elizabeth's grade was one of two grades (1st and 2nd) who went first thing.
Olivia's class (Kindergarten) went right after them.
And then there were two more half hour blocks for the other grades (4th and 5th/3rd and PM Kindergarten and LifeSkills-they were on a smaller track).
I marked off laps for the kids. It was tiring to mark off their laps, which makes no sense because they were the ones running the whole time, but I was standing out in the sun (I even got a little sunburn) for three hours helping.
The sun was out and the pictures are not the best. Elizabeth and Olivia each ran nine laps. One second grader ran 13 laps and several of them ran 12.The day was gorgeous. It was 70 degrees in the middle of October. Perfect for the Jog-a-thon.Olivia's class was all ready to get jogging! The high for kindergarten was 12 as well.
The littlest kids are the cutest to watch.Olivia is in that first group of girls on the right. They were all holding hands moments before I took the picture. Of course, as soon as I had a chance to take a picture, they stopped.
Water break! Each student had a water bottle with their name and they were divided up into classes to make them easier to find. Many kids stopped here after each lap.Olivia jogging with her teacher, who ran with both her morning and afternoon class.
After school, Olivia waited with some friends and colored, ate their snacks, and eventually went home with one of them for a little while.
We encouraged the fourth and fifth graders to beat the second grader record of 13 laps. One fifth grader ran 20! That was our record of the day. I think that's almost five miles in a half hour. Amazing!
After it was done, I had just enough time to go and pick Vincent up and get back to pick up Elizabeth from school. Olivia was invited to a friend's house after she was done at school, so we picked her up then too. I love having so many people I know and trust with my kids at our school. I came home and napped all afternoon. The sun makes me tired.
We spent Saturday as a family all day. It was so nice to not have anywhere we had to be or anything we HAD to do. We did go to a local thrift store to get the finishing pieces of our Halloween costumes, to JoAnn's, to McDonald's, and to WalMart, but most of the day was just relaxing together and it was so nice. I wrote my talk then and made some pizza too.
Don't forget our Annual Adult Halloween Costume Party on Friday, October 29th from 6-10pm. We will have snacks, games, and fun! Get your babysitter and costumes all lined up now!
I love my family and I'm excited for a little more quiet this coming week. Hopefully it will last a little. Things seem to pack in all at once instead of being spread out over the whole month.

Teaching Children Gospel

I gave a talk today in church about teaching children the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the home. I thought it might be nice to share it here as well and since this is my blog and I don't get that many comments anyway, I might as well share it. Let me know if it helps you or gives you new ideas.

NaDell's talk:

I was asked to speak about Teaching the Gospel in your Home to your Children. Hopefully something we do can add something to your family’s life or inspire you to create your own family tradition in teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you don’t have children in your home, think of someone who maybe needs some guidance in this area who you can help or who you can pray for. I want to make sure you all know that I am not perfect in any of these things and I don’t want it to sound that way. I think my kids were the loudest during the Sacrament, so obviously we have plenty to work on.

So, why do we need to teach the Gospel at home if they are already learning it at church on Sundays? To only think about spiritual things once a week is not enough, especially in this crazy world we live in.

I was thinking about that a little more and thought, “How many college degrees were ever earned with only three hours a week of focus on them?” We have to spend time studying the teachings of Jesus Christ to know Him.

Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer, one scripture study session, one family home evening, one book read aloud, one song, and one family meal at a time. They know that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily parenting is among the most powerful and sustaining forces for good in the world. The health of any society, the happiness of its people, their prosperity, and their peace all find common roots in the teaching of children in the home….Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility.”

Praying together helps strengthen the bond between each family member as children learn to be reverent and respectful, even at home with their family and not just with everyone outside of your home. It is awfully hard to make kids stop giggling when it’s time to be reverent though. We have our kids take turns by their age order, so on the first day of the month, Elizabeth says the prayer for dinner and family prayers, Olivia is on the second of every month, and Vincent is on the third (with help). They love it.

The Family Guidebook says that “Each of us must learn to talk to our Father in Heaven through prayer. He loves us and wants us to talk to him. He wants us to thank Him for our blessings and ask for His help and guidance. He will help us when we ask. Most prayers are offered with our heads bowed and our eyes closed while we kneel, sit, or stand.” It also states that “family prayer time is an excellent occasion for teaching children how to pray and for teaching such principles as faith in God, humility, and love.

The Bishop and Stake President have asked that we pray for the missionaries serving in our area, throughout the world, and for missionary experiences for ourselves. Do you know the names of the missionaries in our ward? Elder Duke and Elder Burgin? (I made them stand up.) If not, try to remember or keep your Sunday Bulletin that has their names in it somewhere you will remember to pray for them. The Bulletin also has the missionaries currently serving who are FROM our ward. We all can do better at creating missionary opportunities of our own.

Reading Scriptures Together is also important. The Family Guidebook says that “as families read and ponder the scriptures, they will want to become more like the Savior and will find greater happiness and peace in their lives.” Who needs to become more like the Savior and be happier and have peace? All of us need that, right? If you don’t think you need to, try it for a while and see if it works.

In our family, we started with the shortened cartoon version of the scriptures when we read to the children at bedtime. We have recently moved up to the actual words from the scriptures in a special LDS version of the Book of Mormon for families that has more definitions and pictures to make it easier to understand. Even if you just have a baby, you can always read while they play close-by. If you have older children, many families wake up extra early before sending them off to school to take time to read as a family. I’ve even heard someone say that they read TO their children when they came home to eat their dinner before racing off to the next activity. Do what works for your family, but DO it! “We have the scriptures to help us learn about the life, teaching, and commandments of Jesus Christ.” (Family Guidebook)

Family Home Evening is normally held each Monday night as a family. Sometimes you may need to move it to another night to accommodate schedules. We weren’t very good at Family Home Evening when we were first married or when Elizabeth was a baby because every night was “family night”, but at some point I realized that we had to start again somewhere with a little more formality. Not rigid, but with prayers, songs, lesson, and, of course, a treat. I set a goal and wrote “FHE” on every Monday on my calendar to help us get into the habit of having it. Now, the kids remind us and are excited about it, especially when they are in charge of songs, activity, or treat. We even have them do the lesson and they like it. Sometimes they just want to hold our scriptures and open up to a page randomly and we’ll tell them the story on that page. Other times, we use the Friend magazine or they like to share their Sunday lesson handout with us and explain it.

Family Home Evening is different than just “hanging out” for an hour with your family, although occasionally it can be that as well. “Any activity that brings the family together, strengthens their love for each other, helps them draw closer to Heavenly Father, and encourages them to live righteously, can be a family home evening….Each Family Home Evening should include prayer.” (Family Guidebook)

One Book Read Aloud- Andy and I have been taking turns reading some of our favorite stories to our girls at bedtime. Andy and Elizabeth just finished reading Lord of the Rings after reading The Hobbit a few times. They look forward to this time and learn lessons through the books, even though the stories are fictional. When our Relief Society book group read through The Hobbit a year or so ago, I was surprised by how many lines in that book could relate to the Gospel. Gandolf tells them as they are going through the woods not to leave the path because there is danger off of the path. Of course they did leave the path, but did find their way out, but it was much harder going through the scary woods unable to see the path and with the spiders. What a great life lesson. I read The Work and The Glory Series right after my mom did when I was in high school. It was great to have someone to talk with who knew the storyline and we both really enjoyed that LDS Historical Fiction. It was an easy way to learn a little more about Church History and it was fun. In this same mindset, every Friday the girls get out of school a little early, so I’ve instituted a girls’ movie afternoon watching classic movies that I grew up with like, “Pollyanna”. The “Glad Game” is a great thing for all of us to learn. Good, clean movies with morals.

One Song-Hopefully you all know and enjoy family singing in the car….if not, you are missing out. We like to play fun music and our kids sing it with us. It’s so fun to see our babies bobbing to the music until they learn the words. We have our own “family song” and know the favorite songs of our children. I need to put the Children’s Songbook CDs in the car to do this with Primary songs too. While I was growing up as one of six kids, my mom had a wind up musical basket that played “Love at Home”. She’d wind it up whenever we were fighting, which sometimes made up more angry, but eventually we calmed down. I know she tried really hard to make our Home peaceful and loving.

Family Meals- It is hard sometimes to arrange family meals around schedules and even harder some days to figure out when we will make dinner and what to make. I started making a menu finally and have a paper where I wrote down some of our favorite meals, so I can always look at it when I need ideas. Sometimes I ask the kids what they would like to eat. Most of the time, they want things that are easy to make, like spaghetti or tacos. It is special to sit down at the table together, without the tv or other distractions, to ask each family member about their day.

Other thoughts-

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said “Parents soon learn that each child has an inborn yearning to be free. Each individual wants to make his or her own way. No one wants to be restrained, even by a well-intentioned parent. But all of us can cling to the Lord.”

I say, kids are stubborn, so make it fun for them!

Elder Nelson also said “We need both the Church and the Family. They work hand in hand to strengthen each other. The Church exists to exalt the family. And the family is the fundamental unit of the Church.”

“A family that enjoys activities together will feel greater love and harmony. Children will be more willing to listen to their parents and follow their advice when they feel close to them. Parents will be able to teach the gospel more effectively.” (Family Guidebook)

End of talk.

Many people told me that it was a great talk. I was surprised that even a young woman told me it was good. I'm glad they were paying attention. One lady in my ward even put the Galdolf idea on her Facebook. I wasn't as nervous this time as I have been speaking in church in the past. I liked this topic and had plenty of personal experience with it, which helped. My first talk in our ward nine years ago was right after Andy and I got married and my topic was the Temple which was pretty hard to talk about since I really didn't know anything compared to where I am now. I took less time than the youth speaker and left Andy with way too much time. A few years ago I spoke again in our ward on Sacrifice, which wasn't too bad, although I really can't say I've had to sacrifice a lot, but I did share some ancestor pioneer stories that time.

Anything help you? Any tips for us?

What's up Doc?

Except no one went to the doctor...I just needed a title. I am going on Thursday to hear Abigail's heartbeat and see if I've gained any weight this month. I think I probably have. I started buying ice cream again and it's DELICIOUS!
So, I didn't post last week because Andy was out of town and I don't like the whole world to know that I'm home by myself with my three little kids. He went to fix another electrical panel in Virginia like the one he fixed two months ago in North Carolina. He left our house at 4am on Wednesday morning and got home a little after 10pm on Saturday, so I had four whole days of kid zone. It's really not too much different when he's here because he just has three hours a day that they are awake. I just had a little overtime, right? I do like that when Andy's home he reads the nighttime stories and helps so much with things and that I can go to the grocery store after they are in bed when he's home.
We went about our normal routine week. School, pick up from school, homework, and then the kids were able to play outside because the weather was so nice and I moved a chair out there to read.
It was even nice enough for popsicles.Then they wanted to go and see if the neighbors would sponsor them in our school's Jog-a-thon, so the girls went and did some knocking. They really don't care if all someone gave them was a dollar each and our neighbors were very nice to them. Wednesday we did cancel game night because it's hard to get the kids to bed on time without Andy home and some of our friends were really busy that day. We watched Beauty and the Beast instead.
I made this wreath one night before Andy left. I had everything except the wreath base that I got at the dollar store. I just had to use about 15 small glue sticks. It's on my craft room door.Thursday was a pretty normal day too with school, picking up from school, Elizabeth's musical theater, home for dinner, and then off to a Relief Society meeting with classes on couponing, first aid, and a humanitarian quilt to tie. I went to the class on couponing because I can always learn more and to hopefully help it make sense to others. They had young women there to babysit and my kids were the only ones there so they had fun with a tea party and lots of attention from two or three babysitters.
Wednesday night late someone knocked on our front door and it scared me because I was home alone with the kids and I happened to be reading the last book in the Hunger Games series. It was freaky, but it was a pleasant surprise because it was treats. We were "Boo-ed". So, if you don't know what that is it is someone in your area gives you treats and you are supposed to put the Boo sign up by your front door and then make treats for three other people in your area and deliver them secretly. I made some treats, Olivia colored the Boo signs after school, and then Elizabeth ran them up to the doors on Thursday night. It was fun. We didn't deliver to anyone the girls see very often because I didn't want them to spoil it.
Friday the girls invited two sisters over to play for a little party (every time kids come over it's a party, you know...) after school. They had fun dressing up and had a yummy snack. As soon as we pulled up to the house, the younger of the sisters told me that they boo-ed us. Mystery solved. The kids and I went to Burger King for dinner. I love those onion rings. The kids were sad that the umbrellas I just bought at the dollar store were in the other car because the rain was pouring.
Saturday morning one of our friend's invited our kids to run at a cross country meet in a kid's race. Elizabeth ran. Olivia walked quickly. Vincent stood next to me cheering them on.
This picture is just after they were done.Elizabeth didn't win, but she liked it. Olivia was the very last person to finish and this nice lady I don't know stayed with her the whole time. It was only a one lap race, but I'm not sure if it was just a lap on the track measurements or what distance it was because it was in the grass. The girls each got a green participant ribbon. We went home for Vincent's nap (and mine!) and the girls played and watched movies. In the evening one of Elizabeth's friends had a skating costume birthday party that we were invited to. We are friends with their whole family. The girls aren't that great at skating, but they haven't had all that many chances to go either. I'm not great either. I didn't skate this time, but I did hold their hands around a few times in my tennis shoes. Olivia wanted to be a fairy princess and Elizabeth decided that her Jedi outfit wouldn't work with skates so she just wore her orange wings.Andy got home late that night. We missed him.
This week has been busy again, but that's just the way our life is. A little too busy maybe sometimes. I'm so glad I can still make Vincent nap so I get a time to rest in the middle of the day. =)