Longing for...

LONG hair!

Plus it's way more fun to play with your fettuccine than to eat it!

A Bad Choice...

Little Man comes to me the other day and says:

"Mom, I think I made a bad choice at school today."

Do you know how many potential "bad choices" ran through my head at that exact moment?

So I calmly asked "What happened?"

He tells me that he took $2 to school (his ONLY $2) to buy a smoothie after lunch, but he really wanted to get to the playground quickly to play football, so he gave his $2 to a friend (who doesn't ever get to buy a smoothie) but now he was really regretting that decision and wishing he had his $2 back.

It was too funny, and I tried really hard not to laugh out of sheer relief. His sweet, generous heart was having a struggle with his logical brain.

Love that boy:)

Family Home Evening #1

Family Home Evening has been something I struggle with. If I don't have a plan prior to Monday, it doesn't happen. So after cruising around blog-land for a couple of days, I found some great ideas, and then I thought, maybe these ideas could help someone else (if anyone even reads this anymore -besides you Mom, I know you're my biggest fan!)

Sugardoodle & We Talk of Christ had some great lesson plans centered around the Proclamation on the Family, so I thought that would be a great place to start.

Tonight we focused on just this line:

"We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God…"

We talked about what a proclamation is, and what "ordained" means. We talked about Adam & Eve and how it wasn't good that Adam should be alone so God made Eve. And then talked about why marriage is so important. I briefly addressed the fact that alot of people don't think they need to get married anymore. I didn't want to get into Homo-sexuality at this point, because at this point my kids don't understand that and it would have completely derailed the lesson. (I could just see Squirt: "Wait, wait, wait... there are boys that want to kiss boys? WHAT???)

We let them know that the choices they make today will effect their lives in the future. That having an Eternal Marriage is so worth it and it's what we hope they choose. We let them know how much we love them, and stressed that one day they will have children and they will love them as much as we do, and will want to be sealed to them forever.

It was a really great lesson. The spirit was definitely felt. It only took about 5 minutes (that's usually the extent of our attention-span) and then we broke out the wedding album and let them look through it & laugh at us for a few minutes.

Prior to starting the lesson, we made homemade pretzels. (I had the dough already made) The kids had a blast rolling out the dough. They were rather ugly, but tasted yummy. And they thought it was pretty funny that Daddy had as hard a time making them as they did! We popped them in the oven, had the lesson and enjoyed them when we were all done!

Some light "Mom" humor for you

A Crafty site I like to check out frequently posted these and they just made my day. Hope you enjoy:)

Final trip of the summer

We wrapped up "summer" (although it'll still be over 100 degrees for at least another month) with another trip to the cabin for Labor Day. This time all the cousins came and it was fabulous!

I'm pretty sure we caught every lizard in the forest.

The kids made them a lovely home in this tin bucket, where I'm sure they slowly baked to death. This is Brooklyn's pet lizard whom she named "Sally" and she kept Sally in a Pringles container (hopefully Sally got let out before we left!)

My nieces and nephews probably think I'm crazy but we had fun playing Ware-wolves. And we also created the "Red Pringles Chip Club" which was for all the cool kids who ate the Red (plain) Pringles. (Really it was just a way to get the little kids to eat the plain ones and not cry because the big kids ate all the good flavors!). Lauren and David are co-presidents of the club. We did alot of giggling over it, and all the "big kids" thought we were nuts.

Ladybug got all the attention from Daddy that she wanted. She was pretty happy to sit back aways from the group and just watch. It didn't hurt that Daddy was sharing his Sprite with her.
It was nice to spend all day outside in the 80 degrees instead of the 110 degrees. I realized though when I got home that Ladybug has a pretty good tan line just on the portion of her calf that is showing above. Oops!

9/11

My boys wondered why their teachers requested they Red, White, & Blue on Friday, so I gave them a brief description of 9/11. They listened in awe as if I was telling them an interesting and slightly horrifying story, but just that... a story. 10 years ago, they didn't sit there on the couch all day watching the horrific coverage, watching the 2nd plane hit the tower, watching people jump out of the buildings, watching reports of the pentagon being hit and then the reports of the other flight being crashed in a field. Watching in horror as the Twin Towers tumbled to the ground. And then watching it all over again, because we were all so stunned we needed to see it again just to believe it. And so to them it is just a story. An event in history, that they'll know about but never really appreciate.

Being Sunday, we sang all Patriotic songs, it took me just a moment to remember why, and then I found myself getting emotional. I felt overwhelming pride to be an American, to live in this free country. The 3rd verse of America the Beautiful struck me today while we were singing it.

"Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life."

That song was written in 1895 and those words are still just as true. Heroes were made that day and many died that day as well. I love that America didn't just fall down and die as the terrorist would have hoped. We stood together, our heads held high, linked arm in arm and ready for a fight. That's what makes us a free country. That's what makes this the "promised land," and I am proud today to call myself an American!

A School Update...

School is going good...

We finished up day 19 today, as Squirt keeps reminding me. He counts his "I was good at school today" chart he has in his classroom. He now has 19 stickers. When he get's to 20 he gets a prize out of the treasure box. He is taking this very seriously and proudly announces each day while walking out the classroom door: "I got my sticker today! That's 19!" He is loving school. We do homework everyday while Ladybug takes a nap and it's his "mommy & me" quiet time. He usually has some type of coloring sheet or writing practice sheet. He puts 110% into each sheet, usually coloring any extra detail that might be on the page. Up until this point in life, he HATED to color, so I think it's neat that he really wants to do well for his teacher. Last week his teacher brought in a poodle and that's all he's talked about since.

Little Man is having a little bit of a different experience. He's really had to step it up this year... 3rd grade is a little bit more of a challenge, and he's not quite used to putting in the effort. After 2 weeks of having 1-2 hours of homework a night (because he didn't finish his work in class) he's finally figured out that if he works hard in class he doesn't have to at night. I am very grateful that this realization finally dawned on him! He came home the other day with an "F-" on a math paper. It was a new concept and he just didn't get it. I really thought that the "minus" part of the grade was a little harsh. Isn't an 'F' an 'F' any way you look at it? With a little extra explanation from me he got the concept. I think he's too busy making noises in class to pay attention, that and the fact that he's got a class of 30 - 8 year olds, it's a wonder how the teacher is able to teach anything at all.

Me & Ladybug are having a good time. I've had to get down and play with her more, something I realized I didn't ever really do. She always had one or both brothers to play with her. She's also had to make some new friends.She loves to color and loves to read books, and I found her in her room the other day putting one of her dolls in it's bed, in the doll house. She's just being a little mommy. She runs to give Squirt a hug everyday at his classroom door at 10:45, and she screams with excitement when she see's Little Man walking towards the car at 3:00.

I snapped these pictures the other day. Everyone doing their "homework!"

Marriage... A sacred institution

I think it's probably a sign of a good marriage if your little children want to get married. (Of coarse, my boys want to live with me forever, what does that say about my marriage?)

Yesterday, I was watching a cute little 2 1/2 year old. This was our conversation at about lunch time: (well, what I could understand of it anyway)
She said: "Where's little man?"
I said: "He's at school"
"So he can't be my friend today?"
"He can be your friend when he gets home from school"
"He'll be my friend when he gets home? Ok... Little Man is going to marry me."

And she walked away.

He also has a 5 year old girl, who walked up to Hubbie when he was Home Teaching and very seriously said "I need to know if it would be ok if I marry Little Man?" Hubbie said sure and she walked away, with a "good, check that off the list of things to do" attitude.

• Play with dolls- check
• Make cookies with mom- check
• Arrange husband for the future- check

I think the funniest things was later that night when Little Man, very seriously came to me and was like "Um, Mom? I really don't want to marry {said little girls}"

I told him he didn't have to worry about who he was going to marry for a good long time, and he headed off to bed, with obviously relief on his face.

That type of pressure is just a little bit more than my sweet 8 year old can handle!