Fun successful Family Home Evening

This past Monday we had a really fun FHE about family unity.  We began by singing "Families Can Be Together Forever" We then established a definition of "scripture" as messages from God delivered by His prophets.  We then discussed that "The Family, A Proclamation to the World" is modern day scripture.  It was Emma's turn to read a scripture, so I had her read:

       "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord   Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

We then talked about how we wanted to have a successful family life, we wanted to do what it takes to be a forever family.  We talked about how important it is to be unified and strong together.

We got a ball of yarn, sat in a circle, and talked about the hisory of our family tossing the yarn while holding to a corner to create a web.  For example, our family began when Dad and I got married.  Dad loves me (toss between us) and I love him (toss).  How strong is our web?  Then came Christian.  Dad loves him (toss) and he loves Mom (toss), Mom loves him (toss), and he loves Dad (toss).  We continued to strengthen our family web repeating with each child.

  We then did the following 3 activities found here:

1. How long to get toys picked up by 1 family member? (Time it) Now how long if we all do it together? (Time it and compare)

2. How fast can 1 person put the train track (puzzle, legos, etc) put together? (Time it) Now how fast if we all do it together? (Time it and compare)

3. Have 2 similar size children (or parents) tug of war. Note that working against each other makes for very hard work. If all family members tug for one side (leaving the other end with no one on it), we win very easily. Who were we tugging with the last time when it looked like no one was at the other end? Satan.

So.. If we work together to keep Satan out of our home/lives, we can do it very easily! We are so much stronger when we work together!

As always, we ended by each sharing our testimonies about our family and what we had learned in the lesson.
The kids loved it!  And I loved that the message was learned, the spirit was felt, and we grew closer.

I'm back

Well it's been a while since I have written here so once again I am renewing my goal.  We have a new look as well.  When I logged on today I realized that my template was no longer working for some reason and decided it was time for a face lift anyway.  :-)

Faith

I was asked to present a very short talk on faith to the youth during our youth conference in June.  I have also begun to work on my personal progress goals.  As a result I have been thinking about faith quite a lot.
 
I found a section in the Bible dictionary that really struck a chord with me.  It says, "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel and is more than belief, since true faith always moves it's possessor to some kind of physical and mental action; it carries an assurance of the fulfillment of the things hope for."

I love Alma 32!  Faith is like a seed.  We have to wait to see the tomatoes or corn just as we sometimes have to wait to see the results of the times when we exercise faith.  Alma also states that faith is not to have a perfect knowledge.  I think of our lives like a jigsaw puzzle.  Each person we meet, experience we have, or trial to overcome, is like a piece of our life puzzle.  We may not see how they all fit together at the time.  Fortunately, our loving Heavenly Father has the box.  He can see the beautiful picture our lives can become.  We must have faith to follow Him. 

When I was 22 years old, I had just graduated from college, I had a boyfriend (Paul), and I was ready to move forward to the next stage of my life.  Then things began to point toward a mission.  Friends were returning from their missions, I couldn't find a job, my dad even mentioned that the mission field was where he thought I should be.  When I talked to Paul about it, he asked "Have you prayed about it?"  I answered that no, I hadn't.  When he asked me why, I responded that I didn't want the answer, I didn't want to go.  I prayed and received the strongest answer of my life.  So many questions remained, "What about my career?" "What about Paul, will he be here when I return?".  But, those questions didn't matter.  I had received an answer and so I trusted that Heavenly Father had a plan for my life.  He sees My "big picture".  Although it was a step into the dark for me, in hindsight I can see how those pieces fit in my puzzle.

Milestones

We hit a pretty big milestone last week.  Christian turned 12 years old.  My big boy is moving forward.  My mother-heart aches a little for my little boy.

This year he leaves behind Elementary School, and recess, myriads of field trips, and the students that have been in his class for the past 4 years.  He leaves behind primary.  For me he will be conspicuously missing on Mother's day and the primary program in the Fall.  He will join the ranks of priesthood holders reverently passing the sacrament.  Such heavy responsibility on narrow shoulders but I know his spirit is strong enough to carry it.

Next year he will be playing percussion in the band (apparently it's the place to be), applying for yearbook staff, joining math and science club, and trying out for the community swim team.  I'm tired just thinking about it!  We'll see how well we can both keep up.

So many changes.  However, there is are things he has promised will never change and I will hold him to them!  He has promised that he will always give me a hug on demand (as long as it's not in an embarrassing situation).  He will always be my boy and remember that I love him, no matter what.  With that, and a testimony of the love of his Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I hope he will weather whatever storms may come.

Christian, the math whiz

Brag Alert!!
We are constantly amazed by Christian's academic abilities.  He is already better able to help Jordan with math than I am, which as a former teacher that is hard for me to admit. 
Math was just such a long time ago!  After four children, my brain is mushy!  I had a friend tell me once, "Every time you give birth you lose 1/3 of your brain."  Then she looked me straight in the eye and said, "You're in the hole!" :)  I had to laugh and agree.
Back to my amazing son.  He recently competed in a district math competition with Middle School age kids (6th through 8th graders).  Overall, in the individual category, My 6th grader placed 9th, effectively beating out many 8th grade math club members.  He just has a mind for numbers.  He must have gotten it from his dad!

Time Out for Women

Last weekend I went to Time Out for Women in Layton.  Not only was the conference amazing but I had the fun opportunity to be there with my sister Laurie and all of her girls, Ashlie, Haley, Kori, Whitney, and Courtney.  I really had a fun time.  Things like that are a real breath of fresh air to my soul.  It's great to find the individual inside the mommy.

Annual Luau

We had our annual Luau on Saturday.  I have to admit I was lacking in enthusiasm for this year.  We have had so much going on and I haven't been able to feel caught up in a long time.  But, the kids wouldn't let me forget and let it pass, reminding me and confirming the importance of our family traditions!   Good, fun activities that remind us that we do love each other and actually enjoy spending time together.

Hawaiian haystacks for dinner with spinach salad and fresh pineapple.  Kids love to drink from the plastic coconut cups!

The kids love to have Hula Hooping contests!  Our neighbor showed us how to make these fun, custom hula hoops out of black funny sprinkler pipe, a connector, and colored duct tape.  We made them on New Year's eve.  Such a fun project.

Jenna was the most improved hula-hooper.  A couple of weeks ago she couldn't hula but now she is a pro.  She can even hula on her knees.

Christian likes to double up.  He even hulas on his knees
like a pro.

<><><><><><><><><><><> 

Emma is quite the hula- hooper!  She can hula hoop on her knees and even jump off something and keep going.

Jordan is definitely the fastest Hula hooper!  I have never seen anyone hula that fast!

Not only can he hula, but he looks marvelous doing it!
I love that Paul gets into my crazy ideas!

This is how I hula.  I just can't seem to get the rhythm in my wiggle!☺

Pin the coconut on the palm tree

Limbo!

How low can you go?

Limbo lower now!

Christian's new talent

Christian has discovered a new talent. When he sits in the front seat of our Subaru Legacy, the passenger air bag turns on but if he flexes his "cheeks" he can make it turn off.

Twelve days of Christmas Hurricane style

The following song adaptation was composed entirely by the kids to commemorate the wind storm of 2011.

On the 1st day of Christmas, nature gave to me, winds of a hundred and three.
On the 2nd day of Christmas, nature gave to me, two crashing playgrounds.
On the 3rd day of Christmas, nature gave to me, three flying tramps.
On the 4th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, four falling semis.
On the 5th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, no elec-tri-city.
On the 6th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, six glowing flashlights.
On the 7th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, seven fallen trees.
On the 8th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, eight flying shingles.
On the 9th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, nine lost garbage cans.
On the 10th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, ten scattered tools.
On the 11th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, eleven piles to clean up.
On the 12th day of Christmas, nature gave to me, twelve loving neighbors.

Hurricane Utahna

On Thursday, we had the most incredible wind storm out of the mountains. The wind gusted as high as 102 mph, and since we have empty fields behind our house and to the East, we got the worst of it. First of all, I have to say how grateful we are that none of us was hurt and our house did not sustain too much damage. Unfortunately we can't say that for many many other things.

Our first surprise was when at about 2 am, our shed, which was completely loaded down with 2 tillers, lawn mower, wheelbarrow and all our garden and yard tools, blew over onto it's doors. As we were contemplating how we would get everything out of it and stand it back upright, it shattered and all the contents scattered. The next morning, we found our big tiller about 15 feet from where the shed was originally and the lawn mower 20 feet away.

As we were watching the shed go, we looked out into the darkness and realized we couldn't see the trampoline anywhere. We found it about 300 yards out in the back field. Our heavy metal Lifetime play set was tipped over and came to rest about 30 feet across the yard. It took 6 adults to get it upright again but we have yet to return it to it's rightful place.

 

Emma wrote this note and put it in the front window.  "Hi, this is Emma.  I am okay, but I have lost my playground."  She felt an urgency to share how the storm affected her with the rest of the neighborhood.

In the early morning hours, we heard a big boom but we were so exhausted by that time we didn't get up to investigate. When we got up the next morning, we found that the wheel locks on the trailer had shaken loose and it had rolled out past the front of the house to the driveway. (It was parked on the trailer pad on the east side of the house, well behind the front corner of the house.) As it cleared the house a gust of wind must have caught it and pushed it over onto it's side. As the storm continued to rage through the morning, the trailer was pushed across the entire width of the driveway until it stopped about 1 foot onto the grass.

 

During the day, our 2 car garage had the bottom panel pushed in and fold up on itself and then, because of the pressure, the entire door buckled outward. Needless to say it was not functional and since the trailer was blocking the other garage door, Paul called in and told his offices to cancel all his appointments because he could not get there.
If you look really closely at the photo, you can see some wooden blocks sitting by the side of the house and a faint rectangular print on the concrete, crossing the line, where the hitch of the trailer originally sat.  The yellow thing is one of the wheel locks.

We were amazed that the only damage to the house, other than the garage door, was a piece of sofit from the deck ceiling, a piece of metal from the front of one of the peaks of the roof and some damage to the stucco around the garage.  We didn't lose a single shingle!!

Our neighbors all had varying levels of damage.  You can stand in our backyard and look to the west and see almost to the end of the street through all the vinyl fences.  Not one fence survived.  Even though our neighborhood has had a lot of damage, no one was hurt.  For that we are grateful.  We are also very grateful for insurance!

As we have thought about all the things that could have happened, for example, the fact that the trailer rolled out into the driveway before being blown over instead of repeatedly hitting the house or taking off the corner of the house.  Our play set could have ended up in the neighbor's pool or taken off our deck.  We could have lost some or all of our roof like many of our neighbors.  Things could have been so much worse.  We feel very blessed.

I will save the account of the clean up for another post.  There are many neat stories which make me feel so grateful for the neighborhood and neighbors we are blessed to have.

So many projects, so little time...

I made this chalkboard for our front hall.  The board is made from sheet metal painted with chalkboard paint.  The frame is moulding with corner pieces.

This growth chart is made from a 1x8 piece of pre-primed mdf.  I measured and drew lines and added lettering and vinyl numbers with my handy dandy Silhouette machine.  I then cut green vinyl for the stem and added wall sticker flowers and insects that I found at Dollar Tree.  Every six months, we mark each child in their own color with the date.

I bought a Scrabble game at DI for a couple of bucks and decided to make this artwork to hang in our game room in the basement.  I glued the tiles to the board and made a frame from moulding to fit.  Unfortunately, the corners did not match well this time for some reason, so I found some thin wood squares at WalMart.  I printed scrabble letters from the internet, Modge Podged them to the squares with a quick topcoat and then glued them to the corners of the frame.  I think it turned out fun!

Happy Halloween 2011!



Every  Halloween we have our traditional Halloween dinner before going out to trick or treat.  We put a fun halloween tablecloth on, use Halloween paper party plates and napkins (easy clean up), and get out the plastic halloween goblets I bought at the dollar store years ago.  If I can get some dry ice we have smoking rootbeer along with some other fun concoctions before they head out to load up on candy.  We love the fun side of Halloween!

Zombie eyes and monster teeth



Brains complete with roaches






Jack o' Lantern cheeseball




Mummy dogs







♫ Footloose ♪

Paul and I went to see the new Footloose the other night.  It was amazing what a few (or many) years will do to your perspective.  When the first Footloose came out (yes, I am THAT old) I identified wholeheartedly with the teens and looked at those parents as ridiculous.  As we sat and enjoyed the new movie, I found myself horrified at Ariel's attitude and loose morals.  I wondered what Paul was thinking about the scantily clad actress.  I looked over and realized that he was having much the same thoughts as I was.  I knew we were both thinking of our sweet little girls at home.

You know you are getting old when although you can remember what it was like to be a teenager, you identify more with the overprotective parents.

A COUPLE MORE STORIES FROM MEXICO

I am so excited!  Paul comes home tomorrow.  We have all missed him so much.  Here are a couple more experiences he has written about.  To read about others, click here.  So Neat!

9/6/11 "Today was the busiest day yet. We saw 1414 patients. It was also the hottest day, 110 degrees. I saw a 12 year old who was a -7.00 who had never had glasses, another 10 year old who was a -5.00 who also had never had glasses. Perhaps the most touching was a 53 year old lady who had been led around like a blind person her entire life who was a -15.00 and got glasses for the first time. She now has freedom that she never thought she would have. The doors to the clinic close at about 3:00 because it takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a person to go to every station and wait in all the long lines. That way we can leave by about 6:00. Well, there was a lady who arrived with her handicapped son at 3:20, they had been on a bus for 3 1/2 hours to get there, and had arrived late. She pleaded that we see her son because she didn't have money for bus fare tomorrow. Of course we helped them! She was so grateful and happy."

"The people here have been great. We've all made friends with each other. It doesn't matter who sits by who at dinner or on the bus. My roommate Alfonso and I have become friends. He's quite the linguist. He knows Spanish, English, Italian, and a little German."

8/7/11 "It's getting harder because our selection of glasses prescriptions is getting lower and lower with each day that passes. I feel bad sometimes because the best we have is maybe 50% of what they really need. I didn't have any heart warming stories today, but I did see a ptyrigium ( the white thing that starts on the white of the eye and grows towards the pupil) that was so bad it blocked all but about 10% of the pupils of both this lady's eyes. I should have taken a picture. I hope she gets the surgery she needs soon."

"The governor came to see the clinic today as well. You could tell that the local volunteers were a little nervous. Tomorrow another doctor and I are staying at the hotel for a few hours in the morning to check all the hotel staff's eyes. It should be interesting because we only have some of our equipment to do so."

8/8/11  "Today another Dr. and I stayed behind at the start of the day to see what the hotel said would be about 20 people. We saw 57. The battery died on the handheld auto refractor and we have to finish the last nine tomorrow at 6:30 am. We then immediately had someone pick us up and take us to the clinic site. Clinic was crazy today. There were so many people that they stopped accepting them by lunch time because we had already reached our allotment for the day. I assume we saw more than 1500 today."


I know that Paul has been grateful for such an amazing opportunity.  The other people have been asking him if he is going to do another "mission".  It has always been a dream of mine to do service trips like this and I think as our children become teens it would be life-changing for us to do this as a family.  I would love for them to see outside of our privileged society and truly understand the difference between wants and needs.  I also want them to understand that because we are so blessed, we have an obligation to help others.  I hope and pray that we will be able to enjoy some opportunities like this together.

Cuteness!

Our neighbor found this baby butterfly and so we took the opportunity to take some cute pictures!

Too bad I don't have an amazing camera that can really focus in on the details.  Too bad Emma looks like she's half asleep, but I think they are cute anyway.

Christian and his shadow

One of the moms in Christian's class came up with a fun idea for the first day of school.  She got as many students as she could to make these sculptures out of packing tape.  Then we went and arranged them in the classroom so Mrs. Poulson would see them when she came in for the first day of school.

Please don't mind the trash on the floor.  We made quite a mess getting it done.  It was really fun to make although we were a little pressed for time to get it done.  It is difficult to see but Christian chose some plastic food to put in the stomach and a picture of science equipment to put in the head.  We made it so he looked like he was raising his hand.  It took us about 3 hours in two different sittings.

One of the other kids put his head in his lap instead of attaching it and then poised it reading "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

We have had fun thinking of different things we could use him for.  With Halloween coming up, I bet we can come up with some fun ideas. 

In case anyone is interested, here is the link describing how to make your own sculpture.

Christian the triathaloner

Christian and Matthew before the race

We are so proud of Christian! He finished his first triathalon today.  He and his friend Matthew decided to do it together.   He and Christian were talking smack, it was pretty funny.  Christian trained all summer, and he did it pretty much on his own.  Paul and I worked with him a couple of times but it was all him! 
He liked it so much he is already planning for his next race in May and trying to talk me into it.  Paul has already agreed to do it with him.  He also wants to join the swim team to make it easier to train for the swimming portion.  

Coming in from the biking to get ready to run

Posing with his  medal and bike on the rack after the race.

His finishing times were

as follows:
150 meter swim: 6:26
2.5 mile bike: 18:36
1.5 mile run: 15:11
Total: 43.50 minutes.
We are so proud of him and excited that he has found a love that he can enjoy for many, many years to come.

Another funny conversation from the back seat

We were coming home from swimming when I heard this conversation from the back seat of the car:

Jordan: "It smells like mildew."

Christian: "You're mildew."

Jordan: "You're the thing that comes before mildew."

Christian: "Umm.....water?"

(At this point I cracked up. It felt good to laugh with them.) Then after a long pause...

Jordan: "No, wet dog."

Then we laughed some more. Good for Jordan, thinking of a good come back, although his timing was a little late. :)

Paul in Mexico

Paul has had the opportunity to go to Hermosillo, Mexico for 12 days on what they call a mission in order to give eye exams.  He is having a wonderful experience and has been able to help many, many people.  We are so proud of him and pray for him every day.  I thought I would post some excerpts from his emails.  There are some great stories he tells and I am sure many more he hasn't had time to relate.

7/30/11 "Starting tomorrow we leave for clinic at 7:00 am each day and work all day. We are going to try and see about 1200 people a day."  "The clinic is in an open gymnasium. It is pretty hot in there. I hope my new bandanas work. I'm looking forward to seeing patients tomorrow."

7/31/11 "We work in different stations of the clinic. I worked in dilation (making sure the people who should or shouldn't get dilated do so), and in the doctor health check area. It is not air conditioned. There are fans blowing, but that's all. We have plenty of water to drink and they provide a nice lunch for us. There are 6 docs from the states, 1 from England, and 4 local doctors helping out. Along with about 25 other people on this mission as well as about 20 local helpers. Today we finishaed at about 5:00, but I hear that on some days we won't get done until 6:30."

8/1/11 "Today clinic was very busy.  We rotate stations, and today I was at the computer trying to determine the best match for the patients to the galsses that we have.  We had to shut down early because a huge thunderstrom came that actually was blowing rain into the clinic and onto the equipment.  It also knocked power out at the hotel for about 2 hours.  Luckily it happened right at the end of the day so not too many people were affected.  The non doctor people here are opticians, frame reps, factory workers, etc.  There's plenty of work for everyone."

8/2/11 "Just got back from clinic. It was very busy today. We saw about 950 patients today. Tomorrow should be even busier since it's Saturday.  I have seen lots of weird stuff. I keep seeing patients with diabetic eye disease that don't know they have diabetes. I've seen cataracts so bad that no light can get through. One guy with a +19.00 in one eye and a -4.00 in the other. Lots of kids with lazy eye. One guy who had brain surgery and now both his eyes turn out at the same time.  Today my neck and back are sore from bending to look in so many people's eyes with the ophthalmoscope. It's an ibuprophen night for sure."

8/3/11 "Today at clinic we saw 1312 people, whew.  It was busy, but awesome.  I did scoping all day.  I saw 7 of the worst cataracts I have ever seen today.  They were so dense that no light even got through them.  We also had a 21 year old girl who had never had glasses who was a -19.00 in both eyes.  She was able to really see for the first time in her life with her new glasses.  She had tears in her eyes when she said, "You have changed my life."  I wish Ihad been there when she got her glasses and said that, but I wasn't in that section."  "Today we had an auction and raised over $4000."  (Everyone on the mission was asked to bring something to auction.)

Paul has been gone for 7 days now, another 6 to go!  I don't know how people who have spouses gone out of town all the time keep their sanity.  I miss my other half.  The other half of my life, the other half of my brain, and the other half of my heart.  I am glad he has this chance to help so many people.  That is one of the main reasons he chose his profession was so that he could help and serve others.  I look forward to the day when we can go together on service missions.  I would love to take my children.  I think it would be a very eye opening experience that would change their perspectives and their lives.  I know my mission in Guatemala did for me.  I also look forward to serving full time missions with Paul.  For now, my mission is here, teaching the future.
Love you, Paul.  I am proud of you for following through on your desire to do this despite all that you left up in the air at home.  Be safe, work hard, we love you!

A quick glimpse of summer

Remember this? Here are some photos of some of the things we did. These are not all of the things because I am terrible about remembering to take photos.

Climbing at Cherry Hill

Such a cute belly!

 

 Playing in the water @ Cherry Hill

Slip slidin' away the summer

Lagoon!!!

Driver with an attitude

Ferris Wheel @ Lagoon

Jordan wanted time at the skate park

He's getting pretty good!



Hiking on our camping trip by Sundance

We hiked up the back of Mt. Timp to Stewart Falls