The Best Laid Plans....

We have been working on our FHE plan of reviewing a conference talk each week.  This week's talk was given by Sister Burton.  She discusses the parable of the 10 Virgins.  We were all prepared to share the Bible Video depicting Jesus telling this parable.  We turned on the TV and the screen said, "Parable of the 10 Virgins."  It all went downhill from there...

Joshie asked, "What does it say?"

Joel said, "Parable of the 10 Virgins."

Spring, "What exactly is a virgin?"

Joel and I tried to explain it in a way that was appropriate for kids ranging in age from 1 to 13.

Spring, "So, I'm a virgin, but Mom's not a virgin."

Joel, "Yes."

We thought we had skirted over that and were about to hit play when Joshie calls out, "I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin."

Then Mary started, "I'm a virgin."

Gideon joined the chorus as did Sammy calling out, "I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin."

Soon, Sara was dancing around the room singing, "I'm a virgin. I'm a virgin."

All of them were dancing around singing they were virgins but mom was not a virgin.  Then Mary called out to the boys, "NO! You can't be a virgin!  You are a BOY!"

Joel and I could do nothing but laugh.  And we laughed hard.  It will definitely be a memorable Family Home Evening.  I just hope they don't care to share their newfound vocabulary word at school tomorrow.

Spring May Come After All

Yesterday was AMAZING!  We got to 50 degrees and the sky was clear with beautiful clouds.  I took Josh, Gideon, and Sara to the park and they played for over 2 hours.  Some friends from the ward met up there and Josh was so excited for all his friends to play with.  He came running to me yelling, "Mom!  All my friends from church are here!"  All these boys just ran and played and us moms relished in being outside for the first time in months.  We didn't want the time to end.  

After school the neighborhood came to life.  Kids were everywhere outside riding bikes, laughing, playing basketball, and just loving being outside in shorts and T-shirts.  Sammy kept telling me how humid it was outside!  I still don't think we convinced him that it was not humid.  It was quite the effort to get them inside for dinner and FHE.  Then Sammy chose to go to Handels for our Family Home Evening  treat.  We were so happy to be able to enjoy our ice cream outside!  

It's amazing to me how much more energy, motivation, and desire I had to do the little things all of a sudden.  Some warm weather and the ability to go outside do wonders for the spirits.  I think we may have a Spring after all!  I know I won't complain about the heat and humidity this year...I will just be so grateful to not be freezing and stuck inside all day and night!

Not sure how she got the nice shiner!

Hide and Seek

For Family Home Evening tonight Thomas chose "hide-n-seek" for the activity.  Well, it was my turn to count and I quickly found everyone except Spring.  I looked everywhere for her and could not find her.  Noone else fessed up to knowing where she was either.   I even tried the old trick of calling out, "OK guys, time for treats.  If you aren't at the table in the next 5 seconds you don't get treats."  She didn't fall for that one.  Finally Joel showed me the following picture as a clue (now this was after I had been looking for just her for almost 15 minutes):

So, I ran down and opened the dryer up and yelled, "Boo!" thinking I would scare her but she wasn't in the dryer.  Look where I finally found her:

She had scrunched all the way down and had the lid down on her the whole time.  She definitely won the award for the best hiding place of the night!

FHE Treats

Before school this morning I asked Sammy what he was planning to make for Family Home Evening treats tonight so I could be sure to have all the ingredients. He informed me, with conviction, he was planning to make Monkey Bread.  So after school and quiet time he came to me all ready to make the treats.  He let me know that he did not need my help and that he was going to do it all by himself. And, do it all on his own he did!  He kept telling me how cool it was that he has "an ingredient he can make all on his own!"  I reminded him countless times that it is a recipe he knows, not an ingredient...but finally I just let him call it an ingredient!  He talked and commentated every step of the way...through all 40 biscuits!  I think it took him close to 45 minutes to prepare it (longer than it took to bake!) but he did an amazing job.  He was so excited when it came out that he had to run some of it over to Sue Ann right away so he could share the recipe with her too!  We all loved our monkey bread made by Sammy tonight!

Giving Thanks for ALL Things

My sister, Alanna, was telling me about an activity she was going to do with her class at school and I loved it so we used it for our Family Home Evening last week with a little adaptations.  I first gave everyone a sheet of paper entitled, "I am NOT thankful for..." and we all listed things we were not thankful for on this last.  At first, Thomas and Spring had a really hard time thinking of things they were not thankful for.  I think they were really confused that we were asking them to do this.  After we all had listed 5-7 things we opened our scriptures to Doctrine and Covenants 78:17-19:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

So, we asked what was meant by receiving ALL things with thankfulness.  After a short discussion of this we crossed out the word "NOT" and discovered we had a list of things were were thankful for.  So then we all had to think of why we were thankful for these things in our life.  It was a wonderful evening of looking for the blessings that come from the challenges, difficulties, or frustrations in our lives.  Here are a few of the ideas we came up with:

JOEL

*I am thankful for disobedient children because it means I learn patience and long suffering to become more like Father in Heaven.

*I am thankful for oil leaking from the car because it means I learn more about how to fix our cars.

JENNIFER

*I am thankful for pee on the bathroom floor because it means we have a house full of boys that we love so much!

*I am thankful for drinks spilling at mealtime because it means we are blessed to have excitement and conversations together at dinnertime.

THOMAS

*I am thankful for bullies because it means I can set an example on how to treat others kindly.

*I am thankful for vegetables because it means I can be strong and healthy if I eat them.

SPRING

*I am thankful for getting hurt because it means I have something to pray about.

*I am thankful for getting sick because it means I can remember I will be free of this after I am resurrected.

SAMMY

*I am thankful for princesses because it means Mary has something she likes to play with.

*I am thankful for spray in my mouth because it means I can remember to stop yelling and saying mean things.

MARY

*I am thankful for breaking things because it means my mom helps me fix them.

*I am thankful for Sammy being mean to me because it means I have a brother to play with.

Sand

Yesterday our Family Home Evening lesson centered on the scripture, Helaman 5:12.  We discussed what it means to build our foundation on the rock of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  We talked about continually increasing our testimonies.  We reminded the kids that all we do in life is to help us continue to build our foundation on the rock.  We also tied in the parable of the wise man building his house on the rock and the foolish man building his house on the sand.  We even built houses on sand and on a rock and used water from the hose to show what happens when "storms" come to us in life and how if we are built on the rock of our Redeemer then we can withstand these blows.  Although we will still have trials and at times we will struggle, we will be able to withstand all that is sent our way.  It was a fun afternoon and I hope our kids will remember the reason we do all that we do is to be sure we are building ourselves on the rock and not on the sand.

After it was over they all loved playing in the sand and we forgot to clean it up last night after they went to bed.  After naptime today, Sammy and Joshie headed outside for some more fun in the sand.  They played for at least an hour in the sand and, of course since Joshie was involved, water was turned on and used as well.  We even found sand on our driveway tonight!  When it was time to come inside Sammy, Mary, and Joshie all had sand in their hair, clothes, and all over themselves.  They thought it was great though because they were able to get a bath in the afternoon!  Again I was reminded of the joy in simple things.  I love watching them play and enjoy each other.

Restoration Family Home Evening

We talked about the restoration of the church for Family Home Evening tonight since we will be going to Palmyra later this week.  We peeled an orange and separated all the pieces and then asked the kids to put the orange back together.  This was to represent how Christ organized the church when He was on the earth (the orange before it was pealed).  After Christ and the Apostles died there were pieces left but the church was no longer on the earth (the pealed orange and separated pieces).  We couldn't put the orange back together but through Joseph Smith the church was restored upon the Earth.  Then we had pieces of a puzzle with questions about the restoration on the back.  Following our lesson we made log cabins, like Joseph Smith grew up in, out of pretzels and frosting.  Thanks to Alanna this turned into a bit of a frosting war!  We finished the night with the ice cream cake that Spring and Alanna made for us.  We are very excited to visit Palmyra later this week.

Samuel as "Samuel the Lamanite"

Sammy asked Spring to help him prepare the Family Home Evening lesson for tonight.  They decided to tell the story of Samuel the Lamanite.  It made for a fun and lively Family Home Evening.  We ended the recording early twice because we thought they were done...hence the 3 videos.

Ice Cream and Single Digit Temperatures

Last night we decided to go to Handel's for ice cream as our Family Home Evening treat.  Normally this would not be a big deal but last night it was bitter cold with single digit temperatures.  Sammy was disappointed when we got there and told him we were not going to eat outside at the tables; however, after a few minutes of deciding what flavor he wanted he was running back to the van wanting to go home to eat his ice cream.  Gideon even had his first taste of ice cream...not sure what to think of it yet but I'm sure he will grow to love it!  Fun memories! 

FHE Picnic at the Park

Joel met us after work at the park that we were able to help build. The park is right by Joel's work so he just came over and joined us. The kids were all having fun playing and were very excited for Joel to meet us. I had told Sammy and Mary in the morning that we were going to have a picnic at the park that night. All day Sammy kept asking if it was time for the picnic. When Spring got home from school the first thing Sammy said was, "SPRING....US GOING TO THE PARK AND HAVE A PICNIC." Of course, with enthusiasm and excitement that only Sammy can muster! He did the same thing when Thomas came home from school. Spring had so much fun helping me get all the food ready for the picnic and the kids all helped me load it in the car and off we went.

We had a great time playing at the park and Sammy kept telling everyone that we were playing at the park that we built. We wanted to get a picture of all 5 kids on the slide so we had them slide down one at a time starting with Mary. Then we put Joshua in front of Mary. Just as I clicked the picture, Josh fell face first off the slide onto the ground. He is such a tough kid. Once Joel picked him up he stopped crying. So, the one picture is all we got and Spring had her head turned. Oh well, it is a good story!

We decided to go to a different park for our picnic; however, because this park still didn't have grass under the tables and the wind was picking up. So, we drove to another park and enjoyed our dinner and then played some more. At one point all 5 kids were on swings at the same time. That was a workout for Joel and I to keep them all going! We had a great time together. Then we came home and Thomas gave us a great lesson for FHE about the faith of the Brother of Jared. This was for a Faith in God requirement and he did a wonderful job. We enjoyed the evening together.

Joshua's 1st Ice Cream Cone

For FHE on Monday night we had ice cream cones for dessert since we have so many leftover cones from Thomas' sandcastle cake creation. Joshua was eyeing everyone's ice cream so we decided to give him his own. He seemed to really enjoy it but I think the kids enjoyed watching him even more! He was very sticky by the end but also a very happy boy!

Homemade Donuts

We had a fun FHE tonight. Spring gave us a lesson about prayer and she had prepared prayer reminders for everyone. We sat around the table and listed on our reminder sheet things we can thank Heavenly Father for in our prayers. It was fun to see their lists. Then, Thomas was in charge of treats for the evening. He had decided on making homemade donuts. We used to do this all the time but it has been months since we have made them. We all had a great time. Mary grabbed a biscuit and started eating the dough and loved it. I about gagged watching her but she was in her glory. After that it was a challenge for the kids to keep their donut holes and donuts away from her until they were cooked. They all loved frosting them and eating them. Sammy drenched his donuts in so much frosting it was difficult to even see the donut. I am glad we did this again. Spring asked if we could make them tomorrow morning for breakfast but we convinced her that would be a great idea for Saturday morning when we have a little more time to clean up the mess before running off to school. I am so grateful for the inspiration of our prophets in revealing the inspired program of Family Home Evening. It is a blessing to our family as we are able to forget about all other worries and cares while we focus the evening on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and spending precious family time together.

Swimming for FHE

For Family Home Evening tonight we decided to enjoy the pool as a family. Joel got in with them and they were so excited. I didn't tonight since I had earlier today and I didn't want to put a wet swimsuit on again! So, I came out and took pictures and then played with Mary after she was ready to get out. She loved playing on the slides after she had been swimming. The kids loved having Dad in the pool with them. They were all in the pool for over an hour just laughing, talking, and playing together. The kids loved having Joel throw them into the water. They also liked it when he would lay on his stomach on the bottom of the pool. Then they would climb on his back and he would try to buck them off his back. It was such a fun night.

We got a good laugh at Mary and Sammy's diapers since I didn't put them in swim diapers tonight. We enjoyed the evening together. The kids did not want to come in but they were so tired. After getting up so early this morning for school and then playing in the pool so much, I don't think it took any of them more than 3 minutes to fall asleep tonight!