I just came upstairs to hear MJ say to Kay (complete with hand gestures), "Crackers are my life!"
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Kid talk
Friday, March 21, 2014
Youth Family History Challenge
In addition to my calling in YW, I was asked back in July to head up a family history challenge for our youth in the ward. I initially had a committee of youth that helped come up with some ideas and goals and then we went ahead with it. We had a kickoff in October when DH and I taught a combined YM/YW lesson on family history and what it involves (which was unfortunately interrupted with a fire alarm) and then we had a point system set up for the youth to earn points by doing specific things regarding family history. We had one of our mutual nights where we taught 3 different mini classes on some specific family history topics that the youth could work on. We had a rewards jar made where the youth would put pom-pom balls to represent the points that they have earned and then if they fill the jar by the middle of January they would earn a carnival type party.
Things started out a little rough and I think I made it a little too complicated at first, but then the holidays hit and we had several weeks where we didn't have any mutual activities at all because of the holidays so we decided to extend the challenge into March. After the new year I changed things up a bit and printed out a specific weekly challenge for the youth to try and focus on each week - simple things like writing in your journal to finding an ancestor in the 1920, 1930 or 1940 U.S. census - with specific instructions on how to do it. We have also tried to have a family history moment in YW and on mutual nights where one of the youth talks about something they have done with family history.
I think overall it has been a success for the youth. We have heard stories of the youth coming home from an activity and getting their parents involved in looking things up on the internet. We took a trip to the family history library where the youth were able to print out 9 generation fan charts so they could see where the holes are in their family. We have also heard stories of grandparents being interviewed and families hearing stories and things that they had never heard before.
This is one reason that I have been behind in blogging lately. This challenge has been somewhat time consuming for me and sometimes when I do have free time I find myself wanting to get onto the familysearch.org website and do some family history work instead! Right now I am in the middle of planning the rewards activity which will be next Wednesday for our mutual night. We are going to do a life-sized board game with the youth in "family" teams and it will be as if they are on a pioneer trek across the plains to Utah. Hopefully it will go off well and the youth will enjoy it! I will try and get someone to take pictures for me so I can blog about it more in detail.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Trick-or-Treating 2013
Thursday, October 31
This year we recycled a lot of costumes which makes it really nice for me (plus I like seeing some of the ones that I have made in years past used again). The only costume that I bought this year was Blondie's and I happened to find it at a second-hand store. She wanted to be a cat and after I found this costume she was happy being a leopard. I found the ears at Wal-mart (I think) and then she had me paint her face. Blondie's costume also had a cute tail on the back. Kitty reused a costume that I made M&M a few years ago. I had to resew on the "M" because it was falling off in a few places and I wanted to make it more secure. When I originally made it I just attached the "M" with some fusible webbing. Kay reused a costume that several of the older girls have worn. This one I bought several years ago for M&M at Kmart. MJ's costume was also made for M&M back when she was 2 or 3 years old. I remember M&M throwing a fit about wearing it to our ward Halloween party - and she definitely didn't like the hat! MJ had me paint some black spots on her cheeks. Luke wore a costume that he has worn a couple of times. He went out with a friend trick-or-treating and got a lot of loot in his pillow case.
I took the kids over to a neighbor's house who gives out hot dogs every year on Halloween night. After that DH took the girls trick-or-treating while I stayed home and gave out candy. Then DH stayed home with Kay and MJ who had had enough and I took the older two out to a few more streets. It was very mild weather which always makes trick-or-treating nice!
School Costume Parade
Thursday, October 31
MJ and my mom and I went to see the girls in the school costume parade. Here are some pictures:
Carving pumpkins - 2013
Tuesday, October 29
M&M was gone once again for Halloween and pumpkin carving this year. It was the annual marching band trip to California and Saint George again.
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| I love the expression on Blondie's face! |
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| Finished products! |
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| Luke's pumpkin - Captain America's shield - Luke had some problems carving this but we were able to hold it together with a bunch of straight pins |
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| MJ's - a cat |
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| Blondie - an owl |
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| Kitty's - she did this almost all by herself |
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| Kay's - a ghost |
Wind Symphony
Tuesday, October 22
M&M made it into the Wind Symphony at her high school - which is the top band. She has really enjoyed it and it has been a good experience to be exposed to harder music with more serious band students. They had their first concert towards the end of October.
Kid pictures
Last year I quit buying the kids' pictures from the school because we could save quite a bit of money by going to the photo studio at J.C. Penney's instead. It requires a little more time on my part but it is worth it to me and we have more variety of choices and poses. I usually do this in the fall of the new school year, but this year I completely spaced it and ended up not getting it done until 2014. I managed to get all of the kids (with the exception of MJ who just had some done in August) and family pictures in the last 2 weeks of January. Kay was pretty funny because she knew exactly what she wanted to wear and how she wanted to pose and which props she wanted in the pictures. She has quite a bit of personality in her. Towards the end the photographer was asking me if I wanted anything else that she hadn't captured yet and Kay piped up that she wanted the tea party set with the small table and chairs and some teddy bears! She had actually been scouting out the props a little when we were in for the family pictures!
Luke had a pretty good attitude about getting his pictures done even though he is almost 13! The photographer enjoyed working with him and afterwards made a collage of pictures that she absolutely loved and asked if I would sign a release so that they could use his pictures in upcoming studio competitions.
We ended up getting some great photos of all of the kids. I was quite pleased with how they all turned out. You know it was a good photo session when you have too many good pictures to choose from and it makes for hard decisions! Definitely better than getting the standard school photos each year!
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Finally some snow!
Thursday, January 30
We had a small snowstorm today and I made the girls go outside with me to play in the snow. They had a blast!
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| Building a ramp to slide down. |
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| Strangling the baby snowman! |
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| That's a little better! |
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| Giving the big snowman a hug! |
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| Snowball fight! |
Worn out Luke
Wednesday, January 29
This evening for scouts, the Deacons went to our city fitness center and ran the mile for the personal fitness merit badge and then they went swimming for the remainder of the time there. Luke still needed to pass the BSA swimmer test for his rank advancement so he had asked his leaders ahead of time if he could do it during that time. They said that would be fine so after Luke ran the mile he went down and was able to pass the BSA swimmer test. I was really impressed that he took it upon himself to do that on his own and that he actually passed! He was quite exhausted (and hungry) when he came home and he somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch while we were watching T.V. I tried to wake him up to get him to move to his bed but he wouldn't wake up easily, so I removed his glasses and he kind of jerked awake for a few seconds but then fell right back asleep again. He said that he woke up around 1:30 in the morning and went to his bed at that time (it took him a few seconds to realize where he was).
Crazy cookies
Wednesday & Thursday, January 23 & 24
They actually weren't too bad - just a lot of work!
Family pictures
Monday, January 20
Since the kids were out of school and DH home from work for Martin Luther King Day, I decided to setup an appointment to update our family pictures. I think we got some really cute ones and can't wait to hang them up on the wall. The funniest moment during the photo shoot was when we had just finished taking a set of pictures with our first family pose and MJ let out a huge sigh and said, "Man, this is taking forever!!"
Haircut for MJ
Tuesday, January 21
Gave MJ a haircut today to even out the hair a little. Her right side has been quite a bit shorter and scraggly looking because of the hair twirling that she does. She doesn't twirl her hair as much anymore so I am hoping it will grow a little more evenly now. I think this is a cute length on her!
Swimming lessons
January 3-17
The elementary kids were off track for 3 weeks after Christmas & New Years and I had promised Kay that they could take swimming lessons so I got them all signed up. Unfortunately the times for the different levels were spread out throughout the morning so we ended up having to spend almost 3 hours at the pool every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was nice to have something for the kids to do though when it is too cold outside to play. I usually got in the pool as well so that MJ could swim too. Every time I sign the kids up for lessons they seem to have changed requirements in the different levels so I am never sure what classes to put my kids in. Kitty was a little bummed that she didn't pass her level again - even though her level this time around was much harder than it was last year. I feel like they are improving quite a bit though and I am able to let them roam the pool mostly on their own and not have to watch them every second. They've also made some changes to the pool that we go to and have added some more slides and play areas for kids.
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| Kitty learning the front crawl |
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| Blondie working on her backstroke |
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| MJ loved going up and down the stairs but wasn't too crazy about going down any of the slides. |
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| Shooting some hoops |
Where is all the snow?
(*Sorry, I will be posting things out of order until I get caught up on my blogging!)
After a month or two of almost spring-like weather and no snow we woke up this morning to a little bit of snowfall. (It wasn't even worth taking a picture of.) Unfortunately Kay is sick or she probably would have gone outside to enjoy it...
It has been an unseasonably warm winter with very little snowfall. It has actually been a little depressing for our family...
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Marching Band - Rocky Mountain Invitational
Tuesday, October 8
Blondie and I drove down and picked DH up from work and then we headed to BYU to see the marching band perform in the Rocky Mountain Invitational. I like this competition because the stadium is so high that you can get a better overall picture of what the show looks like. Like last year we weren't quite sure what the "rules" were regarding photography and videography. I think that tripods are not allowed but we also saw some security people walking around asking people to put away their video cameras too... It was kind of confusing... We sat up really high in the stadium and then I took pictures with DH's camera while he tried to videotape the show. I got some really good pictures, so enjoy! Afterwards we ended up running into an old bishop of ours from our married student ward at BYU. He was there with his wife watching one of their grandkids perform. We had a good time talking with them and catching up a little on the years since we last saw each other.
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| The band ready to take the field. |
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| Opening set |
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| Woodwinds are the group in the front. |
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| The flute/piccolo section is that front group on the 45 yard line. |
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| This was a really neat part of the show where the band is playing and the color guard run through the band with their flags held out. |
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| M&M is at the front of the line on the 20-yard line. |
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| Marching off the field |
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