CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST

The other day I told the kids all about College and how great it is and how much they will love it when they go. I told them that they will be in charge of themselves and that they will be able to make their own decisions. i.e.: what to eat for breakfast, what classes they want to take, what time they want to go to bed and that they can be whatever they want to be.

This is what they got out of that conversation....I heard them talking to each other yesterday....

TREVOR: College is going to be SO awesome!! Did you know we get to eat chocolate for breakfast?!

CORBIN: Chocolate for breakfast??

TREVOR: Yes! And we get to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG and play and then we get to sleep at school!!

CORBIN: We do??

TREVOR: Yeah, and we can do whatever we want without anyone else telling us what to do! It's going to be awesome.

So glad our conversation made an impression.

The power of service

So, I have a really cool story. I wrote a post earlier about how my friend Emily collected blankets and other warm items to send to Afghanistan. Her family friend is still in Afghanistan and still ready and willing to receive items to give to the families in need there.

So, my friend Kellie got involved and started collecting items and sending them to Afghanistan herself. I offered to help and after Kellie gathered even more items that were donated, we went to the post office. We loaded 10 boxes (3 large and 7 medium and small boxes) into the post office one-by-one. As we did so, Kellie and I talked about what was donated and how many items there were. She collected over 500 items (blankets, mittens, hats, sweaters, jackets, socks).

A woman in line overheard us talking and stopped to ask us what we were doing. Kellie told her the whole story and by the end of it the woman asked if she could donate some money towards postage and said something to the effect that "God helps in mysterious ways".

This woman, a random stranger, wrote out a check right then and after she left we noticed that it was for $100.

I hope that I always take the time to stop and listen and then TAKE ACTION just like this woman did. She could have just walked away. She could have just said, "oh that's great" and walked right out of there. But she didn't. Her kind offer covered half of the postage that was necessary to send these items and brought tears to our eyes.

These are real pictures taken by my friends family friend (Dave Reid) living in Afghanistan after they received some of the items we shipped.

This is Dave Reid. He used to be my friend Emily's Bishop when she was younger and is now living in Afghanistan. He and his wife are collecting and distributing the blankets to those who need them.

Found this on our computer...

When I got home from my girls night tonight I found this taped to our computer...

It says, "Don't do it mom, your brain will explode! Same for you dad! Don't even think about it." Complete with diagram of head exploding.

Trevor wrote it and left it for us to find. I seriously love that kid. So funny and we both laughed so hard. Especially about this part...

Life-sized CandyLand game

Lisa and Matt planned last weeks Scout activity. Dave and I both went and brought all of the kids. It was a life-sized Candy Land game at the Library. It was cute and the kids had fun. Shannon, a friend in our ward, works at the library and was there to help with the game.



Shannon, showing the kids how to play...

Church items I love from Deseret Book

Now, I am not being sponsored by Deseret Book (although they should sponsor me after this awesome post), I do love some of the items I have purchased there for my kids. I don't know if you can find these items somewhere else...maybe amazon? But these are tried and true in our family. My kids love the following books, music and games.

Book of Mormon Stories (classic stories with scripture and pictures. love.)


The Enchanted Tunnels (this is a series)


Book: How Does the Holy Ghost make me Feel? (great for teaching young kids about baptism and the Holy Ghost...there is a separate baptism book you can buy)



Scripture stickers (this makes it so fun for kids to read their scriptures)



Scripture Scouts (the kids will sing along to the funny songs and like to listen to the scripture story being told)


Hidden Treasures of the Book of Mormon (we've had this book since Trevor was little...we bring it to church and it's a Where's Waldo, Book of Mormon style)


Popcorn popping: Kids favorite dance mix (ok, I have yet to buy this...but I want to... I bet my two younger kids would LOVE it!)


Who's your Hero (the kids LOVE this series. The pictures are a little comical, but the kids really get into these books. Trevor loves to read them to the younger two)

Book of Mormon Battles (I bought this game from Deseret but can't find it on their site now. It's fun and the kids love to play it. They learn Book of Mormon characters while playing the game)

With my own allowance

I overheard my boys talking to each other and they were telling each other how cool they were for buying their toys with their "own money". We give our kids an allowance and are teaching them to save rather than spend. When they have saved, they like to use some of the money to buy their own toys. I love that this makes them feel responsible and cool. I hope they learn good money habits now, while they are young.

Trevor's poster: Save Antarctica

Valentine Scavenger Hunt

So, Dave made an awesome dinner for us on V-day. He set out candles and put on music and made chicken cordon bleu. It was amazing. It was also really funny because they kids had been eating candy all day and by dinner time they were so hyper. Corbin kept licking the inside of his glass and running around the table. It was kind of funny.

The gifts at the end of the scavenger hunt...

My kids follow a bunch of heart confetti through the house that leads them to little treats, ending with gifts on Ashlyn's bed.

Class Valentine Parties

Ashlyn made these cute lollipop butterfly valentines for her class. The boys chose lego valentines for their classes.


Class parties...







Our whole family crashed Corbin's class on V-day. We got to take Ash and Trev out of school 5 minutes early so we headed over to Corbin's class to hang out on the play ground.

Valentine's Morning

The kids woke up to their Valentine's Day breakfast. This year, breakfast consisted of: heart-shaped pancakes, heart-shaped sausage, heart-shaped strawberries (ok went a little overboard on the heart-shapes) hashbrowns and pink strawberry milk. I was able to wake up early enough to send Dave off with a plate that he ate in the car. :) The kids were so tired! I love their cute sleepy faces.

Book of the Week

Eldest
(February 13, 2012)



I liked this book a little better than the first. The author added three separate stories into this one and that makes the book move more quickly and becomes more interesting to me. I think the book is good. Not great. But good. Other YA fantasy books that have been recommended to me are: the Chronicles of Narnia series and Mistborn. I'm excited to read these in the future sometime when I'm ready to revisit fantasy.

Love this scripture

Doctrine and Covenants 109:8-9
8 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

9 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord, that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High—

The Chocolate Factory

My friend, Marilyn, plans really fun Friday play dates for our ward. Anyone can come and it's always a good time. Last Friday, February 10th, we took a tour of the Fannie May chocolate factory. It was so fun!

The LOVE boat

A couple in our ward threw a really fun ward party. It was so cute. The title of the event was, The Love Boat. Everything was set up for a cruise and we were all told to wear our best nautical outfit. Dave was asked to be the Captain of the Love Boat, i.e. the MC. (this was payback to Dave for having Sam Taylor take his spot in the Christmas play at the last minute due to Dave's conflicting work schedule).

Activities included:
Couple Connections
2 Musical Performers
A dance

Here, we learned that Lacey and Austin Cope have yet another talent...swing dancing. How is it possible that so much talent exists in two people?!! It was a really fun night and we love our ward.

A picture of the LOVE CONNECTION contestants.
Congrats to Cicely and Dave for winning!

I caught these cute kids playing chess together in the hall. They were all huddled around the board at one point.