Happy Weekend

Getting out of the house and driving to West Jordan was nice.

We are visiting my sister this weekend while Daddy stays home and works.

Little Lily is getting blessed on Sunday.

I love spending time with Linda and her family.

Joyanne, Noah and Grant had a difficult time falling asleep.

It's hard to be away from the comforts of home, but it is fun to play with cousins.

Joyanne's Surprise

Joyanne has been telling us all week that she had a surprise for us.

Here she is a few days ago, so excited.

Here she is today.

Notice anything different? 

Surprise!!! She had her first BIG haircut today.

What a cutie. :)

And below is a little surprise of my own.

I hope to get this little gem of a dog.

She is 6 years old and at the pound.

But we are still pondering over this.

It might not be quite the right time yet. 



Scout Time

Hiram and I had a fun time working for a 1/2 hour on scouts this evening.

Within a 1/2 hour, we were able to pass off 11 arrow points.

For the blue and gold banquet coming up, Hiram is hoping to earn his Wolf and a gold arrowpoint.

It was fun to have some one-on-one time with my boy!

At Den Meeting, this afternoon, we made some scenery and decorated paper masks for a skit we hope to put on.

I love just playing around with these scouts and having fun.

They liked the "Den Doodle" we started and can't wait to have a party soon.

Make sure to always "Do Your Best!" :)



Marriage

I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman.

I wish I could be at the rally tonight to stand for that at the Utah Capitol.

God created men and women for each other.

Children have the right to be raised in the bonds of matrimony between a husband and wife.

True happiness and joy come from keeping and following God's commandments.

I am grateful to be reared by such wonderful parents who instilled good, wholesome values.

They loved Heavenly Father and tried to be good people.

They made mistakes along the way, but they kept repenting and trying to become better.

Our world is a topsy-turvy place with a lot of people's values screwed up.

We can find happiness in loving Heavenly Father and following Christ's example.

I have found so much happiness in serving others.

I love my family and they are the best to serve.

They don't always appreciate what I do for them, but they show love and feel love.

Noah came home sick from school.

Joyanne has a surprise she just can't wait to share on Thursday.

This is a great sight to see of Hiram.



Work Out!

Daddy and I did our Monday workout at the gym.

Whew!  Did we get a workout!

They have toddler playtime in the court area.

James and Grant love to ride the trikes, bounce on the bounce houses and get all their wiggles out.

This is great for in the winter time.

And here we are, still smiling, after our grueling workout. 



Game Fun

After spending 5 hours at church between choir practice, church meetings and teacher inservice, games were needed to loosen things up.

It started with hot pad boxing . . .

Then in between rounds of hide-and-seek in the dark, we played the water game. 

It was a nice sabbath day with great lessons learned.

Daddy stayed home with a sick Hiram and Grant took a short nap.

Sunday's are fabulous!!!



Scavenger Hunt

Joyanne put together a fun family hour for all of us.

She came up with a Charm Party board game.

We made doorknob hangers and Valentines cards. 

Now they are hanging on our doors.

Here's what Daddy made. :) 

James liked making his doorknob hanger. 

We all had fun and Joyanne put in a lot of effort to this.

Afterward we talked about how good it is to spend time on fulfilling activities.

TV and electronic games are fun, but these kind of activities help make our relationships strong.

Daddy took the Joyanne, Noah, Jaden and James sledding for probably the last time.

The weather has been so good, the snow is melting.

I hope we have enough water this year.

Hiram was down all day with a fever.

Noah ended up with a touch of diarrhea.

Joyanne and her friend were spoiled tonight when I walked with a bag full of a variety of candy and ice cream for them.

Love Little Children

I adore and love little children.

I watched a friend's 4 children today while she drove 3 hours to the doctor.

Her kids were so well-behaved and polite.

They loved our costume dress-up box and entertained my own children quite well.

I enjoy the cute smiles they gave and the fun they had.

I feel so blessed to have my own children.

I love to play with them, feed them and pray with them.

I love them when they make good choices and I love them even when they make bad choices.

I am enjoying the opportunities to teach and raise them.

I know some people are not blessed to be able to have children and I don't take for granted that I can.

I am so grateful for children!

HAPPY DAYS!

No Naps

Two days and no naps.

I can't believe my baby, my 2 1/2 year old, is starting to not take naps.

I'm not ready for this.

Potty-training coming soon. :(

My baby is growing up and it makes me feel old.

Tonight is an early-to-bed kind of night.

I'm not feeling well. :(

Pack Meeting

Pack Meeting for the scouts was tonight.

Noah earned his 2nd and 3rd silver arrow.

Noah and Hiram are both cubscouts.

Noah is a Bear and Hiram a wolf.

I am a den leader of their den.

I have enjoyed being a den leader and have recently come to appreciate the values and character building lessons scouts teaches.

The boys enjoyed playing games as always. 

Even the adults got involved. 

Hiram loves scouts and enjoys participating with his "positive" attitude.

Having a "positive" attitude was our theme tonight. 

Scouts is just playing around with these boys and teaching them good things that they can use and will remember for life!



New Beginnings

It was very exciting to go to New Beginnings in Young Womens for Joyanne.

She is our "joy" and brings happiness to all around her.

I can't believe we are this old and in a new phase of our life.

Making It

I made it through today. Whew!

Daddy worked 15 hours overtime shift from 6a.m. to 9p.m.

I took care of the kids ALL day ALL by myself.

They kept me on my toes.

I still managed to get my exercising at the gym in thankfully and my scripture studying too.

The boys love to take the play bowling pins and whack the ball around the kitchen floor.

It gets loud and crazy, but it's fun.

Joyanne made biscuits by herself tonight.

She is anxious to learn to make and bake lots of things.

Now I have heaps of laundry on my bed that I get to go fold and put away. :)

Another Family History Night

Tonight we had another Family Home Evening lesson on Family History.

We had fun working on Pedigree and Family Tree charts at scouts on Wednesday.

So tonight we worked on them for the whole family.

We printed off fan charts of our ancestors and Pedigree Charts.

Then the kids got to work writing up their own.

It was fun to write down the information and see the names of our ancestors.

I was able to call Grandma (my mom) to get a little more information on some of the family.

She shared a touching personal experience about how, through praying, she was recently able to find 4 family names.

Studying our family and knowing our ancestors helps bring us closer.

I am excited to study more and help out in this great work!

Sledding and Family Fun

My kids have been waiting ALL winter to go sledding.

While I went to a cubscout pow-wow all morning, Daddy took the kids sledding.

Boy, oh boy, did they have fun!



A Saturday night with nothing to do.

Hmmm . . . . . .

Should we just chill and watch a movie?

Of course . . .  NOT!

So I had each child come up with something they wanted to do for 30 minutes and we did it.

Joyanne put together a scavenger hunt and the kids got treats at the end.

Then she had us feel food in bowls and we had to guess what it was.

Jaden had us play dodgeball downstairs.

That got us up and moving.

Hiram had us play "Murder in the Dark" and a subject game where you put a little water in a cup with a spoon and then they pick a subject (like colors).  If we guess what color they are thinking of, they splash a spoonful of water in your face and then you get to pick a subject.

James picked playing "Sardines" and "Duck, Duck, Goose."

Noah played the food game where we closed our eyes and he would put a small piece of food in our mouth and we had to guess what it was.

The night was fun and so much better than just sitting in front of the TV.

That was our Family Fun Night!

Service and a little Devil

One of my goals this year is to serve my neighbors and friends by doing something for them at least once a week.

This week I've filled that goal well.

I had a friend and her kids over yesterday for a couple of hours.

This morning I watched a High School friend's cute little boy so she and her husband could attend the temple.

I also watched another neighbor/friend's 2 boys this morning so she could rest and relax after having had a baby recently.  And, tomorrow I'm taking her dinner.

I love the feeling I get when I serve others.

Joyanne acted like the devil tonight.

She kept wacking Daddy in the back to see if he could feel her punching with his bullet-proof vest on. 

And then she put on the evil mask and kept cackling.

Ah, this daughter of ours is quite amusing!

My Babysitter

I'm tired tonight.

So, of course, I start thinking about all the things I didn't do today that I wish I could have done.

Oh, well.

I did get a lot of good things done, so it's all good!

I am so grateful for my own personally trained babysitter.

Joyanne does an amazing job with babysitting. 

She is great at engaging the kids in games or fun activities.

She loves to babysit and is so good at looking out for them.

I feel blessed that she is so helpful, cheerful and willing to babysit.

I am happy I had a girl first and that I do have at least one girl.

I went to Scout Roundtable tonight.

Though I don't usually care to go, I liked it tonight and learned some good things.

I Love Him, Oh, So Much!

Okay, this may sound cheesy, but I'm kinda like that!

I love my Prince Charming, oh, so much.

He gives these cute, funny, endearing looks.

He was just there for me today.

He helped me out so much.

He cleaned our bathroom and, once again, cleaned the bunny cages.

He did the dishes, took care of dinner, gave me a few hours off this evening.

This man really knows how to woooo his wife.

He makes me smile and laugh and cry happy tears.

I feel so blessed to have him in my life.

I wanna be married to him for like, forever!

I'm so grateful we were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

He truly is a great man!

Family History

Our ward is pushing Family History.

We get points for doing things like going to the temple, writing in our journal and, of course, researching family names that we can take to the temple.

Our ward goal is 15,000 points.

Our family goal is 1,000 points by June.

Tonight for Family Home Evening we talked about Family History.

We earned 80 points (10 points for each family member).

We looked at our fan charts of our ancestors.

We read a story about Stillman Pond, my great-great- grandfather.

We were excited to get more into doing Family History.

We hope soon to attend the Family History Center and really get to work. :)

Church Changes

I walked into our ward today and was saddened to not see some of the members I was used to seeing at church, due to the change in our ward boundaries.

I was happy to meet and greet the new members of our ward.

My primary class had 9 kids, ages 4-years-old, in it.

I had 8 boys and 1 girl.

Thankfully Daddy was able to help me with my class.

I had one boy that just loved to talk.

I also had 2 brothers who were both 4 years old and not twins.

One has a birthday in January and one has a birthday in December.

This isn't a breakfast picture.

This is dinner.

It was just one of those days where Daddy's not home for dinner and I'm enjoying resting on the Sabbath.

Silly Monkey

We had a nice relaxing Saturday.

Joyanne got new pajamas today and has been acting silly like the monkeys on her jammies.

Joyanne, Hiram and Jaden were able to go ice skating today and absolutely loved it!

It's nice to have Daddy come home and see us in the middle of his shift.

We even got in a game of Racko tonight before he went back to work.

Being Mom

I love being a mom to 6 wonderful children.

I am learning every day how to be a better mom.

I want to do it right, but sometimes I fail.

I keep trying though and don't give up.

These kids mean too much to me.

I have studied lots of parenting methods and keep applying all the good technics to my own parenting style.

My favorite parenting method is by far, the scriptures.

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; 

"By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile-

"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou has reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

"That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever."

(Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-46)

Productive Kids

I enjoyed seeing my children doing productive things after school.

They are good helpers.