Monument Park 13th Ward Primary Program

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this ward?  Well I do :) The whole family does actually.  I mention that because today we had the Primary Program.  And what was amazing is that they used the talks that the children had given in primary throughout the year to create the program.  That way the children were familiar with their parts because, for the most part, they were their own words.  Such a great idea.  They also had very nice invitations that they handed out 2 weeks before the program so we could invite family, less-active and non-member neighbors.  Great idea as well.

We were touched to have so much family support.Grandpa Earl changed his flight so he could be there (what a fabulous Grandpa!) and even Uncle Cameron came!  Alexander sat relatively quiet during church because he was with Grandpa and occasionally Uncle Cameron entertained him.  It was also nice to have a chance to really enjoy the program instead of wrestling with little A.

Lincoln had been working on his part for 2 weeks and he had it all memorized.  He paused in the right places and he emphasized the right words when he did it with me.  I was so proud of him. Stephen practiced in a slipshod manner and I wondered if he'd speed read his talk in the moment.  Well when it came time for their parts, Stephen walked up to the mic, adjusted it, looked at the audience, licked his lips and took a deep breath in and out and then began reading his talk very well.  Half way through he shifted his gaze directly at the congregation and gave the rest of his talk in a very deliberate and expressive tone, totally memorized.  Hilarious.

Then instead of going back to his seat, he remained next to the podium to be with Lincoln ("because I love him", he told me afterward).  Sister Gurgel adjusted the stool and mic but Stephen noticed it was too high for Lincoln, so Stephen reached across the podium and adjusted the mic again.  Then Sister Gurgel gave Lincoln the first line of his talk and sat down assuming Lincoln would take off on his own like he'd done in practice, but he didn't.  He looked back at her.  She came back up and began prompting him while Stephen stared on.  Then half way through when Lincoln got more confident and remembered his talk, Stephen turned and began waving and mouthing something to us with large gestures.  Oh it was cute and there were giggles in the audience but it was also rather embarrassing.  It always has to be something with those two.  We found out later that right before Lincoln's part, the little girl that Lincoln was sitting next to had torn his 3X5 card with his talk on it into two and the teacher had taken it. That's what threw Lincoln off and flustered him.

All in all they did a good job and sang most of the words to the songs.  We took a couple of pictures afterwards to remember the day:

With the Primary Program and my one and only lesson in Relief Society today and then Dan and I giving talks last week, we had lots of comments from people as we tried to leave today.  We are going to miss this ward! 

Stephen Graduates from 2nd Grade!

Stephen has been working so hard on his Math!  He finished up his 2nd grade workbook a few weeks ago and Saturday afternoon he wrapped up his final drills on IXL Math.  We're so impressed with all his hard work. He's mastered addition and subtraction with 3 digits, beginning multiplication and over 200 other math skills.

As the days got closer for Grandpa Earl to come, Stephen wondered if he could finish in time for Grandpa to give him his certificate.  That became his goal.  The last few days were difficult.  Some of the hardest and most time consuming drills were at the end.  Some days he wanted to give up but he pushed through and worked 4 or 5 hours a day just on math!

Well Grandpa Earl was such a good sport, after our Pumpkin Days excursion he came back to our house and took a nap until Stephen finished.  I thought it would be about 1.5 hours but it ended up being 3 hours! 

Well done Stephen!!!

Grandpa Earl and Pumpkin Days!

 

Grandpa Earl came to Utah for the BYU game we were lucky enough to spend lots of time with him.  We had been wanting to take the boys to a pumpkin patch of some kind before that part of the season was over and Dad came just in time.  We went over to Wheeler Historic Farm for their Pumpkin Days.

I got my camera all charged up and then left the memory card at home.  Nice.  Luckily I thought to bring the ipad!  It's a little harder to get the right shot, mainly because it doesn't always take the picture when I want.  Like the one below that finally took after Stephen ran away and Lincoln was no longer smiling  :)

 

Wagon Ride

There were lots of fun things to do on the farm.  First we enjoyed a Wagon Ride pulled by a real live tractor.

 Alexander had a little bit of an issue with the tractor.  You just never know what he's going to be afraid of until it happens. Luckily Grandpa was there to hold on to the whole time :)  That's why he's not his happy self in these shots

We also saw a lot of animals because it is a "working farm."  We saw horses (including some rather sad saggy horses), shaggy dwarf oxen (we actually didn't know what they were), turkeys, pigs, sheep, chickens and more ducks and geese than I've seen in one place in a long time. The boys got caught feeding ducks for quite some time.  They are pretty particular about what you can feed the animals but someone stuck in with a big sack of bread and passed it out to the kids and so the ducks got a treat instead of that nasty ol' seed they were used to :)  It was hard to pull the boys away!

The autumn colors were beautiful but sadly they are almost over.  It's the one of the big things I will miss about living in Utah.  Grandpa took this shot down by the creek that is a nice memory though.

Then after what was meant to be a short pitstop at the tree house, we headed over to the Pumpkin Patch and Hay Bale Maze.  The boys loved the maze.  I didn't think to pull the camera out for that one so just imagine a nice short maze made with hay bales and not a 4 mile long corn maze. Thank you Wheeler Farm!  They also created a cute little hay bale maze for kids that you could see over.  Again, thank you Wheeler Farm ;)

Except for a few random mummies and the like it was pretty tame and non scary which I really liked.  The boys all picked a pumpkin and then we headed out for some yummy Mexican Food. Thanks Grandpa Earl for such a fun day!!!

Alexander the Singer

He cracks me up.  He's so edgy, dangerous and destructive and yet on the other hand he can be afraid of the funniest things like hair dryers, vaccuums and now lawn mowers (extreme fear of lawn mowers).  He is also one of our cuddliest children.  He wants to cuddle every morning in bed with us and he comes up and gives hugs and just snuggles in.  You can't help but melt.

For the last year or so he has sung . . . a lot.  While he works and while he plays, he sings songs.  Sometimes songs he barely knows.  After we attended a concert, he was singing songs from it during the sacrament 2 days later.  At night when we put him down either Dan or I sing to him.  Lately he will tell us, "you stop singing and just listen, I sing." and then he'll sing to us.

The other day I caught him in a singing mood and so I ran with it.  The first video is great, he's standing still for the most part and and you can understand him.  The second is a crack up, he walked the perimeter of the rug the entire time.  It was a little OCD but I wonder if it helped his memory to do it?

Here's the walking one:

Stuffed Animal Sleep Over

Our local public library held a bunch of activities over the summer and one of them was the Stuffed Animal Sleepover.  It was one of the cutest activities we've ever done at a library.   It was such a great idea I wrote it because I thought it could be done by the YW YM for the Primary kids. 

We dropped off animals during the day on Friday.  They put a tag on each animal.  They needed to know the names of the animals so the boys made them up on the spot.  Lincoln's dog was named Doggie and Stephen's was named Dogo.

• Saturday at 10 went to Library, got a doughnut and juice and sat on the floor with our stuffed animals and watched the 15 minute video.  The video was so cute we saw animals:
• Reading books
• Sliding down cardboard (stills and video of animals sliding down into a pile)
• Playing with bubbles
• In a small plastic swimming pool (aquatic types like ducks, fish and whales) with bubble wrap for water sliding in and swimming about.
• Monkeys climbing indoor plants
• Jungle animals in trees outside
• Animals doing a play and others watching as the audience
• Construction workers fixing things and measuring
• Animals with different hats on
• Monkey pulling blanket with other little animals on it (video)
• Horse race (video)
• Girls going into the bathroom and then doing makeup and hair
• Lincoln’s dog with toilet paper on his paw (video)
• All the animals on the ground with blankets and felt pieces as blankets for a final video of all the animals with a “The end” at the end of the line

The boys absolutely loved it. I wish we had a copy of the video!

Let's all wear party hats!

We all went to Dollar Tree last night so Stephen could spend the dollar he finally got from the tooth fairy.  I win the terrible parent award for forgetting two nights in a row to make the switch.  On night number 3 he said to me, "mom try to remember this time, ok?" I told him that I hoped the tooth fairy was more on top of things. He replied, "Mom - I know it's really you!" Great - he knows I'm a terrible tooth fairy.

Anyway we walked down the toy isle and Stephen announced, "Let's all wear party hats!" The only one who wore it the entire time we were at the dollar store (ENTIRE TIME) was Alexander.

I actually tried taking it off of him a few times and he protested in major way.  So I decided that would be daddy's job when it was time to leave.  He had a fit but by then I was out the door and on the way to the car with a "not my child" look on my face :)

Lincoln's first Primary talk!

Last week when Stephen finished his talk he got to choose who was giving the next talk.  He picked Lincoln's picture so we were up a second week in a row!.

Lincoln was so unbelievably excited.  I was glad because I thought Lincoln would be too shy and nervous.  He wasn't.  He and I talked about his topic all week and the more we talked the more excited he got.  He practiced over and over and then the big day came.  He did so great!  Totally confident, not nervous at all.  He read parts and looked up. Such a big boy.

Since Lincoln was giving the talk, he got to choose the tie color.  Daddy came out to get in the car and he inadvertently matched :)  They all looked handsome today :)

Our Family Treasures

This is our family treasure box! Is it full of gold?  Is it full of jewels?

No.  The treasures in here are even better! These are the things that are most important to our family.

Reading – We’re a reading family. I love reading Frog and Toad.

Singing – Our family loves to sing, especially Primary songs.

The scriptures – Our family loves reading the scriptures together.

Jesus – We believe in Jesus Christ.  We love him.  Because of him we can be resurrected and live with him again.

Temples – We love to see the temple.  Whenever we drive places we like to play a game called, “Spot the Temple!”

One of the most important things that happened in our family is that my mommy and daddy got married in the temple. 

This means that our family can be together forever! 

This is one of the greatest treasures. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

24-hour babyface

I love my 24-hour lipstick.  It's fabulous. I put it on and it doesn't come off all day long.  I can drink or eat or kiss my hubby and it stays put.  It doesn't really last for 24 hours, more like 12, but I don't really need it while I'm sleeping :)

So Saturday night I'm cooking up our usual scrambled eggs and pancakes when I turned around, and saw this:

I freaked out!  At first glance I thought it was dried blood.  Then I thought it was marker.  When I licked my finger and wiped his face I knew in an instant it was 24-hour lipstick!  Oh no!  There's no waiting for this to wear off, it's Saturday night and we've got church at 9am!  So while Daddy was googling a solution, I took a picture and then marched him into the bathroom to show him what was on his face.  He freaked out.

He was not happy that I was taking pictures of him - he was so upset he just wanted me to hold him. I'm a mean mommy sometimes. I quickly got a few pics - obviously too quickly on some of them.  And then held him :) And then I took a movie but it won't upload so we'll have to try again later.

So did we send him to church with war paint or did we get it off?  Well we found out that mineral oil works the best but we didn't have any.  So we just hoped that cooking oil worked just as well.  No, not really.  I soaked his little cheeks repeatedly in canola oil but still had to do some scrubbing.  Poor guy!

UPDATE 8/1/13: I hid the lipstick but not the waterproof mascara.  Luckily I picked up mineral oil at the dollar store earlier and worked wonders on his face and PJ's :)  I think it would have worked on the shirt that got the lipstick on it if I didn't wait 5 days before getting the mineral oil.

Pioneer Day

 We spent most of the day like any other except with a mention now and then of the Pioneers.  While fixing dinner I decided we needed to do something.  So I fixed a picnic dinner and we headed outside.  

The weather was absolutely perfect! Except for a couple of rogue mosquitos, it was a lovely dinner. 

 You can't see him very well, but that's Alexander on the swing.  He had a hard time sitting still and eating with all the wide open space around him.

After we ate the boys chased dragon flies and daddy and I drank in view. I love where we live.  The view on the golf course is spectacular although these photos don't really show it.  

 

 We all went for a walk down to the "cave" made out of trees and watched spiders at work and saw berries and veggies growing in well manicured gardens.  Wish we could take time like this more often.

 When it got dark we decided not to venture to Liberty Park and instead go to the best view on the east bench - the public school parking lot.  I think it's hilarous that they have the best view around here, but there you go.  We weren't the only family with this brilliant idea but luckily there were just enough "squares" for all of us ;)  We saw about 10 "shows" close by and literally hundreds of backyard fireworks all over the valley.  The boys got bored before the finale so we started driving home.  When we passed our church we noticed all the ward families gathered there so we pulled in and watched some more.  Then we headed home.  Pulling up in front of our house we actually witnessed the finale from the comfort of our own car in a beautiful unobstructed line of view!  We didn't have to go anywhere, what we we thinking?!!

Stephen's Primary Talk

This was Stephen's second Primary talk.  He did such a great job.  Just like his first talk, I asked him questions and he basically wrote the whole thing.  We kinda had a difficult time scrounging up visual aids since we're basically camping and don't have any of our stuff.  But thanks to the family newsletter, a library book, some crafts we made the week before and the ipad - we did pretty well.  Stephen was very particular about what he wanted to wear to church.  He wanted to look his best which included his DI blazer (that used to be his spy costume). 

Stephen read a little but most of the time he looked at his audience and paused at the right time for effect.  He did great.  Sadly, Lincoln and Alexander both had colds so they had to stay home with daddy. So they missed Stephen doing such a great job.

Afterwards he got plenty of complements.  Later during Sacrament Meeting, they introduced the musical number as a ward congregational choir number.  A member of the bishopbric got up and explained that anyone who wanted to sing could come up.  I looked at Stephen and he said, "does that mean I could go up?" I nodded and said, "you wanna go?" "As long as you will come with me" I said of course and stood up.  We were sitting in the front of the chapel so we ran up and joined right when the piano started.  We sang Come, Come Ye Saints.  He sang his best and I could tell he was pretty proud of himself.  After the meeting, 3 different men came up and to tell me how handsome Stephen is.  Men! That's usually what the little old ladies say on our way out ;)

Here's Stephen's Talk:

Families Are a Part of Our Heavenly Father’s Plan

My name is Stephen and I’m going to talk about Families!

Everyone who comes to earth has a mommy and a daddy.

EVERYONE! 

You can’t get to earth without a family. 

Even Animals and insects have a mommy and a daddy.   

Heavenly Father made it that way. 

We even lived in a family before we came here.

That is why God is called Heavenly Father. 

He is the father of everyone. 

He sent us to live in a family for lots of good reasons:

Our parents can teach us good things like

·         being obedient

·         how to repent when we make mistakes

·         and that Heavenly Father and Jesus love us. 

We live in the same house as the Spencers.

Yesterday their granddaughter Lily came over and we were playing but we got noisy and we got in trouble. 

I felt terrible. 

My mom and dad helped me know what I could do to make things right. 

I wrote Lily’s grandma a note to say I was sorry. 

Parents can help us learn how to make things right.

Heavenly Father also sent us to live in a family so we wouldn’t be lonely. 

·         We get to spend time with our families. 

·         We can work together. 

·         We can serve each other. 

·         We can  have fun together:

·         Making things– My mommy helped Lincoln and I make animal crafts, I made a jaguar and Lincoln made a monkey.  It was lots of fun to make them together.

·         Cuddle - I also love to cuddle together with my family and just talk together.  It’s one of my fun things

I have the best family! But that is another story.  

Families are so  important that Heavenly Father made it so we can be with our families forever!  I'm so grateful for that because I love my family.  My brother's are my best friends.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen