Easter Flowers

This Easter season, I've been wanting to teach my kids more about the Atonement and how it works in their lives.  How they can really use the Atonement to better themselves and become closer to their Heavenly Father and Jesus.  It's a big and important subject and I wasn't sure how to present it during FHE this week.  After a lot of prayer and a bit of Pinterest surfing, I came up with Easter Flowers.
Our family sat around the kitchen table and talked about how we can feel Heavenly Father and Jesus with us always, how we can grow closer to them through the power of the Atonement.  We talked about things we can do to invite them into our lives.  As we listed those important, personal things we can do, each of us put one drop of food coloring into a jar.

We heard ideas like going to church, praying, reading scriptures,

being nice, going to the Temple, taking the Sacrament,

getting along with siblings, paying tithing, serving.

Pretty soon, we had six jars full of colored water.  We talked about how the water represents Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We each took a turn putting a bunch of white carnations in a jar.  The flowers represent us.  We asked the kids to commit to doing these things to bring themselves closer to their Father in Heaven and Jesus.

We lined up our flowers on the window sill and asked the kids to keep an eye on them for the week. 

The kids were so excited and amazed to see what happened to the flowers over the next few days.  As the flowers began to change colors, Enoch told me, "Just like when you do good things, you become more like Jesus, like the flowers are becoming more like the colored water."  Success!!  They understood!  Such a great feeling!

I think this will become an Easter tradition.  The kids really enjoyed it, they got it, plus, seeing my rainbow flowers made me happy!

March

March gets a bit overlooked at our house.  I'm exhausted from February - two birthdays and two holidays will do that to a mom.  We still do celebrate two holidays in March (pi day and St. Patrick's Day), but we keep those low-key.
The weather has been beautiful and the kids have spend many hours outside playing.  Guard is loving it - Mom not so much.  Geez that kid is fast on his balance bike.  By the time I hear the garage door open to the time I get the the front door, he is half way out of the cul-de-sac.  I've lost him a few times, if I'm not quick enough.  It's going to be a long summer.  I'm thinking I will be spending a lot of time on the porch just keeping kids alive.
Allergies have hit full force this spring.  They started so early because of the warm weather and they have just continued.  It's been difficult.  I've had horrendous allergies and then a cold on top of that.  It has definitely put me under for a few days.  Poor Kate also had suffered from hay fever.  Hers is really bad at night.  I have her shower every night, change her pillowcase and give her meds and that seems to be helping.  I made her three new pillowcases so she can have a clean one every night.  Hope it helps!  So sorry, Kate!

We are enjoying our early spring without trying to make such a big deal about everything.  That needs to become my new motto!

Scattered Thoughts

 

1.  After cleaning out my sewing room, I decided to tackle the pile of Levis.  I cut squares during General Conference and have ended up with quite a stack.  I wonder what I will used them for?

2.  Guard must be eating Oreos again.  Only the middle.

 3.  Our bees swarmed again.  Greg is so great about coming home from work when I call him panicked that the backyard is filled with bees.  This time they landed in our apple tree.  Greg was able to get them into a box without too many problems.  We are now up to four hives.

 3.  Apparently breakfast wasn't enough for Guard this morning.  When I got out of the shower, I found he had made himself a strawberry cream cheese sandwich by himself.  Notice he knows not the use the heel of the bread!  And he even put a lid on it (that is what he calls the top slice of bread).

 4.  Guard has really enjoyed the warm weather and playing outside.  Now, I need to get him to wear some shoes!

Scattered Thoughts

1.  Greg and Kate were able to attend the Daddy Daughter dance this Friday.  Kate was so excited to go and have some special time with Dad.  She picked out Greg's outfit and I made her a skirt that matched her Dad.  They had a great time!  I am so happy they had the opportunity for this night.  I know Kate will always remember it!

 

2.  One of our favorite Sunday morning activities is playing chess.  Greg, Enoch and Kate have tournaments almost every Sunday.  Kate is getting very good and Enoch usually gives Greg a run for his money, if not flat-out beating him sometimes.  Check mate!

3.  Good thing Guard is so light or Greg wouldn't be able to spin him around in his blanket.  Yes, Guard is in that blanket!  He loves it - it is his favorite thing to do with Dad before bed.  It only makes Mom a little nervous!

Scattered Thoughts

1.  Kate was the star student in her class this week.  She made a poster all about her.  Her favorites include pizza, Wild Kratts, Mr. Willoughby's Christmas Tree among others.  She did the poster by herself and did a great job!

2.  We finally decided to sell our four-wheelers.  We just weren't using them, plus Dee is renovating his garage and needed the space.  It was a good thing - we needed a push to get rid of them.  We listed them on KSL and they were gone in a few days.  It was sad to see them go, but it was for the best.

3.  Pi Day!  We celebrated with yummy chocolate cream pie.  Thumbs up from everyone.

Scattered Thoughts

1.  Guard has the best phrases.  He says, "a little help, please!", "not bad" and "do me a favor".  He talks in complete sentences.  He never struggled with his possessive pronouns - he went right to using 'I' instead of 'me'.  He does have a lisp, like Enoch had and Kate still has, be we aren't too worried.  Speech therapy does wonders for that.  It is so fun to listen to him talk.  He has the best ideas and is convinced that every thing he says will happen.  I love to see his personality come out and get little glimpses into his mind.

2.  Kate did so well at her gym meet this week!  She had a great time and cheered on all her teammates.  She placed in every event and took gold on floor!  So proud of her.  This was her last meet.  She had a great time this season, but Mom and Dad are also happy that we are done!

3. Enoch is working hard on his Duchesne County report.  He has to find information for each letter in the alphabet.  Duchesne county sent him a big packet of information to use in his report.  He sat at the kitchen table for hours the last few weeks working on finding all his letters.  I was so proud of him!  That kind of work is not easy for him.  When he was all done, I looked over his paper.  Something didn't seem quite right, so I researched a few things.  Duchesne County! - I'm coming out there and knocking some heads together!  I was so mad!  Almost 75% of the information they sent Enoch was on Unitah County.  Grrr!!!  Why would they do that???!!!  That meant a lot more work for me and Enoch.  Doesn't make me like your county very much.

Scattered Thoughts on Guard

1.  Enoch was telling me about his day at school.  He was telling me about a game he played in class and I said, "Holy Cow!"  Guard, who was sitting next to me, said, "I know Mom, holy horses!"

2.  We were reading a book about mammals tonight.  We came across a section about hippos.  Guard loves hippos.  He was trying to convince me that he absolutely needs a baby hippo, who will live in his room and sleep in his loft.  I wonder how long it will take for that hippo to get big enough to break through the loft?

3.  I think everyone should take Guard clothes shopping - as long as he has chocolate milk and snacks.  Everything I tried on he said, "looks great, Mom", or "good one, Mom".  Didn't matter how bad it looked, he always had something good to say.  Sweet boy!

Meet me in St. Louis

A few months ago, my sister, Michelle, called and proposed the idea of me, her and our brother, Jarom, flying to St. Louis to surprise our other sister, Valerie, on her birthday.  It sounded like a grand plan and we decided to do it.  This is a little out of character for me, but everything fell into place, Greg got work off and it all happened.
I knew the hardest part would be leaving the kids.  I rarely leave the kids.  It was probably good for all of us.  Greg told me not to worry and he had everything under control.  He did great and the kids had such a fun time with Dad.  Kate did send me a picture so I wouldn't forget her.

 Our flight left on Wednesday afternoon.  After a layover in Denver, we finally arrived in St. Louis around midnight.  It was a long afternoon.  Kyle picked us up from the airport and he drove to Fords about 30 minutes away.

 (That's Kevin in the back!?)
Valerie had no idea we were coming.  Kyle was great to cover up our plans and get everything into place.  I feel bad that we woke her up in the middle of the night, but the surprise was worth it.  She was shocked!  It was so much fun!
We were in St. Louis for three days.  We mostly just hung out, visited, and ate.  We ate a lot of food.  But, really good food.  We stopped at Fitz's, Zia's on The Hill (best Italian ever) and Sugarfire BBQ.  It was so good, but so much food.  I couldn't even enjoy fondue our last night there because I was still so stuffed!

We did hit a few of the sights in St. Louis.  Enoch is so jealous that now both Gavin and I have been to Gateway Arch and he hasn't.  We didn't go in the Arch, but just around it.  It was so cold that day!  Freezing!

And, then we just hung out at the Fords.  We visited, laughed, watched movies, watched the BYU game.  We also went to a recognition assembly and Carson's school, Carson's basketball game and Brynnley's gymnastics class.  We just went where Valerie did.  It was great.
I took these pictures for Enoch.  Storm shelters in the airport and church closures scrolling across the screen on Saturday night.  It snowed two inches the next day.

We had such a great time!  It was so wonderful to see the Fords, to see St. Louis and spend the weekend with family.  Can't wait to see St. Louis during the summertime.