prayer sandwich

I love that the boys actually fight over who gets to say the prayers . . . "It's my turn!", "No! It's MY turn!" Although I don't love the arguing, it is good to know that they want to pray!

Lately though, any prayer said by any of the 3 boys sounds basically the same -- word for word. So for FHE this week we had a lesson to hopefully improve their prayers. I want them to remember that they are talking to a real person and to really think about what they are saying to Him.

This is our prayer sandwich:
We talked about how all sandwiches need a top layer of bread and a bottom layer, which is like the opening and closing of a prayer. Then all sandwiches have the main ingredients (in this case, meat and cheese) and then some additional toppings like tomatoes, pickles, mustard, lettuce. Some days you want turkey, other days ham, and some days you want both. Sometimes you keep your sandwich simple, other times you add a lot of toppings.

Our prayers are the same way -- you always include the main ingredient of gratitude for specific blessings. Sometimes it is for something you got to do that day. Sometimes it is being thankful for the weather or our health or our family. Then you can include 1 or 2 or 3 toppings, which is asking Heavenly Father for something. Just like you vary your toppings, you want to be specific and not just say, "bless us to have a good day" every time.

I was so pleased when on Tuesday for breakfast Joshua was definitely more thoughtful in his prayer -- and I hadn't even reminded him before he started! Overall, I've seen an improvement in everyone's prayers this week. Now, if we can just get them to always keep their eyes closed :)

Almost . . .

crawling!

Elizabeth is now getting up on her hands and knees all the time. As soon as she figures out how to keep her head up while moving her hands, she'll be crawling all over!

I am impressed at her strength . . . this week as I've been doing Yoga, I start to wimp out on "plank position" (which is like getting ready for a push-up). Then I look at her, and she can hold herself in a similar pose for a LONG time!

So proud of herself!

First Food

So I had been planning on waiting until Elizabeth was 6 months old before I started giving her any cereal or other solids. Babies grow up way too fast and I didn't want to rush into this next stage. And nursing is a lot easier and less messy than baby food!

But this week Elizabeth has been very interested in watching us eat. She has also been fussy -- which is not common for her. So I decided to go ahead and start her on rice cereal. (She is 5 and a half months old.) The first time I just held her on my lap. She was a little confused at how to suck it in (she kept sticking her tongue out), but by the end of the first session she was doing alright. Here is what she looked like -- food all over her face!
The rest of the pictures come from a meal I gave her today, which is a few days since her first meal. She now gets really excited when she sees me coming with the bowl and spoon. We are using her swing right now (as we did with the other 3 kids) since she cannot sit up all the way yet.

Happy Eater
Can I have some more?
I feel like such a big girl with this spoon!

painting fun

One of my goals this year is to be a "better" mom. I have never been great at coming up with fun activities or crafts at home.

Yesterday Benjamin wanted to create a painting of a train for his Great Brain project he is working on for school. So I dug out all our paints, bought some special paper for painting, found some old T-shirts to use as smocks, and let all 3 boys have fun creating masterpieces.

I forgot to take pictures when all of them were painting. This morning while Nathan and Benjamin were at school, Joshua wanted to paint again.
And then when he was all done, I actually organized the paints and put them in a convenient location (yet still out of kids' reach) so that we might actually repeat the fun another time!

Love at Home

Last week we had our first Family Home Evening of the new year. Ryan and I decided to kick off a new year by introducing a family theme. We chose "Love at Home" so that we can focus on less hitting, more patience, and more service/kindness within our family.

I used my new scrapbook software to create a little "poster":

The scripture on it says, "Let us love one another; for love is of God." Instead of picking a new random scripture each week for FHE, we are going to keep this one all month long and recite it together so everyone can memorize it. (Can you tell I serve in the Primary and get some of my ideas from what I see in there every week? :)) Then in February we will pick a new scripture about love at home and memorize it all month long. The poster hangs on our pantry door to remind us of our family theme.

I wanted this lesson to last longer than just 1 FHE -- I want us to remember to really work on love and kindness. So I bought these cute heart place mats (thanks, Target) to use every night at dinner. In the middle of this picture you can see a jar with warm fuzzies inside. We started with 1 warm fuzzy per family member. Then when we find someone showing love, kindness, happiness, or obedience, we get to put a warm fuzzy in the jar. If someone is unkind or disobedient, they lose a warm fuzzy. Nathan, Benjamin, and Joshua are really excited to go to Pirate Island (like Chuck E Cheese) when we fill up the jar! So far this has worked pretty well for reverence in Sacrament meeting -- I've been giving them 2 warm fuzzies each if they are good!

Rolling Around

Elizabeth has recently discovered that she can roll not just to get from her back to her belly, but to get anywhere she wants to go!

She is very curious and is loving being able to explore. This morning I had her in my room while I was getting ready for the day and while I was helping Joshua. Within a few minutes, she went from laying on her back . . . to playing with toys while on her belly . . .
to discovering the foot board on the bed. . . to getting under the bed!

Happy New Year!

We had a lot of fun on New Year's Eve. Everyone got a huge roll of serpentine (made up of about a dozen smaller rolls) and we had fun throwing it all over the tree!

Amy helping Blake
Bryson having fun

An energetic group (notice Nathan on the floor on the right)

Joshua approaching the tree (not sure where his pants are -- I think he took them off because his shirt was "too long")

After the tree was decorated, cousin Hyrum proceeded to UN-decorate it! The tree was so covered, though, he didn't even make a dent :)

Apparently, serpentine makes a great belt!

Amy and Brock

Happy New Year!