Scribbles

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight.  I love having them in our home.  They bring such a nice spirit with them.  I made studded ham, twice-baked potatoes, veggies with dip, and clementines.  For dessert we had whoopie pies.  As we were waiting for the missionaries to arrive, Allison wanted to make a picture for them.  She was sitting down at the table working on her picture, when Carter asked for a pen too.  I assumed he wanted to make a picture too and so i gave him a pen and then went about last minute dinner prep.  

So the missionaries arrived and I had finished the prep work and we all sat down at the table.  Just as we're about to say the prayer we look down at the plates and they have all been decorated with bright blue pen.  On one is a smily face and on another is a figure 8 type thing, and another was full of scribbles.  Carter, i realized, had had other plans for the pen I gave him.  We had to pause dinner while i cleaned the plates.  

Pictures From The Week

(sorry these pictures are sideways . . . I forgot to rotate them before importing) :)

Allison gave a talk in primary this week, and we had a great time working on together. She was assigned the topic, 'The Scriptures are the Word of God'. So during the week we talked about Lehi's dream, and 'holding fast' to the iron rod. One day I asked her what it means to hold fast to something - and then I gave her a paper to write about it. She drew a picture of us shopping and wrote about how she 'holds fast' to the shopping cart when we go shopping so she doesn't get lost. What a wonderful analogy. Allison is just learning and growing and changing so much. One of the great treats of being a Mom is watching this process of rapid growth and learning. It's amazing.

I went to a friend's baby shower last week . . . and seeing her little baby (he was only 2 weeks old), and then seeing Evan and how he's not so little anymore, and then thinking of Allison and how she's really not so little anymore, and then talking to another friend at the shower - who's little girl I used to teach piano to - and how she's soon to be driving . . . I just was struck by how truly fast this process of raising children happens. These infants come into our lives . . . and then they grow and grow without stopping. How grateful I am to be a part of it - to be a part of this process. To enjoy their childhood with them. Tonight Allison came up with this elaborate game for our Family Home Evening Activity. She made a pretend person on my yoga mat out of a sweater, scarves, etc. Then we had to use our 5 senses do discover the things she hid amidst this 'person'. She is just full of so many ideas and excitement. I love it.

One of the above pictures was another evening project she embarked on a few weeks ago. It says, 'Don't come out yet' she put these signs all over my room and door and on the stairs . . . because she wanted to make me breakfast in the morning and wanted it to be a surprise. What a joy. :) And then there are moments like today - when it is freezing cold and we need milk and bread (and everything else for the week) - and so I embark on a Target trip with the 3 kids . . . which is not so joyful . . . but we made it through . . .

Anyway - I'm rambling - I better go to bed. :)

A very interesting post . . .

I haven't blogged in an extra long time . . . Anthony is sitting here on the bed doing work things and i'm here playing on the iPad and am curious if I can blog seamlessly using it. When I clicked in the text field to write something, the iPad wouldn't recognize it as a text field . . . And so i'm typing this in notepad and then we'll see if I can copy and paste it into blogspot. If you see this I guess you'll know I was successful.

Since THAT i'm sure was very interesting for you to know . . .

What else is new in our lives? Hmmm . . . I did laundry today. Yes I did. And not just a little laundry. I did a LOT of laundry. A mountain of laundry to be more exact. I've been dumping the loads of clothes i've washed the past two days in the front living room, waiting for a time when I could sort, fold, and carry laundry up and down the stairs to put away. That time came tonight when Anthony came home from work and could hold Evan. I demolished the mountain! clothes are now carefully folded in everyone's drawer or hung up nicely in the closet. I can enjoy a moment of laundry being 'done' until I wake up tomorrow morning and have to do another load.

Wow I am really on a role of interesting things to write about tonight. I think i'll go to bed (after i see if I can really post this) . . .

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Carter was an elephant, Allison was a Unicorn Cow, and Evan was our pumpkin. We enjoyed going to Anderson Farms in October, and had fun doing several trunk or treats. Carter wanted to do 'race cars' for our trunk - and so his innovative Daddy came up with a race track cardboard thing - complete with a downspout that would 'shoot' out the candy at the finish line. Carter LOVED it! He spent all 2 hours of the elementary school trunk or treat manning the downspout shoot. Seriously - he wouldn't even leave to get candy of his own. I went and got some pizza because the kids hadn't eaten - but he wouldn't even stop to eat. He'd hold his pizza in one hand while shooting the candy down the other. It was a lot of fun.

More Pictures

Photo Shoot

We took our yearly trip to Portair Innovations today. I love how the pictures turned out! Here are some of the highlights . . . .

3 Word Journal

So I've been reading a book called The 3 Word Journal by Randall Wright. In it Mr. Wright teaches an easy way to keep a journal. Our mind are like a computer. Significant experiences are all stored there - we just need the right 'search words' to recall them. Using just 3 words - we can quickly record and later 'access' those memories. Anywho - I've tried it this week. Writing down three words in my all-purpose notebook

So some words from my week . . .

Allison, Sunday, Workbook

So tonight Allison decided that we all needed a Sunday workbook for tomorrow. She went up by the computer and got some printer paper. She stapled 10 pieces of paper together, asked me to get her a pen - and then she went to her room to work. Well she just came down and showed Dad his Sunday workbook. I was amazed! She had drawn a temple on the outside with Dad's name on it - and a tiny angel Moroni (only she told me she ran out of room at the top so Moroni is a little squished). The next page has a picture of the church which Dad can color tomorrow. Next was a 'Spot the Difference' She drew - I think another church building and then 4 other buildings - and he has to figure out what is different. Then she did a word search. She really did it! She wrote some church words at the bottom of the paper . . . but she told me he has to read the words at the bottom - not just look for them in the puzzle because 'I just sounded out the words - I don't really know how to spell them'. And sure enough at the bottom of the paper she wrote . . . 'Tepl' (temple) "Chrch", and "Sakrmint" (sacrament). Then she did another spot the difference . . . but I couldn't quite tell what they were and so I asked. "They are the building on the back of a penny," she said. Oh - and sure enough they do look like the Lincoln Memorial. She ended with a scrambled word puzzle . . . which was a little tricky because she was using phonetically spelled words . . . all scrambled up. But she whispered the answer to me and told me not to tell dad . . . and sure enough all the letter sounds of what she was writing were all there . . . just mixed up.

Anyway - Allison is just such a little joy. She is always coming up with fun activities and games we can do together. Another thing she did today . . . we had some Halloween music going and she started dancing. Suddenly she said, "We need to have a Halloween ballet." She proceeded to get some paper and she made invitations for her friends to come to a Halloween Ballet on Friday. I'm not sure what to do about that . . . we might have our own family Halloween Ballet on Friday . . .

OK . . . one more set of 3 words . . .

Allison, Lion King, What?

The kids were watching Lion King and I sat down to watch it with them while I fed Evan. Periodically Allison would look at me and say, 'What, Mom, What?' I'd look at her a little confused and say, 'I didn't say anything - I'm just watching the movie.' It happened again.

'Mom, what? What mom?'

'Nothing, hun - I'm just watching the movie.'

A little later . . .

'Mom what?'

'Allison - nothing. What do you keep saying that?'

'I just want to know what you're thinking about the movie.'

I realized she kept asking that when the movie was a sad or scary. When Mufasa died. During the scary 'Be Prepared' song. I realized she just needed reassurance. We all need reassurance sometimes.