One week in

One week is already gone of the new year!  It's strange to me how when I am "living" my days, just doing what needs to be done and having some fun the day can last forever but then I sit down and realize that a whole week has gone by.  I so love the saying I saw online awhile ago, "The days are long but the years are short" So true! We just finished reading about the Title of Liberty in our family scripture reading.  Jared loved it.  He is so fun right now when it comes to scripture reading. We read them each night after we eat dinner.  Lately, we sit down to eat dinner and he says "I want scriptures now!" He really does look forward to the stories and talking bout them with Mark. He is always telling us how much he loves reading the scriptures! I do not recall ever being that excited (I wish I was) to read them.  I hope it is a "gift" he will always have (and tell him so) It would bless his life so much. Mark was in charge of Home Evening this week and decided to follow the Title of Liberty theme so we had Jared re-tell the story and act out what Moroni did. Then we made a Title of Liberty and Jared and Lydia acted out being Moroni while riding their horse (Mark). They loved it.  Any FHE where you get to ride a horse is a winner.

 Jared went back to preschool this week and was happy to be there. We had his friend Mallory over for a play date last week which was fun. It was nice to let them play together outside of preschool and to get to know her mom more. Yesterday we went out to Chick Fil A for lunch.  We went to the Dollar Store to get some supplies and let Jared spend some of his birthday money and Chick Fil A happens to be across the street.  It has been quite cold here the past few days so Jared and Lydia were happy to eat out and get to play at the playground.  I was happy because they still had their Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes which I dream about year round. They are their lunch and I enjoyed my shake then they played for a good while.  There were only 2 other kids there and they left about 20 minutes in so we had it to ourselves for the last 15 minutes or so.  I read some conference talks and enjoyed hearing them play. I am really loving how much fun Jared and Lydia are having together lately.  They are such good friends and it is so nice.

Such happy kids!

 It was fun to see Lydia doing so well. She was really hesitant when she first would play on these jungle gyms. I am always really nervous to let kids start climbing up these type of playgrounds.  I worry that they will get stuck and then I will have to go rescue them which I am more than willing to do but some are certainly easier to rescue kids in than others! It also is a place where they can decide to really not listen to you when it is time to leave and you have few options on how to get them to listen!  I can only think of one time Lydia was really naughty about that.  Glad we have moved passed that. It was a fun outing.

As I mentioned it really has been cold here.  Not compared to say Alaska or even Colorado where we came from but for here freezing! My "local" friend Laura said this was pretty abnormal.  We got up today and it was just 7 degrees.  Yesterday it was really windy which is the worst!  Since it has been so cold but there is no snow we decided to make our own, which is why we went to the dollar store. I found this easy recipe online for play snow.  Its 3 cups baking soda and 1/2 cup white conditioner (I guess you could use colored if you wanted but we were going for the snow look).  The texture was great and Jared and Lydia loved it. We haven't done nearly as many sensory activities here as we did in Colorado so it had been awhile since we did some.  We got out our counting bears so they could "Play" in the snow and then got some play-doh lids so the bears could go sledding.  We built caves or dens as Jared calls them so they could hibernate.  It was a lot of fun. Jared payed with it for an hour!

 Mixing our snow.  Lydia just plunged her hands in where as you can see Jared just poking one finger in. I always find it interesting how they approach things. 

 Eventually he realized how fun it was. 

To continue with our snow theme we had snowmen for breakfast (and healthy fresh green smoothies...) I had to run to the store yesterday because I forgot chips to go with our Taco Soup and happened to pass the bakery section. I saw some powdered donuts and decided they would be the perfect breakfast for such a cold day. Jared and Lydia were really surprised.  Jared kept asking what we were having for breakfast and because I would't answer (since I wanted to surprise them) he figured it was hot chocolate which would have been great for a cold day like today but we needed something healthy too. It was a fun way to start the day!