Family Home Evening

I really enjoy family home evening. Our lessons are short and simple. Jared and Lydia get excited about it which makes it fun. I know as I got older I was not exactly thrilled about FHE (although I was more thrilled about FHE than our early morning scripture study) and I hope they can stay excited for as long as possible.

Last week's lesson was on prayer which was perfect timing as Lydia has become very interested in saying prayers as of late. Her little voice is so adorable. I love hearing her say the words. She says her prayer before bed and likes to say it at dinner too. We do our family scripture study at the table right after we eat and she has now started "reading" a verse (saying the words after us).  It's just really cute.

Neither Jared or Lydia are super good at closing their eyes during prayers so we did a lot practicing last week.

 Don't they look in pain reverent? But their eyes are closed. 

 Jared and Lydia enjoy our lessons/activities but they LOVE our FHE treats! Fun times on a Monday night.

Lots of love.

We had a lot of fun this past week. We had science experiments, art projects, a Valentine bath, baked goods, Valentine themed learning times and games, heart attacks and Jared's preschool party. I ended up baking way more than I intended but Mark wanted to take a treat to his seminary students for Valentines day so I made some cinnamon rolls. One of Mark's surprises was a cupcake so I made some and I wanted peanut butter blossoms so I made those too. I really don't bake cookies often so its nice when I do and they turn out really well.  Mark took some to seminary and to teachers at school and I took some to our neighbors and the sisters I visit teach so luckily we didn't eat too many of them. I would have liked to eat more but know better. I really wanted to take some to our next door neighbor because there have been quite a few times he has shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house when he is doing his and that is such a nice thing to do.  I hope they enjoyed them and they aren't allergic to peanut butter...I put some snicker doodles on there to be safe. Our house smelled really good this past week.

It's been fun to do these science projects with Jared and Lydia.  We basically do a themed variation of baking soda + vinegar but it still excites them. I have never been a big science person and I know this is very minimal science but I am happy to expose them to it.

We added conversation hearts to a water with baking soda then added conversation hearts then vinegar and watched the hearts dance.

And we used placed frozen vinegar hearts in a baking soda + water mixture.  To make it more interesting we sprinkled baking soda on them.

We also experimented with water temperature to see which temperature would make the conversation hearts dissolve the fastest.

Our Valentine themed bath was a big success. I saw a cookie bath on Pinterest and thought it looked so fun so that was our main activity. I dyed the water light purple and threw in our heart cookie cutters and some heart table scatters. We had sprinkles and shaving cream frosting to decorate with and an oven to cook them in. We also did chocolates with treasures in them which we did last year. More baking soda and vinegar only this time with cocoa powder.

I love how he is sticking his tongue out in this picture. I do this all the time when I am concentrating. If Mark is around he always comments on it.  It was a lot of fun.

Learning Time and art projects:
Jared practiced finding letters to spell Valentine words, we attempted to stack conversation hearts but were much more successful last year (Jared and Lydia mostly just wanted to eat them this time) and we went on a Hershey Kiss hunt. I made an outline of a heart on a paper plate and wrote numbers on labels. Then I wrote corresponding numbers on kisses for Lydia and wrote numbers plus one for Jared. So if I wrote 76 on the plate there was a Hershey kiss with a 77 on it. It was pretty tricky for him and for Lydia. She is not really interested in counting/number identification. Which is perfectly fine we will keep going over it.

I put a Kiss right on the soccer ball in plain sight and it took him forever to find it. It was so funny. I was glad I tricked him.When he saw Lydia hunting hers he said it was too easy. Obviously I put her kisses in more accessible places than his. I showed him!

Jared's preschool party was a super hero and princess themed party and he had a blast. He loved sending valentines to our family members this year and picking them out for his classmates. I am so glad there are only 6 kids (including him) in his class so he only had to write his name 5 times. When he has to take Valentines for an elementary school class we will have to start weeks in advance! Mark and I aren't really into super hero's so Jared hasn't been exposed to them much.  The only costume he has is a super man cape (gift from a friend) and superman pajamas so we planned on combining the two for his outfit.  Then as I laid down to go to bed the night before I had the great idea of dressing Jared up as Clark Kent.  I showed him a clip of Clark Kent changing in the phone booth and he was sold.  He looked absolutely adorable! He wanted to wear his outfit all day. I knew most of the kids would not get it but when his teacher saw him she got the biggest smile. She loved it too. Adorable!!!

Lydia of course looked very cute in the Valentine outfit my Mom sent her. 

We had lots of heart shaped food too.

Lydia was not too impressed with my cinnamon sugar heart tortillas but Jared loved them and they both loved their heart shaped cheese, turkey and crackers for lunch. Jared said we should make heart shaped crackers and I did actually see a recipe online but didn't make it. Maybe next year kid.

 I made Jared and Lydia's favorite dinner, beef stroganoff for dinner on Valentines day and they were thrilled. We also had our strawberry soda floats again which are so delicious. 

I love using all my heart shaped dishes! 

Jared and Lydia were so excited when they saw the hearts on their doors in the morning. I also did Mark's car for his last daily surprise. I wrote down 10 things I love about him and placed them in a jar in his car. He was so surprised it was great.  I really enjoyed leaving him these surprises and really need to be better at doing them at times other than holidays. Mark and I went up to the temple today and then out to lunch at Costa Vida. Mark asked me today if I wanted to go somewhere else to eat and I really could't think of a place I would rather go I love Costa Vida. At least not one that was in or near that area. I have found that I have a really hard time when Mark and I go somewhere farther away together. When I laid down to go to bed last night I had these horrible thoughts of Mark and I getting in an accident and dying and not getting to be with Jared and Lydia. It happens before we go to the temple every month. It really puts a damper on the outing.  I don't worry about Jared and Lydia, I know they are having lots of fun, I just worry about what could happen.  Its incredibly annoying!

It's been a fun two weeks! I just love doing these activities! Finding ideas online and planning them is my hobby. I don't sew or scrapbook or craft or sing or play an instrument or any of those things. This is what I love.  It makes me so happy.

THE dress

A few months ago my sister Susanna sent me a dress in the mail for Lydia to wear. This dress has quite the history.  My mom and her Mom (my Grammie) started to make it when Susanna and I were 2 and 3. My Mom made a lot of our dresses. She made this red one for me and a matching green one for Susanna. We are only 14 months apart so we matched a lot. My Mom really enjoyed sewing clothes for my siblings and me and back then it was more economical. Sadly Susanna and I never ended up wearing those dresses to my knowledge but our girls have! My Mom passed it on to Susanna and she put it all together. It's fun that all three of them worked on it. I have basically zero sewing skills.  Although, last week I did sew Lydia's baby stroller back together. The cloth loop that holds it up was ripped (by Jared being too rough...) so it was not staying on and her doll and animals wouldn't stay in it. I broke out my travel sewing kit (that I have maybe used twice since I got it at least 5 years ago) and sewed it right up. But if you ask me to take a picture of my daughter in THE dress I sure will.

I edited this picture with the "antique" function so it would look more like it was from my time era. But it looks a little older than that. I love that MAC computers have iPhoto with built in editing. It was actually a big selling point for me.  Not that I am that good or do that much but I love fixing red eye, (green and blue eyes get that a lot!) cropping and adding light if it needs it. It saves so many pictures for me!

I tired to not take too many pictures but this was the end result. At least she is still smiling! And super cute!

And then she turned into a "dog."

It would be so fun to have a picture of me and Lydia in the dress but it is not meant to be. I think we would look pretty similar. I purposefully put her in it when her hair was in pigtails because I wore pigtails a lot!

And now I feel like I just "did" some Family History besides just our current life. Hooray! This month our stake is holding some family history classes each Tuesday so I decided to go to see if I could get more excited about Family History.  It pretty much backfired and I came home feeling super frustrated and unmotivated and irritated. Tomorrow is the next class and I am going to attend and I hope it will be more positive. It wasn't a "bad" class exactly just not what I was hoping for or expected.

Hearts!

Our valentine celebrations have been in full swing the last 2 weeks. Early on I decided I wanted to do a 14 days of Valentines for Mark. Since we are on day 9 he has figured out one is coming each day so it's safe to write about it. I looked all over Pinterest to find ideas and came up with some of my own.  It was fun to find ideas and then tailor them to Mark.  He has really enjoyed his surprises each morning and I have enjoyed planning them and hiding them.

Today was the first day of surprises for Jared and Lydia.  Every so often I take out these miniature mailboxes and leave a surprise for Jared and Lydia to find in the morning. Last year I did one for the 5 days leading up to Valentines and had so much fun I decided to do it again this year. I am pretty sure it will be a yearly tradition.  I love picking out small inexpensive things I know they will love.  They get so excited.

Day 1: Bubble wands: You blow us away with how great you are!
Day 2: Valentine donuts: Don't you know how much we love you?
Day 3: Twirly straws: You are ex-STRAW-ordinary.
Day 4: Reeses Pieces: We love you to pieces
Day 5: Heart shaped box of chocolates: You stole our hearts!

We have also been having fun with art projects and learning times. We graphed conversation hearts like last year and played out upper/lower case letter memory game.

We attempted to make crystals with borax with little success.  We followed the directions exactly yet did not get the same results.  It said within 5-6 hours /overnight crystals would form. We did this last Tuesday when Mark had a snow day and we had no crystals until Saturday and they were not nearly as pretty as the ones online. So I guess it did work just not very well. Oh well.

We also made some beaded hearts and played Don't Eat Pete! Valentine style. We have some more fun planned for the rest of this week!

 Last week was sort of weird. Mark had 2 snow days.  His school had scheduled Parent-teacher conferences for Thursday but when school is canceled all other activities are cancelled as well. Friday was already set up for parent teacher conferences so student wouldn't be coming. So he taught school on Monday and Tuesday. That's it. It was a decent amount of snow but the real problem was not the snow but the cold cold cold weather that came after it. We had days where the high was -1. It would be -5 and feel like -24! Freezing!! Lots of kids walk to school so having school was not an option. We were happy to have Mark around and he did not miss not having conferences.  I was happy they were canceled because a friend of ours was getting married on the night they were scheduled so Mark was then able to come with me which was nice.

Such a cutie! 

I think it was around 20 degrees this day so Jared and Lydia went out to play. 

Love

It is no secret that I love holidays and celebrating them. Awhile back I saw this adorable sign on Pinterest and knew I wanted it! I showed it to Mark and we made it happen. It was way more complicated than I thought it would be (three different stores to get the paint and wood) but not because the project was that hard but working with a 2 year old's foot is difficult.  Lydia was a trooper as we had to redo her 2nd footprint three times. So yes, we had to repaint that part of the sign and let it dry (2 coats as each time). We still put them up too high but I am very happy with it. It was all worth it. I love how it turned out.

 I think Jared and Lydia will like comparing their hand and feet to it as time goes by as well. I have their hand and footprints in their baby book and they love holding them up to them.  So fun!

We also got more snow.  It is winter right? I love falling snow. When Mark got home from school on Friday the snow was really coming down. He really wanted to play with Jared and Lydia in the snow so we got all bundled up and headed out.  It was fun. Lydia did not enjoy it as much but once we came in she wanted to go back out so she and Jared went into the backyard.

Typically we go out to play in the snow on the warmest day before its melted (since we do lack real snow clothes) so being in the snow as it was falling was extra special. There was so much coming down! It has been really nice to have all this snow. Mark had a 2 hour delay twice last week which makes our mornings a little special. One day he made crepes which were delicious.  Mark loves crepes and offers to make them often.  We definitely eat more dessert style crepes though so we try space them out some. Last week I made some NY style cheesecake spread (Panera Bread's recipe) to put on some bagels Mark got. (He had a gift card to Panera from one of his students.) We had some leftover and put it on our crepes with fresh strawberries (Mark added Nutella too). It was amazing. When we first started making crepes we offered them to Jared and Lydia and they really did not like them. It was weird. Now they love them. Nutella + Peanut butter for breakfast?  What is not to love about that? 

On one of the 2 hour delay mornings I asked Mark to go check on Lydia in her room after her room time.  As he tired to open the door he couldn't get it open very far. Turns out she had taken all her pillows, stuffed animals and a fair amount of toys and barricaded herself in her room. She pushed everything against the door! We aren't sure what message she was sending but she had a good time Cleaning up was not as fun. Lydia, by the way is doing awesome with the railing off her bed. She hasn't gotten out of bed once. It almost seems like she is sleeping in more with the railing off which is nice. Each morning when one of us goes into get her we say Good Morning and she says "Belle!" (For her cup) She is such a sweetie. 

Mark and I had another successful date night at home. We made a fort and then watched a movie in it.  I am sadly not a very good movie watcher. I am super picky and Mark is not. I do like watching movies but am really selective so we went with You've Got Mail, one of my top 5 movies. I love it. I really do. I watch it every February for sure. It was fun to build the fort.  I know Jared and Lydia would love it so maybe we will do it for next weeks family movie night. We watched Tarzan this week and it would have gone really well with it. Oh well. Next time. 

One other thing my kids love lately is broccoli!! It is so weird. We have offered (and made them eat it) pretty much their whole lives and never met with much success. Now they request it! Even Lydia wants it. The other night we were having orange chicken for dinner. I asked Jared if he wanted some more chicken and he said "No, can I have more broccoli please?" I was shocked and really happy. I hope this trend continues. 

A trend I wish would stop are some of Jared's behaviors and my reactions to them.  It's been really hard since he turned 4! I feel like I am way more exasperated and frustrated. I try to stay calm and not let his choices control my reactions but it is super hard. I feel frustrated so much and then I feel awful for being frustrated. It's a nasty cycle.  He is just loud and more crazy then he used to be and his listening skills seem to have diminished greatly.  We are thinking of implementing a behavior jar with him where he gets marbles or pom poms for positive behaviors and can have them taken out for negative ones, then when he fills the jar up he will choose an activity to celebrate. We will see. I just want to enjoy this time so much.  I know how fast they grow up and how soon they will be in school. I just really want to not feel this way as much as I am. So it's not just him who needs to change but me. Maybe I need a behavior jar for myself! Before bed each night we have about 20 minutes of story time with Lydia and then with Jared. This is by far my favorite time of the day. When we cuddle up on the couch and read and talk together. It is also my time to apologize for being impatient and to talk about our day. I love these quiet moments with them and am grateful for them. I am sure it would help if I took more of them throughout the day and will work on that. When all is said and done I love Mark, Jared, and Lydia more than anything!