Easter FHE

We had a busy weekend with lots of family time!! (Of course that is my favorite way to spend the weekends).. Homecoming for my cousin Brock Ekins (who served in the Romania mission, soo cool to hear his stories), early lunch with Grandma and Papa Hall and more cousin play time (with uncle Ryan, Kolby and Shalee) and then dinner at my parents house.. (all of these events in one day, meant LOTS and LOTS OF YUMMY FOOD!!!) After a wonderful weekend like that, who wouldn't feel ready to take on there week?!?!..

For this weeks FHE we are going to be learning about EASTER:) The kids have had this lesson before and I am curious to see if they remember anything from last year. They are starting to remember more and more of what we teach them and its fun to hear what things "stick" with them.. We are going to be doing a version of "Resurrection eggs" only for toddlers... I found it here: (http://happyhomefairy.com/tag/toddlers/a )and then we will have "Resurrection rolls" for dessert and I originally found that idea here:( http://www.ptskjohnson.blogspot.com/2012/03/resurrection-rolls.html) (This is one of my favorite GO TO BLOGS for FHE, and since I personally know Miss Tonii it might just be one of my all time FAV BLOGS :) I seriously love all of the resources that we have now a days to help teach our children.. I am very grateful for the wonderful women who share there ideas and talents..:)  It is exciting to do all of the fun Easter activities that are put on this time of year but I want to make sure my children know, understand and are grateful for the true meaning of Easter as well. This will be a tradition for our family for sure :)

Opening prayer: Ryker

Opening song: When he comes again

Lesson: The Easter story:)

 I hid the eggs downstairs and then let Ryker and Briyler each find 2 eggs and Dugi and Pipa each find 1 egg.. After all the eggs were found we sat in a circle and opened them one by one.. I read the scripture that went along with each egg and then told them the 1 line sentence that pretty much summarizes what they need to know:) After we ate the treats in our last egg we went upstairs to make our Resurrection rolls :)... Looks like I may need more work on those, (they didn't work, there were marshmallows EVERYWHERE) but the kids got what I was going for (i think:) .... This week was a MAJOR SUCCESS, which was a great way to recover from an epic fail last week:) I have such a strong testimony of Family Home Evenings and the blessings that come from doing all we can to truly teach our children about Christ... I know that the lessons my children are learning now will be "their" foundations, it will be what what helps them gain a testimony for themselves and hopefully what helps them to know "who they are" and "where they are going". 

I can hardly stand how cute this little guy is !!

Ryker is SOO FUNNY!! :)

this made us all laugh

starting out FHE with some funny faces.. getting our wiggles and silliness out

there's lots of funny faces to get out :)

Silly Dugi

 

this little girl has an AT*TI*TUDE!!

 

Let the hunt begin

Opening the eggs

We might have re hid the eggs a few times:)

Finding the treasures, soo fun!

WHAAA did Dad really hide an egg in his mouth.. SNEAKY!!

her smile can be just as big as that sassy little attitude :)

I LIKE THE SMILE SOO MUCH BETTER

OW OW, lookin good :)

Resurrection roll, FAIL!!

didn't seem to bother them one bit though :)

and of course we have to end the night with more silliness!

FHE FAIL!!!

The last couple of weeks the kids have been pushing the limits and seem to getting in trouble more than just the usual things. We have had 4 different days where the kids have gotten into the craft/ storage closets and gotten out all of the coloring supplies and colored ALL OVER EVERYTHING DOWNSTAIRS!!! As anyone with small children knows when you mess with "the routine" it throws EVERYONE/EVERYTHING TOTALLY OFF!! I am like a schedule queen these days so poor little Tui expects things a certain way everyday. He wants to eat at certain times, sit and play with me RIGHT AFTER lunch, be held when the kids are being loud and be rocked to sleep PRECISELY AT THE SAME TIME EVERYDAY.... Which makes it hard to have my eyes on EVERY child at EVERY MOMENT OF THE DAY.. and right now Briyler and Raven (one of the kids I watch during the day) seem to just feed off of each other and with a daily routine like mine it is soo hard to try to control 2 naughty 3 yr olds :)

Sooo Needless to say a FHE lesson on consequences was IN ORDER :)  BUT today the lesson DID NOT GO AS PLANNED... Ryker was in a little bit of a mood tonight and I was trying to get him involved and excited about out lesson. I kept asking him questions, and trying to get him to participate but it just wasn't working. I finally asked if he knew "what I did while he was at school all day?", I was hoping to show him that I spent a lot of time preparing our lesson and that it hurts my feelings when they come to FHE with a bad attitude and don't want to participate in the fun things that I planned... Instead of getting that across we ended up getting into a "heated discussion" Yep I say "discussion" because I'm trying to justify my actions;). His response to my question was "Ya I know what you do all day, NOTHING!!".. WHAAA Did he really just say "I do NOTHING ALL DAY" (those are the exact words that went racing through my mind and without even thinking twice I started to spout off EXACTLY what I do EVERYDAY while he's at school)...


7:00 am- Dad gets up with the older kids and feeds them breakfast, YEP I"M LUCKY!!
7:45- be up and ready to take on the day:)
7:55- Mason and Raven get dropped off
8:00- Make Tui breakfast, feed him, clean up after breakfast and change diaper
8:20- Make Rykers lunch and do a few of his reading books
8:35-Have Ryker and Mason put on their shoes, coats and backpacks
8:40- send the boys out to wait for carpool, or drive carpool on my weeks
9:00- get back from carpool and get Kynlie out of bed, change kynlie and dugi's diapers
9:15- feed Kynlie breakfast and clean up after her (she is an unusually messy eater)
9:15 - If I haven't squeezed it in before now, feed Tui his morning bottle and rock him to sleep for his am nap
10:00-10:15- get Tui up
10:15-11:00- Play time with all the kids
11:00- make Tui's lunch, feed him and clean him up
11:25- make other 4 kids lunches, then clean them up
12:00- Rock Tui to sleep for his afternoon nap
12:30-Take kynlie and dugi down for naps
1:00- start a movie for Bri, Raven and Mason and HOPE LIKE CRAZY that they fall asleep
2:00-clean up around the house and start or premake dinner
3:30-Tui's up from nap
3:45- 3:55- RYker gets home from the bus or I pick up carpool
4:00- Get kynlie and dugi up from naps
4:15- either read for 20 min or get 1 math worksheet in for Rykers homework
4:30- put dinner in the oven or start stove top so it will be done when dad gets home
5:00- 5:30- THE BEST PART OF THE DAY, DAD IS HOME!!
6:00- finish up dinner, clean up after the kids
6:30-7:30- Mom: either leaves for the gym or goes downstairs to do my nightly workout routine
Dad: plays with kids downstairs or watches a movie
7:30- Change all 3 diapers, brush teeth, read scriptures, and say prayers
7:45- Dugi and Kyn go to sleep
7:45-8:30- Briyler and Ryker go upstairs and get 45 min of electronic time with dad :) playing Ipad, Leapsters, or phones..
8:30- bed time for Ryker and Bri
8:30- 10:00- I either get home from the gym and pretty much head to bed or I help put the boys down and then Kaj and I watch a few tv episodes before heading off to bed...


Lucky for me (and them) Dad jumped in (when I got to about 5pm)  and tried to finish up the lesson, but by then it was pretty much already a BUST. Dad did everything he could to try to salvage some sort of lesson and end on a positive note, but by the end of the night everyone was happy for this family night to be over.... I went downstairs to run on the treadmill and the kids went down for their nightly playtime. After I cooled off I brought the kids up for their dessert. The younger kids were just to tired so we decided to put them to bed.. (they had completely forgotten about treats so they didn't miss anything:) and the older boys and dad enjoyed some yummy chocolate fondue and strawberries..

silly Boys

They love to make faces.

As I'm sitting here tonight writing about our total FHE FAIL, I just keep thinking to myself.. "it's ok, everyone has days like this", "DONT GIVE UP, DONT GIVE UP", "Remember to hug them, kiss them and tell them that you love them when they wake up", and yep the dreaded thought that always seem to come up with things go wrong "THIS DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BAD MOM"... We all have off day's so I know that its not the end of the world but I just wish that I could have kept my cool tonight.. Even though my daily routine is HARD and exhausting and sometimes it seems SOO OVERWHELMING, I don't EVER want my children to feel like they are a burden or like I don't want to do those things for them. I knew having children would be a lot of work and I AM more than happy to do all of these things/and MORE for them when they need it.. The last thing I want them to hear is me "complaining" about all the things I have to do on a daily basis for them. (I didn't mean for it to come across that way but I can only imagine in the mind of a 6 yr old, when your mother is yelling every SINGLE detail of what she does during the day at you, the thoughts that are going through your mind aren't that of: Look at all that my mom does for me/us and it's purely out of LOVE)...

I wanted so badly to teach the kids about consequences, good and bad, and to help them understand that when we make bad choices- bad consequences follow, and when we make GOOD CHOICES- GOOD CONSEQUENCES FOLLOW!!  I guess that lesson will have to wait for another night, the real lesson that was learned was for me.. It is ENJOY your daily routine and EVERYTHING IT ENTAILS, right now, because it wont be this way forever. Don't ever make your kids feel guilty for what you do for them, love them WHOLE HEARTEDLY and not expecting anything in return because that's what a mothers love should be: Unconditional, FREE, Gentle, Never Ending, Given not earned, the LIGHT of her children's LIFE.. I hope that my sweet little kiddo's know how much I love them.. In spite of my imperfections/impatience, I hope that they know that they mean the WORLD TO ME! Life wouldn't be the same without each and every one of them and I am soo grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with such amazing little spirits. Even though I am not " super knew" to motherhood I still feel like I am. I feel like I am learning as I go and I don't always know the best way to handle situations, I feel like I get upset at things and then look back at them and realise how "unimportant" they really are and instead of fighting with my 6 yr old about everything I do in a day I should be laughing, teaching, and making fun family memories with him. I want our children to look back at there childhood and have more good memories than bad, more positive influence than negative, more happiness than sadness.. I want them to feel like our home is "their safe place" amidst such a crazy world. They need to have somewhere they can go to get away (I'm hoping that is OUR HOME) and someone that they know LOVES unconditionally and will help them through anything (and that is ME, and Dad of course)... Lesson Learned (for me!) :O)

Love these crazy little kiddies!!

these are a few of the fun times we had this week

Movie NIGHT

 

Kynlie and Dugie sure are good pals

and who wouldnt Love a face like this!!!

St Patty's Day parade and family dinner:)

This weekend we decided to hit up the St Patty's day parade at the gateway with Aunt Lexi, Bailey, Braxton and grandma and grandpa.. The kids had a great time watching the parade, (it was a little LONG for me).. Who knew you could work up such an appetite watching a parade?! Since we were all starving by the time the parade got done we decided to hit up the food court for lunch.. MMM.. 2 hours and 3 different food stores later we finally finished lunch and the younger kids were SOOO READY FOR NAP!! Kaj and I took the younger kids home and Brax and Bailey decided they were done with the parade and wanted to go home to, so Grandma stayed with the older boys and let them do the cake walk and the attempt to watch the dancers (that wasn't very successful, since there were WAY to many "pubs" set up and it was soo crowded). Ryker loved the cake walk and even won a cupcake, Bri was way to shy to get on stage and didn't want to join in the fun so grandma just bought him his cupcake:) The kids spent the day watching movies and hanging out at grandma's house and then we had a "family dinner" Saturday night so we could all get together, the kids love seeing there aunts and uncles and they always love going to grandmas, so it was fun!!

Briyler kind of confused to begin with.. I guess I don't take them to enough parades :)

Dugi was excited. Not only for the parade but for the candy grandma kept sneaking him:)

Bri and Ryker hanging out

Kyn and Dugi, they were pretty good for most of the morning

Yep MORE CANDY from grandma:) No wonder they love her so much

Tui wondering why I am making crazy faces at him:)

He was SOOO TIRED!!

The gang watching the parade.. Kaj and I had to stand in the back with the baby

FAVORITE PICTURE EVER!! Love that smile :)

The kids fav part of the parade was the fire truck!

We have a busy next couple of weeks, and we couldn't be more happy about it:) As you know my grandparents left for the MTC last Monday, they were able to sneak away for another family dinner on Sunday!! It was SOO nice to see them with their missionary tags on and they seemed to have that special missionary "glow" about them:) I am soo happy for them.. My cousin Brock is coming home from his mission on Wed, (YAYAY) so the MTC is letting my grandma and grandpa stay to see him get home from the airport but then they will be leaving for sure:) We are soo excited to see Brock and hear all about his experiences! The family is getting together wed for dinner and then Brock will be giving him homecoming talk on Sunday so we will be having brunch on Sunday, Hello Breakfast casserole: GOODBYE healthy eating.. :) Hopefully we can make it on wed but if not we will be anxiously awaiting Sunday... Soo proud and happy to be apart of such a wonderful family!!

Just missing Uncle Al and Aunt Lexi.. Poor Lex wanted to be there but couldn't make it... I cant believe the kids are ACTUALLY SMILING!!! Look at Bri's smile, you don't get that everyday:) Love seeing them happy!!

Tangled FHE

We did this super fun FHE last summer when the cousins were staying with us and it was a HUGE HIT!!! The kids all had soo much fun but I always felt kind of bad that Ryker missed out so I decided to recycle and use this lesson again:) The original post can be found here (http://the-harding.blogspot.com/2012/07/tangled-fhe-sons-and-daughters-of-king.html) and the idea came from a good friend and her original post is here: (http://ptskjohnson.blogspot.com/2011/04/tangled-family-home-evening.html)

Today we had dad stop at burger king for dinner (I needed new crowns, since I seem to have "misplaced" the ones I used last year). After the kids finished with there dinners it was time for the FUN!!!

set up!!

ohh the fun that is about to be had!!

amazing lesson for our children

following where the sting leads him

 

THEY MADE IT!! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

I love this little guy!! I cant believe how time has flown and how big he is getting!

I love that smile more than anything!!

YUMMM-O, fruit roll ups!

Pure Happiness!

Brotherly Love.. I love moments like this

they are best friends and OOHHH SO cute together!

Yummy!

Had a great time with the kids tonight! Soo glad that we are making time for FHE again, the kids couldn't hardly contain themselves when I told them we would be having family night tonight. I know it probably wont be like that forever so I need to make sure I take in every second of them enjoying these fun little lessons!

Blessings in disquise

Today ended up being an AMAZING Sunday... Despite it being daylight savings, (losing an hour of sleep), and having to have us and the kids ready for 9 am church in SUGARHOUSE, today was such a good reminder to me of just how LUCKY I am.. Today was Grandma and Grandpa White's farewell. I wasn't expecting it to be soo touching for me.. Church started out at 9 am and of course the kids were all a little cranky, a little whiny and a little rambunctious, even though it was tough we managed to hear most of grandma and grandpa's talks and they were great (exactly how I knew they would be). After church we walked back to the house (the kids LOVED that. They never get to walk to church and since grandma and grandpa's culdesac is right across the street they got to run the majority of the way, ALL BY THEMSELVES). We had a yummy breakfast of crepes, fruit, Cinnamon rolls and other treats and then spent the rest of the afternoon just spending our Last "Sunday dinner" together, (even though I'm sure everyone will get together at least a few times while my grandparents are gone, it will just be so much different without them).....

Before dinner the stake president and the bishopric came over to set them apart and WOW I wasn't expecting the emotion that came along with that process.. The stake president that came over was ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, he walked in and greeted everyone that was there (which was A LOT of people) and then he told us that he wanted to go around the room and have 1 person from each family say something (ie: how they were feeling, advice or words of endearment) to grandma and grandpa. They started oldest to youngest (it ended up being all the brothers and sisters that talked) and from Aunt Natalie on down, every single person that spoke brought tears to my eyes.. As I was listening to everyone talk about how much they love and appreciate grandma and grandpa, I was reminded of just how lucky I am to have such a close knit family. Grandma and Grandpa have 7 children and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEIR CHILDREN was there (can I just say I have AMAZING aunts and uncles also, how many kids can say they LOVE their Great Aunts? Mine CAN!!), along with most of the grandchildren and for my kids some of their great grandchildren. I was reminded that not everyone has Aunts and Uncles that live so close to eachother, not everyone has family dinners every Sunday, not everyone has cousins that they not only know but that they are pretty much best friends with, not everyone has a family that is there for them in good times and in bad, NO MATTER WHAT! When I was younger I took our close knit family for granted (they were just nosey and asked WAY TO many questions for my teenage liking). I thought that was how all families were though. When I would go to other peoples homes I just expected to see all of the aunts, uncles, and cousins around the dinner table all laughing and having a good time. As I've gotten older I'v come to see not all families are like "ours" and it's actually pretty RARE now a day's. Families like mine don't seem to "come around" all the time and they definitely aren't the "norm" anymore. I am so grateful for everyone sharing there feelings about grandma and grandpa tonight, I am grateful that I was able to remember and feel just how lucky I am. I left the night feeling and hoping that I can recreate with my own children, what my grandparents have done with theirs.

Thank you Lee and Jacque White for always being such a great example to me and everyone around you, Thank you for always putting everyone else before yourselves, Thank you for letting us know that we could always come to you: for ANYTHING (whether it be for a dinner, a place to stay, a person to talk too or just a friendly smile and hug) you were always their and you always had just what we needed, Thank you for putting on Sunday dinners for 50+ people if not EVERY WEEK at least once a month, Thank you for always being involved in "our" (your grandchildrens) lives, Thank you for loving My children (your great grandchildren, just as much as you love me), Thank you for taking care of me (and my babies) and for letting me stay with you after I had my last 2 children,   Thank you for showing us how to love unconditionally, Thank you for being so generous with your time, Thank you for being such an AMAZING COOK (that one is mostly for grandma :), Thank you for all of the things I took for granted as a kid and am coming to realise are VERY hard characteristics to have, Thank you for raising such wonderful children (My MOM especially), and most importantly Thank you for loving the gospel and for showing us how to live it! There are so many moments in time I wish I could just freeze and tonight, sitting in the living room as my grandparents were being set apart, was one of them!!



 Grandma and Grandpa White


this was the last "family" picture we had taken, 09'... Seriously one AMAZING FAMILY!!!