FHE: The Sabbath Day

Thought we'd have a short little lesson on the Sabbath day for family home evening on Monday. Chase is really talking about the days of the week these days & loves to go to church on Sunday but always asks to go to the store while we're on our way to church!

I'm going to print out some pictures of places & things: church, store, playground, Jesus, man with a briefcase (to represent going to work), etc. and we'll talk about what we do on Sunday & what we don't do on Sunday and that we should do things that help us to think about Jesus.

I also stole this idea from a blog a while back & made it my own. I put together these shelves that we're going to hang in their rooms. On Saturday night, we'll hang their church clothes up on the hooks & put their shoes on the shelf to make sure we have everything ready for Sunday without any scrambling on Sunday morning. The shelves were purchased at Hobby Lobby during their 50% off sale - still about $25 each. I just added pictures of the kids in their Sunday clothes, pictures of Christ, and vinyl lettering with a cute paper background.

Family Home Evening: Gratitude Lesson

Last night's Family Home Evening was on gratitude. We talked about how when someone does something nice for us its important to say "thank you". Then we talked about all the nice presents that were received for Christmas and that it was so important to say "thank you" for all those nice things we received. We took pictures of the kid with the presents they got from their grandparents (each picture was with what they got from one set of grandparents) and then this morning I used walmart.com to make thank you cards that have the pictures on them. When they're ready, we'll write a thank you message inside, help the kids to sign them & send them off to the grandparents. Here's the pictures we took - and yes, the puppy was a gift of sorts from grandparents. Not exactly a Christmas gift, but we were given a puppy from my parents' recent litter and got to bring her home after our Christmas visit.

Baby Shower Gift: Growth Chart

I just made my own version of this totally cute idea that I found a few months ago. It went over great at the baby shower and I am now making a couple more for my recently born nephews & will make one for each of my kids.

(By the way, if you visit the link for the site where this idea was originally posted . . . I'm sorry! Its an awesome site & you'll probably see so many projects that you'll want to do that you won't even have time to do them all!!!)

Anyway, I wanted a cute poem to attach to it, but couldn't find any that I liked, so I made up my own. You're welcome to use it if you try this out for a gift:

Right now you are a little one

So tiny and so sweet.

And soon you will be running ‘round

On tiny little feet.

The big events the birthdays too

Recorded here by height,

To show your progress as you grow

In knowledge and in might.

The years will pass so quickly

as I mark them on this “wall”.

And I will love you more each day

As you grow big and tall.

I’ll cherish ev’ry memory

And teach you all that’s right.

And thank Him for each moment

That I get to hold you tight.

-- Kim Milius

Great Toddler Christmas Book

When I was at Deseret Book the other day, a children's Christmas book caught my eye . . . cute cover & it was on SALE! With Chase's love for books, I bought it to add to our collection, hoping it would be as cute as it looked. This is definitely a new favorite! Adorable illustrations & a very cute story about the beginning of Santa where he used penguins instead of reindeer (boy, was that a mistake!) and the people were all scared of this guy that was going to invade their houses in the middle of the night. Santa's First Flight by Sam Beeson is a definite MUST for your toddler's library!

Book Recommendations: toddler

We've been getting lots of books from the library lately. Thank you so much to friends who gave me some recommendations & I've also been taking them from the books that the library & Little Monkey Bizness uses for their storytimes. Here's some of our favorites so far (for my 2 1/2 year old):

The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli
Easy to read Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
Peanut Butter & Jellyfishes by Brian P. Cleary
We're Going on a Bear Hunt retold by Michael Rosen
Ping Pong Pig by Caroline Jayne Church

Hooked on Phonics Review

So, I ventured out to do some Black Friday shopping, including a stop at Borders bookstore. I had a 50% off coupon & ended up buying a Hooked on Phonics set - even though I didn't go there with that intention. I decided it was a good enough deal to go ahead and give it a try.

Chase has known his letters since he was 20 months old. Its just something he's always had a fascination with & his favorite song is ABC's. I've been trying to teach him the letter sounds but he hasn't picked up on it at all.

He LOVES this program (pre-K, level 1) and I'm sure we will be investing in more before too long. We've done 2 formal lessons - rhyming & the letter A. And he loved all parts of it, the lesson, worksheet, computer game, and the dvd. Even on the days when we don't do a lesson, I still put on the dvd for him & he watches all of it. And he's really picking up on what sounds the letters make. Today, I asked him what sound an "s" makes (since he was really singing along with that song earlier) and he was able to tell me.

I would definitely recommend this program to anyone with young children; they've made it so fun & entertaining that kids really enjoy doing the lessons. In fact, Chase begs to do them each day & wants to do them several times a day . . . I'm just not organized enough to keep up with him right now!

Sneezing is Dangerous!

This morning, the sore back I had last night turned terrible after a sneeze. I was bent over washing my hands in the sink when the sneeze hit & left me unable to straighten up. I finally made it to where I could lay down & then had to call Jeff and ask him to come home from work to take care of me (and the kids). I'm still in horrible pain from throwing my back out . . . yes, due to a sneeze!

But that's really not the worst of it. When I was pregnant with my first child, I sneezed one morning while sitting in bed. It resulted in a trip to the emergency room, several days in the hospital, and a month of bedrest due to the placenta having torn away from the uterus!

Is it just me? Do I have extremely violent sneezes or is it just old age creeping up on me? Or do these kinds of things happen to other people too?