Fun "giggle" link

Rather than spam you all (I did a little of that already this morning - one a day is my cutoff), I thought I would provide you with a fun cute link. My sister sent me an email with these in it. Having young kids myself - I can believe that kids would write these. I could so see Annie writing (if she could write) one similar to the one about having God look at her new shoes. Don't you wish we all had their innocence and points of view?

Post-it Notes from Kids to God:
http://thirumurugan.blogspot.com/2007/02/funny-post-it-notes-for-god-from-kids.html

Have a great day!

Even Homeschoolers Have Snow Days!

We woke up this morning to 4-6 inches of new snow and it snowed pretty continuously until about 10am. For my friends in normally snowy climates - this isn't much, but take into consideration that here in Indiana we have had all of maybe 2 inches (if you stretch your measuring stick) this winter, 4-6 inches is a big deal. Our street wasn't plowed, the public schools are closed so I thought, "What the heck? Let's give the kids a snow day, too." My sister called this morning and when I told her I was giving the kids a snow day she responded, "What, so you can quill all day?" Okay, so the thin veil of "nice mom" was torn and my true intentions revealed. I did quill, but only this morning. You can see what I made at my other blog.

The good thing about snow - at least here in Central Indiana - is that when it comes, people freak out and close everything. My husband originally had a two hour delay for work and when he went in, found that he was among only about six or seven other people - the majority being management. So, the head honcho gave all those who had "braved" (yeah, tough elements out there - roll of eyes) the storm 8 hours of comp time and sent them all home. So, we get dad at home - the kids get to sled and try to make a snowman with our fairly dry snow and mom gets to quill while the baby takes a nap. Not such a bad thought to have a snow day - we should do this more often!

Down and Derby

Last night was the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Jaren's car did better this year than last year's pencil car - yes, he had a pencil shaped car - unfortunately, it hit the trash after the race and we didn't get a picture of it. We convinced him after his dismal finish to have a "real" car shape this year for the Pinewood Derby.

Below - Grant and Jaren are neck in neck - the tension in the air was thick - look at their faces! Who will win it? Who will win it? So close! (Honestly, Jaren may have won this one - I wasn't paying attention - my friend Janet took these shots for me - I was busy gabbing - I know, bad mom - next year, buddy)

There was a snag in the track and after several cars biting the dust the Derby "track crew" came out to repair the track. See how it takes three grown men and two boys monitoring the situation to ensure that it's done correctly? My personal opinion is that the tools were cool and that's why so many guys gathered to "help" out.

Here's another pit crew situation below - Jaren's personal pit crew consisting of Daddy (Mike) and of course it wouldn't be complete without Dallin - he was helping lubricate the wheels with his drool.

Notice below that Jaren's scout shirt is numberless? Yeah, he's been a scout for about 18 months now and I have yet to sew on his pack numbers. I do have the nifty plastic holder for his badges so the shirt can be passed on to Ammon when he enters the scouting program, though. I really need to get those numbers sewn on. Bad on me.

I'm really winning the mother of the year award, aren't I? ....not paying attention to the races, not sewing on the patches - on a positive note, however, I helped hand out cookies to everyone after the racing was done! Don't I score points for that? And even blogging about the derby so we can have a permanent record is a good thing, too - see, so I'm not so bad after all (as I pat myself on the back).

Kiss the Baby

My mom brought a baby mirror for Dallin. He loved the baby he saw so much that he had to kiss the baby.

Black Friday - No Shopping

I was good this year and purchased Christmas presents all before Thanksgiving (most before Halloween), so Black Friday wasn't a day of running to get to the best sale possible, but a great family outing. We were up in Chicago for Thanksgiving, so we went to the Field museum on Friday. It was a lot of fun to see the kids enjoying themselves.

You may notice that Dallin isn't with the other kids. He was in the baby corral when the other pictures were being taken. Believe it or not, he really was happy there with the other babies:



Annie and Jaren beating on drums like they had at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Ancient Chinese drum (replica, for obvious reason):

Ammon having a go at it and Jaren smiling for the camera:

Ammon, Annie, and Jaren resting from their "labors":

We were at the Field museum for the majority of the day (from 11am to 3pm) and only saw part of the bottom floor of the museum. It's HUGE! I have since learnt that we can get a membership at a kids museum down here (Bloomington, so a little south of us) and it will cover the Field museum as well as the Museum of Science and Industry. Looks like we will be taking some three day weekend trips up to visit Auntie Barbara and Uncle Greg more regularly!

Thanksgiving Proclamation 1789

I just was sent a link to the proclamation for Thanksgiving given by President George Washington in 1789. Thanksgiving was (and still should be) intended "to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor."

You can read the proclamation in its entirety here.

If we ever needed His protection and favor, we do now. I have been feeling really humbled and saddened by the state of our world over the past few weeks (the election did nothing to calm my troubled heart, but I won't get into politics here).

I feel like we have just hit the tip of the iceberg of things to come, too. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and the knowledge and testimony that I have of my Heavenly Father's love. I know that I will continue to receive guidance from the Holy Ghost, guidance from my church leaders (especially the prophet and apostles), and guidance from the scriptures to get through these times. I am grateful to have listened to our leaders and that we have food storage and little savings (wish we had more, but we're working on it). Times may get rough for us, but the spirit will comfort us and we need not fear as we are prepared.

I told the kids that I wanted to gather them under my wing and protect them from all that is going on the world. Ammon said, "I didn't know you have wings" and then started laughing hysterically. Once we got his laughter under wraps, we talked as a family about some of the things going on (not just about the financial recession, but the spiritual recession). We made a commitment to work harder as a family to dedicate ourselves both collectively and individually to serving the Lord and learning gospel principles. I've decided that I need to re-institute daily devotionals with the kids. When Dallin was born, that got pushed aside, but I need to recommit myself to teaching them on a daily basis. I feel that once a week during Family Home Evening isn't enough because their world when they are adults will be much worse than it is even now.

I'm sorry to my readers (like I've got crowds of you - HA!) for the seriousness of this post. It's more for myself and journaling than anything, but if you want to comment, you're welcome to it.

Pogo Champion of the World

I know this is the fourth post today - bear with me. I'm trying to update and make up for the month without posts. That way I can go another month - ha,ha. I'll try not to let it get this bad again. I'm going to be good, I promise, and post more frequently so we've got a max of one post a day.

Here is a video of Jaren pogo sticking. He can go no hands. That's talent: