FHE

 We ate Icecream outside with magic shell!

 YUM!

 And Daddy set the trampoline up so the kids could jump their hearts out.

It was  good Family Home Evening.

Washing Hands FHE

Family Home Evening was on washing your hands.  Greg, Enoch, and Ali had the crazy stomach bug this week that has been plaguing our family since October.  After being up all night with vomiting children several times in one week, I think Greg had enough.

 

 He threaten people who-will not be named for sucking their thumbs.  He told them all that putting your hands in your mouth is why we keep getting sick!!!

 So we all practiced washing our hands.  And we all vowed to do it before every meal.

 Liam was a hoot the whole time.  He kept tackling people who were trying to sit quietly and listen.  ( I swear sometimes I really do brush my hair and wear make up)

 We enjoyed Snicker doodles

 Played a Lego Ninja game.

While setting up the game I thought, where is Liam..... ( splash, splash, splash,)  AND this is why we keep getting sick! 

While playing the game, Enoch sneezed on the die and Liam kept putting it in his mouth.  -Sigh-   Well, at least we washed our hands before we at the cookies.

Family Home Evening

So we are going to do some interesting family home evenings the next three weeks. We are doing so many fun things this summer. It is hard to do FHE too, so we are combining it with something else. Greg is taking Ali and Shad to see the Lord of the Rings in Fishers. They love it. I know. I know. Lord of the Rings? The Lord of the Rings is very important part of our family. I think Greg one time told me the top three important books were the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and then the Hobbit. It is very important to him for our children to learn Tolkien. And I think it is funny, so I go along with it.

So when Greg leaves with the older two I take Enoch to get a "treat." It was going to be ice cream, but when we got to McDonald's to get our 49 cent cones ( what a deal!), he was so disappointed not to be getting french fries. So the next week I asked him if he wanted french fries or ice cream. He picked french fries. :0 Funny boy.

Zoe is going to be with us for 2 weeks of the summer. Here she was with us for Family Home Evening. One week our lesson was on Fathers and our Heavenly Father. The Next week it was on

Family Home Evening- April 30 2011

My camera was on the wrong setting for awhile so all my pictures looked like these. I couldn't figure it out until later though with Greg's help. We are playing Super Hero Squad Matching Game.

Ali is really enjoying the lesson here. (hehe) I taught it for once!! Greg didn't say much. He didn't feel well. It was all about summer break and what to expect. Things like they have to still work on their IXL (math), read a book a day, do their chores, and have rest time. I will talk more a about our summer schedule later. I didn't want my kids to think that summer meant no rules or no schedule.

Enoch helped me make the cookies. Early in the day. This was a mix from Greg's mom's house. Yummy.

Lesson: Summer Goals and Schedule

Song: Don't remember

Activity: Memory Game

Dessert: Peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss on top

Family Home Evening- April 23 2011

We had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Enoch finally got to have some!!! YEAH!! however he only ate the whip cream of the top and left the rest.

The boys singing Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam.



Daddy teaching the lesson on how to be a good host. We have had problems when Ali and Shad have friends over. They beg to have friends over but then after 30 min. they say that want some alone time, or sit on the couch and stare blankly at the T.V. and don't talk to their friend or hid somewhere in the house and not tell their friend so their friend has no idea where they are or what they are doing. So we talked about playing with the friend the whole time and doing what they want to do.

Song: Jesus Want Me for a Sunbeam

Lesson: Being a good host

Dessert: strawberry short cake

Activity: I don't remember but I know we did one

Family Home Evening 5/23/11

Greg taught the lesson on the Atonement. ( yeah I know, the atonement! We dive right in to the big lessons too sometimes.) The kids really seemed to get the subject. I asked Ali what was the worst thing that any one could ever do. She said bite some one. :) It made me smile. She is still a little girl. I then told her she could be forgiven of that because Christ suffered for all of our sins and mistakes. Greg gave the analogy of having a clean house and the kids walking through it covered in mud. And what you would do to clean off the mud before you could go into the house.

We had white cake with white icing for dessert. I don't really like cake all that much, so I don't make it, but it had been awhile since I had any and it was a fun change for dessert. Note the plate of dinner in the center of the table. That is Enoch's. He again refused just to take one bit, so no dessert. Stubborn.




We played Simon Says for the game. Shad was Simon during this picture. I think I look awful. My body is some kind of weird, floppy, extra skin, extra fat kind of thing right now. I started going to the Y every day, and i am on a really healthy diet. I REALLY want my body back, so I am going to try to be super motivated. I want 10 more pounds gone before my six week dr. appointment. Then if I just lose a pound or 2 a week I will be satisfied.

Greg was holding Liam during the lesson, so Enoch got a baby doll and is kissing it. It was so sweet.

Song: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

Lesson: Atonement

Activity: Simon Says

Dessert: cake!

Family Home Evening 5/9/11

Greg taught the lesson on The Law of the Harvest. Always a good lesson. i was surprised how well the children understood the concept. So for the activity we weeded the strawberry patch.

And we had watermelon for dessert. Everyone loved it.

It was a beatiful day FINALLY. We spent the whole afternoon outside. It was also my first day being on my own because Greg went back to work. It was a good day. Liam was wonderful. Enoch had a bad day ( but that is typical) and everyone else was happy too.

Lesson: Law of the Harvest

Song: Child's Prayer

Prayer: Ali

Dessert: WATERMELLON

FHE May 2 2011 Puzzles

So I failed my Goal of having Family Home Evening for over a month I think. :( I really felt very sick the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I just couldn't get myself to pull a FHE together. BUT here is to getting back on track! We had a puzzle party. We had several puzzles that were missing pieces, but I knew some of the pieces were just hiding in other puzzles. So we put together all of our puzzles to find all of the pieces. It was great fun. Everyone liked it. It was Greg's idea. We threw away around 6 puzzles with missing pieces.


Ali is conducting the music. We sang " When we're happy, We're helping". Which is fun because that is the name of my blog:)

Ali enjoying our dessert. Ice cream sandwich cookies.

Shadrach unwrapping his ice cream sandwich cookie. I can always tell how well I feel/ how well I am doing by how often I make homemade cookies. I have made then twice this last week-- which is awesome considering I just had a baby. I only like to make cookies if the house is clean and all my work is done for the day. When I was little I used to always help my mom make chocolate chip cookies. We would make them for my brothers and sister while they were at school. Then they would come home to fresh baked cookies. I was the official test tester. I had the recipe memorized at 4 years old because we made them so much. :) It is a very happy memory I have of my childhood with my mom.

Enoch is crying because he didn't get an ice cream sandwich. He didn't eat one bit of dinner. We told him if he just tried one bit he could have an ice cream cookie sandwich. He refused. Strong willed child.
By the way - our lesson was on Charity. Greg taught it. Shad and Enoch said they would be charitable by sharing their supper hero toys and Ali would show charity by giving me a hug. :)

Family Home Evening 3/21/2011

Eating Pudding together after a a long walk around Lebanon. They were gone for 45 min. I didn't go because I can barely walk around the house. We learned about recycling and keeping the earth clean. The kids loved walking around and picking up trash, so we should do it again. right now they are watching something on you tube about recycling.

Family Home Evening 3/7/2011

We started our garden for our Activity. Greg mainly did it all with the kids. Greg loves the garden. It is Greg's baby.

Then we had a lesson about "Gideon" since we are pretty sure that i what we are going to name the baby.

And for dessert we had ice cream Sunday's. The kids really enjoyed making them and putting every single thing we had for a topping on their icecream. Yuck!

Family Home Evening 2/28/2011

We taught Family Home Evening on the Sacrament. About what is means, how we are supposed to act, and what we should be thinking about during the Sacrament. I taught the lesson, but Greg had a lot to say - he always does and that is why I love him. (I did laundry that day as you can tell by the baskets in our bedroom)
We played "Mother May I" and even Daddy played. Here he is doing a scissor step. :) We put Enoch to bed before FHE even started. He was a grump, but after missing the song, lesson, and the game... he very nicely came down the stairs...

....And joined us for dessert. This were valentine cookies that were around 85% off at the store. I was just to tried to make real cookies and this was a good deal.

Enoch was so polite and full of smiles that we decided to play "Mother May I" again. He is actually surprising good at the game. When ever you have him do baby steps, he always makes a fake crying sound like a baby which I think is adorable. Shadrach - with all of his brains- has so much trouble with this game. The boy who can explain physics to you, enjoys word searches, and can memorize anything always, always, always, forgets to say "mother may I" and has to go all the way back to the beginning.

Family Home Evening 2/21/2011

We failed. We did not do Family Home Evening. That Monday was a busy day. Greg had a busy day at work, and I was tired. We decided to do it on Tuesday. Then I got sick with Shadrach and Enoch. There was no coming back after that. I kept telling myself that we would just do a really quick one, but I we also had no food. We were just living off of Food storage that whole week because the ideas of pushing a chart at the grocery made me want to pass out. So we had no dessert and I didn't want to deal with the children with a Family Home Evening with out dessert. (If you are wondering I don't keep cake mix, or brownie mix, jello, or pudding in food storage because I would EAT it up!!!) But we did do FHE this last week. i will write about it soon.

Family Home Evening 2/14/2011- YMCA

So we threw planning to the wind for Family Home Evening. Greg bought a Family Membership to the Y on Monday morning. We have been wanting to do it since it opened but I had too much trouble committing that much money to it. (typical) So Greg did it for me. We both thought it would be fun to take the kids swimming for Family Home Evening. Well, fun was one word for it. When they found out that is what we were doing, it was like Christmas and vacation put together and on steroids. They were SO EXCITED! There was tons of screaming and Greg and I thought we were going to lose our minds. It took forever to get everyone dressed and out the door. Here is a picture of Greg trying to find Shadrach's shoes in the shoe bin. It was the only one I took because I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet.

They loved the pool, and it was a work out!! Ali knows how to swim but it has been since summer. It was either 2 on 1 or 1 on 1. Greg and I switched about every 10 min. All three wanted to do their own thing with one of us, so it was busy. Everyone had fun.

Song:A Child's Prayer ( picked by Shadrach- We sang in the car on the way over. Greg and I always "fight" about how to start the song. He starts it too high and I start too low. I started this time and Greg switched octaves half way through and was singing the same notes I was.

Lesson: NONE

Dessert: NONE - There was almost mutiny because there was no treat! It was Valentines day and every child had more than a pound of sugar in them. I thought they didn't need a dessert- BOY WAS I WRONG!! Luckily they were so worn out from swimming that they all passed out as soon as we got home.

Family Home Evening 2/7/2011

We had chocolate and vanilla layered pudding for dessert.

Yummmmm. And it reminds me of being little and having Family Home Evening. We had this often.

We watched "Willow" for the activity. Greg wanted to. I often get out voted on these things. I like the movie and I think it is family friendly but Ali kept drawling pictures about evil people trying to kill babies after it was over...... hummmm.....

Our lesson was on "how to brush your teeth properly." I was horrified last month when they had cavities after going to the dentist. I cried. So I thought we would really talk about how it was important to take your time and make sure you get all parts of your teeth.

Brush, Brush, Brush!

Prayer: Shadrach ( he showed us how reverent he could be-- kneeling on the floor with eyes pinched shut)
Song: Enoch picked "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" and knew all of the words!! He is getting so big!!!!

Lesson: Clean teeth

Activity: Willow

Dessert: Layered Pudding

FHE Februray Plan

If you haven't noticed, I love to plan and Greg does not. So I try to compromise. I have a plan made out but if for some reason Greg wants to do something else, i let him. He like to do his own thing about 30% of the time. Here is my Plan for next week.

Feb. 7
Lesson: How to brush your teeth well
Activity: Mother May I
Dessert: Pudding layers

Feb. 14
Lesson: Love and Charity- Make Valentines
Activity: Deliver them
Dessert: Valentines cookies

Feb. 21
Lesson: Table Manners
Activity: Daddy Game
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookies

Feb 28
Lesson: Manners II
Activity: scaventure hunt
Dessert: ice cream Sundays

Family Home Evening 2/1/2011

We changed lesson for this week and Greg taught the parable of the Talents. This is a picture of him passing out talents. The children really enjoyed the lesson although I think the word "talent" being the form of money was a little confusing. ( You can tell today was a snow day because Ali is wearing a princess dress, Shadrach's shirt is on backwards, Enoch has no clothes on but shoes, and Greg is in his PJs)

We had a scaventure hunt that lead to snicker doodles for our activity. The children had to read the messages on the cards all by themselves-- Which made it even trickier. Here is Greg helping Shadrach sound out a word.

SNICKER DOODLES!!!!!
It was hard for Enoch to know what was going on. He heard the part that we got cookies but didn't realize that we had to follow the clues to get them. So he just followed everyone around the house crying/whining/yelling cookie every where we went. When we finally made it to the end he was happy because he had a cookie.

Prayer:?

Song: A child's Prayer

Lesson: Parable of the Talents

Activity: Scaventure hunt

Dessert: Snicker doodles

Family Home Evening 1/24/2011

Daddy taught the lesson on Honesty. The children enjoyed it.

Getting ready to play the game. ( Ali took this picture)

ZOMBIES!!!!
I got out voted on the game choice. They all wanted to play this Zombie game. Greg says it is ok to play because you aren't really killing the Zombies because Zombies are already dead. You just disabling them. hmmmmm. Ali won the game. We only played once. We were tired.

Prayer: Can't remember

Opening song: Love is Spoken Here

Lesson: Honesty

Activity: Zombie Game

Dessert: Vanilla pudding ( it was suppoed to be layered pudding but I didn't have chocolate)