General Conference Prep

Every year before General Conference we review and learn a little about the First Presidency and Apostles.  It helps the boys to focus a little better when they recognize the faces, know the names, and know a fun fact about the men they are listening to over the course of the weekend.

I've posted some facts about them in the past but this year I wanted to make our Family Home Evenings leading up to General Conference a little more interactive and perhaps a little more memorable.  Week #1 we covered Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Boyd K. Packer, and L. Tom Perry.  Since President Eyring enjoys baking bread with his family we all made banana bread together.

Week #2 we learned about Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Richard G. Scott, and Robert D. Hales.  Since Elder Scott likes to paint with watercolors we did a little watercoloring of our own.

Week #3 was our final week where we learned about Jeffrey R. Holland, David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, and Neil L. Andersen.  Because Elder Holland and Elder Cook played football, Elder Bednar met his wife while playing flag football, and Elder Cook is a fan of our OU Sooners we went outside and played our our little game of football.  (I think this was the favorite activity by far!)

I love what Elder Andersen has said on the subject: "Some might say it is not the leaders who are important, but the message they bring.  Yet, if our children do not know the names of the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, they most likely will not know their messages either."  And again: "Our challenge as parents is to prepare our homes so that our children might be 'armed with righteousness.'  In the future, a discernible distinction of the true followers of Christ will be the heed and attention they give to the living prophets and Apostles.  As our children listen to these men, they will find their way."  (Both quotes come from "Teaching Our Children to Love the Prophets," Ensign, April 1996, 44).

We are excited for Conference this year!  What do you do to prepare?

Campout

The boys have been wanting to go on a camp out for weeks now...  and their wishes came true last night.  Rich took them down to Lake Arcadia to go camping!  It seems that they had a fun evening full of hot dogs, s'mores, campfire, stories, games, and adventures.

When asked, James told me that his favorite part was eating hotdogs and William loved throwing sticks into the fire.  I'm glad that they all had such a fun time!

Birthday Celebrations

It has been birthday week at our house!  James had his 4th birthday on Sunday which we celebrated over at Grandma's house.  He had a great time and loved all his new Star Wars stuff!

He also loved the giant cookie and the ice cream (of which he took a giant lick right in the carton!  Yuck!)

Rich was out of town with his dad so we postponed our own family celebration until Tuesday when he could join us. James picked out dinner (chicken nuggets) and was so glad to be celebrating again.  In fact, since he had "two birthdays" he thinks that he is five now!
He got a Buzz Lightyear car from Grandma and Grandpa Fisher (which all the boys love),

 a rubber band gun (which he is constantly asking me to load for him!), and

 some super hero puppets.

These actually turned out to be a bigger hit than I thought!  All of the boys love them... and I need to make some more!  I just need to find some time to do them! (I've been informed that there needs to be some more bad guys.)

This year James decided on a treasure map cake.  It's one of the easier cakes that I've made and James loved it!

The very next day (Wednesday) was Rich's birthday.  We had a quick celebration between work and church meetings.  

Rich always claims that he doesn't have a birthday now that James' is right before his.... but this year it really seemed like we didn't get to do much!  I owe him one!

It was a fun week but I'm glad we don't have another birthday for a few months... it can be exhausting!

Happy Birthday (even if it is late in the day!) to the very best hunny around! I love you!


more to come on our birthday celebrations soon!

Birthday Boy

What is your favorite...
color? green
food?  chips
toy?  Spiderman
show? Superman and Batman and VeggieTales
animal?  elephant and giraffes
comic book? Sonic
song? Come on Eileen
What do you like to do?  flip
Who is your best friend?  BenSam
What do you want to be when you grow up? Superman
Do you have a girlfriend?  none. I have zero.  Zero means none.

And this is James the other day just being his crazy self.

Happy 4th Birthday James!  

We love you!  We're so glad you're in our family!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hope you had a fun St. Patrick's Day today!  My boys had a blast doing all sorts of holiday fun.  William really wanted to hunt for leprechauns and set traps but I spent all morning cleaning the house for some showings and never got to it... although they did turn our dinner green!  We'll have to catch those pesky guys next year!

We had a few showings on our house this afternoon/evening so we spent some time at the park.  The weather has been beautiful this week... but it's getting too hot too fast!  It was nearly 90 today!  When I remarked on the heat William remarked, "And it's still winter!"  Sheesh!  It is still winter!  Didn't anyone tell Mother Nature?

I tried to get a cute picture of these boys in their green... but they were a little too anxious to get out to playing!  I just love these little monkeys!

Duck Week

Once a year at school we have "D.U.C.K. week".  DUCK stands for "Doing Unselfish Charities for Kids".  The schools pick one local family that has a special need and then everyone in the community and school spends the week raising money to donate to the family.  The week is full of fun activities and William had a blast!

In addition to hat day and team jersey day they also had a 'backwards' day.  William thought it was fun to wear his clothes backward to school.

Tuesday they did a 'duck dash' through the streets of town.  He was so excited for his race--especially when he found out that they would be giving medals to those who placed first though third (in each grade).  The morning of the race was rainy and overcast so I was worried they would cancel but they didn't!  James, Alex and I had a great time watching and cheering for William as he ran past.  Of course, William later told us that he didn't even hear us.  And he must have been really determined because when I showed him the pictures he said, "I didn't know we ran past houses!"

If that's not focus I don't know what is!  After school he excitedly told me that he came in third!  (However, the next day he told me that someone else came in third... he was so bummed that he didn't place!)

I'm glad that our schools promote helping others and making it fun at the same time!

Time with the cousins

Our niece and nephew were staying a few weeks with Rich's parents recently so the boys got to spend lots of time with their cousins!  Both Fridays we took all 5 of them to Dynamo Gym... think: McDonald's playground times 5.  We really wore them out (which was the whole point) and they all had a blast.

Last Saturday was pretty nice so after cleaning the house for a showing we picked up Ben and Anna for a trip to Mitch Park.  They had a great time climbing up the spiderweb, going down the "tongue" slide (doesn't that thing look scary?), riding the dinosaur, and playing "WipeOut" on the rings.

And it just wouldn't be a trip to Mitch Park if we didn't go on a "hike."  Since we had a few extra kids with us we opted to go the short route (and it's a good thing!  Ben nearly didn't make it to the next playground!)  It was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Oh the Thinks You Can Think!

Wednesday was Dr. Seuss' birthday so we did a little celebrating!  Actually, it was pretty low key... but we did include the most important things: reading, fun, and creativity.

We got a few Dr. Seuss books from the library to add to our own personal collection.  We read many of them throughout the day.

 

When William returned home from school we built some houses a la Dr. Seuss.  (William was the only one who really got into this...)

And for dinner we had a little "Cat-in-the-Hat-pizza" along with some "pink ink" (from One Fish, Two Fish... you know?  The Yink who likes to wink and drink pink ink?  In our case it was pink smoothies.)

And William's homework assignment for the week was to try some new food and report back if he liked it or not (just like Green Eggs and Ham)... I thought it was great!  I wish that was the assignment every week for my picky little eaters!

Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try!