Family Night Week 11: Ummm... Candyland!

Life is getting CRAZY.  We are starting to do a lot of our "lasts" here in Washington.  We are trying to pack out an apartment.  We have been dealing with a property manager who thinks there is nothing wrong with parading strangers through our (messy due to in the middle of moving across country) apartment (and wanting to do so when children are napping) in order to "rent it as soon as possible" (but hey, that's another soapbox I don't have time to step on...).  So life has been a little less than normal around here.

Plus, Jeremy has been on swing shift, so we have to do family night during the day.  And let's just say we had to settle for a riveting game of Candyland last Monday.  But we set aside the time, and we did it.  Even with a little Mr. Grabby-hands hanging around the board game.  It may not have been the best family "night" we've ever had; but desperate times call for desperate measures!

But here are just a few pictures (and I do mean a few, because it takes forever to load) from the last couple weeks.

 This was on Corbin's 9 month day...  They both got in a box (which are currently quite plentiful around here!).  Well, I put Corbin in it, of course.  On Lynnaea's request ;).

 Mr. Dapper.  We did some family pictures.  On a very cold.  Very windy.  Very wet day.  We didn't do a long session.  I may post some later.  But this is one I took of my little Roo afterwards, because he was just too darn cute.

 Had Brad's kiddos over to see them for a bit before we leave.  They played the Wii part of the time and Lynnaea alternately watched and played.

 Look who loves the tupperware drawer (like his sister did...).  Also, look who can stand without holding on now...  Oh boy...  Walking is coming!

But is he not the cutest little stinker?

Family Night Week 10: Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

Well, it only takes me about a week to write about what we did on Monday!  Aaahhh!  The packing and moving process is intense in and of itself.  Add to that mix 2 littles and it just gets crazier!  So things get pushed back.  But here we are, reporting on our Family Night for this week!

So there has been a lot of emphasis lately from church leaders on keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  Clearly this is an important issue, and our family has chosen to strive to do better.  So we had a Family Night lesson about the Sabbath Day.  Not sure that we will be able to stretch this topic for the whole month of March, but at least two weeks will be about Sabbath Day observance and how we can keep this commandment better in our family.

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

Song:  "Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning"

Scripture:  Ezekiel 20:20 -- "And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God."

Lesson:  We showed a picture of a birthday cake and talked about how we have birthday cakes to celebrate a person's special day.  Then we talked about the Sabbath (which we recognize as Sunday in our faith) and how that is Heavenly Father's special day -- that He has commanded us to keep it holy.  So we talked about things we can do to keep the day more holy in our home.  One thing we are going to do better is having scripture videos in our home for Lynnaea to watch on Sundays for when she goes poopie on the potty.  That has been the incentive that has worked for her (2 tv shows for a big poopie), so we don't want to just dismiss that on Sundays.  Until now, we've allowed her to watch whatever videos we have checked out from the library (like Bubble Guppies, etc), even though we don't otherwise watch any TV on Sundays.  So we are now going to purchase some scripture videos so that she still has a video option, but it will be something that will, in our opinion, honor the Sabbath Day more.

Activity:  Wrote down Sabbath-appropriate activities (we were supposed to continue this, but the kids took early naps and by the time they woke up, we were rushing through Family time to get Jeremy off to work...  So we are going to continue this next week and actually decorate our "Sunday 'cans'" can and then write these activities on Popsicle sticks to put in the can.

Treat:  Since we talked about birthday cake, we had lemon-zucchini cupcakes with lemon-buttercream frosting.  (This recipe is bomb, and I might even get around to sharing it on my foodie blog in this lifetime ;).)

Family Night Week 9: The 10 Commandments

Since we focused on Keeping the Commandments last week (as part of our Follow the Prophet theme), I decided it would be a good use of our Leap Day Family Night to talk about some of the commandments we are expected to keep.  We focused on the 10 Commandments found in Exodus, even though I know there are many others. 

Song:  How Gentle God's Commands

Scripture:  Doctrine & Covenants 21:4-5

Lesson:  We read Exodus 20: 3-17 and mentioned that Heavenly Father gave us those commandments to help us be happy.  We tried to explain most of them in terms a 2 1/2 year old can understand (but not the adultery one... she's not needing to know that term yet...). 

Activity:  We played a home-made board game!  It was set up a lot like CandyLand so that we could use the little CandyLand cards :).  And people.  Every so often there was a space that described you either keeping a commandment or breaking it (I used examples that would hopefully make sense or be meaningful to Lynnaea -- like for coveting, I said the person wanted a toy Corbin had so badly that he/she pushed him over and took it away).  If you kept it, you went forward to the next of that color.  If you had broken it, you moved back 5.

Treat:  It was supposed to be chocolate frosting with nutella glaze.  But Lynnaea didn't eat her lunch, so we skipped it this time.  We'll do it another time, I'm sure.  Jeremy is back on swing shift (my favorite shift!), so we are having to hold our Family Night during the day ;). 

So here's a picture of the board game -- and of Lynnaea with the board game (she wanted to play the game many times, so I think she liked it!

Family Night Week 8: Keep the Commandments

Once again, we were focusing on following the prophet.  One of his most recent Conference talks was about Keeping the Commandments.  I thought it was an amazing talk as I read over it, and very appropriate for our day.  I had hoped we would have the chance to make and fly a kite.  But that just didn't happen.  It would have been a great object lesson. But then again, I'm sure we'll cover this topic again in years ahead.  So maybe next time ;).

Follow the Prophet:  Keep the Commandments

Song:  "Keep the Commandments"

Scripture:  Doctrine & Covenants 21:4-5:  "Wherefore...thou shalt give heed unto all [the Prophet's] words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; For his word ye shall receive as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith."

Lesson:  we read a few excerpts from this talk.  

Activity:  We watched videos about listening to and obeying rules and guidelines for safety.  One video was about a boy who didn't listen to his parents' rule to always wear shoes (not flip flops) in the dessert (they lived somewhere with scorpions) and he ended up getting stung.  Unaware of what would happen, but fearing the worst, the parents and the boy thought he might die.  The other video talked about rock climbing and the guidelines for doing so safely (with a buddy, using anchors, etc).

Treat:  Was supposed to be chocolate pudding.  But Lynnaea didn't eat her dinner, so that didn't happen. 

Family Night Week 6: Temples

In keeping with our theme for the month, we talked about one of Pres. Monson's talks from the April 2015 General Conference.  We had a super-short family night tonight, because we were trying to get Jeremy to bed for a couple hours before having to go in to work.  He is having a hard time staying on a graveyard shift schedule this time around.  He slept all night last night, which meant he wasn't tired enough to sleep during the day.  Which means he is going in for work all night with only about 4.5 hours of day sleep today.  It'll be a rough night...  Only 2 more weeks of this, at least this time around.

The Blessings of Temples

Opening Song: "I Love to See the Temple"

Scripture:  Doctrine & Covenants 21:4-5:  "Wherefore...thou shalt give heed unto all [the Prophet's] words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; For his word ye shall receive as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith."

Lesson:  We read a couple excerpts from this talk by Pres. Monson. 

Activity:  We looked at some pictures of different Temples as well as a pop up book with Temples. 

Treat:  White chocolate popcorn.  Which wasn't as awesome as I'd hoped it would be (used margarine instead of butter and that was a mistake).  Plus Lynnaea didn't eat her dinner, so she didn't get any tonight.  I saved her some for tomorrow.  Sometimes it's hard to be a parent :(.  

Family Night Week 5: Being a Light and Example

It's a new month, so we have a new theme!

The truth is that lately I have felt the weight of responsibility that comes with being a parent.  There is much to impart to our children.  I have hopes that my sweet babies will grow up to be kind, wise, good, responsible.  I have hopes they will grow up to know their Heavenly Father and their Savior.  That they will strive to be like the Savior in their actions and words.  That they will make choices that will keep them safe in this world that is so fraught with dangers and evil.  As I pondered that last week, I felt strongly that the best thing I can teach them is to follow the Prophet.  Because we believe we have a Prophet on the Earth today.  We believe He receives revelation from Heavenly Father for the world.  And we believe there is safety in heeding his counsel (since it comes from our Heavenly Father).  And so...  I chose to focus on the theme of Follow the Prophet for the month of February.  And for each week, we will focus on the most recent Conference talks given by our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.

Be a Light and an Example

Opening Song: "Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words"

Scripture:  Doctrine & Covenants 21:4-5:  "Wherefore...thou shalt give heed unto all [the Prophet's] words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; For his word ye shall receive as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith."

Lesson:  We read several excerpts from Pres. Monson's talk entitled Be an Example and a Light. We focused particularly on the sections containing the attributes of a believer according to the Apostle Paul.

Activity:  We went into our bathroom (which is windowless and therefore very dark).  We had a cupcake with a candle in it (Lynnaea and I had made the cupcakes earlier for our treat :)).  We asked Lynnaea if she could see anything in the dark. She said it was very dark.  We lit the candle.  Through the light of that one candle, she could see the entire bathroom, even around the corner where not much light reached, she could still see enough to see her daddy and Corbin when they went over there.  We talked about how, even though we are each only one person, we can be a light in darkness through our actions and our words.  We can make a difference and spread our "light," just like the candle.

Treat.  And then we put a little frosting on our cupcakes and ate them :).  Lynnaea loved that part (of course ;)).  Here she is posing with what was left of her cupcake (which she called a muffin) and mine -- which I lit just for the picture ;).

And just because this is too precious not to share...  This was this morning.  She wanted to go out on the back porch.  Well, it's cold outside and she is just now getting over a nasty upper respiratory bug (and Corbin is right in the miserable middle of it :/...).  So we told her she couldn't go outside unless she had shoes and socks on, and a coat.

She said she wanted to wear "tippy toes."  Apparently this is what she calls high heels!  How stinkin' cute is that!?!  So, how could I say no?  I made her put on socks with her tippy toes to keep her feet warmer.  Oh sweet Lynnaea.  How I love her.  (Yes, they are also on the wrong feet...).

Family Night Week 4: Choosing Happiness

I started out with this lesson's focus being choosing happiness.  Because, let's face it:  life is hard.  Sometimes it's really really hard.  And it is often very easy to feel defeated and just give up.  One of the ways that we decided our family could be more unified is by choosing to be happy instead of grumpy, regardless of life's circumstances.  So that was our topic this week.  But as I was preparing it, I also found a fair amount about being grateful in our circumstances as well...  And that happiness would naturally follow. 

So here's what our family night looked like tonight:

Choosing Happiness

Opening Song:  Count Your Blessings

Scripture:  Mosiah 18:21: And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. {emphasis mine}

Lesson:  link gratitude and happiness.  We read excerpts from Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from April 2014 called "Grateful in Any Circumstance" and we also read a quote by Pres. Monson in this month's Ensign:  So much in life depends on our attitude.  The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference.  To do the best we can and then choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment... We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.  For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude."

(I just happened to see that yesterday when I picked up the Ensign for January for the first time, and I know that was no coincidence!)


Activity:  cut out hearts and each of us said things for which we are grateful, which we wrote on the heart.  We earned jelly beans for each one, which was our treat.


Treat:  the jelly beans :).

 

And just because I have some really cute kids.... ;)....

Family Night Week 3: Sharing

As another segment in the "unity" goal, our Family Night last night was all about Sharing.  Which was the thing Lynnaea said she could do (with our suggestive help ;)) to help us have more unity in our family.  (She has had a hard time sharing with Corbin, now that he is mobile and interested in all of her stuff...). 

Sharing

Opening Song:  Children's Song Book:  'Give' Said the Little Stream

Scripture:  Mosiah 18:21: And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. {emphasis mine}

Lesson:  We talked about how Jesus taught us that we should be nice to everyone.  And one way we can be nice to people -- especially people in our family -- is by sharing!  Then we watched this video for Rainbow Fish (because the library was closed for MLK, Jr. Day and I therefore couldn't go check it out at the last minute (I found this idea on Sunday...).  

Activity:  This idea came from this blog.  I traced the fish (using my tablet, which was awesome!) and then we glued on different colored scales.  4 of those scales were a shiny silver cellophane wrap -- one for each member of our family.  Then we each said something we could share.  (Well, I spoke for Corbin who will share his wooden blocks with Lynnaea.)  I said I could share more of my time with my family members (because it's sometimes hard for me to remember that my time is best spent with my family and not on my own selfish pursuits).  Jeremy said he could share his Wii (which he does already, but it was an example for Lynnaea that she could understand, because she sure does love playing Wii Fit Plus with her daddy!).  Lynnaea decided she could share her lego blocks and also her talking cube.  Then Lynnaea and Jeremy finished coloring Rainbow Fish while I went and got Corbin from his nap.

Treat:  I made tapioca pudding, because Jeremy loves it, and I thought we could use it as one more example of sharing.  When it was time for treat, I announced that, because it was one of daddy's favorite things, it was all for him!  I put the whole bowl in front of him and he pretended to start eating it.  Lynnaea was very interested in treat time and sat watching closely as Jeremy pretended to eat the pudding.  Finally, I said, "Lynnaea, do you think if we ask Daddy to share his yummy pudding, he would share with us?"  She said she thought so, she I told her to ask him if he would share with her.  Of course he said yes.  Then I asked if he would share his yummy dessert with me too.  He said yes and scooped some into our bowls.  And we talked, again, about sharing like the Rainbow Fish and how that can make us all happier.

We decided to tape up our Rainbow Fish to help us remember what we said we could share.

Family Night Week 2

As I mentioned before, we are aiming at having Family Night every week this year.  We may not quite make it, but it's a worthy goal, and we are going to strive for it!  And we have been successful for 2 weeks in a row ;)!

Last week, we began our year by deciding to focus on unity.  As part of our activity, each of us (minus Corbin who cannot speak -- but I'm sure he would have voted for Lynnaea's answer) said a way we can help our family improve in unity and have our hearts knit together in love more.  So I decided we would use those answers for the rest of January's Family Nights.  Therefore, this week we had a Family Night about patience.

Family Night 1/11/2016

Opening Song:  We Are Sowing (as a reminder that how we treat each other is a way of planting seeds.. so we (especially as parents) need to be patient with our children.)

Scripture: Mosiah 18:21:  And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. {emphasis mine}

Lesson:  We read the last section of this talk (the portion called "Patience Today"):  Patience, a Key to Happiness.

Activity:  The activity actually started before the lesson.  We each got one chocolate chip.  If we were patient, and waited until the end of the lesson without eating it, we'd get one more chocolate chip.  If we were too hasty and ate it right then, we only got that one.  I'm happy to report we all got our second chocolate chip.  Though Lynnaea had a hard time not touching hers the whole time.  Haha.  But... she didn't eat it!

Treat:  Lynnaea and I made Snickers Bites cookies (she chose) earlier in the day.  We saved a few for us for family night.  And we packaged the rest to give away!

And just because I can't guarantee that I'll get around to posting extra posts...  I'll add some pictures from recently :).  But they really don't have anything to do with our Family Night.

This was in December.  We went to McDonald's for Emily's 7th birthday.  These two big boys are hilarious together.  I'm pretty sure this was also where and when we picked up the pukey germs we so enjoyed for a week in December :(.

 The three pretty big girls!

 My babies after bath-time in December (before Corbin was crawling).

 Lynnaea's graham cracker house.  She was more interested in eating the stuff than making the house...

 Saria's house.

 Emily's sugar-coma house.

 Benjamin's house.  On the inside, he did detail and made a table with a Christmas turkey (an M&M) on it ;).

 Desiree's house.

Sam went a completely non-traditional route and made Mario Bros. stuff out of the graham crackers. He's pretty creative like that.

 Christina brought over stuff for the kids to each make their own ornaments.  They enjoyed that.

 This is one of the few pictures I took of my kids on Christmas Day.  Pretty sad, huh?  Haha.

 On December 30th, my mom and I took the kids to Keyport to the Naval Undersea Museum.  They have a really cool section for kiddos with underwater books and places the kids can play with felt sea creatures and such.  Super cool!

 We took a picture at the submarine door.

 And then Lynnaea steered a submarine...  Fortunately, she kept us from hitting the ground ;).

 On our way out, we took a quick picture by the sign.  It didn't turn out so well...

 Just a little picture of my baby boy sleeping on me.  It won't last forever, as I've learned.

 Lynnaea got a bike from Chuck and Lea, so Jeremy bought her a helmet and has been helping her on it every so often.  She's still a little short for it and doesn't quite grasp the concept.  But she loves it -- and loves the Care Bear that came with it.  And let's face it:  is there a more perfect bike for the daughter of an 80's lover?

 We're going to try to take a few more family pictures this year.  And maybe we'll even throw in an extra baby (doll) ;).  This was the first Sunday in January.

 Don't be surprised if you see lots of pictures of Lynnaea in this outfit.  It's her new favorite, and the minute I get it clean, she is putting it on.  Sigh.  Also, she thinks pacifiers are toys.

 One day, I built the kids a mini fort.  Lynnaea thought it was cool, and she wanted her brother to join her in it.  So we had to coax him in with toys!

 Last week I took Lynnaea to the Marine Science Center.  We met up with friends.  She got to touch a sea urchin, a crab, and a starfish.  She loved it.

 We got a quick picture with the octopus outside.  Lynnaea was freezing in this picture (her coat had been stuffed in my bag).  Sometimes I look so old.

This little guy loves bath-time.  A lot.  He also loves that duck.

 And he is always looking around to make sure I'm still there.  It's pretty funny.

Sometimes I don't look so old ;).  This was a couple nights ago.  The kids were both pulling my hair.  They thought it was hilarious.  By the way, Corbin is now pulling up on stuff.  My boy is strong.

So there you go.  You're somewhat caught up in pictures ;).

Family Night Week 1

One of our family goals for 2016 is to have Family Night most (but preferably all) weeks of 2016.  For us, sometimes Family Night will be during the day, due to Jeremy's schedule.  But it doesn't really matter when we hold it.  The point is that we do.

There are great blessings promised to those who hold Family Night.  I believe in those promises, and I want them for my family.  So we are going to work on doing this.

I asked Jeremy one thing he wanted our family to be stronger in.  His reply was unity.  So for January, unity is our focus.

Family Night 1/4/2016:

Opening Song: Love at Home

Scripture: Mosiah 18:21:  And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. {emphasis mine}

Lesson: Focusing on what it means to knit (show examples of knitting and practice playing with the knitting needles and yarn -- since Lynnaea isn't quite able to knit ;)).  Show a beautiful finished knitted blanket to show how beautiful things turn out when knitted together.  Apply to knitting our hearts together as a family by each saying something we can do to help our family's hearts to be more knit together.  Our things were:  not taking toys away from Corbin, working on being less grumpy when life is hard, and being more patient and enjoying the present more.


Treat:  heart-shaped Frozen jello (chilled berry flavor :)).  Here's a picture of those :). (Mostly we used the small double heart cookie cutter, because the big heart was rather big...)

And, thanks to his young age and his ever-helpful sister, Corbin's main job for Family Night was modeling the beautiful pink knitted hat.