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 ;).