Fishers of Men FHE

We have been talking about Jesus' disciples in Sunday School. I enjoy the 5-10 minutes I actually get to hear each Sunday. Baby girl's nap schedule has not allowed for a full lesson to be participated in by me so far this year.  

What I have heard, I have really enjoyed, and it has made me ponder. Could/would I have been so faithful to walk away from my livelihood, a fisher of actual fish, to follow some dude who just shows up and says, "Follow Me, and I Will Make You Fishers of Men?" 

I hope the answer would be, yes, I am that faithful. Yes, I am that humble. Yes, I am able to recognize my Savior, as opposed to just some dude walking on a beach. But I fear, I lack in many ways. Let me reword that, I KNOW I LACK IN MANY WAYS.

I want my children to know that I want to be and strive to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I want them to know that there are blessings, along with, struggles in doing so. I want them to gain a testimony for themselves of our Savior's love and to be able to say that they are also true followers of Him. 

Tonight for FHE, we sang along with MO TAB baby. "Come, Follow Me"

Then we watched this little video. Jack kept asking, "How come those fisher dudes aren't catching any fish? ... What's wrong with them? ... I think it's because they were supposed to be catching something else, huh?"

Follow Me, and I Will Make you Fishers of Men

We talked about how we can help be a Fisher of Men. We can be an example for others around us. We can invite friends to church to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We can do service for those in need. 

We can show love to all, "especially those who make us super frustrated because they cut in front of us in line at school. I try to be nice to Morgan mom, but it's really hard (Jack)."

We can help others by preparing a simple FHE for them, just in case a family is having a hectic week, like moving - The Williams family. 

We can all be Fishers of Men and true Followers of Jesus Christ. 

I hope that my babies know that I have a testimony. It is a simple one. I love my Savior, and I know He loves me. I know THIS church is true, and if we strive to live like our Savior, we can be with HIM again. 

"When I grow up..."

When Afton was little, she wanted to grow up to be many things.

I'm sad to say that phrase, "When she was little..."

She wanted to be a teacher, a singer, a dancer, actually Taylor Swift, a dentist, a princess, a golfer, a princess dentist golfer, a drawer, and "an Arthur (author)."

Her love for all of these things made me smile, but I loved a few dream jobs a bit more than the others.

One in particular, was "an Arthur." I loved to read books with her, and she would ask me why the author wrote what he/she wrote about in the book. I never knew the answer as to why they wrote what they wrote and she would get really frustrated with me. Eventually I would make up reasons why the author wrote certain things. Then, she would join in sharing her own ideas as to why. It was a fun game for us, and not nearly as frustrating as, "I don't know why dear."

The other day, a writing packet came home from school. I was SO proud of my little "Arthur."

"I went to the park with my mommy, daddy, and Jack. I played with my brother Jack."

"When I get home from the park, I will get a snack."

"On Sunday I watched the Super Bowl!!! I had Skittles. I also went to church."

"I went to the Smith Center. I saw Dinosaur Train with my mom!"

"On Saturday, I went to the dam with my mom, dad, and also my brother Jack and Jocelyn."

"On Monday I went to the Temple with my mom and brother Jack and Jocelyn and grandma."

This girl has sentences that don't just begin with the word I. :) She uses commas and detail. I'm so proud of her. (We will practice spelling went, brother, and Jocelyn.)

This morning I asked her what she wanted to to be when she grew up. She said, "National championship gymnastic girl, a volleyball player, biking girl, and a skater, but not a dirty one."

Although "Arthur" was not the answer this morning, that's okay. My girl can be WHATEVER she wants to be when she grows up. She has all the potential in the world.

Jack's book

My boy is doing great in preschool. Yay Jack. So well, that Ms. Bahati has had to create new curriculum for him and two other buddies in class. "Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh boooooooy!" (Shouted in Flava Flav voice)

But she did say that he doesn't enjoy writing. And my response was, "Duh. He's a boy, left handed, and it requires fine motor skills." I didn't actually say that, but I thought it. :)

 It just reminded me of so many of my old students, specifically the boys. Most of them had horrendous handwriting. I mean, bad!!! And it was always a struggle to get them interested in neatness (Duh, again.) or even writing at ALL. No matter how interesting the topics were, dragons, monsters, sports, boogers, etc. There were a few exceptional students, though. Shout out to Clark Judd and Connor Duke! 

"Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh boooooooy!"

 ( Flava Flav voice again)

I want my boy to be like those exceptional students mentioned above, in all areas. 

I told him we were going to practice our handwriting everyday by just writing two simple sentences. He could tell me the topics, and then we would come up the sentences together. He then got excited and said, "We could make a book." Of course we can my sweet boy. So, I printed off some illustrations for him to color to go along with his sentences to add to the books appeal.

The best part of this book making experience has been, seeing him improve not just in his handwriting, speed and form, but also his ability to find and read some sight words too.  Seeing his confidence towards reading grow, makes me happy. He feels great once he's done with a page, and I do too.

Today we finished the last page that I had made of the book. When he was done he said, "Mom, we need more pages for my book. Tomorrow let's do one with Captain America."

Whatever you say my exceptional boy. WHATEVER you say!

"Where are the fireworks?"

Valley of Fire.

It's about 40 minutes outside of Vegas, the city which I have lived in my entire life. Yet, today was my first time EVER driving off the I-15 to go check it out.

My Sugar was teasing me about not ever going to any of these nature places around Las Vegas as a child. (His family regularly retreated off to enjoy nature anytime there was a break in the clouds up in Seattle. Well, as often as there actually was a sunny day.) He couldn't believe that I'd never been there, but I reminded him that I grew up in single parent household. My mom worked hard ALL week to provide for us, then did all the other life requirements, (cleaning, groceries, shopping, etc.) on the weekend. (It wasn't like I had 8 other siblings at home to help out around the house. Ha!)  She was busy, and nature was not on her list of things to squeeze into her/our weekends. It's not like I didn't ever see nature before... there are so many beautiful calendars and tons of great non fiction books out there. Ha!

I had a good childhood, and I was just fine with never seeing the Valley of Fire before, until today.

However, it was very pretty and quite interesting. It did look just like how it would look on a calendar, or in a book. :)

(IMAGE FOUND IN BOOK!)

Honestly though, it was fun to be there enjoying it first hand. My babies had fun climbing, scaling, and jumping off rocks. They didn't mind that I was about to have a heart attack, as I'm such a pansy, since I didn't grow up doing all these adventurous things. They continued to do crazy things, while I just held my breath and said little prayers quietly to myself.

But, turns out, they survived. They didn't get hurt, bruised, or broken. They got dirty and smiled. This experience was one I'm glad they had in their childhood. I'm thankful for my Sugar, who loves adventures and excursions like these in nature. He's teaching them, and me, to enjoy our Heavenly Father's creations.

When we were done hiking and exploring, I laughed out loud though when Afton asked in a disappointed tone, "Well, where are all the fireworks? It's the Valley of Fire, right?"

She sounded just like her mom. Not satisfied entirely with incredible rock formations, petroglyphs, or natural beauty around her, that look just like the pictures she would find in a calendar or in a book. She still wanted more. She wanted fireworks.

"This is HEART work."

While Jack was working on signing his name, he paused and said, "Ughh. This is HEART work.  I mean, HARD work. But I guess it is actually HEART work too." Cute little boy.

Valentine's is HEART/HARD work. I agree Jack. 

But it is also a lot of fun, too.

 

Before Afton

After Afton - "Love is in the air!"

Preschool teacher gifts

Kindergarten teacher gift

My Sugar's gift

Heart Hair

Best book ever written

Valentine's Day is really HEART/HARD work. 

But as I said earlier, it's also a lot of fun, too.

Field Day - Without AWARDS

Jack remembered what Afton did at her field day in preschool last year. Well, he remembered one event, basketball. So he could not wait to participate in his this morning. He was very cute, as we drove to school.

"I bet that I will win all of the games, and if I don't, That is okay. I won't freak out, but I know I will do pretty freaking good."

Afton added, "Well, Jack, I hope so. Last year I got an award. You better get one too."

"Oh, you know I will Afton!"

Jack had high hopes for this Field Day. 

When he walked out onto the field to see what events were there for him to conquer, he did not see a basketball hoop. He saw 4 other events, that were "Totally awesome. I wish there was basketball, but it's okay. I'll just try my best."

This freaking kid. I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!

And he did try his best!

"Crazy Racquetball balance game" - named by Jack

"Soccer baby!"

"Some silly toss a bean bag thing."

"This was kind of like basketball, except not. I had to use a tiny tennis ball. But I did make it into one bucket and it bounced out into the other bucket. It was worth like double, triple points!"

Jocelyn was his biggest fan, only slightly beating me out for the title.

His best buddy Cibrian and other dude, Max. 

This gnarly bunch was just half of Jack's class - the other crew was busy doing their own events. 

Can you imagine having this many Preschoolers? NO THANK YOU!

Since there are so many, I think that they forgot to do awards this year.

(Which is fine with me, but I was nervous for my boy.)

Later that night, when talking with Afton, Jack was so excited to tell her about his special Field day. He smiled and explained all the events with great detail. Fortunately, he didn't even mention that he didn't get an award, and thankfully, she didn't bring it up.