Getting the SCOOP!

Grandma and Grandpa are here and we couldn't be more excited to see them. 

"It's been a while, like forever," according to Afton. 

For FHE, I thought it would be fun to have my babies get to know their grandparents a little better. I wanted them to get a sense of who they are from their childhood experiences, favorites, loves, and fears. And what better way to get the "scoop" on them, then drilling them with questions while eating their favorite scoops of ice cream. 

We placed the scoops in a pile, face down, and each child would get a turn to pick. Whichever one they chose, would be the question the grandparent got to answer. 

They took turns and butted in on each other's answers, just like everyday conversation. 

Jocelyn used the times when Grandma was sharing her answers to steal her ice cream. Jocelyn had quickly finished her personal scoop of orange sherbet. But, grandma's strawberry was equally delicious.

Lots of laughter and memories shared

Then Jocelyn decided that she needed to eat my cookies'n'cream because I was busy filming. Little stinker.

Our Cups Runneth Over

We read Psalms 23:5.

We discussed it's meaning.

We talked about who we should show love to. (Everyone.)

We discussed why that's so important. (Because our Savior did.)

We talked about how we can help other's cups runneth over. 

We enjoyed delivering these little cups to those who we love.

GOALS

Now that I'm writing this post, I think one of my written goals should have been to make sure I get my blog post written within a week of the actual activity that I'm writing about.

Did that make sense? Probably not. So whatever. Just keep reading.

(Trying to meet my goals) 

Well, this happened 7 minutes ago for Family Home Evening. We're snuggled on the couch watching Shrek 2, so I'm using this time to post.

We read through our old goals, laughed, and commented on our handwriting and things we've accomplished. We also talked about things we need to continue to work on to reach those old goals.

Then we played a game called, "2 0 1 9 - You Choose & Do." (This game I pulled out of my butt, 4 minutes before FHE started.) The kids had to circle a number on front, and then do whatever was underneath the post-it note that many times. The fun part was they had no idea what was under the note, so they hoped for the best. Kind of like what we do with our goals.

Fun night reflecting and discussing our futures, while laughing at our self portraits.

Something They Love

Hmmmm...

What is something they love? Soda

What is something we want them to love?
LDS General Conference

How can I use something that they already love to help them build a love, hopefully a growing love for something so important, and kinda boring for little kids, such as the General Conference?

I'm going to entice them to listen with very large bottles of soda.

Is this genius?
Or is this just an eventual hot, sticky, mess?

We will see.

Wins All Around

It's not often I feel like I've got a solid win on my score board as a parent.

In fact most days, I don't.

My losses highly outrank the wins.

But last Saturday night, there were wins all around.

Win #1 - We got to drive to Safeco Field in Seattle for a memorable evening to see some pretty amazing people. None of them were in baseball socks, unless they had them on under their suits. The prophet, Russell M. Nelson, his cute wife Wendy Watson Nelson, and Henry B. Eyring were the speakers.

Win #2 - We had Seattle dogs for dinner, and no one spilled on their church clothes.

Win #3 - We happened to have some extra tickets that we were able to negotiate some amazing goods for trade.

Win #4 - We managed to somehow sit with a group of friends from our ward without planning. Pretty impressive in a crowd of 49,089 people.

Win #4 - It really doesn't suck having family up here.

Win #5 - As we drove away from the fireside, devotional, event, once in a lifetime experience, whatever you want to call it, we asked our babes what was their favorite part.

Jack said, "I liked when the first bald guy (Eyring) was talking about when he was a little boy just like me. He was wriggling around at church and his mom was getting mad just like you always do, but he was actually listening to the speaker, like I do. Sometimes."

Afton said, "I liked when President Nelson told that story about him on the plane when it was about to crash. I remember that Mormon Channel video we've watched, but it was cool to hear him tell it again."

Jocelyn said, "I liked the durl who gave me stickers."

Win #6 - Dick's for a late dinner is always a luxury. And my babes suggested we feed the gentleman who was holding a sign that read, "Just food."

Wins all around.