The Title of Liberty

Josh did an FHE lesson on the Title of Liberty and The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The girls loved it, especially because they got to make their own flag and march it down the street. I loved it too because the spirit was very strong as we talked about the proclamation. Families can be together forever and I feel so blessed to know that I can have that blessing.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

We have a tradition with our Family Home Evenings. The first song we sing every single time is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and it gets a little crazy. The girls run in circles and jump off couches and have a ton of fun. We've done it for a couple of years now and it's a great beginning to the evening. Not only is it a way to round everyone up, but it helps put everyone in a good mood and gets the attention of the little ones.

Church History Museum

For family home evening, we decided to go to the Church History Museum. Just after we got out of the van and started walking a man driving a horse and carriage offered us a ride for free since we were just going around the corner. Our girls were in heaven...at least all but Emma. She was a little nervous about the whole experience.

The museum was great too. I personally enjoyed the section on the later day prophets. It had iPads set up near each prophet with things to scroll through. They also had pictures showing the prophets at a very young age and then a couple more as they were growing up as well as personal items. It just felt like I understood their personalities a little better. Kali and Sadie are old enough now that they were very interested in what we saw in the normal part of the museum too. They spent time trying to learn new things and asked thoughtful questions. A couple of times they were so distracted that I had to go find them because we were far ahead with the younger ones. I think they forgot that there was a kid area. We saved it until the end and all the girls loved it. They danced, fished, dressed up dolls, lifted plates, abridged plates, built temples, picked food from a garden and set the table. It was great.

Love

For family home evening tonight we wrote notes to each other to show our love. On my card, Ashlyn drew a picture of herself to show me how much she loves me and this is the face she said she's making in the picture.  If that doesn't show love, I don't know what does!!!

Hollywood Connection

Another night of fun with the Pass of All Passes. We took the girls to Hollywood Connection. First we told them we were going rollerskating which they were super excited about until they saw the rides. They wanted to try them out first. Unfortunately they had so much fun on the rides that I think roller skating turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Kali did great, but Sadie and Ashlyn couldn't stay on their feet for the life of them. Someone had to take care of Emma and the obvious choice was me with my torn ligament, so Josh was the lucky one that got to go skating. And oh boy, did he have his hands full! We made the mistake of not renting one of those little push carts to help beginners and I think it took Josh twenty minutes to get around the rink once with Sadie and Ashlyn and there were a lot of tears involved. By then, I had given up and rented the push cart but after only two more times around, everyone was done.

Future Missionary

Josh prepared a family home evening on missionary work and pulled out a ton of stuff from his mission. He explained what everything was used for and why. He even had some old mission pants and shoes that the girls thought were great. They all had to take turns putting them on in an attempt to look like a missionary. Unfortunately an eight-year-old girl dressed up in an Elder's clothing isn't very missionary-looking, but I'm sure she'll make a fantastic missionary one day.

The State Capitol

Right now Josh is helping his scouts work on their citizenship in the nation merit badge. Well, one of the things he planned on doing was taking them on a tour of the State Capitol. Before doing so, he wanted to run through it himself, so we decided to go there as a family.On our drive there, Sadie kept telling us that she couldn't wait to see what it looked like. I was afraid she was going to be disappointed, so I wasn't very surprised when the first thing she said when she saw the Capitol was that it didn't look like she thought it would. I was, however, surprised that the second thing out of her mouth was that she thought the top would be square, not round. I was also very relieved that that seemed to be the only problem with the exterior, but I was still nervous that they were going to think the rest of the experience was pretty boring.

Again, to my surprise, they seemed to love it. I did too. The only time I had been in the Capitol was when I was at Junior Prom in high school. We got to see some pretty cool stuff.

And Josh was in his element. I think that's what made it so exciting for the girls. His excitement just rubbed off on them. When we left, Josh asked what their favorite parts were. Kali said it was the murals on the inside of the rotunda. Sadie said it was the stairs and the beehives. And Ashlyn said the beehives too. Josh pointed a couple of them out to the girls in the beginning and told them that they were all over in the capitol. Then when Ashlyn found them on her own, she got so excited. She'll probably never forget what a beehive is.

Baptism FHE

Tonight we did a family home evening lesson on baptism and focused on the symbolism behind the color white. We talked about how it represents being clean and pure and explained that repentance helps us stay that way. Then we walked them into our bedroom where we had laid out Kali's baptism dress and the blessing dress each of them wore as a baby and my bridal portrait. They were so excited to see it all and even more excited when I told them that they could all put on a white dress. They would have worn them to bed if I would have let them.

Gardner Village Elves

We again decided on participating in one of our favorite holiday activities for FHE tonight--finding the elves at Gardner Village. The first year we did it with just our family. The next year it was with Josh's parents, the next it was with the entire Smith Family, and this year we added Jeff, Kari and Jake to the bunch. It was a lot warmer this year than last, but still cold enough to need a good way to warm up afterward. Thanks to Mom and Dad we got to enjoy some pie and hot chocolate at Village Inn.

Temple Square Lights

We hit the races early this year and went downtown to see the lights before the crowds got too big and the holiday season got too crazy. It was a great night to go too. The weather wasn't too cold and it was fun to see everything that temple square has to offer. The only thing missing was lights on my favorite tree to twirl under but we found a few others that were good enough for the girls to enjoy.

The Movie Theater

For memorizing the first four Articles of Faith, we took the girls out to watch Hotel Transylvania. When Ashlyn asked where we were going, we told her we were going to the movie theater. Upon arriving she informed us that she would be careful at the "movie vavator". I wasn't quite understanding what she was talking about until I realized that she thought we were going on an elevator, hence the need to be careful. I then explained to her that we weren't going on an elevator, but that we would be watching a movie at the movie theater. Unfortunately, she never really understood and as soon as the movie was over she asked if we could now go on the "movie vavator".

Pumpkin Patch

We've never been to a pumpkin patch before but were invited by Hannah to go this year. It was such a fun experience. The girls got to climb and jump on hay bales. They got to pet and feed a few animals at the petting zoo and...

they got to go through a mini corn maze. They could have also gone on a tractor ride and pick out pumpkins, but we already bought pumpkins for the year. I want to make a tradition of this in the future. Josh also happened to find some money in his jacket pocket that he had forgotten about so he took us to Village Inn to finish off the evening with some pumpkin pie. The girls loved it and I did too. What a fun evening!

Ledgemere FHE

It's that time of year again. We got to go up Big Cottonwood Canyon to do our annual FHE at the Ledgemere campsite. The girls loved climbing rocks and were fearless. It was making me sick to watch for fear they would hurt themselves. So I warned them of the dangers and let them decide what they would do. They decided to continue climbing without even a second thought. Thankfully we finished the evening without any serious injuries. But I did have some very dirty children.

The hot dogs, fruit, and potato salad were super yummy but my favorite part was singing around the campfire and having a short lesson. There's something about being in the mountains that makes me realize how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful world and I feel the Spirit so strong.

Service Activity

For family home evening each week we do a lesson and then we let the girls take turns giving a spiritual thought and picking an activity for us to do afterward. Usually the activity is something like play a game, go on a bike ride, watch a short movie, play basketball, etc. But this week Kali came up with the idea of going around the neighborhood and picking up garbage. Both Kali and Sadie could hardly wait to do it and I have to admit that it turned out to be quite a fun experience.

I thought they would quickly get bored and just wander around and play, but they were so focused on finding trash that they didn't want to stop. Their bags were full by the end and Ashlyn even helped. As a matter of fact, every time I drive by the areas we cleaned, she tells me how she helped Daddy pick up garbage.

Etiquette Dinner

For family home evening tonight, we decided to do a formal etiquette dinner. We're constantly reminding the girls to act like princesses at the table but have felt the need to be a little more specific in teach them some manners. Josh taught the lesson, and some of the things he taught were new to me too. I could have used a lesson like this long ago. The girls thought it was great. When they saw the table cloth on the table, the were squealing and could hardly wait for dinner. Unfortunately our table is a little small so we couldn't fit everything, but I think it was enough to get the basic idea across for the older girls.

Ashlyn had just woken up from a short late nap and couldn't even keep her head up. In a couple of pictures, her chin was up and her head was resting clear back on the chair behind her. We finally gave up and laid her back down on the couch.

Bike Rides

Last summer we began a tradition of going on short bike rides as a family to a nearby church and then playing a game of freeze tag. We would often do it as our family home evening activity and bring marshmallows along for our treat. Then we would have our family scripture study and head home. The girls loved it so much that they asked to do it several times during the winter too. Well today, we were finally able to give it a try again. Unfortunately we ran into a few problems. Emma can't ride in our trailer until she's a little older so I had to push her in a stroller. And Sadie is too big to be in the trailer with Ashlyn so she now has to ride a bike. The ride to the church is all uphill so we changed our route to a small park nearby (it was even a tough ride for Sadie, but it worked out since I was walking). When we got there, Sadie reminded me that I forgot to bring the marshmallows. And then because it was a park, the girls played on the swings and slide instead of playing tag. To sum it up, I think our tradition has changed. But I'm sure the girls will look forward to this new version just as much.

The Church History Museum

The last couple of times we've tried to visit the Church History Museum as a family, it has been closed. Today we finally made it inside and it was so much fun. If we would have had more time, we would have stayed another hour or so to explore the top floor. We only had enough time to do the main floor and the kid's area.

They've changed the kid's area since the last time we were there and it is so much more fun and interactive now. The girls were running all over the place doing fun things. I though this dancing area was fabulous. They have little videos the kids can watch to learn the new dances while wearing these beautiful skirts. There are even hats and vests for the boys.

Temple Square Visitor Center

We planned a family home evening trip to the Church Museum tonight since we haven't been there for a while. Unfortunately we picked the wrong day to go. The museum closed early because it's Martin Luther King's Day. I think we did the same thing last year too. To make the most of our trip last year we walked over to the North Visitors' Center at Temple Square. This year we decided to spend some time in the South Visitors' Center. It turned out to be a fun evening. We had the goal of learning something new. Kali found a ton of new and interesting things especially with the awesome model of the temple and the short video clips explaining different rooms. Ashlyn was the first to spot the temple model and went running toward it shouting "Temple, Temple, Temple".

Conference Center

While watching Conference on Sunday, Sadie told us that she wanted to go to the Conference Center. We decided it was a great idea and took advantage of it as a Family Home Evening activity. The girls loved it, especially standing up in the balcony and, of course, the fountain. The paintings on display are all originals and blew us away. They were so beautiful. I loved the sculptures, especially a small one of the first vision up on the third floor. What a truly inspired and amazing building.

Temple Square's Visitor Center

For family home evening this week, we headed downtown to visit The Church Museum. Unfortunately we picked the wrong day to go. They were closed. So we decided to make the best of it and went in the visitor center at Temple Square. The girls were really excited about that because they wanted to go downstairs where all the statues and displays were. We challenged them to learn something new while there and I think they came away with a lot. On two different occasions after our visit, Sadie brought up topics that we had discussed while there. One had to do with the display where Mormon was writing on the gold plates and the other had to do with the video she watched on Samuel and Eli.