A mother's purpose....

Yesterday at church I was taught a powerful lesson. It's amazing how the plain and simple truths sometimes hit you over the head. I serve in the Primary- (like Sunday school for children ages 3-11) The children were learning a new song, called The Family is of God click to listen to it- it's a BEAUTIFUL song. Doodle and his friend K were singing at the top of their lungs- as loud as can be- so that the sing-o-meter (chart with an arrow that moves from "dead" to super singers" depending on how well the children sing) could read "super singers"

But the words had a powerful impact- as my 6 yr old sang "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God." Yes indeed we do have families to help us become what he wants us to be. Not just for children to become what he wants them to be- but for us parents as well. My children teach me lessons all the time- and today I was humbled enough to listen to the lesson they were teaching through music.

They were working on the 3rd verse- and it's about mothers- "A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,To nurture and to strengthen all her children.She teaches children to obey, to pray,To love and serve in the fam’ly."

As the music leader had the key words on strips on the board to help the kids learn the words- the Lord whispered to me- yes- this is indeed your calling- I want you to care for your children, I want you to prepare them- prepare them to serve missions, prepare them to be husbands and fathers and future leaders in the church. I want you to nurture your children- love them, play with them, spend time with them. Often I get stuck in the rut of "let's get the school work done- then Go off to play by yourself. I forget that the Lord wants me to homeschool so that I can spend time with my kids, and nurture them. He wants me to strengthen my children so they can withstand the many temptations of the world. He wants me to teach them to obey and do what's right. To Pray to our Father in Heaven. And to teach them about Love and Service- not just serving strangers or neighbors- but most importantly about serving IN the family.

Happy Birthday BUG!!!

Boy- I can't believe how time has flown! Bug is 10 years old today. It doesn't seem possible that it was really 10 years ago that I was begging (ok- not quite- but almost) my doctor to let me have this baby already! Bug has ALWAYS loved to EAT- Bug is such a great kid! He loves to learn, and is a great student. He is a great friend to all he knows. He loves to Hike (Read about his Yellowstone backpacking adventure Here) and he is a Purple belt in Karate. But his all-time favorite thing in the world is Harry Potter- (ok- he's a little obsessed! When asked what he wanted to do on his birthday he replied- "Watch all the Harry Potter Movies" And that's what he's doing right now!)

He was Harry Potter for Halloween when he was 4.

And he got Harry Potter Robes and a wand for Christmas this year too. He LOVES to stump his Harry Potter 20 questions game.

Bug is a great kid- and I'm SO glad he's my boy. He's always willing to help out, and he's a great example to his little brothers. WE LOVE YOU BUG!!

Puppet Museum Field Trip

We had our Monthly Homeschool group Field trip yesterday. We went to the World of Puppetry Museum at the Fine Arts Center Who knew such a small town could have such a neat treasure! We learned about shadow puppets, rod puppets, marionettes, and many other types of puppets. This Dragon puppet was a huge hit with my boys.We watched a Punch and Judy Puppet show- which my boys thought was hilarious- (until an alligator came out- and Roo was scared to death- lol)

My 3 kiddos- by the HUGE Punch puppet- notice the strangle hold on Roo---- what's with that?!

AHHH Routines!

As much as I enjoyed taking December off from School- I was THRILLED to start back up. Breaks are nice- but ahhhh- routines are SO much easier! We started school back up on Monday with a few changes. After finishing up his Skylark notebook in the fall, and Bug learned about Maine. Well, he said he really wanted to learn more about the 50 states. So Ben told me to get it figured out. After trying to plan a unit on the 50 states- I gave up- I told him- I'd rather just keep going with Beyond FIAR- since it's all written out for me. But Ben said he'd take over Bug's school assignments. Tee-hee- I've also delegated math- and he now goes to Ben's Aunt Pam's house for Math class once a week, so all I have left to work with Bug on is spelling and grammar.

So Ben came up with an AWESOME spreadsheet worksheet for Bug. He will do one for each state, and do 1 state a week- so this is going to be a l-o-n-g project. In his studies Bug does the research he needs, draws his own map, complete with county lines and important cities. He studies the Native American Tribes that lived there, the first settlers, 10 interesting people (and does a report on one) 10 plants and animals native to that state (and draws pictures of them) Finds 10 interesting places in the state, and does a report on one of them. I think it's going to work GREAT! The best thing is- it's independent! I don't have to plan out each week, or do much of anything other than sit by him while he researches on the internet (We need to find a good cheap internet filter- any suggestions?!)

Road Trip part 2

Friday morning we left Page and took a side trip through Zion National Park. It was absolutely AMAZING! I've lived in Utah my whole life, and never been there before. The sheer cliffs, and the beautiful Red Rock contrasted with the brilliant white snow.

The Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel was quite the sight to drive through- 1 mile long- (this isn't the mile long- one- but a shorter one we went through first) We took the bikes off the rack- and did

some biking- on the Pa'rus trail

There were about 6 deer not too far off the trail- Roo was so funny- we hopped off the bikes to walk up a trail, and he was in front. A minute later he starts running back to us almost crying- What? "I saw a bear!" ROFL- ok- so it wasn't a bear- but 3 deer. Good eyes kiddo! How many adults would walk right by and never see them- they are quite camoflauged. He has of course heard Bug (many many times) tell about hiking in Yellowstone and there was a Grizzly Bear on their trail. (Read about that Here!)Many of the trails were slick and icy- so we didn't hike on too many trails- but we did take this one at the end of the canyon-

Roo- "flying" down the trailMy STRONG MEN- holding up the rock so I could walk under it.

And Some Indian Petroglyphs- Pretty cool!

We spent the night in Cedar City- and stopped at Cove Fort. It was a neat Pioneer site- I of course forgot to pull out my camera. oops! But it was a GREAT road trip. I love spending time in Nature with my boys. Last summer- the kids and I went to Colorado for a family reunion- while we were there- my dad and uncles and aunts were talking about how when they were little my Grandma would always tell them to "look out the window- Look at the Beautiful rocks....etc" I found myself telling my own children this very same thing "Wow- look at those beautiful Rocks" What a Legacy!

Road Trip!

On New Year's Eve- Ben and the kids and I went on a road trip- we picked up Ben from work at noon and headed out. We went down to Page, Arizona to visit Ben's brother Bill and his family. We decided that since Gas was so cheap- it was time to make a trip down there. We had a BLAST!! We got down there just in time to sing Happy Birthday to Ben's little Brother Nick- and have cake.Then it was time to party! We played games and the kids watched movies...err slept. (Tell them they can stay awake, and they'll fall asleep every time. But if you tell them to go to sleep....they'll be up all night!)

New Years Day we made a donut run while everyone else was sleeping (the only problem with the kids falling asleep early-- is they are up early!) Then we hopped on our bikes and went for a bike ride around town, with our niece K leading the way. I got a bike rack for my birthday last year from Doodle- so I was excited to get to use it- as we threw on 4 bikes (Roo rode on a baby seat behind me- uggg! he's too big for it- he's got to learn to ride his own bike this year! ;))The highlight of Roo's whole trip- was watching a little airplane take off from the small airport. He is absolutely obsessed with airplanes. Every time we get in the car Roo always has to say "Let's pretend we're in an airplane and I'm flying" (Thanks Tim! - over a year later- and he's still obsessed with airplanes! He needs to go for another ride!)

We went out for lunch and decided to go see a few "touristy" spots- a lookout of the Glen Canyon Dam- and Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River.
We had a great time hiking around, the scenery was just beautiful! The kids all had fun hiking with their cousins-

K, is such a great big sister! Half the crew at Horseshoe bend overlook- notice the tight grip on Roo- What a view- and what a dropoff!

Isn't she a cutie! Our niece C.Doodle, Bug, and cousin K- climbing on some rocks.Raellen, Alexandria, Bill and Ben's mom- the "just to the top of the hill" crew.

K, C, Bug and Doodle posing for a shot.

Our little family!

More on our trip to come-

Christmas Fun and Home Improvements

We had such a wonderful Christmas! The kids are so funny! They just totally make Christmas fun! Bug was SOOOOOO excited Christmas Eve- he couldn't sleep! 11:00 when we checked on him- he was still WIDE awake. "Come on bug- go to sleep- Santa can't come until you are asleep!" Somehow he ended up in our bed around 2:30- so yes- that means VERY little sleep for him! Luckily Santa managed to sneak into our house during those few hours when Bug was sleeping! Roo on the other hand was so sound asleep he wet the bed- and we had to strip down his bed at 11:00 and change the sheets (and wash the new jammies so he's have them to wear for Christmas morning)

We have the Tradition on Christmas Eve for the boys to each open 1 package- it's always PJ's and a book. Bug got Tales of Beetle the Bard by JK Rowling Doodle got Nate the Great, and Roo got The Jet Alphabet Book (for my airplane pilot in training). Here's the 3 kiddos in their new Christmas Pajamas. Notice the way Roo looks up to his big brothers- this pic is SO true to life- as he really does look up to them and always wants to be where the big boys are.

Santa was SO good to us- and brought us Tile for our Kitchen floor (thanks to a Christmas Bonus that Ben got!)- sorry- I forgot to take the "before" picture- just think ugly dirty linoleum that doesn't come clean- and compare it to this: (still a few more spots we need to take out the spacers and put in the grout.

Earlier this fall- we laid the laminate wood flooring down in the dining room (see this blog post- you can Kind of see the ugly kitchen floor)- and we finished the tile and the laminate on an angle on one side of the island.- I really like the way it turned out! Thanks SOOO much Ben for all your hard work improving our home!