Happy Birthday President Monson

Today we celebrated President Monson's birthday. Thomas S Monson is the Prophet and President of our church and he turns 85 on Tuesday.  He is the most amazing, selfless, cheerful man.  A perfect example of giving up everything to serve.  We love him!

We celebrated tonight with a cake that we had read in the Friend magazine was one his mom was famous for making.

picture from wikipedia

  What a yummy way to celebrate!

Sawyer the Sunbeam

I kept teasing Sawyer that he was going to Nursery this Sunday at church, just like he has ever since he was 18 months old. But he is a Sunbeam. A great big, 3 1/2 year old Sunbeam. And he was so excited about it! I got a little teary eyed when I watched him sit down in the front row of the Primary room with his friends, without any hesitation at all. When Sharing Time was over and he was heading into his classroom, I watched him, with his arms folded very reverently, follow his teacher to his classroom. I excitedly called out, "Hi Sawyer! How was Primary! Did you love it?" and he just looked at me, never unfolding his arms even a little, with a big smile...but he didn't say a word. I think he was afraid it would be irreverent if he did. I sure love my Sunbeam boy!
(and luckily I took this picture at church with my phone. Before church was too hectic and after church he had taken off his Sunday best before I remembered I wanted a picture.)

Jesus wants Kate for a Sunbeam!

Today Kate left church nursery (for 18 months to 3) for Sunbeams in Primary! I am in the Primary presidency so I was able to watch her the whole time and, I must say, she was the best Sunbeam in the bunch! She sat quietly in her chair the whole time. She sang songs. When the teacher asked everyone who the prophet was, she raised her hand with the other kids and I knew she knew the answer. She is the sweetest girl and I love her and her cute little personality so much. She makes me so proud every day. And I absolutely couldn't help tearing up when Kate sang along with all the Primary kids:

I have a family here on Earth
They are so good to me
I want to share my life with them
Through all eternity

Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father's plan
I always want to be with my own family
and the Lord has shown me how I can
The Lord has shown me how I can

I am so grateful for Primary and I look forward to Kate singing and learning more every Sunday!

This is her "come on, mom, I don't want to get my picture taken. Its cold and I want to go upstairs and eat lunch" face

Can you tell that Sawyer is well fed in his nursery? He always comes out dirty all over the front of him and his sweet teacher sends him home each week with 2 chocolate chip cookies. He used to not know about them and we would eat them during his nap (is that considered stealing?) but today he pulled them right out of the bag and ate one in the car on the way home from church. Oh how I love them.

But I made him promise to wait a really long time until he is a Sunbeam. I can't take it!

my cutie church girl

It seems like just yesterday I saw this cutie dress on my niece....I don't know why kids have to grow up so fast! But here is Kate in her new dress that she was just in love with today. She especially loved the spin action she gets with it!

This girl loves to color. Today, like other days, we had to drag her away from the nursery coloring table to go home.
(she has since finished it and hung it on the fridge herself!)

FHE - Obedience

So for enrichment this week we are making FHE kits. I have to make 10 of the same lesson nand put it all together in a manila envelope and we will exchange them and I'll come home with 10 all different and ready to go. I thought this was a great idea and when I signed up I was thinking I would just be able to go online and find some brilliant and super cute ideas that other people have done and it would be really fast. well....I had a hard time finding anything. I found some websites where you can buy them (here and here ) but none just laid out for me. I could have just been being picky...but since I had such a hard time with it, I decided to document it in case it is helpful for anyone else.

FHE-Obedience

Opening song: Do as I'm doing

Scripture: Romans 5:19

Story: “Jonah and the People of Nineveh,” Friend, Apr. 1998, 42

(with flannel board cutouts)

Jonah was a prophet just before the ten tribes of Israel were taken captive into Babylonia, a country east of Israel. Only a small part of Jonah’s story is told in the Old Testament, but the part that is recorded teaches us that the Lord offers salvation to everyone who will repent.

The Lord commanded Jonah to tell the wicked people of Nineveh, a city north of Babylon, that if they didn’t repent, they would be destroyed. Jonah didn’t want to go to that wicked place. He didn’t think the people would listen to him or want to change, so he got on a boat that was sailing west to Tarshish, Spain.

A terrifying storm arose and tossed the boat to and fro. The sailors cried out to the prophet, who was sleeping, to pray to his God to save them. Knowing that his disobedience was the cause of the storm, Jonah told them, “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you” (Jonah 1:12).

Though they didn’t want to, the sailors finally did as Jonah asked and threw him into the sea. “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17.)

While in the fish, Jonah cried unto the Lord. He knew that he had disobeyed, and he wanted the Lord to forgive him. The Lord did, then caused that the fish “vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10). He again told the prophet to go to Nineveh.

Jonah obeyed. To his surprise, when he told the people of Nineveh that the Lord was displeased with them and that they would soon be destroyed, they believed him and turned from their evil ways. They accepted the gift of repentance that would come through the Savior, and they were not destroyed. Both the prophet and the people he preached to had need of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ so that they could return to Heavenly Father. Because this gift is given to everyone, we too can repent when we make mistakes.

Activity: Jonah and the whale game

cut out these fish and write on them phrases about obeying and disobeying (ie "you didn't make your bed when your mom asked you to" and "you obeyed your primary teacher when she asked you to sit reverently") place them in a plastic bag. or, if you feel up to it, make a fishing pole out of a stick and string with a paper clip on the end and put a small strip of magnet on each fish so you can actually go fishing.

use this game board

and place 1 or 2 markers on the start (you can play all on one team or split into 2). the first person draws or goes fishing for a fish. if it is an example of obeying, move forward one space. if it is an example of disobeying, move back one space. the first team to the end wins (or if you're playing all on the same team, you all win!)

Treat: Goldfish crackers in blue jello

...or...

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon chips

(the jello idea might be fun for the kiddos....but it didn't sound yummy to me. this did. I thought the chips could represent fish......)

INGREDIENTS
2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced
8 ounces raspberries
1 pound strawberries
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor

10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
butter flavored cooking spray
2 cups cinnamon sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture.

Closing song: Quickly I'll obey #197

Alma

as I have mentioned in a previous post, I have a children's book of momon that we read to kate every night before she goes to bed which she calls "alma." I have no idea why, but we think its pretty cute. we keep it on the floor next to her rocking chair so we can find it easily every night. she loves this book so much, however, that we often have to look for it elsewhere (like in our room or my mom's bathroom!) last night we brushed and flossed her teeth and then went to go find alma and it wasn't in the usual spot. so we went and looked in some of the usual places...but I couldn't find it. so I grabbed "green eggs and ham" off the shelf and told her we would find alma tomorrow and just read this for now. so we read and said prayers but as I was putting her in bed she started looking for alma again. I told her we would find her tomorrow and kissed her and walked out thinking everything was fine. well, right after I walked out I heard her crying, which is very abnormal for her. (she is really good about going to bed.) I had just picked up sawyer so ryan went in to see what the matter was. he asked what was wrong and she said "alma"! what a sweetheart! I had no idea this was such a critical part of our bedtime routine. so ryan promised to find it, and did (luckily) in my mom's room next to a chair where she told me she found kate sitting and "reading" alma to herself out loud that day. so ryan read to her and she was happy! now both my mom and ryan are wondering if we should get a few backup copies of this book. the one we have is already coming apart at the binding a little bit from use!

(and ps, the book I pictured is not the one we have....but I couldn't find a picture online of the actual one and I couldn't take a picture because it is now back in its rightful place....where kate is asleep!)

sawyer's first day at church

happy mother's day to all!! today I celebrated by getting my babies dressed and ready to go to church! today was sawyer's first time so I thought I would get him dressed up for the occasion.
this picture makes me giggle. actually, everytime I saw him in this onesie I giggled!! he is just TOO HANDSOME!! and he did so well at church!! I think I'm basically the luckiest mother in the world because I have the 2 best babies ever.

I sure missed my mom today, but ryan's mom and sister came into town for a week long visit and we're super excited! kate has been talking about grandma kissell all day...and then of course she comes and she is my shy girl. but I'm sure she'll get used to her and we're excited for a fun family filled week!

"there's no crying in nursery" and other kate tales

I hope you all enjoyed ryan's first attempt at blogging. he was really proud of himself and he finally realized why I used to wait impatiently for people to comment on each post. (he used to make fun of me for it, but after checking it several times a day he understands what it feels like!)

ryan is now in spokane for his last interview (wahoo!) so I figured it was time to get back to blogging about some of our adventures. here are a few of the most recent

kate tales

"let's go for a hike"




we decided to hike the seven falls trail on saturday morning. it has been a long time since we've been on a hike all together and we were ready to enjoy the nice weather. we only hiked about a mile in but we made it to a river and kate had a lot of fun throwing rocks into it. kate spent some time in the hiking backpack, sitting back and eating cheerios and drinking from her camelback, but she also asked to get down and hike and it was really fun to watch her. (I'm going to post some videos of her here later...I'm tired of waiting for them to download now!)

"there's no baby in your belly, silly!"

on friday I realized it had been a long while since I took a picture of my belly and I had promised myself I would do it more regularly this pregnancy. well, it hasn't happened! so I asked ryan to get the camera out and of course kate saw it, positioned herself in front of it and gave us this:you would think she gets her picture taken every once in a while! then I lined myself up against the wall and started showing ryan my belly. (after looking at these pictures I remembered why I didn't like taking pictures of myself pregnant!)


so then kate positions herself in front of the camera and gives us this:
"baby brother's bed"

I promised dani a long time ago that I would post pictures of our boy bed and I keep forgetting so here it is. (I guess that makes this less of a kate tale and more of a picture book)

**thanks hilary! I guess I forgot to tell my baby bedding adventures with everyone! I was looking online for the perfect boy bedding and it wasn't going very well. I didn't fall in love with anything and everything was really expensive. I wasn't crazy abou the idea of making it again either. then one day I went to target and I found this crib set all in a package on clearance for $60! I was so excited! later my mom was at target and found it clearanced down to $20! WHOA! so she bought it for me and I did the switcheroo and got my money back. what a DEAL!

doesn't it go great with the pink striped walls?

and finally "there's no crying in nursery!!"

remember how I told you that kate was progressively getting worse when it came to nursery? crying earlier and earlier at just the thought of nursery! well today we went to church (I thought she looked extra cute today!) and she sat through sacrament meeting really well, as usual, and as we got to the last song....there was no reaction! so then the meeting was over and I said "kate, where's nursery?" (I always do this on the way there) and she said "where did it go?" and I said "let's go find it" so we started walking there and she said "balls!" and I said "yes, and there are babies there to play with too!" (because I'm usually trying to tell her how much fun it will be as she's crying and begging me with her little eyes to not take her there.) and then we started naming all the fun stuff in nursery. when we got to the door she pointed and I said "there it is!" and we walked in and I put her down and she walked off and never looked back! what a big change from handing a crying, screaming, clinging girl over to the nursery leader! not one tear was shed! hooray for nursery!

President Gordon B. Hinckley

as a family, we were really sad to hear of the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley today. with him being 97, it isn't shocking, but it is nonetheless sad. he is the prophet of my youth and really the only one I was old enough to pay close attention to. I will miss him, but it is such a comfort to know he is with his wife and how happy he must be.

extractions

yesterday I picked up the ensign and started reading the article about extracting names online at familysearchindexing.org . I did it in high school as a personal project thing back when it was paper packets and I remembered loving it. I just loved thinking about people who have lived and I always thought about their lives as you record how long they were married, how many children they had, how many had died, etc. it was so easy to download and do, I did 100 names yesterday afternoon. I think it will be a new addition to my free time hobbies!

ward emergency!

today in sacrament meeting our bishop announced a ward emergency!! so starting today the whole ward is going to have to live off of the food they have in their homes until after next sunday.

he's hoping this will give us a little food storage awareness along with having us get together and help each other. he wants home teachers and visiting teachers to visit at least 2 times this week to make sure everyone has enough. he gave the example of if you are low on gas, you need to call your visiting teacher and see if you can siphon some from him to use. (however, I think this is a little extreme because if there was an actual emergency we wouldn't be driving to and from work which can be really far, you know?) we're pretty set except for produce. I just hope we don't resort to cracking open a can of dried refried beans. anyone tried them from the church? I would really have to be hungry to eat those!! the other change we had to make is for yw we had planned to make flip flops, but we can't go buy the supplies so instead we're going to teach them to make bread so they can feed their families!! I'll keep you updated!

happy sunday!

sundays are always fun when you get to go to church wearing a new dress!!

this dress was my absolute favorite purchase at the oregon outlet malls!! but looked what happened before sacrament ended!

(I asked ryan to take the picture, and I thought that "please don't have my butt in it" was a given....next time I'll be more specific!)

it all fell apart!! I am so bummed. (and instead of feeling pretty in my new dress, I felt kinda dumb walking around church with a torn up one!) it had the 2 pieces surged together by (apparently) a not very good serger!! ugh!!