About The Fam

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Our Weekend

Our weekend was full of smiles! Love this CHUBBY face. Seriously, he's such a good baby. We have recently moved the little dude upstairs to his nursery. Yup, the great day has come to our house...YEAH, LOTS OF SLEEP HAS ARRIVED. Oh, it's such a good day when you put them to bed at night and you don't see them again until morning. Oh, how I love my sleeping babies.

I don't remember my other babies LOVING to sit straight up so early on. This kid loves to be straight up on your shoulder or having him sit up on your lap looking at you. I'm in need of a bumbo I think. I think he'd really enjoy sitting up all the time. He can hold his head up and now that he can do that, he wants to sit up. This is fine and all except for the time I'm cooking dinner! So I think it might be time I venture out to find one somewhere.

On Sunday Jared blessed the cute little bundle. It was a very special day. We started the morning off early by attending Krista and Riley's baby Rhett's blessing. Which was a wonderful spiritual meeting because so many family members bore their testimonies. Then it was off to our ward to have our turn. The blessing was beautiful and testimony meeting was also wonderful. My favorite "funny" moment of the day was when Jared stood up to bear his testimony and said, "I guess I'm breaking protocol to have two bishopric members bear their testimony today!" The bishop was conducting so it's not common that two members of the bishopric stand up to bear their testimony. I was totally shocked to see him break "protocol" he laughed at me later that night and said he was always planning on sharing his feelings. I just love this man.

Daddy and son.

Mommy and baby boy.

And just simply a darling little face to end with.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The New Year means...

The only reason why I make a post about family home evening is because it’s been a struggle for me. Jared works late this night and so I am pretty much responsible for having, planning and holding family home evening. Some weeks are awesome, fun and really enjoyable while other weeks are a literal nightmare. But I have found that if I am prepared it always goes better. I gained a testimony of this when Jake was born. I was blessed to have a very spiritual moment when I realized if I truly choose to follow the prophet then I need to obey this commandment, of having and holding regular family home evenings. So as the years have passed on I have tried to become more obedient and more prepared to make Monday nights more enjoyable and fun for all.

Since this past year was more successful as far as having regular family home evenings, I wanted to share a few things I did… I made a sign I just printed out that said, "Tonight is Family Home Evening!" I heard this idea from a friend and I knew this would help me remember and plan. So I would put this on the fridge and the kids were reminded all day that it was Monday Family Night.

Last year my sister helped me keep my goal in having regular family home evenings by preparing a few helpful handouts. She prepared the primary monthly theme and scripture on a sheet. We would hang it on the fridge all month and practice memorizing the scriptures each month. The kids loved it and I was surprised at how often we would reference the theme and scripture through the month. So this year I decided it was time to do this again. I decided I would share it with all of you who read my blog and need a little help in the family home evening department.

The only thing I have done differently this year is I have printed out the primary 2012 manual for sharing times. Go here to print out the primary 2012 manual....I printed out only the pages that related to each month. I keep these in a sheet protector also and keep them on the side of my fridge. The church is fabulous, because they have each month divided by weeks with simple lessons and activities. This makes my life easier because on the weeks I don't have something specific we need to talk about and discuss as a family I will have these planned activities right there. Honestly, it's been awesome the past two weeks. I figure that even though the topics and sharing time activities are going to be repeated in church, it won’t hurt my kids to have a reminder the next day. So far my kids have enjoyed knowing and sharing what they learned in primary.

I also on a quick night find a related Mormon message to have the kids watch and discuss the principle taught in the movie. The kids love the variety and I love how the spirit is truly present when we hear the voice of the living prophets.
Anyways, I wanted to make it available for each of you. So enjoy.

Then I keep the upcoming months handouts in a binder in my cabinet. Really, this is one area (and really the ONLY area) of my life I feel I am starting the year off right. So here is my good luck wishes to you. If any of you have any great family home evening suggestions or tips I would love to hear them!

Here are the 12 monthly theme scriptures you can print out...

Monday, January 2, 2012

Some new favorite things...

Ok, I'm totally in love with baby Ben and holding him. It could help that he's sleeping AMAZING at night. Seriously, those first several weeks, when your waking up 2-4 times a night, it seems like you will never ever ever ever never ever get any sleep ever again. BUT then one morning you roll over and look at the clock, you expect to see 3 am...and you see 5am...and you cheer for joy. Then a few nights later you roll over and realize it's 7am not 5am...so that's where we are, getting more sleep. Which means I'm a happy mother and wife! Hip Hip Hooray!

I love holding him and sitting back and enjoying his chubby little face.

Chubby face

He has the longest eyelashes! So darling. And look at those chubby cheeks.

When he's ready to fall asleep in your arms he nestles his little face into your arm. I love it.

Caleb loving Jared playing with him. Seriously, I adore this happy go-lucky kid.

I caught an adorable smile but of coarse I was too close and the flash went off! But you can still see how dang cute he is!

Kinda smiley...But oh so cute. We actually caught him giggling on video. I love it!!

Oh, and who can't post about some of the best ladies in the world? Here's to our Utah State Annual Reunion! This year I think we had the best food, friends and games. We did MISS ALL OF YOU that don't live in Utah or who didn't come.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Sad, how the the best picture that turned out was of him sad. For some reason this holiday my camera was acting up and MANY if not ALL of my pictures of this Christmas were fuzzy. So this is all we ended up with. SAD!!

Not sure, what the green smudge is, but this is a cute baby Ben face.

He's smiling...not very often or on demand, but I was able to get one...just with a little too much LIGHT!

Jacob having fun with some new duplo legos.

Caleb in LOVE with his Thomas the Train set.

Oh, the sweet couple...Christmas Even dinner. YUM.

Some of the boys, getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner at my parents.

Caleb got MORE monkey pj's. This adorable kid thankfully has his BIG smile to off set those little ears.

Seriously, do I honestly have FOUR kids. Oh, it's getting crazier each day that goes by. Let's just say, laundry, cleaning house, and cooking seriously takes up SO much time.

Oh, a darling chubby sleepy baby. This little guy has adorable LONG eyelashes. So cute.

Alayna insisted this year on leaving their letters out for Santa. She said, that since he's magic we didn't need to mail them, he will just suddenly appear with the presents they wanted. She did the honors of writing the letters for all the kids. Funny how her handwriting is different in each one.

Good Morning, Christmas Morning!

Oh, the dilemma, a BYU hat from Mom and a Utah hat from dad...who should I cheer for? Well, let's just say the BYU hat WON the BIGGEST smile!

Christmas family picture...too bad they were ALL fuzzy! Bummer!!

Oh, the happy couple...

Jared and I realized we have yet to take a picture with this little bundle since the hospital...Merry Christmas to all!!!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Getting Ready for Christmas...

Baby Ben is now almost 8 weeks old or 2 months old come Thursday...He's doing awesome. He sleeps well and eats well too. I really couldn't ask for a better baby. He's really getting CHUBBY and we just love him!

The boys discussing the nativity...if you look closely Caleb is holding a "farmer" Caleb is telling Jake he doesn't belong with the Nativity, but Jake is patiently telling him anyone can come see baby Jesus.

Ange and Grady found out that they are expecting their fourth baby and it's yet again, another BOY! Out of the last 12 grand kids only ONE has been a girl. We must really need BOYS in this family. Either way, baby Ben and Rhett are excited to have another BOY cousin!