Posts Tagged ‘family’
Happy November! We’re surviving the candy hurricane from yesterday. The wrappers are settling and mostly making their way to the trash. And the girls are trying oh so hard to eat their candy slowly. I’m actually very impressed with their “save some for later” attitudes.
I thought before we headed into another season of getting (from Halloween candy to Christmas presents) we would take ALL of November to thing about our abundance and develop a deeper feeling of gratitude.
We started at lunch today. I shared a scripture verse about living in thanksgiving daily. We talked about blessings and being grateful for them. Then I brought out the thanksgiving journal. Each day we will go around the table at dinner or lunch (depending on our schedule) and write down what each person is thankful for. These are some scriptures I found on “thanksgiving.”
…that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you. Alma 34:38
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psalms 100:4
If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Doctrine and Covenants 136:28
This works well for us since Sammi is a beginning writer and still writes very large following practically no spelling rules and Elli isn’t writing words yet and Scott just coos and looks adorable. For this year, either Brent or I will write down everyone’s “I’m thankful for…” sentence. Since I made the rule that we can’t repeat anything we’ve already said, it will be fun to see how specific or general we become in our gratitude.
I found some other ideas about bringing gratitude into the hearts of your family that I thought were adorably fantastic.
Chocolate on my Cranium: Blessing Boxes
Almost Unschoolers: Flock of Thankful Turkeys
Latter-day Homeschooling: Gratitude Posters, Leaves and Letters
We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ: Thanksgiving Advent Calendar
What are you grateful for this month?
3 Comments »
I’ve struggled over the last couple years with what to write about on this blog. Especially last year as Sammi was in preschool because we didn’t have as much time for crafts. I kept thinking that if I got Elli one on one we could create some of those lovely crafting memories I have from when Sammi was her age. But truth be told, Elli’s a whole different child.
Duh! I knew she was different, from the beginning she has shown different interests. I’ve had to explore and try tons of different parenting strategies to reach her and help her understand how to grow up. Practically from birth Sammi has been ready for the net stage, eagerly jumping into the next phase of life and impatiently waiting to be able to do so. I merely had to mention out loud that it was just about time for such and such and Sammi did the rest on her own. Elli, on the other hand, has thoroughly enjoyed being a baby and reluctantly became a toddler and now is reluctantly becoming a preschooler.
I was trying to coax her into putting her shoes on by herself. She is able to do it and does it often. But on this particular day she was not interested in putting forth the effort herself and wanted me to do it for her. I said something to this effect: “You’re a big three year old. You can do it.” And she replied, “No. I just a little three year old.”
Where Sammi loves to listen to story after story and loves to do a project, draw or color, Elli would rather put together a puzzle or reenact any princess story she knows. She also prefers to be Diego to Dora because there’s more action in his character. It’s been a struggle for me to accept these differences as her personality. Not because they’re negative in any way but because I kept thinking that she would grow into loving the activities Sammi loves.
Now that we are moving into this preschool phase of her life I am trying harder to understand her in terms of how to help her learn. I often feel at a loss because I don’t know how to spend time with her that’s not crafting or reading and she’s not as into those activities as Sammi was. She’s much more active and loves to role play. She’s forever asking Brent to be her prince as she plays one of a dozen different princesses she loves.
So Elli, this is you’re year. Mommy is going to develop some new play skills so we can be the best of friends!
We finally got family pictures taken. And then we finally got them printed. Today’s task is to finally send them out. We made this little card to go out with them today. It took only a few seconds for each person to do their part, but we captured this moment in our children’s growth indefinitely. I love it when creativity and technology get together!
You know you’re the mother of girls when…
You climb into bed at night and roll on top of a pink sparkle headband
And then look at yourself in the mirror at a public restroom only to find you are wearing that headband.
Your child presents herself after choosing her own outfit and putting it on and you count no fewer than six shades of pink.
Accessorizing is a MUST!
Every book you are asked to read has a princess or two on the cover.
You have to do laundry twice as often because she’ll only wear the dresses and skirts.
And because she changes her clothes several times a day.
These are the observations I’ve made over this past year about what it’s like to be the mother of two girls. I can’t believe how much they’ve grown and matured over the year and yet they are as girly as ever! They are so ready to mother their little brother. Next year will be a whole new world as I discover what it’s like to be the mother of a boy.
While Brent got to participate in the Air Force’s version of summer camp for grown ups (think flying a Cessna, being a firefighter, parachute simulators and other such fun), the girls and I headed off to Utah to visit grandparents and friends. Flying with the two girls was a whole lot better than I had expected, with particular thanks to the USO lounge in the Denver airport that we hung out in both ways.
We spent time with both sets of grandparents. At my mom’s house the girls enjoyed playing in the dirt in their princess dresses. I loved how Sammi held her dress out with one hand so she wouldn’t drag it in the dirt. Such elegance!
We also took a day trip to the Farms at Thanksgiving Point. The girls had a lot of fun riding the horses and playing in the little room they had to teach kids about the agricultural process from garden to market.
The girls loved celebrating their birthdays early. Each one got her very own cake with her name on it. Sammi put the right number of candles on each cake and they loved blowing them out. We sang Happy Birthday twice so I could get pictures of each girl with her cake. They loved it! They also adored their Disney princess Barbie dolls they got. Elli of course got Cinderella, her favorite, and Sammi got Snow White, her favorite.
We continued a tradition we started last summer by attending the Princess Festival. Elli was particularly excited this year because she was dressed up and knew she was a princess. They had so much fun meeting princesses and princes and helping them escape the evil witch’s spell. Elli charmed Peter Pan into pushing her on the swings and Sammi got her picture with Snow White.
We also revisited the Orem Public Library, one of my favorite libraries anywhere. We participated in Laptime and browsed through all the books. It was heavenly!
I think we had so much fun at Brent’s parents’ house that I didn’t take very many pictures. But the highlights included eating peas from the garden every day, playing under the tree in the front yard with the neighbors and going on walks with Grandma. We were also excited to see aunts and uncles and a cousin visiting from out of town. I was so happy our trips overlapped so we could see them, too!
The trip home had its own adventure. Just as we were boarding the first plane, Sammi tripped and hit her lip on the doorway of the plane. She got a huge fat lip and was so very sad. We got her some ice and Tylenol and she calmed down. She was a trooper for the whole flight. We got more ice in the USO lounge and by our second flight, she and Elli both fell asleep and were peaceful the whole ride. I got to read a new book and it was rather relaxing!
Sammi’s taken a lot of pictures some with pretty amazing compositions, but this is by far my favorite to this point.
This post is linked up with 5 Minutes for Mom, and Seven Clown Circus. Check out other amazing pictures through those links.
We are having a blast at Grandpa’s house this week. We’re sort of settling into a routine of play, hot chocolate, play, lunch, play, Elli’s nap, play, dinner, play and sleep. Wake up and repeat. Sammi is having a blast with her cousin who’s just 6 months older than her, though she is a few inches taller! Here are some pictures of them playing this afternoon.
Sammi and her cousin posing in the backyard
Sammi and her cousin have been negotiating games, TV watching, playground play and such. It’s interesting to see how they take turns talking each other into what they want to do. Sammi has had to accept that she can’t boss her (older) cousin around the way she can Elli. She’s also gotten pretty creative in enticing him to do what she wants. Overall, I would say she’s matured in her social development from the last time they played together. There haven’t been any temper tantrums or breakdowns over not getting what she wants. It’s been fun to see them just relish every moment of play they have together.
Saving the sheets from the wind
Elli napping after all that play. Doesn’t she look so pleased!
Grandpa’s house from Sammi’s perspective
What do you or your kids love most about visiting the grandparents?
Or delivered to your inbox:
(copy/paste into your own website or blog):
