traditions

Celebrate America! Crafts

July 1, 2013 by ajpassey

We’re gearing up for the Fourth of July big time here. We’ve been enjoying our traditional crafts and adding new ones into the mix. Here’s a bit of what we’ve been doing:

Painting Star Marshmallows

We love those star marshmallows! I just added a few drops of food coloring to small bowls of water. Then handed out stars and paintbrushes. This is a quick and easy craft to set up, do and clean up. The toddler crowd is mesmerized by it.

Star Marshmallow Flag Craft from 2011. Elli has grown so much and yet looks so much the same!

Stars and Eagles from a book of patriotic crafts Sammi checked out from the library last week.

Colored Rice Layered in Jars

Our mantle is so cute right now covered in flags and patriotic colors. We had fun with this project. Check out the full tutorial on Mom It Forward.

For more ideas, check out my Celebrate America! board on Pinterest.

Watercolor Therapy

October 8, 2012 by ajpassey

We had an atypical weekend as we watched General Conference for our church. (It’s a broadcast from the leaders of the LDS church that comes in 4 2-hour sessions over two days.) By Sunday afternoon the kids were restless. We’d done puzzles and workbook pages, snuggles and snacks. We’d been spending our time downstairs watching it on TV. But for the final stretch, we took the iPad upstairs and sat at the kitchen table.

The kitchen table is a gathering place in our house. It’s where we craft, snack, do homework, eat, read, listen to music, and produce art. Sammi commented one day to me, “Isn’t it funny that we eat dinner at the craft table?” Creative expression is a huge element of our kids’ days. They are happier and more at peace when they’ve had time to create something. So on this Sunday afternoon we brought out the big guns: the watercolor supplies.

We had watercolor paper. I love the texture of watercolor paper.
We had Crayola watercolor paints. They have the brightest colors and wash up the easiest of all the brands we’ve tried.
Then we have a collection of brushes. The kids love big brushes. Sammi is starting to understand using different brush sizes for different details in her paintings.
Finally a cup of water. And a medicine dropper. We use it to drop a little water in each color.

Here’s the final products. But like always, the process was where they unwind and get back into their good moods. The end result is proof of happy memories and brings a smile to our faces!

Scott’s Watercolor

Elli’s Watercolor

Sammi’s Watercolor

What do yo do to get your kids out of a funk?

On Being a Stay At Home Mom

September 23, 2012 by ajpassey

I graduated from BYU without the famous MRS degree. I did, however, study Marriage, Family, and Human Development so when the opportunity arose, I would have some idea of what a marriage should look like (I grew up in a single-parent home). I actually found a job in my field of study, much to my mother’s amazement. And to her delight it was about 25 minutes from her house back in Colorado. I worked as a professional research assistant which just sounds so…professional!

But the call to school was strong and I returned to pursue a master’s degree in applied linguistics. Again, my mother wondered what on earth I would do with that! But this time I had a plan. I would travel the world teaching English. I would have income where ever I chose to live and I could see the world. Best plan ever. Until I met Brent.

I finished up my master’s degree the semester after we married. I taught at a university and a local vocational college. My professional career was underway and I was pleased with my earning potential, even if we weren’t leaving the country anytime soon. Then we discovered we were going to add a new member to our family. Her due date was actually two days after the term ended so it was a perfect way to feel complete when I left the workforce to become a stay-at-home mom. My husband has been in school our entire married life minus one semester after Sammi was born that we tried to work out how to finish up his pre-reqs for medical school.

Student life is hard in general and even harder financially. I had the opportunity to teach for two semesters at a local college, but the time away from Sammi, worrying about her and having child care be difficult to keep consistent with friends watching her just wasn’t worth the opportunity. After two semesters I knew that my primary responsibility was to be home with her. I was strengthened and confirmed in this decision by The Family: A Proclamation to the World. ” Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” It felt awfully hard to nurture her when she spent so much time away from me at such a young age. I needed that experience when she was young and before we added any more children to our family to really know and be committed to staying home with our children.

Fast forward a few years and we’d added a second daughter to our family. My husband had been accepted to medical school and we moved across the country from Utah (where we were surrounded by family) to Tennessee. Things were even tighter as we had less income and more people in our family. I had started blogging and wrote an ebook (which is now available free here.) It felt like everything I tried to do to add income to our family just cost us more money!

Then Brent started a website for osteopathic med/premed students. In all ways that you measure online “success” his website left my little blog in the dust. I had worked so hard on this baby of mine and it was hard to feel like he was more successful than me. I started to resent that and the time he spent away from us studying. I went through a dark time of struggling to understand how to find joy in our situation. Again, the Proclamation offered counsel and comfort. “Fathers…are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.” When I finally let go of my wounded pride and read that with the Spirit I was taught a powerful lesson.

I grew up a very independent child of a single-mother who had returned to school when I was little and completed her GED, Associate’s, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees by the time I was 10. She was so blessed to have success in her endeavors to provide for our family. She had no alternative but to provide and she worked as hard as she could to be worthy of and prepared to receive the blessings the Lord had in store for our family. But my situation was different and the Lord needed me to know His will for families and to trust His plan for our little family that now included a son.

In those dark and lonely nights with Brent away studying and the little ones sleeping I had many conversations with the Lord. They began as rants, adult-sized temper tantrums, but slowly moved to desperation to rid myself of my negative feelings of resentment and bitterness, and then to calm and honest soul-searching to truly have a change of heart. The Savior was with me through this lengthy process and never abandoned me. Those dark nights weren’t so lonely anymore and I had comfort in knowing I was trying to improve my weaknesses.

I still fall short of the ideal nurturer. I still have temper tantrums. But they are less frequent and shorter lived. It’s a long road to perfection, isn’t it? I cling to the counsel in the Proclamation to continue a forward progression with our family. “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” As a family we are happier and more peaceful when we read the scriptures daily, kneel in prayer together, and have lots and lots of tickle attacks. I am so grateful for the patience and forgiveness of my husband and our children. It would be hard to face each new day if I didn’t have faith that I could do it better than I did the day before. I am grateful to a loving Savior for the ability to repent and change not only my actions but my heart as well.

What helps you face each new day with courage?

Today I’m linking up with the Family Proclamation Celebration at Chocolate on My Cranium, We Talk of Christ, Diapers and Divinity, and Middle-aged Mormon Man.

Mixed Media: Love Is A Superpower

September 19, 2012 by ajpassey

Why Music?

Music is becoming an increasingly important part of our play. Music is great for dance parties and altering sour moods. But it’s great for so much more, too. Music is good for learning, bonding, communicating, and creating! As we have gotten to know various albums, specific songs have sparked art projects, gifts, and parties. With so many opportunities to review and share new music here on the blog, I’ve felt inspired to explore and elaborate on the connections we’re making between music and other early childhood education activities.

Welcome to Week Three of Mixed Media!

In each Mixed Media post I’ll share a song and a creative project that was inspired by the song. My hope is that you will be inspired to share music with your little one in a way that gets you two (or three or four!) connected to each other and to your creative sides. This week’s song is Love Is A Superpower by Ben Rudnick and Friends. This song combined with The Family: A Proclamation to the World to inspire a family tree project!

Love Is A Superpower by Ben Rudnick and Friends

“I got love behind me. I’ve got a family tree. I got love, love, LOVE!” For quite sometime I’ve tried to figure out how to visually portray our family tree. When Brent and I married we each brought the same number of family members to our new family. He had 2 parents and 7 siblings. I had 4 parents and 5 half or step siblings. As our siblings have started their own families and we all live so far away from each other, it’s grown increasingly difficult for our children to keep them all straight. So I sent tons of texts and emails and got current pictures from everyone. Facebook saved the day on some :)I printed them all out, including our family of 5, in contact size which is 35 to a page. Including my brother’s dog, we filled the entire page!

While we listened to Love Is A Superpower we talked about family and how awesome it is to have all these people we love who love us. We talked about our superpowers. I think Elli said hers was dancing. Sammi’s was jumping. And we decided Scott’s was climbing. Of course they all demonstrated their superpowers throughout most of the activity!

Because I have two sets of parents and we have siblings with families we taped two pieces of 12″x18″ paper. The next step was we put grandparents at the top making three groups and filled everyone in under them. We tried to keep it organized going from oldest at the top to youngest but with spouses and children it got complicated. So we devised a coloring system. Black lines between two people showed they were married or together. Orange lines go from grandparents to children then brown lines go from children to grandchildren. The girls love this because they can easily identify their cousins and aunt and uncles.

After we glued everyone into their place and the glue was dried, Sammi went back and decorated all the cousins. It was so cute to see her name them all while she was decorating. We went on to name all her aunts and uncles, too. I added to quotes to the family tree to remind us of the importance of family and the love we share.

The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Love is a superpower. Ben Rudnick and Friends

We extended our use of the family tree to a Family Home Evening lesson and activity. We talked about what the Proclamation is and why it was given. Then we read the first paragraph and focused on why we are organized into families. Then each person took a turn while I gave them a name of someone to find. They loved this part! Scott ran up and pointed repeatedly to Brent, “Dad! Dad! Dad!” The time we put into organizing our family and decorating their pictures really helped us bond with our extended family even though we don’t see them as often as we’d like.

Additional ideas: I’ve printed off another set of the little pictures. I’m going to laminate them and cut them into little cards. I envision matching games: drawing a card off the top and finding its match on the family tree then naming the person, matching cousins with their parents.

My ultimate goal is for the faces and names of our extended family to be as familiar and loved to our children as the names and faces of our immediate 5.

How do you keep your little ones connected to family who are far away?

p.s. Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for Love Is A Superpower by Ben Rudnick and Friends. Win it before you can buy it and get inspired to bring the power of love even more into your family!

Today I’m also linking up with the celebration of The Family: A Proclamation to the World over at Chocolate on my Cranium, We Talk of Christ, Diapers and Divinity, and Middle-aged Mormon Man.

New Year’s Eve Recap

January 5, 2012 by ajpassey

I have never gone all out on party decorations before. Usually I’m still trying to get cleaning done as guests arrive. So this year felt extra special because of all the help I had to get it all done and how wonderful it turned out. I really liked how everything looked. And now we have a gold clock hanging back in our bathroom. It’s just too cool. Makes me want to spray paint the wall silver!

After snacking for a while the girls made their New Year’s self with party hat and blower. They seemed to enjoy it and it was simple enough that all the girls finished theirs. While they were working on that, the grown ups were blowing up all the balloons I didn’t use in decorations. Once that balloons were blown up and the kids played with them for a bit we decided to do the kiddie countdown earlier than originally planned. It worked perfect though. We did the countdown at 8:3, popped all the balloons (my favorite NYE tradition) then headed outside to do some fireworks provided by a family that came to the party. All the kids did tons of sparklers, including Scott who was mesmerized and didn’t even try to put it in his mouth. There were some bigger fireworks and then we headed back inside.

Three little girls got jammies on and snuggled up in Elli’s bed. Scott and Brady fell asleep and shared the crib. Jaylee fell alseep in her Daddy’s arms and was snuggled into our bed. Then the games began. Brent was such a trooper and played all sorts of games with the older kids: Chutes and Ladders and The Tinkerbell Game.

The grown ups played the sign game. I remembered that I am really not good at that game but it is fun just to laugh and relax with friends. I love the mirror ball and plan on keeping that safely tucked away for next New Year’s Eve. It was just the right length for the tall guys to bump their heads on it, but no one seemed to mind too much.

Sammi made it all the way to midnight. It was fun to have her sit on my lap and Brent at my side as we counted down to the new year. Lots of kisses and hugs. Then jammies and bed for the rest of us. Overall, I feel blessed to have ended 2011 on such a great note and to have begun 2012 with friends and loved ones in out home.

Hope your 2012 is off to a great start!

Christmas Traditions: Santa’s Cookies

December 24, 2011 by ajpassey

We’ve baked up a storm today making chocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps to leave for Santa. Sammi also thought it would be prudent to leave Santa a gift. She chose to give him cookies for the ride home 🙂

We’re off to read the Nativity Story and
open our new Christmas jammies.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas!

A Season of Thanksgiving

November 1, 2011 by ajpassey

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?

Summer Fun

August 23, 2010 by ajpassey

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!

The Importance of Family Traditions

November 23, 2009 by ajpassey

Bari Koral Family Rock Band Giveaway ends tomorrow night!

Thankful for Fall in Cumberland Gap

The holiday season is full of traditions for many families. As we approach Thanksgiving this week and then officially enter the Christmas season on Friday, I’ve been thinking a lot this weekend about what I want to do with the girls to help them celebrate the holidays. Then I got to wondering why I feel so motivated to start and follow through with our family traditions. Here’s what I think 🙂

Family traditions work on two levels: the family level and the individual level. By doing the same activity every year, or even every week, as a family, we build strong family bonds. We come together as a group with our own unique identity. “We are a family that eats dinner together every night.” “We start the Christmas season by cutting down our own Christmas tree.” Whatever the tradition is, each member of the family can depend on it. This leads to how traditions work on an individual level, too.

Each person in the family knows the pattern and their part of the tradition. They develop a sense of self-identity as well as group-identity by participating in family traditions. One child may know, “I set the table for dinner and that’s important for the whole family to be able to eat.” Another may say, “I sweep the floor after dinner because no one else wants to.”

We do craft projects

This is especially true for our precious little ones who are eagerly trying to figure out who they are and how they fit inside the family dynamics. They value who they are and their place in the family when they know they have a special part in what the family does. Little ones from about one on up are learning about cause and effect relationships. Traditions, especially weekly or daily ones, strengthen this learning process.

Some of our family traditions include reading stories and singing songs at bedtime, eating dinner together daily, attending church together every Sunday, volunteering at the library, doing craft projects and making cookies together. Many of our traditions can easily take on a holiday theme to reinforce the purpose of the holiday and the many ways we celebrate. We have started singing Christmas carols with the girls at bedtime. It’s fun to see them listen intently to a new song, learning the melody and words so they can join in, too. I’m also looking forward to making Christmas themed cookies with the girls to share with our neighbors and friends.