It's a party!

We threw a birthday bash for our little man! Bubba turns 1 year old today! We had a Hawaiian Haystacks dinner complete with presents, cake and ice cream to celebrate. We were spoiled with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins to share his special day! He ended the evening completely decked out in blue icing, on a sugar rush with lots of new toys to play with. I think the little man was in heaven.

I made a train cake filled with candy to share. The kids sure couldn't wait to dig in!

It was a very fun evening to had by all.

Our little man is such a joy to have in our family! He's a very happy baby and loves his brothers and sister. He is obsessed with his daddy and cannot get enough of his mommy! He lights up whenever someone walks in the room. He is very loving and so sweet! He has been learning to do so many new things everyday. He shakes his head with both no and yes, he responds when asked to hand you something, crawls all over, empties everything he can, squeals when he sees people, goes up and down the stairs and is standing up but not quite walking around yet. He cheers when he learns something new and has lots of love to give. Which he shares whenever given the chance. Bubba is such a blessing to us. We love him so much!

Preschool: Letter O for Olympics

We had preschool today covering letter O and I decided that covering the Olympics would be a blast for the kids! I started talking about what the Olympics is, how often it takes place, what games there are, etc. We sang a song for our opening ceremony The More We Get Together and then headed outdoors for our own Olympic games.

Preschool Olympic Games:

1. The discus throw (using paper plates)
2. Hug-a-balloon-friend, I had the kids pick partners and then they held the balloon between them without using hands. They had to run/walk to the finish line
3. Basketball shoot, had each child shoot the basketball, they each had four different places to shoot from each one closer than the next
4. Backwards relay, they raced backwards to one location and then tagged their teammate and etc until they crossed the finish line
5. Egg relay, using plastic eggs and spoons without dropping the egg off the spoon they went around a t-ball set and back to the starting line and traded with their partner
6. Race, we had the kids race across the yard and back

Our closing ceremony I gave each child an Olympic "medal" to wear and we took their picture. I let the kids draw pictures of what they did until their parents came to pick them up. It was lots of fun!

Valentine's/President's Day Weekend

First, exciting news little Matthew took his first step while showing Tim that he could stand up all by himself. He fell right down but at least made one step before doing so!

Secondly, Taylor lost a tooth the day before Valentine's Day so the tooth fairy came the eve of Valentines. He was thrilled!


Our Valentine's/President's weekend started off with an ugh! Taylor came home from school Thursday afternoon with the flu. He was supposed to be performing in the first grade program later in the afternoon but didn't make it past lunch, darn it! He made sure to share all his yuckiness with his little brothers. Our house was full of sickos most of the weekend. Taylor and William felt well enough Saturday to attend the Primary Activity. Katelyn went to her friend, Mia's birthday party at the same time so we had about an hour without the older ones. Zack and I took the younger boys over Star Nursery and got our garden seeds for this year! It was so much easier with just the two little ones in tow! Sunday everyone seemed to be doing really well so I got everyone ready while Zack attending his morning meetings. Halfway through sacrament meeting Joshua wasn't doing so hot and William was begging to just lay down. I ended up taking all the younger boys home while Zack covered my primary lesson for me. William went straight to sleep when we got home on the living room floor and remained that way until 4pm, our sacrament meeting was at 9 am! Joshua just laid down most the day with his eyes glazed over. Matthew didn't seem any better and fussed until I fed him and put him down for a nap. When they were all awake and kicking we gave them their Valentine's and told them all how much we loved them. Zack surprised Katelyn and me with flowers for Valentines!

Since I got to spend so much time with sick kids I was actually able to get a little project done! I found this great idea for a wreath at domestifluff.com and since I love wreaths I thought it was perfect for a little Valentine's decor. Monday was great after everyone had been sick I cleaned the house while Zack played with the kids and then we all played games and had fun just being a family. Just like its supposed to be!

Activity Days: Healthy Lifestyle

We started this activity off with Stake Leaders coming to observe us. I think it was a little overwhelming just preparing for that! It ended up being only one leader and she works at the kids elementary school as the librarian so nothing to worry about in the end.

Physical Bodies
We talked about the Plan of Salvation including the connection of our physical and spiritual bodies. We used a glove to explain this. Next we placed categories were placed on the wall and there was a basket full of items to be categorized.

• Exercise: running shoes, jump rope, ball
  
• Healthy Foods: apple, nuts, water bottle
• Good Hygiene: Soap, toothpaste, toothbrush
  
• Protecting our bodies: sunglasses, sunscreen, lotion
• Rest: pillow, blanket
• Things to avoid: cigarettes (picture), beer (picture)

We discussed the need for living a healthy lifestyle and allowed the girls to give their ideas but also made sure they knew additional benefits too.

Spiritual Bodies
We used an object lesson to help them better understand what a healthy spirit entails verses an unhealthy spirit. First we placed ice cream which represented our clean spirit and then added toppings:

• Kindness = chocolate syrup
• Scripture reading = bananas
• Obedience = caramel sauce
• Prayer = chocolate sprinkles
• Family Home Evening = strawberry sauce

This entails a healthy spirit and then if we add other items:

• Cruelty = mustard
• Lying = dog food
• Bad words = dirt

The spirit is quickly contaminated and without the atonement of the Savior we cannot remove these from our spirits. With repentance we can be made clean again and enjoy our healthy spirit. We let the girls prepare their own "healthy spirit"!

Bubba's new trick

I was preparing dinner early this evening while Katie was doing her homework, the three older boys were busy rough housing outdoors so our littlest man decided now would be the perfect chance to stand up in the middle of the room without any help. He started out crawling on the floor and next thing I hear him clapping his hands. Katie happily exclaims that he's standing up. I guess since there were no big brothers around to knock him down, he got a little daring! Soon after he was standing up all over just to show off and always clapping when he finally made his way up. When he felt confident enough, we had the older boys come see him and they were thrilled and he was awfully proud of himself! What a cutie!