FHE: Developing Your Talents

Our original plan for FHE (Family Home Evening) tonight was to go to the park.  Then it had changed to helping my brother Stillman to get corn stalks from our garden that they could use for decoration.  Well, we were rained out of either of those activities so I had to think of a last minute idea.  

Nikki kept asking if she could paint so I decided to use that as part of our FHE.  We sang the song "It's Autumn Time" from the Children's Songbook.  I asked each of the kids what talents they had or what they liked to do.  Then told the parable of the talents.  After that we decided to "develop" one of our talents, the talent of painting/art.  And since it's Autumn we tried to do some pictures to go a long with that theme.  We were running out of paint and some of them were dried out so we used what we had.

(I don't know why it turned sideways, that's not the way I took the picture and it's not the way it shows before I uploaded it.)  Garrett's picture is the brown one.  It's hard to see but he did try to paint a pumpkin on there to go with his abstract art.  Jack's is the red one and I helped him paint a couple of ghosts and a pumpkin...again to go with the abstract art.  Nikki's is the orange one on top that has the brown leaf.  And mine is the one on bottom with the 5 colorful pumpkins with the letters of each of our names, our pumpkin patch, hehe.  It was a fun activity for everyone and I'm glad we got rained out  :)

Nicole's first REAL hair cut

I finally took Nikki to get her first real hair cut.  Last year when I did it, it was only a trim.  This time I took her to a professional and we both LOVE it!

Before shots:

AFTER SHOTS:

I wanted you to see the difference in length of her hair before and after so I backed up on this shot.

  We cut off about 9 inches I think.  Some of the hair was long enough to donate but not really enough so we didn't.  Maybe next time.

Garrett's 5th birthday!

Last weekend we celebrated Garrett's 5th birthday!  I can't believe how old he's getting already.  We were going to have a party with just grandparents Friday night but Garrett got sick.  Luckily he was feeling good the next day so we squeezed it in between Nikki's soccer game in the morning and Garrett's soccer game in the afternoon and his friends' party in the late afternoon.  It was a very busy day!

This was the morning of his birthday (Thurs) and we had GIANT cinnamon rolls.  We even put a candle in it and let him blow it out.  Since the parties weren't until the weekend I wanted to do something special for him.  We also went swimming at the Rec Center w/Gpa Tony and had lots of fun!

And this is what he looked like Friday night.  My in laws still came over before they got the message that he was sick.  He had a frown the whole time but he still wanted to open the gift they brought.  A warm fuzzy blanket with a hood and mittens attached.  It's covered with sports things.  And 3 toy cars and some tootsie roll suckers.

Now to the party on Saturday around noon w/Gma Vernie, Gpa Tony, and Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Norton.  For his cake we decided to do an "Up" theme.  I printed out the house from the internet, cut it out, and glued it together.  Then just put ribbon from each cupcake to the house.  I think it turned out really good.

 

The big 5!

He got to pick out his own balloon this time and of course he picked Spiderman.  He loves Spiderman!

Gma Vernie made him a homemade fabric happy meal and all my kids love playing with it!  He also got a water bottle, $5, and a Mickey Mouse puzzle from his great grandparents.

Look at the smile on his face.  He totally loved that he got Zurg!!  Now he has Zurg to play with his Buzz and Woody and Rex toys.

He got lots of Spiderman things.  A costume, pajamas, a shirt, and some red pants to go with the shirt.  I've had a hard time keeping him out of his costume. 

And a new bike!  It's used but it looks really good still and my dad cleaned it up even better and painted a few spots for me, along with fixing the flat tires.  My dad is so awesome with all that he helps me with!

Jack was very zoned in to his cupcake.  He couldn't wait to eat it and I couldn't get him to look up at me for the picture but it turned out really cute anyway.

My little Spiderman showing off his Zurg toy.  And Nikki....lol...must be licking her lips or playing with her toothless grin.

Me and my little man.

There's his new Spiderman shirt.  On the back it says "Web Slinger".  And those are one pair of pants to go with it. 

And of course he had to have a Spiderman toy with a little jet ski, that unfortunately does not work.  Guess that's what you get when you buy things 2nd hand.  In fact, the only new thing I bought Garrett was the Zurg toy.  Everything else was from a thrift store or craigslist.  But most of it is in really good shape.  The clothes look almost new.  I love getting good deals!

And here's the friends' party.  We had neighborhood kids and cousins to help him celebrate Saturday around 4:30pm.

And once again he gets to blow out another candle.  He's had lots of practice with this birthday. 

So even though he got a little sick one night he still enjoyed his birthday and all of his presents!  It was a fun and busy weekend!

Utah trip 2011 part 2

The month has just gotten away from me and I'm finally doing the 2nd part of our Utah trip.  I have a couple of other new things to blog about also but those will be for a different post.

So on the day we left to come home from Utah we managed to go several places:  The Pie Pizzeria, The Planetarium, and the Church History Museum.  Of course this time we had the kids and took them to see the kid stuff.

Here's our first stop at the underground Pie Pizzeria restaurant.

They have the biggest pizza we've ever seen!

 Looks like they were enjoying their pizza.

 My brother Stillman and his wife Michelle (and kids) joined us for this outing.  Afterward they headed to take their stuff to the condo while we did our own thing.

At this restaurant the walls are covered with signatures of people who have eaten there so of course the kids wanted to sign their names.

Even Garrett scribbled something.  Not sure if he actually wrote his name or not.

 Now we're at the planetarium.  We just knew when we came in June that we'd have to bring the kids here.

And of course they loved it!

 Now it was their turn to walk on the moon!

 And Nikki on Mars.

3...2...1...Blast off!  To infinity and beyond Garrett!

They had some cool gadgets for sale.  This ball was for show.  It's the kind that expands and retracts by pulling or pushing.

 Riding the trax over to see the church museum now.  The kids loved riding on the "train".

See the excitement on Garrett's face as he looks out the window at everything.

 Their favorite part of the regular museum stuff was the wagon and the ship replicas.

 Sitting below deck in one of the bunks.

And there's the ship....Now time to go up a level and see the fun kids stuff!

 This picture didn't load in the order I wanted it to but it's a rubber fish from Nephi's boat.  Jack just loved it and carried it around for awhile.

 Inside Nephi's boat.

 Going fishing.

Nikki's going to make sure they make it to the Promised Land!

 Now time for a little cultural dancing!  And notice he still has the fish?

 They had this screen they were looking at and would do what the person on the screen was doing to dance.  So fun!

Garrett wasn't really sure what to do so he just watched.

 Riding in a truck full of stuffed animals and puppets.

That bird is going to make them crash!  hehe

 Time for some tortilla tossing into a bucket!  Don't worry, they weren't real tortillas.

And of course they had to have a replica of the gold plates for the kids to see and even feel how heavy they were.  I couldn't even lift it!  Joseph Smith had to be one STRONG man!!

And last but not least we had to take them to see the Angel Moroni statue.  They loved everything but now it was time to go on home to Idaho.  It was a great weekend!