Ode to Sophie

There are some days when your children are particularly adorable (and sometimes when they are not). There are some weeks when your children are well-behaved (and some when they are not.) There are some months when your children are happy and content and cause little trouble (and some when they are not.) Sophie is my happy girl. Period. She rarely has a "bad" day. She is smiley and happy and does what I ask of her. She hardly ever throws a tantrum. She is my goofy girl and loves to pull funny faces with me and make funny sounds. She is always good to say thank you. It's really the cutest thing because she says it so enthusiastically. If I help her with anything she is quick to reply, "Oh thank you mommy!!!" She is our resident dare devil and has no fear. When we would go sledding she would jump on the sled head first and fly down the hill. She doesn't mind having her head in water (our other children hate having water on their heads). She loves to explore outside and would stay outside all day long if I let her. She loves animals and has no fear of them. The other day she walked to the back of our field to see the horses in the neighboring field. I'm sure if she could have figured it out she would have gotten on one of them and gone for a ride. She is one tough girl. When she gets hurt, she hardly ever cries about it. She can hold her own when she wrestles with daddy. She was taking down her older brother before she could walk! (She would grab onto his legs until he fell down and then she would lay on him!) It's obvious that she has an older sister and brother. She loves to play with dolls and dress-ups, more so than even Emma. But she also likes to play with cars and action figures, like her brother. She is tender-hearted, but strong enough to let you know when she doesn't like something. Ahhhh. . .Sophie, she can always make me smile. She is my little darling and I just love being her mommy!

(Yes, I have three other kids and I am dedicating entire posts to them too in the near future.)

Look! No snow!

The kids and I had a fun afternoon exploring outside. And yes folks, the snow has finally melted here. There are a few places with snow, but most of it is gone! YEA!!! I mean, it's only April 23rd. Now the kids can play and run around outside until they are exhausted (instead of running around wreaking havoc on the house and causing my exhaustion!)

Sophie love, love, loves being outside! She has since she was a baby. She especially likes the barn and hanging out in the chicken pen.

McKay had fun, but kept asking me when he could go play the Wii (he is his father's son.)

And here is my cute little Layla. I can't believe how big she is! She's just so CUTE!

We also found the coolest old trucks in one of our neighbor's fields. They have been buried under the snow until just recently. Can I just say that they are absolutely perfect subjects for taking pictures? I posted some of my shots on my photo blog. And I can't wait to dress McKay all up and take some pictures of him with the trucks. So perfect!

Daddies Change Diapers

Teaching children the gospel daily

Considering the responsibility I have as a mother to teach and raise my children, it's no wonder that I sometimes have days when I feel like a failure and at best, severely lacking in my ability to prepare my children for life. Thank goodness I'm not in this alone and there are many wonderful examples and resources at my disposal. There are so many skills and lessons to teach a child. But perhaps the most important is the gospel and I believe it should be very much a part of my children's lives every day.

In addition to the unplanned and spontaneous teaching moments that occur every day I like to have a more scheduled time where we gather together to read and sing and learn. I've gathered ideas from several places and meshed them together into a format that works for me and my family. And since my children are very young (very young=very short attention spans) I use simplified lessons and stories with lots of pictures! I like to use the Primary theme for the year and incorporate it into our daily lessons. The outline can be found here. There is a yearly theme and then each month has a theme as well. Along with the theme there is also a scripture and song to be learned. For example, this month's theme is, "I will follow the prophet", the scripture is Amos 3:7, and the song is "We thank thee, O God, for a prophet". Also included in the outline are principles to be learned each week of the month. I review the principle for the week and then prepare a short lesson to go along with it. Since this is what they are learning in primary every Sunday, I know that I am helping to solidify these principles by going over them at home each week. It's all about repetition with the kiddos right?

To go along with the monthly theme I found these posters to print off and display on our lesson board. I also like these bookmarks.

Another great idea for teaching children the gospel daily can be found here. This is primarily what I use each day for our devotional. There are 47 weeks of lessons that correlate to the Gospel Principles Manual (In fact I think it's called the "Gospel Principles Study Guide".) They are very basic lessons that use several resources including: the scriptures, the Children's Song Book, the Gospel Principles book, the Gospel Art Kit, the scripture stories books, and the Friend. All of which are produced by the church and can be accessed at the website for free.

So now that you know what I use let me tell you how I use it! We start our daily devotionals with a song (either the primary theme song for the month or one from the Gospel Principles Study Guide lesson plan) and a prayer. Then we review the primary theme scripture for the month and the weekly principle. We then move on to the the daily lesson plan and go from there. We sing a few more songs after the lesson and then we are done. Pretty simple! Obviously attention spans are short so we try to keep this easy and flexible.

Like I mentioned before, I also have a lesson board where I hang the pictures and scriptures from lessons and the themes for the month. I also like to keep a picture of Christ and our prophet on the board as well. We keep the board in a central location so it can be seen throughout the day. In addition to our devotional I have started reading from the Book of Mormon Stories each night at bedtime.

All of the sites I've listed have an abundance of resources and ideas to use. This is just one way to do it. As wonderful and easy as this devotional plan is, I'm not perfect (surprising, I know!) and it doesn't happen every day. But I feel much better knowing that I have a plan and an outline and support in teaching my children these important lessons.

Check it out

It's been a while since I had new photos to post on my photo blog. But I had an awesome session last week and I've posted some new photos on my site. Check it out!

We're back

I spent the past week visiting family (hence the lack of posts). It was nice to have a break from the usual. I was looking forward to some warm weather, but the cold followed me. Blah! Despite the cold temperatures, we still had fun. Emma got a new hair do. I wanted to do something different. I use to keep my hair short and I loved it. So, I thought I would try it out on her! And I absolutely love it! I think she looks sooooo cute! This isn't the best picture, but it gives you an idea.

Now it's back to the grind. I have another photo session to edit. I need to clean the house. I need to catch up on some reading. Okay, bored yet? I'll try to make the next posts more entertaining!

Our friendly neighbors

Animals that we have seen in our yard or near our house

General Conference Weekend

I wanted to post this earlier; just ran out of time. Tomorrow is the semi-annual General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This two day conference is held every six months and it is a time for the leaders of the church to address the members. It's a wonderful opportunity to receive counsel and direction and to hear from a living prophet. As wonderful as it is, it can be hard for little ones to sit still and listen the whole time and so I found some fun activity packets that can be used during the conference. One can be found here and another one here and then one here. (Just follow the directions on the pages). I'm planning on using them with my kids and hopefully they will get a little more from conference this time!

Emma and Daniel

Emma loves to sit on her uncle Daniel's lap while he plays the piano. She puts her hands over his as he plays. It's super cute! And Daniel is super nice for letting her "play" along. Daniel is, by the way, a very talented musician.

Easter Pictures

So I'm a little late, but here are some pictures from Easter.

I love this one of McKay.

All the kiddos. They are looking at their daddy, and they are all smiling!

Oldest and youngest.

Yea, I'm finally in a picture!