Tender Moments

This is for all the mom's that are having one of those WHY DON'T MY KIDS EVER LISTEN days...I know we have all had them, in fact this week we signed up to clean the chapel and I thought, what a good opportunity to teach the kiddos how important God's house is.  We went and Baby K cried...well, screamed the entire time, J man- colored on the chalkboards and ran amuck, Mr. T-helped a little then ran around and hid everywhere, or climbed on everything.  Finally, tired and exhausted I took the boys home and let Ryan finish up all the while thinking I was crazy for entertaining the idea that the boys were old enough to get something out of it.
Today Church went well considering daylight savings time threw off Baby's nap schedule; the kiddos were fairly well behaved during sacrament meeting and I actually was able to ponder during the sacrament and listen to two speakers, my primary class was the best behaved that I've ever seen with 9 kids today, and the best happened when Primary was all over, after I had found all my class to give them their take home I looked around for Mr. T and found him helping to stacking all the little chairs, then when all the chairs in the Primary room were done he picked some paper off the floor and threw it in the trash and walked over to the chalkboard to clean it...I guess even the little lessons can sink in.  Thanks Mr. T, I'm proud to be your mother.

The Good, The Sad, and the Plan

The Good:
My not so little brother Andrew proposed to his sweetheart last week and she said yes! Couple that with Ryan's brother getting engaged a few weeks ago and we've got two weddings complete with lots of family and temples.  First we'll head to Nauvoo in May for Trent and Natalie's wedding then we'll go to San Diego end of July for Andrew and Morgan's.

The Sad:
  My Grandpa Black passed away a few days ago, the second of my Dad's parent to leave us in the past year.  He will be sorely missed by many.  I remember that every time he came for a visit he would give me a huge bear hug lifting me off the ground, then we would go fishing visit thrift stores, and there were always stories about people he taught while on his missions (He and Sandy served as missionaries several times in south and central america). 

The Plan:  With the grief of losing yet another grandparent I am grateful to know that my Grandpa is surrounded by family and friends especially those he has taught and is busy doing one of the things he loved...teaching the gospel.  I am grateful for the Temples that dot the earth and the saving ordinances that are performed in them, that families can be sealed so that they do not dissolve at death but continue on into the eternities.  To sum it up, I am grateful for the Plan of Happiness.
*Friends/family who would like to learn more about our temples and the Plan of Happiness can learn more by visititing this website

Fun...Crazy Weekend

Some friends of ours were moving to a bigger house so we had the pleasure of watching their boys for the day.  We took them up to Callaway Gardens in the morning.  This trip was cut short after Jacob fell into one of their fountains (a complete accident, he fell in backwards while he was running around). At home it was lots of fun playing with toys and jumping in the backyard.  After dropping them off in the evening I asked Teancum what his favorite part of the day was....his response "Everything with Jago."  Here are some pics of the fun we had.

Driving in the car...I love the goofy faces

Looking for butterflies...most of them were sleeping, but we did see a few

Here is a Blue Morpho eating...these were beautiful when they opened their wings

Eating a snack in the horticulture center

I loved the african daisies

After Jacob's little swim.  I had to strip him down completely and then since it was cold outside I bundled him in my jacket...at least the fountain was in the warmer greenhouse.

Teancum Says

Me: What movie did you watch at Annica's today?
T: One with sharks and fish
Me: Was it funny?
T:  NO....(begin maniacal laughter) but I laughed 'cause it was funny to me!

I seriously love that kid.

One of the things we like about Georgia

Friends to share a good meal with

 

Friends to play with

Friends that help out

Friends with shoulders to lean on

Need we say more?

The Anderson's are one of our favorite blessings here.

*Thank you to Jessi (and her camera) for the pictures on this post as well as our new Family pictures

discipline

We recently got preschool organized and rolling again thanks to some good friends.  When our planning meeting was over and we were getting ready to go our seperate ways the subject of discipline came up.  One of the mommies was very adament in her stand against spanking firmly declaring that she would not spank her children or anyone else's and that she didn't want anyone to spank her child.  I was momentarily stunned because the thought had never crossed my mind and it left me to ponder where she would get the notion that I would spank and this post came to mind.  So here is my disclaimer.

We love our children, we have tons of fun playing with them.  This play includes A LOT of wrestling, and sometimes gentle pats on the bum that we call paddling and spanking and even more often "eating" our children.  We do this kind of play way way WAY  more often then we do harsh discipline.

When Ryan and I first got married we were determined not to spank/paddle our children.  We have since failed in this resolve and go in spurts where we spank (for the more serious crimes, or the repeated ones).  I will often go to my room afterward and cry, this is because I know that I spank more when I am truly at wits end and upset.  I also will "tell on myself" to Ryan.  There have also been many times during our late night talks that we have decided not spank as much (and do for quite some time).  

This post is also a thank you to my friend and her obvious love for her children and for being consistent in her discipline methods.  Thank you for reminding me of our original ideals in discipline.  We had a family night this week and made No hitting/kicking/pushing/SPANKING one of our family rules complete with consequences for each family member if they break it...mine is revoked dishwasher privledges for a week.  The few times I've been tempted to paddle since were quickly squelched by the thought that I would have to wash ALL the dishes for a whole week by hand...a practice I have abandonded since moving to GA and DO NOT want to resume. 

Our home is now one filled with even more love...Oh, and naturally the kiddos are fighting less, Teancum has only hit his brother back ONCE this WEEK, we are especially proud of him for his efforts to keep the family rule.

Blessings

Just a quick post of gratitude for a loving God.  I was thinking about our week and the thought crossed my mind today, "How awesome it is that God gives us commandments so that he can bless us."  One thing that our prophets have commanded us in these days is to have a food storage and supply of water on hand.  Well this week a water pipe leading into our shed sprung a leak...so our landlords shut of the water and quickly fixed it...then our pipe to the spigot in the back yard froze...repeat the fixing process, then the shed pipe froze two more nights in a row.  So for this week we have had several days going without running water...Thank goodness we followed a commandment and so we were blessed to have fresh clean potable water on hand so we could flush the toilet, cook meals, have plenty to drink etc.

Oh, and he blessed us further today (it happened again when we got home from church) and we found an extra valve so we could shut off the water to the backyard without having to shut off the water to the house.  I love the Lord and his goodness and feel oh so blessed and loved today....Goodnight! :)

Backyard Fun

When we moved in there was a huge pile of wood gathered in the middle of our backyard, our landlords said we could build a firepit...thus

THIS BEGETS

THIS...every weekend :)