Recent haps

Life is so good right now. I want to freeze time and enjoy everything around me! Sam is growing up fast. He's eating big guy food, entertaining himself and sleeping great. He's so big and cute and kind of fat and I can't stop kissing his cheeks! Just been hanging out, we went Raspberry picking, I hosted a baby shower for Chris' sister. And we are finally selling the old Buick. It's pretty dang ugly, but I'm so nostalgic towards it because we remember fondly our dating and newlywed stages with that car! We've had it for 10 years and it really has been a good car. But on to bigger and better things I suppose! It will be missed, a little.. K. That's it! Happy Monday!

Our Family Wall.

Here it is finally. So a while back I got this idea. I wanted a place where we could focus our efforts as a family. I had read a talk about how our families need to be focused on Eternity and I felt this serious prompting to get going on it! Thus the family wall. I had also started reading this blog and it was just about the time when Claire was really starting to pick up on the words around her and I knew I wanted her to have good words to read!!
So the first step was a family motto. Man, it took me forever to nail something down. Actually I take that back, the first step was to decide on a wall and then paint it. Wow, that took me forever!! THEN came the family motto. One Sunday our Bishopric had a special meeting on fortifying our homes (which seemed to fit perfectly with what I was trying to accomplish) and one of the quotes just spoke to me and encompassed everything I was looking for in our family motto, it also happened to be by President Monson and I thought there could be nothing better than a bit of living scripture on our wall :)

So it goes: May our (your) home be filled with Love, love of each other, love of the gospel, love of our fellow man, love of our Savior.

Really everything important comes down to these 4 statements.

I knew I wanted a spot to showcase their artwork and school/church work.
I had also done hand prints of the kids that I wanted to put up there.
I wanted a spot for calendar stuff, school lunch menu, etc.
I wanted a chalk board so we could write quotes for everyone to learn and think about.
I wanted a picture of the temple.
And finally, I wanted a family tree. I found this vinyl tree at Target, I plan to add pictures of our extended family as I get them, and names, etc. So the kids (and us) can remember all the people who have influenced our lives, past and present. The plan is to make it an FHE thing every once in a while.

So there you go. It really doesn't look like much, but it's the result of a lot of thought and I am happy that it's up and that Claire (and even Jake now) can read Good words, to inspire them, to teach them, and to seep into their mind so they can pull it out when they are truly in need of help and inspiration!

Finally!!!

We finally have a family picture with Sam in it. (he's now 7 months!)
Thanks Kelly!!

The first day of school....lunch

My six year old is officially a 1st grader. Which is all well and good, except for the fact that she has to eat lunch at school.. I, for some reason have had a hard time dealing with the fact that for the last 6 years we have been eating lunch together, and now we will not be. I guess we will have summers and weekends, but I know it's just the beginning of the end and it makes me a tiny bit sad I am so lucky to have such a great daughter and I will miss her all day!! On the other hand, it's been nice having quality time with Jake. Hopefully more of that to come!

I don't think I will ever forget this little picture of this grown up lady and her "high heels" we found these little wedges when we were looking for school shoes and she said to me "mom, if they don't have my size I will just die!" I loved that little line that made her sound like a 60 year old; so we got them :)

Growing up

Somebody's eating big boy food!