Wow another year has come and gone. 2013 was a good year. The best thing that happened in 2013 was welcoming Logan into our family. Life has been very eventful, hectic, stressful, and all in all fun adjusting to three kids this year. We even broke down and bought a mini-van!!! Ahhhh! We have enjoyed every minute and learned so much from the trials and blessings. We don't have any major plans ahead of us for 2014 but I am sure we well make some as time goes on.
Russell will be going back to school this year. He starts tomorrow! He has decided to go the RN route this time and I am all for it too. He needs to take a few pre-requisites like Physiology, Anatomy, and Micro-Biology before he can apply for the program. Don't those classes sound so exciting? This will mean more studying and less playing and I will need to entertain the kids more so he can study. Russell has to get A's in all of those classes to get in the program. Good Luck Russell. So that is one of Russell's goals for the year.
The goal I have for Emily is to progress in reading and start learning math. The goal I have for Colby is to teach him to write his name, and help him learn the alphabet. He know most of the sounds of the letters but has a hard time with the names of the letters. The goal I have for Logan is to learn to walk, and get potty train by the end of the year. Then no more diapers!
Finally, the goal I have for myself is to be more spiritually minded, less stressed, and happier. Now I know these are really abstract and you can't really measure them but I do have some goals to help out with that. First, I am going to start reading my scriptures everyday and finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year if not sooner. I have really struggled with this in the past and I really need to make reading scriptures a habit and priority in my life. I know it will help me with my main goals. Second, to help me be less stressed, I am not going to procrastinate and get things done when they need to get done. For example, have my sharing time lessons prepared by Wednesday, keep a schedule and write down when things need to get done, and clean up messes when I see them rather than putting it off until later. The first place I am going to start is with this blog. It seemed like last year I would get so behind on blogging that it would take me forever to get up to date and I was posting a month or so at a time a month later. This year we have 9:00 church so I will have more time to do things on Sunday. I have decided to blog every Sunday about the past week. This way I will stay current and remember more things. So this is the first Sunday of the month and the first post so I am right on track with my goals this year. Yeah!
For New Year's Eve, our friends, the White's, invited us over for games. The Olsen's also came over and we had a fun night. Anna White was so prepared. She had activities for the kids to do each hour until 10 o'clock. They drew pictures, used play doh to make faces or numbers or letters, decorated party hats, and finally watched a movie at 10. For snacks the Olsen's brought chips and black beans and humus that was to die for, and I brought crackers and cheese ball and some amazing gingerbread/molasses cookies that were gone in nothing flat. We ate so well! During the movie, the adults were able to hang out and play games without interruption of kids. We had a blast playing Chase Phrase and a new game Bret and Lori Olsen taught us called "Bang!" It is a western/cowboy card game that you have secret identities like outlaw, renegade, sheriff, and deputy. Everyone knows who the sheriff is but you don't know anyone else. Through a series of card plays, the sheriff and deputy try to get rid of the outlaws and renegades, the outlaw tries to get rid of the sheriff and deputy, and the renegade tries to get rid of everyone. It was a pretty fun game and one I would like to play again now that I know the rules and how to play. I was the sheriff and Russell was the renegade. The funny thing about the game was that because it was based on cowboys and Westerns, in order to get a life back you played a beer card or if you wanted more than one life back, you played a whiskey card. So we joked the whole night about needing a beer or "oh man I need a whiskey!" It was funny. The movie and the game ended around midnight so we grabbed some noisemakers and went outside to ring in the new year. The Gough's (the funnest family in our ward and my saintly Sunbeam teacher) were lighting fireworks so we walked down the street to watch. After about two fireworks, our bodies were frozen so we went back to the White's to warm up. We called it a night and headed home, we had a really fun time.
Yesterday, we had our annual Meet Your Teacher Breakfast for the Primary. It was a lot of fun and we had a great turn out. In fact there were more kids than I expected which is awesome. We served pancakes and hash browns and boy can those kids eat! I also introduced this year's primary theme "Families are Forever." I am excited for this year's theme.
For Sharing Time today, the lesson was "I am a Child of God and can be like Him someday." I did something out of the ordinary for my lesson. I dressed up like a princess with my old city royalty tiara and prom dress I wore in college. I came into the room all dressed up and all of the kids were silent! I explained that I had a special message from my Father. I explained that my Father was a mighty king that lived in Heaven. I told them that my Father was very powerful and created the earth and He created all of them too. I explained that He was their Father too. I went on to explain that they were a Child of God and I bore testimony that I knew that was true. I told them that the special message from my Father was that they were a child of God and that He loved them so much and that they could be like Him some day and that if we are obedient, we can return to live with Him someday. It was a very powerful sharing time and I was so amazed at how well the kids listen. I truly love these kids I serve and I hope they all remember this lesson and remember that they are a Child of God.
As I was preparing this lesson, I didn't really know if I should dress up because I didn't really know if it was appropriate. I finally decided to go for it and after seeing how well it got the kids attention and at how well they listened, I am glad I did it. When I got out my prom dress to see if it still fit, I was happy that it did and was walking around the house. Emily of course was ecstatic! She loved the dress and didn't want me to take it off. Colby, on the other hand, was so mad! He asked me where I got that dress and why I was wearing it. I told him I was a princess going to the ball. He said, "No I don't want you to be a princess and go to the ball. Take the dress off!" I laughed and said, "Well if you don't want me to be a princess, what do you want me to be?" He said, " I just want you to be a mom!" I couldn't stop laughing but I did take the dress off. What a funny little boy.
So now we are just chilling after church. I love 9:00 church. This is a picture of what Russell is doing today. He was eating a blue candy cane and made it into vampire fangs. What a weirdo but we love him. He got a good laugh out of the kids. (Okay and me too.)
Happy New Year!
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