Family night in the classroom

Many expressions from our sweet little girl

Monday night was family night at the preschool.

Mrs. Sarah wanted to show the families in a short version of what they do everyday.

It was fun to see Alyssa in her school setting and how she interacts with the other kids.

When they first come into the classroom after eating in the cafeteria,

they find their name on the carpet and practice their letters and tell the teacher each letter in their name. It wasn't as easy once the letters were mixed up.

She has been talking about a beanie bag dance, so I finally got to find out what it was.

It's a song that you sing while putting the bean bag on your head, foot, back etc... and try not to let it drop.

There are several areas they get to choose from everyday to play.

This is one of Alyssa's favorites. 

She has a new painting almost everyday.

She loves art and pretend play the most.

She loves going outside to play and her "job" of the day that they get to pick such as, line leader, caboose, teachers assistant, etc....

They are learning some really fun songs and using sign language and Spanish with a lot of what they do. She is learning so much! 

She is still very much loving school, so much in fact, that she turned down a special outing with the whole family to stay at school!

quotable quotes:

I saw this quote here and loved these words from Spencer W. Kimball.

righteous womanhood

Each of you should be grateful to be a woman!  Self-pity is always a sad thing to see and especially when there is no justification for it.  To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age.  To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling.  The righteous woman’s strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times.  She has been placed here to help, to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home—which is society’s basic and most noble institution.  Other institutions in society may falter and even fail, but the righteous woman can help to save the home, which may be the last and only sanctuary some mortals know in the midst of storm and strife. ~ Spencer W. Kimball, "Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters." New Era, Jan 1979, 42

TOFW

This past weekend I was able to attend  the TOFW (Time out For Women). Thank you Becca for helping to work it out to go. I love my sister and she is so amazing and she 

does so much for me! 

It was a wonderful few days. Having great uplifting moments is something everyone needs from time to time to help them remember things they have forgotten or have taken for granted. I feel like I have had some voids in my life lately and have really needed something to give me a lift to help to get me back in the swing of things. It was wonderful to have the moments of laughing so hard to going to crying because of a special 

spirit that was brought by certain words and music. 

Here are the presenters from the weekend....

Michael McLean, Kim Nelson, Hilary Weeks, S. Michael Wilcox, Jane Clayson Johnson, 

 Jason Wright, Cherie Call, & Pam Hansen. 

These are all amazing people who have wonderful life stories and experiences that help them to touch the lives of others through either their music or just their words. 

The theme was "Joyful Life" 

We can't just have a joyful life, we really have to work at it and it has moments of good and bad and we have to take those moments and learn from them so we can grow and keep doing better.

There was so much that touched me in the words and music, but a few things I was just thinking of were this...

"Stop and Listen" Hillary Weeks talked about really listening to our children. We get so busy and are so bossy to them sometimes and always tell them to wait, or just another minute.

We need to be more mindful of those moments. 

..........

Another note I took was from Michael Mclean.  

"If you saw a mother treating her daughter the way you treat yourself, how would you feel?"

That was pretty powerful. At least to me. Isn't it so true that we as individuals are way too hard on ourselves? We really judge ourselves much harsher than anyone else does. At least, I am saying in general because maybe there are some that don't. I admit I do though. So this was a good lesson for me to stop and think a little more.

I said this in a past post not too long ago, but I love music! I love good music that can touch your life and the good words that help to lift you up and maybe sometimes teach you something, or to just feel really good and clear your head. It was so wonderful to have the music be a huge part of this event. 

It was so good to be reminded of God's love for us and that it is always there no matter what. He loves each and every one of his children on this earth. 

On Saturday, one part of the program, Hilary Weeks named off some submitted names of women who live a joyful life. After the list of names she read a few letters that had been asked to be submitted weeks before the event about someone in that person's life who lives a joyful life. I want you to meet my friend Jill.

One of the girls with us submitted an essay about her and it was read in front of everyone and it was beautiful. 

Jill moved here only months before we did from Utah also. We ended up a street over from one another. I am so glad that we have been able to get to know each other and be friends and serve in Young Womens together. She is such an example to me in all that she does and really deserved to be recognized for the life she lives 

and who she is striving to become.

There are really some amazing people out here and it is so good to 

be surrounded by all of them. 

There was so much more that I brought home than just these few things, but, I am just not always so good with the right words especially when I didn't take notes on the best things because I was just listening and soaking it all in.

My absolutely most wonderful Husband took off Friday 

to be with the kids so I could attend. 

The few days were so good with the friends, my sister, the temple, yummy food at the cheesecake factory and even the few short moments I got to see my cute little nieces. It was a good little getaway much needed!

Me, Jill, Bobbi, Lana, Nancy and Bev

(Thanks for pictures Jill and Bobbi! from who I took them from.

 I don't have a camera at the moment!)

Happy Birthday Hayden

We celebrated Hayden's day of Birth on Sunday.

Here are just a few pics from past memories. 3 is still so little and time has gone by fast but, I look back at these times and it seams like forever ago. Hayden was such a good baby! I couldn't have asked for better.  Hayden loves people and is so good at making others feel good. He gets along so good with Brandon and Alyssa (for the most part). Him and Alyssa are such good friends and hug and kiss when they say good bye. I think Hayden will be the peacemaker in our family. Hayden loves anything that goes! Cars, Trucks, Boats, Motorcycles, just to name a few.... His favorite thing to do is to ride Brandon's, or Alyssa's Bikes. He is so good at it. He is so adventurous in all that he does. 

This little guy is growing and changing so much this past year! He is so fun! He definitely takes after his dad in that he always gives everyone a good laugh from his silliness or him just laughing so hard at something simple that it makes everyone else laugh.

He was so cute when we sang to him, he sang right along with us. Everyone that told him Happy Birthday, he said it right back to them. He didn't quite get that. He knows he is three now, but sometimes he'll say, 2 , 3 . 

He was so fun opening presents, I think he enjoys opening more than finding out what's inside. As soon as he would have one open he would look at the present quickly then just as fast being asking for "next present". 

We love you our little Hayden! 

. 

I (or somebody) lost my camera!!! So these fuzzy pictures off of my phone are all that I have....... 

We did it!!

Can i tell you how excited I am for this! Really! Sunday was a breakthrough for Hayden! I was so amazed! The third time was a charm.  Here is the story. 

Three weeks ago Justin took Hayden to nursery and just left, he did ask for a kiss from mom but that was all he got. It was a rocky day but he made it all through church even though he fell asleep for the last 1/2 hour. 

The next week I took him and it was about the same but only a little bit better. 

Then came this past Sunday and he was awesome! Dad took him, he went straight to his feel safe rocking chair. He hardly cried at all and made it all the way through church again! It only took him 18 months exactly to get to this point! Now that we only have 3.5 months left, hopefully he will go to primary much better. He talked about what he did and about his friends with a smile. I am so glad he is happy to go now and I really hope he keeps it going! 

It will be so good to go to Sunday school again. 

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Helpless 

What a day I had on Thursday. The silliest thing happened to me it was so frustrating at the time though. The other day I was getting ready to leave to get the kids from school. Then it happened......

 I went to walk out the garage door and the knob would not turn. Let me rephrase that. It turned, the door just couldn't open because the mechanisms inside were stuck. I don't know all the lingo for it. i could not get into my garage anywhere! I took the knob off and tried to do it like that, then tried to put it back on and the outside knob fell into the garage. 

Through all of this I am trying to call Justin at work, call the school to keep my kids in the office until someone could get there, calling neighbors for rides for them, calling brother in law, and Dad for advice!  I ended up using needle nose pliers, and sticking them in the center hole and turning with everything I had and eventually I worked the latch loose. It only took about an hour to do. I am just glad I didn't have to take the hinges off. So, What I learned from this is, keep a back up remote in the house for the garage and it was a good thing I had tools inside. 

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"Mom, I know more than you do!"

Brandon informed me the other day, now that he is in 1st grade, he knows everything. He definately knows more than mom's know.  It is pretty funny how they "think" certain things.