"I am a builder...."

For those of you who work in Primary you know the song "My Eternal Family". We put extra focus on learning that song today, and I built this little peg board and hammer for it. The song starts out, " I am a builder working each day... " and it has a very pronounced beat. So the kids got to hammer in the pegs as we sang the song. I had so much fun making this. I really didn't need to, but I almost never get to do wood projects for fun, so this was a treat. The kids really loved it too-especially William.

Kaitlyn the Cook

So, while I was cleaning up in the kitchen today around lunchtime, Kaitlyn decided to make herself a sandwhich. I looked over and saw that she was making one for William too. And then I took a closer look, because she had something else with the peanut butter between the bread, and it wasn't jelly. I watched as she continued to make the other sandwhich for William, and discovered the secret ingredient: Peanut Butter and Goldfish sandwhiches! Yum!!

Haunted Ginger Bread houses

We had a good time making some Haunted Halloween houses tonight. We didn't really use ginger bread. We just covered some big juice cartons in brown paper. Then we stuck candy on them with royal icing. Look at the candy mess!!

Sunday Pictures

"Mommy," Alan whispers in sacrament meeting, "Can I draw a picture?"

"Yes," I answer, "But only if you draw a Sunday picture."

So, here are the Sunday pictures that Alan and Sarah drew today.
Sarah drew this:

Alan drew this:I guess I should've clarified that even though there are wars in the Book of Mormon, it's not really appropriate to be drawing them in sacrament meeting.

Moster Mash

Fiddlers, and Pythons and Goats, Oh My!

We went to the Georgia National Fair on Saturday. The kids really enjoyed it. When we first got there, we saw an older couple singing and playing the fiddle with a bunch of wooden noise maker toys in front of them. They had a sign that said, "Kids wanted to make music". So our kids sat down and played and tapped to the music. We saw lots of little side shows around the fair. At one of them they asked for 10 volunteers to help hold the last animal in the show. They didn't say what the animal was until they had 10 children lined up to hold it. Then they brought out a giant python. Kaitlyn and Sarah were a little scared, but eventually they helped hold it. Alan thought it was neat.

We also went to a petting zoo at the fair where we could help feed the animals. William loved feeding the animals and kept holding his hand out for more food to give to them. It didn't bother him at all to have them eat right out of his hand.

We also saw a water show and some cow boys in action, and Tom and the 3 older kids got to ride a few rides at the carnival end of the fair. Lot's of fun!! It was only $8 per adult and kids 10 and under were free. A really good price for all the entertainment that was there.

Super easy, super cute pumpkin project

So, I saw this idea on a craft blog to mod podge orange tissue paper to glass jars, and then cut out faces with black paper and glue them on. And then mod podge them again with a high gloss mod podge. I decided that was too much work, plus I didn't have any orange tissue paper or mod podge.

But, I really liked the look of them and thought it would be waaaayyy faster to just paint them!! And it was. They look just as cute as the fancy ones on the craft blog if I do say so myself. The most important part was that Kaitlyn had a great time doing it with me.

All you do is paint the jars orange and the rims with green with normal acrylic paint . Wait a few minutes for the orange to dry, then draw the faces on with a black permanent marker. You can also paint the faces on with black paint. After they're dry string some white Christmas lights in them. Or, you can put candles in them as well! Here they are in our fireplace. It was close to 90 degrees today so we won't be having fires in the fireplace any time soon. :(

Some pumpkins have faces...

This week we've been having fun with pumpkins. First, Kaitlyn and I made paper bag pumpkins. She really enjoyed stuffing the bag with newspaper and then getting to paint it. She used black paint to put little faces all over it. I also covered an ice cream container with orange felt, then cut a variety of felt shapes for her to make faces with. She also cut some felt to make some face peices. We keep the peices inside the "pumpkin". Even the big kids have had fun making different faces on the felt pumpkin bucket.

Lovely Letters

Here's Kaitlyn and William getting to know their letters. I bought these neat foam alphabet letters on sale at Toys R Us. They love them! Because she's been playing with them alot, Kaitlyn has started writing capital letters on her own. I find little "notes" that she's written on papers around the house.

Conference Carrot Cake

Ok, I realize that alot of our posts are about sweet things that we make, but I really enjoy baking, and the kids love doing it with me..... That being said, between sessions of conference I decided to make a "Conference Cake". Not as elaborately decorated as some highly talented friends and family members might make, but delicious nonetheless.

It was a yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

YAY!! FALL!!

We had fun making sugar cookies yesterday. Fall is my favorite time of year, and we just had to celebrate. We're sooooo happy it's finally fall. We loooove the cooler weather, the cute decorations, and the all of the holidays. I get so depressed when the holidays are over. But anyway, I love it that my kids are outside playing right now and have most of the day. Too bad they couldn't have played outside all day during the summer. Well, we tried, but after 10 minutes there faces started to melt off. Oh well. Our sentance in the south will be up in a few short years.... In the mean time, we're loving the autumn time here!! And to celebrate we made some cookies yesterday!! Aren't they cute? We used a powdered sugar and corn syrup glaze. Our powdered sugar tasted a little stale though, so they looked better than they tasted. :p

FHE preparing for General Conference

For Family Home Evening on Monday I made a Bingo Card with the faces of the apostles on it. We called out the names of the apostles, and helped them find them on their cards. Then they covered them with beans. The kids really enjoyed it. It was so simple that I thought they might not. So, for General Conference this weekend, I made a Bingo card with not just the Apostles faces, but the 1st Presidency faces and scenes from conference as well. I got the pictures from the pdf version of the May 2009 Ensign. When ever they see one of these faces, or one of these scenes, they can cover it with a marker.
Feel free to copy this and rearrange the pictures for your own bingo cards.

Our New Addition

Tom brought home another pet today. He had to work today, and while he was outside at the range, he saw some baby turtles. So, now, we have a pet turtle that Sarah has promptly named Shelly. So, we'd like you to meet baby Shelly. We think she was born today. Tom says she's a snapping turtle.

William is in love with the turtle. He was so enthralled with it that he wouldn't even eat his dinner, he kept wanting to get down and go stare at it. After dinner Tom let him hold it for a second or two. He stood very still and let it walk on his hand a little bit. He's still staring at it even now.

Kaitlyn's feeling better

I wasn't going to post about this because it's kind of personal, but we just want to say thank you to each of you who were praying for Kaitlyn. Last month she had bronchitis, which turned into pneumonia-thanks to the Martin Army Pediatric Clinic. Two weeks ago she had a stomach virus which made her miserable for about 24 hours. Then this week, since Sunday she's been so sick with something else that she was unable to eat, open her eyes or even move . She started feeling better on Tuesday, but we think she was suffering from a kidney infection and even last night after 2 days of antibiotics and lots of tylenol and motrin, she still had a fever of 101. I say we "think" it was a kidney infection, because the Doctor didn't tell us what was wrong-just threw some antibiotics at her. All her symptoms pointed toward a kidney infection. Anwyay, this morning, the fever was finally gone, and after we took Alan and Sarah to school she wanted to play "stage". So we put some curtains up in the living room, and she and William put on a show.

Prayer works.

We're still praying that she will continue to feel better and not get sick again. We're also praying that the Doctors will have more concern for her than they've been showing and help us find out why she's been getting so sick so often.

Happy Birthday to me and Tom

Yesterday was my birthday, and last Saturday was Tom's birthday. He was in Colorado for his birthday and didn't get to do anything special. He came home Saturday night, and so we celebrated both his and my birthday yesterday. It was a happy family day. All I wanted for my birthday was to have Tom home since he's been gone on my birthday for multiple years. For fun I made an oreo ice cream cake. I just made a simple chocolate cake in two round cake pans, put ice cream in the middle, and frosted it with homemade whipped cream and oreo cookies.

YUM!