Swimmin'

Shortly after Christmas we used some Christmas money my mom had sent to get a membership at a nearby gym with a sweet pool.

 We've been pretty consistent at hitting the pool.  I tried to convince Jaron that it actually saved us money because instead of spending my time going out shopping, we went to the pool instead. ;-)

During our time there each of the kids fell or re-fell in love with the water.

Even I got to spend a few heavenly mornings swimming lengths.

Gracen sometimes spent a lot of time watching AquaFit in the next pool over.  I think she learned a few moves.  Each lap around the lazy river she'd make me stop, hanging on for dear life against the fast current, and lift her up so she could see what the Aquafit ladies were doing to their music.

 The pool has a lot of neat stuff that makes it entertaining for little kids.  Unless we went on a Friday or Saturday afternoon or evening, we often had the place pretty much to ourselves.

 The best part of the pool pass was how comfortable my kids became with water.  Despite having taught swimming lessons in a previous life, I definitely think that the best way for young kids to learn to swim (initially) is to be in the water frequently.  I think the structure of swimming lessons isn't necessary until they're old enough to learn strokes, around age 5 or 6.

During our three months of frequent swimming, Alden learned to swim under water and mastered going down the big water slide (you have to be able to swim to the edge by yourself).

 

Gracen learned to swim with a noodle and decided she should therefore be free to roam the pool.  She even didn't want me to touch her in the lazy river.  Keeping a close eye on her became difficult as she grew more fearless.

 Eli became comfortable putting his head under the water and learned to jump from the edge without me catching him (but not into water more than chest-deep).

 And now our membership has ended.  

We're sad but looking forward to next month when the outdoor pools will open!

Mommy Preschool

This past week was our last week of mommy preschool for the year.  We've been doing a preschool twice a week with some of the families from our church.  Every week we switch whose house its at and for the last week, it happened to be at our house.  I never remember to take pictures but I made a point to during this last week since it was my last chance.

Alden was in heaven on this day because he had a day off and got to come to preschool.  He knows we have more fun doing our learning activities at preschool than he does doing his worksheets in kindergarten.  Man, I sure wish kindergarten was more like preschool! Sigh.

I snapped some pictures so we could remember this year's group and what kinds of things we did.

Like:

Stringing Fruit Loop necklaces.

 

 Going on letter hunts around the house.

 Thanks to my bestest friend, Kristin, we did the Three Little Pigs.  I got the idea for making these little pigs houses from the internet.  I gave them "puppets" on popsicle sticks and they loved being able to retell the story to each other.

Building spacial awareness with legos and tape. I got this idea from a great preschool blog but...I can't remember which one. :-)

 Sorting out what starts with "Z" and what does not.

 Then we found the animals who'd escaped from the zoo and hidden themselves around the house.

 We built robots out of a chopped up pool noodles and golf tees.  Another great idea from some other blog. :-)

 Lastly, we celebrated the last day with cupcakes.  Sweet little Grace had a hard time getting her candle to stay blown out. The girl is near obsessed with birthdays.

And now I'm thinking I might do a little, once a week preschool over the summer to force myself to get my kids thinking from time to time...if I can convince myself that mine and Jaron's schooling won't get in the way!

Happy Birthday, Alden!

Alden just turned six.  SIX!  I can't believe it.  We celebrated his birthday with a Transformers party.

 This is the lamest cake I've made since being a mom.  I was crazy busy this week and at the last minute, I tried to find some Transformers to put on top of the cake and, of course, I couldn't find anything but one unfamiliar Decepticon.  So...Alden got cupcakes.  But they were rainbow cupcakes!

 

 I don't know what he wished for because for weeks he's been blowing on dandelions, wishing for a good birthday party. :-)

Alden was totally spoiled by friends and family.  There was definitely a Transformers theme going on in the gifts. Notice the hat he's wearing?  Grandma Brunson tucked that into the gift she sent - it used to be Jaron's youngest brother James'.  Alden pretty much hasn't taken that hat off since!  Okay, he has taken it off because at one point, Eli was wearing it and I told him he would have to take it off at some point because it might need to be washed.  Eli told me I couldn't wash it because "it smells like hunting and fishing." 

 After food and presents, we set out on a "secret Transformers mission."  I made mission foldera for the kids out of manilla folders and Transformers mazes and puzzles from a coloring book.  On the back of the folders was a Transformers bingo game I got from the internet.

 After manilla folder "training," we set off to solve the secret mission: Find the Allspark.  We had a treasure map that showed us where the Allspark was hidden in the backyard.  Turns out the Allspark was a pinata (ahem, an oatmeal box wrapped in black paper, drawn on to look like an Allspark.  Classy, I know.  Like I said: It was a busy week! :-D)

 Let me tell you, that oatmeal box was one sturdy thing.  After all the kids had a go, we had my official party helpers, Katie and Maddie, take some swings.

 They couldn't quite bust into it so Jaron showed us HOW IT'S DONE.

 All in all, the party was a success.

A few days later, I snapped this picture of Gracen and her buddy Noah.  I love how Gracen is wearing Alden's camo hat and his new bow and arrows belt.  Noah is covered in black paint or marker.  These two are sooooo cute to watch together!  Everytime Noah walks up to the back door, Gracen invites her in and then says, "Come on, Noah - up to my room!"  And they toddle up to make a mess.  How cute are they?!

I Love To See The Temple!

 This week we got to attend the open house for the Kansas City Temple.  It was such a neat experience, especially for Alden and Eli, who are old enough to want to go to the temple but don't often get the chance to go inside.

 We went through with my great neighbor, Amy, and her two sweet little kids.  This is the best picture I could get after asking 5 kids aged 5 and under to sit still for an hour long tour.

 What a fantastic experience!

 In preparation for the temple's opening, our stake president asked that we spend 30 minutes a day in the scriptures.  I've been trying to wake up 30 minutes early to do that.  It never fails, though; within a few minutes almost every morning my bed looks like this, even when I wake up without an alarm!  It's like they can sense I'm awake and they don't want me to have to be one minute without them. :-)

P.S.  Tonight during our "family movie night," two-year-old Gracen out-of-the-blue asked if we could go to the temple again. Sweet girl!!

Ouch, Grace!

I went out for one hour and came back to this:

 Sweet little Grace had walked right into the swing of Alden's T-ball bat.

Easter

This Easter we had an egg hunt on Saturday morning as a family.  We like to do our egg hunts on Saturday so that on Sunday we can focus on the Christian reasons we celebrate Easter.  We had a few Family Home Evenings on Passover and the Resurrection.  I think Alden got it...I'm not sure how much the other two internalized.  Still, every time we asked the kids why we celebrate Easter, Alden responded with "Um, to hunt eggs?" :-)

On Saturday evening, we got together with some neighbors for a barbecue.  We brought a dozen eggs for each kid and pooled them all together for a big hunt.

 Eli often gets goofy around his friends.  I think he's unsure of how to act so he starts to be silly. :-)

 This is Alden's "Say Cheese!" face.

 Enjoying our spoils afterward.

 Alden managed to get Twix in 11 of his 12 eggs, which was quite amazing considering each parent brought a dozen eggs for each of their kids in the hunt and we pooled all those eggs together before all the Dads went and tossed them around the playground.

Mommy Skillz

I went to Target last week to look for a birthday present for Alden.  They were rearranging the store and had a ton of stuff on clearance.  I found this sweet little doll that I bought with the intention of stashing away for Gracie's birthday...but...I just gave it to her. :-)  And she loves it!  The doll laughs, cries, says "mama," and sucks on her bottle.  It's so sweet to watch Grace practicing her momma skills!

What Are Your Questions?

Twice yearly our church gathers together via satellite and internet transmissions to listen to General Conference.  It is when the officers and General Presidency of our church speak to us. We are encouraged to personally prepare for General Conference in various ways, one of which is to think about questions we have that we need answered.  One belief we have in our church is that we're entitled to personal revelation - answers to questions that come through the Holy Ghost.

In the days before conference, I gave it some thought and decided that my most pressing questions concerned my kids.  I wanted to know how I can guide my kids to become the best people they can be.  This question was answered first by Sister Cheryl A. Esplin.  She talked about taking advantage of the teaching moments that happen everyday.  She said that if we teach kids in the natural context of daily happenings, they'll be able to learn lessons the best.  Her talk can be found here.  The questions I had about teaching my kids were also specifically answered by Elder Larry Y. Wilson whose talk can be found here.  He talked about teaching without compelling, warning that it is unwise to try to make our kids do things.  Instead, we should be good examples to them so that they can learn to function well without us (our ultimate goal!).


What would your question be?  Besides receiving answers to the questions I had pondered, I felt uplifted and inspired by several of the talks.  If you're suffering from trials and adversity, I would recommend Henry B. Eyring's talk found here.  If you're struggling to forgive, Deiter F. Uchtdorf's talk was amazing: here.   Russell M. Nelson gave an inspiring talk for anybody who is just feeling "down."  He gave a pretty good rundown of the blessings God has given us here.  M. Russell Ballard spoke about the importance of family here.  He said that society is strengthened as families grow stronger.  He said that strong families will equal economic success and family breakdown will result in societal and economical ills. I think we're seeing a lot of consequences of the breakdown of the family in our society today. His talk was a stark contrast to the article featured on the cover of TIME Magazine a few weeks ago that spoke about the good that comes when women leave the home for the workforce.

If you're wondering what it is that our church is actually about, D. Todd Christofferson gave a good explanation of what our doctrine is and how it has been established here.  L. Tom Perry talked here about the Book of Mormon, including addressing how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work well together.

Each of these talks are also available to watch or listen to via lds.org. 

We believe that our church is headed by a prophet, Thomas S. Monson, just as prophets led the Lord's church throughout history.  President Monson gave a personal testimony of Jesus Christ and his Resurrection.  It amazes me that many in the world do not know that we are a Christian church.  The thing that President Monson said that most stood out to me was the advice he gave telling us to slow down.  He told us to take time in our busy lives to consider what our lives are busy with and to identify which things are eternally important and which things are really trivial.  He counseled us to spend more time on the things that matter most.  You can read his talks from this General Conference here or here.

5 Signs I'm Getting Old

1. My kids are getting old.  Next week Alden turns 6.  6!!!  He's officially entering middle childhood.  In the last few months, he's started mastering a ton of things independently, like riding his bike without training wheels, learning to swim, and going down the big waterslide (with deep water at the bottom) all by himself.  It's neat to see the confidence that accomplishing new feats gives him but it's sad that I'm no longer a mom of only young kids.  Gracen also is fully potty trained, has stopped napping, chooses what she wears (preferably "princess dresses") and only wants to cuddle right before bed.  I'm officially out of the baby stage for the time being!  I now finally truly believe all those people in the grocery store who told me "enjoy them while they're young, it goes fast!"

2. My shin splints won't go away.  Two weeks ago I decided that it'd be awesome if I could "sprint" the last tenth of a mile on the treadmill. I got off the machine feeling a little stiff and sore in the shins.  That feeling didn't go away for days and it made me remember having shin splints in high school.  But I don't remember having to take time off of sports to nurse shin splints.  This time, I nursed mine by doing low-impact exercises for a few days and yet still, two weeks later, when I run, those darn shin splints flare up again.  Could this be my body getting old?!

3. I like reading TIME magazine.  I really enjoy the articles.  While they're not scholarly enough to be able to use for my schoolwork, the magazine does present well researched opinions...even if I don't agree with those opinions.  Last week, the magazine had an article about how women are on the verge of becoming the primary breadwinners in their homes.  It reported that only 1 in 5 women stay at home full-time now.  The author declared this to be a triumph for women everywhere (HA!).  I was a little bit enraged at the time I read it and started my "letter to the editor" in my mind many times.  But I still enjoyed the read because it gave me an insight into "the world."  What happened to the days when TIME was something only my Grandpa read?!

4. I'm too tired to keep up with technology. I think the ipad 3 just came out.  Whoopee.  I got out of the habit of carrying even a cell phone while we lived in the Caribbean and I've never really gotten back on the bandwagon.  I do have one - a little pay-as-you-go number that generally lies on the microwave with a dead battery.  I occasionally remember to charge it and carry it with me in case of an emergency.  Most often, I use it (from home) to call the gals I visit teach who have a long-distance number.  Part of the reason I don't keep up with technology is a lack of funds; part of it is...I'm just too tired.

5.  If I haven't written it down, you bet I've forgotten it.  I can't specifically pinpoint the moment when my mind became a sieve that catches almost nothing.  If I don't have my calendar right at my finger tips, I cannot make an appointment of any kind because I am sure to double-book myself.  It's not that I'm that busy, I just can't remember what's going to happen in the coming week!

I think I'm getting old!