Building My Eternal Family

We had a fun quarterly Primary Activity on Saturday. It was my last big 'hurrah' as Primary President. I was actually released the Sunday before the activity, but the bishopric told me I wasn't off the hook for putting on the activity. The theme that we chose was "Building My Eternal Family." We found the idea through sugardoodle.net.

When the kids arrived they each got a "Building Permit" and a yellow "hard hat." They then went and colored pictures of their families while we waited for everyone to arrive. For our opening I talked about being a local architect. We were in a construction zone and needed to wear our hard hats to protect our heads. I went over our building plans found in D. & C. 88:119.

119 ^aOrganize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a ^bhouse, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

The kids were then divided into groups and went to 3 stations.

At a House of Learning the kids made houses out of craft sticks and glued the pictures they drew of their families onto them.
I really enjoyed looking at the houses that my kids built.


At a House of Order the kids had a relay race. They had to take care of baby, mow the lawn, fold laundry and pick up blocks. I like how the kids are all lined up and ready to go.

I was in charge of the House of Glory. I likened eternal families to rice crispy treats. The rice crispies are like the members of our family. If I dumped out the entire box, that wouldn't even come close to how many people are in my family if we go back to Adam. The sealing power found in the temples is like the marshmallows and butter. When they are melted together, they become very sticky. When combined with the rice crispies, they make something wonderful. Can we separate the rice crispies from the marshmallows? No! We wouldn't want to. They are sealed and will be together forever. I demonstrated all of this to the kids, then they all got to eat a rice crispy treat. Yum!

We got back together for the closing at the House of Faith. The member of the bishopric over Primary talked about Noah's ark and how Noah's family worked together, lived the gospel and were saved on the ark. After the closing song, "My Eternal Family," and prayer the kids lined up for pictures in the ark. The cubscouts made a nice ark for us.

After their pictures were taken they went to build their own lunch--Hawaiian Haystacks. It was a great activity. I will miss working with my counselor and secretary. They are awesome ladies!!!

FYI-I am now the ward accompanist. I play the organ in sacrament meeting and the piano in primary and for anything else if I'm needed. I now feel like I actually have to practice. . .

Birthday and a Butterfly

We had a fun afternoon at the sprinkler park here in town after Mike was done with work in the middle of the week. The kids had a blast. Even Alyssa thought it was really fun to get her feet wet. She giggled and giggled when Mike stuck her feet in the water.

Rebecca had her Kindergarten graduation. They made it a pretty big deal, which really surprised us. They ordered real graduation caps and gowns for them all with tassels even. Here is a picture of her in her gown.

We had fun celebrating Ethan's 5th birthday this past week. He wanted a Luma (a cartoony star from the game Super Mario Galaxy) birthday cake. We went to Wendy's with the younger kids for his birthday lunch and all got frosties and chicken. Here are some pictures from the big day.

On Saturday we went to the LDS Temple as a family. It is about a 3 hour drive for us, so we generally have to get up early and spend most of the day on the trip. The kids were pretty good, though. Mike took them to the mall to play and Lena took them to a local library while each of us took turns doing temple work and the other watched the kids. On our drive back home we took our time and stopped a few times so Mike could take some pictures. On one of the stops, Lena noticed a big black and yellow butterfly. Mike had his zoom lens on (Sigma 70-300 mm lens for Nikon digital SLR) and was able to get a few nice shots of the butterfly before it flew away. We found out later that it was a Giant Swallowtail. Here are a few of our favorite shots.

We also saw a giant troll on our way down to the temple. Fortunately we were able to get past it before it grabbed our van. We managed to get a picture of it as proof.

We got Wii Fit this past week. It has been a lot of fun. Mike has done really good at actually exercising each day since we got it. Apparently, however, the house repairs that he was doing were pretty good exercise since he lost about 12 pounds in the last month. He had been noting that a lot of his pants were starting to get tight, but now he's back down to his normal weight again. Lena really enjoys Wii Fit as well. The difficulty is doing it without the kids interfering with the balance board. Who would have thought that exercising could be so fun or even somewhat addictive?

Piano Recital

Rebecca participated in her very first piano recital! My students were able to perform at a local nursing home on Saturday. The residents loved the recital and have asked us to come back again soon.

It's About Time. . .

So it's been awhile since we've updated. . .and a lot has happened this past month.

We participated in a Day of Service for the entire U.S. Southeastern Region for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



We went to the zoo and helped with Spring clean-up of the grounds.

Jon participated in a Music Teachers Association Honors Recital because of his Superior performance at the MTA auditions.


Jon also turned 8. We had all the grandparents in town, plus uncles, aunt and cousin. Most of the boys went on the Father and Sons campout the evening of Jon's birthday. They always do a service project where they camp, so they can stay for free. This year their service was clearing trails. They had a great time!


After the Father and Sons, Jon had another recital at our Church with his teacher. It was an impressive recital.

We ended the evening with Jon's baptism. Grandma spoke on baptism, Mike performed the ordinance, Nana spoke on the Holy Ghost, I welcomed him to Primary, and the bishop welcomed him to the ward. It was really nice.





Jon requested a Mario birthday cake. We didn't have time until Sunday to have the cake. While I created Mario, Ethan and Rebecca made their own mixed-up Mario cake.

Happy Birthday Jon!!!

Before and After

The post y'all've been waiting for. . .

Here's a reminder of what our kitchen looked like before:




Here's what our kitchen looks like now:



Pretty nice, don't ya' think?!

Thanks to everyone who helped Mike put it in!!!!