Family Home Evening

Tonight we had an amazing FHE about Families, both physical and spiritual, given by our 5 year old E. He has really enjoyed primary from the start, but this year he is really soaking in every word of it. He is really good at remembering FHE, but I usually give the lesson, but this time he asked me to get a few things for him, a ball, a family picture, a picture of Christ and some paper dolls. (all things that were part of his lesson today) Then he gave the whole FHE all by himself. Including assigning an opening and closing prayer and song. During his lesson he told us how we were born as spirit children first and our spirits look like our physical bodies. And how we have a Heavenly Father. Then he told us how great it is to be in a family here on Earth. I could here the exact words that his teacher must have said to him the last couple of weeks just pouring out of him. I couldn't have given a better lesson. Then he took the ball and asked a question and then tossed it randomly to each member of the family and they had to answer. A had to add his two sense at the end and Baby S entertained us while dancing to "I am a Child of God" and "Jingle bells." Really we are so blessed to have the beautiful children that we have. They are great examples to us. And They help me to learn so much everyday.

2010...so far

Baby S has taken a few independent steps in the past few weeks, but this afternoon she just decided to walk across the room from her Dad to her Mom. Its so much fun to see her explore this world. Her new words are pretty, bow, shoe and osmosis (okay she hasn't said that one yet).
Matt has a new calling as primary teacher for the CTR 6/7 and loves it! He is also playing basketball with the Elders in the Stake's tournament ( I know what you're thinking...He can run? Okay so Ive put on 50 lbs since high school but truthfully I can still ball with the high schoolers that play. ) Anyway I have a lot of fun playing and I look forward to it every week. Ive realized that exercise can be such a great stress relief. Work continues to be very challenging but enjoyable. I love the fact that I work with my very favorite people in this town and no one else.
The boys love school and surprise me everyday with their grownup observations. Alex and I are looking at Schools for them next year and we are leaning toward a open classroom approach Charter school.
Alex is excited about a party that she is throwing next month and has some fun things planned.
2010 has just started but I know it will be one of our best yet. I remembered something we used to do; making dream lists and going dream building-gotta get back in that habit

olympics I can do

I get to pass the torch for the Digital Scrapbook Memories Olympics this year, so here it is, if you would like to enter to win a package for their retreat this year you can pass this image along too and go here to enter to win.

Christmas

We have had an eventful Christmas break. We left after school on the 17th and headed down to see Mom and Dad Y, and Ben and Allison's family. We packed our time there with fun family activities including a snow ball fight in 70 degree weather, looking at lights in downtown Riverside, two great dinners out (one with kids and one without), and a couple great dinners at home, decorating sugar cookies with Grammy, and lots of just hanging out and playing. Sabrina, Kevin and Kaleb also came for part of the weekend and it was so great to see them (I think my boys are still small until I see them with their other cousins and then they seem so big!)
We miss the Yrungaray side of the family so much! It is so nice to get together and have no drama and just feel loved and appreciated for who you are!
We came home on Tuesday and ran into some snow on the way so it took us several more hours than usual, but I was so grateful that Matt slowed down so much and really drove carefully! (thanks Mom Y for reminding him of how important this is ! :) )
Wednesday we tried to rest and get things finished up for Christmas, but we were so beat that there wasn't a lot done.
Christmas Eve we went over to my Dad's house for dinner and family time. Dinner was good and we had a great time with each other. We also got some fun things from my dad and got to give him some Christmas ornaments my boys made for him to start his tree.
Christmas morning we opened presents here with our kids and got to enjoy just sitting around for awhile. I also made these amazing cinnamon rolls that you leave in the fridge over night so they are super easy in the morning, plus they were super yummy. Then we headed to my mom's house for more opening of presents... my mom made each of us a snugly :) and we exchanged a few gifts, then we played rock band the rest of the evening. It is a fun game and it's fun to be silly with each other!
Today was another recovery day. we didn't do much of anything, but we will have to get back into routine next week, so that my kids will not be so whiny (it was a tragedy every few minutes this morning...it was tough to be the patient one!)
We are so grateful for the season! I am so grateful for my Savior and Redeemer. I am grateful to have the gospel in my life and to give that gift to my children. I am so grateful for ALL of our family and friends. We pray for all of you and hope you can feel our love. You bring joy to our lives that can not be expressed in words.
PS sorry for the lack of pictures, but I don't want to dig out the camera right now, I'm too comfy on the couch right now :)

Halloween

This Halloween was tons of fun. It was a beautiful warm day and evening which made it easy to have a long trick or treating and ALOT of candy. My mom made some great costumes (as always) and it was fun to celebrate a fun day with so many friends and family.

My niece (Girl E) and and Baby S were both Tinkerbell this year, my mom made them matching costumes and they thought it was so fun to match!

My brother Jon wanted to be a mummy this year, his costume was the coolest mummy I have ever seen! and baby S just loves him, even in the scary costume.

Ralleigh was some sort of Jedi, with chains across the face as a detail, he has a great imagination, that my mom is so awesome to help come to life for him. E was Optimise Prime, my mom made the body suit, but I made the boxes that made it into the transformer, I say this because I think they came out pretty cool! I made the templates for the autobot and the flames from scratch... and it turned out awesome if I do say so myself :) A was CocCoke an imaginary character that he has been talking about for a long time and my mom once again brought to life. According to his latest description it had 10 arms but 6 were enough to make him happy. It turned out way cool, and he loves it so much that he has worn it for PJs every night except for one (because it was being washed) since Halloween.

Here is a better look at all the arms on CocCoke.

All in all it was a great night, we Trick or Treated at my mom and my dad's neighborhoods and Trunk or Treated with my ward. We got to see everyone in their costumes and LOTS of treats!

Candlestick Ward Relief Society Super Saturday

My ward is having a Super Saturday soon and I wanted the sisters to be able to get on line and get the information. So for those of you that are not in my ward I hope this gives you ideas for your own Super Saturdays one day, and I promise I will have pictures from Holloween soon!

Candlestick Ward Relief Society
Super Saturday
November 21st
10a.m. to 1:30p.m.

We will have quilts set up for everyone to work on and visit. Please signup to let us know we will have the pleasure of your company at for lunch at noon, even if you do not want to do any crafts! (we need to know how many sisters to prepare for.)

Please have money in by November 8th, make checks payable to Linda Jensen

1. Joy Christmas Blocks
Cost: $3.75 add $1 for candle
Time to make: 45 min
Supplies you bring: none needed


2.Explosion Picture Box
Cost: Free
Time to make: 45 min
Supplies you bring: You may bring three 12”x12” and one 8.5”x 11” scrapbook card stocks. Or you may use what will be provided. (these can be made to match any color scheme so if you have one in mind please bring what you would like to match that.) You may also bring any embellishments you would like to use.

3.Casserole carrier
Cost: $.75 (this covers the wood that will be used)
Time to make: 45 min
Supplies you bring: 1 yard quilted fabric and 1 yard matching bias tape

4.Glass Etching on Casserole Dishes
Cost: $1.50
Time to make: 15 min plus dry time (the older your dish is the longer it takes for the etching cream to take.
Supplies you bring: You bring your own dish to etch, we provide the stencil and etching cream.
**Please specify exactly what you would like your etching to say.

5.Seasonal Tiles (this is to complete the set of holiday decorations that Alex started with the valentines day LOVE tiles)
Cost: full set (includes 12 seasons and holidays) $15
Seasons (spring, summer, fall and winter) $5
Holidays(new years, Easter, St. Patrick’s day, forth of July, Halloween, thanks giving and Christmas) $8.75
Valentines set (LOVE) $1
Time to make: 45 min per set
Supplies you bring: none needed

6. First aid carry pack
Cost:$1.30
Time to make: 15 min
Supplies you bring: you will provide you own first aid supplies to put into the carrier

7. Foam picture frame (pictured with matching explosion picture box)
Cost: $1.25
Time to make: 45min-1hour
Supplies you bring: 2 squares of 14”x14” fabric (matching or coordinating) and 18” ribbon and any other embellishments you want. Many of you would have this sitting around already

8. Soap dispenser
Cost: $1.50
Time to make: 10-20 min
Supplies you bring: none needed

9. reusable ice pack
Cost: $1
Time to make: 10 min
Supplies you bring: none needed

10. microwave produce cooking bag (perfect for cooking potatoes)
Cost : $1.25
Time to make: 10 min
Supplies you bring: none needed

If you would like you may sign up for the craft by leaving a comment here or emailing Kris Campbell and then getting your money to Linda Jensen.

Please come have a great time with us crafting, eating and visiting!

End of Summer Sillies

Well we still have a couple of weeks for summer vacation as the boy's preschool doesn't start until the second week of September. So we have been trying to take advantage of the time we have left as much as we can.
Today we are doing a silly project we are still in the middle of (they are still cooling). We took a bunch of broken crayons and peeled them then broke them into pieces and melted them into new swirly ones. The full instructions are on my friend Launi's blog. We used one of those "water bottle" shaped ice cube molds and lined it with foil to make sure they would come out easily. So far they look really cool!

***update, the crayons turned out awesome, they took about 25 min in the oven, but when finished they were about the size of the large crayons, so they worked really great! One note though is to make sure you don't even get a pin whole in the aluminum foil or you will get a mess, in the mold and it stains!

My sister Jenni comes over every Wednesday night so while her hubby Braeden plays basketball with Matt. Well this always ends up being a really late night for my kiddos, cause who wants to go to bed when your craziest aunt is there to play? This will have to change a little after school starts cause none of us will be able to sleep in on Thursday mornings like we do pretty often right now. Well last week we were all playing in the living room like normal and I hear baby S gag on something (this happens often cause she likes to stick her fingers down her throat for some strange reason) This time there was something crazy in her mouth that made us all laugh so super hard! She spit it out right after these pictures (she wasn't suffocating, or anything, it was just SOOO big for her mouth!)

We play a lot of dress up at our house because we have all the old Halloween costumes that my mom has made over the years and they are REALLY cool! Well this time E used a pair of padded pants that the crotch had warn out of as a shirt... I couldn't stop laughing! (Sorry the picture isn't great, but if I go and edit all the pictures I don't get the post done... so I am posting it even though it's a little dark and blurry)

My boys used to love to wear goggles all the time, and I have some great pictures of especially E, but Baby S does NOT feel the same way about them, but I had to see, so here is a couple of pictures of my attempt at putting goggles on her. As you can see she was much happier once she got them off of her face.

One more silly thing I don't have a picture of... we haven't been camping yet this summer and we have been missing one of the things that you have to have when you go camping especially so... we have been making smores in the oven. We start with one graham cracker and pile up the mini marshmallows on each and put them under the broiler for 1 minute. (watch up close!) When browned pull them out and sprinkle them with chocolate chips and smoosh the other graham cracker on top and enjoy.

Matt took me on a great adventure and we took lots of pictures for our anniversary, but that is going to have to wait cause not it is nap time and I have to go... so until next time.