Slow Days

November has been filled with s...l...o...w days.  We have stuck to home and life has been ultra simple.  But, you know what...I love simple and slow.  

Halloween

These three are the BEST!

Dragon

Belle

Astronaut 

HS - October

And just like that another month has come and gone with school!  October was full of fun things and we finished up a lot of units too!

We continued our study in DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS.  We are going a little faster than I wanted but we are hurrying to be done by January.  This month we covered the missions to the Lamanites, learned about Zion, the first Bishops of the Church, the Law of the Church, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, gifts of the Spirit, the revelation to settle in Missouri and the beginning of that settlement, the Doctrine and Covenants, how parents should teach their children, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon's mission, the three kingdoms of heaven, how Joseph Smith continued his work despite persecution, and Joseph Smith visiting Missouri again.  

MATH!  Math is going so well.  I cannot gush enough about the curriculum we are using.  It's just beautiful.  Jacob is doing so well.  We are still on his addition and subtraction unit.  We've done tally mark addition, ABB patterns, subtraction, talked about the minus symbol, taking away from five, making squares, practiced taking away with tally marks, making hexagons, and practicing plus one and minus one.  

PRESCHOOL!  Sarah's preschool is still going good but still needs a change.  This month I got a plan in place for what I think we will begin doing but it's going to take me some time to get it all together.  As much as I want to dive right in, it probably won't begin until January and that will give me a couple months to get things set up so I am not constantly rushing to get things ready.  

This month she finished her bear unit!  She loved it!  The emphasis was on the color black and obedience.  Obedience has been a topic brought up a lot lately so this was timely ;)  We then moved on and finished his third unit - DUCKS!  This unit was all about the color yellow and patience.  She was so adorable and brings up being patient a lot now.  I do love how it has helped us talk about these virtues a lot more in the home.  

HISTORY!  We finished up our first unit in history!  We have really loved talking about ancient history.  I've been so impressed with what Jacob (and Sarah actually!) have absorbed.  This month we learned about Abraham, Isaac and Rebecca and the Ancient Trade Routes, Joseph in Egypt, and Moses and the Passover.  We also finished our book, Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones.  It was a really fun mystery book that went perfectly with what we were learning.  It has been really amazing for ME to make connections that I never have made before between these biblical events and how they relate in history as a whole.  I've loved it.  We are excited to move on to the next unit!

SCIENCE!  This month we finished up our water unit!  This unit has been so fun and we have learned A LOT.  This month we learned about icebergs and glaciers, groundwater, water power and clean water (this lesson was really powerful to discuss and show the kids how precious CLEAN water is and how inaccessible it is to many).  

As much as we have loved water we were all excited to move on to our next unit - SPACE SCIENCE!  We have only barely begun but we are excited!  We did a little introduction to space and discussed the solar system, what a galaxy is, and the Milky Way.  Then we learned about stars - how they are formed and the different brightness of stars.  We watched some amazing time lapse videos from Mauna Kea (which I had never heard of but would love to visit now!).  They were incredible.  

LANGUAGE ARTS! This month has been awesome.  He is continuing to make good progress with his spelling, phonics cards, and has passed off several of his sight word ladders.  He ALSO memorized a poem this month called, "Whisle" by Dorothy Aldis.  It's adorable.  

"I want to learn to whistle,

I've always wanted to;

I fix my mouth to do it, 

But the whistle won't come through.  

I think perhaps it's stuck

and so I try it once again;

Can people swallow whistles;

Where is my whistle then?"

This month we learned about consonant blends BR, TR, and DR, what a subject of a sentence is, verbs, artwork, AR and OR words, and /ER/ phonograms (ER, UR, IR).  We also dived into the life of Beatrix Potter and her connection with nature and read The Tale of Peter Rabbit (one of our favorites!).  We also did some art appreciation and discussed some paintings from Meyer von Bremen.  Jacob even wrote a letter to him about what he liked about his painting.  It was so sweet.  

HANDWRITING!  Jacob's handwriting is so beautiful.  I secretly (or maybe not so secretly) love it.  He continues to work on his copy work while I read aloud to him.  We finished Little Pear by Eleanor Frances Lattimore which was sweet and funny.  And then we just finished The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne.  Jacob loves it and even asked me to start reading it again as his bedtime story.  The end of that story makes me teary eyed every time.  When Christopher Robin knows he is growing to grow up and things are going to change.  I feel like we get closer and closer to that time every day with Jacob.  If you have little boys especially, read this book to them!

"...wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place, on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."

It has been a great month of learning!

Fall Festivities

At the end of the month, the kiddos and I headed south to Draper to spend a couple days with my parents.  Sadly, shortly after we got there, Benjamin came down with bronchitis and so I mostly stayed home with him, while Jacob and Sarah were immersed in Halloween goodness!

One morning, my Mom, Melina, and Megan took Jacob and Sarah to Gardner's Village.  They were so excited to see the witches!

Then later that day, Melina took the kiddos to the pumpkin patch when they played lots and it sounded like they had a wonderful time.  

The MAIN event the kids were excited about was going to the Boo at the Zoo again.  We went last year and I think it is a tradition that is going to stay for awhile!  We were a little worried about taking Benjamin but we thought since he was going to be nestled in the stroller the whole time he would be okay.  He loved it - and so did the others!

Bronchitis

If there is one word to sum up October it has to be BRONCHITIS!  Uggg...it cycled through each one of the kids and it was no fun.  

Sarah was the first to go.  She sounded so sad when she spoke and we teased that it was like living with a mountain lion in the house.  You could hear her breathing (or purring) from the other room.  It was so loud!  One thing about our kids is they never slow down.  Even when they are sick.  We pretty much have to force them too.  So we knew it was serious when all Sarah wanted to do was snuggle and not move!

The cruddy thing about this was I think it would have been easier if they had all got it at the same time but this lasted THREE WEEKS!  It was seriously like clock work.  Sarah began having signs on Wednesday, by Friday she was completely out, and then on the up by Tuesday.  Then Wednesday, Benjamin took a turn and got it (he definitely was the worst, his cries were guaranteed the saddest sound you ever heard!), and then the next Wednesday Jacob got it.  I think we have broken the cycle though - or at least Mark and I are crossing our fingers!

30th Birthday

***So I actually tried to update the blog several weeks ago but for some reason my pictures are not moving over from my phone to my computer.  It's frustrating and I still can't seem to figure it out.  So until I do, unfortunately all I have is my ramblings.  Sorry!***

In October, I got to celebrate my 30th birthday!  WOOT!  I had a lot of people warning me that 30 was their hardest birthday ever - but I am really happy to say that that was not my experience!  I've reflected on that a little and I think it's because I am pretty much right where I thought I would be at 30.  I realize what a blessing it is to say that, and it's not to say that life is perfect, but I have a great husband who is also my best friend and three children that I love and get to spend every day with.  I am a very happy and blessed woman.  Plus, maybe it is just me getting older but 30 doesn't seem that old to me anymore!

I definitely had a first EVER for my birthday though - and that was waking up to SNOW!  I couldn't believe it.  We had a good couple of inches of fresh snow to wake me up.  I was so excited.  But then got a little bummed because my birthday activity was to go to the pumpkin patch (which is one of my FAVORITE things to do!) but that seemed less fun doing it in the snow.  So we spent the morning having a lazy breakfast in bed and just hanging out.

I knew we had to do SOMETHING though and so after Ben got up from his nap we headed over to Logan to go bowling!  It had been YEARS since we have gone bowling - and the kiddos had never been!  We had the whole place to ourselves most of the time and it was a hoot!  I did HORRIBLE!  It got pretty embarrassing for awhile.  And let's just say that every. single. person. did better than me.  We had a great time though and that's all that matters!  The kids are already begging to go again!

After bowling, we went over to Pizza Pie Cafe.  We ate and ate and ate.  So much yumminess!  It was a great way to end the day.  

It was a great day filled with time with my favorite people.  I truly am so grateful for every minute I have with them.  They make my life wonderful.  They are the reason turning 30 is so easy.  I mean...really...I'm just getting into my prime!

The Correct Name of the Church

"It was the Savior Himself who said, 'For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.'

'Ye shall call the church in my name...

And how be it my church save it be called in my name?  For if a church be called in Moses' name then it be Moses' church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church.'

Every Sunday as we worthily partake of the sacrament, we make anew our sacred promise to our Heavenly Father that we are willing to take upon us the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.  We promise to follow Him, repent, keep His commandments, and always remember Him.  

When we omit His name from His Church, we are inadvertently removing Him as the central focus of our lives.  

Take the Savior'r name upon us includes declaring and witnessing to others - through our actions and our words - that Jesus is the Christ.  

If we as a people as an individuals are to have access to the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - to cleanse and heal us, to strengthen and magnify us, and ultimately to exalt us - we must clearly acknowledge Him as the source of that power.  We can begin by calling His Church by the name He decreed.  

My dear brothers and sisters, I promise you that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord's Church, He whose Church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen.  We will have the knowledge and power of God to help us take the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord.  

So what's in a name?  When it comes to the name of the Lord's Church, the answer is "Everything!"  Jesus Christ directed us to call the Church by His nae because it is His Church, filled with His power."

The Correct Name of the Church

By President Russell M. Nelson