Surprise!

A couple of months ago  when Jessica had a surprise party Lexey said she wanted a surprise party, so we went ahead an planned one. Of course she didn't remember saying she wanted the surprise and spent weeks thinking up different things she might want to do for  her birthday. It was helpful for me to have her input. We had the party 10 days before her real birthday so she was still thinking we had a couple of weeks to talk about her birthday

 

 

Here are all the cute faces that met her as she walked in the door, saying "Surprise!"

The kids were all very excited to be part of the surprise. Here they are waiting for lexey to come home.

She was surprised. She didn't know what to think.

We had a great party...decorated goodie bags, made fruit loop necklaces, played pass the present..

We also played the balloon game where one player from each team dressed up in Dave's clothes and the teammates filled the clothes with balloons.

 Lexey isn't a big fan of cake so she requested worms and dirt.   Some of the kids were really worried when we said "we're having dirt for dessert" but most figured out it was going to be yummy.  one of the girls insisted she would not eat the dirt. So cute!

Love my little lexey!

She still has a few little birthday activities coming up .. family dinner and lunch with bob/kari, which has become a favorite b-day tradition.

more pics from the phone

Jo went through a stage for a couple of weeks where she'd open the freezer, get out the ice cream and help herself. It was nuts. Fortunately she doesn't do that anymore,(now she likes corndogs). I wish I had a lock on the fridge and freezer.

dog beach is my heaven on earth. We usually stop after a rough Calvin morning. Jammies b/c we never had time to change and because it is cold AND because it is so awesome to take them off and with them goes all the sand before we get in the car.

lunch date with friend Julie and little Jo tags along. She is great company. Julie and I take a long time on our lunch dates (2-3 hours) and jo can entertain herself by eating the entire time!:)

Legoland with Annika's family several times.

 ohio state scarlett and grey legos.

shopping in jammies. 

Quick hike with Dave. The girls didn't have school this day and dave happened to get home early. He was only with us an hour before going back in but we did manage to squeeze in a 10 minute hike!
Meanwhile, Lisa group texted some besties from med school and said "take a pic of what you're doing and pass it along" so this is what we were doing.

 Jo was with me in the backpack

Jo selfie. Look at that beautiful baby face.

I took Calvin to legoland with his friend Ryan from school.  All the boys wanted to do was buy stuff at the store.  Kinda crazy.  Ryan is Calvin's best friend at school. They enjoy each other. Both of them got much needed haircuts shortly after this day.

 Jo is quite the legoland fanatic!

Lexie's lego creation

cutie lexey

Wild Animal Park with  Arden and Maggie

pics off the camera

I am pretty slow to get the pictures off my phone and onto the computer but I finally figured it out. It's super easy...I'm not sure what I was afraid of! So, I'm going to dump a bunch of them here. They are from Jan-March

love my girls in these matching dresses from Grandma linda!

my bff

getting the cast off

ignore the mess but look at clares great posture and curved fingers! :)

met dad at the hospital for dinner. The kids were not behaved very well so he was sorry we came.

the day after the cast came off we went to legoland. Jo was so thrilled to play in the sand!

beautiful January beach day

cute baby bum. She stripped to nothing on our walk. crazy baby!

jo loves to ride with Clare's bff Annika at Legoland

Lexey is so darling!

Jo is darling too!

When Clare and Jo were sick.

teachers of youth

We had a great ward conference yesterday. The 2nd hour lesson was on teaching youth. We are all teachers of youth as formal teachers, parents, grandparents, examples. Of course the most important teachers are parents who have an immeasurable influence on the lives of their children.

Jeff Mangum was the teacher and outlined how to teach in the saviors way.

I wanted to remember his points and apply them more to my kids.  I have formal teaching jobs in church and out of church and I spend a lot of time and energy making good lessons and honing my teaching skills.  As the lesson was given I thought I need to spend more time and effort in teaching my kids at home, better Family Home Evening lessons, etc.

1. He loved them, prayed for them and continually served them.

2. He knew who they were and who they could become.

3. He prepared Himself to teach by spending time alone in prayer and fasting.

4.  He used the scriptures to teach and testify.

5. He shared simple stories, parables, and real-life examples that made sense to them.

6. He asked questions that caused them to think and feel deeply. He was sincerely interested in their answers.

7. He invited them to testify, and as they did the spirit touched their hearts.

8.  He trusted them, prepared them, and gave them important responsibilities.

9. He invited them to act in faith and live the truths He taught.

A few years ago I made the goal to have FHE every week. I did a great job that year and FHE is definitely a regular part of our life but I have been slacking on getting good lessons prepared and really taking advantage of those few minutes I have to teach.

I was thinking I might follow along with the youth curriculum of the church which would give me some great topics and references each month. I need to look into it more.
Jan - The Godhead
Feb - The Plan of Salvation
Mar - The Atonement of Jesus Christ
April - The Apostasy and the Restoration
May - Prophets and Revelation
June - Priesthood and Priesthood Keys
July - Ordinances and Covenants
Aug - Marriage and Family
Sept - Commandments
Oct - Becoming more Christlike
Nov - Spiritual and Temporal Self - Reliance
Dec - Building the Kingdom of God in the Latter Days


The 3rd hour of church the stake president taught. His lesson was great too. One of his messages was a reminder that there are different ways we spend time some are bad, good, better and best.  Many things we do are good but if idle time doing okay things, we may not have time to do the best and most important things.  Elder Scott said, "Make the spiritual development of your spouse and children a very high priority."  

Other notes : Isiah 58 is a sermon on fasting. Never knew that. Now I'm trying to figure out what it actually means, haha!

Elder Maxwell says many of us want to have our permanent residence in Zion but our summer cottage in babylon!  So true. We want to feel the love of Christ, enjoy spiritual blessings and still nibble on our favorite sins. It's a good reminder that we need to give it all up.

Pres. Clyde mentioned that he decided early on that they wouldn't do sports on sunday.  It was a one time decision. They never had to make it again...just let the consequences follow. Among those consequences was learning the meaning of the Sabbath Day, understanding what it means to put God first.   It made me think that I need to be sure that my kids can learn to put God first. It is easy to put life first and do a lot of good, but the first commandment is love God. Very simple and yet easy to overlook in the business of life. If we contemplate why we do things and follow the commandments it is because we love God.

Elder Scott gave a talk about the atonement and gave a lesson about how we each need to put up timbers as a fortress to defend ourselves from sin. Areas of weakness need stronger timbers, just as in a city or a country, the weak places would need more protection. Likewise, as individuals we need to set our own timbers and defend ourselves from our individual weaknesses.

Anyway, it was a great day. Lots to think about any many improvements need to be made. The easy part is realizing that, the hard part is making the changes to cause improvement.

certificate of merit

For piano, Clare has been getting ready for a big event called Certificate of Merit (preparatory level), where she has to do a theory exam, ear training exercises, sight reading, technique and performance of 2 pieces, all in front of judges.  Last week was her exam. She did a great job practicing hard and getting ready for the exam. Dad/Kari drove her to the church where the exam took place and waited in the waiting room. No parents are allowed in to watch.  Clare was kind of nervous...in fact she didn't eat lunch Saturday before the exam. I'm not sure if it was nerves or if she really wasn't hungry!

This is Clare in the car about to leave. 

To celebrate Clare's hard work we went out as a family to corvette diner. It is also pretty close to Alexey's and Austin's bday so we told them about the b-days and got some straws in the hair and dessert.

A few days after the exam Clare received her scores.  Yay clare! So proud of her!

Sight Reading:	Excellent
Technique:	Excellent
Repertoire:	Excellent
All Pieces Memorized ?:	Yes
Performance:	Passed
Theory Result:	Passed
Theory Score:	96 %, 77 out of 80, Incorrect: 3

Since we were all out on a beautiful day we took a few pics of the kids!