Got Blueberries?

Today is my 30th birthday. I don't have much to say about it though. It pretty much just feels like any other day to me. I don't expect anything exciting to happen, nothing ever does. Unless you count Scott getting rear-ended in our van on the way to work...and not getting the other guys insurance information because he didn't want to be late to work...but I don't think that's too exciting. I've decided to start a tradition of getting rid of a bad habit on my birthday, and this year I'm giving up soda. And that's all I have to say about my birthday.

I still have a few other things I've been meaning to post. First up...BLUEBERRIES!

I've discovered that Holly loves blueberries. I give her frozen ones. She loves to eat them, and squish them in her fingers, and spread the purple juice all over the place.

I bought blueberries because I wanted to try this recipe out. They turned out really yummy. They don't look as good as they do on the website I got the recipe from, but they were still good. I love eating blueberries baked into thing, but the problem is nobody in my family does. So I had this huge pan of Blueberry Crumb bars, and nobody but myself to eat them. I guess I could have brought them into work, but I didn't feel like being generous with my coworkers.

After eating lots of blueberries Holly was quite the mess. Instead of hauling her upstairs to take a bath I decided to just stick her in the kitchen sink. Maybe this isn't very hygienic, but it was so much easier then bending over the bathtub!

Holly had a blast splashing in the sink. The floor was soaking wet by the time we were done. Owen was walking by and he slipped...whoops. I asked Owen if he wanted a bath in the sink, and he said no. Good thing because I think he's a little too big for the sink. I think the sink freaked him out too much. He has a fear of running water...I don't know where that came from. But he won't get in the bath if the water is still running.

I was happy to have my clean baby girl back. Maybe she'll stay small and I can keep bathing her in the kitchen sink!

Swimming

A few weekends ago...before it got crazy hot around here...I took Owen and Holly SWIMMING! Owen has been having a lot of fun splashing around in his little pool, so I thought he might like swimming in a bigger area of water. We know that the Six Flags waterpark experience didn't go over too well, but I was hoping this little beach would be less overwhelming.

That's Scott's sister, Tracey, holding Holly. Tracey has a friend who lives in Connecticut named Karen. The little town Karen lives in has a lake with a beach that is just for residents of the town! (I guess other's can go too, but they have to pay a lot of money to use the beach) She was nice enough to invite us along. It was an absolutely beautiful day for swimming.

When we first got to the beach I lathered the kids up with SPF 70 sunscreen. I'm very serious about keeping my children pasty white! I couldn't imagine having to deal with a sunburn on such a young child...they wouldn't understand what was going on. So I pretty much followed them around, for the few hours we were there, spraying them with sunscreen! I got a bunch of sunscreen in Owen's hair...which makes a very nice hair gel!

Poor little Holly didn't have a bathing suit, so she just had to wear a onsie. I went to Walmart before we left, but I guess August 1st is too late to buy a swimming suit. Holly had fun crawling around in the sand. She liked the water too. But she freaked out when I would go under the water (with either Karen or Tracey holding her). So I didn't get to do too much real swimming.

Owen didn't really enjoy swimming as much as he enjoys our little pool in the backyard. He was clinging on to me like a little monkey. When I was a little more the waste deep I started bouncing him up and down in the water, and he liked that. But that was about it. He found a lot of lost beach toys that had been left under the lifeguards post and played with those for most of the time we were there.

Speaking in Church

Last Sunday I had the trilling opportunity to speak in church...lucky me! About a week before giving the talk I got a call from a member in the bishopric asking me to speak. He said he thought of me when he was trying to think of somebody who could speak about the topic. The topic was teaching children the gospel in the home. I thought it was interesting that he chose me, considering my husband is Catholic, so I'm the only one in the house who will teach them. Scott isn't opposed to me teaching the children, he just isn't going to help, of course. I mean, he will bow his head for prayers, and he enjoys having the missionaries over for dinner, but that's about it.

I think I was suppose to give this talk though so that I could get a kick in the butt to start teaching my children more. I read a lot of interesting things in my search for information. So I thought I would post my talk here for everybody to read, and so I could read it over from time to time, when I need a refresher. I left a few things out, but it's pretty much intact. Hopefully I didn't teach any false doctrine while I was up there! I was pretty amazed after giving the talk. I wasn't as nervous as I usually am, and I might have actually used the whole 15 minutes I was suppose to use. I didn't notice the time when I started though. So, if you have a free 15 minutes or so, here it is!

"It has been amazing to me these past few years to watch my children learn how to live in this world that is new to them. Right now Holly is learning how to use her body to get around. It’s so fun to watch her crawl around and discover everything that the vacuum cleaner missed, or to watch her pull herself up in preparation for walking. It is so fun to watch Owen go swimming for the first time, or to watch him riding on his first ride at an amusement park. The world is a wonderful new place to them and I feel like I am rediscovering things as I watch them discovering them for the first time.

"At the same time, they are growing up quickly. As they grow up quickly I realize I don’t have a lot of time with them. Before I know it they will be going off to college, getting married, and hopefully somewhere before marriage they will go on a mission. (**Side note that wasn't in my talk. I thought it was really funny that I said we don't have a lot of time with our children...but the MAN who spoke after me stated that we have to have our children in our home for 18 YEARS! He said it was a long time. I love the different perspective from a mother and a father.**)

"We need to make the most of the time we have with our children. And the most important thing we can do for our children is to teach them the gospel. It is so important for us to teach our children correct principal’s when they are young. Our children are little sponges ready to soak up information. Our children are eager to learn, they want to be taught and they need to be taught. So who are we going to let fill their minds with information…ourselves…or the world?

"We have been commanded, just like all parents since the time of Adam and Eve, to teach our children the gospel. In D&C 93:40 we read, "I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth." We only have a short time period to teach our children all that they need to know too.

"Dr Glenn Doman, a prominent author and renowned scientist, reported a lifetime of research in the statement: 'What is placed in the child’s brain during the first 6 years of life is probably there to stay…if you put misinformation into his brain during this period it is extremely difficult to erase it.'

"President Gordon B. Hinkley wrote an article for the December 2007 Ensign entitled, "These, Our Little Ones." In it he gives 4 imperatives for teaching our children the gospel. I would like to share those with you today.

"The first imperative is LOVE.

"One of the most important things we can do for our children is to love them. Some of my earliest memories in life are of getting hugs from my parents. Our children are much more likely to listen to us if they know we love them. It is important to tell our children we love them with our words and our actions.

"President Hinkley warned against child abuse, in any form.

"Brigham Young said, 'Bring up your children in the love and fear of the Lord; study their dispositions and their temperaments, and deal with them accordingly, never allowing yourself to correct them in the heat of passion; teach them to love you rather than to fear you.'

"The 2nd imperative is to TEACH THEM

"We need to teach our children the gospel in a way that they will understand. We need to teach them that they are children of God and that they have a divine birthright.

"The best place to teach our children the Gospel is in our homes.

"We have many tools for teaching our children in our homes, and we know them.

"1st – Scripture Study. Families should read together each day. Each family member that can read should take a turn reading. Children who cannot read can repeat verses as somebody else reads them. For very small children there are also many illustrated versions of the scriptures. It’s also a good idea to ask the children questions about what they have just read, and to see how they can relate them to their lives. For example, after reading about David and Goliath, you can ask the children what kind of "Goliath’s" they are facing in their daily lives.

"2nd – Family Home Evening. Monday nights have been set aside by the church as Family Home Evening Night. Church buildings are closed and no activities are planned for this night so that our families can meet together. FHE is about teaching our children gospel principals in our homes. FHE should include and opening hymn and prayer, a lesson, an activity to enforce the lesson, a closing hymn and prayer…and of course refreshments! When trying to decide on a lesson for FHE you should consider the needs of your family at the time. Is there a child getting ready for baptism? Has there been a lot of fighting going on in your home? Growing up my family did not have family home evening very often. I always wanted to have it though. I remember I would try to make cute little charts that would say who had the lesson, refreshment or activity for a certain week. It never stuck for very long though. Talking to my parents now I have learned that the reason for the lack of Family Home Evenings is that my parents had different ideas of how FHE should be run, and neither one wanted to budge. So our family lost out on a lot of learning experiences. Don’t let conflicts in your family stop this important night from happening!

"3rd – Family Mealtimes. It seems like in our busy world more and more families are having dinner in their cars on the way to soccer games. We may have busy schedules, but I believe family dinners should be on the top of our schedules. It may be the only time during the day when you can gather all the family together to share in the days events and to discuss ideas together. Family mealtimes should be cheerful events, so keep the politics out of them. Turn off the TV and just enjoy each others company. Praying over meals also helps your children learn how to pray.

"We have many more opportunities to teach our children. I like to sing primary songs with my children when we are in the car. Maybe you can ask your children what they learned in church…this will help them remember what their teachers have taught them.

"Holidays are also a great tool for teaching. We can make sure that Christmas and Easter aren’t just about presents and candy. Make sure that the main focus of these Holidays is to teach your children about Christ and his life.

"I think that most importantly we need to teach them by example. Your example will be the greatest learning tool for your children. It’s amazing to look at myself and my brothers and to see how much we are like our parents, even though we vowed we would never be like them! Children grow up to be like their parents, it’s just a fact of life.

"The 3rd Imperative is to RESPECT THEM

"We need to recognize the worth of our children. We know that our children are children of God just as we are children of God. Because of this they deserve the respect that all children of God deserve. We have been told in Matthew 18:3, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

"The 4th Imperative is to PRAY WITH THEM AND FOR THEM.

"Our children need to learn how to pray so that they can communicate with Heavenly Father.
Family prayer is very important. 3 Nephi 18:21 "Pray in your families until the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed." Children learn a lot from family prayers. They learn about repentance when others ask for forgiveness. They learn gratitude when they hear others thanking Heavenly Father for their blessings. They learn faith, humility and obedience as they see their parents seeking guidance. They learn to honor and respect church leaders as we pray for them. They gain a desire to go on missions when we pray for the missionaries. Children learn to have love and concern for others when we pray for other people. And our children will fill our love for them when they hear us pray for them.

"Pray with your children in the morning, before bedtime, at mealtime, when you are leaving on a trip, or any time you feel you need to pray as a family. In a beautiful children’s song we sing.

"I see my mother kneeling
With her family each day
I hear the words she whispers
As she bows her head and prays
Her plea to the father
Quiets all my fears
And I am thankful, Love is spoken here."

"I've always loved this song and the beautiful image it bring to my mind...of a mother praying with her family. Praying does bring peace to your home and your family. As soon as your children can talk, teach them to pray, and remember to pray for them always.

"It isn’t always easy to teach our children all that they need to know. We will make mistakes, and sometimes children may react with opposition to what we are teaching them. But as long as we take the time to teach them correct principals we should not blame ourselves if they choose another path.

"I read something interesting by Harold B. Lee that I would like to share with you.

"Why is it that the Lord doesn’t permit Satan to tempt a little child until he comes to the age of accountability? It is in order to give parents their golden opportunity to plant in the hearts of little children those vital things except for which, when that time of accountability comes, they may have waited too long.

"So if Satan cannot tempt children until the come to the age of accountability, how does he get his hands on them? He does it by trying to make those of us who are entrusted with their care and training to be careless and negligent in teaching them correct principals when they are young so that by the time they are at an age of accountability they will not know the truth of the gospel. In D&C 68:25 we read, "And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrines of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents."

"Do not let Satan tempt you into being lazy and not teaching your children the gospel. Bringing them to church each Sunday is just a small part of teaching them the gospel. The most important part of teaching your children the gospel will happen in your home with you. Don’t leave your child’s future in the hands of somebody else.

"I want to close with a quote from President Hinkley, "How much more beautiful would be the world and the society in which we live if every father looked upon his children as the most precious of his assets, if he led them by the power of his example in kindness and love, and if in times of stress he blessed them by the authority of the holy priesthood; and if every mother regarded her children as the jewels of her life, as gifts from the God of heaven who is their Eternal Father, and brought them up with true affection in the wisdom and admonition of the Lord."

"I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has entrusted the care of two of his children into my hands. I pray that I will be able to teach them all that they need to know to live with him again someday. "

Holly is 10 Months Old!

I decided to take some pictures of Holly this morning in honor of her turning 10 months old today. Time sure flies when you are having fun! It was pretty hard to get pictures of her though. She doesn't sit still for anything these days. After taking about 78 pictures I decided on these 10 to share for her 10 month birthday. I also share 10 little tidbits about her...

1. She still has NO TEETH! Is this normal? People tell me that it is, but how is she ever going to learn to love pizza with no teeth?

2. She is still a little peanut. I guess there are babies her age that are smaller than her, but at 10 months she is still in her 6-9 month clothes. I'm guessing that she will still be wearing them when she turns 1 too. It's nice to get a little more use out of her clothes though.

3. She is a little comedian. She loves doing things to try to get a laugh out of us. Example...last night I gave her a piece of lettuce. She kept putting half of it in her mouth and letting the other half hang out while scrunching up her nose. She stayed that way until I looked at her and laughed...then she would start laughing too. She's so fun.

4. She loves belly buttons. Owen's specifically. I guess she only sees his belly button. She crawls over and starts playing with his belly button anytime I have him down on the floor getting changed.

5. She is quite the crawler...I guess that is normal for this age though. We've had to break out the baby gates because whenever she gets a chance she heads straight for the stairs. She loves to climb the stairs! Scott is kind of a paranoid safety freak though, so up the gates went.

6. Holly is a screetcher. A lot of times when we are driving in the car she will start screetching at the top of her lungs, which Owen thinks is hilarious. Maybe it's all part of that comedian thing. But Owen always follows her with the screetching...followed by lots of laughter by both of them.

7. Mosquitoes love Holly. I have never had much of a problem with mosquito bites, but I can't take her outside without a swarm of mosquitoes coming over to feast on her. So if you see her and she has red bumps all over her, that's why.

8. Holly loves baths, but they have become quite the chore for me. Holly can't just sit still in the bathtub. She is always reaching for soap, or trying to stand up, or trying to drown herself by slipping under the water. Maybe I'll have to start hosing her down, that would probably be easier.

9. Holly loves to talk to herself. I love listening to her on the baby monitor when she first wakes up in the morning. She will just babble on and on to herself. She's definitely a girl.

10. Holly's favorite people...in order of importance...

Mom

Owen

Dad

I wonder how that will change in the years to come? Hopefully not too much!

Birthday Party Time

Remember that birthday party we had to go to between rides at Six Flags and the waterpark? Well, here are some pictures from it! I felt kind of weird taking pictures at somebody else's birthday party, but Owen was having such a good time, and I had nothing else to do. So I took pictures.

The little boy who was turning 3 is Jacob. He is one of the little boys Owen goes to daycare with. His mom teaches at the college in town, so Jacob stays home with her during the summer. He was missing all his friends from daycare, so all his friends got invited to his party. It seemed a bit extravagant for a 3 year old's birthday party, but I guess that's the way things are going these day.

The party was at a gymnastics gym, and they had lots of obstacle courses for the kids to go through, and trampolines. It looked like fun!

First they stretched. After Scott saw these pictures he wished he was at the party. Look at that girls legs! I should have been a gymnast. The little boy in the blue Mickey Mouse shirt is Jacob, the birthday boy.

Here is the beginning of one of the obstacle courses. That little girl is Christina. Her and Owen have been hanging out at daycare together since they were both babies. Behind her in the picture is a long skinny trampoline. They kids had to jump all the way down the trampoline and then jump into that pit of giant foamy blocks. I don't know why they didn't invite the parents to do the jumping...it looked like fun!

After they got out of the giant pit of foam blocks they had to walk across the balance beam, which was a giant green crayon shape.

Then they rolled down this slope and started over at the beginning. There were a few other obstacles, but this is the only one I took pictures of.

There were two trampolines that they all got to take turns jumping on. I keep telling Scott we need a trampoline! Maybe next summer. They only let one kid jump on a trampoline at a time though. I think they would have croaked if they saw the trampoline I grew up with. There was rarely less than 5 kids on it! I guess they have safety liability issues though.

After all the fun the kids went upstairs and had cake and ice-cream. Jacob opened his gifts, and then he gave all the kids at the party a gift bag. I think the stuff in the gift bag cost more than the gift we got for him cost! Why do people spend so much on kids parties these days...especially a 3 year old's party? What happened to cake, ice-cream and pin the tail on the donkey? Owen had a lot of fun though. Every day he says, "Let's go to Jacob's Birthday PARTY!!!" This might be a fun idea for a party...when Owen is a little bit older!

Six Flags

Scott's yearly company picnic was held at Six Flags New England this year! I was really excited to take Owen so I could see if he would love to ride on the rides like I do! We had been having some really lousy weather, lots of rain and very little sunshine. But on the day of the picnic there was tons of sunshine and the weather was just beautiful! Everybody else must have thought so too, because the place was PACKED!

We started off with some train rides. The first train we went on was actually a Thomas the Train Ride. Those people at Six Flags are really tricky...after the kids get off the ride they have to exit through a Thomas the Train gift shop! Owen loved the train ride, and he loved playing with the train set they had in the gift shop. The only way we could get him out of the gift shop was to bribe him with another ride on the train....which led back to the gift shop. It was a vicious cycle!

Holly soaked up some sun. She was well coated in SPF 70 sunscreen so she wouldn't get sunburned. She also rode on the Thomas Train, but Scott was the one trying to take pictures, and he doesn't know how to use my camera very well! So we don't have any good pictures of the experience. Holly didn't seem overly impressed by the train though.

When we finally got away from Thomas Town we headed over to Looney Tunes Town. Owen loved riding on these little cars, and Scott even went with him once! This is about as exciting as a ride as Scott will go on.

We decided to try something a little more exciting. So we took Owen on these little planes that go around in a circle, and then they start going up and down.

Owen was not impressed. If you look at his face you can see he is crying...he's crying, "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!!" He was fine on the ride while it was just going around in a circle...but when it started going up and down is when he started freaking out. So the ride attendant pretty much kept the ride down low after that. I felt bad for the little boy in front of Owen, he got a pretty boring ride. They were the only two on the ride.

After all our rides we headed over to the picnic area to have some lunch with Scott's co-workers. The picnic area was so nice and shaded. They had a playground area, Owen was really excited about that. He decided that this wooden slope was a slide, it doesn't look like a very comfortable slide!

Holly had a lot of fun, but she was done before the end of the picnic. We had a lot of fun, but then it was time to take Owen to a birthday party. So I dropped Scott and Holly off at home and took Owen to the birthday party.

After the birthday party I wanted to take Owen back to the water park at Six Flags. We had to option of turning our ticket to the picnic into a season pass for $35. So I thought if Owen liked the water park I would do that. We were very disappointed though. First, the entrance to the water park is so far away from the entrance to the park, it's about as far away as it can get. So it was a pain getting Owen over there through all the crowds. Then, we had to wait in line just to get into the waterpark...about 15 minutes of waiting under a roller coaster. I think the roller coaster freaked Owen out. He was looking at the people flying over us and screaming with complete fear in his eyes.

We finally got into the waterpark, and I decided to get a locker for our stuff. I went to the locker rentals, and they were $14...for a small locker! I decided I would fork it out, because I didn't want my keys and wallet getting stolen. Problem is they were all out of small, and only had family size lockers left....for $20! Now, we got there at 5:30, and the water park was closing at 7:00. There was no way I was paying that much for a locker for an hour and a half. I decided just to chance it.

I wanted to find the kids pool area...but I wasn't having much luck. So I took Owen to a regular sized pool to see if he would like it. He didn't. We were in there for about 15 seconds when he started saying, "All done, all done!" So I took him out and we hunted a little bit more for the kids pool area. We finally found it, and Owen didn't want any part of that either. At that point I was extremely happy that I hadn't shelled out $14 for a locker and we left. Owen rode on Thomas the Train one more time and we went home.

So ended our Six Flag experiment for this year. Maybe next year will be a little more exciting!

Lupa Zoo

I haven't forgotten about my blog. I have just been pretty lazy about updating it lately. Every day I think, I should really update my blog, but I read, cross stitch or check up on facebook instead! I have a few things I've been wanting to write about, so for the next few days I will try to put something up until I catch up on all the fun we have been having.

A few weekend ago I decided to take Owen to the zoo for the first time. We have a zoo close to our home called Lupa Zoo. It's not a big zoo...they don't have elephants or lions, but they had a pretty good selection of animals. It was actually a perfect sized zoo for Owen's attention span.



They had zebras, camels, giraffes, bears, alligators....


Donkeys, ducks, birds, turtles, pigs, oxen, monkeys...and a lot more animals. I just can't remember them all.

They also had a park. Owen was so happy to see a slide....

And a truck! We played in the playground for a while...Owen didn't want to leave. I had to bribe him with ice-cream.

Owen also had a lot of fun pushing his stroller around. On the other side of that pink bench there were monkeys...but he had no interest in the monkeys at that point. He just wanted to push the stroller.

My little monkey boy.

They also had a room full of those kids rides that you put quarters in to make go. Owen had a lot of fun riding in this race car. Scott's father (Owen's grandpa) was a race car driver. So maybe Owen got his love of race cars from him.

After the zoo I kept my promise to Owen and we stopped and got an ice-cream cone on the way home. I started with Mint Cookie and Owen started with Strawberry. But about half way through the cones he decided he wanted mine. That was OK with me, I liked the strawberry flavor a lot better!