The mail receptacle

I should have gotten a picture of the box in it's sad tipped over and over grown shape, but I didn't.

Last week for FHE we painted and personalized our mailbox. It was Olea's idea (from UP) and we thought it was a good way to make our family mark on the place. Gary used our old porch swing frame (that the movers made us take apart) to make a new mailbox stand. Some bleach and a scrub brush on my part. And then some trusty acrylic paint and the little people in our family. We had the kids white wash the stand after we put their hand prints on the box. Giddy we had to use a foot because we couldn't get him to uncurl his fingers.... thinking that might have been a good idea for Zurich too since we had to re-do his over seven times, and only one of those times it was because he smeared his with a paint brush...


Ya, I know I did a crappy job on the Name part, it was free handed with a lot of distraction.

Now accepting parcel post as well. :)

Follow the Instructions

For Christmas the kids each got a mini set of Lincoln Logs in their stockings (or rather boots, since we embrace that aspect of my German heritage). A few days after Christmas my husband and I realized that our children didn't understand the concept and workings of Lincoln Logs.

For FHE while I laid on the couch re-stacking Nev's Lincoln Logs to keep her from destroying the lesson in process, Gary attempted to teach the older two the importance of following directions and instructions etc. using the Lincoln Logs as an object lesson.

He's always so creative that way. The kids really enjoyed it and quite frankly it made a lot of sense and has been a concept they remember even after the fun. I realized this when Olea and I were talking about being obedient almost a week later and she commented it was like following the instructions, and commandments that Heavenly Father has given us, so we can be happy.
I'll count that one as a successful FHE.

Family Ceramics

Back in the day... like in November. :)
I bought some clay
for FHE I tried to teach some basic hand-build techniques


Nev tried to eat the clay.

some of the work from that evening
Then we let it dry for 2 weeks.
Bone Dry clay before fire:

My hand build is sore out of practice, plus I was trying to teach and keep the younger ones from eating the clay and what not.

Fire, we also added a small cup my mom threw at a local art on the lawn thing.
Glaze



Glazed pieces with some large plates that I did the clear coat on (which is pink)
Then Olea helped me Food grade Clear Glaze the pieces

Fire one last time.... oooh lala

Most of the pieces have a found a purpose
Olea's is a q-tip holder in her bathroom
Zurich's is a snack cup

My cup sits next to the kitchen sink for water.
Gary's two dishes hold Tatties downstairs and my keys on the bar.
My lil pink dish holds Tatties upstairs.

Make your own snow globes

Olea brought home a snow globe from her last day of school before the break. I, of course, figured that it could and should be accomplished by our family. Esp with two weeks of vacation. I obtained appropriate bottles via facebook shout out and Freecycle. I did a lil internet research about it.

And then for FHE we set to work sculpting our figurines out of sculpy clay. Bless Gary for helping the two younger ones do theirs, Zurich asked for a Reindeer spaceship, I wouldn't have known where to start! Nev quit trying to destroy what I was working on when Gary helped her make a Christmas tree.

We cooked the sculptures and went to bed. This picture is minus two sculptures.

The next evening we put them in their globes.


I had a lot of frustration with mine from the beginning to the end but it ended up working out fine. They were worth it, it was a lot of fun and the kids love them.

Olea also made one for her cousins that were coming the next day.

It turned out cute but after a little bit the tree ended up coming unattached from the base, so it was a floaty tree. I think it was because it was rushed a bit where the other ones weren't. It was still fun and appreciated at least. :) All the other ones we made are holding up great.

FHE, Temple, and Art

June 21st we had a very simplistic FHE due to the fact that I had had surgery that morning and Gary and I had been in the ER/ hospital for the past 15 or so hours. I don't even remember what the lesson was on. I was that out of it.

The Sunday after that though I attended church and our new bishop extended a challenge. Given the current status of my healing we chose to hit a few birds (metaphorically of course) with one stone. Part of the challenge was to have a meaningful FHE, go to the temple (and if we couldn't attend a session to dress up and visit the grounds). So Gary and I decided for FHE June 28th, we would get all dressed up and drive to the temple grounds with the kids and walk around and talk about the temple. While we were there we figured we'd make use of my Dad's skills and have him take a family picture for us. Since I had just made us all matching outfits for Father's day we used those.

Zurich really likes churches and temples and calls them castles, he is slowly learning temple and church differences. We chose to go to the Draper temple since none of us had been there. We had Olea read the words on the temple and we talked about what they mean. Olea was very disappointed that she didn't get to go in (we took them to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house).



Afterward we drove around Suncrest to look over the valley and then went out for ice cream at JCW's (their Mini's are HUGE, for the record, and would could have shared one or two around the 6 of us there and been just fine) and put some very tired kids to bed.

This last Monday Olea had an artist's reception in Provo for entering the children's art show. I had forgotten till pretty much the last minute and we'd been out gallyveranting all day in the wilderness so the kids were totally filthy, but we went anyway. Olea was thrilled to get her face painted and Zurich was excited for a spaceship. We tried to have Nev's face painted but all we got was a blue check mark. :)

I'm glad we made it to the Reception since Olea got Honorable Mention.


It was unorthodox so far as typical FHE's go but we got to talk about doing our best and being happy with that. That it doesn't matter if we win or not. Olea really wanted a trophy. Gary and I reflected on how your ideas of value change as you get older. We wouldn't want a trophy now, we'd want the water bottle she got way more. :) For the record she does love her water bottle and takes it everywhere. We talked about how it was the best that she did her painting all on her own so that she could feel happy that it was her work and her's alone.

Afterward we took the kids to McDonalds, ONLY because part of her prize was 4 free icecream cones. She decided to share one of the coupons with her brother. So we picked up icecream for them and Nev was MAD.

She didn't scream or cry, but check out the look on her face. In between leaving the reception and getting the kids ice cream Gary and I decided we wanted Lassi from the Bombay House so I had called and ordered some for take out. On our loop back to the Bombay House we realized we HAD to get Nev some ice cream. We stopped at Arctic Circle and ordered a regular cone so we could get a courtesy cone for Nev. She was THRILLED. She dug into hers so fast the next time I turned around she was already eating down the napkin that held the cone. She ended up finishing of Zurich's as well and was SO happy about it.

Time to wash the car seats!

FHE fun

So for Family Home Evening we try to have a lesson. It is usually pretty short and sweet with ages 1, 2 and 5. Last night Gary used the Friend magazine to give a lesson around this article. The kids were sitting on stools on the living room floor. Gary was actually in the middle of singing a song related to it to the kids when Nev and Zurich started standing up and sitting back down on their stools and laughing their heads off. Of course Olea joined in and laughter continued. Here's a lil video of the giggling fun.

So I guess you could call that our activity for the night. It proved to be a useful activity since Nev then tried standing on her own for the first time. See how she squeals to let us know how much coolness she is exhibiting? We skipped treats since the kids were already on one and didn't need any more sugar. Hope you had a fabulous Monday.

Green Grass and bumble bees

Monday evening was beautiful and the kids were still itching to play outside. Nev is braver now and crawls out into the large grassy area, instead of just crawling up and down the concrete stairs.... ( I like her in the grass much better). Zub played some mini football with Olea. I love this shot of him. Olea often is too excited about life to get a good picture of her. After time outside we had a lesson on Reverence for FHE (since Olea is having trouble with this again) and then made these sweet treats. Simple, DELICIOUS and cute. I got them via Morgan. We used large marshmallows sliced up for the wings.