Have a picnic with your babies!

 Our little picnic table!

 Me and Sam :)

 

Me and Ruby :)

 

Enjoying the backyard!

 

Sam is getting pretty good at tying knots and climbing ropes!

 

A spider we discovered!

 

One of my childhood memories, ROLY POLY!

 

Showing little sister there's nothing to be afraid of :)

 

Here you go!

 I did it!

 

A race!

REAL Superheroes

Posting this for my Sam :)

New favorite children's book!

It has quite a simple story line, but laugh out loud funny!  Sam loves it!  Here the link to view online and purchase if you want to:

http://www.amazon.com/There-Bird-Your-Elephant-Piggie/dp/1423106865/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346177624&sr=1-1&keywords=there+is+a+bird+on+your+head

Let them be little!

Playing cowboys, panda, and splashing in the puddles!

Learning about giving!

Our donation to THE FOUNDRY Rescue Mission and Recovery Center!  If you are interested in seeing what they are all about visit their website, it is an incredible life changing ministry:  http://www.thefoundryonline.org/

Polar bears and dogs playing! Showing my Sam and Ruby the wonder of God's nature today :)

God Loves Me

When I act good
And when I act bad,
God loves me.

When I'm happy
And when I'm sad,
God loves me.

When I sing
And when I shout,
God loves me.

When I play
And when I pout,
God loves me.

I tell you folks,
It's mighty fine,
Knowing God loves me
All the time.

- Eddie Henson

2012 Olympic Trials Gymnastics Preview

Teaching appreciation for people.

Handwritten cards are SO much sweeter for friends!  This was drawn by Joy.

Also, got to attend my Great Aunt Margie's 80th birthday today - her home was blown away in the tornado that hit Pleasant Grove last year.  She since has a new home on her property and we are thankful to still have her!

People Worth Knowing - C.S. Lewis

In my search for something to teach my kids today - Joy is asking to learn now!!!!  I decided upon the writer of the NARNIA books - C.S. Lewis!  So Joy has to know which ones have movies made about them:  book 2 - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, book 4 - Prince Caspian, and book 5 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Also, Joy had to know if he was dead - I said "Yes, but he was a Christian."  To which she responded, "So we'll see him up in Heaven!"  I said he wrote a lot of Christian books, the Narnia books for example.  Then she began to connect the dots as we've told her before that Aslan is the King like God, the White Witch is like the devil, and even the children become kings and queens like we are princesses and princes because we are children of the King of Kings!  Everyone doesn't BELIEVE in Narnia, but those who know it is there BELIEVE - just like HEAVEN!  Also, we learned something new today in the front of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, he writes a dedication to his god daughter Lucy (I'm sure that is where he got her character!)  Here is the amazing writer and Christian thinker himself, the world would have missed out without him :)  Shannon has successfully read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to Joy but we need to continue reading these wonderful stories to our children.  As for now, we will watch the movie of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

Amelia Earhart disappeared!

Most people know this already, but when Google announced yesterday would have been her 115th birthday - I decided to teach Joy about her since she didn't nap because she's the oldest and getting to big for naps :(  She remembered everything I told her, and recapped our whole conversation to her little brother yesterday afternoon!  Fascinating life of a woman who didn't have the perfect life nor lots of time nor money to pursue her dream, but if you LOVE something you will MAKE time for it!  We have learned her as the first woman to fly a plane across the ocean and she set many other world records - see her list below.  But more importantly she believed anything a man could do, a woman could do too!  The mystery of her disappearance on her last flight (an attempt to fly around the whole earth) is what makes her story so interesting - did she crash and die or survive on an island?  The waters around Howland Island where she was supposedly headed are around 17,000 - 18,000 ft deep!  If the plane went down there, it is no wonder we never saw nor heard from her again!  Here's her website:  http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html

New Bible Verse to memorize: "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with ALL of your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)

Pelé - 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 FIFA World Cup Classic Players. This is for my Sam, probably known as the greatest soccer player ever. He was from Brazil.

Mary Lou Retton 1984 Olympics AA Vaults - an AMERICAN gymnast with the same Coach as Nadia Comaneci, Bela Karolyi.

Nadia Comaneci - Floor Exercise - 1976 American Cup

Teaching my gymnast Joy about some famous gymnasts of the past. NADIA COMANECI - first perfect ten in history (1976 Montreal).

Why hanging out with Daddy is so much cooler than hanging out with Mom!

People Worth Knowing - Billy Graham

Since I've been teaching the kids some important women that loved God, I decided I should teach them about a godly man - Billy Graham.  His life speaks for itself - watch this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5mpd13hsXs

People Worth Knowing - Anne Frank

In presenting her story to my kids, I explained that she was a Jew, like the in the Bible, one of God's people.  The Nazis, who didn't love God, hated the Jews.  Her family was in hiding for 2 years before someone told where they were hiding.  Her family was sent to concentration camps and all died there except her father Otto who lived to tell their story and had her diary published.  There may be some persecution coming for Christians like this one day.  Help us be brave against the evil of this world, stand up for the truth and all things good, and the Lord will be with us always!

People Worth Knowing - Helen Keller

(1880 - 1968) Simply amazing, this Alabama woman did not let her disabilities of deafness and blindness (due to scarlet fever as a child) stop her from living her life!  With the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, she read Braille in Greek, Latin, French, German, and English!  And became an outspoken activist/writer for those with disabilites.  There is even a school named after her - Helen Keller School of Alabama.  She once said "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God."

Learning artists and their works - Claude Monet

He's well known for his paintings of this Water Lily Pond, Water Lilies, and Haystacks.  He would paint them over and over at different times of the day studying the lighting.  He is known for his use of color, something green in his painting might have all different colors in it up close.

Learning artists and their works - Edgar Degas

So I've been showing this little collection of famous artist books to my kids for a couple months now.  They have really caught on to a few key ideas and images per artist.  We make it a game, if they can guess the artist faster than their sibling they get to hold that book.  Whoever has the most books at the end of my review wins!  Since my husband Shannon was an art major in college and I was an art minor, we've always had a love of art.  I think because in art we are creating, like the Creator!  I don't expect my kids to be experts but they enjoy sitting and thumbing through these books - this makes me happy!  This first one I will share is Degas - they know him simply as the man who painted many picture of ballerinas!

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches!

Did you know you could make your own ice cream sandwiches?  We personally think these taste better than the ones you buy in the freezer section, AND they are far more fun!

VeggieTales is Art Too!

Since I posted a pic for Joy, this one is for my Sam. He loves to sing in his bed at night, in the morning, and sometimes in the middle of the night! When he gets a tune in his head, he will sing it over and over and OVER! It can be annoying but I can rest assured he has LEARNED something :) He is only 4 and sometimes scared of the dark, he loves to sing "God is Bigger Than the Boogie Man." Hope he likes this!

www.veggietales.com

Teaching about Art

Since Norman Rockwell is one of the first few artists I've started teaching my kids about, I posted this one for my oldest daughter Joy, at 6 yrs. old she already looks at herself in the mirror trying to see her beauty - which is SO obvious because she's beautiful. But the world tells her that to look beautiful she must wear certain clothes, fancy jewelry, and be thin. Praying for her to always KNOW how special she is inside and out! To quote Veggie Tales "God made you special and He loves you very much!"