Family Home Evening Testimony

Admitting: Brad and I have been married for 6 years and from the beginning we have struggled with having a regular family home evening. When we had kids we said for sure we knew it was important to start, but still we struggled. We would do it for a month and then get back off track for awhile. We knew it was important and that is why we kept trying. But it wasn't until recently that we've done a really good job of it. The Ensign in July had a great tip on doing FHE jars with scripture stories or mission, family etc. stories that were already ready. That way when the night came you aren't a) scrambling or b) deciding to give it up since you aren't ready. I took it one step further and made jars for songs, and activities also. By doing this here is what I have found:

First, for one thing we haven't missed a day in 2 months! Second, Garrett loves family home evening! We used to have a hard time getting him to sit still and listen and now we've even had him ask if we can do family home evening on other nights. He loves picking the songs, lessons and activities out of the jars himself. The stories aren't long and we usually have at least one picture or prop ready for each one. Third Garrett had started this phase of not wanting to say the prayers himself and I put all of our names in a bowl (since it worked for the rest) and have him draw who says the prayers. He even tries to pick his own name! He is excited when we say prayers! Fourth Here is where my testimony has really grown on this topic. I think most of you know how it feels sometimes while putting the kids to bed everyone is going haywire? Well a lot of times by the end of the day my 3 year old (who has stopped napping) is wound way up and bouncing off the walls while his tired parents struggle to just get them bathed and in bed. Garrett is usually fighting his exhaustion by tormenting his baby sister and she has had it too so she is crying. Brad and I are trying to keep our patience. (Hopefully I am not the only one who goes through this routine or this could get embarassing.) Well on the nights when we have family home evening there is more peace in our house than any other night. Things run more smoothly and we all enjoy it. I can feel a peaceful spirit in our home and it is truly a relief. I had a testimony of Family Home Evening before and I've always known it is important for preparing our family against many things they will face, but this has really taught me something more, something I didn't expect. I am sure that I never want to fall out of the habit again because I can see how much our family is learning and growing from it!

As you can see she takes after her mama. Embrie's favorite part is the refreshments! She thinks anytime she sees a popcicle it belongs to her!

Could they be related?

Look at this adorable photo taken a couple of months ago. The reason that it is a couple months old is because these moments where Garrett is near Embrie but not torturing her are rare. I love the looks on their faces though! Now lately people are telling me that Embrie is looking more like Garrett. It gave me the idea to pull up some pictures of them at the same ages to see if they look (ed) similar as babies. When she was born I thought they looked alike then I wasn't so sure, but I go back and forth.

Garrett 1 week

Embrie 1 week

Garrett 4 mo.

Embrie 4 mo.

Garrett 7 mo.

Embrie 7 mo.

Well in that last one for sure she pretty much towers him in size, but thats my girl for ya. Maybe its the dark hair that makes me think she doesn't look as much like him.

Visiting Family

We went down to visit Brad's side of the family for a couple of days. Garrett loves going to Grandma & Grandpa Callahan's. He always asks Grandpa for a ride on the 4-wheeler. He looks forward to playing with the cousins.

We took some of them to the Dinosaur Museum there. This is a pic of Embrie just chilling out in the stroller right before she started freaking out because she had a blow out all over the place (did I mention this is not our stroller? nice huh!)

Garrett is being fed to a raptor!

Garrett and cousin A looking out of an indian teepee.

Digging for dinosaur bones.

Embrie and cousin M, who is 4 months older. They look to be the same size! They are going to be good friends . . .

Just like Garrett and A.

Here they are all together.

Little cousin C. Hanging out and playing at grandma's house. . . .

He was lost withou the big brothers and sister. Didn't get to spend too much time this time with the Triplets because they started Kindergarten!!!! Yay! What big kids!

The Beach

Over load of posts coming!

We have a little beach near our home at a man made lake. It has been a fun little activity for us this summer.As you can see it was very crowded on this particular day.

Embrie loves grabbing the sand in her hands. I am lucky in the fact that she doesn't put many things in her mouth and so I wasn't too worried about her eating sand.

Garrett can't wait until sissy will be able to play with him.

My goal revised

Well I'm not trying to make another excuse although it sort of is one . . . whatever. But I have had to choose between running or feeding my baby. I guess I chose Embrie. I thought I could swing it but apparently not. I should've known I had trouble with this with the first one and I wasn't even running then!

"Dada" ????

I just thought I would throw this picture in just because it is cute.

Embrie sometimes says what sounds like "dada" but we are still not sure if it is the real deal. However, she loves daddy. She is especially excited when he gets home from work which is probably because she is sick of looking at the rest of us. She does a cute little flirty thing where she looks and him and babbles and smiles until he looks at her and then she burries her head in my shoulder. It is pretty funny.

Take me out to the ball game!

A little while back we took the kids to the Bee's game. Although, it started to rain and the wind picked up considerably right as we were leaving we were lucky enough that during the game things camled down. We got lucky a second time when someone gave us free tickets before we bought them! (this was great we are not usually lucky people). Even though they were seats in the stands we decided that for practical reasons we would take the "cheap seats" on the grass, but personally I think this is a lot more fun. Garrett brought his mitt in case of a home run.

We stood in line and "Bumble" the bee signed Garrett's ticket, but Garrett was too scared to pose for a picture with the bee so I snapped one of him holding the ticket with Bumble conveniently in the background.

Embrie was stoked she got to have her first taste of slurpee. (Buying this item made up for the free tickets, seriously it is worse than the movies there! And there are no drinking fountains and they don't allow anything brought in. End of rant.) As we all know she doesn't really turn down any food.

It was a fun time really I love it when we go to the baseball game.

Hot Days

As you can tell there is a good reason that Embrie is playing with the hose rather than braving the pool with Garrett.

Ewe's not Fat Ewe's just Fluffy

Here she is in her Lamb towel.

Embrie is 6 months old today! I can't believe how time flies! I also can't believe how chubby she is! I am going to guess that when she goes in for her 6 mo check up she will weigh around or above 18 lbs.! But she is such a cutie.

What a boy won't do

I'm not sure if I was surprised or not to turn around and see Garrett on top of the Car. Is there anything her doesn't think of?

My Goal

Ok so I have finally found my motivation. I have talked and talked about running a 5K and maybe a half marathon. I have decided now is the time! I'm going to run a 5k in Draper this September and I've been working toward that for the last 2 weeks. So I've told enough people and now really put it out there so that I will have even more motivation to meet my goal. I'll let you know how it goes!