Saturday, April 14, 2012
Cory Flying!
Cory and some others from his platoon were moved to a different FOB (Warrior) where they started completely from scratch. They had to put up tents, internet, satellites, and I have no idea what else, but so much more. Anyway, the past few times Cory has been on flight duty, they didn't receive any calls to go out, except for today. He was getting anxious to fly, and luckily this one wasn't a life or death situation, but still an injury that required immediate medical attention. They always have people to take pictures and capture soldiers in action, and Cory's helicopter was one that was captured on film today! Super exciting that we get to see him flying...even if we can't really see his face. I just love him!
Our Easter Week
This year, now that Jaden is no longer in the Nursery and now in the Primary at church with the "big kids", I thought this would be a great time to start a new family tradition. I saw this idea online and, adapting it to my own family, decided we would do this every year. It takes a week to do, but so worth it.
We start the Monday before Easter and learn parts of the last days of Christ and on through his death and Resurrection. It makes the story come to life and really teaches little ones the true meaning of Easter. On each night, we studied one of the following topics: Christ entering Jerusalem, Jesus Washing the Apostles feet, Christ praying in Gethsemane, the betrayal, His Crucifixion, The Tomb, and His Resurrection (falls on Easter Sunday). So it would be like FHE every night the week before Easter, but it breaks it all down. The activities (videos, role play, discussions, coloring page, whatever fits your family) that go along with them really help it come to life and makes it real. It's a great way to teach your family and also strengthen your own testimony of our Savior. Jaden was so excited once he realized we would be doing something every night. The thing about this is that it's all so adaptable, so when your family gets older, this week long experience will become a spiritual growing event for your teenagers as discussions get deeper and stuff. I'm just really excited. I hope I can figure out a way to do something like this for Christmas!
I really wish I could have come up with more activities that would work for pictures. Most of what we did were watching little videos to reinforce what we learned each day with pictures and stories. And when I did think to use the camera, we were already done with what we were doing. It was great to not have the camera distract from teaching Jaden the true meaning of Easter...so I guess, in a way, the lack of pictures is a good thing :).
One night we did a mock Last Supper. Jaden loved that the food we had was similar to what Jesus ate and he loved dressing up in clothing from that time period.
We had hard boiled eggs, flat bread, kabob things (with beef...someone used lamb which makes sense, but the more I thought about eating a little lamb, I just couldn't do it), fresh berries, and grape juice.
He LOVED these. He devoured it.
For desert we had honey with a piece of honey comb in it. So delicious.
On a different night, we made these: Resurrection Rolls. You get refrigerated crescent dough, and dip halved jumbo marshmallows in melted butter and cinnamon and sugar. Then you wrap them in the crescent dough and bake them for about 10 minutes. Let me explain.
The marshmallow represents Christ, the butter represents the oil they rubbed on his body, the cinnamon and sugar represents the spices they rubbed on his body, and the crescent dough represents the cloth that they wrapped his body in. The oven is the tomb. On the third day, we know that Christ rose again and was resurrected and that when Mary Magdalene entered into the tomb, he was gone. We placed a couple of Jaden's stuffed animals in front of the oven to represent the guards.
The cool thing about these, is when they are done cooking, you open them up and the marshmallow is no longer there! I'm so serious. It didn't melt in there and ooze out. There was really no trace of it inside. All there was was a little bit of bubbling butter and cinnamon and sugar. It was a cool visual for Jaden, and I was pretty wowed myself that it actually worked!
I know the white stuff looks like marshmallow, but it's not. It's the bubbling butter.
At the end of the week I was able to ask Jaden what the true meaning of Easter was, and I was so excited to say that he knew what it was!
Along with the more serious aspect of Easter, we also had our traditional Easter activities as well: Easter eggs, Easter treats, Easter bunny, etc.
I saw a Rice Krispies commercial that was promoting this treat for Easter. It looked easy enough, so we tried it! Jaden loved it, because he could really do it by himself and feel involved and important. It was a lot of fun, and yummy.
Plus, the fun thing is is that you put M&Ms inside of them...so when you shake them, they make a sound!
One day for school, we worked on our upper and lower case letters. I found this cute printable (online of course) of eggs, with the top half being the upper case letters and the bottome half being the lower case. He had fun building the eggs, and it reinforced what he already knew, which was great too!
I found this idea on the FamilyFun website. We had this for breakfast one morning. It's a little Easter nest made with hashbrowns in cupcake pans and eggs, onions, green peppers, and cheese in the middle. Yum and fun :)
I made cupcakes for some of my neighbors. This is the first time that I have used one of these cupcake box holder things. Aren't they adorable? Totally makes it look professional, straight from a bakery.
At cooking class last week, the kids made edible Easter Baskets. And I mean EVERYTHING was edible. I'm tellin' ya, the teacher is amazing and so creative. Here's a (pretty much) step by step organization of photos to show you how it was done. So fun!
The following are pictures of homemade Peeps that they also made in the cooking class. Just took marshmallows, dipped half in melted white chocolate bark, and then dipped in sprinkles or colored sugar.
What is Easter without coloring eggs? NOT Easter, if you ask me. Just kidding. But really, almost everyone dyes eggs on Easter, and we are a couple of them! This was Jaden's first time, and he was amazed.
Hope you all had a happy Easter... from our house to yours!
We start the Monday before Easter and learn parts of the last days of Christ and on through his death and Resurrection. It makes the story come to life and really teaches little ones the true meaning of Easter. On each night, we studied one of the following topics: Christ entering Jerusalem, Jesus Washing the Apostles feet, Christ praying in Gethsemane, the betrayal, His Crucifixion, The Tomb, and His Resurrection (falls on Easter Sunday). So it would be like FHE every night the week before Easter, but it breaks it all down. The activities (videos, role play, discussions, coloring page, whatever fits your family) that go along with them really help it come to life and makes it real. It's a great way to teach your family and also strengthen your own testimony of our Savior. Jaden was so excited once he realized we would be doing something every night. The thing about this is that it's all so adaptable, so when your family gets older, this week long experience will become a spiritual growing event for your teenagers as discussions get deeper and stuff. I'm just really excited. I hope I can figure out a way to do something like this for Christmas!
I really wish I could have come up with more activities that would work for pictures. Most of what we did were watching little videos to reinforce what we learned each day with pictures and stories. And when I did think to use the camera, we were already done with what we were doing. It was great to not have the camera distract from teaching Jaden the true meaning of Easter...so I guess, in a way, the lack of pictures is a good thing :).
One night we did a mock Last Supper. Jaden loved that the food we had was similar to what Jesus ate and he loved dressing up in clothing from that time period.
We had hard boiled eggs, flat bread, kabob things (with beef...someone used lamb which makes sense, but the more I thought about eating a little lamb, I just couldn't do it), fresh berries, and grape juice.
He LOVED these. He devoured it.
For desert we had honey with a piece of honey comb in it. So delicious.
On a different night, we made these: Resurrection Rolls. You get refrigerated crescent dough, and dip halved jumbo marshmallows in melted butter and cinnamon and sugar. Then you wrap them in the crescent dough and bake them for about 10 minutes. Let me explain.
The marshmallow represents Christ, the butter represents the oil they rubbed on his body, the cinnamon and sugar represents the spices they rubbed on his body, and the crescent dough represents the cloth that they wrapped his body in. The oven is the tomb. On the third day, we know that Christ rose again and was resurrected and that when Mary Magdalene entered into the tomb, he was gone. We placed a couple of Jaden's stuffed animals in front of the oven to represent the guards.
The cool thing about these, is when they are done cooking, you open them up and the marshmallow is no longer there! I'm so serious. It didn't melt in there and ooze out. There was really no trace of it inside. All there was was a little bit of bubbling butter and cinnamon and sugar. It was a cool visual for Jaden, and I was pretty wowed myself that it actually worked!
I know the white stuff looks like marshmallow, but it's not. It's the bubbling butter.
At the end of the week I was able to ask Jaden what the true meaning of Easter was, and I was so excited to say that he knew what it was!
Along with the more serious aspect of Easter, we also had our traditional Easter activities as well: Easter eggs, Easter treats, Easter bunny, etc.
I saw a Rice Krispies commercial that was promoting this treat for Easter. It looked easy enough, so we tried it! Jaden loved it, because he could really do it by himself and feel involved and important. It was a lot of fun, and yummy.
Plus, the fun thing is is that you put M&Ms inside of them...so when you shake them, they make a sound!
One day for school, we worked on our upper and lower case letters. I found this cute printable (online of course) of eggs, with the top half being the upper case letters and the bottome half being the lower case. He had fun building the eggs, and it reinforced what he already knew, which was great too!
I found this idea on the FamilyFun website. We had this for breakfast one morning. It's a little Easter nest made with hashbrowns in cupcake pans and eggs, onions, green peppers, and cheese in the middle. Yum and fun :)
I made cupcakes for some of my neighbors. This is the first time that I have used one of these cupcake box holder things. Aren't they adorable? Totally makes it look professional, straight from a bakery.
At cooking class last week, the kids made edible Easter Baskets. And I mean EVERYTHING was edible. I'm tellin' ya, the teacher is amazing and so creative. Here's a (pretty much) step by step organization of photos to show you how it was done. So fun!
The following are pictures of homemade Peeps that they also made in the cooking class. Just took marshmallows, dipped half in melted white chocolate bark, and then dipped in sprinkles or colored sugar.
What is Easter without coloring eggs? NOT Easter, if you ask me. Just kidding. But really, almost everyone dyes eggs on Easter, and we are a couple of them! This was Jaden's first time, and he was amazed.
Hope you all had a happy Easter... from our house to yours!
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Nesting Phenomenon..
I have found myself begin to feel those "nesting instincts". You know the ones you get a few weeks before you deliver a baby? Yeah, those. Only I'm not pregnant...at ALL; so, what the heck is going on?
Over the past couple of weeks, I have had dreams which begin as dreams, but end in nightmares. Each one includes my husband coming home from his deployment. There are a couple that I can recall. One time, he surprised me! Sweet? It would normally be that way, but in my dream I was COMPLETELY caught off guard and started into panic mode where I felt totally unprepared. The house wasn't as neat as I would have liked it to be, and I couldn't help but think that I haven't shaved my legs! All of these thoughts were going on in my mind as I was giving him the biggest hug in the world. The other dream happened a couple of days ago where I was on my way to the airport to pick him up. I was so excited!! I was almost to the airport and realized I forgot my purse. I don't know what possessed me to turn back around, but I did and went to grab my purse. I hopped back in the car, and I was almost to the airport again when I realized that I didn't have my phone. And again, I turned back around to go get it (why??). I could NOT get to the airport. I kept forgetting things, and my stupid dream made me go back and get them!
Anyway, I guess subconsciously I am feeling unprepared and want everything to be perfect for when he comes home in just 4 weeks (for R&R)! This is what I think is kicking me into that nesting stage. I'm not pregnant, but I do have one of my babies coming home!!! :) Here are some pictures of before and after of what I did to my pantry and cupboards. Don't judge me on the "before" ones, if you are already a neat freak :). K, bye.
Before:
.JPG)
Before:
After:
Before:
After: FYI: Pasta is a staple in our house...if you can't tell in the following pictures :)
.JPG)
Over the past couple of weeks, I have had dreams which begin as dreams, but end in nightmares. Each one includes my husband coming home from his deployment. There are a couple that I can recall. One time, he surprised me! Sweet? It would normally be that way, but in my dream I was COMPLETELY caught off guard and started into panic mode where I felt totally unprepared. The house wasn't as neat as I would have liked it to be, and I couldn't help but think that I haven't shaved my legs! All of these thoughts were going on in my mind as I was giving him the biggest hug in the world. The other dream happened a couple of days ago where I was on my way to the airport to pick him up. I was so excited!! I was almost to the airport and realized I forgot my purse. I don't know what possessed me to turn back around, but I did and went to grab my purse. I hopped back in the car, and I was almost to the airport again when I realized that I didn't have my phone. And again, I turned back around to go get it (why??). I could NOT get to the airport. I kept forgetting things, and my stupid dream made me go back and get them!
Anyway, I guess subconsciously I am feeling unprepared and want everything to be perfect for when he comes home in just 4 weeks (for R&R)! This is what I think is kicking me into that nesting stage. I'm not pregnant, but I do have one of my babies coming home!!! :) Here are some pictures of before and after of what I did to my pantry and cupboards. Don't judge me on the "before" ones, if you are already a neat freak :). K, bye.
Before:
After: Who knew I had so much room in there??
.JPG)
Before:
After: FYI: Pasta is a staple in our house...if you can't tell in the following pictures :)
.JPG)
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