MorgAnnie: Gone is January, Here comes February

This past week has been fun. I let the boys help me make cornbread muffins one night for dinner. They had all decided that we shouldn't watch TV on school days, so we had to find something else to fill the time.

It was quite the project, but they got out all the ingredients and put them all away, I pretty much just stood back and held Jaron.

And that is actually really hard to do. I wanted to make it all clean and nice, so it was a big moment for mom and the boys. :)

I think they had a really fun time. They cleaned up pretty well too. They put everything back. I wiped off the counters for them though.

I've been trying to let them help in the kitchen more and to just be around more. I feel like a lot of times I'm shooing them to the basement to play or something else and they just want to be close, so now I've been putting them to work...of course that pretty much doubles my work time, but it's also time spent with my boys.

Damon is my silly boy that loves to make faces at the camera.

He's growing up so much and is a really great big brother. Every day he gets better and better at controlling his emotions and tantrums and sharing with his brother.

Our January theme was "Be Prayerful"...I think I already mentioned that in another post, but here is the finished product. All the stars represent the times that we remember to say prayers other than just at meal time...give or take. :) The boys have been really good with FHE. They love to look at the chart and see who has what responsibility and they are getting more and more creative. They are good about helping us remember. I think the monthly themes have helped keep their interest too. It's hard to miss a giant posterboard on our pantry door that we get into several times on a daily basis. I just hope that we can maintain the consistency that we have so far the last couple months.

Logan was really excited to choose the February "Be." He chose Be Involved. At first I didn't really know what to do with that, and the poster is pretty bare...I won't take a picture of that until the end, but basically we have 5 categories to be involved in: Church, Home, School, Friends, & Work. Anytime we are participating in those activities we write it on the board. For example on Church, we were all "involved" in bearing our testimonies on Fast Sunday...thanks to Logan. :) For Home, we try to have dinner together more often, or breakfast, School: Logan had a BoxTop contest that we made an effort to participate in, and a Dad's and Donuts Day (more later). Friends: That helps me to have playdates with their friends. Work was the most challenging, but we decided to do something for the co-workers once a week. On Monday, Morgan took all his co-workers a smoothie, so just something little like that. One week I might make cookies. Anyway, it's been an eye-opener for all the things that we have been involved in and some things that I wouldn't think to be involved in. I'm really glad that Logan had the ambition to choose to "Be Involved"

We have finally been able to play outside a little more lately and the boys have loved it. Even thought the temps have just barely been in the high 30's and low 40's they feel like it's summer again. :)

Tragon likes the snow until he gets stuck in a drift and can't get out. He loves to walk around with snowballs. I have to make sure he always has gloves on.

My neighbor has a snowball maker that the boys were playing with and they loved it! They probably made more than a hundred snowballs.

We have some pretty big hills of snow from the plow and Logan and his neighbor friend have been digging out snow caves and forts. I think they spent a good 2-3 hours one afternoon, just chipping away at the snow and ice. I love that Logan loves to be outside. He's usually the first one to turn off the TV and go play. I can't wait until Spring so we can all go outside more and play.

One of the January Skills that Logan has been working on for Kindergarten has been learning to tie his shoes. He's been working really hard and finally passed it of at the end of the month. It was something I hadn't really thought to teach him because I always buy the velcro shoes, so I'm glad we had that "assignment"

In a house surrounded with boys, I've learned to except rough housing and play to some degree I encourage it. We've never really had furniture that was expensive or "nice" so I don't mind the boys jumping around. In the video Logan and his two amigos were doing a "diving" game off the couches...also another reason I'll be glad when they can play outside more. :) I think we did actually go out later and sled down some of the little snow drift piles.

For FHE one night we decided to go to the library for our activity and stop at Macey's on the way home for an ice cream cone for refreshment. They were out of the little kiddie cones so we just got the smallest size...still way big, but they loved it. Tragon dropped his first cone and the girl was so nice to replace it.

Damon isn't really my big ice cream eater, but he finished the whole thing...he was by far the cleanest too. :)

Logan loves ice cream, he was a pretty slow eater, I think he was savoring the moment. And we ran into his PE teacher from school. He said, hey I know you. I just wrote it off, like yeah, buddy, we know you know everyone. Then she asked if he went to her school, and it turned out she was his PE teacher...I learned not to question him when he thinks he knows someone, because he probably really does. I'm so glad that he's a friendly and kind boy!

Tragon was attacking the ice cream, it took him a while to figure out that he could bit the cone and eat it. He just kept trying to smash his face further and further into the ice cream to get it out.

We gave Jaron a little bit too and he loves ice cream.

I'm not a huge fan of pictures of myself, but I know that someday I'll appreciate that I included myself in the pictures every once in a while. Hopefully my kids will appreciate it too, if only to say, wow, mom you were young once?

I love my boys and every time we have FHE my testimony of it grows. I love being able to spend time with them and teach them. That's not to say that every week is profound...or even has a "real" lesson for that matter, but I feel like our family is growing closer as we are doing things together.

Logan had a Dad's and Donuts Day where dads get to come eat donuts and read with their kids. Morgan had to switch some things around to make, but he was so glad that he did. He said that probably no other kid was as excited to see him as Logan. He ran up and yelled Daddy and jumped up on him. It melted Morgan heart and I think eternally bonded these two. It just wouldn't have been the same if it were me.

Not that he doesn't love mom, but anytime to spend one on one with Dad is awesome. They both had a great time.

Logan had his Parent Teacher conference this week. We got a babysitter so we could both go and visit with he teacher. He is doing so awesome in school and he loves it too. I'm so glad and I'm so proud of him for how hard he works and for how good a friend he is to all his classmates.