FHE

I thought I'd post about the last few FHE's we had, in case it could be of use to anyone.

1) A few weeks back I had made a game for Sharing Time that would be fun for FHE as well. It was pretty easy and turned out fun. It could be used as a review for any topics that have been covered in your FHE's.

It was a 5th Sunday, so there was no topic or lesson ideas in the Sharing Time Outline. So I thought it would be fun to make up a game that would review what we had learned all month.

First I made a dice out of a 6x6 square box I got at a stationary store. I came up with 6 categories for questions. (The topics of the last 4 weeks, a song category, and a "apply what we learned" category.)

Then I found pics that would represent the themes. I did pictures instead of words for the non-readers in Primary. I printed out 2 copies of the pictures. I glued one copy of the pictures on each face of our dice and the other copy onto the top of a poster board.

Then I came up with questions for each of the categories and glued them on under their respective category. Then I covered up the questions by taping another paper on top.

A child rolled the dice and then uncovered a question from the category the dice landed on.

It was fun both in Primary and for FHE. Aubrey was a little sick that day, so I think we might do it again in a few months. Since she is only 2, repeat lessons are not a problem for us!

2) Another fun FHE we did was on Gratitude & Giving. I found pics of many of the blessings we have. (food, clothes, home, car, toys, etc.) Aubrey picked them out of a bag as we discussed all of the blessings that we have. Then we talked about how there are many people who do not have the same blessings that we have and that Heavenly Father expects us to share what we have with them. We told her about some children in an Orphanage in Haiti who do not have enough food to eat and are hungry. We told her that we wanted to help them and give them food so they won't be hungry. We then went together to the grocery store and bought some food to donate to the orphanage.

Aubrey still remembers that FHE and talks about the "Children in Haiti" and "those people that don't have any food."

3) The week of Valentines we had to talk about love. We did a very simple lesson on loving others. For our opening song we taught Aubrey, "Love One Another." Then we helped her memorize the second half of Matt 19:19 "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." We talked about who our neighbors are and what it means to love them as thyself. Then we did a very simple game. Jeff and I gave her situations that were either loving or not loving. She then did the thumbs up for loving ones and thumbs down for not loving ones. She enjoyed this and then wanted to add a few situations of her own for us to play along.

Earlier that day Aubrey had told me that she wanted to make a cake for FHE. So I happened to have a heart shaped cake pan, so we made a heart shaped cake to go along with our theme.

Of course Aubrey had to add sprinkles!

Before FHE begins Aubrey always has to play a song for us on the piano & sings. It has become a family tradition. This time she invited Brooke to join her on the piano. Brooke was thrilled!

Tomorrow for FHE we are going to take a little field trip to a local animal museum that has a reptile show. On the way we will talk about Heavenly Father's creations. I think both girls will enjoy it!

I am really enjoying doing short, simple but very interactive FHE lessons. Aubrey really loves family home evening and asks often, "Is it family home evening night?" I love the warm, peaceful feeling I have when we are all together for family home evening.

It's Official

With the newest addition to our family, we are officially now a "Typical Mormon Family."

Meet our Minivan. (every good mormon family needs one!)

It's a 2004 Honda Odyssey and only had 31,000 miles.

We are looking forward to the extra space with our upcoming road trips this Spring and Summer.

Here are the girls enjoying the extra space in our new ride.

When we walked into the car dealership on Tuesday, Aubrey saw all of the cars and asked, "Are all of these cars for me?" That funny kid. After we decided to buy the minivan, she asked, "When can I drive the new van?" Not sure why she thought she'd be able to drive it, but we did discover that what she wanted to do was press all of the buttons up front. Which she proceeded to do when Jeff turned his back after Aubrey got herself in the van after church. I guess she couldn't see the buttons in our Corolla, but they are in plain view now, and much too tempting for her 2 year old self!

Brookie Cookie

I just had some cute pics of Brooke to share.

She is getting better at holding herself up into standing position. She still hasn't really tried to pull herself up. She'll get there eventually.

She finally has enough hair on top to do a tiny little ponytail.

I thought she looked real cute all bundled up for another park adventure.

So, she's still not crawling - but I think we're getting close. She now will put herself onto all fours from sitting position. Hopefully soon she'll start moving forward!

Lately when I am holding her she will pat my back. It's real sweet. She also signed "more" for the first time today. It wasn't perfect, but it was a real good attempt. She is still babbling a lot. She started saying "ma ma" this last week - which I LOVE. Of course I don't know if she is referring to me, or just babbling, but it still is real fun to hear her say my name!

I think she is working on getting her 3rd tooth. She's been pretty clingy & chewing on everything lately and today has been cranky - which is very unBrooke like. Hopefully it will pop out soon so I can get my sweet little Brookie Bug back!

Aubrey's Photo Debut

This last week Aubrey has been wanting to take pictures with my camera. I let her snap the photos a few times. Well on Monday morning she set up a little scene with a little spot for Brooke and I to sit. She came running to me and said, "Mom go get your camera. You and Brooke sit right here and I'll take your picture." Since she had it all set up, I thought I'd actually teach her how to take the picture. So I told her about the screen on the back and told her to move the camera around until she saw Brooke and I on the screen, and then take the picture. She did a real good job, so I had to post it. (Please don't mind my utter ugliness - it was first thing in the morning!)

Here's her second shot.

As I was going through the photos I found the following cute picture of Brooke. I know I didn't take it, and since Jeff is behind Brooke he couldn't have. So, Aubrey must have. I cropped it up close on Brooke, but what a darling picture Aubrey took of her sissy.

So maybe we have a future photographer in the making!

The Princess and the Frog

Last Saturday we had a little Girls Night to see The Princess and the Frog. Aubrey had to wait a long time to see it because I wanted to wait until it was at the dollar theater. She was really excited to finally be going. We had it all planned out to see the 5:00 showing and meet up with Aubrey's aunts Summer & Esther and our friends Rachel & Zoe. Well we didn't realize how popular the movie would still be. Both the 5 and 7:30 were sold out. Luckily Jeff happened to mention another place in town that was showing it for $1, on our way out the door. We all headed over there to see when it was playing and if it was sold out. I didn't want to disappoint Aubrey, as you can see she was all dressed up for the occasion in her Tiana t-shirt that Zoe gave her for Valentines. Well we lucked out. They were not sold out and it was going to start at 7:00. A little late for Aubrey, but not terrible.

While we waited we got some food and played some video games. Rachel, Zoe & Esther couldn't stay for the 7:00 showing, but at least we got to hang out with them for a few hours before the show. A funny (well not so funny at the time) thing that happened is - we found a large empty area that Aubrey & Zoe could run around in while we waited. Well they were running around when they saw an elevator. They ran straight for the elevator and pressed the button. How often does an elevator open immediately upon the button being pressed? Well of course it opened immediately up for them. Luckily Rachel is quite a fast runner, we learned, and she was able to get in the elevator before the doors shut. How scary would that have been to have the girls in the elevator and us on the outside not knowing what floor they pressed?!

Aubrey liked the show. I wish it had started a little earlier though. She got pretty tired about 45 min. into it and was trying to lie on her chair. She was really cute at the part when the old voodoo lady was singing her upbeat song. Aubrey was dancing and clapping away. It woke her up a bit. After the show I asked her what her favorite part of the movie was. She said, "My favorite part was when the shadow monsters were dancing and singing." Hmm, I thought that was the part that scared most little ones. Not my funny girl. She really likes scary movies. She must have inherited that from her Aunt Esther, because she certainly didn't get that from me!

Here we are ready to go out on our Girls night - matching colors of course!

I loved her crazy excited smile in this one!

Valentine's Day

I hope everybody had a Happy Valentine's Day. It was fun that it was on Sunday, cause that means daddy was with us all day, and I got to dress up my little cuties in their red dresses and have them look all darling!

When we were making daddy's valentines, I told Aubrey that we would put the hand and footprints that the girls made at the door, ring the doorbell and hide. Well as soon as we all woke up on Sunday that's all Aubrey could talk about. I kept trying to shush her, because it was supposed to be a surprise. She kept telling daddy to get dressed, she must have known that he would have to be decent to answer the door. When he was finally dressed, we went outside (not as sneakily as I had hoped) to ding dong ditch daddy's valentines from us all.

Daddy liked his little valentines.

Here's the finished products.

Then while the girls were looking at daddy's gifts I snuck out to ding dong ditch the girls valentines. Aubrey was surprised because she was too excited about giving daddy's his, that she didn't even think about that she would get one too.

Brooke was just all smiles, what a little cutie!

Aubrey was given a little people house with a family for Christmas. The family consists of a Mom, Dad & baby. Frequently Aubrey says, "I wish my house has a big sister." So I found a big sister for Aubrey's house for her valentine's gift.

And my little chocoholic needed a box of chocolates as well!

Brooke loves to bang on things, so I got her a little drum that she thought was fun.

And of course, Aubrey had to get into the action as well.

The drumsticks are really fun to chew on as well!

Then I made a little valentine's breakfast.

Brooke enjoyed the pancakes a lot!



After church daddy made us a YUMMY dinner. He grilled us T-bone stake and made us twice baked potatoes and chef's salad. It was divine.

No steak for Brookie - but doesn't she look sooooo cute!



After dinner daddy and the girls gave me their card and some chocolate.

Oh yeah, and Jeff brought home flowers on Saturday for me.



Before tubby time Aubrey had to do some of her new make up!

It was a really fun weekend. Unfortunately, Jeff & I woke up on Sunday morning with sore throats and Jeff is all stuffed up. So Monday we didn't get to go do anything fun, cause we felt all yucky. But, it's always nice to stay home together and do nothing!

Mock Melting Pot

For our Valentine's date this year my Bro & SIL, Elliot & Katie, put together a Fondue party for all of us local sibs.

Katie decked out the dinning room all in red. It looked really pretty.

Even Sophie was dressed up for the occasion!

Here is the whole gang ready to eat our scrumptious food.

Here are some of the delights waiting for us.



They even found a website that sells alcohol free wine and champagne. It has absolutely no alcohol. I did discover that even if I weren't LDS I would not be an alcoholic or even a social drinker. I didn't like the taste of any of it at all!

At each place setting Katie had some phrases. We were supposed to try to say them during dinner without being caught. Only a few phrases were able to slide by - we were all really good lie detectors. Jeff tried to sneak in that he doesn't like recliners. As if! If there is an empty recliner around, Jeff is the first to sit in it! Like I'm not going to know that's a line! It was a fun game!

First we started off with a yummy spicy mexican cheese fondue. We dipped bread, chips, celery & apples into it.

Then it was onto the meat. We had filet mignon, new york strip, chicken & shrimp. Katie even made some yummy dipping sauces to put them in after we cooked them in the fondue. My favorite was the sesame dipping sauce.

And last but not least was the chocolate fondue. It was delicious. We had cookies, brownies, strawberries, bananas, graham crackers, marshmallows & pretzels to dip in it.

It was all delicious! Thanks for your hard work and the really fun fondue date night Elliot & Katie!