Treehouse

Our Treehouse Membership expired today so we thought we better take advantage one last time.  Good thing I got the membership at a discounted rate because we didn't go as often as I hoped.  Sophie had the most fun today though, and I definitely think it's aimed at preschool and kindergarden-aged kids.  She loved playing with the legos and making tall towers.  She liked to dress up and get behind the stage and pop her head out too.  We didn't do the craft today but she has had fun doing that before.  She loves the farm and the kitchen area too.  

We spent most of our time with the baby dolls in the pretend hospital.  She just loved it there.  I'm talking - we were there a solid hour!  She loved to wrap them up, weigh them, feed them, and hold them.  It was hard to talk her into going somewhere else.  

We checked out the music room and played in the big tree.  She also loves to dress up like a fire-man and sit on the pretend firetruck they have there.  It was a good way to spend a day off together!

Cousin Sleepover

We had Lex up for a sleepover.  It was spur of the moment but we had a lot of fun.  Sophie loved having her over and we did lots of fun things.  Friday Kale went to Salt Lake to pick her up and we hung out and played.  

Saturday we went to the trampoline place in Roy.  It was snowing like crazy, but we were so glad to do something active!  Sophie has never been and loved it. 

Lex loved doing tricks in the foam pit.  It was a lot of fun!

The next day we didn't have church so we did a whole morning of crafts, games, and even did a treasure hunt!  

We made necklaces, colored and painted, and made a dinosaur habitat!  Ha, this was Sophies.  Lex's was awesome.

Kale's fam came up to get Lex and we had dinner.

I had to work at 4pm and was glad I survived my shift since it was such a busy day!

FHE

For February I have been working on doing more of the things I know I should be doing... specifically with Church.  We have tried having family home evenings on a more regular basis.  We have gotten two done so far.  We did them at the end of last year a time or two, and they went terrible, so I gave up.  I had a break and recharged and have prepared them at a different angle: a 3-year old angle.  Something short, sweet, and fun!  Our attention span here averages about 10-15 minutes.

I have the FHE resource book but find myself wanting something more 'modern'.  You can access it online though and it can give you a great start for topic ideas.  I also can't believe how much I use the iPad or my phone for things.  I have the Mormon Channel App, LDS hymns, and the Gospel Library on there.  They all come in handy!

I will share the two FHE's we have done. 

FHE #1: Nature - Evidence of Heavenly Father's Love

I read from the FHE manual a highlighted a few things about the lesson that I liked for our family FHE.  We talked about things around us that are nature related, especially our favorite things in nature.  Then we got a big poster board and magazines and cut out examples of nature.  We also watched THIS short video clip on how the earth was made.  Quite honestly it was a complete disaster.  Sophie was being so grumpy.  She doesn't like to say prayers, so that was a bad start.  Then, not that we could even sing, but the thought of music she hasn't asked for is enough to put her over the edge.  By the time I finished reading... (we had to physically keep her sitting with us as she cried and yelled almost the entire time) she was in such a horrible mood she didn't want to do the fun part.  Kale and I went about it though, and by the end she thought it was pretty cool to use glue and actually participated...

FHE #2 Prayer

Well since, last time had gone SO WELL... (yeah right) I was fearful of putting in a lot of work and having high expectations.  I searched pinterest high and low and didn't find much that seemed like it was ready-made for a 3 year old.  So I took some ideas and information from a few sites and made my own lesson about Prayer.  I found THIS cute printable and send it to Kinkos to be laminated so we can use it to plan our lessons.

I also found some really great stuff for the lesson from HERE.  We went through the lesson (I adapted it more towards us and added things I had found on LDS.org ect).  It was going ok, Sophie was protesting by putting her hands on her hips, crying, or trying to leave.  After the lesson, we read this fun story.  I had printed it out and Sophie was mesmerized by the picture of the boy in the elevator.  Things were looking up!  Then watched an awesome video about Prayer.  This was the part that Sophie finally stopped protesting and loved the music and the birds in the video.  After the video, we listened to "Sweet Hour of Prayer" as we colored and cut out/glued THIS fun craft!  Sophie loves using scissors (a little too much sometimes) and glue!  

What a relief FHE went a LITTLE better!  

#3 Our Next Lesson is on Love One Another - Love at Home

We listened to "Love One Another" and read a scripture about that.  The lesson is about Love at Home.  I kind of combined THIS lesson with this TALK and some other ideas I ran across while searching.  We're going to read a poem by Shel Silverstein about Hugs, cause those poems are always fun.  Our activity is going to be a LEGO one.  I used THIS but added a lot more adjectives to put on the side of the legos for our tower (just a few examples that are more specific: keep journals, obedience, be good influences, invite priesthood into our home, fasting, carrying out family traditions, sharing our testimony, ect).  

My daughter loves puzzles so I printed THIS on cardstock, cut it out, and stuck some magnets on the back so we can use it all year long on the fridge.

Then we made cookies (and ate them too!)   

Romantic Bowling Date Night

Kale and I spent Friday-to-Saturday on an overnighter in Salt Lake City.  We stayed at Little America Hotel and had a great time.  It was a snowy day so besides leaving once for treats at the little souvenir shop, we stayed in and utilized our Netflix to have a TV marathon.  It was so nice to spend the night out and not be tempted by the dishes/laundry.  Sophie stayed with her Grandma (or should I say Grandma stayed with Sophie) and they had a blast too while we were gone.  We had a couple's massage Saturday after we checked out, and ate at one of our favorite's, Olive Garden!  It was great!

 Kale and I had an early Valentine's date tonight.  It was a lot of fun!  Kale opened the surprise date envelope last week so we had over a week to look forward to it.  I got the date idea from Love, Actually's website and knew it was one Kale would love!  It was a Romantic Bowling Date.

We had a pack of skittles and each color we would draw would indicate a 'type' of bowling (ie. Granny bowling - using both hands).  It was a BLAST!  Kale got lots of purples but never got any better at backwards bowling :)

I, on the other hand, had my best score when we were bowling silly!  Hmm... I don't know what that says about my bowling talent.

We pigged out at The Pizza Factory after and came home to Sophie and one of the BEST BABYSITTERS EVER having a 'tea party' (which by the way, Sophie hasn't been able to stop talking about how fun the tea party was).  It's always nice when you can leave and not worry about your little one being taken care of.  Thank you to E for being such an awesome babysitter.