Week #5: Family History...I am doing it.

This Week...

...We've had some excellent lessons/talks on family history work lately. I'm scanning pictures from my mom's scrapbooks. Here's a family photo from when she was just a baby. These photos sure make me stare, shifting my eyes from person to person, wondering what they were like, seeing traces of their descendants in their faces.

My mom and her siblings- Dewayne, Gelene, LaDean, Linda

My mom and her dad

My mom and her sisters, Gelene (oldest) and LaDene

I see my mom in this picture of my Grandma. It's been hard to find my mom in all of the pictures of Grandma that I've been scanning. I've wondered many times...How is my mom like her? What attributes of hers did my mom inherit? My Grandma died when I was five, so I don't remember much about her. But this picture of Grandma Hill definitely makes me think of my mom.

...we had Family Home Evening. Emma played the opening song on the piano. It's so fun that she's able to learn the songs and practice them to accompany us. 

...Lainey used her candle from preschool to light her way around the house ALL DAY LONG. They have been going over rhyming words. They did Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick and then made the candle. There's a surprisingly funny second verse. Jack jumped high, Jack jumped low, Jack jumped over and burned his toe. Lainey's teacher said that out of all of the nursery rhymes the kids remembered the second verse of this one the most.

...Paul and Jason worked on Paul's Pinewood Derby car. They looked up some videos on you tube for making a fast car. Paul saw the wedge shape in one and that's what he wanted. Fine with dad.

...we went to the Mardi Gras Math night at school. We had fun with patterns and learned some new math games.

...we had the piano tuned. We used Dickerson's Piano Service on the recommendation of Emma's piano teacher. It was a chunk of change because it hadn't been tuned in so long, but it sure sounded great when he was done.

...the cub scouts learned how to play chess and checkers. This turned out to be a fun activity for the boys. They all liked it and tried it out.

...Lainey and I ran errands again. Oh, to Target we must go.

Week #4: Changing the World, One Smile at a Time

This Week...

...I found a smiley face at church. I sent it to my sister Shelly with a Happy Sunday salutation.

...Emma made brownies from scratch using a recipe in the Wahluke Ward cookbook (my home ward). I think she did a fabulous job, but they were a little on the dark chocolate side. Not my favorite flavor. We found an evil face on the plate.

...Lainey made some sight words at preschool using marshmallows. Then she tried to eat them.

...we went to Mattawa for the MLK Jr. holiday. Jason had the day off and was able to go with us. We went shooting at the bone pile. (Why is it called the bone pile, because there are actually cow bones down there. The kids thought that was the best part.) See, evidence.

Grandma Zirker gave it a go. 

Even Lainey tried it. She was not afraid at all. She got right down there and closed one eye to get the target in her sights. 

I'm all ready. Let's do this!

...we're pretty sure it's time to get our piano tuned. We found this business card taped inside the piano bench. It was definitely tuned on September 15th, 1972 by Edward M. Gregory. But was that the last time? Oh dear.

...we had a lesson on the roles of the Holy Ghost for Family Home Evening. Gift bag-it is a gift (). Testifies of truth-Book of Mormon (). Sunglasses-shows us the way we should go (). Blanket-comforts (). Bear-bears witness of Father and Son (). Ear buds-the spirit whispers; we have to make sure that we can hear it and we're not too distracted (). Light bulb-enlightens our minds; gives us ideas; brings things to our remembrance (). Pitcher-fills us (). Soap-sanctifies (). Fruit- ways we can tell that the spirit is speaking to us, peace, love, joy, (Galatians 5:22-23).

We had some serious singers during the opening song.

...Lainey gave the Target dog some love on one of our many trips this week.

...Lainey was my little helper with the dishes this week. She came over and started unloading without any prompting from me. What a sweetie!

...our friend Ivy came to play again. We love to get the Little People toys out and run through all the animal sounds with her. We even googled the giraffe, zebra, and peacock sounds so we could teach her. She went home and repeated the weird sounds to her mom and dad. They didn't know where she'd picked them up. Haha!

They tried building a tower but Ivy wouldn't let them get very far before she knocking it over.

Then when they wanted her to knock it over, she was extra cautious.

...we found another milk face on the table. I guess we're just good at spilled milk.

...Jason and I went to dinner at Famous Dave's with my sisters. It's been a while since we have been there. What a lot of food! This time out we had a considerable wait for our table and for our food once we were seated. We had some great discussion-catching up on callings and current events.

...I volunteered in Benjamin and Claire's classroom. Lainey comes with me on occasion when she doesn't have preschool. There was an empty desk next to Benjamin and he helped make a spot for her to color next to him. Lainey's always in heaven when we go into the school.

...our friends, Tyson and Whitney Chapman, brought me flowers. I applied a vinyl calendar grid to the glass of a frame for Whitney and then they joked that I deserved flowers. Of course, I joked back that I did indeed. Well, they were funny and actually brought me some. The flowers lasted so long and really brightened things up.

...we went to the temple with Jason's niece Hannah. She went through for the first time in preparation for her mission to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a great day to be in the temple.

Afterwards we went to lunch at the Pacific Pasta & Grill. Family and friends down the table waiting for the food to come.

Week #3: Icy Skites in Costco

This Week...

...the Cub Scouts worked together to lower this stick to the ground. I am the Bear Den Leader. We're having scouts at our house now. Paul is a bear so it's fun to work with him and his group.

...Lainey made some icy skites. We watched a Strawberry Shortcake episode where they had icy skites. It has been on her brain. Miss Amy must have let her make some out of paper plates at preschool because she brought some home. Then she would put them under her feet and slide them across the floor. What a great mom I am to let her try them out at Costco...

and Lowe's. You have no idea how very slow you go on icy skites. Our little errand took us double the time. She was in heaven though.

...Lainey played Mustache Smash with Grandma and Grandpa Zirker. Lainey was so excited to have some game partners and we laughed pretty hard at everyone with their mustaches up. 

...Emma played Rosa Parks in the fifth grade Martin Luther King Jr. Program. They reenacted the Montgomery bus protest. One of her classmates recited part of King's speech from memory and impressed us all.

...we got a little Paul/Lainey love.

...we walked around the temple this morning. I took some pictures of my niece for her baptism announcement/invitation. It's always a good day to be at the temple.

Week #2: Paul turns 9

This Week...

...I reveal the result of the boys changing after church. They waste no time.

...Paul turned the big 9! He has grown so much, I can't even believe it. His reading has improved, and his writing and problem solving. Paul is so conscious to know and do what is right. He also has a tender heart. He loves to do projects and work with Jason in the garage. My bushy haired boy isn't so small anymore. I cut his bush nowadays before it can get too much out of control. Paul tells me that he likes his bush in the winter because it keeps his head warm.

Here's one of Paul with his fuzzy hair (4/7/08).

I do not know how Paul got a hold of the fire! Yikes!

We had a family party and held a Hawaiian pizza taste test. My sister Shelly loves to do taste tests and this was the latest idea. Paul loves Hawaiian pizza and so we figured it would be a good time to do it. We got pizzas from Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Little Caesar's, Round Table, Papa Johns, Shakey's, Rocco's, Costco, Papa Murphy's, and Hubby's. Two of the deliveries came one right after the other. They were wondering why we needed deliveries from two different places at the same residence. Taste test! Duh!

Most people liked Round Table's Maui Zowi and regular Hawaiian. Hubby's and Shakey's was out, hands down. The others fell into the mediocre to not so good category.

Paul's present opening took a back seat to the Seahawks game. 

Shelly started reading books to some of the littles and her group kept growing. Other kids would crawl around the corner or down the stairs to listen.

The many faces of Christian

...we attended Emma's winter concert. They had to cancel the concert before Christmas break because SO many of the students were out sick. They rescheduled for after. Emma played a duet with her friend Zoey on the violin in orchestra. She was an angel in the Choir musical play.Emma wasn't too fond of the dance that the angels had to do up in front of everyone, but she did a good job and I was glad she tried out.

We went super early to get good seats. Lainey brought plenty to keep herself busy.

...our friends Ivy and Zoey came to play. Zoey is Emma's friend from school. She came over to practice the duet they have for the winter concert. Ivy is two years old with the cutest voice and personality. All the kids love to play with her. Emma babysits her, and they both have a great time together. Her mom recently had twin girls and so we've invited Ivy to play with us.

...me and my buddy went shopping at Target. We made a brief pit stop in the snack center, something we don't normally do.

...it snowed. The kids were so excited to go play init. I was excited that I could find enough warm gear for all of them. I swear I invest in snow gear for just one day with the way our winters have been going. They played with the Bagley children. (Reid, Eli, Afton)