Today I'm thankful for...

1. Sleepy "I love you's".  The kiddies and I had a late night last night.  I tried to get them to bed early tonight, and all three of them fell asleep almost instantly.  After I finished singing the bedtime songs I laid Liam in his crib and he was totally zonked out.  He didn't even roll over when I put him down.  Then I went to kiss the girls good night and say, "I love you."  On most nights they are still wide awake and they ask me several times what we're going to do the next day or they tell me all the things they want to do and who they want to play with, then they ask if I can lay in bed with them.  Not tonight.  Both of them were already half asleep and they didn't even open their eyes when I kissed them.  What was so tender was that each of them responded with, "I love you too," in a half-awake, half-asleep mumble whisper.  It made Mommy's heart melt. :)

2. The law of gravity.  Liam has discovered that if he drops something it will hit the ground.  He likes to take objects (spoons, cups, stuffed animals, ba-boos, food, anything really) and drop them over the side of the high chair, crib, couch-- any elevated surface-- and watch it fall.  Then he will peek over the edge, point to said dropped item, raise his eyebrows and open his eyes big and wide and say, "Uh-ohhh!" until someone picks it up and gives it back to him so he can do it all over again.  It's fun to do just to hear him say "uh-ohhh" over and over.

3. Flat Stanley.  Lillian read about Flat Stanley in her kindergarten class.  She made her own Flat Stanley and shipped him off across the country to her Great Grandma.  He was only gone a week, but every day she exclaimed how much she missed Flat Stanley and she couldn't wait for him to come back.  She wanted to make a "welcome home" banner for when he returned.  ;)  We didn't actually make the banner, but he had a warm welcoming when he arrived home safe and sound.  Great Gma showed Flat Stanley a great time around town, at her work, and he even got to play with Great Gpa and some cousins.  She sent pictures of his adventures and got Lillian a cool sticker.  We're so thankful that Great Gma took the time to host Flat Stanley!

4. My memorabilia pack rat tendencies.  I used to save every birthday card I ever got.  I would even deflate the mylar birthday balloon from my mom each year to save in my "memory box."  I'm not quite that bad anymore, but I still save meaningful notes and cards from the people I love.  No, they are not in a cute scrapbook or other crafty form of presentation.  Rather, they are shoved in a manila envelope and stacked in a closet.  Sydney found one of the envelopes today and wanted to see what was inside.  She had trouble opening the clasp, and by the time I was able to help her open it she had forgotten about it, but I decided to peek inside anyway.  I spent the next few minutes totally engulfed in reading cards and notes from past birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Days, and just random notes of love and support.  Most of them were from Bobby.  It was a nice reminder to read the tender things he had written over the past few years, and to see how our relationship has developed.  He often jokes that he doesn't know how to be romantic anymore because he's always too stressed and sleep deprived.  We definitely aren't in the "honeymoon" stage of our marriage anymore (it'll be 8 years in a few weeks!!), and having kids often gets in the way of romantic moments, but he's still my best friend and a great guy and I'm glad that I have him to go through life with.  And if he ever really forgets how to be romantic, I can always whip out my memory box full of old cards to remind him of all the mushy romantic things he used to say. ;)

5. Sydney's crown.  It says "I am a child of God."  She got it in her Sunbeams class at church but she didn't have time to color it, so she finished coloring it at home.  I stapled it together and she wore it proudly all morning!

6. Gma and Gpa's surprise visit!  The girls put on a pop star show for them, Liam showed off his walking moves, and we all got to send Lillian off at the bus stop.  It was a fun morning with them!

7. Cupcakes with Auntie Audrey!  Yes, she and Lillian have red dots on their foreheads.  No, they are not sniper marks.  They are bindis...Lillian wanted to be a princess from India.

 

8. Silly faces.  Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kate had our family for Secret Santa this year.  They got us this cool game called About Face.  There are different cards of pictures of household items, natural things and other random stuff for hair, eyes, nose and mouth.  Lilly and I had a lot of fun putting them together to make some goofy faces! 

"Christmas Face"

"Shell Face"

9. The face Liam makes when you tell him, "Say cheese!"

Sunbeams

Today was my first day with the new Sunbeam class. I have 5 students who come on a regular basis- 4 girls and 1 boy, with 2 sets of twins!! I knew the first day was going to be a little difficult because I don't know the kids very well and what their learning styles are. But it didn't go too badly. They have a much shorter attention span that I expected, and I quickly learned that I have to have a lot of activities planned to keep them busy. I thought the CTR 5's (who I taught last year) kept me on my toes, but these Sunbeams will definitely keep me on my tippety-tip toes! I was just talking to a friend last night and told her that teaching experiences like these mold the best teachers (and the best memories). It's going to be a fun year.

I don't have to prepare a lesson for next week because a presidency member is going to teach for me so I can attend Relief Society (it's a new program they're starting this year- bless them!). But I already started reading Lesson 3 from the Primary 1 book, and here are some of my ideas:

1. Towards the end of the lesson it says to use all the pictures from the "Preparation" section. Lay all the pictures on the floor, face down. Let each child take turns tossing our bean bag onto a picture and have them turn it over and describe the picture and how it shows something that we should do/learn to return to Heavenly Father (like pray, share, love our families, go to church, etc).

2. For Enrichment Activity #3, cut out 6 pieces to make a snowman (three balls of snow for body, two arms and a hat). Write one question on the back of each piece (I added one question, "Who created the earth?"). Scatter the pieces on the chalkboard. Let each child pick a piece of the snowman and answer the question. The snowman will be "put together" with each question that's answered.