FYI :)

Just in case you're interested, the first Conference-talk-based FHE post is available on my other blog.  It's a long one, but I think there are some good things in there if you're patient enough to wade through it all.  :)  Click below to find them!

http://givethemheaven.blogspot.com/2012/04/fhe-49-families-are-forever.html

Some free LDS downloads, made by yours truly!

Made with love.  :)

I've been having a TON of fun working on some stuff for Primary (or just for myself, as I've been inspired to do).  Feel free to download any of these things--for personal or church use only, not for profit.  :)  All links are directly below the images.

CTR BOOKMARKS
These are intended to be printed off as a 4"x6" prints, then cut down the middle to make two 2"x6" bookmarks.  Laminated is best, of course, but not necessary.  All bookmarks made from free-for-personal-use kits from various designers in the LDS Blog Train Blog from January (themed, appropriately, Choose the Right!).  We're distributing these as we visit children in their homes this year--great as a gift, incentive, or just for keeping your place in scripture study!

Download Link

Download Link

Download Link

Download Link

Download Link

PRIMARY SONG SUBWAY ART
This is my first attempt at Subway art...it was a lot of fun to make, and I didn't even venture into my hundreds of fun fonts!  Be on the lookout for more of these in the future for sure.  There's an 8x10 print link and a 5x7 print link, so be sure to click on the right one!

8"x10" download link

5"x7" download link

LDS PRIMARY POSTCARDS
We want to send a spiritually-themed postcard to kids that are sick and missing primary each week, but looking around online, I hadn't really found anything...don't get me wrong, there's lots of CUTE stuff out there about missing the kids, but we wanted basically a nice LDS picture with a short quote or scripture on it so that if they were to keep it and put it up in their room or on the fridge, it would remind them of the Savior and of the temple.  The pictures are either from the LDS.org image site (which allows you to copy for home or church use) or from an awesome blogger who offers LDS artwork for free for personal use.  So here are a few postcards to print--just print on cardstock, write your message on the back, and send out!  :)  (I love that you can send almost ANYTHING through the mail.)

First Vision 4x6 Postcard link

Jesus Loved the Little Children postcard link

I Love to See the Temple Postcard

FHE 8/8/11

Since Paul and Cerene are both working late these next few weeks for training and such, it's just me and Caida at home in the evenings.  So FHE is a little more laid back, but I think that's a good transition for both of us!  Caida's kinda new(ish) to the LDS ways of doing things, including FHE and Primary, and I'm working with her on learning the songs for Primary before the Primary Program in October!  That's a lot of work, but since she LOVES to sing, it's been fun.  Caida has the sweetest, LONGEST prayers ever.  She thanks Heavenly Father for just about everything that happened all day and everything that she's looking forward to tomorrow, and sometimes she throws things in like, "Thank you that Celeste is so beautiful."  What a self-esteem booster she is!  :)  (Sorry the pictures are rotating, Blogger's being dumb and I don't know how to make it NOT do that!)

Opening Song: Popcorn Popping (she still LOVES that one from when she was younger, and we even got to have Paul on speakerphone for that one!)
Opening Prayer: Caida
Family Business: Caida's school stuff (registration on Tuesday, school starting in a week, fears, etc.)
Lesson/Activity: Learning the words to "The Lord Gave Me a Temple"  We worked on it line-by-line and drew our own pictures to help us remember the big/important words.  By the end, she could sing it louder than me!

Mine

Hers

Closing Prayer: Also Caida (I don't want to squander her willingness to volunteer!)
Snack: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies!  Each Sunday that Caida behaves in church (I talk to her teacher afterwards...she is new to the routines and procedures and being reverent and sharing and all that stuff), we make a batch of cookies together that serve as our FHE snack and desserts for the week. She LOVES making cookies with me, and is such a good helper, so how can I deny her that?  :)  Plus, it'll give me an excuse to try out a bunch of new cookie recipes in the coming months.

FHE is so much more fun when you're planning it for kids!  :)

ALSO, spending so much time with Caida, I have a million stories and things I don't want to forget to tell her someday...but I am bad about writing in a journal, by hand these days...so I started a blog where each post is a letter that maybe someday she'll be old enough to really appreciate.  If you've ever seen the Disney show Good Luck, Charlie, it's the same concept.  Anyway, I highly recommend it!  It's so nice to just plop a quick story down when I'm on the computer--things she's said or done that make me smile, little life lessons I'm learning, things I hope she will understand about her somewhat troubled life someday--and way less time-intensive, especially with digital pictures, than a journal.  I'm going to do one for all my own kids someday.  :)

FHE 1/31/10

Paul and I really do love FHE, but we've kinda been slacking lately.  Between the madness of the holidays, the fact that neither of us really grew up with FHE so it's not "routine" in our minds yet (even after YEARS in YSA FHE callings and attending meetings), and the fact that we both kinda assume the other person will remind us, or plan it, or...whatever...yeah, we just sort of let the ball drop.  So we basically do it when we remember.  Well, one of our main goals as a family this year is to be better about that.  So, thanks to our chart that keeps it at the forefront of our minds and helps us know exactly what each of us must do:

Isn't it cute, all laminated and velcro-ed?  :)

Song: "If I Listen With my Heart" (a primary song we are trying to learn!)
Prayer: Paul
Lesson: Chapter 8 in Choosing Glory.  For FHE as a married couple, we've mostly been reading books together, one chapter at a time, and then discussing thoughts that come up.  These are usually church-related books, but they wouldn't necessarily have to be.  Once we FINALLY finish this book, we're thinking about taking turns presenting Conference talks in any way we want.  We're kinda excited about it, because it would involve real study and planning.

Can I just put in a plug here?  Sister Lili Anderson was my strengthening marriage and family teacher at BYU, and I LOVED her class.  As not only a PhD/Marriage and Family counselor but also mother of 8 kids, she has SOOOOOO much insight about the gospel and how it relates (in concrete ways) to marriage and parenting.  Of course, you get as much out of it as you put into it, but talking about the principles she reviews in her books has really already helped Paul and me.  Personally, it's been a healing thing for me to understand the feelings I've had about different trials in my own life and what those feelings mean in context of the gospel.  I TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY recommend her books to anyone.  The first one, Family Foundations, is pretty much our curriculum for her course (besides a really big coffee-table-style book breaking down the proclamation on the family), and it merits reading.  In it, she introduces what she calls the Three Realm Model, and this second book is all about that.  We really love it.  It makes certain parts of the gospel make a lot more sense.  Check out her website and order her books at lilianderson.com!

The awesome book.  Okay, moving on...

Activity: Yahtzee.  I beat Paul in our first game by 4 points.  He beat me the second time by over 70 points.  But I came back in our "tiebreaker" round to win by almost as much, thanks to an actual Yahtzee.  It was way fun.  And I got a massage out of it.  :)

Treats: Peanut Butter Fingers!  My roommate used to make these once in a while, and I loved them lots.  I'd wanted to make them over the holidays but, y'know, I didn't want Emilie to DIE, so...I made them now.  Let me know if you want the recipe!  I'm too lazy to type it all up right now.

So, that was it!  It was a fun evening.  We always enjoy the spirit of unity we feel when we actually settle down and DO FHE.  Hopefully now that we're starting to get more organized we'll have more fun stories and experiences to share!

Yummy PB Fingers...High Five for FHE!  :)

FHE--Similes and Home Desserts

I like to pass on fun activities, especially family-related ones, to pretty much anyone who will listen.

Paul & I have recently started planning FHEs again (his work schedule and my school schedule just didn't coincide enough to have real activities, so we read a chapter out of a church book on Monday mornings before rushing me off to my classes...now that he has Mondays off, we are doing it "right" again!). Last night we had a simple little activity that we found out of a book I love, FHE for Newlyweds, and I thought I'd share.

There are 10 categories (cars, food, shoes, animal, color, season, cartoon character, sport, place, and movie star are what are in the book, but I think you could easily adapt the categories to fit the interests or age levels of your family). You basically make up a simile for your spouse in each category, stating the reason behind it--for example, in the car category, you might write, "You're like an SUV because you're adventurous and you love the great outdoors". It was a challenge, but a fun one, and we got a few giggles. And now I can scrapbook the little notes. :)

I won't bore you with everything we wrote, but here are my three favorites Paul wrote about me:

"You are like a pizza, well-rounded with a little bit of everything, and, of course, my favorite."

"You are like ballet shoes, pretty and seemingly delicate but strong enough to support whatever is needed."

"You are like Chicago because I smile whenever I see you."

And here are my three favorite things I wrote about him:

"You are like a puppy because you're friendly, loyal, cuddly, and fuzzy--a best friend to the end."

"You are like your military boots because you always look so polished."

"You are like the winter because you make me want to curl up and stay in bed all day."

For dessert, we made these little house-shaped pastries--basically, you use a thinly-rolled pie crust and cut it into shapes (we used a house), then sprinkle on some chocolate and peanut butter chips and cover with another of the shapes. Bake it in a 375 degree oven on a parchment-covered cookie sheet for about 12 minutes, or just 'til the edges start to brown. Simple(ish) and tasty! And I've got a ton of chocolate and peanut butter chips left over for next time.

It was a good night. Especially since his new shift started today so we'll see even less of each other most days, it's nice to know that I have him all to myself on Sunday and Monday.

FHE S'mores!

Paul & I have started recently holding our own Family Home Evenings, which is totally different as a couple than it's ever been in any other setting, especially since our own families never really held FHE so we're a little unsure of the drill. It has been a BLAST figuring it out! There's this book, it's actually an old textbook from my strengthening marriage & families class at BYU, and we read a chapter and discuss it as our "lesson." These lessons last about an hour and a half, because we LOVE talking about gospel principles as they apply to the family. Then, for our activity, we do something fun and simple. On Monday, after reviewing the Plan of Salvation, we made hot cocoa and s'mores thanks to a Christmas gift from our friend Shean and watched "Elf". I LOVE that movie! It's a ton of fun, one of the happiest, feel-good-iest movies to date, I'm convinced! I also decided I'm going to take more pictures of these activities and such so that I can make an FHE scrapbook, to pool ideas from for future dates and FHE's and such. I'm stoked, and so very grateful for the inspiration of the prophets in instituting the Family Home Evening program weekly in our homes and churches across the globe.