armor of righteousness

My friend, Carla, mentioned doing a Family Home Evening about the armor of God/righteousness in her comment on my last blog post. That reminded me of an FHE we did about the Armor of God awhile ago. Something that I never got around to blogging about!


So here is a blast from the past (June 2009) and the boys in Armor of God (sweater vests, scarves, caps, slippers, and of course sword & shield). They loved this lesson...and of course, had to battle at the end because what else can little boys do when they have a sword in hand? They understood (at least Joshua did) that the Armor of God/Righteousness is to help them battle against Satan (all figuratively, of course), but still a sword means battle time!

Borrowing a "Bright Idea"

LDS.org - Friend Article - Bright Idea

The Friend started printing these great little posters this year. (At least I think they just started this year). After Joshua has read each Friend 3-? times, I tear it apart, pull out stuff for Family Home Evenings, talks, the little activities for the boys to do during Sacrament Meeting, etc.

Last week I decided that we were going to post one in the dining room each week and recite it and talk about it over breakfast. Well, we did great the first morning. And one other morning we talked about it. Between rush for getting to school and most of being sick throughout the week, we didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped, but it's a start. And best of all, each boy memorized the short little scripture (or portion of the scripture) that went with it. Of course, for Joshua, this wasn't too hard, but with Nathaniel being quite a bit younger, I wasn't sure how he'd do - and no, problems. He memorized it almost as fast as Joshua!

Halloween Parade

The preschool even got to join in the Elementary School Parade!!

Our mad scientist with one of his test tubes of crazy science

(fizzy lifting gas, invisibility potion or monster mix)

Fire fighter and his dalmatian

We girlied up the costume Grandma Lorrayned made for Joshua...

all three kids have worn it.

Raingutter Regatta

Blow, Joshua, Blow! Will The Comet win?

Getting started.

Having a hard time keeping the straw in place since he's missing those top two teeth!

Practicing his technique

I just realized - he was the only one wearing his Scout shirt at this event.

Random pictures from September

Here are some pictures that I downsized for the blog and just haven't gotten around to posting...

Joshua is playing soccer again this year. Last year he took a hiatus from soccer and tried flag football. As he told me, "I think I'm made more for soccer." Yep, I'd have to agree.

He is the smallest one on the team - but his team consists of 3rd to 6th graders.

His team is called the Golden Stars (Joshua suggested that name and it won the vote - the other name was Reeses Peanut Butter Cups)

His favorite position to play is goalie.

Last week at one of his games he got an assist to the goal.

Now what on earth could be in here...

SURPRISE!!! It's a Nathaniel-in-the-box!

Grace is just like her big brother - loves to get into anything and everything!

Especially places where she's really not supposed to be...like behind

Daddy & Grandpa's chairs.

Here she's climbed under the table between their chairs in hopes to get back behind them so she can unplug the phone and the light again...but she was caught.

Alright, already, I'm coming out!

Bottle baby fast asleep...it's exhausting being almost one!

Joshua at the first Pack Meeting of the year and he got his Bobcat!!

Nathaniel with one of the ears of corn from the garden!

First Week of October...

I was going to title this post "Hole in the Mouth, Stick in the Head & Baby in a Box" but thought that probably didn't sound very good and might set off sensors (censors) somewhere...but here is our first week of October...

Finally, at 8 1/2, Joshua has lost his 3rd tooth. This is our Hole in the Mouth. When I picked him up after Cub Scouts on Monday, I looked at him and said, "That tooth is coming out." He told me he was sure it would come out sometime this month. I assured him it was coming out that night! While he waited for Daddy to come home from studying, he enjoyed grossing me out by flipping the tooth in and out with his tongue.

It amazes me what a HUGE hole one smallish tooth left! School pictures are today, so I'm hoping he makes sure to smile enough to show his the gaping abyss that is there.

Stick in the Head? No, just a rake. Nathaniel did this the other day and asked me if it looked like he had a stick coming out of his head. I told him no, just a rake. He was disappointed and said he'd hoped it would look like a stick coming out of his head. Now why he'd want it to look like a stick coming out of his head I have no idea...

Raking leaves, kind of, with Grandpa

At his & Joshua's workbench and "helping" Grandpa in the garage

Here's our Baby in a Box...this box had some stuff from Creative Memories in it...her dolls got put in it one day...and then it became the babies' bed...and this baby wanted to use it too. She was curled up in it, but sat up before I could get the camera ready.

Walking (make that running) everywhere now!

This picture is especially for JoAnn...Shadow is doing well...she and Grace both weigh about 20 pounds! Shadow's favorite thing to do lately is go roll around in the dirt, sneak into the house and then curl up on my side of the bed where she proceeds to rid herself of the sand & dirt she's rolled in - leaving me a nice little present :)

And that's our first week of October...along with a soccer game, General Conference, a trip to the ER (Brian's Crohn's...he just spent 2-3 hours there and is home & fine), Brian starting clinical rotations 2 days a week for school (he leaves home at 4am), the boys spending the night with Great Grandma Darlene (due to the ER visit) - they had fun...my grandma has more energy at 83 then I do at 37! And school pictures today - Nathaniel made that an ordeal, but his picture should turn out nicely.

Grace is ONE (part one)

This is her birthday picture - I took it after my doctor appointment in Redding. She got to go with us...the boys stayed home.

She loves her baby

Love this dress (a hand-me-down from a friend) and took some pictures of her

after church...she posed (kind of) for a few & then that was it and she was "out of here"

as Nathaniel would say :)

Here are just a few pictures of Grace's first birthday...I have to resize some more and then I can upload them. We celebrated on Sunday the 19th since I had to go to Redding to the doctor on her actual birthday, plus Joshua had a soccer game AND Cub Scouts that night. She didn't care a bit. She loved her cake :) and, thanks to big brother Nathaniel having his birthday just 3 weeks before, she knew exactly what to do when it came to presents :)