Marshmallows

This video is one of our family's favorite Mormon Messages. We watched it again for FHE last night. It provides the oppotunity for a wonderful discussion. I pray everyday that my children will fall in the 30% that are able to be patient. It is a life long pursuite for all of us!

The Handwriting Game

Rules of the Game:

1. Your name - Your Blog's Name

2. Your blog's URL

3. Write the sentence: A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

4. Favorite Quote

5. Favorite Song

6. Favorite Singer or Group

7. Write anything you want

8. Tag others

Spring Break - The End!

This is the kind of post my kids will hate me for someday...but I had to document the end of our Spring Break, complete exhaustion! That must mean it was a huge success, now back to normal this week - whatever normal is!

Spring Break - Hitting the Slopes at Lutsen

To celebrate Spring Break,
we took a quick 2 day trip up north
to try out the ski slopes at Lutsen!
It was a fun trip and worth the 4 1/2 hour drive!

(this picture proves Mom was on the trip,
although she did not join in on the skiing fun)

Sidney's first two attempts at a double black diamond run!
She did great on the first run, but on the second run
she didn't make the turn at the bottom and
ended up sliding down an icy mogul run...ouch!

Brent and the kids starting down the slopes!

Brent coming down the slopes!

Spring Break - More 'Up North' Scenery

Spring Break - The View from 'Up North'

Lake Superior on a Beautiful "Spring"

(but still winter here) Morning!

Spring Break - Starting off Right!

To start off our Spring Break week,

we had our cousins spend the night!

It was a fun evening and morning of

movies, wii, playing and eating.

We love these 4 kids with all our hearts and

can't believe they are growing up so fast!

L to R: Hardy Lee (11), Shawn (6), Jamie (11), Blake (8),

Lydia (3 1/2), Sidney (9), Riley (13)

Prophetic Council on Families

This quote was shared by a dear sister in our ward today during her Sacrament Meeting talk. It has made me ponder and has given me new resolve to find ways to protect and guard my family. I hope it does the same for you!

The quote comes from a talk given by Elder M. Russell Ballard at Education Week in 2003:

"When you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense. When Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O or casseroles. When Satan truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to confuse gender and he attacks God’s plan for His children. He works to drive a wedge of disharmony between a father and a mother. He entices children to be disobedient to their parents. He makes family home evening and family prayer inconvenient. He suggests family scripture study is impractical. That’s all it takes, because Satan knows that the surest and most effective way to disrupt the Lord’s work is to diminish the effectiveness of the family and the sanctity of the home.

Look at what he accomplishes when he does that. Couples unhappy in their marriages tend not to give appropriate gospel instruction in the home. They are less likely to be committed to gospel principles in their own lives. Some drift from the Church. Apathy can overcome even active members, keeping them away from the temple and weakening their capacity to be effective leaders and teachers—thus leaving countless lives untouched and slowing the Lord’s work. And the Internet when not properly used is a vicious influence in the home. So we know, without question, Lucifer is the enemy of the family!"

Girls Night Out!

A few months ago, we read "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale for Jamie's book club. So when a local theater advertised a production of this book, we made arrangements to go see the play with several friends from Jamie's book club. Before the play, Jamie, Sidney and I decided to make it a true Girls Night Out by having a scrumptious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We had a great time! The girls especially enjoyed their desserts: Jamie had a huge bowl of strawberries with a side of hot fudge, Sidney had red velvet Cheesecake. YUM!

Xylophone Duet

Riley and his friend George performing Invention 8 by Bach.

Here at the other musicians that performed in the RMS solo and duet recital.

Activity Days!

Jamie and Sidney have amazing Activity Day Leaders! At their activity this week they learned to chop vegetables. They successfully made mango salsa, homemade hummus and chipped beef fruit dip. Even their dad, aka...the Bishop, joined in the fun and gave them 'thumbs up'!

National Anthem

Sidney had another chance to perform with the De Capo Choir.

This time it was at a Rosemount High School Varsity Basketball Game to perform the National Anthem.

Nordic Ski Banquet

At the end of the season, we attended Riley's Nordic Ski Banquet.

He was awarded a certificate of participation and one of his coaches shared some great stories about Riley and his enthusiasm for skiing, making others laugh and his ability to talk for long periods of time about nothing -- like about his 8,000 legos.

The captains of the team awarded Riley the "No Talking During Races" award. They had to remind him several times to keep going during a race, he liked to stop and chat at the checkpoints!

Riley is looking forward to Nordic Skiing again next year!

School of Excellence

As part of the De Capo Choir, Sidney got to perform for the Shannon Park School of Excellence Program. She loves the chance to perform and loves participating in the choir. It was very fun to see all the students and teachers dressed in their rainbow School of Excellence t-shirts and to feel the school spirit! Shannon Park is indeed a School of Excellence and we are very fortunate to have had our children attend this great school!

Skiing, Skiing, and More Skiing

To take advantage of the great powder we received, Brent came home after a very short work day following the blizzard and we took off for Welch Village late on Monday afternoon. The drive was crazy, scary, but deemed well worth it by these 4 ski bunnies!
They have taken great advantage of their season passes this year and have become the best skiers their dad could ever hope for. Their new favorite is the back bowl at Welch!

Skiing, Skiing, and More Skiing - Video

If you watch from the top of the hill, you will see Brent, Riley, Jamie and Sidney come down the hill. Riley veers to the left behind the trees and I lose sight of him, until he skis right into me.

England Project

In Third Grade, our kids do a project on a country from which their ancestors came. Sidney chose England. She had about 10 requirements that went along with this project, including the poster above. She received excellent comments about her project from her peers and teachers. Her favorite part was creating a paper doll for which she made a perfect time-period dress.

The Last Big One, Winter 2010-2011

Our last big snow storm of the season was on February 20th. It was another Blizzard! The kids had the next day, Monday, February 21st off for President's Day, otherwise they are sure it would have been a snow day. We are not sad to see all this snow slowly melting away...bring on SPRING!

13 inches on the sidewalk...

27 inches in the drifts by the end of the driveway