Chelsea’s first prayer

Chelsea and I were playing together on the front porch, making funny faces at each other and laughing and Chelsea looked at me with a big smile on her face and said, “Mommy, you’re my buddy!” My heart melted. It was like a breakthrough. Since having Alexa, things have been so stressful and I felt like that day, September 16, I finally relaxed and let some of my silly out. As a result, I shared a sweet moment with my little girl. My silly, passionate, energetic little two-year-old.

It was also the day she said her first prayer all by herself!

It was shortly followed by another prayer where she thanked Heavenly Father for Mommy, Daddy, Chelsea, Alexa, and for our blessings. Then she said another prayer to thank the Lord for Aunt Kara and Uncle Karl. The last prayer she said in her sequence of prayers, she thanked the Lord for Uncle Josh. You can really tell what’s important to a child by what they pray for.

And now for our farewell to summer. Fall is a very exciting time of year, with all the changing colors, changing weather, school starting, crafts, holidays, etc. etc., but I’m always a little sad when it’s time for summer to go.

Until we meet again, Summer! You’ve been great to us.

^^Those eyes^^

^^Those eyes!^^

 

Thank you Castro’s from Omega Bicycles in Oceanside, California for the balance bike! Chelsea LOVES it and has gotten REALLY good at riding it. We need to talk to you about a helmet…

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October 2014 Women’s Conference

-C. R. Gibson

Today I taught a lesson in Relief Society about love and kindness towards all men. I was amazed by the experiences that were shared by so many of the women in my ward. Of acts of kindness they have performed and acts of kindness that have been performed for them.

Last night, I felt that love and kindness was a major theme of the messages shared by the speakers. President Uchtdorf reminded me that all of us are children of a Heavenly Father who loves us. It’s not something that is earned or that is ever taken away. We will always be children of Heavenly Father, and that makes us divine.

Happy Sunday!

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Tutorial: DIY Cardboard Animal Puzzle

One talent that I would love to develop is the ability to paint. I have a few friends who I follow on instagram and bloglovin’ who are wonderful artists and I would love to tap into that ability within myself… if it exists!

What artistic ability I do have, I put to good use making Chelsea this Cardboard Animal Puzzle!


I found some free printables on Pinterest and happened to have an empty diapers box on hand (who doesn’t?) It wasn’t difficult, and getting creative with colors and patterns was a lot of fun! Why don’t you give it a go?

You will need:
Scissors
Cardboard box
Tape
X acto knife
Printable **You may need to resize the printables depending on how large you want the animals to be**
Tempera paint
Foam brushes
Hot glue gun




1. Cut apart a cardboard box so that you have two pieces that are the same size. I used the sides of a diaper box.



2. Print off the animal printables from this website (I resized the animals because they were too big) and tape them to the brown side of one piece of cardboard in the placement you want. Make sure you leave a bit of room (between .5-1”) between the pieces.




3. Use your x acto knife to very carefully cut out each animal shape (so you don’t hurt yourself, and because you’ll be using the pieces you cut out, AND the puzzle board that you cut the pieces out of). Find someplace to lie the cardboard on where it won’t hurt the surface underneath as you use the x acto knife to cut.



4. Test your animal puzzle pieces. If it’s too difficult to fit them back into their spots (which it probably will be), cut a little more of the outline out of the puzzle board to allow more room for the pieces to fit. You may want to cut the space in-between some of the animals legs to make it easier for little, sometimes uncoordinated, fingers.



5. *this is the fun part* PAINT! Tempera paint is great for painting on cardboard. Get creative with painting your animals, and use corresponding colors to paint the base board (the one that is the same size as the puzzle board that you cut the animals out of) in the spots where the pieces will fit. Also paint the puzzle board to an attractive color (I chose white).

And don’t forget to cut out small circular pieces of cardboard to paint, then glue to the front of your animals (so the kiddos can grab the puzzle piece more easily).

6. Use a hot glue gun to quickly (and carefully) glue the puzzle board to the base board.

“All you do is put it together. Ha ha ha ha ha!”

-Mickey Mouse

Let me know how it goes for you!

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California 2014 – Family Pictures

Finally, the day before we left California to go home, we got up early in the morning and got ready for family pictures. Andrew’s sister, Kara (our photographer), suggested a good place for photos on the coast in Encinitas and so that’s where we went, and it. was. perfect.
   



Of course, we followed the family photo rule, which is “At least one person must NOT be paying attention when a picture is taken.”

 
*sigh* Oh well. All you really need are one or two really good ones, right?
   
Honorable mentions:




And that concludes our trip to California this summer! Even though Andrew was gone for an ENTIRE WEEK on a hiking/camping trip with his dad and brother, we muddled through, somehow.

And when he came back, we had a great time at the beach, at the pool, and just spending time together as a family.
Thanks Grammy and Opa for taking care of us for an entire two weeks and helping us make memories that our family can have for forever! We love you!
Photo cred: Kara Stange (thanks, sis!)
California 2014 posts:

From my iPhone

10 dos of taking your littles to the beach

Point Loma and Old Towne

Grammy and Opa's House

Beach with the Labrums

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California 2014 – Beach with the Labrums

Would you believe I’m STILL not caught up with our California trip?
Today, I’m posting pictures of our trip to the beach with the Labrum family. Andrew and Jessica grew up together in Oceanside so it’s fun to get together with Jess and her family when we can. They’ve got the cutest little guy you ever saw, AND she’s having another little guy! A match for Chelsea and a match for Alexa, right? We even got Chelsea and the little man to hold hands once. Precious!

 

 

Can’t get over how wonderful these people are! Thanks for spending a day at the beach with us!

California 2014 posts:

From my iPhone

10 dos of taking your littles to the beach

Point Loma and Old Towne

Grammy and Opa's House

Family Pictures

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California 2014 – Grammy and Opa’s house

We took advantage of the beach, pool, and scenic attractions as much as we could, but sometimes, it was nice to just stay at Grammy and Opa’s house and play. It was especially fun for me to experience some of the things that Andrew enjoyed as a high school student when he had more time for recreation, like long-boarding. I look like a dork trying to ride it, but the important thing is that we were having fun, and I didn’t die.

 

It’s important to do young, silly things with your spouse sometimes. In fact, Andrew and I need to do these kinds of things more often. I promise we’re not totally lame. I’ll blame it on the life-changing experience of welcoming child number two.

This is Grammy and Opa’s backyard. Chelsea loved it back there! She and the dog, Libby, would go out there and just chase each other around and explore. Seeing her having so much fun with Libby almost convinced me that we should get a dog. Almost…

It’s fun to have fun! We miss you Grammy and Opa! Thanks for having such a fun backyard!

California 2014 posts:

From my iPhone

10 dos of taking your littles to the beach

Point Loma and Old Towne

Beach with the Labrums

Family Pictures

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