Playtime Hearts

I recently had our 4th child, and we also recently moved.

I've been busy and tired and we are trying to find our new rhythm.....

and I'm trying not to lose my marbles. :)

The kids seem to be acting up a little bit more lately, and I've been praying & asking for help and guidance as a Mother.

The answer that keeps coming back to me is to spend more time with my kids.

Because when all is said and done, I know that is what really matters to me.

So I came up with an idea to help make that happen:

PLAYTIME HEARTS.

Here's what I did:

1. I traced heart shapes onto yellow paper and cut them out. They are roughly 2 1/2 inches big. I cut out about 26 hearts.

2. I wrote on each heart a fun activity that I know the kids like to play. 

A lot of these are things they've asked me to play with them in the past......the ones where I have given the all-too-often response of "not now."

I came up with these myself, but it would be fun to sit down with your kids and think of fun things to do together. 

Here's a list of what we've got:

Cars

Airplanes

Legos

Color

Dance

Trains

Super Heroes

Paper Airplanes

Play Library

Wii

Game (3 of these. We have a lot of games)

Soccer Outside

Catch Outside

Ninja Turtles

Mazes

Make no-bake cookies

Little People

*Your Choice (2 of these)

(I also left a few hearts blank so I could add things later that we think of to play).

3. I taped them onto the little chalkboard we have hanging up in our kitchen (You could tape them up anywhere).

4. And from here it's easy! I let the kids take turns picking a heart and we do whatever is on the heart, together. Sometimes there is a time limit (20-30 minutes depending on what's going on that day) and sometimes we just play and I try to just forget the time and focus on my kids. It's been refreshing to remember what it's like to play as a kid. It's good for all of us. :)

Some days are busy and we don't pick any hearts.

Some days are wide open and each of the kids get a chance to pick a heart.

Sometimes it's when my oldest is at school and it's just me and the little ones.

Sometimes it's all of us together as a family, including Daddy.

This week we used one of the hearts as our activity for Family Home Evening.

And sometimes we play without picking a heart at all. :)

When all the hearts have been picked, I'll tape them back up and start again.

This idea was a direct answer to my prayers.

We've done it for the past week, and it has been so much FUN!

It's helped us all in so many ways. The kids seem to not be acting up quite as much. I've noticed so many wonderful qualities in my children when we sit and play together---because I'm actually paying attention to them! Something I needed to be reminded to do.

But most of all it's helped me make the time for what truly matters to me--matters more than anything and everything.

My family.

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Family Valentine Pockets

I wanted to do something this Valentine's Day where our family could give each other Valentines!

So I created these simple pockets out of paper to hold all the love. And best of all it's so easy! Check it out! ♥

♥ Supplies:

• 2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbook paper (different patterns)
• 1 piece of white cardstock
• Construction paper in red, pink, purple
• Scissors
• Marker
• Glue or Double Stick Tape

♥ Prep Work:

1. Count the people in your family and cut that # of rectangles out of one of the pieces of scrapbook paper. Lay them out how you want them on the other piece of scrapbook paper.

2. Fold a piece of paper and cut out a heart to go on the front of each pocket. Use this as a template to trace onto the white cardstock.

3. Write each person's name onto the hearts and glue or tape them onto the pocket papers.
4. Place glue or tape along the sides and bottom of each pocket and put them into place on the scrapbook paper. **Note: in order to give them a little bit more of an opening at the top, place a few fingers underneath the paper at the top as you press the sides and bottom down:

Now the valentines can easily be slipped inside!

5. Next, get your construction paper and trace your same heart template (or a little smaller) onto it several times. Stack your papers and cut out the hearts:

Now you've got your hearts already to go!

6. Hang your pockets on the wall using tape or push pins. Place your hearts in a bowl or bag nearby.

7. Either set aside a time, or just let everyone write valentines whenever they wish to!
   

 I cut out enough hearts so that each person could write a valentine to every other person. I'm going to have us focus on writing the things we love about each other. I think we'll choose a person each day and everyone will write something they love about that person and put the hearts in their pocket.

Then on Valentine's Day, we can each take out our hearts and read all the things our family loves about us!

♥

♥  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! ♥

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Moments That Matter Most

This video is so inspiring.

I have been feeling, lately, the importance of giving more time and attention to the things that matter most to me --- i.e., my children, my family.

Each moment spent with our loved ones--big and small--matter and are such a blessing.

:)

Date Binder

If you are married with kids, you know how challenging it is to go out on dates with your spouse.

Here are some of the difficulties my husband and I have faced:

• We're busy. School, work, kids, church, etc. etc. etc.
• We're cheap. And often dates require money for the fun and babysitters.
• We're lazy. We just haven't taken the time to plan anything.

To fight these lame excuses for marital courting, I created a Date Binder for my husband and I to use throughout the year. Our simple goal is to have 3 dates/month broken down as follows:

1. A date to the temple (swapping babysitting with some friends).
2. A date at home (NOT just watching TV).
3. A date out (hiring a babysitter or swapping with some friends).

Here is the breakdown of what is in the Date Binder:

• In the inside pocket, I placed a few coupon books and takeout menus for easy access to cheaper and yummy dating. :)
• Next is a pencil pouch with 12 envelopes in it for each month of the year.

• I decorated the envelopes with stickers and by drawing little hearts with a red marker.

• Inside each envelope we are going to place a certain amount of cash that we can use for our dates for that month. We're not yet sure how much we are going to put in each envelope.....but it will include  the money for all 3 dates (and $ for babysitters if needed). (And our aforementioned cheapness will hopefully help us to be extremely creative on little money---a fine skill indeed).

• In the binder after the envelopes comes 2 lists. I spent an afternoon on the world wide web searching out some fun and creative (and cheap) ideas for dates. I compiled a list of around 100 ideas for Date Nights OUT, and a list of about 140 for Date Nights at HOME. (Just go to google and/or pinterest and type "date nights at home," "date night ideas," "creative dates," etc. etc. etc.
• On the sides of the lists, I also copied and pasted some pictures of my husband and I together throughout the years. Some are from other dates we've been on, which is fun to look at to motivate us. :)

Here's how we'll use the whole binder:

• At the beginning of each month, we will sit down and plan when we will do each of our 3 dates (coordinating with babysitters too).
• We'll sit down together and look at the lists in the binder. We'll see how much money we have for the month and then choose which idea we'll do for our date night at home, and which one we'll try for our date night out. 
• Completing these 2 steps are the MOST IMPORTANT!!! If we can plan WHEN and WHAT we are going to do, it's much more likely that our dates will actually happen! :)

My hope in creating this binder is that my husband and I can more easily strengthen our marriage by spending fun and meaningful time together. And by strengthening our marriage, we can strengthen our family as well. :)

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Compliment Hearts - Family Activity

Here is a fun activity we did for Family Home Evening a while ago. This has been one of my favorites! It's super easy and was really fun & uplifting to think about all the things we love about each other. :)

Here's what you do:

• Cut 3 hearts out of different colors of felt OR paper.
• Put each persons name in a hat and have everyone draw someone's name.
• Have someone stand on one of the felt hearts, and the person that drew their name says something nice about them.
• We used the 3 colors of hearts like this:
• Yellow - Say 1 thing that person does really well (ie. "He is really good at playing football.")
• Pink - Say 1 thing you love about that person (ie. "I love how he makes me laugh.")
• Blue - Say 1 thing you can do to show you love that person (ex: "I can share my trains with him.")
• Then that person sits down and the next person stands on the hearts, and on until everyone has had a chance. 

This was so fun, and really cute to hear what nice things the kids thought to say. I want to do this again, and maybe even record it, or write down what everyone says. :) Because doesn't it just brighten your day when someone says something nice about you? 

Awww......shucks! :)

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Teaching Family Values

This is the 2nd activity in our "Family Unity" theme. We did this for Family Home Evening to talk about how these core values can strengthen our family. 

These 9 values come from "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" where it states:

"Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

Prep Work:

• Cut a white piece of paper (or cardstock) into 6 rectangles. On each rectangle, write each letter of the word FAMILY.
• Cut out 9 big triangles from different colors of construction paper. On each one, write each of the 9 values mentioned in the paragraph above: faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

Here's what you do:

• Sit down with your family and lay out all the papers you made. Tell them we are going to build a house. Have them put the letter rectangles in order to spell "family" (3 letters on top, 3 on bottom).
• Then tell them there are 9 different roofs for the house that can help the house be strong---with words of things we can do to help our family be strong.
• Have a child choose one roof at a time and put it on the house and talk about how your family can develop that value. For example: "What are some ways we can show that we LOVE each other?" 

•  Do this with all the values. OR you can focus on 1 value each week or each month--and make 1 goal as a family for how you can implement that value into your lives.  

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Family Balloon Games!

Our theme for this week and next is "Family Unity." 

The Thanksgiving season is time for family, and remembering how we cherish these relationships. So over the next few days, I'll be sharing some activities we've done as a family that have been FUN and have helped us become more unified. :)

This first activity is using balloons to play a few fun family games! 

Prep work:

• Blow up the same number of balloons as people in your family.
• With a permanent marker, draw each persons face on one of the balloons (or you can have each person draw their own face. OR each person draws someone else's face and everyone tries to guess who it is!) :)

There. Now you have your own little balloon family:

Games to play:
     (We have played the first 2 games and had lots of fun! Here are a few more ideas too!)

• BALLOON BOUNCE: Get a BIG blanket or sheet and each person hold a corner or edge. Pull it out and hold it up--then place the balloon family on top. Everyone shake the blanket and watch the balloon family bounce all over the place! TRY to keep all the balloons on the blanket, but when a balloon falls off, everyone drop the blanket and go "rescue" that balloon. Whoever's face was on that balloon gets a big group hug! Then put all the balloons back on and play again! 

• HIDE & SEEK 1:Take turns hiding all the balloons in a room for the rest of the family to find! (The boys (5&3) love playing hide and seek, so this was a VERY simple and fun way to use the balloons!)

• HIDE & SEEK 2: Each person take their balloon face and go hide it somewhere in the house. When everyone's balloon is hid say "ready, set, go!" and everyone search for the balloons! (But you can't find your own balloon).

• BALLOON LAVA: Stand in a circle and everyone throw the balloons up in the air. Do whatever you can to not let any of the balloon family land in the lava (touch the floor). 
• ADVANCED: do the same thing, but lay on your backs and only use your feet to keep the balloons up in the air! :)

• BALLOON SURPRISES: ***Before you blow up the balloons---cut up small pieces of paper and have each person write or draw something they love about each member of the family. Stuff the little papers into the balloon. THEN blow them up and draw the faces on them. One at a time, pop the balloons and read the sweet messages inside!

Got any more ideas? Share in the comments below! :)

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Monster in the Mail

My Sister-in-Law runs a little preschool in her home. She is AMAZING at it, and does the cutest activities with her kids! And last week, we were right in the middle of our "Monster" -themed week when we got this cute little surprise in the mail!

Here's what you do:

• Have your kids make a cute little monster out of any kind of paper you have. You can even glue it to a popsicle stick like the one we got.
• Pick a family you think would enjoy your creepy creature.
• Write a little letter to go along with the monster. Tell about how you made the monster for them and to take pictures with the monster as they do all their usual Halloween traditions: carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, decorating, etc. Ask them to email their pictures to you so you and your kids can see all the fun the monster is having! :)
• Then mail the letter and monster! 

**We've got over 40 other fun crafts & activities for Halloween. Click HERE.**

Need some good craft supplies--like craft sticks and paper for this fun activity? Check out our post on the best kid-craft supplies for great prices on Amazon! We've got some good recommendations. :)

And if you need some cute scrapbook paper, check out this post on the most AMAZING deals on scrapbook paper on Amazon!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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960 Saturdays

I recently read this little fact from THIS book:

With everyone's busy schedules, sometimes Saturdays are the only days where we get to do fun things all together as a family. Seeing that finite number attached to these days makes me want to cherish them even more!

Touching the Hearts of Our Youth

Mother's Lullaby

My talented friend, Cassidy Clark, wrote a lullaby for her daughter, and it is so touching and beautiful that I just had to share it! 

(Not only did she write the song, she is the one singing it, and these sweet pictures are of her and her daughter!)

There's just something about the lyrics, music, 

and pictures of her smiling and cherishing her baby girl that really resonated with me 

about the joy of raising children ---- the honor of being a mother. 

 

What Matters Most

A Father Indeed

Happy Mother's Day!

I was trying to find the perfect quote about Motherhood to share this Mother's Day, but after a horribly imperfect day as a mother, everything I read just made me feel like a big fat failure. 

Then I saw this video, and I cried. 

I cried tears of sorrow for my endless weaknesses, mistakes and imperfections as a mother.

But mostly I cried tears of joy and hope in remembering that I am not alone--that with the Lord's help, I can do this. 

Bad days (like today) remind me that I cannot do this on my own --- I'm too impatient, too selfish, too exhuasted, too clueless. But my loving Father in Heaven already knows that and can strengthen me where I'm weak. I will rely on Him forever.

Happy Mother's Day!

Teaching children about the Resurrection

Here's a simple way to teach about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to young children:

Supplies:

• A picture of Jesus after he was resurrected. (the picture above comes from the Gospel Art Book)
• A glove

Here's how to teach::

1. (Put the glove on your hand) - Many years ago, Jesus lived on the Earth. He taught us how to love and obey, and he made it possible for us to someday return to live with our Heavenly Father again.
2. (Take the glove off your hand) - When Jesus died, his spirit left his body. His body stayed on the Earth like this glove, and His Spirit went up to Heaven. 
3. After 3 days, Jesus was resurrected! His spirit came back to His body (Put the glove back on your hand), and it would never be separated again.
4. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He made it possible for us all to be resurrected. When we die, our spirit will leave our body. But someday we will be resurrected and our spirits will return to our bodies. If we obey God's commandments, we can live with Him again and be together with our family forever.
5. (Bear your personal testimony of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection).

I love to teach my children about the Savior. Life is hard. Where will they find hope when they face heartache & death of loved ones? -- Happiness when they face adversity & despair? -- Peace when they face sorrow & confusion? In all of these moments of my life, I have found true hope, happiness, and peace in my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives and that death is not the end. I want my children to know this too.

Learn more about our beliefs in the Savior:

Facebook.com/Mormon

Youtube.com/Mormon

Mormon.org

General Conference Activities

"General conference is a semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During general conference weekend, Church members and others who are interested gather worldwide in a series of two-hour sessions to receive inspiration and instruction from Church leaders."

from: lds.org

General Conference is coming up (March 31-April 1) and I am very excited! 

It can be difficult for little ones to sit still for so long. Here are some ideas that can help:

General Conference Train!

(For details, click HERE!)

And:

General Conference Activity Bags!

(For details, click HERE!)