Freeze Dance, Noah, and Murder in the dark...

 Here we are with our silly song.  It is a freeze dance, found on the internet.  It wasn't my favorite one, which goes:  "Hop and hop and hop and hop and hop and hop and Stop!"  But it was a pretty good one. 

 Obviously freezing here:

Cory helped Levi with his lesson.  They used some vintage flannel board characters that depicted Noah's Ark.  (our church library was cleaning out all kinds of stuff, and I brought these home!) 

Levi had fun putting up all of the animals.

 When the floods came, we sang "The Wise Man built his house upon the Rock", because of the raining lyrics.   Fun times.

 And THEN we played murder in the dark....

 By the light of Nathan's color-changing alarm clock.  Spooky fun.  We played the "hand squeeze" way, because the winking way freaks Brinley out.  I was the first murderer, and went on a real spree right away.  After that, it was decreed that you have to wait for one person to die before killing another.

 Then we had these semi-okay sorta yummy treats that we probably won't make again.

          

Are we on target?

 Saxton came up with a great lesson, all on his own.  He printed this target and put a little picture of the Savior in the middle:

Then he blindfolded us, spun us around, and had us try to put a post-it note with our name on it on the center of the target. 

My camera ran out of battery, so I couldn't get a pic. of all our post-its around the picture.  

Saxton likened the blindfold and the dizziness to sin, and encouraged us all to repent so that we can see our direction clearly.

Way to go, son.

Trust Fall, App lesson, and Monkey milkshake

For our silly song, we sang, "What do you do with a scurvy pirate?", from Backyardigans.  Levi sings it all the time, and it was his turn to come up with songs.

Scurvy Pirate What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Raid their ship and then hot wire it. What do you with a scurvy pirate? Make them walk the plank!!! Arrr! Arrr! What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Load the cannon up and fire it. What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Make them walk the plank!!! We’ll raid their scurvy pirate ship and make them walk the plank. Grab up all their treasure . . . And put it in the bank!!! What to do with a scurvy pirate? Load the cannon up and fire it. What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Make them walk the plank!!!

We only sang the last verse.

We had people trust fall into our arms when we said "plank"!

And then our chorister led us in "I Am a Child of God"...  

 Conducting is so much more fun with a wand in your hand!

 Nathan taught us a lesson, using an app on the iPad, in which he had us guess the scripture character.

For activity, we took turns playing this app:

The scores (below) reveal how very terrible mom is at video games.  Or maybe they reveal that my children play too much.

 Our treat was a Monkey Milkshake!  Ice Cream, chocolate milk, and bananas.  Yum.

Les Miserables

 For Christmas, we were given tickets to see a production of Les Miserables at the Hale Theater in West Valley City, Utah.  We were so thrilled.  Here is Ellie with her good friend:

 Meeting Jean Valjean after the show!

 With Grandma and Grandpa and Thenardier!

 Standing with the lovely soprano, Cosette.

Grandpa thought Brinley looked just like the poster girl :)

 

 Les Mis is my absolute favorite novel.  My copy  is marked up and well loved and has been read several times.  Hugo is a master of describing people.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

This was our Story Time Craft today.

Mars + Venus

This is the handout I brought home from our women's meeting in church today.  

Notice the Cricut-cut perfect shape, the scrapbook paper and fun font?

And this is the handout my husband brought home. 

Notice the handwritten note, partially cut off by the copier?

My husband and I got a good chuckle out of the comparison. 

 The funny thing is:  the people who made these are married!  

Aren't men and women great?

Cory probably wouldn't have noticed the difference at all.  His handout communicates information,  just as mine does. 

Going to the temple...

 When a child of our faith turns 12, they are allowed to go inside a Temple to worship.  What a special day for Brinley.   There is a peace in the Temple that can't be described.

 Ellie was there to support little sister!

 My girls and I were able to take part in the work described in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which reads:

"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"

In Biblical times, this sacred ordinance was performed for those who had passed on from this life without having the chance to be baptized when they had a physical body.   We continue this practice today.  It is ideal if we can do this work for our own ancestors.

 The boys were not old enough to enter in, however there is a great feeling on the temple grounds. 

 I asked each son to find a spot on the temple and put their hand on it.  

Our prophet has given us this counsel:

“As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us.”

Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, January 1982

 Nathan chose a beautiful window!

 Levi followed is brother.

 Saxton loved the doors!  One day he will enter these doors, as his sister did on this day.  

Kind of a funny pose from my boy.

 Next to the temple, there is a visitors' center, with interactive exhibits which the children liked.

 My greatest hope is that we may all stand in the presence of our dear Savior one day.