Pay it Forward

We try to feed the missionaries in our home as often as possible.  Max asked me why the other day and I told him, "because one day you will be a missionary and I will hope someone will feed you.  The only way I can have any influence on that blessing is if I take the time to feed the missionaries now."
Plus the fact that they always bring a good spirit, share cool lessons and, right now, our missionaries are particularly funny.

A few weeks ago they came and shared an object lesson on how Christ's church was set up on a foundation of prophets and apostles, with the priesthood.  They used Jenga blocks to demonstrate.  Then they showed that there were specific principles that were taught, stacking blocks up until we had a full Jenga tower.

Then they demonstrated that when Christ died, (removed that block) the tower still stood because it was still built upon Prophets, Apostles, and Priesthood.  But once those things were removed, then the church couldn't stand anymore.  And the kids got the opportunity to take some of the teachings and build their own churches, to demonstrate the apostacy and how churches were built with partial truths.

Anyway, it was a great lesson the need for the Restoration.  My kids really enjoyed the object lesson and Logan seems to be enthralled with our missionaries right now.  Elder Fox and Elder Lyon.

We enjoy having them in our home (it helps that Elder Fox is a Calgarian) and hanging with them.  It'll be sad when these ones move on.

This week, we got 2 new sister missionaries in our ward.  The Elders are now responsible (mostly) for the YSA in our branch and the sisters are to work with the families.  So I guess we'll have even more opportunities to feed the missionaries.

A Day at the Spa

This week, after a particularly busy Thursday we decided to have a candle-lit dinner.  We host singing lessons at our house on Thursday evenings and so it usually pushes our dinner later than we would normally eat.  But the kids have a really great time playing with their friends while the singing lessons is happening.  Dinner led straight into bath time, so the candles continued to bath time as well.

This spurred on an idea in Lucy that she just couldn't wait to execute on Saturday.  Spa Day.

While Tyler and I were doing our morning workout, Lucy was setting up a spa.

We did a foot bath with Epson salts and apple cider vinegar...which led to a foot massage and cream

Cucumber eye treatment

face cream and hand cream

And finished with a scalp massage.  What a sweet girl.  She loves to serve.

Then this afternoon, I painted Lucy's nails and toenails and we each spent some time together picking out our outfits for church today.  (Which is beneficial for Sunday mornings when we have early morning meetings and not a lot of time to get ready or for re-picking outfits.  I say this for my benefit as well as hers!)

She lost a tooth!

The first front tooth is gone!  There's been wiggling for months now...and it finally came out!  I am reminded when my little sister was a flower girl at my older sister's wedding and had a smile more akin to a jack-o-lantern than a little girl.  I believe Lucy will experience the same thing for Janeen's wedding coming up in May...

She wears it well though!

Monster Jam!!

Our brilliant plan was to let the little stay awake in the afternoon while we were at the temple, and then sleep in the van on the way to Monster Jam.  It was going to be a bit of a late night, since Monster Jam wasn't supposed to let out until after 10pm, so I figured a 5pm nap would be alright.  Let me tell you, my anal mind got a little nervous about my plan when our boys seemed to be fighting a nap with everything they had in them.  There was a lot of singing and giggling coming from the carseats for the first 15 minutes of the drive, and then suddenly it was quiet.  Two boys, fast asleep.  Plus, traffic was ridiculous so it took us over an hour to go 8km, so they got a good nap in.

It was great to go to the Roger's Center and watch the Monster Jam.  It was crazy loud, even on the concourse, so I was glad that we had bought ear plugs or this would have been a no-go event.

As I've been to more and more Monster Jams, I am increasingly aware that this must be run somewhat like a WWF style tournament where the results are predetermined as well as the winner, because the winner definitely wasn't the one with the best run, but it was the most predictable winner...the new Canadian truck.  But the kids enjoyed it.  Plus, there was a new truck, Batman, that was cool to watch.

Toronto - Swimming Pool

Toronto Baby!  We headed to Toronto this weekend for a chance to go to the temple and conveniently, Monster Jam was also in town.  We headed to a hotel in Toronto with our besties and the first event on our gloriously packed weekend was a trip to the hotel pool...and waterslide!  Awesome fun.

Note, this girl is floating around WITHOUT water wings on.  This is epic.  Of course, she's inches from the stairs, but still, people...this is progress.  

Logan and his friend Xander were too small to do the waterslide, but just before they closed it, the lifeguard let them each go one time with their dads.  They completely loved it and would have loved to have gone many more times.  

Logan was pretty content to swim with his dad most of the time.

After we finished in the pool, the kids headed up to the hotel rooms to hang with their babysitters while the parents got ready to go to the temple.  We did a quick visit to the temple and were back in an hour and a half with pizza, drinks and ear plugs for the Monster Jam!  

Pinterest!!

So, I've discovered Pinterest.  Well, I wouldn't so much call it 'discovered' as I would 'succumbed' to Pinterest.  I've known about it for a while (I don't live under a rock).  But I resisted for a very long time. Very long.  Every once in a while one of my friends on facebook would post something they had 'pinned' on Pinterest and I would check it out, but I never created an account.  Then Halloween approached and I needed some ideas for costumes and decorations and everything I googled (my go-to) seemed to have some sort of Pinterest link to it.  So I relented.  FINE, I said.  I'll check out this Pinterest thing.  Well, I may have chosen the WORST time of year to join Pinterest.  Really?  Halloween to Christmas.  All of my pinning seemed to focus on yummy things.  Really yummy things.  And I became highly motivated to make a lot of treats for the holiday season.  Plus, we weren't going to Alberta for Christmas to indulge in mom's, MIL's, and Grandma type treats, so I had to take the task of treats onto myself.  And I mastered it.  By mastered it, I mean, I made A LOT of junk.

What's the point of all of this?  Poundage.  Bulge around the mid-section.  Our family indulged in the holidays like nobody's business.  So finally, the week between New Years Eve and back to school we decided to get our groove on.  In the name of exercise.  Sleeping in till 9am, wearing our pajamas all day, the holidays were good to us.  And throwing in a work-out every day was good.

So now, my pinning on Pinterest seems to consist mostly of smoothie recipes (thanks to the new blender I got for Christmas) and work-out plans.  Time to battle the bulge!

Skating

This Saturday we headed to Napanee for a Skating Birthday Party of our Besties.  Fantastic fun was had, on and off the ice.

Plus, our bests came back to our house afterwards and we played late into the evening...as we usually do!  Unfortunately, whenever we hang out with them, we have very little self control and always end up staying up really late.  I guess that's the good thing about besties.

Of course, late nights often end in silliness...

Or time outs....

And of course, I'm irreverent and can't help but take pictures of punishments.  

Snow. Snow. Snow!