FHE Lesson for introducting the pumpkins

To introduce the happy/sad pumpkins for the month of October we did the following Family Home Evening Lesson on emotions. I drew up 6 pumpkins with expressions for happy, sad, mad, frustrated, embarrassed, and scared. (I did have some help with this from a lesson I had) Then I wrote the words for each emotion on a orange piece of paper. I started about how everyone has emotions and feelings (Dad, Mom, friends etc.) And talked about how having emotions isn't bad (i.e. it is ok to be mad) but that how we react when we feel emotions can be good and bad. Then I had someone pick a pumpkin face. And we would try to figure out what the pumpkin was feeling (with some we had to help i.e. Dad would make the face or we would talk about something that would make us feel that way) Next, if we hadn't already, we would talk about what would make us feel that way and some of the good or bad ways that we could deal with the emotion.

MAD

Good- Talking about what is making us mad, asking nicely for the person to stop, finding something else to do that makes us happy instead
Bad- Hitting, pushing, calling someone names
The boys did pretty well with this lesson. Some of the emotions were a little hard for them to understand put they liked picking the pumpkins. For the emotions he understood well he had a lot to say and as a parent it was nice to know his understanding of them and what we should do.
Then I talked about our charts and what the happy and sad pumpkins mean. Raif has been working very hard not to get a sad pumpkin. I was at the doctors office the other day for a visit and Raif wasn't listening so I told him that he would get a sad pumpkin when we got home. He then made sure that he was extra good to make up for the sad pumpkin which I sure appreciated.

October - Honesty

I'm part of a Live Laugh Love Group that gets together once a month to put together 2 Family Home Evening Lessons, visuals for a song (that we practice all month), and a monthly activity to work on with our families based on a theme. This coming month of October is Honesty. For this monthly's activity we are working on teaching the kids that they can be honest about their feelings as long as it is respectful and constructive.

    We each have an empty pumpkin patch that we start the month with.  If a family member is happy or sad because of something another family member did, they give or place a pumpkin in the pumpkin patch of that family member. As the month progresses happy and sad pumpkins are added to the patch. Some families keep all the pumpkins there all month. We count the pumpkins each Sunday talking about how many sad and happy pumpkins there are. For the number of happy pumpkins we have we put a corresponding number of candy pumpkins in a jar. When the jar is full we spend a special movie night together as a family with pizza, pop, a treat and everyone in pajamas. We usually grab our pillows and blankets for this as well. (Our four year old LOVES this.)

    This will be the second year we have done it and I thought it went very well last year. As a parent you become aware of how much negative versus positive praise you are giving. The kids learn that if they are mad or upset with a parent or sibling they have a positive way to express it. We had one group member last year who's little daughter (age 4) gave Dad a sad pumpkin because she was upset with Dad. When Dad found out they were able to sit and talk about why she was upset. This same member will also always remember how happy it made her feel when her Hubby left her a happy pumpkin for making him breakfast before work. If your up to the challenge that comes with trying to express to a young child how their actions make you, as an adult, feel then try your own pumpkin patch this October.

Finishing the fair

I spent the last two weeks getting ready for the Jerome County Fair. I made a toilet monster and a two headed pipe monster for our table display. We also drug out the minigolf dragon for the booth. Now I'm ready to lay back and chill for a bit until Ronin's birthday at the end of this next week. Dennis has been working at the Kiwanis fair booth every night this last week and now will start putting together a cardboard boat for his branch of the bank. That's right a card board boat. It has to float and carry at least one person. The Twin Falls city council is hosting the competition later this month and the bank has decided that each of their branches will come up with a boat. Dennis was put in charge of Jerome's. Needless to say he will probably be gone most of this next week as well. He was hoping that I could help more but I have had the fair to worry about. That and someone has to stay with the kids:)

There's no place like home

Finally we have come home to stay. Not that our schedule has let up any. This week we are getting the BZ Plumbing business ready for the upcoming county fair. We have a booth that we are putting together. Luckly half the booth we finished before we left to Utah. It's a dragon mini golf game that we plan on using at our booth. Looks great, eh! Now I need to create some signs and prep the trucks for the parade. Somewhere in all this I hope to get the house back in order. We'll cross our fingers.

Vacation after vacation after vacation

So this summer has been very busy for us. We started it out with a week and a half stay with my sister Isabella around the first of June then we came home for a bit. Then we left for a two week stay with my sister Lillian in California. After being back for just a week and a half we were off again for a week and a half vacation to Dennis' family in Wyoming. Now we have just another week and a half layover before we travel down to my sister Isabella again for our family get-together. I have after all of this concluded that while I LOVE visiting with family I would perfer to squish all vacations into a single month of straight vacationing then having the occational layover between. I get home to "unpack" but I don't want to unpack everything because there are some things that we may need on the next trip that's around the corner.
Another summer vacation observation- so many vacations make the summer go by fast.
Anyway, I'm looking to post pictures from our wyoming vacation as I get ready for the family vacation. Hopeing to post again soon:)

Spent some time in Cali. with my sisters

So this last two weeks the kids and I traveled down to my sister's Lillian's where we stayed for two weeks. My sister's and I try to get together at least once a year to laugh and chat..generally have a good 'ol time. However we have since discovered that having 9 kids all under the age of 6 complicates this immensely. Most of the time was spent monitoring the kids and sleeping in an effort to maintain our defenses again the fore mentioned kids. We have since decided that future sister time will be spent with as small a group as possible. Beware hubby the shadow looms when Mom will leave you all alone with the kids. Maw haw haw. Hmmmm I think my evil laugh needs some work. Anyway heres some pictures from our trip.

I'm pregnant again!

Dennis and I are expecting a new edition on Dec 8th. I'm hoping that this time it will be a girl but I guess we'll see. Raif and Ronin came with me for the ultrasound and Raif was very excited to see the baby. It even waved at him. I told him that the baby will come around Christmas so now he keeps asking if it is Christmas yet.

Easter was COLD!

Easter came really cold for us this year. Snow came to join in the festivities but we were not to be stopped. We just bundled the kids up and took them to the park for Jerome's annual Easter egg hunt. Raif was an old pro now and so Dennis had both him and Saun (Brenda's foster kid) with him. I took Ronin to the younger kid area. The fire trucks siren went off and everyone made a mad dash for the eggs. Ronin was confused in general but I did manage to help him pick up a few eggs. Raif didn't cry this year (for which we were all too happy for) and nabbed a few eggs of his own. All in all fun was had by all. Then we went to Grandma Grandpa Buhler's for a family Easter egg hunt. We did eggs for the younger kids and brown sacks for the older kids. By the end of the day Ronin was starting to get the hang of it (especially when he found that the eggs had candy).

We have high speed at home!

Hey everyone, we now have high speed internet at home. I hope that with this I will be able to keep up with this blog. For now I'm just going to post a picture of the boys from the last snowfall