Deep thoughts from Annie

Annie is infamous for coming up with random questions. Well, they only seem random because most of Annie's thoughts occur in hours of silent contemplation.  Only a  few tidbits that she couldn't make sense of, or that particularly vex her, make their way to vocalization.  (Unlike Ellie who's every thought is rattling out of her mouth the milli-second her brain concocts them.)  Annie is a deep thinker.  This is what she asked me a couple of days ago.

"Mom, does Airborne mean that your were born in an airplane?" 

She was very sincere and wasn't trying to be cute.  I loved it.  Annie's deep and detailed thinking has however, turned out to be a bad thing on some occasions.   In my family we have a favorite childhood story about my brother Ben who is also well known for his deep thoughts.  Once when my Dad was out of town, my Mom had put her young children to bed and decided to take a bath.  While sitting there soaking, she heard the faint sounds of crying.  As the crying drew closer and closer she couldn't help but panic wondering if the child was sick, or even worse, that the child was scared because someone was in the house....(all us wives have these thoughts when our husbands are out of town).  Finally the crying was outside the bathroom door and she recognized it as Ben.
  "Ben,...what's the matter?"
"sniff...sniff....I was just thinking about Space."

We always laugh at that story.  A couple of nights ago we had a very similar experience with Annie.

I was asleep when I heard Annie sniffling by my bedside. 
"Annie,.... what's the matter?"
"sniff...sniff....I've just been thinking about abandon mines"

Apparently her class had been learning about abandon mines in school.  They even made posters entitled, "Stay out.  Stay alive!"  They were shown a video about some kids who decided to play in an abandon mine that resulted in their untimely demise.  Poor Annie.  I assured her that is was her choice whether or not she would EVER enter an abandon mine. 

On the happy side, Annie's poster was one of two chosen in the whole school to go onto the State competition.  If her poster is chosen there, it will be featured in the "Stay out, Stay Alive" calendar.   

Casie Montana

A couple of days ago a friend of mine asked if Casie would help out the Make a wish Foundation.  They needed someone to dress up as Hannah Montana and sing to a little girl who was just granted the chance to meet the REAL Hannah Montana.  This sweet little girl is only 5 years old and is on the waiting list for her SECOND heart transplant. 
Getting Casie looking like Hannah Montana was no easy task.  After a trip to Ross to buy something "sparkly", I started looking for a blond wig.  Seriously, if it's not Halloween, it's hard to find a wig in this town!  Luckily Sally's Beauty Supply had a mega blow-out deal on some hair pieces.  I ended up buy two hair pieces and combined them to make one Hannah Montana do.   Seriously, we spent around two hours making Casie up.  Once we were ready we met the Make a wish ladies outside the little girls apartment.  They told Casie to sing a Hannah Montana song, and then they would reveal to the little girl (her parents already knew) that her wish was granted.  The family had all gathered to see the event.  The sweet little girls was so impossibly shy, but did give a little smile at the end of Casie's song.  It was really special for me to be there for this event.  I am so grateful Casie had a chance to see outside of herself and be a part of such a special event.  I could tell that seeing the little girl, and knowing she might not make it, had a big effect on Casie.  She said a special prayer for her at our family prayer that night.  It was seriously only about 10 seconds of singing, but I think a seed of service and compassion and love has been planted.  I am very proud of her, and hope she will continue to use her talents for good.

From Tithing to Hoops to Paying for your stuff....FHE April 4

Tonight's Family Night was a bit all over the place, but still enjoyable.  After conference on Sunday all the kids said that they really liked the talk on Tithing given by Elder Pratt.  We all agreed that we could do better on paying a full and honest tithe.  Mike began family night by reading the scripture from Malachi about "Will a man rob God."  Mike tried to emphasis to the girls about paying your tithing RIGHT when you get money.(The Spirit might have been there, but I was too busy asking Ellie to sit still, and to be quiet, and to sit up, and to stop playing with Jack....ya, she lost her family night treat tonight. )  Anyway, after Mike's short lesson, we headed up to Annie and Ellies room where which lies the hugest white board that has no business in any one's room, but gets used quite a bit.  Mike wrote down sums of money and the girls took turns telling him how much tithing you would pay if you were fortunate enough to have all that money.  Then we passed out some change and told them to separate what you would keep and what went to Heavenly Father.
When we were satisfied that they were knowledgeable about how to calculate tithing, we closed our family night with a prayer and started our family council...(aka another attempt to get the kids to clean up after themselves) 
The plan of the week was this:
A laundry basket.  Anything left in out goes in the basket and you have to pay a quarter to get it out OR wait until Sat morning and you can take it for free...BUT....at precisely 10 am (or whenever I remember) the basket will be emptied into the DI bag, or the trash....(pant..pant...pant..)  If the individual has no funds where which to pay for the item in the laundry basket, they will be allowed to perform a small or large task in order to earn the needed quarter to remove the desired item from the basket....(drink of water)  Furthermore, if the adolescents in the household happen to notice that an adult member of the family has left his/her item in one of the common areas of the home, (bed rooms don't count)  That child is entitled to place that item in the basket and must mark the item with her name so that the parent can pay the child who placed their belongings in the basket.  (sweat dripping down forehead) In conclusion, because rooms do not count, we have also added that if a child wants to play with friends or watch TV they can only do so if their said room is in proper order. (Near the state of unconsciousness)... Also.....if you take an item out of the laundry basket WITHOUT the proper payment, you will hear by be sentenced to life in prison WITHOUT any possibility of parole!!!

Whew...why can't they just pick up their stuff without all this hoopla!  Oh well...here's to another try.  Wish us luck...

Ok, after the court hearing...I mean family discussion on how to do better, we headed back downstairs for a game.  (I did mention our FHE was all over the place didn't I?) OK, to be honest, it turned out to be more of a trick than a game, but we still had fun. Here's how it went down.

Mike set up papers with money amounts written on them all surrounding Jack's basketball hoop.  Everyone got 10 shots from where ever they wanted to stand.  A close to the hoop paper said .10. One that was further away was .25.  There was a .75 behind the hoop.  And a 1.00 REALLY far away.  It was actually fun to see our girls personalities and thought processes come out as we played this game.  Casie took every shot from the dollar mark.  She made 2 out of 10 on the first try and 0 out of 10 on the next.  Ellie tried a couple of tries from every single paper and ended up with .80 on the first try and 1.25 on the next.  Annie took every single shot from the .25 and made the most money out of everyone with 3.75.  Jack earned .20 when Ellie lifted him up for a shot.  Anyway, onto the trick of our game........

Because we had talked about tithing first and our laundry basket of belongings second, Annie and Casie immediately started talking about using their earnings from our game to buy back some of their items they had lost that day.  Only Ellie went straight to the table and counted out her tithing!  I was watching this all go down and as soon as I saw what Ellie had done I shouted, "Winner!"  I awarded her with an extra quarter and praised her for remembering to pay the Lord first.  Annie and Casie were smiling sheepishly and realized they had forgotten.  (you may be thinking that Ellie deserved to earn her FHE treat back by doing such a good job on paying her tithing....but no. I am trying to do better at sticking to punishments with her.  Sorry Ellie.  But as usual in true Ellie fashion, she accepted her punishment with no malice or crying.  We will see if she is better during our lesson next week)

Just to prove that our FHE was truly all over the place, I will add that we ended the night with scripture study and me teaching the kids how to do the bunny hop. 


Mike showing us how it's done....



Making Tithing Envelopes



Home Dedication

Finally I am getting around to doing this post!  We had such a wonderful FHE when we dedicated our home.  We began by Mike welcoming us to FHE.  Then we sang The Spirit of God as our opening hymn.  Casie then gave us a talk on why we want our home to be like the Temple.  She said she always feels peace and safe when she is at the temple and wanted to always feel that way when she was at home.  Then Annie showed us her temple she made out of paper cups and paper.  She also asked to bare her testimony.  It was really sweet.  Then we had a musical number by Annie, Mom, and Dad.  I totally messed up the harmony so we won't speak too much about it at this time.   Then Ellie gave her talk on how we can keep our house like the temple.  She said we should always pick up after ourselves and be nice to each other.  Then Mike got up and dedicated our house.  I felt the spirit so strongly as he prayed.  I felt the familiar feeling of Max's spirit along with others enter the second Mike started to pray.  It was so beautiful and so touching to have such a wonderful feeling in our home.  In the prayer Mike blessed our home to be a place of peace and happiness.  He also dedicated it as a safe haven from the world.  He blessed us as a family to do the things that would help us feel the Spirit, and to also have it be a place where Max's spirit could be felt as well.  I am grateful that Mike is a worthy priesthood holder and was able to bless our home with such power.


Here are a few of our pictures from the dedication, as well as the few prior FHE's we had in preparation for the dedication. 

Scrubbing walls in Annie and Ellie's room

Jack looking at the Temple fountains

Annie writing in her Journal on the Temple Grounds

Annie and Ellie....huddling together for warmth.

Ellie holding up her talk.  We waited until after the service to take pictures.:-)

Annie and her temple

Casie

I unveiled this surprise after the dedication.  It's on the wall in the Family room.

Grandma Madsen and Dave Degraw came to the dedication.  AND.......

Took us out for ice cream afterwards!