She’s Famous

My mom is now a published author. She has written an article for the online magazine Meridian. Meridian publishes articles for an LDS audience, but there are a wide variety of subjects to read through. She will be submitting preparedness columns regularly and I am working with her as an editor. Go check out her article, there is a lot of good information there about getting started on your 72 hour kits!

Build a Bear Winner

A couple of weeks ago, Hunter got a letter from Fed Ex. It was a little odd because we didn’t recognize the return address. We opened the envelope and saw at the top of the page, “You have won the Run For the Stuffing Sweepstakes!” Hunter was so excited and knew exactly what it was, but I had no clue. A couple of months ago Hunter and Emma went to the mall with their friend Paige and her grandmother. While at Build a Bear Hunter entered this Sweepstakes and now he found out he was the winner. The prize was that he would get 45 seconds to run through the store and grab anything there. The letter explained that he could bring a best friend with him for the shopping spree. Hunter took a few minutes to think about who he would take with him and decided to bring his sister Emma. She was so excited and they spent the next week counting down the days until the big event.

We arrived at the mall 45 minutes early because the kids wanted to check things out and make a strategy, and if we were late because of traffic or something it would be the worst thing ever. So we got there when the gates were still down and the kids watched as the employees got ready for the big moment at 10:00. They ran in circles around the mall practicing how long 45 seconds was, and the employees could see how excited they were. At about 9:50 they brought Hunter and Emma their name tags and t-shirts, did some warm up stretches, and handed the kids their boxes to fill. Emma went first and one of the employees carried the box for her and followed her around the store in case she wanted something up higher. She ran right to the back of the store and went for the outfits first. She was a little hesitant about just grabbing everything and stopped a couple of times to get a good look at things. It was fun to watch her running around the store looking for the best things to grab. Hunter was next, and he started at the animals and went for the sports outfits. He got going pretty fast too, but was also careful about being too grabby. I was teasing the kids afterwards that it was hard for them to be grabby because mom and dad have spent so much time telling them not to be greedy. Although they did make quite a haul, it rang up to over $260.00.

Rob and I had such fun watching the kids. This will be something they remember, and it wasn’t about how much they got, but about the idea of running free through Build A Bear and never being told no. What could be better?

Biff from Back to the Future

We thought this video was really funny. What do you think?

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwY5o2fsG7Y

Say Pudding

Emma thinks that the word “pudding” is hilarious! Every once in a while she will be talking to someone and out of the blue she’ll say, “say pudding.” If the person says it she laughs like it’s the funniest joke in the world. We still haven’t figured out why it’s so funny, and I still think there may be some sort of joke that I’m missing, but it puts a big smile on my face to see her laughing when we play along.

Rules

Recently the kids had a primary lesson on rules. One of the stories they heard from the lesson was about a boy that was walking his dog on a busy street. The boy decided that his dog would be happier if he didn’t have the leash holding him back and took it off. The dog ran out into traffic and was hit by a car, breaking his leg. This was a great illustration for them of how rules that may seem constricting are really there for our protection. They both got the concept pretty clearly when they told us about it. I was glad to hear them tell me why rules are important for a change!

Fly or Hop?

Getting Hannah to go to bed without complaint was getting more tricky. A few weeks ago, she started to really test us and went into a fit at the mention of bedtime. We have found the perfect solution – for now. Just before bed she has a bottle of milk, and as soon as she is done we ask her, “Do you want to fly or hop to bed?” It was something I tried out of desperation one night hoping the distraction would cheer her up. It worked! For a while she always wanted to hop to bed, and now she always wants to fly. It’s really cute too because she puts her hands over her head and does a “sshhh” sound like Superman. I wonder how long it will last, hopefully if we change up the choices once in a while she won’t get bored with it. Maybe somersaults or skipping next…