A Little Bird Told Me

Mae loves her bouncy seat.(Who doesn't love a good butt massage.) She loves to play with the toys, she figured out quite quickly that they make noise and make the birdie spin. She plays so hard she even fell asleep mid play.

Winter Wonderland

One of the things I love about Arkansas is that it doesn't snow that much. (I used to love snow when I was a kid but find it to be a dangerous inconvenience as an adult. I think it correlates with my no longer having a snow suit.) Well much to my dismay we got snow on Christmas Eve.



It was nice to play with Max in the snow though. He wanted to build a snowman cause, "Once there was a snowman," is one of his favorite new songs. Unfortunately the snow was not building snow so it was more of a snow hump. He loved making snow angels.


He had a blast but all good things must come to an end.


We finished with a warm bubble bath using new bath paints sent by Grandma Larkin.


It was a very good day.

Christmas Siblings

Professional Chef

Cause she wasn't busy enough...



Thanks mom he loves it. He said, "Just like mamma's Olivia." (Referring to the Olivia apron my mom made me a few years ago.)He and Jeff are now making sugar cookies and Max keeps shouting, "Cookie Monster."

Pretty Pretty

As if the blessing dress weren't enough this year my mom has gone above and beyond once again. In my Christmas package was a new church bag. I'm just gonna let the pictures speak for themselves.

side one


side two



lining

Spotlight

I am instituting a new segment on my blog. After the success of "Things That Must Go," I have decided to try another running segment but one that is a bit happier. So each month I am going to spotlight a person in my life that is awesome and share why they rock. Read, enjoy, and come back to see if you are the next spotlight.

Michele My Belle

My sister in law Michele is amazing! I have always felt so blessed to have her as a sister. The first quality of Michele that becomes evident upon meeting her is her incredible kindness. She is genuinely warm and caring person. Michele is very soft spoken but when she does share it is always something wise and thoughtful. Michele got her bachelor's degree in Marriage Family Human Development from BYU, and it is pretty evident that she knows what she is doing because her children and insanely smart! Every year when I get the Christmas Letter I expect it to say that my niece Elizabeth has been accepted to Harvard at eight years old. At first I was worried that Michele and I wouldn't have much in common because she does crafts and I have never been good at that, but HOLY COW the women is so talented. Every year I am so blessed to get the coolest crafts from her. I get complimented on them from all my friends whenever they come over to my house. She makes me things I never knew I wanted but I now cherish and can't live without. Thank you Michele for being such a good sister. (I am dying to see what you sent this year, but I am being a good girl and have left them under the tree til Christmas.) The following is just a small example of her hard work.

Michele made these names for the kids this summer and they look super cute on their doors which face each other across the hall.



This was made for Max after he was born. It hangs in his room.



I like this better then any picture of the temple I have. It makes it my temple.



We each got a Christmas Ornament last year. I love the homemade ones the best.



This is my second favorite craft by Michele. It is a calender that has every one's birthdays and anniversary's each month. So I am always on top of things each year. She even sends us updates with each new family member.



My favorite is the fridge Nativity! I leave it up all year long. It is the only nativity we have and the only one I want.

I am so mean!

So I have been in primary for coming up on two years this winter. I love parts of it; the teaching, the simplified but deep gospel message, the wiggle songs. I hate parts of it; (well mostly just one part,) I hate the utter chaos of the Sharing Time hour. When all the kids get together it is ridiculous. Now I know these are kids, and quite is not possible, but screaming, kicking and rudeness is unacceptable from senior primary. These kids know how to behave in church, or do they? There are no lessons about how to behave given in church and the presidency never bothers to teach the kids about proper behavior so it must be left to the parents right? Well I guess it shouldn't surprise me that I caught one of my "wigglier" eleven year olds father playing basketball in the gym during Sunday School.



I skipped the intended lesson for my sharing time this summer and gave a lesson on reverence, not that it really helped much. Reverence is something that must be constantly reminded to these kids and I can't do it by myself. Some of the other teachers try to help but it needs to be a group effort between all teachers, leaders, and parents. Even other adults could set a better example in the halls. (To be fair to some of the parents I don't think they have any idea what their kids get away with in primary.)


So do I yell at every infraction every whisper, No. I don't want primary to be a jail cell, I think occasional whispers are okay, as are wiggles and the occasional slouch. (I am talking senior primary here.) What makes me say something is loud talking during a lesson or PRAYER, hitting, KICKING, and not singing when you know the words. Our song leader is awesome and should be shown more respect then she gets. If you don't like singing then sing quietly.

Okay so story time. So a few weeks ago I go on the class of girls below my class (age 10-12). Their teacher was gone and they were being disrespectful to the leaders giving the lesson. They were talking loudly and not paying attention at all to the lesson. One girl even lifted her leg up really high to kick one of my students, (no high kicks in a skirt please!) So I told them to stop talking and stop behaving like 5 year olds, (which total unexpected slam on our five year old class which is ironically really reverent and well behaved. Sorry Guys!) So I find out from their teacher last week that they spent more then ten min of class time talking about how mean and evil I am. (One boy stood up for me because I had had him in my own class for awhile and he was able to see that I can be sweet and loving and only want what's best for these kids.) How can they get anything out of a lesson if they are talking and can't hear it. How can they feel the Spirit if they are irreverently kicking and hitting. Am I perfect, NO, I have been known to talk in church, but I try. I strive to feel the Spirit when I can, and I have a respect for the Lord. I try to show my respect in HIS HOUSE at all times.