Tag: janae

Quick Trip to Florida

This past weekend I made a quick trip to see my sister Sherri in Florida. She had a miscarriage earlier this month and was understandably sad and I wanted to see her for myself. I was supposed to get there Thursday around 7 pm but my flight was delayed a lot so it was almost 1 am Friday morning by the time I got there. We were still able to cram in some fun before my 6 am flight Sunday morning.

Friday we went out to have some sister time. We started with getting our nails done then she was wanting to update her ward robe for work so shopping was next. I am not a big shopper on my own. I am becoming more and more of an online shopper actually. I don’t get to shop with my sisters very often though so it is always fun when I get the chance. When I am shopping with Sherri I feel like I am shopping with myself. We have very similar taste and styles. We paused long enough to eat lunch at Ford’s Garage, which was quite an interesting experience. My brain had a hard time reconciling the really good food we were eating with the very authentic ambiance of being in a repair shop, right down to the smell of oil. It was good food though. After lunch we continued shopping a few more hours and then called it a night. We ate chocolate almonds and watched a movie together.

The next day Kenny was having a hard time understanding the concept of a sister weekend so we hung out around their house mostly. We finished a flower bed they had been clearing out. It was nice to be working outside in beautiful 80 degree sunshiny weather. Sunshine is such a cheerful thing. It can make me happy instantly just by walking outside and having the sun shining. We went through a bunch of stuff for our FAT Adventure business and talked about some stuff we want to try and change. Sherri and I went and returned a few things that we changed our mind about when we were shopping the day before then we all went to dinner at a pizza place. Sherri and I stayed up talking late that night. She drove me to the airport to catch my 6 am flight the next morning. It was a fast trip. It is amazing that I can be in Tampa Florida at 6 am and make it home to my house in Kansas in time for 10:30 church. It is less amazing but still crazy that I can leave Tampa and its comfy 80 degree weather and then arrive in Kansas where it is 30 degrees and I have ice on my car windows.

I am very grateful and blessed to have both of my sisters. I am glad that we are friends. I am sad sometimes that we don’t get to live closer to each other but I am glad that we can talk a lot and see each other a few times a year (hopefully). They are both amazing people and I love them a lot.

Dropping me off at the air port.

Spring Break 2019

Spring Break was a week earlier than usual this year, and with as much time off in February as we had by the time it came to Spring Break I felt like we had already been having a Spring Break.

Ryan and I talked about doing something further away like maybe Chicago or Gulf Shores. Neither of us got around to planning it though and we had asked our friends the McDonald’s to do something with us. By the time we did get around to planning it we decided to do a long weekend in St Louis with the McDonald’s and spend the rest of the week at home.

Monday was my catch up day. I told the kids that I was going to be checking as much off my to do list as I could then we would have more Spring Break like activities the rest of the week. Monday was actually the first sunny day with temperatures in the 40’s instead of teens so it felt wonderful to be outside. I ‘made’ the kids go to the park for 30 minutes at least. Three hours later I had to drag them home with sun burned faces. After a quick refueling they were back outside playing baseball and riding bikes, playing tag, roller skating, digging in the dirt, and having a great time being outside. It definitely gave us all Spring fever. It was just a teaser though because the rest of the week was cold windy and rainy.

Tuesday was cold and rainy so we decided to go swimming at the Olathe Community Center with the rest of the people in Olathe. Despite the large crowd the kids still had fun. Emilee in particular can’t wait until it is swimming weather again.

Allison picked our activity on Wednesday. A few weeks earlier she had gone to the Johnson County Museum with her girl scout troop. She loved the kids area and has been begging to go back again. We invited our cousins to go with us. The boys stayed behind to play some video games and the girls came with us. They played at the museum until we were all hungry and then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We topped the day off with a sleepover.

  • Johnson County Museum
  • ‘modern art’ toys
  • Spinning chairs at the museum.

Thursday we played around the house and packed up to get ready to go on our weekend getaway. Friday morning we followed the McDonald’s to St Louis and spent the weekend there. We stopped for lunch and then went to The Arch. We had all seen it before but we had never been in it, or seen the museum with it. It was cool to see the view from the arch. The tiny round 5 person pod that takes you 600+ feet into the air was a little claustrophobic but bearable. After the arch we checked into our hotel and then went to Dave-N-Busters for dinner and to play in the arcade for the evening. Matthew figured out the timing on one of the ticket winning machines so he scored a bunch of tickets for everyone. It almost took longer for then to ‘shop’ with their tickets than it did to play the games. It was a fun night.

Then next morning after breakfast at the hotel (one of the kids favorite things about staying in a hotel) we went to the City Museum. It is an incredible place. It is an old ten story building that they have converted into a giant play area. We went a few years ago and it was a little nerve racking trying to keep track of the kids. They can crawl in a hole and come out in a completely different room. It is almost impossible to keep track of them. They are older now so I was a little less worried. We set a meeting spot and split up to explore. There is caves, and a catacomb area with a ten story slide. There are basically just mazes and places to crawl around all over. There is an outside portion the has tunnels and paths leading all around that is literally attached to the side of the building so you are hanging in the air. Everything is made with recycled material too. It is hard to explain but it is a pretty amazing place. We spent most of the day there exploring. When we were worn out, we ate lunch and then stopped at a well known ice cream place that I can not for the life of me remember the name of now. It was yummy though. We were meeting our long time friends the Schellman’s that night so we had about an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet them. We all decided to stop at the park and play because the weather was pretty nice. After dinner and visiting with the Schellman’s for a few hours we met back up with the McDonald’s at the hotel and the kids all swam for a few hours. The second best part about staying in a hotel. Sunday morning we went to church with the Schellman’s and then drove home. It was a fun weekend. It was nice to get out of town for a few days and enjoy some fun time with family and friends.

  • Fortune cookie at dinner on Spring Break
  • We went to St Louis with the McDonald’s
  • Top of the St Louis Arch
  • Entrance to the pod that takes you to the top of the arch.
  • The McDonald Pod
  • The Terry Pod
  • Riding up to the top of the arch in our five man pod.
  • looking out the tiny windows
  • Top of the Arch
  • Top of the Arch
  • View from the top of the Arch
  • Top of the Arch 2019
  • Lined up against the outside of the Arch
  • City Museum in St Louis
  • Allison crawling through a tube above me.
  • Emilee peaking out a castle window.

Winter Festivities

This year our resident NFL team did really well. They ended up making it to the play-offs. They haven’t done that for 20 years or something like that. I don’t remember they exact statistic. This year they made it to the play-offs so Ryan took Matthew and went with a friend of his from high school. They got seats for the lower bowl on the 35 yard line. It was COLD! Like low 30’s with snow and wind. They had several layers of everything plus snow pants and boots. They stayed pretty warm except for their toes, but that didn’t stop them from having a great time. The Chiefs won too! They lost the next week, but they won the game they were at which made it even more fun.

  • Chiefs Play Off Game!
  • Chiefs Play Off game with dad.
  • Chiefs Play Off Game 2019

The girls have been taking gymnastics for a few years. A couple months ago we switched to a new gym and they had pictures recently. So I got a cute picture of each of my gymnasts.

  • Allison’s gymnastic picture
  • Emilee’s gymnastic pictures

The high school has a Saturday cheerleader camp every couple of months. Allison and her friend Carlee like to go together and dance it up together.

  • Cheer Camp
  • Cheer Camp

This is Emilee’s second year playing basketball. She has come a long way. Last year she wouldn’t run to the other end of the court. When the ball went to the other side of the court she would sit under the basket against the wall and wait until everyone came back. This year she runs the court. If she gets tired though she comes up into the bleachers and asks Ryan and I if she can be done. Matthew works on her dribbling with her during the week and she is getting better.

  • Emilee having a team huddle with her basketball team ‘The Bears’
  • Emi playing in her basketball game.

February is always an odd month. Its short anyways and there is usually teacher conferences and President’s Day which are no school days. Then there is usually snow days. So far this month thanks to ice storms we have had FOUR snow days and its only half way through the month. Nothing makes the kids quite as excited as a surprise day off of school. We try to get in some fun activities and of course lots of playing in the snow.

  • Snow day facials
  • Matthew and Carson built a snow fort.
  • Emilee and Jovee built a snowman.
  • Allison and Leah went sledding with Ross and Lauren.
  • Emilee and Jovee working on their snowman.

Allison was Ms. Coovert’s class Student of the Month. She gets a special certificate and a coupon for a free ice cream at Culver’s. She was very excited and Ryan and I were very proud of her. One of her besties Hailey was PE Student of the Month with her.

  • Allison was the Student of the Month
  • Student of the Month with Hailey

More pictures from our Winter.

  • Allison decided to use her bean bag as her pillow.
  • Emilee’s 100th day of school celebration
  • The 6th Graders went on a ski field trip.
  • I thought this was a cute picture so I just stuck it in here. 🙂

My Grandma and Grandpa Jones

When I was visiting DeAnna we went and saw my grandparents one of the evenings we were there. We spent a couple hours visiting with them and my Aunt Mary. My Grandma’s short term memory is not very good sometimes but she was really good while we were there. I asked her to play the piano for me which she did. I wanted to ask her to play her trumpet too but didn’t want to wear her out. She decided to do it on her own which was awesome. She is absolutely amazing on both instruments. She has played them both all around the world throughout her life. She taught me piano lessons for a little bit when I was younger. I remember I was practicing one of my songs once and she was listening in the kitchen. I hit a wrong note and she told me the wrong note I had played, the correct note I needed to play, and the correct fingering so I could play it smoother. From the kitchen!

My grandpa always has a silly poem or rhyme to tell, or a song to repeat. He read us one while we were there from an Irish song book that he thought was clever.

I had a really nice evening with them. I enjoy seeing other extended family but I was glad to get to spend some time with just them. They are wonderful people.

NOTE: The process for loading videos has changed. I am trying to figure it out but haven’t quite got it yet. Each video should be different but I think instead it is showing all six videos over and over. So…there are six different videos listed here even though it just shows one. Click on the upper left hand corner and it will let you select what video you want to watch.

Visiting My Sister!

We had some Southwest Airlines credit that was going to expire so I used it to go see my sister DeAnna in Utah. I left Kansas and the sub zero temperatures from the polar vortex that was blowing through and had a very uneventful flight (best kind of flight to have) to Utah, which had nice 50’s temperatures when I arrived.

DeAnna had baby number six, and boy number five on December 10th, so I got to meet my newest nephew for the first time when I got there. Joseph is a sweet little baby. He is so chill, he didn’t fuss very much at all but has almost a constant string of grunts. I loved snuggling him as much as I could. In the few days I was there you could tell his eye sight got better and he was getting better at controlling his hands. I think 8-10 weeks old for babies is a really fun exciting time. They start becoming a little more adjusted to life and start trying to figure things out and you see their personalities more. They had his baby blessing the Sunday I was there so it was nice to see that. I think it is the first one I have been to for my nieces and nephews. I loved getting my fill of new baby Joseph snuggles.

I loved seeing my other 4 nephews and 1 niece as well. They have all grown up a lot since I saw them last. Tyler is still as smart as a whip and can build some pretty amazing things with Lego’s. He was great at getting all of his jobs and things done so he could have the rest of the time to play. I got two hugs from him while I was there that made me happy too.

Hannah let me use her room, which I appreciated very much. She is a sweet little girl and does a great job at helping watch out for her brothers. For scriptures one night we read a conference talk and I was very impressed with her reading skills. We drew and colored a picture together one night that was a lot of fun.

Michael and I read some books together. He wanted to cheer up his brother Peter, so he picked out all his favorite books when we read. I thought it was very sweet. He almost always had a snack in his hands and most of the time was very willing to share. He colored several pictures for me to bring home.

Nathan knows what he likes and doesn’t like. He is pretty good at explaining it to you too. I loved his drawing and explanations of why every detail was the way it was. He has a great imagination. He also loves to pose with his food for pictures and if you weren’t in the mood to take a picture, he was good at convincing you to do it anyway.

Peter and I were on a good road to being friends, he would give me a big sweet smile and come sit next to me. The poor little guy got sick shortly after I got there though and then no one would do but mom or dad. I get that though. He would let me wipe his nose without protest before I left though.

We spent most of the time doing things around the house, especially once kiddo’s started getting sick. It was nice to visit and chat. I got to do a little organizing too. John and DeAnna have many talents but organizing is not one of them. I love it though so I don’t mind going through a few closets and drawers one bit while I am there and organizing stuff. We went to lunch and got our nails done and did a little shopping. We stopped at Kneaders Bakery a few times too and sampled many of their desserts. We still have many to go. We watched movies, played games, and talked some more. We talked about having another sister’s trip soon with Sherri, a cruise would be awesome!

It was a nice trip. I enjoyed getting to spend time with all of them and be an in house aunt and sister for a few days. I wish I could live closer to her. I always learn something about being a better mom when I am with DeAnna. She is so patient and consistent and kind with her family. She takes everything in stride and does an amazing job taking care of her them. Her and John are a good pair.

There was a snow storm the night before I left and they had school canceled for the first time ever the next day. Instead of getting to play and enjoy it thought Peter had RSV and an ear infection, Joseph was coming down with RSV, and Michael, Hannah and Tyler all had sore throats. 😢 I didn’t feel like a very helpful sister by leaving. I have been praying that they will all get better quickly.

  • We went to the Jordan River Temple together.
  • Joseph in his blessing outfit.
  • Heading to church.
  • We spent an evening with my Grandma and Grandpa Jones. They played the piano, trumpet and read us stories.
  • Sweet little Joseph.
  • One of Nathan’s many poses with his dinner.
  • Despite the snow storm, flights were still only 30 minutes delayed.

My Blog!

I order the first two volumes of my blog earlier this month and they have arrived! I have a few kinks to work out when I have them printed but for the most part it is pretty awesome. I have about 400 pages of posts and pictures from last year!

The kids read my blog sometimes but they like looking through the book and reading that a little more I think. It’s fun to remember things. Even from a year ago I forget lots of the details. I read what I said about January last year and then this year. It made me laugh that it is almost opposite. What a difference a year can make.

I also need to proof read a little more use the word ‘too’ less. 😁 I’m ready to blog another year though!

Matthew’s First Time at the Temple

In our church we believe that everyone has to be baptized to live with Heavenly Father after we die. Not everyone has that opportunity while they are on the earth so one of the things we do in the temple is act as a proxy for our ancestors that weren’t baptized before they died. Once you are twelve you can do this so we got a babysitter for the girls and Ryan, Matthew and I went to the temple last week. Matthew is a good kid. He has a kind, good heart. It was a nice night with just the three of us. We stopped at Freddy’s afterwards for some ice cream.

  • When we drove up Matthew noticed that the shadows above the windows look like little temples. I thought that was pretty awesome.

Bring on January

When school starts in August there is a steady buildup of energy and activities that comes to a big crescendo with Christmas and New Years (mostly just Christmas). Then January comes and I used to think it was kind of boring. I actually still do think it is boring but it is a nice, peaceful, relaxing boring. If I think about it, January is the only month that there isn’t some big event (New Years is more like the end of December) that requires a bunch of planning and preparation and whatever else. It is a nice refrain before the year starts to ramp up again and takes off with one busy thing to the next. Once Valentine’s Day comes there is a steady stream of holidays, school events, birthdays, vacations, activities, sports, and more until the next January.

So I have been trying to slow down and relax and enjoy the nice things about January, so far it has been working splendidly.

  1. Last little bit of break. The first week of January is usually still Christmas break for the kids. This year we enjoyed it playing games, and doing things around the house. We got all the Christmas things put away. I went through each of the kids rooms with them too and purged them of paper, trash, and whatever else is crammed in there. They don’t really like doing that but I feel amazing once it is done, they all like the end result too. When we were done there were five full trash bags for the garbage man, and two for donating.
  2. Purge my house. I also go through every closet and other room in my house and organize, clean out, get rid of old stuff, broken stuff, do lots of the little things that have been sitting on desks or in drawers waiting to get filed, sewn, fixed, or whatever else. Basically all the things that I haven’t wanted to do but for some reason in January I don’t mind doing. I hate having clutter and stuff laying around, even if it is crammed in a drawer. When you have kids, it is amazing the things you find crammed in drawers. A couple months ago I did some rearranging and Ryan built me some storage shelves in our storage room and I turned it into a little work out room. This month I finished up the floor and getting it set up. Matthew and Alli have both been using it for lifting weights, running, and stretching. I have a few more things I want to add eventually like a punching bag, pull up bar and a few more weight things but it is a handy little room.
  3. Soup weather. I like soups-because they’re good, easy, and easy to have leftovers with. January is a perfect month for cooking soups. We usually just have a few different soups each week. So many choices! This week I made a broccoli cheese soup. With a little hesitation everyone actually ate it without to much fuss and most even dared say they liked it, which always shocks me. However, the next day no one was very willing to have leftovers. I get it though, I think broccoli cheese soup is a bit of a conundrum. It doesn’t look very good and it doesn’t even smell very good, in fact I think it stinks, but it tastes delicious. I even find myself deterred from eating it but once I take a bite it is always so delicious.
  4. Reset. I usually try to re-motivate and re-focus on my goals and our family goals. Our big family one is keeping on track and doing regular family study of the new church curriculum Come Follow Me. We are sticking with our before school reading/study time we have been using since school started. It works really well…when there is school. We need a better plan of attack when there isn’t school. Matthew’s bus route was rearranged for a few days when school started last week and we had to start reading at 6:20. It was a little painful. It has since been switched again and we are back to our 6:45 and we are all much happier.
  5. Try something new. I decided to stop paying for piano for my kids and fighting with them to practice everyday and instead take piano lessons myself. I will appreciate it much more then my kids did. I took lessons in elementary school and have just played fun music since then. I want to work on better technique and timing. I had my first lesson this week and I am already well on my way to being a counting fiend! Ha! I will try and get Allison to play again in a year or two. Matthew will most likely fall into the category of people that regret not sticking with it longer when he is older. I told him I have never met someone that regretted taking piano lessons, but I have met many that regret stopping their lessons. In 20 years when he regrets it, here is my proof. You should have stuck with it.

President Nelson’s Challenge Follow up

I mentioned in a post back in October about a challenge that President Nelson gave in the Women’s Broadcast. He asked us to fast from social media for 10 days. Read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Then, as we were doing those things he asked us to listen to the promptings and thoughts that we had and ACT on them. I did the fast back in October and I just finished the Book of Mormon a few days ago.

**Fast from social media for 10 days.

I realized I checked my Facebook and then followed the rabbit hole of the next feed or video that came up more than I thought. I completely deleted it from my phone for a while. Sometimes I do need it for checking on events so I did put it back on my phone but I decided to turn off notifications on Facebook and now I rarely look at it. I don’t miss it either. One of the things I filled my time ‘extra time’ with was practicing my piano more.

The new update on my phone has a Screen Time monitor which is kind of handy too. It keeps track of how many times you pick up your phone, and how much time you spend on each app on your phone. It is interesting to think you spent 10 minutes doing a crossword puzzle and then check and realize it was actually 35 minutes. I have talked with my kids about how electronics can consume our day without us realizing how much time we are spending on it. Then we talked about how if we spent even 1/2 that time working on a talent or doing something for someone else how that would increase our abilities and help us be and feel more like Christ.

**Read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Listen and act on the promptings you receive while reading the Book of Mormon.

One of the things that came to my mind while I was reading is to start memorizing scriptures together as a family. I have a little white board on the fridge that I put quotes on a lot so we decided to put a scripture up every couple weeks that we want to work on and memorize. I have really liked doing this so far. Emilee doesn’t seem to quite get it yet, but Matthew and Allison have memorized several scriptures already. I have too. I have never been good at that, memorizing things is intimidating to me for some reason. Each time Allison has a scripture memorized she gets to celebrate by staying up an extra hour for bedtime, and Matthew celebrates with a QT Icee. I told them that they could pick scriptures they read in their personal study that stands out to them for the family to memorize. They liked that idea.

A lady in our ward mentioned in her talk one of the ways she helped her kids not fight (or solve a lot of fights) when they were growing up was to have a ‘Child of the Day’. Their family rotated through the kids and when it was  your day you got to do things like say the prayers, sit in the front seat, pick your spot at the table. Whatever little things her kids tended to fight about so they all got a turn and new they would get a turn and didn’t need to fight about it. I haven’t started this yet but I think it is a great idea. I have it on the back burner in my brain to bring out someday if we are in an arguing rut or something.

We started reading scriptures in the morning before everyone leaves when we started school. Then we all eat breakfast together too. With that and my own reading from the Book of Mormon with the challenge from President Nelson I have noticed a slow but steady increase in all of our patience and tolerance with each other. The kids get a little less snippy with each other and forgive quicker. I have way more patience with them. They listen a little better and are more helpful. I’m loving it, everyone is loving it, even though they might not realize they do and the benefits that have come from it.

I started doing ’10’s’ with them again too. This is something from ‘Positive Parenting Solutions’ that we have done before. I had the thought to start it again. Each day the kids get to have a dedicated 10 minutes with mom (and dad tries to do it to when he can) where they have 100% of my attention focused on them and only them for 10 minutes and the two of us do whatever they want to do and I am in play mode, not mom mode. Some of the things they have come up with are play a game, singing, reading, watch a show, draw, color, practice cart wheels, go on  a walk, watch YouTube together, play ‘Twenty Questions’ or ‘Would You Rather’, whatever they come up with. They love it, this isn’t the only time I spend with them but it is their special 10 minutes.

Another thing that has come to Ryan and my mind recently is talking with our kids about pornography. Ryan is in the Young Men’s and we have gone to firesides and broadcasts in the past, and talked with several bishops over the years. One of the consistently repeated topics we hear and talk about in regards to pornography is the importance of open communication. It isn’t a matter of IF your kids will see pornography, it is WHEN will they see it, and what will they do when they see it.  It is a really delicate line of teaching our kids that it is not okay to do and helping them understand how and why they feel the way they do when they see it (shame, curiosity, excitment) and then interpreting those feelings correctly and learning why they have those feelings and when they are appropriate and not appropriate. Ryan talked with Matthew about this today. Satan is evil but not stupid. We know looking at pornography is bad, so when we see it one of the emotions we might feel is shame. The purpose of shame is to let us know we are doing something we should stop, one of the tools to use to guide us through lifes decisions and situations, just like joy lets us know we are doing good, heat warns of being burned, fear can be a warning, and all the other emotions and senses we have. Satan (especially with LDS people that can tend to have more ‘guilt issues’) uses that shame feeling to make people feel that instead of the act of what they are doing is wrong, the person them self is wrong and bad, which leads to more guilt and shame and can make us want to hide instead of talk with someone like a parent, or leader about what happened and how it made us feel. Ryan and I spend a lot of time, thinking, talking and praying about this topic together and talk about it often with our kids so they know what it is and that they can come to us knowing before hand that we won’t be angry at them, we will help them figure it out and work with them.

I am glad that I did President Nelson’s challenge. It has been a long time since I have read the Book of Mormon that fast. I like doing it that way sometimes because I can connect the stories and people together more then when I read it slower. It was a nice experience. I am looking forward to getting started with the new Come Follow Me curriculum when the new year starts.

2018 Quotes for the Fridge.

I have a little white board on our fridge that I decided to use to put quotes on that I read or heard somewhere. Someday I will have a quote wall or something to display a bunch of them but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet so it doesn’t look sloppy and drive me crazy.

When you really want something you’ll find a way. When you don’t really want something you’ll find an excuse.   

~Girl, Wash Your Face

Whatever standard you’ve set for yourself is where you’ll end up…unless you fight through your instinct and change your pattern. 

~Girl, Wash Your Face

Words have power but actions shape our lives.   

~Girl, Wash Your Face

When you know better you do better.     

~Maya Angelou

Life is to be enjoyed not just endured.     

~Gordon B. Hinckley

If thoughts make us what we are, and we are to be like Christ, then we must think Christ like thoughts. 

~Ezra Taft Benson

Forget yourself and go to work.

Be grateful, humble, smart, prayerful, involved, true, positive, and still.   

~Gordon B. Hinckley

Be proud of the work you do the person you are and the difference you make!

God gave the Sabbath day for man, not man for the Sabbath day.

It’s their day too.

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God won’t help you.

Choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong. 

~Thomas S. Monson

Wherever thou art, act thee thy part.   

~David O. McKay

If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what someone has to say.

I am your mother, you are my child. I am your quiet place, you are  my wild. I am your calm face, you are my giggle. I am your wait, you are my wiggle. I am you dinner, you are my chocolate cake. I am your bedtime, you are my wide awake. I am your lullaby, you are my peek-a-boo. I am your good night kiss, you are my I love you.

 

In December we decided to change it to our scripture board and we wrote scriptures on it that we wanted to memorize as a family. For a little incentive to memorize them, we let the kids pick a small reward each time they memorized one. Matthew picked a QT icee, Allison picked staying up an extra hour after her regular bedtime one night. Emilee is still deciding. They have to have them memorized to the point that I could ask them at any time and they could rattle it off without thinking.

Alma 37:35 …yea remember my son and learn wisdom in thy youth. Yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.

Alma 38:9 …there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved only in and through Christ. Behold He is the light of the world. Behold he is the word of truth and righteousness.