Why I play video games with my kids

Tonight was a fun night with my kids.  Tonight we were able to attend a Minecraft game played on the big screen.  It is hosted by Super League Gaming.  If you ever get the chance to attend this event, I suggest you go for it!  It was so much fun to get together with others.

There were 75 kids at least.  They played together on the server as we watched on the big screen.  There were several free play builds and several hunger game battles.  My daughter and I watched my oldest son play with the other children.  It was so intense.  The children were all excited around us, eating popcorn and competing against another.

For the past few years, I have enjoyed playing games with my children.  I have an account on Roblox, Minecraft, Animal Jam, and Club Penguin.  My daughter has started playing these games with us.  I have learned some of the lingo, like GG.  GG means good game.

One thing that you have to know about these games, you can chat with others.  Roblox is one of the games that cannot monitor bullies.  So many things get said on Roblox that I want to shield my eyes at.  So many parents probably do not realize that their child is saying bad things online to other children.  They bully and tease one another also.  I have told my son to stay away from talking to some of the other children because it can get out of hand quickly.

With that being said, getting involved with my son's gaming allows me to know what is going on.  I also spend time with him doing things that he likes to do but can make sure that he isn't doing things that are bad.  It is important for us to make sure our children are staying out of trouble or not getting bullied.

This is just one way to stay involved with your kids.  There are so many things we parents do with our children that is so important and builds bonds with our kids.  It doesn't matter if you are a stay at home mother or work out of the home.  We all have many ideas on bonding with our children.

Post in the comments ways that you spend time with your children!  There is so much out there and it has made me realize how precious this time is with our children!  I love it and would not trade the world for it!

Starting new adventures!

I have been in school for awhile.  I have been also helping my oldest son through online school.  I must be insane since I will be teaching my daughter online preschool with Upstart through our state.  This will start at the beginning of the school year.

My son's friend has been going through bullying at school.  He will also be starting school with Connections Academy with us next year.  I will have a full plate soon!  But I keep trucking on!

Other things that I have been working on are getting better organized, learning to play the guitar with my kids, genealogy, and wanting to start a YouTube Channel/Vlog.  The organization is slow, but I have been looking at the Konmari Method.  In my house, it is a little harder to organize by type since all my mess is together! My books, hair brushes, make-up, etc. is in one place.  But I have felt better getting rid of things that I don't love.  So it will be interesting to see what can be done with this method!

Wonderful blog post!!!

I cannot even add to this since she says it all. Beautiful blog post!!

http://momastery.com/blog/2013/06/10/for-the-dog-days/ I could not get this to link so I am adding it as an address.

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Mothers Who Know: Proclamation FHE Chart

Mothers Who Know: Proclamation FHE Chart: It is the 3rd day of the 3rd Annual Celebration of The Family: A Proclamation to the World .   Have you joined in or checked out the  won...

I haven't been posting awhile again

Today Seth is a month old! I haven't been able to post since I was really ill while I was pregnant. I was on home health for IV fluids and a Zofran pump. Then I had gestational diabetes and had the hardest time keeping under control, even on 4 Gly-buride pills. I have to be tested every year to every other year now for Type II since we have it in our family.

Seth was born on a Friday 4 weeks ago. He was 8 lbs. and 14 oz and 22+ in. long. I was only in labor for a few hours luckily and it was a quick delivery. Horrible pregnancy but wonderful delivery. I actually recovered quickly. I wasn't given any narcotics for pain going home since they now give you just get Advil. I hardly had to take any.

Since I have been home I have made several Pinterest meals but also meals on Rachael Ray's website. One included a recipe from the Cake Boss. I will post these meals soon. I have just been busy with my babies.

Jonah will be switching to an online Academy called Utah Connections Academy. He will still be learning Chinese through this school but will have FrogWatch and Robotics and Chess Clubs.

He has also earned his Wolf Badge a few weeks ago.

Cubs scouts and Genealogy

I am going to be a busy girl in the next couple of months. First off I am a cub scout den mother. I am so excited. Jonah will be starting in January when he turns 8. I know that every Wednesday I will be teaching the boys something fun. I am still a Primary teacher at this time also. I am not sure if they are releasing me during this time or not. I will try to post ideas I find.
Also, I have started my application to join Daughters of the American Revolution. I feel it is an awesome way to represent the bravery and selflessness that my ancestors had. On both lines we have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. It is such a long process with genealogy work but it will be well worth it. One of the women who is in DAR is also with Daughters of the American Colonists. She is also going to help me with that. My family lines on both sides are qualified for most of these since most of my family came over during the original colonies. We have family that was in the Confederacy and the Union and more than likely in the War of 1812. Genealogy is tedious!
I have also signed up in the PTA to help with Jonah's classroom parties. I also help check the homework on Wednesdays and make copies on Mondays. Something to keep me busy I guess!

Today I have been busy getting Jonah registered for school. I am sure he is not as excited as I was to get him registered. I signed up for PTA again this year but hoping I will be able to do more this year than last year.
I was excited that they have a new program for Emergency Preparedness, which I signed up to help out with also. I hope that I can help with that so I can learn some new things.
Also, the past two weeks I have worked on some things I found on pinterest. Last night I made a Bubble Up pizza. I changed it a little by adding a little bit more sauce, cheese, and biscuits. I found it on Pinterest but the link to the recipe and blog it came from is:

Bubble Up Pizza

It was a winner recipe. It was pretty quick also.

Lately I have added blogs. I cannot believe what special talents some of these people have!! http://pinterest.com/ has the most amazing stuff. So if you feel like you don't have time to look at it, make time. It will be worth it!

Mothers Who Know: Proclamation FHE Chart

I came across this website today and I just love this chart.  This is going to be on my to-do list soon. Take to time to go over this site for some wonderful blog messages.

Mothers Who Know: Proclamation FHE Chart: I really wanted a Family Proclamation FHE Chart and to make that the focus of our family home evenings. To understand what the P...

I finally have Jonah in my arms today. He is such a sweet boy and I hate when he is gone for 5 weeks during the summer. I know it has to happen though.

I fly home in a week so I will be busy with Jonah and his surgery, getting him registered for school, amongst other things.

One thing I cannot wait for is the Diary of a Wimpy Kids Dog Days to come out. I am checking out movies 1 and 2 from the library to watch right before we go to see the 3rd. I cannot remember everything in the movies so I need a refresher.

Wow, I still have 2 1/2 weeks left until I get home to Utah. I am a little homesick right now. I get Jonah back in 10 days and I cannot wait. He is ready to start another year of dual-immersion Mandarain Chinese. He is such a smart little boy.

Isabel is almost 2 and I cannot wait to plan her a little princess party. I have already bought the cake kit for the princess castle and I will be practicing making designs with my decorating tips.

I am going to make a goal when I get home to try something from pinterest once every week or two weeks depending on the difficulty of the project. There are so many fun ideas that people have.

I probably won't be able to start this goal for a little bit when I get home since Jonah has surgery to have his adenoids removed.

I have been slowly working on family history and love doing the itty bitty amount I have done. The stories on my ancestors are amazing!!

Woohoo!! Not much longer until I get home!

I have made it back from Disney World and Stuart, Florida. Disney World was so wonderful I cannot wait to return someday. I have learned a lot from my trip so that the next time I go, I will be able to visit rides that I wasn't able to see before. There were so many wonderful websites out there on planning your Disney trip. I don't want to be negative because with my experience, it did not always work out so beautifully. Just with that, when you plan your trip and go by what people post on their blogs, just have in mind that it may not work out for you and your family. If it does, that is great. Some sites talk about pre-decorating your autograph book. One person in my group did and the characters did not sign on the correct page. The handlers were very curt about time. Now, the handler for Mulan was not happy that my son was acting too shy. This caused Mulan to come over and spend extra time with my son. Not to mention he speaks Mandarin very well for his age since he is in dual immersion. So she sat over talking to Jonah for 10 minutes.
we were in Disney World for 4 days and we spent so much time in lines for autographs, Kidcot stations, stamps at Animal Kingdom that it got old quickly. Most characters you had to go stand in line for 30 minutes prior to the character coming out. The handlers would cut people off and say you were too late the line was closed 20 minutes prior to the character coming out. So it was time wasted running to that location.
I will post more on this subject later. It is not meant to down anyone's blog or be negative, it is just to say that don't expect it all to go the way you would want it. But it definitally is worth going to several times.

Pumpkin Alfredo

18 oz frozen cheese ravioli (I used 5 cheese frozen)
1/2 jar alfredo sauce
1/2 tbsp margarine
1/4 c finely minced onion
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp chicken or veggie broth
1/2 c canned pumpkin

Cook frozen pasta as directed on bag. Melt margarine on medium. Add onions and garlic when melted to saute.

Add chicken broth and herbs. Scrape off side of pan and add pumpkin. Stir together and add alfredo sauce. Stir until all mixed. Cook until heated all the way through and serve over cooked pasta.



This is a version of a recipe from "Our Best Bites" This is so worth buying!! This recipe was super quick. I changed it a little but not much.

Motherhood

Reading this article is a wonderful reminder that being a mother doesn't require perfection. It requires love and compassion and just making an effort.


http://powerofmoms.com/2012/04/your-children-want-you/

It is a very good article written by April Perry and on the Power of Moms blog.

Women in the Scriptures

I have been slow at working on the new Young Women's Medallion. I earned mine when I was 17 in 1995 I believe. It has been a very long time.
The church has re-designed the program and now any woman can obtain it. Which I want the new medallions.
Divine Nature is a wonderful value, especially when it comes to being a woman and a mother. In researching about motherhood and women I came across a wonderful website. I am not sure I can fully take on this assignment (please see Women in the Scripture challenge button at the bottom of the page)in a year alone. I plan on doing it spread out with the other things in life. It will be fun to learn more about the sacred and special women in the scriptures. Hopefully it will strengthen my appreciation for being a woman and a mother.
I have started a scripture journal on topics. Motherhood is, of course, my first topic. Although I think the women in the scriptures challenge needs its own journal. My niece had a great idea with passing the journal off to your children. I will pass the women in the scriptures off to Isabel and I will start a Men in the scriptures for my son.

SparkPeople

Sparkpeople.com is such a wonderful website for anyone who wants to have a healthier lifestyle. I currently have a little blog on there. I have made some goals to eat and cook healthier. I know I am a sugar and soda addict. It is part of my goal for eating healthier (despite food allergies that are real nasty) and getting more organized. I haven't written for a long time and have no excuse.
I am now a stay at home mother and had another baby about 18 months ago. Those 18 months have been a roller coaster ride but it has been fun and worth it.
Jonah is in dual immersion and learning Mandarin Chinese. He has proven that he is such an amazing child. He comes home every day singing songs in Chinese. I was even excited for him to read a book to me in Chinese. Of course I don't understand even though I took some watered down classes in Chinese. Maybe one day I will get Rosetta Stone and figure out what he is saying.
Isabel, who is the queen in the house (in her opinion) is such a little diva. Every day she demands to put on her princess crown and if she doesn't get her way she likes to come over and smack you on the leg. Yes, a habit I hope to rid her of one day.

Memphis

Jonah and I made it down to Memphis Friday! It is so nice to get to begin the move. It feels like it has taken a long time to get to this point. Jonah and I are hanging out with the family before we have to go out to Utah. Although Jonah made the comment that he didn't want to leave Nanny and Poppy's and was a little sad that we have to.

On our way down from Louisville we stopped off at the Casey Jones museum and home in Jackson, TN. It is a very cute place to visit. You can do a self guided tour of his home. You can also climb on a smaller replica engine that Casey Jones was driving on the fateful day. The resturant was very clean and the food was awesome. They had a soup bar that offered rolls and corn cakes.

It is worth visiting when passing through. Jonah loves trains...well, trains, planes and automobiles!

Life is fun!

Only a few more weeks until my big move. So much has happened since my last post. My son was admitted to the hospital for respiratory distress due to asthma. I have had surgery. Luckily we are doing fine now.

I also went to court to petition to move out of Kentucky so Joshua can finish BYU. We won the court case. So Jonah and I are packing up and moving.

I promise that packing by myself is so much worse than surgery. I am getting closer to being done. THANK GOODNESS! Once life settles down for me I should be able to start posting recipes again.

I am finally posting a couple of pictures of Joshua and I. My sister-in-law took the pictures. They are wonderful!

Manti Temple or Bust!

The date has been set! Joshua and I are getting married in the Manti Temple June 18th of this year. I am so excited. Joshua is my best friend and it is a blessing to have him in my life. What makes it wonderful is Jonah loves Joshua and Joshua loves Jonah. His family is so wonderful and they have been so open and accepting. They already consider me family. I have to say I am the luckiest girl in the world because I have the perfect guy...who is perfect because he was raised by a wonderful family.

My dress is a Maggie Sottero. It is beautiful!

The reception will be the night before since we will be married early in the morning. The venue is at White Willow Wedding reception center. It looks amazing.

The cake that I chose is from Ladybug cakes and catering.
The specific cake is the Lindsey at the top. Instead of the lilies I decided to do white daisys. They are a perfect flower for June. The other cake I wanted was from One Sweet Slice. This website has some pretty wedding cakes also, but they where completely booked. The cake I loved from this site was the Jaci. That is actually where I decided the colors and flowers. It looked elegant. The lindsey cake from Ladybug's is also very elegant looking.

Well, I will post pictures when I get the chance! Hopefully I will get to post an engagement picture of us soon.

The love of my life-of course besides my son

I haven't posted anything on my blog for awhile...again. I have been so busy with eveything going on in my life. I haven't had a chance to really post much about my fiance Joshua. Well, I know I post a lot of recipes so I did want to mention that he cooks! Wow. He made Jonah and I dinner and dessert. Was it good!! The first was a potato cheese soup that had carrots in it. It was wonderful. I have never had a potato soup with vegetables in it. If I can remember I will post that one because it was a comfort food. Then Sunday he made lasagna. That was quick and very good. The weird thing about me is that I have never been successful making lasagna.
For dessert he made us a cake with homemade chocolate frosting. I was in heaven. It was his mother's recipe. It was better than store bought but I also think that it is the perfect frosting for doughnuts. Last year I made some doughnuts (using the refridgerated biscuits) and I had a hard time finding a frosting/glaze for them. I am picky about my chocolate. Well, this was very delicious. The last dessert that he made was vanilla ice cream with warmed applesauce on top. I liked it. I don't usually eat ice cream. I didn't eat a lot that night in regards to dessert since I was so full from everything. I was just spoiled to death.
There is so much to write about Joshua. He is such a joy in my life and Jonah just loves him. He has been reading to Jonah almost every night. Right now we are reading James and the Giant Peach. I believe we are actually close to the end. I am not sure which book we are going to start next.