Mommy, Look

I'm like a hunter.

The KAT's Meow

Nichole: Can we pick two books?
Mommy: Ummm... I don't know.
Nichole: I'll take that as a Yes.





Nichole: I'm going to bring a picture home. A Valentine for you. But I'm not going to tell you because it's a surprise.

Jr.: Your eyebrows are brown... like eyebrowns.

Catch of the Day

The boys helped me walk Nichole to school. It was enough to put Jr. Jr. to sleep.

Balloon Zoo

Daddy: It’s like a baby giraffe.
Jr. and Nichole: No. It’s a mommy giraffe.
Daddy: It’s too small to be a mommy giraffe. It’s just a baby.
Jr: No. It’s big. It’s a mommy.
Daddy: We need to get you kids to the zoo.
Jr: No. Animals go to the zoo!

A Brief Rundown of Our Valentine's

Nichole, writing her name on the Valentines for her kindergarten classmates.

What we woke up to Valentine morning.

Valentine activity books and pencils from Grandma and Grandpa, as well as a little toy for the baby. Homemade cards for the kids from Daddy and a new clock for Mommy (it's an Elvis clock). And a set of 101 cookie cutters for the family (heh heh, we're going to have some fun).

Breakfast of pink heart-shaped pancakes, including one with an arrow through it.

I sent Daddy on a treasure hunt to find his peanut butter cups Jr. and I made for him. He was nice enough to share with all of us.

Nichole with her haul from her first school Valentine's party.

The ornament she made at the party for her family.

Valentine's 2011

The kids got Valentines from their cousins. Isn't this the cutest? My brother in-law and his wife do some pretty great things with their kids and my sister in-law in-law blogs about a lot of them. Check out her blog, two hands. She's an inspiration to me.

Plant a Seed

Jeremy won a mini herb greenhouse from Vineyard Garden Center in Orem. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share a Family Home Evening lesson about faith. And actually plant an herb garden since I never got around to it when Jeremy bought me stuff for planting herbs 2 years ago for Valentine's Day. (hangs head in shame). But this time we did it.
It had seeds for oregano, basil, and parsley. I showed the kids what the dried store-bought herbs look and smell like. We determined that oregano smells like pizza, basil smells sweet, and parsley smells like... hay or grass.

click on the pictures to see them larger- there are a lot

We put in the dirt pellets, added water, and waited for the dirt to grow.

Then it was time for the seeds. Nichole first with the parsley seeds. Next, Jr. with the teeniest tiniest oregano seeds. Last, it was Mommy with the not so small basil seeds.

Squirt them again with water and place them on the windowsill next to our avocado pit which by the way never sprouted. Sigh. Oh well, next time we have avocados we'll try again.

It only took a few days before we started to see progress. The first to push up out of the soil- the oregano. From those teeny tiny seeds. Amazing.

It wasn't long before the others started poking up as well.

The parsley grew fast.

Pretty soon we had a whole container full of plants.

I think I got more out of the lesson on faith than the kids. All we have to do is start with the smallest bit of faith, but we try. We nurture it with scripture study, prayer, church attendance, Family Home Evening (just like nurturing the seed with light, water, soil to grow in), and it will grow. The more we work on it, the stronger we get. Even from something as itty bitty teeny tiny as an oregano seed. Seriously, those things are ti-ny.

It's fun to see the progress of these little herbs.

And to see our own progress with our faith.