Happy Halloween!

(I was going to fix his red eyes but then decided it was sort of fitting!)

Halloween/Fall craft ideas

I am not a very crafty person, but I love to do crafts. Does that make sense? It's just that I'm not good at coming up with cute ideas on my own, but I love to mimic those that I see. So I'm always on the lookout for creative, yet VERY simple, crafts and last night for Enrichment we did the cutest thing and it only took about 5-10 min. to make, so I thought I'd pass the idea on for anybody else who might be like me. This would also be something that would be really fun to do with your kids because 1)it's quick and easy 2)it doesn't require anything dangerous/messy like glue, markers, paints,etc. and 3)it's really fun!

Pumpkin Roll


What you need:
-Roll of Toilet Paper
-Piece of "pumpkiny" fabric about 22x18 (they had lots of different fun orange fabrics to choose from: stripes, checkerboard, solid, etc.)
-2 pieces of green fabric about 3x3(depends on what size leaves you want)
-a brown paper lunch sac
-Raffia

How to:
1.Place your roll of TP in the center of your fabric. Gather fabric together and stuff into the center of the TP roll.
2.Crinkle your paper bag (to give it less of a paper bag look), roll it into a "log" shape and stick in center of TP roll for the stem(this also helps to keep fabric in place).
3.Cut out 1-2 leaves and tuck next to your stem
4.Crinkle a piece or two of raffia and stuff next to or tie around your stem to create a "vines" look. It doesn't really matter how you do this, everyone had a different way of doing this part to make it work.

Mini Caramel Apples


This next idea I got online from Family Fun Magazine and I think they are SO cute! (Obviously I'm easily impressed by the simplest of things) These would be perfect to have at a party, take to a party, or to give away as treats to friends/family for Halloween (or really anytime during the fall). You could also attach a tiny bow and tag to each stick and give away or use as a favor or placecard at your party.

Ingredients:
4-inch lollipop sticks
Melon baller
Granny Smith apples (one apple makes about 8 mini apples)
Butterscotch or peanut butter chips
Chopped nuts, nonpareils, sprinkles, shredded coconut (optional)
Small paper candy cups

1. First, cut the lollipop sticks in half at an angle (the pointy end will go into the apple pieces easier). With the melon baller, scoop little balls out of the apple. Each ball should have a section of apple peel. Push half of a lollipop stick into the peel of each ball. Pat the apple pieces dry.

2.Melt the chips according to the package directions. Dip and swirl the mini apples in the melted chips, then roll the apples in nuts, sprinkles, nonpareils, or coconut, if desired. Place the mini apples in paper candy cups to set.

A couple tips:
• Use thin wood skewers (about 3" lengths) instead of lollipop sticks.
• Make sure to pat dry apple pieces before dipping. This is important to help the coating stick. Apples can be dipped in lemon juice before drying and dipping to prevent browning.
• Use peanut butter, butterscotch, vanilla, milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Thin with shortening if necessary. Caramel also works well.

Anyway, so that's my gift to you all this Fall season. I know most of you that read this blog are super crafty so please share any fun ideas that you have done or good websites that you know of for more fun-and easy-craft projects I can do this fall season. Thanks!

Shopping and a pumpkin patch..."WOW!"

The end of last week, in Utah, was UEA so my sister Alena was out of school for a couple days and her and my mom decided to make the trek up to Logan to spend those days with us! Once these winter months hit it will be almost impossible to travel to/from Logan because it's too dangerous to drive through the canyon (if it's even open) so we have to make the most of EVERY chance we have to visit one another now before we don't get to see each other for months! The visit was way too short, but SOOOO fun. My mom spoiled us rotten and we ate up every minute of it! She took us out to dinner twice, lunch twice (which is HUGE for us because we never get to go out anymore-and because going out to eat is probably my most favorite thing ever!!) a movie(MAMMA MIA- too fabulous for words! And a big thanks to Bobby for watching Tyler so I could enjoy some super quality girl time), where we of course pigged out on candy, soda and popcorn, and took us shopping, shopping, shopping!

I've heard that the shopping is way better in Ogden than Logan, (and honestly how could it not be, there are NO good stores here. Seriously, not ONE child's store.) so we spent one afternoon at the mall in Ogden and found some really cute church and winter clothes for Tyler. The next day we stuck around here and did some local shopping and got some really cute clothes for my baby girl that I can't wait to dress her in. (having a girl is going to be so much fun!) My mom also found a really cute Halloween costume for Tyler at Old Navy, a BAT, that we're trying to get him excited about-he's not too fond of the head piece thingy.

She really wanted to get Tyler his very own pumpkin before she left so one afternoon we ventured out to find a pumpkin patch. We were told about one in North Logan but I had never been so we just took the persons word for it...not the greatest idea. It was a pumpkin patch in the sense that there were pumpkins on vines and you could choose your own, but I was hoping for something a little...better. Unfortunately we didn't have time to scout around for something else so we made do and we did find Tyler the perfect pumpkin that he LOVES! Seriously, he asks to play with it every day. How do you "play" with a pumpkin? I don't know, but he does it.

Their "quality" pumpkins all set up on a trailer.


But we wanted to find and pick our own pumpkin so we ventured out into the patch...


They had some horses in a corral next to the patch that Tyler loved and wanted to pet SO bad.




I was NOT such a fan!!








Tyler found this pumpkin and claimed it as his


Does he know how to pick his pumpkins or what? It's just perfect for him!


Showing it some love


The only way we could get him to sit on the trailer and take some pictures was to let him hold the rock he found, and would not part with.


A bunch of random pictures of Tyler with his pumpkin (and rock) on the trailer.










We kept trying to get him to say, "cheese" but the only thing he wanted to do was show us the sand that he kept scraping off the trailer. (notice the rock still in hand)


We were both "fake" laughing. I always throw my head back and he bends over forward when we fake laugh and he thinks it's so funny.


My gorgeous sister!


When we finally let him down the only thing he wanted to do was pick up these rocks...


...and drop them one by one into the hole on the side of the trailer. He's such a boy!


After the pumpkin patch we picked Bobby up from work and went to The Sizzler for dinner for some yummy steaks and salads!

(***Okay, I know I'm not going to do this story justice because it's one of those things were you just had to be there or you have to hear my mom tell it in person, but I'll try.)

Tyler was being so good AND funny! As I've mentioned before he loves to sing and no matter where we are wants to sing all his favorite songs. So we sang Popcorn Popping, Twinkle Twinkle little Star, Row Row Row your Boat, ABC's and Once there was a Snowman several times (ALL actions included). During one of the renditions of Twinkle Twinkle he started to go poo-ironically. (you can tell because his face gets all red, he holds onto the nearest solid object-as if to put himself in the best pushing position, and...pushes.) After he was "done" he leaned over in his chair, pointed to his bum and said, "WOW!" He never says anything after he goes to the bathroom, he just goes back to whatever he was doing before so we all busted up laughing. At this point we were all done with our meals and were just goofing around with Tyler and talking so we decided to just wait and change him when we got home. (I HATE changing him in public restrooms) We sat there for probably another 5 minuets or so and continued to sing some more songs where he would periodically lean over, point to his bum and say, "WOW!" We all just thought this was really funny and that he was just doing it because we laughed when he said it the first time. I know now that if my child says "wow" after he takes a poo it means WOW in every sense of the word. When we decided to leave, Alena picked him up out of his chair and carried him out to the car where she handed him to me to put in his car seat. He kept flexing his legs though and wouldn't let me sit him down so as I'm trying to reason with him to sit in his seat I hear Bobby say, "OH MY GOSH ALENA, WHAT is on your shirt?!" Then I hear my mom gasp and Alena scream,"ooohhhh gross!" I quickly pulled my head out of the car to see what was going on, while still holding Tyler, and look at Alena. Her shirt looked like this:


The car got a little love too (don't ask me how, we're still not really sure how all this happened)


After I had already wiped his entire back off. It was spread all the way up to his shoulder.


A little of the evidence


(For those of you who know my poo story, you're probably thinking, like mother like son!) We didn't get too many pictures (which is probably a good thing) because I was just in a hurry to clean everything up because it was freezing outside and we had to strip him down, but let me just say this. It was the grossest thing I have ever had to clean. Somehow we all managed to get some poo on us. It was disgusting, yet somehow wildly hilarious. He hasn't had a blowout since he was a baby and for the first couple seconds before what really happened had settled in we were dying laughing because as we looked around we saw it on more and more places and were pointing out where it was on everyone's clothes. Poor Tyler was just standing in the middle of us SO confused. I'm sure we were quite the site in the parking lot. Thankfully we live less than 5 minutes from where we were because we all needed to change when we got home. Our car by the way, smells lovely.

Why do almost all of my stories contain some kind of gross bodily function? I promise we're really not that weird...or gross. Thanks again mom and Alena for all the fun, spoiling, and adventure. We miss you already and can't wait till Thanksgiving!

We've been SPOOKED!

We've been spooked by the Great Halloween Pumpkin!

This morning we found this on our door:


And a bag of candy left on our pumpkin:


The note left us instructions to pass on this Halloween trick to 2 of our neighbors along with a treat! I'm so excited I love doing/getting stuff like this, it really helps put you in the holiday spirit. So tonight as part of our FHE activity we'll be "spooking" somebody else. Don't you just wish you lived by me?! Ha Ha!

I'm wondering...

What does a stuffy nose have to do with what you can taste when you eat? Why is it that if you can taste things because of the taste buds on your tounge, why when your nose is stuffed can you not taste anything. Hmmm...

BOO!

So last night I learned that I need to be a little more selective in picking out our Family Home Evening topics. Being the month of October every store you go in has their Halloween decorations out including scary ghosts and goblins and pumpkins and costumes, etc. As we've come to find out Tyler is deathly afraid of most Halloween decorations (the ones where their eyes blink with red lights or talk with the scary voices and/or are motion censored) so to try to get him to understand that it's all just pretend and they can't really hurt him we've taught him that the scary ghosts says BOO! And we say it all funny and make funny shapes with our mouth and he loves it. Whenever he sees a ghost now in the store he tells it BOO and thinks he's so funny. Well last night for FHE the lesson was on the Holy Ghost. I started out by talking about the spirit and I asked him to say, "spirit". Then I told him that another name the spirit goes by is the Holy Ghost and I asked him if he could say "Holy Ghost". He looked up at Bobby and smiled then turned to me and shouted, "BOO!" I know we probably shouldn't have laughed but it totally caught us off guard and we busted up laughing, which of course only encouraged him to do it more. I tried to explain to him that the Holy Ghost was a different kind of Ghost-not a scary one that says Boo-but in his little toddler mind a ghost is a ghost and no amount of explaining it to him was going to change his mind. So throughout the entire lesson whenever I would say, "Holy Ghost" he would say, "BOO". Not so sure that lesson was very effective. Maybe we'll have to try it again when it's NOT October!!

Free Stuff!

Who doesn't like free stuff?! (Thanks for the tip Ellen) Handbag Planet is giving away one handbag each hour for 24 hours for FREE on Oct 15th in celebration of the launch of their website. Their bags are way cute so go sign up!

http://www.handbagplanet.com

Glucose test round 2

Some people may be able to pee on demand. I am not one of those people. Call it stage fright, a lack of bladder control (okay we already know I have that), or just plain weird but unless my bladder is full I can't just "GO" to the bathroom. So what does that mean? I need fair warning. I need to be told beforehand that I'm going to have to "leave a sample" so that I can adequately prepare for such a task...i.e., drink a LOT of water.

I was supposed to go back on Friday to have my blood drawn after drinking my second bottle of orange sugar, but Bobby needed the car during the day so I couldn't make it back in until today. I decided that this time I would do it the way I did it for my last pregnancy (and as some of you suggested)and do the whole fast for 12 hours thing before I drank it and went in to get my blood drawn. So I made sure not to eat anything late last night (which was really sad because I was SO craving some vanilla ice-cream and Bobby sat and ate a bowl right in front of me on purpose. He thinks he's really funny.) and I drank my sugar first thing this morning so I could just go in an hour and get the dang test over with. Not eating for awhile before you do the whole glucose test must be the trick because even though I did feel a little queasy (and shaky-is that normal?) I didn't feel like I was going to throw up. I got Tyler all ready to go (I was going to wait till tomorrow when Bobby would be home so I wouldn't have to take Tyler but I really just wanted to be done with it. And I was only going to be there for like 10 min. so it wouldn't be a big deal right? Hmmm...). So I arrived 5 min. before they were supposed to draw my blood and the nurse took me back right away. She gave Tyler a sucker because he was kind of freaking out when he saw they were about to poke me with the needle (he is such a little protector over me it is SO cute), and then she drew my blood no problem. I put my sweatshirt back on, picked up Tyler and was about to walk out the door when she said, "If you haven't left a urine sample yet make sure to leave us one on your way out." What?! I told her that I didn't think I was going to be able to do that since I hadn't eaten or drank anything in over 13 hours and I had gone to the bathroom at home before I left because I didn't think they were going to need a sample. She said, "Oh well, ya we do. We have to send one in with your blood work so go ahead and try." I wanted to shake her. Go ahead and try?! What the heck does that mean? Oh, I get it. She's one of those people that can pee on demand.

So of course I go in and "try" but I'm dry as a bone. I come back out and tell her and she tells me she'll give me a bottle of water and that I just need to go sit back out in the lobby and wait until I have to go. UGH! So 40 oz. of water and 60 min. later my bladder finally decides to cooperate. I was so annoyed though! Tyler was really good and just played in their playroom the whole time so I was thankful for that, but I felt so stupid just sitting there in the lobby "waiting to pee" because all the receptionist and the nurses knew why I was sitting there and would look over at me every once in awhile like, "geez what's that girls problem? She can't just "go" to the bathroom?!" Oh well, I guess we all have our talents.

So anyways, I guess I'll be getting the results back later this week and I swear if I have to do this again I might go a little psycho on someone. Poor Bobby...it will probably be him.

First Snow

When it looks like this outside


The only thing to do is sit here


And eat these


As I'm sure you guessed I didn't take any of those pictures (I don't have my camera today) but it really did snow a lot, we really did warm up by the fireplace and I really did make-and eat- orange cinnamon rolls. Really.

And the #1 Song was...

My friend Ashley had this on her blog and I thought it was kind of fun so I did it too. It's a website that you can put in significant dates in your life and it tells you what the Billboard #1 Song was on that day. It also allows you to hear a clip of it on itunes. Here's the Link

Day I was born:
"Every Breath You Take" by The Police
(The only thing this song reminds me of is church dances ha ha!!!)
Day Bobby was born:
"MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer
(Never heard of it)
Day my Dad was born:
"Cathy's Clown" by The Everly Brothers
(Never heard of it)
Day my Mom was born:
"Quarter to Three" by Gary U.S. Bonds
(Never heard of it)
Day I graduated from High School:
"All for You" by Janet
Day Bobby graduated from High School:
"MMMBop" by Hanson
(MMMwow does that date him or what?!)
Day Bobby left on his mission:
"Independent Women Part I" by Destiny's Child
(That is just TOO fitting! :))
Day Bobby got home from his mission:
"Dilemma" by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland
Day Bobby and I met:
"Baby Boy" by Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul
Day we got engaged:
"Burn" by Usher
(That's not a good sign!)
Day we got married:
"Confessions Part II" by Usher
(Uh Oh!)
Day Tyler was born:
"Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé

28 Week Appointment

Today was my 28 week appointment and glucose test-not something I was particularly worried about. I had the same test when I was pregnant with Tyler and everything went fine. I mean the drink isn't all that great, but I don't mind it and the results came back fine so I didn't have to worry about gestational diabetes. Today I followed the instructions that they gave me last month exactly as they were written:
Eat a meal normal for you. One hour later drink the glucose drink. One hour later have your blood drawn.

My appt. was at 1:45 so at 11:45 I ate lunch ( 1/2 a chicken breast, rice, veges, salad). 12:45 I drank 10 oz. of orange liquid goodiness. 1:35, as I'm walking out the door to my appt., throw up everywhere. Wait, what?! That wasn't part of the instructions. Ugh, it was SO gross. I have no idea what happened. One minute I'm fine, the next minute I feel really sick to my stomach, the next minute I'm throwing up. I ran from the front door to the kitchen with my hand over my mouth while puke was spewing out in all directions (as Bobby kindly pointed out to me later, it would be better if I would just bend over and throw up than put my hand in front of my mouth and run because then it spews all over the house-walls, kitchen cabinets, floor-instead of staying in just one spot. Is that gross enough for you?). It was all over my clothes, face, hair, Bobby, our kitchen, etc. I am SOOO thankful he was home and that he is patient, loving and not easily grossed out. He cleaned up ALL of it. Yep, washed all the counters, cabinets, floor, dishes and me. (some of you may being having flashbacks to a smiliar episode in which Bobby had to do to quite the clean up job for me :)) But that's not even the worst of it!

I've been trying to be really good about drinking water, which is a pretty big task for me because I hate water-no flavor. Over the last 2 months I've really pushed myself to drink, drink, drink and I usually drink about 72 oz. of water a day. Last month before my 24 week appt. I had drank a lot of water in the morning and had to go to the bathroom SO bad before my appt. so I went ahead and went right before we left thinking I had drank enough that I would probably need to go again once I was there(every appt. they take a urine sample from you). Wrong! I couldn't give that nurse one droppling and I tried every trick in the book. She just laughed about it though and told me it was okay, they would just get one next month (my appt. today).

So I drank a normal amount of water this morning and when I felt the urge to go (about 12:00-almost 2 hrs. before my appt) I decided to hold it because I didn't want that to happen again this month. Of course "holding it" isn't the smartest or most comfortable thing to do when you're pregnant and my need to go got worse and worse every half hour that ticked on. Bobby told me to just sit on the couch and not move and that would help keep "it" in. So that's what I did and was pretty proud of myself when 1:30 rolled around and I was about to walk out the door to the doctors with a bladder filled to the max. That nurse was going to be so proud of me!

Funny thing happened though, when I was throwing up the muscles I had been using to secure the pee-pee in the comforts of my bladder no longer were being used there because they were being used to assist with my up-chuck reflexes. So what happened? I peed my pants. Yes ladies and gentlemen you read that right. I PEED MY PANTS! And I had no control, it was the weirdest feeling ever. I could feel it trickling (okay more like rushing) down my leg but I could not contract my muscles in order to make it stop! (apparently someone needs to start doing their kegals) Meanwhile Bobby is standing behind me and starts busting up laughing as my pants are turning from a light blue jean to a dark blue jean. I turned around very slowly and he just looks at me shaking his head and while laughing tells me I should probably go call the doctor and ask them what they want me to do.

So I strip down, wash off best I could and called the doctor who tells me I need to just come in for my appt. right away (I was already late) and they'll give me another drink to take. So I give myself a quick whore's bath, re-dress myself, and head out the door. Thankfully I didn't completely empty my bladder during my episode and still had enough stored away to leave them a nice sample. Blood pressure was good, weight not so good, baby's heartbeat perfect!

So I have a nice new bottle of orange goodiness that I will be taking tomorrow. Wish me luck!

28 weeks
(don't worry this was taken AFTER I changed my clothes-hence the reason there's no face shot, I was NOT in the mood!) I decided since I had to change anyways that I would just wear the same shirt I took my 24 week picture in so that I could really see the change in the belly.


24 weeks

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

I haven't ever posted a recipe for anything I've made partly because I'm not a good cook and partly because we don't ever eat anything that's really all that fabulous and worth posting, but Mon. night I made some chicken enchiladas that turned out great and were so easy to make, so I thought I'd share the recipe!

(this photo is courtesy www.allrecipes.com. I forgot to take a picture of the ones I made before we had eaten all of it!)


Here's the basic recipe: (serves 6)
INGREDIENTS

* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1/2 cup chopped green onions
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
* 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast meat
* 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
* 6 (12 inch) flour tortillas
* 1/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking dish.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and saute the green onion until tender (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the garlic powder, then stir in the green chiles, cream of mushroom soup and sour cream. Mix well. Reserve 3/4 of this sauce and set aside. To the remaining 1/4 of the sauce in the saucepan, add the chicken and 1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese. Stir together.
3. Fill each flour tortilla with the chicken mixture and roll up. Place seam side down in the prepared baking dish.
4. In a small bowl combine the reserved 3/4 of the sauce with the milk. Spoon this mixture over the rolled tortillas and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

My Changes:
I'm sure the recipe as is, is good, but I made a few changes to cater more to what our family likes. I used cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom to bring out more of the chicken flavor. I used about 3/4 cup sour cream instead of 1/2 because we like creamier enchiladas. I used a store bought rotisserie chicken to save on time and used 2 1/2 cups chicken because 1 1/2 just didn't look like enough and I was right. Next time I will probably use 3 cups because the enchiladas weren't quite as full as I would have liked. (You can probably get away with less chicken if you use smaller tortillas) I also added 1 packet of chicken taco seasoning, a dash of chili powder and a dash of Oregano to the chicken to give the dish more of a kick, but it was a little spicier than I like so next time I will probably leave out the chili powder or use a little less taco seasoning. I also added about 1/4-1/2 cup mixed red and green bell peppers chopped to compliment the spiciness of the taco seasoning. I went ahead and used flour tortillas as the recipe called for because they are easier to work with than corn tortillas but for a more authentic taste corn tortillas would probably taste better.

Anyway, I hope you try it, it was delicious!!!

I Love Your Blog

My friend Maranda gave me an "I Love Your Blog Award." Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.The questions are as follows:

1. Where is your cell phone? Kitchen
2. Where is your significant other? Sleeping
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Creative
5. Your father? Dedicated
6. Your favorite thing? Motherhood
7. Your dream last night? Reminiscent
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. The room you're in? Bedroom
10. Your hobby? Reading
11. Your fear? Kidnappers
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Albertsons
14. What you're not? Patient
15. One of your wish-list items? House
16. Where you grew up? Tejas
17. The last thing you ate? Toast
18. What are you wearing? Shorts
19. Your TV? Off
20. Your pet? None
21. Your computer? Lenovo
22. Your mood? Mellow
23. Missing someone? Always
24. Your car? Ford
25. Something you're not wearing? Make-up
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? Change
28. Love someone? Forever
29. Your favorite color? Yellow
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Today
I award the following 7 people with the "I love your blog award" and in so doing tag them to complete the above questions.

Alisa
Ellen
Haley
MaryBeth
Megan
Nanci
Rebekah

Songs of the heart

Last Sun. the couple sitting behind us (with no kids) mentioned how impressed they were with Tyler's behavior during the meeting. I kind of laughed and said, "Well, ya until the closing song when he serenaded you and the rest of the congregation with I Need Thee Every Hour. Sorry about that, he probably walked the spirit right out the door for you." She replied, "The opposite actually. You can tell he loves to sing and how could you possibly get mad at a child for loving church and wanting to be here. Little children have an amazing spirit about them and he was just sharing his with us." That comment really made me think. (He literally was singing at the top of his voice during the closing song and he was 100% serious about it. I was totally embarrassed because several people were looking at him and chuckling, as I was desperately trying to remind him that although I loved his singing, he needed to do it quietly. He wasn't in the least bit trying to be funny. He honest to goodness loves to sing-especially during church for some reason- and gets very into the music. He holds the hymn book up with one hand and leads the music with the other as he watches the chorister...it's pretty darn cute. He loves music, especially primary songs and hymns and can constantly be found walking around our house with hymn book in tow, singing at the top of his lungs.) Her comment reminded me that Heavenly Father does love the little children and I'm sure would not reprimand them for singing hymns and expressing their way of feeling the spirit during church (because that's really what I believe he's doing) so I should not do so either. (Although we will be talking about, and practicing, singing reverently at home this week :) ) I love my little boy and am so thankful for the lessons I am learning from him on a daily basis.

Quiet Book

I have to say, that as far as 19 mo. old boys go, Tyler is actually very well behaved during church. He's definitely not perfect and we probably have to remind him to use his "quiet voice" 100 times during sacrament meeting, and have been working on saying "amen" reverently instead of yelling it at the end of a prayer, but for the most part I couldn't ask for anything better. He's usually-not always, there are definitely some sundays I want to bury my head in the ground b/c he is being SO loud- a little angel for the 1st half of the mtg and will just sit on one of our laps and doesn't move, doesn't talk, folds his arms for all the prayers, listens to me as I "explain" what's happening during the sacrament (I just tell him that we think about Jesus and Jesus loves him and wants him to be happy and to be a good boy, etc.) and he nods his head yes and watches everyone. It's the second half of the meeting that he starts to get a little restless and wants to move around, which do you blame him? By then I'm usually restless and want to move around too! (I can't stand it when I see parents that get mad at their kids when they don't sit perfectly still on the pew for the full hour. They're children, they physically/developmentally can't sit still that long!!! Sorry, that's a 'soap box' issue for me) So I let him hop down off the bench and he likes to play with the hymn books (take them out "read" them, put them back) read books on the floor, whatever. But by the last 15 min. he's just had it and starts talking and whining and saying bye-bye because he wants to leave; so I've been trying to decide what we could bring that would help him get through the end of the meeting and at the same time not be distracting (loud toys) to those around us. I looked into getting a "quiet book" from Deseret Book but they're $30 and I just don't want to pay that much for something I could make for at least half the price.

Anyway, last sunday I was mentioning this to some girls in the ward (one of which was one of the girls who made that comment in the post mentioned above) and they agreed that quiet books are definitely helpful when it comes to keeping kids distracted and quiet during church. I didn't really think anything else about it and was actually planning on starting to put one together on Wed. Tues morning as Bobby's walking out the door for school he walks back in and hands me a bag and says, "this was hanging on the door." I open the bag and inside was this:



The exact quiet book I had wanted to get for Tyler! All that was with it was a note that said, To: Tyler Bricker

I have no idea who left us this gift, but I am SO excited and thankful! I asked both the girls I was speaking to on Sun. if they left it for us and both have adamantly said it was not them. Either one of them is just being humble or somebody that I don't even know (not too hard, I don't know very many people in our ward) was extremely generous! I just can't believe that somebody would do that for our family and am so thankful to a loving Heavenly Father that has literally poured out blessing upon blessing since we have moved here. Sometimes all it takes is something as simple as a children's quiet book to remind you how much Heavenly Father knows and loves you as an individual and is mindful of your needs.