Family Home Evening

Here's what our lesson was on last night:

We talked about Adam and Eve and their family and how much Heavenly Father loved them. Pulled out the Gospel Art kit and found pictures of them, baby Moses, baby Jesus, and Jesus with the children. Again, discusses how much Heavenly Father loves all his children. Then we pulled out these pictures and I asked who each of them were. Kids liked this game.

First baby Ellie:



Then baby Katie:



And baby Sarah:




Baby Ryan:



And of course baby Tommy:



And then I pulled out these. My children were completely confused (as was my scanner, if you can't tell). They couldn't guess who this baby was?



Anyway... baby #6 is expected to arrive mid-August 2012! The kids were so incredibly excited and Ellie said she felt like crying she was so happy :-D That makes for a happy mom! Now if only I could start feeling better...

He Turns 3!

Ryan turned 3 today. Oh, such a sweet boy is my Ryan. I seriously love this kid! I will touch more on that later, but for now we'll talk about his birthday party.

Instead of trying to celebrate on Sunday (and Super Bowl Sunday nonetheless) we did his party yesterday. So... Ryan has been talking almost nonstop about basketball lately. He talks about how when he grows up, he will have basketball shoes and shorts just like Daddy. He will play basketball with Daddy because he will be big and can play just like Daddy. We were out shopping the beginning of the week and found a basketball shirt for Ryan. He wore it 3 days straight (I was able to get one washing in). My boy LOVES basketball. So of course we did a basketball-themed party. We were fortunate to have the Tolmans and three of our favorite cadets over to celebrate with us. Ellie helped decorate the house while Steve helped decorate the cake :) He did the court, I did the ball. Turned out pretty great, I think. [And if you haven't tried out Hershey's chocolate cake yet, you really need to make it. Yum!]


There was great food and great company. The kids used the cadets as jungle gyms (I'm so glad they are willing to let that happen!) and I really think we all had a very fun evening. After dinner, "happy birthday" and cake it was present time.


Unfortunately Steve was behind the camera and was distracted by a conversation with Tom. So there aren't many photos to represent what happened during the present opening. Needless to say, Ryan is now outfitted in Basketball. New basketball shirt, new basketball shoes (just like Daddy), new basketball hoop (hangs on the back of a door) and new basketball (thanks Tolmans!)


That is one happy little fella. We hung the hoop on the changing table in Ryan's room and first thing he did this morning when he woke up was start playing.

I love this sweet little guy. We haven't done his birthday interview yet (we video tape interviews on their birthdays) but once we do I'll post some highlights and maybe wax poetic about how much I really do love Ryan. Happy Birthday, my first-born son!