Oh where, oh where has our little dog gone?

I just sat down to add a post to let y'all know we'd lost our dog, when I heard a knock at our door. It was a girl from a block or so away asking if Rico was our dog. So, now he's found.

He broke his leash yesterday, and apparently followed a girl home from her piano lesson (the piano teacher lives across the street from us). We drove around last night and this afternoon looking for him, but with no luck. I put a flier up at the grocery store this morning, and let the dog catcher know we'd lost him. (The dog catcher here in Loa shoots first, then asks questions later).

The girl who brought Rico back, lives across the street from the grocery store. She hadn't seen the sign. She just took Rico on a walk, and he ran straight to our house. At least he knows where we live.

Does anyone know of a great way to chain up a "Houdini" dog? He manages to escape every few days--a new way every time. This time his leash just snapped. I wonder if a tractor chain might work...

Caleb popped THE question...

Our boys were playing with their doctor kit today, and Brayden and Caleb brought me their little children's medical book to ask me a few questions. There were pictures of red and white blood cells, bone cells, muscle, and egg and sperm cells. They wanted to know what the egg and sperm cells were, so I told them that the sperm were "boy cells" and the eggs were "girl cells" and that when they get together they make a baby.
Brayden was completely satisfied. Caleb, on the other hand, thought for a minute and then asked (in a loud Caleb-like voice), "How do they get together?"
Todd started to laugh hysterically, so I turned the time over to him. He, unfortunately, sent them back to me. I told my boys I needed a minute to think. I was not prepared for this question from a four-year old. After thinking for a minute,I was able to skip about 98% of the talk by telling Caleb that Mom's and Dad's sleep in the same bed...and that's how they get together. He was happy with that answer. Whew!

Gross!

Dillon's new word is "gross!" He used it correctly two times the other day. Once, when he brought me a lovely booger from his nose, and once when he tasted his PLAIN Cheerios (not the Honey Nut kind).

Idea for Family Scripture Reading with young kids

My neighbor gave us a great idea at Christmastime, that we've carried over and are using for our family scripture reading. It's working so well, I thought I'd pass the idea along.

For Christmas, we made a paper chain to count down the days 'til Christmas. On every link, I wrote down a Christmas song and one scripture from the Christmas story. Every night we read the scripture and sang the song. I loved that my kids were understanding the scriptures that we read, because they already knew the story. We spent the entire month talking about one story, and it worked great for a 6 and 4 year old.

This year, we've decided to do one Book of Mormon story per week. On Sunday night, we watch the video clip from the Book of Mormon DVD from the distribution center (the one with still pictures). Then, throughout the week we read various scriptures from that story and talk about it in depth.

So far, it is working great. Brayden and Caleb are excited about the stories, and me and Todd are thrilled to watch them be excited and learn so much. Last week we concentrated on the Introduction to the Book of Mormon. The boys are now excited to go see Martin Harris's grave "near Newton" next time we're there. I'm amazed at how fast they pick things up, and I really want them to know the stories. Grandma Great gave them each 3 different Book of Mormon action figures for Christmas, so we're excited to play with those, too, and act out the stories.

The DVD from the distribution center is divided into 54 stories, which I typed up and added the scripture references to. If anyone would like a copy, I can e-mail it to you.

I hope this makes sense. We are really excited about it. For the first time ever, our kids are actually excited about family scripture time, because they are understanding the stories.

I also forgot to mention that we're going to have the boys draw pictures of some of their favorite stories, and then scan them into the computer, shrink them down, print them out, and paste them (along one edge) into their Book of Mormon's (or is it Books of Mormon?) They just have the little $4 paperback copies, so I'm not afraid to let them glue their own pictures in it. This way, I figure, they'll have some idea of where to find the stories in their scriptures. I love those stickers you can get at Deseret Book that you can stick right into their scriptures over the stories(they're see through) but they're so expensive!!! I think their own pictures will work just as well.

I said I wanna be a cowboy...

 
 
  

Caleb Todd

 
 

The hats we got for the boys' pictures are all the same size. Brayden's fits perfectly, but Caleb and Dillon could've each used a bigger size :o) 

Dillon Robert