A Good Reminder

I Did It!

At church, our theme for the year is The Family:  A Proclamation to the World.  Our Stake President challenged each of us to memorize the Proclamation, if not in its entirety then at least the first paragraph.  I have a terrible memory.  There are times I don't remember my kids' names or what I went downstairs to get or that I had an important appointment two hours ago...

As a family, we memorized the first paragraph over a few days.  Then I decided, on my own, to try the next paragraph.  And then, well, I might be able to do one more...  It took a full month of 15-20 minutes a day, but I did it; I memorized the entire thing!  It's a pretty amazing document and I'm glad I took the time to learn it.  And I'm happy to know my memory is not a lost cause. :)

Four Eyes

Savannah just got glasses and we think she looks super cute!!
(Of course, now she wants contacts...) 

Friday Funny

A duck waddles into a grocery store and says, "Excuse me sir, do you sell duck food?"  The cashier says, "No, we don't sell duck food."  So the duck leaves. 

The next day the duck goes back to the store and says, "Excuse me sir, do you sell duck food?"  The cashier says, "No, we don't sell duck food."  So the duck leaves. 

This goes on until, after the 5th day, the clerk decides that he's gonna give that duck a piece of his mind.  The duck waddles into the store as he has everyday and says, "Excuse me sir, do you sell duck food?"  The cashier says, "LOOK!  You come in here every day asking if we sell duck food.  If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, we DO NOT sell duck food.  If you come in here one more time and ask if we sell duck food, I'm gonna nail your beak to the floor!"  The duck leaves. 

The next day, the duck goes back to the store and says, "Excuse me sir, do you have any nails?"  The cashier says "No, we don't have any nails."  The duck says "Well then, do you sell duck food?"

Crazy Hair Day

Every year, when crazy hair day rolls around, it seems like I've just given my boys haircuts so there's not much to work with.  So when I cut everyone's hair a couple of weeks ago, I let Sterling and Soren off the hook so that they would have more options on crazy hair day.

Sterling's hair has a mind of its own and doesn't usually cooperate even on good days.  It took a hefty amount of gel and hairspray to keep it up.  While his hair looks like something you might use to clean off the bottom of your boots, I sure love that cute face!

Soren came up with his do himself.  It's combed forward and up in front.  He calls it 'teenager hair' and he quite likes it.  A little bit shorter and it's okay with me.  No, Soren is not sad.  Just being silly for pictures!

Guess who is meeting them with the electric clippers after school?!  :)

Sterling's Cereal

This little frowny face made us all smile!  :)

Dear Grandma,

Thank you for the Valentine's you sent to the kids.  From their reaction, you would have thought Sterling and Soren won the lottery when they saw their $2 bills.  ("Money, money, money...!!")

Oh, and Soren loved the stickers.  He loved them so much, in fact, that he's decided to start a new collection:  Outline stickers.  All I can say is, 'seriously?' 'Wow, that's um... creative!?'  I was speechless when Sterling confirmed Soren's genius by saying, "Great idea!  Now you can trace inside them like stencils!"  Yes, let's all encourage this hoarder collector by coming up with creative uses for his trash stash. 

Thanks again!  Love, Missy

 

Dork Blue and Eastern Eggs

Sadie was in charge of our Family Night lesson last night.  She went through a phase where each time it was her turn for the lesson (every 8 weeks), she wanted to make valentines.  Since yesterday was Valentine's Day, she thought that would, once again, be the perfect lesson.  She wrote notes on 8 hearts, one for each person, and then decided it would be a great idea to hide them in "Eastern Eggs." (She's always called Easter Eastern.  So cute!)  Then she went to great pains to write what color egg each person was supposed to look for to find their valentine and she hid the eggs around the house.  We had to laugh when she wrote "Spencer look for a dork blue."  If you think about it, the short o sound makes sense... 

I love this age!

2%

This is my 200th post -- 2% of the way to 10,000 things that make me happy!  I thought about doing a Valentine's post, but instead I've decided to post the thing that makes me the happiest.  It should be no surprise:

Yes, this picture is just over 2 years old, but we all look pretty much the same and this picture makes me happier than any family picture we've had taken since.  :)

And just for fun, this one shows off our true colors a bit better.  I'm lecturing Soren, Sadie's picking her nose (?)... ha!  I sure love these guys!

{Happy Valentine's Day.}

*2024 Update: While this was the 200th post at the time of posting, I have since transferred files from a previous blog (stowell.fami.ly) to this one so they are all in the same place.

A Picasso in the Making

  

Some friends and I ran a little Joy School when Sam was little.  Savannah always participated when it was held at our house.  This is her creation the day we were doing self-portraits.  I'd forgotten about it until my mom recently gave me this copy.  Funny...but not bad for a 2 1/2 year old!  :)