Atonement 101

I am the first couselor in our branches Primary which allows me the privlege of teaching music every Sunday and sharing time every other Sunday. So this past Sunday I taught a lesson on the Atonement. I was trying to be creative and decided to do a little Atonement 101 lesson. First, I made a "clean slate" which represents being baptized. On the back of the "clean slate" it reads,"When we are baptized, we are given a 'clean slate'. We are sinless and need to obey Heavenly Father's commandments in order to stay clean."

Second, I made the same "slate" and put added rip marks and dark spots representing the sins in our life. On the back of the "dirty slate" it reads," When we sin, we allow our 'clean slate' to become spotted. We let our sins 'dirty' our clean slate and need to repent to 'erase' our sins." I then asked how we are able to clean our slate once it is dirty. Most of the kids said by repenting, and I asked who died for us so we can repent. They said Jesus and I asked what this service was called and they said the Atonement.

Then I showed this pencil and had the 4 steps of repentence on the front. It's hard to see in the pic but the steps are:

1. Feel sorry

2. Ask forgiveness

3. right the wrong

4. don't do it again!

Then on the back of the pencil it reads," Heavenly Father sent His Son to sacrifice Himself for our sins. By doing that, we can repent and our Heavenly Father can "erase" our sins."

It was an awesome lesson and the kids may have even learned something along the way! =)

I made each of the kids their very own Atonement 101 kits and they got to take them home and use them to teach FHE for their families. They were very excited!

When I teach, I always try to make something we can reuse for FHE. The kids like the idea of being in charge of a lesson and to be able to teach about what they are learning in church!

I am truly grateful for my calling in Primary. I didn't join the church until I was 18 so I missed all of the good fun that comes from Primary. I am blessed to be a part of these kids lives and I hope they learn as much from me as I learn from them!

Hallway Re-do!!

Since little A's cyst diagnosis thing, we decided to start improving the safety of our home. One of the first places we thought of was our hallway. There were no carpets or runners and when little A would run and play, he would slip and slide all over the place! So we bought these runners at Walmart and put them down. They have rubber underneath to help them stay in place! Then we found the paint in the screw up bin and it was 50% off! That was good enough for me! I came home and went to work. Even found a pretty little border to go up! The reflection in the pic is bad but it's ssooo pretty! I love it! It's the only place in our home that feels complete! That's what I've been up to this week! Now I wanna do all the other rooms in our house! In due time, I guess. =) Hope everyone is having a great day! Looking forward to general conference this weekend!! yeah!!!

Giveaway over at Casa de Mask!

There is an amazing giveaway over at http://www.casamask.blogspot.com/! Go visit! It's an amazing giveaway from a wonderful lady!!

SCARY!!

Well, Sunday evening was scary. Little A fell off a stool and hit the back of his head and was rushed to the emergency room. They had to do a CAT scan and found that where he hit his head was fine. But the scan showed that he has a posterior fossa midline arachnoid cyst on his brain. I froze. I was scared out of my mind. The doctor at our local hospital says that it's fine and that he was born with it. I thought, OK. Now what? So they sent us to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh today to have a neurologist look over his scans. Let's just say that I didn't sleep last night. When we arrived, I was frantic. I felt foolish but I didn't know what to do. I met the doctor and he said that it's fine. Little A can be himself but he won't be allowed to play ANY contact sports like football or hockey. They want us to make sure he doesn't take too many hard hits to the head because it could cause bleeding that would be bad. I feel better knowing whats going on. The doctor says that most people live their lives not knowing they have anything like this because they've never had a CT scan. I feel blessed as a mom to know how to try to protect my son. I feel blessed for my husband having the priesthood and for my friends who helped comfort us and let us stay at their house and keep their kids up late just so my husband could be assisted in giving our son a blessing.

Thanks for reading and stopping by. Take a look around and count your blessings!

On a side note: we had a series of tornadoes that happened all around us today. Please pray for those who lost their homes and possesions in these storms. So far no lives were lost and that is something to be grateful for!

Loves of my Life!

Well, at least some of the loves in my life! As an early Mother's Day gift to my mom, my brothers and I got together and got all our kids pictures taken together. My mom has been asking for a while, so we figured why not! WOW was it hard to get all the kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time! At first it was just the kids and it wasn't working out! We spent an hour and a half trying to get a half-decent picture! Then my mom decided to sit with the kids and look what we got: AN AMAZING PICTURE!!


We put all the kids in rainbow colors and my mom just happened to have on black and white which I thought was perfect! In order of age it goes: in the yellow is Big B, in the red is Big K, in the blue is my M, in the green is Little B, in the purple is Big A, in the orange is my Little A and in the pink are my twin nieces Little K is on the right and S is on the left! I love these kids and I especially love my mom! She is such a strong lady and I'm glad that she is mine!

I'm grateful to a perfect plan put in place by our Heavenly Father that allows families to be together forever! I love the gospel and am so grateful for a prophet that leads and guides us today! To learn more visit : www.lds.org

When I started this blog, I wanted to have a way of expressing my feelings about the church and to share experiences with my family or anyone else who decided to stop by! I'm a nervous lady and this helps me to share what I love without having to verbally say anything!!

I appreicate anyone who stops by and value your friendships!

I feel so weird not being at church right now! The boys and I are SICK!!! The hubby went along without us! This is my way to have a little Sunday with me!!

Have a great day everyone!! =)

General Conference Match-up!

I LOVE conference weekend! I love the time we get to spend as a family watching all the speakers! So I was trying to find something fun for the kids to do while watching and something for the to do to start recognizing who all the apostles were. So I made a Spring themed matching game. I KNOW I have two boys and the flowers are a wee bit feminine, but I though it was cute! I made them funky colors so they look a little retro and not so girlie!

Below is a picture of one of the flowers that has Presidents Monson on it! I found a set of all the apostles and the prophet in this months issue of the Friend. I just printed a duplicate copy at www.lds.org.


The next picture shows how they go together. I think it's pretty cute! I just used a scrapbooking stencil for the flower and the circle. It worked out pretty well, I think!

This is the whole group, minus one because Little A took it, all matched together! I love them and can't wait to do some for the fall session!

We had a lovely warm day here in PA! I enjoyed it even though my WHOLE household is sick! We still got outside a bit for a sluggish game of hopscotch!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a fun day today! We started the day by "discovering" that a leprechaun had left little green foot prints all over the kitchen (I can't believe I didn't get a pic =() and realizing that he also left a pot of rainbow filled treats on the counter! The boys were so excited! We then had green pancakes shaped like shamrocks!

Below is a pic of one of the pancakes. Doesn't look green, but it was REALLY green when you cut it open!


Here's M (and a little bit of the hubby!) eating their pancakes! M was trying to get some syrup! What good is a pancake without syrup?!

Little A wasn't with it today! He's a sick little guy =( But I took a pic anyways!

Here are rainbow cupcakes I made for a Primary activity last weekend. I iced them white and added rainbow sprinkles and the kids went bananas for them!! I got the recipe from www.familyfun.com. They take a while to make, but I'd be willing to make them once a year!

Hope everyone had a fun day! Make the most of your days, especially if you have little ones! They will be grown and moved out before you know it!!