Monday Monday

Phoenix is so heavy...really. I can only carry him around for so long and then my arm starts to kill! Here he is. He can roll over easily now and he is now able to "get around". I don't know how he does it but he'll be at one end of the room, next few minutes I see him under the kitchen table!? He's able to push up on his knees now. He's pretty good at floor time as long as Marce is playing in the room. Phoenix here is in a pair of pajamas that Marce wore only a few months ago! These Pj's say 18-24 mos. on the tag! He is now 4 months but is wearing 9-12 month clothes....and even bigger at times apparently... I had to buy him toddler bibs because the little bibs I have don't fit around his neck very well. At the rate he's growing, he and Marce will be sharing clothes. That would kind of be nice!



Our house is super plain. There are a few things hung on the walls but the only room painted is Marcelus'. I figure the house will be decorated nicely just in time to move to another one...


Anyway, I try a little bit to decorate for the Holidays so I bought a couple of small pumpkins at Walmart and put them on the bar. They can stay there til the Christmas stuff goes up. I have a lot more Christmas decor than I do for the other seasons or Holidays. This year we are making a real gingerbread house to display through December. We'll be making it in November.

This is the gingerbread house I made in HS. Tibi's head is in the way of the front but you can kind of get an idea there. I plan to make the house very similar to this one this year. Then the years following we'll experiment a little.


Yesterday I had the idea to have Marcelus make a drum out of an oatmeal canister I'd just emptied and then we could sing Book of Mormon Stories afterward. I know he sings that one in Nursery. Marcelus will sing on his own, to a movie, or with me as I sing to Phoenix just before bed time and naps...but he doesn't like to sing with us for family night I've noticed. We sang "Faith" for the opening song. He just listened. He bows his head and says his prayers on his own every once in a while. I can't make out any words, just a bunch of quite mumbling, but when we ask him if he wants to pray for meals he says yes and then I try and have him repeat me, and he says nothing, he just lets me say the whole thing, until he yells Amen. I know he'll learn and come around but it's kind of irritating...

Before the project...he chose purple and blue paper for his drum...
he LOVED to use the glue...

helping me rub the paper on the canister... helping me write his name and some triangles on the drum...
Marcelus with the finished drum...

Family Night can be short simple and fun. It is affective though, even when you are at the toddler phase. I am enjoying the simple things we do and the little songs we sing. I also look forward to the doctrine and to teach my children important things whether it's about EP, the Atonement, or how to budget...

One family night I want to make something in the kitchen with Shar and Marce. Marce loves to help and do grown up things. Come November though we'll work on the gingerbread house for Family Night. That will be fun. Family nights in December will be Christ centered and about his story. Also I'd like to do a family night about Sharing. That would be pretty fitting around Christmas time. I Love Family Night!