Heavenly

Tonight, we had Family Home Evening, a Monday night tradition at our house. However, Rylee has given it a new name. She can't quite get that big long phrase out of her mouth, or it somehow got very jumbled, so she calls it "Heavenly Fam Evening" It made me laugh! But, I guess that is an appropriate name... or at least that is what we are shooting for.

In some other recent news, Miss Avery got her first REAL hair cut. She has had some trims, but never a real cut into a little style, and I think it was about 3 inches off in some places. It is a super cute little a-line bob with bangs and she looks adorable. I would add a picture, but it is still on my camera and I'm too lazy at the moment. Just take my word for it - It is stinkin' adorable! I'm sure I will get a few pictures of it on the blog in about 3 months or so... The only problem with her cute hair cut - She looks SO grownup!

Pottermania has also started in our household. Actually, Darren and I have been fans for awhile, but the kids have now been introduced. Logan and I have been reading the first book of Harry Potter for the last few weeks and just finished it last week when school got out. I loved how into it he was! As a reward, we let the kids have a late night and watch the Harry Potter movie. They LOVED it! Each time they would go on to the next part of the book, Logan said, "Chapter 1: Privet Drive" or "Chapter 6: Quidditch" He remembered almost all of them and would get so excited for his favorite parts, which I think were when Harry and Ron battled the troll and when they played Quidditch. The next morning, the kids spent the entire morning playing Harry Potter and doing spells. My favorite was when Logan asked what the spell to wake someone up was and I didn't know, so he came up with "Rise and Sun Up!" You probably had to be there, but it was quite funny! For breakfast, they changed the name of their cereal to "Wizard Crisps" and a couple other funny wizard names. I love when they use their imaginations so well and it was so funny to listen to them and when they play together like that, it is PURE heaven! The only problem was that Rylee kept insisting she was the Queen of Hogwarts and Logan kept insisting that Hogwarts had NO Queen! If I asked them to do a chore, they immediately wanted to know how many "house points" they were going to get. It was an awesome bribe for me! And when Rylee was really naughty, Logan told her that she had lost 5 house points and that I had also lost 5 house points for getting mad at her. The things my kids teach me.

I have been having a hard time with my Rylee lately. She just seems to be causing a lot of trouble and she is really testing my patience. Last night, I read a fabulous talk from the conference Ensign. It got me thinking a lot and rethinking how I parent and discipline. I tried much harder today and got much better results. It will be a process but I am so thankful for that answer! Heavenly Father knows what we (and our kids) need! Here is the link if you want a good talk on parenting -
http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/what-manner-of-men-and-women-ought-ye-to-be?lang=eng

And...Summer is here! This week is crazy running from Logan's soccer camp and Rylee's little day camp, but it should be fun. Logan ended school last Wednesday and on Thursday we had some errands and things to do and on the way home he said, "Mom, You really need to plan some fun things for summer. This is so boring!" Yes...ONE day into it and he was already complaining! Hopefully, it will get more exciting for him. If you have any fabulous summer ideas, I would love to hear them!