Guest Post by Jamie: Thanks for the Memories

Here is our first guest post!  (Want to write one? Send me an email or leave a comment with how I can contact you!) Today's post comes from Jamie Hutchinson, a friend I knew from different church functions and a youth choir when we were growing up. Now she is a wife, a mother to four children and a third grade teacher. She'll be back again on Monday with some more ideas, so stay tuned.

Thanks for the Memories…

By Jamie Hutchinson

Growing up I had my very own library, or at least that’s what I called it. There was this closet down the hall from my room that had shelves filled to the limit with books of mine. My mom encouraged my personal reading habits as a child by always ordering a minimum of one item from Scholastic book orders and frequenting the library. As I think back, I remember her reading a lot and also getting excited to get new books from the library. I honestly don’t recall sitting and listening to her or my father read to me. I know it happened, I just can’t think of a specific memory where it occurred.

I am now a twenty-five year old mother of four, wife to an amazing man, and third grade teacher with a Master’s degree in education. One of my goals is to create lasting memories involving books with those close to me (hubby, children and students). Teaching lends itself to expanding on stories because I am required to teach comprehension strategies and expect active engagement of all students in discussions. Reading with my husband is a very relaxing, intimate experience. We tend to read more spiritual literature together and it lends itself to good conversation and communication. Creating memorable experiences with my four children can be simple, but is of the upmost importance to me.

Almost one year ago, my mother-in-law witnessed my husband and I act out a book with my nine year old step-daughter. It was some silly story about a boy who has a runaway brain. We practiced all week, hung up a sheet from the basement ceiling, prepared a script and had super fabulous props such as a drawn on orange balloon brain. The reenactment lasted for maybe five minutes, but the memory remains. It is so thrilling to me that we shared an experience over a story, a picture book picked up at the library, which we all keep in our minds as something we enjoyed together. There was nothing academic about the book other than the fluency practice. The value of the book for us came in interacting with it and each other.

Books are so much more than something to hold and look at. Books provide comfort, escape, relaxation, adventure and can evoke a broad range of emotions in all of us. Children can be especially susceptible to messages in literature. I am always so amazed at the things my five year old step-son picks up from a story. Books create the best conversation starters for us. He tends to pick up on details in a book that I will overlook.

My two youngest children are almost eighteen months and two and a half months old. The older one has known how to turn pages in a book since he was six months old. Really. I started reading books to him before he was born. Now that he is mobile and literally running everywhere, the only times he sits still is when he finds a book and brings it to my husband or I with a hand rubbing his chest to sign “please”. It’s the most adorable request to read a book I have ever seen. He doesn’t often allow us to read every word on every page, but that’s not the point. He wants the experience. This little boy brings us a book, sits on our lap, snuggles up close and enjoys a few minutes of listening and visual stimulation. Our two and a half month old girl is too young to show signs of enjoying books other than relaxing in our arms as we read them to her. Right now it’s just a matter of establishing routine.

I mulled over preparing this blog post for a week. There are so many experiences and words of wisdom to share with others who wish to create lasting memories with children and books. Emotionally and academically though, the best thing you can do with your child for reading is to do more. Certainly find time to read more, but I literally mean DO more. Talk about the books. Put on plays. Read the characters with different voices. Get into it. Dress up. Play and have fun. Most importantly, let your child lead you. They will feel empowered by choosing books and letting their imaginations take over.

My next blog post will be more professional in nature and deal specifically with choosing books and creating experiences to capitalize on your child’s interest and developmental level. I leave you with these question though:

What do you DO to make a book last?

How do you create the memories in your home?

Thanks, Jamie!  What a wonderful piece you've written. I loved your phrase "let your child lead you," a great reminder for doing nearly anything we do that involves a child in some way.  

Where to get books...

A comment about not owning many novels/books and getting dozens from the library made me think about just how many books we have that I never touch. It also made me think about how many different places there are to get books (which may be why I can't seem to keep any shelf organized!).  Feel free to chime in with any thoughts you have to share about this list. And maybe if you like having loads of books around (I'm not sure in what camp I am in yet, because most days it feels like I have far too many to handle but it might just be the whole living in a small space thing!), this list will give you some good ideas instead of just making you shake your head at me.

• Discounted books from half.com or ebay or elsewhere
• Thrift stores or consignment shops
• Birthday gifts or gifts for another occasion
• Books at well-child exams at the doctor's office. At least at our Dr.'s office in Ann Arbor anyways.
• Yard sales
• In our city there is a guy that runs a once a month event called the Quarter Book Sale at this warehouse-type place. We went for the first time last month and found some great things. All I can say is that it's likely good they aren't open every week. 
• People giving books away
• Buying a new book: book orders, book store, other store, airport...I had to put that in because I am ashamed I ever bought a book before I hopped on a plane. I think I've done it twice. Pricey. 
• Doing a book swap with friends, either with books you are all wanting to get rid of or just borrowing each others' books
• Borrowing from the library

So - are you like me and an owner of many books and borrower of still more books?  Or are you someone who doesn't keep a ton of owned books around, whether because of space/money limitations or just because that's what you prefer? Have you found any gems at a great deal?  I'll post soon about one of my most recent children's finds!

Keep on Reading the Classics

I had a high school English teacher named Mrs. Hines my junior year. Most people dreaded being assigned to her class for 11th grade honors English because of a few choice assignments we had to do...such as The Art Notebook, which was more akin to and perhaps harder than the Humanities assignments I had in college. I don't even know if she's still teaching at Herndon still, but if she is, I'm sure those kids are still having to pump out Art Notebooks. Bless their hearts. Now, I did just fine in her class, but boy howdy she sure lined up a ton of work for us to do.  I do have some funny memories of English that year (it's always good to have friends in hard classes with you - high school or college!) but she said something once that I wanted to paraphrase and share for my post today.

A book that is a classic is one that you love and enjoy and keep going back to read because your level of enjoyment doesn't diminish at all even if you've read it many times...and in fact, reading the book multiple times brings you an increasing amount of joy.  

I love this definition. We don't have to rely on a list somewhere of classics as they are defined by other people or society at large. Maybe you love a book to pieces that none of your friends have even heard of, and to you, it is a classic. And maybe you really do love a book that other people judge to be just a fad of sorts - good for media attention for a while but after that people argue that it just doesn't stand on its own.  Point is, we define what the classics are for ourselves, and it is very refreshing to realize that others have this same privilege.

I remember when she said this I immediately thought of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. I'd read that book  probably 3 times through by the time I was 16 that year, and every time I read it my desire to have the same seemingly carefree Southern summer as Jean Louise Scout Finch just grew and grew.  I wanted to be a little girl in a ham costume, to have scary things happen around me but feel safe. To me, it was and is a classic. 


I don't think I've read To Kill a Mockingbird since high school now and I'm a little sad to admit that. But it is one of several books that if I picked it up right now I would love to read through it. Now the book longer than a children's book I have probably read the most times through is actually the Book of Mormon. Why is it a classic to me? Here I return to Mrs. Hines' definition: I love it because it brings me joy, and that joy improves my life tremendously.  Has everyone read the Book of Mormon? Certainly not - but that does not lessen the power it has had in my life or in the lives of any who have read it.

I love reading books with my kids that I read over and over as a child because I know that I will still love them. Today I read Jumanji by Chris van Allsburg before naptime and had an amazing time showing the cool drawings to Jacob and trying to get him to say the author's name: "Christmas Osbur," and helping him understand the truly timeless magic that can exist in just one book.

Classic books are books that you love to read, and reconnecting with the classics can be much like catching up with an old friend you haven't seen in a while, where a bond is still there and it empowers you, even if it has been awhile since you last sat down and had a nice chat.

What book is a classic to you and why do you love it?

Jackie Urbanovic's Duck Books

Just popping in with a great picture book recommendation for today's Look at Books post.

image via Amazon

A little over a year ago I read this post on The Pioneer Woman's site. It looked like a fun set of books so I requested them at our library and we've checked them out several times since. I even picked up Duck at the Door again just today at the library.  PW wrote a great synopsis of the first story in the set of 4 books and she took lots of nice pictures. But here's my short summary: A duck named Max loves summer, is sure he'll love winter, but he realizes that without his flock around he's pretty lonely. Luckily he finds someone to take him in and he makes himself right at home...but is it too much?

We love looking at the silly pictures, remembering the characters' names, and my kids especially love acting out the part where there is a knock at the door. Rebecca will run to the door while I'm reading, knock on it quickly, and come back to the couch saying "Ducka! Ducka!"

The 4 books about Max are  Duck at the Door, Sitting Duck, Duck and Cover, and Duck Soup. Look for them at your library - I'm sure you and your kids will enjoy them!  I also found a coloring pages section on Jackie Urbanovic's website in case your kids get a little too excited and want to color in the library books. :)

Sunday: Spiritual Literacy

**On Sundays this month I decided I would like to write about (and share others' thoughts about) the notion of spiritual and scriptural literacy. **

To introduce this topic I thought I would give a recommendation for a book I love related to this very idea.

The book was written by a BYU Religious Education professor, Dennis A. Wright and is called Scripture Power: Helping Kids Love the Scriptures. You can buy it for less than a quarter + shipping.  What a deal! Jeff's mom gave it to us for Christmas one year, before we had children. I spoke with Dr. Wright about his book (and knew his son, Geoff, who was a doctoral student in my graduate program and who had the same job as me when we were both undergraduate instructors) at length when I was considering doing a master's thesis on teaching children to read with the use of non-standard texts.  That master's project didn't come to fruition, but I still have the book and I'm glad I do!  In fact, it's about time I pull it out again and read it through once more since the kids haven't stopped growing.

image via here

The book is organized by the age of children and how to encourage them to love and cherish the scriptures at any age, beginning from birth on through the teenage years. I read the Goodreads page for this book and was surprised that the one reviewer wrote of how it was full of many "over the top" ideas.  I am sure Dr. Wright was not trying to convince readers that we try out all of the suggestions he gives, but I think the idea is that there are many kinds of children and thus many ways to figure out how to teach those children. So, some ideas that may seem a bit much for one child would be perfectly suitable for another child.

One of my favorite sections of the book was the section for babies, because it talks about how even while we read our scriptures with a tiny baby on our laps, we are helping that baby to know that the scriptures are important. And as with any kind of reading, if we aren't doing it ourselves, our children may have little desire to read from the scriptures or other great literature. We need to set an example for our kids and teach them through our actions that we love the word of God, and I agree with Dr. Wright - it can happen even when it's the middle of the night and you are up nursing your newborn baby and you have the scriptures on the couch next to you and read them with glazed-over eyes.  It can happen at the breakfast table when you read aloud to your toddlers and answer questions. It can happen at bedtime when the whole family reads together, and where children who can't yet read are able to repeat a few words at a time to hear the words in their own voices. It can happen during family night where you act out Bible stories with your children. It can happen in so many ways - and it surely needs to happen!  

How do/did you teach your children to love the scriptures?
How did your parents share their love of the scriptures with you?

Creating Shared Experiences During Reading: Part 3

This may seem kind of funny to talk about how to share in the experience of reading during reading - shouldn't the act of reading alone be enough?  Yes and no is my answer!  I read books straight through all the time whether on my own or with my kids but often as I read I remember the importance of asking questions, answering questions, looking up words or teaching new words, and it can enhance the reading experience that much more!  Reading works wonders, yes, but active reading can really be magical as well.

Here is a short excerpt from my Master's project related to this very topic:

 Pinnell (2002) states that, during reading, “the teacher interacts and supports” (p. 170). As with prereading instruction, suggestions for activities used during reading instruction are varied, so there are many ways a teacher can interact and support students’ reading while it is happening. Correctly, Dowhower (1999) refers to this as the “active reading” stage of reading instruction, and points out the need for students to have a defined purpose for reading, to monitor their own levels of understanding and to develop awareness about a story’s content (p. 673).

With older children you can have them read a page on their own, you can do oral reading together out loud, you can read silently and then discuss. With my son Jacob I've found that when we are reading a book he knows well it is fun to change words sometimes and have him correct me, but since I am not always in the business of confusing my child I don't do that often. With rhyming books he loves to fill in the blanks at the end of a phrase to guess the rhyming word.  Activities done during reading to engage readers and support them in a shared experience can be fun and interactive. What ideas do you have related to this?

Creating Shared Experiences Before Reading: Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about one example of how an activity done after reading can help children to appreciate and love books. I guess common sense would dictate that I should have gone in order with before/during/after, but here I am to shake things up and talk about learning experiences done before reading and how they can be helpful.

In what often seems like a lifetime ago, I wrote a master's project all about this whole before/during/after bit, so indulge me for a moment while I quote myself.  :) 

 To prepare students for reading, teachers will often engage learners in prereading activities to set the stage for the actual reading of a book or selection. This time spent before reading allows students to have the support they need to be able to gain as much as possible from the actual reading, and is an appropriate time for teachers to provide helps for individual learners or the class as a whole (e.g., Beed, Hawkins, & Roller, 1991; Graves, Graves, & Braaten, 1996; Pearson & Fielding, 1991).

Most of us don't have classrooms to worry about right now, but there are still many things we can do before reading to best prepare our co-readers or our lap-sitting listeners. Again, I have written about this before, but likely no one anywhere has really read it (and likely very few people will read it here!), but it sums up many great ideas given in the academic literature:

Graves, Graves and Braaten (1996) focus on the help that scaffolds can offer during prereading, during reading, and postreading activities in a classroom of young students. Their prereading suggestions could apply to guided reading or to shared reading periods.

1. Relating the reading to students’ lives
2. Motivating students
3. Activating background knowledge
4. Building text-specific knowledge
5. Teaching vocabulary and concepts
6. Pre-questioning, predicting, and setting direction
7. Suggesting strategies (Graves, Graves & Braaten, 1996).

Burns (1999) discusses the need for teachers to take opportunities to teach vocabulary in the context of a text or story so that it makes sense, but that it is also common for vocabulary to be introduced so that it makes sense to a student in terms of his schema and background. Readence, Moore and Rickelman (2004) present a more comprehensive set of prereading activities, looking at such areas as student preparation for reading, asking and answering questions, prediction, vocabulary, visual helps, writing and the possibilities of combination running through these ideas. Pinnell (2002) offers three ideas for teachers introducing a text, “presenting the title, author, and main idea; asking students to think about the structure of the text and asking them to say or hear the language; and, pointing out important concepts and words” (p. 170). Several authors posit that before reading is the time for new vocabulary to be introduced (e.g., Phenix, 2000; Rog, 2003). There are many ideas about what is appropriate before reading instruction, but it is clear that prereading activities stand as important scaffolds that prepare students for the act of reading they will be engaged in with their instructor.

Have a vocabulary lesson with your child or grandchild. Talk about who the author is and who the illustrator is and what each did. Ask questions - what does the picture on the front tell us about the book, do we know who the book is going to be about?  There are so many directions to go with these ideas!

Additionally, there is no harm in preparing to read or listen to more advanced books. I love reading about an author before I begin a new book of my own, just to give me some background as to what their experiences might have been to shape the work they authored.  Sometimes the thought is, "Wow, this guy had kind of a hard, messed up life!" but it gives me some insights to keep in mind as I read.  (I know I had that thought when I was reading Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in my junior year of high school.)  

What are your ideas for instructional activities to use before reading?  Stay tuned for Part 3: Tomorrow I'll write about how we can share in the experience of active reading with appropriate activities done during reading.

Creating Shared Experiences After Reading: Part 1

One of my favorite things to do with my children is to find some way to make connections between what we read and what we do. Often, it is Jacob or even Rebecca who makes a small, simple connection, but other times I am able to plan ahead or be spontaneous and really help them understand a story better than if we had just simply read the book.  Don't get me wrong, just reading a book is important in and of itself, but I've found that sharing experiences with my children related to books we read has made those books really come alive for them.

Today I just wanted to share an example with you of how I have done this recently, specifically after we finished a book!

A few weeks ago my husband was out of town and we had picked up some books at the library and brought them home to start reading them. We found one that someone had left on a chair near the shelves and I saw the title and scooped it up. Looking at the cover alone I could tell it would be a treat - one in a series of picture books for young readers about Amelia Bedelia as a little girl.  We had happened upon Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie and set aside some special time the next day to read it. Before I knew it the kids were saying her name: Jacob, "Amelia Adelia!" and Rebecca, "Meeya, meeya!"  We got through the book and loved it (even though Amelia Bedelia's way of taking all things literally is nearly lost on my young kids, I got a kick out of it, but they were still thoroughly entertained) and then I turned to the last page and noticed a recipe for apple pie and knew we had to make it.

I had some homemade pie pastry in the freezer already so that made short work of putting this pie together with the kids.  They loved helping me catch the long apple peels as I ran each apple through my peeler/corer/slicer and of course they loved dumping in the sugar and spices and stirring things together.  Jeff came home that night and shared some pie with us and declared it to be one of the best pies I'd ever made.  I sure enjoy baking a lot but helping the kids see how we could make a pie just like Amelia Bedelia did in the story was something even sweeter than just eating a slice of pie.  You can get the recipe and see a few pages of the cute story by clicking on the Browse Inside link below:

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

How do you help your children make connections between the world around them and the books they read? Or, if you don't have children - do you recall how a parent or teacher helped you to do this?  Share your thoughts in the comments!


Many thanks to those who have already emailed me about doing a guest post. Guest posts will begin next Thursday and spots are filling up in the order I hear from people, so send me an email at staceylea(at)gmail(dot)com and we can figure out details!  

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

We are celebrating up a storm here today. Here is what we'll be up to throughout the day!

• Making & eating green eggs and ham for breakfast Or, spinach puree cooked with egg whites and a bit of cheese with a side of ham! And some peanut butter toast.

• Making striped stovepipe hats like the Cat in the Hat's. Note the materials you will need on that site. :)
• Reading a whole slew of great books by Dr. Seuss/Theo LeSieg. Jacob was sure to throw Helen Palmer's (Dr. Seuss' wife) A Fish Out of Water into our big stack.  Some of our favorites are Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now?, Fox in Socks, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today, and of course, The Cat in the Hat.
• Heading to the library this afternoon to get some books that came in yesterday, mostly biographical about Dr. Seuss, including this one geared towards young people that I'd never heard of but found in the catalog the other day: The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss.

What are you reading today?

For more great ideas visit Seussville and click on the parents and educator tabs on the top.

A Look at Books!

image via here

Starting today on our blog is a whole month's worth of ideas on reading with your children, new books to check out at the library, thoughts on preparing little children to become full-fledged readers, and more!  I'd love to have a few days where readers help provide content for a particular day. If you're interested in doing a guest post, send me an email at staceylea (at) gmail (dot) com!  If you aren't raising young children right now, tell me what books you used to read with your kids, a memory of a favorite book, books that you hope to someday share with your children, or anything else!  It should be a great month with lots of great ideas shared, so feel free to let others know about this.

I came up with the title for this feature on our blog thinking it would be fun to have so many double o's in the phrase, but it works even better if you say Hoopes with the shorter "o" sound, much like the two different pronunciations for the word roof, as heard here.  

My only thought for today is an important one (whether you are into books or into parties!). I encourage you  to participate in celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday tomorrow on March 2nd by joining in for Read Across America Day, where the goal is for children to have time with an adult while they delight in the joy of a good book together!

Happy reading, and send me those emails!

Notes from the Trenches

I have done very little this week. I haven't driven anywhere. I did leave the house a couple times, once for Choral Union rehearsal the other night (my friend was driving), once for my final ab/core class (walking distance), and another time to take somewhat sick kids to a little family arts night (rode the bus).  I've been in the house all week, wiping lots of noses (well, the same 2 noses, just an awful lot of wiping) and snuggling my babies the last couple of days.

So now we are on Thursday, which is basically over. And I feel really behind on lots of things, even though there isn't anything that really needed doing this week. Jacob voted no on going to playschool today. No one got dressed.  No one showered (ahem). Meals required little or no thought whatsoever. I picked up the toys a couple times only because I was tired of stepping on cars. Rebecca went down early for her nap. Jacob did not take a nap. Jacob tried to go potty 3 times in the bathroom, aside from all the other times he was successful on his own. This means I spent a lot of time reading and making up stories while sitting on the side of the tub. I talked to him about getting prune juice to help him out a little. He said he wants apple instead.  I told him I'd prefer apple juice as well. We watched Bob the Builder together on the couch. He checked on Rebecca several times. She slept almost 4 hours.  Both kids ate a grand total of about 3 bites at dinner.  Jeff had to proctor an exam tonight so we ate early with him and then I put the kids in bed at 6:40.

My house is very still and quiet right now. There are plenty of toys still on the floor. I haven't wiped the table off yet from dinnertime and I certainly haven't touched any dishes today. I have laundry from either Monday or Tuesday that I still haven't folded and put away yet. I suppose I could sit at my computer and dwell on all of this "nothing" that I did today.  But I figured it would be more productive and self-caring to sit here and try to find the little positives from my day and week.  So here it goes:

- Somewhere in all the chaos today I finished reading The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West and I really liked it. The movie is very different than the book; I like them both. Gary Cooper is in the film, of course it's good!
- I sat on the couch a lot with the kids today and had a heating pad on for a chunk of my day. My back feels great!
- We started reading a new book tonight that I got for a quarter the other day. Pippi Longstocking. It was fun to hear the kids try to say her name.  "Oh, her name sounds like Woodstock," Jacob said. As in Snoopy's bird friend.
- Jacob, distraught, reminded me to read scriptures while I was reading PL. (normally we read books after scriptures at bedtime so I think he thought I'd forgotten)
- Jacob pointed at pictures in the Children's Songbook and asked me to sing and/or play them for him. This is a relatively new game we play. I started singing "I believe in being honest, I believe in being true..." and he said, "Oh!!  That's just another Article of Faith!"  Close!
- Jacob likes to sing the first three Articles of Faith at random times.
- I swept the floor. In part of the house, at least.
- Playing sit up games with both the kids. At the same time. I give Jeff credit for inventing such a game.

- Jacob and Rebecca talking about the place Aunt Erin had her job interview this morning: Don's Johns.   

"Mom,  can I just hold Rebecca?" He has asked this several times this week. It is so funny to see it. (Especially in this picture since he has no pants on.)

There are other things I could mention, but the reality of it is that even when days and hours seem really, really long and tiring, I come up for air and it's nearly the end of the week. Nearly the end of the month. My baby is almost 2. My other baby is almost 3 1/2. It all goes by so fast and I hope my kids know that when they felt pretty yucky on a gray day or 3 in Michigan's generally gray winter, that I did my best to be happy and love them a little more.

While I was helping Jacob get suited up to play outside one day, I caught Rebecca plopped down on the couch trying to put her snow suit on by herself.  

So here's to doing our best, moms!  Keep up the good work and thanks to many of you out there who are such great examples to me.

Updated w/ winner: Weekend giveaway: Win cereal and Movie Cash!

Congrats to Hannah (& Steve) at Life Happens for winning this giveaway! I hope you can put the tickets to good use! Thanks for all the entries, everyone. I wish I had free tickets for you all!!

I have been saving this giveaway up for a while!  I knew it would be a more appreciated prize in the dead of winter, and given all this snow and ice people are getting this week, this seems like a great time to share the wealth. How about a night (or two) at the movies?

In November I was sent some specially-marked boxes of General Mills cereal with Movie Cash (basically a gift card for movie tickets), along with 4 additional Movie Cash certificates, courtesy of General Mills and MyBlogSpark. I'm sad to report we haven't used our gift certificates yet, but I imagine we will soon, and we certainly enjoyed our cereal pretty quickly!  My son was amazed that Trix cereal was a lot like Kix, just more colorful.

Thanks to the aforementioned sponsors, one of you can win the same prize. That means you'll get 5 Movie Cash certificates (two boxes of cereal nets one certificate that you can claim online, plus the 4 certificates that come in the prize pack), and each one is good for up to a $12 adult admission at participating theaters. Just leave a comment here on this post along with your email address so I can contact you if you win!  Giveaway ends Tuesday and I'll post a winner on Wednesday!

Using all we have been given

I'm sorry to be posting so sporadically over the past couple of months. I have been a little bit more thoughtful lately (at least in my mind) and instead of writing it all out or typing it all up I have just been spending time in my mind and being mindful. It's been a good thing.  But I learned a little lesson this morning I thought I would share.

Rebecca has a cute little pink Osh Kosh B'Gosh (I just love saying that) winter coat we got from a friend before she was even born. She's been wearing it all winter, or at least when we head out into the bitter cold.  Today I was zipping up her coat before we headed out to pick up brother from his playschool group and as I zipped the coat up all the way I noticed there was a nifty extra piece of fabric at the top of the zipper to fold over once the coat is zipped.  I thought that was so ingenious. I used to hate when the zipper hurt(s) my chin so I was glad I could keep Rebecca's chin pain-free. Remember how she has been wearing this coat for months?  And I just noticed this today?  Not so ingenious.

We went and picked up our favorite brother and as we were hanging our coats back up after we made it back home I had a thought that maybe Rebecca could have had a more pleasant winter thus far had I put the zipper cover to good use a little sooner.  Now for the life lesson...And maybe if I can use all the tools I've been given, my life would be a lot more pleasant as well.  I began to ask myself questions and the thoughts just kept coming:

I love reading my scriptures but often feel I need to approach it better when I read each day - truly seeking to know how I can spend that time drawing nearer to the Spirit and to the Lord.  Do I pray as fervently as I could?  Do I wait for revelation to come or am I too impatient to stay on my knees? Do I sometimes forget to pray in the hard moments in my day when I could use some divine assistance?  Do I forget to be thankful?  Do I get overly concerned about how my kids may or may not behave during church and miss out on something wonderful that I could have been learning through the Spirit?

I have a feeling this little piece of fabric on Rebecca's coat will come in handy - not just to keep her chin from getting rubbed but I think it will remind me of this simple, yet powerful, teaching I needed to learn today.

From near to far, from here to there...

...Funny things are everywhere!

I tried to get a Cat in the Hat-esque picture of the kids looking at the squirrel out the window.  They are wearing bibs because this is how they ate lunch, watching the squirrel for at least 30 minutes.  

 Here are some noteworthy things the kids have been up to lately:

Jacob

• Whenever there are two or more of something he will often say that there are three ("free!").  
• He has picked up a nice set of adjectives from somewhere, "That scarf just made Rebecca so pretty!",  "Rebecca is so cute with pigtails!" and my favorite, "That was just a lovely song!"  
• "Do you want to see my silly game/talk/walk/thing?"  It is usually something he has done once and then wants to show us.  
• We read a few Dr. Seuss books in close succession earlier this week (we have almost all of them) and the Cat in the Hat logo was on them and I think he realized maybe it was by the same person. So I told him about Dr. Seuss and how we could even celebrate his birthday on March 2nd. He said, "Oh, I think maybe we should just call him and tell him thank you for writing these nice books." 
• He has learned the First Article of Faith this week and should be able to pass it off in Primary tomorrow. He recites it almost to the tune of the song up until the end where he says "in the Holy Ghost!" and gets very high in his range.  I was so proud when he totally got it yesterday!  
• In April our Primary is having a party where the kids can get the same number of ice cream toppings as Articles of Faith they have passed off. Jacob is excited for this and can't wait to get more "ice cream coughings!"  
• He loves being a Sunbeam and asked me today if I was going to come peek at him again tomorrow. Last week he saw me in the back when I was doing RS attendance and the week before that I went in to help him say the prayer, so I guess he thinks it will stick.  \

Helping take the Mickey window clings down after Christmas.

Jacob won Candy Land the first time he played it!  

First day of Sunbeams pictures with Dad while Mom was at choir...these are all hilarious but I think this is my favorite.

Helping Rebecca put her clip in.  

Rebecca

• She is learning lots of new words that are fun to hear. A few of her newer words are popsicle, popcorn, Cheerios (said it today for the first time), stir, boo (as in Peek-a-boo), frog, turtle, brother, Grandpa (Pa Pa), Grandma. 
• Yesterday I told her we were going to call grandpa and so she said Papa and then a minute or so later I was being silly as I pulled my phone out and said we were going to call Grandpapa and then she smiled and said Papapa?  
• She likes to be my little echo sometimes when I say prayers, so I am trying to end sentences with words she doesn't know how to say yet just to hear her try it out.  
• She loves nursery. It took a few weeks to get used to it but she really loves it and sometimes nearly breaks into a run to dash to the cultural hall after Sacrament meeting.  

Jacob playing video games with cousin Peter

Rebecca found a fun seat to enjoy her snack during our Hoopes family cabin stay.

It looks like Jacob built this snow cave. But really, Jeff and his siblings worked on it and Jacob came in and tried to take credit for all the hard work.  :)  

One of the funnier moments of our vacation. We went in to go to bed one night at the cabin we stayed at before Christmas and found Rebecca asleep in the pack 'n play and Jacob was not in his bottom bunk...but in our hamper with the dirty clothes emptied out on the floor.  

The kids had a blast making a gingerbread house with Grandma Hoopes!  

That is one happy wise man!

Cousin picture...Kirby, Myklin, Fallon, Jacob, Rebecca and Tys at my sister Jamie's house. 

Enter now! The Twelve Hour Kix Giveaway! *Updated with winner*

And the winner is...Katja! I'll email you right now to get your address. Sorry for the delay in posting the winner! Thanks for all the great ideas. I'll let you know what changes we make to breakfast time.

I loved eating Kix when I was a little girl, and I still like the cereal now! My kids are not picky at all, but it still makes me happy that I can share this cereal with them that I've loved for so long.

Recently our family received a fun package courtesy of General Mills and MyBlogSpark. In it was a box of Kix, a box of Honey Kix, counting flashcards for the kids, a snack cup, a straw cup, and a giant animal counting puzzle. The cereal is long gone but we are still enjoying the other goodies. How would you like to win the same Kid-Tested, Mother-Approved prize pack? Just leave a comment before 12 Noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, Jan. 12, answering the following question. Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you to speed things along!

What are some things you do during your busy morning routine to still make it a fun family time? If you are just eating by yourself in the morning, do you have any special routine you follow? This is something I'd actually like some advice on. Some mornings are slower than others with just a toddler and a pre-schooler in our house (no school bus to catch or anything like that!) but I could use some good ideas on something to do during breakfast besides just eat! I usually do picture time with the kids before naptime where we look at a picture and discuss a scripture together - maybe that would be better done in the morning!

I'm excited to choose the random winner of this prize pack tomorrow at noon - it was loads of fun to have the "Man from the Puppy Truck" bring it to us! (That's FedEx in case you don't understand Jacob's lingo!) Thanks again to Kix and MyBlogSpark for sponsoring a great giveaway!