Family Pictures before my husband deploys

So my husband is deploying here in a couple weeks. It came on sort of suddenly. Sort of because he applied last May/June (2010). In February, we were contacted that about interviewing and screening for the job. End of March he was offered the job. We discussed how this is an awkward time for our family. Also the options of when to leave since he could have up to a few months to get his life in order to leave. We've known that this was something he was going to need to do for his career since I married him in 2008. Many opportunities have come up and we haven't felt at a loss for not taking them, they were mediocre opportunities for his career. But this opportunity is the best one out there. We had made the choice that we couldn't put our family on hold just in case this job came there, and with government work you never know how that it will be before it does, and on the same lines we couldn't put this job aside just because its not a good time for our family- is a deployment ever going to be good timing? NO, it is never going to be a good time. Also we didn't want to put off Cory leaving us because we didn't want him to miss the entire first year of these babies lives.

In light of all this we knew we wanted to have professional pictures taken before he leaves. Not that its a good time for my body. My nose is starting to swell, I'm as big now as I was with my son at 38 weeks. And finding coordinating maternity clothes was a real challenge. We had them taken at the Mesa Arizona Temple since we were in Mesa to spend Easter with my family. They were done by Brianna Yardley. She did a great job. I ended up making my shirt from the same shirt my husband is waring. I went back, bought a 2nd shirt and then cut it up re-sewing it and made it into a maternity shirt. I plan on blogging about it on my other blog, scrapingarizonagirl.blogspot.com  Here are a few of my favorite pictures that were taken....

All these pictures and more can be found on Brianna's blog.

"My guess is they're both Girls"

So March 28 I was 17 weeks, at the ultra sound they looked for gender. One they were able to sort of get a look. The doctor said he would guess it was a girl.

During the consultation segment he explained the signs that they may be identical twins but in two separate (but apparently really thin) sacks. So based on that his opinion is that it is likely they are identical that would make the other a girl also since identical twins. 

He also use the phrase "not seeing anything obvious" to say that's why he'd guess they are girls. I'm not going to count on twin girls just yet. Only because "not seeing anything obvious" was the exact phrase my OB doctor use right before he pronounced my son a girl in the 25 week ultra sound.

But since I'm high risk we're going to be getting an ultra sound every 2 weeks so we'll get plenty of more looks at these two.

This picture is cute, its of their feet, 4 feet right next to each other. 

Singing Time without Voices

Being pregnant has the consequence for me of loosing my voice. It happened last time for about 3 weeks. And I have spent the last few weeks doing everything I could to keep myself from loosing my voice. But on Sunday it was gone and I had no idea where to find it. I thought of getting a sub since there was no way possible I could sing, let alone teach the song I needed to. But inspiration came and I had a whole lesson without my voice or the children's voices.
I started by reading (using the microphone and the children were actually listening very well).
D&C 25:12
Then compared praying to singing.
Where are we commanded to pray? 
What are the different ways we pray?
Do we pray without saying words out loud?
Is it possible to sing without saying words?
Then we talked about ways we could sing without singing out loud.
Here are the ways we came up with, and with the ones I note we used that song to express that song:

• humming: we hummed to "I Will Follow God's Plan" with the piano
• whistle
• clap
• listen, sing in your mind: we sat and listened quietly. I told the children that they show that they are listening and thinking about the words by showing me what the song is about. We listened to "Reverently Quietly" I don't think I had ever seen them so reverent.
• Play or listen to an instrument play: wanted to do something with this one, but I was putting it together at last minute. Idea have an instrument for the children to play along with a primary song, or arrange for someone from the ward to come in and play their instrument for the children.
• ASL: we have learned ASL to do along with a number of our songs we did a few of them, "Come Follow Me", "Follow the Prophet", and "Jesus Said Love Everyone".
• Actions: Songs like "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "Popcorn Popping" are not ASL but anyone who sees what you are doing know what you are with out hearing the words sung.

It all went so well. I don't know if it was the children felt sorry for me, having no voice, or if they were really understanding that singing doesn't always have to include your voice. I concluded by reminding the children of the lesson we did about "Music Soothing the Soul", and how there will be times in their life when they will want the comfort that music can give them but will not feel they can sing out loud at that moment. I then testified of the power music can have in their lives they have use that power either with their voices or without.

Teaching: Stand for the Right CSB 159

Stand for the right CSB 159
This is a short and easy song. It will be a nice change from what we've done so far.
To start I am going to talk to the children about President Hinckely's 6 B's. (be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble). I know that this song was written because another prophet asked use to "Be true". But I think the children will relate better to President Hinckely since most can remember him. Its not like the other prophet (I'm sorry I can't remember and a google search brought up Hinckely) was the first to give the council to "be true" nor will Hinckely be the last.
I got this idea from Tifany and her Precious Primary blog post on The Army of Heleman
When I first saw the post I automatically thought that it was for this song, then I read it and realized it wasn't but still thought that using shields for the visuals for this song would be a great idea.
I had also come up with a simple ASL that I'm considering using with the JR Primary. My camera that had the video capability is dead, I dropped it. So I don't have the ASL for this or for the chorus of "If I Listen with my Heart" but as soon as I can get a camera that records I will post both.
Now Tifany used poster board for her shields. I used black construction paper. 2 papers for each shield. I also didn't put straps on the back of mine. You can do them in any color. After I did it I thought that maybe for this song, green like the CTR rings would have been a better choice. Oh well. The duck tape is a cool touch but it took a ton of time. If you don't have duck take or the time, just take a marker and edge it, that's just as good and will still look good. I used pictures from the FRIEND, either downloaded off the church site (coloring pages are great) or cut out of the FRIEND (I went to DI and bought a stack of old FRIENDS).

Really simple visual, for a simple song. Good Luck everyone.

Twins?!?!?

So I didn't even know it was possible for me to have twins. I always thought they were a genetic thing and I didn't have that gene. But I knew nothing about what we do know about what causes twins. Apparently I do have whatever it is, because we're expecting twins. I had an appointment with my doctor last week and she thought I was measuring large for only being almost 12 weeks. She told me it could be one of three reasons why I'm measuring large, 1- I might just measure large, 2- I'm further along then my dates say I am, 3- Twins. Friday I went and got the ultra sound down that she referred me to, and after being told there was just one baby, the tech changed her mind. Twins. This means no home birth with my midwife, or birthing center birth. I am just in shock. My husband keeps thinking of things we don't own two of that we are going to need a second of. Twins. I just can't wrap my head around it. Well this does explain a few thing, like how sick I've been, and how I felt like I was gaining weight a little too fast, and how I'm super extra sleepy all the time. Twins!
At least I have 6 more months to get use to the idea. By the way we're due Sep 6.

Practice & Review: I Will Follow God's Plan For Me

I made this board game while on my mission. It was to teach the Plan of Salvation to children. I used it for investigator families with children, unbaptized children of record, children turning 8, and for FHE when we did the lesson for a family. It was one of the smartest visuals I made my WHOLE mission. It was made with a poster board, construction paper, a black marker, and pass along cards. 

The green spaces gave them life choices that told them they got to move forward and how many or stay where they are (bad choice life events). Originally it was move back one for bad choices but it took too long to play the game. The pictures such as baptism or the temple are life events and by passing the life event you'd move into a new section of life and different green cards/choices. This was also when we taught the major points of the 4th discussion (and part of the second) ie the plan of salvation and the need for baptism (and sometimes why temples are important).

How I plan to use this for primary?

Each Green space will be a card. It will have a quiz question about the song or the plan of salvation. To have the game go faster you can use a dice or have each card randomly (or due to degree of difficultly) say how many spaces to move forward. For the questions about the song, if there is any difficultly answering the question then sing the song as a group to help them remember. The more times you sing though the song the better. You can do this in two teams or have everyone be a team together because we are all trying to help each other here on Earth. It just really just a simple board game with the Plan of Salvation stuck in as steps. You could cut out pictures from the FRIEND or write the name of the steps of the plan on paper

 Sample questions you can use:

• My life has a _____, my life has a ______ in _____ it began
• What is the line after, "I will follow God's plan for me"
• What line is be before, "My life has a purpose."
• What is the first stage of the Plan of Salvation?
• Where does the song say it all began?
• Where does the song say we was our choice to come to?
• What stage of the Plan are we in right now?
• How many times do we sing the word "life" in this song?
• How many times do we sing the word "Follow" in this song?
• What does the song say we are SEEKing?
• What stage of the Plan comes after this Earth life?
• Where does the song say we'll be "happy"?
• The song says we will be "holding fast" to what?
• Fill in the blanks "I will _____ and I will _____".
• In the song we sing that we will always walk in who's way?
• The song mentions 2 different homes, where are they?
• After we are judged what will happen to us?
• Where do we go after we die?
• What kingdom do we want to end up in?
• In the song we sing that our "life" is/has 3 things, what are they?
• In the song we sing that we sing that "God's Light" is to (direct us from when)?
• Fill in the blanks "I will _____ God's ____ for me".

Teaching: I Will Follow God's Plan for Me

There are lots of good ideas out there. I took a number of the other post ideas and made them a little more mine.

To start I am going to have a gift. In that gift I am going to have this picture of a baby and Earth. I am going to read a scripture Mosiah 2: 41. We are going to list ways in which our lives are "gifts from God", Only spend a couple of minutes on the scripture and the list (I will not be writing it down).
Then we will learn the song.

These are the visuals I made up. All but a couple are visuals I had from other songs. I have also started making more generic picture visuals and put them page sleeves, I then tape simple word hits to the visual.

Star Prophecy by Joan Sowards

The newest novel from Joan Sowards!! Awesome book!! I was able to read this book in its original draft and was totally amazed at the fresh perspective on an LDS Book of Mormon novel. It will be like nothing else you've ever read. 
Check out Joan's blog and her blog train. She is giving away 3 copies so see her blog to find out how to win! This book is a must read and will be enjoyed by both men and women-(not just a chick book!!
You can purchase it at your local LDS bookstore or online at Amazon. Check it out!

Happy New Year

New Year, New Goals. Good times, Good times to come.

For New Years weekend we went up to Phoenix. We were able to attend the temple Friday (New Years Eve) morning, since it was open only in the morning. We had decided that if the temple was open Friday it was worth the trip to Mesa. Friday evening we went to dinner at Famous Daves at the Mesa Riverview with my parents. I had never eaten there before. I really enjoyed their appetizers Nachos.  That night Kristy and Christ came over, we watched the first 3 episodes of Avatar (cartoon series) with my brothers and their friends. We went out for ice cream and bought fireworks. That was New Years eve. 

New Years Day we said good-bye to my family and went to Casa Grande for my husband's family Christmas party. They traditionally hold theirs the first Saturday after Christmas. This year happened to be on New Years day. We do our family gift exchange (we all draw someone's name and there is a $20 gift limit). At PePere's house's there was a train. This is Al's newest interest. He spend the whole time at the party watching the train go round and round, and waiting for someone to turn it on.

After all the family festivities we went drove back home. It was nice to be home again. We bathed Al then put him to bed. 

Happy New Year.