What's up April?

Dan came home from yet another business trip. He wasn't supposed to be home until the evening, but surprised us at lunch by meeting us at Sonic. (By the way, I love Sonic!) Macey was very interested in Dad's goatee. I don't think she knew he was home until he shaved it off and took a good look at him.
The boys waiting. Doesn't Alex look awesome. If your Mom says get clothes to change into after team pictures, try to remember socks!
One interesting thing about Sonic. If you puke in their eating area, they will clean off the tables but not the floor. So, watch where you step, or just stay in your car! Sorry to all those folks eating in their cars and had to witness Ryan regurgitating his lunch.



Here is Alex hitting a homerun. This is how it goes when you are on a team that meets a total of 8 times in a season. When you hit a homerun, no else gets excited except for your parents. It is impressive that Alex got a homerun with almost no practice this season. Of course the other team hasn't practiced either so they don't have much chance of stopping any balls. Last game Alex was able to make 2 great plays in the infield that resulted in outs. A natural player ready for the big leagues!

Parent Further

ParentFurther.com I haven't had a chance to checkout this site thouroghly, but thought I would share it anyway. It supports the positive parenting that I mentioned before. There are forums, guides on most parenting topics, and education on positive parenting. Of course we should follow our hearts when it comes to parenting, but sometimes we are stuck in a failing pattern and we need a little help getting over it. Happy Parenting!

Easter in Tucson

Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for a fun Easter weekend. This weekend I realized a new truth about Ryan. If Ryan is going somewhere or doing something, he wants to experience it to the fullest. Next time we go to Grandma's we are making a list of the things Ryan wants to do there.
Before we went to Tucson Alex asked exactly how the Easter bunny works. I told him that parents help the Easter bunny get the job done. What about when we are at Grandma's? Grandma will be the one to help the Easter bunny then. He wondered if the Easter bunny would be visiting dad at the hotel. No, he doesn't go to hotels. Alex came back with, when we were in a hotel for Easter he visited us. Huh, he was 2 years and one month old when that happened. Perhaps he remembered seeing the photos?

Finally, I wanted to say that I truly felt blessed this Easter season because of my Savior's love. I am grateful for General Conference and the messages of testimony and of guidance. I look forward to uniting the conference talks with my new parenting course. So much good coming in my brain should influence what comes out of my mouth!

Alex's Passion Project

Alex was able to create his own 'Passion Project' to work on instead of homework for 2 weeks. We read lots of books on the moon and found some great websites too. I didn't get a picture of the poster he made, but he made a map of the moon and put the locations of the Apollo Lunar landings on it. Part of the project was making a presentation, which I knew he would be reluctant to do, so we made this video. I taught him how to use the movie maker and he selected most of the pictures.
I'm glad that Alex was excited to research this topic. When I learned at the age of 30 that TWELVE men had walked on the moon I was astounded. I figured it would be good information to share with first graders. I think that in earth science, space exploration should be discussed. How could we have talked about what we know of the moon without giving credit to the men who went there and checked it out!

I forgot to add the song to the movie credit. It is Apollo by Rocknosorus.

Positive Parenting

I found an online course given at Utah State by Glenn Latham. I read his Christlike Parenting and was looking for his book Positive Parenting when I discovered it. Here is a link to the course material page.
I hope that some of you will read the course material so we can talk about it. This book/class teaches parenting skills; uplifting and postitive parenting, like Christ would want us to use. It uses behaivoral therapy as its basis. In a nutshell, Mr Latham teaches that if you are trying to fix your children then you probably need to look in the mirror first. You need to correct your parenting and love (accept) your children.
I want to change my parenting and really hope to incorporate this into my life. I read and toss, generally, but this I want to read and re-read and apply!