Come Follow Me

This year the Church of Jesus Christ implemented the Come Follow me program this year and changed the Sunday meeting schedule from a 3 hour block to a 2 hour block. Since it was announced in the October general conference we have been excited for the change with the emphasis on teaching the gospel in the home. 

Since we have church at 9 am we are home at 11. So far we have been getting home and doing lunch and then doing family study time. It has been a bit of a learning process to see what works best. We typically do family study time and go over what we are learning in the week ahead, and review the prior week. We usually have the kids color a picture about something they have been learning. We have enjoyed studying together. After family study time, then we have tried to have some personal study time while the kids play. 

I am grateful for the time to teach our children. It has been amazing as well because I feel like they have opened up about all that they are learning. It does not always go smoothly, but we are learning and progressing. One thing that has helped as been letting them color while we talk instead of having our lesson and then letting them color. 

I am grateful for all that Shantel does to be an example to our kids. One day one of the kids grabbed her phone and took a picture of her without her knowing. She was just saying her morning prayer. She is a great example to them and it is so good that they have her example to follow. I love her and am grateful for her. 

February

Here are pictures from February:

Austin with Shantel at the Dentist.

Caleb thinks it's time to start swimming.

We made fair fries and they turned out so delicious.

In October I moved to the Lehi Office and my favorite thing is the commute. However, not far behind is donut Friday. Once a month they order donuts from the Lehi Bakery and it is the best.

Free Fare Day

This week was UTA's free fare day, so the kids and I decided to go on a little adventure and ride the train the SLC and back. David was working at a client so we couldn't visit him at his Salt Lake Office, but we had a nice time riding the train and exploring temple square! 

I thought that all of the kids would love it, but unfortunately, as soon as we started moving Caleb started crying - loud. I thought he'd calm down a little after he got used to it - but he stayed snuggled against my chest the entire time and each time the train stopped at a station and then started moving again he'd start whimpering. It wasn't exactly what I had pictured the train ride would be, but Lydia and Austin did great. Lydia pulled out several readers and read them to us and they both loved looking out the window - and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy the extra snuggles with my Caleb. 

We made it to Salt Lake and took Trax to Temple Square. We walked around the temple and spent a decent amount of time in the visitors center. 

Then it was time to head back to the frontrunner so we could be sure not to miss our connection!

I thought that Caleb would be happier on the train ride home, but he wasn't. He cried and snuggled me and eventually fell asleep. The kids ate some granola bars, read some more books, looked out the window and enjoyed the ride! 

It's really fun to have the Frontrunner in our backyard, and although we don't use it very often we had a great time fieldtripping on the train. This is one of the reasons that I love Homeschool - we have the flexibility to do these fun things (even though it's not directly related to a unit study). We spend time together as a family, we adventure, we explore, we read, we observe, we learn. And we do it together. 

It's a really good life.