"It's not the power of the curse, it's the power you GIVE the curse..."

I've always loved simple, feel-good, happy-ending movies, and this one certainly qualifies. We just rented "Penelope", and I have to say that I really liked it. I'm not going to over-analyze it-- one of the quotes at the end of the movie says a lot: "It's not the power of the curse; it's the power you give the curse." We have the power within us to change so much. Sometimes all it takes is just accepting the situation in which we're placed, loving ourselves for who we are and then moving forward. So if you like sappy, happy movies that don't require a lot of deep thinking to get a good moral out of the story, check this one out.

Family Night

I don't know about the rest of you, but we sometimes struggle to find fun Family Home Evening ideas that will hold the attention span of our active two and four year-olds. We've done some experimenting and have actually had a few "family nights" work out to be really fun and memorable. So I've decided to start posting our most successful family night ideas here. If any of you have any helps or suggestions, we welcome them! We're always looking for great ways to teach our kids important gospel principles. So post away... we'll be waiting!

Idea #1

"I Love to See the Temple"

We've taught Kaymi how to conduct family home evening, so that's her job until Stephen gets a little bit older. After she welcomes everyone she'll usually turn the time over to me for the opening song. We started this one with "I Love to See the Temple" from the Primary Children's Songbook. The Primary Chorister in our last ward taught the kids the sign language for the first verse of this song, so we took the opportunity to review this while we sang. After I lead the song, Kaymi usually turns the time over to Stephen or Daddy for the opening prayer. Then Daddy gets to do what Stephen and Kaymi have termed "Picture Time!" (original-eh?) Andy will then share a picture from the Gospel Art Kit and tell a quick story to describe what that particular picture is all about. This week we used a few pictures including those of the temples at Kirtland, Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, and Nauvoo. We talked VERY briefly about the ordinances that we can perform in the temple and also showed the kids the picture from the GAK of a temple baptisimal font. Then we started our lesson time with a field trip (we don't usually go anywhere, but this lesson called for it). We drove the short distance to our nearest temple, the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. On the way there we played "I Love to See the Temple" and talked a little bit more about the work that we can perform for those who have passed away when we go to the temple. We also talked about what we can do to prepare to go the temple. One of the lines from the Primary song talks about how we "promise to obey". So we talked about the importance of practicing our obedience now (we threw in the importance of obeying Mommy and Daddy too) so that we can be prepared to obey commandments we receive and be true to covenants we make later. We got out of the car at the temple and walked around the temple together asking the kids what they noticed and how they felt. Kaymi was so sweet to say that she didn't want to leave because she felt good. It was a great chance to point out that she was feeling the Holy Ghost! We didn't spend very much time there because we didn't want them to get rowdy. After we got home we had our "refreshments" (that was always my favorite part of family night when I was little) and intended to have the kids color the Coloring Page from this year's June Friend magazine. Here's the link to that: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=a6073b4c3713a110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1It got a little bit too late this time, but they both really like doing this activity at the end of family night each week. We usually gauge our success with FHE lessons by how much (if at all) the kids mention what we talked about or did that Monday later on during the week. Kaymi has talked about going to see the temple multiple times in just the past day or two, so I guess it was at least memorable!