Learn about Jesus with the Read and Share DVD Bible

Learn about Jesus with the Read and Share DVD Bible

Kids of all ages will love this new Read and Share DVD Bible about the life and miracles of Jesus Christ. This is the third DVD in a wonderful new trilogy from Gwen Ellis’ Read and Share Bible. In this 30 minute video children learn about the ministry of Christ as he travels along the Lake of Galilee and around Nazareth. The key stories presented are of Jesus calling his disciples, Jesus healing sick people, the story of the loaves and fishes, the Lord’s Supper and of Jesus teaching others. The animation and vibrant colors keep children entertained while learning.

I highly recommend this DVD because it kept my children’s attention (ages 5,3,1), which means they were learning. I know they were learning because they asked questions throughout the presentation. The stories are told in a way that kids could understand without compromising the doctrine. The DVD is set up so you can also watch just the segments of each story if you wanted to teach one particular part. If you put the DVD in the computer you can print off coloring pages. This is an effective visual aid to help teach about Jesus. This movie is simple and doesn’t cover all of the events in Christ’s life and ministry, but it effectively highlights some of the major stories. This would be a great movie to watch on Sabbath.

2010 Week #11: TIme with Papa and Aunt Donna

Papa and Aunt Donna arrived Monday night. I bet you can't guess what I was doing up til the very hour they arrived...cleaning! Dynomite did get her hair cut, after the 3rd rescheduling with Wendy because of sicknesses.

Aunt Donna has been to every place Travis and I have ever lived. She visited Corvallis when we graduated, travel to Europe when we were going to school, helped me start a Creative Memories business in CA, withstood a ND winter, and now to take in the glamor of OH.

I was mean to my dad, though. He called Sunday and I told him I had good news. He asked if I was pregnant, I told him no!! The news was that he'll be sleeping in the queen instead of the full bed and Aunt Donna will have Dynomites new bed. Then when they showed up on Monday he didn't know what to think of my full little belly. Aunt Donna rubbed it and asked, "What is this?" Then I spilled the beans! They were excited. It was a fun week full of visiting and hanging out.

I do have to tell say that my family comes from a long line of 'dumpster divers'. If the Spliethof family had a motto it would be: One man's trash is another man's treasure. My aunt went to go shopping when she spied this 37in flat screen TV and a Weber charcoal BBQ in front of our neighbors house. She asked if she could have these items and the lady said yes. One of her kids had knocked the TV over, so there was a line that went across it and they didn't want the BBQ. Travis and Dad called around about a warranty or way to fix the TV with no luck. Finally Dad, in his frustration, slammed the TV down on the ground. Sparks flew and a little smoke came out the back. Behold, the TV works! We rushed to Wally World and bought an antenna and universal remote and hooked it up. Not too shabby for a free TV! We've even used the BBQ.

This is just to gross you out...feeding the gecko a 'pinkie' again. This time he didn't want it. Maybe he didn't like the last one?

In ND Papa bought Trouble this rocking horse. It has since held the attention of each little Tubbs kid since. So here is just a cute Backpack picture with it.

Trouble doing his favorite thing: 'reading' Calvin & Hobbes. I wonder where he gets that from?!?

Before Papa arrived, Travis and the kids caught a toad. They wanted to show Papa so they kept him in a fish tank. Apparently he likes to befriend his food. Maybe it tastes better that way?

Also before Papa arrived we moved our old queen mattress to where the full bed was in Dynomites room. We swapped our full mattress set for this twin mattress set. We came out with a better deal because we got a super nice twin set (pillow top with mattress protector), with bedding and a frame for the full set (no frame) we bought 6 years ago at a goodwill. Her cute new bedding:

Her room. She refers to the bed as 'the place where Papa sleeps'.

Unfortunately it was still too chilly to go fishing (which is what Papa loves to do with the kiddos) so we went to the Boonshoft. It was perfect. Papa and the kids love museums. Aunt Donna and Papa had a great time playing with them!

There is a little area to eat. We had some snacks. We didn't plan to be there as long as we did because we were having so much fun.

Dressing up:

A veterinarian in the making:

Reviewing X-rays:

Aunt Donna at the Judge's Bench. I wonder who is in Trouble??

Haha, Trouble is in trouble with his accomplice Backpack:

Papa and Aunt Donna had a party for me since it was just my birthday a few weeks before. I think this is the ONLY picture I will ever have of my Dad wearing a princess crown. So why not post it for the WHOLE WORLD to see :-) ~~ Love you Dad ~~

We got my favorite food, Chinese. We sang Happy Birthday and ate cake.

And the fun will continue on the next post...

2010 Week #10 - A Bunch of sickies

On Sunday I was called in to visit the Bishop. That is when he asked me to be the YW president. I was shocked, to say the least. I was pretty sure the ward was running quite fine without any help from me. Remember the last post stating that I loved my current calling?? To add insult to injury this week was spent with the RS counsellor over me calling me to talk about my calling. I said yes to everything, secretly knowing I wasn't going to be in the calling much longer. Probably not nice to the lovely lady who will be taking that position :-)

I took Trouble in for his follow up appointment on Monday. While we were there the nurse tech swabbed Dynomite's throat, but not Backpack's. He said Backpack was too young to have strep. I had Dynomite done just in case, although she was showing no signs of being sick.

Tuesday we had a fun time at MOPS. MOPS really drains me. We spend all morning talking about being a good Mom, but then we get home and I just turn on the TV and slap the kids around a little when they make one little peep. Yep, I see 'Mom of the Year' award heading my way, NOT!! Anyway, that night Cynthia and I went to a baby shower and then to our first Food Storage Meeting. Way informative! I came home with a shopping list of all the great machines we 'need'. Luckily Travis is around to bring me back to earth :-)

Wednesday rolls around and I have the Thompson kiddos. Backpack falls asleep in his booster seat during snack...weird. I carry him to bed and realise that he has a fever! As soon as I lay him down I get a phone call from base telling me Dynomite does in fact has strep. 2 AND A HALF DAYS LATER THEY CALL!!! I was a little upset. I asked the caller if she was a nurse and we diagnosed Backpack's sickness as strep. I called for an appointment immediately for him. Poor little guy was as sick as a dog! We saw an awesome Nurse Practitioner (civilian) after a 45 minute wait. Apparently the base issued an 'exercise' that morning so all the regular doctors were gone. She did a quick swab and did the speedy results method. But she was sure he had strep anyway. After that we went to the pharmacy at the hospital, which had Backpack's but not Dynomite's meds. So we had to go to a different part of base to pick that up. By the time we got home we'd been gone for over 3 hours. (I did apologise profusely to Cynthia and prayed that her kids did not get strep.)

Later that night Travis picked up a free dryer for us off of the Swap Shop (a Yahoo! group for where we live where you can sell, buy, or trade items, seek advice, ask questions, etc...). Guess what? It is the dryer that matches our washer. What luck!

Since I had two sickies and three on antibiotics, Thursday plans went out the window. We watched movies and ate snacks all day. That night, thank goodness, I was able to escape to book club for the night.

Friday I had a doctors appointment to check on the baby. That night was our Friday Night swap. Travis was so swamped in studying that I went shopping. I hit 6 stores in 7 hours. I needed to get ready for Yaya's wedding, my dad visiting, and leaving for Nauvoo. And Saturday was spent doing just that. I try and I try to not procrastinate, but everything always seems to come down to the wire anyway. But the kids were extra good and Travis stayed out of my way so I was able to get a lot done.

So despite the sickness, and the craziness getting ready for company and packing for travel Travis did manage to get an two extra cute pictures of Backpack:

KKT: Easy Bread Crumbs

I use bread crumbs here and there in my recipes and used to make my own, but found it was easier to just buy them. Plus the lame process I did consisted of drying them in the oven, thus adding extra time to my dinner prep. Yes, I KNOW its a waste of money when I could just make them UNTIL I found this tip:

Take the heels of the bread or any extra slices that might be a bit stale and place them into a large ziplock bag into the freezer.

When you have a recipe that asks for bread crumbs, grab your bag out of the freezer.
Break the bread into pieces and drop into your food processor or blender. I found that I could crush them with a rolling pin or bottom of a cup in the bag so I wouldn't have to wash the processor or blender.

Process (or smash) and now you have instant bread crumbs.

2010 Week #9: Finally March!

Ugh, since I'm behind I don't remember as much as I'd like to. Luckily I keep the family calendar updated and written on so it helps.

Monday Craftiness
See Dynomite's spots from the (now we know) Scarlet Fever:

He's intent on doing this right:

The finished masterpieces:

This week was pretty busy! On Monday we were in our regular routine of dance and school. On Tuesday I was suppose to go to my MOPS steering team meeting and Dynomite was suppose to get her haircut but she looked like she'd broken out into hives. She was hot the night before, but nothing that worried us. So I called the nurse. Since she didn't have any stomach problems and her fever was the night before we thought it was rosacea. She wasn't contagious, but was suggested that she stay away from other kiddos for 24hours. Well, life continues on!

Wednesday I had a Parent-Teacher conference with Trouble's teachers. They were impressed with him (can you blame them *wink, wink*) His writing has improved tremendously. Before he'd write his name all over the page. The teachers started making boxes for him to write his name in. Now he writes nice neat block print, not even backwards! They liked how he did dot-to-dot by saying the numbers out loud. They said he could tell what the picture was before connecting the dots, which most kids can't do yet. He did have trouble recognizing pink (red was pink for him) which is typical for boys. They said he was quiet...only if they knew! But all in all, he was on track for Kindergarten academically, physically, and socially and that's all they worry about. And I left as one beaming mommy!

Thursday was busy. The house was an absolute tornado! This morning a maintenance guy came to clean our out dryer hose and vent because our drying was taking 3 hours to dry one load of laundry. (I had Travis call the guy later to find out if there was a clog and apologise for the craziness, that's how embarrassed I was) Travis replaced the heating element, a belt, and did some tests to make sure the right amount out electricity was getting around. After all that it was still acting up, so we thought maybe there was a clog in the hose out to the vent. That morning, while the guy was at our house, I rushed off to set up for the RS Meeting (Enrichment). Then our sleep number bed arrived. Travis put it together while I was at my event. The Enrichment (RS Meeting) went superb! We called it "Bloom Where You Are Planted". We had three fabulous women in our ward give lessons on 'Look to the Son for Strength', 'Nurture Yourself', and 'Overcoming Obstacles'. Dinner worked out perfect and clean up was a breeze. This night people started noticing my belly sticking out, I was 13 weeks. Technically I wouldn't have to do another thing for my calling until December. I was in the perfect calling for me, activities for the Relief Society.

Saturday, Dynomite went to a My Little Pony birthday party and had a blast. Then Travis and I saw Wicked with a group from church. LOVED IT!! SOO SOO SOO much better than the book!! I thought the play's storyline was better. It left out tons of political stuff that I never understood anyway and all the raunchiness. This is the night Travis took Trouble into the ER for Scarlet Fever.

2010 Week #8

I will be jumping back on the blogging bandwagon after all! Between the pregnancy and being in the YW presidency, I've been a bit busy and a little tired. So the next few weeks will be filled with some catch up posts.

This is week 8, in February!

See the little baker? The kiddos love to help in the kitchen. I'm not very patient with them helping, but Travis is.... I think a farm apron is very suiting on him :-)

A little about the Gecko. Here is his food. The crickets. The crickets live in a little plastic cage with a piece of cardboard egg crate and orange food cubes , awaiting their doom!!

Tecko, the Gecko!

Gecko are suppose to like 'pinkies' or one day old mice. I bought some frozen ones from the pet store. I'm holding it while wearing a plastic glove. The trick is to move the mouse around until the gecko sees it and eats it. I only goes after moving objects. Finally Travis took it from me and wiggled it around enough for him to eat it (without gloves!).Yum, Yum!

Monday was fun...sort of. I went in for an ultrasound to help predict the baby's risk of having Down's Syndrome. They measure the fluid between the skin and the neck bones. The more fluid there is, the higher the risk. The baby had the right amount of fluid, so there is none or insignificant risk. I had to take Backpack with me because he has an appt right afterwards. He screamed all the way through the ultrasound. The doctor didn't seem to mind, but I thought the nurse was going to have a hernia. Haha, they should be use to having kids around.

Tuesday was my birthday. Which I already blogged about. Thank goodness, my memory is shot! I did get new glasses and was able to pick them up from Lens Crafters. The man helping me was not happy with my decision to get 'granny glasses' so he helped me pick up something with a little more pizazz. The sides have theses little rhinestones in the shape of a flower. I call it my mommy bling. Its the only blingy thing I have :-)

Throughout the week the kids wanted to do crafts. Now crafts I CAN do with the kids. They painted treasure chests and glued on jewels.

Here is Dynomite, intent on her work:

And Trouble perfecting his technique:

The kiddos also made foam people. Foam is a great invention. Just peel and stick!On Friday Trouble wrapped up their preschool Olympics. The teachers made them Olympic shirts, the got medals, and flags. This picture looks a little like Special Olympics, but we still love him :-)

That's better:

The picture from pre-school:
These were just too cute not to post. Backpack has become quite the character lately. I love this stage! He talking, interacting, and is like a little human being. He is not camera shy!

These are from the mall of Backpack and Dynomite sliding.


Saturday we had a Stake RS meeting about Emergency Preparedness. It was well done and reminded me how much we still had to do get ourselves prepared. This meeting sparked a Food Storage/Emergency Prepared group in our ward. Its been wonderful to learn from some very prepared and talented women. And to motivate us to continue on in our efforts.

All in all, it was a great week!!

Rediscovering God in America by Newt Gingrich

In a world with disappearing values and with so many turning their backs on God, it was enlightening to read of America’s religious roots in Newt Gingrich’s book Rediscovering God in America. He starts off by acknowledging the fact that America started off as a country that “understands that our unalienable right come from God.” However, over time the government has written God out of our American history. In this book he takes us on a photo walking tour to the monuments and places that have religious connotations throughout our nation’s capital.

The photos in this book are simply beautiful. This would make a great coffee table book to browse through as well as a conversation starter. I enjoyed the introduction, even if the reading was a little tedious! I was very impressed with the amount of knowledge for each location he wrote about. I would highly recommend this book for a history buff, especially someone with religious interests.