Because I have Been Given Much

Opening Song: Hymn #219: Because I Have been Given Much

Scripture: Mosiah 2:17  And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

It is important for children to not only learn about service while they are young, but to actively take part in serving. Whether it be others in your immediate family, a neighbor, friend, relative or even a complete stranger, it is vital to their understanding it's importance. There are many ways you can encourage service. Here is one example we are working on currently in our little family.

In our neighborhood there is a family who is expecting their first child within a couple weeks. They are not currently active in the church. The husband has been out of work for at least two years, maybe longer. They have very little, especially considering the needs of a new baby.

As luck would have it, they are expecting a baby girl. We have two girls and have been blessed with much in way of clothing for our children. So, although we may not be able to help this family out monetarily we can give them some of our childrens clothing. For our FHE activity we went through our overflowing boxes and put together a couple large bags full of clothing. Although we have never met this couple, it gives us great joy and satisfaction know we can serve them. It is wonderful to be able to include our children in this service and to see how willing they are to give to those in need.

Because I have Been Given Much

Everyday is April Fools to Satan

Today is April Fool's Day... I am sure every kid knows about april fools and tries to come up with the best prank. I found this cute idea from pettiskirtsandmudpies blog and thought it was so clever! So, I'll share it with you.

FHE lesson....Satan is deceiving....

I was laying in bed thinking about April Fool's Day....which I love...
and I thought of a perfect Family Home Evening Lesson to go along with all the April Fool's pranks!

I started off with sponges....from the dollar store...and I cut circles...
I have to admit, my circles where far from perfect...but the kids did not notice!

I stacked them three high...and hot glued them so they would hold together.

I bought some gum, and wrapped it to look like a little purse, and wrote on the back...."Chews the right!"

I started the lesson off with a pack of gum that I had emptied, and replaced with white card stock, that had scripture references on them.

I asked them to take a piece of gum and pass it around!
They were so excited to be getting gum right in the beginning of FHE...

I was happy to see, that they were equally excited to have scripture references to look up! =)

We read 10 scriptures about how Satan wants to deceive us and lead us away from Christ!

They thought my false pack of gum was the punch line....so they were NOT prepared for my delicious looking mini layered cakes!

I also made cupcakes which I offered them. I tried to encourage them to take a cupcake, they know I make good cupcakes...but I have never made these mini cakes!
They could not resist the mini cakes!

They took their butter knifes and started to cut!

Brooke, being the oldest, and strongest, decided to take over the cutting!

OH! They were so excited to reach blue cake....they couldn't believe it...but they needed a sharper knife!

Chelsea could not wait any longer, she took her fork and dug in...taking a big chunk of sponge along with her butter cream frosting!

"YUCK!!!!"
"We've been tricked!!"

They understood perfectly what I was trying to teach them.
Satan will try to tempt us by creating a picture of joy...fun...excitement...and make the ways of Christ seem boring...ordinary...and plain!
We must be close to the spirit to recognize and avoid his cunning ways!

The truth of Satan's path is that once your in, you realize You've been tricked!!!

I ended the evening with the gum handouts...

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Isn't that a cute idea? I love it. Happy April Fools Day! Don't get tricked!

Everyday is April Fools to Satan

Prioritizing Things that Matter Most

This lesson stems from Elder Dallin H. Oaks conference address "Good, Better, Best," , October 7, 2007 found here.

Another good reference is Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Of Things That Matter Most," during the October 2, 2010 found here.

 Goal: To teach children the importance of doing the things that matter most first.
Things needed for object lesson:
-Jar or see-through container of some sort
-a few larger objects like pink pong balls, rocks, tennis balls -depending on the size of your container
-Lots of little items to fill space such as dry rice, dry beans ect.


There are so many things to do in our day to day that sometimes we forget to do the things that matter most. Discuss with your children the most important things we do each day. Some answers may include: pray, scriptures, journal, family time, family meals, ect.

Then you can discuss some other less important activities that can be done each day.

There is an "oldie but goodie" object lesson that works really well. Take your jar and list with the kids the non-important things we can do each day that fill our time. Pour the smaller objects into the jar. Then talk about the important things we should be doing each day and try to then put the larger objects in. They do not fit! Then do this activity the other way around. Putting in the most important things first, then the lesser important, and they all fit perfect!

Teach the children that when we do the things we should each day, our Heavenly Father will help us make time for everything else. If you want you can write on your golf balls (or other objects) what the most important things are, then leave the jar somewhere where people can see it throughout the week.

Quotes that go along with this from Elder Oaks talk are:
"We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.

As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best. Even though a particular choice is more costly, its far greater value may make it the best choice of all."

Prioritizing Things that Matter Most

Garden Tile Stone Activity

After Christmas and New Years is a great time to stock up on stuff for future birthdays OR FHE activities! The other day I went to our local mall where they had a ToysRUs Express. This means the store only comes in during the holidays and then after the holidays are through they sell whatever is left at a highly discounted rate. So I decided to browse. I found a "do-it-yourself" garden tile stone kit designed for children. I picked one up for $2.50 and can't wait for spring when I'll use it for an FHE activity.

I am not sure as of yet what the lesson will be, perhaps I'll post on that when I figure it out, but I can't wait to have my husband and our children put their hand prints on it, along with other decorations and put it in our garden. Keep an eye out for special sales and keep FHE in mind, you mind be surprised what you find!

Garden Tile Stone Activity

Families are important. If you didn't think so, you probably wouldn't be coming here for FAMILY home evening ideas. There are many family trees out there. I love this idea from a creative blogger. Have your children help pick out the materials for the tree, set the tree up take the picture, and then help them fill in the bubbles. Explain how a family tree works, going into as much depth as you feel appropriate for your children. Most importantly, have fun! And don't forget to sing, " Families Can Be Together Forever" from the children's Primary Song Book.

How to Make a Unique Family Tree
Taken from http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Families fit rarely into ready sablons, so when I tried to fill our family tree for Mila's baby book I noticed it would be better to make our own tree. Then you can make it as wide as you like, or just choose those closest relatives.

You need:

- blanket or other fabric to be a tree trunk and grass

- 3-4 colored paper napkins for leaves.

- Paper plates, as many as close relatives. Tip: if you like ornaments a lot, use white paper lace!

+ what ever you like to decorate your tree. Is your family tree full of paper hearts, real fruits, candles, or personal items to symbol your family members.

The building tree is easier if you make a first draft to paper. Use just names and list them in a form of tree. Start from to top of tree and put there the baby, then parents, grandparents etc. Add siblings. Just like you would draw a mind map.

When you are building an actual tree, notice that you can use the bigger plates for close relatives and smaller ones for the siblings. If you have a huge family, aunts and cousins don't need a plate, you can use smaller symbols, or cut smaller round circles from light colored paper/ paper napkins. Make tree leaves from napkins. Just twofold them and cut from the fold half of leaf, so you get multiple leaves from one cut when you separate the layers of napkin.

Photo example with teddy bears

After taking your photo, you may adjust color & lighting and add names or photographs in the picture by photoshop. If you use elliptical marquee-tool, you can get round headshot cut out from pictures. In my version those bigger plates are good for about 85x85pixels photos and smaller ones 60x60pixels. Pictures don't have to be perfectly round. You can also print photo out and add relatives by hand writing.

Example with photoshop names.

And voilà, personal and unique Family Tree is ready!

PS you can also add ancestors in the "roots" if you like. Just make a rocks or little signs there to make a space for the info.

In our family tree there would be many Viking kings from Norway, King Gustav I of Sweden, Jaakko Ilkka, Finnish leader of the Peasant Rebellion and from my side there's just a big bunch of simple farmers from North Karelia. Well, maybe few of my greatgreatgreat uncles and distant cousins have been artist and painters, but that's it. And probably there has been some finnish pagans before northern crusade. So I began to feel that this great offspring of noble savages has stolen this simple Karelian maid, and history still repeats itself...haha.

FHE Treats

Not sure what to do for FHE? Even worse, not sure what to have for DESSERT? I have to admit, the dessert part of FHE is my favorite. Sometimes, the making of the dessert IS our family activity. Most kids love to help in the kitchen, get the whole family involved!! Here are a bunch of ideas to get your mind thinking.

Monkey Bread - Mix 1/3 C brown sugar, 1 T. water, 3 T. melted butter in a round glass bowl. Microwave for 2 min. Add 1 pkg. refrigerator biscuits onto mixture and place a small juice glass in center. Microwave 2 more min. Remove glass and invert onto serving plate. Serve warm by pulling sections apart.

Marshmallow Puffs - Take a pkg. or refrigerator biscuits and pat each out flat, place a marshmallow in center and wrap up sealing the edges. Dip in melted butter, roll in cinnamon sugar. Put in muffin tin. Bake at 400 for 10-12 min. Eat 'em hot.

Fruity Tuties- Get a bowl of ice-cream and add some of your favorite juice or soda. Enjoy! -

Teddy Smores' - Roast a marshmallow. Put it on a graham cracker and put 4 chocolate teddy grahams on the marshmallow. Enjoy!

Easy Donuts - You will need: 1 can of Pillsbury biscuits or more depending on how many you want to make, and a Fry Daddy, or other similar deep-frying appliance. Take the biscuits out of the can and cut out the center of each biscuit. Fry donuts and holes in oil until golden brown. Drain on wire rack or cookie cooling rack. Top with glaze. Glaze: Powdered sugar and milk combined to desired consistency. Pour over hot donuts. These are best fresh. They do not re-heat well.

Patty Cakes - First, get some soft tortillas and cheese. (refried beans if desired) Then, sprinkle cheese on top of a tortilla and put microwave for fifteen seconds or until cheese is melted. Cut like a pizza and enjoy!

Temple Cake - Make a cake (square is best) put 4 ice cream cones point up on the cake. these will be the pillars. then, put a little Moroni on top of one pillar.

Oreo Pie - It's easy, you just get chocolate pudding and Oreo's and whip cream. Crush the Oreo's up and put them on the bottom of a pan. Then put the pudding on top .then more crushed up Oreos. then put the whip cream on top and spread it out.

Homemade Ice-cream Sandwiches - Yummy and easy. First make a box of brownies, any kind. Let cool and cut into squares. Take aluminum foil and put one brownie square on it add vanilla ice cream (or any flavor you like) and top with another brownie. Wrap up and put into freezer. Do this with all the brownies.

Waffles and Ice Cream - You need ice cream in a box carton and waffles. Completely open ice cream box and slice it into 1/4 inch slices. Place slice of ice cream on one warm waffle and top with second warm waffle. Eat like a sandwich. Kids love these! -

Ice-cream Spiders! - Put 1 or 2 scoops of ice-cream in a cup fill with your favorite soft drink and enjoy! :-)

Fondue Fun - Fondue is a really fun and yummy treat for FHE. If you don't have a fondue pot you can use a crock pot or something like a crock pot, on low heat. You can have either cheese fondue and dip bread chunks and veggies in it or have the obvious chocolate fondue, (either brown or white chocolate) and dip fruits and sponge cake chunks into that one. It's easy, inexpensive and fun!

Rice Crispy Treats - Take rice crispies and turn them into fun!!! Add food coloring for each season of the year or for any special occasion.

Nachos - Put corn chips on a cookie sheet and put on shredded cheese we like the four cheese blend the broil in the oven until the cheese is melted. don't bake it too long! hard cheese is not very good.

Banana Malts - First get a few bananas. (Buy more if you have a big family) Then, buy malt mix. Get some ice. Put all of these things into a blender, little by little. ENJOY!!!!!!!

Kid-Proof Sushi - To make kid proof sushi you must have fruit roll ups, a gummy bear and rice crispies, you can use store brand or homemade. Take the rice crispies and flaten it out but keep it in its shape. Then take 1 fruit roll up and cut it to the length of the crispy. Take a gummy and put it laying on 1 end of the crispy, then roll the crispy and eat it!

Colored Thick Shake - Ingredients: Vanilla ice cream, food coloring (all different colors), vanilla, milk, and whip cream. Instructions: Plug in blender, fill blender up with enough ice cream for all, put vanilla and milk in. Blend it until it is mushy. Then in all the different corners of the blender put in the 4 different food colorings. Blend again (but only until the colors are swirly) pour into glass, top with whipped cream, and sprinkle. Then you have your loving desert! ♥ -

Home Made Oreos - A favorite of my family is a joyous mix. It's lots of fun to put together as well. Prepare one box of devils food cake. follow the recipe on back on how to prepare it for cookies. Place the dough/batter on a cookie sheet and cook for app. 10 minutes, (the back of the box should say exactly.) After the cookies are cooked and cooled, spread vanilla frosting on the flat side of each cookie and place to together!!!! ENJOY!

Counter Sundaes - On the kitchen counter (kitchen table works, too), lay out wax paper and tape to counter. Scoop ice cream on counter and let kids add toppings, syrup, etc. After, eat straight off counter. Kids will love this!

Fruit-a-shoot-a : Put fruit into a bowl. add walnuts, and a pinch of sugar if you please.

Microwave S’mores - Place two pieces of a Hershey’s candy bar on a graham cracker, then place a large marshmallow on each of the two pieces of candy bar and place in the microwave. Be sure not to over cook, you only need about 30 seconds. Its fun to watch the marshmallows expand. After you warm the chocolate and the mallows place another graham cracker on top and squish together. Let cool for a few moments and dive in……….

Graham Crackers and Frosting - Get some graham crackers and your favorite frosting (or Nutella if available) It is fun to make and good to eat. (Make sure you have lots of milk to wash it down)

Milk Shakes - Just some ice cream and milk in a blender make a great milk shake. Our favorite is vanilla ice-cream, milk and Hershey's chocolate syrup. If you want a faster shake, stir with a spoon instead of using a blender. Not as smooth, but still tastes great!.

Frozen Bananas - Freeze banana slices on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. (do early in the day) . Remove from freezer after family night and dip in melted chocolate and favorite toppings (nut, coconut, sprinkles, etc)

Homemade Popsicles - In the morning or day before, make juice and poor it in cups. Use popsicle stick (or spoons) and place them in the cup. freeze them (you might need to let a little hot water run on the outside of the cup to release them.

Carmel Apples - Put popsicle sticks in each apple, make sure the apples aren't too sweet. Sour ones work best. Slow cook Kraft caramels and dip the apples in. cover with nuts or chocolate chips if you like. Put on wax paper and let cool. Put them in refrigerator to harden

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds - Clean the pumpkin seeds well. Fry them in butter and salt. Let cool a little bet. Eat

Orange Julius' - Put 1 1/2 c. water, 1/2 c. milk, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 can frozen orange juice concentrate (regular size can), ice cubes (as much as you like, around 2 cups is good) into a blender. Blend until ice is well crushed. We almost always had this with popcorn! Contributed by Christine Jensen

EASY Carmel Apple Dip - This really tastes like caramel! 1 block cream cheese (softened), 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix well and serve with apple wedges!

Banana Shake - First you get your blender put a whole banana in there in slices, then put ice as much as you like, put 4 teaspoons of sugar and pour milk in the blender until it covers the ice and banana or as much as you like to serve, blend it and serve, taste better than a milkshake! -

THING-A-MAJIGS - Get 12 fig bars, 4 oz peanut butter, 6 ice cream sticks, six 5 oz paper cups, 9 to 12 oz choc pudding, 1 1/2 cup raspberry yogurt. Put two fig bars on each side of stick. spread with peanut butter, fill cup with 1/2 pudding, push stick in cup, add yogurt to top, freeze over night, split cup, peel , eat.

Baked Apples - Core the apple, put a little cinnamon, sugar, raisins, and water inside the hole in your apple. Bake until a little bit brown......... ENJOY!!!!!

Quick and Delicious Peanut Butter Cookies - Ingredients: 1 cup of white sugar 1 cup of creamy peanut butter 1 egg Mix all together and bake at 350 degrees til' done. (About 8-10 minutes. Enjoy with a glass of milk. Can add a chocolate kiss to the middle before baking. (I like to bake mine in a mini muffin pan to make little peanut butter tarts.)

Cookies with ice-cream in the Middle - Take two chocolate chip cookies (or any other cookies that you think would also taste good,) and put ice-cream in the middle. You can make as many cookies as you would like.

Nacho Cheese Dip - Take any kind of salsa and sprinkle it with grated cheese on the top of the slasa. Cook it in the microwave for 60 seconds.

FHE Treats