Fargo Favorites #50

Today the things I love about Fargo are the things that my little Fam does or started here in Fargo.

1. FHE Board

I have made some very creative, fun things while living here in Fargo. One of our favorites is the time I got a bunch of ladies together to make FHE boards. They all turned out so different and all so darling! In our family we love it because it allows everyone to have a turn to do and share their favorite things. We all are in charge of something to make the Family Home Evening special.

SONG: It's fun to see which songs everyone knows. Or try to be brave and sing a new one. Also I love to see what songs become our favorites. Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam or Scripture Power are always our fallbacks! ;)

PRAYER: The person whose on the "prayer" conducts FHE so they get to decide in which order we do things for Family night. Sometimes the kids like to do it backwards. LOL! Treats first are always fun! Right, Jen N.?

SCRIPTURE: We used to have the person on the Scripture just get out the book and lead us in scripture reading. But we've changed it so that whoever is on the Scripture shares one of their favorites. It's fun to have the kids explain their favorite stories and help them find where they're located.

LESSON: Ideas for lessons are endless! I used to be a FHE Lesson Maker FREAK! I know, hard to believe! (Me a freak about anything??) But I have BOXES and BOXES and BOXES of FHE lessons. Not to mention our monthly subscriptions to the Friend and Ensign Magazines. There's never an excuse for being able to find something good to teach the family. I also love it when the kids teach us what they learned in Sunday School. They have some great memories and ideas!

ACTIVITY: This is where the true colors shine! It's really important that everyone gets a turn on the activity because we are all so different. Anything from an outing to Wii time to drawing to board games to HideNSeek. Lots of fun and a great way to support each other in things that we like! (or someone else likes and we do it because we love them! LOL)

TREAT: You gotta have a treat to make it a FHE! LOL! Yummmmy! Everyone loves to be on the treat!

Man! We have some great times together!

2. Hide N Seek

My kids were so little when we moved here that we did simple HideNSeeks back in UT but nothing like our games nowadays! We blow those days out of the water! LOL At first it was more of a "YouWho!" Game where all the kids made noise until Mom or Dad found you. But nowadays sometimes it takes forever to find everybody! They are some quiet, sneaky (perhaps in this case... smelly) hiders these days!

3. Garden Harvest

We never grew a garden as a Fam until we moved here. Now we don't claim to grow a fabulous garden but we do grow one every year! And we get so excited when we harvest stuff! Over the years we have enjoyed beets, radishes, tomatoes, peas, corn, peppers, broccoli, watermelon, pumpkins, lettuce, onions, potatoes, eggplant, rhubarb, carrots, and of course apples. It makes us so happy! Yummmy!

4. Peaches n Cream

The last several years we have spent a butt-load of cash on buying yummy, Colorado peaches. We justify it because it's a fund-raiser for the Youth for Christ Group AND they are YUMMMY! Peaches N Cream are a hit around here in September!

5. Stepping Stones

This one is a little bit metaphorical! LOL

One one hand- the kids and I have had fun making stepping stones for our flower garden in the front. It's so fun to see their creativity. And also adding new ones (kids and stones) to our family/ garden.

On the other hand- Fargo has been a huge stepping stone in our lives. I say stepping stone because we don't plan on this being our last stop along the way to... ???? (well I was gonna say something but either it sounds a bit morbid or sad so we'll just say.... in the long run of things Fargo will be a memorable stepping stone for our Family.) It's here that we have learned so many things. We have learned to step outside the comfort zone of our family circle and make some amazing friends. We've grown in every way possible- taller, wider ;0) LOL, in numbers, spiritually, socially, emotionally, as a couple, as a family and as individuals. We've also learned we really are pretty funny! What an amazing place to put your foot down in. We love you Fargo!

P.S. I've been waiting forever to publish this post but I guess I'll just have to add the new stepping stones at some point. Maybe after I get a new camera! LOL See GNO Sadnote for details!

Perspective of a Cub Scout

I forgot my camera at the Church for playgroup today. Luckily, Justice had Scouts and picked it up for me. He DID however leave me a good idea of the perspective that Cub Scouts have on their activities. LOL! Silly boys!

Labor Day Kickball

I forgot my camera at the Church for playgroup today. Luckily, Justice had Scouts and picked it up for me. He DID however leave me a good idea of the perspective that Cub Scouts have on their activities. LOL! Silly boys!

Labor Day Fishing

While Liberty & I slept in for our day off, Brett took the rest of the Fam out for a little Labor Day fishing. It was a perfect fishing day! They caught like 25 of them and brought home FIVE. Oh lucky me! LOL! They were so excited. It was quite the adventure as well, I heard. Justice decided to involuntarily do a little swimming. Dang- slippery rocks! Too funny! Thanks Brett for being such a great Dad!

Preschool 2011-12

Glory started Preschool today! She was so excited! She wore her Dora backpack and took things to share with her buddies. We are doing a little Co-op Preschool with some friends. A little break for Mom and some learning time with friends. Perfect!

Good Luck kiddos!

Fargo Favorites #49

Can you believe it's been almost an entire year of Fargo Favorites? Holy Cow! Any suggestions on what to do for the next 52 weeks??? I want to do something weekly but maybe a little more on the doing something than just noticing things. Let me know what you think. I've only got a couple weeks to think of something. ;o)

1. Chick N Hens

A couple of years ago, my neighbor let me transfer some of these Sempervivum to my flowerbed. I have always called them Chick N Hens but actually they are officially called Hen-and-chickens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_and_chicks. Oops! Too funny! They remind me of my Uncle Bud & Aunt Kathie's place. They used to have them growing in their flower beds when we lived there. They make me miss it there a bit! I love how they fill in to all the cracks and grow no matter what! My kinda plant! ;) We have quite a few make it to full maturity. They are actually quite pretty when they flower. Sadly, once they do that- they die! But tons more grow in their place. Just like real families. I love it!!!

2. West Fargo Grand Canyon

When I first moved here- I was shocked to find that the house we bought had NO sprinklers. Are you kidding me??? How is anything gonna grow?? [This is from a lifetime Utahn] BUT, that is one thing I totally love about Fargo. We dont need sprinklers. We are taken care of by Mother Nature herself. In fact it is now September and we have not once watered our yard or our garden. We actually are barely starting to notice the effects of a couple of weeks without a lot of rain. One of those effects is a deep crevice in our backyard. We had a cable buried this Spring from the Phone Company and due to the lack of rain it has split WIDE open. Too funny! By next Spring you won't even be able to see it but right now we are putting ourselves on the National State Parks list for the West Fargo Grand Canyon. LOL!

3. Our Jayco Popup Trailer

We have totally LOVED our camping experiences this year! We have never been campers. EVER! In 15 years of marriage I can count on my fingers the times we have gone. That's sad. I guess the idea of packing everything up, driving, pitching a tent, sleeping on the ground, possibly getting rained on- has never appealed to us! BUT when our good friends, the Babcocks moved and wanted to know if we'd like to buy their popup- Brett got very excited! I will admit, I was not fully on board. Remember our camping track record?? Why would we spend that kind of mula on something that we wouldn't even have a place to park it. It seemed a little silly to me. A Summer later and I have some repenting to do. I love it! I actually want to go camping more than Brett nowadays. It can store most everything in there. We sleep on a mattress and it has plug ins so we get music and white noise and air circulation! YEAH!! I love, love, love it! I don't dare pull it my self yet. I'm a whimp! But if anyone out there can pull a trailer, you want to go camping with me?

4. Christmas Lights in August

We have a dilemma! It's now the beginning of September and our Christmas lights are still up! Do we take them down or just leave them up??? LOL! {The funny thing is that here in Fargo- you really do normally put lights up sometime in October before it snows and don't take them down until March when it melts but this year we are pushing it a bit!} At this point, I guess we'll just continue to look a little bit redneck or something around here. It really isn't worth taking them down now!

5. Rhubarb Bars

I never tried Rhubarb until I moved to Fargo. Then my dear friend Amber started bringing them to Potluck stuff. At a Fargo Potluck there is ALWAYS way too much to ever eat everything so I would get lucky and she would send the rest home with me. I never share with my family because I always eat them ALL before anyone else has a chance to. Oops! Then she was a big meany and moved away! ;o( And believe me- they are never as good when I make them! Lucky for me, Jen M. has come to my rescue. She made some the other day for a potluck and sent me home with a big plate. I do think I shared ONE with Liberty. So see, I'm improving! LOL! I love Rhubarb bars! [I'm actually trying to grow one in my backyard.. It's not going too well but Jen did stock my freezer full of rhubarb bags so if I can just learn to make them like Amber- I'm set!!]

So... Surprise yourself,
be grateful and
find out what your life is FULL of!

Green Thumb: Part 5

The Season is coming to an end and many are pulling out their gardens but we are holding out hope. Come on little garden... Grow! Grow! Grow!