FHE bike ride

Monday brings Family Home Evening once again. Tonight we talked about how our bodies are temples and how important it is to take care of them--just like we would want to take care of a Temple. It was great hearing what the boys thought that meant and then taking the time to build on their understanding. For our activity we had a family bike ride as exercise is an important part of taking care of our bodies! While we've been on bike rides before, I've never tried taking pictures while riding. Just in case anyone is wondering, I didn't fall off my bike or crash while documenting the ride--not even once! Yahoo!


First we rode by the school.

Then we stayed mostly to our neighborhood streets.

This boy loves family rides! What a cutie!

Throw in a flattened snake and he is convinced this is the best ride ever!

We then had a small snack on blackberries. This truly is the only time of year that blackberries are worth anything! They are the most pernicious weeds that grow in this part of the country, but when their fruit is ripe, well, we can tolerate the prickly vines.

Overall, berries were enjoyed by everyone.

Once home there were baths to be had, prayers to be said, scriptures to be read, and then bed to be tucked into with a few primary songs as a finale. A wonderful end to a happy day.

More Lowes at the creek

We were pleasantly surprised this week when Aunt Christina arrived in town. We decided to have our Family Home Evening(FHE*) activity down at the creek. The boys were thrilled to have Grammie Lowe and Aunt Christina there to share in the fun!



In celebration of our new "creek guests", the Big Guy Lowe and our oldest son caught 11 live crawdads--a new creek record(for us, that is)!! I specify catching live crawdads because the unfortunate dead crustaceans don't offer much of a challenge!

I would love to know what our second son was thinking when these pictures were taken. This was the first time he ever held a crawdad by himself!


After a nice time at the creek it was time to head home. Our youngest lead the way in style!


Once again, a wonderful time at the creek!

*For those of you not familiar with Family Home Evening(FHE), here's a brief explanation--We believe that families are extremely important! In our church we dedicate one night a week, generally monday night, where we focus on our family by sharing Christ centered mini-lessons and fun family activities--all with the goal of strengthening our family. I can remember having FHEs as a little girl growing up too!! I hope my kids will be able to say that when they are parents someday too...

The Music Man explanation only works so long

I have a sister-in-law that shared a growing up experience of hers that I loved and we adopted, until the Big Guy Lowe and I were discovered last year. This is how it went...

The ice cream truck comes around our neighborhood often. I don't mean once or twice a week, I'm talking often once a day when the weather is nice. Jaymee shared with me that when she was growing up her parents told her that it was the "music man" coming around for people to enjoy the music. We adopted this practice and were successful at our last home. With the event of moving to our current home and having our oldest recognize pictures and words, everyone in our family now knows that the music man is in fact the ICE CREAM truck!

Last night was pretty funny. First there was the pause in our boys faces and voices. Our oldest (and the Big Guy Lowe if anyone is keeping track) said "The Ice Cream Truck!" Our oldest and middle son had just earned some money helping at Grammy HB's home earlier in the day, and they wanted to use it. As our oldest ran to get his money, our middle son (not yet 3) frantically (or as close to being frantic as a little boy can be) ran upstairs to get his 4 pennies. Oh that ice cream cost 4 pennies!

This was something I never experienced as a child. Five kids (my family growing up)would make this quite an expensive venture, so we were satisfied with our big scoops of ice cream from the gallon containers that my parents bought and always had on hand--in fact, still have on hand! The ice cream truck really is a fun treat for me now though. We don't do it all the time and often the kids use their own money, but it is so fun seeing how excited we all get when we hear that music!

It promotes sharing...

happy, quiet moments...

and great family home evening treats!

We highly recommend it!