Another Ticket Night

Since I just posted about ticket nights with the kids, I thought I'd throw in another example.

Elias came up to Wes last night and said, in one long breath without stopping, "I would like to do a ticket with you tonight and I want to read stories with a fire in the fireplace and look at the stars outside and have cinnamon toast for a treat!" He was so funny-- flapping his hands and bouncing up and down as he was saying this. You could tell he'd been thinking about it for a while and he had it all planned out!

So they did (even though it was near 90 degrees yesterday--Wes still lit the fire for him). They were so cute and Elias was chattering non-stop the whole time. He was thrilled to hang out with his daddy all by himself.

Looking at Orion and other constellations in the back yard. It was pitch-black, so the pictures aren't great. Elais wanted to know if my camera flash was a shooting star!

My Good Life: By Leah Andrews

Leah is up doing a "ticket" tonight. What are Tickets? Each child has two a month and gets to use them to stay up late and do an activity of their choice with Mom or Dad. Leah wanted to write a blog, so here she goes:

Here I am on the little wall in my back yard. I am happy that we got grass.

This is a picture my Mom took of me on my seventh birthday (April 2nd).

I liked my birthday. I went to Disneyland with Angel!

I got a secret diary from Mimi and Poppa. The pen has invisible ink.

When you shine a magic light, the words show up purple.

Here I am opening presents with Poppa.

I was at their house for general conference.

We had ice cream cones. Yummy Ice Cream!!!

For my birthday, I got to sleep over at Rebecca's house for two nights!

Rebecca is a terrrific friend. Here we are sitting on a wall in front of my house.

The last is, when I was at Rebecca's house,

my Mom and Dad painted my room and put new furniture in it!

It was so beautiful! And I got a princess crown!

We Love Cats

The girls in this house (me included) love cats. We don't mind their saucy attitude . . . they really do make good snugglers at night! Beside that, they gaurd the garden from herbivorous creatures. So far we've had: rats, mice, moles, gophers, lizards, rabbits and birds grace our back patio. I don't enjoy the prizes, but I'm glad they're not eating my vegetables! Good job kitties!

My Great Idea

Last year I was puzzling over how to have better conversation with Mckay. He's the easy-going, happy, "good kid" who seldom needs attention or gets into trouble. I realized most of my time was spent focused on the other three kids and was wondering how I could establish better communication with Mckay. I wanted to make sure he knew how much I appreciated him. Well, I didn't have any great ideas come to me, so I really started praying about it.

I got an answer. Here's what we do now; it's really great:

I write to Mckay in his journal. I get to tell him how terrific he is and how much I love him. I ask him interesting questions and sometimes write short stories about when I was a kid. When I'm done writing, I put the journal on his pillow. He reads it and writes back to me and puts it on my pillow. Sometimes, because he doesn't love writing, I include a little motivation like a cool drawing, a sticker, or a little treat. In this way, Mckay and I have spent the last nine months "talking" about all kinds of things: school, family, traveling, sports, friends, missions, testimony, siblings . . . all kinds of things! We don't write every day, but a few times a week. It is the best thing ever!