Megan gave a talk today in Primary!  She practiced a lot and was very excited to speak to her friends about how "The Holy Ghost Helps Me".

  

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Spring Has Sprung

A couple of weeks ago we bought flowers and planted them all around our little patio.  It sure makes everything look pretty and beautiful outside.  I liked that it was something Kyle and I could do together out in the warm sunshine with Jack Johnson music in the background.  On the inside of the house I rearranged all my pictures on the walls since I couldn't afford to do anything else to decorate.  I liked the end result and I'm glad I have a handy man around to patch up all the nail holes and make new ones where I want them.  :)

Last Monday the Eddy family arrived and stayed with us for a week.  We had a lot of fun showing them around downtown Chicago and also to our favorite places like Ty Warner Park, the Yorktown Mall TreeHouse, Charming Charlie's, and Waterfall Glen.  We ate deep dish pizza from Giordano's and sandwiches from Potbelly's.  Mostly we just let the cousins play and get to know each other.  It was a really fun week.

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The other great thing that has just happened is that Megan has completed her Food Pyramid!!  I still cannot believe what a difference that piece of posterboard has made in our lives.  Our dinnertimes are now peaceful with no crying, counting, coaxing, screaming, or spankings.  Meg learned about the food groups with some help from some books from the library and has spent the past couple of months earning stickers for each food she finishes from her plate.  It's total bribery, but it has worked!

When she completed each food group she would get to go to the dollar store and pick out a prize.  I told her that when she finished the whole pyramid she could go to the zoo and last night she FINALLY drank her last glass of water (we did plain water without flavor instead of the sweets/fats group) and so now we can plan a trip to the zoo.  I haven't decided if we'll go to Brookfield or the Lincoln Park Zoo, but I don't care!  I'm just so happy that our Father in Heaven answers prayers and helps us figure out how to have peace in our homes and how to help us keep our kids healthy.  This has really been a miracle in our home.  Kyle and I are so proud of her and I know she is very proud of herself too for making good choices.