Yesterday we celebrated my son’s 5th birthday. He is my baby, and when I think about the fact that he is already five, it makes me want to cry! It makes me wonder where the last five years have gone! He is the cutest five year old ever (in my opinion). He sure keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing. He thinks everything is a joke (he NEVER takes me seriously) which can be frustrating at times, but it also helps me remember to not be so serious all the time. He loves to cuddle, and is constantly saying I love you. He loves to give hugs too. 🙂 The other day he tried to give one of his friends a hug, and the friend didn’t want a hug, and my little one just kept trying. The friends mom told him that he didn’t like hugs, but I bet he’ll give you five, so that is what he did. He is constantly talking about his friends, and loves to play with others. He really is such a tender hearted, loving, happy, little boy that loves to tease! It is so fun watching my boys grow up, even if it is going by so fast. I love to see all the things that they learning and growing from. Almost everyday some thing happens that scares me, or makes me wonder how I am going so survive raising these boys! They are so full of life and energy. I know that I can’t hold their hand forever, even if I want to. One of the things I can do though is to encourage them to be their best selves. I made this stenciled Be Valiant, Brave & Strong sign to go in their bedroom (all four share a room) to help be a reminder to them.
This idea came from reading with scripture stories with my boys one morning. We were reading the Book of Mormon Stories children’s book and reading about Helaman and the 2,000 Young Warriors. There is a part in there that talks about how these young men were Valiant, Brave & Strong. That touched me as I was reading it to my boys, and decided that I wanted to make something that was a reminder of that for my boys.
I used Cricut Deisgn Space to lay out my text. Because I was using a board with lines cut into it, it was a little tricky to get the spacing just right. I used my Cricut Explore to cut vinyl to use as a stencil. I painted the board gray, then I put on the “BE” stencil and painted that white, and then I put on the valiant, brave, strong vinyl and painted it burnt orange. Once I had it all painted, I very lightly distressed it, mostly just on the edges.
I can’t wait to get this put up in my boys room. Their bedroom is a very slow, work in progress. I’ve started several things and I don’t think I’ve finished any of them yet. My goal for the room is to have several uplifting words and quotes in the room. And there isn’t much space at all to work with since there are two sets of bunk beds and two dressers in there. I have very little wall space left. I’m slowly but surely getting there though.
If you don’t want to make your own sign, I put together a printable of it. This is an 8×10 format, and you can download it here, watermark free of course. Printables from The Happy Scraps are for personal use only.
I didn’t want to leave out the girls either, so I changed it up a bit. If you’d like a watermark free printable of this girl version, you can find it here. Printables from The Happy Scraps are for personal use only.
I’d love to hear they ways that you encourage your kids to be Valiant, Brave & Strong. What are some things you do to help letting them grow up?

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