Aquarium!!

What a fun place our local aquarium is!! It's nothing compared to SeaWorld, but for young kids I think it is perfect. A year pass is very reasonable, and the kids can run around and you don't have to worry too much about them getting lost (although I have lost my nephew there before....I still feel bad about that Camille :)



On my fun at home blog I posted about this fun little activity, but I simply made an Excel spreasheet scavenger hunt with stickers for when they found the different ocean creatures. Skylar loved it and it added something a little different to the usual outing. My cute sister in law and her kids joined us, aren't they darling?! Skylar and Raegan are two peas in a pod, and even though Kendall and Kade don't look TOO thrilled, I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun too! :)

I LOVE me a plan!

Don't you??!! Nothing makes me feel better than having a plan, a system, something to follow. It makes me feel much more organized and on top of things :) However, as wonderful as I am at coming up with these fantastic plans of mine, keeping them up is quite a different story. That is why I decided to post some of our most successful "systems" with the hope that this will give me some accountability. If I post I am doing something on my blog I better actually be doing it, right? :)



Even though shes only 4, one of the biggest arguments I have with Skylar is what she's going to wear :) She has a very, um...., distinct sense of style that isn't always weather or season appropriate. Was that a nice enough way of saying it? :) I have started picking out 5 outfits a week and putting them in this sweater organizer. On Sunday nights I fill it up, and then every morning Skylar gets to choose what outfit she wears. It has been great so far, and has cut out SO much contention. It all just goes back to letting them have choices, but only with options that are acceptable to you! :) I am no parenting expert, but it works for us!



FOOD! Is it just our house or are you always talking about food?! My kids are always asking me what they can eat, whining that they are hungry, wanting treats, etc. I was starting to get really frustrated so we started doing these snack boxes. Every night before the girls go to bed I fill up their snack boxes with food for the next day. An example would be a banana, yogurt, string cheese, fruit snack, pretzels, celery sticks, and a 100 calorie pack of ding dongs. The rules are the kids can eat whatever they want, whenever they want, but when the food is gone it is GONE and they don't get anymore. This has worked out surprisingly well. I have been impressed with how they will save the yummiest "treats" for later in the day, and how much they enjoy having options to pick from. Anytime they are hungry they just go to their snackboxes and have at it. One more source of contention eliminated! :)



Finally this is our book of activities! I have started compiling different activities for different themes, and I usually try to pick a theme a week to focus on. Inside the binder I have sheet protectors that are labeled with that weeks theme. Things included are fun recipes, matching games, coloring pages, crafts, songs and poems. I started doing this right after I had Kendall so I am getting a good amount of themes. My goal is to have 40 different themes with activities, then I can add some if I have time, but if not our week will already have some fun things planned. This has been a great resource for me, and allows me to PLAN ways to do fun things with my kids :)

Well, there you have it!! These are probably really basic things, but these systems have sure made our house a more fun and peaceful place to be!

Welcome 2010!!

I LOVE the start of a new year!! My list of resolutions is a mile long, and I can't wait to get going on them :) Somewhere towards the bottom of that list is keeping up on my blogs. Since I know I will never catch up, I am going to skip posting Christmas and all of that fun, and just start fresh again!!

I have a feeling 2010 is going to be a great year for our family. Skylar will be starting Kindergarten next year and Kendall preschool. I (for once:) have more kids out of diapers than in, WAHOO!! And maybe, just maybe, we'll start working on another addition for the family :) Big things are happening with Pauls job and its exciting to see where they may take him (and us!)

Last year I picked one word to work on for the year. It was balance, and honestly, I think I did ok. Thinking about how I was last year, and I how I am today, I DO feel more balanced. I wanted to choose another word for this year and after some experiences I had this last week it has been very obvious. And the new word is....


EMBRACE!!!

Kind of weird, right? :) But once again, I have seen firsthand how our lives pass by much too quickly. I want to look back on 2010 and KNOW that I embraced every challenge, every trial, every accomplishment that came our way. I want to feel like I treasured and embraced the mundane moments of motherhood that now can feel tedious, but that I know in my later years I will miss. I want to embrace my own personal weaknesses until I can conquer them and they become my strengths. I want to embrace my family relationships that may need a little more work, but that will be that much sweeter for it.

So on that note, since I am now "embracing" our new church time (1:00:) I'm going to go cuddle my kiddos in my bed. Happy New Year everyone!

Change is hard...

But it is so good too. Today I have thought alot about changes in my life and how I deal with them. I was released from the Young Women's presidency today in my ward, and it is such a bittersweet thing. A part of me is so excited to be able to give that time to my children and husband, do some things I have wanted to do for the last two years and have simply had to let go. The other part is just plain sad. I grew to love the Young Women so much, and also the other women I have served with. I have made dear friends that I have learned so much from and I am better because of them.
Today as I sat in church, I just kept thinking "did I do enough?" "Did I adequately express my love and the love of our Savior for these dear Young Women?" And finally, "did I do the job my Heavenly Father called me to do?"
I don't know for sure the answers, but that isn't the important part :) The important part was realizing these are questions that we all have to answer, as mothers, friends, wives and daughters. And frankly, we never know when we will be "released" from our different callings, and when it will be time to be accountable to our Savior.
I have a renewed energy and desire to be able to answer these questions positively when it comes to my most important and treasured calling...that of Mother. Am I doing enough, am I showing my children my love for them and our Saviors, and mostly, am I doing the job my Heavenly Father has called me to do?
So today as I try to be grateful for one release, I am excited to work harder and be better and more loving in all my other "callings" :)

Britton

The last 6 months have completely flown by! My little guy is not so little anymore, and is getting more and more fun by the day. He loves to roll around and play with his toys, he does NOT love baby food, being on his tummy, or those two mean teeth that are trying to push through! He is still as lovable and sweet as ever, and getting chunkier by the day, just the way I like him :)

Murder at the Juice Joint!

Last year our friends Nate and Kristin threw a great murder mystery party (seriously you guys, we had a blast!:) and we wanted to keep the tradition going and have one this year too. We decided on the Murder at the Juice Joint, a 1920's themed party!

It was so fun!! We have some great friends who really got into it and made the night a lot of fun.


This was the main table, I love to throw a party!


Gotta love a fun party favor! Beer mugs filled with mini Martinelli's Sparkling Cider


These were the different envelopes that had your objectives you had to accomplish before and after the murder.


Prizes for Best Dressed, Most Money, and Best Actor. I just decorated old formula cans and filled them with chocolate covered pretzels.


Here are the invites, had all the background info and character information.


Here is the whole group in all our glory!


Everyone examining all the evidence and voting :)


Detective Pinkerton (Matt) at the crime scene. Poor Nick (Paul) was the one to go!


These are the drinks, it was supposed to be a bar after all!

It was a really fun night, thanks for coming everyone! :)

One of our better family home evenings

So more often than not our family home evenings are, well frankly, disasters :) That might be a little dramatic, but they just don't usually turn out the way I envision them. This one however was great!! The kids had fun, it kept their attention, and Skylar is still talking about it.

Lately Skylar has been having a little trouble with lying. I think its pretty normal and part of a stage she's in, but still, I felt like it needed to be addressed and I think fhe is the perfect place for that. So for this one I got two big pumpkins. I cut the tops off of both of them and scooped the guts out of one, and left them in the other. Then I made up a silly story about two pumpkins, Patty and Perry. Both cute pumpkins made some mistakes and told some lies, but Patty said she was sorry and tried very hard to not do that any more. Perry didn't say he was sorry and kept telling more and more lies. I then talked about how Perry felt inside when he kept lying, and how Patty felt when she apologized and didn't lie anymore. Then I had the girls stick their hands into the pumpkins, Perry was yucky and dirty, and Patty was nice and clean. I asked Skylar what she wants her insides to be like, you can guess her answer.

It was really, really fun and a good visual for something I am always trying to explain. You could also definitely use this for repentance or a lot of other things. Then after we carved and painted the pumpkins and just enjoyed being together.

And of course, gotta have a fun dessert and dinner :) I saw these pizzas at Papa Murphy's and thought "I could do that" :) and saw these cute candy corn desserts online somewhere, I am sorry, I don't remember where. It is just butterscotch pudding, then banana cream pudding, with some cool whip on top.