Smiling this Sunday

Happy Sunday Everyone!!

There are so many things that are making me smile this week, but I wanted to share just a few.

If we are talking about things that make me smile, you can bet my kids will usually be at the top of my list. I've been trying to hard lately to turn off the tv, step away from the computer and just BE with them. It is amazing how funny, imaginative and CUTE they are! :) Most nights after we eat dinner the 3 older kids get into their "excercise clothes" and come downstairs. They then run wild around the house for at least 30 minutes, chasing each other, doing somersaults, tackling daddy, and more. It is such a silly litle thing, but I love how much fun they have and picturing them in their little "excercise" outifts always makes me smile (especially Britton in his swimsuit!;)

I LOVE Valentines Day! The fact that it is only 2 days away brings a huge smile to my face. In my family growing up, we always got visits from the Valentine's Man after dinner on Valentines Day. The Valentines Man knocks on your door, but when you answer it he is NEVER there! BUT...he always leaves little gifts for the kids. The fun part is...you never know how many times he is going to come! The gifts he brings are small, but the fun and excitement are HUGE! This is probably my favorite holiday tradition we had growing up, and I love sharing it now with my kids too.

Finally, participating in Service Bootcamp is bringing a HUGE smile to my face today! This week I have tried every day to do a small act of service. It has been so interesting as I am learning...the service is blessing me probably more than those I am actually serving. Some of my acts of service have been bigger, and some have been terribly small, but each has taught me something.

Last Tuesday I woke up at 5 like I do every weekday morning to go to the gym. After the gym I hurried over to Walmart to pick up a few things before I had to be home so Paul could get to work. I was rushing so I wouldn't be home late, and specifically went to the NO coupon register. I know that Tuesday is double coupon day so I knew I would be late if I got stuck behind someone with coupons. I run over to the register with the big no coupon sign...only to be stuck in line behind a girl with about a MILLION coupons! I'm not gonna lie...I was irritated. I don't like this about myself, but when I get like that, I tend to get kind of bratty and passive aggresive. I'm never outright mean, but I make it pretty obvious I am bugged (NOT my finest quality, for SURE!) As I stood there, the thought came to me, "This is your opportunity for service today. Instead of being grumpy and snotty, you will treat this girl kindly." SO small, right?! The crazy thing was, I started talking to the girl and she was in some serious need of a little kindness at that moment. She apologized profusely, told me that they had told her to come into that lane. She had just had a baby 8 weeks before and because of severe carpel tunnel syndrome during her pregnancy she was having surgery that morning on both of her hands. Her sweet little baby that was with her at 6:30 in the morning had a double ear infection and was obviously in a lot of pain. She was in huge hurry because she needed to get the baby to the Instacare, before her surgery. Long story short-she had a long horrible night and she was preparing to have a long, painful few days as well. It didn't cost me anything to be kind to her, and I left feeling SO glad I had not added to an already stressful day for this young mother.

I am grateful for the chance I have to focus on serving this month. I smile as I think about not only those that are being served, but hopefully the way I am learning and growing as well. Something so small...but that had an impact on me.

I hope you are all finding LOTS of things to smile about in your lives today! I will be back tomorrow with a simple, fun scavenger hunt for your kids on Valentines Day!

Where Does Love Come From craft

We read the sweetest book and did a fun little craft to go along with it.

This is a sweet book about where love comes from. Does it blow in the wind? Does it bloom in the garden? In the end we find out what we already knew, true Love comes from your heart. It was a sweet little book that my oldest daughter enjoyed reading to all of us.

The thing that caught my eye about this book was the cute heart cut-outs on each page. The kids loved trying to guess what was on the next page and seeing through each heart. It inspired our heart craft for this week :)

All we did for our craft was get out 12x12 piece of cardstock and some paint. Then I got out all the different paint brushes I had and let the kids go at it. They made polka dots, they used their fingers, they mixed the colors...it was awesome! It was fun to see how free they felt, and what they would come up with when they had no instruction. They especially loved seeing how the colors changed when they were mixed together. They were having so much fun, I got into it myself! :)

Once we were all done painting we took another white 12x12 paper and folded it in half. Then I cute some hearts in different sizes and we placed the cut-outs over our paintings. The kids LOVED seeing their finished creations, and the girls helped me cut the hearts for their masterpieces.

I love how our projects turned out! The kids had a great time experimenting with paint and seeing they could create something truly beautiful.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a great weekend!!

Yes, my house is kind of a disaster...

and I'm still in my pajamas...

and my kids sort of look like ragamuffins...

and I haven't started dinner yet...

but I'm totally ok with it :) Wanna know why?

Every once in a while, I schedule a "Lazy Day". Yep...I schedule it. I don't make any appts or playdates that day, I work all week to TRY to get caught up on the house, and I leave my day wide open. Wide open for total laziness :)

Laziness for me means no project for a day. I turn on a movie or my Kindle while the kids are at school and napping. I let the laundry piles sit.

It is lovely. And do you know what's funny?! By the time "Lazy Day" is over, I am usually totally rejuvinated and excited to tackle the next day. AND...I never let myself feel guilty about "Lazy Day". Its a great day to take a breather, enjoy doing normal fun stuff with my kids, and it reminds me how stinking lucky I am to be a stay at home mom that CAN occasionally choose to have a lazy day. Plus...you can't feel quilty if its on the schedule!! ;)

So I encourage ALL you SuperWomen out there...schedule your very own "Lazy Day"...and DON'T feel bad about it! Even if its just a Lazy Hour. We all need some downtime away from all the stress and responsibilities in our lives. It can change your perspective, make you grateful for those responsibilities and renew your dedication to the things that are most important in your life.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Valentines Activity Days Ideas

I am lucky enough to be one of the Activity Days Leaders in my ward, and I absolutely love it. The girls are at a great age and I work with some really wonderful women as well. We are doing a simple activity this work that is a fun way to tie Valentines Day into treating others with kindness...especially those in our families.

To get started we are going to talk about the importance of words. Do they really affect us? Examples where words have either teared us down...or lifted us up. Then we are going to discuss how we can implement more kind words in our homes.

For our first activity I am giving the girls some pieces of paper for them to fold in half, and then cut out a heart shape. Once they have all their hearts cut they are going to write little notes to each member of their family to deliver sometimes before Valentines Day.

After we are done with the hearts I want to talk about how important it is to use kind words with our friends. As with all girls, our group could use a little reminder about how important it is to be kind to one another. I want them to realize that EVERYONE has talents and gifts, and when we acknowledge them we can really uplift and bless the lives of others. I have a piece of paper for each girl with her name on the top and we are going to take 15 minutes passing each piece of paper around to every girl and having her right something nice about that person.

Finally I made these little handouts for the girls. They are just mini boxes of Conversation Hearts with a scripture attached. I hope when they see this Conversation Hearts they will remember how important their "conversations" are, and that there IS power in the words that we use

These handouts would be great for any primary class, Young Women's, or family home evening...so please feel free to use them if you like! :)

Hope you are having a wonderful week everyone!!

February Service Project!

Happy Monday everyone!!

I'm so excited about our Family Home Evening tonight I thought I would share it today in case anyone was looking for some last minute ideas.

Remember a few months ago I started trying to implement doing a service project the first Monday of every month? Yeah...we missed a few Monday's :) BUT!! We are going back at it again today and I cannot wait. So here is our simple family service project we are doing tonight.

There are so many wonderful people that serve in churches everywhere. Some of the most special ones I believe, are those that serve in our Nursery Classes. I never understood how important being a nursery worker was until I sent my own kids to nursery. These children are SO young, but they CAN feel the spirit. They can feel love. They can work on things they are learning at home like sharing, being kind to others, sitting quietly, and listening.

This is not always an easy calling :) It is definitely rewarding, but can be a sacrifice. I am SO grateful for wonderful nursery leaders that go the extra mile in their callings. When my little 2 year old boy comes out of nursery and yells "I had fun in class!! And Jesus loves me!!" (happened on Sunday :) I know he is being taught by someone that truly understands the importance of their calling.

For our service project today we are attempting to serve the Nursery Leaders in our ward.

I know this time of year is FULL of sickness, and there are always little kids with lots of germs in those nurseries. Tonight we are going to the church with out Lysol and Chlorox wipes...and getting to work!! We are going to deep-clean every toy in those rooms, something that doesn't get done NEAR often enough :) I think it will be a great project that my entire family can work together at.

After we finish our work in the nursery, we made some little Thank You gifts to take to the nursery leaders in our ward. All you need to make these are mini-powdered donuts, container, and printable! :)

First I put a bunch of donuts in a little clear cylinder I had saved from somthing or other. Love when my hanging on to random packaging actually comes in handy! :)

Then I added a little thank you printable I made up with a little ribbon

And you have yourself a cute Thank You gift for nursery leaders! They deserve much more, but at least they will know we recognize and appreciate all their hard work.

And if you are at all interested...here are the 2 different printables I made.

My children are the most precious things in the world to me, I hope I can be better at showing my gratitude and serving those that so selflessly serve them.

Hope you have a wonderful family home evening tonight!

Smiling this Sunday

I decided I wanted to have Sundays on my blog full of things throughout the week that brought joy to me. I'm still working on trying to focus on the 99% in my life :)

Some of them will be little things, some will be big, but I can think of NO better way to go into a new week than remembering all the GOOD in my life.

So sit back and relax...and see all the things that are making me smile today.

This one is pretty self-explanatory :) This was my little bug after she woke up from her nap the other day. She looked so happy and chubby it was all I could do to not just squeeze and squeeze. She has just stared scooting ALL over the house. She is very content because she can be on the go...but I am having to vacuum about 5-6 times a day! That little girl will scoot by 47 toys to get that ONE beautiful piece of fluff! She looks just like my oldest daughter, sometimes looking at her takes me back 6 years. I love my little Avrie bug.

This picture was taken just a little over a year ago. It is a picture of my 3 older kids, their 2 second cousins, and their Great Grandpa Howard. Grandpa Howard passed away a week ago yesterday and as I was going through my emails I found this picture he sent me. I LOVE this picture. I LOVE that my children got to know their Great Grandpa. Because of different family situations he wasn't a part of my life growing up at all, and I never thought we would be close. For me to be able to spend the last few years communicating with him, and having my children love him and he love them...it has been such a blessing to me. A reminder that it is NEVER too late to build relationships. I am so grateful for all he was able to give to my little family, we are better for knowing and loving him.

This picture makes me smile because this is how my kids ALWAYS are. They are always smiling, looking all put together, hugging each other, singing sweet songs together, and telling me constantly what a great mother I am.

HA! Not quite! :) This picture makes me smile today because it reminds me that somewhere down deep...my kids might actually like each other.

They fight. All the time. Everyone assures me this is normal, but after the week we have had...I needed a little proof that they CAN sit next to each other for 5 minutes without screaming, pulling hair, kicking or crying.

On Christmas day I finished a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 40 days. It sounds cliche to say it was life-changing...but it truly was. I am smiling today because my Dad and I together are going to do something similar with the New Testament. I am so excited to dive into the life of the Savior, and to share that experience with my dad.

Finally I am smiling today because of this fantastic blog I found. She is doing a month-long service boot camp...a way to get you and your families to serve, in any way you can! As soon as I saw it I enlisted me and my troops...and I can't wait to get started. We are doing a fun fhe tomorrow night that is our monthly service project...I will be sure to let you know how it goes!!

So now its your turn...what things are making YOU smile today?? :)

Valentine's After School Snack

Hey everyone!! Now that its officially February Valentines Day is right around the corner. I LOVE holidays and try to squeeze every bit possible out of the day :) Here is a really simple, yummy after school snack you can give your kids on a cold Valentines Day :)

I don't know about you...but my kids LOVE cinnamon sugar toast! This is also going to be a special treat for them because I NEVER buy white bread. I figure thats just one thing I can substitute in our diet that will make a big difference. My kids (and when I say kids I am including my husband!:) always beg me to buy white bread so they are really going to think this is a treat :)

To make this cute toast all you need to do is toast your bread, then butter it lightly. Once it was buttered I cut it into a heart shape and then sprinkled my handy-dandy Sparkling Sugar on it to make it look so pretty :)

I always shake off the excess in the sink....my kids don't need THAT much sugar! ;)

For the drink you could do Strawberry Mik, regular milk with a little food coloring, or French Vanilla Hot Chocolate with ONE drop of food coloring. My kids always come running in from school with little red noses and cold hands so I am opting for the Hot Chocolate.

When you put it all together, you have a fun, QUICK after school snack to give your little valentines :)