Cutting the Chaos...the Prayer Chair!

Hello everyone!! I hope you are enjoying these precious last few weeks of summer! With the start of the school year coming up I decided I wanted to rededicate myself to Cutting the Chaos in my home, so today I am posting one idea and will continue to do so at least once a week. This one was SO simple, literally took less than 10 minutes, and should really cut the contention at almost every meal in our home :)

ALL the credit for this idea goes to my amazing sister-in-law Jen! I saw this at her house probably a few years ago now, but haven't had the need for it in our home until recently. Does anyone else have the problem of kids fighting over who gets to say the prayer before EVERY meal? Up until the last 6 months my oldest was really the only one who ever wanted to say it. Recently that has changed to include my 4 and 2 year old as well, and I was getting more than a little tired of starting off every meal with a fight over who prays! Kind of ruins the spirit, right?! Reminds me of when my girls started hitting each other because they couldn't agree on the lyrics to Love at Home....ironic....;)

Anyways!! Jen had a cute little sign hanging on one chair that designated who got to say the prayer for that meal, and they would just rotate it around every chair so everyone got equal turns to pray. Now, we have set seats at our house, and that is really the only way this will work. Otherwise your kids will just fight over who gets to SIT in the Prayer Chair :) So I simply scrapped this fun little sign and printed off two copies.

Then I laminated both papers, stapled two equal pieces of ribbon to each paper and created our Prayer Chair sign! Here is what it looks like at my kitchen table...

Pretty cute, right? :) This morning at breakfast was the first time we used it and it was a hit! There was no fighting and the kids were excited for lunch when the Prayer Chair sign would make its move. It was so lovely to not listen to fighting and not having to try and remember who I had promised the next prayer to at dinner the night before.

Thank you SO much for stopping by, I hope you found a teensy bit of inspiration to Cut the Chaos in your life, even with something as simple as this :) Have a fantastic week everyone!!

Linking up at Craft Goodies

Clean-up Week!

What a fantastic week we had learning all about Cleaning up! Actually it was so fun and the kids were doing so great with it...I extended it to almost 2 weeks so we could get to all the fun activities we wanted to do. I wanted to take these two weeks to help the kids understand the importance of cleaning up, help them see all the work that goes into keeping up a home, and teach them its OK to make a mess...as long as we clean it up after!

The first activity we did that the kids absolutely LOVED was making homemade bath paint. I found the original idea HERE and couldn't believe how much the kids enjoyed it. The great thing about this is I already had everything I needed on hand to make it and it was ready to go in under minutes.

All you do is take 1 C of white or clear body wash. I used baby wash so it would be tear-free. Then you mix in 4 Tbsp of corn starch and put into small containers. Add one drop of food coloring (seriously, only one, it goes a long way!) and you've got yourself some homemade bath paint!





The kids had SO much fun making a huge "mess" in the tub with all the different colors of paint, and then they had just as much fun cleaning it all up! We used paint brushes and painted letters on the walls and tub, and then the kids painted themselves too ;) I HIGHLY recommend this activity, it is quick and easy, and your kids will think you're the coolest mom around!!







One thing I thought would help involve the kids more in cleaning the house (aside from their basic chores like cleaning up their rooms) was making them their very own Cleaning Kits. I got all the supplies from WalMart for super cheap and I have been really surprised at how much they love them. Every day they ask when its time to clean...I know this will wear off eventually but I am taking advantage of it while I've got it!!







In the buckets I put a mitt duster, travel size Febreeze, Magic Eraser, sponge, travel size Clorox Wipes, and for the older kids little spray bottles with Windex and a small container of paper towels.

Then I quickly scrapbooked their names and taped them to the front. I think it has really helped them take pride in the jobs that they are able to do, and we have all been a little surprised at how many things they actually CAN do.

Like dusting :) Which is especially awesome because I have a huge staircase that gets very dusty and is usually very neglected....no more!! :)

Another really fun "messy" craft that we did was to finger paint with pudding. The kids couldn't quite grasp that they could actually stick their fingers in their pudding! But once they came around to it you can see they didn't hold back much :)

As I was doing some research online I found an article that I really enjoyed that had a lot of great tips on helping your young children clean up in a fun way! HERE is the direct link, it had some really great ideas that I have already been implementing in my home.

Finally our letter of the week was the letter C and if you so choose you can find the tracer pages and letter C template HERE.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you found some fun ideas to inspire your children to help create a clean, organized environment in your home. I have to say though, my favorite thing about this week's theme was what it taught me! So often I don't do things because of the mess it will make, but I threw that all out the window as we did some seriously messy crafts...and I loved every minute of it! The memories created were worth any amount of mess...and as we learned, you can always clean up after ;) Hope you all have a wonderful week!! :)

Linking up at Gluesticks, Craft Goodies

The First Vision Family Home Evening

Okay guys, tonight's family home evening was one I will never forget. It was so simple, peaceful and the spirit was felt by everyone. I'll tell you in advance, there was nothing cutesy about this fhe, no fun games, no cute printables, no themed snack. Just the family, a Book of Mormon and being surrounded by Heavenly Father's beautiful creations. Sometimes (like today) I really feel inspired as to what our fhe should include, and the inspiration I got today was to get out of the way and let the spirit do all the teaching.

Today I wanted to teach my children the story of the First Vision and Joseph Smith's experience in the Sacred Grove. I thought a fun, unique way to do this was to take the kids up the to the mountains, have a picnic dinner, and then quietly read from the Joseph Smith history and testify to my children of the incredible events that took place years ago.

As we sat surrounded by beautiful trees, the sound of the birds chirping and a nearby creek, the spirit was strong and testified of the truthfulness of the things we were reading about. The kids were calm and peaceful as we talked about how the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph, called him by name, and answered his humble prayer. It was a beautiful evening for our little family. We closed by singing Praise to the Man (one of the songs the kids have been learning in Primary this year) and a closing prayer.

It's hard to see in the first picture I posted, but its a picture of the Sacred Grove and at the bottom it says "What happened here changed the world. Let it change your life."

What happened in the Sacred Grove when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ DID change my life. I love Joseph Smith. When I was a teenager there were many things with the gospel that I struggled with, things I didn't understand or agree with. But one thing I KNEW was that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that through him the gospel of Jesus Christ had been restored upon the earth. As my husband and I bore our testimonies to our children I was once again filled with wonder and gratitude for the wisdom and love of our Heavenly Father and the faithfulness and diligence of the prophet Joseph. I am so glad we had the chance to share these feelings with our children and encourage you to do the same! Even though they are so young, they have an amazing ability to feel the spirit and understand more than we can even comprehend. I certainly know I usually learn much more from them than they do from me!;)

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Fit Friday...a healthy body image!

Welcome to another Fit Friday!! Today I want to focus just a little bit on the way we view ourselves, our bodies, and mostly how these feelings can affect our children. I am certainly not a professional when it comes to these things, but I did have 2 experiences that I wanted to share that have really impacted me and my attitude about my body.

I've been very lucky in the sense that as I have gotten older, I have gotten a lot more comfortable in my skin. I've always had a fairly good self esteem and tried to acknowledge areas that needed improvement....and then worked to make it happen. Until I had my son that is :) After over a month and a half on bedrest and regular nightly trips to the local Iceberg for shakes, things were not looking too pretty after I had my little guy. For the first time I could remember I was really embarrassed about my body. I didn't feel comfortable going out, I wouldn't wear a swimsuit when I took my kids swimming, and I was grumpy every morning as I tried to squeeze into something that didn't look TOO horrible. But one morning something Skylar said brought about an amazing realization that has stuck with me to this day.

My girls had a hard time while I was on bedrest, and one of the things Skylar missed the most was me playing duck, duck, goose with them. She LOVED that game and could not understand why I had to lay on the couch all day instead of chasing her around. Well, one morning as I was in my closet just staring at all my depressing options Skylar came running in, gave me a huge hug and said "I am so happy you are normal again and can play with me Mommy!!" She was so happy that I had a body that could once again function as a mommy, and all I was doing was tearing apart that body for not looking the way I thought it should. I remember thinking about how I cried EVERY night on bedrest, feeling so guilty that I couldn't take care of those precious children the way I wanted to and just dreaming of the day I could run, chase and play with them again. Well, now that day was here and instead of showing my gratitude for a strong body that not only allowed me to do all those wonderful things but had also brought a precious new spirit to the earth, I was filled with insecurity and dislike. It was a life-changing moment for me. I was no longer ashamed or embarrased. Instead I was filled with a healthy desire to make the most of this body I was given, to take care of it in a way so I can do all the things I want to do, and mostly a deep gratitude for it. I am so grateful for that moment. Now as I strive to once again get this post-baby body back to where I want it, there is no dislike or discouragement. I know I am working on it, and that makes me okay with where I am RIGHT now. I look at all the things my body CAN do, even if its NOT fitting into that one perfect pair of jeans :)

Okay, 2nd one! Sorry, that was pretty long :) Years ago a sister in my old ward told me a story that made a huge impact on me. She talked about how when she was little she thought her mom was the most beautiful woman in the world. Then one day she heard her mom talking to her friend, saying how fat she was and how much she disliked this and that about her body. It totally changed the way my friend looked at her. She had never even realized her mom was overweight, to her she was perfect. But once she heard those things, she started to look at her differently and even later became embarrased about her mom's weight and the way she looked. As a mother of 3 daughters I KNOW how much they listen and absorb, and it terrifies me how young they are starting to notice and worry about things like this. That story made me want to be more aware of the way I talk about myself and others around my children. The world will do a good enough job of teaching them they are never skinny enough, pretty enough, or just enough...they certainly don't need to hear it from their mother too.

This week my Fit goal is to acknowledge the things I LOVE about myself and my body. This is a hard one...much harder than running 3 miles ;) But I think its probably much more important too. So even though I'm still on that fit journey, I am going to acknowledge and celebrate the things I am doing right, and cut myself a little slack on the areas that still need improvement. Let's hear it ladies....what are some things you LOVE about your body?? Here's mine for the day: even though I am about 10 lbs bigger and haven't been for 4 years...I can still tear up that 5:15 am spin class like nobody else!! :) Have a great week everyone and thank you so much for stopping by!!

Nephi's Courage Family Home Evening

This was a great family home evening that we did last night that the kids really enjoyed! We are currently studying the 1st book of Nephi in our family scripture study and I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about Nephi, his obedience and how we can be more like him.

I started off by printing off this scripture and laminating it. Then the kids all repeated it after me several times and we talked about what it meant. I think it is such an amazing concept: yes, the Lord WILL ask us to do things that are difficult, but as He does, He will also provide a way to help us accomplish these hard things. I want my kids to trust that, and KNOW that Heavenly Father is always with them every step of the way...if they will just let Him be.

After we talked about the scripture I played for them the song "Nephi's Courage". The church's website has MP3's of all the primary songs, so I just played it for them on my computer. We especially focused on the second verse that talks about how Nephi built the ship. Here is the direct link to the song "Nephi's Courage".

Since we just read about Nephi building the ship, we talked how about hard that would have been to do. We discussed how Nephi's brothers were always murmuring and complaining. Then we talked about how to build the ship, Nephi needed tools. I tied that into how we need tools in our lives if we want to be as Nephi was.

I thought it would be fun to play a matching game with the kids, so I whipped up these printables for our game "Match It....Don't Murmur!!" I just printed 2 of each off in a 4x6 size and laminated them. The only catch was, if you turned over a card that said Murmur, you lost your turn! Each pair of cards had one tool that we need to be as Nephi was. Some examples are prayer, reading the scriptures, obedience and more :)

The kids really enjoyed this game and asked to play again and again after our dessert.

And speaking of dessert, we had Banana Boats that the kids got to "build"....okay really it was just a banana with ice cream and different toppings....but they loved it! Can't you tell from the chocolate all over their faces?! :)

One of the best parts of our family night?! The spontaneous running through the sprinklers at bedtime :) Hope you all had a wonderful family home evening and this may be of help to someone! :) Thanks so much for stopping by...and have a great week!!

Beach Week!

I LOVE Beach Week at our house! There are so many fun activities to do and the kids always have a great time and learn alot. This time was no exception...the only problem was halfway through the week I misplaced my camera! SO, since we did some of these same activities last year I just included those pics instead, you get the idea! :)

The first craft we did was to go to the dollar store and pick out some cheap frames. Then we also got a buch of bags of sea shells. We came home and hot-glued the shells all around the frame. They turned out so cute, I am actually going to put them up in my beach-themed bathroom. No camera for this one, so here is a pic I found online that looked really similar to what we did.

We have a fun little "beach" by where we live and the kids absolutely love it! We went there two times last week, the first time with our fun cousins, and the second time all by our lonesome :) The second day I did something we did the last year that the kids loved...while the kids were out playing in the water I quickly had a bunch of sea shells for the kids to find. They LOVE using their shovels and buckets to find sea shells at our local beach. It is SO cute to see how excited they get. It is something SO simple that brings them so much joy.

(Again....no camera...pics from last year :)

The other craft we did was to decorate foam visors and talk about how important it is to protect ourselves from the sun when we are at the beach. The kids love anything to do with stickers so they all had a great time.

Finally for one of our snacks we made Beach Cups! All you need is some vanilla pudding, blue food coloring, Nila Wafers, and Swedish Fish.

While I was making the pudding, I put the kids to work. Put a bunch of Nila Wafers in a plastic baggie, give them a cup, and let them work out some aggression smashing those wafers to itty bitty pieces! Britton especially enjoyed this part :)

Once you have added blue food coloring to the pudding and got it to the right consistency, fill a small plastic cup about half way with the pudding. This makes up your ocean :)

Then you take those baggies back from the kiddos and dump the crumbs on top, making your sand.

Finally let your kids put some Swedish fish in there....and you've got yourself your very own Beach Cup!

Our letter of the week was the letter B, and HERE is the link to the tracer pages.

I hope you all have a fantastic week and thank you so much for stopping by! I am really excited about this week's theme, make sure to stop by next week to find out how it goes ;)

Saturday at the pool

We had THE best Saturday we have had in a long time! Paul was out of town for a week, and then the week he got home he had so much to do at work and a lot of things at night...it honestly felt like we hadn't seen him in two weeks. I wanted to plan a date night for him and I on Saturday, but when I was telling Skylar about it...she got so sad! I realized the kids missed him just as much as I did, so instead we planned a family date night at the pool :)

This pic totally cracks me up. Paul had ALL 3 kids hanging on him as they went around and around the lazy river. My favorite thing about it? My kids are all singing at the top of their lungs "Rolling down the bayou....rolling down the bayou!!" You know...from Princess and the Frog? We started singing that once when we went around, and now they call it the Bayou everytime.

Avrie looked a little concerned...:)

LOVE them :)

We stopped by a local ice cream shop after to top off the night...the kids were in heaven (and so was mom! Took a break from my healthy eating and had a huge cone of Burnt Almond Fudge...so worth it!:)

In looking for someone who loves ice cream as much as I do....I finally met my match! Look at Skylar's happy face :)

Since Skylar declared that EVERY Saturday night should be family date night, I think it was a success! Oh, I love this precious family of mine!