Follow The Arrow

Field Trip! Edventure Children's Museum

2012-01-30T08:14:00.000-08:00

This was one of those field trips that I never would have taken my kids too on our own because it would have been $9.50 for each of us and all four of us went. Ouch!! Yeah, couldn't have afforded that. However, we are part of a home based public school (South Carolina Virtual Charter School) and they pay for field trips. YAY!! I am so grateful. So, on Friday we were able to go to the Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia. Hooray!! Here are some pictures from our experience.

Meet Eddie. He was a giant kid (do you see the little kid at his shoulder?) that the kids were able to play inside and slide down his intestines and stuff. Doesn't that sound fun? "/

Here's another shot of Eddie. Just trying to show how big he is and these were taken from the second floor. ;)

This was Collin in his head.

Collin and Paul in the "farm" area.

Ryanne went grocery shopping. She was soooo excited about it too.

Fire girl!! Collin was on this earlier but he was with Paul and Ryanne was with me so I got more pics of her.

Drumming with the African drummers on the green screen. This is a picture of the TV monitor.

In the rain forest.

This was one of the kids' favorite rooms. Here is the giant chess set. There was a checkers set just as large. You KNOW that Collin was happy. He and his dad played chess and then he and another mom played checkers. So fun. The other mom had a cane and pushed her checkers around the board with the cane. It was awesome and she was so great with teaching Collin the game. ;)

Ryanne played the bean bag toss game and the...

Giant Jenga game!! She knows this one b/c we play a version of this game during general conference. ;)

Another shot of Eddie with Ryanne. And, yes, the watch is a real clock that kept the actual time. ;)

This is Dr. D. He taught the kids about science lab safety and he was funny in a very cheesy sort of way. Paul and I groaned a lot at his jokes but the kids seemed to enjoy it. ;)

Menu Planner

2012-01-26T06:37:00.000-08:00

This is the menu board. YAY! It's magnetic so I can easily change around the foods we're going to have. Hmmm.... today is the 26th so you can see that we will be having Lemon Pepper Chicken with Noodles tonight. :)

Here is the little container that I keep my recipes that go with the ones on the board. They are divided by categories... Asian, Breakfast (we have breakfast for dinner, k?), chicken, Mexican, pasta, pork. seafood, steak, miscellaneous, side dishes and desserts. :)

I love it! Paul thinks it's cluttered so he's writing a computer program that will be able to replace this plus more. ;) hehe! He wants the wall space back.

Hair

2012-01-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

We've been doing more hair styles with Ryanne. It's been fun!! :) Here are a couple of our favorites. :)

These were supposed to be micro twists but I learned that I didn't have the patience for them so they turned out to just be mini twists. hehe!! :) Next time... maybe... I'll try micro twists. Or, maybe I won't.

Here, I french braided all of her hair up into a ponytail on the top of her head. She loves me doing her hair now. At Christmas we put a texture softener in her hair. It's basically a very very mild relaxer. It pulled her curls just enough that they don't tangle in a split second. I still have to detangle her hair twice daily but it's so much easier and she brings me all of her hair stuff and asks me to do her hair so, it's great. :)

Handwriting Help = Epic Fail

2012-01-23T18:36:00.000-08:00

Handwriting is sort of the bane of school right now. Collin seriously is not a fan of phonics at all and handwriting is what he hates the most. Learning has always come fairly easily for him and he's a perfectionist. Well, he's also a Kindergartner learning to write and when his letters don't look EXACTLY like they do on the handwriting sticker strip he gets very angry at himself and declares he "can't do it!" Oh! I very much dislike that phrase. I had been researching ways to get children to want to write and one of them recommended using the child's imagination and interests to my advantage. So, I told Collin that he was an astronaut and he had to write the words I dictated to him to save the rest of the crew before their oxygen ran out.

It worked... at first. He was so eager to save his crew. Then he started stressing and hyperventilating. Paul came out to talk to him and calm him down but that didn't help. So, finally, I took him in my arms and held him for a minute. Then, between each gasp, he got out the phrase, "Will you... turn that.... off?" He was pointing to the timer that was telling us how much oxygen was left. I turned off the timer and in a few minutes he was breathing normally again. He said, "Let's not do that again."

So, moral of this story is... don't use this method on a child with a very vivid imagination. It just might backfire on you. haha! Poor kid!

Update on the add-on!! :)

2012-01-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

I'm all smiles b/c I'm so excited!! We met with the contractor this week and he said that what we have planned is well within the budget that we set for ourselves. He's working on getting us an "official quote" and then we'll work on the loan and the plan is to have it completed by the end of the summer!! Hooray!! So, we've lived in our little 1,000 sq ft home for over 7 years now. Notice that it's 2 bedroom and one bath, all the entrances to the house are on the right side of it and the laundry room is kind of outside. "/ This was bigger than the house that we used to live in and had tons of room.... 7 years ago when it was just Paul and me.

We've been feeling a little squashed in it though with 4 of us living here, plus a dog, two cats and a fish. ;) At first we planned to just sell the house and buy a new one but after a lot of prayer and talking to contractors and real estate agents we have decided that we are going to add on to the house instead. We're going to add 500 sq ft to it making our home a whopping 1500 sq ft!! YAY! I'm so excited. Here is what we have drawn up for the home. Now, keep in mind that windows and things aren't right and even though there are no windows in the floor plan below... we will have windows. ;)

Okay, check it out. The kids will have their own rooms (the two at the far left of the house), we will have our own room (the one on the front) and our own bathroom, and then we can turn the current master bedroom (the one on the back) into a den. YAY!! Also, you will note the laundry area INSIDE the house!! Oh yeah!! I'm so excited after speaking to the contractor and finding out price ranges and things. We're going to continue the hardwood floor through out and put a set of french doors in the new master bedroom and in the dining room to the backyard. Yeap!! I'm excited!! So... for 2012 expect a lot of updates on this throughout the year! :)

Swiffer Duster reusable covers

2012-01-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

I love Swiffer products! I really do. The duster is awesome... it can be long or short and I can bed the end at any angle so that I can get walls or the top of the ceiling fan or anything. They are seriously awesome. But... I hate that they made them so that I must buy disposable duster covers all the time.

It's only about $3.00 for a box but I'm cheap and find it annoying. But, today I had an a-ha moment and saw on pinterest reusable ones. They were made from felt or something like that but I had microfiber rags that I use to clean with all the time. I LOVE microfiber so I thought, "Hey... I can do this. So, here is what I did....

So, I got an old, used rag. Yes, it's dirty... it's a cleaning rag. That's just the way it is. :)

Then I folded it in half so that the ends didn't quite meet.

I put my swiffer up there and decided that I could get three out of it so I cut it into thirds.

Now for the technical part... I traced the swiffer. Yeah, I really did. Remember that those arches are there to make it tight so I didn't leave any room for them. I just traced the straight part and formed a rectangle. I also just ignored the fact that there was no middle. The less complicated, the better for me. :)

Then I put three pins in just to hold it in place.

Then, I stitched it. I used a zig zag stitch and set it on the longest stitch possible. I just stitched it along my pencil marks.

See... easy peasy. I suppose you could stop here but I didn't.

I cut the fringe. :)


Now I have 3 washable duster covers for my Swiffer Duster. YAY!! :)

And you, my dear friend, are next! *evil laugh*

Carly

2012-01-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

I watched this youtube video and was in tears so I'm sharing it with you.

It's such an amazing story and if you're interested, here is her blog http://carlysvoice.com/ .

Van Gogh?? No..... Is that the TARDIS??

2012-01-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Yes. Yes, it is the Tardis!! :) It's from DOCTOR WHO!!! Isn't it awesome. And, yes, this is now hanging up in my living room!! :)

Sight Words exercise!

2012-01-14T06:12:00.001-08:00

I was so excited when I saw a picture of this on Pinterest. Such a cute way to practice sight words.

Isn't it super cute? It's a parking lot and I tell him where to park the car and he has to find the word or I park the car and he has to tell me what word I park the car on. On pinterest, it's a mat on the table and a little boy is using a real toy car to roll around but this is better for us b/c we just don't have the space. This hangs on the wall so we can go to it in the morning. It's how we start off phonics class which is Collin's least favorite of all his classes so it's a great way to get him smiling at the start of it. =o)

TaeKwonDo

2012-01-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce that last night Collin was tested for his next belt and did an amazing job. He was focused and his movements were strong and perfect! He was awesome!

He's a camouflage belt level one in the Tiny Tigers program!! YAY!! This means that he is going to start sparring. I am not sure how I feel about other children hitting my boy but it'll be good for both him and me. We'll toughen up... right?

First Grade Math

2012-01-14T05:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, my son is still in Kindergarten but he completed his Kindergarten text book before Christmas vacation so his teacher wanted to test him to make sure he retained all the information. After a 45 minute test and a score of 100% (teacher said there was slight hesitation on two questions but he got them right) the school decided to move him on up to First Grade math! YAY!!! :) He is loving it! He especially loves that he is allowed to work with number over 30. He has been learning <, >, and = signs. I don't remember learning that until second or third grade. I was shocked when we got to that chapter but he LOVES this section. Anyways... here he is working on his first grade math. :)

Ryanne was learning about shapes and was in the background cutting cookie dough into shapes. hehe!! We had very funny shaped cookies that day. ;)

FHE (thank you Pinterest)

2012-01-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm sorry to all of those whom I have teased for using Pinterest. I thought it was just a bunch of pictures of crafts but it's not. There are how-to's for organization, recipes, building things. DIY projects... awesome! Anyways, tonight for dinner we had this:

It is not very healthy at all but it is oh so yummy! I tried to balance it out by serving it with a salad. The recipe came from Pinterest. LOL! But you can get it from the blog here.

Then, I got the FHE lesson from... wait for it... Pinterest. :) You can get it here. Basically, I wrapped a Book of Mormon and let the kids watch a video about Joseph Smith getting the plates. Then I talked about my present and how I wanted to know what was inside it. So, I let the kids open it and then we talked about the "gifts" inside the Book of Mormon and how we're going to read it as a family together to find them. We read the New Testament last year together so this should be fun! :)

Finally... dessert. I bet you won't guess where I got that recipe from either. Okay, I just won't say but you're probably right. ;) Here's the recipe. Basically, we each made our own cake in a mug. Yes, you read that right... in a mug! haha! Crazy, right? My kids thought it was awesome! They got to make their own individual cake.

We learned quickly that we needed a saucer under each of ours. Apparently our mugs are smaller than the person's who wrote the recipe but that's okay. The kids thought it was cook to watch them overflow down the sides. We just mix them and cook them in the microwave for two minutes. So much fun for the kids. None of us could each that much cake but that's okay. We just have dessert for tomorrow night too. ;)

Goals for 2012

2012-01-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Goals scare me. Often my goals are just too high and I never achieve them. So, hopefully my goals this year will be achievable. We'll see. So, here are my goals.

I will do better at journaling -- at least weekly.
I will do better at preschooling Ryanne.
I will complete at least 2 hrs of MY school/day M-Sa or 12 hrs/week.
We will do FHE every week!! We are a bit sporadic with that. I know... bad bad Linda. We do family scripture and prayer every night though. Does that give me some points?

Anyway.... those are my goals. Totally achievable right? I've joined a journaling group on FB, I have Ryanne's curriculum and plan all worked out and I found a blog that gives a year of FHEs. Awesome!! Whoo! So, those are mine. What are yours?

Lesson plan template

2012-01-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted a lesson planning book for my kids since Ryanne is homeschooled and Collin is virtual schooled. However, every lesson planning book I found wouldn't work for us and our schedule. They weren't very adaptable. The other day I read on a blog by a teacher that she made her own. Duh! Why didn't I think of that? So, I made this on excel... completely adaptable so you can do whatever you want with it.

This is our schedule but yours may be very different. If you'd like a copy of this (and I hope this works because it's the first time I've ever used this) click here.

I'm finished with the dining room furniture!!

2011-12-31T12:56:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited that I'm finished. Hooray!! I have finally finished re-upholstering the dining room furniture.

Kind of a before shot. I had already done the chairs but you get the idea. :)

A "before" shot from the kitchen.

After shot from the kitchen. Can you tell this is also where we do school? hehe! ;) All those European flags in the background.

After shot.

What do you think? I'm so excited that we'll finally be able to eat at the table again. There are no Christmas projects going on there and the chairs are all together. YAY!! :)

Smarty Pants!!

2011-12-30T16:23:00.000-08:00

We are starting preschool with Ryanne on Monday and she does this thing where she pretends she doesn't know stuff. It's really easy stuff too so... Paul and I have a plan. If she wants to earn a treat from the "Smarty Pants" then she has to try. She cannot pretend she doesn't know things. She's super excited about it and she's already stopped (mostly) faking not knowing things. It's awesome. Here are our "Smarty Pants".

This was before it was stuffed with "Smarties" but now the pants are puffed up full of candy. I just sewed the legs of the pants shut and then ripped out the stitches to the belt loops and then sewed them back on over the hanger. So, we're encouraging our daughter to be a "Smarty Pants". Collin will earn some too when he shows himself to be a Smarty Pants too.

I got the idea from Pinterest and here's a link to the blog. You can also print out stickers notes and the label above for it too but since it's for my own kids I didn't see any reason for that. Although, we may go with the stickers... not sure yet. I think we'll just stick with the pants for now. ;)

New colors in the dining room!

2011-12-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

Our dining room table is the coolest table ever. It looks sort of like a quarter of a circle so there is a cornered side and a rounded side. So, it has a rounded bench and two chairs. I think it's the neatest table ever and we bought it for $20 early in our marriage about 9 years ago. The upholstery is a bit out-dated and frayed so we are re-upholstering it.... on piece at a time. Today, I did the two chairs.

Before

After

What do you think? I've never re-upholstered anything before and, I must admit, playing with the staple gun was a lot of fun!! :)

Organizing the pantry!! :)

2011-12-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

My grandmother gave us money to buy Christmas presents with and Paul and I bought shelves for the pantry. Yay!! Up until now, it was just a door-less closet that we stuck a bookshelf in to hold the food but it was only about half of the space so there was tons of wasted space. We decided it was time for shelves. But, first, we had to have a place for the wrapping paper (I saw it on pinterest. )

This is standing in the door-less closet looking up at the ceiling.

This is from right outside of it. We tied yarn across from one wall to the other and then slid the wrapping paper up there. Isn't that awesome?

Now, on to the shelves!!

Here are the NEW empty shelves. We had room to put all our boxes of food on the floor under the bottom shelf... yay!! And... of course Ryanne had to find a way to be in the picture. LOL! :)

Here it is full of all the food in the house (even the food from the bedroom) except for the buckets and the food that makes up our bed. Yes, we're weirdos who have a box springs and mattress on a bunch of food. ;)

The book shelf is what used to be our "pantry". Now, it holds all of Collin's school stuff that previously took up space in the living room and master bedroom. Hooray!! I'm super excited!! :)

Now, what will our project be tomorrow? I love that Paul is off all week. The poor guy has a very long 'honey-do' list but I am absolutely LOVING it!!! :)

Christmas gifts put to use. :)

2011-12-26T15:28:00.000-08:00

In Ryanne's hair stuff was a texture softener. It's a chemical and sort of like a mild relaxer. She has been wanting a relaxer but I didn't want to straighten out her beautiful curls so I thought this would be a nice compromise. Her curls pull out a little so they're more manageable but the curls are still there. This morning I was able to do her hair. She didn't even cry b/c there were only a few tangles. It was amazing and totally unlike her hair. The curls are pretty much the same to look at but touching and styling is where the difference lies. Love it!! :) Here's what I did this morning but I figured out that her hair is a bit too short for it so I had to use a few bobby pins to keep the braids in place. Remember, I'm new at styling her hair in braids and such but hope to get much better so no judging. I'm just so excited that I'm able too now!! YAY!!

Above view.

Side view. I tried to do box braids and criss crossed them into a little bun. :)

Wait! There's more. I also made the kids pillow mattresses. I cheated a little bit though. I made them out of old sheets that I bought at Goodwill for $2 each and then the pillows were $2.50 so each pillow mattress cost me a total of $12. YAY!! Apparently the kids love them! :)

They are four pillows each and they doubled them up under their head. Collin then pulled the last pillow over him to watch Fraggle Rock. ;)

They realized I was taking pictures so decided to ham it up. haha!!

A Simple Christmas

2011-12-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to go with a simple Christmas. We didn't want it to be huge and crazy but simple with a focus on Christ. So.... here is what happened.

Christmas Eve we planned to visit the grandparents but Paul and Collin both complained about their stomachs hurting and after a week of the stomach bug we decided to play it safe and stay home. We watched the Christmas story videos put out by the church.They can be found here. Then, Paul and I waited for the kids to go to bed to welcome Santa. But, after Ryanne went to bad, Collin asked us the dreaded question, "Is Santa real?"
I couldn't lie to him and Paul and I had decided a long time ago that if our children asked the question then we would answer it honestly. So, I talked to him about how Santa was once real. He was a man who wanted to follow Christ's example and give to others so he gave to everyone and then he died. Now moms and dads all over the world leave gifts in the name of Santa to help bring in some of that Christmas magic. I told him he couldn't tell anyone b/c then the magic won't be fun for others anymore. That's when I gave him Ryanne's stocking stuffers and let him play Santa for her. He thought it was so fun. Paul and I have decided that when the kids know the truth then they get to be "Santa" for the other one. ;)

Okay, back to our Christmas. Christmas morning the kids were allowed to look in their stockings.

Inside the stockings were socks, coal chocolate, play-do, chocolate orange, a couple of candy canes and a Christmas orange. Then, their shared gift was 14 Word World DVDs w/ flash cards.

We had our traditional breakfast of monkey bread. My normal recipe is packed up in storage so I found a new recipe that said for me to leave it on the counter all night to rise... well, that didn't go so well...

There was a lot of rising going on that night. LOL! :) It tasted good though. =o)

Then the kids talked to Nana and Papa in Wyoming on the phone. There was no complaining of upset tummies so we went to church at 10:30 for the one hour Christmas program. Afterwards we came home to leftovers from breakfast for lunch. We were waiting for Mimi to open the gifts.

Finally, around 2pm Mimi arrived and it was time to open gifts.

Collin received a Giant Book of Cool Stuff, pajamas, a stuffed bear (from Nana and Papa), a box of science experiments (from Aunt Sylvia), a lego set, carnivorous plant kit, a couple of books - one about stars and the other about volcanoes (from Mimi), church shoes, homemade pillow mattress and a planetarium projector (from us).

Ryanne received magnetic dress up dolls, pajamas, a doll (from Nana and Papa), a weaving dress up set (from Aunt Sylvia), a first laptop, Angelina Ballerina book, a coloring kit (from Mimi), a mosaic magnetic shapes kid, hair supplies, and a homemade pillow mattress (from us).

Together they also got the game "What's in Ned's Head?" LOL! Such a funny game. A little creepy but fun.

They got a lot of gifts... more than I expected but that's okay. All the gifts are things that they'll play with and enjoy and not the type of gifts that will get pushed to the back of the closet and never seen again.

Now, for our simple Christmas dinner -- chili and cornbread. Yeap, that's it. To make it even simpler, I made it in the crockpot. I got everything read Christmas even and stuck it in a container in the fridge. Christmas morning I dumped it in the crockpot and it was ready when it was time to eat. Super simple. Loved it!! :) I think the whole family liked the simple Christmas plan. I think we'll continue with it. We also made pecan pie and the kids were in charge of the chocolate chip cookies. :)

Apple Pie Cookies... oh my!

2011-12-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

These things are amazing!! The recipe is here if you want to make some and I totally recommend that you do!! :)

Pinterest... and my linen closet???

2011-12-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, everyone kept saying that I had to go to pinterest b/c it's so addicting. Well, the last thing that I need is an addiction. I mean, I hardly have anytime as it is. Well, today I gave in to peer pressure and went to pinterest for less than five minutes and I see a problem. My problem isn't in the addiction part but in all the projects that I'm about to have on top of full time classes and virtual schooling Collin and my book blog and being a mom and keeping the house (not listed in any particular order). In the couple minutes I was there I have already found a project for me... ya ready?
I want to turn my linen closet from this:

Notice that I have everything from linens to toolboxes to craft stuff, lightbulbs and giftboxes in here. haha!! I guess that's what happens when one has a limisted supply of closets. Also, the door is only about 2' wide (that's being generous). So, I want to turn it into something similar to this:

Source: hauteindoorcouture.blogspot.com via Jordan on Pinterest

Isn't that beautiful? They fit so much stuff in there. Yes, I am going to this. However, I'm not starting it until after the holidays. By then, I'll find another projects to start from pinterest probably. hehe!!

A Dalek Family!!

2011-12-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, if you know me then you know that I'm slightly obsessed with Doctor Who.A lot of people have those little family stickers on the back of their mini vans, well, I wanted one too but slightly different.

This is on the back of my van. :) YAY!! From left to right we have Paul, me, David, Collin, and Ryanne. They also had the option to get K-9 for the dog image but they didn't have any cat images so we didn't think it fair to put Arwen on there and not Baker or Miss Callie so no little animals. But K-9 would have been cute on there!!

Wrapping Paper Fun

2011-12-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

So, the kids wanted to play with wrapping paper so I gave them the last of some on a roll. They had quite a blast! They decorated my kitchen for me. I walked in and found this...

Then, they had an giant paper roll and I had another since I had been wrapping gifts so guess what they played with next. :)

I had to make them stop "sword" fighting long enough for me to take a picture of their decorated wrapping paper roll things.... "/

Birthday Boy!!

2011-12-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind on the blog so there will be several posts today. ;)

First, Collin's birthday party. My son turned six. Ack!!! I can't believe it. Anyways, here are some pics from his birthday party... enjoy. :)

Collin's science themed cake. Isn't it awesome? No, I didn't make it. I'm not quite that talented. I did help mix the colors for icing... does that count for anything? hehe! :)

We made Non-Newtonian Fluid b/c Collin absolutely loves it and... as you can see, it turned into a big hit. Good thing it's just corn starch and water b/c that's a huge mess.

Cutting the cake. That's Kami under the big, red blanket. She was a bit cold.

Collin and his best friend. Luckily for us, this family has a daughter Ryanne's age and they are great friends and their mom is pretty awesome too and I love to hang out with her so they make good play-dates for the kids b/c we all have someone to hang out with. =o)

Discipline

2011-11-30T13:33:00.000-08:00

We've done the Mommy Money thing with rewards and stuff for a couple of years now. Our children are almost 6 and 4 right now so we have been taking away privileges lately along with the whole Mommy Money thing previously mentioned. It is amazing how well it has worked. The problem is that I haven't been following through well -- for a few hours I'll take something away but that's easy. So, I made up a chart. This way Paul and I will know what's going on and so will the kids. Is this totally lame?

The sun means outside, the television is obviously no tv time, the computer is no computer time, and the people means no friends over. The box is for me to write whatever I think should be taken away. Then the numbers is for how many days they don't get that privilege. Lame? I dunno but it's already working. Collin has no computer time and Ryanne has no friends over both for one day. I put it in a sheet protector and use a dry erase marker on it. :) I'm hoping it works. We will see....

Christmas Activity Advent Calendar

2011-11-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Yay!! I love these things! We do this every year so it makes it easy to just go in and rearrange things and remove the ones we don't want to do again and add in new things that sound fun. :) Yeah... I'm excited. So, here's our plan for this year. ;)

December 1st: Start filling David's stocking with good deeds.

Every Dec 1-24 we read a scripture, sing a song and read a store each night. The first story is the story is about a family who fills a manger with straw for each good deed to make a bed for baby Jesus. In our family we fill David's stocking with paper for our good deeds. We can't give him anything else for Christmas so this is our weird little thing we do. :)

December 2nd: Ward Christmas Party

December 3rd: Prelude to Christmas (stake musical program)

Paul is playing the guitar in the swing band for this program so the kids and I are probably going to go and support him. :)

December 4th: Watch First Presidency Christmas Devotional

December 5th: Sing Christmas songs together.

December 6th: Make Graham Cracker Christmas House

December 7th: Write letters to Santa

December 8th: Make a "cup o'sunshine"

These are cute little things to help brighten the days that have gotten so short. You decorate a cup and fill it with something to brighten someone's day then give them away to people. :)

December 9th: Make peanut butter pine-cone bird feeders.

December 10th: Collin's birthday party

December 11th: Drink cocoa and look at pictures from past Christmases.

December 12th: Look at lights at the local gardens.

December 13th: Make snowball soap surprise for the kids' friends.

December 14th: Volunteer at the Salvation Army

We're doing this as a field trip with Collin's school. ;)

December 15th: Watch "Polar Express" and eat popcorn.

December: 16th: Make our own Express.

This is a train made of rice krispy treats and decorated with candy and frosting. Fun fun!

December 17th: Secretly do something nice for a family member or friend.

This is a challenge extended to the kids but Paul and I join in on the fun too.

December 18th: Drink cocoa by the fire and read Christmas stories.

December 19th: Drive around and look at lights.

December 20th: Make and eat snowman pancakes for dinner.

December 21st: Yule log hike.

We go on a hike in search of a yule log to light in the fireplace for the longest night of the year. ;)

December 22nd: Make all the treats for Christmas baskets for extended family.

December 23rd: Possibly caroling with some friends.

December 24th: Christmas Eve Program

We have a Christmas Eve program that intertwined with music and scriptures. Awesome!!

December 25th: CHRISTMAS!!!!! :)

Happy Birthday, Ryanne!!

2011-11-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Ryanne's birthday. She is FOUR years old. Ack!! I can't believe it. =) Anyways... here's a post dedicated to little Ryanne. =o)

Here she was, almost 8 mos old and her first day with us. She's so small. haha! And quiet! Can any of you picture our little Ryanne quiet? Yeah, not me! =o)

She can be super cute!!

She can also be quite indescribable. :)

So, our little Lady Ronni Bug (as she prefers to be called now a days) wanted a birthday party this year!! :) Before the birthday party we had to spend some time dancing in her new tu-tus from Nana and Papa. :)

Kami got some great pictures of this little dance-a-thon that was happening in our living room. I'll have to post some of those later. So... on to the party!! We had it at... wait for it.... Chick fil a!! Yeah, are any of you surprised? haha! And one of my friends made an awesome princess castle birthday cake that was not only the most adorable cake ever but it also tasted delicious!!! (That's always important with a cake.)

Several kids were missing when we started singing. It was hard to get them all out of the play area. hehe! And, after we sang, everyone in CFA clapped. My face is turning pink all over again. LOL!

I am just so happy that Ryanne came to be part of our family and that we are able to celebrate her fourth birthday with her even if we were not able to celebrate her birth. She is such a joy in our lives and provides us with great entertainment and a new adventure everyday. I love that little girl so much and just so happy she is my daughter!! =o)

Update on us!

2011-11-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm a bit of a slacker with this blog. Sorry. I've been very good at keeping up with the book review blog but this one I've been slacking off on. So, here's an update for all of you fabulous people!! :)

This is part of school -- "Life in a pond".

"Life in a Cave"

This went with our unit on Millions of Cats. Collin got to decorate his own cat and name him and he named him "Sparkly Harry".

We went to a circus activity w/ Collin's school -- it was a birthday party too. It was awesome! We all had to go with some sort of act so Baker participated. He was lion and Ryanne was the lion tamer. :) Collin was a music man.... we attached instruments to him everywhere so he could play them all at the same time. It was awesome!

Book Reviewer... success??

2011-11-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

So, for Christmas I received a Nook. Oh yes, it was the most wonderful thing ever!! The downfall was that the books were too easy to buy. I didn't have to go to a store or wait for it to arrive or anything. I just had to click, "Buy" and then "Confirm" and then it was right there. Right at my fingertips. I realized that I was spending too much money on books so I had to come up with a cheaper way to receive books. Free? Anyone giving away free books? It turned out that there were. The catch? I had to start reviewing book on a book review blog so I created my own blog to review books. I started the blog in March and received my first free book in July. I started going through smaller publishing companies.So, I would get a book and review it. No big deal. Anyways... a few months later my fan base has grown and I am now getting contacted by the marketing companies for authors and I'm super excited!!! As of right now I have three book review blog tours scheduled for November, three for December, an author interview and an author guest blog for December. I also have a book review blog tour scheduled for March and an author interview. I am super excited!!! :) Best of all.... all these books are FREE!!!! :) I am so excited for my little blog. Hooray!!! =o) I was just so excited that I wanted to share. =o)

Life in a tree

2011-11-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

In science Collin has been learning about what all living things need to survive. Yesterday we were learning specifically about how animals need homes and all the help trees are in this. So, we built a tree with animals in it in our dining room. :) What do you think?

I don't know how much you can see but in this tree there are two bird nests, two koalas, two monkeys, two deer (on the ground b/c trees provide shelter for them, too), two squirrels (one is on the electrical outlet), and two tree frogs. I think that's it!! :) Isn't it cool!! :) The kids each colored an animal so the strange colored animals (pink deer, purple monkey, purple koala are all Ryanne's :).

Halloween Costumes

2011-10-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

So, I was fussed at by one grandma for not having the pics up here so I figured the others would want to see the kiddos in costume too. :)

Ronni was a sailor. She found out that sailors get the pirates when the pirates take things that aren't theirs. Her response was, "Ooooh, I'm going to get Kaden!!" (A little friend of hers who was going dressed as a pirate.) haha!! I thought it was hilarious. Collin is a ninja and for those of you who don't know, he just became a second level yellow belt Tiny Tiger in his TaeKwonDo class so it was fitting. And, yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet. I didn't notice until later though. Sorry!! :)
So, Saturday night we went to the church Halloween party and then went trunk or treating. After that we went to a friend's house for a party. Woot!! We were a bit worn by Saturday night. Then tomorrow for Halloween we are going to cook a traditional harvest feast and the kids are going to wear their costumes all day. It'll be fun. Then Tuesday, we're going to hit up the candy at Wal-mart for their after Halloween candy sales. YAY!!! :)

Oh!! Afterthought that I came back to add. Why did Ronni choose the sailor costume? She was trying to decide between this one and super girl and she finally chose this one b/c the skirt came down to her knees. She has been the modesty police and the supergirl costume wasn't immodest. The skirt came just below the knee but Ronni decided that this one would be better. LOL! I thought it was cute. ;)

Our reward system...

2011-10-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

People have asked me for details recently so I thought I'd repost this from one of my other blogs here. :) We've been using this system since April 2010 and LOVE it!! :)

Okay... my kids earn "Daddy Dollars" or "Mommy Money" by completing tasks/chores/school, good behavior or whatever I want the kids to do. Then they get to go to the "Mommy Mart" to spend the 'money'. It can be small toys/candy/tv time/computer time/family walks/game night/movie night/out for icecream...etc. Whatever you can think of that your kids would enjoy. You go to this site to print out the money.
Here's our money (it's me b/c dh wouldn't pose for a pic, I didn't have a good one of him and he didn't want it on there anyways -- the bum!! haha! )

Here's the chart that I made. I used a manilla folder and folded it so that it was a tri-fold (lapbook style:).
This is the inside ---

Here is the outside. This is where the kids' money that they've earned goes --

Here's a close up of jobs and rewards -- remember, my kids are 5 and 3 so I thought the pictures would be useful. 5 yo can read some words but I thought this would be more helpful for him.I do need to update this chore chart though. They actually do more chores now that they are older. :)

Originally, the kids only earned, I didn't take any away. However, they lose "Mommy Money" now if they disobey or fight.

Another thing we did to get the kids to start cleaning their room on their own (we don't do it anymore b/c they can do it all by themselves) is I set the timer for 10 minutes. Then I told the kids they had to clean their room before the timer ran out. If they succeeded before the 10 minutes ran out then they got 10 little chocolate chips (any very small candy would work). If they ran out of time then I started taking away a chocolate chip for every minute they went over. So if they cleaned their room in 13 minutes they would only get 7 chocolate chips. But.... it went the other way too so my kids tried to beat the clock. For every minute under they got an additional chocolate chip. So, if they finished in 7 minutes they got 13 chocolate chips. See why we went with small candies?? hehe!! We only used this method for a month or so and they haven't used it for a long time now but it worked beautifully! LOVED IT!!

What sort of reward methods do you use with your children?

Becoming Equal Partners

2011-10-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

I totally loved this article called Crossing Thresholds and Becoming Equal Partners. Last night I was supposed to talk about it at a meeting but we ran out of time so I have all this information that I felt like sharing. I will use a lot of quotes from the article too. It starts off like this:

His house key is in the lock. He’s home from work and about to step inside. In the kitchen, real life is scattered all around. The baby is crying. The three-year-old just poured milk—not in a glass but all over the counter. The seven-year-old needs some daddy attention. And dinner isn’t ready.
With a deadline at work tomorrow, a head buzzing from rush-hour traffic, and a Church meeting tonight, he’s hoping she will greet him with some relief.
Hearing him come in, she is glad a relief party has arrived! But when she sees his face fall as he looks around, she defends herself: “Look—I work all day too. I’ve been with these kids nonstop, and I really need a break. Will you please fix this macaroni and cheese and help with the kids?”
In the heat of her request, his hope evaporates into exasperation, and he is about to react.
At this crossroads of their busy day, these two have some choices. Will they use this moment to practice being the kind of companion each has covenanted to become? Or will each one default to past conditioning—familial and cultural? Certain attitudes and ideas have crept into the very air they breathe, challenging them as they try to work with each other rather than against each other.

I loved this part b/c it just sounds so familiar. So often poor Paul comes home to chaos and I always feel that he should be my relief but he's just as tired as I am from work. Sometimes I have trouble remembering that he's had a rough day too so I LOVED this reminder. :)

The article goes on to discuss that perhaps the wife in this scenario was raised in a family where the mother was dependent and taught "girl power" and such. Well, in our situation that is SO true. I mean, I was raised by a single mother so, yeah, females can do anything. GIRL POWER!! hahaha!! Luckily for me, Paul was not raised in a home stereotypical of the 50s. His mom was pretty independent as well but she always has a clean home and seems to have everything together. She is amazing. I'm not quite there yet, but it's something that I strive for.

The article moves on to talk about how couples should not be independent nor dependent of each other but interdependent. Here's another quote:

“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”... states that fathers “are to preside” and “to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families,” while mothers “are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” Fathers and mothers are to “help one another” fulfill these duties as “equal partners.”... the restored gospel teaches the eternal idea that husbands and wives are interdependent with each other. They are equal. They are partners.

I love that! Interdependent... what a great word and one I hadn't thought of. When I was talking about this with Paul he reminded me of a marriage class we took before we were married. They talked about how couples should be like letters.... You have 'H' couples. They had a couple stand up there and reach apart and hold hands, demonstrating that they don't really need each other. They are completely independent and the other is just there. Then you have 'A' couples. They had a couple stand up in front and lean on the other forming the ^ in the A. If one of them moved the other would fall and they were completely dependent on the other. Finally, the way we should strive to be is the 'M' couple. A couple stood up there holding hands but unlike the 'H' couple who were as far away from each other as possible the 'M' couple was together, closer, and working together along the way. I just thought it was a nice visual and felt like sharing. :)

The Hebrew for help in “help meet” is ezer, a term meaning that Eve drew on heavenly powers when she supplied their marriage with the spiritual instincts uniquely available to women as a gender gift... President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, "virtues and attributes upon which perfection and exaltation depend come [more] naturally to a woman.”

I loved this! I loved reading about how important women are. Men are the head of the family but the wives are TOTALLY necessary to make the relationship work. I think this is kind of funny because Paul normally says that he just trusts my instincts because they are normally right. ;)

The article goes on to talk about the men:

Genesis 3:16 states that Adam is to “rule over” Eve, but this doesn’t make Adam a dictator. A ruler can be a measuring tool that sets standards. Then Adam would live so that others may measure the rightness of their conduct by watching his. Being a ruler is not so much a privilege of power as an obligation to practice what a man preaches. Also, over in “rule over” uses the Hebrew bet, which means ruling with, not ruling over. If a man does exercise “dominion … in any degree of unrighteousness” (D&C 121:37; emphasis added), God terminates that man’s authority.

President Kimball said, "We do not want our LDS women to be silent partners or limited partners" but rather " a contributing and full partner." Together, a couple will make decisions and they will each listen to the counsel of the other. The man will listen to the "promptings of her inner spiritual compass just as she will listen to his righteous counsel." (What great information!! I loved this article... can you tell? Well, I'm not done.)

And for another great quote:

In an equal-partner marriage, “love is not possession but participation … part of that co-creation which is our human calling.”⁹ With true participation, husband and wife merge into the synergistic oneness of an “everlasting dominion” that “without compulsory means” will flow with spiritual life to them and their posterity “forever and ever” (D&C 121:46).

The article jumps back the scenario it discussed at the beginning about the young wife waiting for her husband to get home and here is what it says:

Young wife, do you see in him someone who has worked all day to bring sustenance to your table? Young husband, do you see in her someone who has worked all day to make nourishment of that sustenance? Can you both see beyond the doing of the day and remember the inestimable worth of the being to whom you are married?

Sometimes, being a stay at home mom, it is so easy to forget that I have done anything to contribute to this family. All our money comes from my husband. He doesn't feel this way, I know he doesn't but sometimes when were both feeling stressed about the day it is easily forgotten. I loved that this article reminds us of that. I may have to print out this paragraph and put it on my refrigerator. It would be a great reminder to me of how I should focus on my husbands feelings and remind myself and even though the house isn't spotless I did "make nourishment of that sustenance." I nourish my children physically, spiritually, and mentally every day and I wouldn't be able to do that without the sustenance provided by my husband. A great cycle for me to remember. :)

Finally, a journal entry from John Haslem Clark of Manti, Utah in 1921. This actually turned out to be his last journal entry.

“The folks have been here today, but have gone to their homes. The clatter of racing feet, the laughter and babble of tongues have ceased. We are alone, We two. We two whom destiny has made one. Long ago, it has been sixty years since we met under the June trees. I kissed you first. How shy and afraid was your girlhood. Not any woman on earth or in heaven could be to me what you are. I would rather you were here, woman, with your gray hair, than any fresh blossom of youth. Where you are is home. Where you are not is homesickness. As I look at you I realize that there is something greater than love, although love is the greatest thing in earth. It is loyalty. For were I driven away in shame you would follow. If I were burning in fever your cool hand would soothe me. With your hand in mine may I pass and take my place among the saved of Heaven. Being eight years the eldest—and as the years went by and I felt that the time of parting might be near—it was often the drift of our thought and speech: how could either of us be left alone. Alone, after living together for 56 years. I scarcely dared think of it and though a bit selfish comforted myself thinking [that] according to our age I would not be the one left alone.”

Another handwriting then appears later on the same page. It is Therissa’s voice, gently closing John’s journal:
“Almost two years and a half since the last writing, and its following events are so sad, so heartbreaking for this, his life’s companion that this pen has been laid down many times ere this record is made. Loss and loneliness [are] ever present and will be with me to the end. … Will time soften this sadness, will I be able to leave the Old Home and not feel that he is waiting for me, calling me? I am only content at home where I feel that he is watching over me, his presence always with me.
“On March 11, 1923, John Haslem Clark passed away after an illness of only one week. He seemed so like himself, talking and active. We had no thought that the end was near until he passed into unconsciousness a few hours before his death. Oh, may we all be as clean and pure, ready to go before our Maker.”

Finally, the article closes with this paragraph:

If our young couple could only know that this love is what they could feel and understand at the end of their lives, what wouldn’t they give! They’d listen more and choose better, over and over, day after day, crossing after crossing. They would learn, by patient experience, that “work is love made visible.”¹¹ They would realize as the years pass that their marriage is helping them become better disciples of Jesus Christ, even becoming a little more like Him. Then they would understand as they cross the final threshold of mortality that the extent to which they have become one with Him is the extent to which they are one with each other.

I will say that I am an incredibly lucky girl. I ended up with an extremely incredible guy whose family already taught him most of this stuff but often I find myself forgetting everything that he has gone through during the day. That is the main part that I need to remember in this article. I do think that Paul and I are pretty interdependent of each other. We had to learn that fine balance very early in our marriage when trials hit us and I'm so grateful for those trials -- not necessarily grateful for the death of my son but for the growth and opportunity the struggle allowed for us.

To my awesome husband -- Thank you, Paul, for putting up with me and all my "girl power" times!! Thank you for loving me when I make mistakes and for being there when I feel depressed or "off". Thank you for laughing and flirting with me and even for your sarcastic mouth. Thank you for being willing to spend eternity with me. I love you!!

Book Buddies

2011-10-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

So, Collin's school has Book Buddies. Yes, he is virtual school but this is Mrs Huiet and she came to our local library to have some time with the kids. If we include little Ryanne then we had K-4th grade represented in this group. ;) My kids thought it was awesome!! She read some books and then talked about some of the things the kids have been learning in the reading class and applied it to the book. It was fun!!!

S.E.E.D.

2011-10-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Science Education Enrichment Day... yeap, Collin was in heaven. We started off learning about neurons and Collin built one out of pipe cleaners. Then we moved on to glass blowing. This was exciting b/c Collin had learned about it in history when studying Italy.

Then we learned about minerals and the kids had to name a mineral to get a dum-dum. Then we moved on to the animals.

There's a little turtle!! There were a couple of them. :)

A snake wrapped around the light bulb.

A hawk. The kids couldn't touch the birds but they had the parts of a bird sitting around the table for the kids to touch. Kinda creepy if you think about it too hard but the kids enjoyed it.

Here's the owl. There were also owl pellets for the kids to dissect if desired. We didn't b/c Collin had an appointment in the Planetarium.

So, on to the planetarium for a show went Collin and me.

After the show we headed off to the quad where we found a truck that ran on water and a very exciting demonstration of levers.

Collin got to pull the pin and throw the tennis ball with the catapult.


It's hard to see but in the distance is a little boy with a red jacket on. That's Collin getting the tennis ball. It actually went pretty far.

The kids learned what to do if I was choking... do you see how hard Collin had to hit to get that gumball out of "my" throat. Oh my... I think that would have hurt. LOL! Ronni tried it too and the ladies teaching it had to help her get the hotdog out.

Time to make some paper!! Here's the pulp!

No, those aren't pancakes. That's round paper... they were cooking out the water. ;)

We did many other things but there were so many ppl that it was just hard to get the camera out everywhere. It was a fun day. Then, we went out for ice cream to make the day even better. Oh yeah!! :)

Colonial Times (field trip)

2011-10-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

So, we went on a field trip today and I'm exhausted. It went from 9am-1pm. Okay, so we left at about 12:50 but then we had to walk all the way back to the van so, yeah... it was pretty much 1. It was geared to kids a "little" older than Collin so I was surprised they lasted that long. It was tons of fun though!! Enjoy our adventures.....

This was George Washington. He was telling the kids all about his "adventures". He kind of lost my kids attention after ten minutes or so so we moved on to the guns... :)

This was one of Collin's favorite ones. This man explained step by step how the guns worked and he had samples of the barrels sliced open so Collin could see it all inside. He even fired the gun! Ryanne wasn't a fan of the loud noise so she and I went next door to the yarn spinner instead while Collin finished learning about guns, tomahawks, knives and swords.

Collin just looked so serious; I had to get a picture of him.

This was the arrogant French-man. He made lace and he was hilarious!! He was so haughty (an act) so it was just funny.

This is the Frenchman's wife. Ryanne thought that her dress was so pretty she wanted a picture with her.

This was the circus and the part that my kids spoke about most. This was one of those eye illusion things. He did some magic tricks and showed the comb of Medusa, a tooth from the whale who swallowed Jonah and some other things. Then... he moved on to the fire....

This was funny. He said, "Do you want to see me shove this lighted baton in my wife's mouth?" The kids all yelled, "Yeah!!" So, he did. hehe! ;)

He really did it for the kids though. He lit his tongue on fire and lit another baton with that flame. Fun! His finale was when he blew fire from his mouth. He made all the kids stand back. It was awesome!

Lunch

Finishing up lunch.

The kids watching the little creek that ran by where we had our picnic.

The wood carver.

Stockades. Neither of my kids were tall enough to reach so I could take a picture so Collin is lifting his sister into it. LOL! It was the best we could do. ;)

Toymaker!! My kids were here for a while.

More toymaker...

Still at the toymaker....

We just needed to get that stinkin' ball into the cup so we could move on from the toymaker's. Collin finally did so on we went.

The Indian Trader... no, he didn't trade Indians. I meant that he traded goods with the Indians. The follow pics of some of the stuff from his tent. In the picture above he was demonstrating how to make fire w/o a match.

The Blacksmith

Collin kept trying to get closer to the orange part. Freaked me out. We finally just left that building and went on to safer places.

This was a soldier showing us the food rations the men in the army were given. The ones on the floor were for the regular army men (rice, split peas, dried meat, vinegar, rum, and flour) and the ones on the table (which looked yummy-- chicken, fruit, cheese, pickles) was for the officers.

By the time we got to this part Ryanne was so tired she was cranky and yelling and crying about everything. Collin wanted to see so we quickly walked to other booths and looked to see who was there and then moved on to make a trip to the "Doctor Who Potties" (as the kids called them) or port-a-potties and then to the van. So, not pictured but also there were Indians, Benjamin Franklin, a leather builder person, a lady with information on tea, a woman doing those silhouette portraits ($20 each if you wanted one of you) and a few others that we just didn't make it to. Tons of fun!! :)

Update on virtual school

2011-10-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

The kids have been loving it!! Ronni participates in a lot of the classes. Collin gets 3 live virtual class each week. He has reading and math and then science and social studies alternate each week. He also just got his IEP and now gets two speech sessions with the school and one through private so, yes, he gets 3 speech sessions/week. On top of all that he has math, language arts and phonics lessons daily. Then he has art, history, science, and music which alternate; he has 2 lessons of each one/week. Ronni loves to participate... especially on the projects. He just had his monthly assessment with his teacher to make sure he was where he was supposed to be. We skipped the first 8 units of math b/c Collin already knew them. That equaled 16 weeks worth of work. So, she tested him on that to make sure he understood everything he skipped. He did!! She was shocked and bubbly when she realized that. At the rate he's going he should be moving up to first grade math in January. He is also reading and building words now. It's awesome. He got to start his first reader book today. Hooray!!

Ronni and I have been working on number recognition lately. She can count to 12 but she doesn't know what the numbers look like so that has been fun! :) It's not as fun for her as it was for Collin so our sessions are much shorter for her. She's only 3 so I don't want to teach the fun of learning out of her. We make it fun and when she's tired we do something else.

Here are some pictures of a few of our projects.
These are from history....

When studying the Netherlands we built a dike. The water is on the right side of the dike.

Then we built a canal to go with the dike.

This is Collin's diorama of The Great Reef off the coast of Australia from when we studied Australia. ;)

The following are science:

We've been studying plants and how they get nutrition so, of course, we had to do this classic science experiment. We ended up with a blue and red daisy. :)

This was when we were working on senses. This day we were focusing on the sense of taste. I blindfolded the kids and they had to tell me if things were salty, sweet or sour. It was fun!! Especially when I gave them the lime. LOL! :) It took a lot of trust on their part.

Collin pouring white vinegar into a jar.

Ronni placing a chicken bone into the jar.

Two weeks later - Collin demonstrating what happens when calcium is sucked out of the bone. (Obviously, this was when we were learning about the body and on the topic of bones.)

Mommy-Son date

2011-10-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

I took these pics a while back and haven't posted them so I figured I would today. :) Collin and I went on a date (we try to do these regularly but some months it just doesn't work out. It works well with our family b/c there are two parents and two children. hehe! So... we each get a child. Paul and Ronni went to Chick fil a for ice cream and to play in the play area. Not too exciting but we generally let the kids pick (as long as it's not too expensive).

Collin chose to go hiking. Of course he had to have a snack.

Yeap, that's a carrot in his hand. Told ya... he needed a snack.

Aren't we cute?

He was leading the way.

Sand River. Collin said, "Mom, I feel like there could be a gator down here." That's why he was bent over like that. His imagination freaked him out and he suddenly took off running in the direction he came from. I laughed so hard. It was quite funny.

After the hiking we went to Applebee's for dessert. Yummy!!! :)

Family Vacation w/ friends!! :)

2011-09-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

Last year we went to the mountains with some friends. You can see those adventures here. This year we decided to do it again but this time to the beach. Yay!! :) We rented a villa together. Our room had such a big closet that our children slept there. Okay, that sounds bad but really, it was big! :) Check this out...

Here's little Ronni getting ready for bed in her "room". :) See how much room there was? It was HUGE!!! Day 1 we didn't do much. We hung out in the house which had a screened in back porch which locked from the outside. This was great for the kids!! We didn't let them play in the backyard b/c there was a pond back there with a couple of gators we we opted with locking them on the back porch. ;) After dinner, we got the kids (all 6) in bed and the adults (all 6) stayed up and played games until after midnight (actually, we did that every night). ;)

Day 2: The kids, Paul and I got up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast and headed off to check out the beach. :) By the time we made it back to the house the others were awake, fed and getting ready for the beach so we changed into our swimsuits and headed back out. :)
It was supposed to rain all weekend and the morning certainly made us think the forecast was right.

The tide was low and there were little pools everywhere. The pools were great for the smaller kids and the waves fabulous for the bigger kids (bigger kids meaning my 5 yo was the oldest one there... LOL!).
Eventually the sun came out and we were all digging around for sunblock. :)

Here is a picture of our sand ~~castle~~ mountain with a mote. :) Hey! The kids had fun and they thought it was pretty cool. :)
After our beach adventures we headed home for lunch and saw someone swimming in the pond behind the house....

The kids thought it was pretty neat and of course it was my husband who walked to the edge of the pond to take the pictures of the gator... "/
After nap time it was off to the pool. I, unfortunately, forgot the camera at the pool but it was so much fun. Ronni borrowed a friend's life jacket which gave her a lot more confidence in the water than she normally has. When it was late and we were trying to load up the kids to head back to the house Ronni started crying as she yelled, "I have to stay here to practice my swimming. I might forget tomorrow." LOL! She's so funny sometimes. Collin was the oldest one there and he likes to stack cups. We buy plastic cups just for him to stack and apparently he's not the only one. Another family there did the same thing. Collin liked to build the towers and then let the younger kids knock it over. Sometimes they wanted to knock them over before he was finished so he would go into the master bathroom and build them and then invite the kids in once he was done to knock them over. Here's one of his towers.

That night we had tacos and the adults stayed up playing games... again. :)

Day 3 we all split up and did our own thing. Our little family headed off for the lighthouse.

We made it all 114 steps to the top of the lighthouse!! Yeah! We are awesome. We didn't even have to carry the kids. YAY!!!

Isn't that a great view from the top?
Then we found a park...

Then we headed home for lunch and naps. After naps we went back to the beach then came back home for pizza!! :) After pizza we went on a bike ride around the island until dark. After that, we all headed up to the Salty Dog Cafe where we had ice cream and the kids danced.

Then we headed home and put the kids to bed and.. well, played more games. :)

Day 4 we had to be checked out by 10am and the church there started at 10am so we were out a little before then. We were a little late for church but that was okay. I must add that it was really nice being able to go to Relief Society. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was able to go to that. I've been in primary (kids) for the past 3 years and before that I was in young women's for almost 3 years so... yeah, it's been a while. :)

Anyways... that was our exciting vacation!! =o)

Invisible Mother

2011-09-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought it was absolutely awesome. Especially since people say that I "just" stay home with the kids all day. I'm not leaving a huge mark on the world, I know that. But, I'm raising my children and I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it... I hope, anyways. So, I thought this was a pretty cool article.

Invisible Mother
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, “Can't you see I'm on the phone?' Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The Invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this?
Can you open this??

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, “What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, “Right around 5:30, please..”

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in.

I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, “I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:

To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.

These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, “Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, no one will ever see it.” And the workman replied, “Because God sees.”

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, “I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.”

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, '”My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.” That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, “You're gonna love it there.”

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Sparring!!!

2011-09-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

So, Collin technically doesn't have to start sparring until he is a camo belt. He is a first level yellow belt then he'll test for a second level yellow belt and then he'll be a camo belt so he still has a few months for me to worry about it. Well, today someone offered me his sparring gear for half the price. YEAH!! So, I bought his sparring gear. It's everything except for the mouth guard. So, I guess my little man is going to start sparring.

Paul was throwing punches while Collin blocked. We wanted him to see that this doesn't protect him from the hit... just adds a bit of cushion.

Collin was so funny. He's been bugging me to get sparring gear for him for a while but it's just too expensive and then this happened today. As we were leaving I said, "I have a surprise for you in the car."
Collin said, "Let me guess, you got me sparring gear."
"How'd you know?" I asked.
His face was suddenly super excited, "I just did. Where is it?"
"In the van."
"Yay!" And, he runs out to the van. "Where is it? Where is it?"
"In the van." I repeated.
He climbs in and looks around. "It's black!?"
"Yeah, is that okay?" I asked, worried b/c there are lots of different colors he could have chosen from.
"Yes, Mom! I don't care what color it is as long as I have the gear!"
He then held it in his lap the whole way home and carried it inside and put it on before I even wiped it down. Remember, it was used. Eeeewww!! Oh well. He is soooo excited about it. Now, I just have to get him a mouth guard. :)

Mud Bath!!

2011-09-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Ronni likes to play outside while I do school with Collin so, today she was playing the backyard. I ran out to check on her periodically and it's completely fenced in and our dog barks if anyone comes close so I don't worry too much. Then, I heard the water turn on and ran out there. She was making mud. She was already dirty and wet so I figured I'd just let her go at it. LOL! Collin and I did a bit more school then I checked on her again. Oh my!! I can't even describe what I found so here are some pictures.

Love this shocked face!! She saw me... she was caught!

Oh good!! I'm not in trouble! :)

So, she sat back down and continued playing.

The bathtub -- post Ronni. =o) I still haven't cleaned it out.. yikes! She also took a shower so part of it probably went down the drain. *fingers crossed it doesn't clog anything up*

First day of Class Connects

2011-09-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Collin is virtual schooled. This means he is schooled at home but he is technically in public school. He has a homeroom teacher, Ms. Neal, who also teaches his reading class. Then he has Social Studies and Science which is taught by Ms. Laney and he has Math which is taught by Ms. Hankins. We survived our first day of classes. Today he had Science and Reading and we still managed to do speech therapy and get all of his classes done. Hooray!! Here are some videos he watched in his science class... they are cute. haha!

Daddy is gone... :(

2011-09-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Paul left this morning for a work trip. So, in case you don't have a calendar that means that my husband is flying over D.C. on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. He'll be fine. We really aren't worried or he wouldn't be going. But, this morning we all gathered together to say a family prayer before he left and I think that's when it all hit little Ronni. As soon as the "amens" were said she jumped up into her daddy's lap and cried... and cried... and continued crying. She kept yelling, "I want to spend a long time with you, Daddy." We kept explaining that it's only 7 days and he'll be back next Saturday but she doesn't care. She wants him now.

Isn't that such a sad picture? :( Paul promised to talk to her on the computer (Skype) some this week and now she's at the computer with me wanting to see him on the computer. He's on the plane though and can't get on so she's settling with looking at pictures of him. Poor little "Daddy's Girl." She keeps holding on to me as if she's afraid that I am going to go too. So, I am going to go and give my girl some extra cuddles.

Hope from 9/11

2011-09-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

I have seen this video before and I love it!! I am so used to seeing ppl talk about how horrible the day was and the loss that was felt that day. I remember it and it truly was a horrible day and there was a hopelessness felt all across the U.S. but this family was able to find the hope from the experience and to see how it helped them find what is truly important.

DIBELS

2011-08-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literary Skills --- oh my! That is a mouth full. No wonder they call it DIBELS. It is a test for grades K-2. I had never heard of it. Did your kids have to take it? My 5 year old took it today and I was proud of him. An average score for a K-er is an 8 and he scored a 12. Then on the letter recognition, the average K-er should know 9 letters in 60 seconds and my son knew 28. YAY!!! :) I was proud of him. He did struggle for part of it. He's used to watching my teeth and lips to figure out sounds and he couldn't see his teacher (b/c it's a virtual school so it was online) and he couldn't figure out that she was saying the /s/ sound. Oh well. He still did awesome! YAY Collin!!

Parties, food, Mi-Mi, and BELTS!! :)

2011-08-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day. First, we had to get school done. We didn't quite finish it all before 11 but we got all but two classes (don't worry, we finished them later). From 11am-2pm was Collin's Back2School party!! Yay!! All the kids in the virtual school in our county (98 of them) met up at the local putt-putt place. I was able to take Ronni too. The three of us played putt putt and ate (hotdogs, chips and drinks) for free. The kids also got a handful of tokens for the arcade games and a token to the batting cages. Awesome! Ronni had never been to play putt putt and neither of them had never been in the batting cages before. Unfortunately, I completely forgot my camera for this event... blast! So, I have no pics to show. I did learn that Ronni may be pretty good on a softball team. Collin, not so much. ;) He put forth good effort though... he'll probably just stick with TaeKwonDo (which I'll mention here in a minute).

Then, my mom came!! YAY!! She lives on the coast and with the approach of Hurricane Irene we thought it would be better if she hung out with us tonight. So, my mom (Mi-Mi) came to our house tonight. Yay! That isn't the only reason she came. She also came to watch.....

Yeap! I have a first level yellow belt!! YAY!!! He was tested today!! Isn't he a cute little yellow belt! I think he's pretty awesome!
Then, Paul cooked dinner! OH yeah! I have an awesome hubby too. :) He made homemade lasagna, tomato salad with homemade croutons, bacon and cheese jalapeno rellenos, and cheese cake for dessert. Isn't he just awesome? It was wonderful too. Actually, I think I'm going to go and get me a slice of cheese cake right now. =o)

I'll post the video of his testing later. :)

The Butterfly Circus

2011-08-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

This was an absolutely AMAZING video. Both videos are only 10 minutes long so it won't take you too long but I recommend you watch it. =o) Loved it!!

A Day in My Life. :)

2011-08-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you all remember the post about the dentist receptionist who said, "just stay home" to me on the phone implying that I just sit around my house... if you don't then check it out here. For some reason, after this experience, I felt it necessary to post a day in my life. It's pointless posting it here b/c most of my readers are moms anyways. I think it will still make me feel better. ;) This was the other day and there were no errands or appointments or anything... yay!

My day started at 6am when my husband woke me up, as he does ever morning for prayer, as he left for work. That's when I get up for some "me" time. I read my scriptures and say my prayers and then read on my Nook (or check my websites if that's what I feel doing).

7am - Ronni came into my bedroom with a defeated look on her face. "Mommy, I peed and now my underwear and bed are wet." She looked so pitiful. I can't even remember the last time she had an accident but she did last night. I got up and she changed her clothes while I stripped the sheets from her bed. Then, I saw Collin's bed and figured, 'might as well.' So, I stripped his bed as well and threw it all in the laundry. Then I fed the animals - Baker, Miss Callie, Arwen, and Sushi (yes, Sushi is our fish). Then, Ronni and I headed outside to take the plastic bottles to the recycling bin.

7:30am - Phonics lesson with Ronni. We use the letter magnets and sing "Old McDonald Had A Farm" but instead of having animals, Old McDonald has letters and then they say their sounds. So, an example... she is holding A in this picture and singing A so I'll use that. "Old McDonald had a farm E I E I O. And on this farm he had an A, E I E I O. With an ah, ah here and an ah, ah there, here an ah, there an ah, everywhere an ah ah. Old McDonald had a farm. E I E I O." hehe! Okay, a little cheesy but it's fun for her. =o)

Collin woke up around 8am so then it was time for me to get their breakfast while they took showers and got dressed. Here was breakfast.... super simple but they take quick showers so not a lot of time.

Then it was my turn for a shower and for all of us to do our morning chores. After the chores we needed to start school. I have a list of all the subjects we need to do each day and I let Collin choose from those subjects. Of course, he chose art first.

The kids learned about portraits and self-portraits. We looked at some famous paintings and then I let them go to work painting their own portraits. They ended up quite... um... interesting.

That took so long that by the time we finished it was already 10am -- snack time!

I don't like to waste food so they had their leftover fruit from breakfast for a snack. ;) hehe! Yeah, I'm one of those evil moms. Collin was frowning b/c there was a soft spot on his plum. He ended up eating it anyways.
Then it was time for Social Studies. The kids learned how to respect the flag and what the Pledge of Allegiance means. Now we start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance. It's pretty cool.
History! I love history. Right now they are learning geography.

They were coloring a coloring sheet of different places around the world -- like the great wall of China and the Amazon, the Sahara desert... things like that. We also sang a fun song to help us remember the names of each continent. :)
Langage Arts is one of my absolute favorites!! We had been learning about the classic story of Cinderella. This day we were acting out one of the scenes... the scene where the courier was trying the slipper on the mean stepsisters to the end. I was the stepsister, Ronni was Cinderella, and Collin was the courier. Since the mean stepsisters' feet were bigger than the slipper in the story, we used Ronni's shoe. Trust me, Collin didn't get it on me!! haha! Here he is putting it on Ronni and if you notice the other one is poking out of her pocket -- she was ready to give it to him when the other fit.

It's already lunch time!!

I forgot to get a picture of the kids' food before I gave it to them so you just got a shot of mine but they had the same thing... :)

After lunch they both take a little rest and watch ONE TV show that they both have to agree on. Collin also had a fever this day so he wasn't feeling well anyways. This is my opportunity to get a few more chores done (like rotating those sheets of Ronni's into the dryer so they would be ready for bedtime). Then, after the show it's time for Ronni to go down for a nap (some days it's quiet time... as long as she is calm) so Collin and I can get some work done that is hard with her running around.

Nose back to the grindstone... time for some phonics, handwriting and math.

I didn't get a picture of him doing math but... really... it was just a bunch of 2-D shapes spread out all over the table and us making a bunch of patterns. :)
By the time math was over Ronnie's nap was over too. *sigh* It went by so fast. Time to play a game and the game of the day was .... Elefun!

Then time for some laundry folding and putting away dishes... what? Dinner time already! *sigh*

Hamburger Helper and green beans okay? Yeah, I was a slacker that day.

Then some family time with the hubby!! :) We love singing with the uke in our home!! :) So fun! =o) Then, it was time for me to go to a writing group meeting that night.

Nook, notebook and bearclaw... really, what more does a girl need? Drats!! I realized I forgot to put the sheets back on Ronni's bed. Oh well, Paul would figure something out. (He just used the blankets I did at nap time.. whatever... it worked!)
10pm... home! Oh!! I forgot to make Paul's lunch.

Done!!
All I needed then was the bed and my Nook and I was a happy mommy. So, yeah, I stay around the house all day but I am constantly doing something. I love it! So, here was an average day in the life of me -- except for the TaeKwonDo, gym, dentist appointments, playgroups, meetings...etc and other things that often take up my day too. Since Collin had a fever, we went no where. It was nice!

Minute Maid Juice

2011-08-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

I was sent coupons for the Influencers program with CM. YAY!! I love free stuff but I really love free stuff that we buy anyways -- like juice. :) My kids LOVED IT!! We were asked to buy the apple juice but they were out of apple juice so we got the mixed berry and fruit punch. I didn't realize until later that these are loaded with sugars. The apple juice, at least, is 100% fruit juice. That's what we like to drink around here. :) The kids still love it and we'll drink it. If we buy Minute Maid again then I'll be reading the labels a little better so I don't end up giving my kids sugar water that's flavored with juice. Still... they are enjoying it!

There's a robot watching TV in my living room!!!

2011-08-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

I walked in my living room and saw this:

This is what happens when I leave my husband and my son alone with a box, tape and scissors. Collin told me that the flap over his eyes is his shield. He said, "Knights only had a slit for their eyes in their armor. I'm like a knight but a robot." haha! Okaaaaay..... Here's a shot with the "shield" up. =o)

Flat Travelers in WY w/ Nana & Papa

2011-08-10T05:01:00.000-07:00

These flat travelers wen to WY to the kids' g-parents who are serving a mission in WY as pioneers with handcarts. Fun, right? =o)

"Hey, we made it safe and sound to Nana and Papa's. This

is one nice place to be and we are going to have fun exploring. 

Nana didn't give us much time to rest from our long trip from 

South Carolina to here.We had to go straight to work."

"We helped with the flags to park handcarts. Collin got a little lazy and wanted to lay down but he soon found out I needed his help holding the flag up. Then we played hide and seek with Nana."

"Do you see us?  We thought we hid real well in the flags but Nana

 found us right away.  So we went outside

and hid in the sagebrush."

  "Do you see us? We did better this time. In fact, we had to yell 

real loud so she would remember to take us

home after working."

Sink full of cat!!

2011-08-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

Baker, our cat. Isn't he adorable? LOL! I went into the bathroom and I guess I woke him up. I thought he looked super cute so I decided to share! :)

Mom Qualifications

2011-08-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

I read an article called Getting Beyond Motherhood as Political Qualifications. It discussed about how motherhood comes up when someone is running for a political office and it's normally as a bad thing. When men run, fatherhood is rarely brought up and I have never heard it referred to as something bad but good. Why not good for moms too? It made me think about my life as a mom and I realized that it's much more demanding than any job I've ever had. I mean, I get yelled at if I don't do my job quick enough, I have to be excellent as a multi-tasker, I must have great people skills and know how to talk to multiple groups of people, I have to be creative and think fast on my feet. How could this not make a mother good for almost any job out there? I just think it's interesting how the world looks on motherhood. It is just one of those incredibly difficult jobs that is often under appreciated. I called to schedule a dentist appointment for my kids the other day and the receptionist asked me what day was best. I said that I was pretty flexible. Her response was, "You must just stay at home then?" There was a condescending tone in it that made my heart rate increase but I pretended I didn't hear it and just continued scheduling. Just because I'm flexible doesn't mean I'm not doing anything. It just means I can rearrange the day.
I am just so grateful that I do get to stay home with my children and that they even if it is "just staying home" to some people, it's so much more to me.

Cookies!!!

2011-08-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, as parents, we want things done right and so we "forget" to include our children in our daily activities? I tend to do that a lot -- especially with kitchen duties. It is just so much easier for me to do it instead of letting the kids do it and then fixing what they do and cleaning up their mess. So, today I decided that they could do something. Whatever they wanted and I wouldn't interfere. When I asked them they said they wanted to make cookies. Okay, I may have cheated a bit on this one because I just happened to have some break and bake cookies in the freezer. So, they broke them and placed them how they wanted to. They weren't in straight lines and they weren't evenly placed. I didn't touch them. I left them exactly where the kids put them and ya know what --- they came out tasting just like chocolate chip cookies should. =o)

Brilliant Writer Award

2011-08-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

My blog was awarded the Brilliant Writer Award by Deirdre Coppel, the author of Knight of Light, which she is currently seeking representation for, book cover illustrator and the author of the blog A Storybook World.

Thank you Deidre for the compliment!! :)

Mom is a person too!!!

2011-08-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

I am a mom but I am a person, too. I married young, I was nineteen and I don't think I had really figured out who I was yet or what I wanted to do with my life at the time. I am so grateful for my husband and my children but I do wish that I had the opportunity for a little more self exploration before becoming a mom. Let me be clear, I don't regret anything about my family. I just wish I knew more of myself first. I was pregnant with our first baby only a month after we were married; I was on birth control so I'm sure that little boy was supposed to be here. I was married at nineteen and then had our first baby, David, shortly after I turned twenty.

David was born prematurely so Paul and I weren't even married for a year yet and we were spending our days in the NICU at the hospital thirty minutes from our little home. Five months later, he died. My husband and I were thrown into a difficult situation early in our marriage and I still had no idea who I was. I was in mourning and ignored my growth and development and focused on what I didn't have. Finally, we had another child two years later and I felt it was time to figure it out but I worked full time and was a mommy and a wife. Who was I? I still didn't know. We adopted another child two years and I did the best thing I could have --- I became a stay at home mom.

Being a stay at home mom wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I wasn't sitting down on the sofa watching movies and eating bon-bons all day like I expected. I was busy chasing children but I got to know them better and I got to know myself a bit more too. I stay busy though.

So, the question I was recently asked was, "how do you define yourself?" Being a mom takes up so much of my time so when people ask me questions like this I really have to stop and think. Before, I couldn't have answered. I just stood there with a blank expression on my face. I still have a blank expression but I know me a little bit more. I am a mom first and foremost but I am also a reader, a writer; I am a wife and a friend; I am a sister and a daughter. I am more than a mom... I am a person.

I have learned more about me and who I am but I have also learned that I will continue to learn more about myself every day of my life.

Courageous Collin

2011-08-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

I will tell you about a courageous Collin moment. :) I was so proud of him. We were at the park a few days ago and there were a lot of kids there. School isn't back in yet here so, while Collin wasn't the youngest at the park he was certainly not the oldest either. There were actually quite a few big kids (probably tweens/pre-teens... whatever they're called now). Some of these big kids were picking on a little girl who was about Collin's age. He stepped up in front of them and told them that they needed to be nice. Collin only came up to their chests and there were three of them. They didn't like this little kid telling them to be nice so they pinched his arm. Immediately, Collin ran up to me and, instead of telling me about the kids pinching his arm, he told me there were some kids picking on a little girl and I needed to help her. So, I followed him. Apparently the kids saw that he came to me and ran up to me and said, "If he's telling you that we pinched him... well, we did but it was because we thought we were grabbing that little girl's arm."

I froze, "You pinched his arm?"

Then, it was their turn to freeze. Their faces looked completely confused so I replied, "He said some big kids were picking on a little girl." They were totally shocked by this and by then their camp leader was walking over so I let her handle it. I pulled Collin to the side and saw there were big red marks on his upper arm and I couldn't even be angry. I was a little frustrated those kids behaved that way but I was so proud of my son for being courageous and standing up to the bigger kids and not fighting them when they pinched him. He knows how to fight but he chose not to and he did what he was supposed to and went to an adult. He stood up against kids who were much bigger than him and outnumbered him.

In today's world it is so important for kids to know how to be courageous, even when their peers are telling them to do otherwise. I am glad that I have done something right in Collin's life for him to have courage.

*To update you on the park situation: the little girl who was getting picked on played the rest of the time with Collin and Ronni and she was absolutely adorable!!

Our Precious Little Girl

2011-08-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Little Ronni. She is absolutely adorable. I cannot believe how big she is getting. She will be four years old in November. Wow!! She is our little Sunbeam and she truly is a little sunbeam. It seems like just yesterday that she was placed in our arms. But, she was a bit smaller that day and looked a bit like this:

She was placed with us in July '08. I am so grateful to her birthmother for being so selfless and choosing us to care for this precious little girl! :) Anyways, I'm all sentimental about her today because of a conversation she and I just had. Paul and I always say that her biggest Christ-like attribute is her empathy. She asked me what my dad's name was, so I told her. Then she said, "But he died."
I nodded, "Yes, when I was two years old."
Then her tears started flowing as she reached out and gave me a big hug, "but who will be your dad?!" Awwww..... the poor girl.
A little later it was nap time. Yes, that wonderful time for mommies but dreaded by children everywhere. I told her to go to her room and she yelled, "I don't love you anymore!"
A few minutes later I heard her crying again so I opened the door to check on her and she ran up to me, wrapped her arms around me and squeaked out, "I didn't mean that I don't love you. I do love you." LOL!! Poor little thing.
I cuddled with her for a moment and told her that I knew she loved me. Then she said, "Do you still love me even though I told you I don't love you?"
"Of course I do!"
Lol!! Silly, adorable girl! She is asleep now. So, while the drama is down I am going to read and then I will enjoy my hormonal 3 year old when she wakes up. =o)

More Flat Travelers

2011-08-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

We have had such a great response that we made more Flat Travelers. I just hope that some of the people who we are sending them to will send us some too. :) We want to host some flat travelers. =o)

Collin has a scientist, taekwondo boy and an astronaut and Ronni has a princess, an African girl and a taekwondo girl. We are sending out our first set to OK today. :) Hopefully the others will get me their addresses soon so I can ship theirs to them. Fun fun!! I am so excited about these little flat people.

Our Flat Travelers

2011-08-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of the children's books series called Flat Stanley? It's about a boy who is as flat as paper and he travels all over. Well, there is a whole "race of people" called Flat Travelers. hehe!! We have decided to make some friends with the flat travelers. What you do is you make your own flat traveler or paper doll. Then you send him/her and a journal to someone else who lives in a different region and they journal/scrapbook their adventures with the flat traveler they are hosting in their home. Here are some links for your own flat travelers. If you want a Stanley then try this link.
http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/downloads/flatstanley.pdf
The "Original Flat Stanley Project" has some free templates here:
http://flatterworld.com/template.php?nav=template&side
Then, we used this site for making paper dolls:
http://www.makingfriends.com/f_Friends.htm

Collin originally wanted Cyclops from X-men to be his flat traveler but I couldn't find a good picture to work for it. He ended up with an astronaut and Ronni picked out a girl from Africa. The paper doll site was neat b/c we could print out the body (in underwear), the hair and the clothing separately so we could personalize them for my kids. It was pretty fun. I have seen pictures where people laminate pictures of themselves or they just draw their own random pictures. Here are our flat travelers (the kids did all the gluing themselves and SOME of the cutting):

Right now they are drying. Now we need to laminate them, buy a couple of journals and then mail them out. So excited!! We are hoping to get to host some flat travelers soon too!! YAY!!

For more information check out these sites:

Solar Oven

2011-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made lunch in a solar oven. It has been so hot lately, I thought we'd put it to good use. It only took a few minutes b/c we just made cheesy bread. There are other, more complex recipes that I didn't want to try. We just kept it simple.

Cheesy bread... before going outside....

The kids and me setting it up for the best angle.

And... melted cheese 15 minutes later. =o)

It was really very easy to make. We took a box and lined it with crumpled paper (newspaper works too) as insulation to keep the heat in. Then we lined everything in aluminum foil. In the bottom of the box you line it with black paper (since black absorbs heat -- obviously). Put the food in a glass container (it's hot when it's done so use oven mitts). Then, use plastic wrap over the box to keep the heat trapped. Fun stuff and so easy!! :) You can use a rolled up towel or something to angle the box so the sun shines into it better.

UnCrustables

2011-07-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

I am part of an Influencers program. They send me free samples of things periodically to review so here is our review.

My kids chose the strawberry Uncrustables and were so excited to try them. They finally got to try them today. They both took big bites of them and chewed them up happily. I asked them what they thought. I'm really not sure what my 3 year old said as she chewed a big wad as she tried to talk (yeah, that whole 'not talking while your mouth is full' rule seemed to not apply for these). She gave me a thumbs up sign when she realized I had no idea what she was saying. My 5 year old son said, "It just taste like a normal sandwich, Mom, but it's good."
As a mom, I find that time is very important and something that I do not have enough of. I am a full time student, homeschool mom, wife, leader of the kids at church (primary president) and we are preparing to sell our home. When I find some time I spend it preparing snacks and food. I sort out snacks and put them in little baggies to keep in the cabinet for the kids to easily grab when hungry. I also wash, peel and cut up fruit and vegetables to put in little baggies that go in a box in the fridge for the kids to get to easily. Sometimes, if we're in a hurry I just have them grab one baggie from the cabinet and one from the fridge while I make a sandwich. I see Uncrustables being handy to have around because I can just pull two of them out that morning and they'll be ready to just throw on the plates by lunch time. Also, putting them in sack lunches will be useful too. My kids liked them and will eat them but they didn't find anything special about it compared to my normal PB&J sandwiches. It did give me the idea to make sandwiches and use the sandwich cutter to make them into fun shapes and put them in the freezer. I don't know if it will work or not but we're going to try it. They will be just as convenient and will taste the same. We will eat the Uncrustables that we have but I don't see us buying more unless I need them for convenience sake.

Christmas in July!!!!

2011-07-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Collin starts school on August 15th, however, it isn't a traditional school. He is going to a virtual charter school. It's public school from home, basically. We are so excited and all of our excitement just spiked today. Collin is ready to start school now. haha! Seventy pounds of supplies just arrived via UPS split into three boxes full of supplies for school. Here's is a picture of what was in the big boxes...

The boxes were split up by subject. It was so fun going through them. Then, I had to organize the contents. Here's what I have as of right now... :)

We are very excited. On the very top are two boxes... the top box is full of the blow up globes, science experiment kit and a mini chalkboard. The box under it that is still in the wrapper (I wasn't ready to open that one with the kids) is the art kit.... paints, modeling clay, paint brushes....etc. The next shelf has the text books, teacher manuals, and picture books for all the subjects. The bottom shelf is exciting! There is writing paper (the kind with all the funny lines so he will learn to write the proper way), a cd for music class, and DVDs (music and history). The little blue boxes are for math. There are 3-D shapes, 2-D shapes, and stack-able blocks. The pink box was really exciting for me. There are dry erase boards, markers, and erasers, site word flash cards, a magnetic book for phonics, little learning to read phonics books that gradually get harder and harder... just fun stuff like that. It was awesome!! =o) A little over 3 weeks till we start. YAY!!! :)

Happy 8th Birthday, David!!

2011-07-06T04:38:00.000-07:00

Today is a rough day for me and has been for eight years. My firstborn son was born today but he didn't survive to his next birthday. In fact, he never made it home. He only lived for five short months and then died in my arms. Today, I normally curl up with his scrapbook and cry but we have already packed up the scrapbook (it's in the storage shed hoping for someone to buy our house so it can come out again) so I'm making a long blog about it instead. Some people have trouble with this story and the pictures so if you're sensitive to this type of thing then don't read. I just feel like I need to get it out since I don't have the scrapbook right now. So, here's David's story.

I went into preterm labor at 23½ wks. The nurse told me the pain that I had been feeling were my ligaments stretching. Well, guess what -- they were contractions. I called my doctor on Sunday July 6, 2003 and told her that there was something wrong and she told me to meet her in labor and delivery at the hospital and she'd check me out. In route, I started bleeding. By the time I was at the hospital I was already 6 cm dilated. They tried to stop contractions but the ultrasound showed that he was already in the birth canal. At 7cm I pushed David out still in the sac to help protect him. The NICU ambulance was there to take him off to the hospital in GA. I had to stay in South Carolina for the doctors to keep an eye on me. It was horrible. I wanted to go with my baby. I wasn't able to hold him or anything. I touched his foot though.

The next day I was finally discharged from the hospital. David had already had two cardiac arrests and a couple of blood transfusions. Paul drove as fast as he could to get to the hospital. We had the emergency lights on and tried to flag down all the police cars we could so they could escort us or something. But, they all ignored us and let us drive 95 mph down the road. Any other time, they would have pulled us over and ticketed us.

We arrived at the hospital as David was having another cardiac arrest so they didn't allow us back there because they were trying to get his heart started again. This is when they took us to a room and told us all of the bad news... starting with the PDA. This is the Patent Ductus Arteriosus. It is basically a duct that runs from the heart to the lungs. When an infant is in the womb, the lungs aren't needed for air so the blood circulates through them too. On full term babies, the duct closes on it's own. On preemies, it's open and the blood flows into the lungs. This was happening on David. The other problem was that he had a grade III brain bleed. A grade I is the least severe and a grade IV is the most severe so a grade III is pretty severe.

After giving us the bad news they let us in to see our son. He was 1 pound 4 oz and 13"long. They said he was big so at least he had that working for him. For four days we watched him struggling to keep his oxygen saturation up but it kept falling. The medicine to close the PDA wasn't working.

At 23-24 wks old, the baby's heart is roughly the size of the very tip of your thumb. The doctors wanted to go into my son's chest and close a duct that ran from his teeny tiny heart to his itty bitty lungs. We had no other option so at four days old, my son had heart surgery.

This is my hand, and to give you an idea of how small my hand is, I wear a 4 and 3/4 size ring. You can see the tape near the tip of my pointy finger... that's from the surgery. He's also wearing the "shades" because his bilirubin levels were too high and the jaundice lights could have hurt his eyes. His eyes were still fused shut but they wanted to take the precautions. I wasn't going to argue.

Yay!! He could breath! Well, with the help of the intubation tube and machine. Obviously, his lungs weren't developed yet. Then, we had another problem - hydrocephalus. This is when the brain swells. A few things were going on in David's head. The ventricular fluid in the brain normally drains down the brain stem and through the spine but his brain stem was blocked up and the fluid couldn't get out. Also, he had PVL (perventricular leaukomalasia) which is basically pockets of fluid on the brain. He had to have brain surgery for a shunt which would drain the fluid into his abdomen (not his stomach but the abdomen).

These pictures were taken as soon as he was out of surgery. He was still a little drugged up though. In the bottom picture (from left to right) is me, David, and Angie. Angie was David's primary day nurse. She was absolutely awesome!

Things kept going up and down from there. At 6 wks, Paul and I were finally able to hold him.

Can you tell that I was super happy to be holding my baby?

Eventually, he was able to get out of the heating bed to the isolette.

Here are a few pics of two of the g-parents with David in the isollette. The first one is my mom and the second one is Paul's dad.

David continued to grow and was eventually put on a CPAP which is between the intubation tube and the nasal canula....

He continued to grow. He had 6 more brain surgeries (all for shunt repairs/infections), laser surgery in both eyes for ROP (retinopathy of prematurity -- basically the retina was pulling away from the back of the eye. It's common in preemies), and multiple procedures like PIC lines and such. He got pretty big.

On the morning of Sunday November 23, 2003 (exactly 20 weeks from the day he was born) we got a phone call before it was daylight saying that David was not doing well. We rushed up to the NICU and all the lights were off except for the lights in one corner... David's corner. We went in there quickly. David's nursery had been quarantined with MRSA a few weeks previous and David had ended up contracting it shortly after. He was the last baby in the nursery to get it. The MRSA had gotten into his ventricular fluid so they put an external shunt in his head to drain the fluid out. Unfortunately MRSA spread to other organs and they were slowly shutting down. Paul and I were told we could either let his organs all shut down until he died or pull the tubes and let him go quickly. He was back on the full respirator mixed with hand bagging him because his lungs were doing so poorly. So, we did the only thing we could think of. Paul gave him a blessing. It was supposed to be a blessing to heal him but the words that came from Paul's mouth were a goodbye to him and telling him how much we love him. Now what we intended but a peace fell on us and we knew what we needed to do. The nurses and doctors were all in there crying with us because they had all gotten attached. Even the ones who weren't on duty came up there to say goodbye. I didn't want to hold David as the tubes were pulled but the doctor knelt down beside me and said that he or any of the nurses would be happy to hold him and he understood that it was terribly hard for me but I would regret it later if I wasn't the one who held him. So, I wrapped my arms around my little man as the tubes were removed. A moment later I felt the life leave and they called the time.

This was the first time we held him with no tubes....

I am grateful for the wonderful ward. With all the donations and the talents of them we were able to provide a funeral and an adorable little outfit, and a headstone for him.


I'm not really sure why this one is turned sideways... I can't get it to rotate on here but in my pics it is... oh well... turn your head. =o)

So, today is his birthday and I'm not really sure what to do for him. We used to celebrate it by providing service for others. This year, I haven't come up with anything. Just forming a big blank. Hopefully, I'll come up with something before the day is over but as of right now.... blank. I just want to stare at pics and cry. *sigh* At least we're sealed for eternity but it doesn't stop my heart from aching.

Independence Day

2011-07-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Independence Day was spent at our friend's house. There was tons of fun! Swimming!

Food and Games!

Don't ask what I'm doing in this pic. I think I was laughing at how poorly I was playing. The guys beat us 9 to 3. haha!!

It started raining on us so we had to run inside to play. There were six families total so 12 adults and 13 kids. hehe! It was crowded. =o)

Fireworks!!!

Ronni took off running to the house when the fireworks started. She was terrified and wouldn't come out. I convinced at her to come outside to see one. She was yelling NO. Then, I asked her if she say that one. Cheerfully she yelled, "Yeah, now inside!" LOL! Poor girl. So, she saw one firework and that was it. Collin had fun though. Unfortunately, he was fearless and kept crossing the line I told him not to. He burned his foot and now has a blister from an ember. He also almost got hit by a Roman candle. Ack!! That's when I made him stand by me for a while. After that, he obeyed a bit better. hehe! Needless to say, it was exciting...

Night Terrors - Sleep Walking - Sleep.... laughing???

2011-07-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

When Collin was an infant he had night terrors. Night terrors are different from night mares. It's the same part of the brain that causes sleep walking. The person having the night terror screams and cries as if they are terrified. Normally, his/her eyes are open and look awake but he/she isn't. They don't really know what's happening. If he/she wakes up in the middle of the night terror then the person is completely confused, no idea why they are scared but they still feel terrified. They were horrible and Collin had them multiple times a week and he had them for years and still has them sometimes. Once when we went to my in-laws, Paul and I literally had to catch him as he ran around the bed screaming. He was terrified of us. I held him for a long time, singing to him until he wasn't terrified any longer and realized he was safe. Then he switched to sleep walking which was just as scary. He'd walk around the house and any sound, movement or touch freaked him out and he'd cower and whimper in a corner somewhere. I'd get him and cuddle with him on the couch until he was deep asleep again then I'd get him back in bed.

Well, it seems to have morphed into something new... again. Last night, he woke Paul and me up with his laughter. I slowly walked into the living room where the laughter was coming from. He was sitting on the couch with his legs pulled in and his arms wrapped around them, staring at the television (which was off) laughing hysterically. I leaned down and tried talking to him but he just looked around me to the television and laughed again. I sat down next to him and pulled him into my side and he buried his face into me laughing hard again. He had me laughing because it was so funny watching him laugh at nothing. I finally got him to lay down on the couch and left him there to fall back asleep. He was still staring at the television when I walked out but no more laughter. haha! I have to admit though, I definitely prefer the laughter to the screaming and crying. So much better!!

Chameleon Circuit

2011-07-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who don't know, the Chameleon Circuit is the thing on the TARDIS that changes it to look like the surroundings so it blends in. In 1963 it stopped working and the TARDIS remained a Police Box because the Doctor kind of liked it and never felt like fixing it. Yes, if you haven't figured it out yet, I am referring to Doctor Who. Chameleon Circuit is a band who writes songs about the television show and... YES, I BOUGHT THEIR CD and so exciting about it that I'm actually blogging about it. LOL! I have issues, I know. :) So, here are some songs from it... enjoy.

Date!

2011-06-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Yeap, Kami took Collin on a sister-brother date. :) hehe! Collin had so much fun! She took him to play putt-putt (or mini-golf depending on where you're from) and then they played the arcade games when they were finished. Collin also got a hole in one on hold #11 (yes, he told me this) and that happened to be the mystery hole! That means that we now have a coupon for him a free game. hehe! He is super excited about this. Kami also bought him ice cream and they earned over 200 tickets on the arcade games and came home with little erasers, bouncy balls, tootsie rolls and a rubix cube. Tons of fun!

Second Degree Orange Belt

2011-06-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

Collin is now a second degree orange belt. Paul got a video of the testing on his phone but I haven't gotten my hands on it yet to post it. I think it's still on his phone. And, my batter died on the camera so I didn't get the pics. Grrrrr! Only two... here they are! :)

Collin is in the front center. :) He did awesome! His form was strong and his kiyaps were loud and clear. I was proud of my little Tae Kwon Do boy! :)

Prom

2011-06-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Don't you love the shoes?? hehe! I thought they were awesome! Of course, I'm the one who wore white backless tennis shoes for my wedding so... I totally approved of the shoes. And, yes, one has purple polka dots and the other blue. They were once white but Kami colored them. :)

One of Kami's best friends -- Kylie. :)

FYI - Kami was in the living room doing Zumba in her formal wear while waiting for her date. :) Paul got a video of it but I didn't want to embarrass her. If she wants me to then I'll post it later but for now, I'll just tell you about it. hehe! I thought it was awesome! =o)

Exciting day and it's not even 4 yet.

2011-06-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to the local gardens and saw the Youth Wing's Garden Theater. It was put on by the youth wing at the local theater and it was "Tales of Beatrix Potter". My kids loved it. Collin now things that he will work in the theater when he's old enough to be in the youth wing (6th grade). They had five little skits. Two of them were just poems acted out and the others were a few minutes each. I am grateful it was short b/c it was very HOT!! :) We were all dripping with sweat. Ick! I will post pics when I get them. Kami took some with her awesome new camera but she's off visiting her male friend right now so I'll have to get them from her later. ;)

After that we went to Sonic for Wacky Wednesdays!! :) I love Wacky Wednesdays b/c the kids' Wacky Pack meals are only $2 each. Yeah!

Finally, library.

These pics weren't from today. (Remember, I forgot my camera.) They were on the website for the ecology lab here that does these. The kids got to learn about frogs, lizards, salamanders, snakes, turtles (even a huge snapping turtle), an opossum, and a flying squirrel. Did you know that a bull frog eats small alligators? Who knew? haha! I thought it was interesting. I learned a lot of neat things. Collin was just zoned through the whole thing. Ronni, not so much. She was a bit freaked by the frogs and salamanders but she thought the rest were neat.... yes, even the snakes. Why was she afraid of the frogs and not the snakes? I just don't get it. haha! The opossum was hissing and drooling and she preferred him over the frogs. LOL! Silly girl.

So... all of the excitement today was FREE (except for Sonic). Awesome!! The kids had a blast and we all learned new things. I LOVE being home with my kids!

Cheap movies at Regal Cinemas!!

2011-06-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Let me just say how much I love all the free/cheap things going on this summer in town. Today, we went to the dollar movies and saw "How To Train Your Dragon".

It was an incredibly cute movie!! So cute that we went to Target after and bought it and watched it tonight with daddy with ice-cream and blueberry cobbler. :) I learned something new at the theater today though. They have booster seats. I never knew that. haha! I'm a bit slow. This was also Ronni's first time at the theater. Collin did great but Ronni, well, there was a lot of "shush-ing" and "get off the floor" and "don't get between the people in front of us". haha! Overall, she did well, though. She's never really been one to watch movies. We love the summer movies though b/c there are so many little kids there that mine are never the loud ones. hehe! It was packed too!! I thought it wouldn't be as packed as last year b/c it was free last year and this year it was a dollar a piece but... nope. TONS of ppl!! haha! Tons of fun though. =o) Tomorrow, we have another big adventure planned. 11am will be a play and at 2pm we'll be checking out snakes. =o) So excited! Oh... and... it'll all be FREE!!! YAY!

Collin read his first book!! Hooray!!!

2011-06-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, before you get too excited you must remember that he's a preschooler and this is his FIRST book ever so there is still a lot of sounding out and prompts from momma. :) I was just proud of him. It was 25 pages and by the time Paul started recording it he was getting tired. His school (K12) has a summer challenge to read one book a week so that's what we're going to try to do. In this video, Paul was standing on the other side of the room when he started recording it so it's hard to understand. Around 2:30 he comes over and sits next to us so you may just want to skip to there. You also get to see Collin get frustrated a few times. Poor little guy thinks everything should be perfect so if he gives the wrong sound then he gets mad at himself. I was just excited and had to brag even though no one else really cares and the movie will be completely dull to anyone else, I am proud and have watched it many times already. hehe! I love the ending where he turns to Paul and said, "Any more?" with a big grin on his face. LOL! It's perfect!! This is the first time he's seen many of these words too. Okay, I'll stop talking about it and just post the video. =o)

Joseph and Emma Smith

2011-05-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

Paul and I had the opportunity to go to a seminary scripture scholar dinner. We were asked to go as Joseph and Emma Smith. That meant we had to do lots of research. Let me start off by saying that I was one of those people who never really understood Emma. I was always a little bit annoyed with her for choosing not to follow Brigham Young and crossing the plains. However, after the research I did I feel that I have a better understanding of her and SO much more respect for her. She was an incredible woman and I am so grateful that I had an opportunity to learn more about her. Here is what I said about her,

I was born July 10, 1804. My parents were Isaac and Elizabeth Hale. We farmed near Harmony, Pennsylvania and we operated a country Inn. That is where I met Joseph. My dad very much opposed of me courting Joseph but when he proposed I definitely preferred him to all others so I said yes. We were married at the home of Squire Thomas Tarbell in South Bainbridge, New York on January 18, 1827.

I supported my husband in being an instrument in the hands of God. I was even a scribe during his first efforts to translate the Book of Mormon. In July 1830, the Lord outlined my mission in a revelation given to Joseph. He said, “Though art an elect lady, whom I have called. …And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions.” During this revelation is also when I was directed to compile a book of hymns for the Church and was warned to “continue in a spirit of meekness, and beware of pride.”

I knew that what we were doing was what the Lord wanted but it was still hard and we had many trials. One of the hardest for me was the deaths of my children. My first three children died shortly after birth. The day after the twins died a friend of mine died who had just had twins. We adopted them. Then, because of exposure during an incident of mob violence, the little boy twin – Joseph Murdock – died. We still had the little girl, Julia, but I was mourning over the death of four babies. But, I was able to find comfort in my patriarchal blessing. I was told, “if though wilt believe, though shalt yet be blessed… and though shalt bring forth other children.” I was eventually blessed with more children. Total, Joseph and I had 9 children and adopted 2. Only 5 of them survived.

I will admit, at times I felt life was difficult. I did not know a settled home until Nauvoo. I was robbed and ridiculed; the children and I often went hungry. I struggled to provide for the children during Joseph’s imprisonments and long absences but “am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind heaven.” “I desire with all my heart to honor and respect my husband as my head, ever to live in his confidence and by acting in unison with him retain the place which God has given me by his side.”

I was busy in the church as well. My only focus wasn’t the children. I finished my compilation of hymns in 1835 and they were published in 1836. I baptized my dead relatives in the Mississippi River in 1840 and I was the first general president of the Relief Society.

In 1943, Joseph and I were sealed for time and all eternity and received our sacred priesthood ordinances.

On June 27, 1844 Joseph was killed. The Saints left Nauvoo a year and half later and I was left, a 41-year old widow, caring for my aged mother-in-law and five children ranging from fourteen years to fifteen months old. I know people wonder why I didn’t go west with saints. The truth was, I feared for the lives of my children. I did not know whom to trust and there was no time and no peace for the natural healing of my grief to occur. When mob violence continually threatened Church members in Illinois and state officials refused protection, the Apostles, under the direction of Brigham Young, led the Saints into a winter in the wilderness to prepare for the long journey west. It was a horrifying idea to take my fatherless children again across the frozen Mississippi without Joseph. I was asked a few times why I didn’t go west. My answer was normally, “I had a home here, I didn’t know what lay out there.”

Throughout my life I never doubted Joseph to be a prophet of God. My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity. I have not the slightest doubt of it. …Though I was an active participant in the scenes that transpired, and was present during the translation of the plates and had cognizance of things as they transpired, it is marvelous to me, ‘a marvel and a wonder,’ as much as to anyone else. The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen tablecloth which I had given [Joseph] to fold them in. I once felt the plates as they lay on the table, tracing their outline and shape. They seemed to be pliable like thick paper, and would rustle with a metallic sound when the edges were moved by the thumb, as one does sometimes thumb the edges of a book. I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the church to have been established by divine direction.”

Joseph and Emma Smith weren't the only "guests" at the dinner.

Pictured from L to R -- Brigham Young, Eliza R. Snow, John Taylor, Porter Rockwell, Joseph Smith, and Emma Smith.

Lots of fun!! =o)

Family Vacation

2011-05-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

We went to Edisto Beach -- camping, of course. :) We go camping at the beach every year and my favorite beach is Edisto but it's normally full. This year, the campsite had one spot open so we snatched it. hooray!! It was actually a really great site too!! :)

We did have a couple of unwanted guests though... one of them was very friendly raccoon. He and Paul had a stand-off, claiming their territory. LOL! Paul won! Hooray. It helped that he had a bucket of water that splashed on the raccoon several times. Poor thing. Loud noises didn't help. It was the only thing we could come up with. Another guest we had was a yellow rat snake. He was awesome. The kids were definitely not afraid of him so we had to have a talk about how they don't go near snakes unless daddy is with them and says he's okay. Luckily it was a rat snake and not a rattler. ;) Here, you just never know.

If you'd like to see our friend from last May then click here. He's listed under Day 2. :)

Camp's set up. Time to head to the beach. Luckily, it was just on the other side of the trees!! :) I forgot to take the camera from the campsite to the beach so no pics from the first day at the beach.

Although, after we got back little Ronni decided it would be fun to rub her head into the dirt. It's a good thing she asked for her hair cut b/c that would be tough to wash all that dirt out if it was long. Well, it was still tough but it would have been even worse.

Day 2 on the beach. We were out there around 8am. hehe! It was nice and quiet. ;)

Flying the kite. My mom lives near Edisto so she came to visit us and brought each of the kids a kite. Collin had a green frog (pictured) and Ronni had a fish with a very long tail. That was the one I was flying. Every time she got it from my hand it crashed. Collin did well flying his. My mom got more pics b/c Paul and I were helping w/ the flying so I'll post those if she sends them. hehe!

I loved this pic of Collin. He got saltwater in his eyes so he sat on the blanket with me and chilled on the blanket. The sun was too bright though so he wore my sunglasses. hehe! Isn't he cute?

Yes, of course I had to bury my children while we were there. We also built a sandcastle but, again, my mom took that picture. ;)

I often get asked why I like Edisto beach b/c, really, there is nothing there. This shot is why I like it so much! This is during the peak time of the day and do you see how many ppl are there? Yeah! It's great isn't it? I love it! There are only a few people there... no crowds or commercialism. It's wonderful!!

S'mores!! Who can have a campout w/o s'mores? Of course, we also had peach cobbler and all kinds of yummy foods! I love camping and eating the food while camping. :)

Sunday morning! The day we left. We were only there for a weekend and since it was Sunday the kids weren't allowed to play in the water but we walked it. :) So fun and relaxing. I was kinda sad to go however, that shower I got when I returned home sure felt nice.

My Mother's Day Gift

2011-05-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Paul did really well this year. I got a sewing machine. Hooray!!! So, I made me a skirt.

Orange Belt - Tae Kwon Do

2011-04-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Collin is now an orange belt!!!

These two are advancing!

Removing their white belts!

Tying on the new orange belts! YAY!!!

Here's a video of the testing for Collin... First is his form and then two self-defense moves. Sorry that it's side-ways. I'm not sure how to turn it so you'll just have to turn your head. LOL! :)

Easter

2011-04-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know why Collin didn't make it into this pic (ignore the laundry in the background -- it's clean, just needed folding :). This was our tomb cake. Um... the kids put the icing on it and it kinda broke apart into pieces. LOL! It's okay though.... it still tasted yummy. We made other things too but I didn't get pics. Our favorite are the Easter Story Cookies. My kids love those!

Easter morning!! Here are their Easter gifts and their Easter clothes. Aren't they cute?? As for their toys... Ronni's is a wooden dress up toy. The clothing is magnetic. She loves it! It has shoes, pants, shirts, and dresses. Tons of fun for her. Collin got some Papo figurines -- a knight, a horse and a dragon.

Zoo!!

2011-04-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous homeschool post, we went on a field trip with Collin's virtual charter school next year. So excited about it. The three of us went to the zoo yesterday. Hooray!! :) Here are pics of our adventures.

Tortoise: The kids loved it b/c they were walking all over the place. They've never done that before while we were there. :)

The kangaroo exhibit. I love this one (I still miss the sea lions they replaced) because we get to walk through their home with no walls or fences between us. It's neat!

Gorilla. This one is always a hit with my kiddos.

We stopped for a snack. I had popcorn in my backpack. Do you see where Collin's foot is propped up? Apparently there was an ant bed there and a few moments later Collin yelled, "Ants!" And leaped off the rock a few feet in front of us scratching and jumping. LOL! Poor guy! He made it with no bites though. haha! Just plenty of tickles.

Elephants... they are very aromatic.

This is where Ronni ended up for part of the trip... my shoulders hurt. haha! Especially when she was on my shoulders and I was lifting Collin up to see things too. Whoo! Quite the workout!

Collin was up there feeding the giraffe but that man stepped in front of me as I was clicking. Oh well, just trust me, Collin was there.

As strange as this is, Collin is always most excited to see the ostrich. Normally he says far away so the only way Collin sees him is if I zoom in with the camera and show him the picture. You can imagine his excitement when the ostrich walked right up to us and started pecking at the pinecones in front of our feet. It was awesome!

They loved "milking a cow".

and feeding the goats!

And, of course, posing for their mommy to get pictures.

The "Wormies" as the kids called them.

Ronni kept sliding off the back of the lion so she sat on his tail for me instead. LOL! Her idea. ;)

Then, we left and ate lunch by the river in the picnic area. The kids and I were exhausted but we still had to go to the other side of Columbia to run some errands before heading home. We all slept well last night. =o)

Lunch and Play

2011-04-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Every year during spring break there is a play put on for children at the local gardens. Everyone brings a picnic lunch and prepares to watch a show. There are crafts and the Easter Bunny as well. Here are pics from last year. This year was fun too though. We went with friends this time. :) Oh, and, did I mention that it's completely free??!!

Here's our picnic blanket and lunches. You can see Ronni's purple egg on the blanket. That was the craft this year. So much better than painting. I was able to just grab all the supplies and bring them back to the blanket instead of staying up at the crowded craft table. :)

Here's Collin's egg. It's become much more decorated since then. The kids brought home some of the foam stickers and covered them. hehe!

This year was a marionette performance of Cinderella. Very cute! :)

Here they are!! Aren't they fabulous?

To Homeschool or Not To Homeschool....

2011-04-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

This is the question that has been bouncing back and forth in our heads for a while. I was homeschooled and I have always wanted to homeschool my kids b/c it was sooooo much fun! I didn't want my kids to get lost in the crowd of public school. I went to public school and private school before we homeschooled so I've experienced them all. Homeschooling was by far my favorite. Paul never has and has been a bit unsure about the whole thing. Not against it, just not sure about it either. So Sunday we talked and prayed and talked some more. We finally came up with a decision and the more research I've done the more excited I am about it.

We're going to do K12 SCVCS (South Carolina Virtual Charter School). Basically, it's like public school at home. In the state of South Carolina it is completely free. They send everything your child will need during the school year... even a laptop. I have no registered Collin for it. Here is the info I got on it today from talking to a mother who has been doing it for 3 years (I think) and the lady who answered the phone when I called them.

It follows public school schedule so basically, we won't do school year round. We will start on a certain date and finish on a certain date. We can adjust the holidays in between as we want -- when we take spring break and all that. I figured we'd revolve it around Paul's work schedule. =o) If he gets a holiday off then we'll take it. Everyone is given a homeroom teacher and is require to "meet" with him/her via the internet monthly. This teacher also plans monthly outings for all of her students. Sometimes she teaches classes online and if Collin is watching it then there are things he can click to "write" on the board or raise his hand. There's even a little chat room so he can answer questions if asked. Totally cool! It is fairly flexible though. The mom I talked to said her son is only taking Math like that this year and it's the first time she's done it. Most of the classes are very flexible. In Kindergarten he will take Math and English daily. History and Science only about 3 days a week and Art/Music only 1-2 times/week. He will also take PE which is whatever we decide to do. Or, another option is the block scheduling where Collin could do Math on Mondays, English on Tuesdays and so on. Whatever option we would rather do. He has to have 30 hrs a week put into school and 5 of those hours have to be extra stuff (can't remember what they called them) like projects, field trips or even trips to the library.

About 10-15% of his work will be done on the computer. The rest will be away from the comp. There is a zoo day coming up where I'll get to meet other students, parents, and teachers from this school. We think we may be going so I can meet them and talk to them. :)

They have free speech therapy (just like public school) and they use assessment tests. So, if Collin passes assessment tests with an 80% or better then he can go on to the next lesson so he could fly through the classes if he wanted to. On the other side of that, if he is struggling in math and rocking at everything else then he would work at that level. So... it has all the benefits of public school mixed with the benefits of home school. I love it! It's not as flexible as real homeschool b/c it's technically a charter school. We get transcripts and report cards as if he's in school. I just can't see anything negative about it. I think it's going to be awesome and I can't wait until August!!!! =o) Hopefully we'll be in a new house by then so we'll have somewhere to put all the school stuff. hehe!

That's it! I'm saving up for a sewing machine!!

2011-04-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

Isn't this adorable?? All this is is a t-shirt and two bandannas. So easy but it cost $50. Right now it's on sale for $30. Ronni would be soooo adorable in something like this. I have decided that I am saving up for a sewing machine. Maybe by the time we get into a new house (when we'll actually have room for a machine) then I can buy one and make her this cute little dress. Soooo adorable!!! =o)

Saturday Morning Sesson

2011-04-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend is General Conference weekend. It's one of my favorite weekends!! I LOVE CONFERENCE!!! Lately, I have been focusing on being a better mother and ways to improve (yes, there are TONS of ways... I have a lot to work on) so I was extremely excited about conference because of that. I knew I would get some answers but I had no idea that there would be so many. There were some great talks!

L.Tom Perry -- Keeping the Sabbath holy
Jean a Stevens -- Becoming more child-like
Walter F. Gonzalas -- How to be a better follower of Christ
Kent F. Richards -- spiritual and physical pain cured through Christ
Quentin L. Cook -- LDS women are incredible (Yeap!! Totally earned some brownie points ;)
Henry B. Eyring -- Service

So, granted, not all of these are about children -- at least, that's what it seems but every single one of them had something to do with children and raising children. It was awesome! I saw things I can do with the kids to help them focus more on Christ on Sundays. Then there was the talk about becoming more child-like. It spoke about how precious these children are and how we need to be humble and full of love just like them. I learned how to teach my kids to follow the words of Christ and to teach them about the Atonement. Cook's talk spoke about how important it is for me to teach the kids and to care for the kids. Finally, Eyring discussed service and how important it is for children to learn about service now so they will be more willing to serve and help others when they are older. Basically, through all of this I learned how incredibly special the spirits are that I have been given. They are amazing and some days it's so easy for me to forget how special they are. Hopefully, I will be able to remember this and my relationship with my kids will become stronger and we will all be stronger in the Gospel from it.

Okay, 1 hr and 20 minutes to the next session! HOORAY!!

New Blog

2011-03-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

I post book reviews on here sometime and always want to post more but I feel like this is more of a family blog so I feel silly if it's overwhelmed with book reviews so.... I started a new blog. It's still in the works but please check it out!! :) I love reading so I thought it would be fun if I could just write reviews for EVERYTHING I read. Then you'll also get a view on if something is clean or not b/c... I will definitely tell you! =o) hehe! So.... check out my new blog here. I am just getting caught up on books I've read in 2011. If I read it before then it won't be blogged about unless I re-read it. ENJOY!!

Poor Collin!

2011-03-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

It's hard to see in this picture but Collin has a swollen black eye and notice the line across his neck.... Okay, first, the eye. Last night at Tae Kwon Do they were playing a game at the end -- tag. Collin and a little boy named Josh smacked into each other! OUCH!! The eye is the result. They must have hit hard!

Now, the neck. This morning it was very windy and sunny and just beautiful. The kids decided it was perfect weather to fly a kite so I pulled the kite from the closet and we were flying it in the backyard. It was Ronni's turn and she was doing well. Then, the wind suddenly changed directions. The kite dived down and whipped around Collin's neck. I yelled for Ronni to drop the string and she did it immediately. However, the rope burn was already there.

Now my poor child looks like he has been punched and choked. Poor little guy.... :(

Ostara

2011-03-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

I am weird. I know this. Most people know of Ostara as the pagan holiday to welcome in the light and the marriage of the Sun God and the Maiden Goddess. The traditions on this holiday is a feast and the symbols of this day are the egg and rabbit. Hmmmm... does that sound like a familiar holiday? So, what we do is the pagan traditions of Easter are celebrated on Ostara and then for Easter we focus on Christ. We do an activity every day leading up to Easter about the last week of Christ's life. What we do can be found here, here, and here. :)

So, now I know you're all dying to know what we did yesterday. First, we had to give ourselves affirmations. Ronni's was, "I will not be bossy." Collin's was, "I will control my temper." And mine was, "I will have patience with my children."

Then, of course, we had to have our Ostara baskets.

Our FHE activity was a Spring Egg Hunt:

Then we came inside for an Ostara feast:

We had watermelon, spinach soup (the kids hated it!) and asparagus gratin (this was a BIG hit!! All enjoyed it!).
Dessert was:

strawberry and cream-cheese roll with apricot sauce on top. This one was a hit too!! =o)

Happy Ostara!!! (March 21)

St. Patrick's Day!!!

2011-03-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

Just to clarify, my kids picked out their own clothes and got themselves dressed. And yes, we went to the park and the grocery store with them dressed this way. I also went to the grocery store with 3 dandelions in my hair from the park. LOL!! I got some looks. =o)

Breakfast: Green eggs and toast.... does it look yummy?

Lunch: Green Macaroni and Cheese.

Dinner: Chunky Potato and Cabbage Soup in bread bowls. :)

Dessert: Green Banana and Strawberry Cream Pie

So that was our St. Patty's Day celebration. =o) Yummy!!!