Stephen Family Insane Asylum

Amen!

2012-01-26T16:30:00.001-07:00

If I ever question what I am doing in homeschooling my children, all I need do is read THIS to remind myself why I chose this course.

A GREAT find!!!

2012-01-22T08:45:00.003-07:00

I am SO excited! I just found an AWESOME English/Grammar curriculum. You know what? It was FREE, and it's LDS based!!! Now, tell me that's not the find of the century!
While browsing on one of my favorite homeschool sites (here) I noticed in her "Year 3," (or basically 3rd grade) she had her own english curriculum. I have NOT enjoyed our current curriculum as it is SO BORING! I contaced the owner and was directed to her yahoo group where I could download ALL 4 levels of her curriculum for free!!!!
This curriculum is the best. It covers:
Copy work/Handwriting in almost every lesson
Memorization of poems, scriptures, and quotes
Gramma lessons
Note Taking
and Public speaking.
I started it with Audrey last week and I loved the very first lesson. The quote from the first lesson is
"I am; I can; I ought; I will." Charlotte Mason. This has become my new phrase for Audrey.
I'm happy with this curriculum so far, although Audrey is not too happy with how much more intense it is than our previous curriculum.

One of the perks of homeschooling

2012-01-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

First off, let me say this: I tried and tried to figure out how to rotate the pictures on blogger but failed miserably. Therefore I am sorry for the sideways photos.

Now, to the point of this post: Observe the footwear worn in these pictures.

Back to School

2012-01-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

Today started us back to school after a month long break in December. It was a good day, but did not go completely as planned.
1) We started our new calendar notebooks (from here). I am very excited about them since we are SO bad at doing calendar activities! I added a telling time page, a money page, and a name tracing page since we're really bad about getting those in too. They went over really well and the kids were excited for them. I forgot to get my play money last week though, so we didn't do the money page and it took us longer than expected due to it being the first day using them and having to fill out the calendar for January.
2) The neighborhood kids don't go back to school until tomorrow so I let Audrey off the hook a little bit. She had to do Math, Reading, Handwriting, and Spelling but I didn't make her do Piano, Typing, or Faith in God.
3) Trent was VERY excited to get back to doing school. It was fun to watch how happy he was to do his school again.
4) Taking a month break from addition helped Marissa a lot. She did much better today on her activity than she had done on ANY assignment from November! Just a little time works wonders.
5) I am VERY glad I didn't start up my music students today and decided to wait until NEXT week. It's been a good but hectic day as the kids and I get back into the swing of routine.

It's going to be a good last half of the year.

Cloth Diaper Trial Wrap up

2011-12-21T09:53:00.002-07:00

The week has come to an end and here are my final thoughts on our Cloth Diaper Trial run.
I liked the cloth diapers enough to a) continue using them for another week, adding in night time and out and about, b)pick up some from a friend that her daughter can no longer use in order to increase my stash, and c)look into buying enough for a 3 day supply. In short, I think I'm going to switch. My biggest factor in the decision? Cost. With 12 diapers I have all ready, plus the extra diapers my friend will be lending me, I would only need to spend between $100 and $200 to buy enough diapers for a 3 day supply, plus a diaper sprayer. So, for less than $200 I can diaper Bree for the next 2 years. That's worth it to me! Besides...have I mentioned that they're darn stinkin' cute?

Cloth Diaper Update

2011-12-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

We're halfway through my week of full cloth diapering. Here are my thoughts:1) Pee cloth diapers are JUST AS EASY as disposables.
2) Poopy cloth diapers take more effort and there IS the gross out factor of having to clean them in the toilet. It takes more time to do so, and for me, rubber gloves are a MUST. If I decide to switch completely I will invest in a diaper sprayer as well.
3) I go through approximatly 6 cloth diapers a day, and 2 disposables (for bedtime and out of the house). I am thinking that next week I will use cloth exclusively with the rare exception of a LONG trip out of the house.
4) Doing the laundry isn't hard at all. At the end of the day I simply dump all the diapers that need to be washed into the washer when the kids are going to bed. Then, when I check on the kids before I go to bed I take them out of the washer and hang them over a basket to dry. Easy peasy.
5) Cloth diapers can be so CUTE!!!! For me, personally, the drawback of poop is cancelled out by how ADORABLE the cloth can be. Although I never would have known this if I hadn't tried them out. If I switch I will be buying some really cute diapers to make me smile.
6) Since today was church, another pro for cloth diapering popped up. If I used cloth diapers I wouldn't have to open the stinky diaper pail at church to put used diapers in when I change Bree at church!! That thing REEKS!!!
7) The big question I have is: If I switch, should I go with more pocket diapers (like the bum genius I already have) or get some covers and inserts/prefolds.

So, to anyone considering switching I say this: GIVE IT A TRY!!! It really hasn't been hard and you get a sense of accomplishment when you see your stack of cloth diapers all clean and waithing to be put on your baby. And come on....what's cuter than THIS:

Cloth Diaper Trial Run

2011-12-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

So, here I go, embarking on my Cloth diapering saga. I highly considered cloth diapering Bree before I had her. Then, when she ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks and needed open heart surgery I got so used to the disposables that I was hesitant to try out my cloth diapers. A week ago, a friend of mine who is considering cloth diapers kicked my rear in gear and "made" me put one on my precious little 6 month old. However, she wanted to try them too and we were going to split the stash of diapers so we could both try them out but we forgot to split the stash and all I ended up with that week was the one that was ON Bree at the time. So last week I only tried one cloth diaper a day. I put it on her in the afternoon after her lunch, then changed her before her afternoon nap. I didn't mind the cloth diapers, especially with just pee. She did have one NASTY poopy in it though, and I now have decided that if I DO switch either gloves, or a diaper sprayer...maybe both, are essential for me!!! Now, I have the stash back and a friend that is definitely going to switch to cloth, so I am going to give myself a week of cloth diapering to decide what I want to do. Some of you are reading this and thinking, "what the heck are you thinking?!?!?!" while other of my friends are thinking "Go for it!!" Let me tell you my reasoning:
1) I have nothing to lose trying these diapers for a week. They were given to me, for free, by a friend, so it's not like I spent money on something I don't know I'll do for sure.
2) It would save my family a LOT of money. When I crunched the numbers I figured that JUST using them for BREE for the next 1 1/2 years will save us over a thousand dollars. That's taking into account the first time cost of the diapers and the laundering costs.
3) I am not a fortunate person who's children can wear cheap diapers. My kid's skin is such that the ONLY brand of diaper I can use, without them getting SERIOUS diaper rash, is Huggies.
4) They're darn stinkin' cute!!!

Thus, I embark on my cloth diaper trial. I will keep those interested posted on what I think over the week and what I finally decide.

End of "First Semester" Evaluations

2011-11-14T13:16:00.001-07:00

It's the middle of November, and over here at the Stephen home it means the end of our 2011 school work. I'm going to give a quick evaluation of each of my kids, mostly for my own benefit.
Audrey (2nd Grade)
Reading: Audrey has improved a LOT in her reading since we started in August. She still isn't where I'd like her to be, but we're slowly getting there. I hope to have her successfully reading chapter books on her own by the end of the year.
Math: She ROCKS at math, in my opinion. She has mastered how to add and subtract large numbers even with borrowing and carrying. I'm VERY proud of her. My goal is to keep going forward with her math curriculum and try to help her memorize math facts along the way so she doesn't always have to use her fingers.
Handwriting: Her handwriting deteriorated greatly over the summer so I have been having her do an alphabet book to help remind and reinforce her writing skills. It has helped a lot. My goal here is to get her doing copywork starting in January and help her improve on formatting and writing her OWN sentences.
Piano: Great strides are being made here. I think I may have underestimated her ability and gotten books that were too easy for her. She's almost done with her second set of books, so I'll have to look and choose more carefully for her third set of books. She needs more of a challenge than her current books are giving her.

Marissa (Kindergarten)
Reading: Marissa is doing EXCELLENT in this department. She is now on lesson 65 in teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons. I like this curriculum SO much better than what we used with Audrey. Marissa is already leaps and bounds ahead of where Audrey was half way through kindergarten. I wish I had been using this curriculum when Audrey learned to read!
Math: She LOVES to do math. She doesn't always GET the math but she loves to do the workbook with me. We have just finished up a unit on addition and subtraction but it hasn't gellled in her head yet. I plan to work more on helping her understand addition and subtraction more when we get back to work in January. She IS doing first grade math as opposed to Kindergarten math though, so I figure I've got plenty of time to slow down and help her master things better.
Handwriting: Marissa is doing the same book as Audrey, but it takes her longer since she is learning how to form and write the letters. Audrey is just getting review and reinforcement. She is about half way through her book and doing well. I can already tell that she has improved in her pencil control since August.
Piano: I DID start Marissa this year, but I don't think she's fully ready for it yet. I've put it on the backburner for now and only give her a lesson when she asks for one. I think it will be much easier for her if we wait until next fall to really get going.

Trent (Pre K)
ABC's: We have been working on one letter a week and he does well during the week. He is still not retaining the letters much right now, but I don't feel any pressure about that. He's got plenty of time, and right now I feel like it's more about EXPOSING him to all the letters than about him KNOWING all of them.
Numbers: Trent can recognize the numbers 1,2,and 3. We're working on expanding that to 5 right now. We're also working on counting. He's improved a LOT since August. My goal is for him to be able to count to 10 and recognize the numbers 1-10 by the end of the year.
Colors and Shapes: He's great at colors and can recognize about 10 different colors. Shapes still need work, but we'll get there. He knows circle, triangle, and star really well.
Other Skills: He's getting really good at doing puzzles by himself. He is learning how to do prewriting worksheets where he follows the lines. We need to work on cutting skills as he's still pretty shaky with a pair of scissors. Overall he's doing great for only being 3!

Bree (Bree School)
Each day for Bree school we pick an activity out of a jar to do with her to help her learn and grow. The activities range from singing songs, learning sign language, playing games like patty cake, and helping her master motor skills like rolling over and reaching for things. The kids LOVE this part of the day. My goal with Bree is to train her to do "blanket time." Blanket time is a time where she will be given ONE toy and expected to stay on her blanket and play with her toy for a certain amount of time. This is going to take time and lots of work, but it will pay off so much in the years to come!!

Since some of you are probably wondering why I'm talking like this is the end of 2011, that's because for traditional school in our house it IS. Next week (Thanksgiving week) is a complete holiday week for my kids with no school at all. Starting November 28th and going to December 24th we will be having "Christmas School." Christmas School will consist of singing 8+ carols/day, reading Christmas books, studying the story of Jesus' birth, doing a craft/activity every day, and doing a family activitiy each day. One of the reasons I am glad I chose to homeschool is because I CAN take all of December and focus on the reason for the season!

Beware: Ranting Ahead.

2011-10-28T15:46:00.001-06:00

What happened to the good old days where children were taught RESPECT!? As a child growing up, not SO distantly, in the 80's I was expected to show respect for other people and their property. It seems these days that less and less children are respectful of ANYTHING. ALL people should be expected to respect other people and their property.

As a child I was taught to respect my elders. I called my parents respectful titles of mom, dad, or mommy and daddy. I called my friend's parents brother or sister so-and-so or mom and dad if they were parents of my best friends.

I was expected to use respectful speech towards everyone. I was not allowed to swear. I was not allowed to sass. In fact the one time I REMEMBER being spanked was because it was my FATHER who spanked me (a very rare occasion) for sassing my MOTHER. I know I was spanked more than that one time, but that one is ingrained in my memory.

I was expected to ask permission for things. If I was hungry I was expected to ask for something, not just take it and go to town. If I wanted to play on the neighbor's basketball court I was expected to knock on the door and ask their permission, and if they weren't home I didn't play. If I wanted to go to a friend's house I was expected to ask before going. If I LEFT a friend's house to go to another friend's house I was expected to call and let my parents know.

I was expected to respect property, my own and others'. I did not go around trashing my home or others' homes. I was expected to clean up after myself whether at home or at a friend's. I was expected to play NICELY with other people's things and not to ruin them.

So...why this rant? I sit here in my home where I am looking out at a backyard that has been trashed by children (my own and neighbors). There is garbage ALL OVER. The children have ripped all the foam off the trampoline net bars and tossed it all over the yard. Some child has ripped a giant hole in the trampoline net. There are shoes, jackets, and various other items of clothing strewn across the yard. Now, I know that my own children are as much to blame as anyone. Whether or not they participated in the trashing is a moot point: they allowed it to happen. Guess who will be cleaning it all up? My children and me, because I realize that it is as much my own fault that this has happened.

I TRY very hard to teach my children respect. I am not perfect at teaching the concept, and I am not perfect at always enforcing the conecpt. I'm human, so sue me. However, teaching your children respect and expecting them to follow through is hard enough. Add to that, being surrounded by other children who have NO concept of respect and it seems that all my hard training and teaching flies out the window in the face of peer pressure.

At times I want to ban ALL other children from my house unless they have PROVEN themselves to be respectful and responsible. However, I know that MY house is a GOOD place for these children to be. Here they will not be exposed to crude language and questionable media. Here they will be exposed to a family with values, love, and high expectations. It feels very much like a catch 22: If I ban the children from my home they lose the good influence my family can be for them but allowing them into my home is sometimes a tough pill to swallow as they have no respect for other people or their property. What is a girl to do?

Thanks for allowing me to rant. Now I can get my rear in gear and take care of the backyard.

House Craziness

2011-10-19T14:26:00.001-06:00

After having read the Duggar's book "The Duggars: 20 and Counting" I was inspired to try a few things in our home. Some of my inspirations dealt with homeschool and others dealt with the layout of our home. This post deals with the changes to our house. The first change we made in our home was to create a clothes room in the laundry room. We moved all of the kid's clothes downstairs and they hang in a built in organizer that was already in our laundry room. Ben and I hope to be able to add our clothes to the mix downstairs when we have the funds to purchase something for the clothes to hang on. This has helped us out quite a bit. 1) We no longer have the issue that laundry gets DONE but never PUT AWAY.
2) We don't have as much trouble with clean clothes getting left on the floor of the kids's rooms and then rewashed because no one knows if they're clean or dirty.
3) The girls don't change clothes 5 times a day!

The next inspiration I had was that I felt the prompting to move the kids downstairs and create one room for the kids to share and move the family room upstairs to the main level. Eventually, when we have the money we will actually build walls and have a boys room and a girls room but for now the 3 older kids are all together. They LOVE being in the basement and I love having the family room upstairs in our main living area. There are many things I love about my new set up.
1) There is no reason for ANY kids to be downstairs unless they are cleaning or doing laundry.
2) With nothing much more than just beds in the kids's room the room stays very neat and clean
3) They are right by all their clothes in the laundry room so they just wake up, make their beds, and get dressed before coming upstairs.
4) We spend more time together in the family room doing things as a family.
5) With the family room on the main level it is very easy to keep tabs on what the kids are watching and what they are playing.
6) It has made my front room a room that is usually company ready.
7)I'm not so worried about questionable neighborhood kids getting them to do bad things because I'm always in the know about what's going on.
8) All the toys just SEEM to be more accessible upstairs and the kids have played more with their toys than EVER.

All in all I LOVE the new set-up of my house and I am SO glad that we swapped everything. I am thankful for revelations and inspirations that can come from so many good sources.

Week off school doesn't mean off work

2011-10-11T13:59:00.000-06:00

We have hit our first scheduled week long break of our school year!!! Yay!! Around here we don't do 3 day weekends like the public schooled kids. Why? Because Ben always has to work them and they're just another day around here. So I scheduled week long breaks about every 5-6 weeks throughout the school year. Yesterday started the first break, but is it really a break? This week off of school is being used for chore training. I am working on training the kids to do the chores the way I WANT them done. I made up check lists and everything. Today's focus? How to pick up a room. All of the children participated since all of them have at least ONE room they are in charge of to pick up. Audrey has the TV side of the family room, Marissa has the front room and toy side of the family room. Trent has his bedroom. Other chores on the docket are the toilet, sink, tub, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, clearing and washing the table to name a few.
I will not excpect the children to execute their chores perfectly without guidance and adult support yet....well Audrey will be expected to, but not the others.
We'll see how THIS plan goes.....

Opinions wanted

2011-10-04T14:47:00.000-06:00

Sooo....Ben and I have been contemplating puting all of the kids downstairs in the now family room. All the kids would bunk downstairs with a curtain to separate the boy side from the girl side. (Eventually we plan on making 2 permanent rooms down there and a bathroom) Then all the family room stuff (couches, toys, TV, ect.) would be moved into the current master bedroom and become the family room. Ben and I would move back into our old room (currently Trent's room) and the girls' current room would become a guest bedroom. WHY you ask would we want to attempt this? Mainly because with only bedrooms downstairs kids have no reason to BE downstairs unless it's bedtime. It would put the family room up on the main level and make it easier for me to keep tabs on the kids when certain friends are over to play.
So, what do you think?

Taking a page from the book of Duggar

2011-09-26T08:27:00.003-06:00

Most of you probably don't know this, but I'm a bit obsessed with the Duggar family. My obsession comes and goes in spurts. Right now I'm actively obsessed. So, after watching every episode of the last season on youtube and thoroughly exploring their updated website I have decided a few things:
1) I need to make my religion as prevalent in my life as it is in theirs. If I were to be convicted of Mormonism, I want to be put away for life with no chance of probation.
2) I want 19 children.....my mom said she wasn't going to move in to help me out though. Well, there goes that plan.
3) I still think it would be fun to have a ton of kids and in part I envy the Duggar family for their lifestyle.
4) I am intrigued with the idea of my girls only wearing dresses and skirts.
5) I want to live in a big house with my 19 kids, in the middle of the country and we must have a sledding hill right outside the front door.
6) Now to the point of this whole post......I have decided to try out two of the Duggars' systems. The first being chore juristictions the second being character qualities.
I want my kids to have a chore and learn to do that chore EXTREMELY well so we decided yesterday to have the kids choose chores and they will do those chores until April's General Conference. Then we will switch for another 6 months. That means, that day in and day out my kids will be responsible for the same chore for the next 6 months. We divided the chores into 3 zones in our home: upstairs, kitchen, and downstairs. The kids chose one area from each zone. Here's what they chose:
Audrey: Kids Bathroom, Clear and Wash Table, and TV side of the family room.
Marissa: Front room, Kitchen Floor, and Laundry/Storage room Floor.
Trent: His bedroom, Unloading dishwasher, and Laundry. (Trent gets help from Mom and Dad on all chores)
The other chores not chosen will be delegated as family chores or they are Mom/Dad chores.
Hopefully this works!!!

On to Character Qualities. I ran across a printable page on the Duggar website that has a HUGE list of Character Qualities that they instill in their children. The really nice thing is that each character quality lists the quality, it's opposite quality, and a scripture to back it up. I think I'm going to print it off and start adding charater training to our devotional and daily life.

So, there we go. There is my post about my deep dark secret!!!!!

Safe From Invading Armies

2011-09-24T09:07:00.000-06:00

THIS is what happens when my kids actually PLAY with their toys. lol. The kids built a wall of blocks around their baby sister. Needless to say, the activity table idea worked GREAT! Can't wait to see what they come up with next week!!!!

My New Brain Child

2011-09-19T13:32:00.000-06:00

See this? This is my new brain child: the activity table. What is my activity table? It's a table in my kitchen with a bunch of different activities for the kids to do on it. The idea is that while I am working with one child, the other children can play with activities from the table. I will switch out the activities each week. I have compiled 5 weeks' worth of activities to rotate through. Here we have week 1's activities. They are as follows:
Wooden blocks (the white bag in the top left)
Cutting Tray (right in front of the blocks)
Coloring books (under the cutting tray. These will actually be a permanent fixture on the table but I'll rotate through our bazillion coloring books)
Magnet Tray (in front of the cutting tray)
Littlest pet shop sets (top middle)
Marble Race (The tub under the pet shops)
Sequence for Kids (front and center)
Rush Hour (on top of sequence)
Animal Dominoes (also on top of sequence)
Laptop (bottom right, with pet shop toys on top of it because Trent put them there right before I snapped the picture)
Laugh and Learn Piggy Bank (top right)
What you can't really see around the piggy bank are:
A shoe tieing set to practice tieing and
Paint with water books

Today, our first day using it, went GREAT! The kids played with a variety of toys. All 3 of them played with the blocks and the paint with water books at one point or another. The cutting tray, magnet tray, pet shops, shoe tieing, and piggy bank were also used at one point or another by at least one child. I tried to put a variety of activities on the table each week from different categories:
Electronic toys (lap tops, leapsters, videos, ect.)
Tot Trays (cutting tray, glueing tray, pom pom transferring, ect.)
Play toys (pet shops, blocks, ect.)
Teaching toys (piggy bank, alphabet soup, puzzles, ect.)
Art supplies (painting, drawing, coloring, clay, ect.)
and Board Games (sequence, candy land, chutes and ladders, ect.)

If any of you are familiar with my children you will know that they are not big TOY players. Their poor toys sit in neglect most of the time because they would rather play outside, watch TV, or play on computers. This is one of my sneaky attempts to encourage them to actually PLAY with their toys. So far, so good!

School Day Revamp

2011-09-16T13:59:00.000-06:00

After 4 weeks of school, I've decided that we're going to try something a little different for our schedule. Up until now we have done breakfast, cleaned up, devotional, all kids do workboxes 1-6, lunch break, then workboxes 7-9 (which are combined subjects of Science, History, and English). Now, I really like the IDEA of how this system is supposed to work, but I have run into a couple of snags.
Snag #1) For my set up to work, all the kids need to work at the same pace and finish each box at the same time. This is more hassle than it's worth most of the time. Kids finish early, or aren't finished when everyone else is and then it throws off everyone else. But my children aren't independent enough in their school work to go at their own individual paces.
Snag #2) The girls frequently need help, or at least monitoring on subjects I didn't think they would need help with.
Snag #3) Trent needs to learn how to do his preschool activities, and right now he just kinda does his own thing rather than doing his "work." Thus we have permanent marker on the wall, toothpaste all over the bathroom, and a little boy sporting eyeshadow and nail polish. You get the drift.

So......the NEW IDEA is to set up an activity table each monday with about 10 activities on it (things like sensory bins, toys, art supplies, tot trays, ect.). Each child will do their school with me in a one on one block while the other two play with the activity table things, outside, or with their baby sister.
Our new schedule will look something like this:
Breakfast and clean up
Devotional
Audrey's school time with mom - Trent and Marissa play
Trent's school time with mom - Marissa and Audrey play
Marissa's school time with mom - Audrey and Trent play
Lunch, clean up, and break time
Science - History - English when Bree goes down for an afternoon nap

Seeing as how I need to account for Bree's feedings in the morning routine as well as her naps and wake times things will not always go directly from one thing to another but we'll strive for the best!!! I figure that by January Bree will be on a set schedule which will allow us to have a more timely school day.
We'll try out the new plan on Monday and see how it goes. Wish me luck!!!! If it doesn't work out I'm sure you'll see a similar post in about 4 weeks........lol.

First REAL day of Co-op

2011-09-14T15:22:00.003-06:00

Today was the first day of doing our co-op activities. We met last week, but it was mainly a mom's meeting while the kids ran around and played. This week (sorry no pictures) we got back into doing our co-op activities.
We started off with music time. Singing time is who we will call Ms. L's time. We reviewed a song from last year "The Best of Friends" from Disney's "The Fox and the Hound." I was very impressed with how much the kids remembered. Then we got into a couple of Halloween songs to learn: "I'm a Mean Old Witch" and "There's No Such Thing as a Witch." They are both fun songs and the kids enjoyed them.
After singing time we moved on to Art. Ms. J and Ms. N are in charge of art. The kids were able to paint a "stained glass" butterfly. They are currently all on top of a bookshelf drying until next week when we will put ribbon on them for the kids to hang in windows, or around their necks.
Last of all today we did PE. I am in charge of PE. I pulled out my parachute (a gift from last Christmas) and had some parachute fun. First I taught the kids how to get on the ground with the parachute flat, then on the count of 3 we all stood up and raised the parachute above our heads, then back down to the ground. After they had mastered the raising and lowering of the parachute we added in the piece de resistance. I called out two kids' names and when we raised the parachute those two children had to run under the parachute and switch places. It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to have more parachute fun!!! I also plan on teaching the kids jump rope, four square, yoga, and red rover.
Ms. A does a story time. We didn't do story time this week. We are a very haphazard co-op, in that the only "subject" we really do every week is music time. Some weeks we get all the subjects in and that's great, and some days we just let the kids play and socialize with each other. Most weeks are a combo 2-3 subjects. It's all great fun.
As with last year we will be trying to do a field trip once a month and will have class parties to celebrate holidays and birthdays. We are adding in a show and tell week each month this year. I love my co-op!!! My ladies are the BEST! Here's to a great year of co-op on the horizon!!

A birthday, a picnic, the state fair, and a fun run

2011-09-10T11:07:00.002-06:00

This week was fun and crazy at our house. Not only did we start in on our full school schedule but we had a lot of family fun! To start off the week we celebrated Audrey's 8th Birthday. I can't believe how old she is getting. She went to her first activity days activity this week and in her words "It was AWESOME!!!!"

On Labor Day, Ben was sent home early because the office was just completely DEAD. So we packed up a picnic lunch and headed up the canyon. We found the BEST picnic spot!! It had two trees with a natural branch bridge that the kids had fun climbing on. Then we found a cool hide-out under a hollow bush along a trail. After that we came upon a playground where the kids enjoyed playing. Last but not least, right by the playground was a dammed off area of the river that was a PERFECT wading pool for kids. Sorry I didn't get any pictures, we forgot the camera.

Thursday was the opening day of the State Fair. We always go on opening day because it's cheap to get in. So here are the kids all ready to head out to the fair.

At the fair the first thing the kids wanted to do was ride the giant yellow slide. They each got to go two times. The girls were tall enough to ride alone, and Trent was allowed to ride with Audrey. They love that yellow slide!

Then we did the "Little Hands on the Farm" activity. Each child gets an apron and a basket. Then you go through all the stops and do "farming" activities like picking apples, milking a cow (a fake one), planting and harvesting vegetables, riding tractors (trikes that look like tractors), and collecting eggs. At each stop the kids collect an item to turn in at the end. They "sell" their items at the end and receive a "dollar" to buy a treat at the store.

After that we met up with our friends the Hess family. We wandered around, let the kids ride one ride, ate fair food, and just had a grand old time. On the way to the animal sheds we came across this wonderful Balloon Clown. She was great fun, but the best thing is she was just WAITING for children to come by. She snagged us as we walked past and made balloon, we'll call them things since all the kids didn't get an animal.

Here's the kids with their balloon things. Audrey got a parrot to sit on her shoulder. Marissa got a baby turtle that wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. Trent got a space gun.

I just had to share this picture that Audrey snapped of Bree while we were getting in the car to head home from the fair. Great pic for an 8 year old!!! The others she took weren't so good and got deleted...lol.

Last but not least, we participated in our Stake's annual 5K Fun Run and One Mile Walk. We all did the one mile walk. The girls did GREAT. Trent made Ben carry him on his shoulders the entire mile. Go Ben!!!! Then we had a yummy breakfast provided by the stake. It was a great week!!! Oh, and we did lots of school work too.

A look back at our week

2011-09-02T14:17:00.002-06:00

We "waded" into school this week. We started with our back to school bash on Monday where we had a special breakfast of French Toast, Juice, and Yogurt. Then we made a height wall downstairs in our laundry room to track how tall the kids are each year. We made name tracers for the kids to practice writing their names. We made an art wall (below) for the kids to display their art work. We also looked at all our new school books and talked about how school was going to work.

Tuesday, we started in with doing 1/3 of our school work. Wednesday we had our free day, since it will be co-op day starting next week. Wednesday was AWFUL!!!!! We will NOT be having another non structured school day for a LONG time. They were whiney, they fought more, and every 5 minutes I heard "when will my friends be home from school?!?!?" Thursday we did 2/3s of our school work. Today, Friday, we did all of our school subjects. The week was a great sucess!!! Bring on full time school starting next week!

Here's Marissa doing her math. Isn't she happy?!?!?! She started coloring the pictures very elaborately with multiple colors (if you click the pic you might be able to see how her first 2 fish at the top of the page are rainbow colored).....she quickly figured out that it would take her FOREVER to color the whole page that way and started coloring less elaborately.

Here's Trent doing a pattern block activity. (Ignore the junk mail behind him....lol) He had a lot of fun making dinosaurs, trains, sailboats, and rockets.

Audrey is coming right along with her piano. (See her "nice" flat fingers? That is thanks to the fake nails she put on. This is why pianists don't have long nails!) Luckily for me, after a long summer break of no piano at all, she picked right up where we left off and didn't really need a review. She's got a real knack for playing the piano. I can't wait to see where she is in a year from now!

And here my friends is our science experiment from today. Can you guess what's going on????? Ok, I'll tell you even though you probably already guessed. We are blowing up a balloon using yeast, sugar and water. My kids now know that yeast is alive, that it eats the sugar, then "burps" out air bubbles which blow up the balloon.
What did babykins do during all of this? She played with toys (mobiles, play mat, bouncer, and swing), ate (my kids like it when she eats because they get a mini break from schooling), napped, got held while kids did work, and got played with by everyone in this house....especially when children were supposed to be doing OTHER things. LOL
Hope you enjoyed the peek at our week!!! We had a good time. I think school is going to be great this year.

Butterfly Fly Away

2011-09-02T14:00:00.000-06:00

Our first science project for the year went really well. We watched caterpillars turn into butterflies. The kids were all super excited the day our kit arrived. Here is Audrey (above) with our new little caterpillars. You probably can't see just how tiny they are, but trust me, they were small. Then they grew like nothing else!!! That book about the Hungry Caterpillar really is true! Those caterpillars ate, and ate, and ate and within days had more than doubled in size!

Then they started turn into Chrysalides (yes, that's the correct term for more than one Chrysalis...who knew?) It was CRAZY to watch. The caterpillars would hang upside down and then start "dancing" while they turned into a chrysalis. Weird.

Audre watned her picture taken with the Chrysalides....so there is it. lol

About a week later we had butterflies!! Beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. All 6 of our caterpillars turned into butterflies. After observing them for a couple of days we released them. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that. One of the butterlies had a torn wing and didn't take off as quickly as the others. Audrey and Marissa were able to hold it on their fingers and get up close and personal with it before it too flew off. It was a great project for my kids. I think next year we'll see what happens with Lady bugs!!!!

Next Week's Plan

2011-08-26T13:08:00.003-06:00

This week went really well over at our house. We managed to get back into some semblance of a routine and had a lot of fun along the way. I kept the week low key and mainly focused on getting the kids used to routine days again.
Now on to next week!!! The plan:
Monday: Have a back to school bash! We are going to have a special breakfast, make a height wall to track how much the kids grow each year, make display areas for each of the kids to display work they are proud of (rather than on my fridge), make name tracers for the kids to practice writing their names each day, and introduce the kids to their new curriculum and school schedule.

Tuesday: Start working up to our full routine. We'll get up and get dressed, and clean bedrooms then have breakfast. After we clean up breakfast we'll do our morning devotional then do workboxes 1-4.

Wednesday: Is our day off/fun day. If we have gotten our art, PE, and music appreciation kits yet we'll start on those. If not, it will just be a complete day off, as starting on September 7th wednesdays will be co-op day.

Thursday: Do everything from Tuesday as well as add in boxes 5-7.

Friday: Do everything from Tuesday and Thursday plus add in boxes 8-10. Friday will be our first day doing our FULL routine. It will set us up for our first full week of school that will start September 5th.
Now the question is.....how will it all REALLY turn out?

Sidewalk Paint!

2011-08-24T12:23:00.013-06:00

One of our activities for our first week of school was to do sidewalk paint. I put cornstarch and some food coloring drops in each cup, then headed outside on the grass with a water bottle, a spoon, and 3 paintbrushes to mix up our paint.

Here it is in all its colorful glory!!! Some of the colors didn't come out the color I was shooting for, but I wasn't anal enough to go and fix them. The kids had fun trying to predict what color the paint would be when we mixed each cup.

I made all the kids put on clothes that I wouldn't mind getting ruined, since I didn't know if they would get paint all over their clothes and if they did if it would EVER wash out.
We had 3 different sized paintbrushes to use. The largest one worked the best for this activity. The kids rotated brushes every 5 minutes.

Most of our painting was just lines, blobs, and running around the driveway with a very saturated brush and letting it drip and dribble all over the cement.

In the end, each girl actually painted SOMETHING.

Marissa painted a transformer (top) and Audrey painted a rainbow (bottom). We had a fun time and this occupied a good chunk of our morning.

Our "first" week of school

2011-08-22T07:18:00.003-06:00

My children are acting out more, they are getting bored more frequently, they are being more whiney. All this screams to me that it's time to get back into school. Now, I don't have school SCHEDULED to start until Labor Day (I know, I know, you are all thinking WHY would you start school on a holiday?!?!!? Well, because for my family it's going to be a normal day with Ben at work and no car). So I had to make a decision: Start school officially this week or wait until Labor Day when we have things scheduled to start? In the end I decided that we would "start school" today but we will be focusing this week on doing fun things. Each day we have an art activity, an outdoor activity, and a "game" to do. This will allow us to get back into the routine of school without going all out. Oh, and the kids will also be doing math, science (we've been "growing" butterflies. A post on them will come after we have released them) and reading which they have been doing already for the last few weeks. I also plan to start the girls on their piano lessons again this week.
If you are interested here is what is on the docket for this week:
Monday: fingerpainting, Riding Bikes, and Chutes and Ladders
Tuesday: Coloring Contest, Go for a Walk, and an Educational Video
Wednesday: Sidewalk Paint, Play in the Sprinkler, Assemble our new Fairy puzzle
Thursday: Playdoh, Make Giant Bubbles, and Ladybug Game
Friday: Cut and Paste activity, Obstacle course, and play the Wii.
All this should make for some fun, low key days that get us back into our school routine.

My First Homeschool Post; AKA Our Curriculum for the Year

2011-08-19T09:24:00.003-06:00

Well, here we go. My first official homeschool post. I thought I'd share what we are using this year as our curriculum. As you can see I have laid out MOST of our curriculum on my kitchen table for your viewing pleasure. In addition to what you see here we will be receiving kits for Music Appreciation, Art, PE, Typing, and Spelling in the mail from Harmony Education. Now, let's delve into the stuff you SEE.

Elemental Science (bottom left): Both girls will be doing Elemental Science this year. We're excited to try it out. It looks like a lot of fun and comes highly recommended by my friend. We are doing Biology this year so we'll be studying Animals, the Human Body, and Plants. We have already started our first project of growing butterflies!!!

Singapore Math (top left): Audrey will be doing levels 2A and B. Marissa will be doing 1A and B. Because Harmony Ed required Marissa to start as a 1st grader if we enrolled her I am not going to stress getting through the entire curriculum with her this year. We'll get done what we get done. It's better for her to internalize the concepts than to finish the books. We have the textbooks and workbooks for each level and this year we decided to buy the test books for Audrey.

Music for Little Mozarts (top middle): Both girls will be taking piano this year taught by yours truly. Audrey started last year and is doing really well. I had PLANNED to keep her going all summer so that she'd finish the second set of books, but we didn't get around to it with everything else going on. So she'll have to finish up the second set of books when we start up again. Marissa will start on the first set of books and go from there. Audrey does REALLY well with piano. I think she's got a real natural talent for it. Marissa is very excited to start up. She loves to pretend to play and make up her own songs, which really don't sound too bad!

First Language Lessons (middle of the table): Both girls will start this English book this year. They will learn about verbs, nouns, adjectives, ect. While practicing copy work and memorizing poems.

Preschool Packs (top right): These are for Trent. Thanks to a homeschooling blog I love (http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/) Trent will be learning all 26 letters of the alphabet. There is a pack for each letter. Here are my bags for A and B. We will also be tossing in some fun packs thanks to another site (http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/). Trent is really excited for the Monster Truck pack and the Star Wars Pack. Each pack has many activities such as sorting the Capital and Lowercase letter of the week, counting activities, color matching, shape matching, lacing cards, tracing letters and prewriting activities. They were a lot of work to print, cut, and laminate but worth it as in the end they will have gone through 2 1/2 of my kids.

Story of the World (bottom right): For History this year we've decided to go with Story of the World Volume 2 which covers from the fall or Rome through the beginning of the Renaissance. After skimming through the books I'm really excited to start. The "lessons" are made simple enough for young children to understand the History and written in story format. There are TONS of fun activities in the activity book. We will be doing 4 weeks of learning, followed by a project week where we will do an Activity for each chapter we covered.

Dry Erase Tablets (bottom middle): These are for the girls to practice their handwriting and to do copywork on.

That sums up our curriculum! Once a week the girls will do art and music appreciation with the kits we'll be receiving. PE will be done formally once a week in our Co-op, in addition to our "recess" break at lunch time. Audrey will be doing typing and spelling as well.
It should be a busy busy year filled with lots of fun and learning! I hope it all goes as nicely as it does in my head!

Yes, No, Maybe so....

2011-08-10T16:53:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine has suggested that I turn my blog into a homeschooling blog. Hmmmm.....What shall I do? I'm not so good at blogging anymore as it is, however doing a homeschool blog would help me document all the things we do for school. I think I'll have to ponder this a bit more. would anyone be interested in knowing what we do?

2011-05-20T22:16:00.001-06:00

One more month to go before Breanne comes!

My Little Boy Turns 3!!

2011-01-14T14:43:00.003-07:00

The days have gone so fast. It seems like not too long ago that I was bringing home my brand-new baby boy. Now he is a big (LITERALLY) 3 year old!
Trent had a good birthday. We asked everyone (a whopping 3 families) to bring a pack of underwear for the little man. Plans are underway for potty training! He runs out of diapers this weekend, and the "fun" will commence. He was very excited about all his new underwear. He got Spiderman, Toy Story, Sports Balls, a Variety Disney pack, and Cars.
He also got some Toy Story toys that he absolutely adores. He carries them around the house with him. It's pretty cute.
His BIG gift from mom, dad, and sisters was a new bike! His tricycle AND his scooter got ran over last summer, WHILE ON THE GRASS, so he got a new scooter for Christmas and his new bike for his b-day. He loves to ride them in the kitchen. I have the feeling he's going to be VERY active this summer...but that will be good since I'll have a new baby and being active will keep him occupied!
All in all, Trent had a very good third birthday. I can't believe he's so big though!!!!!

2010-12-03T23:12:00.003-07:00

Ben here. One of my favorite
memories is when Nana, Pa, and my
family went to the Gateway and Roo got to choose a new puppy and make her just like she wanted her. Here is a picture of her "washing" her puppy before we went to choose clothing for it. I remember that even though Audrey was not supposed to get one, Nana and Pa gave in and Audrey ended up with one, too. It was a fun day. I can't remember if this was Pre Trent time or barely post Trent. I just remember the smile it made on her face that day.

------------->

2010-12-01T17:16:00.002-07:00

Do you like my, as my friend so astutely puts it, "floating baby"? LOL. 200 days seems so far to go!!!!!!

Ben Here

2010-11-13T20:28:00.002-07:00

This blog is about to get a little more interesting. I, Ben, am going to attempt to get more time to put in my two cents on the world here in the blog. I'm going to start figuring out how to put my pictures from the old BlackBerry and put them in here (getting them onto the computer is easy, getting the pictures onto the blog is a different story). We will see how well this goes.

Top 10 things I love about Homeschooling

2010-11-08T13:10:00.004-07:00

1. SLEEPING IN!!! I love that we all get to sleep in. No HAVING to get up and get people out the door for us. It is SO nice. Poor Ben has to get up and out the door, but the rest of us can sleep in to our hearts content.

2. MINIMUM EXPOSURE to bullying (either side), swearing, drugs, sex, gangs, ect. So many of those things that our kids are being exposed to way too early in life.

3. THE "AHA" MOMENTS. Nothing is better than watching your child finally "click" with a concept and "get it!" Watching the light that goes on is a memorable experience.

4. RELIGION. I can talk up religion all I want. My kids learn scripture stories, memorize scriptures, learn primary song and hymns. We use morals from the scriptures all the time in school. I love that I can add it in to my heart's content.

5. PLENTY OF DOWN TIME AND FAMILY TIME. My kids school for less time than public schooled kids because they get one on one attention. They tend to finish quicker and thus have lots of time to be kids. They get to dig in the mud and play in the snow. They get to find bugs for pets and roll around in the leaves. I LOVE the extra downtime they get! We also get lots of family time. When Ben gets home from work the kids don't have to do homework, or music practice, ect. We get our evenings to ourselves to enjoy as we please.

6. LIFE SKILLS. I get to teach life skills to my kids consistently. They do chores, cooking, pet care, child care, ect all as part of a regular school day.

7. FAMILY UNITY. I love watching how close my children are growing to each other. Because they rely on each other for playmates so much of the time they are growing closer as the years go by rather than farther apart. Family is the central unit of God's plan. I hope to build a strong, close-knit one. Homeschooling is helping me accomplish this.

8. THE ABILITY TO THROW ALL PLANS OUT THE WINDOW. I love that I have the freedom to just throw all the plans out the window as needed/wanted. A sick child or mom can mean just snuggling up on the couch and reading that day. A spontaneous field trip or play date can mean rearranging of school to allow the kids a treat. Holidays and Birthdays can mean a free day to simply focus on the joy of the day. A snow storm can mean dropping the days work and heading out to go sledding while everyone else is in school. It's a wonderful freedom to have!

9. PUTTING FUN BACK INTO LEARNING. I love playing learning games with my kids. It's fun to pull out the board games and teach educational skills as well as good sportsmanship and turn taking. I love to pull out of my memory games I remember playing in school, like spelling basketball and being able to play them with the kids. We get to get creative and have fun learning about stuff.

10. ALL THE WONDERFUL FAMILIES I HAVE MET through homeschooling. I have met so many wonderful families!!! I have a whole new set of friends now. I love all my friends that I can talk about homeschooling and bounce ideas off of and get support and help from. So many wonderful people in my community homeschool. I am truly grateful for the oppportunity I've had to meet so many of these families.

Yes, we have our good days and bad days. Yes, some days I wonder WHY I am doing what I'm doing. BUT, I KNOW that I am doing what the Lord wants me to do for MY family at THIS time. I hope you all enjoyed reading about why I enjoy homeschooling, and a little bit of WHY I homeschool.

2010-06-21T21:37:00.002-06:00

Wow! Can I say, long time no see?! I seem to have fallen off the blogging bandwagon. Much of that is thanks to facebook. But some people don't have facebook....so for all of you out there that care to read this here is our life!
Audrey finished up kindergarten in great style. She has lately discovered that she DOES like to read. I have to comb the easy reader shelves in the library for books easy enough for her but she enjoys reading them and is SO proud of herself. She recently lost her 3rd tooth thanks to cousin Adrian who pulled it out for her.
Marissa FINALLY learned how to sleep through the night. Yes, she's 4. We have some night waking but it's much rarer than every night! She is very excited to learn to read. She likes to pretend that she can read the books Audrey does. Hopefully we'll have her ready to start reading next summer!
Trent is a crazy and zany two year old. He LOVES his pjs and is nearly impossible to get out of them. He also loves flip flops which he calls "flops." Daddy accidentally took off with them in the car the other day and we had a meltdown over "FLOPS!!!!" He is nearly as big physically as Marissa now. He's getting better at talking every day and is quite hilarious. The other day he fell off the end of a slide into the dirt and proceeded to tell us all about it by saying: "Slide! Boom!! Dirt. Clothes."
Ben is still looking for a better job. His current job...is, well, a job. That's about all that can be said for it. Hopefully we will be blessed in the near future with a better suited job for him.
I am happily plugging away as a stay at home and stoking my favorite hobby: homeschooling. I have next years curriculum all planned out and am just starting to get it all assembled and ready for the year. I teach piano and clarinet lessons on the side to help a bit with money. That's about all going on here.
We are excited for my (Shelly's) family reunion next week and have some fun activities planned for the summer like camping and swimming and letterboxing.
Life is good. Hard, but good.

My FAVORITE homeschooling resource

2010-04-06T07:44:00.002-06:00

Ok...for all my friends out there who either homeschool or have preschoolers and toddlers. You HAVE to check out this blog if you haven't all ready! I have already told and shown many of you this blog, but here it is in print for you to link up to!!!!!
This lady is AMAZING!!! She has SO many wonderful ideas and FREE printables!!!!! You will love this. She does everything from her toddler up through her 1st grader. There's something for ANYONE who has young kids.
Enjoy the link and let me know what you think!
http://lovemylifex4.blogspot.com

Adventures in Homeschooling

2010-02-16T10:37:00.004-07:00

I absolutely LOVE homeschooling! I am so glad we made the choice. I never would have pictured myself as a homeschooling mom, but here I am, and I love the adventure. I LOVE watching my kids learn, especially when a concept clicks and you see their face light up. I love how I keep finding new resources every day: blogs, dollar store items, printables websites, ect.

We have just been having a ton of fun. Audrey is learning how to read. Marissa is learning how to spell and write her name. We have fun with puzzles, playdoh, art supplies, science experiments and all kinds of things.

We take advantage of nice days and get out and play. We are excited to finish off the tree house this year, with the help of a friend. It is going to be SO cool!

The one thing I do wish, is that we had the money to put the girls into a gymnastics class. That would be so much fun for them and educational as well. I suppose now is not the season for that though. Until that time, we'll have fun discovering all the many resources out there for us and enjoy learning together!

My Goober is 2!!!

2010-01-14T13:56:00.002-07:00

Trent turned 2 on the 8th. A happy, yet sad day. Happy for him because he got a party and presents and cake! Sad for me because my baby is not a baby any more! He is talking more and more every day. He has such a cute personality. I love to hear him laugh. I love watching the kids when they play well together, which doesn't happen often enough in my opinion. He's such a big boy and thinks he can do everything his sisters can. He gets VERY mad if anyone goes outside without him. I just love my little guy!

Update, Update, who's got the Update?

2009-12-30T09:00:00.003-07:00

So, here's a quick run-down of all that has happened since my last post.
September 2009: Ben loses his job. A BIG blow to the whole family.

October 2009: Ben looks for a job. Ben goes to the ER for a skin infection. Ben spends a week in and out of the ER. Ben has to have surgery on the skin infection. Ben recovers. No job. We enjoy Halloween with our good friend's the Hess' and the Vincents.

November 2009: Ben looks for a job. Ben has some dead-end interviews for companies that sell cutco knives door to door and such. No job. Ben gets ANOTHER skin infection. Ben goes to Dr. to have it treated since this time it's very small. Discover Ben has type 2 diabetes, which is most likely causing the infections because his blood suger is sky high. Ben gets outfitted for diabetes maintenance (monitor and medicine). Go to Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Do a LITTLE black friday shopping. Go do dinner at Ben's parents' house on Sunday. Mom comes up to my house to help with decorating and cleaning and such.

December 2009: Ben looks for a job. We start enjoying the magic of Christmas with lots of family field trips to go sledding, look at lights, have fun with friends, visit Santa, ect. Ben GETS a job!!!! Not what we were hoping for, but it's a job! Celbrate Christmas with Ben's parents who are going to Houston to visit Ben's brother for christmas. Ben starts training. Christmas break comes (BTW Audrey and I are enjoying homeschool a TON!!!! I love teaching her!). Celebrate Christmas (sorry, no pics....I'm not good at remembering to take it let alone take photos with it). Looking forward to spending New Year's Eve with good friend's of ours and spending the night at their house. Woohoo!!

Well, that has been our life in the last few months. It's been crazy, scary, depressing, and joyful. I think we've run the gammit of emotions these last few months. I pray that things continue looking up for our little family, especially as I'm very baby hungry and would like to have baby #4 in the next year or so! We'll see what God has in store for us. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

The Last Straw

2009-09-21T09:51:00.003-06:00

So, I have invested in a treadmill. I stepped on the scale the other day and the number was so depressing to me that I knew I needed to do something! The issue was HOW?! 1) Trying to exercise with 3 kids in tow during the day is not effective to say the least. 2)I can't afford a gym membership. 3) I don't like the thought of going out to exercise early in the morning when it's dark, or late at night when it's dark because it's scary and there's always weather issues. So, I decided that having a treadmill would be ideal for my circumstances. I went on KSL to check out what was available and then posed the proposition to Ben. He thought it was a great idea so I went back on to SERIOUSLY look and a miracle happened. Just as I logged on the second time a brandnew post had been put up, like 10 minutes before. A couple was moving and coudln't take the treadmill with them so they were selling it extra cheap. So, for $60 I now have a Nordic Track Treadmill that works great and I've already worked out on twice. It's nice to know that I can exercise when I want to and not worry about the kids since they can just watch TV while I work out. I'm excited to lose weight and stop being the "fat" one. And special thanks to Nana and Pa for paying for the treadmill!!! What great parents in law I have!!!

Happy Campers and a Trip to the Lake

2009-07-31T12:59:00.002-06:00

Here are some highlights from our most exciting adventures this summer.

Aspen campground
We went camping with Grandma and Grandpa Pratt to a campground in the lower Uintah's called Aspen. It was near Hanna, Utah. The kids had a blast. They found a giant hill of sand that they spent most of their time playing in. We took LOTS of walks around the camp ground to keep the kids happy. The kids had a blast playing with Grandpa. They played frisbee and catch. Trent especially loved the fact that he was OUTSIDE all the time!

Spring Hollow Campground
So our friends and us went camping on (what we HOPE to make) our Annual camping trip. We tried out a new campground up Logan Canyon because it was the only one with an open reservation over the 24th of July. We didn't know what to expect, but just hoped for the best. It ended up being GREAT!! Our camp site was PERFECT for our two families. It had plenty of places for our tents, it was near the bathroom and the water, and it had a raised fire pit. There were a couple of creeks running through the campground, one of which that flowed right over the road. The kids had a BLAST playing in the water there. Audrey asked to go play in the water about a million times every day. There were also multiple hiking trails that left right from the campground. There was fishing available too. While we were there we even saw a "parade"! Well...a parade of rescue vehicles. A hiker had fallen off a trail that was above our campground and a bunch of rescue vehicles "paraded" right past our camp site on their way to the scene. Trent was REALLY hard to keep track of on this trip because it was so woody around our site. We survived though. All the kids had a blast.

Pineview Reservoir
Yesterday we went to the beach. Well the beach of the lake. lol. We went with two of our family friends. My friend Jen brought her three kids, and my friend Megan came with her family. All the kids had so much fun playing in the water. We took picnic lunches and just chilled for a few hours. Audrey had so much fun playing around with her friends Jacob and Dakota and "riding" on Dakota's dad as he pretended to be a dolphin. Marissa put on some water wings that had been stashed in the bottom of our pool bag for AGES and was amazingly brave! She LOVED the water wings! Trent loved playing in the sand and sitting in the water. Unfortunately, I got sunburned, though I'm not sure HOW that happened, as I put sunscreen on before I left and we were only out for about 2-3 hours!! Go figure! Anyway, the time came for me and Jen to take the littles home for naps and Audrey got to stay and play a while longer with Dakota. She was THRILLED.

Well, there you have out 3 most exciting summer adventures. What's your family done?

Much Needed Update

2009-07-27T12:51:00.000-06:00

Gosh, it's been forever! Things have been plugging along in our house this summer. We have gone camping twice. Both times were a lot of fun, although keeping track of Trent was VERY stressful. We were looking forward to the ward camp out only to find out it's been cancelled. What a gyp. There really hasn't been a lot of note going on. For the Fourth of July I (Shelly) rode on a pirate ship float with the Clearfield Community Band and played music from Pirates of the Carribean. We had a BBQ that day and played in a concert that evening. We built a giant fort/tree house in the back yard for the kids...now if only we could find sand to put in the bottom of it to make a huge sand box. I'm waiting for all my boxes of homeschool materials from the Virtual Academy that Audrey is enrolled in for Kindergarten. The kids play in the spinklers a lot. Ok, so this is a really boring post and I better stop while I'm ahead! Just thought I'd post and let people know I'm not dead, although I have sort of fallen off the blogging band wagon due to lack of intersting posts......lol. Oh well.....

Hike from.....

2009-06-13T20:30:00.002-06:00

We decided to try out hiking today. It hadn't rained since morning and it was nice and pleasant outside, if a bit cloudy. So we packed up the kids and headed out to find our first hike. We looked in our hiking book and chose a nice easy hike that was a 1/2 mile loop and advertised that it was wheelchair accessible (thus stroller friendly). Um......lets just say that the heavens did NOT smile upon us and the book must be out of date. We found our hiking spot ok, no problem there. Check. We got the kids out of the car and Trent into the stroller. Check. We began our hike. Check. We saw three paths........ummmm....NO check. The "loop" was supposed to be the right and middle paths, with the left path going to a look out. We only saw one path as we started...no problem. We probably just had to get to the right spot. A bit further in we DID find 3 paths! Check! The right one leads in a loop back to the middle. We took the right path and had a great time. THEN it started raining....well not TOO bad. We'd already walked about 1/4 of a mile so the loop was going to loop back around pretty soon right? NO CHECK!!!! The path just kept going, and going, and going. The rain started coming harder, and faster, and faster. Finally, we faced the truth after walking about 1/2 mile.....the path was NOT going to loop back around to the middle path. We turned around and headed back the way we had come. By this time, we were all pretty much wet, the trail was muddy, and the rain started coming harder and faster. We FINALLY made it back to the car, sopping wet, but laughing. Audrey said it was a bad idea to go hiking at one point....but lets look a little closer here. Did we get out of the house? Check. Did we do something as a family? Check. Did anyone get hurt? Nope. Did everyone have a fun time? Check. Even hurrying down the trail in the down pour we were laughing and singing "The Ants Go Marching." So, I guess over all, our first disastrous hike was....well, a SUCCESS!!! We all came home, got warm baths, ate dinner, and watched a movie. Guess it was a pretty good day afterall.

Summer Time is Here!!!

2009-06-01T12:11:00.002-06:00

Yay! It's summer time! Time for pools, and sprinkers, camping, hiking, and all manner of fun! Here's just a quick look at what our family has planned. I'm excited to go letterboxing more over the next few months. We're planning on going to visit some ghost towns in Utah. There are 3 camping trips planned, which I'm really excited about since we didn't go at all last year! We got some fun day trip ideas from a book called "Fun with the Family in Utah." We also plan on checking out some great hikes with the kids this summer. All this in addition to a few trips to the pool, plenty of hours spent in the sprinklers, lots of cook outs on the grill, stake co-ed softball, and the fun holidays! What does YOUR family have planned????

Finally "Flying" Solo

2009-05-19T12:11:00.002-06:00

I am so proud of Audrey. She learned how to ride her bike without training wheels this week. She was VERY reluctant to take them off. The neighbors have a little 12 inch bike that has no training wheels and she was riding IT, but her knees were like up to her ears and she couldn't get much speed and she couldn't balance all that great with her knees so high. We told her it would be a lot easier to rider her OWN bike without training wheels because it was the right size. She really didn't want to, but we convinced her to give it 3 tries and if she didn't like it we'd put the training wheels back on. Ben also told her he'd buy her ice cream if she got scraped up. So, a pint of ice cream later she is riding her bike like a pro! I can't believe how big she is! Along the bike lines, we ended up buying Marissa a 12 inch bike because Trent would freak out every time Marissa rode her tricycle. He thinks it's HIS. Well, NOW it is. I hope everyone will be happy for at least a year now!! lol

Reconsidering Pet Ownership

2009-05-05T17:09:00.002-06:00

GGRRRR!!!! I am SO ticked off with one of our cats. She has REALLY done it now. Let me backtrack for a minute though to give you the full idea. We have a cat, actually we have 3 cats at the moment, but one in a loaner. The particular cat I am talking about though is a 7 year old tabby cat. All was well in our life, with the cats, until Trent became mobile about 9 months ago. When Trent began to crawl he discovered KITTY LITTER! Nasty. He'd head for it all day long and I just got to the point where I couldn't keep pulling him away from it and distracting him any more so we gated the litter off so that Trent couldn't get to it anymore. Everything went well for a while.....then we went on vacation. When we came home from our vacation it was to find that our house REAKED of cat....and NOT in a good way. The cat had decided she didn't want to jump over the fence anymore and had decided that some clean laundry downstairs was a better litter box. She had pooped all over our clean clothes! We thought it was an isolated incidence, but she kept doing it! She'd find ANYTHING soft on the floor and poop on it!! Clothes, bags, dress-up dresses, towels, blankets, We couldn't leave them on the floor for fear of the cat pooping on them. It's been an ongoing problem, so we decided we needed to kick them outdoors, but I wanted to wait for it to get warm. Well, last night it was the last straw!!! We came home from Provo yesterday to find that the cat had pooped in some dirty laundry. I was mad, but we cleaned it up and put the cats outside. THEN, when I was going to bed I knelt down to say my prayers. I kept thinking it smelled bad, but that it was probably residual. Then I put out my hand, ON MY BED, mind you to push myself back to my feet and I put my hand on CAT POOP!!! I yelped and went to wash my hands, then to take care of the mess. I then found the cat and kicked her outside! She is NOT to come back in my house, because pooping on my bed is NOT ok!!!! I would seriously take her to the pound if I wouldn't feel guilty about putting her there, but seriously, if anyone knows someone who wants a cat let me know!! She's not a BAD cat, but she IS fat and lazy and won't use the litter box anymore because she has to jump the fence to get to it. GRRRRR!!! So there's my nasty story. YUCK.

New Calling

2009-04-27T12:58:00.002-06:00

So, last sunday I was called to be the "building cleaning coordinator." I'm not sure how I feel about this calling. On the one hand, I'm relieved to be out of primary for once (I've served there for 10 of the last 12 years), but I miss the kids too. I hate calling people on the phone and asking people to do things, so I don't really look forward to THAT aspect of my new calling. However, it IS an easy calling to fulfill as long as I find people each week to clean the building. I wont have to clean the building all the time unless I forget to assign people to clean. So there you go. That is my illustrious new calling! lol. We'll see how it all works out.

Kindergarten

2009-04-15T16:40:00.004-06:00

Well, the decision has been made and it is final. Audrey will be attending Utah Virtual Academy in the fall rather than a traditional school. Utah Virtual Academy (UTVA) is an online charter school. We came to the final decision after a lot of thought, study, and prayer. Homeschool is the way the Lord wants our family to go. UTVA is different than typical homeschooling though in that they provide the curriculum and the parent is a Coach rather than a teacher as all lessons are already in place and just need to be completed. They send you all the supplies you need to school your child from the comfort of your own home. UTVA also differs from typical homeschooling in that Audrey is assigned a certified teacher to keep tabs on her and make sure she is staying on track. They also have field trips and gatherings and encourage children to be involved in other social outlets. We are very excited for this chance and know that we'll have a lot of fun even though there will be good days and bad. Wish us luck!!

Just a little post

2009-04-03T09:01:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted in a week or so, so just to fill you all in on the Stephen Family Insane Asylum.....

Ben has been working and doing scouts...the usual. We attended his uncle's viewing about a week ago. We'll be going to my uncle's viewing this weekend. It's been a few months full of death for our family...only one was unexpected however. The other two were blessed releases.

I (Shelly) have been debating about homeschool again. I am looking forward to General Conference to hopefully give me some answers to my questions. I've had a cold. The girls have been sick too. I don't like it. I feel like a bum. My house is dirty, I have no energy, and my stupid Benadryl gives me medicine head long after the medicine has worn off......at least I only take it at night and it DOES help me sleep.

Audrey is her usual self. She's a social butterfly, which is one reason I would love for her to go to public school, but only in the right crowd. She makes friends with everyone, which in general is a good trait, but this means she makes friends who do not have a good influence on her all the time. I don't need more swear words introduced to her and I certainly don't need any more "Chucky" experiences!!

Marissa just turned 3. We took her to build-a-bear for her birthday. She LOVED it. She picked out a pupppy and named her Princess. She is FINALLY starting to sleep through the night! We're up to about 50% right now and I'm THRILLED! We have decided that the girls just sleep together every night. It's working and Marissa is starting to use Audrey as a comfort when she wakes up, instead of mommy all the time. She's growing up so fast. I'm glad she's beginning to leave the tantrums and whining behind now.

Trent is a goober!!! He's into everything. He climbs on everything. He eats everything. He is starting to throw tantrums. He's just a goober. He's so funny too. He gets this little mischevious look on his face and it's hard to not laugh at him. If you say his name in a warning tone, sometimes he'll look at you and shake his finger because he knows you're going to tell him "NO." When you tell him no, he often cries like you've wounded his tender little feelings. He loves to be outside and freaks out if someone goes out without him. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so that he CAN go outside! It's just too mucky and mushy right now to let him out unless I want to change his clothes 3 times a day.

Well, there's a little update. Hope you are all doing well!!

Our New Hobby

2009-03-24T15:44:00.003-06:00

So, our family decided to take up a new hobby with it getting close to summer. We wanted it to be something outdoors. In one of my parenting books I came across a blurb about "Letterboxing." There was a website link in the book to check out. It sounded so fun that I thought my family just HAD to try it.
Letterboxing 101- It's kind of like treasure hunting. You are following directions (you get them from the website) to find a Letterbox. A letterbox is a small container (like a rubbermaid food container) that has been hidden somewhere like a park, historical place, or occasionally a building. You follow the directions to locate the box. When you find the box you open in up and will find a log book and a rubber stamp inside it. You take your own stamp (that you bring with you along with your own log book, stamp pad, pen, and maybe a small momento to leave for the next quester) and stamp it in the logbook of the box. Then you sign in with your Trail Name (Our name is The Goober Dudes....don't ask..lol). You take the stamp in the box and stamp your own log book and record any info you want to about your quest for the letterbox, etc.
Anyway, our family did this for the first time this last Saturday and we're hooked! We met up with our friends at a park where there were two letterboxes hidden. We chose the PERFECT first letterboxes. The directions were so easy that the kids were excited about finding the letterboxes for their first times. When we found the first one, Audrey and her friend Jacob were so excited that they rolled the rock hiding the box down the hill and Jacob's dad Aaron had to chase it down. Pretty funny. After replacing the box we hunted for the second one. Again the kids were excited because the directions were very easy and very short. They had a ton of fun. I can't wait to try more letterboxes!!! After locating the letterboxes we let the kids play at the park and had a picnic before heading home for naps. Letterboxes are hidden EVERYWHERE. In almost all the states, in foreign countries, in fact I think I counted 30 letterboxes hidden in JUST Weber and Davis counties here in Utah. So Fun!!!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2009-03-13T20:44:00.001-06:00

Audrey, Marissa and the neighbor girl Rosa were all outside playing "Ring Around the Rosie" this afternoon. However, this is what their version sounded like:
Ring Around the Rosie
Hacking up the Posies
Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down.

I just laughed myself silly at it all. My first impression was of someone spitting out rose petals.

What Would YOU Do?

2009-03-10T14:54:00.003-06:00

Have you ever read the children's story "Fanny's Dream"? If you haven't, let me summarize. Fanny is a young woman in Wyoming who decides that the story of Cinderella is true. She decides that she wants to go to the ball at the mayor's house and marry someone important. She prepares herself then goes out to wait for her fairy godmother. Needless to say her fairy godmother doesn't show up that night, but her admirerer, Heber Jensen, does. He asks her to marry him and help complete HIS dreams. After an hour of deliberating, she shakes Heber awake and says "yes." So Fanny marries Heber and starts her life with him. Years later Fanny goes out into the garden to get a watermelon, and who should appear but her fairy godmother! The fairy godmother tells her there is still time to make her dreams come true and that she'll fix everything. Fanny, however has realized that the life she HAS is the life she wants and tells the fairy godmother she'd rather not go to the ball. So, my question to you is this: If you had the chance to redo it all, would you? I ask you, as the fairy godmother asked Fanny: "Do you want to go to the ball, or not?"

Little Miss Riss

2009-03-01T16:05:00.003-07:00

Marissa is going to be 3 this month. I can't believe it! She has grown up so fast and has especially matured in the last couple months. She is evolving from a toddler into a preschooler. Marissa is....well Marissa. She can drive me crazy and to the point of frustration and tears, then melt my heart with a snuggle and a kiss. Marissa loves to play with baby dolls. She takes very good care of them, and I often hear her repeating things I've said to her to them. Marissa is very stubborn and strong willed. I suppose I'll be grateful of that trait as she gets older, but right now it drives me batty. Marissa is an AWFUL sleeper, well ok, I need to preface that statement. She has never been a GREAT sleeper, but she used to sleep most of the night and then go back to sleep in her own bed without a fuss, that is until last summer. Last summer Marissa broke her arm. Two weeks after getting her cast off she fell down the stairs and had to get stiches in her forehead. A couple months after getting the stiches out she got an awful respiratory virus that had us giving her breathing treatments with a nebulizer every 4 hours. I guess I can't blame her for being a bad sleeper now, after all that. She IS getting better. I pray for the day that her sleeping through the night is the norm and not the exception. Marissa is a quirky little girl. I love her a ton. She has taught me so much about being a mother especially about patience, perseverance, and unconditional love. One day, I'm sure I'll look back on her toddlerhood and smile. I might even MISS those days. I love my Little Miss Riss!!

My Soap Box

2009-02-19T13:17:00.002-07:00

I just have to rave about my three favorite parenting books currently. I am a parenting book junkie. I love to read them and see what they have to offer. Each of these books has helped me out a TON in the last few weeks!:

1. "The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers." This book and it's techniques have helped Marissa a TON!! We are finally moving in the right direction without tons of tears and crying that wakes up the other two kids. My Favorite technique/tips: Put your kids to bed earlier and have a very consisitent bed-time routine. Thanks to this tip our kids go to bed at 7:30pm every night and are asleep usually within 5-10 minutes.

2. "Love and Logic Magic for the Early Years." I love this series because it helps promote kids who think for themselves. It stops all the threats, multiple warnings, and wishy-washyness in my parenting. My Favorite technique/tips: Set the Limit once. After the limit has been set once, if it is broken again you simply apply a logical consequence. No more warnings and lectures. For example my kids have been instructed that they may not leave the table without permission at meal time. If they leave without being excused meal time is over. How sad. The "Uh-oh" song. When Marissa acts up and gets out of control I simply pick her up and sing "Uh-oh, looks like some roomtime" and deposit her in my room until she's calmed down and is ready to act sweet again. She's gettting to the point that if I just say "Uh-oh" she stops what she's doing immediately. Energy Drain. Marissa likes to spit a lot...it's her new bad habit. When she spits, or when any of the kids does something that an energy drain will fit, I have an "Energy Drain." All my energy goes away and I can't do anything for them anymore and they have to put my energy back by doing MY chores.

3. "On Becoming Childwise." This book, I felt, goes hand in hand with the "Love and Logic" theory for the most part. I loved the analogy about monkeys. In this book they liken responsibilities to monkeys. When you kids are born all their monkeys are on your back because they are helpless. As they age and mature your goal is to hand the monkeys over to your child and make THEM carry their own monkeys. My Favorite technique/tip: Reflective Sit Time. This is mainly for Audrey and it works great for her. Instead of getting mad at her when she does something naughty, she is sent to a chair to have some "Sit time." While there she has to think about WHAT she did, WHY it was bad, WHO it hurt, and HOW she's going to make it better. When she can successfully tell me the answer to those questions she is allowed to get up and make it better. It's nice to just tell her, "Audrey, I need you to sit here and think about what you did/how you're acting. I'll be back to talk to you in a few minutes," instead of lecturing her all the time about things she KNOWS are wrong. Structure your child's day (This tip is actually from the Childwise prequel Preschoolwise.) This series is really into putting structure and routine into your child's day. I have found that since I introduced a bit more structure to their days, they get into less trouble and are watching less TV voluntarily!! I plan 5 activities for the kids during the day. One of those activities is an "alone time" activity where they play by themselves with a specific toy, one of the activities is some one on one time with mom, and the rest are group activities and such. It's hard for me to have to think about what the kids are going to be doing each day, but it's worth it in the long run since I have to discipline less.

Well, that's my soap box. Hope you all lasted through it. Maybe my soap box even inspired some of you!!!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-10T12:58:00.003-07:00

Is there something wrong with me? I just don't get all that worked up about Valentine's Day. Maybe my brain is all screwed up.....

Name that Object

2009-02-01T15:40:00.003-07:00

Can you correctly identify THIS object? (It's really not hard, but we found it amusing. Let me tell you, it was a PAIN getting it OUT of the dishwasher!) Sometime during the wash cycle it must have catapulted down into the depths of the dishwasher and met with a hideous death on the heating element. We are not sure yet if it was murder or suicide. There will be an ongoing investigation.

Families

2009-01-19T09:58:00.002-07:00

Ben and I went to a Temple sealing on Friday. It was a great experience. It helped remind me of my own sealing, especially since it was at the Manti Temple where we got married. While we were waiting for the ceremony a temple worker came by with a sister who was getting a kind of tour of the temple. He asked if we wanted to go hear about the spiral staircases while we were waiting. We joined the pair and while we were talking, the sister made the comment that as memebers of the church we have three families: Our immediate family, our extended family, and our ward family. I would just like to take a moment and express my gratitude for each of my families.

My Immediate family: I have the most wonderful husband. Ben is the BEST husband for ME. He never cares if the housework gets done. He doesn't mind if dinner isn't always on the table. He is always expressing his love for me. He is always willing to help out with housework or taking the kids off my hands for a while. My little rugrats are also a blessing to me. Audrey has been SUCH a big helper lately. She is getting to be so big. I told her she had to stop growing one day. She told me she couldn't. When I asked her why not she replied: "Because Heavenly Father said I have to grow!" Marissa is slowly leaving the tantrums and whining behind. It is so nice to have an occasional bad DAY or bad MOMENT instead of feeling like we had the rare GOOD day or moment. Trent is just full of personality. I love his little smiles, and his laughs. He is SO mischevious and climbs on EVERYTHING. I love that he's such a happy and easy going little guy.

My Extended Family: I have the BEST mom. My mom is always there for me and she always knows how to make me feel better. I love my mom so much and I'm so grateful that HEavenly Father gave me her. I'm very thankful for a sister who got me through a rough time yesterday and then called me this morning to check up on me and just talk for a few minutes. I am grateful for my friends the Vincents, Hesses, and Crandalls who are more like my family than friends. They each are so wonderful and help me out in so many ways!!

My Ward Family: Ben and I have been truly blessed to live in so many wonderful wards. Our current ward is so friendly and loving. It is so nice to be in a ward where most of the ward are families in our same position of life. We understand each other and make good friendships because of this. It gives the kids so many friends to play with that share the same values. I love our ward.

I am so grateful for my three families. I love them all in different ways.

A Glimpse of the Divine

2009-01-08T10:02:00.002-07:00

Motherhood is a hard job, at least for me. The thought of raising kids to be honest, spiritual, compassionate, responsible, self-disciplined adults is very overwhelming. Motherhood is full of frustrations, whining, crying, fussing, laughter, smiles, fears, and many other emotions. However, once in a while, when you least expect it you can catch a glimpse of what the Lord means by calling motherhood a "divine" calling. As I held my baby boy, who is closer to a full on toddler than a baby now, at 3am last night I caught one of those glimpses of the divineness of motherhood. When my little boy, who rarely sits still, just wanted me to hold and snuggle him I felt such a surge of love for my calling as a mother. I was not excited to be up at 3am with a child that RARELY wakes during the night, but has done so multiple times in the last few nights. I picked him up and took him to the front room to just hold him. He fell asleep in my arms and I felt so special. I put him back to bed and when I climbed into bed, my little Rissa snuggled over to me in her sleep. Suddenly it didn't matter that Marissa had been in our bed since 10:30. It didn't matter that she ends up in our bed every night. As my beautiful little girl snuggled up I was happy for this moment in her childhood where she loves her mommy so much. Suddenly I felt so proud to be the mother of a baby boy who climbs on everything and makes a break for the bathroom at every opportunity. I was in awe of the little girl who loves her mommy and craves her company so much that she drives me up the wall day in and day out. And for just a moment, I thought of my 5 year old sleeping peacefully in her own bed. I wished, for just a brief moment, that my little girl, who is so happy and sure of her world, needed her mommy a little bit more.

2009-01-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Trent!!!!

Flour Boy

2009-01-07T09:52:00.004-07:00

Trent, a very active toddler that is into EVERYTHING + Flour in a cookie jar because the old jar broke = THIS

New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-04T14:14:00.002-07:00

Taking a page from my friends book, she said that the more people who know about your resolutions, the more likely you are to keep them. So here, for all the world to see, is our family's resolutions for 2009.
1. Ben and Shelly will attend the Temple AT LEAST Quarterly.
2. The front room will be picked up every night before bed so that at least ONE room in the house is clean in the morning.
3. Audrey will learn to stop sucking her thumb during the day.
4. Marissa will learn how to fall asleep easily in her own bed and learn how to STAY in her own bed all night long (at least MOST of the time).
5. Trent will get his own room and move out of the girls' room. This will require a MASSIVE rearranging of the house, but needs to be done.

Now, it is the job of all that read this to REMIND me of my goals and make sure they get accomplished!! Don't you wish you hadn't read this post now?

Little Snow Beasts

2008-12-28T20:23:00.002-07:00

Behold my little snow beasts. The girls LOVE playing in the snow. They get all bundled up and then head out to the back yard to play. They love to make snow angels. They throw snowballs at me by hitting the sliding door. They get a kick out of swinging in the snow, but mostly going down the slide since it shoots them off the end because of the snow and their slick snow pants. I love my little snow beasts!!! They're so darn stinkin' cute, especially when they're happy and getting along with each other.

Suppose it's time to post again.

2008-12-18T13:33:00.003-07:00

So, I WAS going to do a really cute post about how Trent and his twin friends Jason and Tyler got into trouble the other day but I just didn't get the pictures taken and loaded like I wanted to. So here is what happened essentially. Tyler, Jason, and Trent managed to push our little picnic table over to the big table one night right after dinner. Dinner hadn't been cleared yet because of the arrival of Tyler, Jason, and their brother Matthew. I had left for ward council and Ben was watching all 6 kids. Needless to say, he found the boys with the picnic table up to the big table, Trent was ON the table IN the Lasagna!!!! What a goof ball. He climbs on everything!
Other than that....lets see. Marissa has a viral infection that has landed us with a nebulizer to use on her for the next while until she's better. Luckily it hadn't turned into pneumonia.
Audrey had a cute Christmas presentation and party at School today. Ben went to see it since I didn't want to take Marissa out of the house just yet. He video taped it on his blackberry for me though so that I can see it. I need a camcorder I've just decided....lol.
I'm excited for Christmas to come next week! YAY!! I love Christmas! Ben has been taking presents to work and wrapping them there. I'll just add bows and we'll be good to go! Anyway, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!!

The Biggest Loser

2008-12-08T14:25:00.002-07:00

Ok everyone, here's the deal. My friend Angie over at the Saunders Clan (see side bar) is trying to get up a group to do our OWN Biggest Loser competition. Now, I don't know about YOU, but I certainly need to lose weight. I want to do the competition because it will hopefully motivate me to lose the weight more. Only a couple of people have expressed interest on her blog (Me, my friend Kristie, and Angie's friend Alicia) so I'm posting it on mine. If you are interested and want to join us in January to do the biggest loser leave me a comment!! If you want more details, link over to her blog from my side bar and find her "Biggest Loser" post. It will be fun!!! Come on folks, lets lose that Holiday weight!

Rejoice and Be Merry!!

2008-12-05T10:49:00.002-07:00

Life is GOOD today!! It's Christmas Time. There's Christmas music to listen to. Marissa actually slept ALL night in her OWN bed. The kids are behaving. Trent took a morning nap. Marissa actually slept ALL night in her OWN bed. It's Friday. I don't have to cook dinner tonight because of a ward Christmas Party. Marissa actually slept ALL night in her OWN bed. Ben will be home in 4 1/2 hours. My cold is better today. Did I mention that Marissa slept ALL night in her OWN bed??? LOL.
No, seriously it's a big deal to me. Marissa RARELY sleeps all night long, let alone in her OWN bed. She didn't even make a peep last night! None of the kids did. It was SO nice to SLEEP!! Now, if only she would do this more than once in a blue moon. I'd like for it to become a new habit. I can hope right?
Now if only I had a self cleaning kitchen............

Can I Hire a Maid?

2008-12-03T14:39:00.003-07:00

Have you ever noticed that life is always worse when you're sick? Of COURSE you have. However, as many of you will attest to, it's even worse when you're the mom!!! You can't just let yourself be sick and not do anything. Children still need to be fed and clothed. They still need to be bathed and taken care of. And have you noticed that all the whining seems worse when you're sick? Whine for this, whine for that. And on top of all that you feel like such a putz because the house is falling in shambles around you because you have absolutely no energy or desire to clean it. Worst yet, is that the culprit is just a stupid, old, ordinary cold!!! Bleck!!! LOL. I'm done ranting now.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-11-28T17:48:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did. We had a great time with my family. We had a nice, big dinner on Thanksgiving. My family all played some fun games and then I went with my nieces to see Twilight (again). I hope everyone else had a good time. Now I look forward to getting home and getting all set up for Christmas!! I love it!!! As a parting, I'd like to state one thing that I am grateful for. I am grateful Inspired general authorities who prepare wonderful talks for conference. Those talks are then put in the Ensign for all to read. I am so grateful for this, because those talks in the Ensign have gotten me through quite a few rough days.

My Great Debate

2008-11-18T13:25:00.005-07:00

I can't believe I'm even going to POST this, let alone the fact that I've been THINKING about this. I have seriously been considering Homeschooling my kids!! I know, I know, it's crazy! Growing up I thought homeschool was the most awful thing EVER. The only kids I knew that were homeschooled were brilliant, but were social outcasts with NO social skills what so ever. I thought, "I will NEVER homeschool my own kids! How can anyone do that to them!?" So, why, you ask am I even thinking about it? Well, first off, when we moved here 4 years ago I met two families in our ward that have homeschooled children that are absolutely, socially NORMAL! There is hope! I absolutely HATE what the No child left behind act has done to public school. We can't afford private school. The local charter school has the most polar opposite reviews EVER. I have talked to people who rant and rave about how great it is, and others who rant and rave about how awful it is. I don't see that as much of an option anymore. So, here is my own personal debate outlined for you. If you are so inclined, leave your opinion.

10 things about Homeschool:

1. I definitely have the skills, training, and brains to homeschool my children and give them a great education.

2. Will I have the dedication and patience needed to give the kids a good education?

3. How will it all work with 2 non-school age kids right now?

4. Homeschooling will ensure that I can give them the more rounded education I want for them with lots of music, and science, and other things that have been pushed aside in the public school system.

5. I would enroll them in other social activities like organized sports, dance, play-dates, and such to give them the social experiences they need

6. I have a very good friend/mentor that homeschools her kids that will be an invaluable resource and help to me as I get going.

7. I have another friend with kids the same ages as mine that will be homeschooling her oldest next year because she doesn't like the public school system. She will be there for support and we can each teach to our strengths and let the other fill in the gaps.

8. There is a resource put out by the public school system for homeschooling parents. It's called K12 and it's a program where you get all your lesson plans from the website and once a week you have a conference with a public teacher to make sure your kids are staying on track and not falling behind.

9. Homeschooling will help keep the outside influences I don't appreciate further at bay.

10. I can always decide to put her in school if I don't feel it's right anymore.

10 things about Public School:

1. It's easier on my time and patience.

2. I HATE, absolutely HATE what the No Child Left Behind Act is doing to the school system. I hope Obama gets rid of it soon!

3. They learn to deal with all kinds of people at an early age. This has good and bad aspects which I'm sure you are already aware of.

4. I don't like how lop-sided public education has become. I want my kids to have a more well-rounded education.

5. I have no control over what is taught to my kids either by teachers or other kids.

6. Kids tend to love school in the early years.

7. All the friends they make in school.

8. I would have to apply for a boundary exception because there is NO way I'm sending my kids to the ghetto school they are SUPPOSED to go to.

9. The school I would apply for is the best in the district and other families in the ward take their kids there.

10. I can always pull the kids out if I don't feel it's right for them.

So there you have part of my own personal debate. I really don't know what I'll do yet. Both sides have great advantages and great disadvantages. Who knows if I'll really have decided when school DOES start next year. I may just end up going with public school to see how it goes. I don't know. I hope you all can sense this dilemma I feel. My friends that are homeschooling make me excited to try it for myself. Public school appeals because I don't have the responsibility all on my shoulders. *Sigh* One day I'll make up my mind!!

Give Away?

2008-11-13T10:20:00.002-07:00

Ok folks, here's the deal. I have 4 tickets to see Twilight on Saturday, the 22nd at 2:20pm. So far, only me and my friend Jen are going. That means I have 2 tickets left and I need people to go with us!! If you're interested in going leave a comment and let me know. I've been trying and trying to find people to go and have had no success because everyone has OTHER plans to go see it. Guess we'll see if this approach works and I'll keep trying to get a hold of people too. Come on, you KNOW you want to go!!!

Trouble

2008-11-11T14:19:00.004-07:00

There's Trouble, here in the Stephen Family, with a capital T that rhymes with D, that stands for DUDE!!! (aka Trent)
So today around lunch time Trent was acting kind of fussy. I put him in his highchair to snack on some banana while I finished getting lunch ready. We have an old-fashioned wood highchair that was mine as a baby. I got the fish sticks into the oven, checked on Trent's banana situation, and then sat down to play a little game on the computer (like 8 feet away from the highchair) while I waited for the fish to get done. A couple minutes later I heard Trent behind me jabbering to himself. So, I turned around to see if he needed more banana, and just GUESS where I found him?..........ON TOP OF THE TABLE!! He had stood up in his highchair, an easy thing to do since it doesn't have a divider between the legs like new ones do, and had crawled across his tray and onto the table!!! Lucky for me he didn't decide to climb OFF the table too!!! What a monkey! He started this whole, "I'm going to stand up in my highchair" thing yesterday. I had to keep making him sit down. So after I found him on the table I returned him to the highchair and buckled him in, hoping that would keep him in place. The buckle on the highchair is just one I put on myself. It's not the greatest. It seemed to do the trick, at least for now..........I wonder how long it will be before he figures how to get out of IT too?

Does this sound familiar???

2008-11-06T14:29:00.003-07:00

6:30am Hubby's alarm goes off. Roll over and try not to feel guilty about getting up to start the day.
7am Hear the rustlings of little children in the next room and get out of bed because you KNOW you're not going to stay there much longer.
7:30am Feel like making a nice yummy breakfast, then settle on cold cereal because it's easier.
8am Try to dress the squirmy squiggly baby, the tantruming two year old who has to do it herself, and the 5 year old that has decided her arms don't work any more and she need you to help her get dressed.
8:15am Start cleaning up breakfast then have to go take care of the screaming baby that the 2 year old has decided makes a good horse.
8:30am Go back to cleaning up breakfast and starting chores for the day. Have to stop because the kids are fighting over a toy.
9am Pack the kids up to run errands and take 5 year old to school
9:30 am Return home and put the baby down for a nap. Think it will be a great time to get back to chores, but 2 year old INSISTS on playing outside instead.
10am YET again, try to get chores done, only to have to stop and turn on the TV for said 2 year old.
11am Finally manage to get the dishes UNLOADED from the night before!
11:30am Pack up kids again and go get 5 year old from school.
11:45am Return home and make lunch
12pm Find that the baby has squashed mac and cheese all over himself and needs a bath, or at least a SERIOUS wiping down.
12:30pm Try to get the dishes LOADED into the dishwasher. Stop as baby makes a break for the pet food. Distract baby.
1pm Settle two unwilling children down for naps after cries of "DRINK!" and "Teep Me!!" (interpreted as sleep with me."
1:15pm Put movie in for 5 year old and take a few moments for yourself, because you KNOW you're not going to get another chance. Perhaps hop in the shower, BY YOURSELF, and perhaps, heaven forbid, SHAVE YOUR LEGS!!!
2pm Attempt the whole chore thing again and FINALLY manage to get the dishes loaded and some laundry into the dryer. Find that 2 oldest children have made an "obstacle course" out of EVERYTHING in the family room. Sigh and decided to wait until Dad gets home to tackle that one.
3pm Kids wake up from nap. Give kids a snack.
3:45pm Daddy arrives home and we should HALLELUIAH!!! (How IS that spelled???)
4pm Turn children over to daddy and make dinner. Children come whining to YOU even though Daddy is apparently available and not busy. Tell children to talk to Daddy about it.
5pm Get dinner on the table and sit down to eat.
5:30pm THINK about cleaning up dinner. PERHAPS get around to it, IF there is enough motivation and time.
6pm Spend some family time
7pm Get kids in the bathtub. Reenter the bathroom after taking baby out to get on pjs to find bathroom swamped with water. Take girls out of tub and make soak up water.
7:30pm Bedtime routine filled with, "Wait I need a drink," and "What about a snack??" comments.
8pm Put children in bed and turn out lights.
8:30pm Finally succeed in getting 2 year old to STAY in bed and GO to sleep.
8:45 pm Collapse and watch some TV while thinking about how you still have to clean up dinner. Sigh
10pm Finally finish cleaning up dinner and get ready to go to bed.
11pm Fall asleep only to hear a cry of distress from the children's room as a child has suddenly awaken to go potty.
11:15pm Go BACK to bed
2am Take wandering child back to bed
2:30am Return wandering child back to bed yet again.
3am Give up and put wandering child in bed with you, only to wake up an hour later because you are being kicked out of bed by said child.
4am Take child back to bed and wait in your own bed for any more night time visitors
4:30am Finally fall into a deep, uninterrupted sleep.
6:30am Begin again.

Is it any wonder we never feel like we get anything done?! LOL

Fall Fun

2008-10-30T14:53:00.004-06:00

What is Fall without big piles of leaves? My kids LOVE leaves. They think they're the greatest thing about the yard right now. Here's Rissa in all her leafy cuteness.
How about an Audrey Makenna Cheesy grin?

Trent likes the leaves too. Can you tell?The kids had fun crawling through, leaping into, and throwing the leaves.
Even Ben got into the fun and let the kids bury him.

Ok, so I KNOW Halloween isn't until tomorrow night. However, it was Audrey's school party today and my parents were leaving and wanted pics of the kids in costume, so I decked them all out a day early and took pictures.

Red, U of U????

Blue, BYU?????
I feel so conflicted. Let the Ref decide!!!
Hehe, hope you enjoyed our theme this year!

The Saga of the Cart Wars

2008-10-21T10:31:00.004-06:00

Ok, since Mel hasn't posted about this I am going to because it's WAY too good of a story to pass up. Some of you already know the story, but for those of you that don't, have a taste of humor in your day. One morning this summer a mysterious shopping cart appeared on our block. It is a red shopping cart from some store called "Bizmart." I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, back to the story. One morning around 6am when my friends and I were up to go walking we walked past Melanie and Cody's house. Cody had just come out on his way to work (Cody is a cop/jail security officer. I know that's not the official title, but oh well). The cart was near their driveway and I said, "Hey Cody, you're not supposed to steal grocery carts!" He replied, "It was Mel!!"
Well, a few days later the cart appeared on our lawn. We COULDN'T be the ghetto neighbors (we have a running joke going with the Laytons about being the ghetto neighbors) with a shopping cart in the front yard, so we took it and left it in Mel and Cody's yard.
About a week after that, around dinner time, I heard a knock on the door. I went to answer it and saw Mel running to the car while Cody was yelling, "Hurry Mel, Run!" She hopped in the car and away they sped, leaving the cart in our yard again.
We couldn't just let it stop there, so we took the cart and left it in the middle of their back yard. When they got home, they drove down the block looking for the cart and couldn't find it. When they pulled far enough into their driveway, There it was!! Smack dab in the middle of their back yard, staring at them.
So, another week went by and Mel confessed that she and Cody were going to bring it back and just hadn't gotten around to it. Ben, sneaky man that he is, decided he would get one up on the Laytons and took the cart from their back yard and left it on their porch, right in front of their door.
Needless to say, a couple days later when we got home from the doctor's office after Marissa fell down the stairs (See the, When it rains it pours post if you don't know what I'm talking about) THIS is what we found.

Yes, your eyes are NOT deceiving you. That is a shopping cart ON our ROOF!!!! While we were gone, Cody took the cart and wheeled it into our backyard. He tied a rope to it, climbed onto our Carport and hauled up the cart. Then he climbed onto the roof and hauled the cart after him. He then positioned the cart right on top an eave on the house. When we saw this we just started laughing. To add to the hilarity, the widow across the street was watching Cody as he put the cart on the roof and was REALLY confused. We told her the whole story and she just laughed at us. And there you have it, the saga of the cart wars. Ben and I couldn't top the cart on the roof thing, so the cart is just residing in our backyard until we figure out what to do with it. Manon (the widow across the street) said she thinks it belongs to a Hispanic family on our block. Guess we'll just return it at some point. Hope you all got a chuckle out of all this.

Social insecurities

2008-10-19T17:46:00.003-06:00

Hello? Does anyone even read my blog? Am I just posting to no one? I feel so commentless. Maybe my posts just aren't very interesting....hmmmmm. What a bummer.

Tag: All about the 4's

2008-10-16T13:12:00.006-06:00

Ok, so for this tag you go to your picture files and post the 4th picture in the 4th file. Here is mine...well sort of. My fourth file didn't HAVE four pictures in it so this is the third. A lthough, THEN I had to resize the image and resave it...so I guess it IS the 4th pic. These are our very good friends Jenn and Aaron. This picture was taken on the day that they took their two adopted sons Jacob (5 now) and Sam (2 now) to be sealed to them. This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever been a part of. It was so great to watch a live sealing. We are hoping to be there again soon with them if they can adopt their current foster-daughter Isabelle.

Let's see here...now I'm supposed to tag 4 people. Who haven't I tagged recently???
Joy, Ally, Heather P., and......Tracy.

What a Ham

2008-10-13T11:23:00.007-06:00

Marissa can sometimes be one crazy lady...kid...whatever. Here is one of her latest escapades documented in picture. I was going through all the 3T clothes to pull out the winter clothes for her and she found the black tights. Next, I wanted to figure out which snow gear we needed for her this year, the 2T or the 3T. I had her come over to me to try on the 2T snow suit and coat. She willingly got INTO them, and then refused to take them off. So she ran around the basement, looking like a snowbeast (in snow suit, coat and boots), running into things, and spinning around until she fell into a padded lump on the floor. It was 80+ degrees outside at the time by the way. THEN she decided she just HAD to have the black tights on. She came over to me and made me take off all the snow gear to put the tights on. However, she did not want the tights on UNDER her shorts, she wanted them on OVER her shorts. She then proceeded to put the boots back on. At this point I just HAD to run upstairs and tell Ben to go check out Marissa, and it wouldn't hurt if he took the camera with him. Puzzled, Ben went downstairs. When he saw her dancing around in this get-up, while Audrey played the keyboard, I could hear him laughing all the way upstairs. He snapped a coule pics of her for teenage blackmailing purposes. So here she is in all her silliness, posing for Ben, with her black cotton tights OVER her shorts, giving her a ghetto booty, and snow boots. Crazy kid. She makes me laugh, too bad we didn't get a pic in all the snow gear too.

Stealing Katie's Idea

2008-10-09T13:28:00.002-06:00

Ok, so today has been a rough day with children. It's now naptime, and I need to get into a better mood to deal with the kids when they wake up. I decided to steal an idea from my friend Katie. A couple weeks ago she posted 100 things she loved about her kids. So, Katie, I'm stealing your idea. Hopefully it will make me more grateful for my children right now.
100 things I love about my kids

1. How Audrey will help Rissa, just because
2. Rissa's smiles
3. Trent's laughs
4. When they all play nice together
5. How Audrey loves Preschool
6. How Rissa always gets sad when Audrey goes to school without her
7. Trent's wide, one-tooth grin
8. How Rissa and Audrey can play outside forever, especially with friends
9. How Audrey is learning to think of solutions to her own problems
10. Rissa's scar on her forehead
11. How Trent cries whenever someone goes outside without him
12. When the girls play dress up
13. Audrey letting me do her hair every morning even though she hates it
14. Rissa's red, curly hair
15. Trent's little bald head
16. When the girls do things just to make Trent laugh
17. How Audrey likes to take pictures with the camera
18. How Rissa loves to have her picture taken, then has to see it
19. Trent's gurgles, coos, and raspberries
20. How Audrey loves TV, even though I hate her watching too much
21. How Marissa could care LESS about TV
22. How excited Trent gets to see his bottle
23. How they all suck their thumbs
24. How Audrey cuddles her princess blanket
25. How Marissa has to have her puppy AND her blanket
26. How Trent just loves ANY blanket
27. When Audrey acts silly
28. How Risss talks
29. That Trent takes 2 naps a day
30. How they climb and crawl all over Ben when he lays on the floor
31. How Audrey can swing by herself
32. How Rissa learned how to work the glider by herself
33. How you can see in Trent's face that he SO wants to do what his big sisters do
34. How the girls love to go watch Ben play basketball and me play volleyball at church
35. How Audrey loves dresses
36. How Rissa loves pockets
37. How hard it is to get Trent dressed because he wiggles so much
38. How the girls like to help cook
39. When Audrey makes up her own songs
40. That Rissa has to do whatever Audrey does
41. That Trent will go to anyone as long as you play with him
42. How Audrey rides her big girl bike
43. How Rissa just learned how to pedal her trike
44. That Trent pulls up to stand EVERYWHERE
45. When they say their prayers
46. How Audrey sleeps all night long
47. How Marissa gets mad when her trike goes backward
48. How Trent sleeps all night long
49. How much they all love the pool
50. That Audrey makes friends everywhere we go
51. Watching Marissa go down slides at the park
52. That Trent wants to go down the slides too
53. How they all look when they're asleep
54. When Audrey rocks out to the Tarzan soundtrack
55. When Marissa plays with her babies
56. How Trent's curiosity gets him stuck in unlikely places
57. How they love to go visit their grandparents (both sides)
58. When Audrey tells Rissa stories
59. When Marissa doesn't have any peeing accidents
60. How squishable Trent is
61. When they race to be the first person buckled in the car
62. When Audrey is a good sport about losing a game
63. How Marissa want to play too, but makes up her own rules
64. That Trent's favorite toys are odd objects like bubble wands, and foam curlers
65. How the girls fight over who gets to do things first
66. Audrey's silly faces
67. That Marissa loves to read books
68. How Trent follows me around the house
69. How the girls love the library
70. How much Audrey LOVES to play with friends
71. The way Rissa runs
72. Trent's big blue eyes
73. When they get excited to go someplace
74. Audrey's snuggles
75. Marissa's snuggles
76. When Trent falls alseep at church
77. How they all love to go to church
78. How Audrey says "I'm just a little bit cranky"
79. When Marissa wakes up happy
80. How Trent plays in his crib when he wakes up
81. How Audrey wears her swimsuit around the house
82. How the girls love to have their nails painted
83. How tiny and petite Marissa is
84. How Marissa and Trent will be the same size fairly soon
85. That Audrey always wants to go to Lagoon
86. When Marissa cries because I leave
87. When Audrey says "Mom, guess what?!"
88. How Rissa will just play by herself
89. When Trent just happily does his own thing
90. How my kids will try new foods
91. How they get excited to see their daddy
92. How Audrey and Rissa "play" the piano
93. How they have to "pay" Ben for things with hugs and kisses
94. How they giggle and talk at bedtime (as long as they stay IN their room)
95. How much Audrey grows up every day
96. How sweet Rissa can be
97. How Trent just wants to be held when he's tired
98. How Trent explores EVERYTHING
99. All the hugs, kisses, and snuggles
100. How much they love their mommy, even though it doesn't always show

Well, there you have it. 100 things I love about my kids. I really DO love them.

Sheesh, what's with the Tags....it's like Tag Fever!!!

2008-10-03T14:02:00.003-06:00

Watch out, it's contagious!!!! So here goes yet another Tag. This is one is courtesy of my friend Kristie.
8 T.V. Shows I Watch
1. Amazing Race
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
4. CSI: (Vegas) When I can
5. Cold Case, when I can
6. Criminal Minds, AGAIN when I can. The kids have to be in bed for me to watch any of the last 3
7. Funniest Home Videos, because Ben LOVES it
8. Smantha Who? My FAVORITE new comedy!!!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Any GOOD Chinese Restraunt
2. Chilis
3. Cafe rio
4. Arby's
5. Sensuous Sandwich
6. Sizzler
7. Wendy's
8. Olive Garden

8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Got up
2. Took the kids on a field trip with Audrey's preschool
3. Cleaned the kitchen and front room
4. Checked out the great kids hairstlye site I got from my friend Alana
5. Made dinner
6. Played women's and co-ed volleyball
7. Watched survivor for lack of anything better to watch before bed
8. Went to Bed

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to
1. Halloween
2. Fall weather
3. Leaf Jumping
4. Thanksgiving
5. Christmas
6. Snow Sledding
7. Marissa not peeing her pants anymore
8. My Band concert on the 7th (Hint, hint, you all want to ask me about it and to come listen to all the John Williams music)

8 Things on My Wish List
1. New Kitchen
2. New Bathrooms
3. Finishing the Basement
4. Moving the kids into 2 separate rooms, after the basement is finished
5. A good nights sleep
6. 2 Cars
7. Losing 30 pounds
8. A Vegetable Garden

8 People I'm Tagging
1. Alana
2. Tami
3. Sara
4. Katherine
5. Heather R.
6. Melanie L.
7. Melanie S.
8. Heather P.

Tagged Again. All about Audrey

2008-10-01T14:43:00.002-06:00

Ok, so my friend Elise tagged me tell you all about Audrey.

Name and Meaning: Audrey Makenna Stephen. No special meaning. I just really liked the name and convinced Ben that he did too.

Age: 5 years old
Nicknames: Sissy (for sister, not because she's whimpy), Princess, Audrey Kenna-kee, Audrey Mack-a-nenna, Babe, Sweetie, etc.

Favorite Activities: Playing dress-up, going to preschool, playing with friends, riding her bike

Favorite Food: Ramen noodles and mac and cheese (some taste huh)

Least Favorite Food: hhhmmmm...last winter she woudln't eat oatmeal, but now she thinks it's cool

Favorite Toy: Well, it's more a posession, and it's her blanket

Favorite Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Favorite Item of Clothing: ANY dress!! She's even tried to wear Rissa's!

What makes her Happy: watching TV. I admit, she's a TV-a-holic.

What makes her Sad: Other kids being mean to her (though she's no angel herself)

I Tag:
Kristie with James

Katie with Michael

Don't Be Deceived by Appearances

2008-09-23T09:25:00.000-06:00

Oh, sure I know he LOOKS cute and innocent. Do not be deceived. Behind that angelic face lies the brain of an evil mastermind. He has many aliases. You never know which he will assume, and when. Let me present the evidence to you. (Side Note: I couldn't get him to let go of the purple bracelet, so it stuck around for all of the pics except one
Item #1: Robin Hood in Reverse. Yes. He steals from the POOR (the cats) to give to the WEALTHY (Himself, and the Garbage God). I guess he COULD prefer whiskas to gerber, but let's not go there.

Item #2: The Dish Thief. Just when you thought it was safe to unload the dishes, he comes tearing in from the front room. With supersonic ears that can hear the creak of the opening dishwasher from anywhere on the upper floor, he comes to "HELP." He will steal your spoons and leave them only fit for another washing.

Item #3: The Book Vandal. Books quake when he enters the room. They would run and hide if they could. He stealthily sneaks up on the poor unsuspecting books and then WHAMMY!!! The books are yanked from their nice warm bins only to be drooled upon and crumpled. Despite trying to keep the drooling to board books, and the crumpling to a minimum there HAVE been some casualties.

Item #4: The Toilet Plunger. The bathroom door has been left open by a certain 5 year old who shall remain nameless. Mother is reading books to an attentive 2 year old unaware of the impending doom. Then, there comes the faint sounds of splashing and plops. The Toilet Plunger has struck again!! A rush to the bathroom ensues only to find multiple brushes, scrunchies, headbands, and various other items knocked onto the floor by 2 girls, all in the toilet while the Plunger wears a happy grin and splashes in the toilet that one can only PRAY the certain 5 year old remembered to flush. Much washing and sterilizing then takes place as one tries to erase the evidence of the Plunger.

Item #5: The Pooper Scooper. (You will all be pleased to note that I did NOT pose my child by the litter box to illustrate this alias, neither did I subject you to viewing my litter box online.) NEVER leave the kitchen unattended while the Pooper Scooper is headed that way. SURE, he may fall down the stairs, but it's more likely he will head to the litter box with nauseating results. I repeat, NEVER leave the kitchen unattended while the Pooper Scooper is headed that way.

You now have the evidence. So I ask you: Innocent Angel, or Evil Villian? Only YOU can decide.

Beware of reading other people's blogs, You might get tagged. Thanks Cicily

2008-09-15T09:40:00.000-06:00

i am: 29, a wife, a mom, the primary president, and primary pianist
i think: about too much, all the time.
i know: that God always has a reason for everything, but whether or not we know what it is is the question
i want: to make enough money to not live paycheck to paycheck
i dislike: Lima beans....YUCK!!!!
i miss: my friend Kristie and brother Donald in Texas
i fear: seconding Cicily, loosing my husband or kids
i feel: overwhelmed by clutter in my house
i hear: the lovely sounds of children....well not really. Trent is napping and the girls are playing downstairs
i smell: Nothing, but I WISH I was smelling fresh baked bread that I didn't have to bake
i crave: Slurpees!!!!!
i cry: less now than when I'm pregnant. I finally understood how someone could cry over diaper commercials!!!
i usually: have to make dinner, and I HATE making dinner all the time
i search: for the kids' loveys at least once a day
i wonder: when Ben will get a raise.
i regret: Not being more social in high school
i love: my family, my friends, and the Gospel (de-ja-vu huh Cic.)
i care: (sorry cic, gotta steal your answer again cuz it's SO true) way too much about what people think about me
i always: feel like I clean and clean all the time and never accomplish anything
i worry: about Ben losing his job
i am not: losing much weight even though I've been walking daily (gggrrrrr)
i remember: playing jumprope every day at recess
i believe: that SOME day life will make sense
i dance: Only when under great duress, or crazily with the girls in the front room to the Tarzan soundtrack
i sing: in the shower, at church, in the car, at home, anywhere really. However I do NOT randomly burst into song in public places like a musical.
i don’t always: like myself
i argue: rarely, but when I really feel strongly about something LOOK OUT.
i write: lots and lots of lists.....I'm a list-a-holic.
i win: Nothing I ever WANT to win. Like that HD TIVO they were giving away on the Ellen show. I WISH I could win one of those.
i lose: my sanity most days of the week
i wish: I were more like my friend Kristie.
i listen: To music to give me energy enough to clean
i don't understand: why kids have to ask "What?" a million times when you ask them to do something.
i can usually be found: at home, because I have no life really
i am scared: of falling off high places and getting in car wrecks in the snow
i need: my friends to help me feel better about myself.
i forget: to take the meat out of the freezer for dinner all the time
i am happy: to have all the blessings I DO have right now.
i tag: Amy and Elise specifically, plus anyone else that thinks it might be fun!!!!

When it rains, it pours

2008-09-12T08:10:00.000-06:00

So, this summer has been a crazy one for Marissa. First, she broke her arm. 2 weeks after getting her cast off Audrey cut her hair. Then that same night as the hair cutting, she cut her forehead on a china tea cup that broke. Well if THAT wasn't enough, last wednesday she wanted to go downstairs to play. She happily took off to find her baby dolls downstairs, when I suddenly heard THUMP, THUMP, THUMPETY-THUMP, BANG, SCREAM!!!! I ran through the house and down the stairs to find Marissa lying face down at the bottom of the stairs screaming. I picked her up and took a look at her and noticed the large trail of blood down her face. The source was a large HOLE in the middle of her forehead!!! I quickly got a towel and applied pressure to be able to asses the damage. Noticing that she would DEFINITELY need stiches, but that this was not an ER trip kind of emergency, I called Ben at scouts and told him to come home immediately because Marissa was going to need stitches. After hanging up with Ben I called the doctor's office to get her in. Well, Marissa was such a brave girl. In fact, after she got over the scare of falling she didn't cry AT ALL!!! Didn't cry when they cleaned her hole, or when they put numbing cream on it. Didn't cry when the doctor poked and prodded the hole in her head to figure out how best to sew it, and didn't cry when the doc sewed her up with 5 stiches. She came out of the doctor's with a bouquet of suckers and was just fine. Now, you are all sitting there asking yourselves, "WHY did Marissa fall down the stairs?" You see, as I picked up my crying little girl, I noticed the incriminating evidence on the floor beneath her. It was snow white. Yes, snow white.....well sort of. Earlier that morning Audrey and I were cleaning her room and I handed her the Snow White dress and told her to take it downstairs to all her other dress-up things. She left the room with the dress in tow and reappeared a few minutes later. I Naively assumed that she had actually taken the dress downstairs and put it away.........yeah right. She had gone to the top of the stairs and tossed it down the stairs which meant it landed in the middle of the stair well. THIS is what Marissa slipped on and caused her to tumble down our steep, hard, barely carpeted stairs. *sigh* I told Audrey if I ever found her dress up clothes on the stairs again, they would go straight to the trash. I told Marissa she is not to have any more major injuries for a LONG time. I can hope right?? Ben took pics on his blackberry, so we'll see if he'll upload them so you can see Marissa's hole. It's now been a week and half since it happened. She got the stitches out on Monday, and again, didn't cry at all. Now it's just trying to keep her from picking the scab off. She's already going to have a big enough scar smack dab in the middle of her forehead without her picking at the scab!!! Is she going to survive childhood?!?!?!?!?!?

The Scissor Fairy Strikes Again

2008-09-03T11:08:00.000-06:00

I swear we have a naughty scissor fairy in our home. The scissor fairy struck again on Saturday for the 5th(!!!) time. The scissor fairy attacked on Saturday morning. It was a peaceful morning until, BAM!!! Chaos broke loose. The fairy found a new victim this time however and went for Marissa's hair instead of Audrey's. The scissor fairy has already attacked Audrey 4 times, twice drastically so, and twice not so noticeably. This attack was a drastic attack. Audrey claims she did not see the scissor fairy, though all signs point to her knowing more than she lets on, about said fairy. Despite drastic hair cuts, a couple spankings, other various consequences, the hiding of all scissors for months, and the overhanging threat of a head shaving should the fairy ever return, that naughty little fairy still could not resist the hypnotic pull of Marissa's auburn ringlets. Let me show you the results of said scissor fairy's handiwork this time. (Sorry if the pics aren't really clear, we had a hard time getting Marissa go hold still for some good shots)

This is what Mariss'a pigtails looked like BEFORE the attack. Nice, long, and curly.

This is what became of her pigtail after the scissor fairy attacked.

And here is Marissa's short, pixie hair cut that was necessary after the naughty fairy had her way with Marissa's hair.

So I had made the classic parenting mistake of threatening a punishment I had no desire to fulfill. I was hoping the THREAT of shaving her head would keep Audrey from cutting hair anymore. Alas, it did not work, and just as she was on the verge of getting said shaving done that night she saved her sister from a nasty cut on the head while in the bathtub. So, I had my way out, but we know the next time will have to be something very drastic to keep her from ever doing a hair cutting session again.

Random Ramblings

2008-08-28T08:38:00.000-06:00

1. Sanity is beginning to return to our home. First off, I came to my senses and decided NOT to get Audrey's ears pierced and to return to my previous rule. Audrey may get her ears pierced when she can take care of all her own hygiene needs. Shower alone, dress, do hair, and take care of her clothes. When she proves thus, she may get her ears pierced whether that be at 8 or 18 years old.
We have also opted out of the business we were looking into. We just couldn't justify the $500 with the lack of sucess we were having. Therefore you may all breathe easier in knowing we will not be bugging you.

2. I hate to advertise, but I must get word out. I am SERIOUSLY looking for piano and clarinet students. If any of you know anyone in the Ogden area intersted, PLEASE contact me. I prefer to teach people I know rather than advertising in the music store. Therefore, I will try this avenue of word-of-mouth first and see what follows.

3. My newfound freedom is quite entertaining to me. You see, Ben now has a friend to carpool with to work every day. That means I get the van. Now, I haven't taken advantage of using the van for a day excursion yet, but the KNOWLEDGE that I CAN leave if I want to is SO empowering. I find myself more patient with the kids and less watching the clock for Ben to get back from work all because I know that IF I want to, I can leave and go somewhere. Go figure.

4. I have finally sucked it all up and begun walking every day......at 6am. I go with my friend Cicily, and hopefully my friend Heather will be joining us soon. 6am was the only time that we couldn't come up with an excuse not to go. Our husbands are home, the kids are still sleeping, and it's nice and cool. We knew that afternoons wouldn't work because then we'd have to take the combined total of 7 kids between the 3 of us. Evening wouldn't work either because we'd always be coming up with excuses not to go (too tired, couple time, family time, date night, friend time, etc.). So....the only alternative was 6am. We actually went for a few days, then bummed out until we found that pants weren't fitting correctly and we were NOT going to buy new pants. The only other option was to get our rears in gear and walk!

5. Fly lady works. My house has never looked better since I joined up with FlyLady. I love that she just tells you to jump in and start getting out of CHAOS (Can't have anyone over syndrome). I have just been trying to whittle away at the clutter, junk, and non-useful/non-loved items, as well as just taking a few minutes to spruce up at least one room in the home every day. Now, most of you know I am FAR from a clean freak. My house always looks "lived in." What has really changed is that a) I finally have a child that crawls and he is EVERYWHERE and eats EVERYTHING and that's a lot with two other kids leaving papers, and crumbs everywhere.
b) I finally just got sick of always being behind and feeling like I had to panic clean for anyone to come over. The house is FAR from great, but at least the kitchen and front room are usually tidy nowdays. c) I want to be more like my sister Vickie and my friend Kristie who have nice orderly, tidy homes that you feel comfortable in. Not to mention I want to be a better wife, mother, and homemaker. So there we go. If any of you struggle like I do, then go check out FlyLady.com and just remember that you don't have to do it EXACTLY like they say or at the speed they say, but that you just have to DO.

Ok....I'm done rambling now.

To Pierce or Not to Pierce, That is the Question.

2008-08-21T09:52:00.000-06:00

Audrey came home yesterday and asked to get her ears pierced. I just don't know whether or not to do it. I planned on getting her ears pierced at SOME point during her childhood if she asked for it. She turns 5 in a couple weeks, so it could be her b-day present. My sister Vickie said she let her twins pierce their ears when they asked to do so when they were 7. She also suggested if I do it to tell Audrey she has to wear her studs for a while before getting changeable earrings. My sister-in-law Vanessa has had her girls' ears pierced since the beginning. Audrey's friend Gloria, who is a month younger than Audrey, got her ears pierced this summer. My mother-in-law is very much against piercing Audrey's ears so young. She'd rather we wait until Audrey is a teenager. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this topic? The funniest thing is, that her inspiration to get her ears pierced came from the neighbor boy who has an earring.

Don't Try This at Home

2008-08-15T15:11:00.000-06:00

Let me set the scene. It is 11:30am. Audrey and Marissa have refused to eat much breakfast and are thus complaining that they are STARVING. Trent has just waken up from a 3 hour nap since he woke up this morning at 6:30am and didn't have the best night last night anyway due to hayfever. Trent is one hungry dude now. I'm hungry, well because I just am. I need to feed Trent and make the girls lunch before they whine me to death. So what do I decide the solution is? I ask Audrey to feed Trent. Interesting. Let us just say that I think there was more food ON Trent than IN him. He managed to steal the spoon from Audrey half way through, so Audrey gets another spoon which he also manages to steal. I take the spoon back and wipe it off for Audrey to recommence with the feeding. Well, in the mix is Marissa who has decided that if AUDREY gets to feed "Dude" than SHE does too. So Marissa gets her own spoon and climbs up on the chair with Audrey and proceeds to "feed" Trent too. Messy, messy, messy. I guess it all worked out in the end though. Trent got fed.....mostly, Audrey and Marissa weren't whining any more, and I managed to get lunch made without too many distractions. I should have taken a picture of the kids though. Trent was COVERED in Cheddar Broccoli soup and Audrey had it in her hair and on her clothes. Marissa ended up the cleanest, however SHE was the biggest contributor of the mess! Go figure.

The Vortex of Doom, and My New Toy

2008-08-11T13:56:00.000-06:00

Ok, so the vortex of doom is ticking me off!!! You know that mysterious place where all the missing socks go?? Well, it's sucked up my umbrella stroller AND Marissa's blanket. Seriously. It's annoying. To be truthful, I think someone stole the umbrella stroller, which must have meant they needed it MUCH more than I, but it had two chinese jumpropes in the back bag, and THAT I'm ticked off about being stolen. The blanket however is seriously gone without a trace. I've combed the entire house looking for it. Inside and Out. I've checked in cupboards, under beds, in all the toy drawers, the closets, EVERYWHERE I can think of and I can't find that blanket. Marissa's going to go ballistic if it's gone for more than this naptime. I'm lucky I got her to sleep without it right now....what am I going to do at bedtime if I can't find it?!?!??!?!?!? So, if anyone knows the whereabouts of either the blanket, or the vortex of doom, please inform me so that I don't go any more insane than I already am!!

Now, on to my new toy. I scored. Big Time!! The family down the street is moving to California where her husband is stationed as an interpreter for the army (?). Anyway, they didn't want to take the piano with them since it's a BIG piano so they GAVE, yes GAVE as in for FREE, me the piano!!! I know, I can't believe it either. So Ben and I rearranged the house and put the TV downstairs so that there was room for my new toy!! I LOVE my piano. All in all, I guess it cost about $300 dollars in the end to move it and have it tuned but that was so worth it. I play it every day and I'm REALLY excited to have it during Christmas because that's my favorite time of year to play. So, here's a picture of my newest acquisition. Oh, and if anyone knows someone who wants piano lessons let me know. I'm serious. I'm trying to get 3-4 students to help out with money.

One of THOSE days

2008-08-07T15:45:00.000-06:00

Do you ever have one of THOSE days? Of course you do, we ALL do. Well I'm stuck in a rut with THOSE days. All I can say is that I need to rant, so here goes. Do you ever feel like everything in life is going wrong? It doesn't help to be sleep deprived either. You feel like you want to kill your kids, your house looks like....well like people LIVE there and don't clean up after themselves, you feel fat and ugly, and you just feel all around like a crappy person? Welcome to my world of the last few days. I just need to suck it up and get over it, but sometimes the depression just spirals out of control until you're sitting like a blob on a chair bawling your eyes out. Now, I'm not saying this to alarm anyone, I just have to get it off my chest and start climbing back up the sides of the pit. Anyway, I'm sure life will start looking up....I mean it already looks better today than it did yesterday. Improvement right? Ok, I'm done ranting now. Everyone can go back to their lives now. Thanks for listening.

My Little Trooper

2008-08-04T11:01:00.000-06:00

So, let me tell you about my little trooper, Marissa. Poor little 2 year old has a broken arm!! It is sad, but true. While we were on a hike (really more of a walk on a nicely paved, flat path) she fell and broke her arm. You see, my neice Gaby accidentally tripped over Marissa and they both went sprawling. Marissa started screaming bloody murder. Of course, I didn't think much of THAT considering it's Marissa and she is a DRAMA Queen, it was WELL past nap time, and she'd fallen and gotten hurt. She had a scrape on her left cheeck and a fat lip, so I thought, "she's tired, so she's just over reacting." She screamed a lot longer than usual, but I still didn't register that her arm was hurt because she was sitting in her stroller and she fell asleep before we got to the car to drive home. We got home and I put her down for a nap. She woke up around 5pm and THAT'S when I noticed that something just wasn't right. She'd hold her arm close to her body and wouldn't use it. She'd also scream if anyone bumped it. So, we took off for an urgent care facility in Provo to see a doctor. The doctor checks her out, moves her arm around and declares that he doesn't think it's broken. There is no x-ray tech on hand to do an x-ray however to confirm this diagnosis. The doc tells us if we REALLY feel it's necessary that we can come back in the morning for an x-ray or go to an ER. Since the doctor was SO sure it wasn't broken we didn't bother. However, when Riss STILL wasn't using her arm a full day later I called my pediatrician and gave them the scoop. They told me that as long as nothing changed I could wait and bring her in when we got home. We got home, and I took her in, and they took an x-ray to find out that BOTH her bones were broken!!! Stinkin, stupid urgent care doctor!!!! Anyway, now she's in a cast and our biggest problem is trying to keep the dumb thing dry!!! Ah well, such is life. Here's a pic of Riss with her temporary cast on.

Cousins, cousins, and more Cousins.

2008-07-25T14:23:00.000-06:00

Well, so here's the scoop on our vacation to Provo. We were in Provo, well the kids I and were, from July 2-18th. Ben was there about half the time. We went down on the 2nd and Ben and I went out for our Anniversary on the 3rd. We've now been married 7 years. Wow. We celebrated the 4th of July down in Provo with my sister Vickie and her kids, and her friends. Here's a picture of the kids at the parade. From Left to right (Back: Emma, Jacob, Katie, Joseph, Jarrett

Front: Audrey, Jayci, Parker, Jenna, Marissa) They had a fun time watching the parade and then going to our annual family picnic held at my cousins home a block away from the parade.

Later that night, my nephew and his wife came over with my sister Anine and her family to hang out. Here is a picture of Trent with his closest relative, my nephew's baby Jenner. They are 4 months apart.

On the 7th, my brother and his family came into town. We all had a great time playing and just hanging out. We went to Bridalvale falls (where Marissa broke her arm, info to come on that later), the swimming pool, played a family game of kickball, and had lots of fun going to the bakery every morning and playing games and watching movies at night. Here's some pics of our time together.

My twin nieces Jayci (left) and Jennifer, AKA Jenna (right)

Here are 3 of my nieces acting VERY silly at my nephew Adrian's b-day party. We got him Incredible Hulk cupcakes. There's Becca (left), Kim (center), and Niki (right).

Last of all here is "Baby Madie" my niece Madeleine. She is 1. She's with my mom, AKA Grandma.

What do you Remember???

2008-07-20T11:20:00.000-06:00

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you if I haven't already.

In the meantime, I'll work on getting some pics posted from our Trip to Provo. Does anyone know if I can download the pics straight from my digital camera to the blog? I'm getting sick of loading them to the comp, then to the blog.

Midnight Musings....or Amuzings

2008-06-24T12:45:00.000-06:00

So it was really 2 am, but midnight sounded better. It had been a rough night with Marissa waking up multiple times. Ben had been a real trooper in helping out with her. Now, Trent wakes up for his nightly feeding and it's around 2 am. Ben had JUST put Marissa back to bed, and brought Trent to me. I took him to the front room to feed him, and as usual dozed off while feeding him. It's now around 2:30am and I can hear Ben snoring in bed. I burp Trent and put him back to bed and go to climb into my own to go back to sleep. Well, Ben's snoring got really obnoxious after a few minutes so I nudged him and said, "you're snoring. Roll over." And what does Ben reply, while half asleep? "It wasn't me!" So I said, "Yes, Ben, you're snoring, so roll over." Ben says, "It wasn't me, I just got back in bed." At this point I'm laughing to myself and have to refrain from saying, "and just who else is in this room to be snoring then?" I was a good girl, and didn't say it.....at least not until the next day when I asked him if he remembered our conversation. So, instead I said "just go back to sleep." He rolled over, stopped snoring and went back to sleep while I layed there and chuckled to myself for about a half hour. If it hadn't been in the middle of the night I probably would have been laughing outright. I love Ben, and that made my night.

A Week in Review

2008-06-16T09:17:00.000-06:00

Ok, so here's the scoop on what happened last week.
1. We went bowling as a family for the first time. We took pics, but they're all on Ben's blackberry so we'll have to wait for him to load them on. We went with our friends the Hess's. We all had a great time. The nicest thing was that this bowling alley is $1.50 for shoes and $1.50/game before 5pm every day. So we went bowling for $12!!!! That's 4 people for that price. Unfortunately, we forgot to specifically inform Audrey that you cannot run down the alley chasing a ball. When she did just that, I yelled for her to come back and scared her. THAT sent her into a melt down and she spent the last 10 minutes sitting in a cool-down chair while Marissa bowled her (Audrey's) last frame. She'll learn.

2. We went swimming for the first time this summer. It FINALLY warmed up enough for us to go to the pool, so last weekend we went to use our season passes for the first time. Ben, howered did not get to participate except in taking pictures (again all on his blackberry) and watching Trent on the sidelines. You see, as I was packing up all our stuff I thought Ben's swim trunks looked a little off. So I checked them out and found that they had NO elastic left in the waist band. Since it was time to go, and the girls didn't want to wait, Ben just sat out and we got him new trunks later that night.

3. We attended Members Only Zoo Night on Thursday with the Hess's. The highlight of the trip was riding the new carousel that opened up. It worked out perfectly that the time it took everyone to wait in line and then ride the carousel was the same amount of time it took me to feed Trent. I had to get creative though. I forgot to bring a bowl to mix Trent's rice cereal in. Luckily I had put the dry cereal and formula into a plastic baggy. So I poured some water in, squished it around to mix it and then tore a hole in one corner. I then proceeded to squeeze it out like frosting into a plastic spoon. It worked pretty well.

4. On Friday we headed to Ben's parents house for a mini-reunion. It was his parent's 40th wedding anniversary and Cameron and Ruth were in town from Texas. We headed down and so did Duncan with his girlfriend Stacy and her two girls Carly (10) and Shelby (6). (We really hope that things go far with Dunc and Stacy because we REALLY liked her and the girls). On friday evening we all headed down the Thanksgiving point for the Scottish Festival. The funnest part was listening to the bands while the kids all danced around in the middle of a large field. On Saturday morning we headed to Kiddie Kandids for family pictures. That was NOT so fun as both my girls refused to eat breakfast and then proceeded to whine, pout, scream, and cry that they were hungry. We survived. Then it was home for some downtime before heading down town to catch a Bee's baseball game. Then Ben and I packed up and headed back to Ogden.

It was a packed, yet fun filled week and this week is shaping up to be more of the same. At least we're not bored!!!

Finally Caught

2008-06-07T20:44:00.000-06:00

I FINALLY got Trent to smile long enough for me to take a picture of his smile! He's actually laughing, but that's better than nothing. Our camera has a delay between when you push the button and when it actually takes the picture. It's always a suprise to see what comes out because you don't know if the kids moved, or stopped smiling when the pic was actually taken. He's five months old now and just a joy. He's almost always happy and will just play by himself for hours. What a good little man! Enjoy the picture of Sir Spits-a-lot, Dude, TrenTON, Mount Vesuvius, or whatever else you call him.

Ummmmm.........

2008-06-07T20:14:00.000-06:00

Ok, this story started out pretty normal. Audrey was putting on some of her "Makeup" that she'd gotten for Christmas. Well, then Marissa wanted in on the action, so Audrey was being a good big sister and walking her through how to put the makeup on. That's when it got interesting. Here is what I found when I came back into the room.

Apparently my children had decided to become clowns. Not only that, but somehow painting their legs with lipgloss seemed like a good idea. Following are some lovely pictures of each of the girls. This picture, however is the best picture of Marissa's leg. It was completely painted purple by the end, but when she stood up, her capri bottoms covered it. Lucky for me. It's all over the inside of her pants now. :)

As you can see, Audrey was pretty in pink? Her cheeks, arms, and legs were covered in lipgloss.

I didn't have the heart to stop them, and secretly I was egging them on because I was hoping all the makeup would get used up and that we'd have to throw it away.

I guess this is what I get for telling them that after they made themselves all "pretty" I'd take their pictures!!!

Tagged

2008-06-03T11:11:00.000-06:00

So, I have been tagged by my friend Tracy and now apparently I'm supposed to post 7 things you probably don't know about me, then tag someone else who will most likely see my blog. Hmm.....well, here goes.

1. I am naturally an introvert. I know, I know you are all saying "what the heck?" but it's true. In high school I had hardly any friends until my senior year. It was during my senior year that I came to some enlightening conclusions in my life. First, was that if I didn't like myself how could I expect anyone else to like me. And second, if I wanted a social life with good friends then I had to start putting myself out there. It was really hard to do, but with the help of some of my best friends, Kate and Bonnie, I was able to mostly conquer my introvertedness. I still have things that I hate doing. I hate calling people on the phone. I don't like being the first to introduce myself, but I will force myself to do it. So, now I don't seem introverted, but I still have many of those tendencies.

2. I play the clarinet, but that was not my first choice of instrument. I wanted to play the flute, but my brother and sister claimed they would disown me if I did. My mom essentially said, "We have a clarinet. Play that." So, I played the clarinet, and not the flute. If I had to do it all over though I'd play the french horn.

3. I am a crossword puzzle book junkie. My current favorite puzzles are called Double Trouble. They are like crossword puzzles, except that every box can hold up to 3 letters of the answer and not just one. I love word puzzles and games. Ben won't play Boggle with me unless I handicap myself, and the only person who will play scrabble with me is my sister.

4. I am anal about my kids outfits. I HAVE to have the correct bottoms to the correct tops or it drives me crazy. That's why we only bought separates for Audrey, so that I wouldn't care what she put together. That's also why Ben rarely chooses the kids' clothes. I'm trying really hard to conquer this and just let it go. It's hard for me though.

5. I love amusement parks. I look forward to taking a trip to Lagoon every year. Last year I was really ticked off, because I was pregnant with Trent and couldn't ride any rides, let alone the new roller coaster that opened up. Needless to say, Ben was a real sport and didn't ride it without me. Thanks Ben!!!!

6. I hate cooking. I like to bake desserts, but I hate cooking dinner every night. Thus, I look forward to summer with enthusiasm because Ben will grill every night if I want him to!! I think what I hate most about cooking is all the dishes.......boy do I hate dishes.

7. I have asthma. I developed it while I was pregnant with Marissa. We don't know if it was caused by the pregnancy, something in our crappy apartment we lived in at the time, or if I would have gotten it anyway. We discovered my lovely condition on a trip to the ER because I couldn't breathe. Let me tell you, it SUCKS getting asthma as an adult. Suddenly, things that never bothered your breathing do, like exercising and allergies. Blah.

Well there you have it. 7 things you may not have known about me. How did I do? How many of those things did you know? I guess I'm supposed to tag someone else now so ummm..........
Tag you're it.......JENNY!!!!!!

Tantrums and Potty Training

2008-06-02T11:26:00.000-06:00

Well, this weekend we went down to Provo to visit my parents. My brother Steve was in town with his wife Corie. Well, Steve was SORT of in town. He was taking two of his boys to Lake Powell for some male bonding, so we all hung out with Corie while he was gone. It was a good trip, except for Marissa's night time screaming fits. She woke up in the middle of the night both Friday and Saturday just screaming away, and no one would do but MOMMY!!! Well, it just so happens that one of those times she woke up I was nursing Trent and couldn't hold her. Oh my goodness, talk about screaming bloody murder. Ben took her to another room and let her scream herself out before she came back in, sweet as could be, and climbed in bed with me and fell asleep.
Sometimes I don't get Marissa. This morning she came into my bedroom at 6:45am hollering away and when I asked her what was wrong she wouldn't tell me. So I ignored her and let her have her tantrum. Ends up, she must have needed to go potty and instead of saying anything she simply screamed her head off on the floor and proceeded to pee her pants on the carpet. Joyous. I mean she could have just said "potty" instead, but NOOOOOOO. Ah well, maybe someday she'll mellow out.

Graduation Day

2008-05-22T13:09:00.000-06:00

Today was a special day for Audrey. It was her graduation day from preschool.

She had a great time. They did a really cute program where they sang a bunch of songs for us. There were songs about counting, shapes, colors, and other things. I was so proud of her, especially since she finally overcame her stage fright and actually particitpated in the program DURING the program instead of two hours later!!

Here is Audrey with her Teacher, Brooke Malan. Audrey loves Brooke tons. We used to be in the same ward together when we first moved to Ogden. Brooke did a great job with the kids this year and I'm excited for Audrey to go back again next year, since she misses the deadline by a couple days to start Kindergarten.

Here is Audrey with a couple of her Preschool Pals. She's with Dawson and Olivia before the program began. It was a great day. We celebrated afterward by taking her to McDonald's with her friend Matthew who also went to school with her.

Entrance Into Cyberspace

2008-05-21T12:56:00.000-06:00

I did it!!!! I have now entered the world of cyberspace with a blog......now if I can only figure out how it all works. And we'll see if I keep up with it too. Who knows what will happen. At least I'm giving it a shot right?