Journals

 For Family Home Evening I brought out all of my old journals and talked with everyone about how important it is to keep a history of our life.  That is one of my talents.  I do a great job and keeping track of things that happen in my life.  I may not always be writing down my feelings, but sometimes I do.  I love that I have this blog and that through technology I can print this out in fabulous books that my children love to look at.  At the Power Of Moms retreat I went to one of the topics we talked about was having our own dream.  Not a dream that has to do with my children, but something just for me.  I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  My dream before children was to be a teacher.  And while I am not currently a paid elementary teacher, I am a teacher every day to my four wonderful children.  I am also a teacher to my girl scouts and I was a teacher to cub scouts for years and years.  I may not be at a school, but I am fulfilling that dream right now in a different way than I had imagined.  My plan is to still look for some more dreams that I might have.  I hope to look through these journals before I put them back in the basement and find something that I can work on.  Maybe there is something that I forgot about that I had wanted to accomplish. 

 

BYU Gymnastics

 I took these 4 cute girls to the BYU gymnastics meet on Saturday.  No big reason why, other than they all like gymnastics and I thought it would be fun.  Luckily, they all had a blast and were in awe of the talent before them. 

 I love that my girls have good friends.  They are so lucky!

 Annabelle got some new shoes and had to learn how to tie them.  She was SO proud of her new skill that she would untie and retie them over and over that day.  It was cute to watch her and see how proud she was of herself.

 I love my girls and LOVE that they want to hang out with me.  I hope that we can always be great friends and hang out and chat together.

 BYU didn't win the meet, but they did amazing. We ate lots of ice cream, popcorn and soda and I have found a new favorite BYU snack--BYU caramel corn.  It was SO yummy!

 Callie has been in gymnastics for the last month.  She has mixed feelings about it, but for the most part she really enjoys it.  Callie gets a little sad being away from me, but I think this is a good opportunity for her to stretch herself and try new things.

More Tidbits

Spring is here and I am loving the beautiful sunshine.  I pulled out a wreath I made last year and decided to learn how to make flowers to add to it.  I love that this whole wreath was made with things that I had.  Pieces of scrap fabric and the base wreath is just an old wreath I wasn't using anymore.  I love all of the colors and am so proud of the new skill I learned.

 Ryan had his first Kyukido test so he can get a new belt.  Karate is a lot pricier than I thought, but Ryan loves it and as Greg said, "He is a natural."  We are so proud of him and his hard work.

 

 Last year Annabelle saw these shoes and loved them, but they didn't have her size.  Callie got them instead.  This year Annabelle found them in her size and the girls were so happy to match.

 I LOVE biscuits and gravy.  They are such a wonderful breakfast.  I only made a small batch because I knew the whole family wasn't a fan and I didn't want to have leftovers that I would want to eat more of.  Greg, Nathan and I enjoyed them on a rare lazy Saturday morning.

 I love little children.  One of my girl scouts left this note at my house for me.  So sweet.  I do love teaching and love being an influence in so many children's lives.

 Sunday morning the boys pulled out Monopoly.  I loved listening to their conversations throughout the game and I am amazed at their determination to finish the game.  Nathan made this crossword puzzle for me and was so proud how he was able to make all these words intersect.

Car Troubles

 It always seems that cars stop working right at the worst possible time.  I was starting the car so I could go to a cookie booth, but no luck.  Thankfully Greg is so handy and was able to figure out that we needed a new battery after only a day of me driving the truck.  He had Nathan help with the troubleshooting and while Nathan was a little nervous pushing the gas, it made me realize that he will be driving in less than 4 years!! 

Extra Tidbits

 Annie loves her new PJs I got for her.  I love when they want to pose.

 Not sure why Ryan wanted a picture??  Maybe because back in December when I made him get his hair cut for Christmas and he didn't want to, I promised that he could grow it out all year long.  And, as you can see, it is nicely cut and he looks sharp.  He ASKED for a hair cut Saturday night.  Yeah!  Sometimes I have to let them make the decision to look nice.

 

 My mom found these felt pieces when she was moving this last winter and the girls love them.  They like to make scenes and tell the stories of what is there. 

 This chain is from a Family Home Evening lesson that Nathan put together a month or so ago.  He talked about service and how when we serve each other it makes us a stronger, more united family.  Kind of like a chain in that a chain is really strong with all of its links together.  So for a few weeks we would remember to write down when we did service for someone or someone did it for us.  It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed seeing their name on a colorful link.

Funny story.  My kids are not always pleasant to each other.  I know, surprising?!  Just kidding.  This is an ongoing battle for many I assume.  My children all loved the movie "Frozen", along with the rest of the world, so I thought it would be a great motivator to be more positive if we couldn't have the movie until we got a little nicer.  I bought the movie Tuesday morning and then while everyone was at school I made this fun game board.  They loved it when they got home.  BUT, they didn't love what it was for.  The girls were so sad about not being able to watch the movie THAT night like the rest of the world and Nathan put up a fuss about how much he didn't want to watch the movie and he didn't care and he didn't want his friends to see that he was playing a Frozen game.  They gave me a lot to think about.  And then the phone rang, it was Nathan's friend, inviting him over to have popcorn and watch a movie...FROZEN!  The girls shouted out in dismay and unfairness.  Nathan was excited to go have a party.  Ryan was just off reading the Percy Jackson series (that is what he has been up to the last few weeks).  Again, I had to rethink my thinking and make a new plan.  We are still working on politeness, but Nathan went to the movie party and the rest of us watched Frozen that night.  I am still working on coming up with a new prize.  Watching the movie for the 2nd time was great.  I knew Hans was the bad guy, I knew when the kids would get a little nervous with wolves or snow monsters.  What I wasn't expecting was that both of my girls would be crying buckets (again) when Hans betrayed Anna.  They sure do have sensitive little hearts.  Another fun part was that the girls know all the music now and at first they sang to the songs.  Then Annabelle asked Callie to stop so she could listen to it.  Callie agreed and said she would just sing it in her mind.  She then continued to sway her head as she sang the music, in her mind.  Annabelle also was lip syncing to the music.  Callie has already watched the movie again and wants to today as well.  I told her she has to watch another Disney movie first.  My girls don't like many Disney movies because of the bad guys.  Maybe this will get them to try another one.

I LOVE WAFFLE LOVE

 Last summer I tried to get a Waffle from the waffle truck.  I waited for over 30 minutes and the super long line hadn't moved much and with 4 sweaty and grumpy kids we decided to go home and make our own. I did a post about it and how I was sure that my waffles were comparable to the famed ones from the waffle truck. I laugh now.  When I saw the waffle truck would be super close to me I decided to give it a try again.  When I saw the total lack of line I couldn't have been happier.  Then the waffle came out and it was amazing.  It was SO delicious.  It was perfectly crunchy and sweet and the whip cream was amazing (and I am not a big whip cream fan).  The berries were fresh and the biscoff cream stuff...WOW!  It took a lot of will power for me to not buy another one.  A LOT.  Callie and I happily waited while it was prepared, we played thumb wars and rock-paper-scissors while we waited. One of my kids has taught her to make a "hole" as one of the options and it trumps all the others.  We had a lot of laughs with that.  I might become a waffle love stalker.  Once a week, ok, maybe once a month, I will have to hunt them down and grab another one.

Preschool Field Trip

 Today (I am blogging the day of, a first in a very long time) we had a little field trip to the fire station.  I was really surprised by how much Callie loved it.  She has already asked to go back!  She was attentive and asked a questions and gave high 5's.  My little baby is growing up:(. 

 

 

 

 Afterwards we headed to a nearby park for some play time in the sun.  It was great to be outside.  It was pretty warm, as long as we were in the sun.  These kids are all so cute and fun.  I can't believe We only have 2 more months.  I will only get to teach one more week!  WOW! 

St. Patty's Day

I am one of "those" moms that years ago started the tradition of making leprechaun traps.  I didn't realize that once started it would be something that we'd have to do every single year.  Not that I mind it, but some years it has been harder to make things so magical.  I do love having fun with the kids though.  As the Mom I am the one who has to get the kids doing homework and chores, and waking up in the morning.  I am the bad guy a lot of the time.  So this is one of those times that I get to be fun and goofy and creative and just silly.  The boys surprised me this year by wanting to make a trap again after being "too old" for it last year.  Growing up is rough!

 All three of the older kids were able to make one with very limited help.  At first Ryan wanted the leprechaun to go through an obstacle course through his messy room with gold chocolate bars all over the place.  That didn't pass by me though. 

 Callie was really into it this year.  I don't know where she was last year when this all went down, but she had so many questions this year.  I kind of felt like a liar as I answered them, but she loved it and we had fun building her trap together.

 

 

 The next morning the kids were excited to come and check their traps.  At each one they found a little hole cut out on the side and a puzzle piece.  The pieces put together sent the kids on a scavenger hunt where they found cold coins at the end.  Then they found a note on the table with a little Lego knife.  Apparently we had 3 leprechauns this year and they found a Lego knife in a dirty room and were able to escape each trap.  Maybe next year the kids will be more tidy:)  The holes they cut were too large for their hats so we have 3 little leprechaun hats to hold for ransom next year.  

Monday was a pretty crazy day for me.  I left at 9 and didn't get home until 1, right before the kids were to get home.  I had wanted to make green chocolate pretzels or green jell-o but time didn't allow it.  That morning at the store I grabbed some green donuts and the kids couldn't of been happier.  Simplifying really worked for me that day.  Then for dinner we had one of our family favorites, corned beef and cabbage.  We all LOVE it.  Nathan picked pistachio pudding for FHE dessert and we all survived another fun and zany St. Patrick's Day.