Little Artist

Anthony came home from school a few weeks ago with an exciting piece of paper. The piece of paper was informing us that Anthony submited a piece of artwork to the BISD art show and he was selected. The surprising thing was I didn't even know about this art show. The teachers just asked all of the kids to chose a piece of art from their portfolio to be considered for the art show. I don't think Anthony thought anything of it, until his artwork was chosen; in fact he was the only one in his class to be chosen. Since Mom and Dad had no idea that he entered an art show and we sure didn't know what art work we entered we had to go and see the winning selection. It is fun to see his talents shine through. Way to go Anthony!

Space Out

Anthony was rockin in outer space for the third grade performance at school. He sure enjoyed making his shirt for the performance. He wanted to use glow in the dark t-shirt paint and fill his shirt with comets and shooting stars. He did a great job with the design and execution. It was really neat to see his creativity shine through.

The songs were cute and entertaining and you could see Anthony really enjoyed himself. The performance was definitely out of this world.

My Kitchen Threw Up

It is spring time and with spring time we think of nice temperatures, beautiful sunshine, enjoying lots of time outside, and frequent allergy attacks. However, this time we have been inflicted with a virus and it has made its rounds through the house. This virus is different though, because it doesn't involve any human member of our family. As a reader of our blog I am sure you are confused; "How can you have a virus in your house where no human family member is affected?" Well it is very simple, MY HOUSE is sick. Still confused, well apparently my house threw up because wherever you go, wherever you step, and wherever you look there are messes. From my observations, this virus is not a simple 24 hour bug; but rather it takes a few days for it to run its course. To make things worse when you think you are on the upside, the virus comes back with a vengeance. I have yet to find the right medicine to heal my house of the virus that seems to plague it often. I have decided to no longer be in denial of this virus, but instead I am going to embrace it. No longer am I going to turn my head in hopes that it will just disappear; no I am going to love it, embrace it, and welcome this virus. It is my hope that this will help my house rid itself of said virus or at least help prevent me from going crazy.

After a few days of loving TLC mixed with a little bit of work my house has seem to come out on top.

It has been a few days and so far so good, but I know that won't last. You see I have three little angels and they like to have fun and create magic, and I have to admit I enjoy having fun along with them. Because of that I am not always able to attend to my house to prevent it from getting sick. Therefore I will embrace any sickness my house throws out at me because I don't want to miss the joy that comes from seeing, exploring, and enjoying life with my kids. So house if you need to throw up feel free to do so, but just know it might take me a few days to clean you up for I am busy enjoying being a mother.

Sunday Morning

Nothing can beat a simple Sunday morning.

Tired Spencer

Jazz Festival

Every year during the last weekend of April a nearby city Denton has a Jazz Festival. It really is like any other festival, and the only "Jazz" part is the concerts. Grant loves Jazz music and always enjoys going to listen to the concerts. Well in Texas we all know that April is usually our stormy season and so with the Jazz festival being outdoors a lot of times the weather gets in the way. Grant and I went before Anthony was born and had a fun time listening to the music. We went the next year with Anthony and he enjoyed to dancing a long to the music. The last time we went the festival was cut short due to a tornado in the area. Grant being the smart man that he is decided not to take cover in a safe place, but to get in the car and out run the tornado since we were going in the opposite direction of the tornado. Me being the go with flow kind of wife I said sure. Things were pretty intense for a few minutes as we navigated ourselves around a town that we are not familiar with as well as a tornado on our heals. Well since that memorable time we have not made it back to the festival due to rain and other events going on in life. This year the weather was perfect and so we decided going to the festival would be a nice activity to do as a family. The festival has a kid area full of kids crafts and activities and the nice thing is that they are all free and so that is where we hung out. Our kids were not interested in sitting on the lawn listening to music so the only music listening we did was while we were participating in the kids activities. After we were all worn out from all the fun we hopped in our car and headed to a near by old fashioned soda ice cream place and enjoyed a special treat.

TAKS Celebration

This year was Anthony's first year to the TAKS ( state wide) test at school. They have been preparing for this two day test all year. The schools/teachers can have a tendency to build the test up making the kids a little nervous, and so at home we tried to play it down and helped Anthony to see it as a way for him to show what he knows. To make the TAKS test fun, I bought him two lunchables ( a very rare treat in this house) for his lunch during test taking days, as well as his favorite breakfast. To top off the celebration I took Anthony out for a TAKS test celebration. We went to one of his restraunts and had a fun time together he and I. After our eating out expereince Anthony enjoyed going on a few errands with me before coming home to his favorite ice cream treat a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. As long as we live in Texas the TAKS test isn't going to go away, so we might as well turn what can be a stressful time into a celebration and a family tradition. Hopefully by focusing on the celebration it will take some of the stress off of Anthony shoulders that he might get at school.

Easter Fun

For the past few years I start every Easter season with hopes and plans of doing a little devotional about the Savior's life starting on Palm Sunday and ending on Easter Sunday with the Resurrection. So far we start out well, but by Wednesday things begin to unravel and plans go by the wayside. This year Madeline was sick with her ongoing stomach problems, and on Easter Sunday Madeline was sick and her exaughstion kicked in and so she was out; so we celebrated Easter in spirit. We did manage to get our Easter Egg hunt and Easter baskets done on Saturday. Madeline is not allowed to have dairy and she doesn't care for sweets and stickers remind her of bandaids so stuffing her eggs was a bit of a challenge. After thinking about it I decided to empty out our coin jar and fill the kids' eggs with money. So as to be fair and make sure that not one child got more eggs than another and that everyone would have a fair opportunity to hunt for eggs, I wrote the letters to their names on the eggs and when you spelled your name you were done hunting. Spencer really got into it, but Spencer was all about order and had to start with the letter "S" before he would move onto "p" and so forth. There was no jumping around. The kids really like the money especially Anthony and Madeline. Spencer on the other hand thought it was neat for a few minutes and then he moved on to other things. It was a good thing he just got pennies which ended up back in my coin jar.

With Valentines Day and Birthdays the kids go on a hunt around the house using clues to find their gift; and the Easter basket was no different. This time instead of clues they had to put together a puzzle that would reveal where their gift was hiding. Maybe next year Spencer will be into putting puzzles together, but this year he was content as well as preferred Mommy to do all the work. However, when he saw what the picture was, he was all about finding his treasure. Who knew that a paper notebook could make a four year old so happy.

Well that sums up our Easter, and hopefully next year we will get through all of our plans. Easter is such a special time and a wonderful time to reflect on life and our Savior's love. We talk a lot about the resurrection at our house, it seems that it is Madeline's favorite topic and one where she asks lots of questions. During one of our discussions I was prompted to tell her what the resurrection means to her. For Madeline the resurrection means no more pain, no more sickness, and her body completely whole. After letting the new information sink in, Madeline with a smile from ear to ear asked "and no more IV's," which I gladly responded "no more IV's." The resurrection will be sweet to be able to watch Madeline as her mother receive a completely whole body. I can imagine giving her a hug and telling her "you did it." "You endured well, you fought the fight, and now your body is whole." I am grateful for our Savior's love, for his willingness to come to earth live a perfect life, and to suffer and die for me so that I can be able to walk back to his presence and live with him forever with my love ones. I am grateful for my knowledge of the resurrection and to know that when we die it isn't the end. Easter is such a special time of the ear and it is wonderful to be able to teach my children what Easter truly means and to help them gain a testimony for themselves of what Easter is truly about.

Spencer's Egg Hunt

Spencer had his Easter Egg Hunt at school. Due to the snow storms that we had in Feb, the kids went to school on Good Friday as a bad weather make up day. I had a doctors' appointment schedule for that day, but Grant was off from work so he took up the parental duties and off he went with camera in tow to enjoy Spencer's Egg Hunt. Grant reports that at first Spencer just had fun running around, not really headed in any direction or with any goal in mind-just running. It took Grant a few minutes to get Spencer's attention towards the eggs and that he was suppose to pick up the eggs. Once Spencer realized that their were treats inside the eggs, he was all down to business collecting his eggs to fill up his egg carton. When I came home from my doctors appointment I was greeted by a very excited Spencer and his eggs, I believe those eggs entertained Spencer for the rest of the day.

Kids Just Want to Have Fun

Conference Weekend

Conference Weekend for our church took place the first weekend in April. It is now a month later and I am now just getting around to sharing our Conference Weekend traditions. Hopefully soon Madeline's health will calm down and some what of a normal life will resume and I will be able to get caught up on the mounds of work around the house.

When Conference Weekend rolls around it is a cause of celebration around our house. Our weekend is full of traditions and activities all to help us listen to our prophet and other leaders. In years past I have done Conference Baskets ( similar to Easter Baskets) filled with activities and treats to help the kids get through four sessions of Conference. This year I decided to do things different and have Conference binders. Each child had their own binder which had the Conference packets, games, coloring pages, and a pencil pouches with their crayons pencils and other supplies. I used tab dividers to divide up the different activities to make it easier for the kids to find what they needed/wanted to do. I then had a bucket with other games that I made revolving around conference for the kids to do. For me this simplified things during Conference as well as leading up to Conference. I think we will stick to Conference binders instead of Conference Baskets. Another one of our traditions is to get out our 72 hour kits change out the food and clothes and update any medicines and other supplies that need to be updated. We take the food from our 72 hour kits and snack on those throughout Conference Weekend. The kids love it and I love not having to worry about meal preparations.

On Saturday I took advantage of the time I would have and ironed. I was hoping to only ironed to during the morning session, but my wonderful skill at procrastination caught up to me and I ended up ironing during the morning session and little in between and during the afternoon session. I was glad to see that ironing pile gone.

After the Saturday sessions were completed we all gathered in the kitchen to make pizzas. We normally have Daddy go out and buy the 5 dollar pizzas but since Madeline cannot have dairy we opted to keep our tradition and instead make our own pizzas. Madeline was able to use her cheese made from almond milk as well as toppings that suited to her taste and health needs. The kids enjoyed rolling out their pizza dough and creating their own creation of toppings. After pizza Daddy was off to Priesthood session and we continued our tradition of fun. The kids gathered for a movie while I prepared a special treat which was homemade strawberry short cake. I decided to make chocolate angel food cake instead of the usual white. Our yummy treat finished just as Daddy came home and we were able to gather around the table to enjoy our treat and to listen to Daddy as he told us what he learned.

Sunday morning we woke up to another tradition of having cereal from our mini cereal boxes out of 72 hour kits. After breakfast we all made home made play dough which nicely entertained the kids during the morning session of Conference. With the ironing behind me, I spent the Sunday sessions tying a quilt I made for the boys' room. I much prefer tying a quilt then ironing. In between sessions we all went out and enjoyed the nice weather at the park.

Our Conference Weekend was filled with family traditions as well as being spiritually fed by our prophet and leaders. It was nice to put all worldly distractions aside and listen to our prophet and spend the weekend as family doing activities that not only create memories but hopefully build family unity. I know our kids get excited when Conference rolls around and I hope their excitement never dies but continues to grow.

Spring Break Day Three-Five

For Day three through five of Spring Break we went camping with Grant's parents, and boy was our camping trip and memorable one and an adventure. The weather was shaping up to be real nice, with no rain and temperatures just perfect at night and during the day. Grant and I were actually excited that for the first time in a long time we were able to actually go camping during spring break and that there wouldn't be any storm threatening/ruining our fun. Well we learned don't count your eggs before they hatch. The temperatures were great, there were no storms, but the wind was a force to be reckoned with and proved to be a challenge for us during our trip. We had plans of going fishing in our inflatable raft, but the wind changed those plans; fishing this year was done from the shore. We had plans of making kites and flying them, but the wind would have taken the kite and us with it. We had plans of picnicing by the fire, but the wind took our food, so Mommy became really good at preparing food in the car and getting it to the kids in the tent in one piece. Daddy used tarps to create enough wind blockage so that our propane stove would stay lit, and the real kicker was that Mommy and Daddy became real good at holding up the tent with out feet throughout the night so as to prevent the tent from falling down on top of us. Camping for Spring Break 2011 was real fun and a real adventure. Though our plans changed during the campout we still had fun and when the wind was nice to us we enjoyed the campground before it was time to hunker down and brave the gusts of wind. There were times that I felt like we were stuck in a windpool and that the wind was just stuck circling us. Our camping trip was suppose to end on Saturday, but after braving the wind Wednesday and all day on Thursday Grant decided Friday morning that he had enough and there were no arguements on my part. We bid farewell to Grant's parents while they rode out the wind comfortablly from their RV and we went home to the our sturdy house where we don't have to hold it up during the gusty wind.

Camping isn't fun unless their our adventures with it. You don't really remember the camping trips where everything goes perfect, you remember the ones that are a little crazy sprinkled with adventure. The kids enjoyed themselves and when they returned to school, Spencer could not stop talking about his camping trip with his family. We sure weren't planning on the wind, but we were not going to let us prevent us from camping; instead we just took gusty wind with us along for the adventure and boy was it an adventure.

Spring Break Day Two

Day two of our Spring Break adventures led us to being scavenger hunters. Spencer woke up with a fever and what to be the signs of a spring time cold, so our adventures were put on hold until Daddy came home from work. Since Mommy gets to have a lot of the fun with the kids and Daddy misses out; Daddy went on this adventure with Anthony and Madeline. Prior to day two, Grant and I went to Cabelas and took pictures of different things around the store. I then used those pictures for a scavenger hunt. With pictures in hand the crisscrossed the store looking to find their match. The hunt took them upstairs, downstairs, and even to the back corners of the store. They had to find certain shirts, a nemo life jacket, a certain colored stuff fish, and the right turn table of sunglasses. Some were easy and some took a little more time looking and making sure. After their exhausting but successful search Anthony and Madeline were ready for some fuel and Daddy was just the ticket they needed. After Anthony, Madeline, and Daddy's fun adventure they came home full of excitement and eager tell anyone and everyone the fun they had crisscrossing Cabelas.

Spring Break Day One

Every year for Spring Break I try to do a theme for each day during Spring Break. The kids usually are excited for Spring Break to come around and find out what adventures they will be going on. For Spring Break 2011 our adventures were, architects, scavenger hunters, and then campers.

Day One: Architects.

To begin our adventure we talked about what architects do and how much we depend upon architects for our buildings, landscape, and infrastructures. After a brief lesson on what an architect is and does we became architects ourselves. I made some stencils using my cricuit cutter with various sizes of circles, triangles, rectangles, and squares. I then supplied the kids with some graph paper and rulers. The kids then began to design and draw a building using their rulers and stencils. After our drawings were complete, off to the Lego store where the kids could pick out what Lego bricks they needed to build what they designed. The real adventure came at the Lego store, I didn't know that everyone else in the metroplex would have the same idea I did. We managed to push and shove our way through and get the supplies we needed. We survived the food court and the hairpin drive home. The kids have fund quickly putting their creations together and then off to let their imaginations go wild.

I believe day one of Spring Break was a success.

Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration

Every year on March 2 we celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday. Our celebration is simple, but the kids sure enjoy it. We read a couple of Dr. Seuss books and then make our own fun cat in the hat treat, which consists of circle crackers, gummy life saves and white frosting. This was the first year that Spencer really got into the fun and enjoyed making his own cat in the hats. Anthony as always had fun creating and eating his treat and then there is Madeline. Madeline loves participating in our fun family celebrations and is even all excited to make the yummy treats, but when it comes time to eat them well that is where she draws the line. Madeline does not have a sweet tooth in her body, she just likes to make the treats and then leave them completely untouched. She finds joy in making them and participating with the family, not in the eating. I wish I didn't have a sweet tooth, but I do and sometimes it is a big sweet tooth.

I have found that it is the simple activities that bring our family the most joy. Dr Seuss's birthday is not a major celebration, probably not too many people know about it, but gathering around the table after dinner and before bed to celebrate is a fun way to spend time as a family.

"Family, it's about time" a message from our church.

A Beautiful Day

What do you do when the weather is perfect outside?.....

Why you go on a walk with Grandma!

Bear Graduation!

On Saturday, February 19, Anthony had his Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts. At the Banquet, Anthony received his Bear award along with 2 arrow points. Anthony sure enjoys going to scouts every week. It is sure neat to see his excitement for Den meetings as well as working on scout requirements around the house. It is also neat for Anthony to have his Dad as the assistant Den Leader. Cub Scouts has become a Father and Son activity and I know they enjoy working on things together. I know this same attitude will carry on into scouts as well. I think Grant also enjoys having a son in cub scouts because he is able to relive all the things he did when he was that age.

It is always neat to watch your children progress in activities that they enjoy. Cub Scouts has taught Anthony that hard work really does pay off. Good Job Anthony, and just know that your family is proud of all that you do.

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentines Day I let the kids be in charge with a little bit of guidance from me. Anthony and Madeline love to throw parties for the family, and a few weeks before Valentine's Day they asked if they you could have a toy and food party. There idea was to have some of every food that was either their favorite, or in Anthony's case, they liked. The toy part would include bringing all the toys out of their room and playing with them as a family. This is where I came in and gave them some much needed guidance. We narrowed the food choices down to heart shaped pizza, a few choices of fruit, some cheese,chips, and homemade heart shaped sugar cookies made by Anthony and Madeline. For the entertainment or "toy" part Madeline picked a Valentine Yahtzee game that I found online. I added my own touch to the party in the form of a treasure hunt for the kids. At the end of the treasure hunt was their Valentine present. Because each child is at a different level, each one had their own set of clues; and in order for Mom to be successful at capturing such fun they went one at a time. Since Spencer doesn't know how to read I just used pictures as his clues; Madeline's clues were written in a way that she could read them, and Anthony's clues were written to hopefully provide a bit of a challenge. Having the kids go on a treasure hunt is a little tradition that we have with Valentine's, Easter, Birthday and sometimes a couple of Christmas gifts too. The kids get excited on these holidays because they know there will be a treasure hunt. It is just a neat way to add a little bit of fun to the occasion.

The kids really enjoyed themselves and were excited to be able to participate in the planning and helping to set up for the party as well. For me as their Mom, it was neat to be able to foster and participate in their excitement. Overall our Valentine's Day party was a fun party and a great time with those that we love.

Groundhog Day!

During one of snowed days we were able to celebrate Groundhog Day! Last year was our first year to celebrate the holiday so I was still looking for ideas that would work for the whole family. Because of all the snow I had plenty of time to research and gather ideas. This year I thought it would be fun to do games and activities that were about shadows. I found a website that had several hand shadow puppets with picture directions and then we did the old standby of drawing our profiles. The hand shadow puppets turned out really well and the kids enjoyed making animals with their hands and towards the end were making up the own things. We even had a monster shadow puppet attacking something (I can't remember what the other puppet was). After our shadow puppet fun we did our profile pictures and then had the kids color them in with crayons. The kids enjoyed this activity last year and they enjoyed it again this year. After all of our activities we enjoyed a little Groundhog Day treat which consisted of chocolate pudding covered with chocolate graham cracker crumbs and a picture of a groundhog coming out; so it would look like the groundhog is coming out of his hole in the ground.

Groundhog Day is a silly holiday, but it is fun to celebrate as a family. Just another excuse to get together and do something fun with family and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Snow Day!

Old Man Winter decided to pay us a visit the first week of February. A big artic front blasted its way through bringing ice and snow and freezing cold temperatures. I was a little worried how this would play out with Madeline's health and the freezing temperatures; but thanks to a little snow and ice school was canceled for four days. Grant still went to work during the ice storm, but would leave for work after the sun came up and try to get home before a lot cars would be on the road. The kids had fun playing in the backyard, while sensible Mommy watched from inside. Wanting Madeline to have fun and to enjoy being a kid, we bundled up enough that all you could see were eyes and she could barely move. Madeline had three shirts, two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, two jackets, two hats and a pair of gloves with a pair of socks over them. Out of the three kids she was the warmest, in fact she said she was a little hot. The kids played outside for an hour, which surprised me since cold weather is not something they enjoyed. Madeline was able to do her favorite snow activity and that was snow angels. When our second round of snow hit, Grant took off early from work and we went to a nearby park that has a nice sledding hill and spent an hour sledding. Spencer wasn't interested in sledding, but enjoyed giving everyone a push on their way. In breaks between sledding runs, we would throw a few snowballs, and then when we needed to warm up our heads we would do a few runs down the sled. After our sledding adventures, we headed off to rent a few movies. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because the selection of deceient movies were low.

The kids enjoyed the time off from school and I enjoyed the lazy mornings and the relaxed afternoons. Grant enjoyed not having to set the alarm clock and being able to sleep in. The snow was pretty to look at, but by day three it was getting old and walls in my house felt like they were caving in. Grant surprised me by taking me out of the house for a few hours, which was a nice welcomed treat. I was able to get a quilting frame which made the rest of the snowed in days easy to enjoy. It was a nice week off from school, it felt like a mini vacation, a nice break in our sometimes hectic life.