Carefree and Spunky children

LOVE song for the month of February

I love the lyrics to the song "Lucky" by Jason Mraz singing with Colbie Caillat. At the end of this post is the music video you can watch.

The lyrics:

"I keep you with me in my heart"

"I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend!"

"I'm lucky we're in love in EVERY WAY!"

I really like the melody :) It's a sweet love song!

Anyhoo,

Valentine's Day is just around the corner! I was just looking at posts from last year and I can't believe how fast time has gone. When we first started this blog it was March 2007! And my o my how the kids have grown. There are some cute pictures of the little ones! Penny has grown up so much! I don't want her to grow up, I want her to stay my baby forever :)I have almost finished sewing a Valentine's Day outfit for Penny for this year. The picture above is from last year :)

I have been trying to find some more Valentine ideas and I looked at what I posted last February, here is the link: IDEAS in 2008 I made pillow cases last year and the kids have loved them.

A new fun idea i found for this year - LOVE BUG cookies!

I love Holidays ;)

Having fun while exercising, is that possible??

The other night it was past the kids bedtime and the kiddos had way to much energy!! So, we decided to have them do some FUN EXERCISES and they had a GREAT time!

Our little D. ran up and down the stairs fifteen times, Penny was hilarious to watch do push ups and in about twenty minutes they were ready for bed. It was quite entertaining to watch them! Since that night they can't wait to do more exercises! It's amazing how much kids will do when you make things FUN for them ;)



On Monday the Sun was shining and we had the blue sky to enjoy. My kids were beginning to wonder where the Sun had gone! We have had a couple of weeks of bad inversion. On Sunday one of the Primary kids said a sincere little prayer! He asked Heavenly Father to make the Sun come out and shine and right after church the Sun started to peak thru the clouds :) Heavenly Father hears the smallest prayers and the child had truly been missing the sunshine!Monday we were anxious to go outside but it was still freezing cold! So, we decided to take some dried bread outside for the birds and instead of playing outside the kids enjoyed bird watching from inside the house. They would get so excited every time they would see a bird! It was a nice way to enjoy the outdoors but stay inside and stay warm.

Scrabble Tile Pendants

My sister found this link for these pendants and she made some for family members and I absolutely love mine and want to make some more! Yesterday, I went to D.I and bought an old scrabble game so I could make some and I have more than plenty to share! I would like to have a girls craft night in February and make these! At this link you can find the Tutorial for the scrabble pendants -MAKE&TAKES

For all you local gals if you would like to join a little craft night making these pendants at my house, give me a call or leave a comment! I have also been wanting to make some fudge for Valentines so that can be our chocolate dessert for the evening ;)

You can also buy these single pendants at this ETSY SHOP TOO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!

Positive Changes

I have mentioned in a previous post how i bought a book called "Accountable Kids" And it gives you a great program to teach your kids responsibility, hard work and helps with getting rid of negative behavior and creating postive changes. We are starting at a young age to teach our kids that work makes us happy and when the work is done then we have quality time together! I can't express enough how great this has been! I have started my own little chore charts before but nothing solid. This program is creating POSITIVE CHANGES!! Our house is completely clean by nine in the morning the kids are ready for the day! They have been washing dishes, unloading the dish washer, laundry, sweeping, wiping off the table and chairs after every meal, making there beds in the morning, scripture study and prayers etc. So far I have been successful in teaching them that it is fun to do it TOGETHER rather than me just doing it by myself. I really can't believe how well it has worked for my 5 & 3 year old, it takes consistency on the parents part, which is usually what I struggle with, but so far so good!

So, Accountable kids provides boards and cards for the kids chores that are already pre-made but the down side is that each set is thirty dollars! I am to cheap to spend that so we made our own. Yes, it was time consuming to get it done but definitely worth it. I only spent twenty dollars verses $60.After all the morning chores were done this morning the kids recieved a star ticket to choose something they want to do. Now, you set family rules, like no fighting, whining, or if you don't do the chore you do not get a ticket. They need to earn there rewards! The daily chores teach them that they are a part of the family and have a special part in completing there tasks. Parents and children decide what they can use there tickets for. They can have a friend over, watch a cartoon, paint, computer games etc. This morning the kids wanted to play with there styrofoam zots that you can make things with like guitars, crowns, animals, it is a cool little kid craft. Then when Dallin was done making his guitar he had a BLAST groovin to some James Taylor music. We love blasting the music at our house and have some fun dancing :) As you can see in the pictures below :) So, great news to report for ACCOUNTABLE KIDS!

Penny even got up on the counter to bust some moves by the stereo!

Sundays

This is what it looks like at our house on Sundays! The kids not wanting to let go of their Daddy so he can go to more meetings :) He will come home for a little bit and then be off again. He makes sure to get all of their energy out so they are ready for bed when he leaves, so that is nice! The kiddos were in bed at 6:30 and the house has been nice and quiet! I love my quiet time and I am grateful for kids that go to bed early! Granted they will be up at 7 am but that is O.K

Happy new week to everyone!

Simple Gifts

I love quotes and i think this quote is a great reminder for my friday morning:

'Tis a gift to be simple,
'Tis a gift to be free,
'Tis a gift to come down
Where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves
In the place that's right
'Twill be in the valley
Of Love and delight.
-Nineteenth-Century Shaker Hymn

Every day offers us simple gifts when we are willing to search our hearts for the place that's right for each of us. -Book Simple Abundance

Some gifts I am grateful for are first my husband who always remembers to do little acts of kindness for me, he brings home chocolate for me ;) yesterday he took care of the kids so I could get some much needed rest, he is so loving and thoughtful everyday! I'm grateful for the relaxing smell of lavender and cups of hot apple cider, the simple things that remind me to relax and enjoy life!

Our Pretty Princess

is officially three years old, and full of smiles. We love our lucky Penny! Happy Birthday!

Penny's Birthday Party

Penny with her cute little girlfriends!

We made lots of Pony cookies :)

We ate lots of yummy treats, Penny loves marshmallows!

We made each girl a little Pony on a stick to ride!

We played pin the tail on the Pony and made little pony tails they could put in there hair!

They played and played, made pony necklaces, opened gifts, had cake and pink ice-cream and who could ask for more! Two hours was not long enough, they all could of stayed longer. I love preparing for the kids birthdays and watching them have a great time with there friends. I hope they will always have cherished memories of there one SPECIAL day of the year!

We love our sweet Penny!

We were a-splishing and a-splashing,

a-rolling and a-strolling

Yes, we were a-moving and a-grooving, we was a-reeling with the feeling...

SPLISH and SPLASH YEAH!

The kids started swim classes this week :)

Sit down, relax and enjoy some. . .

Hot Cocoa, Cool Whip and WHOPPERS!!! I am still enjoying this cold weather outside so I can have an excuse to sit down, relax and enjoy some Hot CHOCOLATE! My husband and I had malted balls with our Hot cocoa on a date night awhile ago and it is so GOOD! It's a new favorite thing :) :)

Also, here is another idea I have found! A website called "Idea Door" I have been needing to find some new ideas for Primary and this site has a lot of info. on all sorts of topics! One idea I really liked was each month she makes a hand out for the Visiting Teaching message for the month. You can print the hand out as a photo (send it to some local photo store and print for 29 cents) and give it to your ladies you see for a little reminder. Here is an example of this months message:


I have really enjoyed reading this months ENSIGN magazine! Don't let the new year get to busy without sitting down and reading a good book and don't forget to have some Hot cocoa for the soul!

More kiddie Kandid pictures :)

Kiddie Kandid's does free 8x10 pictures for birthdays. So, Monday we ventured out on the crazy snowy roads and went to the mall to have the kids pictures done for their birthdays. It is nice that there birthdays are close so I can just have them done at the same time. I need to get busy planning Penny's B-day party for Saturday. We are going to have a Pony theme party with her little girlfriends! My girl is going to be three! She is a big girl for 3, people are starting to ask which one of the kids are older or if there twins. Dallin needs to go thru a growth spurt :)

3 GENERATIONS

Penny 2009, Staci 1983, Christine 1951

Come, let winter weave her wonderous spell:

i love this quote "cold,crisp,woolen muffler days, long dark evenings of savory suppers, lively conversations, or solitary joys. Outside the temperature drops as the snow falls softly. All of nature is at peace. We should be, too!" -Book Simple Abundance

Already this new year has started with order and solitary joys in evenings of sipping cider and days filled with lively conversations!

Since we have moved into our house I have wanted to invite our neighbors over for dinner and finally yesterday we had an enjoyable dinner with our wonderful neighbors. Dallin helped bake some pies for our guests:"savory suppers"

Then this morning Dallin woke up early and made his Mommy and Daddy breakfast! We could hear him doing something but we were not quite sure what! He came upstairs and told us breakfast was ready :) To our surprise we woke up to a beautiful snowy morning and a yummy breakfast of PB and J sandwiches. Dallin has never made his own PB sandwiches but he did great! He poured milk in four cups, had the table set with napkins and he was extremely proud of his efforts!!!!"Winters wonderous spell"

We are so blessed to have our Dallin J.

Then my other child of mine: She is the best little sister! Yesterday Dallin was not feeling well, so his little sister rubbed his back, sang him songs, got his teddy bear for him, did a puppet show for him and was so kind and entertaining, we can always count on her to make us laugh and lift our spirits!

"lively conversations"

She makes us all so happy! If i am ever upset she tells me "Mommy don't be mad, I make you happy!" And she does make us all happy and brings lots of smiles to our faces!

We love our pretty Penny!

"Peace"

Last year my Christmas was pink!

I would like to say THANK YOU to my Pink Christmas Friend and share with all of you the amazing gift she made for me this 2008 Christmas! I love it! She sent a wood block nativity set, all individually wrapped in pink paper and a sign that says 'Scatter Sunshine' with my favorite colors green and yellow and lots of chocolate for me and my new little baby. Her gift was so thoughtful! The Nativity set is very kid friendly and my kids love it, they play with it everyday. It was a perfect gift to open Christmas morning! You can click on my Pink Christmas button on the side of the blog to see all the wonderful gifts people made. I enjoyed being a part of Pink Christmas this year and another big thank you to a 2 Clever gal that organized this whole thing and gathered the received money to donate to some special families! I have her blog in my links below, you should check it out for some clever ideas.

Thank you for giving pink!

Goal Setting for the New Year

It has been fun to think about some new year goals. It is always refreshing to have a new start and look forward to what the new year will bring!

For my Motto this year it is going to be a simple phrase . . .
'Create POSITIVE CHANGES!'
To find joy in my work and never let it be a burden.

There are some things I want to change and I hope to be able achieve positive results!

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals" -Ziglar

First goal is creating Positive changes with my kids. I have bought a book that I stayed up till midnight reading last night and I am really excited about implementing this program with my kids. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested.

The Accountable Kids program has some great parenting tips and gives great ideas for raising happy, successful, self-reliant kids.

The goal is to take it one step at a time!

So far the kids love it and I can already tell 2009 is going to be a great year :)

New Years Eve!

We had a family game night with the kids. We bought the game HUNGRY HUNGRY Hippos and the kids had a good ol time playing with HENRY, HOMER, HARRY and HAPPY HIPPO!

My o my they were hungry animals!

Then we rocked around the Christmas tree to some music :) You should see some of Penny's moves, that girl can swing her hips!

Then I always have to bake something with my kiddos for the Holidays, so we made brownies and slushies and called it a good new years evening.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Baby . . .

Decemeber 29, 2008

The baby is as healthy as can be, it weighs approx. 1 pound and is quite the active little thing!

I was surprised to be told that the baby is a ............................................................

GIRL!

We are happy and excited to welcome another little girl to our family!

Boy or Girl?

I am 22 weeks Pregnant

I'm at the half way point :)

Tomorrow is the Big day of finding out the gender!