Monday, January 25, 2016

Trying to get it together

January 17-23, 2016

A friend at church last week that this amazing planner that seriously looked like a bible. Its a mormon mom planner with pages for FHE, family council, goals, scripture study, Sunday lesson prep, visiting teaching, inspired visiting. Seriously EVERYTHING you could ever dream of. I bought one. It arrived Thursday. Always on a mission to get together.

This week we are ponderizing the Word of Wisdom promise. Austin picked it but it was so fitting for me & my week as I pondered, set goals & worked on beach body coaching. Striving for whole health.

Sunday, 01.17.16


I love this creative Sabbath play.










Monday, 01.18.16

NO SCHOOL!!! This is the first year in the history that we have attending 4RCS that we did not have school on MLK day. I will always take a day off school with NO compliant. We had a great day!





Tuesday, 01.19.16


She really did utter those words, with lipstick all over her face & fingers in the air.


Wednesday, 01.20.16




Hoping I don't ruin this for him by documenting it...


We played Racko instead of painting nails this week.


Thursday, 01.21.16




Friday, 01.22.16

Saturday, 01.23.16


~~~Romans Reflections~~~
- Jane woke up one morning and the first thing she sleepily told us, "I want to be a cowboy when I grow up."
- Jane doesn't like walking in the snow. She will take a step and say, "I'm stuck." She also doesn't like walking on wet roads. She saw that the bottom of her shoes were wet, "I can't wear these shoes because they are dirty."
- Multiple times this week she has asked me, "When will I turn 5 already and go to kindergarten?!!"
- Emma finished the HP series on the 16th and Spencer on the 18th. They are looking at each other, what do we read next??? ....
- Changing a line from Nacho Libre Spence asked, "Have you ever had feelings for a boy nun?"
- Jane asked me, "Can we play I GUY?" (I Spy)
- Spencer sang to me this morning {the tune of Mary did you know} "Mother, did you know that you're pregnant with another boy?" Oh the poor child can keep wishing.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Withdrawls

January 10-16, 2016

It is no small task to write the blog every week. It takes me at a minimum of 4 hours. It is important to me to record & document so I continue to make it a priority. As I was thinking and pondering goals for the new year in Hawaii I just KNEW there had to be a better solution. A faster & easier way to record the millions of things that happen every day. And this is what I came up with: every night before I go to bed I will create a project life page & document what happened that day. At the end of the week everything will be documented, uploaded to the blog & I'll be finished in record time. This is the first week I tried it and it didn't take much time each day & it is Sunday morning and EVERYTHING is already written up. I think this is going to be the perfect solution. So grateful for inspiration.

Sunday, 01.10
We enjoyed the evening at home with the kids {consciously made no visits so we could have family time.} Lots of games from our Sunday box, family Guess Who {thanks Grandma Richards it continues to be a favorite} & hot chocolate with scripture study. I love me some quality family time.  




Ok let me tell you that I struggled this week. I could NOT get my head out of vacation mode. I didn't even have a planner 2016 and felt like I couldn't function. I bought one on Nyssa and got things written down but I still forgot to that Spence to Cub Scout on Wednesday. I forgot to send Lucy with a backpack and supplies to preschool on Thursday. I'm going to stop there with the examples because its depressing and you get the point. The struggle is real.  


Monday 01.11.16

So so glad this went well. There is hope that we CAN have mom teach us.


Tuesday, 01.12.16




Wednesday, 01.13





Thursday, 01.14




Friday, 01.15









Saturday, 01.16
That morning while Kurt was in West Fall the little girls took showers and put on fresh jammies for a self proclaimed "jammie day!" Then for the next hour we watched danced to the nutcracker. There are a lot of wanna be ballerinas in this house {myself included.}



When we came home from the temple we found a flower queen in our house. 

~~~Romans Reflections~~~
- I came upstairs one morning to read scriptures and found this. Love creativity.

- When Emma went to the book mobile this week they gave her a large poster of her winning drawing. We put it in her walk-in closet. Emma also finished her huge and super thoughtful project for Miss Amber {the 2016 cat calendar.} We had it laminated and spiral bound at our local copy shop. It turned out so nice! Way to go Emma Lynn.

- Jane was super grumpy the beginning of the week. I was half tempted to send her back to Karen. As we were driving Lucy and I were playing hide and seek {peek-a-boo.} I asked, "where's my sunshine girl?" Jane responded in a monotone voice, "I'm right here." I asked her if she was happy enough to be a sunshine girl, "No." At least she is honest.

- Spence wanted to bond while Emma and I were painting nails Wednesday night. He painted his big toe red and took a bunch of selfies. I might need to think up some activities for our bonding ...

While we were gone

Back at home while we were in Hawaii:

{Copied from Karen & Roger's blog}

Monday 
Monday morning we woke up the kids at 6:30am. Before the other kids were up, Emma asked me to pull up a list of scripture masteries. She picked one, Matthew 5:14-16 and printed it out and put it on the fridge. We announced at breakfast (which is also devotional time) the scripture she picked out and we all recited it out loud. Every morning during breakfast we would talk about another aspect of the scripture. One day we defined “bushel” and other tricky words. Another day we asked them to think of people in the scriptures who let their light shine. One morning we shared with them ‘This Little Light of Mine’ inspired by these verses. Lucy loved it and would sing and dance to it all day long.

After breakfast everyone got dressed in their uniforms (throughout the week this also included helping the boys find their lost tie, shirt, hoodie, etc.). The girls didn’t seem to have the same problem. ;) 

Luckily for me, Emma does her own hair (and it looked great all week long). I was in charge of Ruth, Lucy and Jane’s. By the end of the week it turned into me asking “How many ponytails do you want?” I guess I am a one trick pony when it comes to girl hair (or maybe a zero trick pony? The first few pony tails were bumpy). But I sprayed all those stray hairs down with lots of hair spray, curled every hair that stuck out, and covered their hair with every bow the little girls wanted. They were happy (and Jane could see!).
 

Rachel has a chalkboard where she puts chores for the kids to do in the morning. I thought that was a jazzy idea so we did that. 

 
After reminding everyone to brush their teeth (I don’t think anyone likes to except for Jane), getting all their gear from their black lockers, and saying family prayer, the four oldest and I loaded up in the suburban. Apparently putting on your seat belt is as cumbersome as brushing your teeth. Oh, and I learned quickly that seating in the car is very important but I don’t think I did a good job of making sure everyone got a chance to sit up front. We were early though, so that made Emma excited.


When I got home I got to hang out with my buddies Lucy and Jane. We made a schedule and Lucy drew pictures of everything we had to do and drew big check marks when we finished it. She really liked the schedule and we got some things done too! 

Included in the schedule (and every morning after that) we would get dressed, do hair, and clean their room. One of our other tasks on our list was to “play school.” I taught her a simplified version of the ‘Elephant song’ and we had to sing it to every person in the family and make sure they were squished by the elephant! Four year olds are the best. We also did the calendar and ‘J’ page (per Lucy’s request).
 

Jane would nap around 10 or 11 am, but before she did she went the bathroom, which she loves. It was cute and funny how much she loves the bathroom. She would stroke the toilet seat and close the toilet lid a couple of times. She asked me every day to clean the toilet and I would always answer, “Not today.” I would ask her if she needed help getting on the toilet, and she would say, “I do it myself.” I would watch as she put her feet on the shower to climb on the side of the toilet seat and then skootch her way over to the front of the toilet. When I let her get toilet paper I watched as she tore off 7 tiny pieces the size of her nails. Later during the week she told me the toilet paper hanging down was like Repunzel’s hair. The bathroom is an exciting place.  

Lucy and I would play games such as "hide the pot where you hide the pot” as Lucy explained. She was a big fan of the Nutcracker music and asked Roger to play it for “an hour!” every day. She would then dance and run and dance to it in the living room. As the week progressed this involved more costumes and dresses. 

 Princess dancing before the nutcracker appears

 Rats before the Rat King comes out

We also exercised one day. The little girls liked the plank best I think because they would crawl under and then on top of us while we did it. Definitely more challenging! 


Got him down!


We played lots of Guess Who because it's my favorite. Are you noticing all the laundry in the background? Their laundry machine sings a victory song to you when it's finished. I love the person who thought of that. You should have a celebratory song for every finished load!



We also had lots of sandwiches including a pancake sandwich. Roger kind of blew Lucy’s mind by putting turkey and cheese in between two pancakes. She had the idea to dip it in syrup. ;)


We ate lots of fruit and yogurt and Roger even shared with them “Chicago bread” on Monday. (It was bread we hadn’t eaten from our trip on Saturday). Lucy talked about how good it was for the rest of the day. “I love Chicago bread!” 


Lots of books, lots of drawing, lots of Legos and Barbies, and lots of nail polish! I painted all the girls nails and Roger even helped out with Jane’s hands when I couldn’t get to everyone. It’s a good opportunity to talk.



 

This picture of Lucy  (in the background) is a favorite because it's so Lucy.


Most every day the little girls helped me cut up vegetables for the older kids' snack. Lucy did a great job peeling carrots and cucumbers and Jane experienced success cutting cucumbers. I started them off using butter knives but they were struggling so I upgraded them to steak knives. They did a great job and I loved Jane’s concentration as she cut the cucumbers into big wedges. : ) 

I would pick up Emma, Spencer and Ruth from school around 2:20pm while the girls stayed with Roger.  Lucy was amazed that Roger could sit on his computer for so long. When the older kids would come home she would tell them, “and Roger worked on his computer for sooooo long! The WHOLE day!”

I was amazed the kids would go directly to their homework almost every day. I would pick up Austin from basketball practice at 4pm. Jane would usually go with me. It was the only time she left the house most of the week. I realized I couldn’t understand her very well when I was driving and she was buckled up in the back seat, so I faced my rear view mirror towards her and we played peek-a-boo every day, all 12 minutes to the school. Her laughter was worth the 36+ rounds. 

Monday night we had FHE and I taught a lesson about gratitude. It was a little long but good. Roger was concerned we didn’t have a treat for FHE so he made brownies (and friends) and we ate that while catching up on the Studio C episodes they hadn’t seen. 

We would read with the younger girls in their scripture reader and then get them to bed. We would then read with the older kids and they would gradually go to bed. 



Monday night we also sent Roger to his bedroom early so Emma and I could decorate. Austin saw us and wanted to help so I let him stuff the piñata. Roger’s Northern Lights themed birthday turned out pretty cool! 


   Golden and green Northern Lights + hanging stars

Roger in his car (pinata) watching the Northern Lights

Elaine's goodies + more Northern Lights
Tuesday
Roger's 30th birthday!!!!! I really wish this picture wasn't blurry but you can kind of see the excitement.  


That afternoon I picked up Emma, Spencer, Ruth, and Lucy and we went to the grocery store to get supplies for Roger’s ice cream cake. I found a really easy recipe, it’s not really a recipe it’s so easy, and made it after school. We had hamburgers and fries for dinner and a quick game of marbles (courtesy of the daily presents Rachel and Kurt left the kids). 



Then it was piñata time! Roger was very concerned someone would get hurt so we all folded our arms and he said a prayer that no one would get whacked with the bat before we began. Everyone got one turn and neither Roger nor the children were injured! 



Spencer actually cracked it open a little and then the birthday boy had the last hit. He hit it and then ended it all by grabbing and shaking it like crazy. (I think it was so the kids wouldn’t have another turn with the bat!) They didn’t care! They had candy! Roger snuck some packaged cheese into the pinata. The kids were confused.
   

We then ate the ice cream cake that turned out pretty well!


Wednesday
Roger let me sleep in 15 minutes and he did the devotional. So nice! Presents from mom and dad every day! (Pictured: Olaf suckers.)


That evening Emma, Spencer and Austin went to different activities. Roger took Austin to mutual and just stayed at the church and worked. It turned into a quiet evening with the 5 at home. 

Thursday
After school Austin had his first basketball game, and the first boy's basketball game for the school. We showed up with four of the kids an hour early so we hit the post office and then came back.  Everyone did well for the first half because they were eating popcorn.   
 

 
But Ruth was right, “It’s too salty!” But we ate it anyway. The latter half, people were getting antsy. By the end Roger was outside with Spencer, Lucy and Jane. Jane looked outside and said, “It’s dark. Time for bed.” Someone was tired! 

 

Ruth was remaining positive that Four Rivers could make a comeback in the last quarter when they were down 18 points. And they did! They lost by 7 points instead, with a final score of 21-28. The kids ran all over the gym while Austin changed and then we took them all home.


Friday
We picked up the house, dropped the kids off to school, put Jane down for her nap and then Lucy and I headed to Boise to pick up Rachel and Kurt. Here's us leaving in the suburban. Roger was doing the "waving" dance and making Lucy laugh.


She didn’t want to come, but Roger needed to work so off we went. I knew she would be a fun driving buddy and she didn’t disappoint. She told me about the fog they’ve had “twice.” She brought along her book she made for her mom, and agonized over sharing the tootsie roll she stole from Spencer’s stash with her mom or if she should just eat it in the car. (She also told me Spencer needs to find a better place to hide his candy). We sang songs and named my GPS McKenzie and then Madison (her cousins) and ate way too much cereal. 

We picked up Rachel and Kurt (I think we were late but they were too nice to say anything) and got to hear all about their trip. The kids were excited to see them and all the stuff they brought back. 


This is Halloween Nite!

October 28 - November 3, 2018 Sunday, 10.28 Monday, 10.29 Tuesday, 10.30 Wednesday, 10.31 Thursday, 11.01 Friday, 11.02...