Windy Picnic

Today was the day that one of my cousins arranged for any of us cousins who could to meet at a park for a picnic. My grandparents were in town for a doctor appointment, so they were there and it was Spring Break for the rest of us, so we had a pretty big group. My brother was in town from Idaho Falls with his family. Aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins' kids were there. Andy came for a little while from work to join us and so did a few others who work close by. It was fun. Windy, but fun. I visited with cousins and had a good time despite all the cold wind. The kids all played well together and it was great to watch them play and help each other. I took one picture and then handed off my camera to Elizabeth who took some pictures and handed it off to Olivia. I took it from her soon after and took a few more, but most of their pictures have fingers in them...see example below....so I'll just show some of the better ones.

Vincent was being a little daredevil climbing tall stairs to get to the steep winding slide. I think Uncle Brant grabbing the kids off the slide made it more fun for them. The girls were running around taunting Brant with, "Neener, neener, you can't catch me." Yeah, he totally caught them!When Elizabeth wasn't calling Uncle Brant, she loved this little slide thing. Elizabeth took this one of my and my Grandpa. He is doing a little better lately with his shingles and has bad and good days now instead of all bad.Olivia is great at posing for pictures. She had a great time.My dad is always so hands on with the grandkids. It's fun to watch him with them.Here's what my grandma said in her weekly newsletter to the grandkids. "When Lisa and Jose planned a week-day Spring Break picnic at a park alongside the Columbia River in Richland, I thought few would attend. I was wrong! There were 50 of us there!" That counts six of her children and spouses. Also 21 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren and she and grandpa. "Weather was cold and very windy. But we had a good time!"
After a few hours, we left to run to the library to return things and got sucked into the craft they were doing. We got to our road just in time to meet my brother, Brant, to hang out for the afternoon. He watched a movie with the kids (mine and his) while I made some Cheesy Manicotti and French Bread with some help from Tina. Andy came home early enough that he had time to play some MarioKart with Brant and Tina. Then they stayed for dinner (and my brother even loaded my dishwasher for me!) and a rousing, timed game of Uno with our girls. I time it and then when the timer beeps, whoever has the fewest cards wins. It's the best way to play with little kids! We turned on a movie for the kids (Olivia was the only one watching) and then we played our new game from Simply Fun called Eye to Eye. It's basically the opposite of Scattergories. You want to pick three things for each topic that would be things the other people would say. For instance, if the category is: "Types of Cake" (this is one that Brant vetoed so we didn't actually do it, but discovered that we had all different ideas on it.), then you might write down something like Andy said (also exactly what I would have written down by the way), like Chocolate, Yellow, and Angel. My sister in law, Tina, was thinking differently about the types of cake and told us she thought along the birthday and wedding cake type. Andy and I would see "eye to eye" and she would have got a block. Really though, it's fun and most of the time everyone gets blocks. It's fun to say, "That's a good one!" after you don't pick it as one of your answers.
I thought I should let you all know that I have a few new blogs I read/follow too.
One is Tina's. She is an aspiring children's author. Her blog is all about reviewing children's books and her journey to be an author.
The other blog I am reading is one of my classmate's from high school who is one of the most stylish with it girls I know who is hosting a makeover contest where the winner gets a makeover from her, a shopping spree from her sponsors, and a segment on a local television morning show, along with looking fabulous and feeling better about themselves. They are wrapping up the very first of (hopefully) many makeovers and I can't wait to see what she does!

Andy's Knoxville Trip

Andy here:
Last week (March 22-25) I went on a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee for some training. The training took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I had some free time on Monday and Thursday for some sightseeing.

I got to Knoxville Monday afternoon, and I didn't feel like sitting around in my hotel room, especially since it still felt like morning to me because of the time zone change, so I drove my rent-a-car up to Cumberland Gap. I remember reading about this place, in Daniel Boone stories, when I was a kid, so I wanted to see what it was like.

This is the cool tunnel that you go through to get from Tennessee to Kentucky. You come out by an exit to the visitor's center for Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. The visitor's center was closed, I wondered why they closed it so early, then I remembered it was 7:00, but a road was open that leads up to a view point.
While I was taking this picture, there were these people at the view point who were from Middlesbrough, England. This town in my picture is called Middlesboro, Kentucky.
While I was driving up the road to the view point, this deer was standing by the road. I was surprised by how unafraid it was of me. Deer aren't a super-big novelty to me because we often see them up at my folk's place in the mountains, but our deer don't stand around like this.
There was an unexpected little turnout with a path leading up to this old Civil War earthwork on the side of the mountain. Apparently, the Confederates lugged a cannon up here (probably not this cannon but the plaque didn't say) so they could blast anyone trying to enter Tennessee using this route, and the Union had to capture this position two different times during the war.
Part of the Cumberland Gap area is in Virginia. There's a little peak, in the center of this picture, where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia all meet. According to the plaque, I was standing in Virginia when I took the picture.
Tuesday I had training all day. When it was over, I went to downtown Knoxville. This is the Tennessee River

Wednesday I had some more training. After training, I went to look at some more sights, but as soon as I found something I wanted to take a picture of, my camera didn't work anymore. Sorry.

Thursday I had some time before my plane left, so I went back downtown so I could visit the fantabulous Sunsphere, left over from the World's Fair they had in Knoxville in 1982. I found this picture on the internet. (remember how my camera was broken?) Imagine this picture with no leaves on the trees, the fountain off, no water in the pond, and cloudy with a little rain. That's what it looked like to me.
There's five floors inside the sphere, three are businesses, one is a restaraunt, and the bottom level of the sphere is an observation deck. I got in the elevator and went up to the observation deck, and when it got to the right floor the doors wouldn't open. I decided not to panic until I went back down and tried to get out of the elevator at the bottom. This worked, so with confidence that I wouldn't need the jaws-of-life to get out of the elevator, I went back up to try again. The observation deck doors still wouldn't open, so I went up higher and wandered around the other floors. A nice lady told me the observation deck didn't open until 11:00, and she wasn't snarky or anything about how I could have learned the place wasn't open yet, if I had bothered to read the sign next to the elevator doors. Southern charm, you know. I waited around a few minutes and then I was able to get onto the observation deck. Oh, the panorama I could have shown you if my camera wasn't broken.

Before long, I had to get back to the airport, turn in my rent-a-car, and get on the plane to come home. All in all, it was an enjoyable trip. I learned good things in the training, United didn't lose my bag, I didn't get mugged, I saw some interesting sights, and nothing bad happened to my family while I was away.

Guess What?!

We are going to Disneyland next month!!! We are taking the girls and leaving Vincent here with family. This has been the plan since the girls were little. Take them when there are four and then again when there are six (maybe). That way, Elizabeth doesn't have to wait until she is 12 to be able to go and will still have fun. Andy came up with this plan. He was the oldest. Can you tell? He likes things to be fun and fair for the older kids too.
We are at just the right stage to go now. The girls are tall enough to go on all the rides (except for one that Olivia is still too short for) and Vincent is old enough to stay without being too big of a hassle (hopefully.) And I'm not pregnant or nursing right now. Perfect time to go. Next year I can't plan on not being that last one, so we have to go NOW! We just bought our tickets and will fly down on Monday the 19th, play at Disneyland and California Adventures for two days and then fly home that Thursday. We will probably do some driving around and show the girls the ocean and the Los Angeles Temple and stuff like that too. We went to Disneyland for our honeymoon in 2001. It was my first plane ride. We told the girls tonight. Then we showed them some pictures. They are getting all excited just like we are!

Crafty Life Stuff

This is how Olivia looked on Friday. She likes to create these fun little outfits. I really like her new haircut. (The jacket does have red in it to match the headband.)And this is what the weather looked like much of the weekend. It never rains for long though. I love the smell of rain.This week I came across a cool craft in a crafty blog and saved a picture in my future craft ideas file. I was looking through there again Saturday and decided to make a car roll up. I printed out the picture and got to work. It's like those crayon roll ups, but with cars. Vincent (and the girls) enjoyed it at church. I think he would have liked it more if he wasn't so tired. It has a little road to drive on too. I'm making a bunch of them to sell at the Ransom.Made design Spring Event.
I was busy sewing most of the day on Friday and Saturday. I cut things out while I watch movies and tv and then when I'm all caught up on cutting or handiwork, I sew. I finished 40 I Spy Bags, 3 aprons, and one of the car roll ups. I mended Olivia's nightgown too. Now I need to get to work on the other fabric that Andy bought for me Saturday night. I sure hope people like the idea of mommy and me reversible aprons....I do.

While Daddy's Away...

We played. We worked. We ate. We slept. And he's coming home tonight! Andy left Monday morning while we slept for the airport to go to Tennessee for work training. He is getting home after the kids' bedtime, but way before mine. (Did I ever admit to my blog that my goals for the year bedtime SO did not happen? Yeah, it might have lasted a week. Maybe....And I need to work on most of the other goals too. I'm totally slacking on them this year. I am doing pretty good on the ones that matter the most I think.)
I helped in Elizabeth's class on Monday morning, so I got to hear their little start of the day class meeting thing and the teacher asks each kid personally (girls one day, boys the next), "Would you like to share?" and they answer, "Yes, please" followed by their little story or thing they want to say or "No, thank you." Monday was the girls' turn, so I was listening for Elizabeth's turn. She shared that "we all got our hair cut and gave our hair so they could make it into wigs for people who are sick and loose their hair." It totally made me tear up. We told Andy when he called at bedtime and she told him that one girl in her class made fun of her hair. I jumped right in and told her that 25 kids thought it was great and I happen to know that the girl who made fun of it is the snottiest kid in the class. Brat!
So, anyway while Andy has been gone, I listed and sold our crummy old van since we bought a new one. We had our own little FHE, followed by a trip to the library, followed by games (for the activity) picked by the girls. Elizabeth picked a trivia game and Olivia picked "that game with numbers and colors?" Uno. I set the timer so we would have time to play both and do bedtime (so I could do crafts and things) and told them that whoever was ahead when the timer beeped would be the winner. Olivia won the trivia game, but I don't think I played it the right way because we only answered questions that would earn a circle (it was a cheap trivial pursuit for kids game) and each card had four questions with the answer directly under, so I picked out which question they would likely know the answer to. Elizabeth and I were kind of lousy at getting to the circle spots. Olivia got to a bunch of them and guessed right on several multiple choice questions. Uno was fun. They like playing the skips and draw two cards on me, but don't get too sad when they have their turns for those cards. Olivia likes to spread her cards out on the table. Elizabeth had the fewest cards when the timer beeped.
Tuesday was Olivia's ballet day. She shared with her class that she "gave her hair for love". I'm not sure if she explained what that meant, but I think they understood. It was her class picture day and because her hair is too short for a bun now (oops, it will grow, right?), I had to make two tiny pigtails that stuck straight out and reminded me of when she was 1 1/2 and 2 years old with her little mullet pigtails. After school, we went to the park for a few minutes where the kids saw a brown poodle. Olivia told the owner that it looked just like Chloe on Clifford. She smiled and said she hadn't thought of Clifford in a long time. Cute. Vincent didn't like the slides this time because of all the other kids running around rough-housing. I kind of preferred that he wasn't up there since they knocked him down accidentally a few times on the little bridge. And then there was the usual after school struggle to make Elizabeth write five words. Fun stuff.
Wednesday was Olivia's preschool. I dropped her off and arranged to have a friend whose daughter is doing the preschool to pick her up for a little playdate. I went and picked up my cute sister in law, Sara and her two girls for a little trip to Kohl's. Sara was looking for some new things to go with the skirts she already had and we found a few other things too. I picked up a silly game for the kids to play. After school, I was going to have the kids water my flowers and then we went around back and saw all the sticks from the tree and I remembered Andy saying that the kids should help pick those up before he can mow, so I gave them each a bucket and I helped fill my bucket up too and we got rid of most of the sticks and seed balls. I filled up the garbage can the rest of the way and then had the girls go over to our neighbor's house to see if we could finish filling her garbage can too. Thursday is garbage day, so it worked out. I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't want to go back out. I think we got it mostly done. It's windy today (Thursday), so there are probably more sticks down now.
Thursday so far we have been to the bank, grocery store, dollar store, and home to catch phone calls, switch laundry, and eat lunch. It's almost time to pick Elizabeth up from school and then we are off to her musical theater dance class, home for dinner, back out to pick up the babysitter I hired, and off to Stake Co-ed volleyball with the kids and the sitter because the kids wanted to go watch me. Hopefully, enough other players show up because tonight is our youth Temple trip. I hope I can move a little too since I'm all sore from picking up all the sticks yesterday. There were a ton of them! I should have taken pictures. I'm sure you'll see more pictures soon enough. Easter is coming.
If you would like to think ahead for birthday and Mother's Day or for yourself, our Ransom.Made design Spring Event is coming up April 16-17. Our website has some of our items, but the newest designs will all be out at the Spring Event. I can't wait to finish my projects and show you!

Short and Sassy

We have a few short and sassy kids around here, but we aren't so happy about the sassy part when it's aimed at us... The girls and I all got short haircuts today. We have been growing our hair out for a while now. My hair has been above the shoulders since Elizabeth was little, but I did go even shorter than this when Olivia was almost one in 2006. Since then, I kept it cut at my shoulders with layers until one or two years ago when I decided that it would be fun to do this. I thought it would be good for the girls to do too. It's just hair and it will grow back.I really like Olivia's hair short though! I wish I had cool hair like hers that would fall right into place! Hopefully, she can manage a ponytail by June for the ballet recital.
Poor Elizabeth has my kind of crazy hair. I'm afraid she might have a really cool triangle head like I did for years, but I think I'll just have to fix it nicer. She will like it because it will be easier to brush and fix and she will love it in the swimming pool, I'm sure!
We each had our own hairdresser at the salon we went to. Normally, I drive down to Hermiston to see my cousin for this, but she was too busy today and Andy is at the mountain helping his parents, so I had Vincent and it was almost naptime, so we just stayed in town. I enjoyed hearing the girls answer questions from their nice stylists. My stylist wasn't very talkative or personable. At least I had her and the girls had nicer ones. Elizabeth was asked if she likes being a big sister. I think she grumbled a response. She told the stylist that her sister is "fancy". She had to clarify that Olivia likes fancy things like dresses.
I couldn't hear Olivia that well, but she was talking to the stylist and the lady next to her with foil in her hair. The lady thought she was cute and thought it was cool to have them donate their hair.Vincent blew the girls kisses from the stroller and talked on his play phone. He liked looking at the lady with the foil in her hair. I think she was making faces at him.

When we came home, I took some more pictures and had Elizabeth take one of me.

I looked at them and fixed my hair. It is straighter now and looks more grown up and I changed my black shirt too because, well, you know why if you've ever had a haircut!I started the day right with a visit to the Temple with some friends. We have been getting together on birthdays and doing all different things. For one year, we TPed each other's houses, the next year we went out to eat or brought food to eat. This year, we started in September with the hike and breakfast. So, this friend invited all of her female friends and family to come to the Temple with her. It was very nice. I'm starting to think of what I want to do for my birthday now....

Purple

I like purple. It was one of my school colors after all. But, did I intend to buy a huge item that is purple? No. Do I like it anyway? YES! We just barely started looking (like within the last few days) for a new van for me to drive around town and that will be reliable enough to make it to Walla Walla or Hermiston when I want to go there. We still have our nicer, newer car for family trips and things that Andy drives for work, so now we are all set. The old van did last much longer than I expected it to. We bought it the beginning of last May for $850, bought a new battery and replaced a few things, and it is still running. It has been more than ten months, so pretty great investment for our money and much better than a $500 car payment.

Back to purple, I was looking around on Craig's List and found several vans that would work in our price range. I showed them to Andy and we mostly crossed out the ones that we would have to drive more than a half hour to go and look at. Time is precious. We still had three left on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, I checked those three again and one was gone. I called the one in Richland so we could go and look at it Wednesday night and we could, so I arranged a game night buddy to come over early to hang out with our kids so we wouldn't have to haul three kids to look at a car and meet some stranger (plus the hassle of moving seats and having three kids bugging us.) I was thinking that an alternative plan would be TO bring the kids AND drive our crummy van so they might feel sorry for us or something, but really that seemed a little slimmy or something. So anyway, Andy drove it around for a while and thought it would be good for us. I felt the same way and we made an offer. He agreed and we arranged to pick it up Thursday night. (This is not our van, but it looks the same, except our van isn't blurry and is more touchable.)

AWESOME! I felt so great driving it for the first time and it is so smooth. The old van has so much transmission trouble that it does a little extra hop after you stop to make you think it's going to give out or something. The guy we bought it from put new tires on it, had it all tuned up and cleaned out and he put in a cool CD, MP3, USB player which will be great. Can you tell I'm excited? Best part is that we paid for it in cash with part of our tax refund.
At least it will be easy to spot in the parking lots full of white and silver and tan vans.

Fun Day Off

We have had the last few days off from school for parent-teacher conferences, so we planned a little outing to the children's museum forWednesday. On Monday a friend called to see if I could watch her two sweet little boys Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and I did/am. They came with us so I had five kids to watch. I thought it might have been worse than it was. I was surprised at how easy I pulled it off actually. The boys I was watching are 6 1/2 and 1 1/2 in addition to my 7, 4 1/2, and 2 year olds. My van was FULL. I took a bunch of pictures of the kids playing. Here are some of them.
At the end of our time there, my kids dressed up in costumes to do a show on the stage. My friend's kids were the audience. We had a bee, ladybug, and duck.Elizabeth trying out to be a bank teller.Olivia wanted to cook some yummy (real good plastic) food for everyone.And Vincent enjoyed driving the ship.
The little boys I was watching enjoyed this little firetruck the most.Sisters...Sisters...there were never such devoted sisters. (A little White Christmas song.) Elizabeth is in the place of the king and Olivia is the queen. The painting is probably girly enough to be queen and princess too.
They played very well until it was a little past noon and then they were done playing and they were hungry.

Half-n-Half

I want to let you know a little about parenting. It's half-n-half. It is. I'll explain.
Half of the time you love them and they are so cute and helpful and fun and sweet and nice and awwww.........
Then the other half of the time they drive you crazy, fight, cry, squeal, argue, and grumble when they don't want to do something.
Just in case you don't have children of your own, I thought you might like a little definition.

Andy demonstrates this child syndrome as hugging and choking them at the same time. (Not physically of course, just in your mind!) I in NO way encourage violence toward children (spanking is not included, beating is).(Picture from "Siblings without Rivalry" book)

For instance-of course our wonderful children would never do anything like these following examples ever..... (hope you caught that sarcasm)
1. When your child is a newborn and is so cute and fun in the store and smiles at everyone you meet and then cries the whole night. It's so lucky for them that you can normally remember the smiles during the day!
2. When your child is a toddler and you tell them not to open the cabinet with the cans and jello and they do it, even with obstacles, it's a good thing that you know they are smart and capable and independent and willing to try new things (except that it's always the same cupboard and the same food they are throwing on the ground!)
3. When your child goes to nursery and yells "Mine!"-EVERY child picks this up in nursery!- you know that one day that spirit that stands up and shouts out when they see injustice in their eyes will be an adult who will demand action, hopefully by then they will realize that the world does NOT need to hand everything over immediately or there will be tears and gnashing and wailing of teeth!
4. When your child goes to school and gets in an argument with their bestest friend EVER and won't say they are sorry-they are preparing for marriage, just kidding!!!- they will eventually come to soften their heart and learn to apologize and not be so stubborn and will maybe (fingers crossed) be nicer the next time there is a disagreement.
5. When your child is so nice to their younger sibling and then rough-houses a little too much, they learn compassion, to be softer, and love for their sibling.

Luckily my children would never do such things. I'm sure your perfect little children wouldn't either....

Times are Changing

So Daylight Savings Time change happened yesterday. The kids made up for the skipped hour by staying up playing in their room and making bathroom trips for an extra hour. I don't think they went to sleep until after 10:30, but most of the time they go to sleep at 9:30 or 10, so maybe it's all the same. They (all three) didn't even wake up until 9am, so I shouldn't complain.
My plan is to wear them out today with chores. They are working on earning the trip to the children's museum this Wednesday. Elizabeth doesn't have school for three days this week due to parent-teacher conferences. As soon as they woke up, they had to take all the bedding off their beds and then haul it all, including Vincent's, to the laundry room with all their laundry. (Speaking of, time to switch it already.) I have to think of a few more chores for the day. They already told Andy that they would water the flowers in the front yard today. I'm sure they will want to do that soon. I should probably make them get dressed first. Now they are watching a movie and playing with the princess tea set. (Thanks for that Aunt Sara! It's one of the most used toys we own.)
My list for the week is getting long and all the things I want to do are continuously being delayed. I need to get ready for our Ransom.made Design Spring Event very soon. I was just noticing that I only have about a month to do all the ideas I have for it. Gotta get going!
I think I'm finally ahead of the baby cross-stitches. I haven't been ahead for about a year. I'm sure the summer will use up my supply though. I have spent a lot of the last month watching the show 24 on DVD from the library. I like watching them all in a row without waiting for a whole week to figure out what is going to happen. I'm halfway through season three now. I really love getting them from the library. It makes things so much easier. I have three weeks to get through each season, not that I can take that long to get through them. They are very suspenseful and you never know what's coming and even if you guess what is coming, there is always a twist. Of course, you know the problem is going to last 24 hours, so it's not like it will be solved in the first three episodes. You also know that the main character won't die. While I watch these shows, I work on the cross-stitching. Soon I'll have to switch over to my scrapbooking. I think that will have to wait a month until after the event though. I have most of the supplies I need, so I need to get going.
By the way, I am the PTA secretary for the upcoming school year again, just so you know. I like it. It's nice to know what's going on at the school and help the very capable parents (we do have one man who attends our meetings and is co-treasurer hence the parents instead of moms). I know the principal and they have door prizes at each meeting and cookies. I can't say no to that! Well, that and I'm the secretary, so I take the minutes for each meeting. I'm kind of required to be there to do what I agreed to do. It's only once a month and then typing time. Obviously, I don't have that much trouble finding time to type....Really it's good for all of my readers, because I probably won't do the minutes and a blog in the same day. I'm doing it for you!
How is your adjustment to the time change?
What would you like to see at the Spring Event April 16-17?
What chores do you give your kids?
Have a great week!

Talent Show

Our Primary at church has a talent show for the kids each year. Last year our girls told some knock knock jokes. This year they were going to bring some of their drawings for the back display table, but a few hours before the talent show started, they decided to do a dance. I got out our princess song cd and they picked which song they wanted after much deliberation and put on their dress up things to get ready. We left for the church and Andy met us there after he was done at work. Here is their little dance. I don't like it when they take forever, so I timed them at a minute or so.

Vincent was coughing like he always does in public. The popcorn refreshment might have been a contributing factor as well.
They are going to have to step it up next year. Maybe Olivia can sing Band on the Run.
Vincent was digging the B-I-N-G-O song that someone else did. Maybe he can do that.
I think Elizabeth could sing her Jedi Song.
We'll see what they want to do next year.

Looking for a Great Preschool?

My sister in law runs her own fabulous preschool in Pasco. This is the room devoted to the preschool with the little tables and chairs and everything. She really is a great teacher. Check it out! Little Learners Preschool is now registering for Fall 2010. The preschool is located in West Pasco near Road 68. Our class size is limited to ten children, so each child receives a great deal of one on one attention. Classes are held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9-11:30am. I have taught kindergarten locally and this upcoming year will be my third year teaching preschool. The professional curriculum we use focuses on the essential skills each child will be tested on as they enter kindergarten (phonics, rhyming, writing, patterning, counting, etc). We also do a lot of singing, dancing, crafts, and field trips. The kids are always busy having lots of fun!

If you are interested in visiting our preschool, or have any questions, please feel free to contact Kori at 547-0519 or at littlelearnerspreschool@hotmail.com.

Andy's Birthday

Today is Andy's birthday. I have now spent nine birthdays with him. Nine years ago we were engaged and he drove down to Rexburg to visit me at school for his special day. I think he even managed to get me to watch Star Wars. (I hadn't really seen it growing up, even with all my brothers. They were a lot more into sports movies.) I am so lucky to have such a fun-loving, wonderful husband. He is a great dad to our children as well.
We celebrated Andy's birthday with his family last Sunday with his parent's and brother in law's birthdays. Today is his birthday and he had his regular work day, but his boss took him out to eat and he came home a little early. He also came home with his lunch leftovers while I was finishing up his present. I framed up one of his train prints that I bought a few years ago. He made a frame for it then, but it fell off the wall this last week, so I found a frame that would fit it.
The girls wrapped up a few little presents I bought for Andy. Elizabeth wrapped up a pocket knife that will fit on his keychain because Andy lost his when he went through airport security last year and Olivia wrapped up a mini flashlight. Vincent gave Andy the card that played Star Wars music. They were really excited about giving the presents to Andy.We had Pizza Spaghetti for dinner, which is Andy's new favorite dinner. I made some chocolate chip M&M cookies too. After dinner, we went over to Andy's birthday buddy cousin's house to take him his present. Brent turned five. Here's a picture of Andy and Brent the day he was born. Andy and Brent today five years later.Brent's family happened to be having cake and ice cream when we got there and they were nice enough to share with us. I did call them before we went over, so it wasn't a complete surprise.
Andy likes to play with their cool boy toys and can't wait until Vincent is bigger to buy him toys that are more fun.Then we went to use one of Andy's gift cards and other gift money at Best Buy (his favorite store). He found a set of silly movies that he likes to watch and laugh at.
We played Simon Says in the car. Simon told the kids to sit still and not talk, with a few other things mixed in like close your eyes and plug your ears. Elizabeth won the most. I think we need to keep up the Simon Says. We played it last night at our Family Home Evening to teach them how to listen and obey. Andy was in charge. They kept messing up, but after we played it for five minutes or so, they got better. Or they started watching me following directions. Either way, I'm glad they are picking it up somewhere.
When we got home, he read to the kids and we put them to bed. Now he's watching one of the movies in his set with Vincent. I think he's had a pretty good birthday. He doesn't really care much about birthdays, but I haven't heard his normal birthday quotes yet this time. He likes to say, "I just went another year without dying" and "I won another free trip around the sun."
Andy had a good birthday.

Our Little Monday

Three little children are sweetly playing trains together between Barbies and movie watching. Even better, those three little children are mine. I love these nice afternoons when they get along nicely, especially because they seem to happen more and more seldom. (And now they will probably be awful the rest of the afternoon for me typing that.)

Our Monday started off with berry muffins, school drop off, Olivia and Vincent to my friend's house to be babysat, helping in Elizabeth's class, a short visit with my friend, same friend bringing her daughter to my house for an hour, bread making, Vincent crying for two of the three hours he normally naps, dinner making, and after school fun now. Not super eventful, but nice and good. All but Vincent crying. He cried for two hours and then fell asleep for one and woke up fairly happy. This had better not be the end of naps!
The best part about making bread today was when Elizabeth came home. I called a friend to pick her up because I figured Vincent would sleep until dinnertime, but he woke up soon after she got home instead. Anyway, she walked in the door and started walking through the kitchen, but stopped mid-step and her eyes bugged out at the wheat bread sitting sliced on the counter. She grabbed a piece and devoured it. She gave me a bunch of thumbs up and said that I should have commercials to sell my bread. Good thing that new recipe I tried out paid off. I like that she likes wheat bread. She even wanted another slice before she finished her graham cracker with chocolate frosting.
Right before my friend brought her daughter over for me to babysit, I had a knock at the door. I was grinding the wheat for my bread, so I had to turn that off, but it was a lady and a little girl. The lady asked politely if her daughter could read me a scripture. Her daughter opened up her little Bible to Psalms and read me a scripture. They wanted to come and visit again. I told them no thanks. They gave me some Jehovah's Witness pamphlets and left. What a tactic! Like I'm going to say no to a four year old reading me a scripture! Scriptures are all good and I can't say no to that! I do think it's good to be nice to those who are only trying to do their best and I wouldn't want people to slam doors in my face or be rude if I was knocking door-to-door and I think of our missionaries out when I have people coming to my door too and try my best to not be rude, but it's still annoying to be interrupted in the middle of things. If it was just adults at the door, I would probably ignore them, but not with a sweet little girl. Anyway, just so you know, looks like a new tactic....

Yesterday was a very nice Sunday. We got ready in plenty of time to be at church on time (which is 15 minutes early for us-we like to get our normal seat and missed it last week.) There were 12 kids in the nursery and four leaders, but it was surprisingly mellow. After church we went to visit my parent's in Walla Walla an hour away because they had Stake conference and my dad didn't have evening meetings. It was nice to visit with them and my sister came over with her husband and son for a little bit too. My kids like to see them.

Saturday there was nothing on the calendar. Andy changed the oil in the van and ran a few outdoor errands. We didn't have anything to do, but had plenty of time to do it. I called my mom then to see if we could visit and drop off a gift for my sister's husband, but they had Stake conference, so they were busy Saturday night. I called Andy's sister to see if they would be able to babysit for us and they could, so Andy and I went to see the new Alice and Wonderland movie. We wanted to go to the 3D one, but it was sold out, so we bought tickets for the 2D viewing and went to eat before the movie instead of after. We enjoyed the movie. I initially thought it looked scary and creepy, but was surprised when it wasn't. I liked the characters and it was fun.

Update on the kids playing, now they are building Vincent a bed under Olivia's bed for him to sleep in. Still playing nicely. I'd better go do something else while they are occupied. Olivia is begging me to let Vincent sleep in their room. She said she would do chores for me if I let him......Maybe?

Dr Seuss Day

Elizabeth's school had a Dr Seuss spirit day, so the night before (of course I didn't think of it sooner!) I tried to gather something up for her to wear. I was about to start painting on a shirt or something (which would have looked awful because I'm NOT a good painter at all!), when I asked Andy. He said she could be Daisy Head Mayzie.
Wikipedia says:
"Daisy-Head Mayzie is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss, although he did not illustrate it, nor was it published until 1995, after his death.
The book is about a schoolgirl named Mayzie who one day suddenly sprouts a bright yellow daisy from her head. It causes alarm in her classroom, family, and town, until an agent makes her a celebrity. The Cat in the Hat is seen serving as the narrator to this story who helps Mayzie to understand her problem and persuade her to go back home. The book has a mini-song titled "Daisy-Head Mayzie" which her classmates chant."
Just in case you were wondering about that.
I just happened to have a vase of Gerber Daisies from Sara's wedding centerpiece, so I took the two white ones out and glued them to headbands. I figured that Olivia would like dressing up too. I was right. She is STILL wearing her headband. Elizabeth's went back in her bag after the morning recess. At least they will very likely have this spirit day again next year and I will be able to pull them out again.
I also happen to have a few dressers with many pink options. In the middle of the night (before I could go to sleep) I pulled out anything that would work for the outfits so they could make their own.
Elizabeth put on pink pants, but said that "wearing all pink just didn't feel right". What?! I didn't understand at all, but whatever. It's her little silly day anyway. I could NOT pick out which picture was better for this. She is making great silly faces in both pictures. They are eating peanut butter cinnamon toast for breakfast. It's their favorite. Olivia totally went for it and had the pink shirt, pants, skirt, and even her jacket (not that I play favorites or anything....) Vincent while he was still sporting his pajamas. He had to have a picture taken to you know. (Whenever I say "you know", I want to use the Minnesotan accent. I've never been there, but I will one day.)
We didn't have anything on the schedule for the whole day other than normal school stuff, chores, and taking care of the kids, so we hung around this morning until 10am when my mom called. She wanted to go to Costco and she was in town, so we met her there and then went to Taco Time. Then I had to go to another few stores and get things for even more family birthdays coming up. I like picking out things, but it's such a huge relief when I am done trying to figure out what they would like.
By the time we were done, it was time to get Elizabeth from school.
It was also Fun Friday (where the students and anyone else can buy candy and trinkets for a quarter.) Olivia and Elizabeth count down to Fun Friday every month, so this was a big deal in kid world.
When we got home, I started a movie for the girls, laid Vincent down for his nap, arranged all the gifts and packaged them, put away the other things we bought from our grocery list, and then started cleaning. My Friday chore is the bathroom and it's the one I most dislike, so I have been slacking on it. It was time to do it well. I also skipped mopping the kitchen floor on Tuesday because it was rainy, so I did that along with some laundry. It was a busy afternoon. Olivia helped me clean while Elizabeth pretended to write her thank you notes for her birthday. I typed out what Elizabeth could write on her thank you notes to make it super easy, but she just didn't want to do it at all, so she would start scribbling all over the page and have to start over. After an hour and a half, she still only had "Dear Uncle" on the page. I thought that she would be able to do three notes a day until she was done, but she finally finished her one note when I finished making tacos for dinner and the chores and Olivia finished making one dog iron bead project and Vincent finished his nap. I'm saying that she took forever to do it. His nap was four hours long. Maybe next time, she will just hurry and do it, but I'm not counting on it. (To those who gave her a present, sorry your thank you notes are so late. Vincent's are late too, but now we have to wait for Elizabeth to finish hers so I can send them at the same time. It's a hard thing to make your kids do, but it's good for them to have that grateful attitude. I WILL NOT have kids who act entitled if I have anything to say about it!)

NaDell's Best Kid Tips

DISCLAIMER: These worked for me at different periods. Every child is different and needs different things. Sometimes these things only work for a month or two and then you have to come up with the next best thing. Keep trying to trick your kids into behaving. It will be good for them. These have worked for me at least 50 percent of the time, which is pretty good odds with kids.

Infant:
-Store brand items are just as good as name brand on most things. Coupons are great for those items that have to be name brand.
-Clip baby nails when they are sleeping. Keep clippers in box next to you with all nursing supplies.
-Pack an extra bag for the car with emergency supplies (extra diapers, wipes, outfits, blankets, burp rags, tennis shoes and socks for you-just in case, t-shirt for you) and you will be all set when disastrous diapers appear.
-If child is fussy hold them with their back to your stomach with your hands near their stomach to help rock out bubbles.
-If your child is fussy at your mother-in-laws house and you can't soothe the baby, let her hold the baby and she will make them all better. Somehow this works. It worked for all three of my kids, but I have the best MIL.
-If your child wakes up sad at night, it might be easier for them to sleep in their carseat in their crib. Strap them in if they are wiggly.
-I always put my kids in their crib as soon as they came home from the hospital. So much easier than transitioning to a new place as soon as they get used to wear they are.
-Keep going on trips so they will be used to the car.
-Go to family events so they will be used to other people.
-Teething tablets are great for babies to help calm them down.
-Baby talk is useless. You want kids to speak English, don't you?
-Don't worry about diaper warmers. The cold baby wipe will wake your baby up enough to finish their meal and sleep better. I always change baby's diaper between breasts.
-I could never breastfeed in my bed. I would leak all over. It was easier for me to go out to the living room, turn on a light, use my boppy, and feed my baby out there.
-Get a decorative box to put nursing pads in next to where you normally nurse, along with the baby clippers and creams.
-Refill diaper bag when you get home, so you don't forget you need diapers.

Toddler:
-Teach them to say "Bye bye" to things so they will leave easier.
-If you want them to come to you, tell them to come and give you a hug or five.
-To wean from pacifiers, I would wait until they were 18 months, take all of them away on a Sunday (so they have all week to stop the screaming), and not give in. Cold turkey worked best for us.
-Again, cold turkey worked best for us with transitioning from bottles to sippy cups. If sippy cups is all that they are offered, they will eventually drink it. For a month or so before, I would put water in sippy cups so they could get used to it.
-Suckers for the shopping cart are great! Just remember baby wipes.
-Help kids to put their own dirty clothes in the hamper and garbage (clean) in the garbage.
-WD-40 takes crayon off of all hard surfaces. Then clean with soapy water to get grease off.
-If your child doesn't want to wear their coat, put a small toy or candy in their pocket that they can get out after they put it on.
-Tic tacs are good bargaining tools.
-For our son, I would have to go to the kitchen to get him a cup when he was sad, so I told him to stop crying if he wanted milk and most of the time it will work, once they are in the habit. Keep trying. Tell them that they don't get milk if they are crying.
-Refill cups right after they are finished so when you need it, it is ready in the fridge. You can use one cup for a whole day that way.
-When walking with your toddler, the game Red light, green light is a good one. It will take some time to learn, but soon you can say red light and they stop and wait for you to catch up. Try first in a safe place holding their hand.
-You can't understand whiny voices. Tell them that. Make whining stop! It's annoying.
-When it is time to wash their hands, get a warm washcloth and ask them to give you their hands. Be playful and it won't be so hard for them.
-Make them say please and thank you.
-Let children help you sort the laundry. They will learn colors vs. whites and that they should turn their socks the right way when they take them off.
-When you are helping kids to brush their teeth, count to ten. You can go as slow as you need to to get the job done and the kid knows you will be done soon. I stop counting when they close their mouth and start again when they are cooperative. Count to ten on top, let them spit or drink, then count to ten for the bottom.
-Tell them how nice they look after they are dressed and they will tell you that you look nice someday too. :)
-Get a piggy bank for your child so they will enjoy saving their money.
-Because I was always shy about talking to people, I started having my kids shake hands with the ladies who sit on the back row at church (mostly widows) and talk with them. The ladies love it (so do the few men who are back there) and it helps them to not be so shy around people we know and trust.
-Fridge door and cabinet locks are fabulous!
-Teach children to pick up toys. Save yourself some work later. Help them and they will be more willing to do it.
-We love going to the library for storytime. It helps kids to sit and listen to a story quietly (or learn how to be quiet) and helps them be around other kids.

Preschooler:
-When potty training a child who crys when on the toilet, help them sing a song (like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star-but change it to Tinkle.) to help them relax enough to go potty.
-Let them pick from two outfits you approve. If I really want them to wear one thing, I pick that and the outfit I know they really don't like so they will pick what I want them to wear.
-Singing a song while washing hands is great too.
-Get kids used to going potty in public by taking them. I hear that with auto-flushing toilets, you can bring a pack of post it notes to cover the red blinking dot to keep toilet from flushing.
-PBS and other educational shows make it easy and fun for your child to learn their letters, alphabet, shapes, colors, counting, etc.
-Have kids bring laundry baskets through the house to the laundry room so they learn to work.
-Have kids set the table and clear their own place setting after dinner.
-A notebook and washable markers are great for roadtrips.
-Snack lunches (homemade lunchables) are yummy and fun.
-Send pictures children draw to grandparents with pictures. They like it and if they don't, then at least all the pictures aren't in your house.
-Small disposable cups in the bathroom are good for kids to learn how to drink from a cup as well as rinse their own mouth out after brushing their teeth.
-At some stores, let your preschooler pay for their own items with their own money.
-Put spare socks in your glovebox for those times of year when your child has no socks and you are going to an indoor playground where they need to wear socks.
-At the playground, put your hand up to tell your child five more minutes. Then countdown to when it's time to go to make it easier.
-When your child moves up to a booster seat, teach them how to put on their own seatbelt. Then, wait after that for them to do it alone. It is worth it, unless you are in a rush. I have waited up to five minutes. My kids like to race to get strapped.
-If my kids don't go to bed well one night, the next day I take something away. For For Olivia, I take away the wearing of a dress. That is torture for her. Figure out one of the things they like the most-but won't completely devastate them-and take it away.

School-age:
-Get homework folders out as soon as they come home from school and put them back as soon as you are done.
-Make kids responsible for their own bags. They carry it, they get the lunch bag out of the fridge, etc.
-Have a box for each child to fill with the things they want to keep. They will have to go through the box and throw some things away when it is full.
-Type out some thank you notes so your child can re-write them on cards to send to family and friends for gifts.
-Let them get out some paper to make their friends, cousins, whoever cards for their birthday.
-Let them make gifts for friends and neighbors too.
-My kids like to take a plate of treats over to our neighbors.
-Three items will keep your kids busy for hours: Construction paper, scissors, masking tape. Kept our kids busy the whole Thanksgiving Day.

Tips for YOU:
-When something is nearly gone in your kitchen, bath, laundry room, etc, put it on your grocery list, so you don't forget you need it.
-Naptime is a great time for making all the dinner preparations you need to do without crying, hungry, homework laden children bothering you. I like to make my whole dinner and stick it in the fridge to cook an hour or so before my husband gets home. It makes the afternoon less frantic and you less likely to not start anything and NEED to go out because you can't think of any dinner.
-Thank you notes are important. Write them.
-Daily showers are essential. Take one. You will feel better.
-Thrift stores and clearance sections are the best to buy kid clothes. I like to buy a year in advance to save money. (Kohl's is my favorite store for their clearance and (discounts.)
-Borrow movies and books from the library for free!

What has worked for you?
Let me know if I have given you tips or tricks that have worked.
I'm compiling this list to give at baby showers or send to new moms.

Puppet Shows and more

The scaffolding in the family room has sparked some extra creativity for the girls lately. They decided to put on a puppet show for me. I love when they use their imaginations to keep each other busy and entertained.Here is the video of Elizabeth's play.

After she finished I told her that Olivia should do the next one. She kind of took over Olivia's too, but Olivia doesn't seem to mind. I did snap my fingers to get her to pause the take-over, which lasted for about 5 seconds.

It's like an indoor fort. It's a good thing Vincent's not bigger or he would be on top of it.

Vincent likes to help me in while I prepare dinner. See how helpful he is laying in the middle of the kitchen? It's the perfect spot for a kid, right? It was a good thing that it was leftover night. This is the reason I do most dinner prep during his naptime.

Elizabeth's weekly spelling lists have been missing for the last month, so last week when I went to help in the class I took an extra list in addition to the one in her mailbox and when she didn't bring hers home, I put mine in the book Andy reads to them each night. She asked where it came from and I asked her where hers was. She told me that she threw it away at school.Today when I was at her class, I just took the one out of her mailbox and put it in my pocket. I told her teacher that I had her list and she said that Elizabeth tried to throw away a different paper there last week a few times. She did end up bringing it home, but it was all crumpled up and she told me that she tried to throw it away at school, but her teacher wouldn't let her. I look at all her papers and then ask her if she wants to keep them in her box for later or hang them up if they are seasonal. She makes the decision, so I guess she just wanted to make the decision earlier at school.

Vincent kept saying "monkey" in the middle of church this week. I was worried that he was calling someone a monkey and then found monkeys in the Noah's Ark book he likes to look at that a neighbor boy was borrowing. He really said monkey through most of the meeting. Did I mention the pointing? I'll get a video of him saying "monkey" soon. It's cute.

Vincent's Olympics

We enjoyed watching the Olympics this year. Vincent was trying do do all the tricks the athletes showed him. He was studying very intently. Then he started hanging on our very handy scaffolding that is in the family room and swinging off to land. Of course he stopped doing it when I started trying to video it and I wasn't totally sure I should even video it because it was encouraging hanging like a monkey from our temporary furniture, but he didn't get hurt in the making of this or any other Olympic video and he is tough.

Now, don't you wish you had a fabulous scaffolding in your house? I think he could be the next Paul Hamm.
In case you are wondering why we have a scaffolding in our house, we are insulating the ceiling of the addition that was built in the 70's when Andy has time. We are nearing completion and are seeing all the reasons why it was good we didn't buy a REAL fixer-upper.

Chore Chart Winner(s)

February 28th has come and gone, so I finally got on the ball enough to write out the contestant names and make Elizabeth draw the winners.
Drum roll, please...........(totally kidding, so not dramatic like that to win a chore chart....)First winner is Shaunie who said: "I like to see that someone else is trying to get organized as well! My cleaning habits have been completely sabotaged since the move to CA, and I'm still trying to figure out how to organize it all. This has given me some inspiration!"

Second winner is Alissa who said: "Grocery shopping on a certain day? Wow. Now that's organization for you! Love the chart idea. Smart - very smart. Have you thought about laminating it so you can write on it with marker (and then wipe off) if it's a particularly busy week or have extra stuff to do? Just a little thought."

-I had thought of that, but I wanted to be able to make the whole thing at home without buying a laminating machine. If I have an extra busy week, I just shift things around on my own (if I know Wednesday is going to be super busy, I will try to do the Wednesday chores on Tuesday or Thursday), or just do the basic surface cleaning.

Congratulations! If anyone else would like to buy one, I will sell them at a very reasonable price. Let me know. They will be ready to post on our Ransom-Made design site soon.