Completed!

Finally! I have had this stuff hanging around for about a year. I finally made Little A her Bow holder. It was so easy and quick too. I don't know why it took me so long to finish. But at least it is done now. It help us remember to use the bows too. We would always forget that she had them before but now we can see them all and thus we remember.


Also done is....

I have wanted to put flowers in pots out front for a long time, and I finally did. I was at Costco the other day and they had these awesome pots. They were only 20 bucks. So i bought 2 for the front and now I think that I will buy a few more and plant my herbs in one and maybe a tomato plant in one. Or maybe just more flowers. But to get pots that big are not very cheap, so when I saw them I had to get them. So then Monday Little A went with me to Lowe's and helped pick out the flowers.



This one looks pretty sparse but it will fill in eventually. That is if I don't kill them before it has a chance.


In the works.....

Little A's newly painted room. (which is going to be awesome! I hope)
This years Garden prep

Happy 100!

Its my 100th post on this blog!!!

I know I have had this blog a while and I should have way more than 100 posts but hey. What can you do. I have been in a rut as far as blogging goes, but I think that I'm free of that for a while.

So more exciting news!

Big J and I are thinking about going on a Cruise!!! I have never been on a cruise and think that it would be awesome. It will be our Honeymoon. We have been married for 8 years this June and we still haven't taken a Honeymoon. I know lots of people are the same way. And since we are not going to be going to MT this year. We need to find somewhere else to go. I asked Big J what he wanted to do for vacation and he said maybe a cruise.

So now we have to find Cruise that we want to take. So if there is anyone out there that has been on one and has any suggestions that would be great. We have only 2 criteria that has to be met. One is it has to be Tropical, that way it will be warm and we can snorkel. And 2 is that it has to be relaxing! So I am open for ideas.

I hope that by putting this out there it wont be ruined and that we will end up going. Maybe this will help us to actually do it. Since its on the net now, we have to go right?

Febuary so far...

So our February has been nice so far. For Valentines day Big J bought me a Serger! Which is greatly appreciated. I have been taking a "break" from sewing lately but I am glad to have it for when I start up again. It will get used a lot over the years I'm sure.

Aunt Nessa made the Valentine suckers this year and it was really nice of her. She probably made about 100 suckers. And as the families get bigger it will be an even bigger task. They are a tradition in our family and have been handing them out to our friends since I can remember. I don't remember a Valentines party where the suckers were not looked forward too. I remember my mother making suckers for about a week or so before Valentines day non stop.


Here is a picture of one. They are marshmallow on one side and cinnamon on the other. Its the perfect mix.


The kids love them. THANKS NESSA-FACE!!!

I've noticed that some of the funnest times in school are taken away these days. Like the Valentines day party. Poor Lil D had only 1 hour for his party. When I was in school it was a whole day event. We would make our shoe box mailbox at home and bring it to school and some years we would have a reading day we would bring our pillows and blankets and get to lay on the floor and read all day. Or we would get a movie day and watch a movie and eat popcorn and candy. It was so fun! We would walk around and pass out the valentines. Most were home made. It was always so fun and we looked forward to it. I'm not saying that kids still don't look forward to it. Its just not the same. Now they are barely willing to give up an hour. Where is the fun people? Maybe its just here in California. Maybe in my Montana its still the same. I can hope.

It's been over a month!

I know! I have been awful at blogging lately. But to be fair neither is anyone else. But no I have thought about it but every time I get on here I just didn't feel like doing it. So here is what our January looked like.

We went up to the snow again. But this time there was TONS of snow! It was past our knees. It was so pretty on all the trees that I couldn't stop saying how pretty it was. Big J was saying that it was like I had never seen snow before. But to be fair it had been a long time since I had seen this much pretty, white, fresh snow.


So we played for a while and then we had a BBQ. Here is Big J using a Popsicle stick found in the glove box as a spatula. We brought everything except one of those. Don't worry it wasn't some old used stick. It was one you can get for crafting. So it was all good.


And I have to mention that all the people that were there before us were telling us that you couldn't sled because the snow was too deep and you just sink. They were wrong. You just needed some guys paving the way a couple times. We made an awesome hill and by the time we left everyone was using it.

When we decided it was time to go home we loaded up the truck with snow. It seems to be the thing to do. When you are driving up you see all these trucks with snow in the back, on their way down. I'm not sure if it was fun to have all the snow or how long it lasted, since it went to our friends house. But I'm sure that their girls had fun playing in it when it. Since it was much warmer in town than it was in the mountains.


And the rest of January was just another month. Not a lot happening.

New year! New Goals!.... Maybe not.

(Get a Wordle Here)

Yes it is a new year and yes there are goals but I don't think that they are much different than last year. I was looking at my post from last January and was surprised at how much I didn't get done last year. Like my goal to lose all the baby weight. I lost most of it but then gained some during the Holidays. So that is one that is the same. To lose the last 20 lbs.

Also going to bed at 10 and getting up at 6 is super hard for me. I am a night owl. I am so not a morning person. Maybe I will try that one again. We will see. However, it would help the scripture study goal.

Also to be more diligent in having F.H.E.

Reading the scriptures to my children. (If anyone has any tips on how to keep a 6 and 4 yr old interested let me know)

Be a better house keeper.

Be a better wife and do more "wifey" things IE; Iron, make lunches, make dinner all the time, get the clean laundry in the closet and drawers before they are worn again.

So there are just a few. But there are about a million ways I can think of to work on. The list never ends.

Sometimes its so simple

I was talking with a friend at the gym yesterday and telling her how I was having a hard time getting Little D to want to read. I think that he knows more than he thinks/shows because if he gets mad enough at me telling him to read it he will read it just fine. It always ends in a yelling match or me getting tired of trying and saying "OK fine. I'm done." Which only ends in more tears because if you know Little D then you know that he is a pleaser. And he will cry more because he wants to do it. Anyway, its been hard and I don't even want to sit and have him try anymore. Sometimes I wonder if he is dyslexic or has some other problem that I don't know about. My friend said that its normal for kids to switch letters around until about 3rd grade and I knew that because I've told it to friends before. But I was trying to find some reason that this was so difficult for him.

She told me that her daughter was the same way and that she hated reading because it was so stressful. Then she did the following and it was a lot better. She asked me if I read to him. I told her yes but not the books that he was trying to read. She suggested that I first read him the book and make it fun with voices and other things. And then give Little D a turn to do the funny voices. She said to try and make it stress free and fun. And if he came to a word he didn't know to just tell him and move on. (I always make him try and sound it out) I thought... How did I not think of that? Its so simple. I guess I was just focusing on getting it done.

So last night before bed I told him to go get a book and he did. Not without yelling at me telling me that he was NOT READING ANYTHING! First I read the Curious George story and used voices and tried to make it sound fun. (Big J is better at voices and fun than I am) But it totally worked. After I said, "Now its your turn." At first he was telling me no and throwing a little tantrum but then I told him that when he got to the parts where people were talking he could make up a funny voice he was more on board.

He read the entire book. There were times in the story that there were 2 or so pages with no talking and I thought for sure he would give up. But he didn't. There were also times when I thought maybe I'll just read this page and let him read the page with the voices. But I didn't. He loved it. When he was finished he went back through making up the story and voices trying to make it funny.

I also told her about how anytime I tell him to do something he yells and says I KNOW!!! Or I CAN'T DO IT ALL! I'll ask him to change his clothes and get his shoes on and he will reply I KNOW! To which I want to say, "Then why aren't you doing it?" She then suggested that I try not to make it a command. And basically to phrase it differently and let him be more responsible.

So this morning I said to him after he was done eating, "I know that you know what you need to do to get ready for school right?" He said yes and I said "OK then." He came out later and had his shoes and socks on but hadn't changed his shirt. I asked him if he forgot anything and he was like, "No." I said, "Didn't you wear that shirt yesterday?" He then went to change it. I went by his room later and noticed he still hadn't changed his shirt. (he was looking at a Curious George book) I told him that he still needed to change his shirt and I got, "I KNOW!" So it didn't work perfectly but it was better. Maybe a few more times and he really will be able to get ready all by himself.

He did say that he had never read the book he was looking at before. So I told him we would read it tonight. And I didn't get a tantrum.

Its funny how sometimes all it takes is for someone to say, "Hey! Try this" In order for you to see how simple it can be.

The "Incident"

Well this year I have been crazy with making all sorts of goodies for friends. Like today I made Almond Joy Balls. I thought that since it was almost time for my diet to start that I would make them today. They made so many I was looking for people to give them to. And I still have more. So watch out you may be getting a plate if you live near by. BTW here is a picture of them. Don't they look yummy?

Left is the Double Chocolate Oreo Truffle, Middle is the White Chocolate Almond Joy Ball, Right is the Chocolate Almond Joy Ball.

So anyway back to the "incident". Last week before Christmas I made a whole bunch of different goodies and divided them up for some of Big J's work friends and some other families in our ward. Well I had 10 plates to take around and I had the kids delivering some to houses of people they knew. We went to on of our friends we know through Jeremy's work and I told the kids to wait in the car.

We had never been there before and we were all admiring their Lights and Lawn ornaments. IE; a Blow up Santa and light up candy canes. We parked in front and I got out and went bounding up the lawn. Just as I got to the sidewalk... The next thing I know is that my foot is still on the lawn and my arm is in the air and I am going DOWN!. It was like a slow motion movie clip. So I crash and burn on the side walk and the cookies and treats go flying. I turn around to see what I had tripped over and realize that it was the Blow up Santa's cord that I tripped over. I thought,'They should tape that down! Someones likely to trip!' But then quickly realized that it was clearly my fault because I went through the grass and you can't tape cords down on grass.

Luckily I had covered the cookies with wrap so none of them came out. (that would have been horrible) But they got all jumbled up. So I unwrapped them and re placed them on the plate. Then knocked on the door like nothing had happened. No one (that I know of) saw me go down. Except...

When I got to the car I asked the kids if they saw me fall and Little D said, "Yes! I saw the Santa shake too!" Needless to say my knees hurt for a while and I still have 2 big bruises. One on each knee. I haven't been able to wear short skirts to church for 2 weeks.

Later I got to another friends house and they had shoes all over the front door step. They were like, "Sorry about the tripping hazards". And I was like, "No big deal, already tripped once." Then told them the story. Told my husband later and he eventually told the friend who's house it was. I was later teased for tripping over Santa. But that's OK. I would have told them right after it happened but I didn't want my friend to feel bad.

Anyway, I do clumsy stuff all the time. Its no big deal. Just another funny story to tell.