Week 4

Saturday January 22-After reading scriptures and saying prayers I told the girls to go to bed and looked over to find Natalie had already fallen asleep. The silly thing is that right now we are reading the D&C but every night she goes and gets her BoM and opens up to a random page and then "reads" her verses as we tell her what to say.
Sunday January 23-Almost every week after church we go out to Grandma Jean's house for dinner. One of the kids favorite things to do each Sunday is "beads" as they call it.

Monday January 24-I got in my head the idea to take everything off my bookshelves, dust and put everything back. It took almost the whole day, but it feels so nice to have it done!

Tuesday January 25-Every so often my kids need an over-haul on our chores system. The old system was that they had one chore for each year old they are and that was what they did everyday. They have been asking for rotating chores for a little while, so this is what I came up with. Honestly, it is more work for me to have these chores because I have to take the time to help them learn how to do it and I could do it myself faster, but I am happy to be teaching them responsibility and hope that some day they will be able to do it on their own. I also try really hard not to go back and fix them after they are done.

Wednesday January 26-These three kids were being so cute playing the piano together. They had background music on and were all dancing to the music. Brayden's dancing is ADORABLE!!!

Thursday January 27-Hailey and Ally have been sharing a 1700 sq/ft bedroom (our unfinished basement) for awhile now. It has worked out great so we have more room for clothes and things. BUT, they love to stay up talking at night. They argue tons during the day, but when the lights go out at bedtime they turn into giggly best friends. I am glad they like to talk to eachother but it drives me nuts when I need them to get some sleep.

Friday January 28-Lilly took her first ballet class today. She was very cute and did a pretty good job following along with the class. Lilly has been watching ballet classes since she was born, I think she was excited to be one of the big girls going to her very own class.

Week 3

Well, of my New Year's Resolutions, this one has been the one I have done the very best on. Although it's trickier than you would think because some days there are so many things to take pictures of it's hard to narrow down and on other days I don't really have anything to take a picture of. Here are week 3's pictures:

Saturday January 15-Allan and I were singing in the choir for the adult session of Stake Conference. We had our neighbor come over to babysit and she brought her 2 little sisters to play with my kids. When we got home Sarah and Natalie were doing "makeovers" in the bathroom. I could honestly see them having the same exact conversation while getting ready to go on a date or to a dance or something in another 12 years!

Sunday January 16-Hailey has started reading Harry Potter. She is doing really well getting through it pretty fast, but it's what she wants to do when it's time to do chores or anything I need her to do. (I think she gets that from me, that's why I don't do much reading these days!)
Monday January 17-For FHE we talked about having a testimony of our own and then made Testimony Cookies! We have been having lessons that go with the primary theme for the week so I knew what our lesson would be on, but as I was looking for ideas I came across this blog with family home evening ideas! They have some amazing ideas and we only did a couple of their ideas, but what an awesome resource!

Tuesday January 18-Oh Lilly! She has always been a tantrum thrower, but lately she doesn't want to go anywhere in the car. This day we were taking the kids to ballet across town and she screamed all the way there and almost all the way back, a total of 25 minutes. Here is a little sample of things she was saying: "Mommy I don't want to go to ballet, mommy take me home, mommy take me that way (pointing towards the house), mommy I'm stuck, mommy help me, mommy I can't touch you." Oh, and my favorite, "Mommy don't take my picture!"

Wednesday January 19-Brayden's 1st Birthday! This was one of those days it was really hard to pick only one picture. I am going to do a post this week for each of my January kid's birthdays. Here is Brayden after he was done eating his birthday cake.

Thursday January 20-Just to show Lilly's pretty cute as well as a screaming monster, This morning I went in to her room and found she had "made" her bed. The assortment of books she had found was pretty funny to me because she has everything from board books to chapter books.

Friday January 21-I guess I had to be in a picture eventually, and I picked a really great embarassing one too! I went to the school to teach a F.A.M.E. lesson on Monet and Impressionism. The lesson instructs you to "dress up" to fit the part. I was actually pretty happy with what I found. The big sun hat is one like Monet would wear while taking care of his gardens and ponds so that he would always have flowers in bloom to paint, and the dress kind of reminds me of Monet's paintings.

Week 2

Saturday January 8-Bountiful Baskets
Sunday January 9- Brayden helping with the laundry.
Monday January 10- FHE-Hold to the Rod
Tuesday January 11- BYU at Utah Basketball Game
Wednesday January 12- Natalie's party invitation.

Thursday January 13-Natalie's 5th Birthday

Friday January 14- Hadley and Lilly kept taking off their diapers and trying to go on the potty...one of them peed on the floor and I put their diapers back on and cleaned it up, then about 2 minutes later this was what I found.

P.S. Zoe hopefully you are okay with me posting this picture, I guess if not let me know and I will take it off....easier to ask forgiveness than permission! :)

Picture a Day Week 1

A couple of years ago Allan's cousin took a picture a day for a whole year. I thought it was a great idea and have decided to attempt it for 2011. Here is our first week in pictures:


Saturday January 1st-We spent the whole day vegging out and watching movies.
Sunday January 2-Ally lost her 8th tooth.
Monday January 3-The kids went back to school and we all went back to a routine.

Tuesday January 4-One of my kids favorite snacks is a peanut butter scoop. While I wasn't paying attention Ally and Natalie got the peanut butter and spoons and had a lot of peanut butter scoops. When I found the peanut butter it looked like this, I knew Ally(blue) and Natalie(pink) were to blame because they are very predictable with their spoon color choice.

Wednesday January 5- Lilly is a little stinker and doesn't like going to bed. She will sneak her blanket and pillow out to the couch at night while Allan and I are still awake. (She also doesn't like wearing pants, but that's a whole other story.)

Thursday January 6-This week had to include a picture of our mii's. We have been playing Wii Fit every night together as a family. Ally's is that light blue one that went up like crazy because the first time she weighed Brayden had his head on the board before she got on so it said she started at like 12 lbs. The kids could sit for hours and watch our little mii's at the bottom of the screen and give updates like: Mom is talking to Ally, Dad is doing yoga, Natalie is running, etc.

Friday January 7-Allyson's 7th birthday. She got to invite a friend over for a late night and pick what we had for dinner. She picked Sadie C. and Ramen Noodles, Sweet Potatoes and Smoothies. I thought it was an interesting dinner, but she's the birthday girl! Also for her birthday I went to the school and made monkey bookmarks with her class, Dad came home early from work and took her on a date to Reed's Dairy for ice cream cones, and after dinner some family came over for Strawberry Cake and to open presents.

New Year's Eve and Resolutions!

On New Year's Eve we had our friends the Laytons and Pettingills over.

Our NEW Wii came in very handy!
These guys have some pretty AWESOME moves, don't you think?

We even let a few of the (13) kids in on the game playing action, most of them were downstairs playing and watching movies.

It's always fun to have an excuse to stay up late and eat a bunch of yummy food! Only two of my kids made it 'till midnight, I put Brayden down at his normal bedtime, then Natalie fell asleep on the couch fairly early. Lilly fell asleep watching the kids play a board game in the front room. Hadley and Austin also fell asleep, but I think the rest stayed up. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends!

On New Year's Day we spent the day as a family watching lots of movies! It was very fun. After the movies went back to the RedBox, I sat down to write up some New Year's Resolutions. Hailey saw me and wanted to come up with some also, and then Ally joined in on the fun. We decided to make 11 resolutions since it is 2011. The kids came up with their resolutions all on their own, here they are (their spelling)

Ally's were:
doing chors
go to school if you are not sick
go to ballet if you are not sick
go shoping
be revrint in class
have fun at school
have fun at resess
read scripshers
say prars
read 20 minits
do homewrck every day

Hailey's were:
Do chores when asked (read when asked)
do not beg to play wii and facebook
change earing daily (only when they don't match)
say my own prayers at least once a day
make toast or cereal when I have them
sometimes make snack, lunch, or dinner
only watch one hour or less of tv unless it's one long movie
only play wii when sisters are or dad and mom or mom or dad or whole family
be nice to friends
have fun at school
write cursive at least once a week at school (whole day of school)

I debated whether to post my resolutions or not, but decided (like I always tell Allan) this is my "Journal" so here they are:
Read scriptures daily
Attend temple monthly
Go Visiting Teaching every month
Take a picture everyday in 2011 (more on that later)
Don't go to bed with dishes in the sink
Spring clean entire house (in a year not a month this time!)
Stay on a budget
Meal Plan/Eat out less
Family Home Evening EVERY week
Keep my bedroom clean (a little embarassed to write that one)
Be happy

Christmas Celebrations!

Our Christmas started early on Christmas Eve morning because we were going down to Utah I didn't want to have to lug all of our presents down and back so we opened our presents at home before we left.
Lee and Jean came over which was great. We opened presents and had a yummy breakfast of Cinnamon Rolls, Fruit and Hot Chocolate! (I overcooked the cinnamon rolls because they were baking while we opened presents but they were still good)

Allan was really into watching the kids open their presents as you can see! He was reading the second book in the hunger games and had one chapter left and we had the 3rd to listen to on CD on the way to Utah.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: This is the last picture you will see of Lilly with a binky in her mouth! When we went down to Utah, we had one with us, but she never asked for it and I never gave it to her, so when we came home I just went with it. We did have one incident, where Brayden was being fussy and I tried giving him a binky, but he doesn't take a binky and Lilly wanted it so I just took it away again and things have been fine. I guess outta sight outta mind is true!

The girls all loved watching eachother open presents. We let the person who got the present choose the next present to be opened (not their own)

The kids all got jammies from Grandma Jean (and so did Allan and I actually)

Then we packed up and went down to Grandma Fessler's house. We had a big dinner and the kids were off to bed!

Brayden is a blanket muncher. Whenever I lay him down for bed he shoves his blanket in his mouth. I have heard of this but never had one of my own. In the morning Santa Delivered!

Lilly got a play kitchen and shopping cart.

Brayden got a car thing.

Ally got Jesse.

Natalie got princess dolls.

Hailey got an easy bake oven.

They also all got Zhu-Zhu's and thought it was fun to have "Zhu-Zhu Wars" on Brayden's toy.

Later, after Grandma Vicki woke up we opened up presents from her and Papa Burt. They recently moved in to take care of my Grandma and decided to give us their Wii from the other house. The kids were very excited about this. It's really our first video game.

After that we went to Papa's old house, where my other grandparents are living right now, and spent the evening with my mom's side of the family. I forgot my camera at Grandma Fessler's house though. Allan and I took the kids to see the lights on Temple Square that night and I have some cute pictures on my phone, but don't know how to get them off, so if you know let me know! Overall, we had a very wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed and grateful for all that we have. I was glad to spend the last part of the evening on Temple Square remembering our Savior.