February 2015 - Basketball, Science Fair, Tae Kwan Do, Preschool, and prepping for Disney World!

Another month in the can! I can't believe time is ticking right on by. It seems like only yesterday we were out to dinner with Devin and Charm and were saying "Wouldn't it be fun to go to Disney World together? We should do that next year!" Well that was about 13 months ago now and we leave for our big Disney World trip this Friday! We are so excited! We are driving down to Salt Lake on Friday and flying out on Saturday. We will be there for 10 days! We are going to stay in a vacation home that is in the same community we stayed at when we went a few years ago. Devin and Charm and their three kids will be staying there too, so we had to get a pretty big home. It even has it's own swimming pool and game room! We are pretty pumped. Hopefully it is as nice as it looks from the pictures online!

But we will talk more about that when we get back!

This past month has seemed sooo busy. Avery started her preschool at the end of January. She absolutely loves it. She actually says "No!!!" and runs away from me when I try to pick her. It's somewhat embarrassing… lol Caleb enjoyed Tae Kwan do for the first few weeks then kind of seemed to be "over it" towards the end, so I don't think it will become a permanent fixture in the activities line-up (that's ok with me…) Gabe LOVED basketball this year. They only lost one game and it was the one I missed because Caleb and Avery were both sick that day. He has really improved on his skills. I wish he could do it year-round, but this really is the only opportunity they have to play it on a team at this age.

Another thing that kept us busy this month was Gabe's Science Fair. They call it a Science Fair, but it really isn't optional. It is required for everyone in the third grade to do a little project/display/presentation for the teacher. Gabe did his on "the Magic of Magnets". Basically we ordered some strong magnets from Amazon and played around with them using water, wood, cardboard, legos, etc. to see if we could still get the magnets to move a safety pin through them. It was pretty fun (and knowing how to design a tri-fold poster with some fancy graphic designer skills and my photo printer may have come in handy…;)

What else! Oh! Valentine's Day! I was lame and we used store-bought Valentines this year. Gabe  chose "Despicable Me" valentines and Caleb chose these cat and dog ones.

Gabe's class party was out of this world, amazing! Those room parents he has really go crazy. It was like prom. They had reserved the gym so they could have karaoke on the projector screen (microphones, speakers, and all!), they had a chocolate fountain with tons of fruit, crackers, and treats to dip. They had a photo booth area with little photo props (mustaches, glasses, etc), they had a craft table, they had their valentines to exchange, it was just a blast. I actually felt a little bad for all the other third grade classes that were probably just sitting in their classrooms walking around and putting valentines in each other's little decorated Kleenex boxes and that's it! haha

Caleb's party was pretty great too - no karaoke… but they DID have a professional photographer (Noelle Murray, also one of the moms) that set up a little photo area that was ADORABLE and took each kid's picture. They did their party as like, a little formal dinner party. So each kid was given an invitation telling them to wear their Sunday best and bring their favorite stuffed animal. (Caleb insisted on taking this tiny beanie baby turtle, which I was like "Why are you choosing that?" haha, but he insisted!) They had little table cloths and centerpieces and everything. It was so cute.

Avery didn't do anything special at preschool that I know of, but I doubt she knew the difference! ;)

My Etsy shop has been making me really happy lately - not even necessarily that it's been super busy (maybe that's why! lol) but more so because I feel like I am selling more wall art, which is what I really enjoy doing. I still like doing the wedding programs, like once a day is fine, but when it's all I do in a day it gets a little boring (the money is nice, but still…) So I am hoping I can keep adding more and more things and get that to keep up! I started using some different social media (like Instagram) at the advice of my friend Stacey, and I think that has helped too. We already got out taxes done (which was a source of stress for the past year - wondering how much I would owe and how it would all play out), but I am so relieved over it. We did have to pay in, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The lady who does our taxes seems to always know the best ways to work everything out. I'm excited to get to keep most of the money I had saved now and save up for something more fun in the future with it! (A new car down the road… paying with cash perhaps??? That would be nice! ;)

Oh! And somewhere in there we had a fun Superbowl party at the Milner's house. The Packers sadly messed it all up and didn't make the Superbowl at the last minute. :( But it was still fun to watch and eat the food. The Patriots beat Seattle so it was still okay. ;)

Oh! Another thing… I did some modeling! haha It was kind of a random thing, but I saw these dresses on Instagram that I loved and the girl whose business it was happened to live in Rexburg! (what are the odds?!) So I went over there to try one on and she asked me to model for her website. So I will post a couple of picture of me. haha I got a good discount on the dresses, so that made it worth it!

So that's about all I can think of for now! I am waiting for my pictures from my phone to download into my dropbox so I can get them posted on here!

January 2015

Happy New Year! We rang in 2015 at home with our kids, watching the movie "Guardians of the Galaxy" and eating popcorn on the couch! We are such party animals! ;)

I am trying to think of the highlights of this past month… it seems like it was just barely New Year's Day! Now it's already February 3rd! I think the biggest thing for me in January was just trying to get organized (like everyone else in America.) I still need to get Avery's room redecorated, but that girl just does NOT want to give up her crib! We have a twin bed in her room, all ready to go, adorable bedding on it and everything! But does she want to sleep in it? Nope! She also is still pooping and peeing in her diapers, despite having actually pooped on the potty one time around mid-Janurary. I thought, "Wow! She is going to start wanting to do this now!" But no. It was apparently a one time deal. She is never using the potty again. lol She refuses. We always see her starting to "push" and we say "Want to go sit on the potty?!" and she screams, "NOOOO!!!!" and runs away. It's awesome. Honestly, at this point I don't even want to push it because we are going to Florida at the end of the month and I would rather just have her in diapers while we are at Disney World than have her in the middle of potty training and telling me "I need to go to the bathroom!" after we are in line, about to get on a ride! So oh well… no rush.

Oh, also! The kids are in some activities!
Avery is doing to toddler lab at BYUI. She started about two weeks ago and she loves it. She doesn't even mind when we wave good-bye and leave.  She just goes to that on Tuesday and Thursday from 9-10:15. Not real long, but still a nice little chance for her to play with kids outside of the house and have some fun.
Caleb wanted to do Tae Kawn do as his choice for the rec department activity this season! lol He goes twice a week and seems to like it so far.
Gabe is doing basketball and has a really good coach, which is awesome. They haven't lost game yet! (They have only had three… lol but still!) He is loving it this year. Last year his team wasn't as strong, but this year they seem pretty together.
Me and Josh? Our activities are driving the kids around everywhere and working. That's about it! haha I am still doing activity days at church, Josh teaches Sunday school to the teens, and I am keeping busy with Etsy. Janurary has been slower (it was last year too) but I am quite enjoying the pace actually! ;) Not so crazy! I actually have had time to work out! (I don't usually do such crazy things, but I am going to Florida soon and the holiday food was not kind to my waistline…haha)

So that's about all I can think of! Oh yeah! We may have just adopted a cat! We brought her home from the shelter this weekend "just to stay the night and play" but my kids are in love. I don't think she's ever leaving this house. She is actually curled up on my desk right now while I type. She is pretty cute though - long hair, gray and white. We call her Kitty Soft Paws (from the movie Puss in Boots). ;)
I will have to find some pictures now! Yes, I realize they are mostly of Avery….

Thanksgiving through Christmas 2014

It's always my goal to write a post at least once a month. Well, FAIL for me these past two months! haha It has been very busy though, so it's not surprising. So since Halloween, what has all happened?

In November, I honestly don't really remember much. I went down to Utah by myself to visit my friends Stacey and Kamrie. I think that was either in October or early November. We went shipping at Ikea, other clothing stores, and ate at CULVERS!!! They actually have TWO in Utah now! One is in Lehi, about 30 minutes from their house. It was awesome. I can't wait until Culvers comes to Idaho some day.

Then, for Thanksgiving, Stacey and Kamrie came up here to visit. For the actual Thanksgiving meals, our family went to Josh's sister, Heather's, house and ate lunch with them and Brad and Diane. But we had to leave there by 3 because Josh had to go into work at 5 pm. Then he worked until 1 am. Stacey and I went Black Friday shopping early the next morning, about 7 am. It was pretty dead in Idaho Falls in the morning but got busier the longer we were there. I think most people had started shopping the previous evening and were home sleeping. We got home by about 3pm. I got a good little start on some Christmas shopping for the kids.

The first weekend in December (so exactly a week after Thanksgiving) my mom came out here to visit for five days. She was here from Thursday through Tuesday. While she was here we went to a spontaneous "Night in Bethlehem" celebration that we came across on our way home from the airport. We were sucked in by the sight of camels standing outside of the church (not your usual scene). Then we were told by a wise man (haha - literally) that there was more to see inside the church. When we walked in, my mom got as giddy as a school girl because it was this huge production and she was able to get all these ideas for her church's own "night in bethlehem" that she was in charge of in a couple weeks. So we spent some time there, making crafts and eating snacks, then we finally tore her away (as she kept snapping pictures on her phone) and drove home.

The next few days were a blur of mostly shopping and eating out. I don't remember what I all bought, but I pretty much got all of my Christmas shopping done, wrapped, and under the tree in that weekend. It was awesome.

Oh, another crazy thing that happened right after Thanksgiving was, I somehow got put in charge of Gabe's third grade Christmas play! I had signed up to help under "wherever needed" on the first day of school. And apparently what ended up being needed was a person to take charge of the whole Christmas play. I won't be signing up under "wherever needed" again…

So basically any free time I had between doing Etsy orders, fulfilling church obligations, getting ready for Christmas, and taking care of my kids was spent planning that play. I did rope some of my friends who had kids in third grade into helping me as well. We ended up doing this play called "The Littlest Christmas Tree" and it had lots of fun songs and dancing in it (that we made up and taught the kids.) I was worried about it as we only had a few rehearsals all together, but it all came together in the end. Gabe even was chosen by the teachers (not by me - I swear) to play the big role of Santa Claus. The whole thing was a ton of work, but I hope it will be a memory that Gabe will always appreciate. It was so cute. Then on the last day of school before Christmas break, I went into Caleb's class and did a "Rudolph"craft activity. He had been feeling a little left out I think because he made a point of telling me, "Mom, you helped at Gabe's Halloween party and with his play and you said at Halloween that you would do MY class's Christmas party. So you still are, right?!" (I was feeling so exhausted that it took every "good mom" bone in my body to call Caleb's room mother and volunteer my services for the party.) But I figure, there are only a few precious years that your kids actually WANT you to come to their school and help. I better cherish them while I can. But one of the teacher aides that works at the school saw me in the hallway that day (sprinkling glitter onto the kids' Rudolphs that they had made and laid in the hall to dry) and she goes, "Are you here again?! What, do you work here now?! You are here more than me!!" I know… it felt that way…. Gabe's teacher even was like "The teachers and I know who we are nominating for PTO president next year!" and I was like, "NO!" with a little too much force in my voice. lol But seriously… they better not.

Anyways! So the kids got done with school on the Friday before Christmas (the 19th) and then I closed my Etsy shop for the holidays that same day. So I finally was able to settle down and relax and just enjoy the holidays. We made sugar cookies, we did neighbor gifts (we made caramel popcorn for everyone in the neighborhood - which means a lot because our neighborhood has majorly grown since we moved in. There were only about 6 houses when we moved in three years ago and now there are about 30…. it took three nights of popcorn making and delivering to get every house done.) But then the next week was really fun as everyone started bringing us treats back! The kids loved answering the door (sometimes multiple times per evening) to get fun treats all the time! ;)

Josh luckily had off for almost the whole week leading up to Christmas (and Christmas day), so we got to spend a lot of time together. His big "want" this year was a gun safe, and he was able to pick one out and buy it a few days before Christmas. That was officially my mom's present to him. She gave him money to spend on one. Then I got to clean out my closet and donate some of my clothes to make room for it in there! Lucky me! haha I know where his priorities lie…

We really were going to have a "small" Christmas thing year because we are going to Disney World in February. But it turned out to be one of the biggest we've ever had. I really don't know how that happened. Our kids are spoiled rotten. I did buy a lot of clothes this year though. Gabe is kind of getting hard to shop for because he's kind of growing out of a lot of the traditional toys. He did still get some Lego sets and some Pokeman cards. Caleb did too. Then they both asked for these "Slug terra" guns. (Kind of like nerd guns but the bullets look like little colorful creatures) They are from this TV show they watch on Netfllix. My mom and I had searched high and low for them when she was here and didn't find a thing. I resorted to ordering them from Amazon and paying a pretty high price for them, but it was the thing they wanted most, so oh well. They were each about $25, so not horrible. Other things they got included: laser tag, books, soccer cleats, pajamas, underwear (yay!), clothes, slippers, a nightlight that projects onto the ceiling, a beymax action figure (my dad sent that for Caleb - he sent chapter books for Gabe that he wanted) sleds, and they each got a big remote control car from Santa too. Caleb was a little nervous that Santa wouldn't leave him anything. (He was pretty naughty) I will have to post a picture of the letter he wrote to Santa and left out with the milk and cookies. ;)

Avery, the little princess, got way more this year than she has any other year. When they're young, it's hard to justify spending a lot on them because you know they won't really care. But this year, we really went crazy. She's really into Play Doh and princesses right now. She got a play doh princess castle and a carriage to go with it (my dad sent that), a doctor's kit, LOTS of clothes, LOTS of princess Barbie dolls (Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, Aurora, Ariel), some princess dresses to wear to Disney world (Belle, Princess Sophia) lots of Frozen stuff (Melissa sent a blanket and a nightgown as well), and lots more stuff. I can't even remember it all. She actually stopped opening presents at one point and just played for a few hours and we ate dinner and cleaned up the paper and left the remaining stack under the tree. Then, in the evening, she opened the second round of presents! It was funny. She like, suddenly realized she had more presents and then was like, "Presents! Presents!" and went into the second opening-fury. She even opened Brad and Diane's presents before we could stop her. (We had to re-warp those)

So speaking of that! We celebrated Christmas with Josh's family on December 20th at the Ashton church. It was the only day that everyone could get together. So our actual Christmas was spent quietly in our home! It worked out for the best because a huge snowstorm came in on Christmas Eve. We went from having totally green grass on our front lawn, to having eight inches of snow when we woke up on Christmas morning! I guess a lot of kids were praying for a white Christmas!

Well, it is now the day after Christmas at 12:25 am. I am officially exhausted. Tomorrow, my goal is to get my house a little more organized and get some Christmas things put away. The boys are wanting me to take them over to the church gym so they can drive their remote control cars around. Josh has to work tomorrow and Sunday from 7 am to 5 pm and then is off Monday - Wednesday. The kids are still off school all next week as well. I probably won't reopen my Etsy shop until after New Year's. I have really enjoyed the break. (I am sure I will miss the money though! haha) Our next big thing to look forward to is Disney World! We are so excited for that!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Some November Pics

Random Pictures…