Home Depot Event

A friend of mine called me this morning to tell me about this fun event at home depot, so we quickly got dressed and headed out the door. Here are a few of the high lights of what we got to do:

-Petting zoo
-Spinning wheels for prizes
-Sampling a variety of foods and treats
-Free bag of popcorn
-Two super fun bounce houses (one with a slide)
-Tour of a fire truck
-Tour of a city bus
-Getting arrested and put in the back of police car (notice the bars, the kids thought it was super fun. I even pretended to walk away while the officer said he was taking them to jail followed by loud protests from the kids.)
-More free stuff
-Free bottle of powerade
-Balloons
-Face painting ( which, surprisingly, neither of the kids really wanted to do so we skipped that one)

Overall, a super fun morning. I love saturdays! If only daddy could have gone with us (sigh).

My litte (big) boy

Sometimes I forget just how big my little man is. He amazes me sometimes with the things that he says and how smart he is. He knows that Jesus loves him and that He died for us and was resurrected (yes, he even knows the word resurrected). Today he used a little wooden alphabet puzzle to show me his favorite letters (they're the ones he recognizes the most) which are O, S, R, T, and G. We are working on the rest of them.

His most recent favorite toys are Ninja Turtles, Cars, and Buzz Light-year. We often hear him shouting "To infinity . . . AND BEYOND!" as he runs across the room. In fact, if I ask him to get something for me, he shouts it as he brings it to me. I think that he thinks it makes him faster.

Cole is looking forward to preschool and we are getting ready for that by learning our shapes, colors, numbers, and letters the best we can. His confidence is building as he learns how to make friends without his sister around and tries to do his best at everything while replacing the word "can't" with "I will try" or "I will do my best."

I'm very proud of my little (big) man and all the things he does. He is very sweet to everyone and an example to his sunbeam class of reverence (most the time). I love him sooo much and enjoy spending more one on one time with him while Rylee is at school and Gracie is sleeping. What an awesome little boy that God has given me. I often wonder what I ever did to deserve such great kids!

Our first swim of the summer

Rylee's got talent!

Rylee and her little friends did a dance for our ward talent show tonight and they did so good. They only had four days to learn it (one of them only had two) and I can't believe how well they learned it (especially my little talented girl who, I found out, can count by 8's in the song AND pick up in the middle of a count). Amazing! It was fun to see them.

Also, Rylee wrote her first book today (all by herself!) and I posted each page on her personal blog. It's private so you'll need an invitation if you don't have one already. Click HERE to see it!

"Pop-corn Popping"

(From left to right: Bethany, Rylee, and Delaynee)

An update . . .

Most of my posts are all about the kids so I thought maybe I would give our readers an update on what Justin and I are doing.

Justin lost his job last January and quickly moved on (as we have to in life) to a new adventure in real estate. He is now working full time as a realtor. So far, things have been moving both slowly and quickly. He is learning quick the best way to make things work for him and clients are quickly adding up, but house hunting is a slow process so the paychecks are slowly making their way here. We are overwhelmed by the support and generosity and love that we have experienced from both family and friends. It has been greatly appreciated. We often feel thank you is never enough, but we thank you all. Overall, Justin is loving his new career path and all that he is learning about the real estate world. So, if you, or anyone you know, is looking to sell or buy a house (or both), please send them our way!

As for myself, I am missing school. I have realized how much school made me feel like an individual person with thoughts, ideas, hobbies, and interests, along with being some body's mom. Not that I don't adore my job as mom and wife, but sometimes I feel like I need something a little more, just for me. I guess that's the selfish side of me, but I think it makes me a better mom and wife when I have something that takes me away, if only for a few moments.

So, with my desire to try something new, I have started photography. I bought myself a fancy new camera last Christmas and have begged my friends to allow me to experiment on them. My poor kids have had enough! So far I have done 3 photo shoots, one baby and two maternity, and I love it! You can see my most recent photos HERE. I am having so much fun learning how my camera works, where and how to angle it to get the best shot, and how to capture someone in the way they would want. I am learning slowly but am proud of my progress. I think I get just a little better each time. I hope to continue to develop a new talent to a point that maybe someday people might even pay me to do this!

Other than that, I am enjoying being with my kids everyday. I love watching them learn about the world around them and their place in it. Each one of my kids have their own little personalities and I love watching them grow. I love my family, and my Savior and my Heavenly Father.

I have been blessed in so many ways and often wonder what I did to deserve the life I have. Thank you to all my family and friends who have contributed in so many ways the blessings that I enjoy!

Maybe I CAN do it!

I have always been an admirer of those who can create. I, on the other hand, do not have a crafty nor creative bone in my body. Don't get me wrong, I have created some pretty crafty things, but nothing is ever an original. I am the queen of copy cat!

Recently, I decided that I should know how to sew and make clothing and other cute things for my kids. I have put real effort into both learning and liking it and here is my conclusion . . . I hate to sew! I tried to like it, I really did! But, alas, it can't be forced. But in the process of learning, I did make one thing that I'm pretty proud of. My mom helped me to cut out the pieces for this dress and get ready for sewing, and then my mother-in-law walked me through it, step-by-step. I am so grateful for their patience and effort in my desire to learn a new skill. In the end, I decided to never make clothing again, but I'm kinda proud of how well this dress turned out! Rylee picked out the fabric and I picked the sparkly ribbon (which i love) for the middle. I actually finished this last summer but never got around to posting it. It is obviously too big for her to wear and still needs buttons in the back. But, when she grows into it I think it will be cute with a little cardigan or something.

More recently, I took on another project, much smaller than the dress.

Since Gracie likes to take my slips out of my drawer to wrap around her neck and head (and because I keep finding said clothing all over the house, mostly in her room) I decided she needs to have a silky of her own. So, for Easter, I made her a silky blanket! It only took me two hours from start to finish (I know, all you crafty people can have a good laugh at me) but not too bad overall. Most of that time was spent trying to figure out how to make the corners not look ridiculous! As long as you don't take a real close look, I think it turned out pretty good! Yay for me!

Arizona Science Center

Since we were unable to go camping a few weeks ago we took the kids to the science center instead. Easily one of the coolest places in the city. You can see Rylee and Cole learning about the pully system in this first picture. All the kids loved the spinning pole. Gracie had to be distracted from it so she would let other kids have a turn.

Air was blowing out these tubes and making the little balls float in mid-air. Gracie couldn't get enough of it and was so proud of herself when she would catch one and then put it back so it would be floating again. So cute!
I don't know who these strange creatures are, but they sure had a good time with this machine!

MY KIDS WATCHED CONFERENCE!!!!

Well, the first session anyway.

In last months Ensign there was an article with suggestions for involving your children in conference. I loved how one parent talked about how they never forced or expected their children to watch conference. But as parents, they never missed one and that set a great example of how important conference was to them for thier kids. These parents did use insentives (sometimes known as bribes) to help encourage thier kids to sit and listen, even on saturday. They had some great suggestions and I love how they never forced thier children to sit with them, but lead by example.

Since my kids are still pretty little, only a few of the suggestions apply to our family now and they worked great! The other suggestions are things my husband and I have discussed and have come up with a plan for the future ( things like going out for lunch and dinner between conferences to talk about what was learne, only those who participated will be invited to go).

Here's what we did today!

First, for Rylee I printed out a conference packet which you can find HERE and she really loved it. For Cole, I found some coloring pages. I put both inside some fun folders (hello kitty for Rylee and spider man for Cole). These were helpful but did not keep their attention the entire time.

Second, I printed out a bingo game that my bishop had e-mailed to me in another awesome packet (let me know if you want it and I'll send it to you). There are both words and pictures so the kids can listen for words to be said and win a prize. The prize my kids won is they get a dollar to take to the dollar store later this evening.

Lastly, my kids favorite and the most effective game was "Magic Word." For each speaker I gave my kids one (or two) magic words to listen for. Everytime they heard that word, they got a piece of candy (jelly beans in this case). They loved this game. They had no interest in leaving the room and they are even looking forward to the next session.

Don't get me wrong, I still had to remind them occassionally to be quiet or reverent so mommy and daddy could listen, often followed with the threat of dismissing them from the room. But mostly I encouraged them to listen for the magic word. It was amazing how much they listen when you think they don't! They got nearly every word, even Cole! I thought this game might have been a little more difficult for him, but he was on top of it!

I know I'm posting this early, but I thought maybe this could be helpful to others with small children. Enjoy conference!