Thankful

My friend Janet gave me this fantastic F.H.E. idea - making a "Thankful Wall" or in my case door. She even made the sign capable of being copied in jpg form on her blog. THANKS JANET!!


We had a good time last night writing down things we are thankful for. The kids especially loved decorating the Thankful door. I should have taken a picture of the door the way Rachel decorated it. She put the leaves in a neat straight line across the bottom. That's my girl!

I wish leaves could represent the gratitude we have in our hearts for the blessings we have. As you can see, OUR CUP RUNNETH OVER!

We have had so many people in our lives the last couple of months who have helped us through hard times. From treats and cards to trucks and yardwork, family and friends have come into our lives as a reminder that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows our needs. We are so HAPPY and so filled with the love of Christ in our hearts and home.

THANK YOU!!




I bet if we all truly sat and contemplated our blessings we would find ourselves lost in them just like Rachel in the pile of leaves!

Picaso, Renoir, Van Gough, and...

RACHEL!!
Check out this picture that she drew for me...

nevermind the fact that it was drawn on the kitchen countertop!

Good thing crayola makes washable markers!

Pardon Our Dust

This site is under construction. Not only do I have an entire summer and almost a whole fall to document, but I'm giving the boring blue background a face lift - and it's not as easy as I thought it would be. I'll send out a mass email when all is complete and we're back on track, but for now PARDON OUR DUST!!

Parenting Moments: Mealtime Edition

Yesterday we all sat together at the table eating lunch before church. Rachel was her usual self - jumping on and off her chair, chattering non-stop, and participating in other totally distracted activities (she get is from her mother I'm afraid to say). What she WASN'T doing was eating her lunch. After telling her time and again to sit down and eat I was finally fed up. I brought her to my side, took her sweet little face in my hands to ensure constant eye contact, and gave her the lecture:

Me: Rachel, sweetie, THIS IS LUNCH. If you DON'T eat your lunch you are GOING TO BE HUNGRY and YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANY SNACKS BEFORE DINNER!! I don't care if you come to me crying because you're hungry! I will just say, 'sorry I told you to eat your lunch and you didn't!' And then you will be very sad! Can you understand how important it is to eat your lunch!?!

Rachel: Mom?

Me: What Honey?

Rachel: You have something orange in your teeth.

Paul erupted in laughter as I did a quick teeth sweep with my tongue and sure enough...pepperoni right between my two front teeth.

A perfectly good parenting moment GONE. FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET. NO RETENTION OF THAT LECTURE WHATSOEVER. She hopped off her chair and ran around the living room a few times not touching her lunch again.

So next time you engage in a "parenting moment" make sure you are calm, collected, and know what to say...

and make sure you don't have anything stuck in your teeth.

HALLOWEEN!!

This year for Halloween Rachel chose to be Snow White and Ben was Super Why. For those of you unfamiliar with Super Why he is a character on PBS Kids who reads stories to solve problems and save the day - it's one of Benja's favorite shows.

So we went to the ward party to practice FLYING...


and to practice sharing...swine flu anyone?


When we got home Benja immediately dumped his bucket to take inventory of all his LOOT.


He also figured out that he could eat TWO suckers at the same time! Cool Dude!

And Rachel got something even better than candy in her bucket - a Halloween Activity workbook! Thanks whoever passed those ones out!

Ward Parties, Trunk-or Treats, and CANDY CANDY CANDY!!!

Good times had by all!

We passed out two big bags of candy at the ward Trunk-or-Treat and ran out so we went to Walmart to buy some more and it was GONE!! It was SO GONE that they had actually started taking down the Halloween display and putting up the Christmas one! INSANE. So we bought 3 more big bags of candy at Walgreen's to pass out at home and it was gone by the end of the night. Our last set of trick-or-treaters came by at 10:00! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!! Good thing I hadn't gone to bed yet! SHEESH!!

Helpful Cleaning TIps.

Do you hate to clean your bathroom? Is scrubbing the tub the chore that always gets put off because you despise it so? I have a motivational trick that will help you EVERY TIME to get that tub spic and span without hesitation.

Let your two-year-old poop in the bath.

You'll have that thing cleaned out before you can say "Bob's your uncle".

yuck.

Oh, and if you struggle with your bathroom floors, don't put a diaper on said two-year-old when you pull him out of the tub in a hurry to clean it....

He might just finish the job on the floor.

Citizens of Vernal NEVER FEAR!

Cafe Rio is FINALLY HERE!

The World is now a BETTER PLACE.

(and the kids are ALMOST as excited as we are)

Sorry BYU Fans...

I win.

Happy Mom Rule #834

Get yer'self a point and shoot camera (you know the skinny little numbers that fit in your pocket or purse), and take it with you...EVERYWHERE. You will really regret not having your camera with you, for instance, if you happen to go to a wonderful little farmers market and while you are thumping watermelons and admiring black berries the size of golf balls you turn to see your two-year-old half way through the biggest juiciest tomato in the box. And then you will say to the farmer, "Oops sorry about that I guess we'll take that one too," and the farmer will laugh and say, "Nope that one's on the house, but you better get a picture of that Mama!"

And then you will rummage through your purse and remember -

you left the camera at home.

DANG!

Happy Mom Rule # 763 -

NEVER TAKE YOUR KIDS WITH YOU TO THE GROCERY STORE especially if you are shopping for the whole week. Because if you do, you will miss out on the wonderful solitude felt only in a grocery store when you can walk down the isle and pick up any random ingredient and flip through the brain files to see what sort of creative energy this said ingredient can conger up. Falafal...hmmm...I saw that on the Food Network the other day and it looked very interesting, maybe I can throw in some hummus and pita bread too and have a Greek festival...
Instead you will probably experience an ornery 3-year-old lagging 20 paces behind you whining that she wants to go home to make cookies. If that weren't bad enough, your 2-year-old might just drop a jumbo jar of pickles at your feet, smashing it to a million pieces, slicing your toes, and leaving your flip flops to wreak of pickle juice for eternity...if flip flops last that long.

So be a happy mom.

Leave your kids home with dad.

p.s. Pickle juice doesn't feel so great on sliced up toes. Just in case you were wondering.