Looking to build

We've decided that we're going to build. Yay! Now we're looking for land.

What's up?

Little Digger

Jason bought this little shovel from Harbor Freight.

I don't need to say that the kids love to use it.

"I'm a Sing-er."

I laughed at how cute Claire was most of the night. She picked up this pole and started using it as her microphone. She just kept singing, "It's nice! It's nice. It's nice! it's nice...it's nice. It's nice!" She was so into character...I loved it! I asked her, "Claire, are you a rock star?" "No," she said. "I'm a...I'm a sing-er."

Un-Packing

Lainey loves to unpack. She's very good at pulling the clothes out of Claire's box, Emma's drawers, laundry baskets, and the backpack.

Sand Art Wednesday

A while back I purchased some colored sand from the dollar store. Today we brought it back out and did some sand art pictures for our craft day today. I tried to tell them easy on the glue, but the younger ones really didn't get the concept. They had a lot of fun.

A before...

I walked by these boxes that I acquired several years back and noticed how they were in need of repair. I haven't really been sold on the color either and that's when I got this brilliant idea...spray paint! So this is the before. I'm painting the lid a dark bronzey color and the base a nice tan. We'll see!

A Yes Day!

Today was a Yes Day! Emma didn't have school because they were holding conferences. So we pulled out our yes can and did things we don't normally get to do every day. I got the idea from Family Fun. Every time the mother would say no to a certain activity or request, this certain family would write it down and put it in a jar. Then on a designated day, they would pull things out and try to do as many as they could. Emma caught on to the idea right away...asking to do all sorts of stuff just so I would say no and then we could put it in our can (we used a paint can instead of a jar).

Our Yes Day activities included making cookies and eating crackers (Paul put that one in and he was sure excited to eat his saltines). Emma made a tent in the front room and then they watched a movie with popcorn. I bought some fruit before dinner so we could have a fruit salad. Yes, make a fruit salad was actually in the can. We didn't get to go hiking (we were going to walk around the backyard with backpacks on) or have ice cream sundaes. We postponed camping out in the living room until Friday when the weekend is here. Not everything works when we pull it out and the kids know that I have the right to veto doing certain things for whatever good parental reason I can come up with. We just try to do as many as we can during the day so it seems like they get told yes for once instead of no all the time. I don't have a set day that is always Yes day...I just pick one every so often when we're home, usually on a Saturday.

Stick Up

We been battling the whole sticking out of the tongue thing. Not always cute and fun...

Dreaming of an iphone

We were content with our basic edition cell phones...until Jason got a hold of his friend's iPhone. Our friend Shela caught this on camera for me.

Riding along...

Paul, Lainey, and friend Kiersten,
I guess Ben is technically in this shot too

Princess Lainey

The kids tried the crown on Lainey and we thought it looked pretty funny/cute.

Painting Pallet

Painting was our Wednesday craft hour activity. I made individual paint pallets for all the kids. I loved it! They each had their own colors to keep nice or mix. Chalk up one more good idea for mom.

cautious beginners

towards the middle

by the end

Paint-blot: what do you see in the paint?

Look Alikes

This post is mainly for my dear friend Vicki...I hope you're reading.
Claire has her own look. People are saying all the time that she resembles Jason's side of the family. Well, Vicki commented a while back that Claire looks like my sister Shelly...and she's right. The photo is a picture of my sister at 3 years old, the same as Claire. Look at the blonde hair, the curls, the small features, the little mouth. My sister was willing to humor me with a picture for documentation purposes. "Are you going to post this?" She actually asked me. All I had to do was cock my head to the side and give her a look. Was I going to post it? Who did she think she was talking to? sheesh!

House Hunting

This is our official announcement that Jason has received a job with Benton County Sheriff's Office. He starts February 1st. Thus begins the house hunting circus. No, this is not our new house. It was a very beautiful home...if we HAD to live there, I'm sure we could make do. It was just one of the many that we've looked at so far.

It was funny when we went into the model home though. I saw a couple that I knew from my home ward looking to buy in that area. Plus the girl working there was someone I had gone to school with, along with the two older brothers of this couple that was there. I love those It's such a small world moments.

Wish us luck...or maybe divine guidance (that might be more beneficial).

60 Degrees

This is what 60 degree weather looks like.

Playing Poke-y

Benjamin, Claire, and Paul decided it would be fun to get the markers and poke each other with them. What a fun game right? Even though I was frustrated I had to line them up for a picture. And then I really did laugh at the situation because Benjamin was being funny. Benjamin won, I think, just by the shear number of dots on the back of Claire's shirt and on her arms.

Pile Up

They LOVE to get every blanket and pillow in the house and pile them up in the living room for a jump session. Me? Not too thrilled about it every time. Them? Hours and hours of fun.

Sometimes...

...you just have to make a mess
for the greater good of playing.

Snow Burial

Scraping the ice off the sidewalk turned into burying Emma in the snow. She giggled the whole time.

Tangled

Jason put a little spontaneity into our night and declared a movie night out at the theater. We took the kids to Moses Lake to see Tangled. It was such a cute movie...I loved the horse! I included this picture because it is such an accurate depiction of life. When do my kids ever really sit...and all in a row anyway. We have Ben running off and doing what he wants, not listening to your call to come back. We have Claire, looking slightly frizzled, but happy. We have Emma being silly, but not too dramatic. Then we have Paul. He just lets it all loose. And there you go...a night at the movies.

Oh, where's Lainey you ask? I decided not to include her in the picture. She blew out her pants during the show. Not a fun experience...don't really want to talk about it. Nope, not really!

Claire and Her Camera

Claire's imagination is at work again. Just call her Paparazzi Claire. She found a piece of cardboard, folded it, and voila - a camera!

On the crawl

She follows us all over the house, up and down the hall, into the rooms, and into everything!

Comfy and cozy

Once in a while you catch a moment when they're all quiet, when they're not jumping and hitting and yelling and fighting, when they're happy to be brother and sister. But just for a moment...

Happy Birthday #5

We attempted a train cake. I stole the design from my friend who made one just last October for her son's third birthday. Thanks Heidi! (Hers was way cuter but I think ours turned out ok)

Grandma E finished the quilt she was making for Emma's birthday in December.

This is the quilt that Grandma E made for Paul's birthday. Cool!

Presents were one of the highlights as always.

Fun Organization

I have been tired of the clutter in our office. And instead of actually tackling the mess, I've been thinking up cute ways to organize. I'll get to throwing things away and filing, this is just more fun right now.

A while ago, Emma made these beautiful feather flower creations. I think they look so...what?...so sweet, soft, peaceful, beautiful...you get the picture. They were in the clutter and I finally decided to make frames for them so I could look at them every day. Then I realized that I don't have a 2011 calendar for my office. I saw this cute idea in some magazine (I'll look it up) where they framed the calendar to make it cute, and left the glass off to make it functional. So I fashioned my own calendar. Each month, I'll just change out the month in the clip. Fun, I know! I'm going to add some little plaque type something or other in between the top frame and the calendar that says remember or something. And maybe something on the right side above the feather flowers. (Any thoughts?) It looks cute, but there's still quite a bit of clutter in the office. Tomorrow, right?

And I'm finally using this cute little creation that my friend gave me last spring. I know!

Tim McGraw

We've been listening to a lot of Tim McGraw's new song Felt Good on My Lips. Claire was watching the music video on You tube, rocking out in the computer chair (in our messy office...I know!)

One of the eight tiny reindeer...

Lainey in her nice, warm reindeer suit. It has been so painfully cold lately. She's making kind of a funny face, but she's just really happy.

"I got a dollar! I got a dollar!

"I got a dollar, hey, hey, hey, hey!" (that's for any of you Little Rascal fans)

Emma lost her first tooth. We're glad it's out. Simple things like losing a tooth can become quite the ordeal around here let me tell you. It's one of the bottom front teeth; this is the best smile I could get out of her.

Name that tune

My sister Shelly led us in a game of name that tune this evening. She went between the Hymn book, Children's songbook, and Disney songs. It was fun away from the TV for a little while. The kids really liked the music too.

I told Shelly that had we lived in Jane Austen's day, I would have done a poetry reading and she would have regaled us on the piano forte.

Lainey: no stopping her now

Bet you thought I was done with blog posts since I've done it for the past year... I just couldn't give it up! Here's today's...

7 months and she's already pulling herself up. There's no keeping her down. She loves to stand...and I think she looks pretty happy doing it too.