Everything is Awesome!

Well The Lego Movie had been out for awhile and we still hadn't seen it. We had talked about going a few times, but plans just didn't pan out. Other plans came up or we were just too tired to think about taking all 6 kids to a movie.

Then came a Monday - Family Night. I decided we should go see either Frozen or The Lego Movie. Frozen wasn't really playing at any sort of reasonable time for us, so it was The Lego Movie.

It was a movie we all really kind of enjoyed. Jace was even a good baby and allowed me to watch the whole thing.

As we were leaving the theater though, we ran across the cardboard cutout promoting the new Muppet movie. Tanis was first to run behind it wanting a picture. This kind of thing bothers Eric for whatever reason, but I don't mind it, so one at a time we got pictures of the kids.

So, will we see the new Muppet movie? I don't know. Only time will tell.

What Happens Next...

Melting Like a Snow Cone Man In Phoenix

My mother in law ran across a cute little baking activity that she thought the kids would like to do. She wanted to do it with them sometime during Christmas break and it never happened. So she finally gave me the instructions to do it as well as the pre-made cookie dough, frosting and marshmallows. I decided we'd do it for Family Home Evening tonight.

I've never worked with this cookie dough before so I wasn't sure how it would perform. Turns out I cut the circles way too wide and so they ended up looking more like squares. The point is to make the cookies look like melting snowmen. Here's our works of art.

And some closeups of the ones I really liked...

THE PAINTER by Shaylyn

SUPERMAN by Shaylyn
She spent a lot of time just trying to get his hair to look right...

LITTLE BABY is mine

The WEIGHTLIFTER is also mine.

Some sort of FLOWER GIRL or something also by me.

ZOMBIES by Shaylyn and Lex (I think)

- Shaylyn's -

- Alex's-

(Yes, I worry about my children)

LADY WITH A FUR by little old me

MEDUSA by Shaylyn

SPANISH DANCER came from my brain.

BLUE HAIR by Shaylyn or Me (I honestly can't remember)

And Tanis' JOKER ends the night.

Nate and Ailey also made some works of art. Mostly more frosting than anything else. You can see their works of art in the top photo. As for Eric? He participated - sort of. He sat at the table and held Jace. At least he was present. You can't fault him for that.

What Happens Next...

Hands, Feet and Feathers

Thanksgiving has come and gone and only a few days before did we get around to making our paper turkeys. One of these years I'll be on top of things and get them done at the beginning of the month.

I usually just take the kids aside and we make our little craft. This year I did things differently. Because I'm only one person, I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of both little kids and keep them entertained and keep them 'on task'. So, I decided to make it be part of a Family Home Evening.

I started out with a very simple lesson found in the Nursery manual. (There are perks to being in Nursery) We then did our turkeys. However, before a 'feather' could be placed on the turkey everyone had to say something that they were thankful for. I made a rule that you couldn't say what the person right ahead of you said. I helped Nate work on his turkey, Eric helped Ailey.

We had some interesting answers from the kids. One said they were thankful for food cause some people don't have any. Another kid said they were thankful for Doctors. (Guess which kid that was) Eric took the easy way out and named person after person in the family. He was answering for Ailey as well, so I'll forgive him.

I was so pleased to hear the things my kids are grateful for and I tried to stretch my brain to thing of things that I don't usually have a grateful attitude for. Overall it was a good night, a wonderful FHE and I'm glad we did it.

Here are the pictures we tried to take after:

What Happens Next...

Out With The Old, In With The New

On March 4, 2011, I was finally able to get rid of something old and replace it with something new, all thanks to part of our tax refund!


We replaced these:


(I know they look disgusting...but I wasn't going to clean them off when they were being taken away. Yes, I'm THAT lazy.)

With these:


I am now in HEAVEN!!! And look, I've even got a load of towels in the washer! That'll make Eric happy.

Our old machines were dying a slow and painful death. The washing machine had issues getting things clean and had problems spinning. (I probably sped up it's death by over filling the machine, by whatever - I'm lazy, I want to get things done ASAP) The dryer took FOREVER to dry anything. Then when I thought a load was dry, I'd find it still wasn't - so then clothes sat in the washing machine for way too long. It was just an annoying process and I put laundry off as much as I could.

These new machines are AWESOME! They sense how heavy the loads are and adjusts the washing and drying times to fit. I've only had to do the touch up dry once or twice in the 3 weeks that we've had them. That is saying A LOT. I'm also actually doing laundry almost daily. It feels good to feel 'caught up' on laundry after so many years.

I also took the opportunity to paint the laundry room. I loved the purple I put in the girls' room and found it calming, so I put it in the laundry room and it just helps this place feel more like home. I also decided to put up this saying on the wall opposite the washer and dryer:


I saw/heard it somewhere and thought it quite humorous and so I used it. Shaylyn thought it was a serious statement at first. Hahaha. And....and.... get this....the font I used for the word 'pants' that's my own handwriting! Simple things like that excite me.

While we're on the subject of old vs. new...

I took this old Family Home Evening chart (completely missing everyones name hangers):


And replaced it with this:


I repainted over the old one and found new name hanger things for everyone. Now we've just got to actually START having 'official' Family Home Evenings.

I also decided to make a chore chart of sorts. It's something that Eric and I have talked about for a long time and I just never took the time to sit down and figure out what jobs I wanted the kids to have. But, after seeing this, I knew I wanted to do something similar. This is what I came up with:




I am LOVING it! Plus, it has been great with the kids. Of course, knowing that they will be paid for doing it helps. However, the moment they walk in the door from school they want to choose the sticks and get started on their jobs. It has cut down on a lot of yelling, screaming, fighting and no one doing what I ask them to do. They know exactly what needs to be done and they do it. The only fighting now is when the boys have to work together to clean their room.

If you want more info on where to find supplies and such you can look on my 'craft blog'.

What Happens Next...

Family History

So last night for FHE we did a little family history.

I got the idea to do a FHE based on Family History from Eric's mom a few weeks ago. We had gone to listen to her speak (ironically on Family History) in Sacrament meeting and so we stayed for classes. Their ward is doing a huge push in regards to Family History, so Lex was sent home with a short worksheet that asked simple questions like your Grandparents names, parents names, etc.

So we quizzed him and realized there was a bit he really didn't know. Eric's mom then said, "You could do a FHE on Family History." So the wheels started to turn.

I eventually came up with the idea we did yesterday. I decided we would do a 'family tree' up to the kids great-grandparents. I started out with just patterned paper on the wall to show where the pictures needed to go, like so:


Shaylyn liked to point out that the empty space in the middle looked like a temple. Totally unplanned, but it was kind of interesting considering what we were talking about.

We then started our activity. First each of the kids took turns choosing someone's picture and then they had to place it in the correct place in the tree. Fairly easy.

Next, they each took turns drawing the names. This was also fairly easy though some of the women's names were difficult for them as I used maiden names.

Next came the birthdays, then the birthplaces and lastly we did the date of death for the ones that have passed on.

This was the complete 'family tree.'


All in all I think it was a good FHE and it kept the kids mostly engaged. If they really learned anything, I dunno - but I sure hope so. I do know that Eric and I learned some new info and I had lots of fun putting it together.

What Happens Next...