Winning Idea

Greg stumbled across this article and sent it to me knowing me all too well - that I would love it - no surprise there! The only problem is how small and young our family is at this point. It's a future wish, and I pray that in 3 years when I start implementing it I won't have lost the bookmark AND that I actually remember to start doing it.

Can you imagine the possibilities of Sunday stations? What a great way to keep your kids from spend the Sabbath day as an ordinary day. It helps to get individual Daddy/Mommy attention in, encouraging a time for open communication and building trust that can only come through personal attention. I also am excited to apply my skills to creating activities that can be enjoined by my children that are gospel centered.

Here are some of my initial ideas:

1) reading station (duh)

2) memorizing station (temples, scriptures, past prophets)

3) letter/coloring station

4) journal writing station (I feel this needs to be separate from #3 because of the importance of a personal journal)

5) Call Grandma station (they should get one-on-one attention too)

6) music station (they practice hymns on the piano - obviously for older kids)

7) genealogy station (read stories/journals, indexing for older kids)

8) Mom & Dad interviews.

Well, guess we can have 8 kids honey. Just kidding! I don't know if we will do allowance at the same time as the interview. I think I'll try to keep allowance separate from Sunday, but maybe tithing can play into the interview somehow. I might do the interviews separately as well. It's good to have Mom & Dad time, and Mom time and Dad time.

"The Echo" Poem

Happy Pioneer Day! Enjoy my new scrappy quote....

Daryl's Visit

My sister Daryl came to visit before she left on her ASL mission to Oregon. She spent lots of time reading to Auburn and singing songs with her.

Daryl and I worked on some hair accessories for her as well. Here is the finished set. Daryl picked out her own buttons and the types of flowers she wanted, but we were able to mostly use scraps of fabric I had to create the flowers.

We also painted Auburn's room, ate out at my two favorite restaurants, played some games, did lots of reading, and a lot more talking! We had lots of fun - Thanks for coming to visit Daryl!

Happy Birthday Song

Happy Birthday Auburn!

Auburn turned two on July 10th. We had a friends with their families ice cream party. It turned out perfect! We were able to have a few friends over and we bought WAY too much ice cream (5 half gallons and a 3 gallon family size vanilla!). This little girl is the best two year old I've ever known.

Sorry about the picture quality. Something is wrong with my camera that I can't seem to fix.

Finished!

I have been working really hard to finish the print I posted about a few weeks ago, and ta-da! Here it is! I figured that I spent around 40 hours working on it. I loved having a project to work on at night while Greg was studying. It's a lot better than sitting around eating ice cream for 40 hours!

See if YOU can guess all the animals. HINT: the first animal is NOT a mouse (Daryl!)

Roller Derby Super Star

(in training)

Auburn is the luckiest girl in the world. Aunt Denise found these super amazing, mint condition, pink and purple ribbons, Barbie roller skates. Auburn loves to put them on and stand around like a super star, which is just the first step on the road to derby stardom. If you don't know what roller derby is, here is a catch-you-up link. The posters are really where its at though. I know, she totally looks the part.

I would highly recommend a pair of super amazing, mint condition, pink and purple ribbon Barbie roller skates to any little-girl-turned-roller-derby-princess.

The Fourth

Happy Fourth of July friends!

Auburn's Favorite Video

Whether or not you believe the way we do, I hope everyone feels this special. Happy Sunday!

GREAT news!

We just got some great news at Dr. Leo's today, baby Gressica has turned! We are so grateful that she turned head down; it is something we have been praying for.

Here are the other miracles of the day:

Monsoon tonight!

Daryl gets to come and visit next week

I found green crocs at goodwill in Auburn's next size up

Sometimes I read blogs that do awesome lists. Most of the time they say things like "I need this" linking it to something without telling you what it really is. Annoying? Yes. You have to click on every item to see if it really is "the best thing since sliced bread"! Am I going to copycat it right now? Yup.

A great going to college present that makes me think of my Mom.

I loved this blog post.

Hopefully this will be a great craigslist find for my house.

I like this show, maybe more than I should.

What a great idea.....that I have a love/hate relationship with. (more later)

I've had this mobile open for three days now, trying to decide if I want to buy it.

I made my own version of this....and I'm getting ready to color it all. (I'll post a picture later)

And that's my night of web-surfing. In other news - it looks like Monsoon season outside. Is that possible? Or is it way too early in the year?

I took a 2 hour nap today, and I'm already falling asleep (it's 9:30).

I'm sad today is over because Greg will go back to work tomorrow. I like having him home and not working.

Auburn went "the number two" on the toilet, but doesn't want to do it again.

It's hard to feel like time out is effective when Auburn sings her way through the whole thing. Should I get mad about this and make it into a bigger deal? It seems to defeat the purpose of punishment if I have to get loud and angry for her to feel bad about hitting (or other timeout infractions). Timeout is the feel bad tool - not me? Oh, parenting, what work you are.

Baby doctor appointment tomorrow! We are in the 40 day stretch, which makes me think of Noah's ark. At this point, it's like I'm trapped inside a ship while it pours outside (and I feel slightly sea sick the entire time), and then when the rain clears we're not done yet! Gotta find some "land" before I can rest. (You know, like get the baby to sleep more than 2 hours.) Home stretch people, here we are.

An Ode to Jessica

From her sister Brynn.

Here: http://theartofbeingbald.blogspot.com/2011/07/confessions-of-horrible-sister.html