Monday, November 29, 2010

Kids Crafting

 
After setting up our Christmas tree, we realized that our tree needed some new decorations so we decided to make our own.  We made a batch of salt clay, used our Christmas cookie cutters for the shapes, baked them for about 40 minutes and then painted them with Acrylic paint.  It was totally messy and tasted yucky (the babies would tell you that)  They were convinced they were sugar cookies!  So they weren't completely disappointed, I made a big batch of caramel corn to snack on.  Let's just say, our decorations are very unique and something the kids are proud of! 

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thankful

Oh, so much to be thankful for:

*  Our warm home that protects us from this crazy, CRAZY, storm that has been here for 3 days now!!      There is nothing more beautiful than flocked trees!
*  A furnace that is keeping us toasty warm!
*  My kids excitement over all the snow despite the low temperatures--they shoveled with DJ yesterday morning and proceeded to play outside in the wind and cold for several more hours building snow tunnels and forts.  Aaaahhh...to be a kid again!
*  FHE last night and a funny comment by Jordyn.  Morgan was giving the lesson on the Word of Wisdom.  We were talking about how when people drink and take drugs they aren't in control of their actions, words, or thoughts. Jordyn said, "it's like this, you go up to someone that has been drinking beer and ask them what their favorite color is."  And they say, "no I don't know what time it is."  ha ha ha ha!!
*  2 wake up calls ( 5 a.m. and 5:45 a.m.)  Porter and Kamryn both needing to go potty.  No, I don't like waking up at that hour but it's awesome that they have that much bladder control at 2 years old!  Thankfully they generally get right back in to bed!
*  Kaleb's love for drawing and writing his letters.  His favorite thing to do is write all the letters he knows all in a row and then ask me over and over again what it spells and then he laughs his head off when I sound out his crazy words that make no sense.  He is the cutest little guy!
*  My parents--I love them more every day. I'm just sad sometimes that I didn't always appreciate their wise council while growing up.  It's funny how you really start to appreciate it when you're raising your own kids.
*  My kids--I love each one of them--all the same amount but just in different ways and for different things.  They are all so unique and awesome in their own way.
*  Health--While running around the house doing laundry and cleaning up after the kids yesterday, the thought came to me how blessed I am to have sufficient energy to do my day to day tasks. 
*  2 year olds--I just said it yesterday--but they are funny.  This morning after taking Porter to the bathroom, I said, "you had to go so bad, huh?"  He says, "ya, I a stink pot."
*  My grandparents, especially grateful that I still have my Grandma Johnson and my Grandma and Grandpa Rose still living.  I'm even lucky enough to live near my Grandma J.  I think often about how neat it is that my kids know their Great Grandparents as well as they do.  How often does that happen?
Mommy, I'm freeeeeezing!

Hard at work (and some play)

Before this huge 3 day storm this is what the yard looked like.  This picture just makes me smile! 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thankful!

Today I'm thankful for:
* beautiful snow storms that we've been pounded with the past 3 days. 
* huge snowflakes that fell from the sky that felt more like snowballs. 
* really great kids that surprised DJ and I with a completely shoveled driveway after a fun shopping date! (okay, we had the twins with us) but it's still a date!
* DJ lining all of the kids up in the living room Saturday morning trying on all of their ski gear.  You could literally feel (and hear) the excitement and anticipation of the fast approaching ski season. 
* finding that we had ski gear for ALL of our kids for yet another fun ski season (thanks Aunt Ann)--just having to buy boots and poles for DJ and me which we found at Play It Again Sports!! 
* Little Kami that consistently reminds us to have prayer and chastises anyone openly if they eat before or during the prayer, "NO EAT PRAYER" (namely, Porter) 
* Personal Progress program--though Regan is literally smoking me, I'm slowly working on the program along side her.  It' forcing me to have more meaningful scripture study and more frequent and fervent prayers. 
* one whole week home with no school and no work for DJ--seriously, how often does that happen??
* a stocked fridge which means we can stay home, eat yummy food, and have fun together!
* A fun Friday night playing games with our kids
* 4 kids that can actually understand and play some of the same games that DJ and I like to play.  (Not that I  don't love a good game of Candy Land:)
* A sweet musical number in Sacrament Meeting yesterday by a young boy and a sweet single sister in our ward.  They both have amazing voices and blended so well together.  Actually, the whole meeting was pretty great!
* To hear my husband say he felt "stress free" for a few moments while were on a little date!  Those words were music to my ears! 
*  a little more patience every day in stressful situations with the kids--scripture study and prayer really do work!
*  Funny conversations with the twins--2 year olds are the best!
*  A cute comment by Kaleb, "Mom, guess what? I'm creative!"  And when asked what creative means, "he replies, "it means that you can think up really cool stuff without any help!"
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

"Manners", By Kaleb

I was praising Kaleb for his good manners this morning and he said, "mom, I love manners because if you didn't have them you'd say, give me a fork right NOW, and that wouldn't be nice at all."  He makes me smile!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Introducing...

Willy Wonka's cutest squirrel....Jordyn Teichert!  I LOVE this makeup but it didn't love her.  Saturday morning after waking up from a long rest, she looked more like a chipmunk than a squirrel thanks to a bad allergic reaction to the costume makeup.  Her face was swollen, itchy, and irritated and with only a few hours until the Matinee performance we had to act fast.  Benadryl left her face looking much better but she couldn't hide her tired eyes on stage.  I thought she may even fall asleep in the chocolate river at one point but she perked up a bit and made it through.  The evening performance went much better, I think she must've caught her second wind!  Anyway, no more costume makeup, just a bit of hypoallergenic powder, white acrylic paint for her eyes and a big black dab of makeup on her nose and she's good to go for another 3 nights! 
What an experience this has been for Jordyn!  She has her last 3 performances this week which will make a grand total 7 performances and it is one adorable production!   

Doesn't this guy make a great Willy Wonka....freaky eyes and all? 
Many more pictures to come!!
Jeselyn and Jordyn!

I LOVE these costumes--thank goodness I didn't have to sew my own!

Jordyn and Jeselyn with one of the Oompa Loompas!

Jordyn has made lots of new friends--one of the best parts of partcipating in the play.

Alley and Jordyn-  Jordyn adores Alley and thinks they are best friends (even though Alley is "12")  It's perfect though because Jordyn thinks She's "12"!

The adorable Oompa Loompas!




Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Horse play and belly kissing at OneTrueMedia.com

Maybe belly kissing isn't the best title but it's the only way I can describe this little game that Porter and Kamryn like to play with each other. It gives us all the giggles every time they start playing!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Competitions, Marathon's, and scrambled eggs!

On Friday and Saturday, Regan had the opportunity to participate in the Eastern Idaho Music Association's 2010 Piano Competition.  This is her first year ever to participate in something like this and despite the nerves, she was happy to participate.  The theme was Chopin/Schumann since it was the 200th anniversary of their births--the music was beautiful and had Kamryn captivated from start to finish.  Talk about some talented kids!  They have preliminaries the evening before where they narrow it down to 2 kids in each division along with a 1st Alternate Honorable Mention.  Regan played her song beautifully both in the preliminaries and in the finals and won her division!  She was so excited and kept saying afterward how grateful she is for an amazing piano teacher!  Ellen has spent many extra hours in the past few weeks helping Regan prepare for this competition and it definitely paid off.  Thanks Ellen and Congrats to Regan! 

Did you know you have approximately 700 muscles in your body?  I didn't before the race, but I do now.  I know because every single one aches!!  I completed the Just Cuz 1/2 Marathon in Pocatello on Saturday.  It wasn't pretty, but I did it.  I sure hope no one captured the shear look of pain on my face that was evident for a good 8 miles of the race.  Despite the pain, it was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line knowing that I ran 13.1 miles w/out stopping.  I know that sounds dumb but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time so I'm glad I did!  The course was harder than I had imagined with some hills that I wasn't prepared for but the weather was gorgeous and the scenery was beautiful and the costumes were rather entertaining.  The race was supposed to be cowboy themed so they encouraged us to dress up.  Not me, I just enjoyed laughing at every ones costumes and thankfully I wasn't the only one not dressed up for the occasion. Anyway, running 13.1 miles allows one some time to think so I made some discoveries about myself #1- I'm not a runner in the true sense of the word, not that I ever thought of myself as one, but I just realized that if you want to be really serious about it, it takes a heck of a lot of training and focus and discipline---I need to focus my energy on my kids so although it would've been nice to be a bit more physically prepared for the race, I'm glad I didn't take a lot of time away from my family to accomplish it.  #2- I'm wimpy!  I hate side aches and leg cramps--they hurt!  #3- I still love to run and I want to do another 1/2 marathon sometime in the very near future but if I'm being really honest with myself, I probably won't prepare any more for it than I did this one.  #4- My main purposes for running is so that I can eat whatever I want, it allows me a few minutes alone, and I just feel good after running!

Now for the scrambled eggs.....yesterday morning the babies were begging to have some eggs but I was busy getting kids off to school, cleaning up the morning mess, etc. so I ignored them.  BIG mistake!  Porter decided to take matters in to his own hands and attempted to make himself a batch of scrambled eggs ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR!!  The mess was awful!!  I was amazed at how much goop came from 4 tiny eggs and what a huge sticky mess it created in a short amount of time.  Kami denied any involvement by pointing her innocent fingers at "PO PO" so I'm still not sure exactly what went down but Porter was one proud kid until he saw the look on my face.  From now on, all eggs will be kept in the fridge outside.  Lesson learned!

On to another Marathon.  IFYAC's Fall Production of Willy Wonka opens Friday night!  Yes, the big night for Jordyn has almost arrived.  Here is what our Marathon schedule looks like for the next 11 days:
Monday:  5:45-11:00 p.m.
Tuesday:  6-11 Dress Rehearsal
Wed. 6-11- Dress Rehearsal
Thurs. 6-11 Dress Rehearsal
Friday- morning school performance from 8:30 until 11:00 and then opening night!
Saturday- matinee plus evening performance
Sunday-  Day of rest (literally) and bless her heart, she will be resting!
Mon.- evening performance
Tues.- evening performance
Wed. Closing night
Thurs. Cast party
She's exhausted but I think the show is going to be pretty awesome!  Last night was their first night in the Colonial Theater and it was pretty cute to see the excitement on Jordyn's face when she looked around at where she'll be performing.  I'm just hoping that adrenaline gets her through this whole experience because she is one tired little girl!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Behind

I'm behind on everything.  My house needs to be deep cleaned in the WORST way. I feel like I'm living in a filthy pig pen.  I'm a really good surface cleaner but if a real clean freak came to my house, they would have a list a mile long of things that need to be "really" cleaned.  I don't have the time.  Actually, I guess I could be deep cleaning right now but--I'm not.  Life's busier than ever right now.  Jordyn's Willy Wonka play is ruling our lives.  Note to self--never do this again!  Jordyn is really enjoying the production now but the play practices are endless and she needs more sleep.  (she's not getting to bed before 10:30 and she's 7) Yikes!!  The play goes on November 12-17 and will be an adorable show. Jordyn is a squirrel and a towns person.  She's adorable and she's made a lot of friends BUT it's just too much so we'll not do it again for a very long time!

Morgan finished soccer a couple of weeks ago.  She loves soccer and finished the season out strong.  I love to watch her play and love that she loves it (have I said "love" enough)  Anyway, because she loves it so much, she plans to play indoor soccer starting in January even though it's during ski season--we'll just have to squeeze a few Saturday ski days in somewhere.

Regan is getting ready for a piano competition this weekend.  She's stressed, her teacher is stressed, I'm stressed.  She dedicated so much time and effort to a song she played in church a couple of weeks ago that she let her competition sit to the side and it shows.  Yikes!  I'm praying that she'll pull it together.  Poor girl, she came away from piano lessons last week and said, "mom, I just don't want to make Ellen look bad."  Ellen is her piano teacher.  I just want Regan to do her very best and feel good about her efforts, I really don't care about the winning aspect of it.  Regan is just really hard on herself so I'm hoping for a good outcome.

I'm running the Just Cuz 1/2 marathon this Saturday and haven't run near enough to prepare.  I just might be crawling across the finish line so say a little prayer for me.  I just don't want to be last place!!!!!!  That's not asking to much is it?? I'm really excited and really nervous since this is my first 1/2 marathon.  This race will do one of two things for me, (1) give me more excitement about running, or (2) totally shut me down!  I'm praying for #1!

DJ's swamped and stressed all the time.  He really tries to do his very best in everything he does and never feels like there is enough time in a day to accomplish all that he needs to accomplish.  I worry about him and think he needs a week long break on some deserted island where he can just sleep for the entire time.  Anyone have any suggestions? 

Regan got to babysit our nephew's little guy, Austin on Saturday.  He's the cutest little guy and all the kids followed him around the entire 3 hours.  He didn't make a peep the whole time and was just content to play with the toys.  The kids kept asking me why our babies aren't like that.  I was wondering the same thing:) 

I love that the babies are potty trained but I feel like they are ALWAYS on the pot.  They love to go potty and think it's the funnest thing ever.  I feel like I live in the bathroom which causes me to notice how filthy the little crevices are--one more reason I really need to deep clean.  Anyway, back to the babies.  Can I just tell you how much I love not buying diapers??  Although, I think we are now spending as much in toilet paper as we were in diapers. 

Porter has been biting lately but I think I might have cured him.  I have a little guilt over what I did but you should've seen the bite marks on Kaleb and Kami.  I confess, last week right after a biting incident where he nearly drew blood on Kami, I ran to the fridge for Tabasco and gave him a good taste of it.  His mouth burned for awhile and every time he'd go to bite again, he'd stop himself and say, "mouth hot!"  I want to cry when I think of it but I loathe the biting thing.  It just makes me so mad and I feel so bad for the victims.  Call me a mean mom if you want but I think we've taken care of it.

Halloween was tons of fun.  The kids were so excited about their costumes, particularly Porter and Kami.  I got a swinging deal on costumes at the Park City Outlets.  Kami was a fairy and Porter was a little monkey and they were only $7.99 each and they looked adorable!!  The rest of the kids used stuff from grandma's and random items that we had hanging around the house.  Morgan originally planned to be static electricity but changed at the very last minute to a pirate.  Whatever makes her happy!  Regan didn't dress up per DJ's request (he has this thing about teenagers dressing up)  Anyway, she was happy to do her hair wild and crazy and colored it purple! She looked adorable.  Jordy was a bride--the girls just laugh every year because she's always something really girly girl!   Just fits her personality.  My mom made her the cutest vail which Jordyn was thrilled about!!  Thanks Grandma!!  Anyway, the ward trunk-or-treat was  alot of fun and the kids once again came away with way too much candy.  I think Porter is my worst sugaraholic ever!!  He loves candy more than anything in the world--he asks for suckers all day long so you should have seen the look on his face as people just kept filling his bucket more and more with candy.  He came right home and dumped his loot on the floor and within minutes there were 10 empty wrappers.  The candy fairy came during the night and confiscated a lot of the babies candy.  The girls and Kaleb have put some aside for their gingerbread houses we plan to make the first of December.  For fun I decided to continue on in our Halloween dinner tradition.  The menu was:  Mummy dogs (hotdogs wrapped in strips of crescent roll dough), bones and blood (breadsticks shaped like bones) dipped in spaghetti sauce, blood and eye balls (red jello topped with red whipped cream and large grapes), and various other orange and red items.  We enjoyed a candlelit dinner and everything tasted yummy despite the looks of it all. 

Kaleb is making leaps and bounds in learning and writing his alphabet.  His teacher expressed concern last week that he still couldn't recognize his name.  So, after feeling once again like the worst mother on the earth, I went home to work some more with him and after about 10 minutes he says, "mom, I know how to write my name."  He got a pen and paper and wrote out his name perfectly w/ only a little guidance with the letter order.  Seriously, I just about cried.  Tender mercy--that's what I'm calling it.  He is such a sharp little kid and I'm always amazed at the things he comes up with.  I'm sure he'll do fine in school and I might add that I love our Kindergarten teacher.  She always does amazing things with all of the kids!  Oh, before I forget, Kaleb said the funniest thing yesterday afternoon.  I got after him for teasing the babies and he looked at me and said in his most devistated voice, "I just wanted to be good the whole day w/out getting in trouble and I ruined it."  I love this little boy!

DJ made a little deal with Regan and Morgan a few weeks ago that has been awesome in every way.  He promised them 1 Ipod song download for every 600 basketball shots they made.  They have to shoot for 6 concecutive days 100 shots per day.  They've accomplished it for 3 weeks now and it's been fun to see how serious they've taken the whole deal.  There have been a couple of nights where they've had tons going on so it's been 9:00 at night where DJ is outside with them holding a spotlight on the basketball hoop just so they could accomplish it.  But, even more than this, we've noticed that the girls relationship has improved so much because they've been working together.  They've been working together on their Faith in God and Personal Progress on Sunday afternoons for several hours and sometimes during the week and helping each other pass things off.  One night Regan asked Morgan to help her with one of her goals writing down positive attributes that Regan had.  Morgan wrote some of the nicest comments and it meant so much to Regan since their relationship has struggled for quite sometime.  Another tender mercy!  DJ is really good at giving the girls things to work toward and making sure that they follow through.  Just another reason I love this man!

                                                                   Halloween Eve!
Isn't she the cutest little pink fairy?  She still has a total obsession with pink!

Jordyn was thrilled to wear a little makeup!

Kaleb finally decided to be a skeleton--it was a toss up between that and a cowboy!

What a cute pirate she makes.  She had several people mistake her for a boy and she got the biggest kick out of it!

This costume totally fits his personality!

Even with wild hair, she's gorgeous!

Cute kids!




What shall I eat next?