wild kit...

One of my most favorite things about being on GG Digital Designs creative team is that I am forced to scrap pretty regularly. This new Valentines kit is super cute. I think my favorite thing is the Alpha that comes with it! Snag it HERE

i wanna be...

I whipped up this page of pictures from over the Christmas break with a new kit called Resolution from gg digital designs. Pick it up HERE

our topics...

For Family Home Evening this week we put together our topic list for the year.

I love listening to what the kids desire to learn about. We do have the topics for the first few months geared towards helping Zach prepare to be baptized in April. To see past years lists click
2009 2010

I love how well this system works for our family and helps us be consistent in having FHE every week.

Here is how it works:
We assign each topic to a month. Having a monthly topic helps us have a focus for the month. Then each week we pick a certain aspect of our topic to learn about. Preparing a weekly lesson is so much easier when we don't need to think about what to teach. I hang a poster of the topic for the month on the white board in our loft upstairs.

For example in March of last year our topic was Heaven and the Plan of Salvation. So the first week we talked about the Preexistence, the war in Heaven, and about choice to follow Christ. I showed them a blank POS chart. We filled in what we had learned about the Preexistence onto our chart. Week two we talked about this Earth life. Why we are here and what we need to do to return to live with our Heavenly Father. Then we filled in what we had learned onto our POS chart and reviewed what we learned last week. Week three we talked about Heaven and Missionary work. We filled in our POS chart and reviewed past weeks. Week four we talked about the final judgment day and about the 3 degrees of glory. Then I gave each kid a blank POS chart and we had them fill in what they could remember and they got to color and decorate their chart.


Here is our list this year:

January- Holy Ghost

February-Covenants/Commandments

March- Baptism

April-Resurrection

May- New Testament

June- Honesty/Faith

July- Temples and Families

August- Service and Gratitude

September- Personal Habits

October- Charity and Kindness

November- Joseph Smith/Prophets

December- The Birth of Jesus Christ

sometimes 5 is hard...

Most days I can handle 5...
Most days I can swim quite well through the-- homework, chores, piano, reading, cooking, feeding, wiping, nursing, patching, cleaning, reminding, folding, running, and lifting --that is required when handling 5..
Most days I have moments where I look around and all 5 are getting along, happy, playing, and quiet...
Most days these moments bring a burst of warmth into my heart that reminds me why all the work is worth it...

Most days...but today was not like most days...

Today 5 was hard...

Today each one of my 5 required me all at the same time...

#5 was hungry & crying and wanted to be picked up...
#4 was crying and wanted out...
#3 had 2 little friends over and they were jumping off of the bed and causing the ceiling to shake...
#2 was practicing the piano and was insisting that my help was required RIGHT THEN
#1 had chores done, but decided that it would be fun to repeatedly burst in on #3 and friends and scare them silly with fits of screaming and laughing and door slamming...

all the while I am trying to chop vegetables and get the soup for dinner made...
next comes a phone call from my Mr. saying he wasn't going to be home until right before I had to leave to help at a Relief Society activity...

Today I almost lost my mind...
Today I lost my temper a few times...
Today I almost cried into the soup...(that wouldn't have tasted to good)
Today I was so stressed I was shaking as I tried to ladle the soup into the bowls...
Today is now almost over..

Tomorrow I will wake up ready for a new day...
Tomorrow I will pray to be more patient and kind...
Tomorrow I will do better...
Tomorrow I will most likely be able to handle 5...easy peasy...

but...
Sometimes 5 is hard...

4 months...

I took these pictures of Owen today and just can't believe how quickly time is flying! He is getting bigger and bigger each passing day! He is really almost 5 months old...with a huge gummy smile that melts my heart!

I sometimes like to look back and read our blog to see what we were up to one year ago...THIS post is what a wrote 1 year ago today. The feelings of gratitude still swell even a year later!

Christmas 2010...

What a wonderful Christmas break it has been! It has been so relaxing and fun to spend so much time together as a family!

All the kiddos in their Christmas jammies...

santa came to our house...

waiting on the stairs for Daddy to play the Drummer Boy song...

Smiling with some of their fun presents...

We had a pretty huge snow storm shortly after Christmas. Perfect timing for breaking in the boy's new sleds.

I will miss all of the family time as the kids head back to school. It has been a great break!