New Station Added

Every year for Conference Sunday I have different "stations" for the kids to help them handle the two hours of Conference. It isn't easy for kids to sit and listen to an hour and 10 minutes of a sacrament service let alone tack on another 50 minutes of Conference. I have a coloring station:

a bingo station, and a reading station:

Yesterday Sheriff asked if we could add a sleeping station. (He probably got the idea from watching his dad have a sleeping station over the years during Conference). I didn't think he would actually sleep so I said why not. He brought a pillow and blanket and made himself comfy on the couch.

Sure enough he didn't sleep (he's just pretending) and he picked up a Friend magazine and read from it.

I couldn't find my Conference bingo cards this year and was running around the house trying to find them. Brett told me to stop looking because he would make me some. I think I should have kept looking....

Brett has a very different sense of humor. There were spaces like whining, Smiley crying, Sunshine screaming, and tattling. Of course Brett knows the kids well because these spaces did not remain empty. They were filled more than once.

This weekend we also had my niece Sierra visit from Canada. I wish she could have stayed longer but I'm glad that we were able to have her stay for a couple of days. The kids just loved having her here. Hopefully she comes back despite my mad crazy home!

April Fools Day Prank Fails

At 10:00pm last night I realized that I had not prepared an April Fool's prank for my boys. How could this be??? I always prank my boys! Never fear! Family Fun rescues me every year with great ideas to prank my kids come April Fool's morning - so great that I have successfully made Smiley cry every year with each prank I have pulled. I know... aren't pranks supposed to make one laugh? You don't know Smiley. I might have to consider renaming him... hmmmm. This is Smiley on his birthday...

He hadn't quite recovered in time for his candle blowing...

I could take a million of these everyday and he would have a million reasons why he cries. Last year I pranked each kid with a different certificate. Smiley's certificate was for a non-Earth birth (meaning he was an alien). True to form, when everyone laughed at it he cried. I think it has something to do with being 5. No five-year-old likes being laughed at. Scratch that... most people don't like being laughed at.

This year I went with Family Fun's idea of a package of "Doughnut Seeds". On the front is a plant with doughnuts growing on it. The instructions tell you to put the seeds in a bowl of milk. You open up the package and inside are.... Cheerios. Get it??? Smiley didn't. "It's just Cheerios mom". "I know Smiley, doughnuts don't grow on plants." "But it's just Cheerios mom." "I know," I said again, "doughnuts don't really grow on plants... it's April Fool's day."

But at least he didn't cry this year. I couldn't believe it. In fact I was a little let down. I didn't make my kid cry this year. I'm going to have to pick a better prank next year. :)

Week 13 of Project 52

I know, I know, you are wondering... where did weeks 11 and 12 go???? I'm wondering the exact same thing!!!! Life does that though doesn't it. You blink and it's gone never to be retrieved. You know you lived it because it was a chaotic blur of cubscouts, scouts, moms and muffins (don't even get me started on that because the dads get doughnuts), two birthday parties planned and executed, multiple doctors appointments, multiple temper tantrums experienced and diffused (not me of course although I felt like it on more than one occasion), a broken dryer (still not fixed) and multiple nights of Sunshine waking in the night crying. Thanks Sunshine... I love you anyways!

So hopefully I'm back on track with week 13 and the topic of Green. With Sunshine and her powerful 2 year-old personality... you know the stage... "mine"!!!! And my seven-year-old who is still in the same stage. They have to have their separate boxes of crayons. I didn't let them see me combining their greens momentarily or all you know what would have broken loose...

My kids need to lighten up a little. Wait... did I just say that? hahaha!!!

You lost what??? Part II

Remember when Brett lost his ring at Lake Powell? That's not all he lost at Lake Powell. Actually come to think of it we lose a lot of things at Lake Powell. My sister-in-law tossed her anniversary ring to her husband right before waterskiing and, well, he didn't catch it. We lose bathing suits, towels, beach toys and water shoes. Of course we gain tans (or in my case burns), great memories and come home with lots of sand in our bags.

On our last Lake Powell trip Brett gained a concussion and lost his two front teeth. Sorry Brett. Yep... I did it. Me. The driver of the boat who hit the waves that threw him from the molecule that resulted in said loss of teeth. He has already had 3 oral surgeries to work on his teeth. He has one more to go to get permanent teeth put in. Right now he has a gap where his teeth SHOULD be and fake teeth that he can wear. He plays with his fake teeth all the time driving me and his brother nuts. "Will you knock it off?" I'm always saying. He leaves his teeth everywhere; on the couch, on the counter, on his bedside stand and then says to me, "have you seen my teeth?" I keep telling him not to leave his teeth lying around.

That leads me to last night when again he left his teeth on the counter. Sunshine was coloring at the counter and it came time to put her to bed. Brett put her to bed and shortly thereafter went to get his teeth. They were gone. Suspicious. You bet. We searched and searched and searched. No luck! I didn't even have to say "I told you so." All I had to do was make the sound, "hmmmmm." The best part was when I heard him go into Sunshine's room and ask our little 2-year-old "where did you put my teeth?" as if she would answer him! hahaha!!!

Serves him right for hiding his mom's keys in a heater vent when he was three. Now that's payback. I wish I could be in all of his meetings for the next month as he tries to hide his gap. I know, I know. That's kinda mean isn't it? I'm trying to be nicer... I really am. But sometimes being right feels soooooo good. Terrible isn't it?

Birthday Candles; Take Two

Giggles turned 7 on Saturday and on Friday afternoon I had a friend party for him. Because it was in the afternoon after school I was going solo in the parent department with 6 friends plus Giggles, Sheriff, Wannabe, Smiley and Sunshine (our foster daughter). Things were going great despite the odds until it came to the presentation of the cake. I couldn't bring over the cake with lit candles AND take a picture of him blowing out the candles at the same time. I needed to set the cake down on the table and go back for the camera.

SIDENOTE: Giggles has ADHD and when he gets something in his mind ... like oh... blowing out candles....

So here I am bringing the cake over and he is on the opposite side of the table and sees a cake with candles on it. He starts climbing onto the table to get to it. I know right away what it happening and I say, "wait... (still climbing) wait! (still climbing and now has his whole torso on the table) WAIT!!!!! (torso and legs fully on the table)

Too late. He reached the cake and blew out the candles before I could even set it down and stop him.

I was not to be stopped however in my memory making moment. "I'll just have to relight the candles and you'll blow them out again." I say

To this one of Giggle's friends responds, "are you INSANE?"

I flash back to all the moments I have had with Giggles and Smiley and I think, "yes, just a little bit."

True story.

Weeks 9 and 10 of Project 52

I am combining weeks 9 and 10 into one picture.
Week 9 is Loud
Week 10 is Quiet.
I took this picture of the kids on a day off of school at an aquarium. Of course many other moms had the same idea that I had and also took their kids to the same aquarium. The noise level was incredible and I had to shout for my kids to hear me when it was time to move along to the next station. The serenity of this picture is VERY deceiving. Yet when I look at the fish swimming around in the tank I imagine it to be very quiet for them inside (inbetween the moments of children tapping on the glass of course).

Vintage Engagement Pictures

Oh to be young and in love...
Don't get me wrong. I'm still in love, I'm just not young anymore.
This weekend I had the opportunity to take some pictures of my nephew and his fiance who happen to be both young AND in love. They showed me a great little ghost town to take pictures...












It was a lot of fun (I know they had fun because they did a lot of kissing during the photo shoot) and I'm glad to have discovered a great place for taking pictures.