FHE-Tithing Jars

We had FHE on tithing Monday. We have decided to start giving our almost 6 year old an allowance. We have been debating a lot of things about this allowance.
How much should it be?
Should she have to do chores in order to get the allowance?
Should she have spending restrictions or can she spend it all on candy if she wants?
How much should she save?
M and I finally worked it all out and had family home evening reminding her about tithing and why we pay it. Then we told her she was going to get an allowance every week. We gave her coins so she could easily take out her tithing and her savings money. The rest she gets to put in her piggy bank and spend however she wants to. After the lesson, our activity was to make a tithing and savings jar. She can fill these up and every month we will help her fill out a tithing slip and give it to the Bishop on fast Sunday. Her savings money we will put in her account at the bank at the end of the year. She was very excited by all of this.

Making her savings tithing jar.

I helped her align the stickers.

Aren't her jars adorable?

Bet you wish you had one:)

Potty Training

We tried to potty train our youngest last summer, however she had other plans. She refused to sit on the potty and when we tried to make her, she would scream at us. It didn't take too long before we decided our hearing was more important than her being out of diapers. So we stopped talking to her about it.
Fast forward to December and she is asking us if she can sit on the potty. "YES!" we say enthusiastically. Sometimes she would go potty but mostly she would just sit there and then get down. This is great; she is getting the idea down.
After two weeks of this, she poops on the potty. We are so excited and we give her the present that has been wrapped and waiting for this momentous occasion since June. It has been there so long, M can't remember what he put in it, so it's a surprise for us all.

L with her gift

After this, she goes poop on the potty every couple of days, but she refuses to pee. At first I am disappointed, but then realize if she is going to choose only one to do, I would prefer it to be poop. It's so much nicer to change a wet diaper than a messy one.
By the new year she is doing all her business on the potty. She is wearing underwear during the day and a diaper at night. She still has a hard time waking up to go to the bathroom and when we try to wake her she is GRUMPY! But she has has no accidents and is great about telling us when she needs to go potty.
This experience has been, by far, much easier than with our older child. For those of you who are trying to potty train and are going nuts trying to get it done, I say stop. Completely stop and wait until they come to you. They will eventually be potty trained, you can be sure of that, and if you do it on their terms, it will be so much easier on all of you.

An Artist in our Midst

K is an amazing artist. She has been doodling and drawing since she was 2 and you could always tell what they were pictures of. When she was three she drew a picture and mailed it to her grandma. One of her grandma's friends, who is a teacher, thought it was a drawing done by a 5 year old. She was amazed to find out the artist was only three.
One of K's gifts from her Bahmah at Christmas was fabric markers. They came with iron on pictures that you can then color. Bahmah ironed on the dragons and K colored them in. She even added on the beards herself. I think she did an amazing job with the details. She definitely gets her artistic skills from M's side of the family.

One for K and one for L.

The girls wore their shirts today.
Aren't they adorable?

Now I just need to find a nice desk to put in her room so she has her very own artist studio to work in peace whenever she wants to. Gotta get one that locks though, otherwise her sister will be doing murals on the walls and carpet. Though I am sure she would think it was pretty, I am not so sure it would be something I would like.

A New Year with Infinite Possibilities

Every year we invite a few families over to help us ring in the New Year. M and I always make enough hors d'oeuvres to feed an army and our guests bring food as well. We end up with an array of yummy treats to nibble on all night long.

Spinach dip, sushi tray, tri-tip steak bites, cheese tray,
cheese ball, veggie tray with humus, cheese dip...

7 layer dip, bacon rolls (not pictured), shortbread, pie,
cream puffs, chocolate covered cookies, and lots of chips.

We let the kiddies run around, play, and watch movies upstairs. They come down every once in a while to fill up on goodies from the buffet. Aren't they cute? Not sure where L was for this picture.

The adults played games most of the night. We started out with Taboo which is a fun "think outside of the box" game. The boys were stomped hard by the girls, we tried not to rub it in too much.
After that we decided to let the boys play a game they would be good at, so we played Paradise City on the PS3. I got this game as a Christmas present from M this year. And before you say anything, just know that I have wanted a game like this since we played a similar one at a friends house over a year ago. It's a great racing/crashing game.

Our friends the V's.

Our friends the W's
Our friends the H's were unable to make it due to sick kids.
I forgot to take pictures of the hosts, silly me.

We had a lot of fun playing that for a while; the boys lit up like Christmas trees when it was their turn. After the racing, we played bowling, tennis and boxing on the Wii console.

Randy sitting while bowling.
He got some pretty good scores from his seat.
Becky looks great in this picture.

M lit off fireworks throughout the night and the kids
loved it. The kept asking for more and more.

About 15 minutes to midnight, I poured out some sparkling apple cider for everyone to toast in the new year. We tuned in to one of the local tv channels and watched the ball drop. I was surprised they didn't sing Auld Lang Syne but someone mentioned that most people don't know the words to it any more. I asked if anyone had any resolutions for the coming year, but no one had any. Guess it's just M and I working on ours. Although, not having resolutions makes it easy to keep them. Whether you have resolutions or not, I hope this year is full of wonderful experiences and blessings for you and yours. Happy New Year!

Christmas Highlights from 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas with our family this year. We started out with my family a week before Christmas then spent Christmas Eve weekend with M's family. We all had a wonderful time and the girls were spoiled. After Christmas we went home to enjoyed our own Christmas. Here are some cute and fun pictures from our holiday.

I love the look L has here.

Goofy looks from K and Uncle Mark.

Aunt Karen, L and Mik.

L with her Mik and Nathan.

Kim, Luke, N, M, Kendra, L, K, and Mel.

K leaving her gift for Santa along with some cookies.

L with her blue bike from Santa.

K with her pink scooter from Santa.

I love this picture, too cute!

L definitely is a girl of many faces.
I love this look when she opened her toy.

Home to Call Your Own

We were invited to our neighbors house to make gingerbread houses. L was unable to go because she had made bad choices all day. She stayed home with dad and I took K to make her masterpiece. There were five families total working on their houses. It was a lot of fun and the kids filled up on candy. Here is K's creation, all I did was put on the icing.

Playing in the Rain

The girls loved the umbrellas they got from their cousin for Christmas. Luckily the next day it was rainy and the girls got to try them out on a walk to the park. M said it was raining so hard and blowing sideways that by the time they got home, they were drenched. Guess the umbrellas turned out to be more of a fashion accessory than a dry haven that day. Thanks again for the umbrellas, Mik. The girls LOVE them!

Christmas Creations

Here are a few of the creations M and I have made this season. M's are for sale, if you would like one. Mine are not, I am not that crafty.

The star M made for his mom's tree.

The U of O Ducks sign for the BCS National Championship

A Christmas Wreath.

Tile magnet sets I made for my yw's leaders.

Snowmen gift cans, I gave these to K's teachers.

An advent calendar I made. It took longer than
I thought it would, so I am just using it for decoration.
Next year I will fill it with goodies and use it for the kids.

A Homemade Christmas

This year my husband told me he wanted to go up in the woods to find our Christmas tree and then decorate it with ornaments we made ourselves. When I heard this I thought, "Are you kidding me? The trees in the woods are Charlie Brown trees and I have a ton of great ornaments in the attic to use. Besides, do you know how hard it will be to make ornaments with a 2 and 5 year old?" But instead I said, "I don't want a scrawny tree and I don't think it will be fun making ornaments with L."

He talked to me about it again a few days later and I told him it was fine but he was in charge of getting it done. I must tell you, I wasn't at all thrilled about this and talked to my friend Kristy about it almost every time I saw her. For the record, she totally agreed with me.

By Saturday, I had convinced him to go to a local tree farm to get the kind of tree he always wants, a Noble. I prefer and always get a Douglas Fir. He hates them because the branches are too thin and weak and the tree is really bushy. I like them because that's what I grew up getting every year.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the tree M picked out for us. It stands 9 feet tall and has plenty of sturdy branches. You can even hang ornaments close in by the trunk and still see them, it's amazing!

As for the homemade decorations, I was still not sure. We had already spent a few nights making some with the girls and had very little to show for it. I was convinced we would get to drag the ornaments out of the attic. We spent the remainder of Saturday making ornaments and actually got quite a lot made. The girls did a great job on theirs and I was impressed with how creative they were. We all had a great time.

M, K and I made some more ornaments Sunday afternoon and after dinner we trimmed the tree. M put hooks on the ornaments, the girls put them on the tree and I took pictures. They did a great job spacing out the ornaments and the tree looked beautiful. For those of you who know me, I did not feel the need to rearrange them to look more organized. That is quite the compliment coming from someone with OCD tendencies.

Now I realize that M had a great idea all along. I need to be less controlling and more open to his ideas. I let go, he took the reins, and everything turned out great. We all will have great memories for years to come from this wonderful experience.

M and L making ornaments.

My tree ornament.

K making her ornaments.

Daddy helping L hang ornaments up high.

K hanging ornaments.

Isn't L cute?

Here are some cool ornaments M made at work.

My favorite ornaments K made.

Favorite ornaments of L.

M was very creative making his.

Here are my favorites I made.

Our tree all decorated.

All lit up.

Ward Christmas Party

Yesterday was our ward Christmas party and we had a nice time. M made an Eclair cake that we were unable to sample because all the desserts were gone by the time we got through the line. Hopefully it was good.
After dinner, the primary sang a couple of songs and did the Nativity program. K was an angel this year. After the program the ward sang some Christmas songs until the arrival of Santa Claus. K was excited to see him, as was L. But once it was their turn, L didn't want to get near him. I was able to talk her into standing near him for a picture and before we left she yelled at him she wanted a blue bike. K told him she wanted a scooter.

Eclair Cake

K's costume

Getting ready for the program.

Santa's Workshop

The girls visiting Santa.