January 25th - 31st

The kids love to play with Daddy.

 Instead of keeping papers throughout the year I've been taking pictures and then they make it into the yearbook instead of keeping all the paper around.  I like it and they will still be able to see some of their work in the future.  :)

 Rylea fell asleep the other day on the way home.  She loves to take her shoes and socks off in the car.  I'm not quite sure how they ended up in her mouth, but that's how I found her, so I took a quick picture.  It made me laugh.

 That girl's hair is wild and crazy and fluffy and hopefully someday it will grow into something manageable.  :)  In the meantime I still practice on all the nieces.

 Rylea loves to be outside and that is usually her first request of the day.  I'm looking forward to the warmer weather so we can spend more time outside.  We've been trying to take a walk outside after lunch everyday, we are doing pretty good.  Sometimes it's just being outside and playing.  Either way, we all just need some good ol' sunshine everyday.

On Friday we went to the temple on a double date with my parents.  We did sealings, it was so fun and a neat experience to be there with my parents.  They are such good examples to us.  Afterwards we went out to dinner since we had a little extra time before we needed to get the kids from the babysitter.  We went to Village Inn, I think the most memorable part would be the buttermilk biscuit, I laugh just thinking about it.  Hahaha.  The food was really good, except for this brown stale looking biscuit they brought out to Morgan.  He was going to say anything, but my dad piped up and said something, so they brought him out another one...identical to the first....hahahaha.  It was a good laugh, awful biscuit, but good laugh.  

On Saturday Morgan had the chance to go get his skiing fix.  He went up with the youth to Brian Head for the day.  He had a really good time, but also learned some valuable lessons, some about family and some about the buddy system.  :)

While he was gone, we had a Family Home Morning breakfast at Grandma's house.  After our lesson, and family council we were able to sneak in a couple rounds of Canasta before we all headed off to see Harlee at gymnastics meet/exhibition.  It brought back a lot of memories and made me long for the days when I could run and tumble.  I just don't know that my body will ever be able to do that again, I really would love to!  It did make me want to coach gymnastics though.  I've always thought that would be fun.  Maybe when Rylea is in school.

After the meet, my mom came over for her piano lessons.  I can't believe how much piano has boomed.  I love teaching piano and the kids I work with are great.  Right now I'm struggling with too many and trying to figure out what to do.  I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out though.  It's been such a blessing for our family right now.  Until next time....

January 19-24th

A little bit out of the order, but that's the way the pictures popped up.  :)  Morgan went on a "Klondike" campout with the young men this weekend.  They went to Snow Canyon State Park and hiked the petrified dunes.  Morgan had never been there before and really liked it.  Our boys really  liked it last time we went....but that was almost two years ago when I was pregnant with Rylea, it was quite the adventure, I'm sure I've already written about that.  These were some awesome pictures of the park though.

 Rylea girl is up to her tricks again, she will either pull a chair to the counter to get what she wants, or she will go get the step stool from the bathroom.

 I'm not even sure what she was trying to get, just that she wanted something.

 I love that the weather is getting a little warmer and we can spend more time outside.  This week I had a goal to get out and go on a walk with the kids or at least be outside for a while at some point during the day, for the most part we did pretty good.  I can remember at least 3 walks and some other outside time.  Next week we will do even better!  Rylea could probably spend all day on the trampoline, she loves it and the little kids have done really well not to bounce her too high.

 I was practicing the piano the other day and heard sucking sounds and I turned around and saw Rylea just sucking on her toe, I thought it was pretty funny

 Brittyn really likes bunnies, whenever I ask what kind of project or craft she wants to do, it always has something to do with bunnies.  :)

 So we made Bunny-Girl and Cat-Boy masks.  They made it through the whole day too, I was pretty impressed.

 I started a challenge with Raquel to read the Book of Mormon 3 times in 3 months.  I wasn't sure I could really do it, it's about 18 pages/day, but I really felt like I needed something to step up my study in the morning, so I went for it.  Each time you read it you focus and highlight something different.  I went through two yellow pencils the first time and it was an amazing experience to read the whole book so quickly.  I'm just starting my second time through with my red pencil now.  It's been amazing to me to realize that a lot of my favorite quotes were not from people who I thought they were.  I would usually just assume who said it because of what book they were in.  I feel like I understand the storyline a lot better reading it so condensed, I'm excited for this second time to focus on the Atonement of the Savior.

Damon has been studying the different systems of the body and wanted to make sure we documented his Q-tip skeleton.  He did a really good job.

The past couple weeks we have really been making an effort to do our family scripture study in a more meaningful way, so now we wake up the boys a little extra early in the morning so we have enough time to study before breakfast....I think I already wrote that somewhere, but anyway.  Over the last couple weeks we have really noticed a difference in a very good way what that has been doing for our family.  I know the Lord is pouring out his blessings.  We have even had tender mercies along the way that have confirmed that the boys really are listened even if they don't always look like it and that we need to stick with it and keep moving forward.

A couple days ago I had this experience:

Thursday January 21^st, 2016

This morning, Jaron, Rylea, and I were headed to the grocery store and out of the blue Jaron asks if this is Earth.  I said, yes, this is earth.

J:  Why are we here?

Mom: Well, because Heavenly Father and Jesus have a body and they want us to be just like them, and the only way to get a body was to come to this Earth and learn to be like Them so we could live with Them again.

J: Oh, when will we live with Them again?

M: Well, we get to have His Spirit to be with us on earth right now, but when we die we will be able to live with Him again.

J: When will that be?

M: I don’t know sweetheart, only Heavenly Father knows that, so we just do the best we can to make good choices with the time we have so that we can live with Him again.

J: Oh…does Heavenly Father miss us?

M: I’m sure He misses us a lot, that’s why He wants us to return to Him, but He gave us a way to talk to Him while we are away, that’s why we pray Jaron, so we can talk to Heavenly Father so He doesn’t miss us so much.  He wants to hear from us all the time.

J: but…I don’t know how to pray.

M: Oh, I bet you do, and, even if you don’t feel like you’re saying the right words, if you’re saying it because you want to talk to Heavenly Father, He will hear you.  That’s why we practice a lot at home too.  Hey, I know a song that teaches us how to pray, do you want to hear it?

J: Yeah

M: I begin by saying Dear Heavenly Father, I thank Him for blessings He sends, then humbly I ask Him for things that are right, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

J: Can you sing it again mom?

M: Yes…I sang it about half a dozen times while he chimed in.

J: Okay, mom, I think I know how now, you can stop singing.

M: Okay, maybe we can sing it again tonight at bedtime.

J: Yeah.

This whole experience might not seem like much on paper, but if you could have felt the Spirit in the car at the time, I hope I can always remember it.  I think part of the experience was for Jaron because he was curious and wanted to know, part of it was for me to say those things out loud and bear testimony to him and have it confirmed that I know those things are true, and part of it was a tender mercy for Morgan and I to know that the sacrifices we are making and the things we are trying to teach are children are right and good and true and to not get discouraged even when things don't always seem to go like we plan during scripture study and Family Home Evening.  I'm so grateful to have had this experience.

Until next time.....

January 12th - 18th

We scored an awesome desk from a neighbor who was just giving it away.  I snagged it right up because the boys have been wanting a desk.  Now the fight is on for who gets to use it.  Oiy!  Rylea usually gets it whenever she wants though.  She definitely rules the roost here.

 I love this look she's giving Tragon who is trying to take the seat from her.

 I think Tragon had his homework done first and fastest when I told him he could use the new desk.

 Rylea girl is miss independent and I'll probably say it a million times before the year is out.  She pushed her chair up to the counter to get a banana.  She opened it too....well, sort of, it was half a banana leftover from someones breakfast.

I sent the video to Morgan and he got a few still shots that were too good to pass up.

 Rylea also graduated to a toddler bed this past weekend!  Yay, no more crib.  It was a good transition time for her and she loves it and we haven't had any problems yet...knock on wood.

 On Saturday we had quite the day.  We started out by getting the house cleaned, not without many tantrums and tears of course, but we finally finished around lunchtime (something that could have been done by 10:00).  We decided to load up and go get lunch together at Costco since I had to go to some shopping there anyway.

 It's a treat to each the giant pizza at Costco for them.  Most of them finished their food too!!  After we went shopping we took the truck through the car wash and then came home to hang out for a little bit.  Grandma came over and we were able to play some Canasta while Rylea took a nap and Papa and Morgan went and looked for trucks for my dad.

 Our neighbors invited us over for dinner and games that night too, so bonus we didn't have to get the kitchen clean or make lunch or dinner that day, it was great!  We had fun with the Burbanks and our kids all get along really well.

We realized a couple things this weekend though.  1)  Late night are really bad for the kids...and us.  When we don't get to bed at a decent hour that means we don't wake up when we should and don't get a very good start to the day.  2) It's just better to go to bed early and get up early, even on weekends.  ...sigh...I thought it would be nice to sleep in on weekends, but I actually feel so much worse when I sleep in and don't take my time in the morning to start my day right.  I've known this in the past, but I guess sometimes it just takes a really tough weekend to remind yourself.

Overall it was still a great, productive, fun-filled active weekend, we just need to keep balance.  :)  Until next time....

January 3rd - 11th Happy New Year!!! 2016

We've been starting off the new year trying to be better at playing and having fun!  So, we decided to make sock puppets for "preschool." The kids loved it and it kept them entertained for at least 30 minutes!

Jaron wanted blue short spiky hair...we tried our best.

Brittyn has Patriot Pigtails.

 And Auri had an Elsa sock puppet.

 Rylea girl is getting more and more bold, writing on the stool was just not enough,

 No, she had to climb on the stool to finish her pictures.  That girl loves to draw with pens, pencils, crayons, markers, anything that will make a mark.

 The boys thought it would be a good idea to put Elmer's Glue all over the driveway...well, mostly Jaron, but the others were not all innocent bystanders, so they all worked together to scrub my driveway.

 Halfway through cleaning one of the boys' friends said, "I don't usually like cleaning, but I'm really enjoying this"  hahaha  boys, you can come scrub the driveway anytime you want!

 This year for Christmas the boys all got a certificate to pick a date with mom/dad/both/family.  Tragon's was the first one planned and he chose to go to the park with the family, so on Saturday we got a picnic together and headed to the park.

 It was a little colder than we thought, but we still spent a good hour and half there playing around.  The boys made some friends and Rylea had a blast!

 We were all very glad that Tragon chose to include the whole family on his special activity.

 Jaron found the joy of going down the slide Superman style, I think he spent pretty much the entire time on the slides.

 Rylea is going to be Miss Independent.  She already pushes chairs to the island and hangs out while I'm cooking.

 She's seen us peel oranges several times now, so she decided to go for it herself, she actually did pretty good until she could see a little bit of the orange, then she just kept gouging it with her fingers, so I helped her before it got too messy.

 This year we are focusing on getting our house in order and patching things up and we started in the hardest room....the toy room....I felt like I pretty much patched the entire wall and probably would have been better off to just re-mud the whole room!!!

 But, I did get some awesome shelves.  Set two are going up this week.  It will be so nice to have some toys higher up that need a little help to get down and a place for it so it's not scattered all over the floor.  Spring Cleaning has started a little early this year.  We are just going keep working on one room until we get it all done and then move to the next as a family until the whole house is in tip top shape....which will probably last a week and then we'll have to do it all over again.  oiy!  But at least I'll fee like I'm trying.

 We've been missing the DVD remote for months now.  It's only a problem when you need to access a menu on the DVD, but most of the kids stuff you can just push play on the DVD player or it's the auto start after previews, but there have been a couple times that we needed it and didn't have it.  Well, as I was sprucing up Rylea's room, I found it behind her changing table...I have no idea how it got there, except now that I'm typing this, I vaguely remember her bringing it in there and while changing a diaper she dropped it and I had the thought, I should get that right now before I forget it's back there.  Or what really happened was that it happened when a babysitter was here...yeah, I'll go with that.

 Damon's picture from school.

 Rylea was stretching with Daddy after his run.  It was adorable.

 She is a daddy's girl.

 She found her headband and put it on all by herself.  She was so proud and said "pretty"

 She loves to run races with Jaron during the day, they just run back and forth across the house, it's awesome.

 She fits into her pink cowgirl boots.  She it definitely a shoe girl.  She will bring you her shoes and turn around and park it in your lap until you put her shoes on, but then in the car she always takes them off.  Silly girl.

 Her love after shoes, and writing utensils, is books.  She loves books!  And I love that she loves books.

 A Christmas ornament that Logan made at school that didn't quite get home in time to be on the tree, but I thought we better get it into the yearbook.  Love that kiddo!

I love the start of a New Year.  Most of the time my ambitions get away from me and I end up with a million goals and feel like I never accomplish any of them, but this year I'm really wanting to focus on just a couple.  As a family we are focusing on Family Scripture Study.  We wake the kids up early and study in the morning before breakfast, it has been amazing.  We have had some really good discussions already and the boys all participate and aren't distracted by the food. :)  My personal goal is to focus on prayer and within that focus of prayer being able to receive answers to my prayers about how to be a better mom and what I need to focus on for each individual child.  I love my family so much and want to be a good mom and teach my boys to be good.  The task is very daunting, but I know that I have my Savior's help to strengthen me physically, emotionally, and spiritually as I take on the task.  I also have the most wonderful eternal companion by my side to help me and be my partner in this crazy ride of parenthood.  I couldn't do it without him!  Until next time...