Helper and Hidden Talent

Lindsey was crying because she was hungry and I was doing something (I don't remember what), but I was trying to hurry to go feed her and Kate went and got her and started feeding her. It calmed her down for a little bit until I could go in and feed her. I like having a good helper like Kate!

Preston is the puzzle man! He loves puzzles and will do them daily. This is a hard puzzle and he used to not be able to do it, but now he can do it all by himself. Good job Buddy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day...

We had red heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. I ran a bunch of errands to Walmart, Fred Meyer, Winco and Costco. Kate and Preston had fun at their Valentine parties at school. They came home with lots of candy and goodies. It was almost like Halloween! Kyle came home for lunch and brought me flowers. We exchanged cards and that was it (good for us since we both think Valentine's day is overrated!). I made red velvet cupcakes then had to wake up Lindsey from her nap to take Kate to her ballet class. Then we got home and it turned hectic. I was trying to make the tissue paper puffs, stir up the pizza dough so it could rise for a little bit and then feed Lindsey her bottle. It was crazy. We enjoyed the heart shaped pizzas for dinner and ate by candle light, but it quickly turned bad when Preston wouldn't eat his food and an adult got frustrated (not me this time :)). We finished it off by eating the red velvet cupcakes and playing Candyland and Chutes & Ladders with the kids for family night. It was a fun busy day.

Young Women

There's No Place Like Our Heavenly Home

That was the theme for our New Beginnings this last Wednesday. Two of the Laurels planned it and they did a great job. There was Glinda the Good Witch, Dorothy (the YW pres), the Cowardly Lion (our Bishop), the Tin Man (a bishopric counselor), the scarecrow and Oz (a bishopric counselor). They walked down the yellow brick road amongst the bubbles coming from Glinda and found colored bricks of the Young Women values. We learned about each value and how our goal is to go to the Temple so we can return to our Heavenly Home with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Then we enjoyed yummy lemon bars and punch.

Cast and Young Women

Back Row L-R: Brian Schwartz (Scarecrow), Emma Croft (planned it), Mari Perez, Danielle Apken (Dorothy), Karen Thorp, Sami Wendt, Linda Watson (Glinda), Jacque Herrmann

Front Row L-R: Bro. Haven (Oz), Judy Tustison, Nelly Cutler (planned it), Miranda, Paula Butlay, Rebecca Croft, Bishop Valentine (Lion) and Justin Owens (tin man).

Valentine Visit and Room Makeover

My Mom came over on Thursday to make Valentine cookies with the kids. She just came for the day and went back home before dinner. We had a fun visit and got a lot done in that short amount of time. It's so nice of her to make that effort to come over to see the kids. They loved it.

Kate loved making cookies with Grandma.

Using plenty of sprinkles (I'm still finding them on my floor- haha!)

Lindsey watching my Mom. It was too cute to see her just sitting there watching her. I needed to make my pillows for my living room, but didn't know how to put in an invisible zipper (I wanted a zipper so I could take out the pillow and wash the pillowcase when it gets dirty). My Mom gave me a tutorial and then whipped all four pillows up for me. It was nice to have them done.

There are spots all over this picture- weird

Here are our new couches and curtains that I made (it wasn't too bad to make them- I was nervous though!) and my new pillows. We are liking our couches more and the room is coming together. It's time consuming to redecorate! You have to shop around and find things that will work and for a good price.

We also bought this side console table off of Amazon for a good deal. I found these baskets and lamp at Target. I need to finish decorating the top of it. I think I am going to do a picture collage above the table. We'll see. That's still in the works. But we used to have a toy box on this wall so now the toys are moved to the baskets and I will probably repaint the toy box and put it in Kate's room for dress-up.

Preschool Time

I went to Preston's preschool last week to visit. It was fun to see him at school and see how he did. He was very well trained and knew what to do (he likes routine and responds well to it). The day I was there he was going to gym for PT help. They had him kick a ball, swing on a horse swing and do an obstacle course which involved putting a valentine in an envelope, walking upstairs to put it in the mailbox, jumping in circles, walking on a tipsy table and rolling down a hill. He was so good about waiting his turn and knew which line to sit on. I was impressed. Then we went back into his class and they had snack. They did circle time and went out to recess. I had to leave at recess time. But now I have a better sense of how things go there.

He loves riding the bus and runs out to the bus each morning and chooses to sit in the very back. The morning bus driver doesn't care, but bus driver that brings him home doesn't like him sitting all the way in the back so he gets mad. When I put him on the bus in the morning I usually say, "have a good day! I love you!" and he repeats it back to me. He also used to say, "hi friends" as he was getting on the bus. Too cute. The teacher or aides will send home a note attached to his backpack if there was a problem (ie: biting, pushing, having to change clothes, falling down and getting hurt, etc). It's their way of communicating with us. Well, those days that he gets a note I'm always curious what happened that day. Kate will ask, "was he good? Did he get a note?" haha. One time he shredded the note to a bunch of pieces. I guess he didn't want me to read it! When he first started school he would take his shoes and socks off on the bus ride home. Very annoying. Now he is loosening his seat belt and the bus driver does not like that. I hear about it all the time (the bus driver that brings him home always has something wrong to say...kind of annoying). Another time, he got a bag of candy from school and got it out of his backpack on the bus and ate the candy. Overall, he is doing really well and we can see lots of progress with his speech. He comes home happy, eats lunch really good then takes a nap. School wears him out.

Just some pictures of the kids from the other day.

Look at Me!

Lindsey is 6 mo's old now and doing so much! She is very social and smiley. We are having fun with her and her personality. Kate asks me all the time if I like kids and if I like having Lindsey as my baby. (Why does she keep asking this?! Do I act like I don't? haha)

Lindsey is sitting up so good now. She also got her first tooth last week. It's so cute and little...and sharp.

She's eating food- she made a raspberry sound with her lips so food went spraying everywhere. She likes to grab the spoon and then shove both of her hands in her mouth with the food. It makes for a difficult and messy feeding time! I have to hold her hands down a lot to get the food in her mouth.

This is her latest trick. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, then decides to lay down and scoots around. She does the army crawl everywhere and is very active. She loves magazines and will destory them. I've left too many out for her to grab.

Lindsey weighs almost 17 lbs and is in the 89% for height so she's long. She slept through the night twice last week, but still hasn't mastered that. I can't wait until she does. We are in the process of sleep training her so we hope she catches on quickly. She is a lot of fun and we are so glad she's in our family!

Mod Podge

Before

After

I wanted to paint my magazine holder black, but then got the idea to mod podge material on the front and back. (The Mod Podge is like magic- it goes on white and dries clear, but man it stinks!!! I had a headache from it. I put it in my garage to dry after I finished one side, but it was too cold in the garage to dry so I brought it back in and suffered through the smell.) I really like how it turned out. I was nervous to do it because I read on the mod podge bottle that you can't remove it! I hoped I liked it then. Good thing I do. :) I'm using this material as well to make pillows for the front room.