Spring is around the corner!

It was probably 50-55 degrees today and sunny! It felt like spring!

I pruned the rose beast (do you think I pruned too much?) And notice the Christmas wreath? I forgot it was there, but that's gone now too.

Nathan always likes to garden with me (especially when he can find worms). When he saw me pruning roses, he asked if he could help. He was pretending it was a monster he had to defeat in a video game (everything is a video game to these kids).

"Look at this monster I defeated!" Nathan told me and showed me this. See the bikes and trikes in the distance?? I also went on a short jog with Rocket in the sunny weather. On my jog some little kids on another street were kind of scared of Rocket. I told them, "Don't worry, he's only eaten one kid." One of the kids looked worried and said, "What kind?" I said, "A little one...about your size." Then I said I was just joking. They laughed.

Alex saw Nathan and wanted to do it too.

Nathan said, "Look! Serious clouds!" (Cirrus)

One of my favorite things about spring, and part of my gardening bug, is watching the plants wake up. I always tell the kids, "Look!"--like I just found gold, when we find the first growth of spring (which was today). Look, you reader, BUDS!

DAFFODILS!

MORE BUDS!

When we're outside in the nice weather and the kids play outside and I garden, Rocket either runs with the kids or sits by me while I garden. If I'm not gardening, I'll throw the ball with him. He really enjoys being outside with us and goes REALLY CRAZY if he can't be outside with us.

Nathan made a spear. Then all the other kids wanted to make spears, too.

When it's nice weather, all the kids on the street come out and play. Do you like Katherine's cute face she is making?

BUDS ON THE NECTARINE TREE! (it's not dead!)

Katherine's happy face and her new spring outfit.

BUDS AND A BLUE SUNNY SKY!

A tiny sprout on the rose beast (among the dead leaves):

But... there are still traces of winter... but spring is around the corner!!!

really random thoughts

*It was beautifully sunny today, and warm (it's all relative) and it made me have a sunny mood!
*I went to the gym this morning. It feels good to exercise.
*I went got some Scentsy bars (like candles but you just melt them instead of light them on fire) and one of the smells I got kinds smells camping (spruce and citrus is the name) and I was thinking about how fun it was to go camping as a child with my family-fond memories. I like to go camping now, but I am really scared of bears eating my family (and me).
*Our family went to the Draper temple open house. After a temple construction is complete, they let anyone go through a tour of the temple before it is dedicated. It was a beautiful temple. It was special to take the kids.
*Todd was pushing Katherine in the stoller in the sunshine, and I looked at her in her adorable dress and happy smile and felt so much love for her! I am so grateful she joined our family. Right now she is close to crawling. She gets on all fours and rocks back and forth. She rolls all over. She does really good in the daycare while I am at the gym. Lately she is in to singing. She sings to herself and if I sing to her, she tries to copy me.
*Before the tour we sat to watch an intro video. Alex asked to hold the baby. I watched my firstborn hold my baby--such a sweet moment. I was just staring at the sugary sweet cuteness when Alex told me to watch the movie (I guess I was embarassing him).
*While we were waiting in line, a family with 2 boys and a baby girl was standing in front of us. They asked how old our baby was (6 months) and they said their baby was 9 months. The dad asked his boys "How many months older is she? What is 9 minus 6?" The boys didn't answer so from behind Nathan said "thwee". The dad turned around and said "There's a little mathematician." I was a proud mother, but even if he and Alex weren't the smartest kids ever I'd still be proud. On the way home in the car, Nathan said, "Do you want to count to 272 with me?" He really loves to count and really loves numbers. Why 272? Who knows? These kids are better entertainment than Comedy Central-- they always make me smile and laugh.
*I was so happy all day today. I thought to myself, if I died today, I'd have lived a wonderful life.

Recommendations

We got this program to monitor the boys' computer time: www.kidswatch.com
The boys like it and I like it. They have to earn computer time so I go on and add computer time to each user as they earn it (or loose it) and it automatically logs them off when their time is done. Computer is a good motivator for them-- today they got up and brushed their teeth and made their beds first thing without me even asking! Now I need to get something like that for the tv!

Next is http://www.sparkpeople.com
It is a wieght loss website that is completely free! You say what your weight, height, etc. is now, and it then you say what you want to weigh. It will calculate different programs (aggressive, slow and steady, etc.) and you pick the one you want. Then it makes a meal plan for you based on your calories, and an exercise program so you can get to that weight by the time you want. On the meal plan, you can click on something you want to change and it will give you a list of things you can substitute for it. Then, it will make a grocery list for you. On the exercise plan, it does the same type of thing- you say what kind of cardio exercise you want to do, and it will tell you how long and how fast you need to do it to burn the amount of calories you need. It also gives you the strength training exercises you need to do and how many and the directions, but you can change those, too, and substitute other ones if you want. It has lots of resources, and even an online planner, and will email you to remind you of things on your planner (good for me who needs reminders).
It has a website if you are pregnant: http://babyfit.sparkpeople.com/ with tons of resources and healthy meal plans and pregnancy safe exercises and other pregnancy resources.

fun school day

Right now we are reading the book that Nanny McPhee was based on and we all like it. Last night we read that Nurse Matilda (Nanny McPhee in the movie) did fun "lessons" for their school. We read that to learn money, they had to pay for arms and legs. So today we did that. They played a Jeopardy game to review their science and to earn money for their arms and legs. After the Jeopardy they added their money and could buy arms and legs. Arms were $. 49 and legs were $.86 and they could trade with each other. Alex ended up with 4 arms and no legs and Nathan with just 2 legs and no arms. They put their arms inside their shirt or jacket if they had no arms. When they had one leg they had to hop on one leg.



Another game we modified from the book was for math. They are adding 2 digit numbers. Alex had the first 12 problems and Nathan had the next 12 (so they had different answers). I put the answers on little pieces of paper and hid them all over downstairs. After they finished a problem, they'd go looking for the piece of paper with their answer on it. Then they could turn in the answer papers for pieces of chocolate. They really liked that game and asked to do more math at the end of school! Today is President's Day and it just happens that we are learning about the Revolution and George Washington in history. I love history, especially early American history. We sang "Yankee Doodle" and read books. In a book about George Washington it said he learned handwriting by copying a book, so for handwriting they copied a sentence from a book.



This is one of the main reasons we are doing homeschool... I like playing "teacher"!

Love

Rexy has now been replaced by Linny from the Wonder Pets. Ever since Nathan had that "true dream" about flying on the Wonder Pet's fly boat, he has been into the Wonder Pets. We found a stuffed Linny at Toys R Us for $2.98, and then went back yesterday to get the other 2 Wonder Pets-- Ming Ming and Tuck (Todd refers to them as Lester, Ding Ding and Chuck). Linny goes everywhere with Nathan and has to sleep with him, too. I asked if he loved Linny more than Rexy and he said, "one penny more."

Alex has been wanting a wife for Beary, so yesterday we went to Build a Bear and he got a pink bear with white hearts on it. He got a wedding dress for "Mrs. Bear" and a tux for Beary. So tomorrow we are going to have a wedding and I'm going to make the wedding cake. Alex said he bought a house for them, and he told me Beary is a little bit scared because he's never been in a wedding before.

Friday night I told the boys that Sat. was going to be Val. Day, a day to do things for the people we love. Nathan said, "Can I take cookies to Nancy?" Nancy is our single 65 year old neighbor that Nathan has a crush on. He said that he is going to marry her. We didn't have time to make cookies, so we got a rose and a Valentine and gave it to her. She wasn't home so we left it at her door. We saw her today and she said that it made her day. (Todd said Nathan knows how to work it with the older ladies and I said he gets that from my dad- ha ha ha ha! My dad works with older people and many older women have crushes on him).

PE and A Genius Idea

PE:
On Wed. the kids did a PE class with other homeschool kids in a church gym. They played kick ball and it was HILLARIOUS! My kids got their coordination and sports "skills" (or lack of) from Todd and I. In this picture Alex just kicked the ball and is running to first base (the chair Nathan is sitting in) but Nathan doesn't know he's supposed to run to second base yet. Other highlights include Nathan kicking the ball and running toward third base, Alex standing in outfield and falling down for no apparent reason, Nathan getting the ball and running after his own teammates or players who have already passed home base, etc. They did have a lot of fun, and so did I.


Tonight the kids were learning to do cartwheels in the living room and they pretty much got it! My plan is to have a fireplace downstairs with a coffee table and chairs where the computer desk now is, but tonight I was glad to have room for the kids to learn the important skill of cartwheels.
Scripture Memorizing:
Each morning I read scriptures with the kids and then they learn to memorize a scripture. For some reason lately, they have been having a really hard time. Usually it takes maybe a week to learn a new scripture, but the last scripture we have been learning for ...who knows how long. So, I had a genius idea from the "Friend" magazine. In it, it has a picture of a home and a scripture on it D & C 88:119. It is divided into puzzle pieces and each piece has part of the scripture on it. Soooo... I made flashcards for the scriptures we've learned, that has a picture that goes along with a part of the scripture to help them visually memorize it. I also made puzzles out of the scriptures we've learned for them to put together during sacrament meeting at church. I also made a scripture mastery can out of an old hot chocolate can where I put a piece of paper with a picture that goes along with one scripture. Each day they can pick out a picture and that will be the review scripture. Here are some of the flash cards-- I cut the paper into 4 pieces but scanned 4 pictures together. On the back are the words.

My business

One day, I am going to have my own business--any kind. I always have ideas for it. Right now my idea is to get a cute place, like remodeling an old house or something, with a beautiful garden in the back. It would be a bistro, where people could go to relax and drink some lemonade in the summer in the garden or hot chocolate by the fire in winter. It would also have Todd's eclairs and other nummies, and I'd learn how to make cute pasteries. I'd also have events there, like tea parties and holiday activities and kids and adults birthday parties and such. Ohhhhh, I would enjoy that.

Coming soon..... :)

Boys Club

Today the boys went to "Boys Club," (not to be confused with "gentlemens club") a club for 5 and 6 year old homeschool boys. They loved it! There were 7 boys, including my boys. They play and then have an activity every week. Today they also exchanged Valentines. Alex chose Spongebob Valentines and Nathan chose dinosaurs. They have another Valentine party with another homeschool group on Friday and they both chose "Wonder Pet" Valentines for that one.

Here is a small thought from the "Boys Club": One of the moms hosted the boys club in her house. Her house was very clean, she had everything very organized, she had chore schedules posted, she had a detailed daily schedule posted which included waking up at 5:30am, she homeschools her children and has a baby. I was envious of her organization. And seeming supermom skills.

Another mom there was pregnant, due April 1. She has been sick with her pregnancy. Her little boy came to her and told her that the toilet was not flushing. The host mother went into the bathroom and confirmed that the toilet had been clogged. Pregnant mother and host mother danced around the issue of who would plunge, for quite some time, so I said, "I'll do it." Host mother replied, "You're not scared of it?"
So I went in and plunged the toilet-- Superhero Kristie. I bet she was envious of my bravery.

Moral of the story: we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

How do I love thee... let me count the ways

On Monday Todd and I will have been married for eight years! We went out last night to celebrate and my wonderful brother and his wife watched the boys for us. We brought the baby with us because she is having some separation anxiety and because she is such a good baby that it is not a burden to have her with us.

We started out going to an early dinner/late lunch at Chili's. Then Todd said he had a surprise activity for us... he was taking me shopping!! And not just any shopping, but the girly stores that I love!! (Remember this post?) Todd HATES shopping, but he didn't even complain and let me look as much as I wanted and let me get some things, too.

After that, it was a little after 6pm, and I told him we could look at a store he wanted. He went to Circuit City for a few minutes, and then we went to eat dessert. Todd had a brownie sundae and I ate a molten lava chocolate cake...yummy! We were going to go to a movie after, but they were all sold out. But we were getting tired anyway (we are an old married couple now) So we went back to Ryan and Shannon's.

shopping and chocolate all in one day...I told him it was the funnest day I've had since we went to Disneyland.

I love you, Todd!!!!! Happy 8 years and an eternity left to go!!!!

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Flashback Friday

I know a few blogs who do "flashback Friday" where you tell a story from the past. My story will show you how wierd I really am.

I was on my way to Salt Lake to my sister-in-law's baby shower and I thought I could find her house without an address or directions. Well, I ended up lost and no one was answering their phone so I could get directions. I was getting frustrated and so I called 911 to get directions. I told the guy I was lost (I'm surprised he didn't ask if I was a 5 year old) and he told me, "well, 911 isn't really for directions." I told him I didn't know what else to do, so he was nice and told me the directions. To make matters worse, I was practically there and didn't even know it. Gotta love 911!
*************************************************************************************

In school we learned "singular-just one" and "plural-more than one". Nathan said, "I want a plural of cookies!"

Alex's piano lessons

Alex started piano lessons today! His teacher is REALLY GREAT and used to do a music class for the kids for my daycare and does music in the kids' primary. She is Russian and her mom is helping her, but her mom speaks no English. They did a great job and Alex said he liked it and had fun. I am so excited--very-- and hope that he enjoys making music as much as I do!

I have the best husband ever

But I have to add-- I am an idiot. Todd ordered these flowers this morning to be delivered to me today to surprise me. We must be married, though, because I just started thinking about flowers today and thinking, I really want some flowers, so I'm going to ask Todd to get me flowers for Val. Day and our anniversary (Feb. 9). So I emailed him with an idea-- ("I wouldn't mind if you got me flowers... I like ...") That was in between the time he ordered them but before they sent them. We had a good laugh.
Thank, Todd! I love you!

I'm rubbing off on him...

I had to write this...
Todd is really excited about Kate's Easter dress:). He told me today "I can't until we get it (we ordered it online) and I can see it on her." I laughed and he said "What? It's a cute dress!" I laughed and laughed!

THE Easter dress

Can you imagine my angst trying to pick ONE dress for Katherine for THE Easter dress??? There are SO many cute dresses, how could I ever pick one??? So, Todd picked to relieve me of THAT KIND of pressure! We did like the polka dot one everyone voted for, but Todd and I liked this one better. Here's the one he picked:

I was ok with it because there is a 30 return policy in case I see one that I like so much better.

Now, what kind of head accessory... bow? hat? flower wreath? So many choices!!

Funny clip

This was really funny. I stole it from my neighbor's blog.
http://mcghie.blogspot.com/2009/02/funny-clip.html

Look what I got!

Mommy got me this ADORABLE hat! She was so happy because it was only 99 cents! It's purple and looks really cute with this shirt and bracelet. But let's be honest, it's really ME that makes the outfit adorable!

Look what else Mommy got for me (thanks, Daddy!):

***********************************************************************************

Today we were going to meet Todd at a bakery (The Sweet Tooth Fairy in Provo) by his work to see him. He asked me to bring him a hot dog for lunch. Well, in trying to get all of us ready and in the car I forgot the hot dog cooking on the griddle! I didn't remember it until we met Todd. After we ate our sweets, I went home and it wasn't even burnt even a little. So I put it on a bun and drove it back to Todd's work and he ate it and he was happy.

fun day

Today we had a fun day. We went shopping! We each got to pick a place (but Katherine and I were on a team). Alex picked Toys R Us, Nathan wanted to get a rubber duck in Salt Lake we saw last week and I wanted to go to a boutique I saw online (Dear Lizzy). The boutique was GIRRRRRLY!!! I came out of that store smelling like roses. The boys tolerated it and were good about it, but I long for another girl to go window shopping with me! I can't wait until Katherine is older and we can go together. Can I have more girls, please?? Who wants to go shopping with me until then? Here's what we would do:

Go to Tai Pan--they have a bistro now too-I wonder if that's good, go to Gardner Village and then have a tea party at the tea party shop after window shopping, then go to Dear Lizzy and then eat at the bistro and have their pretty pasteries and cream sodas. There's also a cute place that serves a traditional English tea by Trolley Square.
Know of any other good girly shops?
Oh, and there's a new patisserie that just opened next to Quilted Bear in Provo that is really good- The Sweet Tooth Fairy. You should try it.

Tip for expectant mother and good news/bad news

Dear Kerry,

Here is one thing to know as a future parent: kids are not logical.

Case in point:

Baby Katherine usually takes 3 naps a day and goes to sleep between 7-9pm. Today she decided to take ONE 20 minute nap. Logic says she will go to sleep early, right? Well, she went to sleep after 9pm, after a long massage, singing, nursing, back patting and finally tylenol. (As a side note, she is still a very happy baby, even with no sleep). But,

they are definitely worth it!

Case in point:

Freshly bathed baby in cute bunny towel:

Dancing to the Superbowl half-time music:

I love you! I'm so glad you are my sister!

**********************************************************************************

Some more good news and bad news:

bad news:

I threw a paint bucket in the laundry room and it opened all over the dirty clothes.

good news:

It mostly got on sleeping bags and blankets, but it ruin some clothes (it could have been ALOT worse), so we get to get some new clothes!

good news:

Todd made some REALLY good cookies for our "Superbowl party" (just our family, and really it's not about football, it's about the food). He wrapped them up on the counter for us to eat after church. We did steal a few and boy were they good! (He made other things, too, but he is going to post them on his blog with pictures)

bad news:

We came home and saw that Rocket had eaten ALL 14 cookies. He had to be outside the rest of the day, mostly so Todd didn't kill him. Todd tolerates Rocket because he knows the rest of us like him, and Todd had spent a long time making those cookies and was really looking forward to them. BBBBAAAAAADDDDDD dog!

Rocket outside pouting, with 14 caramel coconut chocolate cookies swimming in his tummy, sitting on the painted blankets we threw out back to dry.