Chubbuck Elementary Spring Concert 2011

The first graders at Chubbuck Elementary gave a Spring Concert. Here is a short clip (mostly for the benefit of grandparents). Abigail is straight ahead on the very bottom in the orange dress on the end of the front row.

Child Stars

Today one of my piano student's dads told me that he has been thinking about who my children remind him of and he finally decided that Elizabeth looks like the little girl from Problem Child 2 and Emily looks like a baby Drew Barrymore. I have to say, that I can definitely see the resemblance.

Girl from Problem Child 2 - AKA Elizabeth

I have to also say, that I thought this was a picture of my little sister Heather when she was a child.

Drew Barrymore - AKA Emily

What do you think?

Easter 2011

The pictures in this post are kind of in reverse order, so if you would like to know what happened over our Easter weekend in chronological order, you will have to read from the bottom up. On Easter Sunday I had a big dinner planned, but most of the plans for the day were changed because I woke up at 4:00 am with a stomach virus. That is the second one this month, and no people, I am not pregnant, just around virus-carrying children way too much. Darin and Heather managed to pull the dinner off and as far as I know it tasted pretty delish, but I didn't eat all day. I think it has become our family tradition to have Ham, Funeral Potatoes, Salad, Rolls, and Pie & Ice Cream on Easter, cause we have had that for the past three Easters. The girls got to open their Easter baskets after we talked about the true meaning of Easter using pictures from the gospel art picture kit and an activity with a dozen plastic eggs. They got several pairs of shoes and some springy clothes and a few activity books.

As, I said I was sick on Easter morning, so I think Darin did a pretty good job getting the girls ready for church. He only got pictures of Emily in her Easter dress, but oh well, at least they were dressed and their hair was combed. It was beautiful weather which was nice because we are having another snow storm today. We invited my friend Kristin and her four children to go to church with us, so she and Darin managed the seven kids all alone.

Abigail is sorting and counting her loot from the Ward Easter Egg Hunt.

We took our friends the Evans with us to the Ward Easter Egg hunt.

There were tons of eggs and not very many kids, so each child came home with about 3 dozen plastic eggs of candy. We have more candy than we got at Halloween. This should be a crazy week.

Abigail and Quinton left no stone un-turned and no bush un-searched. They are trying to see who can be the first to get an egg out of the thorn bush. OUCH!

Abigail and Elizabeth wait patiently for the hunt to begin.

On the Saturday before Easter I had 11 children at my house at one time. We invited our friends the Evans over to color Easter Eggs with us and then I was asked to watch some Foster kids for the day, so at one point I had nine kids under the age of 7 coloring eggs at once. I think I had temporarily lost my mind for the day.

Elizabeth gets the award for the messiest artist. We had to take her clothes off within two minutes of beginning our activity. She is very creative and really gets into her work.

Abigail and Emily show off their favorite Easter Eggs.

Come On Spring!

I feel like spring has taken forever to get here. We will have a few really nice days and then it will snow. I told Abigail we can buy flip flops when it goes 10 days with out snowing. So far we haven't made it to our flip-flop shopping day. I love spring because of all of the fun clothes. Especially church dresses! I have a whole month's worth of dresses set out for the girls for the next four Sundays that I am excited for the girls to wear. Hopefully it will get warm enough for them to be able to wear their sandals with their cute springy dresses.

Abigail is sporting her new head wrap and hair-do!

Emily is pretty in pink before church.

I love this dress on Elizabeth it makes her blue eyes really pop!

New Do's

After 3 years of living in Idaho, I have finally found a hairstylist and salon that I will return to!!!!

I love my haircut, the bangs look a little crazy in this picture, but I am very pleased. The color is beautiful, very close to my natural color, just a little richer and a little more shiny. You can't really tell, but there are some barely there highlights in it and I love it. VERY nice and low maintenance.

Abigail got about 4-5 inches cut off her hair. I keep trying to have her grow it out, but she likes it shoulder length cause she can brush it easier and it helps when she can at least brush her own hair. She loves it.

Feeling a little trendy today, we both got feathers in our hair. It only cost us $4 per feather, and they are supposed to last 5-6 months. You can wash them and style them just like your own hair. Kind of fun for the summer I guess.

Lockers - the best idea that I have had in a long time.

After we moved here I looked on craigslist for some lockers and we found a set of four that a man was selling that he had bought from the athletic department of a high school in Utah. We bought the entire set for $80. I was so excited. These lockers were the best idea that I have had in a really long time, they have solved so many problems in my life. Each kid gets to have their own locker with their own stuff in it. They have to have things approved before they lock them away and everyone knows that the other person's locker is off limits. Abigail was getting so frustrated with her sisters destroying her special things while she was at school. She was getting angry at me for not protecting her stuff and she was getting angry at her sisters. Now the ball is in her court and she has to take responsibility for protecting her things. This has made my life so much easier!!! The fourth locker is for "Toys in Time Out." Toys that are not cleaned up by the end of the day end up in this locker and only mommy can let them out. The way the girls get their toys out of time out is by doing something extra good and then I unlock the locker and they get to get a toy out of the locker that was confiscated. It is working!!! The playroom is starting to stay cleaner and I don't have to gripe about them cleaning up because they know what the consequence will be if they leave their toys out over night. The Toy Fairy will come in the middle of the night and lock away the toys. Man, this was genious for my house. I LOVE IT.

FHE at the Skating Rink

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to take the family to the skating rink in Pocatello for Family Home Evening. This was all inspired by Abigail because she has been able to go once a month with her school and has learned to skate. I think the last time I went to a skating rink, I was 14. It was quite scary for me, but the kids did great. I think I am more afraid of hurting myself, then when I was 14. I was also nervous that I would kill one of my kids, so I didn't have skates on for very long. By the end of the night the twins were skating with out having mommy or daddy hold their hands. Elizabeth practiced in the little kid area before going on to the big rink.

Daddy is way more coordinated than mommy. I was too nervous to skate and hold the twins hands too.

Emily always has to make sure she is looking good when she is learning anything.

Abigail is getting pretty fast.

Three Little Pigs

Darin, Del (Darin's dad), and Brigham (one of Darin's friends) decided to purchase three pigs together to raise in Rockland and butcher in the Fall. I know this may be appalling to some of you out there, but it is so yummy, and I know exactly what those little piggies are eating, therefore, I will know exactly what I am eating. YUM! YUM! They have a whole feeding schedule worked out and Darin will be feeding the pigs when he goes out to Rockland for work. He will be able to get his farm fix and still live in the convenience of the city. Best of both worlds.

Our Lowes Boycott

So, about a month ago Darin applied for a job at Lowes. The position he applied for was a part-time position on nights and weekends. We were really hopeful that he would get this job so that we could have some health insurance because Lowes offers their part-time employees health insurance. While in the interview, Darin was very clear that he would not be able to work on Sundays before 3:00 because he wanted to go to church with his family. Darin was offered the job and we were elated. Darin's manager told him that he would have to do a training on a Sunday and then, she would do her very best not to schedule him on Sundays unless they were totally desperate. We felt good about this because it is pretty important to have health insurance, right? Well, after Darin got his work schedule, he noticed that he was scheduled EVERY Sunday from 10-7 until forever. He spoke with his manager again and this time she had changed her tune, she wouldn't budge, not one bit. So he had to quit after only working there for 2 weeks. Also, when he was offered the job, he was told that our health benefits would not kick in until June 1st, we were okay with this because many companies have a policy that you have to wait a couple of months to receive benefits. Well, when Darin went to pick up his paycheck, half of it wasn't there because they had charged us for health insurance that we didn't or couldn't use. This time Darin went to the store manager and hes was just as unwilling to help a guy out as the HR manager. They would not give us our money back, so basically, half of Darin's paycheck was gone, paying for benefits that we didn't or couldn't use. Man was Darin ticked! Before Darin quit his job, he was able to take advantage of his 10% employee discount and purchase a deep freeze. It was delivered on Tuesday and it is Friday and it has stopped working all together. GREAT! We will be returning the freezer tomorrow and hopefully we will be getting a full refund and taking our business across town to Home Depot. The upside was that Darin really enjoyed the job for the couple of weeks he was there and he liked his co-workers, but the management stinks!!

Idaho Falls Temple

I had to go to Idaho Falls the other day to run some errands. Darin had to work, so I decided to ask Heather to go with me. I decided that it would also be a good opportunity to take the girls to the Idaho Falls Temple grounds. The only other time they have seen a temple is when Heather and Shane got married. I tried to walk around and explain some things with them and have a "teaching moment" with them, but it was a bit chilly and they were very excited to be there. I just had a hard time keeping them from trampling the tulip bulbs. Maybe next time. I had planned to maybe take them to the visitors center, but opted not to because they couldn't seem to walk very reverently around the temple grounds. Looks like we will have to have another FHE on reverence. I am still glad that they were able to go see the outsid and hopefully, feel the spirit there.

Abi's first sleepover

Abigail had one of her favorite friends come for a sleepover last weekend. Naia is a friend that we met when we lived in Rockland. They had lots of fun even though they are complete opposits. Naia is very much a tomboy and well, Abigail isn't. Abigail loves to sing and dance and Naia likes to do crafts and play outside. They did however agree on playing dress up and barbies. We made cheerio treats and granola bars and ate pancakes for breakfast. They also made necklaces. They were both so excited to expeirence their very first sleepover with someone besides family.

Daddy's Buzz Cut

Aggie heard the clippers turn on and tried to hide. Hair cuts are not her favorite thing. It was way past time for daddy to get a hair cut. He decided to buzz it this time and let the girls help. They were so excited to be his hairstylists.

Birthday Dresses

Elizabeth Emily

Grandma and Grandpa Ralphs got the twins birthday dresses. I just love the color. It is good for winter or spring.

Embarrassing

So, last week I put an ad on Craigslist offering part-time child care. A lady with four boys called me and was interested and wanted to meet me in person to do an interview and let her boys meet me so they could learn the rules and see the house, etc. We set up a time for her to come and I made sure the house was ready and that my kids were presentable. She rang the door bell and I said hello to the boys and told them that they could go downstairs to the playroom while their mom and I chatted. The four boys started walking down the stairs and froze and put their hand over their eyes. I looked at the bottom of the stairs and low and behold, Elizabeth was standing there stark naked and said, "Hi, I am Elizabeth!" I ran down the stairs and said, "please, excuse her she is potty training and I guess decided to take all of her clothes off when she used the restroom" I took Elizabeth in her room and put her clothes on and told her that we should not let other people see our naked bodies. (Strike 1). The mom and I chatted and then I decided to show the boys the back yard. I told them that we had a very friendly dog and cat, but if they were afraid I would put the animals in their pen. The boys were excited about the dog and cat and I said, "they are very nice and love children." Just as the oldest child stepped on the back porch Mr.O'Malley decided he was an attack cat and he jumped forward and attacked the little boys leg (Strike 2). I apologized profusely and put the cat away and told them that he would not be out if they ever came back. As I was walking the family out the door I told the mom that we had just moved into this house about two months ago. Right at that time Emily came around the corner with some lacy pink underwear in her hand and she said, "mommy, these are pretty panties, you should wear these!" Those underwear were well hidden in my room, and I had no idea that she even knew where they were. She brought those out at the worst possible time. I felt myself turning hot and bright red and before I could even respond Abigail said, "yeah we moved from the love shack in Texas." (Strike 3 & 4) The "Love Shack" was the nick name for the grandmother's cottage that we lived in for five months while we were in Texas. I couldn't even think quick enough to respond. I quickly grabbed the lingerie and stuffed it in my pocket. The mother said, "The love shack huh?" I had to explain what that meant and she said, "Well, can we start on Monday?" I couldn't believe that I was hired. Either she was desperate for a babysitter or she appreciated how I worked under pressure. I am convinced that all three of my girls and the cat were out to sabotage me. Thank goodness the dog didn't pull anything.

Potty Confusion

So the twins have gone about six days with only a couple of accidents, most of which were because we couldn't make it to the toilet fast enough. I think that they are FINALLY on the way to being potty trained. I find myself day dreaming about what I will do with all of that extra money that would otherwise be spent on diapers and pull-ups. Maybe I can paint one room in my house each month that they are potty trained. Anyway, today I walk past the bathroom and see Elizabeth standing at the toilet with her pants down by her ankles. She was starring at the toilet and a puddle was starting to form by her feet. I said, "Elizabeth, what are you doing? Pee Pee goes in the potty!" She said, "Mommy, it didn't go in like daddy's does." First of all, I am not sure when she saw daddy going potty, but I am sure it happened. We try to keep these things private, but you know, we all live in the same house and things happen. I had to explain to her that only boys stand to go Pee Pee and that girls have to sit. KIDS!

Calm Child

Just the name of this post it is kind of an oxymoron in my house, because the only time it seems like my children are calm is when they are sleeping. We have been especially concerned about Abigail because it seems like her active behavior is WAY above average for a little girl her age. I have been doing some research on ways to calm children down, and keep them focused. I do realize that I have twins that are 3 and a 6 1/2 year old and that we are cooped up in our house or school most of the day because of the lovely Idaho weather, but really, anyone who has spent a long amount of time with my children know that we are all talk and all action. So here is something that I have come across that helps my children chill out when they need to be chilled it is what I call a "Calm Child" potion. Here it is:

Mix 1 drop each of rosemary, sage, lavender, and chamomile oil in 1/8 cup of Olive oil, and use this aromatic oil to rub your child's feet.

I must note that it is very important to use pure essential oils, not synthetic ones. There is a company called doTerra that sells pure essential oils, if anyone is interested. This "Calm Child" potion smells really yummy too. You can put it on your child's spine too, but because I have children with very sensitive skin, I just stick with the feet. I don't know if just the act of rubbing my children's feet calms them down, but I do this in the day time too. I use it if the children are overly hyper and I can't seem to get them to calm down. I use it if someone is upset or inconsolable about something. It seems to help for a couple of hours at least. I am not to big into homeopathy and naturepathy, but I try to use natural things first al ot of times.

Visiting Teaching

I got my visiting teaching list the day before Valentines day and I have been trying to arrange some visits since then. My visiting teaching supervisor tells me that all of the people on my list (5) are less active or inactive including my companion, so it looks like I will have my work cut out for me. The month is now almost over and I still haven't even met anyone. No one was home when I delivered the cookies on Valentines day. I have decided that I will try one more time to go by an meet these ladies today and just take them a handout and introuduce myself. If you ever are in a crunch and need a visiting teaching message, I recommend the following sites http://sugardoodle.net and http://ldshandouts.blogspot.com/ By the way, does anyone ever feel like a stalker when it comes to church callings?

Oh, and I won't be posting any pictures on my blog for the next 4-6 weeks. My new lap top is sick, which is where I keep all of my pictures. It is at the repair shop and I will have it in about 4-6 weeks. Luckily it is still under warranty.

Love Me Tender

Here is what we did to celebrate Valentine's day.

In no particular order. At about 2:30 in the afternoon, there was a knock at my door and there were about 15-20 ladies standing at my front door wearing pink shirts. They told me that someone sent me a singing valentine. I invited them in and they filled my living room and sang "Love Me Tender" barbershop style and gave me a valentine from Darin. I was very amused and surprised that Darin thought of something like that. The girls loved it. Good job Darin. I loved it. It is rare that I get to be sung to cause I am normally the one doing the singing.



Nohting says I love you more to Darin than a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphey's. We had pizza and soda for dinner, Darin's favorite and us girls gave him a new pair of church shoes.

Valentines Cookies. Since Valentines day was on a Monday, we decided to deliver valentines cookies to our visiting teaching and home teaching families for FHE. The girls had a blast decorating the cookies.

I actually really don't like making cut-out sugar cookies because it is an all-day event. First you make the dough (which I have an awesome recipe from my friend Kristin if anyone wants it), then you chill the dough, that is when I usually make the frosting, but this time I cheated and bought Betty Crocker Frosting. After the dough chills for a couple of hours, you cut out the cookies, which takes forever, then you bake the cookies, then the cookies have to cool, and then they can be decorated. On Sunday, we made 9 dozen cut-out sugar cookies. Whew! I told the girls that we could only do this activity once or twice a year cause it is such a process.

My Little Bakers.

Valentine Boxes. Abigail's school sent a note home asking if they could make a valentine box to put their valentines in for their class party. On Sunday we had fun decorating the boxes. I love to see my little girls minds at work.