I was devastated when I found out that our new place (just 50-minutes away) doesn't get much snow. I'm not exaggerating either! We had one snowfall back in December that stuck for about 1 week. Since that nothing has stayed even 24 hours -- including this day. This was a Sunday back in late January where it snowed all day so after church and after naps, we immediately went outside to make one snowman this winter.
The kids didn't really care about the snowman. Curtis and I worked on a snowman. And Xander (and Tayla too) threw snowball...
After snowball...
After snowball!!! I remember about how we had to help Xander make snowballs last year (unless he got lucky and found a chunk of snow on the ground.) But this year, he could make them all on his own. Here's our snowman. And I kid you not -- this monstrous beast was completely gone within 24 hours! There was not even a puddle left the next day.
And one more snowball!
Oh well. Now I can say that the kids used their snow pants once this year and their boots twice. And they will outgrow them by next year...bummer. See if I buy them again!
In one naptime! I used fabric scraps that I already had. The only cost was a box of crayons to split between the two rolls.
I used them to entertain the kids (along with coloring pages of Jesus I just printed off the internet) during church today. And guess what!?! It worked! It kept my kids (age 2 and 3) entertained for the entire meeting (30 minutes -- I think).
For the instructions I used to make the crayon rolls check out "chocolate on my cranium." Know that I didn't follow the instructions exactly. I didn't have interfacing so instead I used a piece of all-natural cotton batting to go inside. And if I had not had the batting on hand, I would have used felt.
We've had a battle with keeping the kids quiet in church. Until now, we've always loaded the diaper bag up with books, toys, snacks, you name it -- sometimes we even packed two bags. (I hang my head in shame.) I didn't understand why when we had so many things the kids still fought over toys. By the end of church there were toys spewed all over the bench and crumbs on the floor. The culminating event was a tantrum by my two-year old daughter over us bringing enough snacks. (She had just eaten an entire sandwich bag stuffed full of grapes!) Enough was enough! There had to be a change because these kids were out of control and I was getting nothing but stress out of church.
I scoured the internet for ideas about teaching your young ones reverence at church. Just about every mommy blogger out there said to take away all the toys and snacks. Once the children are over 18 months it just isn't necessary. My husband and I were apprehensive, but decided to give it a try the following Sunday. We went cold turkey with the toys and the reverence level increased dramatically. We weren't the best examples that week so we decided to try it a few more weeks. The reverence improved, but I still wanted my children to be able to learn about Jesus and feel of the sweet Holy Spirit during the meeting so that they too would get something out of it.
My plan: reintroduce appropriate things for the kids to do during church.
Rules: 1. It has to be church related -- to encourage reflection. 2. There has to be two identical copies -- to discourage fighting between by two kids. 3. We would wait until after the sacrament to get the activity out. 4. One activity a week (in hopes of finding 4 different activities to rotate through each month).
Today was coloring the internet pictures with their oh so cute crayon rolls. Next week, two copies of picture scriptures? Hopefully I'll get two more brilliant ideas for the rest of the month... Stay tuned.
I know it's way past Valentine's day, but I did something rather creative and I wanted to share.
You know how guys are last minute planners and usually forget dates like these. Well, I wanted to give him plenty of notice -- 12 days to be exact. Using the 12 days of Christmas and one of my favorite blogs (http://www.loveactually-blog.blogspot.com) as inspiration, this is what I came up with. Each day my husband found a little gift or note like this one.
Instead of a partridge in a 'pear' tree...
These were my "Dove" chocolate turtles...
In addition to finding this silly card on the mirror in the morning,
I found three times during the day to do what the back of the card said.
Four calling birds were portrayed by the 4 flirty text messages I sent.
You get the idea. Not all of them were easy to come up with. I had to know who I was working with. For example, 6 geese-a-laying could be anything with eggs -- perhaps breakfast in bed. However my man doesn't like breakfast much less egg. So I had to stretch it to be a little goofy.
I "goosed" him 6 times that day and each time he endured my playful cheesiness, he got an egg filled with Hershey's kisses.
The second week involved dates together. It was just a great way to spend Valentine's week.
We went "hot-pooling" at Lava Hot Springs (7 swans-a-swimming). And yes, apparently you can do that 365 days a year.
And again I stretched it for day 10. This is the note he got:
"Lords-a-leaping are hard to find
So that left me in quite a bind
Ladies and “Lords of Film” you know
Are in this “Valentine’s Day” show"
As you can guess, we went and saw "Valentine's Day" on opening night. Which was an added bonus for me because they gave out carnations to all the women.
Day 11 was eleven "Pepper's" pepping. My husband happens to LOVE his soda. However he was disappointed to find only 11 Dr. Pepper's in the 12 pack. But hey, I had to stay true to the game!
And for the grand finale....
For the 12th 'lay' of V-day my true love gave to me...
LIVE drummers drumming.
(Tickets to a Daughtry concert in April!)
This turned out to be the best V-day ever...aside from 2004's when Curtis proposed. And it will live on until April because we have a concert to look forward to.
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One day I awoke to find little love notes like these hidden all over the house! I found 17 and I'm still stumped as to why 17? I loved it!
Sunday, February 14th I got an omelet in the shape of a heart. It was much better than I make omelets too. Oh wait I don't make omelets I just scramble everything together.
I went to church early to practice with the choir. When Curtis and my kids arrived for church each of them had one of these to give me...
With their cute little hand prints for the hearts! So sweet!
Curtis claims the kids made him make one too...It's okay if you wanted to make me a card with your hand print on it honey! hahaha You can admit it.
