I just "Plane" love you!

When I was in the first grade, I experienced my first Valentines class party. I don't remember much about it, but I do remember getting one of these little airplanes from a boy in my class. I thought this was the coolest thing I had ever seen! An airplane made out of candy=best idea ever.

Here are instructions for you to make your own:
You will need:
*rubber bands
*lifesavers
*smarties
*Sticks of gum

1st: String the rubber band between two lifesavers. 2nd: Balance the smarties in the middle of the life savers.

3rd: Wrap the rubber band around a stick of gum. 4th: Add a message!

The kids loved this! Little hands need some help to make them, though. It's a lot of balancing with both hands!

One thing that kind of bothers me is that the lifesavers have to be unwrapped. I tried poking a hole in the plastic to wrap to string the rubber band through, but that didn't work very well. I think the best way would just be to use a glue gun to put it together. Can you think of a better idea? Leave a comment if you can!

Gearing Up for LOVE day!

There's a lot of excitement going on around our house! Last year's Valentines holiday was celebrated with a visit from "The Love Bugs" (click HERE to see that story) and we are hoping that this year is no exception.

Yesterday the kids decorated a love bug box from the directions found in the February 2010 issue of Family Fun. Here's how we made it:

You will need:
*An empty kleenex box
*Red wrapping paper or other paper to wrap the box in
*2 pipe cleaners
*2 large googly eyes
*White felt
Wrap the kleenex box as you would wrap a present. Make sure you remember which side the hole on the top is. Cut through the wrapping paper to the hole in the top of the box. Tape around the edges of the paper and hole.

Curl the pipe cleaner, attach googly eyes with hot glue. Make two holes in the top of your box (I just used a pen and poked it through) to stick the pipe cleaner eyes through the holes.

Cut out white teeth from your felt and glue gun it to the inside of the box. Add a heart nose, and you're done!
Here are the kids getting ready to do the project. Maya and Hayden thought it was fun to wind the pipe cleaners around their fingers to curl it. (And Maya thought it made a good mustache)

Hayden is a little concerned that the love bugs might be a little frightened to visit this box. He thinks it might be too scary for them. I told him we'd put both this box and our mailbox from last year out and then the bugs can choose.

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We also LOVED this project from the blog Make and Takes! (click HERE to see the project)
Maya was so excited after we made these cards, that she got her valentines all ready to deliver. Each card got a plastic bag and the bags were filled with items from our pantry!
Stale pretzels, yum!

Like I said, we're gearing up for Valentines day over here!
More ideas to follow...

People can feel when you love them. I found this to be true when I was serving in the Young Women's Presidency in my ward. It seemed that I would pray for direction and love and I would receive a feeling, sometimes overwhelming, that these girls were chosen for great things and I would feel love for each one of them. They know that I love them. Like I said, people can feel that.

When I was released two weeks ago, I was kind of a mess for a couple of days. I could not imagine loving any calling as much as I loved serving with the youth. And, the new calling I have is Primary Chorister...which I have never done. So, I was sad and scared.

But, last Sunday changed all that. As I taught the children the song "I Know That My Savior Loves Me", I was overcome with love for these children, and what was magical about this experience was that I think they could feel that I love them. All of their sweet little eyes were looking right at me and every one of those children were singing the words to a song that I taught them! The words to a song that will help build their testimony of the Savior. How lucky am I?!

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I wanted to also share with you what I did on Sunday that helped them learn the song. I used an idea that I got from a website called Primary Singing Ideas. (Here's the link)

I filled two small boxes (1 for jr. and 1 for sr. primary) with smarties and wrapped the box. Then I printed off each line of the song and tied each one to a separate string around the box. Then I had 4 children at a time come up and hold up the words or pictures to the song. As I would have each child sit down, the kids had to sing the line with no help and then I would cut off one of the strings. When all the strings were cut off, we could open the box and get the treats inside. One thing I would suggest if you are doing this is to have different treats for jr. and sr. The Sr. Primary kids already knew what the surprise was because they saw the Jr. primary coming out with the smarties. It would have been fun to have a completely different treat.

This activity worked so well! I was worried that it wouldn't be enough of an attention getter for the kids, but they were watching me and listening to my every word. I guess bribery works well in primary, too, huh? Who knew?

De-Junk Day

Today is my de-junking day. The more the little people in my house grow, the smaller my house feels. I am hoping, by some miracle, that cleaning out everything and getting rid of most of my junk that I will have more room for this little family.

I am so lucky that my mother in law took my two oldest kids to make this task easier!

So far I have conquered my bedroom closet. My bed is COVERED in stuff I don't use and actually didn't even know I had!

Now, I am off to the gym (to de-junk my body!!) and then back to work.

Here's my plan for the rest of the day:
*Kid's Closets
*Hallway closet
*Basement closet
*Storage area
*Fabric cupboard
*Trip to D.I.

It will be interesting to see how much I really get done!

(But, I can be proud of my "de-junking my body" task. Down 5 more lbs. this morning! Hopefully that's not the only victory I have today.)

Bakin' up some love

I tend to think that every holiday needs to be celebrated with sugar cookies. At first we would just decorate them for Valentines day and Christmas, but then there's Easter--which has so many cute shapes. I mean, how fun is decorating *cookie* eggs?! And then there's Independence day-Red, White and Blue--too fun. And then there's Halloween... And maybe I've sometimes made them for other random holidays or seemingly insignificant reasons. There just are never enough times in the year to make sugar cookies.

One of my best childhood memories is waking up every Valentines day to sugar cookies that my mom had made the night before. She would make us each our own giant heart and pipe our name onto it. And if that wasn't cool enough, she would also make one for our school teacher. So exciting for a kid!

Yesterday I tried a new sugar cookie recipe I saw on one of my favorite blogs, Dear Cjane. I had never tried glazing cookies, because I am more of a frosting lover. (Like, twice as tall as the cookie type of frosting lover) But, the glaze was heavenly! And so aesthetically pleasing, I might add.



This sugar cookie recipe. Can I just tell you-the cookie itself was so soft. Probably the best homemade sugar cookie I've ever tasted. It was almost like those big pink Granny B's type sugar cookies. The glaze just took it to a whole new level!

As you can see above--We have a sneaker! They are that good.

Consistently Inconsistent

One only needs to go back through the archives of my blog to realize one thing: Inconsistency.

It's my downfall. The only thing I feel like I'm really really consistent about is being inconsistent. I am consistently inconsistent.

I do like consistency, though.

I like when my baby sleeps through the night consistently.

I like when my laundry is done on a consistent basis.

So, why can't I be consistent with all the other responsibilities in my life?

I asked myself this while making my New Year's Resolutions earlier this month. It seems that I am always making the same resolutions year after year: lose weight, stay organized, keep the house clean, read scriptures and pray. All things that if done consistently, I would be a very successful woman, in my opinion.

So, instead of writing down a list of resolutions, I just made one:

BE CONSISTENT!

And wouldn't you know it--The more consistent I am with those tasks, the more I am consistently happy! And the more I am seeing results.

Who knew that if you eat healthy every day and get to the gym 6 days a week the weight would come off? Well, of course I knew that, but, like I said--I'm good being inconsistent.

The big question I ask myself daily is, "Where will you be 3 months from now, a year, 5 years?"

It's a good thing for me to ask, because I actually know where I want to be. I want to be confident. I want to be happy. I want to be a good wife and a good mom. And it all starts here. There's my direction and now I know how to get there. With my new resolution: Consistency.

Organization Tool of 2010

For the menu planner I used, go HERE.
For Body For Life tracker sheets, go HERE.
For Daily Schedule I use, go HERE. (I tweaked it a little and filled in different items where I needed to. Such as scripture study, and other cleaning stuff I need to do.)

Also, if you can't find a binder that you love, I would suggest buying one of those binders where you can slip paper in the front, side and back. Then choose a scrapbook paper that you like and put them in as the cover. You can also do this with a regular file folder. Just buy paper you like, cut it to fit on a file folder and glue it. I did this for my folders that are displayed in my kitchen. If you need step by step instructions with pictures, let me know. Have fun organizing!

Last Week's Recap

In February's Family Fun Magazine, I found this creepy cute lunch idea! For instructions, go here. The "Squid Dogs" were a huge hit with the kids. I, however, did not wish to try them.


The only suggestion I have is to make SURE that the noodles are tender inside the hot dog. On our batch, Hayden said the noodles were crunchy inside the hot dog, but they were perfect otherwise. Just boil them longer than usual. Then, the kids dipped them in ketchup, but I am sure that cheese sauce would have been fun, too! Maybe next time.


The kids put on a puppet show after school one day. "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". Then they were coloring and pasting for hours to make more puppet shows for Dad to see. This idea will be happening again! They've never had so much fun!

Taking a bow. Applause all around!

And...have you seen "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs"? If not, you should! Hayden re-created the movie with his playmobile figures and Maya's play food. If you've seen the movie, you'll recognize the scenes. So cute!
We're doing fun things this week that I'll blog about soon:
*Layered Jello Hearts
*Glazed Sugar Cookies
*Homemade Valentines
*My new calling as Primary Chorister...this is not Young Women's anymore for sure!

Mmm!

(Sorry it's so dark. Hopefully you can still see it!)

The Things Kids Say:

Today when I picked Hayden up from school he very seriously said to me, "Mom, when I was at recess today, I climbed the very top of the pile of ice and I made a promise to the world."

"Oh, yeah?" I asked, while laughing a bit, "What did you promise?"

"I made a promise to the world that I would save it! That I would never forget my promise."

Now I was really laughing, thinking he was joking.

He looked at me very seriously and asked, "What?"

What an ambitious boy I have that wants to save the world while in kindergarten!

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Maya said the lunch prayer. She said, "Heavenly Father, Bless that we'll be AWESOME! and bless that Hayden will eat his lunch."

Maya also said the evening prayer, where she recapped her day. "Heavenly Father, we went to the pool, I got water in my nose, I can jump into the water by myself and it was fun. Dad put a quarter in the locker. Amen."

I love her little prayers. She often asks that her other siblings will learn to obey. Such simple faith. Her daily recaps are my favorite! I'm sure that those are the types of things Heavenly Father wants to hear anyway!

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Hayden woke up and said, "Mom! Today I am going to do everything you ask me to because I feel REFRESHED!"

It's Time To Play:

MYSTERY DIAGNOSIS!

Here are your clues:
-Stuffy nose in only one nostril
-Foul smelling breath

Here are your choices:
A) Sinus infection
B) Halitosis
C) Common Cold or

D) Play Dough up the nose

I'm sure you can guess the answer now!

D.

Are you as shocked as we were?! Here's the story:

For over a month, Maya has had this horrible rank breath. Like, really bad, can't stand being around her, what on earth is that smell, kind of bad. I thought it was many things at first: Not washing her hands after using the bathroom, halitosis, something wrong with her digestion, disease in her mouth, sinus drainage, on and on. Just when I would think I knew for sure what it was, I would rule it out for different reasons. And sometimes the smell would go away for a day or two, so it was really hard to know what was the matter.

Yesterday I decided I could not take the smell any more and I made an appointment for her to see the doctor today. I did feel kind of stupid making the appointment.
Me: "Um, hi. I'd like to make an appointment for my three year old."
Nurse:"What are her symptoms?"
Me:"Uh, really bad breath."
Nurse (chuckling out loud) "O.K. see you at 10" ...still chuckling.

When the doctor looked up her nose, she decided to see if the "green snot" was something else. We held poor Maya down (and she was so brave!) and the doctor pulled out this (hopefully you are done eating as you read this!) huge green blob the size of a grape.

Play dough.

The green play dough I made for her in early December.

She's been going around with rotting play dough in her nose for 5 weeks.

Gross.

But, she's all better now and the smell is gone.

But, yeah, I know.

Gross.

Christmas Goodies

It's always fun to come up with gift ideas for teachers and neighbors! OK. Not really. I stress about it. Am I spending too much? Am I not spending enough? Have I done this treat before? (I can never remember!)

Here's some ideas for you to use for next year, or if anything else, to help me remember what I gave out this year.

The kids made these little gingerbread men to give away to teachers and Grandparents. It's very easy and it made our house smell lovely while they were drying. The only thing is...you need to plan ahead. They take about 3 days to dry completely.

Here's the recipe:

Gingerbread Men
(Makes 6 ornaments..And I mean it! Don't make more than that or they'll be too thin.)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup cinnamon
2 TBS. household glue

Mix and knead ingredients. Roll out between two pieces of wax paper. Roll to 1/4" thickness and cut out your shapes. (Be sure to make a hole at the top to hang it. We just used a toothpick to round it out) Let dry on cookie sheet covered with wax paper. We put them under the kids bed and the aroma filled the home! Let dry about 3 days. Paint with fabric paint. Pull a ribbon or yarn through the hole to hang it on the tree.

Here's one of the ornaments Maya made. She took some creative liberty here and I can't decide if she gave him an extra button or made him anatomically correct! (hehe... had to document it!)

For neighbor gifts, I kept it simple. Jello popcorn balls! I think just about everyone I gave them to asked for the recipe. Here it is for you:

Jello Popcorn Balls
1 cup light Karo Syrup
1 cup sugar (I didn't say they were healthy!)
1 package of (3 oz.) jello; flavor of your choice

Stir ingredients over a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Pour over 2 batches of popcorn. (remember to remove the kernals) Spread out over wax paper to cool. Can eat as is, or grease hands and form popcorn balls.

I made strawberry and lime flavored to be festive! I just broke off large pieces of the popcorn and placed a few of each flavor in a lunch sack. Then I folded the top, stapled a little greeting and we were good! 25 neighbor gifts done in 1 hour. Priceless.

And for my lovely young women! I have 12 girls in my Mia Maid class and I needed to come up with something affordable and cute. I think these fit the bill!

I bought little chinese food boxes (found at any craft store) and put a cupcake inside. Then I attached a "lipsmackers" chap stick to each box and tied a personalized greeting to each box. I think they turned out so cute!

And then the beauties below.
They are called "Festive Candy Cane Kiss Centered Brownies".
I used this recipe and they. were. good.
Enough said.

Santa is pretty much the coolest!

We had a very excited 6 year old the morning of Christmas day. He was up at 5 am, which is very early for him, and he was ready to go! This was a little too early for us (not like last year, though, when my nephew set an alarm for 3 am...no lie!) so we told him to open his stocking (which Santa leaves on their bed) and we could go out to see the goods at 6.

He opened his stocking and had to come and show us every thing in it.
"Look mom! Playmobile pirates!"
"Look mom! Tons of candy!"
"Look mom! Princess underwear?!" Uh, wrong stocking.
He got so wrapped up (no pun intended) in the unwrapping that he opened his sister's stocking as well. Luckily she's very forgiving. Or had no idea what was going on. (I'm thinking it was the latter.)

The two oldest kids doing what looked like the "Potty Dance" waiting to go see what they got!
(We let Crew sleep. 'Cause...ya know...sleeping babies are a beautiful thing)

Just what they asked for!
A new kitchen and Circus playmobile!

Santa built Maya this kitchen. Yes, built. He had a lot of help from many elves and is very thankful, I know! Go here for the instructions he used.

And here's the babe, not too scarred from missing the early festivities.
Actually, his face says, "I woke up for this?!"