Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Christmas!

We decided to keep Christmas a little bit more simple this year. We asked the kids what they wanted as a 'family gift' from santa and then the each got a smaller gift from us. 


Stockings: Dad, Mom, 'W'

Stockings: "E', 'R', 'L'

Opening presents!









This was Santa's gift to use in the springtime!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

December: Pre-Christmas

There was so much going on in December! The most important tho, was the baptism of 'W' into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints We are so proud of her and her decision and it was a great day to be with family!


A few days before that we added a new member to our family. 
This is Sophie. She has been a lot of fun, although a lot of work as well. She was 18 mos. when we got her, potty trained, but as we've found out not socialized very well, and we are still working on how to stop her from barking her head off at everyone she sees, but she is a good, cute dog.




A few days before Christmas we found out that the baby (I'm expecting!) is.....
A BOY!! Due May '15


Sunday, November 30, 2014

November

'W's birthday was in November! On the night of her birthday she was a ctually in a play at school, so those are the only pics I have :/ 

This is her cake:




I can't believe she turned 8! HAPPY BIRTHDAY 'W'!!!

We got enough snow in Nov. to build a snowman, yay!

THANKSGIVING!
We went to grandma's house and had fun with the cousins making turkey cookies!



Happy November!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

October: Fall colors and Halloween!

The tree in front of our house is amazing in the fall! It is always the first one to change, and go, in the fall, but it is gorgeous!



We always like to go on a drive in the mountains every year in the fall to see the colors.



HALLOWEEN!

We have: a bat, Rapunzel, a Barbie princess, and a little dragon.


We made a witches brew, mummy fingers, and witch brooms for dinner.




Everyone chose a pumpkin pattern to carve, although we all know who does the carving ;)


'W' chose a raccoon


'E' chose a cat


'R' chose a spider


'L' chose Elmo!


Ghost milk jug lights.



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

September

Since I have't been keeping up with the blog lately, I'm going to be adding a post for each month since I stopped, to catch up a bit. ;)

At the beginning of September 'E' got her ears pierced for her birthday! She was very excited.


At the end of Sept., the last day to be exact, 'R' turned 4!! 


 She opened presents with the grandparents there.


Then we had cake!


Happy Birthday 'R'!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Chore Charts!

The last couple of weeks I have been working on a solution to chores. We wanted it to be a bit of fun, and also wanted them to start earning some money to start managing it, so I wanted to incorporate all of those things into chore charts. I did so many searches online and none of them were exactly what I needed so I kind of took ideas and mashed them all together and this is what I came up with!


 This is the first board/chore board. They pick their chores from this chart. They are divided by room, and then there are weekly chores as well.


I 'color coordinated' the sticks by using washi type tape over them. I wrote the chores on the back with marker. I made pockets to hold them out of scrapbook cardstock. Luckily I had some cute paper!



Then they each have their own board like this:



There are 8 pockets, one for each day and then one for weekly chores. They pick 2 for each one. At the bottom, there is a 'DONE' where they put the clothes pins when they finish. (They also have daily things that are always needed to be done written on their board).


 The bottom little pocket is just big enough for a quarter to fit into. This will equal $2 per week, which is plenty for them to start managing money. At the end of each week, they trade in their quarters for dollar bills and put them into their banks. At the end of each month, we will separate it into Tithing, a little for spending/saving for something, and the rest we will take to the bank to put in their newly created bank accounts for long term saving. 

This is how they are placed on the wall, just outside of their bedrooms. L boy has one too, but he isn't quite old enough to start. ;)




So far this has proven to be very effective and they have actually liked it. If they ever want to 'watch something' or 'play' they know now that they can't until their chores are done. With only 2 to do it isn't too overwhelming for them either. We are pretty excited to keep this going!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Happy Birthday E!

E had her Birthday! She turned 6! I let her and her sisters decorate her cake for our little family get together. They got very creative and added some animal figurines. 



 The next day she had a little friend water party after school. She had lots of fun. Happy Birthday E!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

First Day of School!

First day of school for E and W! W is in 2nd grade and E is in 1st! Of course it had to be a rainy day, so they needed jackets, but oh well :)




R had to get in on the action too, even though she won't start for a couple years.

School!