Glow-Stick Dancing

We just received the best gift from some friends of ours. It came with a CD (with fun, up-beat Christmas music), and some glow sticks. We were supposed to:

1. Pop the CD into the player

2. Turn off all the lights

3. Crack the glow sticks

4. Let Loose!

Wow! Who knew it could be so fun just dancing in the dark with glow sticks? Even Danny got into it! So Much Fun!!! Thanks to the McDaniel Family!

Commissions

We've started a new type of chore chart at our house. We got the idea from my sister over Thanksgiving. It goes like this...

My kids don't have to do any chores if they don't want to (unless I ask them to do something).

There is a list of different "chores" and the price tag on each. If they do a chore, they put their name by it, and they get the money associated with that task. If they work together at a task, they split the money for that task. They can also get money for doing extra tasks that aren't listed. Essentially, they get paid a commission for helping me.

Their bedroom and their toys/toy closet is considered their space. They are in charge of their space. If I have to intervene and clean their room, they have to pay me a commission for helping them.

They have to pay for half of what they need. If they need a new pair of shoes, they pay for half. If Kaden needs another recorder for school, he pays for half. And they pay 100% for any wants. (Of course, that is besides presents that we get them.)

The reason I am taking the time to document this is because it is working! My kids are not only keeping their room clean (they don't want to have to pay me), they are looking for ways to make money.

Last night my kids unloaded and loaded the dishes - 2 different tasks on our chart. But then they hand washed all of the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher, swept, and wiped off the table. Kaden has helped me with the laundry (very unusual in our house), and Ellie has even gotten excited about helping. My kids don't grumble about cleaning. They are starting to realize that they want/need money to buy the things they want/need. Kaden says that tonight he is planning on helping me with laundry, vacuuming, and possibly mopping. All things he never would have volunteered for before.

Another aspect that I like about this is that they think it's worth it. Some, if not all, of the tasks have a pretty high price on them. I thought about decreasing the price from what my sister had set. In fact, I did a little bit. But they still get paid a whole $1 to take out all the garbages in the house. And because the price is set so high, they think it's great. They totally want to do the chores because they get paid pretty well in their eyes. And for me, if I am expecting them to pay half of all their needs, I figure they need the opportunity to make enough money to save for those things. And lets face it... I would be paying for 100% of all of their needs if not for this system. So if they're willing to work for the money that I would be putting towards their needs anyway, I'm all for it!

It's a win, win situation! Thanks Jodi!

Liar, Liar...

Apparently Danny and I tend to tease our kids a lot. We can be a little sarcastic with them and I guess Kaden has learned.

We were sitting down to eat dinner and we told Kaden that he couldn't heat up his roll cause the microwave is broken. He didn't believe us and said, "no matter what you say, I'll never believe you!"

So I said, "Kay, go ahead and warm it up."

He staunchly got up out of his chair and proceeded to reheat his roll in the microwave. After 20 seconds, he pulled the roll out and it was still cold. "Okay," he said. "I guess you were being honest."

As a side note, it really is annoying that our microwave broke. :( Gonna be shopping for a new one this weekend.

Say What?!?

Something I want to remember...

A few months ago I fixed Kaden, Preston, and Ellie hotdogs for lunch. We'd just had a conversation about what they are made out of. As soon as Ellie got her hotdog, she exclaimed, "I sorry piggy, I eat you now."

What We've Been Up To...

I'm planning on posting a few catch-up posts... This is #1.

What have we been up to? One of the many things is this website...

www.hydebuilders.com

This is my dad's business. Danny built the website; I added the pictures. We had a different site done and this is the updated version. I think Danny is so talented and I love this design. He sort of stole the idea from somebody else, but he did do all the programming and made it really easy for me to update the pictures on it. Yeah, he's really talented!

Singing My Baby To Sleep

Last night Ellie did not want to go to bed. She kept saying, "Wanna hold you!"

I finally pointed out to her that her baby needed to sleep too. Because, of course, her baby was very tired and needed to get some rest. To this she said, "I sing her to sleep."

Mom: "You want to sing her to sleep? What song are you going to sing?"

Ellie: "Twinkle Star."

Mom: "Good idea! Maybe you should sing your sunbeam song too."

Ellie: "Yes."

Mom: "And maybe, 'I Am A Child Of God'."

Ellie: "Yes."

Mom: "Ok... You sing to her til she falls asleep. I love you, Ellie."

Ellie: "Too, Mom." (She always just says the last word to that phrase.)

I went out of the bedroom and listened. She started with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, singing as loud as she could. She always gets stuck on the next song and all I could hear was... "A sunBEAM, a sunBEAM! A sunBEAM, a sunBEAM! A sunBEAM, a sunBEAM!" By the time she got to her final number, I could tell she was getting tired. She quietly sang the last song and then all was quiet.

Until about an hour later... when she woke up crying cause now she wanted Daddy. Oh well... It was worth a try. :)

May Coupon Report

This is for my own records more than anything else. You can even skip this post if you'd like. :)

For the month of May, I spent $494.98 while couponing. That was for $1,468.05 worth of groceries. That's a 66.28% savings for the month of May.

Some of the things that I stocked up on...

Toilet Paper

Razors for Danny (x)

Body Wash for Danny (x)

Peanut Butter (x)

Wheat Thin Sticks (new family fav.) (x)

Chips (x)

BBQ Sauce (x)

Soy Sauce

Spaghetti Sauce (x)

Pickles (x)

Bread

Cheese

S'mores for camping (x)

Hot Dogs for camping

Oatmeal

LOTS of Cereal (x)

LOTS of Pop Tarts (x)

Pasta (x)

Ice Cream

Pork Chops

Chicken & Steak for camping (x)

Laundry Soap (x)

Stain Remover (x)

Eye Solution (x)

Pain Medicine (x)

Again, this list is for me. I want to keep track of how much I save as well as what I was able to stock up on during this time of year. The things that made this list were the purchases that will last at least a couple of months. Some of the items on the list (the ones I marked with an x) I now have enough to last months and months.

I'm back in the saddle, baby. :)

Oh, and can you tell we are planning on camping a lot this summer? :)

Extreme Couponer

Yep, that's right... I started couponing again. If you've seen the new TLC show "Extreme Couponing", I am in no way like any of those people. I don't go to a store and get $2000 worth of groceries for $15. :)

I did, however, get $150 worth of groceries for a measly $30. It included 8 boxes of cereal, 8 boxes pasta, 2 bottles of laundry detergent, some Easter candy, and other stuff (that I'm too lazy to type). I'm happy with it so far. :)

Update...

Ellie has gone 2 days without having an accident in her pull-up. She is wearing underwear today! Wish me luck. :)

An Urgent Incident

Last Tuesday I was at baseball practice with Kaden (see previous post) when I got a phone call from Danny. He said, "Ellie's had an accident, I think it needs stitches, it's on her head." My mind, of course, started spinning with the possibilities of serious injuries occurring on a 2 year old's head. I realized that I had seen our pediatrician working on his lawn when I had left for baseball (he happens to be our neighbor), and told Danny to have Dr. Smith take a look at her while I grabbed Kaden and ran home (I had the car).

By the time I got home Danny had taken her to the Smith's home and got the second opinion that it did indeed need stitches or glue and that the gash (yes, gash) needed to be cleaned. So we took her in to the Urgent Care and they were able to glue her back together.

Now for the story - She slipped on a dvd case that was laying on our hardwood floor and she fell head first into the corner of our bookcase that's in the office. She had a big, deep gash on her forehead that was down to the bone and completely split open. I had a hard time looking at it. She was very brave and only cried when she was scared of the doctor.

Click here for pictures - they don't do the wound justice, but they are still a little gory so beware. And they aren't the best pictures cause they were taken with my phone - but, it is what it is. :)

She is now healing and it's been a week so we will be taking the tape off soon. Life is full of incidents, and I'm glad this one wasn't more serious. It could have been a lot worse (like if she had hit a couple inches lower on her eye! Yikes!)

Tight Schedule

Kaden wanted to try baseball this year. So we signed him up. It has kept us extremely busy the last couple of weeks and proves to keep us busy for at least another month and a half. Between 1 to 3 practices each week, plus at least 2 games per week... well, you get the idea. Our schedule has definitely been tightened. But he really loves it and they have won all three of their games so far. The first game was FREEZING with rain and they had to call the game after 2 innings - but they were ahead at that time. The second game they won with a score of 12 to 6 (and even with that score, it was an intense game). And the third game was won by 1 point.

He has learned a lot about the sport and says that he likes it even more that basketball, which says a lot for him. So we invested in a bat and a whole bunch of balls and Danny will be working with him tonight on batting. He's doing much better than when the season began (simply because it's his first time playing the sport). I'm just glad that he likes it so much. And it makes the hectic schedule a little more worth it. :)

What Am I Missing?!?

In the process of potty training, both of my boys learned how to pee in the toilet long before learning to poo... (yes, we are encroaching on that topic). It then took time to teach them about the #2 part of toilet etiquette.

Ellie, however, has been completely different in her training techniques. She figured out how to pee on the potty, but not how to tell me when she needs to go. The effect is simply that when I insist that she sit on the potty, she indeed releases the built-up liquid. But if I am not preemptive, she will have a wet pull-up.

BUT -- She knows when she has to go #2. She will tell us when she needs to, and she hasn't had that kind of accident in over 2 weeks!

I don't know what I'm missing... How do I finish the potty training process so that she will tell me when she needs to go? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that I haven't had to deal with poopy diapers. But I would also really love it if I didn't have to buy pull-ups at all anymore. Help!?!

All Things Girl...

Last Thursday I decided to make my princess perty. :) I got the straightener out and curled her hair in ringlets. She looked so adorable I had to take pictures.

It won't be an everyday occurrence, but she actually liked having me do her hair - and, let's face it, SO CUTE!!!

V Is For VEST

Preston came home from preschool the other day and was so excited to try on his craft. Here are some pictures...

I just love the gangster pose that he insists on doing in pictures. :)

PineWood Derby Results

Kaden participated in the pinewood derby in scouts yesterday. He and Danny had worked on his car for about 2 weeks - with a little help from my dad over the weekend.

Danny was unable to attend the derby as he is out of town until tomorrow night. So he had me record every single race that Kaden's car was in (8 total). Again, this is for Danny's benefit...

Race #1 (1st place):

Race #2 (1st place):

Race #3 (2nd place):

Race #4 (3rd place):

He accidentally dropped his car at the beginning of this race. Oops!

Race #5 (2nd place):

Race #6 (1st place):

Race #7 (1st place):

The racing ramp was all electronic. The computer had a glitch on this race and they had to race again.

Race #8 (1st place):

He ended up getting 6th place overall. He also received an award naming him the Dark Knight.

He had so much fun and I wish Danny could have been here to enjoy it with us. There's always next year, I guess.

Show-Off

Ellie's such a show-off. But I'm allowed to think it's absolutely adorable... Right???

Jump Rope For Heart

Anyone who knows me will know why I actually decided to participate in this fundraiser for Kaden's school. My sister has had 2 heart transplants and therefore I feel a connection to the cause. I understand if you are not able to participate by donating to his fund raising goal. Again, the only reason I am advertising this is because I feel somewhat strongly about this subject.

The fund raiser is going through the week of March 7-11. That is when Kaden will be participating in the Jump Rope for Heart activity. Click HERE to donate through his fund raising website. And thanks for everyone who does participate.

Food Storage

So I have been trying to do better in way of food storage for our family. Sometimes it's hard to stock up with prices for regular groceries sometimes being so high. But I just found out about this website. This company delivers meat (chicken, hamburger, turkey, etc.) to different areas for a pretty good price in bulk. Right now they have 40 pound boxes of chicken that they are delivering to different areas (including Boise and Idaho Falls). They do not include Utah in their delivering yet - sorry friends in Utah - But I just wanted to let everyone know that lives in SE Idaho and Boise about this.

You can click here to check it out.

See Jane Run...

Preston and I have been going through our special "Learn To Read" book and he has been doing so well! Check it out...

Potty!

Ellie just TOLD me that she needed to go to the potty. I took her, she was dry, AND she went pee in the toilet!!! YAY!!!!!

I've been potty training for nearly a week. This is a HUGE step!!!! Again... YAY!!!

True Love

The other day I went up to my room and the kids were watching a movie. This is what I saw:

Then, of course, Preston had to get in the picture...

Ellie loves her brothers so much. She adores Kaden and she continually copies Preston. It really is true love.

2010 Year in Review

I'm copying our cousin Katie. :) I saw her do a year in review post on her blog, and since I didn't do the best with posting last year I figured it was a great idea for me to do as well. So here it goes...

In January we started the year out with some sledding with the cousins. It was a lot of fun. Of course, we won't mention the fact that I ran into a port-a-potty and we think I cracked a floating rib from it... Happy New Year to us. :)

In February, I began to really enjoy doing Ellie's hair. She was starting to get more of it and therefore I loved to put it in a pony tail.

March was Kaden's birthday. He got some cool lego stuff, so the kids put it together (with a little help from dad) and then they took turns playing with his lego car. Aren't they adorable?

April 10, Kaden got baptized. It was a beautiful day! Totally a day for him to remember.

In May we were getting packed up for the first move... Yep, we moved twice in two months! While I was busy packing, the kids liked to go on walks. Kaden was such a big helper with his brother and sister. He's such a good kid!!!

We celebrated my birthday in June and I wanted to have a video game party. :) We invited some friends over and played Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. It was tons of fun! Even Danny got into it.

July: Before moving (2nd move) to Boise, we got together with my family. We went skeet shooting and the cousins LOVED it. They even shot a rabbit. (poor rabbit)

August was the beginning of the new school year. We live right by the school so Kaden gets to walk with some friends every morning.

September 9th was Preston's birthday. He wanted to take one of his new friends to the movie. We went and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3d. They loved it. They even got to eat happy meals before-hand.

October was full of monsters (and one sweet little frog).

In the beginning of November, we enjoyed a nice fall day at the zoo with Katie and her kids. It was super fun.

And finally, December brought Christmas into our home. I made the kids pajamas and they turned out pretty good (in my estimation).

Hope your 2010 was as fun-filled as ours. We miss the friends and family back in Utah, but so far we really love the Boise area. Here's to happy times ahead for 2011.

Christmas 2010

We had a lot of fun over the Christmas holiday. We got to spend time with my parents and my brother who all came to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. We loved having them here. It was tons of fun! My parents even taught Danny and me how to play Pinochle. I can't wait til we can play with them again. My mom and I will TOTALLY beat the boys next time. Can't wait for the rematch. :)

We didn't get a lot of pictures, which I'm pretty sad about. We did get some of the kids opening their PJs on Xmas Eve, and then a few of Xmas morning. Ellie was so excited about the pajamas that she jumped up and down. She was also very funny about her presents Christmas morning. She would open one, hold on to it, open another, hold on to both of them, open another one, try to hold on to all three of them, etc. So funny.

Preston got some sea monkeys. He didn't quite know what they were at first, but now he loves them (so does Kaden). And Kaden got a pretty nice yoyo that Danny and I did some research for. We got one of the nicer ones that's for kids. He has been practicing it a lot. He loves to walk the dog and try other tricks with it.

For New Years Eve we stayed around the house and played lots of games. The kids loved it. We got Blokus, Farkel, and 2 other really fun games for Xmas. It was enjoyable to just stay around the house and play games with the kids. Then we watched some movies and wished each other a happy new year.

Again, we didn't get a ton of pictures... but HERE is what we did get.