Stamp-o-matic

Once again we are building a simple machine at our house. Can we just reiterate, as parents, that we hate this project. I'm just grateful for a willing husband.

The requirements for this are that it has to use three simple machines and a energy conversion to complete a task. After spending hours, it was determined that the planned energy conversion (battery operated motor) wasn't strong enough. After a few frustrating moments Karebear saved the day with the suggestion of a remote controlled car. It worked perfectly! Jolly J was then able to complete her simple machine

The STAMP-O-MATIC

The FUN way to stamp your name.

Here it is in action (you may have to watch it twice for it's pretty short)

It Worked!

For the most part my younger kids don't have much problem keeping their rooms picked up. It just gets done each morning before they leave for school. If it gets messed up during the day, they have to pick it up before TV or computer time. As for my older girls.................

Well.........that's a different story. They did great until school got earlier, busier and they just didn't care to make the time. I tried to be patient and understanding but things were getting to where I couldn't stand it. They were also starting to rub off on the younger ones who starting fighting me more to keep their rooms clean.  Why should they have to if their older siblings didn't? The example of older siblings goes a long way.

I came across an idea shared by one of my friends on her blog and I decided to give it a try. I announced this new plan in our weekly family council and told them they had one week to pick up their rooms before we started this. My oldest was currently wrapping up a major overhaul of her room to complete part of her personal progress goal of organizing her room so I figured I had better give her time to finish.

The plan was simple. Each morning, after they left for school, I would go into their rooms and pick up anything that wasn't put away. These items would then all be put in a bag. If they needed something that went in that bag they would have to do a chore to get it back otherwise it would stay there until Saturday. On Saturday I would dump out the contents of the bag and they had 10 minutes to put it away. Anything left after that 10 minutes would then be mine.

Jolly J hated this idea (pretty good sign that it was a good one), and immediately wanted to know what I was going to do with the stuff left after the 10 minutes. I replied that hopefully she never had to find out.

The week past and the following family counsel I gave a reminder that  the next morning we would start.

After the girls left for school I entered their rooms.  Wow! was I surprised. First off, let's state it was nice to be able to open the door and have it open more than a few inches for nothing was blocking it. Their rooms were so clean. I only had to pick up a few items. I was elated and on cloud nine all day! The next day there was nothing to pick up. It has now been three weeks and there is never anything to pick up. Hopefully this is a habit that stays forever.

Sweet Sixteen

Words could never express how I feel about our first turning sixteen. It's just one of those overwhelming emotional moments  like her birth,

 the first day of school,

or her baptism

that I'm just grateful to have had the experience and cherish the memories. 

Karebear wanted to celebrate turning sixteen  in her own way.  She invited some friends over to our house.

personally made each friend an invite

They first had a semi-formal dinner of spaghetti and meatballs (one of her favorite foods).

Yay! for good friends

Dad surprised her with flowers

She made apple pie for dessert

Thanks to a dear family friend they then headed off for a fun, friend, photo shoot. She gave each girl a photo frame with words related to friends etched on the glass.

Afterwards they returned home to enjoy a few hours of treats, games and lots of talking (they are girls after all).

Goal Completed

My oldest just recently turned sixteen. It has been a long time goal of hers to complete her Young Womanhood Recognition by the time she was 16. When she looked at the calendar, just over a year ago, and realized her birthday was on a Sunday she was even more determined to meet this goal so she could be presented with her award on her birthday. For the last 6 months, she has worked relentless and was able to complete her goal.

We are so proud of her and mostly excited to see the things she has learned and improved in herself. Her testimony has grown as she studied and completed the Book of Mormon. She learned how to plant a garden. She has learned some sewing skills which she has put to good use altering some of her clothing and making pajama pants. She has been scrapbooking up a storm. (I only keep up my kids baby books and scrapbooks until they are 10. I figure they can then do it themselves and record their own memories). She has one fantastically organized room.

She now has her own personal recipe book filled with her favorite foods. She has learned how to play the flute and then learned how to teach music to others as she helped beginning flute students at the junior high school. She also just recently started teaching a few beginning piano students.

Just Over a Year Ago

The other day my husband and I were talking. He had just recently returned after doing something with our bishop. After this responsibility, they had spent a few minutes conversing and my husband was able to give   support in a way only a previous bishop can. When he returned home, my husband then remarked that it is hard to belief, in some ways, that he was ever a bishop. That world (we lived for five years) seems so far away and different from what we are now currently living. We both often wonder how we ever found the time for him to do this. It was a difficult, but rewarding experience for our family.

I read this article this morning and was moved by how well he elougently expressed what serving as a bishop is like. I was also humbled and realized how I truly didn't appreciate what my husband was doing and learning while he served as bishop.

I also was really grateful for his link on validation. I feel I need to do this better as I communicate with my children. Truly food for thought and hopefully action.

Book Reccomendations

I am always hesitant to recommend books. I think it is mostly because by the time I get around to reading something it isn't "new" anymore and most people have already read it. Each person has their own types of books they like to read. For me I'm a hopeless romantic.

Here's a couple of books that my daughters and I have been reading lately.

My oldest claimed these were her current favorite books so naturally I had to see what they were about. I was excited to be able to check out the whole trilogy from the library at one time and loved being able to read one book after the other. Truly an engaging series of books. They center around the concept of time travel and it's effects (both bad and good). It is a fun romance story and has your classic good versus evil battle.

My visiting teacher recommended this book. I couldn't put it down.  If you like Jane Austen at all this is way better. Truly a funny, romantic, page turning book.

How about you? Any good books you have read recently? I would love a suggestion since my current "list" of books I want to read is getting whittled down fast (And yes, I'll read it even if it isn't a romance).

Race on Over

My son informed me that he had never had a birthday party so we set about correcting this great in justice. As I went through the process of coming up with an idea I was amazed at how elaborate some people get . I guess I prefer to keep things a little more simple. Probably mostly due to time and money.

One day I had run to the dollar store to pick up some poster board. I was pretty excited to find a newly arrived shipment of car party items. This was the deciding factor for what type of party we were going to have. Love the dollar store as long it's not something I really care about the quality of. 

We started the party off with a game-throwing bean (actually rice) bags into on old tire.

Then relay car racing

Lining up

A flag wave starts them off

Zig-Zag around the cones

Jump over the tube

Around the tree

Back around the tube

Deer jump not required

And then back around the cones in a race to the finish

Love our little spectator

Treat time

Always kicks one sock off when doing things

Bud Boy had gone with me to pick out a Hot Wheels car for each one of his friends. We wrapped these up so that each boy could unwrap their own present. We then spent the rest of the party playing with these Hot Wheels. It was the highlight of the party.

I had originally planned on not doing gift bags (just giving out hot wheel cars and a bean bag) but couldn't resist when I found these at the dollar store. Anybody else remember doing these?

FIRST Birthday!

Can you believe it? Has it truly been a whole year already?

Princess thoroughly enjoyed opening presents.  She loved to rip the paper off but then would get distracted and move onto something else.

She would stop and play with each gift.

Mom loved it.

  It was all too much for her big brother.

The excitement of wanting to see what was in each gift was too much for him to handle.

So.... in the midst of opening we stopped for cake.

Princess immediately started eating the frosting balls.

By the time we had finished singing happy birthday she had already eaten half of the balls off the top of the cake. Let's just say she loved her first experience with cake.

She got to experience ice cream for the first time at her brother's b-day(four days before). I figured after all that cake and frosting there would be no way she would want ice cream. We hadn't even got the ice cream dished up when she spied it and immediately said, "MMM!" while excitedly kicking her tray. One of the few foods she will let us spoon feed her.

 It was then off to one of her favorite things...........

 a bath before we resumed opening presents.

What To Do When You Turn Five

First you wait ALL day long while your parents are at your sister's karate tournament.

Then you endure pictures

and wait for your sister to get off your present.

You then help your dad put together your present.

After a dinner of alfredo, pasta and zucchini ("Love that stuff! ") it's then off for ice cream cones and playtime on the McDonald's toys for "I haven't done that in forever"(poor deprived boy).

Soaking it Up Before She Changes, Again

Princess is in a pretty cute, fun and enjoyable stage of life.

There are many times where she is content to go exploring or play by herself. She is getting pretty vocal. There are no worries about her being a silent 6th child.

She does this cute backwards wave




She kind of tries to communicate with this wave. She'll do it when I'm holding her to say hi to others. She'll do it when I pick her up from the crib, as we walk out of the room, as if to say keep going. She also has started doing this at nighttime and nap times. She will wave and repeat us whenever we say "ni-night".

When we stand her up, she will stand for a few seconds and immediately starts clapping for herself.

Ta-Da!

Hey look! nobody's behind me

She has taken a couple steps!




For the most part she prefers to crawl or walk around like this.

Any chance she gets she loves to climb the stairs. Thanks to Jolly J's teaching she often will turn around on her own before going down.

She loves to get her three teeth brushed and hates fluoride drops. She prefers to feed herself and boy does she have a sweet tooth! She is proof that you have to keep trying foods  for some of the things she wouldn't touch initially (like blueberries or peaches) she now loves.