~Happy 4th of JULY~

Brad's first Pinterest project.  See, all my time on Pinterest isn't wasted. This turned out more amazing then the picture shows.  Made out of a pallet.  44x24

Brad's getting older

Brad's Birthday marks the end of our family's birthday season. Mine starts it again next November.  We got him a new golf bag. I also got him new golf shoes for Christmas, so now I can't complain when he's gone all time.

Happy Easter Everyone

My kids got a laundry basket, a new bath towel and a kickball.  All practical stuff that we needed.  And to much candy.  The twins didn't understand the egg hunt.  They both just picked up eggs and threw them back down. It was a beautiful East Sunday.  

Connor & Tyler

We only made it to 1 wrestling match this spring, out at my old high school. The boys really needed some pratice, and reminders. They both took 2nd and are glad they have a break until next October.

Science Fair

 Connor tested a potato battery against a lemon battery.  Then he got creative and started testing oranges, kiwi, and apples.

 Cassidy and her friend made Sugar Crystals.  It was messy.

Audrey counted 12 bags of Skittles to see what the probablity was in each bag. Easy Peasy.

Tyler's Birthday

         For Tyler's 6th Birthday we had a mini Pinewood Derby, using Hotwheels. I have pictures, I will post them when I find them. He choose cauliflower soup over pizza.  (Love this kid)  We had so much fun. I made a big poster to keep track of who won each race.  Tyler actually won every race he was in.  And he just picked his favorite blue car. (FYI ::: never buy cake from Wal-mart with blue frosting. STAINS EVERYTHING)

Young Women

Cassidy turns 12!!!!!!!!!!

We played Jeopardy. It took me hours every night for a week to find questions and then right them on the papers.  The picture at the top is only half of the questions. After those were gone, I put that many back up.  One catagory was all about Cassidy. Her cake wasn't a cake this year.  She wanted brownies with oreos baked inside. yummy!!!! And the newest thing we have done for all the kids is the pop cake with candy bars.  Its make for a fun family party.

Can Cleaning be FUN?????

    Game 1: Point Game
         I only remember one game my mom played to clean the house.  We got one point for each item we picked up and put away.  Each point then equalled 1 cent.  It's hard to believe that when I was little the gas station still had penny candy. I could get 400-500 points and then ride my bike to the gas station to count the Swedish fish, Swedish raspberries and sour patch kids.  In the end, my mom had made us count to a hundred, multiple times.  And her house would be picked up.  Not really clean, but things were put away. This works great when you have 10 minutes to clean before company comes over.
    

      I hate to clean.  I hate every part of it.  I mostly hate to do it by myself.  So, in order to get the kids to help, I have come up with many games.  Now cleaning is boring.  But competition has a way of making things interesting.        
        
          Game 2: Daily Chores
          This one is not the kids favorite, but it is the easiest.  They have 3 jobs for the week. (I hope you can see the pictures.)  Jobs have to be done to get to play the computer, watch TV, or go to a friends house. None of them are hard and take less then 5 minutes each.

 During the summer, I add one outside job to each list. My kids get paid in fake money.  I printed up our own money and to keep them from taking money from each other, they each had their own color.  At the end of the week, they get paid and then get to go shopping in the basket of goodies I picked out from the store.  (This game was harder, because some times they all wanted the same thing or nothing at all. I think this summer I will give them points and then let them trade for real money.)

   Game 3: Dice Roll

        This game is easy and fun.  We have a set of big dice we got from the dollar store. We assign each  number on the dice a job. For example: 1=pick up all garbage, 2=pick up clothes and shoes, 3=dishes, 4= vacuum, 5= dusting, 6=break from cleaning. Everyone rolls until we each have a different number. This some times takes a few minutes, but gives everyone a break from cleaning.   We do this for each room.  I usually only do this when the main 3 rooms of the house need attention. 

        Game 4:  Team Racing
             This game we turn over the room and our names.  We draw names first to see who is on which team.  Then we draw rooms and race. We have 10 rooms in our house and after each race the winning team gets a treat.  Some times I have a few big candy bars and other times I just grab a bag of mini candy bars.  The winning team get 3 or 4 and the losing team gets 1.  The kids like this game, because we can have the house clean in less then an hour.

       Game 5:  CandyLand

          I have tired forever to find a board game that I could tie to cleaning the house.  Candyland is my 2nd DD, favorite game. We play all the time.  Bonus, is it's a pretty fast game. While on a shopping trip to Wally World, I found some colored popsicle sticks. My plan was to use them for 100 day at school, but the school wanted little stuff, so the popsicles went into my crafting box. This was years ago. I came across the colored popsicle sticks while cleaning one day and almost tossed them.  Then "LIGHT BULB".  The colors all matched the Candyland board game. I wrote on the popsicle sticks small jobs.  Example: clean 1 counter in the kitchen, clean off Living Room couch, clean Hallway floor, make Bed, and clean the toilet. There are 5 of each of these jobs, make bed, pick up clothes, pick up shoes and garbage, straighten drawers. If you get one of the same jobs pick again. There about 55 jobs. So think small when you divide up your rooms.
          It's also the luck of the draw.  Some times the jobs are already done and you win that round.  We only play with the single square cards and the picture candy cards in the game.  You pick a card and then a popsicle stick of the same color. We set a timer and race. The 1st person done gets 3 points. 2nd and 3rd done get two points. The 4th and 5th person done gets 1 point.  The picture card means you get a break, but 0 zero points.....:(   This game is fun, but takes awhile. Some times an hour or 2. 

   My tip: is to play a different game every week.  It's still cleaning any way you look at it. But some how the game/competition makes is exciting.
              

Double Digits for Connor

Connor got Walkie Talkies for his 10th Birthday.

  He also got to have one heck of a Nerf Gun Party. 

I have to say it was pretty creative.  I found most of it on Pinterest, but had to put my own spin on things. We had to have it indoors and in our small house.  I bought safety glasses for everyone at the Dollar Tree. First, we had a scavenger hunt to find all our gear. The safety glasses, bullets, team shirts, and guns. We took turns shooting at pop cans, the balloons above the kids heads, and a 4x4 foot paper dart board. Last we had to see how far we could shot. In one picture, Tyler is trying to shoot though the hole in the paper plate.  It was the RED TEAM, girls, against the BLUE TEAM, boys. The Blue Team won by 4 points. We played for almost 3 hours. Have to say, it was one of the funnest parties yet. 

Audrey's Baptism

Audrey was baptized December 29, 2012.  She had all her family, who love her so much, to show their support. She also couldn't have been luckier to have her closest/favorite cousin to share the beautiful day. Marly was also baptized December 29, 2012. Not every girl gets to share her baptism day with her best friend. 

Christmas 2012

 We had a wonderful Christmas this past year.  I can't believe it's been a month, and we are already a month closer to next Christmas. Our family was extremely blessed this year.  Austin was in the hospital for another seizure on Dec. 21. We had an amazing doctor that told me every instinct he had was to intabate Austin and send us back to Primary Children's.  But there was just something about the way he kept fighting that he wanted to give him another chance.  Austin stabilized after Grandpa Terry gave him a wonderful blessing, and what seemed like 10 chances. He has been doing great every since that day. Despite that fact that we did have to spend another night in the hospital with Austin, it wasn't on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day.  There were many more hidden blessings. 

 Mrs. Claus made the kids these pillow mats. They have been a favorite this year.  They do take up some space, but they sure are comfy.  Cassidy finally got her guitar, Connor  and Tyler got Nerf Guns and Audrey got her Easy Bake Oven.  Overall we were spoiled rotten.