Drolette & Angelina: Our New Fish

Yesterday Berkeley's and Carlie's grandpa (Corey's dad - David) came and spent the day with them.  We went to lunch at Nipp's and he spoiled them with toys and gadgets and played with them all day.  BUT, the best part was he took them to buy their first fish and set it up with them.  My kids are SOOOOO excited.  They both got a female betta.  Carlie named her fish Angelina after Angelina the Ballerina.  Berkeley named his fish Drolette after his primary teacher Sister Drolette (how cute).  I took pictures of them with their grandpa and their fish yesterday.  I went to download the pics today on to my computer and realized that I am a super airhead.  I didn't have a memory card in my camera.  Not sure how I took 10 pictures

yesterday and didn't notice, but oh well.  I had the kids pose again this afternoon,

but the pictures are not as great without their grandpa.

Love My Laminator

I am the primary chorister in my ward (song leader for kids ages 3-11).  I LOVE it, but it is SOOOOO much work, OR at least the way I insist I on doing it.  I bought myself a laminator at Costco for 20 bucks a month ago and OH MY I use it A LOT!!!!  It is so easy to use and makes my primary singing time visual aides much more durable.  What did I ever do before I had a laminator???  I love my Purple Cow laminator!!!!!!!

Here are some of my visuals I was making last night to teach the kids the song, Stand for the Right. 

It was a really fun song to teach. 

I Miss My Family....Feeling Nostalgic

I was scanning Carlie's basketball pictures and had my scanner out. It is an HUGE, ancient one that I do not use very often and it a pain in the rear end to get out. I was looking around the room and saw this picture of my family below sitting on my bookcase. I have been thinking about my mom, dad, my sister Michelle, and my brothers Lance and Scott A LOT lately. I am REALLY missing them and wish we lived closer and wishing desperately that my dad was still with us. Now some people will think this is weird (but I do NOT care), but my favorite TV show is Parenthood and EVERY TIME I watch it I think, "Man, I wish my family lived right next to each other like that.  It would be AMAZING!" Also whenever they have any dancing scene where the family dances all crazy around to some retro song....and I cry. My brothers and sisters and I all love dancing around silly like them. I have also started that tradition in my little family. My kids are amazing at dancing crazy like their mom and dad and their aunts and uncles. I LOVED when my parents would show off their dancing skills when we were kids. They really could shake it!! Soooooooo the point of my rambling is I scanned a few of my favorite family pics and decided to share them with the cyber-world to show my love for my super AMAZING family.

This picture was taken the day before Corey and I got married - September 1996

This is from the "Thomas Round-Up" family reunion.  I think it was in the summer of 1994.  It was with my mom side of the family in Flagstaff, AZ.  As you can see my brother was on his mission 

in Argentina so we represented him with a paper version.

This was after Corey and I got married and we were about to leave to go on our honeymoon and move to Oregon.  This is my FAVORITE pic of me with my siblings.  

We were really good at being silly and having fun.

My parents went on a 2nd honeymoon to Greece when I was only one year old.  This is a pic of them on this trip.  This is my FAVORITE pic of my parents.  They look so hip and happy.  Apparently, I was really mad at my mom when she returned that I didn't speak to her for a week.....silly little girl.

This was pretty fun to share some old pics.  I need to do this again soon!!

Time to Get Serious About Family Scripture Study

Corey and I have never been great about family scripture study (Let's be honest...we are not great in many areas), BUT I decided that enough was enough.  Our daughter Carlie turns 8 this year and is very excited to be baptized into our church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (aka The Mormons).  But, I am afraid she doesn't really know what that means.....we have not done our jobs as her parents.  I decided that the best way for her to be ready to be baptized was for us to finally get serious about reading the Book of Mormon as a family - DAILY.  I have always had a million excuses; i.e.:  my kids will not listen, they can't read, I hate mornings, we are too busy at night, blah.... blah...blah.

So here is our plan (thank you pinterest and sugardoodle.net)

We are using this reward system: (rewards are great for kids AND parents too!)

Here is the link to this AWESOME document:
http://mymixofsix.blogspot.com/2011/01/bookmark.html

We are also using the Reading Chart below to track our progress towards each of the smaller goals outlined above.

http://c586449.r49.cf2.rackcdn.com/BOM%20Chart%20Full%20Page.pdf

I introduced this at Family Home Evening this past Monday and my kids are so excited.  I have even agreed to getting up a little earlier so we can read every morning.  We have only done this two days in a row, but I already notice a better spirit in my home and my kids are really cute with it.  We have these simplified Book of Mormon books with great pictures for every few verses.  So Corey and Carlie read from the Book of Mormon and I show the pictures to Carlie and Berkeley as we read.  Good thing I inherited these books from my parents ( I loved them as a kid)....Berkeley stares at the pictures the whole time.

Here is what one of the books looks like....anyone remember these from their childhood.  They were written in the 1960's by a BYU professor and illustrated by a guy that was a former Disney illustrator.

So......wish us luck creating this new worthy habit.

"If you don't have time to pray and read your scriptures, you are busier than God ever intended you to be."



Moustache Valentines

My children recieved the most amazing Valentine from our friend Jake this year.  Included in the Valentine were two moustaches.  My adorable kids had a blast taking pictures with their new mustaches.  So pretend to be surprised when you get a similiar Valentine next year!  We are soooo copying our friend next year.

 



Seagulls, Sea Lions, & Smelt...Oh My!!

 We live right along the Cowlitz River in Kelso, Washington.  Every year the smelt come from the Pacific Ocean to the Cowlitz River to spawn.  When the spawn come of course the Seagulls, Sea Lions, and Seals follow.  It was so much fun to watch the thousands of seagulls dive for fish and the sea lions swimming among them.  The kids and I stopped everyday for a week to watch them....what fun adventures along the river!!!  There also is several bald eagles living along the river right now....they are so amazing to observe.  I love that there is so much wildlife right outside my door.  I never got great pictures of the sea lions and seals, but I tried.  I really think I need to invest in a new lens!!

 

 

 

Ridiculously AMAZING Quotes

I just became friends on Facebook with this lady I really admire that is in my new ward (church congregation for all my non-LDS/mormon friends).  I was reading through her quotes on her info page and these two really spoke to my soul.  They are wonderful ones to ponder and try to remember everyday.


If people understood God's love for every single human person and his divine plan for us, then believers would recognize their duty "to unite their efforts with those of all men and women of good will, with the followers of other religions and with non-believers, so that this world of ours may effectively correspond to the divine plan: living as a family under the Creator's watchful eye. -Pope Benedict 


"We want our women to be well educated, for children may not recover from the ignorance of their mothers." - Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball


Such wisdom, I love it.

A GREAT Snow Day

 My little snowman

 my little snow bunnies

 mommy taught them well

 my cute, little snowy house

This past Tuesday I went to bed VERY disappointed because the snow forecast had changed from 5-8 inches of snow overnight to a slight chance of 1 inch of snow.  I LOVE the snow and I know I don't live in a place known for it's big storms, but dang it the weatherman had been teasing me with a BIG snowstorm.

So when I woke up to 6-7 inches of snow I was SO HAPPY...but my kids were INSANELY happy.  Not only was school cancelled they got to play in the snow for hours.  They would play outside with their friends...take off their soaking wet snow gear in the garage, come in for 45 minutes or so to warm up and play with their friends, while I dried all their clothes (all their buddies too) in the dryer, then they would get their warm-dry snow gear on again and go play in the snow once more.  They repeated this pattern ALL DAY....how fun!

Too bad the snow was all melted in gone by the next morning....oh well.  We had a GREAT day!!