I promise we don't beat him!

Yep his face is all scratched up yet again. He must really like battle scars. Just after his forehead was beginning to heal this happens. He was jumping on the neighbors tramp and jumped off onto CONCRETE...ouch!It got his chin, nose and forehead. We though his nose might have been broken but we couldn't tell. I'm sure it would be painful but it already hurts with all the scrapes. Have any of you or your kids had a broken nose? Can they even do anything for them? Tomorrow the nursery leaders will probably wonder what we are doing to him but I promise we don't beat him!

Luke the Graduate

The graduating class of Spring 2009 he he.
The cute graduates. Bridget and Luke. Thanks for the pictures Tina.

Luke graduated from the Resource Center's "Ready, Set, School" program yesterday. They read stories and do an activity every Wednesday. I thought the graduation caps they made for the kids were really fun. For being a free program the kids receive lots of stuff. At the beginning they gave him a bag with his own pencil, scissors, crayons and other stuff. For graduation they gave him all sorts of small books. I have him signed up to go to the University's preschool this fall. I signed him up when he was born so he better get in he he. I'll have three kids in school this fall WOW! That makes me feel old. Anyway, way to go Lukie Ookie.

Am I crazy?

Since BriLynn is four months I wanted to post this picture again, it's just so stinkin fun, it makes me laugh. Today I took BriLynn (4 months) and Luke (4 yrs.) in for their checkups. Luke got his kindergarten shots. He didn't want to get them but I figured it would be more traumatic to wait till next year. It was pretty crazy, I need to bring something to entertain them next time. I don't want to bring snacks because I'm kinda paranoid about them touching stuff in those rooms where sick kids have been and then putting their hands in their mouths.
After we were done we took a trip on the elevator because of course kids think this is the funnest ride ever and for some reason pushing the button gives them an adrenalin rush. As we were hopping on and off I got some funny looks. It may be in my head but I feel like sometimes people look at me like I'm crazy.
At one point we were waiting with an older couple, as Jacob went to push the up button the guy started getting mad at him and telling him not to touch it. It made me upset. Like he is going to hurt anything. Has anyone ever reprimanded your kids when you didn't think they needed to or it wasn't necessary?

Tell me your kids do this.

To let you know what I'm referring too here's a joke:

A clergyman was walking down the street when he came upon a group of about a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age.

The group surrounded a dog. Concerned lest the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked "What are you doing with that dog?"

One of the boys replied, "This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we've decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog."

Of course, the reverend was taken aback. "You boys shouldn't''t be having a contest telling lies!" he exclaimed. He then launched into a ten minute sermon against lying, beginning, "Don''t you boys know it''s a sin to lie," and ending with, "Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie."

There was dead silence for about a minute. Just as the reverend was beginning to think he'd gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, "All right, give him the dog."

LIES. My kids are telling lies. I'm not talking about things like when they say: I'm a superhero and I can fly. That's just their imagination. It's when I ask "who did this" and they say "he/she did" when they did it. It's hard when you can't tell who is telling the truth. You can't believe them since they have already lied about something else. I know they just don't want to get in trouble and we keep telling them that they will be in bigger trouble if they lie about it. Tonight we will have an FHE lesson on it but if any of you have ideas on how we can stop it please share. They are great kids so I don't want this to sound like they are constant liers. We just want to take care of it now so it doesn't get out of hand. I hope that makes sense.

Whew that was crazy!!!

We had eight kids come and when you add the rest of ours in there, that's thirteen kids. WHEW!!! I think they had a lot of fun. I had a welcoming sign on the garage with an arrow pointing to the front door. Then they signed in at the door. I'm so glad it was a nice day outside. After their pizza was done cooking they ate it outside. The kids seemed to favor just pepperoni. There were only a few who did onions,peppers or pineapple and ham. Some stretched their dough out better than others too as you can tell with the different sizes of pizza.Then we had them go to the different areas. They decorated cupcakes. Did the dot art and other crafts.Then of course blowing the candles out. I just made a flower out of cupcakes for Danika, since it was the first day of Spring.You can't forget opening presents. She got spoiled. All in all I think it turned out fun for the kids. We had a good hour of clean up afterwards. This morning I opened the window to the backyard and noticed plates with pizza on them still outside. The kids had fun watching a big bird come in tear off a piece and fly off. I'm excited for today!!! I told Kevin the other day I needed a haircut and he told me to call and get a manicure done too, WOO HOO. He's such a wonderful hubby!!! It's been so long since I've had a manicure and after last night I deserve it he he, just kidding.

It's great to be Eight!

Okay so Danika's birthday isn't today it's tomorrow but I thought I would do a Happy Birthday shout out today. Tomorrow I'm sure I'll be running around trying to get everything finished for her party. I'll post pictures of it. We are doing an Art Party. The kids will decorate their own pizzas, Kevin can show them the art of pizza tossing ha ha. I have a bunch of art/craft stuff for them to do. Then they can decorate their own cupcake. I want to make this a wonderful and memorable birthday for her, you're only 8 once. One of the art projects will be Dot art. I saw these paints in Missouri at a shop in Silver Dollar City last year. Have any of you used them before? I love them, they don't drip and comes off clothes. I won't have to worry about getting each kid a paint brush and the product won't dry out if the cap is left off. Wow this sounds like a sales pitch sorry. Anyway I hope it turns out fun for her. Here are some fun pictures. Happy Birthday Danika! We love you!!!

Yet another Stratagy

Before I begin HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!!! We started our day off with some green waffles. I couldn't bring myself to dye the milk green this year, I just can't drink it. Anyway, here is another parenting strategy that Kevin and I are trying. We wanted the kids to do more beyond their chores. We had a Behavior jar but it would reward everyone (I think I mentioned that before). Well we now have Mommy and Daddy Bucks. We will give them one when they do something above and beyond what they are expected. This is where we will hold their bucks. No Andrew and Luke haven't earned those they were just posing for the picture. It wasn't the greatest idea since they didn't want to give them back. This is the store. They can use their mommy daddy bucks for toys or a certificate for a date with Mom and Dad. We will supply the store with things the kids have asked for. Andrew has been asking for a watch so I got one at the dollar store and he will have to earn it. Here is an up close picture of the $. Sorry it's not the greatest picture. We hope that this helps with their behavior (not that it's really bad but it could improve) and it will also help them learn the value of money/math skills. It can also teach them to work hard for things they want. We'll cross our fingers that it works.
I'm off to print up shamrocks for a game Danika wants to play. You hide a bunch around the house but hide a leprechaun on one. The one who finds the leprechaun looses because as everyone knows they enjoy mischief. Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Tears of Joy!

I was asked to put some pictures of BriLynn up. I had to put the one that is pretty bright from the flash even if you can't see it well. She just had the biggest smile, I love it. I just wanted to add how blessed we are!!! I was reading my friend Heathers blog (thanks for the post). Her little girl Alyson was born with a Congenital Heart Disease. She had posted a link to a family who just lost their little girl at 11 months after a heart transplant. I just sat and cried!!! I think it started when I noticed that her birth date was March 20th. That is Danika's birthday. This beautiful child of God passed away before her first birthday. How often do I complain about fighting kids and the laundry or whatever else happens to try my patience. How selfish I have been! I should be thankful that they are able to bicker with one another, they are still here to hold and love!

Cuties

Wow it's already Friday, where did the week go! Last night we took pictures of Danika and Tianna. They are good friends and the fun part is that they will be getting baptized on the same day. Her Mom and I have been planning the program and decided it would be easy to do the luncheon together also. I thought it would be fun to take pictures of the girls to put on the tables.

 

I went to wally world and found a few matching shirts for the girls they were $1.00 woo hoo. Have you ever found something that was a sweet deal? It just brightens your day eh?
Well since it's Friday and I haven't posted a recipe in a long time I thought I would share a site for a TON of recipes. I really like this site because you can make a meal plan and it will also make a shopping list of your meal plan for you. It's http://allrecipies.com Have any of you already used this site? It's free to sign up, let me know what you think. Have a great weekend.

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Last night the boys were playing on Danika's bed, Jacob fell and hit his head and cracked it open. He split it pretty deep. This is the first time any of our kids have cut themselves that bad so we didn't know if it warranted stitches or not. Well we took him in and they were going to do stitches but after they had numbed it and cleaned it out it could be pushed together pretty easily. The doctor said it was good that it was a horizontal cut and not vertical. We decided to have them glue it instead. I'm glad I don't have to go back to get stitches taken out, I just have to wait to take the tape off it for five days. All I can say is NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!!!

Free Movies

Redbox is giving a free movie every Wednesday in March. I got an email sent to me about it so some of you may already know about it. All you have to do is check out their blog, go to http://blog.redbox.com every Wednesday for the promo code. Sorry I should have done this yesterday but I got a little sidetracked (as every mom does). Speaking about movies, have any of you ever watched the Liken movies? If not I highly recommend them. You can learn more at www.likenthescriptures.com
My kids LOVE them! Jacob always says "Goliath fall down" and proceeds to fall to the ground. We are going to the Jazz game tomorrow and Thurl Bailey played Goliath. I want soooo bad to get a picture of little BriLynn in his arms. I think Jacob would get a kick out of seeing Goliath holding his baby sister.

Food Storage

So Kevin and I went a little crazy last night. We took all five kids with us to Mayces to do some food storage shopping. You can't put much in those car carts! We heaped as much as we could into them and then Kevin went back after we put the kids to bed. We have been feeling more of a push lately to become more prepared. Any of you feel the same? We have always known that it was important, we have been told time and time again to do it. Maybe it's the economy scaring us but we have felt we need to do more.
We bought this wheat grinder a couple months ago and I've been having fun using the wheat from our food storage. The kids also like to watch it. We also got a manual one so if we didn't have power we could still grind wheat. (hopefully we never have to but you never know). We bought a generator last year but in an emergency it will only last as long as we have gasoline. We went on the provident living website and it says we need 2100lbs of wheat and other grains to have a year supply WOW...that's a lot. Of course we put down seven people (they count that as seven adults) I thought that on that site it would say how much water you would need also but it doesn't. Do any of you know?
I told Kevin we should just buy some chickens and a cow. Then we could have our own eggs and milk if something happend HA HA.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKIE OOKIE!

Kinda fun that today is Luke's birthday and it's my 200th post. Yep our Lukie Ookie is now four. Crazy!!! He is a ball of energy and we love him so much. Here are some pictures from his Birthday Party Yesterday.Blowing out the candles.
I think Luke really liked the cake and ice cream ha ha.He's excited about his new bike. It's starting to get warmer so he can go riding soon! Happy Birthday Lukie Ookie.