Boy Crazy?

{At karate last night, photo courtesy of my iphone}

Makenna was born a little boy crazy. I'm not kidding. When she was 2, I noticed she would flirt with boys that were 6 or 7. Where did she learn that? I have no idea. I am certainly NOT encouraging that kind of behavior. Here's a little conversation we had last night that illustrates my point. We were at Carter's karate class and she mentioned she wanted to take karate too.

Me: Do you want to take karate or do poms/cheerleading?

{both of which she can start at age 4. She has been obsessed with doing poms/cheer for the last year and has been waiting to turn 4}

Makenna: Will there be boys in poms?

Me: No, probably not.

Makenna: Will there be boys there watching me?

Me: Yes, probably.

Makenna: {big grin} ok, I want to do poms!!

Seriously scary! Can't I just lock her in my house until she turns 20?

For being such a flirt, she is really, really shy. She was assigned the scripture for Primary on Sunday. We worked on it and she even had it memorized but when she got up to give it she would not say a word. Even when Allen tried to prompt her, she would not utter a word of the scripture. Allen ended up giving it for her. When she sat down, she promptly burst into tears. Another little boy from her class had the prayer and he did the exact same thing, except he had spaghetti legs too and would not stand at the podium. It was a rough primary for the Sunbeams this week!

Project 365: Week 7

I'm late doing and posting last weeks pages because I was gone on a girls trip all weekend. I came home severely sleep deprived and was asleep before 9:00 p.m. last night. {More on my fun and fabulous weekend to come!} So here are the week 7 pages {click to enlarge/read journaling}:


I realized this week that Carter is getting the shaft in the project 365 picture department. I suck. I obviously spend most of my daytime hours with the two girls, which must be when I take most of my pictures. I'm for sure making a better effort to get his daily activities in my pictures from now on. Sigh. I hope he forgives me!

Valentines Day

It was nice to have Vtines over the weekend. We had a low key and relaxing day.

You'd have thought it was Christmas morning with how excited the kids were for their little gifts. Makenna literally squealed when she opened her nightgown. Carter had a similar, but more boyish, response to his new Legos.

Makenna had dance in the morning and then Allen took the big kids and ran some errands. He came home and surprised me with a brand new iPhone!!!! I am so excited. I've been wanting some sort of PDA device for awhile and really had my heart set on the iPhone. Such a fun, fun surprise. We've both been playing with it all weekend and I am in love. I also went and got a pedicure, which I'll never complain about! {I feel way spoiled this year!}

For dinner, the kids decided that their hearts desire was breakfast for dinner. We just went with it and had pink waffles, scrambled eggs, etc. And of course, fondue for dessert.

Allen and I went out with some friends on Friday night for our date so we just hung out and watched a movie on Saturday night. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the kids in their cute matchy matchy valentine garb!

Oh, and just for the record, this is what I did for the kids' teachers this year:

I thought these heart measuring cups and spoons were so cute (Target $2.50 spot). I decided I wanted some for myself but unfortunately they were all sold out! Next year!

Project 365: Week 6

Another week down! This week was very Addison heavy with the pictures because it was her birthday. Some of the pictures aren't that great. I'm chalking it up to part of the whole experience. So forgive some of my bad pictures! Layouts should be clickable :) Oh, and I have noticed quite a few typos in my journaling the last couple weeks. As far as I can tell there is no spell check in Photoshop. I've gone back and fixed my journaling and am being more careful about proofing everything!

Valentine Cookies

Oh my. You've got to try these. I got this idea from the Little Birdie Secrets blog and made these with my Activity Day girls yesterday. We delivered them to our Bishopric and Primary presidency with homemade Valentine cards that they put together.

It is a super simple shortbread recipe and then you dip half the cookie in melted chocolate. HEAVENLY. It's a good thing we gave them away because they were amazing (seriously, how could it not be with a POUND of butter?!?!)

Here's the recipe via Little Birdie Secrets:

4 cups flour

1 lb. butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. almond extract (optional, I left it out since I don't like almond flavoring)

1 bag Wilton Candy Melts or similar melting chocolate.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add flour and mix well. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes.(Start checking after about 20 minutes. You want them to be just barely browning around the edges.) Yields about 3 dozen cookies, depending on size of your cookie cutter.

{Funny story, I was reading the blog of a friend of a friend because of something my friend wanted me to see on it. Then I saw that she was posting MY recipes as her own. I know they were mine because some of them are family recipes and because she copied my explanations word for word. Come on. Give credit where it is due!!!}

Project 365: Week 5

Here's last weeks layouts. I'll be honest, I was not feeling the love for this project while scrapbooking this tonight. My goal is to have the previous weeks layout done by Sunday night. In the end, I KNOW I'll be so happy that I did this project so I'll keep plugging away.

The Little Lady is ONE!!!

Somehow, we've gone from this:

To this:

In the blink of an eye! Sigh. I am finding it more and more difficult to get good pictures of her since she doesn't want to sit still. I'll have to try again for good 1 year pics!

Addison had a great first birthday.

Cute birthday shirt/bow:

{Seriously this was the best of about 20 shots I took. She won't STOP wiggling!}

Here she is with her fun gifts. She pushed her stroller/walker all over the place yesterday:

A peek at her cake that I made! I LOVE how it turned out. It was surprisingly easy to decorate a cake with fondant! Thanks to my friend Elisa for answering my plethora of questions about cake decorating!About to eat cake. She had no idea how to blow out the candle so the big kids did it for her.

She did not disappoint in the cake devouring department. She dug right in and was eating with two hands about as fast as she could shovel it in her mouth!This random shot is for my mom. She sent an outfit for A that didn't fit so I returned it and bought this instead. She wanted to see what the new outfit looks like:

I've mentioned before that Miss Addie is the love of all of our lives. She is just loved, smothered and adored by everyone in the family. She really lights up a room whenever she is in it. A few more things about her at 1 year:

- FINALLY consistently sleeping through the night

- Almost completely weaned - nursing 1 time per day at night (she would nurse more if I would let her but I'm going on a kid free trip in a couple weeks that she needs to be completely weaned for) I have mixed feelings about it. I love the snuggle/quiet time but know it is time

- Still has 0 teeth!!

- Pulls up and cruises the furniture everywhere. No interest in holding hands and walking. Totally normal for our kids

- Favorite foods: cheese, yogurt, pb &j, noodles, chicken, fruit, bread and fruit snacks. LOVES milk

- We discovered that she has seasonal allergies a few weeks ago. She has to take children's claritin every day or she gets really stuffed up and is miserable

- Saying: uh-oh, mama, dada, hi, bye

- Waves goodbye and claps

- Gives slobbery, open mouthed kisses on demand

- Is VERY attached to her parents. She has separation anxiety more than either of the other kids.

-Favorite toys: Still loves the dollhouse/furniture, keys, stealing Carter's legos and sucking on them (a constant battle around here), my first purse and character pop up toy, phones, still loves to crumple and chew on paper,

- Loves bathtime and especially loves when we bathe her with the sibs

- Taking two 2 hour naps most days

Happy, happy birthday to my sweet, sweet baby! We love you Addison!

Valentine Traditions

I've had a few people ask me about my Valentine traditions. I've mentioned before that after Christmas, Valentines day is my favorite holiday! I love it! Since it's usually C-R-A-Z-Y to go out on Valentines evening, Al and I try to do something romantic earlier in the week. This frees up the actual day to do something fun with the kids.


Valentines Fairy: Starting February 1, the Valentines fairy brings the kids fun treats and small surprises every day. Kind of like an advent calendar but it only lasts for 2 weeks. This year I got these cute mailboxes in the dollar spot at Target and embellished them a tiny bit. The fairy leaves her treats in the boxes for the kids to have every morning. {You could still do it this year, starting whenever}. We write notes to the fairy and ask her questions and she leaves notes back. She also puts "activity slips" on some days {make valentine cookies, make Valentines for grandparents, Valentine craft, etc.} It's so funny to me that Carter is convinced that our Fairy is a girl and Makenna is convinced it's a boy {It's a girl, for the record}.



Valentine breakfast: No big surprises here, just pink milk, heart shaped pancakes. We also get the kids a small gift that is wrapped and at the breakfast table. This year M is getting a princess nightgown she has been wanting, C is getting a small lego set, A is getting touchy-feely books.


Heart's Desire Dinner: For dinner on Valentines day night I do a "Heart's Desires" dinner. This just means that each member of the family gets to pick a menu item for the meal. Their hearts desire {get it?}. This means we get some totally random but really fun meals and everyone gets something they really want to eat.


Fondue Party: We always, always finish the evening with a chocolate fondue party. Highlight of the day for everyone. This is my favorite chocolate fondue recipe ever, given to me years ago by Mindy {who now has a private blog}:


1 t. butter
1 c. mini marshmallows
1/3 c. whipping cream
6 oz. chocolate bar with almonds (it's fine to use the no nut version too)
2 T. milk

Break candy into pieces. Rub wall of crockpot with butter. Place candy, marshmallows and milk in crockpot. Cover and stir every 15 minutes until melted and smooth. Gradually add cream. Continue to heat 30 minutes.

We dip pretzels, marshmallows, angel food cake, strawberries, bananas, rice krispy treats, etc.

Here's a peek at a few of our decoration this year. I made another banner. I'm addicted and think I might need one for every holiday! First year for valentines tree. I've been collecting ornaments for a few years and finally did it this year. I'm hoping to find a taller skinny tree for really cheap after Christmas next year.

Buffet:

So that's it! You can thank my mom for a lot of these ideas as they are traditions I've carried over from my childhood!

For more of my Valentines ideas, check out these posts:

Valentines day with a new baby!

Kids crafts and outfits

Homemade Valentine Craft

{And look how teeny tiny my kids look in these pictures :( My heart is hurting today, a certain someone turns ONE tomorrow. I can't stand it - but stay tuned for lots of birthday fun!}

Project 365: Week 3-4

More layouts for Project 365. Sorry, some of the pictures are repeats. I'll be posting my layouts not because I think they're interesting, but because I know my mom wants to see them and it motivates me to get them done.


Week 3:



Week 4:

(All images are clickable, just in case you want to read my fascinating journaling!)

My mom called me on Friday to see if I was ok. I told her I was and asked why she was wondering and she mentioned that I hadn't blogged in a week. Hmmm... I have no excuse. Just busy doing stuff. Working hard on "The List." Having a super fun weekend that included a date on Friday night, a double date with Adam and LJ to see the Lion King on Saturday night and tons of Superbowl partying on Sunday. More about all that on last week's layout coming up!

I'll be back tomorrow with some Valentine-y goodness!

Happy Things

Where did this week go? Here are a few things on my happy list today:

1. It's Friday. Need I say more?

2. I made homemade bread AND homemade strawberry jam this week. Bye bye diet, hello deliciousness.

3. I have this glorious stack sitting in my book basket waiting for me. Sigh. Beautiful. {Can you see why I never buy books?!}

4. This fun print I got for the kids' bathroom. Love the message. Love the colors. Love the owl. Love it on my red shelf (life #4 for this shelf - it's been pink, white and green before it's rebirth as red)

5. Valentine candy in fun jars. Thought I'd take a picture of it before all the candy disappears.

6. This banner I put together (from a purchased kit) for Carter's birthday. I decided to forgo the traditional balloon bouquets and opted for this instead this year. Yummy colors. Yummy paper. Looking at the picture, it needs more ribbon and a better photographer - this is way cuter in real life!

7. These beauties. Taunting me. Begging to come live at my house. The second they go on sale, they are mine!That's it today. Happy weekend!

Happy Birthday Nic!

Today is my sister Nicole's 30-somethingth birthday. I'll keep it a secret in case she doesn't want the whole world to know exactly how old she is!

So since I haven't sent her birthday present yet, I thought I'd try to make up for my slackerish ways by blogging about her instead. So here's 30-something things I LOVE about my big sis!

1. She is my best friend. We talk at least once a day. Our husbands have no idea how we have so much to talk about but we somehow do.

2. I can tell her ANYTHING and know she will not judge.

3. She gives great advice.

4. She is an awesome mom. She makes having 5 kids look EASY.

5. She is a great friend.

6. She gives awesome gifts. She has a knack for finding really unique and perfect gifts!

7. She is a great scrapbooker. She not only keeps up a family album and albums for all her kids, she gives them as gifts too. And she is sometimes even caught up (gasp!).

8. She loves me so much that she has me programmed me as two of her five free numbers on her cell phone. My cell phone and home phone numbers! {have I mentioned that we talk a lot?!}

9. She is super adventurous and is always trying something new.

10. She has a great relationship with her husband Jon. They have taught us a lot about marriage. They always make each other a priority.

11. Her house is beautiful. She is a great decorator!

12. She has really great fashion sense and is always dressed really cute with fabulous accessories.

13. She loves kids clothes as much as I do. We talk about this a lot :)

14. Never once in my ENTIRE life have I felt an ounce of competition from her. I'm pretty sure this is rare in sisters but it is such a blessing. It is such a safe, comfortable relationship for me.

15. She came to visit me for a week when I lived in Connecticut just for fun. It was such a GREAT trip and I have many fond memories of that time together.

16. She is in awesome shape. You would never know that she's had 5 kids by looking at her. She's a really good example to me in putting fitness as a priority in life.

17. She gets me. I don't know how else to explain it.

18. She is a really good cook. We are forever swapping yummy recipes. She doesn't like to cook but she is good at it!

19. Traveling is one of her favorite things and a huge priority in her life. We have some fun upcoming trips that we're planning together.

20. She is very generous with her time and means.

21. My dream in life is to live near each other. Maybe someday.

22. I think it would be dangerously fun to live close to one another. She is a great shopping buddy.

23. She is a very laid back mom. Much more so than I am. I have a lot to learn from her about that.

24. Her kids genuinely love her. It is neat for me to see the developing relationship between her and her older kids. They WANT to be near her. I pray that my kids are the same way.

25. Family is very important to her. She makes lots of sacrifices to spent time with her family, especially since we don't live close.

26. The year that I lived in Seattle, only a couple hours from her, was one of the best of my life. It was so fun and reassuring to have family nearby.

27. She is genuinely interested in my kids.

28. She babysat my kids for 10 days when Al and I went to Hawaii in 2006. Bless her.

29. She is great in her callings and church and always, always supports her husband in his busy callings.

30. She taught me that it is OK to leave my kids sometimes. They will survive and even have FUN without me!!

31. She keeps me sane.

32. She has more energy than anyone I know. She is always on the go.

33. She always has something fun planned when we are together.

34. She is the best sister a girl could ask for!

I could go...and on. Suffice it to say, I love my sister a lot!

Happy Birthday Nicole!! {PS, if we were together today, I'd take you to lunch, out for a pedicure and maybe top it off with some shopping!}

Carter's Birthday!

Thursday was Carter's 6th birthday and he had a great day! We started by having cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we let him open one present before school. He was thrilled to get another Indiana Jones Lego set.

I took cupcakes to his class during snack time and he loved passing out his treat to his friends.

After school he was so happy to put together his new Lego set. He has gotten so proficient at putting them together that he had it completely done in about an hour.

When Allen got home, he opened the rest of his gifts. More Indiana Jones Legos, a new board game, some books and an Indiana Jones costume, hat, whip and bag. Can you tell what his new obsession is?

We went to dinner at Rubio's (Carter's choice)


Had Indiana Jones birthday cake with some friends:

Yesterday we went miniature golfing for his birthday activity (I've gone to the friends party every other year plan). It started out really fun:



And ended with this:

Yep, Makenna walked right in front of Carter as he swung his golf club. It sliced open her eye and was gushing blood. We rushed to the ER where she received 6 stitches! We were only on the 5th hole when it happened so we'll have to do something else to make up for it. Kenna was a total trooper and hardly cried at all getting her stitches. Carter felt HORRIBLE even though it wasn't his fault. Life with kids... so unpredictable. Makenna absolutely loved all the attention she got at church today and proudly showed off her injury!

I'll be back with Carter's birthday interview results!

Project 365

Yep, I've jumped on the project 365 wagon. I'm still not sure what I've gotten myself into but I'm planning to maintain it for a year. In case you don't know, Project 365 challenges you to take a picture every day for a year and document it in some way. I've chosen to use the Two Peas kit A Day in the Life for my layouts. At first I thought about trying to really make my layouts fancy but then realized I would get burned out of the project if I tried to overthink it. So I'm keeping it really simple and doing lots of journaling. 3 weeks into the project, I am having fun learning new things with my camera and I know we'll love looking back on the little everyday things I've documented. Here are my first 2 weeks layouts. If anyone can help me figure out how to make my pictures clickable to expand larger, I would love it. For the life of me I can't figure it out!

Week 1:

Week 2:

(PS - when I have the book printed and bound, the layouts will be side by side and you'll read left to right, which is why the days look really screwy on my layouts in this format!)

You can thank me later

Ok, I know there are a lot of fellow Losties out there {seriously, I can't wait until next week! Woohoo!} But did you know that JJ Abrams {creator of Lost} has a brand new show on Fox?

It's called Fringe and it is SO GOOD. We started watching it just because he is the creator and let me tell you, it does not disappoint. The great news is that there is still time to jump on the bandwagon. You've only missed 10 episodes and they are all available online. It takes a little while to get the gist of the show but now that the foundation is set, it is awesome!!

We started watching Lost based on recommendations from friends and now it is our favorite show! So I'm passing on the JJ Abrams love and recommending Fringe to you!

Jump on the bandwagon here

{More about birthday festivities tomorrow! Carter had a great day today and the Legos even arrived in the nick of time - i.e. this afternoon!}

Keeping me Busy

As I was cleaning up after the holidays, I realized just how many little projects I needed to do around here. I'm not talking about a big remodel, just lots of little things. And I also realized my house needs a serious DEEP CLEANING. So I sat down and made a list of all the things that need to be cleaned, finished or spruced up. Originally, I thought I could tackle the entire list in a month but after working on it feverishly for a couple weeks, I realize I have at least 2 months worth of work (and that's working a couple hours a day on my list - which I won't be able to maintain). My goal is to touch EVERY surface of the house and go through every item we own! It's a tall order but already things seem so much cleaner and better organized!

So here it is, my Deep Clean 2009 master list. I'm posting it here because hopefully it will keep me motivated. I love checking things off my To Do list and will be updating this list until it is all done!

Carter’s Room
Vinyl quote above bed
Wipe down furniture
Go through closet - DONE
Clean out drawers
Wash windows
Dejunk night stand - DONE
Clean Baseboards
New light fixture
Clean Blinds

Girls’ Room
Frames for Addie’s side - DONE
Name board for Addie
Paint bird house - DONE
Go through drawers
Go through closet
Wipe down baseboards
Wash Windows
New light fixture
Move Hope chest
Clean Blinds
Sell bedding/bed rails

Kids’ bathroom
Wipe down baseboards - DONE
Paint - DONE
New light fixtures
Wash Shower curtain - DONE
Paint Shelf - DONE
Decorate - DONE

Linen Closet
Reorganize

Laundry Room/Game Closet
Wipe down appliances
Clean shelf over washer/dryer
Empty boxes

Bonus Room
Clean out file Cabinet
Baseboards
Windows
Paint touch up - DONE
Vinyl quote in stairwell
Wall Decor
Chalk board
Go through toys
Go through videos/dvds
Clean Blinds

Pantry
Additional shelving - DONE
Door shelf - DONE
Reorganize - DONE
Baseboards - DONE

Kitchen
Clean/wipe out cupboards/drawers
Organize art cabinet - DONE
Clean fridge/freezer - DONE
Clean oven
Windows - DONE
Baseboards
Touch up paint
Clean Blinds - DONE

Small bath
New TP holder
Baseboards - DONE

Family/Living Room
Baseboards
Paint end tables
Windows - DONE
Vacuum under furniture
Clean Blinds - DONE

Master Bedroom
Baseboards
Windows/ledges
Hardware for mirror
Go through drawers
Go through under bed bins
Clean Blinds

Master Bath/Closet
Windows
Baseboards
Mop Tile
Remove luggage - DONE
Organize long term food storage
Go through clothes
Clean Blinds

Garage
Get rid of carpet
Get additional shelf
Organize shelf
Hanging system for bikes
Go through excess boxes

So... if you're stuck inside and have the winter blahs, try making your own list. It feels so good to check things off! {And if you're stuck inside, I sincerely apologize since it's lovely and in the mid 70s here this week. I'm not trying to rub it in... just remember come June, we'll be stuck inside ourselves!}

Winner!

Sorry I'm a little late posting the winner of my giveaway. I {still} have a very sick baby. She has had a cold and fever and now has a roseola rash. She's basically been miserable for two weeks and wants to be held all the time. Poor thing.

Anyway... the winner of the giveaway is MELISSA! I cut up numbers from 1-28 and had Makenna draw a number. She pulled the number 1 but then I made her put it back because I thought maybe I hadn't mixed them up well enough. I mixed them again and had Carter draw a number and he ALSO pulled the number 1. So Miss Melissa is definitely the winner! I'll call you in a few days and we can get going on your blog makeover!

I'll be back with lots to share this week. I will have a friend in town for the first part of the week but will be back after she is gone!

{PS - I've gotten everything I ordered for Carter's birthday except my order from Legos.com! I love the idea of stretching out the present opening all week! Thanks!}

Learned my Lesson...

First of all, keep commenting on the giveaway if you haven't already. I'll draw a name sometime tomorrow so you really have until midnight (or when I check my blog tomorrow) to comment.

Ok, now on to my real reason for posting. I'm an idiot. Seriously. Carter's birthday is next Thursday. In years past, I have just done birthday and Christmas shopping for him at the same time. Then at some point we sit down and figure out what to give him for each occasion. In an effort to spread out the spending, I decided to wait until after Christmas to tackle his birthday. Biggest.Mistake.Ever. Have you looked for a toy in the last 2 weeks (probably not because you haven't even found places for all your Christmas toys yet!). Oh my gosh. Nightmare. Target has absolutely nothing. Row after row of empty shelves. ToysRUs is cleaned out too. And even Wal Mart.

So in desperation, I've done all my birthday shopping online. So much for saving money. I HATE spending money on shipping and I've spent a ton. And I don't even know if I'll get some of the stuff on time. Cross your fingers and say a prayer for me (for real). I'm going to feel like the worst mom ever if his gifts haven't gotten here (I literally have 1 thing for him in my current possession). As if having a birthday 3 weeks after Christmas wasn't bad enough. Ugh.

Slump

Uh oh. I think I'm getting in a blogging slump again. Maybe I just feel overwhelmed at all the catchup I need to do on all my friends' blogs. {Sorry, I know I owe about a zillion comments}

Oh and the insane urge I have to clean, organize, decorate, freshen up, EVERYTHING in my house. {More on that later}

So anyway, nothing like a good old GIVEAWAY to try to dig me out of the slump.

Here's what I'm giving away:

1. A custom look for your blog. I'll make you a new background and header for your bloggity blog. There are two catches. {1} I only know how to do Blogger updates AND {2} I have to have the password to your account. Before you write me off because of the password thing (because seriously, who would be dumb enough to share their password?!?), I just figured out that you can temporarily change your password for the blog makeover. Literally takes about 30 seconds. So if you win, you can change it for me and then change it back. Capiche?!

2. Some kind of cute Valentine craft/package/something or other. Valentines day is my 2nd favorite holiday (after Christmas) so I've already got some grand plans up my sleeve!

Ok, you have until Friday at midnight to comment! Back to my crazy nesting party!

{Oh and a little disclaimer: if you win and DON'T want a blog makeover, I PROMISE I won't be offended. I'll still send you the Valentines fun!}

THIS JUST IN: My mom is MAKING a cute Valentines craft to be included in the giveaway. Whoever wins is in for such a treat - my mom makes amazing, beautiful things. Just in case you need more motivation to enter :)

Lazy. Really Lazy.

So winter break has come and gone. After our action packed trip to Colorado, we decided to lay low during this second week of winter break. And it has been so glorious.

Allen had to be back to work on the Monday after Christmas. He worked a very full and long day and came home feeling pretty rotten. He had basically not slept for two weeks straight and I knew it would catch up with him. The week before we left for CO, he had to complete all of his performance reviews for the year and basically worked from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. five nights in a row to get them done. The week we were in CO we partied hard with my family and stayed up way too late each and every night. So... Tuesday morning he ended up calling in sick to work and slept for the entire day (for real). He ended up getting a positive strep test and had to stay home from work on Wednesday as well. So in two weeks he only ended up having to work one day. It was great. As soon as he started his antibiotics he felt a ton better.

The rest of the week has been so relaxing and restful. We played a ton with new toys - Carter has played for hours with his new Lego sets, we've played lots of board games, ridden our new bikes every single day -- etc. We've been to the park every day and have had really beautiful weather this week. I've also read two books this week - I started the Uglies series and they are quick, fun reads. We've been really productive as well. I love starting out the year with a clean, dejunked house. We've done some major revamping/decluttering and organizing. Nothing makes me happier than new organization projects. We started a painting project that I'm planning to finish up this week.

It's been a big week for the kids as well:

Carter learned how to tie his shoes:

Makenna finally got a big girl bike:

(can you believe she was wearing shorts?!)

Addie has two little bottom teeth trying to push through (and is miserable)

Makenna started primary!

Carter was finally allowed to watch an Indiana Jones movie. We discovered that Raiders of the Lost Ark is rated PG. He is totally obsessed with I.J. (though I have no idea where the obsession springs from since he had never seen any of the movies) and was thrilled when we finally relented. He loved it and was acting out all of the action scenes. He also talks incessantly about it!

And a random picture of my girlies this morning before church. This was the first matching outfit I bought for them when I found out I was having another girl. It's still one of my favorites and I'm afraid they won't get to wear them much more since it's warming up here!

A quick funny story about Carter. On Saturday our ward had a "Meet your new Primary Teacher" breakfast. After the activity was over, one of my friends approached me with a great story. Apparently they were playing "Do you love your neighbor?" (Do you love your neighbor? Yes, but I don't like anyone wearing pink. All the people wearing pink have to move) When it was Carter's turn, the teacher asked, "Do you love your neighbor?" He said, "yes, but I don't like people wearing indigo." She said everyone was totally shocked/puzzled about the color indigo and that he had to explain that it was purplish/bluish (even to the teachers). Hilarious and so very Carter!

I am sadly gearing up for the return to our schedules. Yes, I'm one of those moms who absolutely loves having my kids at home. It must be done though and I have a big To Do list to get going on!

My goal is to get caught up on blogs this week - I've slacked for weeks now and am so far behind!