Be Mine, True Love!

The kids are always so excited to help decorate the house, I mean themselves, for holidays.  "Mom!  Take a picture of us!" said the girls as we pulled out our pink, red, and white.  Lucy also got all of her stuffed animals ready for V-Day by jazzing them up and she wanted to make all of our foods heart shaped, so we did quite a few things hearts.  :)

We made some cards to give to family members together out of Washi tape and had some fun with that.  The kids also loved filling out their Valentine's to give to their class mates.  We always buy the ones in the box after Valentine's day to give out the next year.  Emma gave out Ever After Highs that had little note pads with each one, and Cal did little animal ones with animal puppet stickers.  Lucy picked out Barbie ones for her preschool friends and Cov used Cal's leftover Harry Potter ones from last year.  We also gave out candy of course.

Our old little mailbox we used to pass each other Valentine's throughout February was getting broken, so Emma volunteered to make a new one.  Cute, huh?  It's so fun to give each other notes and cards and see what the kids do for us and each other.

We had our Annual Family Valentine Date the Monday before V-Day since we'd be out of town that weekend.  The theme this year was all about Conversation hearts.  So cute, so fun, but so yucky!  :P  But it made for a good theme.  Emma helped make the decorations and we had a blast coming up with phrases to stamp on our paper conversation hearts.  At one point we were laughing so hard!  It's nice to have a little side kick to do this with, rather than just doing it all myself.  She totally helped from planning activities and decorating to getting all ready for it!

The week before and the night of our date, we would go through "God's Converstaion Hearts" each night at dinner.  We'd read the phrase, the scripture, and talk about how it tied in and how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do love us!

http://www.juliabettencourt.com/crafts/conversationheartscraft.html

On the menu, we had BBQ ribs which were tasty.  Cal particularly enjoyed them, ha ha!  The kids asked how that fit in with the theme and I wasn't sure but quickly thought and told them that ribs protect the heart, lol!  They rolled their eyes.  We had salad with heart cut out veggies, roasted heart potatoes, applesauce with conversation heart sprinkles, heart french bread and conversation heart punch.  Even Jazzy joined in, she's totally like a dog and likes to eat crumbs before we can sweep.

After enjoying our meal and some lively converation, we played some games, which got pretty competitive.  We played a conversation heart stacking game to see who could stack the most little and big conversation hearts.  We also played conversation hearts match up.  We just got several matching phrases and turned them over and played the matching game with them.  Simple and fun!

I always try to do a game for our date that promotes love within our family.  This one we had a bunch of paper hearts cut out, a different color for each person.  Everyone had to fill in the conversation heart for the person of that color if they were a conversation heart, what theirs would say.  Here’s what everyone came up with:

Dad (orange) – Cassanova (his to himself, lol!), Huge Hottie (Mom), Hard Worker (Emma), You are a Dad (Cal), Nice guy (Lucy).

Mom (yellow) – Angel Eyes (Dave), Meanest Mom (that was a joke for myself, that’s what the kids say sometimes), XOXO (Emma), You are a Mom (Cal), So Nice (Lucy)

Emma (Blue) – Smarty my Hearty (Dad), Sweetest Heart (Mom), Awesome (Her own), You are a Cheese Ball (Cal), I love you Hugs & Kisses (Lucy)

Cal (Red) – Cal me Anytime (Dad), Smiles (Mom), Sweet (Emma), Cool Man (his own) Macho Man (Lucy)

Lucy (Purple) – Sweety Petey (Dad), the Queen of Cute (Mom), Cheerful (Emma), You are a cheese doo (Cal)

Cov (Green) – Hoss is the Boss (Dad), Handsome little fella (Mom), Squeaky cleaner boy (Lucy)

We had a great time laughing and hopefully some of these helped boost their self-esteem.  ;)

We finished off the night by having our conversation heart pinata cake.  I've never made one of these but it was super fun.  Cov tried to grab at it on one corner, so it's a little bumpy, but it's okay.  We enjoyed it anyways!  It was a white cake with cream cheese frosting.

The next day, we heart attacked our neighbors, Tony & Angie.  We attached a bunch of our paper conversation hearts onto bamboo skewers and quietly went after dark and stuck them in their snow all over their front yard.  It looked cute and I hope it was a fun surprise for them!  

Lucy and Covey had a fun Valentine's Day party at preschool.  The made little puzzle magnets, ate treats, exchanged valentines, of course, and just played.  Such fun little guys!  I also got to go help out at Emma's school party a bit.  They played a fun heart game where they had instructions on certain hearts to find around the room and Emma won!  She's cute!  We watched Ezrie that day and she had a blast with us and the other big kids, too.  I missed out on Cal's party this year, I'm just going to have to alternate whose class I help with instead of trying to hit them all now.  He had a fun V-Day party though.

What a great time we had on our date.  We always look forward to this sweet tradition!

For our Valentine's date, Dave and I went to Ruth's Diner up Immigration Canyon.  It was a nice night and a cute little place.  We enjoyed the conversation and the yummy food.  It's fun to just be alone sometimes!  Dave and I agreed we wouldn't get any gifts for each other this year, but Dave made a super cute homemade card, and I put together a little Spa gift basket for us to use together and made a card.  I'm so blessed to be married to a man who honors me and honors the Lord!  He helps me laugh and have fun.  He helps me to relax and remember I don't have to have everything perfect.  He tells me each night how beautiful I am and is always telling me I'm the best wife ever (though that's far from the truth, to him it is the truth).

On Valentine's Day, we were able to go to the Care Center where Grandma Di & Grandpa Scott help each week doing Sacrament Meeting services, FHE, and help out when needed with other events.  The kids made Valentine's that day with construction paper, crayons, stickers, foam shapes, and jewel and wrote sweet messages.  We went and took them and some candy and oranges to the residents who thought the kids were so sweet.  They were all special and it was fun to go there to meet these neat people.  The kids loved their robot cat they had there and cracked up about that.  

I participated in the #LoveOneAnother social media event leading up to Valentine's Day sponsored by the Church.  It was a great challenge to focus on just one way to love others each day and really helped me through some times when I was feelings some resentment or stressed out to look to others and how I can love them in that thing.  "As I have loved you, love one another."  That's a pretty huge request, the Lord loved perfectly and He asked us to do the same.  It's a lot easier when we focus on one way at a time we can love more perfectly.

I'm thankful for my family.  I love them with all the love my heart can muster!  I am also thankful for my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ who share their perfect love for us each day!  "for God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  Now, that's true love!

Celebrate the every day

Some days life gets too serious for us and we are so focused on the have-to-dos.  So we try to lighten things up.  When Emma was in kindergarten, I started looking up wacky holidays online.  I wrote down the ones that sounded fun or educational or gave me ideas for meals on the calendar.  We've been celebrating every day crazy holidays since then and love it.  It gives us an excuse to enjoy the day and spend extra quality time together.

We've celebrated some memorable ones lately including:

Bubble Wrap Day.  We made bubble wrap art.  Emma wanted to make hers look like stained glass so she colored it that way with markers and put it up to the window to enjoy it.  And we played a game to see who could pop the most bubbles on a sheet of bubble wrap in a certain amount of time.  Pop pop pop!

Super bowl.  That's really a holiday for us Americans, right?  I'm not into it (just ask Dave, he jokes I'm a little grumpy on that day) but Dave, Emma and Cal watched.  Lucy & I did make some gingerbread football cookies though to have that night.  She still calls herself my baker girl.  And Cov enjoyed helping, too.  

Mail Carrier Appreciation Day.  We left some hot chocolate and popcorn in the mail box with a card we made for our mail carrier, Amber.  This was very deserving as she has been facing some very crazy weather to get our mail to us each day.  She was so nice she wrote a thank you card back telling the kids how much that meant to her.  Things like this don't take much time, money or effort, but the feeling the kids got of doing something nice for someone else I hope will stick with them and they will look for ways to help and thank others.

Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.  One of the kid's favorite to date! Luckily it landed on a Saturday so they weren't dragging at school.  We had several kinds to pick from, they all wanted cookie dough.  I tried a little but couldn't do it.  I saved my ice-cream for later that night.  ;)

We also like to celebrate the kid's accomplishments.  As their piano teacher, this year as an incentive program, we've done "Mama Mia!  Let's practice the piano for pizza!"  Emma and Cal had opportunites to fill in pepperonis on paper pizzas by doing different challenges each week at their lesson.  Once they did this (and my other students) they got their very own pizza and we had a little party for them.  Yum!  They are doing great and getting better each week.  It's fun to hear them really get into practicing now and not whining as much about it.  :)

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."                                            -Charles R. Swindoll 

More often than not, I'm sure lots of the deposits I'm making for my kids aren't the greatest, but this is one way I can make big deposits  in their memory banks and hope that some day they can cash in on these happy memories and make happy memories for their children.

W-E-E-K-E-N-D-S! What does that spell? Weekends!

Though it's cold outside, that hasn't stopped us from getting out (that is, when the roads aren't closed).  ;)  We love the weekends so much, we let out a cheer each time!  :)

We were able to go up to Independence Rock and Casper one Saturday and we had a great time!  We love outings with the family.  The kids were excited to finally climb Independence Rock, as the other several times we've tried to get out, we've been eaten by mosquitoes, even with bug spray, and end up jumping back in the car to escape the bite!  Cal was leading the way, running the whole time, with Emma and Daddy close behind.  Lucy was a little unsure and wanted to stay at the bottom for a while, but decided to be brave, and she made it the whole way, as did Cov!  It was neat, and the kids loved looking at the views all around and at the inscriptions the pioneers made in the Rock at the top.

Then went up to Casper.  We went to Poor Boys Steakhouse first.  It is a total dive on the outside but it was really good food, and fun on the inside!  We went to run a few errands and look around at some stores.  We went to the castle park, which we love.  It was snowy, but not too cold and the kids had a great time!  Emma and Lucy made a snowman, a Ninja snowman.  Cal ran all over all of the park and tried everything out,  We went to the mall to play and look around.  Got some Happy Hour slushes at Sonic.  And then we headed out.  It was such a fun day!

The kids always love their play dates with friends on Friday and Saturday, too!  One day, Emma had two, one here and one at one of her friends!  She and Christine and Lucy did a pet salon and jazzed up Jazzy!

We went to Utah one weekend, so much fun! It was President's Day weekend, and we were lucky enough to attend the Provo City Center Temple open house.  We went with Grandpa Scott (Grandma Di was not feeling well) and cousin Amber.  What a unique and beautiful temple!  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get in, but it was worth the wait.  We were very creative and tried hard to keep the kids busy and happy in line.  This was a neat temple with a neat feel.  Though the most important thing of course is what goes on inside temples.  What a great legacy, what a great work to do!

Then we were able to meet up also with Grandma & Grandpa Ryerse and go to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.  He's always been a favorite artist of mine and it was fascinating what we learned about him.  His career was so prolific and I wasn't aware how long he was at it!  I love how true to real life he was, his warmth, and how he portrayed the ideals in America at that time.  I wish those ideals were the same now as they were back then.

The cousins had fun sleepovers.  Cal went with Kaison to sleepover with them, and we had a girls sleepover at Grandma Sue & Grandpa Dan's.  They had a great time, stayed up until 2!  They played games, watched a movie, and giggled and played some more.  We made German Pancakes in the morning, heart attacked Grandma and Grandpa with sweet notes they wrote on hearts, made cootie catchers and had fun doing hair and other girly things.  Such sweet cousins, I love that they are so close!

Cov hung out with his best bud, Uncle Randy.  He went and got lunch with him and loved riding in Randy's car so much he didn't want to get out.

We also were able to hit up the temple really quick.  I love the temple and going there makes me want to be better each time.

We celebrated Valentine's Day also that weekend, see more about that in a future post.  And on the way back home, we got to stop at Amy, Kolby & Boji's house.  It is always fun to do that!  We had a yummy dinner and I got a hair cut.  She cut off about 10 inches.  She gave me a long bob, which she informed me is called a "lob".  Love that sister of mine, she's so great at everything and inspires me!  Cov and Boji were funny.  Boji kept asking Cov if he wanted to go hunting.  Cov kept replying, "No, I don't want to!"  Boji persisted, but Cov said he didn't want to ever go.  The few weekends later when we went shooting, we kept asking Covey if he wanted a turn, but he just said, "no!  I don't want to!  It's scary!"

One weekend brought a fun Primary activity.  We did a service project and made valentines to take to elderly in our ward and delivered them, played games in the gym, did a church tour (to emphasize reverence and the sacredness of the place) and then enjoyed some muffins. Man, I love these Primary kids and being in Primary!  It's the best!  I forgot to take many pictures but here are a few.  That afternoon, we took a trip to Laramie for church auxiliary training.  It was awesome!  I loved the Primary training which focused on love.  It really is all about love! Then we met up with the Schaefs to see the new Chipmunks movie and went to dinner at Applebees.  

Another weekend, we went out to the shooting range with the Smiths and Schaefs.  Watch out for these sharp shooters!  We took out a pumpkin bucket, a Kristoff barbie doll, some #10 cans, water bottles and pop cans to shoot at, as well as target stickers.  Everyone had a great time.  Cal loved watching and shooting.  Even Emma is asking for a gun for Christmas now, lol!  The kids cracked up when Kristoff or the pumpkin would get shot.  Lucy tried it, too, and everyone said to not mess with that girl, she had a great aim!  And I even did pretty well target shooting too.  It started getting cold and windy, so the kids and moms crammed into the cars to hang out for  a bit.  Then we went to Su Casa for lunch with them and ran into a bunch of other friends.  It was good.  We love this town and the people here and will miss it, but it's meant to be.  Then we went to the park for a bit and to hang out at the Smiths, who announced they'll be leaving soon as they just got a job offer in Colorado.

And, let's not forget the party we try hard to enjoy each weekend...the housework!  Like my large laundry pile.  Right when I feel so on top of it and good to go, a pile magically appears again usually over the weekend.  ;)  And the other household chores we all pitch in to do.  Usually we don't take pictures of that, but that's what we should take them of, because that's what we spend a lot of time doing.  Whether we're working or playing though, it's always weekends for the win!