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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Multi-tasking

I discovered the best way to be able to play and give my girls some attention and clean at the same time
Turn on music and dance!!! We turned on the radio and danced to a song. After that song was over we would hurry and clean up during the next song. Then, after that song was over we would dance again! So every other song we would clean up and the girls didn't fight me on it!!!! It was the best! I know it's hard trying to find time to play with your kids and wanting to get the house clean all at the same time. Most of the time I would let the cleaning wait, but this way we all have fun and we all get our chores done together!!! It's a win win situation!

That's my tip for the day!!! :)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine marshmallow pops

I found this idea off pinterest to make Marshmallow pops and they had some really cute Valentine versions of them. Audrey decided she wanted to make these as her valentines for her friends at school. They turned out really cute.

Before we made them I decided that we needed something to put the marshmallow pops in. I took an empty pizza roll box and wrapped it up and tied a cute bow to it. Then I poked some holes in it and stored the pops in it! It was super easy and it looked super cute!!







Monday, February 13, 2012

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!




HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE! I HOPE YOU ALL GET TO SPEND IT WITH THE ONES YOU LOVE!  I GET TO SPEND MINE WITH MY CUTE LITTLE FAMILY!!! I LOVE THEM AND ALL OF YOU WHO ARE IN MY LIFE!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Young Womens lesson "Finding Joy now!" and handout!

I gave my lesson today in Young Womens and it was about "Finding joy now." While I was preparing this lesson I was trying to think of an object lesson I could do but I just can't think of creative things like that. So I asked my husband if he had any ideas and not more than a couple seconds after I told him what my lesson was all about, he came up with some awesome ideas. He really is so creative when it comes to thinking of things like that. I am going to ask him for ideas more often!

This is what I did. He told me to get an empty box or a basket of some sort with a lid and put it at the front of the class on the table. They had the choice to be quiet the whole lesson and sit there and do nothing and don't participate, and if they did that, then they got whatever was inside of the box....which was nothing but they didn't know that. They would have missed out on those opportunities that would have made them happy now. They would have missed out on the special moments we really shared during this lesson.













Or...I gave them the choice to participate during the lesson and each time they were taking time to say nice things to the other girls I rewarded them for it with M&M's. Each time they were taking time to enjoy the little moments I rewarded them for it.  If they had not participated in the lesson they really would have missed out on the opportunity to make one or all of the girls happy today.
The whole point of this lesson was to explain to them that they need not sit and wait for better things to come along. They should not sit and do nothing because they "can't wait," for bigger and better things to arise. If they did then they would miss out on opportunities to serve, opportunities to love and they wouldn't enjoy the moments now because they are too focused on, as I call them, the "I can't waits."

For example:

"I can't wait to get my license."
"I can't wait until I am in High School."
"I can't wait until I can date."

Those are awesome things to look forward to, but they will miss out on the moments that will help them find joy now and they will focus too much of their time worrying about the future. They will miss out on the little things right now that matter the most. One of my beehives was telling me that sometimes she will do something and she will focus so much of her time worrying about why she said or did things she wishes she wouldn't have done...but learned that she has missed out on so much by worrying about the past and not enjoying the moments now. Ditto to that!










I tied it all together and grabbed the empty box and said that if they just sit there and don't find opportunities to serve and focus too much on the "I can't waits," they will miss out on the ("What can I do now,?")  moments (M&M complimenting activity), the moments that will help them to find joy now.  Ultimately, they will get nothing for doing nothing.

I am so proud of my girls, they all participated in the lesson and that made me extremely happy. They all were enjoying the moment and were doing nice things and saying nice things to the other girls. You could see that they were truly enjoying the moment and I love it. One of my beehives told me she wanted to cry because of how happy it made her feel to hear the kind things the other girls were saying to her!

Here is what I did to give the girls the opportunity to serve and to enjoy the small moments:

In order for them to earn some M&M's I gave them opportunities to say and do nice things for each other. I grabbed a mirror (like the lesson suggested) and gave them a turn to look in the mirror and I asked one question per girl and the other girls,  if they chose to, had to answer that question about the girl that had the mirror at that moment. The questions I asked are as follows:

"What do you like most about the girl you see in the mirror?"
"What are the talents and blessings of the girl you see?"
"What do you want most for the girl you see?"


I am not sure if that even makes sense. I have a hard time explaining things sometimes. But it worked out so well with my girls and they all chose for themselves what they wanted to do during the lesson...they truly had the "Power to bring happiness into their lives," (D&C 58:27-28) at that moment......and they did!!!
I noticed the girls were eating conversation hearts on Wednesday so I knew they would love this treat for a handout. They were so excited about it!

Showing some love Day 11 and 12

I cannot believe Valentines Day is almost here. I have definitely enjoyed doing these fun little Valentines each day for Brandon and Audrey. I will do this for Gracey next year when she understands it better!

BRANDON VALENTINES DAY 11 AND 12

Day 11- I found a babysitter for the girls all day yesterday and originally it was supposed to be a surprise to him that we were going to have a whole day to ourselves, but I ended up telling him. He didn't really find out everything we were doing that day so it was still a surprise to him to find out what I had planned.

Day 12: "REDEEM THIS COUPON FOR A RELAXING NIGHT. I WILL TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING!"


















AUDREY'S VALENTINE COUPONS:

DAY 11: SORRY, APPARENTLY I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE. IT SAID:

"GOOD FOR ONE FAMILY SLEEPOVER." She was able to choose who she wanted to have over for a sleepover one night. She chose her cousin Hazel.


DAY 12: She gets to have a gameday!!!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Showing some love day 9 and day 10

Brandon's Valentines:

Day 9














Day 10: Yeah I wasn't paying attention to the kind of rootbeer I bought, so the tag that I wrote out ahead of time doesn't really make sense with it. Oh well. We will pretend.

"I am in "AW," that you chose me!"~ Was supposed to be A&W rootbeer.















Audrey's Valentines coupons:


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Showing some love day 7 and day 8

BRANDON'S VALENTINES:


Day 7: I got him a gift card to the movies and came up with the phrase,
" LET'S FANDANGO!!!"

Day 8: I gave him the gift card to Texas Roadhouse and said

"IT WILL BE A BIG "MISTEAK," IF YOU DON'T TAKE ME OUT TO DINNER!"


















AUDREY'S VALENTINE COUPON:

DAY 7: I forgot to take a picture of her coupon. But her coupon said let's have a read-a-thon!
DAY 8: "YOU GET TO HAVE ONE EXTRA SPECIAL TREAT TODAY!"













LIVY VALENTINE COUPON!

She chose to do a craft and watch a movie while Audrey was at school!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Showing some love Day 6

BRANDON'S GIFT:

I got this idea from so many different blogs.

"YOU ARE ONE "HOT TAMALE."















AUDREY'S COUPON:
I am going to take her to redbox to have her pick out a movie of her choice tonight!!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Showing some love day 4 and day 5

 Brandon's treats:
DAY 4: I "CHEWS," YOU!!
DAY 5: "PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE YOUR OUTLOOK TODAY!"--- A 20 MINUTE MASSAGE!!
















Audrey's coupons:

DAY 4: GET OUT OF ONE CHORE FOR ONE DAY
DAY 5: YOU PICK DINNER TONIGHT!


Friday, February 3, 2012

Showing some love- Day 3

Here is what Brandon got today:

"I am "HEAD," over heels for you!!!!

I did warn Brandon ahead of time that everything he is getting is going to be corny. :) But I do have to say that I came up with this phrase all by myself. I didn't look it up. I am sure most of you would probably have come up with this phrase but I always get excited when I can come up with it on my own!! Oh and I know it's corny. Don't worry. :)





This is the coupon Audrey got today. You can't really see it but it says she gets one special outing just her and daddy. AFter an hour or so after she woke up this morning she was sneezing a ton and her nose keeps draining. Looks like her date will have to wait for another day!


I felt bad too because the other day when my niece was here I was cutting up these coupons while Audrey was at school and she was a little jealous that Audrey got these, so whenever she comes over I will have a little something for her too. The one I did for her today was she got to pick out a special treat and got to pick out which movie she wanted to watch today. She was pretty happy about it!! I love that little things like that, that don't cost a lot of many, if any at all, can please them! It's great!

Valentines- Heart cinnamon chips

I saw the idea of making cinnamon heart chips on a site somewhere and thought it would be fun to make with the girls. I have made cinnamon chips before with the tortilla's but in triangles. So we just made them into heart shapes. Let's just say, these chips did not last long...they never do.

For those that don't know how to make them all you do is take some tortillas spread with butter or butter cooking spray (which I used). Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, cut out your shape and spray more butter on top of them. Cook them in a 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes. That's it!!!


Thursday, February 2, 2012

Valentine Advent day 2

Here is what they all got today for their little surprise:

Brandons:

"I "Donut," know how I got so lucky to have you as my husband."











Audrey's and Gracey's:

Audrey knew right away where I hid these. I guess I need to make it a little bit harder next time! They both LOVE these cups. I was going to make tags to go with these and say the traditional "You are sweet," and " I am glad you will "BE MINE," forever!!" Wish I had. Oh well.





Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Let the Valentine fun begin!!!

So there are many different kinds of advent calendars and advent ideas you can do for Valentines, Christmas, Halloween, etc, as I am sure most of you know. I have never done one before but thought it would be fun to do it this Valentines. I will be giving Brandon a treat or just a little something each day up til the 14th to show him that I love him. And it's fun for me to do this!! I am doing the same concept with Audrey except that Audrey mostly has coupons I am giving her. Oh and I tried doing this for Gracey and she just threw the paper on the floor. I will do fun things with her next year when she understands more!! Each morning when she wakes up she has to find the coupon with the heart that is with it. You know how some people do the "Elf on the shelf," for Christmas and they hide the elf in different places each day? Well, I decided that would be so much fun to do for Audrey but for Valentines day. If I thought of it ahead of time, I would have bought a cupid or something and made up a cute phrase to go with it like the "Elf on the shelf, " but "Cupid on the shelf." I need to think of a creative name for mine though. Once I figure it out I will let you know. Maybe just the plain old "Heart attack," idea will work.


Anyways, so for Brandon's first Valentine treat I got him some Mountain Dew because he really likes Mountain Dew and I attached a label that said "I "dew," love you!" I did not get this idea from my own little head. I got it from many of the nifty crafty blogs out there that have given us many ideas to use for advent treat ideas!!! Almost all of the ideas I used for each of Brandon's treats are from other people. But there are a couple that I came up with that I thought worked out pretty good too!! Anyways for Brandon's treats, Audrey and I will hide them in a certain spot and I will write down a clue for Brandon to find it. He is such a trooper dealing with my corny/fun things I like to do during Valentines Day!!!! He is mostly letting me do it this way becaue he knows how excited Audrey gets when he has to find something she has hidden.














For Audrey's I made mostly coupons for her of things that she usually doesn't get to do, but will get to do each day. Oh and I would have totally done the cute mailbox idea that you see out there, except that I could not find any mailboxes. Maybe next year.

Anyways, so the coupon that she was given today was she gets to stay up 30 minutes after Gracey goes to bed. She is pretty happy about it.  I just put it on her chair at the table this time. I will be more creative next time. Oh and again, most of these coupon ideas I got off of Pinterest. So I don't take credit for all of them.