Happy Leap Day!

Well, I feel obligated to post on this day since I won't be able to post again on this day for another four years (and who knows if I will even have a blog by then?!?)....so, here are some photos of how we spent our Friday evening. We decided to go play putt-putt tonight! The weather was beautiful, so it was a good night to get out. Alyna really enjoyed putt-putt and was actually decent at it, except that she hits the ball like she is playing hockey not golf! Michael was by far the best putt-putter in our family, but if we went by highest score I would have beat him by almost twice what he had! Noah enjoyed the putt-putt experience, not so much putt-putt itself. He really liked exploring the course and holding his golf ball. He loved going and putting his golf ball in the hole and then getting it out and then doing that about 300 more times before we would finally have to force him to move on to the next hole. And instead of surrendering his precious golf ball to the last hole, he decided it would be better to throw it in the water beside the last hole. He also at one point decided he really liked Michael's putt-putt club and refused to give it back, so Michael had to use this...

All in all, we had a great time and we will definitely go back and do it again soon!

Church Bags

So, after years of pacing the halls with my children during church, we have finally found a solution!! We tried these for the first time last Sunday and for the first time in a long time, Michael and I got to sit through ALL of our meetings (except for a nursing break for Noah). AND, it was ward conference, so Noah sat in the same pew the entire time and did SO well! It was so awesome! So here are our successful church bags!!! Each child brings their bag to Church and we hang them up on the outside hook until Sacrament Meeting (we have our other meetings first here) and then they get them when we are ready to go in. Each child will get a bag at one year old (or so is the plan!). Also, the kids don't get to play with these any other time them for Church, so it kind of helps keep up the novelty.


Inside Lyna's bag is an I-spy bag, two sister missionary little people, two mini-stuffed animals, a mini -file folder binder with 10 games and one laminated white piece of paper to color on with dry erase markers, a snack sack, two puzzles, two books, an etch-a-sketch mini, and two picture card books.
In Noah's bag is two missionary little people, two mini-stuffed animals, a Noah's Ark hand puppet book, two books, two picture card books, a snack sack, and diapering supplies.


Another thing that has helped tremendously is sitting in a pew next to the wall. We used to always sit in the chairs in the back, but it is too hard to contain a child that way. So, now we get there early and reserve one of the small side pews for our family. Then one parent can help them get things out of their bags, play with them, entertain, etc. and the other parent can block the only exit!

Organization Wednesday!

I have a new schedule called my "mom game plan" that I stole (and redid a bit) from www.meckmom.com (great site! If you haven't ever checked it out, you should!). Anyway, my mom game plan has Wednesdays as my organization day, so today I tackled our kitchen cupboards. I should have taken before pictures, but I didn't think about it, so you will just have to take my word for it that they were horrid. They look so much better now and I have so much space! Sorry there are so many photos, but we have a lot of cabinets.

In the first cabinet is where I am now keeping my mom game plan, monthly calendar, and daily food schedule. On the bottom cabinet are two baskets to put bills and checks in, a pen holder, and two binders. The two binders hold all of our important documents, one for the house (i.e. lease, cable contract, etc.) and one for the family (birth certificates, etc.). Everything hanging up is laminated so that it can be written on with dry erase markers. The top two shelves hold all of my baking supplies.





These hold all of my spices.


These shelves hold all of our day to day breakfast, lunch, and snack foods.


These shelves hold all of our canned goods, pastas, sauces, etc. (mostly used for dinners).


All of my foil, saran wrap, etc. and my oils are up here.


And of course plates, cups, bowls, etc. (and no this is not all of them, I was running a large dishwasher load at the moment).


Extra juice and water and this huge roasting pan that I have no place for.


All of my metal cookware.


All of my measuring cups, sippy cups, tupperware, and other plastics (oh and this one lonely bag of flour that wouldn't fit in the other cupboard).


Kitchen gadgetry and glass bakeware.


I still lack under my sink (which isn't too bad), but that will have to wait until another Wednesday!!

FHE

Tonight we learned about President Thomas S. Monson. We read the 6th Article of Faith, "We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth". Then, we put together a puzzle made out of a photo of him with different interesting facts on each puzzle piece and sang "Follow the Prophet". We then watched his segment in the video "Special Witnesses of Christ" and for our activity we played "Fishing for Nephites" (an LDS version of Go Fish).

80 Degrees!

Yep, thats how hot it was here today!! And it is only February!!!! Needless to say, we spent a lot of time outside today. We went and got some sidewalk chalk and played with that for a long time and also went to the local park.

Sweet Relief

Finally!!! Ever since we moved I could not find the tray for our booster seat! Without it, Noah refused to sit in the booster seat and dinner was becoming so annoying! But, I went out into the garage the other day and found it! He was so excited to have a tray and be able to eat with the family!!! This thing makes my life so much easier and I am so glad to have it back! Oh and please excuse the girly bib on my son, I also can't find his bib?!? And no, it wasn't the same place as the tray, so he has to wear Lyna's bib. But, no worries, I got him a nice blue boyish one today!

The Carousel

We met up with some friends from Norman last night as they were passing through Dallas. We were so glad to get to see them. We were supposed to go to Chuck E. Cheese, but when we got there it was a 45 minute wait (after we had already waited probably 15 minutes). So, we decided to go to the mall instead. This is a pretty neat mall, it has a carousel, an ice skating rink, children's play areas, and it's enormous! Lyna was SO excited to ride the carousel. Here are some photos...

Dallas Temple

We were able to go up to the Dallas Temple for the first time yesterday. It is a beautiful Temple and it is in a really gorgeous part of Dallas. It was so nice to see our new "home" Temple and we also got to go to a great LDS Bookstore there! We had a lot of fun.