Earth Hour Tonight!

Please participate if you can!!

http://www2.earthhourus.org/

Park and Library Pictures!

Some finshed sewing projects!

Some things I have been working on lately...

New Washer and Dryer!

Well, after over a week without, we finally have a new, working washer and dryer!! When we moved into this house there were existing ones. Problem was they were from the 1970s and the dryer was so loud! It sounded like a 747 flying through the house and my ears were always ringing after shutting it off. But, they both worked fine, so we decided to deal with them. Well, then the washer decided to break. So, we decided to be frugal and buy some off of Craigslist. Bad idea. They broke after the first use. So, finally we bit the bullet, went to Lowe's, and got some new ones. I am so glad to finally have them working again...now to that pile of laundry!

Easter Sunday

My mom and sisters were able to come down and visit for Easter Sunday. Lots of visitors that week!! We loved getting to see them and had lots of fun on Easter. Here are some photos.

Cute Babies!

I had to share this adorable picture of the kids. I had put them down on the bed to nap. We have a king sized bed and one was on the far right side and the other on the far left. I came in an hour later and this is how I found them, so sweet!

Trip to Austin!

After Kathryn flew back home, we decided to head down to Austin for a few days for spring break. We really love it down there. We did so much while were were down, shopped, flew kites, went to the parks, went to the children's museum, ate (oh man did we eat, you have not had food until you eat at local Austin restaurants!). Here are a few photos from the trip.










This one is Lyna nursing her baby at the children's museum. I love how wonderful of a mommy she is to her baby dolls. She is so cute!

Trip to the Dinosaur Park!

We had the opportunity to go visit the Dinosaur National Park that is about 45 minutes south of us while Kathryn was visiting. We had so much fun, what a cool place! We were able to see the dinosaur tracks and the kids had lot of fun playing the water. At one point Lyna's shorts got wet and she decided to just drop her pants right there and continue on playing. Luckily she had a fairly long shirt on and it just looked like she had a bathing suit on, funny girl! If you ever have to chance to go see this park, I highly recommend it!

Grandma Kathryn Visits!!

We were able to have a visit from Grandma Kathryn over spring break for a few days. We had so much fun were so glad to get to spend some time with her.

Happy Pi Day!

Since Michael works in a Math Department they, of course, celebrated "Pi day" a couple of weeks ago. Michael volunteered me to make an apple pie for the celebration, so I decided to try Pioneer Woman's Caramel Apple Pie...wow oh wow this pie is fabulous! Go to the store now, get the ingredients, make pie...you will not regret it!

Beautiful Spring!

We are really loving spring right now. All of the trees are in bloom and the weather is gorgeous! I always go back and forth on what is my favorite season between spring and fall...right now I am going to say it is spring!

Our Baby Hammock!!!

So, I have been hearing fabulous things about these baby hammocks that are becoming so popular, specifically the Amby and Happy Hangup. I wanted one so bad, but the price tag is pretty steep! So, after showing Michael what I wanted, we put our skills together (his=building; making something out of nothing, mine=sewing; supervising making something out of nothing) and came up with this!! It only cost us about 30 dollars and it works just like the expensive baby hammocks. It is spring loaded as well, so it undulates as well as swings. It also has a safety cable, just in case, and holds up to like 200 lbs. (hopefully we never have a 200 lb. baby though). Anyway, just thought I would show it off, I love it!

Organization Wednesday!

Well, this Wednesday, I didn't really have a plan for what I wanted to organize. But, after making my normal Wednesday grocery shopping trip and putting away food, I began to realize that I have bought double and even triple of some of the same things and that there was no room in my fridge. So I promptly decided the fridge would be getting the organization job for the week. It came at a good time too because I had just made this fabulous, oh so good, yummy yummy recipe, but in the process it had leaked in my fridge, so it needed a good scrubbing out too. So, here is what became of it. I also did the freezer while I was at it, but it didn't take much since we rarely freeze anything.

FHE

Last night, for FHE, we talked about Temples. We mostly used this lesson from Deseret Book. We also watched a short video on Temples and then the kids got to hang a photo of the Temple in their room where ever they wanted it. This was very hard for Mommy, since I kind of like to decorate "my way", but Lyna was so excited to get to put it where ever she wanted it, it made her feel very big and special.

The Galleria

Yesterday, we went to the Galleria in Dallas. It was fun, we took the kids to see a puppet theater show. We also ate at a yummy mexican restaurant there.

Texas Snow!

Well, I know it doesn't compare to the snow that some of our family is getting in Ohio, but here are some photos of our little Texas snow this week. We went out and played in it for all of probably 5 minutes and then about an hour later, all the snow was gone and it was a beautiful spring day.






And here is what Noah thought of the snow, he was happy when it was gone...

Mini Bread Loaves

We made some adorable mini bread loaves the other day, Lyna just loved them and they are so nice to have around for the kids (since the kids will only eat about a half a regular loaf). This is Amish White Bread and it is so tasty, for the recipe, head on over to my recipe blog.

Organization Wednesday!

Okay, I know it doesn't LOOK super organized, but I promise, as my husband can testify, it is SO much better then it was. I still need to go buy some more hangers as I ran out when I was almost finished hanging things, but it is pretty much done! Another project down!

FHE

This week for FHE we talked about Family. We used this lesson from LDS Living. For the activity we blindfolded Lyna and asked her to find me in the house, of course this proved difficult and she could not do it. I then let Daddy help her find me and she was able to do it. We used this to illustrate how listening to both your earthly parents and your Heavenly Father can guide you and help you in life. After this, we were able to finally watch the Worldwide Leadership Broadcast that we missed last month. If you have not gotten a chance to watch or read this, I strongly recommend it, it was so good! You can find it here in audio, video, and text versions.

Daily Scripture Study!

For a long time I have been trying to find a good scripture study solution for the kids. We do evening family scripture study each night, but I have very much wanted to do something daily with the children that was a bit simpler and more on their level. So, for about a year, we have tried a few different things. We have tried focusing on one scripture at a time, reading out of the Church's "Scripture Stories" book, reading out of story books purchased at Deseret Book...we have done a lot. I was somewhat liking the reading of the "Scripture Stories" book, I liked that it used stories as I think my children listen better to stories and that it is written in simple words, but I didn't like that the stories were still pretty long for small children. I tried breaking them up, but it just didn't seem like that worked well either. There aren't many pictures in the book either, so that was difficult as Lyna likes to see pictures. Well, the other night, while searching www.lds.org, I came across the Gospel Art Kits. Now I have known about the Gospel Art Kits for years, they aren't anything new, but as I looked through them I realized how perfect they would be for daily scripture study. The pictures are colorful and interesting and the text that accompanies them has short summaries of each story, most are perfect length for young children. So, I went ahead and printed and laminated one as a test run. I printed the picture on one side and the text on the back. We did the the first Old Testament one today and it went over so well. I read the short summary on the back (for those of you with older children, the actual scriptures are provided as well.) and Lyna really participated well. Noah ended up sitting through the whole thing too, which was just an added bonus! So, I went ahead and printed some more out, laminated them, and punched holes in the top and we made a little area in our kitchen where everyday after we finish scripture study, we can hang the picture there as a reminder for the day of what we learned. I was so excited to find this fix that I thought I would share it here, just in case someone else is looking for something like this.

Spring is Coming!

Yesterday, I looked outside to find these beautiful blossoms on one of our pear trees in the backyard. It's so nice to see something growing on them! I can't wait for spring!!

Crazy Hair