Bees Game

A while back we went to the YMCA Healthy Kids Day. The kids had to complete certain things at different stations. At one of the stations, they were giving out free Bee tickets. We gladly accepted and made it a family home evening night. We went with our good friends, the Minsons and had a great time. The kids did really well for about 4 innings and then they had it. Luckily, they have a play place with a park and some bounce houses. That was the best part for the kids. The girls were sad to leave "the bee" at his house the beehive. It was a great night for our family.

5th Grade Music Production!!

The years that I have to teach general music, I decide to put on a music production. This way, I only have to teach songs and dances and don't have to teach rhythym and alll that jazz. Well....once again it is my year to have general music. So, at the beginning of the year I put together a "Music Through the Ages" show. I got the theme from a previous production put on by a good friend of mine. I started from scratch with the music and the dances. It is slowly coming together. I had a coworker say that it is more work to do the production than to teach 3 months of general music. True, but I like to cause major stress in my life. :)

We always make our costumes. We don't have any funds coming out way, so it is something that all of us can do and not too expensive. Three years ago, we did a Disney Production and we painted Mickey Mouse on their t-shirts. It was a lot of work. I made stencils of Mickey's face and we sponged the paint on. This year I thought I would do something a little less stressful (or so I thought) I thought I would tie dye t-shirts to represent the 70's. It was a great idea and I didn't think it would take 3 hours to do. But like all of my productions, my grand ideas are a lot of work. But in the end, it is well worth it.

Here are some of the pictures of the time spent doing it. We are putting on the production at the end of this month. It is coming along really well and the students are doing a wonderful job. My stress is turning into excitement.

PS....Remember the Healthy Habit Challenge? My family and I are on week 5 and it is going great! Posting is a point in the journal entry. Hooray for a point!

Happy Birthday Little Man!

At 8:18 AM this morning we sang to DS for his birthday. A year ago today we were in the hospital having this little man. We went in at 6:00 AM and had him in our arms by 8:18 AM. He was the first of my three children to make it to their C-section date. It was really nice going in and having a baby in your arms 2 hours later.

We are so grateful that a year ago this little man joined our family. He has been such a great addtion. His first 5 months were really hard, but since then he has been so fun. His little personality is shining through. He now has a voice and says, "dada, mama, what's that, down, up, taytay (my niece Taylor), bye and uh oh". He signs, "more, all done, food, milk, please, thank you and drink". It is so nice when they can communicate. It helps both of us.

We had him in the Instacare a few weeks ago and he weighed 22.3 lbs. We don't have his year visit until June.

The girls are in love with him and enjoy helping him. DD#1 gets yelled at by him quite a bit because she gets up in his face. He is done having his personal space invaded. He is crawling all around and loves to follow his mom. He has finally started to sleep most of the night. He has only been getting up once a night lately. Phew....that was long and coming. My girls slept through the night at 6 weeks and then started waking up after they turned one. Hopefully he will follow the same pattern, but only reversed. Maybe he will sleep through the night now that he is one??

Happy Birthday sweet boy. I love you more than you will ever know!!

**I took his month pictures in my dad's recliner chair. I missed 9 months. I don't know how that happened. :(

1st Birthday Party!!!

We celebrated DS's 1st birthday this past Saturday. DH has to work midnights this next week, so we decided to do it a few days early.
I was going to have a bear theme because we call him Brother Bear, but chose to go with a Mr. Potato Head Theme because we also call him "Nater Taters". It was perfect.
Well, we all know their was a huge chance of rain, so we called and reserved the church. We are grateful that we did because it was pouring rain. It worked out perfect for us.

My sister in law made the awesome Mr. Potato Head birthday cake. It was so great. She did a wonderful job!!

We decorated with red and browns. We used actual Mr. Potato heads as centerpieces and Sugar Babies as the candies to represent potatoes.

We set up a table for all the kids to color while we got everything going. It seemed to work out pretty well.

We served a potato bar for lunch. It was really yummy and fairly easy. This was the whole basis of changing the theme.

We showed our traditional first year slide show. It gets me everytime. It is amazing how fast these little ones grow up. I can't believe it. It just seems like yesterday that we were off to have him in the hospital and now he is crawling up on my leg saying, "mama".

DS was so cute when he was eating his smash cake (cupcake). He wouldn't pick it up with his hands, he would just lean over and take bites out of it. It took him about 5 bites before he would touch it. It was so cute. He then was given some ice cream and decided to eat it using Mr. Potato Head's hand to eat. He was so cute with it all.

He really enjoyed opening presents. There were lots of kids around to help. He enjoyed getting new fun toys to play with. He even reacted cute with giggles when seeing the new things.

It was a great day. We played basketball and had fun until it was time to go. I know it is a first birthday and he will not remember it, but I love to celebrate their first year with a bang.

We had a great time and we are so grateful that DS joined our family a year ago. We look forward to many more years and parties. We love you little Nater Taters.

Thanks everyone for making it a great party.

He is turning ONE!!

Can you believe it? I know, I know I have said many times before...but really? Where has the last year gone? We are getting ready for his first birthday party. It is going to be bear themed. His nickname is Brother Bear. We thought that it would be a great theme for our little "brother bear". I will talk [more about our little man when it comes closer to his actual birthday. Watch for birthday pictures. I am sure there will be tons.

Happy Easter!!

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We had our family Easter Egg hunt this afternoon. It was stormy, but the storm let up just enough to have a quick hunt and then back inside. The kids were so cute this year. We let DS#1 go out first and grab a few eggs and then DD#2 came out on her own. My kids were the youngest out of all the grandkids there. DD#1 came out with the other two five year olds. They were able to be out for about 15 seconds before the rest of the crew came out. It was a lot of fun for the kids and they came home with their buckets full. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Oliver for a great day.
We stuck with our tradition and got them matching outfits. DH picked out DS's and forgot to match it to yellow. Oh well...we were ready to get out of the store. We had 5 kids under the age of 4 and it was crazy. We got in and out quickly and forgot to match his outfit to his sisters. They are still cute, though. We went out tonight to try and find Sunday outfits for them and there was nothing. I guess we waited just a little too long to do that. There were plenty of sleeveless dresses, but we have the girls wear sleeves. All the cardigans were gone.
We are so grateful for the Savior who made it possible for us to return to our Heavenly Father. We are grateful for this special time to remember what he sacrificed for each of us. We hope that all of you have a very special Easter this year.

Healthy Habits Challenge.....who's in???

I found this challenge on another blog and wanted to start it up. This is a 12 week challenge. I have needed some motivation lately. With DS not nursing as much, and the eating of sugar again, I have needed some help to get back on track. This seems like it would really be great! Not only physically, but spiritually as well. If you would like to join, please leave a comment or you can email me at amiracleatlast @ yahoo . com.
I want to start on Monday, April 13th. This allows you to enjoy those Easter treats that the Easter bunny has left you! :) Email your email address so we can get a weekly email sent on points. We all have to have accountability you know.


Here are the rules:
You have been challenged live the following habits for the next 12 weeks! The idea of the Healthy Habits Challenge is to motivate each other to develop 10 healthy lifestyle habits.

To participate you score yourself "on your honor" every day and then each week send in the number of points you have earned to me. I'll send out a weekly email with point totals for all participants. You can earn up to 10 points per day. Sundays are days off- you get to take a break with no points earned/lost. The person with the most points in the end wins a small prize! (C'mon- do I look like I'm made of money?)

Daily Habits (1 point each)


1. 7 hours of sleep: naps count

2. 30 minutes of exercise: doesn't have to be all at once, taking a walk counts


3. No sweets/unhealthy snacks: you know what "sweets" are to you. This one gets most people nervous, but remember that you have Sundays to have dessert and this will only last for 12 weeks. If you stick with this one you will be surprised by how you lose the desire for sugar and junk when you've been off it a while.


4. 64 oz. of water

5. 3 servings of veggies, 2 servings of fruit: or whatever combination of 5-a-day you get! If you are concerned about knowing what constitutes a serving- click on the "view food gallery" here for vegetables and here for fruit.

6. No soda: the aim is to avoid sugar, artificial sweeteners and caffeine


7. No eating after 8:00 PM: unless you are pregnant or nursing, in which case you can eat healthy food after 8:00 if you have or have had and extra serving of veg/fruit.


8. 15 minutes of scripture reading


9. One journal entry in the journal type of your choice: you can make this as short or long as you want! Blogging, letters to missionaries, gratitude journal, whatever else you do to keep a record of your life counts.


10. Choose your own habit: this is something that you will work to do daily. Another 30 min of exercise? Service? Eat breakfast? Flossing? Whatever you want to work on personally!

Earrings

I asked the girls what they wanted for Easter a few weeks ago and was shocked to hear the answer. Both of them excitedly wanted earrings. So, after much talk about it, we decided to take the girls to the mall and get their ears pierced, so that the Easter Bunny can bring them earrings.
DD#1 had here ears pierced before. When she had her tonsils out, we had to take her studs out and DH lost them. We put other earrings in after the surgery, but her ears got really infected. We let them grow back in and had to get them done again. They both did good. DD#2 went first and had a great time holding onto the bear and having the girls draw dots on her ears. You should have seen the look on her face after it was all over and she realized that it really did hurt. She cried for about 5 minutes (she holds onto things longer than DD#1). DD#1 went next and jumped right up into the seat and was extremely excited. We had warned her, but it happened and she was in tears. She only cried for about 2 minutes. They are in love with them today and are doing really well not bothering them. We think they look great.




A BIG shout out to my mom. It is her birthday today. I love her so much and I am so grateful that I can call her MOM. Happy Birthday MOM!!

And the Winners are....

I put all the comments into a random number generator and the winners are...... I bet the suspense is killing you.....

#2 Kristen W.
#1 Annie of Bluegables

Congratulations to the two of you. Please email me your pictures and I will get your two page layout done.

Pay it Forward!!

Here's how it works! I'm having a GIVEAWAY! You have a chance to receive a two page layout digital scrapbook page (you just send me your pictures)from me at some point in time during the next year. How fun is that??! If you'd like to be a part of this awesome idea, you need to leave a comment ON THIS POST no later than Friday, February 27, 2009. If you've never commented on my blog before, don't feel sheepish--this is a fabulous time to comment! I will draw three names randomly from the comments left to see who will receive the gifts. My "Pay It Forward" winners will be posted on my blog as well as notified via e-mail, word-of-mouth, blog comment, --whatever works best for me at the time! Here's the catch: if you choose to participate, you need to post some sort of "Pay It Forward" idea on your blog as well. If you don't have a blog, this can easily be done on Facebook, MySpace, etc. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant; just a simple gift from the heart (it can be purchased, homemade, a simple act of kind service...ANYTHING!).

A Giveaway!!

My cousin's BFF is having a great giveaway. Hurry, Hurry over to here and make a comment. I am excited to see what she has. I know it must be great if my cousin says it is. Hurray, Hurry, I am #2. There still is hope.


Here are the rules:
The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something homemade by me! I know what you are thinking....."do I really want something made by Amanda???" But you might just be surprised what I can do!Like any good giveaway, there are restrictions and limitations, as follows:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. I get to choose, you just get to receive!

2. What I create will be made just for you......one of a kind!

3. It will be done this year.....hopefully sooner, rather than later.

4. The gift may or may not be edible, wearable or recyclable!

5. In order to be a winner, you must repost this on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did will receive one FABULOUS homemade gift by me! After I choose the winners, you can send me your mailing address! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you receive it!


****In other news, my 2 1/2 yr old and 9 month old are on the floor having their first fight. I am watching and as DS is crying and looking at me so sad, all I can say is, "Ohh, you're first fight. How sweet!" You gotta love firsts!! It definitely won't be the last and I am sure this will be the last time I use sweet and fight when referring to it again. :)

9 Months Old

I love 9 and 10 months and DS is proving why. He is so sweet and loving. He has such a cute personality and we are loving everyday with him. He loves to play and watch his sisters. He loves to say "da, da da" and "hi dad". He loves to whine "ma, ma, ma". We love him to bits.