My creative idea...

A few weeks ago, as I wandered by the $1.00 section at Target, I had a thought.

Buy some of these things, here and there, and put them in a basket.  THEN....

When the kids do something that is positive and good, cooperative, obedient; etc... I can use this as a motivator and reward for doing what they should be doing. SO, I was able to put this into action last Friday... I came home from shopping to kids who were bored and REALLY at each other, I told them to pick things up, got them putting laundry away and making beds, and told them there would a "fun reward" if they got it done WITHOUT fighting.

This worked like a charm. So tonight, when they were once again getting on each other's nerves, I told them to get picked up and maybe there would be a "reward".... as we speak, they are both on the floor doing a floor puzzle, Ethan is helping Callie, and it is quiet and happy....

I'm a GENIUS.
Well, sort of.

Letter's to Santa

Ethan suggested it was time to write Santa a letter this morning, I had this cute little book that I bought after Christmas two years ago, that I forgot about last year, but was right on top of it this morning!  The kids sat down at the table, armed with all the ad's we keep to help us know what they want, which is EVERYTHING in the ad's...

They opened each letter with "Dear Santa" and ended with their names at the bottom.. they were both so excited. We then drove down to Macy's and they put them in the mailbox to be delivered... both requested a response from Santa, asap... here's hoping!

Snow baby

I must have snapped 30 pictures of him walking from the sledding hill to our backdoor.... WHAT A CUTIE PIE!!!

Snow day!

When we bought this house, we had two little boy's.... we picked the lot because of the Jr. High right on the back of our yard, we figured it would be a good place for the boy's to run and play, and of course, sledding in the winter....

10yrs late, two more little children are sledding on the Jr. High hill, along with other's that always come to do the same thing, sometimes it easily becomes a hill covered with friends, and the fun can last for hours, as it did on this day, the kids had THREE shifts of friends that day, and by the end of the day we had soaked four pairs of socks, two bibs, four pairs of jeans.. there was a lot of clothing, mittens, hats and gloves piled up in front of the fireplace by the end of the day.. what an invaluable addition to my home the fireplace has been, I couldn't help but smile at the thought of my Parent's helping us to buy that, and for Papa coming to run the gas line and make it work, the sunken front room was not a place we spent much time until the fireplace came and warmed it up!

Ethan's Thanksgiving class party

Since I am Ethan's "room mother", I got to put together party... we made indian hats, made a little Thanksgiving card that they used their hands for the turkey. Then we had a small "feast", consisting of crackers, cheddar cheese, marshmallows, cheetos and apple juice! Then we went over to Mrs. Thompson's class to watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving... we had a few minutes when we came back, so we passed a pumpkin around and when it stopped, each child got to say what they were thankful for!

I thought it was a pretty decent party, considering I realized on Monday that it would have to be the next day!!... so much for hoping to have it "together"....

The other night...

Monday night. It's only 6pm. Kids are fighting with each other...

Callie wanted to make cookies, but after refusing to help her brother pick up before we could do that, I advised her we wouldn't be; "I now didn't FEEL like helping her".. bummer. But, with the kids still at each other I had to do something so I put in "This is it".. the MJ movie, and VOILA! they were instantly entertained and then began following the "moves"... it was funny, and it did the trick!

Ethan READS a book!

Ethan picked up this little book at Grandmommy's and he really picked it up... he was still doing so well this morning that we took the book to class and he read it to his teacher, who is adorable! She was very excited, and emotional at his reading that book... the best picture is the ONLY one a little blurry... wouldn't ya know it! He was so proud of himself, and she told him that she was going to give him her microphone and HE was going to read it to the whole class!

I absolutely LOVE her...

She told me that Ethan told her he had missed her, very much.....she thinks he's adorable, and I agree!

Saturday RS project

This was on of the options for our ward Super Saturday.. thankfully, unlike so many other years, it was the only thing I really wanted to do! It was simple, the only complicated part, and took longer than the project, was gettting Walmart to print the picture CORRECTLY! ... but, in the end it did turn out, and it really is very cute.. I love the giggling that is happening with Callie, she thought it was funny for me to tell her "look at your brother like you LOVE HIM!"

I love having things around that can give not only a good message, but a great visual!

Our Halloween festivities!

We really enjoyed Halloween this year, me included, and I don't typically LOVE Halloween. Maybe being prepared a month in advance helped, Callie and Ethan had costumes squared away over a month ago, my Mother in law took the kids to Gardner Village and they got hat's, had a good time, so when we got invited to go again, Doug and I both went and I took the camera. We had trunk-r-treat and then Halloween, which included the "big boy's" coming for dinner with dates and then trick-or-treating with the little one's, we had Madison, Mikayla, Joulz and Mayz along for the fun, and the weahter really wasn't bad, the kids kept each other running along and I think we were out about two hours, I think I've enjoyed the last three years more because I had Deonna to keep me company, it's nice to have friends to enjoy along the way... we picked up Jeremy this year too, and it made the group even more enjoyable!

For someone who doesn't really care for the holiday, I think this year was by far the funn-est! I couldn't help but think about what it would look like, for just a few minutes, to have all four of my kids, age 5, out trick-or-treating, all together, what a sight that would be!