Fun for Kids

Our family rocks!!

We decided to make the most of our Saturday after a really high-stress week. We took a short road trip in the rental van. We’re still in negotiations with the insurance company.

We went up to Antelope Island and out to dinner at the close-by Cracker Barrel. We haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel since it was right down the street in TN. It was so fun to see the girls get all sentimental in the shop. (photos to come)

After a short stop at IKEA (2 hours is short) we cranked up the toons for the remaining hour long drive.

I busted out the camera because I wanted to capture the moment. My joy was full. (Glad I didn’t crash trying to multi-task – save your lectures)

Our family rocks just like they do on one of our favorite movies: Bandslam. If you haven’t seen it, you can’t possibly be complete.

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Homemade Paint from Stuff in My Pantry

So this pin from pinterest piqued my interest.
(Say that 5 times fast.)

I love it when I find something great for the kids to do for super cheap.
This homemade paint is awesome.
Ten thumbs up.

Desktop

Caroline and I enjoyed this activity yesterday
and when we got the paints out again first thing this morning
they seemed to be storing just fine.

If anything they are even better today.
The salt has completely dissolved making the texture more smooth
and allowing the colors to combine better.
Caroline was quick to observe that yesterday’s grey is today’s purple.

I do believe I will never be purchasing paint at the store again.

2CUL Craft
Somehow I always get stuck
with doing the crafts for
the kids’ school parties.
All the other moms are
too afraid.
So here is what we are
doing for Valentines
this year.
And this crafty-challenged
lady
has made a tutorial
for you and yours
with all my V-day love.
1 – Use graph paper
to make block letter
2- Cut out

3 – Apply glue on graph side.

3- Stick onto sandpaper
from right to left.
Remember it will iron on
like a mirror image.
(That’s why you glue on the right side)

4 – Outline well with crayon.

5 – Color in rest of sandpaper.
(I plan to actually have hearts
but this was the scrap I used
today for the prototype)

6 – Heat up iron to cotton/dry setting.

7 – Cut out a square of an old white sheet.
(600 threadcount egyptian cotton
 is optional but soooo soft)
I happened to have a perfectly great
topsheet leftover
from our tragic “ruined by talon toes”
sheet set
shown here on instagram.
7 – Sew up the 2 cut sides.
I will use the already folded over side
for the yarn-tie.
(Use a sewing machine if you want)

8 – This is what I did to make it go faster
(I hear you screaming you seamstress people)
I actually may just use fabric glue at school.

9 – Safety pin your yarn.
10 – Lead it through the fold.

11 – Tie big knots on each end.
(So they won’t ravel or go back into fold)

12 – Place sandpaper on finished bag
that I turned inside out from stitching.
(Hopefully you guys are smart enough 
to understand that part)

13 – Turn sandpaper crayon side
 onto the fabric.
Cover with parchment paper or a tea towel.
14 – Iron (moving iron in circles)
for about 30 seconds.

Wa-la
Inspiration for this craft
came from alphamom.
Like I said above,
I plan to make them actual hearts
and either pre-make the bags
or have the kids glue them
(because of school time limits)
or do t-shirts
or just make the
sandpaper cut-outs
and send
iron on instructions home with kids.
Happy V-day
crafting all you cupid moms
who like me
 are suckers for love.
Feel free to leave
all your suggestions for betterment
below in the comments.
I have til Thursday to fine-tune.
Or just tell me how cool I am
because moms need
to love other moms.
And you’re so welcome.
I couldn’t find a single
thing good enough
on my beloved forthekids 
pinterest board
so I had to tweak.
I’m thrilled
with  my mom 
abilities
today.
As you should be too.

2013 goals or Going for the Gold
I’ve been trying to finalize my 2013 goals.
Even though I gave myself a C last year,
I am an absolute believer in the adage
“goals that are not written down are just wishes.”
While at Ikea on our date Saturday
LG and I came up with a winning idea
on how to motivate our family
towards betterment.
Money is a pure motivator
for all of us,
so we are going to reward ourselves
with GOLD.
We decided on family Olympics
for 2013.
Or as LG says,
“We’re having family hunger games.”
Everyone will get to put their names
in a pot in a once a week drawing
for 5 gold coins.
We will all earn chances in the pot
by accomplishing
our 5 personal and 5 family goals daily.
(That’s up to 70 shots a week)
Unlike hunger games,
we want our names in the pot.
The more we accomplish our goals,
the better chance we have to win a gold coin (or 5).
Our theme is
“Go for the Gold.”
Get it.
We’re the Gold’s.
We’re so funny.
I am super excited about
the 5 rings of improvement.
LG and I narrowed our desires for our kids into
5 categories:
spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, and financial.
(See the above photo)
Here are the goals
we came up with as a family
in each category.

Some of these goals are going to be easier than others.
Reading should be a cinch.
Believe it or not
I think sharing feelings
might be harder (especially for some)
 than daily scripture study.
The kids are already up in arms
about the soda
but I love that they will still have the choice.
If they drink soda,
they lose a shot at a dollar.
If it were up to us
we’d take it away all together
but this way we make the point
without taking away their agency.
I am super excited about
seeing how this family challenge
will pan out.
I hope to win a few bucks along the way
and I think this may
have the “fun” factor
to keep us motivated all year.
Anyhow,
I am sure you have all been dying
to see what my goals are for
2013.
With no further ado,
by category
we go.
Financial
1.Save a $1 a day toward family vacation.
2.Stay under budget.
Emotional
1.Journal/study/meditate daily before doing anything else.
2.No phone in bed.
3.Give a meaningful inspired service weekly.

Physical
1.Use myfitnesspal every day until I weigh under 160 pounds.
2 Keep running 3x/week.
3.Run 2 half marathons (unless I get pregnant)
4. Add in a fourth workout every week. Something other than running.

Spiritual
1.Pray every day.
2.Temple once a month (take Abigail with 4x)
3.Organize family genealogy.

Mental
1.Learn a new word every day. 
(I discovered a cool app for this)
2.Go back to school,
even if it’s just one class.
3.Write every day
(blog/outline of novel)
4.Read 100 books
(adding in 1 junior non-fiction
to regular reading goals)

Marital
1.Bond every night.
(Communicate regularly)
2.Go to bed and wake up together.
It’s lofty, I know,
but if I only get a C,
I will still have accomplished twice
as much as if I had never written anything down.
My OCD side really loves fresh starts.
Just think, we have one every day.

The Kid Nativities
Remember how I told you
we were going to be making
nativities at Cub Scouts.

Well I lied.
It took the girls and I
two hours to come up with this.

The hour Scouts has alloted per week
just wasn’t gonna cut it.

So I gave the boys the molding clay
and told them to create their own creche.

I was pretty partial to the pregnant Mary on a donkey.
It seemed to me like the artist must have some African roots.
I do believe this masterpiece
will be put away with tissue paper
and pulled out every year
to be displayed in a place of honor.
I also believe that today’s equivalent to a manger
is a plastic baby pool.

Wouldn’t you agree?
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Kid Nativity
Today at Cub Scouts
we will be talking about the ways we worship.

While I give a lesson about how
as members of
The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints
we worship our Savior Jesus Christ,
the boys will be keeping their hands busy with this project.

Thanks Aunt Rosemary for the great idea.
And thanks cousin Ryan
for making this so very lovely
twenty years ago.

Nothing better than a vintage art project.
I believe this would make even Martha proud.
Martha Stewart and Martha in the Bible.

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DIY Angry Birds – just in time for Christmas
All credit for this amazing idea goes to my amazing friend
Stori Spotten.
When her and her husband posted this idea on facebook
I just knew I had to share it with the cyber world.
The picture pretty much tells you all you need to know,
but for those of you like me who want more details,
come back for when I hear back from Stori
as to what she used to draw on the store-bought bouncy balls.
I am guessing she used paint or sharpies.
What’s your guess?
Stori’s answer
I used a little bit of everything, sharpies, paint & even a little green nailpolish(which i already had) on the pigs noses to give them a little depth. lol I got my paint at lowed they have in any color for around 2.97
Wha-la.
Easiest and coolest
and quite possibly the cheapest
Christmas gift for the season.
It will be perfect to give to your kids on Christmas morning
when you have a million assorted cardboard boxes
to put to good use.

Thanks Stori for having a brilliant mind.
And for being an awesome friend
and letting me be the one to crack the story on my
little personal blog.
I think I am going to get millions of hits this month.

Family Dance Night

Do you remember this ancient post about the family staying up all night to dance.
We couldn’t afford to go to Chuck E Cheese and so we pulled out the old records.

Well now we can afford to go to Chuck E. Cheese but I believe I would rather
travel back in time and do this all over again.
I finally figured out how to post the video and these are so cute.
The girls have grown so fast but I am pleased to report that they still giggle just the same.
And they still think they can dance.

It started out slow. Very Lawrence Welk feeling slow.

Then we moved on to Bob Dylan’s song on banjo.
Dad does some tapping and at the end the baby has to join in.

More with dad and baby. Puff the magic dragon.

Then dad goes a little crazy.

A little Beverly Hillbilly’s. We were in TN after all.
We have some underwear malfunctioning.
This is when I hope that no sickos have found the blog.
But, if you sickos have found us, make sure you watch this one through
to see the man you will contend with if you come within 50 feet of our daughters.
And then know that I am about 800% more ferocious.

Now dad kindly introduces the two-step to our flapper girls.
Has anybody seen our girls?

And if you’ve been the loyal watcher,
you will be happy for this finale.
One final laugh for us all.

Good times. Good times.