How to Blow Bubbles in Your Milk

Step 1: Start by blowing through a straw into your milk.

Step 2: Keep blowing.

Step 3: When Mom comes up close with the camera, smile a little as you're blowing the bubbles so she knows you're really enjoying it.

Catch of the Day

Rockin' out to Beauty and the Beast.

Oops, A Spill

Jr. spilled his water at dinner last night. He was distraught. The good news is... not very much got on the floor. The bad news is... the reason is that most of it got on him. It was a pretty full cup.

New Post

I haven't put up any posts for a few days...

...but I have cute kids.

It Was a Good Day

Most of the time when I say, "It was a good day," it has nothing to do with how much housework I got done nor is about accomplishing those things that I "needed" to do. Those are "productive" days. Most of the time, having a good day means that it was a good day with my family. As was today. Jeremy was out most of the day helping my brother celebrate his birthday. They went out to eat then out to film in the snow for my brother's YouTube videos.


While Jeremy was gone, the kids and I did a lot together. Once again, I love those days when I don't worry about what I'm not getting done, because I'm enjoying more important things- my children (and of course my husband when he's there, too).


We danced, we played games, Nichole practiced writing letters, we drew pictures, we played with dominoes, we ate, we actually did get some dishes done. It helps when the kids are willing to put their dishes in the sink after meals, which also gave us more table space for activities.


My favorite part was when the three of us were at the table drawing and coloring pictures, and the kids decided to contribute to the picture I was doing. It was fun. We were all coloring on the same piece of paper at the same time.

And amazingly, after spending a whole day giving my children a lot of attention, I've got a lot of energy still. Time to be "productive."

It was a good day.

Squid Dogs

In the February 2010 issue of FamilyFun Magazine, Jeremy found a little section about making "Squid Dogs." So we decided to have them for dinner.

Cut hot dogs into sections, poke several uncooked spaghetti noodles through each, then boil them until the pasta's cooked. It was fun and easy, which was nice after a long day of running errands.

Before and After

A Moment of Reflection

I'm not a very deep person. I'm also not shallow. But being deep and being shallow can mean totally different things, so we'll just go with... I ramble. On to what I want to blog about:

There are moments when you know you're doing something right, but at the same time you feel bad that you don't do that thing more often or that you don't think to do it more. I was reminded of this at bedtime tonight.

Sometimes getting the kids to bed is rough. I get impatient, because I just want them to go to bed so I can get things done or spend time with my husband. "O.K., kids. Go to sleep. See you in the morning. I'm going to go do some dishes and check on you in a little while." Many times I hear from Jr., "You have to lie down with me." Sometimes I end up doing that. I used to lie down with Nichole before she'd fall asleep. That was before Jr. was born and when he was a baby and didn't ask for us to lie down with him. Now it seems Nichole gets put aside, because Jr. is younger and makes a bigger deal out of it. Every once in a great while I will lie down with Nichole, but usually I'm anxious for the kids to stay in their beds because I know that after I leave the room, I'll have maybe five or ten minutes before Nichole is out of her room asking for something or trying to see what we're doing.

Tonight, Jeremy was off doing a show, the kids and I played a game before bedtime, then did our getting ready for bed activities. I told the kids I was going to put the library books back in their place then come back to lie down with Jr. for a few minutes then sit with Nichole after that. When I got back, Jr. was already asleep, so I sat down by Nichole's bed. She and I chatted for a little bit. I wasn't hurrying to get her to sleep or at least stay in her bed so I could get things done. I just sat with her and really gave her that attention. It felt good. I was reminded of other times when she and I have had some beautiful moments, absolutely silent moments, where she's lying down and I'm sitting next to her and we just look and smile at each other and we both can really feel that love for each other, without speaking a word. Those moments, and moments like tonight are so precious and so good for us, but they don't happen enough.

I get busy and forget that maybe Nichole isn't just trying to stall when she comes out of her room at night. Maybe she actually needs that one on one no interruptions time with Mom. Quiet time for just us. Whether it's silent or with talking. That time to show her my love by giving her that attention she needs.

I love my daughter and know that she is such a blessing to me. I don't want to mess things up, but sometimes I forget some of the simplest yet most important things.

Catch of the Day

'Nuf said

A Good Day

Today was a good day. It started out rough as most days have lately during this organizing our apartment business. But, we all went for a drive through the haze (Utah is dealing with really bad air quality- smog- right now), to Ikea. We spent hours there, mostly in the kid section so our kids could have a good break and be able to run around a lot. We picked up some art paper for me and the kids and a new mattress pad for our bed so we could finally throw our old one away. The kids were so good at the store, and Nichole saw a sign on the way out for hot dogs and really wanted one. But we figured we could do better than that. Instead of buying hot dogs for everyone at Ikea, we just stopped at the grocery store on the way home and picked up a package of hot dogs and a package of hot dog buns, enough for us each to have two, and cheaper in the long run as well.

This evening, the kids and I had a pretend tea party in their room, in their nice clean and organized room, the one room in this place right now that is clean and organized.

Then we got out Nichole's kitchen set she got for Christmas so she could make us pretend chocolate cookies. How thoughtful she is.

Looking at this picture with all the dishes everywhere reminds me of what my kitchen looks like right now.

We did have a rough start to our day, but it turned out pretty nice in the end. And now that the kids are asleep, onto organizing some more.

Ice Castle

Last winter, our home teacher, Brent Christensen, built an ice castle in his yard. He built it from icicles and slush, using sprinklers and PVC to grow the icicles. It's hard to explain how amazing it was. I think it was taller than his house. We would drive by every so often just to see it. It grew and grew... until the weather got too warm.

This year, he got to build a bigger ice castle, a much much bigger ice castle, at the Zermatt Resort in Midway, Utah. That's close to Heber; less than an hour from us in Pleasant Grove. It's nice that it's so close and another great thing is that it's only $2 per person to go through and see the castle with its amazing towers.


Last week for Family Day, the four of us went for a visit. The roads were nice and clear, and it wasn't too cold (but not too warm either). It was amazing. We took some pictures, but they don't even compare to the real thing. It's huge. The tallest structure (tower, if you will) at the time we went was about 2 stories high, and of course is still growing. Brent actually goes inside and climbs up to build onto it. Amazing.



Here's some information about the ice castle (click on the pictures to make them bigger):

And here are some pictures we took while we were there. Jeremy played with the colors a little bit on some of the pictures (it really is blue in real life), but there's only so much a non-professional photographer can do, especially with a wife who just wants to get the blog post done and is being too picky about how the pictures look at 9:30 at night:

The creator and his daughter

Our family

So you can see how tall the largest tower really is, here's a comparison shot with our 2-year old.

The kids walking along the path

We plan to go back some evening so we can see it in person all lit up, but for now, we're keeping ourselves content with pictures on Brent's Ice Castle blog.

The KAT's Meow

Nichole: Daddy and Mommy, can you sing please, so Nichole and Jr. can laugh?

Where's Jr.?

Where's Jr.?

There he is!

Pajama Party

This morning there was a Primary activity for the kids to get to know the teachers a little better. They had breakfast and everyone could wear their pajamas. Nichole wore her new Christmas princess pajamas. I mended mine last night and sewed a couple buttons back on so I could wear them.

I'll be honest. I didn't get a lot out of the activity as I was chasing a bunch of 3-year olds around the whole time or trying to explain to Nichole, who just wanted to sit on my lap, that I needed to be chasing a bunch of 3-year olds around. I'm still glad I went, though.

The teachers submitted facts about themselves and everyone tried to guess who the facts were about. One of the other teachers (and I) fooled them. The fact came up that the person was a professional clown. Most of the people thought it was me, but "Surprise!" it was my visiting teaching companion. I knew that one.

One of my facts was that my favorite animal is the banana slug. It's amazing how many people don't know what a banana slug is. They don't have banana slugs around here. Sigh.

Ruthless, Part 2

We had another productive day with organizing. I put a bunch of the kids' too small clothes away in crates as well as some baby blankets that had been sitting on their closet shelf for a year.

The kids even got involved and helped. They put to good use some empty boxes and made sure that some of their toys which were in our room were still functioning adequately.

Jeremy has been doing so much in our room and we dropped things off at D.I. today.

It is sad that in order to get so organized we have to make huge messes for a little while, but hopefully it will all be worth it.

Ruthless

Jeremy and I have been organizing. Last night we went through a bunch of recipes I inherited from my Grandma when we got married. We threw away a lot, but kept some to look through again later. Today, Jeremy fixed our shelving in our bedroom closet. It was uneven and we didn't want the fragile items we were putting there to slide off. We're taking a lot out of the office and putting it in other closets. Then Jeremy can have his work stuff in there and I can have my craft stuff in there, instead of all over the living room.

We also went through our closet and got rid of a bunch of clothes to donate to Deseret Industries. We were ruthless. We had to be. It was hard to get rid of some clothes that I like, but don't really wear. I had to keep reminding myself to be ruthless. I made sure I tried some on and had Jeremy take pictures of me being cute.

Now I did decide to keep the big red coat, not because I actually wear it outside, but we'd been saving some clothes for the kids to use as dress up clothes, and thought it would be fun for the adults to have some dress up clothes as well. Besides all the clothes that we use for dressing up to do balloon gigs, of course. I can be Mrs. Claus in such a coat.

Catch of the Day

We went to visit my sister and her family yesterday so we drove through Provo Canyon and looked at all the frozen waterfalls. Bridal Veil Falls wasn't completely frozen but it was cool to see how parts of it were frozen and other parts were still running.

I Have a Handle on It

I did it. I did what I set out to do. This morning I said, "I think I can handle this day," and I did. I didn't worry about all the things I "needed" to do. I didn't get the living room cleaned and vacuumed. Instead I prioritized and supported my family.

I got up before anyone else and took the time I needed for scriptures and prayer to prepare myself for the day (it does make a difference). I made sure that we had our scripture and prayer time for our family as well, after everyone was up.

I knew it was important to support Jeremy working, so I made sure he knew that the kids and I would give him the hours he needed to do whatever he needed to do. So, while he cleaned his office for most of the day, the kids and I had a nice time together. After breakfast (and after the kids helped clear the table), we did some exercising- stretching and running around pretending to be different animals (including princesses, frogs, fireflies, etc.- continue reading to find out why).

Then we went to disney.com to play some "The Princess and the Frog" games. Nichole is very interested in that movie (even though we haven't seen it yet), and she's pretty good with the computer games.

After lunch, we all went outside. The kids played with the snow, while Jeremy and I chatted. Finally, we had everyone get in the car to go to the credit union, then home again where the kids continued to play with the snow, while I shoveled some of the ice in our parking spots, and Jeremy went back in to work on his office.

The kids helped me start some laundry, then we went on to our next activity.

Nichole has been wanting to paint rats, so we finally did today. We printed out a picture of Remy from Ratatouille for each of the kids and they painted them.

Before

After

The one on the left is Jr.'s and the one on the right is Nichole's.

After painting, we switched the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer, and the kids earned a movie.

Jeremy went off to do balloons at the Brick Oven and the kids watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, while I relaxed a bit.

The kids and I ate a light dinner, played some Monkey Island, and I got them ready for bed. Nichole was "too sleepy" to help clean up some rice she spilled so I let her know she'd have to go to bed if she was too sleepy. Jr. came out with me and fell asleep on the couch as I wrote this blog post. Nichole let me know she wasn't sleepy any more, but I didn't think she should get away with selective sleepiness, so I told her she needed to stay in her room. Poor little girl.

I am glad of the prioritizing I did today. I'm glad Jeremy had time to work on his stuff. I'm glad I spent a lot of time with the kids. And I'm glad tomorrow is family day so the kids get to spend time with both of us.

I'm Official

I'm official. Today they handed me a bag to use for my Primary class. It's got pockets. I love pockets! And in the pockets? Stuff to use for my primary class!- like colored pencils, crayons, chalk and eraser (in a cute little bag of their own), magnets. Now I don't have to figure out a bag myself. Yippee!

It really is a cute bag. One side of it says: I love 2nd Ward Primary. The other side says: Primary Makes Me Happy.

Woohoo. It's a way to be organized.

And... I taught my first lesson today in the Sunbeam class. And it was a whole new class of kids- there were 8 or 9 of them (just today, there are more on the class list). Thank goodness I have a teaching companion. It's going to be an adventure. They're new. I'm new. There is going to be a Primary activity on Saturday to get to know the teachers, so hopefully that will help some of them be a little less shy towards us. Woohoo. This is so exciting.

A New Year, A New Beginning, Er... Ending

Once again, I could write about how many great things I have planned for this new year. Instead I'm just going to say we finally took our Christmas tree down. It was getting sad looking. The star was completely drooped. You could barely see lights anymore. It was several inches shorter than it had originally been. So Jeremy took it to the dumpster. Something nice about these balloons is that they are biodegradable.

And we found a special surprise inside the balloon that we decided to keep. Who wouldn't want to keep those cute legs?

Happy New Year- Happy Cheeseball

It's a new year. We have our New Year's traditions. It used to be that we'd have New Year's Eve nachos to snack on throughout the evening (tradition carried over from Jeremy's family), but for the last two years, we've been twisting balloons for Provo First Night the whole evening. So we do nachos on New Year's Day. That's what I'm snacking on as I write this blog post.



Besides that, I've been wanting to make cheeseball since we got some crackers on a good sale around Thanksgiving time. Well, I got my chance today. The kids helped me. We made:

Frosty the Cheese Ball

This is based on a recipe from Family Fun magazine. The recipe can also be found on the Family Fun website.

It's a very simple recipe. Since we have a small family and I didn't know how many people besides me would be interested, I halved the recipe. The kids helped me with parts. Jr. helped with the mouth and the buttons. Nichole put on the hands. They both helped with the hat. I did the scarf.

So, the Telfords and Frosty the Cheese Ball wish you

a Happy New Year!