Catch of the Day- "Spring"

:I had to run outside this morning and take a picture of the beautiful Spring weather.

Arbor Day 2011

It's Arbor Day, so what did we do to celebrate? Well, we don't live in a place where we can plant a tree, so the boys and I went to University Mall in Orem and played at the Tree House play area.

Well, Jr. played

while Jr. Jr. and I watched and walked

until Jr. Jr. fell asleep in the stroller.

What did you do on Arbor Day?

Turn Off Week

We recently took a challenge from the April 2011 issue of FamilyFun Magazine. Turnoff Week. No TV, computer, etc. etc. for a week. I prepared by cueing up a week’s worth of blog posts and set them to post one every day while I was off. Jeremy still needed to use the computer for work, but no facebook games or hulu.com in the background. We had a couple instances where we did use the computer as a family during the week, though. One was to watch a video that went along with our scripture study (it was special for Easter). The second was to watch the premiere of Part One of the documentary, Working with Bubbles (work related).

But there was no sitting in front of a screen, wasting time.
The first day was kind of rough. The kids and I were having trouble getting along. It felt like there was no point in doing the turnoff thing, it wasn’t helping us at all and I couldn’t even get a break from the kids’ attitudes to get on the computer or watch a show.
Then the next day came. The kids knew we were planning on doing a Passover dinner so they were looking forward to that. They even helped make the unleavened bread.

Everybody started being nicer while we did this special activity together.
Without the distractions of TV and computer, we were able to focus on more important things. I was able to focus on more important things. I took Jr. (and sometimes Jr. Jr. as well) out every day, either to go shopping or to play at the mall while Jeremy was working at home.

We played more non-electronic games.

Jeremy even taught the kids how to set up a chess board (Jr. had his own way of doing it).

We played dress up.

Nichole's ballet bear got to try on a new outfit (which she's had since Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad T.) and join Nichole for a tea party.

We used our creativity. Nichole ate like a mouse and Jr. sculpted an "E" out of his toast, one that sat upright on his plate.

We played "Cinderella.”

We tried some new foods.

Jr. Jr. even tried peas for the first time.

We decorated Easter Eggs… with crayons.

Jr. even decorated himself.

Nichole had her Easter party at school.

Unfortunately, we did have some sad times. We didn’t always get along, though I was definitely more patient that week than I had been for some time before. Some of us took turns not feeling so well.

Jeremy and I talked about how the end of the week was very different from the beginning. It was so hard in the beginning, it almost didn’t seem worth it. But things did improve. It reminded us of a talk given by President Uchtdorf in the April 2009 General Conference.
He had a friend who was struggling with his testimony. President Uchtdorf suggested some things for his friend to do. His friend practically gave up after only one week. It wasn’t working for him. I knew I couldn’t give up on this Turnoff Week if it wasn’t working after only one day.

Overall, I’d say the Turnoff Week was beneficial for all of us. Too bad the first thing we did Monday morning was get on the computer to make comments on the family blog.

We’re going to have to work on figuring out a balance.
So if I don’t blog as much for a while, know I’m trying to figure out that balance.

It was a good family week.

Bird Watcher

Remember when Google told me about Charlie Chaplin's 122nd birthday? Well, today Google let me know that it is the 226th birthday of John James Audubon (you know bird drawings, Audubon Society named after him).
Jr. must have heard his parents talking about it because he saw a bird out the window and told me he wanted to draw a picture of it.
So we put some paper on the easel and let him do his drawing of the bird.

Here's a photo of the bird from out our dirty window.

It's a good thing it happened this way, because originally I wanted to take the boys out bird watching so Jr. could do some drawing of birds we saw, but my mind changed once I saw it was snowing this morning.

KAT's Kreation- Oho

It's been so many years but the other day I felt like making an oho, so I did.

I plan to teach the kids how to make them as they are a simple craft. That may be a blog post for another time.
What simple crafts have you done lately?

Jr.'s Turn

joshua jr.
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zoo
huiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiioooz
zoooooooooooo
yhhhhjkhhg,mjnjjbghhhhgggvffvvvfdfcdxdxdxsdsxxssyyannabb
belly
belly
anm
benny
anny
annii
annie
anna
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jgjghhhgkkmhkkjushh
yygtfgghggffdxddduhyghbhtbgc4fg5554w4t34guygythhg7890yyhfdchhbb
tryytttggytgggg
jhgggggddryyp090006790gnnhghghth011010001jjnghhhj
jbhhhytrffghgghgh
heyyttt
yoda
yodyhjgggggt
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hhfh
nhgfgh
gjggg
rgfg

Plug Your Nose, It'll Taste Better

When I was younger and a picky eater, my mom would tell me to plug my nose when I took a bite of something I didn't like, as we know that taste and smell are associated. I got through so many bites of what I now consider delicious food that way.
My kids have gotten into the habit of deciding that they don't like something without even trying it. Well, I tried the nose thing with my kids. It worked... for the most part. Nichole ate all the corn on her dinner plate.

After taking a few bites, Jr. insisted that Mmmm, he liked corn (yet he never did finish what was on his plate). He did try, and I'll be honest, he ate more than I expected when we began the meal.

They did enjoy having their pictures taken with their noses plugged and Jr. Jr. looking on.

Joy Is...

cutting fresh herbs right from your windowsill to use in dinner.

Another Fun FamilyFun Idea

A while back, I mentioned that we would need to transplant some of our plants (which we did). For containers for the sunflowers, we used an idea from the March 2011 FamilyFun Magazine. 2-liter bottles as planters.

Once again, I like the FamilyFun Magazine.

Taco Soup (x7)

What do you do when a 6lb 12oz can of hominy is cheaper than 3 regular sized cans of hominy?

Make a HUGE pot of taco soup of course.

And when you septuple the recipe, it uses a LOT of ingredients.

It's simple enough to make in the first place. You just keep adding ingredients

and adding ingredients

and adding ingredients

etc.

until you've used up all your ingredients.

But, oh boy, it sure makes plenty to freeze. Yumm.