Primary...

I have now been a primary teacher for a full year!  I love it, although I definitely miss Relief Society!  This year I was moved to a new class teaching Valiant 10.  It's a small class of only 7...it's great, coming from CTR 6 with 13 kids in the class (and that was only half of the kids that age)!  What can I say...our primary is enormous!  Anyways, I LOVE the older kids, the lesson are a bit more of a challenge, teaching right from the Book of Mormon!  It's great though!!  I turn to Sugardoodle for any ideas and help with each lesson.  I love the lesson cards that someone posted and although it is a few weeks late, we are starting them this Sunday. You can see what I am talking about here,  I wanted to make a cute cover card for them so I made these up today in photoshop.  I personalized each one with their name (mine is below), and I got some Book of Mormon pictures from lds.org.  This is where I feel sad about Josh not working anymore...I had him print everything for me.  So I had these printed at costco as pictures, and then I'll mount them on some cardstock.  Ok, here is it:

And I just realized I wrote Activity Cards on them...should have been Lesson Cards...oh well...I will change it on my original file.  So if any of you are interested in the file so you can print your own I would be more than happy to send you the jpg!  

Also, since we are studying the Book of Mormon I thought it would be fun to have the kids have the goal of reading the entire Book this year.  So I made these cute reading cards for them to keep in their scriptures.  

That one is a 4x6...then I thought it would be a little nicer if they had one that was clipped in with their lesson cards...so I made these smaller ones...I am thinking of making some different sizes, color schemes, etc.  Again, let me know if you want any of these files and I will get them to ya, either by email or I will find a way to post them.  Also let me know what sizes you may be interested in!  

Vicious Cycle...

Let me show you a typical occurrence in my house...

I woke up, got the girls off to school, exercised, and decided to start being productive by cleaning up the boys room...which I do quite often.  The bubbas room is probably my favorite room in the entire house!  It is so cute and I love everything about it.  Cute little beds, cute little blankets, cute little toys...but not the  big giant mess.  The boys had managed last night to dump out every. single. bin. of toys...and they emptied their jammy drawer as well.  I even took a picture so you could all see the giant mess...

 After getting everything back where it belonged it looked so nice!!

 Here is Jonathan's bed.  I made him this quilt for Christmas, from this tutorial HERE!  His is backed in light blue Minky.  I bought the fabric on clearance at a quilt shop and I think it was 50% off...I have had it for quite a while and decided I should finally get them done!

 And here is Julian's bed!  Same fabric only I used green star fabric instead of the blue so they were different, and his was backed in brown minky!  And yup, the boys have a lalaloopsy doll.  I couldn't resist when they were marked down to $10 on amazon...plus they're darling!

 I love it when everything is neatly put away where it goes.  And wow...everything on the wall looks crooked!  Guess I should fix that!

 Josh's grandparents made these bucket seats for Christmas...they love them, and use them when they have puppets shows...

 A couple weeks ago I cleaned out the boys closet and made it a play space and hung our cute lil puppet show!  They do the cutest little shows!  Tons of fun!

 So now that I have showed off my favorite room...let's fast forward through the day.

About 5 seconds after I was done they had their train tracks out and we built a fun circle...but then they dumped all the train stuff out, destroyed their bed...dumped all the little people out...the list goes on.  The destruction happens way too quickly!

 This evening Jeni even went in there and put all the toys away and things were looking pretty nice...until I tucked them in to bed.  The boys will not stay in bed.  They turn on the light and playtime begins.  See...Toys EVERYWHERE!!

 But how can I be made at these 2 little guys?  I can't...

 I will wake up in the morning and start the cycle again...such is life!!  :)

Tired...

I thought I may as well shock you all again and blog for the 2nd day in a row.  I know, I know...shocking!  :)

I don't really have much to say.  I am exhausted.  It has been a loooong, productive day!

I am trying to potty train the bubbas...which is proving to be quite the task!  But I am determined it is time.  In an effort to save money ($60+/month), I will not be buying any more diapers.  I am done.  I am over it.

So if you don't like potty talk...skip ahead a bit.*

Monday was my go day.  I made attempts a couple times last week.  My sister-in-law suggested diet coke/saltines.  Apparently the combo makes for lots of trips to the potty and within a couple days and lots of experience they are done.  She has some friends that swear by it.  So I tried it, and they wouldn't even drink the soda.  So...that was out.  Monday I just put them in undies and decided we'd deal w/ the accidents and learn as we go.

Is it a mistake that I originally taught them to pee sitting down so we didn't have a bathroom covered in pee?  Now they refuse to go standing up.  I have tried putting fruit loops in the toilet and try to make it a game of "shooting" the blue ones, or the green ones, or even pretending to have buzz or superman peeing standing up.  But no...they stand for a second and then turn around and sit down.  :/

So back to Monday.  Undies only.  They did ok...not even sure how many accidents we had because I didn't really pay attention.  It was a busy day.  I do know though that Jonathan had 4 poopy accidents and Julian had 1.  Those are the WORST!  So yesterday they wore undies ALL day and had zero accidents.  But no pooping...so I was sure today would be the day for that.  They did great all morning...we even ran to the bank to sign some papers and they wore undies and stayed dry.  Went to lunch w/ my friend and they stayed dry the whole time we were out.  But as soon as we got home around 2:30 things went down hill fast.  Julian full on peed all over the floor.  Thank goodness it was just in the kitchen.  Then he pooped...then Jonathan pooped.  Both in their pants.  So frustrating.  But I know with some time they'll get it.

So I'm not sure why I am blogging about potty training...guess some day I will look back at this and laugh.

*This morning I woke up at 6:30.  Alarm is set for 7 and I knew if I went back to sleep for that short time then I would feel worse when woke up again.  So I got up.  Got moving.  I got the girls up and ready for school and while they were waiting for their ride I exercised.  I am participating in my sister in laws weight loss challenge she put together.  It started Monday, so today is day 3.  I will stick with it this time.  And I am determined to change my eating.  I exercised for over 8 weeks straight last summer and never lost a lb, but I did lose lots of inches.  So I am starting again, but doing things a bit differently!

This month I am doing Jillian Michael's 30 day shred.  Today I added in half of her 6 week 6 pack video.  Ouch.  But it's a good feeling.  Next month I will do Jillian's ripped in 30.  I really like her videos and I really like working out from home.  The weather has been so nice I should get out and walk as well...but I tend to get shin splints and they are no fun!

If you made it through my rambling...way to go!  I am half asleep as I write this and now I'm off to bed.  Maybe tomorrow I will have something more exciting to write about...

I wish I could even find a random picture to post... pictureless posts are so boring.

2011...

How has a YEAR gone by and I didn't blog once??  What the heck!?  I think there came a point when I just decided to make it a full year and start fresh in 2012!  But, what about 2011...?

I decided I would just post some of the big things that happened last year.  I thought writing something about each month...and then I couldn't even think of anything for January!  haha  So here we go...

In February my sweet Kiki turned 7.  We had an Olivia party and I made a fun cake and piggy ears for all of the guests!  It was great!

 A week later Jeni turned 9.  She's getting to the age where she wants things done her way.  She said no cupcakes and for those of you who know me, that was a little sad.  She didn't want fondant on her cake, just frosting and it had to be carrot.  She had a dance central party and we had a house full of girls dancing and having fun!

 I cannot express how much I love these boys (and my girls)!  But seriously, look how cute these guys are!!  I can't get over it!  We did a little photo shoot to get some good pics to send to our upcoming Japanese student.  This was one of my faves!

 Things go more official w/ my cupcakes and I have a little business now!  I even had a cute little cupcake lady drawn up to look like ME for my logo!!  Love it!

 The last 2 weeks in July we had so much fun with Mariko, our guest from Japan.  We went swimming, to see fireworks, out to eat, cowabunga bay, bowling, and shopping!  We had a great time!!

 This is the first time I let the boys finger paint...and since then it has been the only time...wonder why?  I stopped when they started eating the paint!

In early August my friend Tamara invited us to go up bridal veil falls with her family.  We had never been, and we had a great time!

 Mid August we headed up to the Oregon Coast for a super fun vacation!!  We made the drive up in 2 days, the first day we drove to Pendleton, Oregon and stayed at the Red Lion.  The next day was long and super busy.  We stopped in the Dalles and Josh showed the kids all the houses he lived in while he lived there.  Then we stopped at Multnomah Falls.  We hiked up quite a ways, but it got pretty steep, so I went back down with Kiki and the bubbas...while Josh and Jeni went all the way to the top!!

 We made our way further west and got to the Tillamook cheese factory with a few minutes to look around before they closed.

 We stayed in a beach house in Lincoln City, Oregon for the week!  In the picture below you can see it to the right of my head...2nd house over...the little A frame!  It was the same house we stayed in when we were there in August 2001!  My parents and my brothers family were also there with us!

 We had lots of fires on the beach...flew kites...played in the sand...

 enjoyed many beautiful sunsets...

 and had a great time together!!  Wow, Kiki looks a little crazy in the pic below.  We had just finished climbing many many stairs to get back to our house!

 Jonathan was not in a good mood this day!

 While we were there we also went down to Yaquina Head, climbed a lighthouse, went to a pretty cool aquarium, and did some shopping in the cute little shops around town.

We headed back home and took 2 days to do the drive, this time staying the night in Boise.  2 days after we got back the girls started school!

Can't believe my baby is a 4th grader!

 And how is miss Kiki a 2nd grader?!

 As soon as we got back from the coast, Josh finished up what he needed to get done for his pilots license.  This is something he has wanted for a long time, he started flying back in 2003...when he turned 25!  We quickly ran out of funds and things slowed down.  We purchased a share into a Cessna 170 this summer and he got his license.  Yay!  He kept asking me when he could take me up, but I was soooo nervous.

He made a plan one day for my friend to watch the boys so he could surprise me.  It all worked out great and it was a great surprise, after I stopped freaking out and enjoyed myself!  He flew me up to Ogden and we had breakfast at the little airport up there.  It was the best date ever!  Here I am w/ our plane before we headed back.

 We did lots of flying after that!!

 The girls absolutely love it!  Josh has flown them up to Bountiful and my mom picks them up and keeps them for a sleepover.  A little spoiled I might add!

Julian went up once...he said he liked it, but he fell asleep shortly after they took off!  :)

Here is a view from the air!

 In September I repainted the kitchen/family.  It used to be dark red.  I am loooooving my light blue!  So refreshing!

 Josh built the bubbas these cute little beds (thanks to the free patterns on ana-white.com.  They love having (little) big boy beds!

 In September we took our annual trip to the Utah State Fair.  The boys weren't too sure about seeing all of the animals!  Julian did ok, but Jonathan freaked out a lot!

The fair isn't complete w/out buying cotton candy!

 September 27 my little bubbas turned THREE!!  They are growing up waaaay too fast!!  We had a cute little super hero party w/ some of the little boys their age in our ward.  I made them all these capes!  They were a big hit!

 We had lunch, mac and cheese and cheese balls...the boys favorites!

 The following saturday we had the family all over for lunch and cake!

 October 13 was our ELEVENTH anniversary!  Man I feel old!  Josh took me (and the bubbas) to breakfast at Park Cafe.  I had been wanting to go there for quite a while!  It was so good!  Afterwards we went over to Liberty Park and let the boys feed the ducks!  Me and my love....

 Me and my cute bubbas...

 In October Josh dyed his hair black to be Sheldon from Big Bang Theory for Halloween.  It was quite a change!  :)

 Halloween was so much fun this year!  Kiki was Smurfette.  I think her costume turned out great...I think her only complaint was that I wouldn't let her paint herself blue!

 Jeni wanted to be what she wanted to be...a vampire.  She didn't even look like herself.  But that's what she was going for!

 And my bubbas...Mario and Luigi!  I looooove the hats that I made...and their mustaches were the perfect touch!  I made them out of felt and sewed them on to clear elastic!

 And December...one crazy busy fun month!  We started the month off with this super fun Santa picture!  It was taken by fotofly...in a tent at Thanksgiving point.  I am the one dressed as Santa.  If I had sent out Christmas cards, this is what would've been on them...but I never got to it!

 We got tickets to the Christmas devotional.  So Jeni and I had a little date and rode Trax downtown w/ my sister in laws, mother in law, and niece.  It was wonderful!

 For Christmas for Josh this year I did a 12 days of Christmas.  One of the night was supposed to be a date out with me.  But w/ his recent job loss I thought it better if we didn't spend the money.  So the girls were gone for the night, the boys went to bed early and we enjoyed a candle light dinner and a movie at home!  For the other days I gave him new things I knew he would love!  I think he felt very loved!  :)

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house.  Busy day.  Lots of fun.  Santa even stopped by for a visit.

After we got home we opened our new Christmas jammies...tradition.  I didn't get a very good pic of all the kids together, but here are my girls, pretending to like eachother!  

 And my bubbas!  :) Love the pose...they did this all on their own!

So there is my quick run down of the highlights of 2011...now I can move on and try and keep this sad blog up to date!  Wish me luck!  :)