An eventful weekend!

We had a great weekend last week! Jo got Student of the Week, which we were so proud of her for receiving. Courtney captured a "stray" bunny she found in our backyard behind the barn, much to our surprise! Sassy, my mom and I went to the Young Women's Conference at church, and then out for ice cream with one of Sassy's friends afterward. And Mike added a new love to his life, a snowmobile! Every day he wakes up and says, "I can't believe I have a snowmobile!"

For all you allergy sufferers out there!

I have been searching for milk free snacks that I can give my two youngest kids and finally found a winner! I ordered 6 boxes of Eco Planet's Cheddar Non-Dairy Organic Crackers for them from Vegan Essentials and the girls love them! Finally something I can take with me when we go run errands that won't hurt their tummies! They get tired of Teddy Grahams (also no milk in them) and cold cereal. The only down side is the expense-$4 for each tiny box, plus shipping on top of it.

American Idol in Second Grade...

This is Courtney before she sang in front of her whole class this week.
Courtney's class had a music talent day on wednesday and on monday night she asked me if I could teach her a new piano song by wednesday for it. When I told her no, that wouldn't be enough time she said ok I will just sing a Taylor Swift song. I thought that would be the end of it, but no she wrote down most of the words to "You Belong With Me" and then had Sassy print out the ones she didn't know that night. Tuesday evening she gave us many performances practicing it, and did such a great job remembering all the words and singing in tune because she wanted to sing without a backup cd, she did it acapella. On Wednesday morning when I was doing her hair, she told me that she had the courage to do this because another girl in her class who is the shyest person in class did it and so she knew she could do it too. I was just really surprised, no one in our family has ever done something like this, and really proud of her. When she came home she said it went great and she didn't even get nervous. It was great practice because our family is singing in church on the 18th of April and we need all the help we can get!

A Reward for Kindness!

Last week we gave our kids a challenge to do one nice thing for each person in our family, something that required them to sacrifice to accomplish it. The kids worked hard all week finding things to do for us and each other and it really increased the love and spirit in our home. We told them that if they all accomplished this task, then we would take them out to dinner. So last night for Family Home Evening we took the kids out to The Bluebird, a cute restaraunt that has been in business for over a hundred years and had a great time! It has an old fashioned soda fountain counter and also sells homemade chocolates. My mom and dad joined us and the kids loved getting to eat out because it is something we rarely take them to do. We also instituted the "hat of silence" last week and it worked so well we are going to keep it! Whenever someone(even us parents!) uses an ornery tone of voice, they have to wear a baseball cap for 5 minutes and not talk to remind them to speak kindly. Part of the success was we let the kids be the judges of each other, and they realized that sometimes even if they think they are not being ornery, they sound that way to their siblings. So everybody tried to be more conscientous of the way they were speaking to their family members, even me and that also helped to increase the love in our home!

Sassy's First Formal Dance!

Sassy had her first formal dance last Friday. She went with 2 of her friends, and they all got their hair done at the beauty college before, and Sassy was very happy with how hers turned out. I was worried because i didn't think they would be able to do a better job than Sassy, but it looked beautiful. We found her dress the week before, and they had to alter the neckline so it wouldn't stick out because her shoulders were too small, but when we picked it up it fit perfectly. We wanted to buy it in a size 6 but the lady wouldn't let us! She said it was way too big and luckily they had a size 4 downstairs and she was right, it fit great. Lacing up the back was a nightmare, they had to give me two lessons at the store on how to do it but on the dance night her friend's mom did it and it turned out better than when I did it because she could breathe! The rest of us went to watch Aunt Nikki play in the regional basketball tournament at church, so I took these pics with mom and dad when she got home. The ones by herself I took at her friend's house before the dance. It almost made me cry because she looked so beautiful, but I told myself not to because it wasn't even her wedding dress or anything and she would get embarassed by me!

Babies love babies!

Apple is getting old enough now that she can play with Sunshine a little bit and their favorite thing to play is babies! The other morning they were so cute together that I had to take their pictures playing babies.

Couch Cushion Makeover

These couch cushions came with the couches we bought 3 years ago and I have never liked them! This year I decided to do something about it, so I made these cute slipcovers from this website: http://sewing.about.com/od/freeprojects/ss/envelopepillow.htm. I wanted them to be removable so I could wash them, and they were so easy to make! I checked into buying pillows that looked just like these at Walmart and it would have been $46. I got the material (using a coupon) at JoAnns to make all four pillows for only $12! I love my new pillows, they go great with my new red silk curtains!

Apple helping her Daddy

Apple is my little tomboy, she loves balls and cars and gets into everything! She loves to get down on her tummy on the wood floor to rev up her little cars. Mike was putting up these cabinet locks so she can't pull out all my dishes any more and she just came right over and put her hand under the drill to help him. It was so cute and she also loves to push the button to make the drill go and makes her surprised face everytime!

80's Daddy/Daughter Night at Church!

Tonight was an 80's themed Daddy Daughter night for Sassy's young women. They ate a mystery dinner where they picked words in the menu that stood for the foods you got served, played games(Mike and Sassy won the most!), karaoke, and took pictures with mullets! They had a great time and got these awesome pictures! The dads also presented the girls with bookmarks that hold a ribbon for each value when it is passed off.
The other girls and I stayed home, Sunshine has strep and feels miserable, poor girl. Also, Jo survived a scary encounter with the horses today. She was out watering them and started walking down the corral to get their hay, when Danny(the colt) ran up behind her and bit the back of her arm. When Jo turned around he reared up on his back legs and pawed at her chest (he is a lot bigger than her), then bit her twice more and chased her rearing up again until she got out the fence. She has hoof marks on her sweatshirt on the front and the back. She was really scared but not really hurt. I saw the whole thing from the window, I had a feeling to stay and watch her today and I am so glad I did, it was really scary. Jo didn't let it deter her from going right back out to feed them, although it was from the other side of the fence. Our neighbor came over and let her borrow a little whip to take in from now on so she can make sure they don't seriously hurt her.

Got my blog printed!

One of the main reasons I started blogging was because I heard that you could have your blog printed out. I figured this way I wouldn't get so far behind in my scapbooking(like 10 years!) This week I got my printed blog in the mail and I love it!! The kids do too, and it is a great journal of all that has happened over the past year.

Clowning around and yummy cake

I had Melissa, Erin and Sassy strike a Charlie's Angels pose just for fun! Jo made me the yummiest chocolate cake, every one raved about it! This is Michael Lauren and I with Jo and Apple showing it off before we cut it. Also, Sassy gave a talk today, it was her first and she gave it on modesty. She did a great job and we were so proud of her!

A joint birthday celebration

Last night we went to my parent's house for a party for Eric and I since we both have birthday's in the same month. We had a good time and every one was there. Eric got a new thing to download Netflix onto and an awesome Movie basket from Jeff and Erin and homemade cookies from Nikki. I got a beautiful wall hanging that has Pres Hinckley's BE's on it that Erin made, a new rice cooker, candy and a beautiful ring. Also a coupon for 1,000,000 massages good for my "hole life" from Courtney!

Joining in the Pow Wow

Sandra and Courtney joined the procession first, then Nikki took Sunshine and Jo around. They had a great time while Mike tried to wrestle with the hysterical Apple who didn't have her pacifier!

More Pow Wow Pics

These are some of the elaborate costumes we saw.

Our First Pow Wow!

Nikki's roomate is a Navajo Indian and she invited us to the pow wow they were doing at the University on Friday night. It was a great experience, and the kids loved it. They each got something from the vendors there(Courtney's unfortunately was a flute!, and the other girls got engraved coconut rings)and we all got to try the famous fry bread. These are the men that are doing the chanting(with babies on their laps!)they were awesome! Apple is doing her ornery face because we forgot her pacifier!

Amy's Birthday at El Toro

It was my cousin Amy's birthday on the 25th and we got together with a bunch of the girls to celebrate at El Toro! She turned the big 34 this year (me too!) and I am so grateful to have her in my life. She has taught me a lot and I love her so much!