Traveling with "children" has never been easier

When Matt and I went to China and Taiwan this summer we decided to do something fun to "take along" the kids. We let each of them design a Lego person to represent themselves, then we brought the three Lego people on the trip. My parents used to do this with Beanie Babies when they'd travel without us, but using Lego people made it much more portable!

The kids loved looking at the pictures of all the places the Lego people visited, and we enjoyed how easily our "children" traveled. No whining, no need to observe bedtime or naptime, no complaints about the food, no diapers. . .

Next time you head off without the kids, this might be a fun way to "bring" them along.

   

Encouraging excitement with learning

I've been trying to enjoy my last few months with Zeke before he starts Kindergarten. So we started Mom and Zeke preschool to replace his preschool that he finished. We found a song on you tube here about the planets in our solar system. Zeke has had a fascination with the phases of the moon and I decided to try to expand that. Zeke loves the planet song and wants to watch it every day and I often here him singing under his breath "My name is Mars, I am red in color, the fourth planet from the sun!"

So we decided to find a solar system craft to work on during preschool. We found this one here and decided to use yarn instead of embroidery floss. Zeke helped pick out the balloons and cut the yarn but he didn't want to get his hands dirty with the glue and yarn. Apparently getting his hands dirty is just an outside thing. After they all dried we popped the balloons and soon discovered that you want to loosen up the yarn from the balloon before popping. Our poor sun looks a little worse for the wear.

We got all the planets hung up in his room yesterday and it has been a fun way to keep learning about the planets and why they are different colors and the storms and rings on them and how they orbit. Mostly it has been fun to watch Zeke so excited about learning!

National Parks with Kids

In the last 6 months we've taken our kids to a couple National Parks (Yellowstone last September, Zion in March), and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about the experiences in case you choose to do a similar trip!

Packing Tips:
1. Hip packs - We always pack the kids' fanny packs full of snacks (including some special treats/snacks they don't normally get at home) and water to keep them moving on the hikes ("We can eat a snack when we get to that shady rock!). They are then in charge of their own tummies and it makes for fewer whining sessions.

2. Coats - Both Yellowstone and Zion were REALLY cold in the mornings during the times of year that we went, so we kept the kids' heavy coats in the car with us in case we got to a hike and decided they'd be more comfortable with a bigger coat. The rest of the day the coats just sat in the car.

3. Food - We brought coolers with breakfast and lunch basics. We also brought an electric tea kettle to make warm drinks and hot cereal. My kids wake up early and are always starving, so this ensured we could stuff them full of food before they ate the other hotel guests. It also made it easy to pack lunches to take with us, since restaurants and stores are few and far between in National Parks. The restaurants are also sometimes pricey and don't always offer things the kids want to eat.

4. Driving Entertainment - We have an in-car DVD player, which we save for road trips. My mom also sent us with little gifts for the kids to open every few hours in the car. They were things like koosh balls to throw around at rest stops, a special snack, balloon toys, etc. Small things that won't take up too much room work best. We always bring a few movement activities for rest stops, like balls and frisbies.

In-Park Tips:
1. Junior Ranger - My kids were very motivated by the Junior Ranger program offered by the Park. We had more time at Yellowstone, so we worked through the packets while there and the kids earned their badges. I was really impressed with the Ranger Discussion we chose to go to as part of the program--I learned cool things!

2. Toileting - Never assume that your child's bladder is empty. We've had to use "nature's restroom" before when I thought they'd gone recently enough that one more stop wasn't necessary. Wrong.

3. Expectations - Matt and I were amazed at how slowly we moved on hikes, getting out the door, etc. Things just take longer when you're with the kids, and that's ok. The kids brought an old camera, digging/exploring tools, and notebooks, and had a wonderful time learning about and appreciating things we never really would have noticed had we been moving at our typical pace.

Any other National Park/hiking tips from y'all? What do you find works best with your kids?

Marriage

So I started this post back in October and never ended up finishing it. I still think it has thoughts worth pondering though so I'm going to post it even though I was hoping to flesh out some things more.

Okay, on to the post! So we had a Stake Conference which included a regional broadcast and it was wonderful!

But the one talk I wanted to share about here was given by our Stake Relief Society President in the Saturday evening session. It was on love and respect in marriage.

She shared a scripture in Ephesians 5:33:

"Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."

I think this scripture can often get women up in arms about what reverencing husbands exactly means but our Stake RS Pres applied it as respect. She talked about how women have a need to be unconditionally loved and men have a need to be unconditionally respected. She pointed out how it was interesting that the scripture doesn't command women to love their husbands, that is a given, it is easy for us to love. But we do receive specific counsel about reverencing or respecting our husbands.

She talked about how many marital problems and division happen because the wife is feeling unloved and the husband is feeling disrespected and how both of those play off of each other. The wife feels unloved so she criticizes which causes the husband to feel disrespected and he distances himself thus continuing the cycle. She talked about how it is important to remember the unconditional part, even when the other spouse is not deserving of love or respect, it is still important to show it.

Anyways, I thought she offered some perspective on a scripture that I hadn't really considered. And I know when Ammon and I feel off in our marriage it pretty much always comes back to myself feeling unloved or Ammon feeling not respected. And I know that when I most need to feel loved is when I haven't been very lovable or in other words when I may not deserve love that is when I need love most.  I'm working on remembering this and making sure to be respectful of Ammon especially around Zeke. And most especially when I may not think he deserves it. I have found that my feelings of his just desserts usually have more to do with my hunger/tiredness level and not really anything to do with Ammon :)

Ulcerative Colitis

Remember in college how we would tell Melissa, "I love your gut?" Well, that is because she had her colon removed due to a disease called ulcerative colitis. If you want to learn more about it, there is a great website called crohnsandcolitisinfo.com

Two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. It's been a rough couple of months! When Camille was 6 weeks old, I started having painful, watery, explosive diarrhea. At first, I thought it was just a stomach bug, but after several days no one else was getting sick, and the diarrhea was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I kind of just kept waiting it out, but after 4 weeks, I finally went to my doctor and did blood work and stool tests. My doctor's first concern was that I had C-diff, which is an intestinal bacteria commonly picked up in healthcare settings. Since I had just been in the hospital to have my baby, this was a likely explanation. My stool tests were negative for C-diff, but positive for white blood cells and inflammation, which indicates some sort of infection. He decided to put me on flagyl, an antibiotic that kills C-diff. At this point, I was having a lot of blood in my stool, which was concerning me and decreasing my energy levels pretty rapidly. After 7 days of being on flagyl and seeing no improvement and getting worse, I saw a gastroenterologist who said, "I think you either have Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis." That week I had a colonoscopy and received the diagnosis.

Ulcerative colitis is a life long disease. It is characterized by inflammation in the large intestine and rectum. Many people respond to treatments and have periods of "remission." Various stresses, foods, etc. can cause someone to have "flare-ups." The tricky thing with this is that it affects every person differently. Some people have it so severely that their colon is removed (like Melissa), but others can function pretty normally with diet changes and medication.

Right now, I am on prednisone (a steroid medication) and apriso (an anti-inflammatory medication that works locally in the gut). They seem to be helping and I have been feeling better, just not completely back to normal. I have seen a lot of blessings throughout the whole process (like the fact that Camille is such a good sleeper), but also a lot of disappointments (like having to stop nursing Camille).

It stinks! Anyone with chronic health problems can vouch that it is just not any fun! You never know what life is going to bring. Life may seem to be going so well, and then something like this happens and it changes things! One thing that has helped me during this rough time has been to be mindful of the many blessings I do have. Easier said than done, but I think when we truly look for the good in our lives, then we will find it, even amidst very hard trials. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Photo Books??

Q&A from Julie:

What type of scrapbooking system do you use to preserve and display your regular family photos?

I’m in a quandary right now about what to do with our pictures.  

Here is my experience:

I have not done photo albums from our first few years of marriage.  After Autumn was born, I made a digital photo book using MyPublisher.  I was disappointed in the graininess of the pictures, so I decided to try another company.  I gave Nelson a photo book for Father’s Day from Costco, and one of the pages ripped really easily, so I decided to try another company.  I made Anna’s baby book using Shutterfly.  The quality of the photos was not way better than MyPublisher, but I did like the options and user-friendly website of Shutterfly.  I stuck with them and have made several more photo books through them.  In 2012, I decided to make digital photo books of our family in 2011.  I had to divide the year quarterly and made four good-size books because I had so many pictures.  It took forever.  So in 2014, I decided to try Project Life by Becky Higgins.  It is basically lots of options of photo pockets for you to put your printed pictures in, then you can put their cute cards between pictures to write what’s happening in the photo or just be decorative.  While I really like the finished product, it seems like it has taken about as much time as digital scrapbooking, and I think it's been more expensive.

Here is my dilemma: 

Digital Photo Books

Pros:       You can fit lots of pictures on one page

                There are many options for backgrounds, stickers, etc.

                I like the finished product of a bound book.

                You can “highlight” special pictures easily.

Cons:      The quality of the finished pictures is not always perfect.

                I am a perfectionist and it takes me a very long time.

                The websites are often running slowly.

                I don’t love staring at the computer screen for a long time.

                I won’t let my kids look at or hold these books alone for fear that they’ll rip the pages.

Project Life/ Pocket Scrapbook Pages

Pros:  The quality of the pictures is as clear and good as where you have them printed.

            The pocket pages are thick and kids can look at the books without ripping them.

You can add in pictures and written text later, and you can add memory stuff like ticket stubs or programs in envelopes at the back.

Cons:   It is costly to print your pictures and buy the Project Life supplies.

            You can’t always fit the pictures exactly how you want with the pocket pages available.

It still takes a really long time.  I don’t know if I take too many pictures or write too much (probably both), but scrapbooking isn’t just something I can do fast!

It is much easier if you have all of the pictures printed before you start (you’ll be shuffling pictures and cards around if you try to get started before having every picture ready to go).

I would love your advice!  What do you use, what do you recommend, how do you include scrapbooking in your regular life with kids, ANY tips?  

Tips for quick birthday party prep

I've come up with a pretty easy way to throw birthday parties the last couple years, and wanted to share my experience in case anyone is hoping to have some fun activities that don't take too much money or effort to prepare.

1. Pick a theme. Although this isn't necessary, it makes it easier for me to make all our regular toys/activities look like they are actually a fun birthday activity. My kids the last few years have done monsters, under the sea, monster trucks, Frozen, Tron, and dinosaurs. Some other fun ideas I've seen friends do include chefs, mad scientist, fairy princess, etc.

2. Use what you've got. I rarely buy new activities or toys for birthday parties. I simply gather our favorite group activities and rename them to fit the theme. So PlayDoh becomes "Dino Dough," "Monster Goop," etc. Pin-the-Tail games can be "Fix Olaf's Nose," "Attach the License Plate to the Monster Truck," etc.

Our favorite group activities are art (coloring pages, decorate a paper bag for goodies, etc.), PlayDoh, dance party with ribbons or scarves or balloons, egg/treasure hunt, bean bag toss, pin-the-tail, cake walk or musical chairs, and sensory activities (bean box, play in shaving cream or pudding, dig in sand, etc.).

3. Keep the take-home simple. I don't like getting a bunch of trinkets and junk food from parties, because the toys get broken easily and the junk food is not something my kids need more of. I've gone to sending home something really simple that the kids will likely have fun with. When we did Tron, we sent home glow sticks. When we did monster trucks, we sent home a dollar store can of shaving cream and a little toy car so the kids could drive the care through the shaving cream. When we did dinosaurs, we sent home an activity we just didn't have time for during the party (little excavation kit made of a toy dinosaur skeleton, plaster, and sand). All the toys have been about $2 or under each, and the kids have fun using them at home. And I don't send home sugar because I know what it does to my kids and I don't need parents hating on me.

4. Interact with the kids. I've found that the kids seem to have the most fun when Matt and I really interact with them throughout. They enjoy being complimented on their artwork or PlayDoh creations. They like getting to brag about themselves a bit. And the kids that don't know many of the other kids at the party can always use an extra buddy or two (even if it is the parents). 

What makes a good book?

So I just finished reading a series my sister-in-law lent me, and I wasn't all that impressed.  In fact, I was really kind of disappointed.  I had some high hopes as I started, and I held out hope until the last book, all to no avail.  (It was The Selection series by Kiera Cass)  And I have to admit, I was warned by my brother-in-law, he kept asking me, "Are you sure?  It is basically just The Bachelor (the TV show)."  And it wasn't that they were bad books; they were fine.  The problem I had was how empty they were.  There wasn't really any meaning; it really was just like the show.  (No disrespect if you like the show.)  I was just hoping for some more involved plot lines and some deeper characters because she hinted at those both throughout the book.  She just never really developed the other plot lines very well, or invested in her characters like I was hoping.  It made me stop and think about some of my favorite books and the differences. 
The books that came to mind right away were the Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre, and Anne of Green Gables (the whole series) and the Chronicles of Narnia.  And I also got to thinking about other books that I like a lot and were also really popular such as Harry Potter series.  As I was thinking about these books and comparing them to the ones I had just read I came up with a few ideas.  First of all, I am a big plot person.  I like the story to be interesting and exciting.  If all that happens is a rocky romance, that gets a little old.  I can't get into a story when the characters just waffle back and forth on whether they love each other or not.  Which brings me to my next point.  The characters are another big one.  I have to be able to relate to the characters and get a sense of who they are.  You always here that a character has to have some human flaws for them to be relatable and I agree to a certain extent.  The problem I have with a lot of characters nowadays is that their 'flaws' are pretty extreme and I can't relate to them.  When the hero is doing things that I would never dream of doing because I feel they go beyond the common code of good conduct, I can't relate to them, and I lose respect for them.  I have read a few 'teen' series where this has been the case.  Also when the characters don't learn from their mistakes and don't change for the better.  I want to be inspired by the main character in the book, not disappointed in them.  This is one of the reasons I love Anne of Green Gables so much.  I am so inspired by who Anne becomes throughout the books.  Every time I read through them I want to be a better person!  She is not perfect and makes mistakes constantly, but she is still a good person overall, and she always learns from her mistakes.  Jane Eyre is the same way, she is such an inspiring character.  She overcomes so much to hold to what she believes is right and that inspires me to strive to do the same. 
And the last thing that really makes me like a book is when it resonates with my spirit as good triumphs over evil.  And I think this is probably true for a lot of the population, though they may not realize this.  I think that is a major reason the Harry Potter series was so successful.  We inwardly cheer when good prevails and our spirits connect to the story of good vs evil.  It is the same with Lord of the Rings, which is, in my opinion one of the greatest tales of good vs evil.  We recognize the symbolism that can be found in these stories, sometimes unconsciously.  The Chronicles of Narnia was written specifically to be a symbol of the Savior and I love that!  These books appeal to our spirits and the Light of Christ that is in all of us. 
I have stuck to the classics for a long time in reading, and my sister-in-law has started expanding my choices, sometimes for the better and sometimes not.  But I do think it is so important to support good literature and to promote those books that are going to uplift us and not just fill our minds with trash.  (I have been very surprised by the content of a few of the 'teen' and a lot of the 'adult' books I have read recently.) 
What are your thoughts?  What do you look for in a good book?  And what are some of your favorites?


PS- so I totally spaced posting over Christmas, and even this month...  So sorry! 

Home Management Plan

The new year is the time for new resolutions, and I started one this year that I'll share with you.  Here's a little background:

Even though (and maybe because?) we live in a smallish apartment, I have such a hard time keeping it clean.  As soon as I pick something up, I have three little tornadoes behind me making a mess, trying to spread toys to every room.  Things like doing dishes, cleaning the stove, and scrubbing the bathtub are difficult because I need to help kids and can't complete a task.  Plus when I do a "bigger" job like organizing a drawer or cleaning the fridge, then the other smaller things like picking up toys don't happen because I don't have time.   I  can tolerate some messiness (as you, my former roommates probably know :), but it's immediately overwhelming when you wait to clean the floor until it's covered in food, or wait to dust the blinds until they are completely dusty.  All the while, I have this internal struggle about actually playing with my kids and spending time with them versus spending most of my day cleaning. 

At the start of January, I knew I needed to make some type of change. Nelson was starting a new semester, his hardest one yet, on top of his full-time work where they are facing lay-offs (I think he'll be safe, fingers crossed).  When he finally walks in the door from a crazy day at 9:30 pm and the house is a disaster, it increases his anxiety about not being able to help me and our kids.  Not that I can't be real with him or that he doesn't know how hard it is to keep a tidy house, but that I want to do what I can on my part to help him.  Also, our kids are just about getting to an age where they can entertain themselves for a little while, and our oldest is becoming a good helper.  

So I came up with a Home Management Plan.  

A few things:

-I am still in the "honeymoon stage" with this-- I'm still kind of having fun with it and making it work.  That may change in a few months.

-There is no way I could have done this with a newborn or if my kids didn't play alone for a few minutes.  I would scale it way back and only try to do bigger jobs like cleaning the tub once a month or something.

-I didn't want to start something that, if I didn't complete each job each day, I would feel bad about myself.  I am okay with the fact that I might not get everything done every day, but it gives me motivation and accountability.  I also like that when I'm done with my jobs for the day, it frees my mind to play with my kids.  I know that, even if I didn't clean the toilet, that's a job for another day.

-Now I don't have to write everything down in my planner, but I can still cross it off when I finish-- a little thing I like to do :)

-I've already made changes and will continue to do so (ex: Sundays are very busy and I really don't have time to work on our photo book or journal, so I've got to figure out another regular time to do that; I usually have to do a load of laundry on Fridays; I'm going to add "exercise" to Thursdays)

-I have it printed with a cute picture on top and a scripture on the bottom, and I keep it inside a clear plastic sheet protector with a dry erase marker nearby to mark off the boxes.  I got a laminator for Christmas that I'll break out soon and laminate it, once I've got everything how I like it for sure.

Daily Personal:

☐  Prayers

☐  Scriptures

☐  Shower

Daily:

☐  Clear out dishwasher

☐  Load dishwasher

☐  Bed made

☐  Bathroom counter cleared off

☐  Mail sorted, put away

☐  Autumn’s school papers filed

☐  Autumn homework

☐  Make dinner

☐  Counters & table wiped off

☐  Quick Sweep

☐  Lunch for Nelson

☐  Garbage out- Nelson

Kids Jobs, especially:

☐  Playroom 

☐  Family Room

Monday:        ☐  Exercise

                        ☐  Laundry: clothes

☐  Check Mint.com

☐  Family Home Evening

Tuesday:        ☐  Laundry: towels, rags, bedding

                        ☐  Oven, Stove, Microwave, Sinks

☐  Back steps; break down boxes

Wednesday:   ☐  Exercise

☐  Bathroom

☐  Tub and bath toys

Thursday:      ☐  Dust; Clean doorknobs

☐  Food: fridge, laundry room, cupboards

Friday:           ☐  Counters & papers cleared off

☐  Meal planning

☐  Monthly job(s)*

Saturday:       ☐  Exercise

            ☐  Vacuum

☐  Mop

☐  Sunday meal & church prep

Sunday:          ☐  Photo book or journal

*Monthly Jobs

                ☐  Pics and videos downloaded

                ☐  Sanitize garbage cans

                ☐  Clean baseboards/walls/doors

                ☐  Organize a cupboard/drawer

                ☐  Deep clean highchair

                ☐  Front porch, front door, windows

                ☐  Car washed, inside and out

                ☐  Other home improvement project

This Home Management Plan has been great for me.  Our house is generally clean every day now (like, I could let someone come inside if they knocked on the door at any given time and it wouldn't be a disaster zone).  It has brought a lot of order to our home and peace of mind to Nelson and me.

Have you done a daily checklist like this?  If not, what do you do to keep from getting overwhelmed and have a tidy house? 

Favorites as of late

Gardening
We had several spring-like days in January and it made me very excited to get going on my garden this year. Since we moved into the house in June and it had no existing garden plot, we didn't get one done last year and I really missed it (the planter beds had PLENTY of cleaning out to keep us busy, though, since they were a little overgrown).

I'm actually thankful we didn't already have a garden because I just learned about a totally different style of gardening that I am eager to try. A friend of mine from grad school started a new garden using the Square Foot Gardening approach last year with amazing results.

The method is based on the idea that you really just need optimal soil without a ton of extra space around each plant as long as you aren't walking on the soil and packing it down. They recommend 3x3 or 4x4 boxes (so you can reach across for planting and weeding without walking on it) and a specific mixture of soil: 1/3 blended compost, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite.

After reading the book she lent me, I'm converted! We plan to put in a garden this spring, and I can't wait to get the kids involved and get planting. I am also SO excited to have lots of sun here so we will get a better yield than in Western Washington.

I'm trying to come up with a design I like best for the garden boxes. Here are a couple options (the boxed in areas would be the garden beds, the other areas are walkways). What do y'all think?

 

Kid Activities
I've followed an amazing blog for a while called Made By Joel. This guy draws little scenes for his kids (along with other amazing art projects), and offers the PDF files free for download. My kids needed something to keep them busy while off of school yesterday, and these were a hit! They like to make little movies, too, and I can see this turning into a multi-use activity.

 

Housework
We have a rather crummy dishwasher (it must be as old as the house, which makes it about 15 years old now), and I get frustrated when I pull out dishes that were rinsed really well and still have crumby nast on them. Anyway, I am happy with a solution I found to the problem we had with cloudy glasses.

After doing some research, I discovered it's most likely calcium deposits due to hard water. A little bit of citric acid (usually about $3 at Walmart) in the dish detergent has made a huge difference! I've even been making my own detergent and simply increased the ratio of citric acid in the mix to help keep the clouding to a minimum. Doesn't make me love my dishwasher, but it has helped me hate it less.

Finance Family Council
Matt and I have made it more a priority to meet together formally to discuss finances and make budget plans. We decided to do this more proactively, because I don't discuss things well if I'm emotional (and I get emotional about money and budgeting in the heat of the moment). This month's Ensign had a nice discussion on how to be more successful in couple family councils. The only thing I would add is that our last council was so much more fun because we sat in our formal room and drank "Mormon wine" that Matt had run across at the store! It was super fun to feel so fancy during our discussion.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year celebration.  Congrats to Shelley and Melissa on your little girls.  How great to have babies at this time to really help the birth of Christ hit home.  And just think, they're BYU roommates in the making!

So, I've fallen off the band wagon these past few months and I haven't posted anything.  The new year is a great time to start anew.  It is one of the things I like about the new year.  I don't ever really set resolutions but I like the idea of a clean slate where I can turn over a new leaf and be a little better.  Hopefully this will translate over to my blogging...

In the spirit of something new, I thought I'd share a new sugar cookie recipe.  I made it three time in the past few weeks and I've had several people comment on how soft the cookies were.  The secret ingredient seems to be cream cheese.  I found the recipe from BeneathMyHeart.net and I only made one slight change.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
(from BeneathMyHeart.net)

1 C. sugar
1/2 c. margarine
1/2 c. butter
3 oz. cream cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 egg yolk
2 c. flour

Cream the sugar, butter, margarine, and cream cheese together until fluffy.  Add the salt, vanilla, almond, and egg yolk.  Once the ingredients are all mixed together, add the flour.

Allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

After the dough has chilled, roll it out and cut out your desired shapes.  Place on a cookie sheet.  Add sprinkles at this point.

Bake for 7-10 in an oven preheated to 375.  Take the cookies out when the bottoms are just barely beginning to turn golden.

As a note, the original recipe calls for 1 cup butter or margarine.  I am a cheapskate and I don't like to put a cup of butter in anything if I can help it because it is rather pricey.  However, I found that if I used margarine the dough was extremely sticky.  When I used 1/2 butter and 1/2 cup margarine the dough wasn't as sticky and it was much easier to roll out and cut out shapes.  (And yes, I admit, butter is better but it is really hard to compete with my penchant for pinching pennies.)

Happy New Year!