ReOrganizing...

I've been working on a few projects around the house lately and it feels to great to dejunk and reorganize. Yesterday I worked on the girl's room for hours. I got rid of 2 garbage bags and it was super. Today I was working on redoing my Calendar Board. I'm still working on repainting a few items and trying to get better with a menu, so it isn't complete, but it's getting there again!

Miss Willow turns 3 years old!

Miss Willow turned 3 years old yesterday and we celebrated with a Dora party! We were planning/picking stuff up on clearance and finding treasures at yard sales for the past few months. She had a great time but was a little shy at times and pretty quiet. She was embarrased when we sang Happy Birthday, but I know she loved it. She is such a sweet little girl and I'm glad she had fun with all her friends. It gave us grown ups an excuse to get together and eat! (I tried a few new reciepes Mom! Can you believe it?!) I made a warm bean dip w/ chips, tortilla pinwheel wraps, cookies sandwiches, ice cream cone cupcakes, strawberries & dip, apples and caramel (Angie made that yummy goodness!) carrots/celery & dip, water, and a pack of store bought cupcakes that were marked down that she REALLY wanted and we put Dora stickers on top of. Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating with Willow! We love you guys and appriciate your friendship!

What I do for the kids during General Confrence

General Confrence is coming up in 1 week and I love having fun activities for the kids to play with while we watch. I know the hours wear on the kids after 2 days, but it's important to me that we are all together listening to church leaders and their amazing stories and lessons for us. We play a game every session involving candy, of course! The kids each pick 1 word and write it down. Whenever they hear their word, they get to pick a treat from the bowl and eat it. I usually use fruit snacks, jelly beans, marshmallows or chocolate chips so they are not OD-ing on candy all morning- and they love it! They are actually listening to the talks and getting a little treat every once inawhile too. I love the site somewhatsimple.com and on there she has General Conference packets you can print for your kids (for free)! They are geared for ages 10 and under (my guess) and are super cute. I printed out 3 on white cardstock for the bigger kids, I think they will have fun. After Conference is over and if they are filled in, they can pick a prize from the surprise box! I've also had them write word lists where they have to write down 10- 20 words they heard during conference. Candy is always an incentive in our house! I also let them make confrence books. I get out construction paper, staplers, crayons, glue and old Friend magazines. They cut pictures from the magazines and glue them into their books. It keeps the girls busy for awhile. I also get out coloring books and quiet toys for Willow.

Happiness...

Although Michael is gone, my heart is still happy. Thank you Season 8 for arriving on my doorstep a few days ago!

The van is mine again!

With the bug being a little scary to drive lately, I was letting Trav take it into work everyday (except Friday's, of course for yard sale day!) I was just driving it around town to run errands but let me tell you, it was becoming a pain to get kids & the baby car seat in and out of. We made it work, but I am thankful to have the van back! I vacuumed it, shampooed the seats and floor, washed everything down and organized it a little bit. I've always had our 6 backpacks under the seats with our 72 hour kits, but I loved this when I saw it on Pinterest. I knew I had to do it (Plus my diaper bag might weigh a pound less, imagine that!) I wasn't able to find the shoe organizers at the Dollar store so I had to bite the bullet and spend $ 5.96 at Wal Mart for this one that I cut in 4th's. I sewed a new top on one of them, added some rivet things, made some cute labels and filled it with things we use/need/ hope to have everyday. I added: diapers, wipes, nursing pads, baby food, back up formula & bottle (even though I nurse), baby food, extra clothes, binkies, baby lotion, plastic bags, sewing kit, waters, Capri suns, crackers, fruit snacks, granola bars, treats, suckers, thank you notes, scissors, crayons, tape,stickers, pens, post it notes, klennex, tweezers, nail clippers, deodorant, perfume, toilet paper, kids Advil, Mama's Advil, chapstick, water bottle, hair clips, rubberbands & comb. In the box next to it, I have: jumper cables, a blanket, Clorox wipes, paper towels, a first aid kit and a gallon of water. I still have more to add like: garbage sacks for the back of the van and the kids own little section with books and coloring stuff, but I'm getting there! I never thought I'd be so happy to have the van be mine again! (click on the pictures if you want to see an upclose shot of what I put in them.)***I just made matching garbage bags for the back too, now maybe the van will look somewhat clean instead of the junk yard it's looked like lately!

Mr. Man...

I have about a 100 nickname's for my kids. I call this one: Mr.Man, Honey Bear, Tank, Babers, Turkey, Happy and Big Red. Here's a few pictures from yesterday. He's growing like crazy and super cute these days! Just look at those dimples!

Trav's new car...

After looking at every car dealership on the planet it feels like, we found one that fit our little budget and one Trav is delighted about! Seriously, the process was not fun. Taking out a loan we couldn't afford, waiting for loan money so people would take us seriously when we pulled up in our mini van with 5 kids, looking, finding 1 that fit the budget, test driving it,taking it to a mechanic, having it fail, looking some more, finding another one, going to pick it up, having it sell before we could get there, looking more, finding another one, having it almost go to auction, taking time off work, taking it to the mechanic, having it check out, dealing with people you know are trying to rip you off, buying it/signing papers, going to the DMV, going to the insurance office and all the while trying to stay madly in love with each other! Why is buying a house, remoldeling a home, buying a car and surviving a pregnancy so hard on a marriage??? This is a super horrible picture I took last night just so my Mama could see the new car. I'll post more today when Trav gets home, he looks pretty handsome driving it. The car is really nice and it fit most of our needs. It's a 1994 Trans Am. It has 89,000 miles on it, the mechanic said it looked great with a few minor things like window switches, heat only blowing warm air instead of hot. The tires are great, the leather seats are in perfect condition, the body has almost zero dings in it, the engine looks super, it hasn't been in any accidents etc... so it's our's! It seats 4 and Trav took the kids for a drive yesterday. I haven't driven it yet but I will. It's a 6 speed so I'll just have to get used to the feel of another stick. Luckily the bug was a stick, but every car has a different feel, so I imagine it will take me a few drives until I feel comfortable. The bug is happily resting right now and later when we can afford another $ 450.00, I'll have her fixed and get new plates with insurance again. I am learning there is a season for everything, but darn, that's a hard one to come to terms with! I have a happy husband and I can rest now knowing we will get to & from our destanations!

Thank you Pinterest...

So, I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately, but it's a good thing, because it has encouraged me to actually cook and bake!!! I know, I can't believe it either! And apparently I might be pregnant again because every reciepe I drool over has cream cheese in it! (And no, I am not pregnant!) I tried 3 new dinners last week and 2 baking/treats. They were all pretty yummy! Way to go me!

The tether ball

On Friday I became the coolest Mom in the world for about 5 minutes. We found a tether ball at a yard sale for $ 5.00! It weighed a million pounds, but we got it home and the kids are seriously LOVING it!

Willow's lip...

Just a report on Miss Willow. Her lip is doing great and healing well. We rub scar lotion on it eveyday and I think she will be fine! She is such a little trooper and getting ready for her 3rd birthday on Monday! Horray for a Dora party!