Five on Friday

1. We had 2 really beautiful days Monday and Tuesday. We went to Waffle Love for a FHE treat and  spent a lot of time outside playing with friends in shorts! And then Wednesday and Thursday hit and we were so rudely reminded that it is still spring!

2. Smoothies for breakfast have become an almost daily occurrence (and a green one is often requested) around here with the Blendtec. We usually need a little something to go with our smoothie, so I have started making muffins. This week I discovered Mel's Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins. They have been a roaring success - healthy and the kids love them. What more could I ask for?

3. Our next door neighbor (an older lady who lives alone) had surgery today, so we told her we would take care of her dog, Charlie, while she is in the hospital. The kids think it's just about the greatest thing ever to walk him. 

4. Rog and I went on a hot date this afternoon. We had lunch with some of his buddies from KLAS at Slab Pizza, went to a few fabric stores to (unsuccessfully) search for the perfect fabric for a project I'm working on, and then went to the eye doctor for our yearly exam. Why oh why do they always have to dilate our eyes? Worst thing ever!

5. We've started doing a date night exchange with a few families in our ward. Tonight was our first time watching the kids. There are usually 8 kids total, but one family was sick and didn't come tonight, so we only had 5 kids. We took Charlie on a walk, played at a playground, watched Frozen, and ate popcorn. I'd say it was a success except maybe when one of the girls ate a dog treat. (But I got her to spit it out and her parents just laughed when we told them about it, so even that turned out ok.)

23 Months

PJ at 23 months:

*Has discovered a few apps on my phone and demands to play puzzles or hippo pretty much anytime she sees my phone. She is getting really good at them too!

*Yells "GO" anytime we are in the car, but not moving (like at a red light or something).

*Believes that kisses make any owie better. She's always telling me to kiss it better!

*Is constantly telling me I'm a silly mommy. 

*Calls muffins cupcakes.

*Loves packing her backpack and taking it to church.

*Knows almost all the Disney princesses by name.

*Likes to find the Little People princess that is on her shirt or we are reading a book about, hold it up, and say, "It matches!"

*Loves to show off her tricks and will tell you to "Watch this!"

*Jumps off things and has us catch her. 

*Is so so so sensitive! If she even thinks you are yelling at her or getting mad at her (even when we're not), she'll collapse and cry until she is comforted by someone.

*Loves to hug Corbyn. (Usually he is more happy about it than in this picture. He had just woken up!)

*Says the cutest prayers and always volunteers to give them.

*Can walk up the stairs with no hands.

*Has a long, elaborate bedtime and nap time routine. For awhile she was making us read her books in our room and in her room and it was taking way too long, so I finally had to hide the books in our room. (They are books I like to reserve for Sundays during sacrament meeting anyway.)

*Will skip her nap if she sleeps in too late. Those days she'll just play happily in her crib until I finally decide she isn't going to take a nap and go get her.

I cannot believe this little girl is going to be 2 in one month! We love her so much!

Weekend, Baby!

Rog had his last Thursday night class, so Thursday suddenly went from being his long, dreaded day to being his short, easy day!

I broke down and finally went to see a doctor about my ankle. He said it is peroneal tendonitis which is exactly what I thought. He gave me insoles and recommended that I do physical therapy if it's not better in 4 weeks. I've redoubled my efforts with icing and NSAIDs. And I've been biking to keep up my fitness. Rog says I can't do physical therapy (because with our high deductible insurance plan, it would cost a fortune), so I better be back to running soon and not need it!

  Even though we hadn't seen it, we decided just to buy Frozen with a gift card we had for Best Buy. (We had been waiting for it to come to the Spanish Fork theater, but it didn't get there until the weekend before it came out. So we figured we'd save some money and just buy it because we knew we'd end up buying it in the end. And we were right - we love it!)

Saturday morning our ward had a primary activity about missionary work. The kids rotated around to different rooms to hear various members of the ward present about their missions. Rog presented about his mission to Louisiana and it was a big hit with the kids (mostly because he showed clips of Princess and the Frog and gave out beignets).

We had Stake Conference. I told Rog that Kelli (the other counselor's wife) and I should go sit by ourselves and let them take care of the kids for a change! (Joking of course!)

I finished my 3rd book of the year, Elizabeth Smart's My Story. I started reading it before my book club had settled on our next book and couldn't stop reading it! (At this pace I'm going to read way more than my goal of 7 books this year!)

It was interesting to read her whole story from start to finish. Living in Sandy at the time of her abduction I obviously heard a lot about it through the media, but this was much better. One of Elizabeth Smart's cousins, Sara Francom, was on dance company and cheer with me. And I was actually the one who got to tell her the good news that they had found Elizabeth. That afternoon we had a dance company practice and I guess I had gone somewhere between school and our practice and had heard about it on the radio. I remember walking into the studio and telling her, "They found your cousin! They found Elizabeth!"

Through the whole book I was so impressed with her hope, faith, and maturity. Obviously I would never want one of my children to have to go through something like this, but if they did I would want them to be able to respond like she did. I so love the advice her mom gave her just after coming home to put it all behind her and not let Brian David Mitchell steal another minute of her life. 

The Letter W

It was my turn for joy school again this last week. We learned about the letter W and simple subtraction.

The first day we did whales and watermelons.

We started by watching Jonah from the Old Testament Stories in the Gospel Library App. 

We did a whale puzzle from this Jonah and the Whale pack.

We also did this whale matching worksheet.

Then we turned our attention to watermelons. We did a watermelon magnet page...

A watermelon maze (They covered all the W's to get from one watermelon to the other.)...

And I showed them some simple subtraction examples using this printable.

We had some watermelon for our snack. It was a little expensive, but worth it because all the boys actually ate it! (And some goldfish because whales eat fish.)

We did a watermelon craft. (They loved putting dot stickers on for the seeds.)

And made watermelon suncatchers.

We finished with watermelon play-doh. (Rog punched out a ton of little dots from black foam to use as seeds.)

The second day we did 3 Little Pigs (and the big bad Wolf) and worms.

We read the Three Little Pigs. (I bought the Little Golden Book because it was only $2.25 and my kids are obsessed!)

And then we acted it out. I used images from this 3 Little Pigs pack for the pigs, wolf, and houses. The brick house had batteries taped to the bottom to keep it from being blown over.

The boys took turns being the wolf and blowing down the houses.

We did a wolf magnet page.

And puzzles (also from this 3 Little Pigs pack).

Then it was time for worms! For our snack we had cups of dirt with gummy worms.

We did a worm craft...

 And made bead worms.

We also made worms out of play-doh and finished off the day wiggling our waggles away. 

St. Patty's Day

I saw this scavenger hunt on Pinterest and thought it would be an easy way to make St. Patty's Day fun for the kids. I cut out some leprechaun footprints on my Silhouette and left a trail for them to follow when they woke up.

They found a little note from the leprechaun and the first clue. 

We followed that clue to the fridge...

...then to Corbyn's shoes, the front door, and finally Peyton's room where they found Lucky Charms and a little treat.

We enjoyed our Lucky Charms with green milk and a green smoothie for me (loving my Blendtec!).

Rog was already on his way to school when we got up, but don't worry, the leprechaun had planned ahead and poured a bowl for him!

Green shirts are always a must at our house.

For dinner I made Shepherd's Pie (but not in a jar). It was good enough that I think it will be making an appearance at our dinner table more often than just on St. Patty's Day!

Superhero Party

Last Saturday the Spanish Fork Library had a superhero party. Corbyn got to go with his best friend, Rhys. Rog took them while I stayed home with a napping Peyton. I requested lots of pictures and he didn't disappoint. I had about 30 to go through when they got home!

They read them some superhero books, ate cupcakes (with Batman and Superman rings on top), took pictures with Spiderman and Batman (who made a guest appearance), colored superhero masks, and put together flying superheroes to take home.

I love how Corbyn is wearing a Superman sweater and a Batman cape and Rhys is wearing a Batman sweater and a Superman cape!

They had a great time!