Monday, April 21, 2008

Chores


Well, I must say that since our weekend away (only one week now) I have been feeling very frustrated with my children and other issues and have been quite snappy and not very . . . um . . . lets say upbeat. So I have decided that instead of being frustrated and irritable I am going to try chores. Each of my kids have a daily chores (simple stuff - one takes out the trash, one empties the silverware from the dishwasher and one wipes down the countertops and table at the end of the day) and along with that they will each have a dog job (daily) and an outside job (every other day) then they will empty the car and all the trash cans and wipe down walls on Saturday. It seems to be working fairly well. If they do their jobs all week long there will be a treat on Saturday afternoon. If they do all their Saturday jobs then we will go to the park (or somewhere else fun for them) Saturday afternoon. In addition, if - like tonight - they are completely not listening (when I put them to bed or other times) instead of being frustrated I will put them to work. Tonight, I made them straighten the rooms, vacuum the family and living room, put away laundry and clean up the girls room. Not only were my nighttime chores shorter, but they got more tired and went right to sleep. I am hoping this might restore some sort of order to our house, but we shall see.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Thanks for all my girlfriends


I spent this last weekend (well Friday to Saturday night) down in OC with two of my most favorite people in the whole world. And I realized, once again, how much my girlfriends mean to me. Of course, Rob and my family help me with so much, but I don't think I would be half the person I am without my girlfriends. I can honestly say that whether we are hanging out at home, the park, the beach or even just working side by side to clean out a fridge or pack up a house I always feel better when I leave. I love that our kids are eachothers great friends and whether we see you once a year or more or less than that they always seem to pick up where they left off. At times, my girlfriends are there for me to vent to, cry to or just to help me out and at times, I am there for them (I hope). My girlfriends hold my darkest secrets and they have seen me at my worst and at my best. I know you all know who you are so I won't mention your names, but I want you to know that you are my heroes and my best friends and that you guys make me a better person everytime I see you or talk with you. I am so glad I met you, that I know you and I hope I always will because heaven knows how much I need you!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Moving!!



Well, we got notice around the start of March that the people we were renting from could no longer rent to us. Something about the structure being too large for the property or something like that. At any rate we needed to move and we looked to buy and looked around a bunch, but the market here is crazy bad and things are losing 10 - 20,000 a month in house values and we decided to wait and see. So we rented a house from a couple in our ward that was moving to Utah and could not sell their house and it is working out so far. The house is cute - little and yellow with a picket fence and it is on an acre and 1/4. We love it and the kids love it even more. The boys ended up with the huge room and they get all the toys in there and are just LOVING that!! We decided to move and then moved within a week and a half and it was crazy. We are all settled now except for some stray boxes in the living room.


Oh and did I mention that during all this we decided to get a dog. His name is Angus and he is a sweet mastiff. He is only 6 months old, but is already bigger than most full grown dogs. He has been an adventure.


Dylan's B-day


Dylan turned 6 on March 14th. He had a big b-day party with a jump house and slide and cotton candy and popcorn. He was so excited!!! He had some of his best friends from school come over and they just had a great time.

Here he is enjoying his birthday night out at his favorite restaurant. - Red Robin, YUM!

Such a fun day!!

Zach's birthday


Well, it has been a while since I blogged, so I thought it would be a good idea to catch up. First things first, Zach turned 4 on Feb. 7th. He is such a big day. He had a great birthday and we took him out and he got to stay up as late as he wanted and then the next day I surprised him by having his cousins come up and we took him to Chuck E. Cheeses. He loved it. But then for like 2 weeks afterward he kept saying he was 5 because he had had two birthdays. Such a smart, cute kid!!!!