Play, Explore, and Learn

Love, Hug, & Kiss Day

2012-02-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

If you remember from a couple of weeks ago about me posting about being feel'n a little bit guilty about not doing enough things with my daughter and boys. Well, I decided to do something about it. I came up with a list of activities that I wanted to do with the kids and we were able to accomplish most of the things on the list. We spent about two solid weeks craftings, decorating homemade Valentine's Day cards, decorating heart shape cookies, cutting out hearts and decorating the house with them, and best of all attending all three kids Valentine's Day class parties. I decided to make a huge slideshow so if you have a few moments just click on the slide show and you will see what we have been up to lately!

Plus, it's Valentine's Day and all I did was attend class parties and have all the neighborhood kids over for a huge play date. Andrew stayed for dinner and it was the best dinner ever. I don't remember the last time that I laughed so much at the dinner table. Leroy decided to attend his Gun Club meeting which means he will be in the dog house when he gets home. Anyways, the holidays are always super fun for the kids not so much for my hubby. He just doesn't care about the holidays. Oh well...it's time to get the kids off to bed.

I'm exhausted, the holidays are always so much work for mom. I really hope that my kids will appreciate it when they get older. I'm ready to crash at this very moment.

Snow Day

2012-02-14T16:50:00.001-08:00

The first snow fall for the new year, it wasn't too much snow but it was just enough for the kids to have a snow day. Seriously, I think it was close to one inch of snow. The kids seriously had so much fun. It wasn't too cold outside so the kids had so much fun. Leah's best friend came over and they spent the majority of the time sledding down the side driveway. The boys had a blast throwing snowballs at each other. By the end of the day, most of the snow had melted away. Just one day of snow is prefect, too many snow days in a row can make me grouchy but yesterday it was a prefect snow day with the kids.

Ramblings....

2012-02-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

The weather:::

We had a storm blow into our area which has resulted in some gloomy weather this weekend. Earlier this week, we had highs of 65and it got quite warm around here. It's funny how fast things can change, last year at this time we had a massive blizzard and this time it's warm and nice outside. I'm starting to think that spring will be coming early this year and we will end up with no snow days.

On my reading pile:::
I discovered a brand new author this week, I have been reading her books all week long. She has two different types of books written for young adults. One of her group of books are fictional historical novels and the other group are for teenage girls. Her historical novels are super good and interesting. The teenage girl books are good but deal with alot of hard issues.

Laurie Halse Anderson

Fever 1793-a great book about the Yellow Fever outbreak in Philadelphia in 1793! I somehow missed this piece of information from History class in school. A real eye opener plus the pages flew by so fast. A nice quick read.

Chains-is a fictional historical novel about a young slave girl at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The author does a great job incorporating small tib-bits of historical facts thru out the book. This is a trilogy set, I'm already working on the second book in the series called "Forge"!

Forge-the second book in the series about slavery in the Revolutionary War.

Speak-Another great book, it's a hard book to read but I thought the message at the end of the book was really powerful. Yes, the book is predictable but I still enjoyed it. I just found out that it was turned into a movie. I might have to see, if I can find it online to watch it.

On my TV:::

Mcleod's Daughters-the greatest drama ever filmed on the face of the earth. I love this show, it's about sister's running a ranch in Australia.

Antique Roadshow-I know but it's really informational and intersting. I usually watch this show while I'm busy sewing.

New recipes I tried this week:::

Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken-two thumbs up, everyone loved it!

Pepperoni Pasta Salad -for this recipe, I just used all the veggies I had in the fridge which is a great way to use all of those leftover veggies from the past week.

On my to do list:::

Sewing-I'm going to start working on sewing a crazy quilt using all of my leftover scraps!
Finishing up my crochet ruffle scraf
Finishing up my knitted dishrags
Grocery Shopping on Thursday
Haircut on Tuesday
Leah has to get busy making her own valentine's cards for school
I'm planning on running on Mon/Wed

What I am sewing, crocheting, knitting or creating:::

Finishing up my Daisy Square pillow, decided to make a felt back for it.
Some more sewing, not sure what yet. I need to find some new sewing projects for the baby. If you haven't heard yet, we are having a little girl!

Looking around the house:::

Leroy and the kids are busy sorting thru their coins and trying to find new ones to add to their coin collections. Leroy's Ipad is making all kinds of noises, I'm assuming Landon is playing a game on it. Landon was really upset that we asked him to take a shower this morning. He stormed off saying that showers are the worst thing ever. He hates to wash his hair, you would of thought we were the worst parents ever.... Leah just finished with her bath and is happily skipping around the house. Now, it's time to waste until it's time to go to church. I hate this afternoon church schedule, I can't wait to go back to the morning schedule!

Anyways, it was great week! Lots of sunshine plus we found out the sex of the baby! Another girl!!!!!!!!!! Now, the fun part coming up with a name that we all can agreed upon. I really like the name Lydia Rose but everyone else wants to go with Luci! Anyways, I will have the final say in the matter....hee hee!

All About...Leah!

2012-02-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

One of the things, I'm trying to do is to spend some good quality time with my daughter! This week, we decided it would be fun to do a whole unit on Valentine's Day. Leah made homemade Valentine's Day cards, cut out hearts, and painted hearts. I decided it would be fun to take two potatoes and turn them into stamps. One potato stamp is a heart shape and the other one is the "letter L"! I also, managed to finish another unfinished project. I managed to sew an apron for my little girl. I did it, all by myself. A few mistakes but she doesn't notice at all. I'm going to make her a bag, as my next project. I also appliqued on some hearts onto a shirt we picked up from the Salvation Army. It's really nice to be able to look back on all of the things we did together because it's all about to change once the new baby gets here. She wouldn't be the baby in the family for much longer.

Ten on Sat...Pics!

2012-01-28T15:22:00.000-08:00

This week has flown by fast, lots of things are in the works! We started off the week with some really nice warm weather but it didn't last too long and we ended up with some rain and cooler weather. A great time to stay home and work on projects. Leah and the neighbor kids help us make homemade bread which is the only type of bread that Leah will eat. She's such a little stinker. Landon worked hard all week on his Cub Scout projects. He had to collect over five pounds of glass jars plus work on his Map elective course. Logan has been wanting to make a quilt for a very long time. Eunice my sewing friend came over with a special machine that cuts out all of the squares. She even brought over fabric so it's another super cheap project. This afternoon, I spent about three hours and made Leah a super cute Valentine's Day dress. Oh, I purchased two U.S. quarters collector map sets and I got completely ripped off on Amazon. The kids already opened up their maps and I felt it was wrong to take them away from them to send them back to Amazon. I found out that Amazon had them listed under two different listings and prices. I ended up over paying by $10...a lesson learned. Research before buying. Plus, I'm trying to win an auction for stamp collections. My mom has sent the boys a ton of stamps from South Africa and I would like to be able to preserve them plus stamp collecting is another Cub Scout badge. It turns out our roof has hail damaged. Of course, we got ripped off from the insurance company. They gave us only $4,000 to repair our roof which isn't going to be enough to cover the cost of the repair. I'm not sure why Leroy agreed to this amount but I'm not happy about it. Too bad, I can't do anything about it now. (Update...we will be getting another check in the mail, thankgoodness! The guys should start working on the roof sometime next week).Plus, Eunice dropped off Flannel fabric for all of the kids, so I will be working on another project. Anyways, this paragraph is way too long but I'm to lazy to fix it. Just look at the pictures, my kids are awesome!

Helping to Make Homemade Bread!

Making bread dough with our neighbors!

Leah has cutting skills, I always try to let my kids do things on their own. Leah has been using a knife since she was two years old cutting up strawberries. She's a big helper in the kitchen.!

Landon is working on earning his recycle badge for Cub Scouts. He has to collect five pounds of glass jars to take to the local recycling center. It turns out I had a huge stash of empty jars squirreled away around the kitchen and in the garage. Every day after school, I had him clean and peal off all of the labels. Well, it turns out...that it's not neccersary to peel off the labels. Landon didn't seem to notice and I didn't say anything...which now I feel kinda bad because he spent a lot of time on peeling off labels which is not an easy thing to do.

In less than five days, Landon collected five pounds of glass jars, two cardboard cereal boxes, and two milk jugs to take to the recycling center.

Discovering how to use a map! This is a nother Cub Scout project. It's all about learning about maps. Landon had to learn about time zones and how to read a map correctly. Plus, the little kids joined in the fun! Landon had to map out the route from our house to his school plus a ton of other activities. I'm so proud of him!

Finding the Distance (for relatives) from close to far away! If you look closely we mapped out where Landon's relavtives live around the country. We took yarn and pinned it from our pin to all of the relatives pins on the map. I hope that makes sense. We looked at all of the points and discovered that Uncle William lives the farthest away and Grandma and Grandpa Scheele live the closest to us.

Ladybug Love, is what I call this dress I made for Leah. It's her special dress to wear for Valentine's Day. Isn't it cute?

Logan is working on his first quilt by peicing together the squares!

Not to many seven year old boys can work the sewing machine by himself!

Ten on Sunday with Pics!

2012-01-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

1. A lot of things happening this week, my weekly theme at the moment is trying to finish up projects that I never got around to finishing especially before Christmas. Every year for Christmas, I like to get a new ornament to add to the Christmas tree. Of course, I didn't get this project done in time. I order a new ornament to add to the tree that is just for me. It's a running ornament with my name and half marathon information on it. It's super cute but it didn't get here in time but that's okay. This week, I went to Artscow.com and designed four new photo ornaments for the year 2011. They currently have a deal if you spend over $15 and they will give you free shipping. A great deal if you ask me! So, now I have no more guilt about not getting the ornaments done. Yippee, another thing to cross off my list of things to do.

2. When all of my kids were really little, I use to be the coolest mom ever. I feel really bad at the moment that I don't do as much with Leah as I did with the other two boys. So, I decided to get rid of the guilt and do something about it. Why sit around complaining about it. So, we sat down together and decided what type of crafts, treats, and activities we want to do together for Valentine's Day. I'm really excited about this and so is little Leah. We already started off with one new craft for V-day. I found a whole bag of fruit flavor fun shaped marshmallow. I thought about throwing them away but I decided to use them for this fun craft. I just drew a big heart on a piece of construction paper and I had her glue all of the marshmallows inside the heart. After the glue dried, I cut out the heart and we hung it up on her door. It's so cute plus it didn't cost me a thing.

3. Poor Leah is sometimes bored being home all day with me. She told me that she wanted to earn lots of money and wanted to have a Crystal Light stand selling each cup for a dollar. It was during the day and not to much traffic outside at that time of the day. I wasn't sure if anyone would even stop by but luckily two people stop and bought two cups. She thought that she was rolling in the dough. The boys were so jealous when they got off the bus and saw that she had a stand. I'm so proud of her coming up with something to do on her own plus she's all about earning her own money! I'm not always going to be her cash cow...lol!

4. Super Hero Capes, I bought all of the material back in December to make for the kids for Christmas. Once again, I didn't get to it. Every single day, the bag of material was calling my name. I kept putting it off...the guilt was building up, once again. So, I finally decided to sit down Friday night and I got busy on the sewing machine. I managed to have enough material leftover from Leah's cape that I went ahead and made one for her best friend Kailyn who lives across the street. I figured it probably best if they both have their own capes...which will hopefully result in no fighting over who gets the wear cape next. Plus, I made two more capes for the boys. Landon's cape is called "Lightening McLandon" and Leroy's cape was made with leftover material. Leah thought we should call his cape "Super Villain". Logan's cape is called "Tiger Logan"...lol. The capes are double sided with two different colors so it gives the kids more choices...they can wear them either side.

5. I gave the kids their capes last night and I told them Merry Christmas! It's only a month late but it's better than never getting it done! The kids were on cloud nine last night. Right now, they are all running around chasing each other! I love it, when they all play together nicely and not fighting with each other.

6. I love this picture of Leah, I decided to take a couple of snap shoots of her. I'm going to be good for now on out and make sure I don't fall behind on my projects. I already went ahead and designed a couple of V-day cards to send off to family and friends. No sneak peek, I'm going to be working on the boys cards this week. I can't wait...my creative juices are flowing at the moment.

7. Where's Landon? Can you find him, here's a clue...front row? Can you locate him? Well, here's another hit...stripe shirt with blue pants with a black stripe going down the middle. Anyways, Landon made it on the AB Honor Roll.

8. Right now, I'm feel'n the push to get organized and get things done NOW! I'm kinda freak'n out with the baby coming in a couple of months. I don't want to be stuck trying to get things done and dealing with a newborn at the same time. Plus, all the kids will be home for the summer so it could be an interesting mix. I'm feel'n so much better about everything, now that I'm busy completing projects. I'm trying to keep my anxiety levels as low as possible.

9. Last year, when Landon was a Wolf cub scout. We found out about a month before he was about to turn 9 years old that he still have about 4-5 requirements that he needed to complete before he could get his Wolf Badge. I figure that I should start working with him now because with the new baby coming this summer. I don't want to be stuck trying to work with him completing projects at the last minute plus dealing with a newborn. I don't do well, with little sleep. So, I'm going to be working with him each weekend to make sure everything is completed and done. Plus, I would like him to earn an arrow award which is extra requirements that he can do to earn it. I don't want him to do just the bare minimum. I wish we had the sail boat here not at my parents house because he could learn how to sail and earn an arrow award for it.

10. This month, Landon will be collecting up to five pounds glass bottles and aluminum cans. Landon will be in charge cleaning out the jars and peeling off the labels. Plus, he will start working on "maps" which will be an elective activity but it wouldn't be too difficult if I coordinated and plan accordingly.

11. Logan is working on his first quilt using leftover scrapes of fabic. I love how creative he can be, he can literally spend all day playing and coming up with things to do on his own. The little guy is never bored not like his older brother. A child that can entertain himself is priceless.

12. I only have about nine more days left until my big ultrasound. I can't wait to find out what we are having. I'm thinking about having a big "Gender Reveal" party. I will make a bunch of pink and blue cupcakes and we will have the kids open up a big box and have balloons that will be inside that will tell the kids what we will be having. It's going to be a lot of work but it will be so worth it.

Future Fitness Frantic

2012-01-21T11:06:00.001-08:00

I love this girl, she's just like her mommy! She wanted to do something and decided she wanted to workout. If you notice, she has a thing of pink ribbon tied around her waist. She also had one tied around her head and one of her legs but it was to hard to keep it all on so she decided to just keep the waist tie on. Chalean Extreme is her favorite workout video and it's mine as well. I love her attituide about fitness, I'm bored and I want something to do. So, I'm going to workout instead like her older brother who's playing video games because he is bored. A good healthy attitude is priceless, it's not something you can achieve thru lectures but by setting the example. Go, Leah, Go!!!!!

Working out hard to Chelean Extreme-Burn Circuit 1!

Super Hero Capes

2012-01-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

Let's see, I planned on making these capes for Christmas but I ran out of time and energy. Just like, I never got around to ordering our 2011 Christmas ornaments. I finished Leah's cape first and I realized I had enough material left over to make her best friend a matching cape. The girls are more than best friends, they like to call themselves "Pretend Sisters"! The are girls are so cute with their matching capes! Plus, I managed to make one cape for Logan. After the third cape, I was exhausted so I told Landon he will have to wait until tomorrow. It's never a good idea to sew while tired. I always end up making mistakes...I want to get it right on the first try. It feels so good to have another item off my to-do list. I'm really feeling the pressure to get all of my unfinished projected completed NOW! I still have a couple of months but I might be too miserable at the end and I don't want to risk it not finishing these projects. Oh, I just love these girls!

Ten on Sunday

2012-01-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

Lots of good things happened this week, once again my camera is acting up and I can't seem to upload any pictures at the moment. Hopefully, I will be able to get it work out and I will come back and post a slide show of all the pictures from Christmas break up until this week.

1. I finally finished last night, our family yearbook for the year of 2011. I spent all week long on working hard on it. For this year, I will plan better to be a little bit smarter. If you work on each month as you go along the year than it's super easy to print and publish. So, by the end of this month I will work on Month Jan 2012. Putting things off to the last minute isn't always the best way to go about doing things. I'm also planning on this week, to make two mini books for each of the boys that will be a review for each of their lives. I wish, I would of done this years ago. I'm feel'n alot better at the moment. I'm getting more of energy and strength back. So, no more excuses for not completing projects. Once the new baby comes, I'm not sure if I will be able to get anything done. So, the pressure is on to get everything done and completed by June.

2. Each week that passes by this pregnancy I'm feel'n more like my old self. I managed to get on the treadmill twice this week and run three miles each time in under 40 minutes. My running group is doing a new thing on Saturdays. We're meeting up at the track, doing a combination of workout and speed training. My legs are feel'n soooooooo much stronger. I really could tell a big difference in my workouts. I'm really bummed that the Bentonville Half Marathon is coming up and I will not be doing it. I'm going to be close to 30 weeks and I'm thinking it wouldn't be too wise for me do it but I'm planning on running the 5k with my boys. I really want Logan to run in a 5k, Landon was already running 5k's at the age of six and Logan is already seven and he hasn't even completed one.

3. I finished sewing the Tropical Fish curtains for the boys room. I purchased these really cute fish stickers to put on the wall but they don't even stay on. What a joke, I followed the directions and they will not stay up on the walls. What a waste of money, don't bother with the wall stickers.

4. Landon's class had an award ceremony on Friday. Landon managed to make the AB Honor roll for third grade. Landon is normally a straight A student but last semester he received a B in literacy. He was really upset about it but hopefully, he will work harder and get his grade back up. So, that's how he ended up in the AB honor roll and not the A honor roll.

5. Logan did great this semester. He ended up receiving all A's on his report card.

6. Also, I finally finished another project this week. I finally got a curtain rod up in the kitchen. I purchased red sheer curtains because I didn't want to darker the kitchen but I still wanted to add some privacy. So, it only took me close to nine years but it's done! Leroy's really annoyed with me but I told him to expect a honey to do list every Sat until the baby comes. I need him to get busy and get these projects done now! I guess you could say I'm already nesting.

7. I'm almost 18 weeks which is really hard to believe because we get to find out what we're having in two weeks. I can't wait to find out, I seriously have no idea what we are having but I'm leaning towards boy not girl.

8. I did managed to clean out both of the boys and Leah's room but the kids just managed to this morning to trashed the living room. It's a never ending battle.

9. I'm teaching sunbeams this afternoon as a sub. This should be interesting, I have a feel'n I'm going to be wiped out by the end of church.

10. Bubba's BBQ is hands down the best bbq in the area. The coleslaw and baked beans were super yummy plus all of the bbq meat was super tender and juicy. It's going to be our new place to grad a quick dinner. Plus, the prices were super reasonable. This is the first place in months that actually has impressed me.

Ten on Sunday

2012-01-08T06:09:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I have been super duper busy with the holidays and the kids plus the weather outside has been super nice. I haven't felt like writing up a post in a couple of weeks. Some times, I view my blog as a chore not as a great way to express myself or journal. I decided this morning that I would get busy and write up my weekly ten before things get really crazy with the kids.

Recap of Winter Break

1. The first day of break, it was cold outside so we hit the library in Rogers for story time and checking out books. A nice lady came up to me and said "Is it your first day of break, as well?" Yes, how could she tell...the stressed out mom look with three kids fighting at the library must of been the dead give away. We managed to check out close to 100 books. Three different kids on three different reading levels...which results in lots of books. Thankgoodness, the Rogers library has no limit on books.

2. The second day of break, the house was a wreck...I know it's only the second day but it's the holidays and things can get out of hand fast. I told the kids if they cleaned the whole entire house that I would take them to see a new movie. The kids worked hard on the house for several hours and we made it to the afternoon showing of Chipwrecked. Skip the movie theater on this one and just red box it. The kids had a blast but I wasn't too impressed.

3. The third day of break, it was Christmas Eve. We spent the evening, driving around and checking out Xmas lights. After driving around, we came back to the house for some hot chocolate and we read about the birth of the Savior to the kids from the bible. We tucked in the kids and we got busy getting ready for Christmas morning. We had friends drop off a plate of yummy cookies. After Leroy managed to put Leah's bike together. We received an urgent phone call and Leroy left to his parents house right away. Sadly, Uncle Lawrence passed awayed unexpectedly. He will be missed by all.

4. The fourth day of break, Christmas morning. We didn't tell the kids about uncle Lawrence passing away until the next day. It turned out to be a day of mixed emotions. We were sad about the situation but we tried to keep the holiday spirit up for the kids. We managed to still have a nice Christmas with the kids. The boys were upset that Leah managed to get more toys than them but what the boys don't understand is their toys cost more money than Leah's toys. We spent about the same amount of money but it didn't the same amount of gift.

5. The fifth day of break, daddy had another day off from work. We just stayed home and played with all of the kids new toys.

6. The sixth day of break, my friend invited us to join them to Chuck E Cheese for the day. It was so cold outside and it was a good option to get the kids out of the house. We managed to stay for over three hours. The kids tokens ran out really fast but somehow the kids managed to keep themselves busy. The kids figured out if you stay long enough you can follow Chuckie around and pick up tickets. The kids managed to get close to 500 tickets each.

7. The seventh day of break, it started to warm up really nicely outside. We loaded up all of the bikes, we went for a bike ride around Lake Bella Vista with Veronica again! After the bike ride, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the park. A nice lazy day outside in the sunshine!

8. The eighth day of break, I decided to take the kids to the Tulsa Zoo! I called Veronica and we invited them to come but she didn't have the money to go with all of the kids. I offered to take Hayley with us, she called back and said to come and get her! It worked out really nice having two boys and two girls. The weather was super nice outside and we had so much fun at the zoo. I was so Glad, we decided to go at the last minute. It's the prefect zoo; not to big and not to small. Just the right mix, the kids loved the play area the best! Skip the train ride, it wasn't worth it.

9. The ninth day of break, we spent the morning at home. Sadly, this was the day of the funeral. It was really nice memorial serve and his uncle received full military honors. The relief society president brought over a really nice dinner plus dessert. It was nice to have him finally situation and Leroy told some really nice stories about his uncle at the funeral.

10. The tenth day of break, we spent a crazy morning attending a baptism, stopping at RC Extreme shop, and hiking at Devil's Den. Once, again super nice weather outside. The neighbor kid down the street broke Logan's RC car so Leroy decided to go ahead and purchase him a new one. So, after we picked up the car. We headed down to Devil's Den. I love FREE entertainment. Devil's Den has a super nice playground area plus tons of hiking trails. We literally spent like five hours at the park just playing around and having fun. We packed a ton of food and just enjoyed ourselves. Logan was upset we didn't bring the camper and stay overnight.

11. The eleventh day of break, it turned cold outside again. It was Sunday, we didn't do to much. The kids have all new teachers and Leroy is teaching the five year old's turning six this year. No, he isn't teaching Leah's class but another group of kids.

12. The twelfth day of break, we didn't do too much. The weather wasn't as nice as before and I had to run errands and the others went back to the hobby shop. Nothing really happened but I was more than ready to get the kids back to school.

Ten on Sunday

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

1. After Leah's birthday party, I decided it was time to start focusing on Christmas. In my mind, I couldn't start on the season until her birthday party was done and over with. I felt really bad that it took forever to get the tree but the weather wasn't cooperating and we had to wait a couple of extra more days to get it. I usually like to get the tree the first weekend of December usually on a Sat but it managed to rain all afternoon even until the evening. So, picking out in the tree isn't fun and we put it off until we could get it. We decided to go get a tree but it was FREEZING outside like 20 degree weather. We couldn't make up our mind on a tree, we kept going back and forth at the lot. Leroy wasn't to happy about being out in the cold. He finally agreed to get the more expensive tree and once we made the decision. We left with the tree, strapped on top! The tree ended up costing more than what we wanted to spend organically but it's sooooooooo beautiful! I'm not a FAKE tree person, I don't mind spending the cash on a tree. It's part of Christmas but my hubby isn't always crazy about the cost but I couldn't imagine not having a FRESH tree for Christmas.
2. Last year, I completely forgot to pick up tickets for the Bella Vista Winter Carnival. The kids were so disappointed and I almost forgot to get tickets again. Luckily, I read in the paper that they still had tickets left so I rushed down and managed to pick up tickets for the kids. So, we spent last Saturday at the Winter Carnival. The kids had a complete BLAST. I'm always surprised that some people don't take advantage of this carnival. Free crafts, games, food, door prizes, plus the Mouse House is awesome. The kids can pick out gifts for family and friends for practical nothing and they wrap and label all of the gifts for your kids. Plus, Logan and Leah both sat on Santa's lap. A first time, seen they were little babies. Logan asked for a pet hamster and Leah asked for a real turtle. I hope they wouldn't be too disappointed when Santa doesn't bring them a real animals.
3. Another Scheele Family tradition is to take family Christmas pictures infront of the tree. As you can see from the picture Landon was super excited about having his picture taken, yeah right! He used to be such a ham when he was a little boy, now he hates it when I take his picture. I should of included this picture on the Christmas card...hee hee!
4. On Monday, I had a doctor's appointment to confirm that yes I'm pregnant and our little peanut is due to arrive on June 21, 2012! We also found out that we have really crappy insurance with a deductible of $3500 plus it's only 80/20 coverage. So, we will be broke for the next year trying to pay off this new addition to the family. Yes, this is a surprised baby. Do you really think, I wanted to start all over again. It's okay, this summer will be hard with all the kids being home but if I can make it until they all go back to school in the Fall it shouldn't be too bad.
5. On Friday, I went with Leah's preschool class to the VillageHouse Adult Daycare Center to sing Christmas Carols. We had a big surprise, we went got there. Grandpa Scheele was at the VillageHouse and Leah was so excited to see him and be able to sign to him. I know Grandpa was just as surprised to see her. Afterwards, he gave her a big hug and he was so proud to show her off to everyone at the VillageHouse.

6. Christmas Caroling in the morning and Christmas party in the evening made for another super busy day at the Scheele household. We decided it would be fun to invite some friends and neighbors to the party plus it would be a great way to show off the new sun room. Just about everyone that we invited made it to the party which made for a really fun evening. I was so busy, that I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures. We had a huge spread of food, I'm sure that I wasn't the only person to feel completely stuffed by the end of the night. We played games, the kids made ornaments and snowflake necklaces. The pictures below were taken of the kids doing their own version of white elephant game. The adult version was a complete blast and the naught cup full of coal was hilarious. I couldn't of pulled off the party without the love and support of all of my friends that came to the party and helped with the evening. Thank you, each and everyone holds a special place in my heart. Thanks for coming, we need to make this into a new holiday tradition.

7. If one party wasn't enough, I had to get up super early the next morning to join my running group at the square in Bentonville. Surprisingly, I managed to get out of bed but I forgot to defrost the van windows plus I forgot that I was completely on EMPTY. I hate being late, I'm also the early person. By, the time I defrosted the windows and filled up with gas. I was about 15 minutes late. I didn't see anyone at the square. I thought for a complete second that everyone left without me but it turns out that everyone was crammed in Puan's vans. It was like a party in the van, I still bad about making everyone wait for me plus I was the last one to finish running. I can't seem to run up any hills but it wasn't too bad.

8. After our morning run, we decided to have a nice breakfast at Station Cafe and have a white elephant gift exchange but these gifts were super nice gifts! We had so much fun, eating and visiting with each other. I feel so blessed to be part of such an awesome group of girls. We encourage each other to do our best plus everyone in the group ROCKS!!!!! We are always looking for more ladies to come and join us. We're even looking for people who would just like to walk and not run. One of the girls in the group, really encouraged me to keep up running. She managed to run up to the 7 month which I thought was so awesome. She said it made a huge difference in her labor and delivery which is always a great thing to hear. Plus, one of the girls in the group is on the committee for Bentonville Half Marathon and she told us the medals they are giving this year are super cool and one of a kind. So, I'm going to sign up for the half. No, I'm not going to run the whole thing, I figured that I will just do a combination of running and walking but it will probably be more like speed walking...hee hee!

9. I did 95% of my shopping at Amazon.com which was so much easier than trying to shop at the mall. I'm never going back to my old ways, I just placed my order on Thursday and everything is expected to arrive on Tuesday. If you haven't tried it before it's so worth it plus I found a ton of great deals that's going to be saving me money on the long run.

10. This year, we're having a nice and quiet Christmas. We're sad that we will not be having any of my family coming this year but we will have the Scheele's over for Christmas dinner. It's going to be a nice and quiet Christmas but we will be thinking about all of you that we be away from us.

Ten on Monday

2011-12-05T14:48:00.001-08:00

1. Once again, I can never figure out how to upload the photos until Blogger.com. Sorry, just look at the pictures from the bottom to the top...lol!

2. Last week, planning Leah's birthday party took way too much of time and energy but it was worth it at the end. Leah had an amazing first birthday party with all of her little friends from church and preschool. Her best friend ended up coming down with a high fever so she wasn't able to attend the party. Too bad, because I planned the party to fit her schedule so she could attend. Anyways, that's life!

3. Leah decided she would like a Hello Kitty party. At the time, I wasn't sure where I would find Hello Kitty stuff here locally but I knew Leroy's brother William that lives in Hawaii could go to the mall there and pick up some stuff for me at the Hello Kitty store. I did find out from friends that Hello Kitty is really popular here and even Walmart carries a lot of items. William sent her a super cute Hello Kitty. This morning, she decided to use her Hello Kitty as a gun! The results of having two older brothers, the poor girl will always be corrupted from them.

4. Here's my little secret in making a boring cake mix taste a hundred times better....just had one instant pudding mix to the cake mix. It will make your cake, so moist and tasty! It's an easy way to improve a cake mix. I really didn't feel like making a cake from scratch or decorate one either. I just made a bunch of cupcakes with homemade frosting. Store bought frosting is NASTY!!!!!! Anyways, I made a signed and it called it "Leah's Hello Kitty Bake Shop"! I had the girls frost and decorate their own cupcakes. The girls loved it! Super easy for Mom and the kids didn't realize they were being put to work.

5. I came up with a couple of party ideas, pin the bow on Hello Kitty plus I created a game that's like magically chairs but I made cat paw prints for the girls to use instead of chairs. We played the freeze dance and the limbo! The girls just had a blast playing party games, dancing, and popping balloons.

6. Leah was so excited to have so many of her friends attend her party. Now, she kept calling her birthday party "her FAKE birthday"! So, on Sunday, she kept on asking when she was going to have her "REAL" birthday party. I was like you already had your party and you are not having another party. She wanted two parties plus she had her birthday party at preschool today! She decorated all of her own cupcakes and decorated them all for her friends at school.

7. I still can't believe my little girl just turned "5" years old. Her little friend told her if she sucks her thumb after she turns five years old. It will "POP" off! So, she went all day long on her birthday not sucking her thumb. She really wanted to suck on it, after church but she decided to slap her thumb instead and she kept repeating that she wasn't going to suck it! I'm so proud of her, she hasn't sucked her thumb so far today, as well. Hopefully, she will be able to break this habit but she already told me that she had an addiction to it...lol!

8. We still don't have a Christmas tree, it started to rain Saturday afternoon and it didn't stop! I really wanted to get one picked. I had it all planned out that we would have it up and decorated on Sunday. It's now Monday, but it's super cold outside at the moment. So, maybe tomorrow we will get our tree!

9. The house remodel is completed. The only thing that is left, is the outside porch needs a ceiling fan but it will have to wait until this spring. I love, the remodel. Leroy picked up a tv stand for the Sunroom. There is a store in Rogers called "Decorate Me" and you can pick up some really good deals. It's like a scratch and dent store. The tv stand is normally sells for $500 and Leroy picked it up for $100. It has a small dent on the back side which no one will ever see. They also have brand new couches that are in prefect condition that are deeply discounted. So, we have the sun room done but now we need furniture but we will have to wait on that. The bank account is running low at the moment.

10. It's going to be a nice and quiet Christmas. I haven't even started any Xmas shopping, yet! I'm really hoping to send the holidays with our little family and just take it easy.

Turning "5"

2011-12-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

Ten on Sunday

2011-11-20T05:37:00.000-08:00

1. The number one thing about this week is the Sun Room is Almost done. We were hoping to be done completely on Friday but we ran into a couple of problems. A miscommunication between Leroy and James, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the delivery truck pull up with the exact same doors we had last time but without the grids. I wanted French doors not my old doors. So, the whole afternoon was spent trying to sort out the problem and the guys picking up the correct doors. The French doors are AWESOME!

2. The second thing about this week is James is going to take my small bedroom closet and turn it into a pantry. I will finally have a place to store all of my homemade canned goods. No more canning jars under my bed! The carpet guy is coming on Tuesday to install all of the new carpet in the kids rooms, the downstairs room, and the Sun room. I literally spent all day yesterday cleaning out both of the kids rooms. I had to sort thru all of their toys, clothes, and junk. The rooms have never looked cleaner. While the kids are at school, I'm going to be sorting one more time thru their toys and I will be dropping them off at Goodwill.

3. The third thing about this week is we will hopefully be putting the whole house back together. I can't wait for the guys to clear out of the house. I really want everything to go back to it's right place. I'm so tried of all of the chaos.

4. The fourth thing about this week is I'm learning how to sew using a serger. Eunice is once again helping me with Leah's Christmas dress. This year, I'm making her a real dress with a zipper and sleeves. It's going to be the most beatiful dress ever! It's amazing how much faster it is to use the serger when sewing. We will hopefully, be done with the dress on Monday!

5. The fifth thing about this week is the weather is seriously screwed up. It's warm one day and cold the next. I would really like some consistent weather. Plus, yesterday morning while on my Saturday morning run the wind was blowing sooooooo hard. It even reminded me of Hawaii. Sometimes, the trade winds blow so hard you can't even walk straight up becuase the wind is blowing you literally over to the side. Anyways, after my morning run. I was busy showering and getting ready for the day. Well, I turned around and in the corner of my eye, I noticed the huge tree in the backyard was swaying from side to side. I told Leroy that the I thought the tree was going to come crashing down and sure enough it did! Thank goodness, it fell down towards the lake and not up at the house. It could of caused some serious damage to the new addition.

6. The sixth thing about this week is James was telling me how Leroy should go out to the backyard and try to cut down some of the smaller trees to give us a better view of the Lake Ann. Sure enough, now that the tree is down. It managed to take out a huge chunk of the trees. Leroy's going to have to get a chainsaw and cut up the tree that fell downed and all the other trees around it. So, we now will have a better view of the Lake!

7. The seventh thing about this week is I'm back to my old self. It was nice taking a break but I found myself getting really bored. I'm reading a new book called "Rebecca" by Daphne duMaurier. I tried to get into the book a couple of weeks ago but I just couldn't get into it but Eunice told me that she loved the book and encouraged me to give it another try. Somehow, the book made a lot more sense the second time. I'm now, loving the book. It's sooooooooo good!

8. The eighth thing about this week is I managed to get dinner on the table five nights in a row. It's hard to come up with something everyone will enjoy but I managed to make each night a true success except I made my chicken tortilla soup and the kids complained it was too spicy but I thought it was just fine. It's so hard to please everyone!

9. The ninth thing about this week is I managed to find some super cute sweater at the Salvation Army. I found two super nice sweaters from Banana Republic that are 100% wool and they both look brand new. I also love finding a good deal.

10. Thanksgiving is almost here, we will be celebrating with the Scheele's which is fine with me. I'm really trying to get my act together and start planning Leah's party and everything in order for Christmas. The christmas tree is going to look so nice outside in the sunroom.

Ten on Sunday

2011-11-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Monday:

For the past two months, we haven't been able to have FHE due to crazy Baseball and Soccer Schedule. We were going in a million different directions but that's all behind us, now! So, we decided it would be fun to go rollerskating as a family. Right now, Great Day Skate has a great deal were you can roller skate for $2 and that includes the roller skates. We invited the neighbors to come join us and surprisingly they wanted to come with us.

The kids had so much fun plus on Monday nights they only play Christian music which made for a really nice family event. I didn't have to worry about them playing inappropriate music. As many of you know my neighbor's son has Autism. Devon and Kaitlyn both didn't know how to roller skate. It was truly amazing night. Laura and I helped both of the kids around the rink which isn't an easy task but by the end of the night both of the kids were skating on their own independently. I seriously, almost cried at the roller rink. Truly, inspiring.

Now, the kids want to go skating every Monday night for FHE but I'm not so sure about that because FHE should be somewhat spiritual right. We can't always have fun family activities.

Tuesday:

We didn't do to much on Tuesday, the kids were tried from Roller Skating and I spent most of the morning trying to clean up the house from the day before messes. Later on, I drop off Leah for a play date while I went Visit Teaching. Leah's way to clingy and annoying to taking anymore. She's much happier hanging out with a friend than joining me. We have three people on our list and we managed to get in two visit. We still need to visit the last person on our list, she never called me back to set up an appointment. I hate to harass someone about setting up a time and date. Hopefully, we can get in to see her because the holidays are coming up and we all know how crazy it's going to get and the up next coming weeks. Just thinking about the holidays, giving me an ulcer. I really don't want to mess with the holidays. I wish someone else would just plan and coordinate everything. I don't even want to go shopping, yucko. I'm not a materialistic person. Do we really need anymore stuff?

Wednesday:

Leah's having a hard time, after preschool she's bored and driving me crazy. So, I decided this time to drive her after school to McDonald's for lunch. I'm normally against McDonald's but they have a huge play area which was prefect for Leah. Not too many kids but enough to keep her busy. She keep calling McDonald's...Ms.Donald's...hee hee! Once, we made it inside. She turned around and told me this was her first time ever at McDonald's which is probably true. I felt a little bit bad about depriving her but I really don't care for Fake food. Anyways, I finished up reading an awesome book called "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool which is a Newberry winner. loved it! Leah played for two straight hours and when we made it back to the house she managed to take two hour nap. Heaven for me! So, I'm going to start taking her at least once a week. It's so hard, the weather is turning nasty outside and I hate to have her cooped up inside the house all day long. We both need a break.

I helped out with Activity Day Girls again, it's a great group of girls. I'm really impressed with all of the leaders and the girls are so awesome. I remember when I was a leader last time about eight years ago in this area and they girls were so mean to each other. Every time we meet for activities we had so much drama. It was really disappointed the girls that were the worse offenders were the girls that fathers were in the bishopric. Anyways, the girls in our ward right now are so nice to each other. It's truly amazing, I couldn't believe how respectful the girls are towards each other and the leaders. My only complaint about Activity Day Girls is they only meet twice a month what's up with that the boys meet every week for cub scouts. I really feel it's so unfair but once again I have no say in this because it's up to the higher ups at church. I really hope in future this will change.

Thursday:

On Thursday, the school nursed called which is never a good thing. She said don't worry Logan isn't sick, oh no if he isn't sick what could be wrong! Anyways, he some how managed to bump his with another kids head and some how he managed to fall and hit his mouth on a metal pole. His mouth was awful. His poor mouth, his gums were bleeding bad. I'm keeping a close eye on his teeth. I'm pretty sure his two baby teeth will need to be eventually pulled out. They're already starting to look a little bit discolored.

My visiting teachers came over and we had a nice visit! I have a new set coming to visit which is my old friend "Eunice" which works out perfectly for me. She's going to help me with Leah's Christmas Dress. Once, again! I'm going to be spending no money on the dress. She gave me this beautiful red fabric. Hopefully, we can start sewing the dress sometime next week.

Friday:

After preschool, we headed over to the Sand Park for a couple of hours. Right before we were about to leave I noticed a group of school children walking towards the park. At first, I didn't recognize the teacher but as the class got closer to the park. I realized it was Landon's class. Landon's teacher decided to take the kids for a special walk to the War Memorial because it was Veteran's Day and she let the kids play at the playground for a few minutes before walking back to school. At first Landon was so em brassed but he got over it right away. I'm so glad that my kids attend a school where they have an open field trip permission slip where they can take the students to the walking trail and war memorial.

Friday night, the kids were bored. Kaitlyn the neighbor girl had pink eye so no playing with the neighbor kids. Leah decided she wanted to make her a "Get Well" card which I thought was so sweet of her. She worked on it for a long time, we went over and delivered the card. I know her little friend really appreciated it.

For Veterans Day, I had the kids all make thank you cards for their Uncle Lawrence. The kids did a great job decorating their cards and even Leah managed to write a short sentence with my help.

Plus, it's my little sisters birthday. How cool is it to have a birthday on 11/11 on 11/11/11! I hope she gets my card in the mail soon!

Saturday:

This wasn't a fun day for me, at all. I really wanted to go shopping but the kids didn't want to go anywhere. They kept saying why didn't you go shopping while we were at school. Leroy spent the day with a friend attending a Gun Show in Tulsa. So, I spent the whole day at home. I wasn't happy and I was soooooooo bored. I really couldn't get into anything. I did managed to make homemade pizza and cookies. The girls (Leah and Kaitlyn) helped me in the kitchen. Kaityln didn't know you could make cookies and pizza from scratch. So, I spent a lot of time watching old movies on YouTube from the 1950's and stuffing my face with pizza and cookies. I'm sure my waist line will be expanding from this!

I thought at first I would enjoy a nice quiet Saturdays,again but now I'm bored out of my mind. I'm really having a hard time pushing myself to do anything that requires brain power. I'm being so lazy but I can't seem to push myself into doing any productive maybe next week I will do better.

Sunday:

We attend church in the Afternoon, the kids are busy playing with their old train set and I'm busy blogging. I guess, I should pull out my scriptures sometime this morning. Once again, not motivated.

Ten on Sunday

2011-11-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

1. I felt my very first earthquake in Arkansas last night. I'm an early bird, I can't seem to stay up past 9:00 PM no mater what night of the week it is which explains why I was in bed so early when the earthquake happened. I was soundly asleep when I noticed my bed was vibrating and shaking. It was the weirdest feeling ever. It completely woke me up from my sleep. I wasn't sure at first if I was dreaming or if I had really felt an earthquake. I decided to roll over and check the clock. So, this morning I logged onto Facebook and a lot of my friend had posted that an earthquake did happened around 10:57pm in central Oklahoma. It's crazy to think we could feel the quake all the way here.

2. The other time I felt an quake was in my grandparents home when they used to live in San Jose, California. I hope these earthquakes don't become a regular thing.

3. Thursday afternoon, as soon as Logan made it home from school. He told me that he was really close to reading a chapter book. Logan started this school year barely being able to read and now he just finished his first chapter. Okay, it's an easy reader chapter book with lots of pictures but it's still consider a chapter book. It's about thirty pages long with three chapters! It's called "Hi! Fly Guy" by Tedd Arnold. The little guy worked on the book for two days, he was so proud of himself. I even caught him yesterday trying to read another chapter book all by himself. This book is a really hard chapter book but I know he can do it. It's called June B. Jones and Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park. The best part of this is Logan decided he wanted to read a chapter book and he did it all on his own.

4. Logan's soccer coach is a super generous person and he threw the whole team an end of the season party at JumpZone. He paid for the whole party plus siblings and he had pizza and cupcakes. He even passed out huge goodie bags for all of the kids on the soccer team. We ended up bringing the neighbor boy with us to JumpZone. He crashed the party as well but Logan's coach didn't mind at all. You know me, I'm always have a couple of extra kids with me...hee hee! Anyways, the party was a ton of fun expect for the part when we couldn't find Logan anywhere. Andrew kept saying he couldn't find Logan, well we started to look for him and it turned out he had a bloody nose and his coach was taking care of him in the bathroom. Logan's coach told me that Logan refused to tell him whether he came with his mom or dad. They didn't know where I was so they just took care of the problem. I felt really bad about this but nothing I could do about it. Anyways, the people in our area are super nice and generous. I need to send a note to his coach thanking him for the great party.

5. On Friday night, We went to the Toyland Celebration at the Bentonville Downtown area for some family fun. We invited our neighbors to come join us. Landon decided he didn't want to go and decided to spend the evening at our other neighbor's house down the street. He was really upset when he found out they were giving away free toys. Yes, you read it correctly! Free Toys, yippee!!!! I didn't know they were giving away free toys until we got there. It made up for the crazy insane long lines and mobs of people everywhere. All of the vendors set up booths of all the latest toys and a majority of them gave away free toys. Definitely, going to make sure we go again, next year.

6. Yesterday, I decided it would be the prefect day to take the boys to Tanyard Creek. Originally, Logan wanted to go with Andrew but Devin came home a few minutes before Andrew arrived at our house to go to Tanyard Creek. Well, Logan started to play with Devin and he decided he didn't want to go to Tanyard Creek or play with Andrew. Oh, talk about embarrassing position to be in. I told Logan he couldn't change his mind because Devin was home now from hunting with his daddy. So, I ended up taking Logan and two of his friend to Tanyard Creek. I'm always a little bit nervous about taking Devin anywhere because he has Autism. He only freaked out once at the very end because he fell down and got his hands dirty but once we got them washed off in the water he was fine. It's really pretty down at Tanyard Creek. I really wished now that I had brought my camera to take pictures. The Fall leaves are really pretty right now!

7. The kids had a blast Trick Or Treating in the neighborhood. I'm starting to freak out again about the upcoming holidays. It's bad enough trying to deal with Thanksgiving and Christmas but I have to plan Leah's birthday party. Last year, we just invited a couple of families to come over and celebrate her birthday but she wants a real party this year. I really want to do the same thing as we did last year but I'm not sure if she will be happy with that idea. She already has the party list made up of all of her friends. The boys party is always easy to plan because we just have a pool party every year but that doesn't work with a December birthday.

8. Leah failed her eye screening. She might have a possible vision disorder. I hope this doesn't mean anything maybe she's near sighted? I really don't want to waste the money on a visit. I might just wait until she's in Kindergarten. She isn't walking into walls or anything.

9. The sunroom is getting closer to being done except for a couple of finishing touches we should be hopefully done next week.

10. I'm busy working on knitting up some hats and I still need to finish up Logan's scarf. I'm not doing to much at the moment. I'm just trying to relax and enjoy life at the moment. I have been doing way to much running around this Fall.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween

2011

Costume confusion, I managed to sew two costumes for Leah. The boys couldn't make up their minds what they wanted to be for Halloween. They're past the point of me deciding what they will be but they couldn't come up with anything. A week before Halloween, the boys decided they wanted to dress up as Harry Potter but it was too late to get any accessories. All I had were the boys old Harry Potter costumes from a couple of years ago. The boys didn't seem to mind only wearing dress shirts/pants with just a cape. Well, they were okay with it on Friday for the ISD Fall Festive and Trunk or Trick at the church. The boys decided they didn't want to dress up as Harry Potter on Halloween. Landon decided to go as Babe Ruth from the NY Yankees. Logan went as a Zombie! Leah decided she didn't want to go as a Red Princess again so she went as a Zombie Witch.

My neighor Laura added the lastest touches to my kids costumes. She had a huge stack pile of Hair Paint Spray and Costume makeup. She did a great job with all of the kids hair and makeup. All of the kids came away looking great and this is how the Zombie idea came about. Check out the Slideshow...The kids managed to make some great Zombie poses.

If I haven't stated before I live on the best neighborhood ever, okay the traffic on my street is crazy but it's really the only downfall of my neighborhood. Ms. Laura set the kids up with Makeup and Hair. My neighbor Ms. Jennifer gave each of the kids Trick or Treat pumpkins filled with tons of stuff like bubbles, play-doh, pencils, and tons of candy. The kids also received three bags of treats plus a dollar bill for each one of them from Mr. Larry down the street.

The Trick-or-Tricking hadn't even started and the kids were already loaded up with treats. The kids started off walking around the neighborhood but Leah started to tired out way too fast so we went back home and I decided to drive the kids around the neighborhood instead of walking. The kids made out like bandits. We were the only ones trickortreating and everyone literally gave the kids handsful of candy.

The neighbors were really sweet last night, a lot of the elderly neighbors are lonely and they loved seeing the kids in their costumes. We had to go inside their homes and visit with them plus a lot of them wanted to take pictures of their adoptive grandchildren. Plus, I found out one of the neighbors called my kids "waterbabies" because their always outside with the waterhose on...haa haa.

Half way thru the night we stop off at one of Landon's friends house and we picked up Andrew to go Trick or Treating with us. This was his very frist time ever going door to door he had so much fun but he made us skip a couple of houses becuase he got into some trouble with the neighbors kids. The last house we spot off at the lady was in her pajamas so I told the kids it was getting too late out to go trickortreating so we called it a night.

The holidays are a lot of work for Mom but in the end it's worth all the stress and effort. I know the kids don't appreciate all of my hard work but at least they will have lasting memories that will last them a lifetime. I'm so tired, but it's time to clean up from all the fun!

Ten on Sunday

2011-10-30T05:55:00.000-07:00

1. Sorry, no pictures! I hate trying to upload photos on this blog. It takes forever and my patience level is running low at the moment. I might upload some pics, later on! Plus, we attended Stake Conference last Sunday and it threw off my whole Sunday schedule. I really enjoyed being home for the whole afternoon. I still hate this afternoon church business, please don't come onto my blog and tell me why you love it. I hate when people do that on my blog or Facebook page. Seriously, I'm really getting tired of this but what can I do...delete people? I might just go ahead and do it!

2. The past two weeks are a blur at the moment. Soccer season finally finished up, yippee!!!!! Yesterday, I had nothing planned and it was AWESOME! For the past two months, every Saturday I was super busy from Sunrise to Sunset! I don't mind being busy but it was starting to feel more like a taxi driver then a mom! I started off the day, meeting up with my friends. We haven't seen each other in about two weeks in I needed my fix! I love them, it's so nice to have friends you can truly trust that are my true friends. The love me no matter what, I can't stand fake people, if I catch anyone using a super big fake smile and super cheery voice when talking to me it's a sure way to make me run to the other corner and have nothing to do with you. Someone at church keeps acting super fake towards tome...I'm really getting annoyed with this individual, if she does it again to me. I might have to call her out on it. If you want to be my friend then pull me a side and ask how I'm doing. I swear, the level off fakeness at church is ridiculous. I know who my true friends are at church that care about me and my family.

3. Okay, I'm off my rant back to running with my friends. The rest of the day, we spent at home doing nothing. I was trying to enjoy myself but I started to get really bored. So, I loaded up the kids plus the two neighbor kids and we ended up to the park. Afterwards, I wasn't up to cooking dinner so we went out for dinner. The food didn't agree with me so well and I ended up going to bed early.

4. The rest of the week, Leah and Logan had their very last Soccer games on Monday night. Yeah, no more Soccer until Spring time!

5. A couple of days ago Landon fell off my friend's retaining wall and loaded super hard on the pavement. Leroy rushed Landon to Urgent Care for x-rays and stuff! It turned out his wrist is sprained not broken. Baseball season is now over for Landon but they will still have one last game for the season but he will be missing it.

6. Leah learned out to knit using a loom. I have pictures but I'm too lazy at the moment to upload them.

7. The kids attended a ridiculous amount of Halloween celebrations on Friday. Leah's preschool class went Trick or Treat at the Town center in the morning. As soon as the boys got off the bus in the afternoon we headed down to Leroy's work for a huge Fall Festival plus trick or treating which we spent close to three hours eating yummy funnel cakes, bounce houses, plus carnival games. After that event ended, we drove right over to the church for a Chili cook off (all the chili I tried were gross) I will remember next year to stick with the Mac and Cheese only. The night ended with Trunk N Treat! I thought I was going to pass out by the end of the night from pure exhaustion. Oh, I spent majority of the time by myself with all the kids. Why does Leroy always disappears?

8. The sun room remodel project is still not done. I'm really starting to lose my patients with this project. I want it done, hopefully this next week.

9. Logan's parent teacher's conference went better than expected. Logan's a great student and his writing skills are Proficient. She told me that she has very few students in her class that are Proficient. Logan's writing skills are really good which doesn't surpise me because his always writing stories at home. Landon's parent teacher's conference went really well, also! Landon is one of her top students for the whole class. His currently doing 4th grade work. According to her, Landon is PREFECT!!!! She wished all of her students were just like him.

10. Last weekend, Leroy signed up the boys for their first gun shooting competition. I know, I'm starting to sound a little bit redneck. Leah and I attended for part of the day, I'm really proud of my boys. They did a great job!

Anyways, I'm not in the best mood at the moment. I'm going to go back to bed and get some more sleep.

Ten on Sunday

2011-10-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

1. It's truly amazing how different each of my children are from each other. Poor Logan is stuck in the middle of Landon and Leah. I have been working hard on trying to help Logan to become his own person and help him find his own special skills and talents. Last week, I noticed he was working really hard all by himself writing in his notebook. He was really really short sentences about random things. Anyways, he started off this week writing and illustrating books. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of his first book but it was called "Snowman" and it was about a snowman that melts! We stapled the book and he gave it to his teacher as a gift. It wasn't the next day and Logan started another another book. His next story is called "The Three Seeds" and it's 16 pages long. Landon told me that it's a circle story. It's a story that goes around and around but it's a little bit different each time. I was really surprised that the book is about three seeds and only one of the seeds survives and grows into a flower. Leroy wants me to take his book down to Kinko's and get it bound for him. So, who knows maybe Logan will grow up to become an author?

2. My neighbor invited us over for a Halloween Party at their house which required all of the quest to come dressed up. (I really wanted to throw my own Halloween party but sadly the Sun-room is still not finished. The workers took a week off and hopefully, they will be back at it soon. I'm so ready for it to be done!) My neighbor spent three weeks planning the party. She had her whole house decorated and had a ton of really cute ideas which I might have to go ahead and steal from her...hee hee! Leah decided to go to the party dressed as a Princess Ballerina and the boys wore their old Harry Potter costumes.
3. Soccer season is coming to an end, very shortly. Logan played soccer once before when he was about four years old but he never really played. He would just lay on the field and watch the clouds. He begged me to sign him up for the Fall but after the first game he told me he didn't want to play soccer anymore. Too bad, I already paid the money and I told him he had to finish up the season. It's been a rough season for Logan. He was complaining about how he hasn't made a single goal all season long. It doesn't help that he has to sit through all of the Leah's games and watch her make one goal after another. Well, I told him he has to get aggressive and just go after the ball. His coach and I have noticed that he always backs off from the ball during the games but his strong during the practices. Logan decided to step it up and he went after the ball. He didn't give up and he managed to score a goal not just one goal but two! After his game, Logan couldn't wait to see his daddy to tell him the news. Oh, I almost forgot, when Logan made his first goal his coach was so excited for him. He went over to Logan to give him a high five. So, what did Logan do? He took off running and his coach was chasing after him trying to give him a high five. His coach was so proud of him as well!
4. I'm going to make these Ritz Spider treats for the kids to share with their soccer friends. I'm going to be busy this week trying to get geared up for Halloween.5. I love my new running group that my friend Sennet set up. We didn't have too many people show for yesterday's morning run but I still managed to have a good time. It was just me and one other girl that I didn't really know at all but we decided to go ahead and run together. It turns out she grew up overseas in West Africa which I thought was really cool because my parents are serving a mission in South Africa; not exactly the same but close enough.

6. We managed to run six miles in under 59 minutes. It's really nice to run with someone because you can push each other. I thought for sure, I was going to pass out at the end. I haven't had that good of a run in a couple of weeks.

7. The new running group is always having new challenges which are the prefect thing for me. I'm really not that good at setting goals for myself. The first challenge was to complete 1000 jump ropes which I did but it took me about 45 minutes. By the time, I was done it felt like I just finished running six miles. I had no idea how intense jumping rope can be...holy cow! It's hard!!!!!!!!!!!!1

8. The other challenge was to complete 250 sit ups! I completed this challenge in less than 12 minutes. I did a combination of sit ups with and without using a five pound weight. It's been three days and I'm still super sore! I need to do more sit ups!

9. Leroy's driving my new car, I'm not surprised this happened. He know claims he drives more than I do with the kids. So, I'm back to the van! Oh well, I should of know better. He claims, he will give it back to me to drive once it's completely fixed and repaired but I'm holding my breath on that one!

10. Landon attended his first Student Council meeting. The Student Council is organizing a special Veteran's Day assembly down at the Memorial at Lake Bella Vista. The student council members have to make cards to pass out to all of the veterans that will be attending the special program with the students from Cooper Elementary. Landon's really excited about being on Student Council and hopefully, it will be a positive experience for Landon serving in the community. I never served on a student council so this is all new to me and I'm so proud of my son for being elected by his class mates to represent his class!

11. I'm not sure what's going on this week, I still need to sit down and figure it out. Every week has been jammed back, I can't wait for November to get here. No more sports, but Leroy wants me to sign up the boys for martial arts again. I'm not sure if I really want to commit myself to that again but we will see!

Ten on Sunday

2011-10-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

1. I did get a chance last Sunday to write up my list of weekly events. We always try to take the kids to church to watch Sunday morning's general conference which meant a lot less free time before heading to the chapel. Attending church really helps to invite the spirit and we all agree we get more out of conference.

Flashback memory: I remember my first time living on my own in Hawaii and living in my first off campus housing. I remember waking up General Conference morning and being surprised to find my roommates in their pajamas watching conference. I was completely shocked. I always thought people in Utah watched conference at home in their church clothes. I always thought it was disrespectful to be lounging around in your bed clothes. I don't judge anyone that does this but I thought it was the strangest thing ever. So, we keep up the tradition of attending only one session at church because that's all that I can handle with three kids.

2. Logan is making some huge progress at school. I found this sheet of paper pinned to his wall next to his bed. I'm going to try to read his journal entry to you and it will bring a smile on your face. Plus, I caught him this morning writing sentences on a piece of paper this morning. Just a couple of weeks ago he could barely read sight words and writing sentences he couldn't do it.

"Hermit Crab"
By Logan S.

I like cats and dogs. I wot a hermit crab so badle I im saving up my mane and my bruther mone and I ife I do no get the hermit crad at ul I will not be happe nevr evre ugun ur I will mabe will be happe cinuv happe and I will.

Okay, translation:

I like cats and dogs. I want a hermit crab so badly. I'm saving up my money and my brother's money and if I don't get the hermit crab. I will not be happy never again. I will be happy if I get my hermit crab.

3. Right Choice Corn Maze, do I really need to say anything about this place. It's awesome and it's super cheap. Go with a group and get the group rate of $4 per person and you get to do everything at the corn maze. The best part of the event: spending time with my baptist friends plus with my daughter! I'm really enjoying this time with her. She will be going to big kid's school next year and this time is so precious even though she's driving me crazy most days. Also, the new attraction at the corn maze is this huge jumping pillow....it's like a trampoline but only cooler! The best part of the whole day!
4. Soccer season is in full swing which is a good thing because I'm getting tired of spending all of my Saturday's at the soccer/ball field. Leah's coach came up to me yesterday and told me that Leah's the best player on her team. At first, I thought the coach was just saying that to be nice. I didn't believe her at all. Leah's the youngest player on her team plus it's her first year playing soccer. Leah's coach told me that she's has some awesome skills. She's always going for the play, she's a strong kicker, and she has amazing control of the ball. I'm so proud of my little girl. I always knew my daughter was special! She's going to do amazing things with her life! Go, LEAH!!!!!!

5. Landon was invited to attend a birthday party for a little girl in his class at the local roller rink. It's not as big as Roxy Wheels but still a ton of fun. I decided to bring the other two kids. I know they weren't invited but I figured I would just pay from them to go roller skating party. Well, not to many kids came to the party and the mom let Leah and Logan join in the party. It turns out, the birthday girl's younger sister is in Logan's class at school. Annabelle's mother and I were laughing about it. How often does it happen that siblings are all in the same classes. A couple of years ago, they use to have free roller skating on Monday nights but they did away with it and we hadn't been back since. The kids were so excited to be skating again. Landon tried inline skates for the first time and he loved it. He hardly felled down at all. Logan stuck with traditional skates and he was landing on his butt more times than I can count on one hand. By the end of the night, he wasn't falling down as often. I tried traditional skates with Leah but she just couldn't figure it out. She we went with the preschooler skates and she loved it.

Leah skating around by herself, no she wouldn't let me help her.
She's Ms. Independent!

Limbo time, check out Logan's bright orange skates! Plus, do you see Leah in the line trying to do the Limbo!

Air Hockey, I love this game!

6. House remodel is coming along nicely. Check out the photos!

7. I'm training for another half marathon. It's a couple of weeks away, but I'm already worrying about it that reminds me I still need to sign up for it. Of course, my arches are killing me again. Why can't I run long distances without any pain. It's more of a nuisances than anything else. This happens every single time. I might head down to Rush Running and see about different type of inserts.

8. Leroy just set up his man cave downstairs. He bought a stupid flat screen tv. The kids enjoyed watching Lion King 3D last night in the man cave. I'm really not pleased about this purchased but I'm going to try to keep my mouth shut about it.

9. I'm working hard on digital scrap booking. It's really addicting but it's soooooo much faster than regular scrap booking. I'm trying to work on a calendar, all about me journals for the kids for xmas, and a couple of scrapbooks from Halloween past events.

10. I'm still working on Halloween Costumes for the boys. I still have no plan in place, we might end up purchasing costumes for them. It's not as fun, as dressing up Leah!

Well, I can't think of anything else going on but this is just a short overview of our past week as a family!

Ten on Sunday

2011-09-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

1. I caught Logan reading his scriptures all by himself during sacrament meeting. I couldn't be more prouder of my little guy. His reading skills are really improving, the past of couple of weeks we have seen big changes. Tonight, after dinner Logan even asked if he could read more verses. Talk about shock, my son use to hate to even try to read one little verse is asking for more which makes my heart want to melt.

2. Logan also did a really good job during the Primary program. Last year, he refused to say anything but this year he did it. He needed help from his teacher reading his part but he did it! His teacher came up to me after the program and she told me how proud she was of him. His teacher promised him if he got up to the stand and read his part he would receive an extra treat. So, Logan managed to walk away with three extra treats.

3. All three kids took part of the primary program; I was sitting way in the back and I could barely see any of my kids. Poor Leah kept trying to move to the side to get a peck of me from the stand. She did an awesome job, I couldn't hear her very well when she was up at the stand reading her part but she did it and that's all that matters. She did a really good job singing as well.

4. Landon yesterday at his baseball game suffered an injury but he managed to stuck it up and kept right on playing. I'm so proud of him. He was up at the base getting ready to hit a baseball when it some how managed to hit him in the arm. He teared up but he kept right on playing. He even managed to make a run and score a point for his team.

5. Leah and Logan had soccer games as well. I managed to spend three hours at the soccer field and two hours at the baseball field. Talk about long hours supporting my children's interests in sports. Leah's really good at soccer but she tires out easily. She managed to kick the ball into the goal and score a point for her team. She almost had another point but the ball stop right in front on the goal. She didn't realize the ball wasn't all the way in to count for a point. She just stood their waiting for everyone to cheer and was confused it didn't count. The other team managed to steal the ball back and they scored a point. Logan still thinks soccer is boring but he did join in every time and played really hard. He almost scored a goal a couple of times but at least his trying.

6. I managed to finish up a lot of little projects around the house. I finally got around mailing off a ton of thank you and birthday cards. I'm almost done sewing a pinafore apron but I messed up the shoulder strap and I need to fix it. I'm working on knitting up another scarf. I have lots of time on my hands watching all of those games.

7. Leroy pick me up a car to drive. The van is costing me way too much money in fuel. I'm driving the kids around to three different games and practices. Plus, it's just me and Leah during the day. I don't need a van when it's just the two of us. It's a VW Jetta TDI diesel but it's also a standard. It's very different than during a Honda which is what I'm use to driving. I finally got behind the wheel on the way to church. I have it worked out but it's going to take some time getting us to plus I can't wait to start saving some serious money on fuel.

8. I'm currently working on building up some miles in my running. I managed to log in 17 miles this week alone. I'm really hoping to run in a half marathon sometime this Fall. This week, the kids will not be at school Mon or Tue this will be throwing off my week. I might not be able to get in that many miles but we will see how things go.

9. The sunroom/porch is coming along nicely. They will be putting in the windows in this week.

10. General Conference is coming up this weekend, I can't believe it's already time for conference. Where has all the time gone!

Ten on Sunday

2011-09-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

1. This weekend turned out to be nice and relaxing. A series of thunderstorms rolled into our area which was a nice surprise. I need to pay more attention to the weather forecast. All three kids games were canceled due to the "wet" conditions. So, this weekend turned out to be great for me! The kids didn't seem to mind, either! All the running around; has left everyone exhausted.

2. Friday night, my friend "V' offered to take the kids to Fayetteville to the mall for a special Razorback Fest. The only one that wanted to go to the event was Landon. Let's just say that Logan was super jealous that he didn't go with them. Landon came back with a ton of free razorback products plus pizza and candy. He managed to drink two cans of Coke which he realized he might get in trouble for drinking some much Coke in one night. So, he decided to have a Diet Coke, instead! Yikes, he was so hyper that I didn't think we would ever get him to go to bed. Landon also was able to get everyone from soccer, gymnastics, baseball, and basketball autographed all of his posters. Next year, we will all go together.

3. Our freezer stop working again, this happened over the summer. I thought maybe it was related to the hot weather but it did it again. I had to cram all of the food from the deep freeze to the fridge/freezer in the kitchen. I could barely get the door on the freezer to stay closed. Luckily, a friend of ours called me the next day and offered us their deep freezer because they will be moving overseas and they wouldn't be able to take it with them. Well, managed to get the freezer to our house and Leroy informed me that our freezer was working again. So, I'm going to craigslist it and hopefully someone will take it. I will not trust it again.

4. Let me back track a little bit, Leah and I went shopping at Aldi's. We picked up a big tub of ice cream and we hurried to get it inside the freezer in the garage. As soon as I opened the freezer, I knew something wasn't right. The food in the freezer was about half thawed out. All of my fruit that I picked over the summer was somewhat thawed out. I thought that my only option would be to throw all of the fruit out but it seemed wasteful. I decided not to put it back into the indoor freezer due to lack of space plus all of the fruit would just clump together into a big mess. So, I did the only thing I could think of which would be to canned the fruit. So, I manged to make close to 11 pints and 12 half pints of strawberry blueberry jam. We know have about 100 jars of jam and jelly but that's okay! Hopefully, we wouldn't have to can any more jelly for a couple of years...lol!

5. Monday night, all three kids had something going on sports wise and at three different locations. I wasn't sure how I could possibly get everyone where they needed to be but it all worked out at the end. I was really surprised to learned the next day that my best friend tried to call me because she saw my post on facebook about the transportation challenges and she wanted to offer to drive some of the kids for me. Talk about friendship, she's awesome. Luckily, Leroy was able to meet me at the ball field and it all worked out. It's so nice, to have people that are willing to help you out just for the sake of being friends.

6. The house remodel is coming along nicely. The deck's roof is on and Leroy will be doing the electric wiring of the deck and sun room. We had a guy come out and give us an estimate. Let's just say it was crazy expensive...the guy wanted $900 and we already priced out all of the materials. It's only like $150 for the materials. It's just wiring a ceiling fan and three outlets. Luckily, Leroy's uncle is going to help me with the job and we will save some money. How hard can it really be?

7. We're also planning on replacing the carpets in the house. We found two super nice remnant pieces for the kids rooms but nothing for our bedroom. It's way too big of a room and they don't carry remnants in the size we need. Too bad, it's going to cost a lot more money then we wanted to spend but we will have to keep our eyes out for some good deals. I don't want to go the cheap route. I want some high quality carpet that will last a long time. Plus, we found a remnant piece for the sun room. It's a high quality commercial outdoor carpet. It's a little bit more then what we budgeted for but it's way to nice of a deal to pass up.

8. I finally decided to learn how to make tutu's. It's amazing all of the things you can learn from You tube. I already made two tutus. One for my niece and one for my daughter. I'm going to make Savannah my niece a little ghost outfit with a matching black and white tutu. Leah's tutu is multi colored tutu and I'm going to make her a nice watch outfit. Seriously, the no sew tutu's are super easy to make. I'm talking less than 30 minutes you can have a completely finished project. Pictures will be coming...in the future.

9. Logan sold a grand total of 18 coupon books. I'm so proud of him, he would get on his bike after school and go door to door selling the books.

10. I still didn't make the grape juice. I ended up getting distracted with the fruit jam maybe if they still have grapes I might make some homemade grape juices but I'm worried it might be too late. If it's too late, I might go ahead and buy a bushel of peaches. Freeze some peach slices. I really like using frozen fruit in my fruit smoothies.

11. The rest of the week, I will be driving the kids around and working on cleaning up the house. I'm just trying to finish up all of my unfinished projects and working on finishing up some books that I checked out from the library. So, pretty much...th

A is for Apple

2011-09-13T11:06:00.002-07:00

Once again, Blogger.com will not allow me to move the pictures around. So, they are completely messed up and not in order. I don't have the time to try to fix it so bear with me.

Leah's growing up way too fast, plus she's bored at home without her BFF Kailyn. The girls used to play all day long together but that all changed a couple of weeks ago when her BFF started fulltime preschool. Leah's having a hard time adjusting. She's not use to having to play by herself which isn't a good thing for me because I can't seem to get anything done around the house when she's home from school.

Leah asked if we could play school this morning which I decided to just give up any hope of getting the house clean and set up preschool at home for her. When the boys were home, I used to always have school time with the boys with lots of crafts and science projects. I think part of the problem is I kinda got bored with it but I'm really ready now to do it again with Leah. This should help her with her boredom and help us create some wonderful memories.

So, we started off with the letter "A"! I pulled out my Melissa & Doug Alphabet puzzle and we worked our way thru it. Leah knows a lot of her letters but not all of them. The next thing we did was read a book called "More Pies" by Robert Munsch which is one of my boys favorite children's author. If you haven't listen to his audio tapes your missing out. The stories are so good and funny. The boys still enjoy listening to them. After reading the book we made an apple pie.

While the pie was baking in the oven. We read another book about the letter "A" where the little boy goes around filling his box of things that start with the letter "A". So, we found our own box and we went around the house filling our box with goodies that started with the letter "A". Leah loved it!

We still had time before the pie would be done, so Leah work on a handwriting sheet. She did a really good job plus she recognized the letter "A" is in her name.

On Thursday, we will work on counting using apples and animal crackers!

Ten on Sunday (pics)

2011-09-11T09:07:00.001-07:00

Ten on Sunday

2011-09-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

1. A couple of weeks ago, they changed the time we attend church to the afternoon session. Church now starts at 1:00pm and we don't get back home until almost 4:30pm. Let me just make it know that I hate this schedule. I'm a morning person, I like to wake up nice and early get things done. Waiting around all morning long is torture. I'm sleepy by the time church starts that I'm getting nothing out of it. Each Sunday feels weird and I HATE IT! It's going be a couple of weeks but its not working for me! Especially, when we get back so late in the afternoon. Each Sunday, I'm using my crock-pot. The kids are starving by the time they get back from church. I'm making Apricot Chicken in the crock-pot served with fluffy white rice. So, to make up some of the time wasted waiting for church. I'm going to strive to write up my weekly list of events on Sunday mornings. So, I'm going to have to come up with a way to enjoy my Sunday's plus make them efficient.

2. This morning, we decided to sleep in. The kids were up and being super quiet. We knew they had to be up to something. They were way too quiet. Sure enough, we found them in the bathroom trying to give the poor cat a bath. Luckily, we came to the cat's rescue just in time. Who knows how much longer the cat would of tolerated the kids.

3. The weather is starting to cool off. I'm back to knitting. I already finished two scarfs. I purchased a ton of Alpaca wool to knit with and I hated it. I didn't realize at the time, you need to use knitting patterns that call for Alpaca. So, I found a super easy pattern and I already have it memorized. I finish to scarfs in less than a week. I will post pictures at a later time. Plus, I have all three kids signed up for sports. It's a lot of time, just sitting around watching them play and practice. Knittings a great way to pass the time plus feel like I'm more than a chauffeur.

4. I already finished Leah's costume. I decided that I don't want to feel stressed out about the up coming holidays. I have come a long way with my sewing skills. I managed to read the pattern, cut it the pieces, plus sew it together all by myself. Okay, I had a little bit of help but it was very minimal. So, I completed the costume 95% by myself. The boys have decided yet what they would like to be for Halloween yet. I need them to make a decision so I can start to work on their costume.

5. Talking about Halloween, I'm hoping the remodel will be done soon. I'm really wanting to throw a huge Halloween party for the family. I figured if the remodel is done we could have a bunch of friends over to celebrate. I always wanted to throw a big Halloween Bash for the kids friends but I was worried that know one would come. I'm so lame at times. I always have a huge turnout when I throw parties. So, I need to feel less insecure and just do it. The ward Halloween parties are always lame. I'm tried of going to them. So, if the sunroom/deck is completed in time then it will be party time. I'm really thinking if I have enough time, I might just go ahead and sew myself a costume to wear, as well.

6. Landon didn't get elected as Vice President of student council. I'm still really proud of him even if he didn't win the election. Landon was up against six other students and competition was fierce. Landon wrote his own speech and he got up in front of the whole 3rd and 4th student body. I'm always amazed when my kids do things that I never expected them to do. Landon's going to try for an office position next year. Plus, Landon will still be serving on the student council.

7. Weight loss, I hate to bring this up but since the boys birthday I have continually put on weight.You would think because I work out six days a week that my weight wouldn't be an issue. I think it all started with the party, yes sugar or known as "ugar" at our house. Logan couldn't pronounce his "s" sound for the longest time. He can say it correctly now but we still call it "Ugar" at our house. Yes, sugar is what caused my problems. I stop eating sugar on Tuesday and I cut back on my carbs. I'm now down two pounds! I'm hoping to drop another two or three pounds.

8. Logan really impressed me this week with selling Harps Coupon Books for the school fund raiser. He came home and took off going door to door selling the books without even telling me. He came home with a five dollar bill and a huge smile on his face. Logan has sold a total of 13 books to our neighbors. He has to sell 3 more books in order to have lunch with the school principal. I'm not sure how that's a reward but Logan really wants it! His goal is to sell $200 of coupon books. One of our neighbors loved the coupon books so much she's going to take her book to her quilting group and take orders. Hopefully, she will get a big enough order that Logan will be able to exceed his goal. I love my neighborhood, all of my neighbors are AWESOME!!!!!!

9. Last weekend, I ended up canning over 15 quarts of crushed tomatoes, 9 pints of pizza sauce, and 4 quarts of Firery Hot crushed tomatoes. I'm going to try to pick up Grapes this week and get busy canning some grape juice.

10. Sports update: I signed up Logan and Leah for soccer. Yesterday, Logan refused to join in. He told me that soccers boring and he doesn't want to do it anymore. He does this with every single sport that I sign him up for...why does he does this! I finally had to reward "bribe" him to join the team. I told him if he join in and played that I would take him to the Indian Museum afterwards to look at arrowheads. Logan is just like his Grandpa Nichols. So, as soon as the game was over we headed over to the museum. We might have to go to the Indian Museum a lot this soccer season. Logan's first game is this Monday night but it's in Bentonville and Leah's practice is Monday night in Centerton. I'm not sure how I'm going to get them in two different locations at the same time. Plus, Landon playing Fall Ball. He will be attending all of the practices but he will be missing a majority of the games. The games are scheduled on Sundays because they don't want the games to interfere with Razorback home games. LAME OH, I hate football and now even more.

11. I'm still running but my knee is a little bit sore. On Labor Day, I ran in a 10k supporting the Children's Shelter in our area. My legs felt tired and stiff. I managed to come in 58:53 which is almost five minutes off my time from last year but it's not my fastest time. I managed to keep a pace of 9:30 minute mile. Landon managed to run on the same day but at a different race. He did the free 5k sponsored by our church and he came in at 29 minutes which is his fastest time ever. I feel bad not being able to run with him but it couldn't be help. I hope the committee moves it back to Saturday not on Labor Day.

12. Labor Day we spent the afternoon over at my visiting teacher's house for a party. A perfect way to end summer vacation. Her house is located right on the lake plus a pool. The kids had a complete blast swimming in the lake and pool. Plus, the kids managed to take out the kayaks. Logan spent literally hours on the lake kayaking around the lake all by himself. We might try to see if we can purchase a couple of these kids size kayaks for the boys.

Anyways, I'm hoping to get back in the habit and start writing my Ten on Sundays to help keep everyone up to do with the families happenings.

Lara

Campaign Manager

2011-09-04T18:01:00.001-07:00

When Landon came home over a week ago he told me he wanted to join the Student Council and run for Vice President! I didn't realize how complicated the whole process. Each class in 3rd and 4th grade had to nominate and elect one boy and one girl. Landon was nominated plus two other boys. Landon's class mates voted for him to be their class Representative for the student council. Now, Landon is able to run for an office.

He decided he wanted to be Vice President. The process hasn't been easy. I worked really hard all week to come up with some cute catchy slogans but Landon didn't like any of them. He didn't want any thing that would be tooo embarrassing. So, I came up with the "Vote 4 Landon Scheele" slogan. Landon was really happy about the new slogan. I decided it would be a good idea to include a Name Poem that way the other students could learn a little bit about home. Unfortunately, I ended up completing most of the poster but Landon added the stickers. Landon loves how the posters turned out.

I'm so proud of my son. I'm always surprised how much my boys continue to surprised me with all of their new adventures. I'm not sure if Landon will win the election or not but that's not the point. The little guy is setting goals and trying new things. The last thing, Landon needs to do is write a minute long speech about why students should vote for him. Landon will have to give the speech in front of the whole 3rd and 4th grades. I never would of done anything like this as a child but I'm glad my son will have this opportunity.

Rambling Updates & Thoughts

2011-08-31T05:46:00.000-07:00

1. The new school year has started, which is leaving me feeling extremely overwhelmed. Landon's running for Vice President of Student Council, Logan and Leah are in soccer, plus we're remodeling the house. All of the homework, shuttling kids everywhere, attending meetings, I signed up again for PTO (seriously, someone stop me), plus all the stress of the kids. I'm also working on Landon's campaign slogan. I'm STRESSED!

2. This morning, I tired to workout but I couldn't get into it. My mind is running in a million different directions. Plus, Logan wants me to help him sew a gigantic size sleeping bag plus make these really cute wooden pumpkins.

3. Landon's Fall Ball was canceled due to lack of enrollment. Landon doesn't know yet but it's going to be real ugly when he finds out. I'm still waiting to hear back from Soccer people. I might end up coaching but I'm still waiting to hear back from the Soccer Gods who are black mailing me into coaching a team or Landon wouldn't be able to do Soccer. I hate SPORTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love to run but anything involving a ball "I HATE IT" is not my thing. I would feel better, if I had some control over the situation which I don't at the moment unless the Soccer Gods write back to me.

4. Leah is a little terror at the moment. She's really good during the day but as soon as her boys get off the bus. She's a full blown DEMON!!!!! She's tormenting the boys all afternoon. She's down right mean to them. I'm not going to put up with it today. She will sit in timeout all afternoon if she starts up trouble with her boys. She misses them and wants their attention but the way she's going about it is wrong.

5. I'm ready to run away and start all over some where else. Who's life is this, I hate it at the moment. I'm being really whiny, I don't care! I need to get it all of my chest.

6. The remodel job is coming along nicely, but it's loud work. I try to stay out of the house as much as possible but it's not practical. We are adding onto the house by making the sunroom twice as big plus it will be 4 seasons with a new deck. We need more space. The job should be done in about 8 weeks.

7. Leah told me that she wants a lot of fake babies for her birthday plus a real baby girl. She wants to go buy her a real baby and wrap it up! I told her that I would talk to her daddy about it but it might be difficult to get a real baby for her birthday...lol! She told me that if she had a baby girl sleeping in her room she wouldn't get scared at night and come into our room anymore at night.

8. Landon's campaign slogan is coming along. We need to start working on the posters which need to be turned in by the end of the week. Here's one of the slogan's but it will be up to Landon to decide at the end.

"Land Landon with a Landslide"

"Vote Better-Vote Landon!"

"Choose Landon S. and Get Action!"?

Plus, I want to make a T-Shirt for him to wear at school. What's wrong with a walking billboard? Something like "Vote Landon"!

I need to make a trip to Hobby Lobby!

7. Screw working out, I'm going to get my hair highlighted and cut!

8. Afterwards, if I have time then I will swing by the store and pick up supplies.

9. Okay, I'm feel'n better. I need to get a grip on myself.

10. Oh, Leroy and I will be celebrating our Wedding Anniversary this weekend. I think it will be "13" years of blissful marriage. Of course, nothing is planned and we will probably not do anything for it. Real lame! I know, Okay!

Ten on Tue

2011-07-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

1. Happy 4th of July...I know it's over, but I still had to post one last salutation for the holiday. This whole weekend has been non-stop celebrating!

2. Parties without end...Yes, you read that right! How many people do you know get to celebrate their birthday plus a holiday at the same time. Every couple of years, my birthday will fall on Memorial Day but Leroy Jr and Leroy Sr get a double celebration each year!

3. Birthday Boys...The birthday boy's celebrated another year together! Leroy's sister and family came down from Kansas City for the combined party. Uncle Lawrence did some serious BBQing again and the brisket was excellent plus the ice cream cake from DQ was delicious! I'm sure my thighs are showing it...hee hee! We went down to the lake after the festivities. The air finally started to cool off due to a storm blowing in but it past over us, thank goodness! The kids plus their nephew went fishing at Lake Loch Lomand but they didn't catch anything...bummer! Leah and Eric went swimming in the lake! All was going well, until Eric went a little bit too far out in the water and I had to jump into the lake to rescue him. Oh, I didn't have a swimsuit on, so I had to jump in fully clothed. So, I ended up swimming around in the lake with the kids. Overall, a fun night with the family!

4. Bella Vista 4th of July Fireworks display...Sunday evening, we headed over to Lake Loch Lomand Dam to watch the fireworks show. This is a family tradition, we go every year. We decided to park right up in front next to the dam to watch the display instead of going in the back like we normally do! Big mistake, watching the fireworks up front was fun but trying to get home was a complete nightmare. The drive home ended up being over one hour to get home. Arghh...the cops weren't being nice and it took forever. Lesson learned back to parking in the back lot and hopefully we will get out faster next time.

5. Old Fashioin 4th of July celebration...My best friend "V" invited us to come join her families first ever 4th party at Lake Loch Lomand. Now, this party was really interesting because we really didn't know too many people at the party. I'm really shy around new people but it only took me a few minutes to jump right in and have a blast. The party was held out at Tiree Park at the lake. I'm thinking about maybe hosting my own party out their for the kids. The park had a nice Pavilion, shuffleboard, park, horse shoes, bathrooms, and of course lake access! The kids had sooooo much fun. Landon won a set of Hillbilly Golf and the kids had a ton of fun playing with it. We managed to do all of the typical party games like water balloons, horse shoes, playing at the park, fishing, and swimming at the lake. The end of the party we all went down to the lake and they put on a HUGE fireworks show. It was so long, that we decided to sneak out and leave early. The kids were so tired from staying up late the night before watching the fireworks at the dam. So, Leroy thought that "V" and me were up to no good. He was sitting down at the pier with us and decided to spend most of the night riding his bike. Yeah, we were up to no good but we didn't dunk him into the lake that will be next year's plan. We surprised him with everyone signing "Happy Birthday" right before the big firework's show!

6. 4th of July Firecracker 5k race...Landon and I decided to wake up early and head down to Lake Atlanta in Rogers for this race. I ran in this race about three years ago with my old running partner and this year I decided to give it another shot but with my son. Let's just say that Landon kicked my butt. It's official, I can't even keep up with my son anymore. Landon managed to come in 3rd place for his age group which is awesome because he hasn't practice or done any training at all. This kid is a natural!

7. Important Announcement...I almost forgot, we will be remodeling our house. We will be adding onto the sunroom by making it bigger plus it will be 4 seasons plus we will be adding a new deck! Hopefully, we will be starting on this project in about two weeks! The sunroom will be like a really big family room. We have been wanting to do this for a very long time and it's about to happen!

8. A healthy Body...is not to be taken for granted! I have learned a couple of hard lessons this year about not taking a healthy body for granted. I feel like all of my sport injuries have finally healed but I need to learn to listen to my body. I'm getting older, it's time that I make sure I'm eating right, getting enough sleep, and listening to my body. I feel so blessed but I need to make sure that I don't ever take it for granted!

9. New Opportunities...I just signed up to become a Heritage Makers consultant. I'm probably not going to start up anything until the kids are back in school in the fall. If you haven't started digital scrap booking, you're missing out. It's so easy plus it's not messy like regular scrap booking.

10. Civil War History...Living in the South, we have the opportunities to learn more about the civil war. Landon and Wyatt his friend needed to visit a historical site to earn one of their merit badges. So, we headed over to Pea Ridge National Park which is a National Park. We spent literally the whole day exploring the park and we went on a seven mile bike tour of the park. The kids even managed to become JR. park rangers.

Ten on Tue

2011-06-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

Please note, blogger isn't working right. Sorry, about the huge spacing. I have tried to fix the problem but it wouldn't correct itself. Sorry, I hate this blog sometimes.

Random thoughts about our past week. I'm going to be a little bit all over the place so bear with me. Anyhoo, here we go!

1. My first 5k for the year, turned out be great! I managed to come in 3rd place for my age group (total of 24). I had my fastest time since 2009. I'm going to try to bet my time by the end of the summer. I'm hoping to PR under 27 minutes!

2. Leroy attend the Cancer Challenge Trap Shooting event and brought home some really yummy Louisiana Crawfish Boil. Yes, I did try a Crawfish and wasn't to bad tasting it's very similar to Shrimp.

3. Pea Ridge Military Park...Landon and Wyatt needed to visit a historic site to pass of one of their merit badges. So, we headed over to the park and decided to make into a whole day event. We checked out the visitor center and watched the movies about the battle that took place at Pea Ridge. The park ranger gave the boys a little demo about the cannons used in the battle. Landon is holding a real cannon ball that was used in the battle of Pea Ridge. Very cool plus the kids were surprised how heavy it weighed!

4. We decided to take a bike ride around the park. I didn't realize how hot and humid it would be outside by the time we started the bike ride. The boys decided to stop half way around and pick Blackberries. Hopefully, no one got into poison ivy...lol!

5. Two hours later and seven miles behind us we managed to finished the bike ride. I'm so proud of my boys. It wasn't easy but so worth it at the end. Look at the kids faces! All smiles except for Logan. He really struggled with the ride. At the end, he decided he was tried of being last in line. So, he took off on his bike and finished first but he had a car right behind him and he didn't realize it. All the boys were yelling at him to pull over but he didn't care. He wanted to be in first place.

6. The boys also finished the Jr. Park Rangers Program plus the Seven Mile Bike Ride!

7. On a funny note...Landon kept asking who were the good guys? The union or confederates...they don't call the confederates "Rebels" for no reason.

8. On the same day...we decided to have a special FHE with two other families. Two other boys from Landon's Cub Scout troop needed to sign off on their flag ceremony badge. You would of thought bike riding seven miles in 100 degree weather would wear them out but it didn't.

9. We had a special flag ceremony/fhe lesson on 4th of July/Birthday Party at the church! We had so much fun...we played kicked ball, lots of yummy food, plus I was so proud of my boys doing the flag ceremony.

1o. Each boy took turns holding the flag and leading the color guard. Even Devin had to have a turn holding the flag. Landon had to get up in front of everyone and lead the ceremony. Plus during FHE, Logan raised his hand and gave the opening prayer. I'm so proud of both of my boys.

11. Now, we're headed off to go to MO up to the river. Play all day long in the water.

Cancer Challenge 5k Race Report

2011-06-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry, about the crazy hair pictures! Okay, now to the race report. I'm so freakin excited about my time. I thought I would have a bad time. Let's back track a little bit. I haven't ran a 5k since last year. Yes, it's been over one year. I had been focused on training for two half marathons but then I ran into all kinds of running injuries. It's been a long recovery plus my knee is still bugging me.

The weather was perfect plus the course was really flat. I forgot to charge up my running watch so I just ran it with all of my heart and mind. I really thought I would be slow. I was so shocked when I round the corner and saw the finished line. It was in the 27:?? on the finish line clock. I did my fast hard sprint to the finished line and my chip time was 27:40. I thought I PR but it's not sooooo. My fastest 5k PR was back in 2009 at War Eagle of a time of 27:26!

I'm going to try to bet my time with another 5k race either next sat or in two weeks. It's so awesome to end on a positive note.

I did come in 3rd place for my age group which is even better! My running buddy came in 1st place for our age group.

Life is good!

Ten on Thursday

2011-06-23T06:30:00.001-07:00

1. I managed to lose three pounds this week. It's been a hard adjustment with the kids being home all day and trying to still fit in time workout and diet at the same time. After this weekend, I decided it was time to get serious and start working on myself again. I ate way too much over the weekend on our camping trip. I decided that I would eat whatever I wanted. Bad idea...I gained a ton of weight. I really hate dieting but I can't just eat whatever I want anymore. When I was a lot younger; I could eat all day long and not gain a pound. I always super skinny and never worried about my weight but I have found out the older I get less food I need to be eating. My body doesn't need all of those calories. I'm really surprised by this. I'm eating three three meals plus two snacks plus two protein shakes. I drink one right after working out and one right before going to bed. Dinner time is always hard for me because I have a tendencies to over eat. Really, all I need is a small meal at dinner time. Half my plate should be greens/veggies, one some portion of grains plus one 4oz of meat. I hate to obsessed about food but I can't just mindless eat food either. So, I'm really happy this week I making a good comeback and I'm now under 130 pounds. I couldn't be happier.

2. Running isn't going so great at the moment. I can barely run three miles without dying. What happened???? I used to be able to run 10 miles with no problems at all. Last night, we meet up to go running...I mean my running buddies. We haven't run together in over a month. It was soooooo much fun but at the same time sooooo depressing. We had to take a break right after the first mile. We are literally having to start all over with our training. We were so embarrassed when Rush Running guys were running right past us and we were walking. Then, Mike Rush drove right pass us honking his horn at us while we were standing around trying to catch our breaths. So, we took off running. I thought the knee was healed but it's still acting up.

3. We went camping over the weekend to Devil's Den with the kids. We had so much fun...endless hours of biking, hiking, swimming, and attending the park rangers programs. I will post pictures at another time. We couldn't believe how fast the time went and next time we hope to stay a little bit longer. We were running all over the place. It's good to be back home.

4. Landon is attending Cub Scouts Twlight camp at the church. So far, it's going really well. Each night he hasn't made it home until after 10:00pm at night. It's a little late for me but it's okay because it's summer time. Landon did a couple of different things like shoot a bb gun and use a bow and arrow.

5. My friend Ashley picked up the other kids to take them to her churches VBS. It's great. Five nights this week free of kids. It pays to have friends outside the church. The kids are having a blast. Ashley told me last night that Logan was flirting with two girls in his group. So, Leah decided to tell me that Logan was flirting with girls and flirting with boys...lol! I thought for sure I was going to pee my pants. Leah's too funny sometimes.

6. The kids are attending a pool party in Rogers at the Country Club. The best part is the kid's Granny is picking up the boys to take them to her grandson's birthday party. Yes, no kids for the whole afternoon and evening.

7. The garden is a bust. No tomatoes on my tomato plants. I haven't been bothered to water my garden. I decided that I don't really have a green thumb and I could care less. What happened to me...I'm always changing my hobbies and interested. I feel bad about this but I seriously can't stick with anything. Maybe next year...the truck stand that sells veggies is starting to look good enough to me.

8. We have managed to read our scriptures as a family every morning. The kids can't watch cartoons until it's done. A good motivator for the kids. I don't read mine on my own. I feel bad about this but not bad enough to do anything about it. Hopefully, I'm not doomed to go to hell because of it. Sorry folks, I'm not super crazy about personal scripture reading. I love to read but I can't seem to stick with it.

9. Leroy's sick again...migraines plus sinus infections.

10. This weekend, I'm going to run in my first 5k for the year. I know super lame of me. I'm hoping for a good time hopefully, the knee wouldn't give me too many problems. Things are not going as plan in the running dept but I'm trying to stay positive.

Ten on Tue

2011-06-14T05:19:00.000-07:00

1. Yesterday, Leroy ended up in the ER. The poor guy ended up blacking out at work. The ER doctor didn't find anything wrong with him but he was dehydrated. Leroy spent all of Saturday working on the house. He repainted the eastside of the house with all new paint plus replaced on the of the side boards due to those pesky woodpeckers. Anyways, he felt fine on Sunday but Monday he came down feel'n ill at work. He managed to get help at work but they took to the ER. I'm going to hate to see the bill from them being they couldn't find anything wrong with him except for being dehydrated. So, Leroy going to stay home and rest. Plus, I told him that he needs to make sure to drink more water and to get off all of the pop. I swear he will never learn his lesson. Last year, he had to have his gallbladder removed and I'm positive it was from drinking so much pop that caused him to run into problems.

2. I'm back to running. So far, it's going really slow. It's so hot and humid outside. My average pace has been around 11:00 minute pace which is super slow for me. The weather hasn't help the situation. I'm going to try from now on to get out the door before Leroy leaves to go work. Yesterday, I managed to run 3 miles until 35 minutes which is awful time but this morning I managed to run 3 miles under 30 minutes. The knee feels a little bit tight but nothing I can't deal with. Popping the cyst was the best thing ever!!!!!!! It hasn't come back so hopefully, it's gone forever!

3. I'm working on finishing up a couple of sewing projects this morning. The current plan is to finish up all of my unfinished projects and I'm taking the rest of the summer to do nothing. That's right...NOTHING! I'm really tried of working on goals and completing projects. The most I will be doing is reading a book or knitting a dishrag. I just want to lounge around the pool and work on my tan.

4. The kids are busy everyday playing with their friends and staying up late at night playing outside and trying to catch fireflies! It's so nice...not having to get the kids up early to catch the bus.

5. We're planning on taking the kids to Devil's Den for the weekend for Father's Day! We haven't been in almost three years. I can't wait to go back. It's only about 45 minutes from our house and it's a ton of fun. Last time, I was super fat and I can't wait to take pictures of me this time skinny. It's going to be a full circle moment.

6. I signed up all three kids for the summer reading program. Landon's going to read everyday for 30 minutes. I will be reading books to Logan and Leah! Logan is still struggling with his reading skills. I'm really worried that if I don't work with him he will fall behind. So, we will be working on two pages every day from Phonics Pathway reading book. Hopefully, we will be done with the book by the end of the summer.

7. Nothings happening at the moment. I'm just going to try to survive the summer with the kids. Last week, it was a hard adjustment but so far everything is going well. I'm learning to just ignore Landon's whining. We have a good schedule set up and it seems to be working.

8. My parents left for South Africa on Monday. We haven't heard from them but hopefully they are okay! I'm so proud of them!

9. Landon might be attending baseball camp but I'm not sure if I want to drive him to Rogers everyday for the camp. It's only three days this week but I'm feel'n really lazy at the moment.

10. I officially started my calling at church as the ward librarian. So far, it's working out great! It's going to be a prefect fit for me. One year, in high school I worked as a student librarian. I'm not sure if anyone remembers that but I'm in the highschool yearbook being a librarian.

ten on tue

2011-06-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

1. Summer break, is almost here. Today, is the kids last day of school. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. Logan graduated from Kindergarten and Landon will be moving up to 3rd grade next year! Where did all the time go, my boys are growing up way too fast but they still need me. This is my last day of freedom before I will be on full time Mom duty. My neighbor is watching Leah at the moment; I'm trying to finish up a ton of projects! I'm trying to keep my schedule as open as possible for the summer break but it seems like every week is already full of commitments and such.

2. We're trying to plan our vacation trips for the summer. We're planning on going up to Chicago to visit my sister this summer and hopefully be able to see her new home. The big trip will be here in our great state of Arkansas. We will be hitting up four different state parks in less than a week. We will be learning about the civil war and learning all about our environment. We will be hopefully, boats, digging for diamonds, and lots of hiking.

3. I have a new calling at church. I'm no longer on the Enrichment committee. Nancy called said she was sorry to see me leave the committee; I was her right hand person. I feel bad leaving her but I'm so excited about my new calling. I'm the assist librarian. I will be working with my friend plus it's not to demanding of a calling. I'm really looking forward in being able to attend the enrichment activities and not be stuck in the kitchen all night long.

4. Landon and Logan both had their end of the year picnics. The kids really enjoyed school this year plus they both had excellent teachers!

5. My mom sent the kids a postcard from MTC. I told Leah that grandma and grandpa are both missionaries right now. Leah looked really confused...she asked whether not they we're still her grandparents or just missionaries. She's not really understanding the mission thing at the moment. Logan keeps asking me when we're going to Tennessee to visit grandma and grandpa. He keeps asking about the water park. Poor kids, hopefully, it will get easier with time.

6. I'm really proud of my parents going on another mission. I know it's not easy to leave your family and friends to serve a mission but they are setting a great example for the kids. I couldn't be prouder of them.

7. My knee is no longer hurting me. I decided to go ahead and drain my cyst. I wished that I would of done this months ago. I'm so ready to get back into the groove of things again. I'm not sure when I will be able to get away to go running this summer but I always have my dreadmill.

8. Landon's baseball team did really well this season. They won the last four games of the season but they ended up losing their tournament game. Landon was so upset. He cried for a good 30 minutes. The little guy wanted to win so bad. It's a hard lesson but he has to learn it's about giving your best and not being a poor sport when things do go as planned.

9. I managed to pick up a huge pile of summer clothes for the boys at a garage sale. I couldn't be happier. All the clothes for less than $20 plus some of the clothes were Nike!

10. I'm reading a couple new books and it's nice to be able to relax. I'm so tried of running around with my head chopped off. I like to be busy and productive but it's starting to take a toll on me. I'm so glad that baseball season is finally over. Landon's game schedule was insane. So, I'm off to get busy and get dinner prepped.

My Seven Dollar Haircut

2011-06-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

My new summer hair cut. It's only the beginning of June and I'm already dying from the heat. We have been to the pool every day so far this week at the pool. So, I decided it was time to chop off some of my hair.

I have a ton of hair, it's seriously so thick it's like wearing a mop on top of my head. So, I decided to be brave and end over to the local beauty school. I always feel bad for the girl stuck trying to cut my hair. Not only is it thick but curly/wavy hair is next to impossible to cut. I only had one girl that didn't need the instructor to help to cut my hair. She moved on to open her own salon. She was really good but I didn't follow her. I'm cheap!

So, I decided on Thursday morning to drive over with Leah and get both of our hair cut. Leah's hair is still the same. She always gets a short stacked bobbed with bangs. It's super cute but she was the biggest pain ever. She did okay at the beginning but she decided she didn't want the girl to cut her hair.

I ended up holding her on my lap while the girl cut her hair. I wish I had a camera because the next part is kinda funny. While she was sitting my lap, Leah was busy playing with the student's fake doll head with hair. Leah grabbed the girls extra comb and spray bottle. Leah spent the whole time fixing the dolls hair while the she was sitting on my lap while the student was cutting her hair. I hope that makes senses. Overall, it worked out and plus it only cost me $7. This wouldn't of worked out at a real salon.

So, like I said before I decided to be brave and cut off three inches off my hair. The girl cutting my hair didn't speak english as a first language. I told her I wanted a stacked bobbed but she gave me a swing bobbed instead. I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not but the damaged was already done.

This morning, I decided to fix up my hair and Leroy told me that he liked my new haircut. I didn't even ask him for his opinion so I know he likes it. I'm not one to fix myself up for my hubby but it was nice to receive a compliment from him.

So, here's my seven dollar hair cut by the beauty school. I really haven't had a bad cut yet but than again the curls can really cover up any mistakes...lol. Plus, I had the girl fix up my eyebrows. Overall, I'm not complaining. No more $50 haircuts for me plus they always looked horrible maybe I was going to the wrong salon but I'm not complaining about the beauty school.

So, what do you think?

Ten on Wed

2011-06-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

1. Nothing worse then the end of the school year madness! I can't wait for the school year to end. I'm so tried of getting up early and all the running around that comes with the kids being in school. The kids have to make up 8 snow days which is so crazy. I let the kids miss school yesterday, I really felt like we needed a four day break instead of three and I don't feel guilty about it either.

2. I'm really proud of my hubby for going to Joplin to help out with the clean up efforts. Leroy worked hard pulling a van out of someones front yard and cutting up fallen trees. Two stakes sent over 550 men to help with the cleanup efforts. This all took place over Memorial Day weekend. It was a huge sacrifice but it was a well worth it. Leroy ended up taking up the camper and he stayed over night in someone's business driveway. The owner saw Leroy trying to back up the camper into the area that was set up for those staying overnight. The guy walked over to him and offer his pad for Leroy to park the camper. Leroy was really happy about this and he didn't have to go down this steep hill with camper. Leroy saw things that changed him. The whole experienced was life changing!

3. Like I was saying about Leroy going over to Joplin that over a week ago, Joplin was hit by F5 tornado. I decided to drive up yesterday with the kids to check out the destruction. It's horrible...it was like being a war zone. The sight, smell, and it seemed so unreal. We only drove around a couple of blocks and it was really getting to me. We didn't stay to long but I wanted to make a point with the kids that Tornadoes aren't to be messed with. It's important to take the warnings seriously plus I wanted them to be a Little bit more appreciative for what we have been blessed with a home and a family. I have pictures but I will posted them another time.

3. On Monday, it was my birthday. I'm not 45 yrs old like Jenny suggested. Hello, I'm 33! Overall, it's been a great year. I have learned a lot of hard lessons. One of the biggest things, I have learned that I'm not in complete control of my life. No matter, how much I plan or figure out how things should work out. It doesn't always work out like planned. Some things, are completely out of my control. I don't like feel'n I'm not 100% in control of myself and my life. I have learned a big lesson over the weekend that I need to rely on the Lord. Everything happens for a reason and I have to turn some things over to him. So, I'm taking one day at a time. I have been so humbled it's not even funny but on a positive note I had a great birthday!

4. Our ward had a Memorial Day breakfast and flag ceremony by the boy scouts. Leroy was up in Joplin over the weekend and the High Priest were so worried that Leroy wouldn't be able to help them with the pancakes. Leroy is the official pancake master in the Ward. My hubby has some serious line cook skills. I don't recall their ever being a long line for pancakes. I'm proud of my hubby...he was so sore and tried from the clean up efforts but he still got up really early on Monday morning without complaining and flip up a ton of pancakes.

5. After the Mother's Day disaster, I decided to go ahead and plan my own party. I didn't want to be disappointed again, i figured he hasn't done one thing for my birthday in the past why would he do something now. I know that's awful but it's the truth. He didn't even attend my party but only for less than five minutes. He was busy working on our friend's van the whole time.

6. A long time ago, I wanted to have a block party. I'm thinking it was about eight years ago. I really wanted to but I was really afraid that know one would come. So, I finally decided back at TOFW that I would invite everyone that went to the conference to come over to a party at my house. Plus, I invited some of my other friends and neighbors. Let's just say that I wasn't disappointed at all. I felt the love. I just feel bad that one of my friends wasn't allowed to come to my party. I hate her hubby and I hope God gives her the strength to deal with him.

7. So, the simple party turned into a block party. My neighbors are so awesome! I know lots of people have neighbor problems but mine are best ever. I hope none of them move away any time soon. My neighbor let us use part of her yard and my other neighbor let us set up the sprinkler at her house. I was feel'n the love. My one neighbor gave me Nike workout top and pants plus a pair of workout shoes. I don't mean to brag but this is my blog. She's so freak'n awesome. I love you, Ms. Jennifer! My other neighbor, ended up grilling up all the food for the party. Did I mention she's from East Texas and this girl has some serious grilling skills. All of the food was juicy, moist, and not burnt. She helped out by making so many dishes and the set up alone to forever. She did so much work it's not even funny. I couldn't of pulled it off without her help.

8. We blocked off the Cud De Sac and had three stations set up in three different yards. A slip n slide, sprinkler, and baby pool plus tons of balls! The kids had so much fun! Plus, we had a massive water balloon fight. One of the couple's, we invited thought it would be fun to dump the water coolers over each others heads. It was so much fun! I'm going to do this again.

9. Two of my friends supplied the cakes. My neighbor drove all the way down to Fayetteville to get me a cake from Rick's Bakery and my other friend made me a cake as well. I was really worried about having hurt feelings but I was wrong. We ended up with so many people we needed both of the cakes. The cakes were Delicious. Thanks, again!

10. Landon will be performing in the School Talent Show tomorrow night, keep him in your prayers. He performed this morning in front of the school and everyone in his class told me he did a great job up on the stage. He will be performing his karate forms!

p.s. Every year, I get a little bit older but every year just keeps getting better and better. I would never want to young again. I'm loving my 30's. Every year, I grow a little bit more and I'm becoming the person I always wanted to be!

Plus, I will be posting pictures very soon!

Ten on Tues.

2011-05-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

OKC TOFW CONFERENCE

1. Managed somehow to survive some serious bad weather. A huge tornado hit a town 45 minutes north of us in Joplin, MO. To close to home, if you ask me! We ended getting hit two times with hail. I kind you not, the hail was the size of ping pong ball. We're expected to have some more storm systems coming our way, for the rest of the week.

2. My new neighbors went on a camping trip up to the Elk River in MO. I agreed to watch their two kids which one of them has special needs. Boy, did I have my work cut out for me. The boy is really good but he requires me to to keep an extra eye on him. I decided the best plan was to keep the kids as busy as possible. Yes, I did managed to take all five kids with me to the school carnival. Plus, we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese on Saturday for 2.5 hours plus we hit up a couple of garage sales. On Sunday, we took the kids to church by the time we got home from church. I was DONE! Luckily, their parents were back and I told them not to come over for at least a couple of days. The next morning, Leah was asking where all the extra kids went. She forgot that they went back home. The kids were back together the next day playing again. I guess, you could say that I'm the house on the block that all the kids like to play at. I don't even know why I bother to clean the house during the day.

3. Last night, my friend ask to me to watch her two girls for the evening. I told her no problem but when she came to drop off the girls. The her boys wanted to stay to play, as well. I didn't have the heart to say no. So, I had my three kids and her four kids plus the two neighbor kids. Yeah, nine kids under the age of 8. Let's just say the kids had fun but the house looked like a tornado tore thru it. The kids had fun but I was exhausted by the end of it.

4 . I decided to go ahead and make these really cute bandanna dresses for the girls to wear for the upcoming holiday. I couldn't believe how fast these dresses came together. You should of seen the look on the girls faces when I pulled the dresses out for them to wear. I even made a matching purse to go with one of the dresses. The dresses literately only take 15 minutes from start to finish. Just google it and you will find the directions.

15 minute dresses-could be worn as a top, apron, or dress!

5. Running update...my knee is still a little bit sore. My pace time is way down in the dumps. I mean a 11 minute pace isn't wonderful. I'm trying to be grateful but it's going to be a long time before I will ever get back to my fast pace:(

6. I'm still lifting weights and working on 100 pushups and 150 dips. I'm really struggling with week 3. I might have to ditch the program and try again. My arms and shoulders are starting to look awesome but it's so hard!

7. Landon is still playing baseball. All of this rain, is causing so many delays. I thought we would be done by next week but it's going to be pushed back another week. I'm so ready for baseball to be over with. I would like to know who's idea it was to have baseball games at 8:oopm at night?

8. Logan is graduating from Kindergarten on Thursday night. Where did all the time go...I can't believe it. My boys are growing up way too fast! At least, they still like to give kisses and cuddle.

9. Leah is so bossy. I cringe every time she has friends over. I should tape record her. I'm surprised anyone still wants to play with her. I guess, I wouldn't have to worry about her getting picked on. She's tough as nails but I'm really worried she will end up with no friends. Right now, she's getting put into timeout for being overly bossy.

10. I signed the boys up for nature camp in July. I was really hoping to find someone to ride share but it turned into a no go. Oh well, I will be wanting them out of my hair by the time July comes. I'm still trying to plan our summer vacation. I'm thinking about going Kansas City, Mo or a couple of state parks in our great state of Arkansas. Any ideas??????

Ten On Wednesday

2011-05-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

1. Spent the past weekend at Time Out For Women with a wonderful group of friends. I haven't spent the next away from the kiddo's and my hubby in a long time. A girl's weekend away was just want the doctor order. I almost peed my pants from laughing so much on the ride over to OKC. My batteries are recharged and new friendships were made. Life is good!

2. After the conference was over, we decided to head over to the Oklahoma Memorial to pay our respects to those that were injured/killed from the bombing. I'm planning on taking the kids back sometime this summer, so they will be able to pay their respects as well. If you haven't been, it's definitely worth going to.

3. Yes, you might of heard but my IT Band/knee is acting up again. We started off on our Sat. day run only running 3 miles but we managed to squeeze in 6 miles. I felt really good until the last mile and I'm really sorry that I pushed myself to hard. I'm going back to only running 5k or 4 miles or less.

4. Important note, for my running friends...if running in a new area make sure to check out roads and running trails. We started off running from the hotel and didn't have a clue where to start running. We decided to make a right and head down the street. We didn't know where to go but we were worried about getting hit by a car. So, we decided to run around in a trailer park. I know...not the greatest idea. So, half way around the park this half naked guy jumped out of nowhere which freaked out my running partner. She took off running super fast. I could hardly keep up with her. I finally caught up to her and told her to slow down that the guy was coming after us. We decided to head back to the hotel but we wanted to finish up at 3 miles. So, we started to run past the hotel and to our left side we discovered a walking trail that went along the riverfront. So, we decided to try out the trail and we ran another three miles like I said turned out to be a mistake. Now, my knee is killing me, again. So, the moral of the story is to scout out the area before running in a new area. We could of avoided the whole trailer park incident and had a nice peaceful run along the river front.

5. Upon returning home, I decided to give the house a complete scrub down. The house is nice and clean. I'm not sure how long it will last. I'm babysitting the neighbor kids for the weekend. They're going on adult only camping trip no kids allowed. I'm sure the house will be a wreck by the end of the weekend.

6. Landon is still playing baseball. I decided that baseball is way too stressful for ME! I can't take it. It's so painful watching Landon playing his position out in field or batting. I'm sending Leroy to the next game. Good thing, I brought my knitting. It's a great stress reliever. I almost managed to knit one whole dishrag. Nerves...at least, I wasn't chewing my nails.

7. My neighbor told me that she has squirrel legs in her freezer. She told me that squirrel and dumplings is really good. I'm not sure how I kept a straight face but my new neighbor is from East Texas and she's always telling me the strangest things. I didn't realize Texas is so different from Arkansas. I'm really hoping she doesn't bring any over to try.

8. I also signed up for Thrive food storage. I haven't had much luck in food storage but I decided to give it a try. All of the food is freeze dried and the surprising part is it taste pretty good. I will post a review, once I order my first order.

9. I'm also getting back into digital scrap booking. I gave up on it a couple of years ago but I decided to give it another try. I'm using a new program called Heritage Makers. I'm hoping to get caught up and hopefully, get our family memories written down and recorded.

10. I'm also working on 100 push ups and 150 dips in less than six weeks. My arms and shoulders are starting to really good. I'm trying so hard to get into shape it's almost swimsuit season.

Well, that's all...I'm going to work on typing up my list of ten from now on!

Long Forgotten Author

2011-05-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

Reading is a new passion of mine. I never read a book growing up unless it was a book assignment. My top two all time children's chapter book authors are Lucy Maud Montgomery and Laura Ingalls Wilder. We finished up reading all of the "Little House on The Prairie" books a couple of months ago. Let me just say that my boys all time favorite books are the "Little House" on audio cd. I kept on checking the library for a new series and I couldn't find anything similar to the series. I noticed at the Rogers Library, a series of books by Lois Lenski. The books look old and out of date. I have ,noticed them for several months. I finally decided to pick "Strawberry Girl" and feel in loved with the author. My observation of the books are they are very similar to the "Little House..." books. Her illustrations capture a folksy simplicity that I adore.
The best way to describe these books are as historical novels of children growing up in the early 1900's in different regions across America. Lois Lenski did extensive research on each book and give accurate details about each region. So, far...I haven't come across anything questionable and all of the booksim are wholesome. The girls and boys are courageous in all of her books. The books give a nice glimsed have what it would of been like to live in that time period.

I so appreciate that for her American Regional and the Roundabout America series she traveled to the places she wrote about and actually lived with local families. Their real-life experiences, as a whole, are the books, with names changed. She didn't just sit down and make up these stories. She lived among the people and work these amazing stories.

It's a real shame, that most of her works are out of print. I'm going to end up spending a small fortune in building up my own collection.

Here's the list of books I have read so far...

Strawberry Girl

Blue Ridge Billy

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison

Bayou Suzette

Shoo-Fly Girl

Every child would greatly benifit from these books. The best way to teach and learn about history is thru historical novels. I thought the books had a nice cross between the "Little House.." books and American Girl books. Don't miss out, especially if you have girls. The girls in these books are not silly but strong and they all have challenges that they have to overcome. You can re-read these books over and over again. You wouldn't get tired of them.

Endless Summer

2011-05-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

I'm slowly working my way thru hundreds of pictures from our trip to
Oahu. I decided to speed up the process and just put together a quick slideshow of our very last evening in Hawaii. The Sunset at Wiamea Bay is amazing. The waves were unbelievable, the sunset was near prefect, and evening was just down right amazing. Nothing more magically, than spending the evening watching the sunset.

Double Sided

2011-05-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time, since I have used my sewing machine. After Christmas, I had very little to do anything crafty. I came across this great fabric at Hobby Lobby. As soon as I laid my eyes on it. I know that I had to have it. It's very spring like fabric.

This apron is double sided which is just fun...it's not very praticial about it. You can only wear one side at a time but it just keeps things interesting. Surprising this apron only took less than two days to put together. One day to cut out and one day to sew! Anyone came make this apron. It's not perfect but that's okay because I'm not prefect either.

So, what do you think?

The All American Sport

2011-05-10T05:32:00.001-07:00

Bentonville Youth Baseball

Team: The Yankees

Spring 2011

Landon looks really good in his uniform!

Landon's very first time playing baseball. It turns out all of the kids on the team have played at least 3 or 4 years already. I had no idea that parents start off their kids at such a young age. I personally, find the game real boring. Landon is really enjoying it. It's a lot of sitting around in the dug out or standing out in the field. I wouldn't lie but I haven't been completely happy about the whole baseball thing. I didn't realize their is a lot of politics involved in the game. I know the coaches want the kids to win but I think at this age it should be about having a good time not so much on winning every game. Landon hasn't had too many opportunities but the coach is giving him more chances out in the field. He told me at the beginning that Landon has the potential to go far. He just lacks experienced compared to his teammates but that doesn't stop him from preforming well.

If you closely, he is holding the game ball. Landon plays third base which he is still learning. I'm learning as well. I don't appreciate the mom sitting in front of me criticizing Landon on third base. The little guy is learning...I'm not going to be so nice next time. Everything she was saying was true but it's little league back off lady. Next time, I'm going to say something and it would be pretty. Y'll know I'm pretty straight forward!

Okay, back to the game. Landon went up to the bat. All of the bases were loaded. Landon hit the ball. It just barely rolled in front of him. All of the kids managed to run into home. The other team tried to throw the ball to the second base man but he missed the ball. Landon didn't run into home because of some rule about limited number of runs allowed. The score went from visitor 3 and home 6. The scored managed to come up tied to 6 and 6. The other team came up to bat after this and they managed to get in one more run in and Landon's team lost the game but that's not the point.

Landon was able to bring the team back from nothing to almost winning the game. Everyone in the stands were jumping up and screaming when Landon hit the ball and the kids managed to get three balls. Landon was selected to receive the game ball for his outstanding performance. He never thought he would get a game ball. I'm so proud of him.

I hope, I'm making sense. It's not my thing but it's not called the all American sport for nothing.

Teacher Appreciation gifts

2011-05-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

Let me just say, I feel like the worst homeroom mom at the moment. I completely forgot that it was teacher appreciation week for the boy's school. Hello, I'm the room mom and I didn't plan anything special to do for Landon's teacher. I know teacher's are stressed and busy grading papers. I feel like the most I could is come up with something to show our appreciation.

I decided with the week half way over that it would be best to keep things as simple as possible. I have Enrichment this week plus other things going on in my life. I wanted to go to the school and have all the kids take part in making a tied fleece blanket to give to the teacher but I'm short on time. So, the next best things is come up with some homemade gifts.

First things first, I found this cute label that says "I'm a little STRESSED right now...(just turn around and leave quietly and no one gets hurt.)" I decided to go with a garden theme kinda...it's last minute. The kids attached flowers of sticks with a small label that says "A teacher helps a child grow". We attached them on a packaged of Hawaiian Isles Kona Coffee Co. Thanks, William for the coffee...No, I don't drink coffee but I'm not going to take someone agency away. If teachers want to drink it then go for it.

I just finished knitting a couple of dishrags which we wrapped around the coffee bag. Plus, Leah and I made a batch of Pumpkin Bread which had to be thrown out in the garbage. This is the problem with having little people helping in the kitchen. I forgot to add the baking soda. It was such a sad state of mind when I realized we forgot a thing or two. We had to completely remake the bread. ARGHH!!!!!! Oh, I don't even want to go into all the drama to day with Leah...Oh, I was fuming upset with her earlier at the dentist office but that's another post.

The kids finished the project with some cute homemade cards to go with all the treats.

I hope my kids teacher's know how much we appreciate their hard work. I know the pay isn't the greatest and it's not always easy but both of my kids love their teachers.

It's all about LOVE

2011-05-02T09:33:00.000-07:00

In years past, I wouldn't lie we have had a hard time balancing out the commercialized side of Easter and the true meaning of Easter. The area we live in makes it hard sometimes to keep all of the Easter celebrations under control. Every city and church offers a full range of activities from Easter egg hunts and carnivals. It's very easy to get caught up with all the fun activities and not enough emphasis on the true meaning of the holiday which is the Savior.

While I think it is really important that the true meaning of Easter (and of other religious holidays) be the focus of the day, I do think it is ok to have a little fun with holidays as well. Basically, there needs to be a balance. Leroy and I managed to make it back in time to celebrate Easter with the kids. We only had a few days before Easter to come up with our plan of action. The weather caused most of our plans to change at the last minute but to tell you the truth it really helped us to keep the holiday more simple and more spiritual.

Here's what we did to make the holiday more special with the kids plus grandma and grandpa Nichols were here to celebrate Easter as a whole family. We dyed Easter eggs, indoor Easter egg hunt, and we attended a very nice Easter egg hunt at Landon's friend church which was really nice plus it had a good balance between learning about the atonement and the fun side.

My mom made Resurrection rolls with the kids. Everyone really enjoyed this activity and they taste good as well.

Ingredients:
One can of crescent roll dough
8 large marshmallows (or one for each roll you’ll be making)
Melted butter
Cinnamon sugar
Bible or Easter storybook
Assemble rolls and read the story:
1. Read John 19 while the oven is pre-heating according to the package directions. If you’re really on top of things, spend the week before reading John 12-18 with your kids.
2. Unroll the crescent rolls. Explain that this is like the cloth they wrapped Jesus in.
3. Give your child a marshmallow and explain that it represents Jesus… all white and pure because He was without sin.
4. Roll the marshmallows in the melted butter. This symbolizes the embalming oils.
5. Roll the marshmallows in the cinnamon sugar. This is like the spices used to prepare his body for burial.
6. Wrap the marshmallow in the crescent roll cloth, pinching the dough together securely. Don’t worry about the shape so much, they’ll taste the same no matter how you roll or bundle them. This represents how they would have wrapped Jesus’ body. I like to brush them with more melted butter, but it’s not necessary.
7. Put the rolls in the oven (symbolizing the tomb) and bake for the amount of time specified on the package.
8. While the rolls are baking, read John 20:1-18.
9. Open the tomb and remove the rolls. When they’re cool enough to handle, break one open and discover what happened to the marshmallow. Jesus is risen! At this point, I also read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. Jesus is coming again!

Several years ago, a good friend gave me this Easter bunny cake pan. She told me that every year she would make this cake for her kids and it was a special tradition and she was going to pass it onto me. I made it one time, several years ago. Every year, I would feel the guilt of not making the cake. So, this year I decided to stop making excuses and I whipped up this really cute Easter cake.

The final three activities:
1.) Easter baskets that contained only candy no gifts. I'm really surprised how many people give their kids bikes and all kinds of material gifts. This I used to give the kids bubbles and kites in their baskets but I wouldn't be doing that anymore. I don't want the holiday to turn into a huge production plus I don't want it to be so commericalized.
2.) Several years ago, I put together my own set of Resurrection rolls. I just googled it and made one that fits our family. The kids love this lesson and I just have the older kids read each strip of paper. The set contains twelve eggs with a message and symbol that tells the Easter story.
3.) I pulled out all of the pictures from my gospel picture kids. I had the kids take turns telling the story about the Resurrection. I'm super surprised that Landon knew every picture and story. This was the last activity we did on Easter which was followed up with Easter Bunny Cake!

Oh my, I'm not sure if any one is still reading this post but I just have one more thing to say about celebrating the Easter holiday. I love getting the kids new clothes to wear for Easter Sunday. While in Hawaii, I was able to pick up my mom and the kids matching Hawaiian dresses.

I know that the Savior lives and he made it possible for us to return to him because of the Atonement and Resurrections. The greatest gift he gave us was LOVE so we would be able to return to him and Heavenly Father in Heaven. So, it's all about Love.

My Favorite Things in Sunset Beach

2011-04-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Three spots that every person needs to visit while at Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

1.) Ted's Bakery

The absolutely best thing about Sunset Beach isn't the beach it's Ted Bakery! I love their pies and the Chocolate Haupia Cream Pie is utterly to die for! We ended up making two trips to Ted's. This would explained why I gained ten pounds on our trip to Oahu.

Drooling...seriously, the best thing ever created!

2.) Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau State Historic Site

A little less than two miles past Sunset Beach on the Kamehameha Highway (and before you get to Waimea Bay), watch for Pupukea Road on your left (across from Pupukea fire station). This road will take you up to the Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau State Historic Site and O'ahu's largest Hawaiian heiau (temple), covering almost 2 acres.

The name is translated as "hill of escape". Believed to have been constructed in the 17th century and expanded in the 18th century.

As indicated on the park's website, "Undoubtedly, this heiau played an important role in the social, political, and religious system of Waimea Valley which was a major occupation center of O'ahu in the pre-contact period."

Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962 in recognition of its importance to Hawaiian culture and history. Also in 1962, the 4-acre property encompassing the heiau was placed under the jurisdiction of State Parks to preserve this significant site for future generations.

Human sacrifices took place at this Old Hawaiian Temple but don't let this scare you off.

3. Old WW2 Bunker and Lookout

This is the most amazing part of the Old Hawaiian Temple site is the little path that leads down to an old WW2 bunker that over looks Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach. This part of the site you will not find in any travel book. We use to come to this very site when we used to live in Hawaii over 11 years ago. The view is breath taking and down right beautiful. The pictures don't do justice. Plus, if you come to this site you can spot whales during the winter months. We use to stop off at this very spot to spot whales and it's amazing to seem them out in the ocean.

One of the best kept secrets on the North Shore. All three places are worth stopping at plus don't forget to check out Sunset Beach! So, instead of three places it's actually four! A little bit of pie, breath taking views, killer waves, whale watching, and a very interesting historical site. If you ever get a chance...check it out. You wouldn't regret it!

Flood 2011

2011-04-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

Six days of rain equals lots of excess water which leads to dam's in the area overflowing with water!,

We seriously, didn't see the sun shine for six days straight...just never ending rain!

The sky did managed to clear up for a few short hours which resulted in a quick last minute trip Tanyard Creek. I figured with all of the rain that the waterfall would be AWESOME! We managed to hike up to the very top of the Dam and worked our way back down to the waterfall.

The simple flow and force of water is amazing. Just check out the photos. I have never seen such a powerful force of water coming down the waterfall before at Tanyard Creek. We have been coming to Tanyard Creek since Landon was only 4 weeks old.

We spent the rest of the time exploring different areas of the creeks. It wasn't too long before the sky went from sunny to a real scary black clouds. It seriously, happened with a blink to the eye! I told the kids we better cut this hike short and head back to the van. We barely made it back before the rain started to come down again in buckets full of rain!

On Top of Lake Windsor Dam...Flood gates are OPEN!

Checking out the views of Tanyard Creek Waterfall!

Spring time is my favorite time at Tanyard Creek!

Too much of a good thing can quickly become bad thing. We love rain but enough already!

Plus, it's expected to rain for a few more days...hopefully, we wouldn't have to build an Ark!

My Old Alumni

2011-04-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Flashback without any old photos of me at BYUH; sorry, all of my photos were from pre-digital age! While on the trip, we decided to spend three nights up at our old stomping ground at BYU-Hawaii. I attend from 1996-2000 and Leroy attended from 1995-2000 (yes, you read that right...it took him two major changes which realized in an extra of schooling)! Like, I said we decided to bum around the school and check out all of our old favorite spots. You wouldn't believe how many people came up to us thinking we're students attending school. I thought it was really funny. I don't look like I use to back in the late night 90's. I'm not 18, 19, 20, or 21 yrs old but over 30! It was just like being young and just barely married with no responsibilities. We literally just walk around the school and reminiscing about how life use to be. Carefree, adventitious, and down right FUN! It wasn't an accident that Leroy and I ended up attending school together at BYUH at the same time. Seriously, blessing in so many ways. Going back to my old Hale left me overwhelmed with tears and emotions. I can't believe how much fun; I used to have with all of my old room mates. BYUH opened the doors for so many wonderful experiences. Seriously, the best four years of my life.

Life changing events to place at this very special school. Don't ask me what I learned in the classroom because I really wasn't paying to much attention. Life experiences have helped me to grow in so many ways especially meeting my husband and being sealed together forever in the Laie Hawaii Temple back in Sept. 1998.

Wow...it's crazy to think we have been married for almost 13 years. I want to be young and carefree again but that's not very realistic. Thanks, for taking this short trip down memory lane.

A time to reflect

2011-04-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

The first day on our trip was spent traveling to the island of Oahu and getting ourselves settled in Honolulu. We spent the first night on the floor of Leroy's brother William apartment on a blow up mattress. It really wasn't to bad and it made this really interesting but then again we're really cheap.

The next day, Leroy decided to go into work with William to help him with a computer network problem. I figured it would be bonding time for them and it would be a good time to see some of the historical sites by myself. Leroy doesn't like going to museum and has different ideas on what he likes to do while on vacation. I took this time to hit up the palace and some of the museums that are right next to the palace. Here's a list of things to do while in Honolulu if your a history buff.

As one of the two palaces in the United States, a visit to the ‘Iolani Palace is definitely something you shouldn't’t miss. There are guided tours available that takes you to the first and second floors of the palace in addition to a self-guided tour of the basement gallery exhibits. If history is your thing, then this is one of the best places to experience and see Hawaiian history first-hand.

There are also things to see around the palace. Fronting it is the world-famous King Kamehameha Statue, and across Punchbowl Street from the statue is Kawaihao Church. On the same grounds as the church is the Mission Houses Museum and the King Lunalilo Mausoleum.

The Hawaii State Capitol is also just behind ‘Iolani Palace in addition to the Hawaii State Library. Honolulu Hale (city hall) is across Punchbowl Street from the palace as well.

The end of the Hawaiian monarchy is sad and depressing. I know this is a little bit sad of my part to admit but I have never been to any of these places before in Oahu. I used to live their and never went to the palace or any of the historical building. If you haven't been before and you're planning on returning back to Hawaii make sure to take a couple of hours to hit all of the historical sites. It's a very humbling experience.

Book Reviews

2011-03-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows Book Review: I have mixed emotions about recommending this book. I didn't exactly love it or hate it! I did find the book interesting but I didn't realize it was about the German occupation in the Channel Islands. My two biggest issues with the book...The book is all letters being written back and forth from friends. I would of like a little bit of narration in between all the letters plus it would of made the book flow a little bit easier in the beginning. Also, something else bugged me about this book but I'm not going to get into with this post. It's a nice historical novel but it's okay in my opinion. I would give it three stars out of five.

3 Willows-The Sisterhood Grows by Ann Brashares

I swore off this writer after finishing The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book number four. I wasn't happy with the last book in the series. So, when I came across this book...I had my doubts. Sometimes, it's best to end a series not keep it going but I was wrong. I LOVED IT!!!!!! I want more stories about these three friends. The author has redeemed herself. This book is good for girls 14 and up. The traveling pants series is good for grown woman looking back into their own teen years. I wouldn't recommend them for actual teens.

Flip-Flop Girl by Katherine Paterson

I accidently, deleted the picture of the book. ARGHH, I hate Blogger.com and this is one of the reason I don't like to blog much anymore.

I love Katherine Paterson books...I mean...I love them all.

It's a quick short read but it still delievers a powerful message at the end of the book.

It's about friendship, death, no judging, and owning up to mistakes.

This book is good for anyone 8 years old and up!

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I'm hoping to make it to book group but it's always starts so freak'n late at night. If I don't make it than I will come back and write up a review. This book is a classic and it's message is so powerful. I would read it over a hundred times and never get tried from reading it.

New Adventures

2011-03-20T05:16:00.001-07:00

Landon started another new adventure....BASEBALL!

My little guy is the newest member to the Yankee's baseball team.

Landon had his first pratice yesterday, it was so cold and windy outside. I felt really bad, he didn't have a jacket to wear but it wasn't too long before he had all of the boys of his team warming up.

As soon as we made it to the field, I introduced myself to the couch. I told him that his was Landon's first time ever playing baseball. I was super nervous, all the kids had super fancy gloves and equipment. Landon had on his Gold Rush 5k t-shirt, sweat pants, and nike's running shoes. Can we say this boy is a runner not normally a baseball player. Poor, Landon had his cheap baseball glove. I can't believe my eyes on how much parents must spend on fancy equipment. I felt a little on the cheap side but we will be trying to upgrade his equipment next week.

The wind was whipping around like crazy...I tried to take the kids to play at the park but it was too cold outside. One day it's nice outside and the next day it's gone all crazy cold, again. Landon looked really outside on the field. The kids were busy throwing and catching the ball back and forth to each other.

Well, Landon's practice came to an end. His coach came up to me and asked if he heard me right when I told him that Landon had never played before? I told him that was correct and this was his first time playing. Well, it turns out that Mr. Landon is a natural. His couch told me that Landon plays really good.

I feel super blessed to have a son that is good at anything he tries. He never gives up on himself except for the occasional "I have to be prefect meltdown" and he truly believes in himself. Right now, in karate Landon has his yellow belt. In less than six months he has earned two belts. His teacher is super hard and he makes the kids earn their belts. A lot of sports just give the kids medals for being there but Landon's teacher really makes them earn them.

One last thing, they like to practices on Sunday, which we will not be attended; too bad! Also, the new night that has schedule for practices is Monday night at 8:00 pm. Who in there right mind schedules practices on a school night that late at night. I'm not sure if Landon will be attending Monday nights because he has Karate from 5:30-6:30pm.

So, Bentonville Youth Baseball is already on my bad list but hopefully, it will be worth it in the end.

Valentine's Day Party

2011-02-15T05:05:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Whited 2nd Grade Class Party

The great adventures of being Mrs. Whited Home Room Mom for Landon's 2nd grade class. I had the pleasured of planning and coordinating all three parties by myself. Yes, just me. The majority of the parents in Landon's class didn't want to be involved makes you wonder how involved they're in their own children's life. Mrs. Whited told the lack of involvement was not normal. So, I had no input from anyone which can be nice because it was up to me to come up with all the ideas and plans. Once again, I sent out a nice email asking for donations. I only heard back from two parents. No big surprise...I just decided to eat the cost of the party. I don't want the kids to be disappointed.

Well, I emailed Landon's teacher the morning of the party. She never replied back to me which I thought was strange but I figure she must be very busy. Leah and I managed to get to the school about 45 minutes early to set up for the party. As soon as we walked into Landon's class room we discovered why Mrs. Whited didn't email back...she had a family emergency and is out of town. The sub was really nice but she was left with no written instructions. The students ended up having indoor recess which meant I wasn't able to set up for the party. So, Leah and I headed down to Logan's Class party. We managed to stay for the first 15 minutes but we had to leave to go back upstairs to Landon's class to finish setting up for the party.

The Sub didn't know what was going on with the party. Mrs Whited wanted me to have the kids make V-day cards. She told me that she had all the supplies but I really didn't want to do a craft. So, I just decided to hold that piece of information from the Sub. I figured probably had no clue where the teacher had the supplies. When Mrs. Whited comes back in town, if she still wants the kids to make cards than she can do it then with the kids. This was the plan....a book, a special surprised, dancing and games, another surprised.

Read Aloud

"One Zillion Valentine's" by Frank Modell

The first surprised came after reading this book. The book is about two boys that make a ton of Valentine's Day cards which they pass out but they have too many left over. So, the boys decided to sell them. They take the money and buy a box of chocolates to share with out. After, I finished reading the book...I told the kids I had a surprised for them from the book. I pulled a HUGE heart shape box of chocolates! You should of seen the looks on the kids faces...Priceless!

I gave each student one piece of chocolate and a napkin. I made all the students wait to eat their chocolates at the same time. I didn't want some students to try get another piece. I told the kids if they got something that they didn't like to just spit it out in their napkin and throw it in the trash can. Only one kid forgot to wait but that's okay. The kids loved it. Chocolate on Valentine's day is always a must.

It wouldn't be a party without some dancing and games.

1. Licorice Eating Contest-I placed one piece of red licorice on each desk. I had the students sit down at their desk with their hands behind their back. The student who finished eating his licorice first without using their hands would win bragging rights plus a prize. I did give every student a pencil that finished their licorice.

2. Stop and Go by Gregg and Steve which is the best kids band ever invented. I seriously, love all of their albums. This song is like the freeze dance except it's stop and go instead of saying freeze. (The whole class loved this activity except my son, who just stood their the whole time)

3. The Limbo by Gregg and Steve cd called Shake, Rattle, and Rock. We managed to do two rounds of Limbo. The kids loved it. Landon wasn't happy when I told him we were moving onto another game.

4. Pass the box with a special surprised! I picked up heart shape straws at walmart for this activity. I wrapped up the straws in a box and wrapped it about six times with tissues paper. I had the students sit in a big circle. This game works a lot like hot potatoe. I started up the music and whoever was holding the box when the music stop got to wrap one layer of tissue party. The last person to unwrap the box got to open up the surprised.

Now the fun party, the girl open up the box and showed the kids in the class the straws. I asked the kids what they thought the straws were used for? The kids said all kinds of answers but none of them were right. The only parent that comes and helps me with the class parties told the kids that they were getting water to drink with their straws. You should of seen the look of disappointment on the kids faces. Well, I finally spoke up and told the kids that the straws were for ROOT BEER FLOATS. The kids seriously freaked out. All of the kids, were jumping up down, hugging each other, screaming. The class went WILD. The poor Sub was trying so hard to get the kids to calm down. I'm sure the whole upstairs floor heard my class screaming. You would of thought the kids had won the lottery.

So, the final surprised was root beer floats and the kids loved it.

5. Postman

The last thing the kids did was pass out their V-Day Cards. After the kids were done passing out their cards they were able to eat their rootbeer floats and open up their cards.

Wow, that was one long and crazy party. We even managed to finish up on time! The hour went by sooooooooooo fast! Several of the kids came up to me told me that the party was the best ever party. One boy told me that his old school they never had parties like this and he loved it. Another kid told me that I'm a very good teacher. Oh, I was sooooooooo happy! My last and final party was a huge success.

I'm really glad that I decided to step up take on his position. It hasn't been easy due to lack of parents involvement but I don't regret it. The only thing that I do regret is not making sure my camera was working. I forgot to put in the memory stick. I was so bummed that I wasn't able to take pictures of the party. The looks on the kids faces were priceless when they found out about the last surprised.

The party was educational and fun. I didn't do the normal boring games or activities. I decided to step out of the box and come up with a really fun party.

I only one more event to plan for the school year. Teacher appreciation week...any ideas?

Happy New Years

2010-12-31T18:17:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a safe and happy New Years Eve!!!!

On a short note...we decided to celebrate early.

We did several things to kick off the celebration...a combination of chores and goals!

1. Decided it would be fun to run ten miles into the new year. I really wish now we would of done 11 miles for 2011 but we didn't think about it at the time.

2. We took down all of the Christmas Decorations and carried the tree down the ravine which is a tradition. The boys had fun carrying it with dad plus they checked out the cove that's down there by the lake.

3. Logan had to get his reading assignment. In less than, a week he went from not being able to read a single word to reading very simple sentences.

4. I decluttered my wardrobe and decided to get rid of a lot of old clothes.

5. Leroy and the boys had some bonding time shooting his pellet gun.

6. I didn't spend any money this week but leroy had a couple of slip ups.

7. All the kids ate their dinner and we meet another goal leading up to New Years. We sat down as a family and ate together.

8. We also read scriptures at the dinner table as a family for the whole week as well.

9. So, we meet several goals.

10. Time to celebrate. Leroy took the kids to the border and bought fireworks to celebrate reaching our accomplishments.

11. So, we celebrated early...I can't wait to meet our new goals for the year.

12. Also, I'm working hard on my new weight loss plan. I'm hoping to drop five pounds by the end of Jan.

Marshmallow Sciene

2010-12-29T09:11:00.000-08:00

What do with the kids when it's too cold to go outside to play... a pratical sciene experiemnt. I told a good friend that we would not be joining them to Jump zone today becuase I told my hubby I wouldn't not spend any money this week. It really sucks to pass up a good opportunity to spend it with friends and even harder to tell someone you can't do something becuase you don't have money. Life stinks sometimes. I really fighting the urge not to run to the store for every little thing. So, I came across this idea at ABC-123 blog and here's the link to the blog, if you want to do the same thing.

The kids loved this idea...We decided to be smart and use the marshmallows that I have in the cabinet left over from Xmas and some old Halloween Peeps. The boys were so excited...what boy wouldn't be excited about playing with a candle of course with proper supervision. We discussed all the different aspects of how a flame works, why does the marshmallow burn faster when it's closer to the flame, we talked about how the marshmallow changes when it's heated up. I could go on but I don't want to bore you with all the details...you get my point.

I came to the conclusion that you don't need money to have fun and it sucks having to tell a friend "no" becuase you don't have the money. I'm really working hard on fighting the urge not to run to the store everytime I want something for the kids. Plus, being my kids teacher is very rewarding and fun!

Logan's Reading Tree

2010-12-29T08:45:00.001-08:00

I never thought this day would come...Landon was reading before he started Kindergarten so I was hoping for the same thing for Logan but that didn't happened. His teacher told me not to worry but I wouldn't lie it concerned. Since Logan started school in the fall...I would pull out my Phonics Pathways book which is the same book that I used wtih Landon. He flat out refused to do it. So, on Monday...I decided to give it another try. Sure enough...he was sounds out simple short vowel words.

I love how this book is set up. The directions are very clear and simple to follow. The student learns how to read by using strictly phonics not sight words. Logan's class has been working on sight words which are great but it's not really reading it's just memorizing words. It really gives a child a false sense of reading. As soon as a child comes across a word that he doesn't know it freaks them out. I think both methods have their merits but I love this program.

To keep Logan's attention and help him see his progress. I came up with this great idea. We made a tree on his bedroom door. For every words, he can sound out and read he gets a leaf to put on his door. He only has about ten minute attention span. This is really helping. Logan is reading one page in the morning and one page right before bed. After reading each word, he writes down the word on a leaf...but I decided to change this up. I have him write up to six words and I do the rest. It was a little bit to much of reading and writing in one session.

I'm so proud of him. Reading is hard work but Logan's reading confidence is getting better each day. It wouldn't be long and he will be reading by himself.

4 years ago

2010-12-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Leah was finally evicted...after weeks of false labor. I finally gave up trying to go into labor on my own. It only took the doctor breaking my water for Leah to make her grand entrance. I think I was in labor for a total of four hours. Let me just preface...I wasn't overdue. My boys only weighed about 7 lbs each. I have know idea where she came from...the german side of my husband's family. Is the only thing I can think of...because it's four years later and she's still a big girl!

Birthday

9 lbs 4 oz

4 years old

38 pounds

On a side note...I just finished making Leah's birthday cake. The look on her face explains it all.

Free Canvas Gift

2010-12-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

A really cool Christmas gift to all of my friends.

One free 8x10 canvas print...it's $50 value.

You still have to pay for shipping but's still an awesome deal.

I decided to go ahead and order my favorite picture of my little girl to hang up in her room.

Click here, if you want to save $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ money!

The Best Christmas Gift Ever....

2010-11-30T05:39:00.001-08:00

Our gift from Heavenly Father

My little girl is about to turn "4"!

I still can't believe it.

My Latest Creation!!!!

2010-11-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

My sewing buddy came over and help me make this really cool Hobo Bag. It's lined with a contrasting fabric and it's soooo awesome. I just need to add a nice wool bird on the front pocket to finish up the bag. This bag took me less than four hours from start to finish. If you want the write I can write it up by hand. I made my own pattern and it turned out awesome.

Tulsa Zoo

2010-11-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

No time to blog...sorry, my blog sucks most of the time. Life just keeps on getting busier and busier with each passing day. I thought once the kids reached a certin age I would have tons of free time but I was sooooo wrong.

During Thanksgiving break, I had planned to go to the Tulsa Zoo with several friends. At the last minute everyone bailed on me. I wasn't about to dissappointed the kids. I decided to take the to the zoo by myself. I know some of you would of thought that would of been crazy idea to go to the zoo with three kids all by myself.

I figured it would be best to keep them busy instead of being home and bored which is never a good idea.

This was our first trip to Tulsa Zoo...I seriously don't know why I never ventured to take them to this zoo before. It's the prefect size zoo not to small or big. The price was just right.

The kids were amazingly good. I was a miracle. A two hour drive to the zoo...no problems, four hours at the zoo, and two hours back home again no problems. Who took my kids space aliens. The kids were so well behaved. Leroy thought for sure I would call him at work to complained about the kids but I didn't.

So, if you haven't made the trip yet. You need to go! I swear...I have lived her for NINE years and this was the first time to the zoo. I always thought it would be really expensive but it's not. It only cost us $20 for one adult and three kids to get in.

Logan's favorite animal was the giraffe. He keep talking about how hard it must be to catch a giraffe to put into a zoo. Silly boy...I'm sure most of the animals at the zoo where born into captivity. Also, the zoo will be opening a new exhibit for seals. Logan also talked alot how hard it's going to be for the zoo to catch the sea loins...lol.

Anyhoo's...I feel so blessed to be able to spend the whole day with the kids without any distractions. We didn't even look at the clock once we were at the zoo. We just loved living in the NOW.

Also...one more last minute note...Leah couldn't stand the smell of the inside animal houses. She kept on pinching her nose to keep out the smell. It was really cute!

Gooble, Gooble Turkey T Shirt

2010-11-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

Less than two hours...one turkey shirt applique done!

BRRRRRRR

2010-11-09T02:23:00.001-08:00

This is where you will find me, on Saturday mornings with my cardio group. I'm part of a free running group which is open to anyone and everyone. Every Saturday, we meet up and run together wether it's hot or extremely cold. BRRRRR....It's only 24 degrees outside.

Look cloesly at hte picture...I'm one of the few ladies who doesn't have a some type of ear covering. I still couldn't believe how fast the weather can change around here. I decided no more cold ears for me. Why not try to knit up a headband. I was really jealous of all of my friends headbands. Nothing like running with numb ears. So, if you scroll down you will find the pattern and pictures of the finally project.

Plus, I'm going to knit up a couple more headband to give away as xmas gifts for my running friends.

Alpaca Headband

Yarn: Yarn Bee-med weighted Alpaca/acrylic yarn-color: Damson

Amount: 40 yards

Gauge: 3.5 stitches per inch on size 11 needles

Finished Dimension: 2.75 x 18 inches (will fit up to 23 inch cicumference when worn as pictured above)

Pleas note: I used size 11 needles but next time I'm planning on using size 10.

Cast on 13 stitches

Work back and forth in knit stitch-slip the last stitch in each row knitwise to produce a nice edge.

work until approximate length.

Bind off.

I used the mattress seem method to connect the two ends.

Unfinished Projects

2010-11-07T05:53:00.000-08:00

Last year, I started this project but I never finished it. It's amazing all the stuff, I have not finished over the years. I thought it was quite silly me, the loom and knitting supplies sat in my desk drawer. I decided to finish it this weekend. The hat was so easy and fast. A total of three hours...done. One less thing, to have to haunt me. Another completed project. Plus, it's cute.

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

It's about time to head out and go trick or treating with the kids. We're just going to visit the neighborhoods with Destiny's family. A fun evening making new friends and fellowshiping with our neighbors. Logan had a low grade fever earlier this morning but he appears to be feel'n better. Tomorrow, is a school day. So, we wouldn't be out to long.

Also, Happy Birthday...Mom!

Scary Run

2010-10-30T11:00:00.001-07:00

Running, it's my life. It's the best way to keep my weight down, it's great therapy, it's fun, I love the way my legs look, and the best part is setting the example for my kids.

I wasn't planning on having Landon run with me this morning. This is one of the fastest 5k courses in the area. I really wanted to bet my time from this spring. Landon begged and begged to come with me. I caved.

Landon hasn't even been training plus the little guy is only eight! I decided to bring him and I'm glad I did. I thought it was going to cost me $25 to enter the race but they didn't charge me because of his age. Yippee!

The only bad part was the weather. BRRRRR, it was super cold not as cold as last year but cold. My toes were frozen and my muscles were stiff. I wasn't sure how things would work out in the end.

The race was hard at first. My legs felt like lead plus I couldn't feel my toes. I wouldn't lie...it sucked big time.

Once, we made it to the one mile marker...I was happy with our pace 9:20. I was really hoping to have a nice strong finish. We must of slowed down a little bit during the second mile because our time was 19:00 at that point. I told Landon the third mile we were going to kick it up a third gear.

As we approached the playground, I looked down at my watch. I started to panic. Oh, no...I'm not going to bet my fastest time. Darrn't...Landon and I took off fast. Landon said he didn't know what happened but his legs went flying to the finish line.

Yes, I crossed the finish line before him by a few seconds. I figured it wouldn't be long and I wouldn't be able keep up with him. The kids a natural.

I finished at 28:20 and Landon finished shortly after me.

The end of it...I learned that running isn't always about me. I'm so glad that I was able to share this experience with Landon.

The only bad part was Landon really wanted to win a door prize. I managed to win $40 dollars in free car washes and Landon didn't get anything. He was so MAD. He told me he didn't want to run in another race with me because I always win a prize. Little kids can be really funny.

Also, I'm so proud of all of my church friends that came out to run. Everyone should be so proud of themselves. Running with friends and son makes me HAPPY.

5th Annual T or T

2010-10-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Don't let the Princess costume fool you...she's 100% tomboy.

I'm sucker when it comes to celebrating Halloween. The boys school isn't having their fall party which is really Halloween party this weekend. I decided to go ahead pull the boys out of school and have them attend Leah's preschool Halloween party.

This year, I made the costumes. Yippee...last year, I decided to buy them and it just wasn't as fun. My sewing buddy help me whip up this princess dress and we made the boys musketters outfits. The costumes turned out cute.

The Scheele's made their fifth appearance at Trick or Treating with the preschool. Yes, Five straight years at the Bella Vista Preschool. All three of my kids have attended back to back years starting in 2006...So, were working on our fifth year at the school.

All three kids love the preschool. I know some people don't care for the school becuase it's play based but let me tell you one thing. My kids love it and they always felt loved by their teacher and volunteers. When we started down the stairs to get to the classroom. Logan was so cute. He told me that going down the stairs made him HAPPY.

Every year, the preschool takes the kids trick or treating around the towncenter. They started off at Arvest bank and worked themselves around the Towncenter. The kids managed to come home with three full bags of goodies. I currently have the goodies stashed away. The kids are not happy but too bad.

Ten on Tuesday

2010-10-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

1. All of my children seem to have inherited my bad teeth. Leah as well the boys all have weak enameling. Over the summer, I knew her teeth were getting bad. Two big holes on the sides of two of her back molars. I really was worried about taking her to the dentist but she did great. It turns out the two big holes only needed fillings not caps like I had feared. Well, today Leah had her first dental procedure done. She did an awesome job. Everyone in the office, was raving about how has the prefect patient. She did exactly as she was told and didn't move out of place one time. The dentist told me that "she's one tough little girl!" Yup, that's right my daughter is TOUGH. Tough as Nails! The dental assistant told me that Leah was the best patient they had all morning long. I thought maybe she would be upset when they were done but she just got right up and walked right out the door by herself.

2. I'm almost done with Leah's bookcase. The only thing left is to paint it. I can't take full credit. I couldn't of done it without my dad and Leroy's help. I will post picture when it's done. It's going to be PINK.

3. I decided to make it easy on the kids this year and crave their pumpkins. I had them draw their picture they wanted cut out and I did the rest. No, crying this year. Also, Leah remember craving pumpkins with Grandpa from last year. It's amazing the things kids can remember. She was only 2 years old at the time.

4. Leroy's going to fix up the house. Hopefully, new carpet and windows for the sunroom. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

5. The kids costumes are done. Leah's going as a princess and the boys are musketeers. I'm still looking for boy turtle necks. I guess their not selling them anymore. Their costumes might be slightly unfinished looking.

6. I'm busy working on getting everything ready for this year's Super Saturday. If you look on my facebook page you can click on the link to see what where making this year.

7. Leah told me that boys and girls are different that boy parts stick out...lol! She's getting too big.

8. Report card time...Landon did really well except for Social Studies. I thought for sure he would have straight A's but his determined to work harder to bring up his grades.

9. Logan's doing great at school. His teacher loves him. She told me that she would take a whole classrooms full of Logan's. We need to work with him on a few things like he doesn't know how to rhyme. Any suggestions?

10. Destiny is still attending YW's. Last week, they had a mutual activity at Lake Ann. The youth went on a spooky hay ride and they roasted hot dogs and played games. She loves going to church and she's already made a ton of friends.

11. Also, both of the boys are attending Karate again. Logan decided to give it another try and loves it. The boys are working hard on earning their first belt.

Mt. Nebo

2010-10-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Pictures coming soon...

Pumpkin-tillas

2010-10-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Seriously, the easiest snack ever and the yummiest! I'm really proud of myself. One bite into these bad boys you wouldn't want to stop eating them. I seriously, can't believe how good these are plus some-what healthily.

Pumpkin-Tilla's

Plain Tortillas

Brown Sugar

White Sugar

Cinnamon

Cool Whip-made with real cream--a plus!

Directions:

Punch out the pumpkins using a metal cookie cutter and put them on a cookie sheet.

Spread butter on top of the pumpkin tortillas.

Mix equals parts of brown and white sugar in a small bowl with some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.

Sprinkle sugar mixture on top of each pumpkin.

Broil in the oven for a few minutes...don't leave the oven. These pumpkins will burn fast if you're not watching it.

You want the sugar to caramelize.

Serve, it with whipped topping.

One bite, you wouldn't be able to stop.

I also sprinkled some Halloween sprinkles to make it more festive.

Seriously, you have to try these...seriously good.

if you want more ideas check out...

Candy Corn Pudding and more!

2010-10-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine told me once to make sure to make each and every holiday special because it's a great way to build special memories. Last year, I was busy with myself and we didn't do too much. So, this year..I'm kicking it up a notch.

I love candy corn...it's the one thing that screams FALL. I managed to put together a candy corn wreath and some yummy Candy Corn Pudding. Leah helped with both projects...my little girl is such a big helper. I lover her, so much!

Candy Corn Pudding

1 small box of Banana Creme Instant Pudding

1 small box of White Chocolate Instant Pudding

1 small box of Butterscotch Instant Pudding

6 Cups of Milk

Red and Yellow Food Coloring

Clear Plastic Cups-size small!

Candy Corn (optional)

Directions:

Make your Butterscotch pudding as directed on the box, using two cups of milk.

After it's mixed, add 20 drops of red food coloring and 25 drops of yellow food coloring. Mix well and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Now, make your Banana Creme pudding as directed on the box, using two cups of milk.

After it's mixed, add 20 drops of yellow food coloring. Mix well and refrigerate until your ready to use it.

You want to use the small clear plastic cups. I don't recommend using the tall plastic cups that's what I used by accident. I ended up buying the wrong size not realizing it at the store.

First, put the yellow pudding at the bottom of glass.

Next, the orange pudding.

Finally, add the white chocolate pudding or you could use cool whip topping.

Finish the pudding cups by putting a couple of Candy Corns in the center top of white pudding.

Okay, I also made the candy corn wreath. A big pain in the butt. I decided it would be a good idea to seal up the wreath by using Modge Podge...DON'T DO IT. The candy corn ended up all sticky and gross. I ended up having to scrap about half of it off. The wreath still looks good but every time I look at it just makes me want to scream. I hate it, when I screw a craft at the very final stage. Lessons learned the hard way!

if you want instructions on how to make your own wreath, Click here!

check out more here...
Thanks, for checking out my blog!

Pumpkin Pots

2010-10-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

Doing what my kids love best of all...CRAFTING especially my little guy Logan. The little guy is always into my craft supplies, drawing his own picture books, and just plain fun to play with. Logan and Leah both made their own pumpkins. Logan decided he wanted to draw a picture of his very own pumpkin. I'm not sure if you can see all the details but the little guy has a very special gift.

If you want to make the craft with your own kids it's super easy.

Ceramic pots

Paint

Foam Paint Brushes

Green Wooden Blocks

Pipe Cleaner

Glossy Spray

Hot Glue

The first step in the process is to paint the pot orange. Let it dry for a good hour, draw on the face, and paint it in. I did write the name of each child on the back of each pot. You just face the pot upside down and hot glue the green block to be the stem. We add black pipe cleaner to be the vine.

Super easy and inexpensive the whole project cost less than $10...we're planning on making two more pumpkin pots.

Milk Jug Spiders

2010-10-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Cheap, inexpensive, and fun halloween crafing ideas. This idea came from my friend Ashley who found this idea from Family Fun magazine. I'm not really happy how they turned out but the kids love them and that's all that matters.

Isty Bitty Spider

2010-10-05T10:49:00.001-07:00

Fall is here...which means it's time to get ready for Halloween. I decided to make this dress for Leah. It's super easy. It's called T Shirt Twirl Dress. The whole thing cost less than $5 to make. My sewing buddy gave me the spider fabric and I just picked up a cheap Halloween T shirt from Walmart. The whole thing took less than two hours to make. From An Igloo: is where I found the online instructions on how to make this dress, click here. So, what do you think?

Sunday Morning

2010-10-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

The weather in my necks of the woods:

It's amazing how fast the weather can change. One moment it was blazing hot outside and now it's the prefect fall weather. The morning sky is nice clear, the weather is breezy cool but not freezing cold and the afternoons warm up perfectly. Talk about prefect fall weather.

Words Not Needed:

Things that make me happy:

After months of searching for my favorite apron pattern. I found it. Guess what, it was never missing. It was right inside my pattern box but inside a red bag inside the pattern box. I love wearing my apron but I'm sick and tired of fabric. I'm going to be spending the rest of the day online searching for some cute fabric to make myself a new apron.

Books I'm reading:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith-a brilliant book...I'm going to recommend this book for our next book group to read.

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs-I haven't started on this book but I loved the first book in the series. I didn't want to risk the book getting check out at the library. So, I picked it up and hopefully I will get a chance to read it next week.

Prelude To Glory by Ron Carter-The first book in this series was really good but the second book is really slow. I have been trying to finish this book since July.

Family Read Aloud book:

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Audio Books:

We listen to these in the van...I can't stand listening to the radio or even music. Listening to the same old songs over and over again bores me to death. I'm not a music lover!

Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates by Carolyn Crimi

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting-this book is read by William Sutherland and it's horrible. The kids can't understand him...I'm really sad but the English accent is very heavy and it's hard to follow along.

Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk

On the Banks of Plum Creek-Laura Ingalls Wilder-My boys love this audio book by Cherry Jones they could listen to this over and over again.

The Cat In The Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites by Dr. Suess

What's on my TV today:

To The Ends Of The Earth
Conference

On the menu for dinner:
Pork Chops, Mash Potatoes, Fried Okra, and Green Beans!

On my to do list:

Clean up Craft Room

New recipe to try:

This is a new recipe that I created..it's super awesome. The meat is so tender and yummy. It's prefect for a nice sunday dinner you can just put everything in the crock pot and it will be ready when you get home from church.

Lara's Crocky Crock Pot Roast

In the craft basket:

Sewing:

I'm working on the boy's costumes-Musketeers. I still need to finish up Leah's costume by adding some trim to her princess costume.

Knitting:

I finished knitting Leah's angel on her stocking but I'm not sure how to finish the stocking. So, I'm starting on Landon's stocking with a Santa on it. As soon as my knitting buddy gets back into town, I will have her show me how to finish up the stockings.

Looking forward to this week:

Girls night out, Running with my new running group on Saturday mornings, and Checking out the craft fairs looking for some craft ideas to recreate at home.

Tips and Tricks:
I have discovered that if I take my pre-workout drink before cleaning that it's a lot easier for me. The amount of focus, I gain from the drink as done wonders. I really was able to focus on the nitty gritty and managed to get the house really clean. Maybe I'm a little bit ADD...ha ha.
Lessons learned this past few days:

Using my time wisely, I really would love to hole myself up in my room and just read or knit. It's really hard sometimes to be in reality. I still have a hubby and kids that need attention. Life just isn't what I want...I have to make sure I'm using my time wisely. It's all about balance.

On my mind:

I'm still trying to figure it all out. How to read a couple of books, work on a dozen projects,and still find time to be spiritual. I'm not a big scripture reader. We just finished reading 30 talks in 30 days. I really enjoyed it. I'm really dreading reading my scriptures again maybe I need to find a really good spiritual book instead. I did managed to read the Book of Mormon, New testament, and Doctrine and Covenants each in 90 days periods. Any good book ideas? Nothing too preachy or cheesy?

Ten on Friday

2010-09-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

1. Labor day weekend-I decided it would be fun to run in 5k and 10k in the same weekend. I don't recommend doing this but it workout fine. I just was a little bit sore in the legs. On Saturday, Landon and I ran in the ward 5k together. I'm so proud of my son. He was the youngest kid to run in the 5k and he didn't stop one time. He ran the whole thing.

2. On Monday, Puan and I decided to would be fun to train and run in the 10k together. I was super sore from Saturday's 5k but I managed to push myself. This race was one big GAINT mental game with myself. They decided this year to have us run the course in the opposite directions. The first two miles were uphill. I came in close to my time from last year. I was only five minutes slower this time. The heat is finally gone and I'm finally getting back into running.

3. My knitting projects are coming along nicely. Last night, I screwed up the xmas stocking. Luckily my knitting frined doesn't live to far away. I had the neighbor girl watch the kids while I drove over to her house to fix the problem. Thank goodness for 12 yr old girl that loves to watch my kids for FREE!

4. The past couple of days the heat has left us and we have had lots of showers from the hurricane that came thru the gulf of mexico. The rain is so nice and refreshing after our heat wave that felt like it wasn't going to end.

5. Leroy is sick with another sinus infection.

6. Leah still loves going to Preschool. I just wish she could go everyday.

7. I'm slowly working on making Leah's princess dress.

8. I just finished reading "The Help". If you're looking for a new book to read, this is the one. I loved everything in the book. The book isn't hard to get into, it grabs you right at the beginning.

9. We're headed for a bbq tonight at a friends house.

10. Our last enrichment meeting was a huge success. I was able to take part of the Yoga class. Fun...if you haven't tried Yoga it's so good but hard. You'll be surprised how much you will sweat!

First Day of School

2010-08-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ten on Tuesday!

2010-08-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

1. Leah started preschool TODAY! I can't believe but my little baby is going to school. Right after the boys left to catch the bus; Leah was really to leave to go preschool. She was really bummed when she learned she had to wait two hours for school to start. She was so excited. She even went outside to take pictures in front of the flowers. This is was her idea!

2. I wanted to get a picture with her teacher. She decided to take off running and didn't want to have her picture taken. She wanted to get to the classroom as fast as possible. I'm about to pick her up in a few minutes. I can't wait to find out how was her first day of school.

3. Last Saturday, I took the kids plus the neighbor girl to Frisco Festival for the afternoon. The kids had a blast on the free rides and snow cones were even sweeter on a hot day. Of course, Destiny dropped her snow cone as soon as I was done paying for them all. You would expect more from a 11 yr old.

4. We managed to get one last dip in the swimming. I wouldn't lie. It was cold but doable. As long as you didn't get out of the water and kept on moving. I'm not sure if they will want to go again this summer.

5. Enrichment meeting is this week. It's a back to school night. I have to come up with a few after school snack ideas??? Any suggestions?

6. Leroy and I are still debating about taking a trip to Hawaii this fall. I'm leaning towards going but Mr. Money pincher isn't sure he wants to spend the money. What's the point of earning the money if you can't enjoy it once in awhile.

7. My garden is almost all done. One of the watermelons ended up splitting in half. Only one is left. Hopefully, it will make it. I'm really craving watermelon at the moment.

8. I just received three stocking in the mail. Yes, I felt inspired by my Aunt Julie to knit my own xmas stockings for the kids. Hopefully, I will complete them by xmas.

9. I'm running in a 5k and 10k race this weekend! Landon's going to join me in the 5k race. It should be a fun weekend.

10. Also, this Sunday...we will be celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary. I still can't believe how fast time goes by.

Ten for Tuesday

2010-08-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

1. It's amazing how fast summer vacation goes by. I just seemed like the kids were off from school and now their already back.

2. Sorry, about the neglect of this blog. I kids are keeping me super busy. I seriously have hundreds of pictures from our big summer vacation trip out East. I'm experiencing computer problems and I can't seem to upload any pictures at the moment.

3. We traveled out East for four weeks. The kids had a blast with their grandparents and their Auntie Jenny. It was so nice to have additional help with the kids. Leah just told me the other day that she misses Grandma in Tennessee and Grandpa and finally Auntie Jenny. It wasn't easy being all together but the kids did have a some great memories especially at williamsburg and the outer banks.

4. I managed to drive all the way out to Tennessee without a driver license. I didn't realize it was missing until I got to my parents house. I went the whole trip without it. Luckily, I didn't need it. Dad is most of the driving on our trip out East. Well, after two months of being about find it. I decided to go down to DMV and pick up a new one. Surprisingly, We didn't have to wait at all. I was up at the front counter geting my new license when I realized Leah wasn't with me. I turned around, look at the back of the room. There stood poor Leah covered in throw up. All the way down her front, on her purse, and all over the floor. I'm not sure how long she was standing their in her own vomit but it was probably five minutes. The girl at the counter gave me a couple of paper towels. I'm managed to wipe up most of the mess and the check out girl had my new license. We promptly left the DMV and we only recieved a few dirty looks. Leah's in bed right now resting. Hopefully, it's nothing to serious.

5. Landon and Logan both started school last Thursday. I was really worried about Logan starting Kindergarten. He went to school on Thursday with no problems. I thought he would be clingy but he wasn't. Logan waiting a whole extra year has been a huge plus. He loves his teacher and loves going to school. The first thing, he said when he got off the bus was how nice is his teacher is to him.

6. Landon just started the Second grade and loves his teacher. I'm expecting a good year for both of the boys.

7. Leah my little baby will be starting preschool next week. She will be attending the same preschool that the boys attended. The Bella Vista Preschool is a great school. My boys loved it and had so much fun. It's a play based preschool so it's all about socializing and making friends. Leah is really bored with out her "BOYS" which are her bothers.

8. I managed to get some canning projects in over the weekend. I managed to canned grape juice, salsa, whole tomatoes, and stewed tomatoes. I only have a few jars left. I'm still hoping to go raspberry picking but I have missed it for the past two years. Hopefully, Leah will start feel'n better soon and we go picking together.

9. I managed to get my hair cut and I love my new short hair do. I'm never going back to long hair.

10. I'm going to start working on the kids Halloween costumes. Leah's going to be a princess and the boys will be prince charming. My friend Eunice gave me a patten the fabric and zipper. We're going to start on her costume next week. I didn't make costumes last year and I really regretted it. So, I'm going to start early this year and get it done before October. The kids are going to look so cute!

11. Finally, the boys are taking karate and Landon just started Cub Scouts. Life just keeps on getting busier. Logan is refusing to go karate which I'm really mad about it. He went the first couple of times but now he wants to stop. I told him that I wouldn't be signing him up for anymore activities for the rest of the year. The kids can be so fickle about things.

Well, that's all for now.

Jamestown Settlement

2010-07-29T16:06:00.001-07:00

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Hands On Museum

2010-07-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

The funniest part of staying at my parents house is the Hands On Museum in Johnson City. This is the third time we have visited this children museum. It's worth every penny. The kids had so much fun. The current theme at the museum is nature. The boys had so much fun. They dress up as little squirrels and were running around trying to find acorns. The rest of the museum is just lots of dress up and hands on activities.

The funniest part was Logan in the grocery store play area. The kids decided to take turns ringing up food on the cash register. We expected Logan to ring up the food by punching in the prices but nope that's not what he did. He scanned all the food across the front of the register. I think we shop to much at Walmart. He kept trying to scan all the food. No matter how much we tried to explain to him to ring up the food he just didn't get it. I guess that's kids of today think everything should be scanned not punched in.

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