You think they aren't listening but they are...

This Morning I was heading to drop Cole off at preschool and he said "Mom remember those 3,000 soliders you were telling me about? I liked that." I said Oh yeah. The 2,000 Strippling Warriors,  I liked talking about them too.
Three thousand or two thousand, doesn't really matter to me! He listened, and remembered!
Today is Monday and that was last Monday's quick Family Home Evening Lesson.
 I have not done great with FHE. I decided I needed to be better at it. I want my children to know the scripture stories, and I want to know them better myself. (I miss primary, where I had to learn them to teach it to them) Also, this reason might be prideful, I know. But sometimes Cole will say a gospel principal, and say he learned it at church, and well darn it, I think wait a minute, I taught you that! Prideful? Sure.  However, I want him to learn it here at home first. So when he is learning it at church it isn't new, it's more like a review!
Guess I better get the blue folder out with the pictures and choose the story for tonight's FHE!
Really, FHE lasts all of 5 minutes and that does include opening and closing prayer, and the song!
Works for us!

Curls...

Just a few sunday's ago, I decided to curl Day's hair with a curling iron. She has really, fine hair. So it doesn't hold curl well. I have to use hairspray to keep the curl and than it only last for a short amount of time. So I went and bought some sponge curlers. We put them in her hair before church. She looked so cute, and quite frankly I was surprised she kept them in. When I took them out they were super tight curls. They loosened up, thankfully. ha. But I did have to run a curling iron over some of the kinks. Unfortunately, the 1:00 hour crept up on us and I forgot to get the after picture.

Favorites...

Amber threw together a birthday party for Lizzy's birthday lunch and called it "Favorites" everyone was suppose to come with a list of their favorite things. I compiled my list. When I heard of the idea. I automatically thought of back in the "Oprah" days when she would do her show and give the audience some of her favorite things. So here is my list in no particular order. Also if I had to do the list again tomorrow I am sure I would write down ten different things that day too
                           Amy’s Favorites:

1. My Favorite map app is WAZE. You type in the address and she tells you the route. It is almost as good as having siri. If you have music on she interrupts and tells you to turn at the upcoming light. It also can notify you of traffic, police. I also found that it was really helpful that it automatically tells you the direction you are heading. With the other map if I am holding it the wrong way, I get really lost and farther from my destination.

1. My Favorite kid toy right now is the Smartmax magnetic toys. My favorite game is perfection and Sorry. I love perfection because its like a puzzle and sorry has helped Cole with counting out the spaces on the board.

1. I love that I can go on to youku.com and get a few different workouts of   P90X.

1. I have two favorite dollar stores, the one on 7200 and redwood and the one on 126th and bangeter. 

1. I love that you can get heart shaped marshmallows. At first they taste like the dentist fluoride but now I really like them.

1. I am loving facetime more than I ever have before. Every night we face time with Kevin and the kids just love it. 

1. The ages of all my kids right now is my new favorite thing. I think they say the funniest things and so I love having a notebook by me so that I can write down key words to trigger my memory until later when I can sit down and either blog about it or write it in their little notebook that I titled “Did I tell you”.

1. I have really loved having an IKEA dresser. I want to go by one for my room someday. I love how the inside is lined, with cute paper, and how smooth the drawers pull out. 

1. I love getting my wash clothes at the dollar store. They are the super thin ones and I can wash them and reuse them and when they get old or smelly I can just throw them away. They are called spic and span, scented cleaning wipes.

10. I was introduced to Aveeno lotion. We have always used Vaseline lotion. Which I thought was a pretty decent lotion. But no matter how often we would lather it on Cole he would still have, way patchy spots, all over his body. We have now been using Aveeno, and his skin has improved!

Can't wait to hear all the other girls lists!

Valentine's Day Decor...

I found these little tin mailboxes at in the dollar section at Target. I thought we would use them to write little notes to each other for the month of February. I used vinyl to add our names to them. I think it will be a fun activity for the kids to go and put little notes in the mailbox and be able to stick up the flag.
Also, in my jars that sit on my table I put a vinyl XO on the outside. We filled the jars with some heart shaped marshmallows. I was going to put LUV since I have three jars but I put one jar away and decided to just use the two. This is just so I can remember this stuff come next February!

Private Blogs..

I am thinking of going private on this blog.
 I have heard a few stories that make me think it is a good idea.
However. I think the only people that really read this are family. But I myself, like to check out friends blogs. Find out what they are up to and how life is going. I guess you can call this blog stalking. Call it what you want, but really I do know most of the people and I think it is fun to read their blogs.  :) But I hate when they go private because, they do the thing of, shoot me an email and I will add you to my list that can see my blog. Well I am not that good of friends, you know the kind that keep in touch. I am terrible at keeping up with old friends. That I would shoot them an email to be added. Even though I want to! So maybe I will think about it some more.

Congrats Jim and Britt...

                                      Jimmy rehearsing his song before purposing to Brittany.

My little brother is engaged! I am so excited for Jimmy and his real soon to be wife Brittany. They have a pretty fun engagement story. We are excited to have a new sister in law. And all the kids in the family love her to pieces.                  Congrats guys! 03/02/12 wahoo.

Carpe Diem Mothering Article...

The other day I read this article that someone had posted on facebook about when she goes out with her children, there is always an older woman stopping her. Telling her to enjoy every second because time goes by so fast. I found the article very interesting to read.
I too, (I am sure every Mom has had this experience) have been at a store when some cute older lady is telling me how I need to Enjoy the moment. I have also had some older couples look at me and say, "boy, Do you have your hands full". Ha Ha.
The article talked about how " parenting is like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard." She goes on to say that if the people climbing mount everest had someone saying, every thirty seconds; I hope you are enjoying this, If not you should be. You will be sorry you didn't. She thought people would want to push them off the cliff. ha. ha.
She goes on to say of a moment in the target line where it's total chaos. This article just made me think and also laugh. Because we have all been there.
I know throughout my day with my three little ones, there are some rough, and hard times. Like when everyone wants something right at the same, exact moment, or when there are spills to wipe up and bums to wipe. I swear, it seems like everyone needs to poop at the same time. Lucky, for us we have two bathrooms, so that I can run from wiping one bum, to the other bathroom to wipe the other bum of the five year old who had decided he likes it better when Mom and Dad wipe him.
But I think what helps me be okay with people telling me to enjoy every minute. Is that at the end of a long day. I can write about it, or I can talk about my day with my husband, and than even though at the time it seemed really hard, and I may have wanted to cry, or been frustrated beyond belief I usually end up laughing about it. If I can't laugh about it later that night. Maybe further down the road, I might.
I posted these pics because even though taken with my phone. How cute are these girls!