Battles

There are certain battles that just aren't worth it. For instance, when your very tired daughter informs you she can not get in her pajamas because she has to stay a princess when she sleeps:

Umm...alrighty. For the record, I did remove her tiara after taking the picture, since I'm guessing it's not the most comfortable thing to sleep with.

What are some battles you choose not to fight?

Reading and Stuff

I love Sundays! It is such a relaxing day, which is so fantastic after a long week. It's nice that neither Tom or I have big callings that take up too much Sunday family time. 


It makes me so happy that everyone in our family loves to read. This is what our current reading list looks like:


Tom-"Shadowplay" by Tad Williams 
Tom loves fantasy books. If you have any suggestions for him, he would love some. His favorite authors are Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Robert Jordan, and etc... 


Me-"The Mango Season" by Amulya Malladi (I'm reading it for book club and just started it.) 
Last week, I read "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand, which is an amazing true story about an Olympic runner's experiences during WWII. I highly recommend it to others!


Andrew-"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by JK Rowling. This should be a challenge for him. He definitely is not getting through it as fast as the Magic Treehouse books. We have challenged him to read the whole series before the end of the summer. We'll see how he does. 


Madeline-Princess Potty by Samantha Berger (this book is AWESOME for potty trainers-they also have Pirate Potty for boys), any Look and Find books, and any princess books. 


Have you read anything good lately?


Other random events and pictures from the week:

• Tom is LOVING his new job
• We had the privilege of spending Saturday with our friends that moved to LA last month
• Our bathroom may be finished by Saturday. I am so excited. We did a "remodel" on a tiny budget.  You'll have to let me know what you think when we are done. 
• Spencer had an emergency appendectomy this week. Not fun!! Please continue to pray for him! In case I failed to mention this before, two of Spencer's siblings are PERFECT bone marrow matches for him, which is AMAZING! The plan is for him to have a bone marrow transplant after his 4th round of chemo, which we hope and pray will be the key to his full recovery. 

Michael, Andrew, and Stefan jumping together

My cutie pies before church today

Andrew showing off his toothless grin

Madeline and me ready for church

The awesome fort my kids built today

The dance party 

More twirling 

Madeline declared this to be the scariest photo ever and she never wanted to see it again and that was BEFORE I added in all the awesome edits. HAHAHAHA! Can't wait to show her the new photo in the morning. 

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Improvement?

What do you think of our entryway light?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Is it an improvement or what?

Play Time!

I'm happy to say I don't have much to write about. (o: That means nothing too interesting is happening in my life, which is the way I usually prefer it! HA!

Here is Andrew playing beyblades with his friends. It's a hard toy to capture, since they are so darn small(o:

Andrew, Paige, and Joey playing with beyblades. If you look closely you will see the beyblades flying through the air. 

Look at his concentration before he launches his beyblade. (o:

The boys playing tag in our backyard. Tom, Andrew, Noah, Nathan, and Clark

The boys taking a rest after playing tag for awhile. Clark, Tom, Andrew, and Noah

The weather is perfect as usual. I can not get enough of the 75 degree, sunny days. Hard to believe it's February.

We are still working on getting the kids bathroom looking nice. Hopefully, I can put up pics in the next week or so. It's only been 4+ months since I started the project. (o:

I know this may go down in the record books as the most boring post ever, but I hate not posting for more than a week. Have a great week everyone!

Huh?

Ever get woken up in the middle of the night by a child who tells you something bizarre? Last night Andrew came into my room at 4 AM to inform me that he had just finished reading his Magic Treehouse book on the kindle in Madeline's room. Huh? Why on earth was he reading in the middle of the night in Madeline's room?  Thoroughly confused I went back to sleep. And there you have it.

Have you ever been perplexed by something a kid or spouse tells you in the middle of the night? I can hardly wait to see how tired Andrew is after school today. (o:

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! Hope you feel loved today!

Happiness

It's the small things in life that bring so much happiness! Today lots of small happy things have happened that I'd like to write about.
Happiness is:

• Discovering Andrew can sit quietly all through Sacrament meeting reading a Magic Treehouse book on the Kindle. He will not read a normal book it has to be on the kindle. I don't get it either. (o:
• Andrew reading a whole entire Magic Treehouse book in 1 hour. He is getting to be a much faster reader!
• Bringing nothing to church for Madeline to do during Sacrament meeting and having her be far more reverent  than usual.
• Watching your kids play well together all afternoon. We love the no tv, no games, and no playdate rule for Sundays! Hide and seek is one of their favorite games. This big box was used multiple times as a hiding place:

Both kids hiding in the box

• Reading a good book with my husband across from me reading his own book.
• Listening to church music all day.
• Feeling the Spirit at church.
• Smelling dinner cooking in the crockpot. (We've been having leftovers for most Sunday dinners lately for the ease of it, but crockpot meals are almost as easy as leftovers!)
• Making the yummiest and easiest homemade bread. Recipe here.
• Skipping Sunday school to have a thoughtful conversation with friends in regards to the recent California ruling trying to overturn proposition 8 (the prop. regarding Gay marriage).
• Having the time to blog:

Madeline helping me blog. Thanks for taking the pic Andrew!

It's been a good day! What has made you happy today?

Brilliant or Lame?

I invited some of my friends over this morning. 30 minutes prior to their arrival Praia and Kayleigh came to play. Their big sisters walked them over. I desperately needed help finishing up the cleaning around my house, so I invited 11-year-old Alora in and she volunteered to vacuum my whole house. I couldn't be happier. Makes me wish I had an 11-year-old girl. Of course if I had an 11-year-old girl it's not like she would want to vacuum for me, right? So am I brilliant or super lame for inviting in a neighbor girl to vacuum for me? Honestly, I would do it again anytime! Thanks Alora!

Alora vacuuming Andrew's room

And for some added cuteness, here are the girls spinning again!

Aren't they adorable?

Our Week

My week has gotten better! I love my life, even on the hard days! Here is a glimpse of some of our activities this week:

Baking:

These are my attempt at mini-s'mores. Recipe coming soon on  the Recipe Shoebox.  (thanks for the idea Renee!) If anyone would like to submit a recipe to my sister's blog, please contact me. We are looking for some additional help right now, since my sister is out of commission for awhile.  

Making Messes:

I can not fathom why Andrew thinks it's fun to dump out his piggy bank over and over again. 

Play Dates:

Clark, Andrew, and Sammy  (Andrew really doesn't like wearing shirts at home. Don't ask me why. )

Madeline, Kayleigh and Praia having a tea party. 

These adorable girls always put a smile on my face. Do you like their "mad" faces?

Head Shaving Party:
Andrew agreed to shave his head to show support for his cousin, Spencer.

Doesn't he look cute? I think he does. Unfortunately, some kids in his class laughed at him today.  I am going to talk to his class tomorrow about why he shaved his head. 

Are you doing anything fun this week?