Foto February- Day 27

For Christmas my Mom, Mamaw, got the kids a Celestial Songs learning keyboard. It's pretty fun. It has 22 Primary songs pre-programmed on it. You can listen to the songs, and there is also a teaching mode where the keys light up so you can learn to play the songs. The kids have been having a great time with it. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids opening their gift. They were excited by how big it is, and said, "It's a good thing we have a big coffee table to hold this big present!" Ha ha ha!

Foto February- Day 26

This morning we went to Kohl's, then were busy getting stuff ready & tuning up Scott's car for his trip to Colorado. After the kids went to bed, we had a little date-at-home. We got Chipotle (get your BOGO coupon HERE) and watched a movie together.

BTW, 1/2 of a Barbacoa Burrito Bowl is only 305 calories, and it totally fills you up! And, then you have left-overs for another day. Bonus!!

For the last week or two I've been trying to workout more and have been keeping track of what I eat on Livestrong.com, and it's been really good. I'm already seeing some results, which just gets me more excited and motivated to do even more! My friend, Pam, introduced me to the site, and it's pretty cool. You can type in everything you eat, and it calculates everything for you. It has a search function to look up food, even food from restaurants and stuff, so you know how many calories. You can also type in how many pounds you are wanting to lose, and it will tell you how many calories you can consume per day if you want to lose 1 or 2 pounds a week. As you log your food for the day it keeps track and tells you how many more calories you can have for the day without going over your goal. You can also keep track of how much water you are consuming every day. It's been really good for me, 'cause I never really thought much about what I ate, how many calories, etc. Before I would just eat candy and junk all day. Now I am much more aware of what I'm putting into my body.

Didn't mean to go off on a random tangent/spiel thingy there, but anyway... It was nice to go on one last 'date' with Scott before he leaves for a whole month!

Foto February- Day 25

Tonight we went to Chili's as a family. It was a lot of fun! I'm glad the kids are at an age now where we can go out to a restaurant and actually have a good time, rather than fighting with kids.

Oh, and I don't know what's up with the girls' tongues in these pictures.

While we were waiting for our entrées to arrive, Emma took a bunch of pictures with my camera. Here is one of the surprises I found. Ha ha!

Foto February- Day 24

Tonight Daddy brought home Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. We LOVE Papa Murphy's! He was even kind enough to get one pizza with a deLite crust for me, even though he hates thin crust, and had already paid for the other pizza. What a sweetie! ;)

Our family favorite is Hawaiian. Aloha!

Foto February- Day 23

Every Wednesday Emma has speech therapy. While she is back with her therapist I have to keep Katelynn & Michael entertained. Sometimes we get their homework done. Other times we take silly pictures. See Exhibit A...or should I say Exhibit K?

Foto February- Day 22

I love Jane Austen books and movies. Scott thinks I'm crazy. Right now I am reading Pride & Prejudice. It is a lot of fun to read, especially since I already know the basic story from watching the movies so many times. There is a lot more to the story in the book, though. Isn't that always how it goes with books adapted to movies?! 

Foto February- Day 21

Today both the kids and Scott were off for President's Day! One things the kids enjoyed doing is drawing on the sidewalk. Michael is a little bit obsessed with spiders, spiderwebs, Spiderman, etc., so what did he draw on the sidewalk? Spiderwebs. Katelynn was busy finding pretty rocks in the yard, and Emma did a little of both (drawing and rock-hunting). 

Foto February- Day 20

Here is a picture of Scott working on the learning modules he has to complete before he starts his March rotation in COLORADO! He will be gone all of next month. :( 

We'll see how we fare while he is gone. With Katelynn weaning off of prednisone, things should be...interesting around here. (Katelynn on prednisone=moodiness) But, at least it was a short relapse for her. She tested negative a week after she tested positive, so that is really good. Now, we wean. 

Oh, and please ignore the clutter on the desk. It was totally cleaned off a week ago, I swear! 

Foto February- Day 19

Earlier today it was really windy. We took the kids to the park to fly kites. Then it started raining, so we boogied home. It continued to rain pretty hard off and on all day. I forgot to take a picture till late at night. Here's the view out our front door. It's still raining heavily.

Foto February- Day 18

Michael took my camera and was taking pictures with it today. I found lots of random pictures when I looked later! This is one of my favorite ones.

He got this silly robot from a garage sale for, like, 50 cents or something. It's missing the remote, and it doesn't really do much, but the kids love it.

Foto February- Day 17

I didn't get a picture taken today. We are all *still* sick! Blah! But, in the spirit of Foto February, I will share a picture today, it just won't be one taken today. Here ya go.

This picture was taken the day the kiddos came home from the hospital, 28 days after they were born. Aren't they so teeny tiny?! They are wearing preemie clothes, and they are still too big on them. It's weird to think they were ever that small. Compared to way back then, they are HUGE now!

Foto February- Day 16

One of the lowest temps I saw all day. Thank goodness for Netflix...or "Netflakes" as the kids like to call it.

Foto February- Day 15

Today I had 3 sickies home from school sick. Add on top of that a mama who doesn't feel so great, and you've got a day full of movies and pajamas!

Oh, and it looks like Katelynn is having another relapse! It's been over 6 months since her last one, so we were hoping that meant she had grown out of it. Apparently not. We have an appointment with her Nephrologist tomorrow, so we'll see what he says. In the meantime, we've started her back on prednisone again.

Foto February- Day 14

Poor Katelynn was sick and had to miss school today! It was sad because not only did she miss her class party, but because I was home with her I couldn't go to the other kids' parties, either. And, I was suppose to be helping with Katelynn's party! So, when I dropped Emma & Michael off at school, I left the cookies and stuff for Katelynn's class with the other homeroom mom.

But, the day wasn't all bad. Good things:
*Michael cleaned the bathroom all by himself without being asked, then when he was done he asked me what else he could do! Jillian=shocked
* Had a fun time dancing with Emma in the living room to Glee songs.

* Put the kids down to bed early and had a lovely dinner with Scott, after which we watched "Serendipity". Love that movie! I believe Scott gave me that movie as a gift our first Christmas after we were married, so it's one of our 'go-to' romantic movies, along with "Return to Me" and "Ever After".

Foto February- Day 13

Daddy helping Emma address the last of her Valentines.

Michael's valentines were Transformers, and the girls' valentines were Mr. Potato Head.

Rawhide! (Foto February- Day 12)

On the other side of the Valley, there is this awesome Old West 'town' called Rawhide. In celebration of their 40th anniversary, all the attractions were free today! Plus, they were handing out cowboy hats, bandannas & sheriff badges to all the kids AND giving everyone a huge piece of birthday cake! It was really busy, but it was a lot of fun.

Waiting for one of the shows to start.

While we were waiting in line for the burro ride, the kids had fun on the playground and at the petting zoo.

The kids LOVED their burro ride! I think their faces say it all. SO excited!!

Scott tried his hand at riding the mechanical bull. Not too shabby!

We all rode on the train. The kids always love train rides, even if they are kinda dinky ones.

Then, to top off the night we went to the rodeo! It was a long, but fun, day!

Foto February- Day 11

Every night before bed we read scriptures together as a family, then I read the kids stories. Most nights I let each kid choose one book, unless we are getting to bed really late, like last night. Then I just read one really short one. 

Note: We had the Larsons and the Hellewells over for dinner. After dinner we played "Celestial Companions". (I think that was the name of the game...) It was pretty funny. I meant to get a picture of our friends for today's post, but I totally forgot about it until after they were gone. Oh, well. This is a good picture. :)

Foto February- Day 10

One of Flylady's babysteps is to lay out your clothes every night. I do pretty well getting the kids' clothes laid out, because if I don't it is a lot harder to get to school on time. We have to be in the car, pulling out of the driveway, no later than 7:30, or we are toast. I don't do as well setting out my clothes, though.

I always set out their clothes in piles on the bench. They know which pile is theirs, so when they get up they can go over to their pile and start getting dressed. I lay them out left to right, 'oldest' to 'youngest'. 

On Fridays they are allowed to wear their spirit shirts to school, instead of the standard red, white or navy blue polo. Like that bright yellow? I think the official name is 'safety green' or something like that. Makes sense for kindergarteners, though. They are easy to spot in those shirts!

Foto February- Day 9

Today we went to the park after school. The park up by the kids' school is pretty nice. We usually go there every Wednesday after school, because Emma has a speech therapy appointment over in Scottsdale, and I hate to drive ll the way home, then a little bit later drive all the way back, basically passing their school on the way to the appointment. (Whoa...was that a long run-on sentence, or what?!) So, I take a picnic lunch and we play at the park for a while.

Most Wednesdays some of the kids' friends from school come, too, but today everyone had things they had to do.

That is one nice thing about having multiples...there is always someone to play with. :)

Michael & Emma rockin' the rock wall. They are both really good at it! Michael always asks if he is like Spiderman when he's climbing.

Katelynn swinging.

She's gotten pretty good at pumping all by herself. I was swinging next to her, and she was telling me all about how she likes to 'sleep' while she swings. She said she closes her eyes, and feels the sun and the wind, and pretends like she is sleeping, only she really isn't because she is still swinging. Ha ha ha! I told her that I loved to do that when I was a kid, too. They love it when I tell them things about when I was a kid, and when I tell them things about when they were younger. Sometimes it makes me feel bad, though, because I don't remember a ton of stuff from when they were babies. When people ask me how it was having 3 newborns, I usually tell them, "I don't know. That whole first year or so is a blur!"

Foto February- Day 8

Today after school we went to the library to check out the books we had picked out when we were there on Saturday and didn't have our library card. I usually let the kids each pick one movie to check out. So, after their homework was done, I let them watch one of their movies, Go Diego Go.

Foto February- Day 7

I know I just posted a picture of one of the kids sleeping the other day, but when I walked into the kids' room during their nap and found Michael like this, I just couldn't resist.

Foto February- Day 6

This morning we went to church. It was Fast Sunday, and both Katelynn & Michael bore their testimonies during sacrament meeting! They had been begging us at home to practice, so last Monday for FHE we had everyone practice bearing their testimonies. Katelynn froze up and a counselor in the Bishopric had to help her out, but Michael did it all by himself!


After church we had the Hellewells over for dinner and some Super Bowl watching. Go Pack Go! Katelynn provided us with the pictures of the evening. My flash was off, so most of them turned out pretty fuzzy. This is the best 'group' shot I found on my camera, even after some Photoshopping. I actually like the one she got of me. Reminds me of goal # 4, though. Eep!

Foto February- Day 5

"Saturday is a special day. It's the day we get ready for Sunday.

We clean the house, and we shop at the store, so we won't have work until Monday.

We wash our clothes and we shine our shoes, and we call it our get-the-work-done day.

Then we trim our nails, and we shampoo our hair, so we can be ready for Sunday."

Foto February- Day 4

As I was getting ready for bed I realized that I hadn't taken a picture today! Silly me! So, here is a picture of Emma sleeping peacefully. When I was looking at the picture it really hit me how big these guys are getting! They are KIDS now--KIDS! Totally strange. 

Foto February- Day 3

Michael is quite the little artist. He loves to draw. He will lay on the floor and draw for hours. He likes to read books about how to draw things, and will look at pictures & try to copy them. As his fine motor skills have been improving during the school year, so have his drawing skills. For part of their homework today the kids had to draw a few things, and I thought Michael's were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself...and I do.  ;)

(click on the picture to see the drawings better)

I think the frog is especially good. And, I love that he had to draw seaweed with the fish. The bug is pretty cute, too.

Foto February- Day 2

Today was really cold and windy! We usually go to the park after school with some of the kids' school friends on Wednesdays, but it was just too dang cold!

Since we usually don't have a nice, chilly, soup-making kind of day, I thought I'd take this opportunity to make some chili. I made Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili. (Recipe can be found here or here.) This time when making it I left out one can of black beans, and added a can of corn, some leftover rotisserie chicken, some canned chicken & a couple of cloves of garlic. It turned out SO yummy! Michael cleaned his bowl, which is saying something!

What did you do today?

Foto February- Day 1

FOTO-A-DAY FEBRUARY

Take & Post a picture everyday for the month of February

I saw this on my friend Mari's blog, and thought it sounded like a fun idea. I've been wanting to be more consistent in my posting, and to post more normal day-to-day things, so this project is just the ticket!

I didn't see the Mari's post until late this evening, and I thought to myself, "Hmmm...what can I take a picture of for today? I don't want to start out the month by skipping a day!" So, I decided to post a picture of my shiny sink.

A shiny sink, eh? What's that all about? Well, one of my goals for this year is to make and keep my home cleaner and more organized. I've been reading the e-mails from FlyLady for a long time now (over a year maybe? That's kind of embarrassing...). I have been trying to get my routines in place off and on, but making my routines stick has still been eluding me. So I am trying, yet again, to create good habits that will help me make our home a nicer place to be.

The first 'babystep' of FLYing is to shine your sink every night before going to bed. It makes such a *huge* difference! It really helps your day start off on a better foot the next morning. It's also good because if you aren't feeling good, just want to go to bed, whatever,  you say to yourself, "I'll just clean out the sink, then I'll go to bed." But, once you get started clearing the sink, it usually gives you enough momentum to finish up the rest of the kitchen and sometimes even straightening up the living room! So, a shiny sink is a simple thing, but it's amazing the difference it can make in helping your home get and stay clean!