I pulled these magnetic to-do lists out at the start of the school year to get us back into the swing of things. I made most of them when Landon was a toddler, so they have some battle scars:) The kids do most of these items on their own in the morning and then bring it to me each morning to report back that they've done it.
It's their ticket to breakfast
September long weekend, I went to visit my sister who lived in Baltimore at the time. It was the first time I have left Dave at home with the kids where I wasn't in the hospital recovering from having a baby.
When the Oaklyn found out I was going without her, she said, "Why are you getting on an airplane by yourself, you need our help."
Somehow I managed to make it to Baltimore by myself with out the kids, and Brittany met me at the airport where we drove to New York to see The Lion King on Broadway. It was my first time in New York and it was fun to spend time with my sister and be tourists together!
We had a great time together! Hanging out with Brittany is always a party. She is beautiful, strong, faith-filled, talented, and I admire her for more reasons than I could count! She is the whole package and I am grateful beyond words that she is my sister.
Then back to reality, but luckily reality included getting to see Oaklyn start a tap class. I dusted off my tap shoes from a tap 101 beginners course I took at BYUI with some of my closest roommates and even found my old cd, and showed Oaklyn a thing or two. I guarantee she is already better than me :)
And Paxton (AKA twinkle-toes) showed us a thing or two about being adorable.
When the school year starts or when life gets busy with lots of changes I like to make freezer meals so that dinner is one less thing I have to worry about.
Grocery shopping for freezer meals:
I love our days together!
Morning walks:
Trips to the library
One day the librarian told Oaklyn that our receipt for books was bigger than her and of course she had to measure. We bring a storage bin for easy hauling and stack it on the back of the stroller.
This library is wonderful and has the BEST storytimes!
Paxton keeps growing and loves to dress up!
He loves to help me cook and always asks for the "light on" so he can supervise the baking process as well.
He sits at the table with the big kids and builds while they do their homework:
Easton Just started first grade and is so fun.
The younger kids love when he reads to them:
He is losing teeth, which just makes him even cuter in my opinion:)
Oaklyn and Pax were playing with playdough one morning and kept asking for tin foil, I was busy cleaning and couldn't figure out why they would need that. I am glad I gave in, because later when I asked her what it was for, she said she was bringing dinner to someone who just had a baby. It melted my heart!
Of course, her little sous chef needed some tin foil too :)
Paxton is our only child to fall asleep in weird positions like this. I love it!
Dave and I were trying to come up with a reason why the tooth fairy was over 2 weeks late. Hopefully, this amused him and didn't scar him for life.
Conference is one of my favorite times a year. It is a worldwide broadcast where we listen to prophets and apostles speak.
I come away feeling joy, peace, love and like I am ready to take on the challenges of life with a better perspective.
Over the years I have made things to involve the kids and help them listen and get something out of conference weekend as well.
This year, I made conference baskets and they found one thing on their bed when they got home from school each day the week leading up to conference weekend to add to their conference basket. (Snacks, coloring books, stickers, and playdough etc.)
This is the only picture I got and it was at the beginning of the week before they were all full.
They each have a conference notebook with dividers to take notes about what each apostle says.
Each of these has velcro attached and they can put up who is speaking and what they are speaking about.
I made this quite a few years ago, but the kids still ask me to pull it out. I have apostle puppets that they play with in the conference center puppet theatre.
We had pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes, with cream cheese frosting:
We also set up the conference maze I made a few years ago. There are 19 refrigerator boxes and each one has at least 2 doors. If you go through the door with the prophet on it in each box and follow the prophet all the way through the maze you will make it through without getting lost. We talk to our kids about how this is true in our lives as well. I am grateful for a living prophet who leads and guides Christ's church upon the earth. It is one of the ways I know Heavenly Father loves us deeply. He did not leave us alone on this earth to navigate and become lost with no purpose. Just like in biblical times, God continues to lead and guide His church and His children through inspired men called prophets who testify of Christ.
The maze doesn't take up too much room once you collapse the boxes. It's easy to store!
This darling friend in our ward(congregation)
held an adorable art party at her house to help the children make an exhibit in the Kirtland art gathering.
Our kids were thrilled to see their masterpieces displayed prominently.
The weather was beautiful, and the children all enjoyed running around after the art show to get some energy out.
We love BYU games
It was time for a haircut, and Easton asked if I could give him a man bun first.
I found the yummiest little thing hiding in my cupboard.
I could eat him up:)
The cutest pumpkin in the patch:
Halloween shadow puppets.
A yearly tradition that the oldest two have grown out of, but they indulge the younger ones.
Also a tradition, Halloween cookies:
Finishing up Halloween costumes:
Playing trick-or-treating with the neighbors in our backyard playhouse:
Story time bubbles:
He was mesmorized with the library displays:
Fall walks:
Play Dates:
Paxton fits right in:)
How are his chubby cheeks not kissed off yet?!?
I love him! Also, he thinks the "orange water" in his cup is pumpkin milk. He is obsessed with pumpkins and thinks you can make milk out of anything because we have been drinking almond milk.
Family movie night, a weekend tradition:
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
Another Fall tradition to go to Amish country and pick out pumpkins.
We were watching our "figures" this Halloween!
Our night costumes:
Halloween was "LIT"
Backyard football games with Dave and the neighbors. These kids are so lucky to have him as their Dad:
Easton likes fixer upper just as much as me and keeps me company while we watch and fold laundry.
Oaklyn isn't doing a year of preschool before kindergarten like the boys did, she does "Mommy school" with me. She is working so hard and is starting to read sentences. I love finger puppets and witch fingers to help kids have fun pointing to the words.
We do a sight word game where she reads her stack of sight words until she gets to a hidden smiley face card and then she gets to blow out a candle. Wierd game, but she adores it!
Oaklyn started taking hula class with a good friend and it was pretty much the cutest thing you've ever seen. It was a breath of fresh air at the start of a cold Ohio winter.
Basketball tryouts:
One night I told a paper bedtime story to the kids I found on pinterest about a mouse that found a piece of cheese to make his house.
He nibbled a door:
He nibbled a door for his taller forest friends like Rabbit. He thought the cheese tasted funny:
When mouse climbed inside, he realized it was too dark, so he nibbled a window :
Then he lit a candle for warmth and stepped back to see that he had not made a house, but a jack-o-lantern.
So simple, but the kids loved it!
Thanks pinterest!
On our way to a good friend's house for Thanksgiving:
Turkey cheese ball
It was "gobbled" up :)
Family night on gratitude.
We read this story in the friend(a church children's magazine) and made homemade pretzels and stuck paper with something we were grateful for written on it inside. When they were baked, we each read our little gratitude note.
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