Crazy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is usually one of my favorite holidays. I love to make heart shaped sugar-cookies, surprise the kids with cute little homeade valentine's and go out to dinner with my sweetheart. Mostly because I was put in charge of a school Valentine's party for 100 3rd graders, this year I was feeling a little too frazzled to enjoy Valentines day as much as I would have liked. And is that wasn't enough, I decided that all of my girls should make homeade Valentine's for their classes along with presents for their teachers and a treats for their friends who aren't in their class. Needless to say, I was a little bit stressed last week and there were no heart-shaped pancakes for my family on Valentine's Day morning. Oh well, can't be a super mom all the time, right?
All in all I think the party was a success and, hopefully, by the time I ever have to do that again, I will have learned the art of delegating. In the meantime, if anyone out there ever needs Valentine's Day party ideas feel free to call me!

Here are the few pictures I managed to take in my scattered state last week:Rachel enjoyed her first school Valentine's party this year even though she missed half of it because I forgot that they had changed the starting time from the normal 11:00 to 10:00 because of the party!
I've seen these all over on-line, maybe you have too. You take all your little broken pieces of crayons and melt them in the oven in a heart mold to make these cute little heart-shaped crayons. It was actually a lot more work that I would have thought it would be because you have to peel all the crayons and then break (or chop) them into really small pieces. I forgot to put the mold on a cookie sheet before putting it in the oven and had crayon wax dripping onto the bottom of my oven, then I tried to pick them up and almost spilled the rest all over. We were able to salvage them in the end, but when I mentioned to Rachel that we might have to try it again she said "I don't want to--it was too hard" to which I responded, "Okay, we'll just have to go buy some Barbie valentine's from the store."Eliza made these cute tootsie pop flowers which she actually wasn't too thrilled about because she really wanted to make these other flower valentine's we saw on-line that used those little flat suckers that they used to give out at the bank drive-through when I was kid. Unfortunately, I couldn't find those suckers at any of the grocery stores around here so she got the tootsie pop flowers instead. She was okay with it in the end.

Emma actually took these pictures (she asked me too, but then took matters into her own hands when she saw that I was busy with one of my many projects) of the hot cocoa valentine's she made for her class. I thought this was a really fun idea and she actually did most of it all by herself which was great for mom. The girls also gave these cute little handprint valentine's to their teachers with a little bottle of lotion inside.

By the time Ben and went out on our for our Valentine's date on Friday night, I was completely exhausted. Then to top it off, I had told him all week that I wanted to go to the Union Grill in Ogden for dinner and we ended up waiting almost an hour to be seated. Next time, I think we'll just go to a burger joint and save the fancy stuff for a weekend other than Valentine's day weekend!

Ben brought me home these beautiful flowers on Saturday. The other part of my present was a Costco membership, which I've been wanting for a long time. Yay!

We also had a really fun family dinner on Valentine's day which I was going to take pictures of, but didn't. We had a really fun time at my parent's house with my sister, brother and one of our favorite friends from college, Clay.

What is this stuff?

Beginning spoon feeding is something that I usually put off as long as possible, but today I decided it was finally time to give Hazel her first taste of solid food. Honestly, I think her sisters and brother were much more thrilled than she was. But how tasty can rice cereal really be?

The 100th day of school

Eliza's grade celebrated the 100th day of school today. She made this lovely necklace with 100 beads.

Fun times with Grandma and Grandpa!

Ben was out of town last weekend so we spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa. I love it that my parents are always up for an adventure on a Saturday afternoon--so much more fun than scrubbing toilets!My parents were very sweet and offered to come sit with me during sacrament on Sunday, but I opted just to come over for dinner. I don't seem to cook much when Ben's gone so that was nice. The kids had such a good time Sunday night playing with all of Grandma's instruments and fun dress-up clothes. I couldn't resist taking this video of them marching around the table playing pipe chimes while my mom played the piano. The song is actually one that her grandmother used to play for her children as they marched around the kitchen table.

Hazel Jane: 6 months old

I can't believe Hazel is six months old already! She is still just as sweet as ever and since I don't plan on having another one for a long, long time (if ever) I keep thinking about how sad I'll be when I don't have a baby around anymore. You just can't help being happy when they smile those sweet smiles!

At her six month check-up yesterday Hazel weighed 17 lbs. 3 oz. (73%) and was 26 3/4" (85%). The doctor actually said she was "on the tall side" which seemed very strange for a baby of mine. Hazel is still quite easy in the fact that she isn't at all mobile. She doesn't roll, scoot, crawl....nada. She does, however, grab anything that's within her reach. She especially loves grabbing onto mommy's necklaces and this keeps her quite entertained at church. She has started to really enjoy her saucer and will actually play with all the little gadgets on it. She sucks on her right hand (not her thumb--her hand) which causes her to have a big red mark, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She mostly only does it when she's tired because it helps her to fall asleep. She is a great sleeper so mommy doesn't really mind either. She is a very happy baby and usually has smiles for anyone who will pay any attention to her. She especially loves her older sisters and brother and smiles at them all the time, which they love. She makes lots of cute cooing and gurgling noises and she sometimes drools....a lot. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I'm expecting them any day now. Overall, she is just a joy to have in our home and it's so fun (and sort of sad) to see her grow up.

What we've been up to...

Ben has ended up being out of town quite a bit this month so my blogging has taken a back burner to all the many other things that I have to do. I'm also reverting back to my old ways a little and have gotten a little lazy about taking pictures. For some reason, my blog is not motivating me to take pictures as much as it used too. I will be better though, I promise!

The kids had a couple of days off of school a few weeks ago so we went to Fat Cats in Ogden for miniature golfing and games. My mom and grandma went with us and so did my little brother, Matt, and his wife which was nice because they left a couple of days later for Mexico where my brother is doing an internship. It was fun hanging out with them a little while they were staying at my parents' house.

I was in a sewing mood a few weeks ago so I made skirts for the girls off of this on-line tutorial: (grandrevivaldesign.typepad.com/photos/ruffled_skirts_tutorial/skirts4000.html). I was feeling very projectless after Christmas so this was a fun little something to do!


I've gotten into the habit of browsing the DI (we have a brand new store right here in Harrisville!) while Rachel is at pre-school. I'm not sure it's such a good thing for my pocketbook, but at least everything is a great bargain! They had a whole bunch of brand new designer sunglasses there one day for $2 each. Ben (who goes through sunglasses like crazy) actually stocked up and got like 15 pairs of them. Another day I found three pairs of snow pants for a grand total of $10. They turned out to be a great investment because I've been a little concerned about my kids being cooped up in the house so much lately and since I got the snowpants they've been outside nearly everyday! Best $10 I ever spent!


This is Rachel and Brigham being silly together. These two keep each other entertained while the older two girls are at school.

I spent two whole evenings (after the kids went to bed) making this lovely poster for the girls to refer to while practicing the piano. I was quite proud of myself!


The girls had a piano recital on the 18th of January. It was the first for Eliza and she was a little nervous, but she did such a great job! They each allowed me to "accompany them" on one of their songs, which is always fun for me. I'm so proud of them both!


That's pretty much what we've been up to this month. Ben's been to both Dallas and Pheonix and went on his very first winter camp-out with the deacons. I pretty much told him he just needed to "buck up" because he complained so much prior to the camp-out, but I was definitely glad to be home in my warm bed while he was sleeping out in the snow! Maybe I should be a little more sympathetic next time...
I promise to try to take more pictures--and not the blurry, dark kind that seem to be prevalent in this post!

No more diapers in 2010!

I don't know what got into me, but on New Year's Day I decided it was time for Brigham to give up diapers for good. I've been thinking about it for quite awhile and the realization that Ben would be going back to work soon made me think that this was the perfect time to take the plunge. So we put on some underwear, went pantless for a few days and I'm happy to report that I think Brigham is done with diapers for good. Four down, one to go!