Friday Night Activity-Twister

For our Friday Night Activity this past week we decided to have a Twister tournament. The boys were so into it. They kept challenging Josh and I to a "Twist off".
It was really good to teach the boys their "rights" from their "lefts". There was trouble at the beginning, but they got it.
Poor Hunter is so little that he spent a lot of the time like this. I am not sure if he couldn't reach things, or he just didn't want to. He usually got out pretty quickly after we would start a round.
Lincoln and Palmer got pretty good at it.

Poor Josh got a pretty big headache for our Sunday Twister tournament and was the official dial spinner, so I never got to challenge him to a "Twist off", but don't worry it's coming.
It should be pretty interesting.

General Conference and April Fool's Day Ideas

Okay I know it is a bit weird to combine General Conference and April Fool's Day ideas, but they are both this week and it just worked out that way.

Last night we had our little Pre-General Conference Family Home Evening. Josh is so good to do this with the boys to help them to understand why General Conference is a big deal to our family. We like to make it fun for our kids and I try to put together "quiet kits" to help them sit through some of the sessions. I have felt that in years past, that they have had a good experience with these little kits. I am in the process of putting together the kits for this year. If you are interested in some fun things your kids (and you) can do during General Conference, check this site out. There are also some fun ideas here.

I am also getting excited for April Fool's Day! I love this day for some odd reason. We like to think of fun (not mean) little tricks to play on the boys. I have some good ones this year. I have put some links at the bottom of the page for some things that we have done in years past. There are also some fun ideas here, here and here.

April Fools Day 2009
April Fools Day 2010

2009 October General Conference
2010 April General Conference
2010 General Conference Family Home Evening
2010 October General Conference

McKay has Discovered the Stairs...

McKay has been interested in the stairs for a while now. It hasn't really ever been a problem, because he would just go up one or two and then get back down. Imagine my surprise when the other day I heard his little voice at THE TOP of the stairs. He had climbed up ALL of them. He was so proud of himself and when I got up to see what he was doing he laughed and started crawling away so I couldn't take him back down the stairs. I did take him down because I wanted to see him go back up. He did is so FAST! He has become quite the little climber and I can't put a child gate there because the stair entrance is really a-symmetrical. I have tried to teach him to go DOWN the stairs a couple of times, but he isn't interested.
He hasn't fallen down yet, but I am worried he will because he loves to sit and play on the stairs.
He is so cute. I really love the stage he is in right now. He is snuggly and loves to laugh. We are teaching him a little bit of sign language and he can do "more" right now, which is SO CUTE!
It is so fun to watch him develop (although he is getting a molar right now, which isn't that fun. It had come through a little bit last week and it is now gone again. How come they do that?!). He folds his arms most times when we say our prayers and the other day when I brought him some food that was hot he started blowing it. I always blow on it and say "hot" so he won't touch it. He is understanding so much and we sure love our little McKay.

Utah Grizzlies Game

We finally got to a Utah Grizzlies game this past week. I have wanted to take the boys to a "real" hockey game since our last adventure with hockey. I actually really like hockey and have been to a few games in my time (Utah State hockey is the BEST). Well, I guess I thought I knew hockey. We were given some great tickets to a Grizzlies game by one of my friend Jen/Elba and were thrilled to go watch a Grizzlies game. We got there and as soon as we sat down a HUGE fight broke out between the players. I have seen hockey "fights" before, but NOTHING like this one. The refs just sat there as these two players sat and punched each other over and over. The thing seemed to last FOREVER and those around us sat and laughed as I freaked out covering my boys' eyes. Don't they usually just push each other around, hitting pads and be done with it? Oh my goodness, it was CRAZY! Josh was parking the car so he was pretty sad that he missed it, but it was nuts.
Our seats were right behind the opposing team (Las Vegas something or other) which was fun and annoying at the same time. It was so fun to see what they were all doing and when the teams were yelling at each other as they came in from playing we got to see it (and I wish I weren't so good at reading lips...) But if they were all standing up we COULD NOT SEE! That didn't happen very often (except for the coaches...see annoying). But I think it was really cool to be that close.

My pictures are all crazy. My internet only works if I am in a docking station and the screen from our station is not calibrated correctly. Hence I edited the pics strangely. My hair is looking pretty green in this one (please let it be the calibration and let me NOT have green tinted hair).
It is always fun to be with Daddy. How fun also that our friend Nick from our old ward in Layton just happened to sit right next to us. Josh loved catching up with him. We think Nick is really cool.

So close!
This was one of the times that the players were yelling at each other. The refs had to come and separate them (someone please tell me why the let them duke it out sometimes and other times they give them penalties...I was so confused and nobody seemed to know)
This was the most random fight. This guy literally DOVE on top of some player. It was crazy. Do you have to have a bad temper to play hockey?
The game ended in a shoot out which was awesome. I always love a good shootout.
Except for when our team loses, which they did. It was sad, but still an AWESOME game and we had a ball!

Basketball Round 2

Today has been a wild day. We had 5 games (2 indoor soccer games, 2 outdoor soccer games, luckily Hunter's outdoor game got canceled, and then we had Lincoln and Hunter's last basketball game. I can't believe we made it to them all). We also made dinner for the missionaries today (which I love doing, the boys love to be around missionaries and my little brother Mark is on a mission right now in Oklahoma), and continued our weekend marathon of "Twister" (so fun, pics to come). Josh worked all day on getting our house better ready to sell and then he had to go to a dinner/auction for work. The boys and I watched "Up" (Love that movie) and then after they were in bed I read them a few chapters of "White Fang" (Oh how I love reading classic books with my boys. I have goals to read all of the good ones with them). The house is now quiet, I am alone, and exhausted and it feels really good. I love Saturdays for that reason. I know I have had a really good Saturday when I go to bed really tired. Either we have worked hard or played hard, but those are the best kinds of Saturdays to me. Anyway, today was Lincoln and Hunter's last basketball game of the season. I haven't posted any pictures yet of this basketball experience and so I thought it time.

Josh has coached for a lot of years, for a lot of sports. When he coaches through our local fitness center he gets a voucher for one of our kids to play a sport for free. We saved up three of them and then realized that we had better use them before we move. The boys all got to play basketball twice this year, which they really loved. They improved like crazy over these past two seasons.
Hunter, always the goofball out on the court, but I was so proud of him. He tries so hard through the whole game and even though everyone is pretty much older and bigger than him, he plays his heart out.
McKay is getting better at these games (or we are getting better at bringing toys and treats to keep him busy). Josh decided not to coach indoor soccer and basketball this time and I have loved it (okay he caved and was an assistant coach), but it has been nice to have him sit with the kids and me.
Both Hunter and Lincoln are figuring out basketball, and having a great time!







It has been a good season. Basketball didn't end a moment too soon as there was no way we could have played all three sports (I don't know how we are going to do indoor and outdoor soccer for the next 4 weeks), but it was fun while it lasted (I will post pictures of their actual last game soon).

Family Picture 2002

Our family finally got new family pictures taken last Saturday and I couldn't be happier with them (obviously the one above isn't what I am talking about :) My wonderful Sister in Law Amy took them and they are exactly what I was hoping for. There is a little sneak peek in the blog header and some cute ones on the right. I can't wait to get the rest and will post some more when I do.

The picture above was the first "family picture" Josh and I had ever taken together (actually I guess our engagements were the first). It was with my family right after we were married. It is funny to see how much has changed since this picture was taken. I don't think that Josh and I could have had any idea what we were in for in our marriage (it has been better than I could have imagined). In that picture my niece Chadra was the only grandchild. There are now 16, almost 17 (Steve and Amy are expecting in June). I can't believe that there was ever life without the four sweet boys that we have been blessed with.  Life is so rich and full of good things!

Revisit to the Ice Cream Scoops

When my blog was private I posted this idea we were trying to get our kids to mind better. I thought I would re-post it along with how it works, and how it has been working. I bought the ice cream scoops from Utah Idaho Supply. Here is the link if you want to purchase them. Each of my kids has an ice cream cone taped to the fridge, their goal for the day is to get 5 ice cream scoops each. They always start the day with 0. If they get up, get dressed, and do their jobs (each of them has a different set of things they need to do in the morning) before school or just before they play, they earn 2 ice cream scoops. If I ask them to do extra things like take some towels down to the laundry room, or pick something up, if they do it right away, they get an ice cream scoop. If they complain, they don't get one at all. If they don't do it, they lose one. If they don't have any to lose, they go in the hole (which gets hard to remember...)

If I make a big deal about the ice cream scoops and am good with rewarding and taking away, we have really amazing days with the boys trying hard to mind the first time I ask them to do something. If I am not good at remembering, the day is rough.

Their last ice cream scoop of the day is given for going to bed and staying there. If they already have 5 they will either keep them or lose one and not get their goal of having 5. If they don't have any (and they can lose them all at bed time), they lose their t.v. privileges for the next day. We have had a problem with wanting them to get 5 scoops so much that we make everything woth a scoop at bedtime which was a problem because they were learning that if they had a bad day they could just work extra hard at bed time and they would still get their scoops. We wanted them to try all day long, so we don't make it possible to earn 5 scoops at bed time. They usually earn 2, but they can lose all of them.
I put this heavy duty magnet on the back so I can put them up and take them down easily. The kids don't get scoops for doing things that they should do anyway. When they make a mess and I ask them to clean it up, they don't get a scoop because they know they should clean up their messes anyway. If they are being mean and I ask them to say sorry for being mean, they don't get a scoop for minding that time because they shouldn't have been mean in the first place. I hope that this is making sense.

This has eliminated a lot of me being frustrated with the kids and a lot of yelling.

The reward for 5 scoops varies. In the beginning it was something a little bigger as I was trying to get them to get on board with the whole scoop thing. It can vary from a cookie, treat (I usually do something small, like a few Swedish fish), choosing from a treasure box, extra Wii time, extra time with mom or dad, a special craft, and outing or activity...pretty much any reward that would motivate your kids. If we are having a hard time minding, the reward usually gets bigger as they seem to need to get their motivation back

The good thing about doing this is that my kids are now getting into the habit of minding the first time that I say to do something. My kids are getting more self motivated and things are definitely running more smoothly.  I also feel like it is good to reward your kids for good behavior and this reminds me to do that when they mind the first time I ask them to do something.  I think this idea is most effective when you give lots of scoops for good things. 

We also have this idea that we use for church.  It has worked wonderfully too and the kids are a lot better at church (it also gives us some leverage when they are being really hard.)  It actually is in addition to the scoops we have at home.  if the kids lose all three of their scoops at church they lose their dessert on Sunday night.  It is also a good idea to give them something extra if they keep all three of their scoops.

Our Little McKay...

...likes a good sucker.

Kid's Craft-Rainbow Fish

I loved this craft because once again, the boys could do it all on their own. We love to watercolor at our house and it is always fun to have some sort of direction with water coloring. For some reason my kids are always in their pajamas when we take pictures of their crafts.  I swear we don't wear our pj's all of the time.
The boys were really proud of how these turned out. I think you can't go wrong with these little fish. I talked to them about not mixing the colors (making the paint brown) and they did great with it. They worked so hard on these and really did their best.
If you wanted to take this little craft one step further you could read "The Rainbow Fish" book and use glitter glue to make it a little more sparkly, oh the possibilities!

Ice Skating at the Olympic Oval

I have wanted to take our kids ice skating all winter. I LOVE when I get to tell the kids that we are going to do something for our Friday Night Activity that they have never done before. They go crazy all day asking me questions about what it is and the never guess it. Well, we have never been ice skating before. We had a brief experience with roller skating that was NOT good and we bagged it pretty quick. I was a bit skeptical about this little activity and hoped that it wasn't a complete disaster. Ice skating seems like it would be really hard for young kids.
I also was so freaked out when I found out that Palmer was too old for the little ice walker thing. I was so grateful for the helmet!
Josh quickly took each one of them on their own and tried to help them figure out how to do it and then we let them go. They Olympic Oval is AMAZING! There was a hockey game, ice skating and some sort of Curling thing going on at the same time. It is huge.
McKay and I hung out most of the time getting pictures of the kids.
I was so worried about the boys getting frustrated as they were falling. A lot (and I mean a lot). But they totally didn't. They picked themselves up and went at it again. I was so PROUD of them.
Hunter literally RAN around the track over and over and over. I kept waiting for the kid to collapse. His little feet were just going so fast back and forth that I really couldn't keep up with him. We skated for 1-1/2 hours and he ran the whole time. When we got home and looked at his legs, he had rubbed the skin off one side of his ankle (heavy socks NOT ankle socks next time).
I have never seen so much falling even with the little ice walker thingys. But they didn't cry and they didn't quit.
See, it is huge.
Palmer took turns with Josh and I, but really he figured it out and went on his own for a lot of it. Palmer is VERY competitive and I think he was having a very hard time with the fact that there were some really little kids skating circles around him. At the end he was going really fast.

Getting up from a fall with a big smile. I saw this a lot.
And I channeled my inner figure skater. I totally missed my calling in life. Look at those girls in the background, they are saying "oh my goodness, she lifted up her leg, so awesome." Okay really I had 5 year olds skating circles around me.
McKay was also a trooper for the long time we were here. He liked watching all of the people and everyone kept coming up and talking to him. He is irresistible :)


Palmer liked it best when Josh would come behind him and pick him up.
Josh was so cute with McKay. He had him laughing pretty hard.
When it was time to go we had to pry the boys off the ice. It was 9:00 pm and they were still going strong. Their hair was matted with sweat, they had all rubbed skin off somewhere on their feet and were covered with bruises (Palmer has some pretty big bruises on his elbows), but they were glowing with happiness and asked if we could go back the next day. They talked all the way home about how much they LOVED ice skating. We definitely have to go back again.