Have you ever felt like this?

TOO MANY PROJECTS!! Yes... I actually admit that I am an avid "project junky." I promised Taesun that I would make him a Spiderman costume for his birthday that is only 13 days away. I am waiting for the pattern to go on sale before I can start. It should be on sale later this week. Then, I have two scrapbooks to do. One for our family vacay and one for Taesun's life. I am that mother. Third child = no scrapbook (YET!!) So- amid all these other projects, I started a quilt. That quilt is haunting me. My daughter, Addison constantly asks when I will finish her quilt. I am not sure. Life has been getting in the way.

Along those same lines- I have been doing some deep introspection. I have finally come to the realization that I am way to OVER-INVOLVED!! So- with deep dismay, I left my beloved Bunco group, gave up one child's room-mom position, and am committed to NOT doing PTA next year. Now- that may seem extreme, but I am still involved in a book club, relief society at church, my new church calling- YW's, and taking care of my family. I am striving to be the best stay-at-home mom I can be. Homemaker Extraordinaire!!! Now- back to cleaning the condo and making a menu for the week so the grocery shopping can get done without a certain 4 yr old tagging along...

If You Give A Mom A Toilet Wand...

seriously...check this out. It is soooo funny and totally true. It is based on the series of children's books called, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie."

http://mormonmommyblogs.blogspot.com/2010/02/if-you-give-mom-toilet-wand.html

The Best Snowman Ever

The kids woke up to another snow day. This time we ended up with some good packing snow. They seriously did this all by themselves!! I was enjoying the warm interior of our home while they were enjoying the exterior with all it's white goodness!! Seriously- check out how tall this snowman is. If you compare it to Addi who is over 4'... you can imagine. It is seriously the best snowman I've ever seen. Real carrot for the nose, true black buttons for the buttons and the face, a hat, scarf, and twigs for arms. I could not be a prouder (and warm and toasty) mom!!! Great job kids!!!

Robot Boy

Tae came home from school today and really wanted to make a robot costume. I didn't really want to take a bunch of time out to do this... and we had paper, one marker, scissors, and tape around us. We came up with this cute little robot outfit. He loves it and is currently playing Lego Batman on XBOX360 with his Spiderman robe on and his robot costume. What a boy!!!

Scripture Power!!

How do you teach an eight-year-old, six-year-old, and four-year-old how to memorize scriptures? Make a scripture dry-erase board. Don't want an ugly white board on your walls? You don't have to now. To make this cute scripture board, you need a picture frame with glass and a cardboard insert, some fabric that hopefully is light and lightly patterned if any pattern at all, packing tape, and a dry-erase marker. First, take out the cardboard insert from your new frame...(if you don't have one, make it! ) Next, cover the cardboard with fabric of your choice. If it is striped like mine, make sure it's lined up correctly. Next tape the fabric to the back of the cardboard to hold it in place. Then, put the cardboard back into the frame and then tape the back onto the frame using packing tape. (The fabric won't fit into the frame very easily.) Finally, write on the glass using a dry-erase marker. Voila!!! Sassy scripture board!!!

When your backyard looks like this..... 3-4 inches of snow when you wake up... what do you want to do?

My kids wanted to go SWIMMING!!! So, on with the bathing suits and into the bathtub you go...

Sheer bliss, I tell ya!

The Power of a Green Thumb and Great Visiting Teachers

I wanted to share my first experience of growing something from a bulb all by myself. I was strictly in charge of watering, giving sunlight to, and generally taking care of my plant. Believe it or not, it actually grew!!! My track record on plants is Plants-9, Stacey-0...until now. Now the record is: Plants-9, Stacey-1. I was super excited to watch it grow. I received this right before Christmas and didn't plant the bulbs until the second week in January. I already have a super tall plant with beautiful white paper-thin blooms on it. My sweet visiting teachers, Holly and Ashley, gave this to me for Christmas. They are soooo good to me. I am lucky to have such great visiting teachers who honestly care about me and my family, help us out when we need it, and who are such great friends that I get to spend time with. Tonight, we are actually going to see the musical, "CATS" at the Aronoff Theater. I know we'll have a terrific time and it will be a great bonding experience!! Do you like the vinyl lettering above the fireplace? I honestly don't like it, but it only costs.....$1. I found the entire set of lettering at the dollar store and thought, 'who cares if I don't like it...it's a dollar!!' It will come down when my large framed family portrait goes up. (another project that I haven't started...)

Drop It Like It's Hot

Rob and I LOVE the Snoop Dogg song, "Drop it like it's hot..." so when we saw some shirts while shopping for the girls, we just HAD to buy them. Addison's says, "Shop It Like It's Hot" with some bling bling on it... and Jenna's says, "Drop it like it's Hot" with a tater tot in the middle and the "Ore Ida" logo on the bottom. Recently I promised Jenna, (who adamently hates this shirt) that if she wore it to school one more time, we would retire the shirt. She did wear it with a hoodie on top zipped all the way up until she began to get hot at school. She took off her hoodie and said that people were making fun of her at school. Rob and I asked, "How?" and her reply was that they would read her shirt and then laugh. Not pointing fingers and making fun of her type of laugh, but the 'Ha Ha!! That's funny' type of laugh. She couldn't quite distinguish between the two and as we tried to let her know that they were laughing at her shirt and not at her, she through a massive fit. So- I told her that if she let me take a picture of her, I would never make her wear it again- even at home. This is what I got. Crazy girl...

FHE...with extended family

In January, my sister, Whitney quit her job which was paying next to nothing and she began her new search for a job doing hair in Dayton, Ohio. She is doing well and has several options. While she is jobless, she has been supplementing her income by coming down on Sundays and spending the night with my mom and dad and then working at the dry-cleaning plant on Mondays and Tuesdays. It works out well. I thought that I would take advantage of this situation and invite her and the rest of my family over for Family Home Evening one Monday night. I planned a lesson about being a "forever family" and had each member of the family help re-create the house above using our LEGOS. They did a fantastic job and when the house was finished, we read the sayings that I had taped to parts of the house. They said things like, "Kind Words", "Pray Together", and " Read scriptures." We talked about what we need to do to become a forever family. I think that even though she didn't gush over the lesson or the time spent together, she had a really good time. She had time to reflect over what she had been taught as a child. She was reminded that she, too is a daughter of God. It was a good experience overall and I crave for the next time we can get together like that.

No more nursery!!!

So, although this is a month late- I went a little mommy-crazy when I realized that I was sending my baby to Primary for the first time. My little Tae is now officially a SUNBEAM!!! How did that happen? Well- he will be 4 in March...so I guess he is one of the oldest sunbeams I've had. I just remember when I brought him to church for the first time. I remember the first day of nursery. I remember dropping him off and him never crying... (well- almost never.) Here are some pics of his classmates in Sunbeams this year. From top to bottom: Meleah, Oran, Luke, Ford, and then Tae with his big sister escorting him into Primary for the first time!! (Yes, we made it a family affair. That is Rob and Addi in the background and I was the photographer.)

YAY- No Cancer!!!

I got the results from the biopsies today and although they found definite inflammation, they also found NO CANCER!!! That is truly a blessing since my Grandfather died of esophagial cancer. I was seriously worried. Now to figure out why the inflammation and determine a way to heal my poor esophagus and stomach. Dr's appointment later this month... I'm sure all will be resolved. Now I can stop worrying so much and just be happy living life with the family. Phew!!!