Progress & Projects

Doing projects and marking things off my list makes me happy! I would say 75% of the time I feel like a ping pong ball being bounced from kids to cooking to errands to getting glued to the mindless black hole of a computer or blah blah blah blah blah blah. Any mother knows exactly what I mean. But occasionally, I have those blissful days when I'm like an arrow... I get projects done, I conquer my list, my house is clean and maybe my kids even behave ;) Well, yesterday was one of those days and I finished a project I'd been working on for an entire week.

So here it is, our new and improved chore system. I shouted out for ideas on kids keeping their rooms cleaned and got some great ideas. One of that was a system my friend used that I copied to make this. Each child has a peg board... peg 1: Chores to do. peg 2: Chores done. peg 3: Tickets earned. peg 4: Special date card (12 spots for each day all jobs are done, when full, child gets date with mom or dad). peg 5: Extra chores for allowance. I'm very excited to see if this can streamline our day in a way that won't require constant reminders and and psychotic screaming mother.



This last weekend I got to make a bouquet for a wedding I'm working on. It's been a while, so it was nice to have her bridals as a sort of practice run. First time doing lilies and I learned a lot and will be doing a bit different next time but she was happy with the results so far. Sometimes it's scary what I dive into, but it wouldn't be fun if there weren't any risks involved. Stage 2 of this wedding is all the bridal party flowers and decorating an LDS building gym with a fabric canopy and some draped walls.
Here's Emily... almost 7 months old now and such a good baby! She's squirming all around now and her bottom 2 teeth broke through this last weekend so toothy pics on their way ;)Here she is posing in her Halloween costume Lori, one of our AZ friends, made... it is so adorable. She's got some crochet talent for sure!


I am overjoyed to announce that we now have a fenced backyard!!! Now the kids can play without the stress of keeping Ryan contained. We got these great fence sections from Lowes that Ben and the kids put up in a few hours one Saturday. It was such a fun family project.
Our PJ crew... love these goofy kids :)
We found a lost Yorkie that we got to babysit for a couple of days before we found his home. I must say that I really like adopting dogs for a weekend.... you get all the fun without all the mess ;)
Our first downtown Dallas adventure took us to a Heli Expo at the Dallas Convention Center. Ben & I and little Ben, Alaura and Emily rode the light rail (DART). That may have been the highlight of the day for them, but the heli's were pretty cool too. One even had a pegasus paint job.
Woo hoo... another long overdue project... a lemonade can turned headband holder... I glued it onto a candlestick to make it a little prettier.
I hung up iron knobs with ribbons for their bows, which filled up way too fast.
Exciting and sad days of cutting hair. I trimmed the older girls hair and Anabelle said she wanted her hair cut like Alaura's. She was so excited and loved her hair and I nearly cried... goodbye Rapunzel hair!
Tori's B-day was sooo much fun... Sushi, noodles, cupcakes, brownies and girl movies!
Anabelle turned 4! Dad got her a collection of gems because she loves little sparkly things. She had a super fun time shopping with the money Nana gave her, getting all sorts of things (umbrella, craft kit, treasure box). At school Tally got to make a Dr. Seuss hat.