Thursday, March 31, 2011

Creepy Crawlers

A Lady in my ward shared the best idea with me the other day… She had a “Bug” birthday party for her son and she had all the little boys make these Lady Bug containers. So with her advice I went down to the Nursery just one block away and bought 1,200 Lady Bugs for $8! We came home and put these little guys in the frig so they would go to sleep in the meantime we put together our container for some of them.

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We added a moist paper towel at the bottom, then went outside and grabbed some grasses, and some leaves off our tree. Then lastly we added a few water soaked Raisins for the lady bugs to suck on. Then of course we poked holes in the top of the lid…. Now ready for our lady bug friends! Daddy helped with this part… shocker I know. Then we watched them play. Connor and Chloe loved it. They won’t last long like this but we decided to let them sleep in the frig at night to hopefully keep them alive a little longer.

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What happened to the other 1,150 Lady Bugs you ask? Oh, tonight once it got dark I went out and put the sleepy lady bugs on my plants outside to help my plants from being eaten by other bugs! Go get em’ Lady Bugs! The man at the Nursery told me to do it at night because the lady bugs won’t wander to far in the dark. They will lady their eggs on the plant and they will stick around. So that’s been our day! Bugs.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Enough is Enough…

Tuesday morning 3:30AM Kiel calls me and tells me his truck broke down again and asked if I would come get him. So I woke the kids up and we jumped into the car to rescue Daddy. He took the car back out to finish all he could for the day.

Kiel texted me and asked me to start researching a Large enough SUV that would pull his trailer.

This has been something we’ve thinking about doing for a very long time…  this will help if Kiel’s truck is broken down. It will help in so many ways. It was emotional for me to let the Passat go but it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

So our new “ride” is a 2003 Ford Excursion, Diesel. Super Clean and really nice on the inside. Much nicer than I had anticipated. It was really taken care of.

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We really like it and currently it’s out working with Kiel right now so it’s already pulling it’s weight… haha….

Friday, March 18, 2011

My Growing Garden

This year I feel proud of myself because I planted my veggies at the right time...finally.. right? I am catching on. Plus, I am like a silly little kid because I love watching them grow. It totally excites me everyday seeing them get bigger. Right now the most exciting thing happening is my bean plant reached out and started wrapping around one of our deck posts…  I love it. It’s amazing how this plants grow. I am silly… I know that.. but we are having fun!

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Below are my Tomato plants and Pepper Plants… I have some in pots in the backyard and a couple in the front yard to see where they grow best.

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Then of course.. it wouldn’t be spring without flowers….. I say spring.. because this is summer weather for the rest of the world….

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Forks and Spoons

My Mom shared some really old… but unique frames with me and Hayley a couple of months ago and I haven’t had a place for them yet.. until I got this idea…

so I turned her “fugly” gold frame into this…. with a couple of coats of paint… WhaLa! It now hangs in my kitchen… cute right?DSCN2452

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Book of Mormon

This year Connor has moved up from Nursery to the Sunbeam class which has been a little bit of an adjustment. The first couple of weeks he really missed nursery but he has really come around. He really loves his class and his teachers. Jan11

The theme for primary this year is “The scriptures are the word of God.” and with that our primary presidency has challenged every primary child to read The Book of Mormon by the end of the year. A great Challenge… but for Connor I didn’t really take it to seriously. I started to be more diligent about reading to him from the “children’s version” of the scriptures every night… but I didn’t really feel like I was getting anywhere. Until…

About 3 weeks ago Connor came out of his class Super Excited, because he was given his First Book of Mormon. Just for him. His amazing teachers had taken pictures of each of their children and put it on a lamented card in their book. He was such a happy little boy. Once again.. something I thought was a really great idea… but I had my doubts about reading to him from it every night. I thought he would get bored… etc.

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I have to say that I was wrong. Every night since that Sunday Connor has requested and remembered to read his Book of Mormon. I love it… Chloe, Connor and I read our silly bedtime books, then I put Chloe down and it’s Connor and Mommy time. We snuggle in bed and read a chapter every night from his Book of Mormon. He listens so intensely.  Sometimes he’ll stop me and say… What you say Mommy? In the first couple of Chapters when we were talking about getting the plates from Laban. Connor was really into it, it was cute. He stopped me and told me, “Mommy I get the Book from Laban, I kill Laban.” Even before we talked about Nephi killing Laban. It really shocked me because Connor never says that. Even playing around he never says he’s going to kill anything. It was interesting. This has been such an amazing experience for me. I have loved every minute reading to my boy. I love our time together sharing something so spiritual. I know he can feel the spirit. I am grateful for this Challenge. I am sure we won’t finish it by the end of the year but just the challenge of reading it every night is something I really hope we can stick to. I am so proud of my “big boy.”

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Lo-Lo’s Chicken and Waffles

top-bgLast night Kiel and I met up with his 2 brothers and their wives for dinner. The 6 of us met at Lo-Lo’s Chicken and Waffles in Scottsdale. Under recommendation of Kiel’s brother Marc we all went to try it out for the first time.  Oh boy…. we were impressed. Not only was it delicious… it was authentic. Their chicken was delicious and they had the BEST hot sauce.. the waffles… yumm…. and they even had Kool-Aid… seriously? Yes… they called it DrAnk. A night without kids, adult conversation and fabulous food… Fantastic! needless to say.. I am sure we’ll be making another trip to Scottsdale! Delicious!!!

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Friday, March 11, 2011

You swallowed a…..

A Funny story from today….

Today at the park a lady in my ward… Sara Jensen came up to me and said…

“Connor just came up to me and said, Sister Jensen what is in your belly? (she’s 9 months pregnant)

and I told him that there was a baby inside my belly. Connor responded by saying, You swallowed a Baby?!?!?

Now to explain… I had to hold back my laughter a little as I told Sara that we have been reading the Classic book, The old lady who swallowed a fly.

I just thought that was really cute and funny that Connor thought she actually swallowed a baby:)And of course we read that story again this evening… Gotta love it.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Fish and Chips

In Preparation for my Grandma Miller’s Birthday Bash in May and to go along with the British theme… We tried out a “Fish and Chips” recipe… It was fun to make…. it’s defiantly a labor of love and can be Very messy… but worth it. Me, personally I am not a fish lover but I though it turned out pretty delicious… and even Connor enjoyed it… He did think it was chicken… but we let him think that to avoid any arguments. It was fun and I think we found a great recipe to use!DSCN2445