Jason's Birthday

Jason chose tortellini with alfredo sauce and cheesy garlic toast for his birthday dinner. We also had a chocolate cream pie for his "cake". Yum.

For gifts we got him something he REALLY needed....new glasses and any eye exam. We also gave him a BSU bronco shirt (so he could have at least one thing to open). :)

Abree's gift to him was a little green platform?..with a miniature car on top.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Love at Home

After hearing our Stake President speak in Stake Conference, we had a family council about what we would do with his challenge. He challenged us to let go of a favorite sin and/or completely change one thing in our lives.

Our family focused on how we could have more harmony/love in our home. We brainstormed and eventually settled on this..

A Family Service jar. We each listed 12 services we would like to have done for us. Then we cut, folded and put them in a jar. Our plan is to draw a service out once a week and do it.

We hope it creates more love and harmony in our home.

Choices..choices..choices!

A sweet family in our ward (before the split) had several girls who had recently married or left for college. With their leave, they left behind a whole closet FULL of dance dresses. The Mitchell's were kind enough to allow us to come "shopping" at their home for a Sweetheart's dress.

Rylee tried each dress on and posed, while Eliza (Rylee's friend) and I took pictures and gave our advice on which ones we liked best.

I wondered if Rylee would be satisfied with borrowing a dress, rather than buying. In the end, she found one she thought would be great for Sweethearts. I was glad.

She then reminded me she still wanted to buy shoes, jewelry and a bolero. I guess that's not much, considering the prices of dresses. 

Spotted and Kissed

Rylee had been planning on going to Sweethearts (girl ask guy dance) since her 15th birthday. She said to me then, "Mom, can you believe at this time next year I'll be able to go to Sweethearts?!"

That day had finally arrived. She hemmed and hawed about who she should ask. She kinda had someone in mind, but worried that he might have a date or that he kind of liked someone else. With her friend's encouragement she finally decided to ask him...Matt Roll.

Being the planner she is, she wanted to make sure she asked him several weeks in advance and in a creative, fun way. We scoured Pinterest, as well as other internet sources, to find a cute way to ask. The one she decided on was not necessarily unique or new to me..but still cute.

She came to me the day of and said, "Mom, I need lots of circles." We punched out dozens and dozens of circles together. I also helped her with making signs to put on the poster.

         With the poster complete and extra circles in hand, she and her friend Sarah went to his house to decorate.

                                                  The initial plan was to decorate his front door, but when his mom saw what they wanted to do, she invited them in to decorate his bedroom. So they spotted his mirror..

his floor..

his wall..

..and his bedroom door. Then threw Hershey kisses all over the ground.

"Matt, Now that I've SPOTTED you...and have KISSED the ground you walk on...Will you go to SWEETHEARTS with me???"

For the final touch, balloons and crepe paper.

How could he not say YES to all of this?!

The rest of the story..... Matt came to Rylee the next day at school, with flower in hand. He told her he would love to go to the Sweethearts dance with her, BUT couldn't. Being the big baseball star he is, he had a tournament and would be out-of-town the weekend of the dance. She said he felt so bad, he was almost in tears, when talking to her.

Bummer!

Do you think that stopped her??? No way!

Next...

She rallied and thought of someone else to ask. I was out-of-town visiting my friend Krissi when she came up with her next plan. She texted me a picture of bananas and said she was asking Kyle Ruby. I didn't get the full story, but I guess her initial plan didn't work, so they had to go with plan B ...something to do with bananas???

This is such a FUN..but nerve-racking stage of life as a parent. But I'm actually enjoying teenagerhood (mostly). :)

Snow Day!!!

When the school district declared a "snow day" we started to make plans. We settled on sledding at the new park in Meridian. Jason closed the carwash and came home from work early to play with the kids, but not before he created some cool carwash sign sleds. :)

It was a really cold and blustery day...winds whipping snow in your face kind of blustery. As I was dropping Jason and the kids off (I was content doing errands while they played) he told me to not go far, thinking Abree or himself might not last that long. :)

Rylee

Abree-Treyson-Taylee

Surprisingly, they ALL stuck it out like troopers and had lots of FUN...in an exhausting kind of way. 

Primary 2013

For the new year in Primary, it was out with the OLD...

..and in with the NEW!

Instead of the typical birthday pencils, we decided to give out crazy straws...

"Sip-sip HOORAY! It's YOUR birthday!" 

 We use the popsicle sticks in the cans (with each child's name on them) for taking turns during Sharing/Singing Time. We seemed to be getting a lot of "repeats", so I colored one of the tips red and started a new system...draw from the red end and turn the stick upside-down when the child is called on. When all the sticks have been used, start over again with the red tips showing.

Hopefully this will help with our repeat problem. :)

For our "spotlight" gift this year, we are giving out these customized (by me) lip balms. Actually I can't take full credit. I printed the labels off here, then cut them out, stuck them on and shrink-wrapped them with plastic sleeves for stick-ability and cuteness.

I also replaced our plain white tablecloth with a bright red one.. with polka dots! And we have a fancy mirror with the 2013 theme in vinyl, "I Am A Child of God".

I should take a picture of our Primary table to show you how CUTE it is...but do you think I have time for that??? :)

PS- We have 18 Sunbeams this year..yikes!