FHE Bread making

When trying to decide what to do for Family Home Evening, Ben thought it would be fun to make some home made bread, since I've only really made it in a bread maker. Ben found a recipe that he liked and we attempted the impossible, cooking with the kids.

The kids got boarded waiting for the yeast or what not, but when it was finally their turn to help, they had fun. They each took turn adding the flour while Ben stirred the batter. 

After all the flour had been mixed, Ben poured in on the counter to knead it by hand. The kids really wanted to help with this part, but it was such a mess they lost interest fast. When the kneading was done, he put them in the pans and in the oven they went. By then the kids had lost all interest and went downstairs to play.

After they were done cooking though, they quickly came back upstairs to taste the fruits of their labors.

For our first time making homemade bread, I would say we did a pretty good job. I like the bread from a bread maker better, but it wasn't bad.

Gabbi's Birthday Dinner

I know what your thinking, "her birthday's not till April." Well in the scheme of things your right, but to make sure things stayed on track we had to move a few things around. We were planning on celebrating Cameron's birthday, but they went out of town for Spring break, so we switched birthday dinners around and we celebrated Gabbi's first. Sadly she let it go to her head. She was all attitude and all sass all week long. It drove me crazy.

When asking Gabbi what she wanted for her birthday dinner, her reply was, "I want what Kamree had." I then asked her what that was and the first response was waffles and scrambled eggs. That wasn't what Kamree had, but that's the first thing that cam to mind, so that's what she got. Yummy waffles and a killer scrambled egg casserole.

After our yummy dinner we went downstairs to let her open her gifts because Papa had to go to work. She didn't mind that at all. 

Jeff and Tiffany gave her a really cute princess coloring kit. It had coloring pages, crayons, all sorts of stickers, and a cool carrying case. She was jumping up and down with it wanting to open it right away. She loves to color and this was perfect.

Gabbi asked for a lalaloopsie doll, like her cousin Miranda has. So that's exactly what we gave her. Her name is Blossom and she looks like a spring flower. She's pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Nana and Papa gave her paper purse and inside the purse it had a bag of M&M's plus a coupon that said good for on sleepover and shopping trip. She was really excited for this one as well. She was sad when Kamree got to go and she didn't. She couldn't wait until it was her turn.

Then she picked up a birthday card that Kayla had made her. It was so cute. Kayla wrote her a very sweet note. When she looked at it, she wasn't sure what it was, then Kayla came over and read it to her.

Dear Gabbi,

I love you because you are funny, you like me, and you are very cute. I hope you knoe that you are a daughter of God. I also hope that you know your Heavenly father loves and that he watcher you. I hope you have a good birthday, Gabbi!

Underneath that, she drew a cute picture of them swinging on a swing set. How sweet is that. Kayla is such a sweet girl, it made Gabbi's day. 

Jenny and Brian also gave her a lalaloopsie doll, this one was Sweet Pea of something like that. She again was really excited to have lalaloopsie's like her cousin and of course when she was done opening her presents she wanted to open the dolls so her and Kamree could play with them.

After all the chaos of gifts were over, the kids all went to play and the rest of us relaxed and watched America's funniest video's. After the show was over, we all went upstairs for cake and ice cream. Gabbi had requested a chocolate cake. Tiffany did a great job with it and Gabbi loved it.

It was a pretty cool cake too, camouflage inside. It was awesome and tasted great too. They also made a chocolate raspberry cake for the adults, and that was yummy too. Fresh raspberry. Yum.

Loves his Selfies

He's just so funny. I love that he wants to take the phone for himself when I try to take a picture of him. He must either love to look at himself or he just really wants to give himself a big hug. 

Play Place

We have to get our rings inscpected twice a year in order to keep their warranties. So to make the long drive to Layton (I know, Layton doesn't seem that far at all, but with three kids...) worth it, we let the kids play at the play place and we stop and get an ice cream cone as well.

When we got to the mall we headed straight down to the jewelry store and Ben took the kids to the play place. When I was done getting Ben's ring checked I walked over to see how they were doing. Both of them wanted to be done. I was really surprised, but then again not really. There were a ton of kids there, seeing how it was a Saturday.

So we decided to go upstairs to the food court and get our ice cream instead. We sat down at the tables to enjoy our ice cream and a cute little boy and his dad came over to sit at the kids table too. Gabbi had a lot of fun talking to this kid. He looked almost sad when it was time for us to leave. 

When the kids had finished their ice cream, it was time for William to have a bottle, so we decided we would give the play place one more try. They wen't down to play and William and I chilled in the food court while he drank his bottle. When he was all done, we went down to join the rest of them.

They play place wasn't as crowded as before and the kids seemed like they were having a great time.

Owen sat at this maze game for the longest time. He loved moving the balls around the board to get them to their spaceships.

Gabbi on the other hand ran around the whole time. I think it was a goals of her's to be able to play on even piece of toy she could in a short amount of time. I had to beg her to stop for a minute to take a quick picture.

William even got into the fun. We put him on top of the giant to fish to see what he'd do. He smile, laughed, and then tried to eat the fish. Funny kid, but what kid doesn't put stuff in their mouth.

He's a mover

It seems like I have been talking about William a lot. That's true, but he's just such a dang cute buddy. 

I know I've mentioned this before too, how he moves around, but it still amazes me how he moves around and all on his back.

He is making progress though. Ben has been working with him during his tummy time and he has rolled over a few times now. It's not consistent yet, but he's getting there.

Selfie

On my phone I have the ability to take a selfie were I can see what I'm taking. If that makes any sense at all. Well, the other day I turned that ability on and took a "selfie" of William. He thought that was pretty cool to see himself on the phone. He even tried to grab it. I can only assume he thought it was another baby that he could play with.  = ) 

Our handsome baby and check out those beautiful blue eyes. I hope they stay that way. 5 months old now, his Pediatrician said they are probably here to stay. Yea!!!

Movie Time

Not having cable or internet can have its advantage, it can have its disadvantages too. Since we don't have cable or internet, we get our entertainment from watching movies. Needless to say we are a movie watching family.

Me and the boys watching Cars while Gabbi was at school.

William chilling with Daddy while Mom and Dad were watching Narnia. William was glued. I would be too if I were his age watching large animals and lots of excitement.

Potty Reward #8

This reward took a lot longer to earn then they others, I think he's losing interest. I need to get him back into it, I'm just not sure how.

Dinner with friends

We try to get together with some friends of our once a month for dinner and fun. It was our turn to host and we were all looking forward to it.

Ben has been working overtime all week, so I was on my own to prepare dinner and get things ready. Sadly he wasn't even able to join us that night either. He found out that the Young Men had an appointment to do baptisms and he was asked to go with the boys. 

I decided to make poppy-seed chicken. A friend of ours made it for us after we got home from the hospital after having William. It was so yummy. I can across the recipe on Facebook and decided to give it a try. It didn't turn out as good as my friends, but it was till yummy.

After we were done eating we visited for a while, had some dessert and then let their son open his birthday present. We weren't able to make it to his party, but we still had a gift for him. We gave him a mega blocks car and he loved it. He rolled it back and forth on the table until it was time for them to head home.  

He's such a cute kid.

Show and Tell

Gabbi had another opportunity for show and tell again. When she brought home the bag she was very excited about it because she knew exactly what she wanted to bring. 

She asked if she could take her flower girl bouquet from her Aunt's wedding. I had no problem with that, so we put it in the bag along with her three clues and sent it with her to school.

When I picked her up that day, I asked her if her class had guessed what she had brought. She told me that they did on the last clue. She still had a smile on her face though.

Potty Reward #7

Your probably sick of seeing him in front of his potty chart, but I don't want to make the same mistake as we did with Gabbi. I didn't praise her enough when she was potty training and I think that is partially the reason why she is having the problems we are dealing with now. 

I just wish potty training was a heck of a lot easier.

Headboard

We were at the BDO Outlet the other day and came across a headboard that we both thought would look nice in Gabbi's room. The best part was that it wasn't a bad price at all either. Gabbi was excited to see it come home as well. 

Now we just need to get the kids to stop jumping on the bed, I would hate to have them hit their heads on the headboard. Knowing our kids, they will.

Potty Reward #6

He really is doing great, if I haven't said it enough already.

We put a pull-up on him the other day to see how he would do. Sadly, he treated it like a diaper. I guess I figured he would, but I hoped he would surprise us. He's not quite ready for the pull-up, more so, he's not ready to ditch the diaper.

Now we just need to put it in his head that its not a good thing to pee in the diaper anymore. He still wakes up wet from both his naps and night time. One step at a time. He'll get there.

March get Together

The March get together was a celebration of Nelson and Brian's birthday's. Nelson had mentioned that he had a lot of fun the last time we got together to go go-carting. I made mention that we could meet at Toad's and do a few laps there and even play around in the arcade or whatever and plans formed from there. 

We planned to meet at Toads, play around for a little bit and then head back to our house for dinner, birthday cake and visiting.

Everyone stopped at our place for a few minutes to drop off food before we headed to Toads. When we got to Toads we all planned on doing at least two races around the track and then playing a few games around the arcade. Sadly that changed when we had to wait in line for almost 45 minutes. I couldn't believe it, the tracks not that long. Needless to say we only did one race around the track and spent the rest of the time at the arcade. At least the kids were entertained for a little bit while waiting in line. They played on the bars, they watched the other races, etc.

Having a little fun waiting in line for the go-carts.

Amanda, T.J., Uncle John

Grandpa Nelson

Sadly we didn't get to all race in the same heat. It worked out better this way though, I got to take some pictures.

The go-carts weren't too bad, sadly not worth the wait (at least it didn't cost a lot). They weren't as fast as the ones we rode the last time we went, but with these ones we were able to take the kids along. Both Gabbi and Owen were really excited and even more so when they finally got to sit in the go-cart.

Owen had a huge grin on his face the whole time we were driving on the track. He absolutely loved it. However, after a few laps he started to get cold and asked if we could be done. I laughed and just kept going. I told him that we were almost done and he just laid on my shoulder till we crossed the finish line.

After we were done with the go-carts we went back inside and played around the arcade. I loved that our kids were entertained by the games even without having to put money in them.

Owen's favorite game was a Pirate game were you shot fish, other pirates, rocks, etc. He sat in that game forever just watching the demo play over and over while he pretended to be the one doing the shooting.

It was hard pulling Owen away from that game, but eventually he did find others to look at and play on. At one point he had left the game without letting us know. He had wondered into the mini golf course and was looking at the waterfall. Scared me to death when I didn't see him in the Pirate game.

Everyone had a blast playing the arcade games. Amanda and her boyfriend, T.J. made a killing on a balloon game. Come to think of it, so did Brian and Karen. As we were getting ready to leave, they won the jackpot on that same balloon game.

Brian even let Gabbi play one game of air hockey with Ellie. It was too cute to watch them. Their eyes both lit up whenever one of them made a score. All the kids had so much fun.

Even Nelson and Deann got in on the arcade action and got a fair amount of tickets themselves. I think we were the only ones that didn't walk away with any tickets.

Once we were done at the arcade we headed back to our place to eat dinner. We had hoagie sandwiches with all the fixings and yummy salads. After a while we pulled out the birthday cakes and sang to the birthday boys.

Nelson and Brian both seemed to have a lot of fun. At least I hope they did.

Ben wanted to get something for Brian, but wasn't sure what. He came across some peanuts while shopping for a birthday card for his Dad. He found one that was a spicy flavor and thought Brian might like it, so that's what he did.

Then we all pitched in and gave Nelson money for his birthday. He bought a used Motorcycle not to long ago and it needs some work done. Now he can get started.

Potty Reward #5

He's really on a roll. He's earning his prizes very quickly too. We've decided that were going to have to lengthen the required amount of stickers in between prizes. 

Moving in Circles

William is doing such a great job in his development. He can move around like crazy when he's on the floor, but he's not crawling and he hasn't really rolled over yet either. We'll put him on the floor, go do something and when we come back he's not in the same place. 

As you can tell from the picture, he's turned 90%. His head was at the top of the mat when I laid him down to play.

We both think that he'll officially roll over soon. From this picture, he's just about got it. He'll lay on his side for a little bit, kick his legs, and then roll back on his back. He'll get it soon enough.

Potty Reward #4

It seems like he's getting the hand of it. I just hope that once the toys stop coming he still goes potty in the toilet.

Hands

William loves his hands and fingers. When he doesn't have a bottle in his mouth or a toy, his hands and fingers are there. At on point he had them so far in his mouth that he gagged himself. Silly boy. But that still hasn't stopped him from putting them right back in.

I love how it looks like he's getting ready to whistle.

Boys

It was bath day and couldn't help but take this picture of the boys in their diapers. It was a too cute moment.

Family History FHE

At Church Gabbi received a paper that asked about where our ancestors came form and how they got to the United Sates. We decided to make our Family Home Evening around this. We pulled out the family history books that we have and our family charts. We looked up both sides of the family and tried to explain to the kids about our ancestors. 

After we were done talking about our ancestors we had a small activity of drawing pictures of our family. 

Gabbi drew a really nice pictures of us playing our in the yard. I was very impressed by it. You can tell that she has really improved in her drawing and coloring.

I helped Owen draw his picture. He wanted everyone in the family holding some of his favorite cars. He also wanted a giant Lighting McQueen driving over our heads. He then colored the background to finish it off.

Ben drew us all scuba diving for buried treasure. The kids loved Ben's drawing and wanted to claim it as their own.

We all had fun drawing our pictures and even better, the kids were happy to have them displayed on the fridge for everyone to see.