Rain, rain go away.....

What do you do on a fun picture weekend in Vegas when it rains?!!!!!

You don't get to take fun pictures, but you do get to.....

Eat at Pei Wei

Eat at the Egg & I

Shop at Marshall's

Shop at the Mall! I love Forever 21!!

Shop at Trader Joes

Eat at Panera Bread (my new favorite place)

Have lots a fun with your friends,

spend more time talking than you ever thought possible,

And laugh a lot!!!

No pictures, but still a lot of fun! Guess that means we get another

weekend away when it isn't raining in Vegas!!

Thanks, girls!! And husband, for letting me be just a girl for a day and a half, and for letting me come home to a clean house and sleeping children! You do happy wife, happy life so well!!

3?!!!!

Daxton-

Today is a big day for all of us, especially for you! You are getting to be such a big boy! You weighed 27 1/2 pounds today, and are 3 feet 1 inches tall!!! You woke up soooo excited today, and knew instantly, that it was your Birthday. The grin on your face was contagious! Watching you run from room to room wanting everybody to tell you happy birthday made me so happy!

I can't help but reflect a little on that crazy morning, 3 years ago, when you made a quick and unexpected entrance into this world. I knew from the moment I saw you that you were not going to be from the same mold as your sisters. You have done EVERYTHING in your own way and on in your own time! No matter how I try and steer you in your path in life, you always do things your way. I can not wait to see what you have in store! I know that you are going to be a strong leader who faces his fears head on, in the future. Though this is a scary thought for a mom to imagine, I am so excited to get to watch you grow into a young man. I feel a great sense of responsibility to guide you and direct you in a way that will lead you to keeping the commandments of your Heavenly Father.

I hope you will grow up knowing how much your dad and I love you. You have completed our family in a way that only you could. Your brother and sisters adore you and look out for you so much. I am so pleased by watching all of you interact and form loving bonds with each other. We all love your smile and zeal for life. I hope you will always attack life with such passion and force!!!

We are so proud to be your parents!!

Love,

Mom and Dad

Here are a few of your favorite things:

Construction equipment! You can't get enough! I am learning things I never imagined about front loaders, back hoes, and a variety of other things I never even thought I would need to know!!

Race cars! Never could I have imagined that you would want to watch race cars go around and around a track, but you are very captivated by it!!

Trains!!! I know this will make your Grandpa proud!!! You love your trains and putting the tracks together. I know that someday you and your grandpa will spend hours together because you are bound to be as passionate about them as he is!

Books!! I love that you like to have me read to you. I also love when you are not tired and so I hand you a book and you stay in your bed looking through your favorite books.

Nutella! I am going to have to buy stock soon in the company with as much as you and Kenzie eat of this stuff! I laugh on a daily basis when I find you at the table with your bread, Nutella and Peanut butter. And I am completely in love with the way you say "tella"!!

Your sisters!! You ask me just about every day where your sisters are when they are at school! In fact, the first day of school you cried almost the whole time Kamren was at Kindergarten because you felt so lost without them around all the time. I love to hear you say,"Hey, do you want to come and play in my room?" to them. It makes me smile that you love them so much, and that they love you just as much!

Golf!!! Your dad is so proud that you are in love with his sport!! Hearing you ask your dad if he will take you golfing makes your dad so proud! I can't wait for the day when the two of you head off together for a great day of golf and you get to do more than just ride in the cart!

Choice and Consequence

We went to a Love and Logic course about a year ago, and though I totally loved the concept, I don't think it was something I was fully ready to enforce at the time. My parenting lately has had a little kick in the pants brought on by the reality that my children are getting older and are fully capable of being able to be pretty self reliant.

So, on Monday for FHE, we had a whole lesson on choice and consequences. I made a little bucket with choices they could make and asked them to tell me the consequence for not doing those things. They ranged from not making beds, to what if Daddy decided not to go to work, to me not cleaning the house, to them cheating on a test, and on and on. After we went over that, I then handed them a new chart that they could mark off all their chores and choices in a day and also add any that they might need to remind themselves about doing during the week.

I cannot say any of this has been perfect! Not even close! But taking myself out of being the one that stands around all day and night reminding them that to make their bed, and brush their teeth, do their homework, blah, blah, blahhhhhhh!!!!!!, it has completely enpowered me!!!! I get up, we have scriptures, and then I just start doing what I need to do around the house and ignore what they are doing! Some mornings, it has been extremely hard for me to hold my tongue! I have to keep saying to myself, "You need them to fail to learn for themselves", over and over again! In fact, Kamren has walked herself to school twice this week. One morning without even having her hair done(harder on me than her!). I always follow behind her, encouraging her that she is almost there, but I will not suffer thier consequences for them or with them anymore because I love them too much to not teach them self reliance.

When I found this picture, it kind of put things into perspective for me. We all have choices, and different paths in life to decide what exactly we want to do with ourselves. It is my job, on this Earth, to teach my children as much about making good choices for themselves as I can. I have watched so many things in our own extended families lead to paths none of us would ever want for our own children. I have decided that teaching them self reliance from an early age is imperative to them becoming responsible, functioning, accountable people. I feel that this is also what our Heavenly Father wants for all of us. He doesn't just put us here without any guidance or examples, he put us here with all the tools we need to succeed in our quest back to him, as long as we will follow the right path. For those times when we don't, we have repentance to get back on that path. I marvel at the shear magnitude of His plan. He thought of every detail, every possibility that we may face, and then made a path back to Him for our choices.

I know I am not perfect, in fact, I am also learning things about myself while teaching them. I have a very short temper and that is something I am working on everyday to make sure that I am staying even tempered with them, whichever choices they make. I do know that with love, every thing is easier. When I really and truly want what is best for my children, teaching them and letting them make mistakes is a lot easier because I know that they reward of them being able to make good choices for themselves is so great!!

We're Going On A Bear Hunt

I just finished reading this book to Daxton for the first time tonight. I can hear him in there looking through the book saying, "We're going on a bear hunt", over and over again as he turns every page! SOME things about almost 3 year olds are priceless and worth writing down!!

My Baby knows his ABC's!!!

I can't believe the things that my LAST baby is doing! On the one hand I am soooo excited to see my baby do all these things, it is kind of exciting to leave some things behind, but on the other hand it is also sad! Seeing your last baby do things for the first time is bitter sweet!!!!

Dinner

We have had a thing going on at our house for a while, where the kids each get to decide one night a week what they want for dinner and then get to help fix it! Well, I have been a slacker lately, because it is a lot more work and time to tell them how and what to do, but with the new year, I am trying to be better about doing meaningful things with my kids. In an attempt to be a better mom, we started this up again this week! Kenzie had tonight. She choose stuffed shells with spinach and corn. I love doing this with the kids because they eat soooo much better when it is them cooking the food. The other kids even eat better and compliment each other, it is so cute! But something else has come to my attention about why this is so important! As I helped Kenzie tonight, I had a moment when I realized that I was helping her prepare for the future by doing this. I could just see them 5 years from now decided what they wanted on their night, and then carrying it out all by themselves, and then later be able to cook for their own families!! I am so excited for those days when I can watch the fruits of my labors!! As I watched her finish putting her dinner in the oven, set the timer and start to clean up her mess, I was so happy about what my children are learning through all of this! Yes, it is a pain, but so worth seeing them grow into little ladies!!!

What's up for the rest of the week?

Wednesday: Karlin- Tacos and pineapple

Thursday: Kamren- Baked chicken strips

Saturday: Daxton- Stew( Tony influenced him on this one!!!)

Sunday: Tony-Spaghetti (Of course!)

I hope we can keep this up and this post will help me to remember how important it is when I feel a little overwhelmed with all the mess from it!!

Choose This Day

I wanted to do something today about the new year, a new beginning, but then came across this short video while looking for what I was going to write the Relief Society message about this month. Henry B Eyring has aways been one of my favorites, and can say more elequently than I ever will be able to, some amazingly inspiring things! The video is a little thin, it doesn't exactly show right on my blog, so if you click on the link, you can see it in the right form!

Happy New Year, everyone!!