My Kids Great Examples

As a mother I have been trying to instill good habits in my kids. Trying to do family prayer and scripture study. I have to admit that I’ve slacked on the scripture study, with Jody’s work schedule it’s been pretty scarce.  I do make sure we have the night time family prayer and I’ve also been having my kids say their personal prayers before they go to bed. Sometimes I don’t have to even mention it and they will say their prayers on their own. And it’s so cute the things they say!

A couple of weeks ago Danielle Lila came home from Activity Days with a vinyl sticker that says “Don’t go to bed without your PJS”. It came along with a story and in the story a girl was going through some hard times. A young women leader of hers had told her “The solution to your problem is: “Don’t go to bed without your PJS.” Which means, Prayers, Journal and Scriptures. So Danielle Lila has decided to do the PJS thing and every night she says her prayers. Most nights she writes in her journal and reads her scriptures, it’s short but the habit is started. Of course the boys are too little to write in journals but they do say their prayers and I’m going to work harder on the scripture reading.

I tell you they are still a lot better at this stuff than I am. I just have never been good at setting this habit for myself, I don’t know why. I need to kick it up a notch though. If my kids can do it I should be able to! And I want to try to get going on the journal as well, once upon time I was good at that. I think I have two full journals somewhere. Anyways, we’ll just see how it goes!

Day of Crafts and Soul Food

So I had a really good day yesterday. After getting the kids ready for school, it was picture day, and sending them off. After cleaning the house and getting the other two kids and myself ready, my most wonderful husband took over and I went to my cousin Tina’s to do some crafting. I was so excited, especially because I’ve had to cancel and reschedule a few times.  We had a good time!

Now Tina and I have started a few projects and not finished or haven’t started because of the time needed. It’s funny because she pulled out one that we thought would take awhile and it only took about five minutes to finish! And although all my time was devoted to the Halloween banner that I  started last year, I still did not get it done. It is still a work in progress. Tina did get two projects done so that is good.

            Tina’s finished project

Later that night I was able to go to  Relief Society  where we had a lesson on breakfast foods, more crafting and then the actual “soul food”. It was great, you know the stuff “you” always need to hear.  So I thought that I would share a few things that stuck out to me. We learned that when a person has a grateful heart, another person is able to actually able to feel of it as far as twelve feet away.  Now once that heart is felt it is then synchronized and how much good is felt by that, and what an impact we can have on each other! A great scripture that was shared was Alma 41:14-15  “For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again….” I really liked this scripture and I do think that it is important that we do send out “Good Stuff”. Being a mother, I know that the things that I send out WILL have an impact on my family! Right now I am trying very hard to overcome some of my faults that I think will help with what I do send out. I am trying to be a more positive person, to speak a little kinder, and working on my housekeeping skills. Let’s just say some days are better than others.

It was a great night. And to top it all off I came home to a clean house (the smell of freshly moped kitchen floor), the kids in bed and laundry done! My husband is the best! Is it strange that these type of things can oddly put me in “the mood”? Well it does, he knows it and it works out for both of us! (will I get in trouble for this part on my blog?)

Oh and here is the “finished” product of the craft that I started at church. We learned how to make rolled flowers. I made two of the flowers at church and turned them into this great necklace with stuff that I had from home. It was a lot of fun and I love it!

First Day of School

August 23rd was Tytus and Danielle Lila's first day of school this year. It was also their first day at Freedom Elementary. They are actually excited to be going back to school and to be there with the kids in their neighborhood and church.

Now some of you might know that I am a "so sad to see them grow" kind of mom because I want them to stay little and cute, but I am also excited to see how they are learning and growing and becoming their own cute selves. So today was one of those days for me. I was probably more anxious than they were. You know (or maybe it's just me) I hope they like their new school, I hope they make new friends, I hope they are liked, I hope they like their teachers. But I'm just a worry wart some times and I know that they will do just fine!

Tytus is now in First grade, all day yay! There are a few things that a First grader has to get used to, like the long hours. He came home that day and said "it was kind of different from Kindergarten, we didn't get a snack when we went out for recess and we stayed longer". There is also school lunch. This will be a fun one to see because Tytus is a very picky eater. We told him that this will be the time when he has to start eating new things, and if you don't YOU WILL BE HUNGRY for the rest of the day! I think he's done pretty good so far, there's only been one day when he's said he only had a cookie and some milk. I don't know what he's thinking, I used to love school lunch. (Maybe I should go to lunch one day!)

He already has a couple of friends in his class that he knows from the neighborhood/church. One of them is our little neighbor girl, Hadlee. She and Tytus play together a lot, along with her sister, Megan, who is Danielle Lila's age. They are cute girls! (It's sad because they will be moving in November =( He is also making a lot of new friends and having fun.

Handsome Boy

Danielle Lila is now in the Third Grade, such a big girl! Of course she's used to the whole school schedule, that includes violin before school also. She didn't have anyone she already knew in her class but she's already making new friends and loving it and she abolutley loves her teacher, that's a plus!

So all in all I think this is going to be a good year for the both of them!

Beautiful Girl

Happy 8th Birthday Danielle Lila!

My sweet "Sweet Pea" celebrated her 8th birthday on June 12th and we were lucky to have some family in town. Her cousins Daesha, Elijah, Dominic, and Ammron. We had a lot of fun and I just wanted to write this blog to tell her how much I lover her. She is a sweet and fun loving girl, she is always happy and excited and fun to be around. She loves playing with her brothers and friends. She has been playing the violin and is doing very good at it.

I can't believe that my sweet little girl turned eight and was baptized this year. My how time flies. I always tell my kids to stay little as the picture to the right of my blog says. We got to go and pick our her dress for her baptism day. We went with Lala, Elise, and Grandma Bea. We had a lot of fun trying dresses on, and of course she looked beautiful all in white. We finished the evening with a little celebration with some family at my Tio Michaels house and had a little party that included making our own pizzas and enjoying cupcakes. Happy Birthday Danielle Lila! I love my sweet, sweet girl!!!


Danielle's brothers and cousins watching as she opens presents.











Danielle wanted a hex bug for her birthday












Popsicles with the cousins






Danielle Lila enjoying the process of trying on dresses.














This is the one!





Making pizza with Tia Sandra
Daesha and Danielle Lila's butterfly pizza



The Butterfly pizza as a finished product. Almost too cool to eat!
















We finished the night with some family
"Rockband" and of course my dad and Michael were by far the most talented! They're musical genius'.

Got Chocolate Milk?

Tytus and Jonas are my Chocolate Lovers, just like me. They especially love chocolate milk. In fact if I would let them they would drink a whole gallon in one day!

Most of the time Tytus will poor himself a glass and then Jonas will beg him for a drink, Tytus will give him one and then I have to get Jonas his own. Well yesterday I heard Tytus ask Jonas if he wanted some chocolate milk, I thought that he was going to poor him a glass. Instead I look over and he has a big cup and two straws for them to share. What a sweetheart!! It was the cutest thing ever!

mmm, mmm, good!!

Greek Festival 5k

So my uncle David talked me into running the Greek Festival 5k. I like to run but I don't do very often although I should. I have actually run a few races with David, one in Moab Ut when I was oh I don't know in elementary or junior high, a couple of SLC ones and then this one. The last one was last year. As I said before I don't do much running so I didn't have much training at all. In fact I ran 3miles on Monday, 3miles on Tuesday, jogged/walked 2miles, with kids in a stroller on Wednesday, walked 1mile on Thursday and the race was on Saturday. I ran the race with David, my cousin Omar and his wife Nelli it was at Sugar House Park. My Tia, (aunt) Maricela was also there with Omar (Bebo) and Nelli's kids for encouragement. I wanted to try and keep up with David but that just didn't happen. There were two hills that just got me real good. I just kept telling myself "go slow, just don't walk, just don't walk!" It was funny though because while doing my best to make it up the last hill, I was passing a lady and a little girl who turned out to be my aunt Judy and her granddaughter Maddie out for a morning walk! Well then I kept on going and the last end of the race included some down hill, nice, and then I picked up the pace towards the finish line where David, Bebo, Maricela and the kids were waiting. I wish I would've pushed myself a bit harder but I made and that's what counts! I finished the race 30:48 . I was 14th place overall in the women's 5k and I took 2nd in my age group, 30-34, there we a total of 7 in that group. So I think I did a pretty good job! It was fun and I hope to get one more race in this year. I'd like to thank David for inviting me!! I'd also like to thank my Jody for watching the kids so early in the morning, if you didn't know he works the grave yard shift and doesn't get home until 3 in the AM and I had to leave at 6, and yes the boys did wake up early. Thanks Babe!

And Their Off

I'm the one to the far right

" Oman" (they misspelled his name)

Nelli

Me

David, Me, Nelli and Omar

(Just to clarify, I grew up calling Omar by Bebo and I still do. I feel odd calling him Omar, hmmm, odd!)

I'm Back!!

Wow it's been a long time! A couple of months ago I was ready to get into a grove and keep up on my blog but then my computer got a virus and I was not able to. Now I'm back and ready to go! Is this a good thing or a bad thing I ask myself? I mean yes I love having my computer, being without was driving me crazy! And sweet sweet Tina was the one I turned to to help me look things up. Thanks a bunch Tina!!
So how can this be a bad thing? I think we all know, too much of a good thing can also be a bad thing. Now that we have the computer back the whole family wants to be on it, including me. I've given the kids time limits and this goes into affect after homework "and then you probably won't have time to play". So they get to choose.
As for me, I get on some times and spend excessive amounts of time also. Like yesterday when I was trying to beautify my blog. It literally took me hours, with all the helping the kids, making dinner and getting them to bed in between! Of course I'm not the fastest at figuring all this stuff out so I'm sure someone else could have done it faster! But I'm pretty proud of myself for doing it! I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.
Now I can focus on updating, of course I'll be doing some back tracking, I hope that I can become pretty fast at doing so!