We've implemented Family Fun Night. I've felt like we're so busy all the time and then when we're not, we all just wast our time instead of doing fun things together. We're good at having fun together on trips, but not as good at home. So Friday night is Family fun night. We play games or watch movies or anything else. The kids love it, especially the littles. The bigs don't say they love it, but they have fun.
This week we've added a scripture component to family fun night. I've been working with the bigs for several months to help them do regular personal scripture study. They struggle. Also I always mean to read scriptures with the littles but I struggle with that too. So we made calendars for all the kids for them to mark off each day they read. Then they can bring their calendar to family fun night and if they have 6 or 7 days marked off, they can get a candy. We just started last week. They were all so excited! Seth and Ruby have been reminding us to read scriptures to them every night.
Last weekend we had a 4 day weekend because of MLK day and a teacher in-service. The teacher day was only for Somersets, so we used that day to go to Adventure Dome. It was empty. We had so much fun. There were no lines. The sad part of the day was when Rachel went on a roller coaster and lost her glasses. We ordered new ones this week. In the meantime she is wearing my extra pair that are weaker than hers.
We had a big talk with Danny and Rachel because phones were being used too much. We mixed love and logic with How to win friends and influence people (which I just read and loved!) to have the discussion. We talked about how phones are a privilege and they need to be doing awesome at all their other stuff to have them. Danny hated the discussion, Rachel reacted great. However the discussion has been doing great things for both of them. Rachel is trying to use her time better and Danny is working harder at school.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
January 10, 2016
We had a great Christmas break. The first week we did lots of baking and kids had friends over and we slept under the tree and went to see the cactus garden. Aaron got strep throat 2 days before Christmas. This time the doctor offered 10 days of amoxacillin or 1 shot. Aaron was so disappointed that I chose the shot. But it was awesome to not have to remember to give that medicine twice a day for 10 days. He got better really fast and was feeling fine for Christmas.
Bob has a few friends who have a tradition of having Chinese food on Christmas eve. So we tried it. We got Panda express because all the kids love it. Then we did the navity and opened sibling presents. Christmas morning we got up at 7:00. Danny got shoes and socks, a speaker and a charger and a sweatshirt and lights for his bikes. Rachel got a new bike (it was so cute! It's a cruiser that has gears, it's pink and it has a cup holder-that's her favorite part), I made her a bean bag chair, pajamas, a brush and a beanie hat. Aaron got a new mountain bike, a couple remote control helicopters, some fun encyclopedia books, a sweatshirt (all the boys got matching ones. I was a little worried about them not wanting to match, but they liked them enough they don't care!). Seth got a batman imaginext toy that he and Ruby we wanting. They play great with all their imaginext guys and setups. He also got some legos, hi ho cherrio, Ruby and Seth got a lego subscription that is kind of like netflix for lego sets. Ruby got magformers, spirograph, a batman ship, playdoh set, clothes. The kids all got a ping pong table. The sad part was that I forgot I needed to buy the paddles and every store is closed on Christmas so they couldn't play it! Bob got a new computer, an egg sandwich maker, a sweatshirt and a selfie stick. I got a new camera lens that will be good for family pictures. And Bob got me a robot vacuum and a robot floor mop. I love them, especially the mop. It cleans so well. The vacuum is a little slow and random. We named the vacuum Zoram and the mop Zonda. We went over budget this Christmas. I've been working more and I hadn't added that money into the budget yet, so it was easy to just keep spending it. I've added it to the budget now and we'll use the money much more productively. But it was kind of nice to just spend for a while and not worry too much about it. We also decided to start a new tradition on Christmas Day to have a family testimony meeting. Christmas eve is more about the Savior, but on Christmas day we just eat and play, so we thought we'd add some religion to that day too.
The day after Christmas we went to Visalia. We had a good time playing with cousins. Everyone was there except Casey. Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene and Grandma Donna were all there. Ruby had a runny nose when we got there that turned into strep a few days later. But we got her on antibiotics (no shot this time) right away and she felt better fast. Luckily no one else got strep, but lots of people got colds. The sad part was that she was sick on the day everyone went to the snow. She was really sad about that. She and I stayed home that day. It was my birthday. We also went to see some Christmas lights in Tulare one night. My grandparents and parents and Danny, Rachel, bob and I went to the Fresno temple to do baptisms one day. It was really great to be there with all of them. It was so great for Danny and Rachel. I'm so thankful for my family. We ate a Sal's on the way home. We made several shopping trips. Did a few puzzles.
We had a nice New Years Eve. We played mall madness and watched the ball drop and had sparkling Cider. Ruby made it to 11:00 and fell asleep, but everyone else made it until midnight.
On New Years Day we drove home so we could have one day left of the break to do our celebration of Kwanzaa. I love that tradition. The kids worked hard and we got so much done. We went to see the new Star Wars Movie as a reward.
This week has been nice to get back on schedule. Bob and I have been working on our 2016 goals using the same program we used last year. I love doing that with him. It's so nice to get on the same page and have such good discussions.
We're going to put a garden in our backyard. I had a garden expert come look at our yard and he's going to help us set it up. He says as long as you plant at the right time, anyone can garden in Las Vegas. I hope he's right.
Bob has a few friends who have a tradition of having Chinese food on Christmas eve. So we tried it. We got Panda express because all the kids love it. Then we did the navity and opened sibling presents. Christmas morning we got up at 7:00. Danny got shoes and socks, a speaker and a charger and a sweatshirt and lights for his bikes. Rachel got a new bike (it was so cute! It's a cruiser that has gears, it's pink and it has a cup holder-that's her favorite part), I made her a bean bag chair, pajamas, a brush and a beanie hat. Aaron got a new mountain bike, a couple remote control helicopters, some fun encyclopedia books, a sweatshirt (all the boys got matching ones. I was a little worried about them not wanting to match, but they liked them enough they don't care!). Seth got a batman imaginext toy that he and Ruby we wanting. They play great with all their imaginext guys and setups. He also got some legos, hi ho cherrio, Ruby and Seth got a lego subscription that is kind of like netflix for lego sets. Ruby got magformers, spirograph, a batman ship, playdoh set, clothes. The kids all got a ping pong table. The sad part was that I forgot I needed to buy the paddles and every store is closed on Christmas so they couldn't play it! Bob got a new computer, an egg sandwich maker, a sweatshirt and a selfie stick. I got a new camera lens that will be good for family pictures. And Bob got me a robot vacuum and a robot floor mop. I love them, especially the mop. It cleans so well. The vacuum is a little slow and random. We named the vacuum Zoram and the mop Zonda. We went over budget this Christmas. I've been working more and I hadn't added that money into the budget yet, so it was easy to just keep spending it. I've added it to the budget now and we'll use the money much more productively. But it was kind of nice to just spend for a while and not worry too much about it. We also decided to start a new tradition on Christmas Day to have a family testimony meeting. Christmas eve is more about the Savior, but on Christmas day we just eat and play, so we thought we'd add some religion to that day too.
The day after Christmas we went to Visalia. We had a good time playing with cousins. Everyone was there except Casey. Grandma Monte and Grandpa Gene and Grandma Donna were all there. Ruby had a runny nose when we got there that turned into strep a few days later. But we got her on antibiotics (no shot this time) right away and she felt better fast. Luckily no one else got strep, but lots of people got colds. The sad part was that she was sick on the day everyone went to the snow. She was really sad about that. She and I stayed home that day. It was my birthday. We also went to see some Christmas lights in Tulare one night. My grandparents and parents and Danny, Rachel, bob and I went to the Fresno temple to do baptisms one day. It was really great to be there with all of them. It was so great for Danny and Rachel. I'm so thankful for my family. We ate a Sal's on the way home. We made several shopping trips. Did a few puzzles.
We had a nice New Years Eve. We played mall madness and watched the ball drop and had sparkling Cider. Ruby made it to 11:00 and fell asleep, but everyone else made it until midnight.
On New Years Day we drove home so we could have one day left of the break to do our celebration of Kwanzaa. I love that tradition. The kids worked hard and we got so much done. We went to see the new Star Wars Movie as a reward.
This week has been nice to get back on schedule. Bob and I have been working on our 2016 goals using the same program we used last year. I love doing that with him. It's so nice to get on the same page and have such good discussions.
We're going to put a garden in our backyard. I had a garden expert come look at our yard and he's going to help us set it up. He says as long as you plant at the right time, anyone can garden in Las Vegas. I hope he's right.
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