BRAVE new hair style for Megan

Lizzie LOVES doing fun hair styles on Megan.  This has to be one of my favorite.  Lizzie takes drinking straws and ties Megan's hair to them.  She puts a scarf on Megan's head to keep them safe while she sleeps (this is an overnight hair style) which Megan loves wearing.

In the morning she takes the straws out and then separates the curls one by one until Megan has a full head of spirally hair.

Fresh out of the straws.

She calls it Merida hair, after the princess character in the Disney movie BRAVE.

Color her hair red and she would look a lot like the character Merida.

Before                                                      After
This style shortens her long hair up a ton.

As you can see Megan just loves this hair and it looks so cute on her.

Roller Derby Opener

Rebecca is in full swing with her Color Guard team this year.  They have been in a few parades but tonight they took their parade routine and made it a lot longer so that they could perform for the pre-show entertainment at the local roller derby.  I went with them and watched and man are they good! It was so fun to see Rebecca smile the whole performance.  She really loves what she does.

Rebecca and a few of her Color Guard team
dressed crazy for the roller derby performance.

Rebecca rockin' the show!

Tiny Tim Salad

CJ has been experimenting for a while now with hydroponics.  He loves to grow all kinds of plants from seed and has had some great successes and some unfortunate not successes.  He says he learns from every growing experience whether it turns out good or not.  About a year ago he bought a hydroponic grow kit on the internet and started growing food indoors.  The goal is to be able to eat fresh vegetables year round.  For a long time he hasn't had much success because hydroponics has a huge learning curve.  

Tiny Tim Tomatoes

This week however was different.  In a small hydroponic unit that CJ built that we have in our upstairs living room window he is growing some Tiny Tim tomatoes.  They are supposed to be the world's smallest tomatoes.  As you can see by the fully grown ripe tomatoes in my hand I would have to agree with that claim.  The cool thing is that these tiny little tomatoes pack a BIG punch.  They are very flavorful and its hard to believe how small they are.  We all love tomatoes so much that CJ has many different varieties growing or waiting to be grown and I can't wait to try them all.

Home grown lettuce.

We also got to eat of the different varieties of lettuce that he has growing in his larger hydroponic unit in the basement.  These are the first plants to produce food from that unit and it was really fun to ask the girls to go down stairs and get some lettuce for dinner.  We ate the lettuce for dinner for a whole week in the form of lettuce wraps, salads, on hamburgers, and BLT sandwiches.  He has a melon growing in the unit now and I hope it fruits as well because I really love the idea of fresh fruits and veggies year round.

Drivers BE WARE!

This year Lizzie turned the big 16!  She could not be more excited to be 16.  The first thing we did on her birthday was to go to the DMV and get her learner's permit.  Technically you can get them when you turn 15 in Utah but we didn't learn that until a few months ago and she wanted to earn the money for the fee herself and then she had to wait for slow poke mom to take her to the DMV.

Anyway...here she is...Utah's newest driver.  She has been driving the neighbor kids around in our go-kart for a while so she feels very confident in her driving abilities.

Bitter-sweet day.

She didn't wast time getting behind the wheel.

She quickly found out though that driving a real car is much different than driving a toy one.  She is hoping to get in to the same drivers ed class as all her friends.  I don't mind teaching her but drivers ed is required here in Utah.  Just don't say that I didn't warn you about her being on the road now.  lol

Sweet Megan

CJ came home from work today and was talking to Megan and Alexander about their day.  He was headed down stairs to check on his plants when the kids got excited about being able to play downstairs (they aren't allowed down there alone because they tend to make rather large messes with everything BUT their toys.)  CJ was trying to tell them that he was only going to be a few minutes down there but Alex kept jumping and singing in excitement that CJ had a hard time getting his attention and had to raise his voice.  Sweet little Megan pipes in and takes Alex by the hand.  She looks at him and calmly tells Xander, "Daddy just got home from work and he's tired.  Let's wait until he's rested and then he'll play with us, okay Alex?"  It was just so out of the blue because normally she whines right along with Alex when she doesn't get what she wants and this time she was just so grown up about it.  It was a melt your heart moment for me.

Anatomy and Physiology

   I was at the home school store the other day to buy a reading program for the two little ones.  Just before checking out Alex spots a book on the human body that has very detailed pictures and a simple explanation for every part of the body and just goes crazy for it.  I was looking through the pages with him answering his MANY questions of, "what's this...what's that" and could see the excitement in his eyes.  I thought the book was well done with the detailed yet simple pictures so I got him the book.
   He is so funny to watch!  He has gone through every page of the book numerous times now and has learned what each picture is and where it is on his body so he is telling me now what the body parts are and what their function is.  He will just randomly walk up to me and point to a part of his body and tell me what it and it's function is.  For example, today he was in the middle of the room moving his arm up and down.  I asked him what he was doing and he told me that the little nerve in his brain was working because it was telling him to lift his arm up and down (we had just looked at the nervous system last night and he learned what the neurons in the brain do.)  It is so fun to see him so excited and eager to put his new found knowledge to work.
   I began by just telling him the basic parts like brain, arm, muscles, bones, etc.  Now he wants to know the individual bone names, the difference between the large and small intestine (he likes to tell me at meal times that his food is going to take it's long trip now in his intestines...lol) the different parts of the face and inner ear, etc.  He is just devouring that book and I am so amazed at how quickly he is actually learning the info that is in that book and not just being interested in our "guts" like most little boys would be.  I don't know that he will be a doctor when he grows up but I can safely say I really think that what ever career he chooses it will involve knowing the inner workings of the body.
   Of course, he could end up as a professional golfer too.  He is just as obsessed with golf as he is the inside of the body.  We'll see...only time will tell.

Easter 2013

Easter this year was pretty low key.  I am on the HOA board so I was asked to help with the neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  CJ helped Alex in his age group area and Rebecca helped Megan in her age group area.  As you know, public Easter egg hunts are NOT my favorite.  They never go well for the kind, considerate kids and only the rude kids who knock over the good kids get any eggs (because they usually take all the eggs.)  This year there was a new low in the neighborhood hunt.  Lizzie and Dakota were helping me announce the rules to all the kids and parents.  We asked all the parents to stay behind the lines and let the kids hunt for eggs by themselves.  Lizzie was telling one group these rules when a dad got angry with her and told her he was going to help his kid and she couldn't stop him.  She asked him politely to go back behind the line.  He got so angry with her that he took out his cell phone and threatened to call the police.  She was so good.  She just looked at him and told him to go ahead and call.  He hung up the phone, gave her dirty looks and just walked away (back to his kid no less) so she let it drop.

SERIOUSLY??!!! A grown man was asked to follow the rules by a 15 year old and he gets so mad he threatens her with the police.  I still can't believe it.

Megan and Alex looking at all those colorful eggs.

CJ waiting with Alex.

Anyway, the Easter bunny left a basket for the family.  They had fun eating the candy.  We did our traditional Resurrection rolls.  After church CJ and I hid plastic eggs in the back yard for all the kids to find, even the older girls.  Each kid had one golden egg to find along with their other eggs.  They had to look hard but it was worth it.  The golden eggs had $5 in them.  The kids each took turns after that re-hiding the eggs for everyone else.  That is one of their favorite Easter traditions.

General Young Women Meeting

This year our stake received tickets to attend the General Young Women's Meeting in the Conference Center in Salt Lake.  I jumped at the chance to take my girls to this meeting.  Watching it at home is a blessing but watching it in person is indescribable.

 Unfortunately Rebecca had a Winter Guard performance so she couldn't go with us.  She really wanted to be there.  Dakota and Lizzie had a really good time.

After the conference I took the girls to the City Creek Center Mall for a little chocolate by the fountains.

A rare selfie on the way home in the parking garage elevator.

Royalty

Just for fun we took the kids out for a treat.  We took them to Burger King for dinner.  I don't think we have gotten the crowns for a long time so tonight we all got crowns and ate dinner as the royal family.  Some of the family are paparazzi shy but here are some pics of our fun evening.

Spring is in Bloom

Even though there is still snow outside spring is blooming inside.  We have started many plants for the garden and they are doing great.  Even CJ's Desert Rose plant is blooming.  It just looks so happy in here.

My favorite spring bloom though is our new apple tree.  We have always wanted to grow fruit trees so this year we picked up our first fruit tree...an apple tree.  Not just any apple tree though.  We have always said that if we got an apple tree we wanted to get a multi-apple tree so that we can have more than one variety of apple.  Our beautiful new apple tree has honeycrip, granysmith, and gala apples on it.  There were a few grafts that were not labeled so there is a chance of one or two more varieties on our tree.  I can just taste the apple pie now.  Mmmm mmmm, can't wait for the harvest.

Against our blue walls the tree looks like it is outside already.  For right now its blooms are safe and warm inside.

Sea Pearch

Dakota has been working hard after school twice a month all year long on her underwater robot.  She has been excited for the chance to build and compete with her robot and today we got to see the competition.  It was during school so only Megan, Alex, and I were able to go.  Her team did well.  It was very exciting and BYU TV was there filming the competition and taking interviews of the event.  Dakota's group from the Jr. High was the largest group there by far.

Megan looking down from the balcony where we watched the competition from the best position.

Dakota modeling her Sea Perch (under water robot).

After the competition the kids were treated to some displays by companies that specialize in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields which is what this competition is supposed to be cultivating a love for.  We saw demonstrations of fire power from torches, aeronautics, a 3-D printer (my favorite), medical advances and more.  I don't know who was more excited and interested in all of the displays, the kids or me.  I wish they did things like this when I was in school.

Fun at the Park

Just a beautiful day today.  Couldn't resist taking the little ones to the park.

Very Hard Decision

This will come as a shock.  It happened so quickly but it is done.

As of today, we no longer own Twice Blessed Thrift Store.

I don't want to go into a lot of detail because it still hurts and there are a lot of questions I am trying to sort out.  The store is a lot of work but I love it.  Unfortunately that means that I am there more then I am at home.  I knew that would be the case going into this and I thought I could make it work.  The kids don't really want to be there after the store closes when there is still so much work to be done so we hardly ever see each other.  I promised my kids that as much as I love the store I love them more and if it ever came between us I would choose them and sell the store.

After 6 months of hard work the store is really taking off.  The client base grows everyday.  The daily profit is on the rise.  The store is loved by so many.  I know that by the end of the first year we will be well established and looking to move to a bigger building.  However, I am loosing my children.  As the store gets more successful my family falls farther apart.  They have to fight the store for my attention and that isn't fair to them.  I know they were willing to help in the beginning but I think that they weren't ready for the amount of work that it takes to run a thrift store and they may even feel that I love the store more then them because that is where I spend all of my time.  Without going in to specifics, I fear that it has indeed come to the decision I hoped I would never have to make but promised my kids I would.  I had to put the store up for sale.

It only took 2 weeks to sell because it was doing so well.  Today I turned the keys over to the new owners and came home to put my family back together.  In time I hope to understand all the "why's" I am asking.  For now, I will hug my family and focus on them.

New Store Additions

I have had the supplies to make an A-frame sign for the store for months.  I finally took a day that the whole family was here working and went in the back room to make the sign.  I think it turned out colorful and fun.  I used bright duct tape and some letter cutouts then covered it all with packing tape to make it weather proof.  It is sure to bring in new customers.

I also bought a candy dispenser for the front to hopefully supplement the store.  I LOVE it and think it looks great.  Let's hope it does as well as I hope it does.

Alex with the Savior

I saw this picture and had to take a second look.  That little boy looks exactly like Alex!  It makes my heart sing and reminds me that even though he throws massive temper tantrums and destroys almost everything, he is also very sweet and loves to be loved.  I love seeing him in the Savior's arms.

Playtime

Megan and Alex were playing so quietly that I got nervous.  I remember how white my kitchen became last time they got all quiet.  When I found them they were having a blast quietly playing with their toys in the front room.  It was so sweet...and a relief.

Date Night

I love Hilary Weeks!!!  I saw her at the first Women's Conference my mother took me to many years ago.  She writes and sings beautiful songs that have to do with the love of the Savior.  She is funny, talented, and a so loving.  I always love seeing her annually at each Women's Conference.

This year for Valentine's Day there was a Date Night being put on by a great Psychiatric that I love to listen to on the radio, Matt Townsend.  He specializes in family relationships.  He came to speak at our Stake for a fireside one night and CJ was there and we both loved his talk.  His special guest for this Date Night was Hilary Weeks!  I couldn't resist it so I asked CJ if he would be my date that night (it was more expensive than we usually spend for each other on Valentine's Day) and we went together.  They were both so funny and spoke so well to our hearts.  After ward Hilary stayed to take pictures and talk with everyone.  She is so sweet and was so nice to us when it was our turn.  

I couldn't wait to get home tonight and show this picture to my girls because they love Hilary as much as I do.  They were so excited for me.

Hilary Weeks

Experiments in Silence

Not experimenting with silence but doing experiments silently, that is what I mean.  

It's been long enough that I can laugh about it now so I thought I would share. Last Saturday Megan and Alexander thought they would conduct an experiment. I should have known something was up when they got silent.  Apparently they wondered how much floor they could cover with an entire 5 lb bag of flour. Together they set out to answer their question.  When I walked in to the kitchen I wanted to cry.  I am proud of myself that I didn't yell because they pretty much covered ALL of our new tile floor with it...you know, the floor with all the dark brown grout! (Sorry, no pics. I didn't think about it at the time.) They had so much flour on the floor that they decided to start throwing it on things other than the floor, like the table, the counter tops, and of course themselves. Oh, and here's the kicker, they accomplished their little experiment in less than 5 minutes.  

Panorama

Playing with the panorama feature on my new iphone I took this picture of the new shelving unit that I put in our front room.  If you look closely you will see our DREAM theme.  

All the places we have the word dream:

*Spelled out with the blocks on the top of the bookshelf.

*Spelled out with the blocks hanging from the corner shelf.

*In gold on the picture hanging on the last hook of the corner shelf.

*A small word plaque that sits in front of the picture of the kids on the corner shelf.

Baby Room

There was a room in our store that was used as an "extras" room holding things like electronics, sports, and any other items I didn't have a place for.  It was never a room that I liked it was just there.  After a while I found a new purpose for that room and I am so glad at how it turned out.  I put up a block to the room with a sign that let customers know it was under construction so they were all curious on what it was changed to.  It was a big project so it took me longer to get it done then I liked (every day it was closed was a day of lost sales) but it was finally opened.

I had so many baby items that they were taking over the other rooms.  I decided to turn the "extras" room in to a "nursery".  It was so cute in there and everyone loved it.  I had fun seeing all the tiny and cute baby clothes.  We need more shelving but for now it is open.

Get some disinfectant!

What a pair CJ and I are tonight.  We both have the flu and I have bronchitis on top of that.  We sound so pathetic.

I love my girls so much for taking such good care of us as well as the two little ones.  

We are soooo blessed!

Just a trim...right?

So today as I was cutting Alexander's hair he kept telling me he wanted it to look just like "Sportacus's" hair (that is his favorite character in his favorite television show.)  I told him I would do my best but he would have to try to sit still if that was going to happen.  When I got to the area around his ears he grabs my hands and holds them, looks me in the eyes with fear and pleading on his face.  He then looks for some reassurance as he asks...

"You're not going to cut my brain are you?"

DREAM 5

Ever since we told my family that the first letter in all the kids names can be arranged to spell the word DREAM, they have suggested that I put that word on our licence plate.  Knowing that the word DREAM would already be taken I never looked in to it but wished that I could get it because it would mean a great deal to me and my family.  

A few weeks ago the dealer that sold our new van to us kept calling but I have been so busy that I didn't have a chance to call her back.  Her message was so urgent that she traveled all the way to my home and showed up on my door step.  It turns out that the van she let me drive home in was not actually the van she sold me on paperwork.

This car dealer is pretty new and they have so few employees that they are not able to process all their new inventory as quickly as they would like.  I saw a minivan on their website that I wanted to look at so I went and asked them about it.  She showed me the van I have now and I thought that the van looked even better in person than it did in the picture.  I drove it and it was even better than described so I knew that it was the one I wanted because it was a good price for a nice van.  We filled out the proper paperwork and I went on my way.  It wasn't until months later when a second, very similar, van was sold and they were filling out the paperwork did they catch the mistake that was made.

The van that was advertised on their website the day I went to look at it was taken in the back to be cleaned.  The owner and only salesperson that showed me the van didn't know that so she showed me one that she thought was correct since it came in at the same time and still needed to be cleaned (like the other van.)  She was in such a hurry because there were other customers and she is the only person showing the cars that she never checked the VIN number on my van with the number on the paperwork for the van I saw on the internet.  I left and the van that matched my paperwork was cleaned and put on the lot for sale with the paperwork that I should have received.  When that van sold and she saw that the VIN numbers didn't match she panicked.  She rushed the correct paperwork to me for signatures.  If I had gotten in an accident in my van that didn't match the paperwork my insurance company would not have covered it and the company that sold me the car would have been liable.  

She told me that the van I got was in much better condition that the one that I was supposed to get so I got a really good deal.   She said that she would also pay for the new licence plate and asked if there was anything special I wanted on it.  So we now have my DREAM licence plate with the added number of 5 for the five kids that are my dream team.

Unicorn Poop

 Have you ever wondered what unicorn poop looks like?  Well wonder no more!  My kids have uncovered the mystery that has plagued unicorn lovers for centuries.  They have found samples of ACTUAL unicorn poop.  Don't believe me?  Look for yourselves.

You believe me now don't you.  This is the real deal.  Isn't it as beautiful and magical as the unicorn that dropped it?  And to top it all off, not only is unicorn poop colorful but it tastes great too.  I don't normally put the poop of any creature in my mouth but unicorns are so magical and beautiful and their poop smelled so sweet that I couldn't resist just a nibble.  Of course that nibble was so delicious that I ended up eating the whole thing.  Thank goodness they had more samples that they found and I didn't eat the only evidence they had.

Here is the poop from a particularly loving unicorn.

While on their quest for unicorn poop they discovered another patch of poop that lifted my spirit.  My spirit of competition that is.  They found Bronco poop!  You see the Bronco fans are the only fans loyal enough to poop the notorious orange and blue colors of the best professional football team there is.  Don't believe me?  Look again and see for yourselves.

This time I let CJ sample the poop since I don't think there is a more loyal Bronco fan in our family than he.  He enjoyed his sample and was also proud of the kids for their most colorful finds.