Check out Read Bree and a few photos

Bree is giving away autographed books(including some Shannon Hale- I just read ummm... 5 of her books- totally awesome!) plus she has links to other sites who are giving away her book! Go to Read Bree now! Asher wants to read all the books!




So we've been out of town and out of it for awhile now. Here are some photos of my cute boys having fun in WA. It's gorgeous up here and having family close by is amazing and we wish we could stay but that doesn't seem to be where we are supposed to be right now. We'll be back in CA very soon.
Oh and I did a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs party for Matt's birthday. We went and saw it in 3D- including his name in the credits under Lighting and Compositing(Matthew Thomas Wheeler). Then we had the party which was great fun! Matt went to the premiere in CA and brought back a few cool goodies. I'll post pics soon.

once again awesomeness!

Bree has an amazing giveaway on her blog Read Bree. You really must go and CHECK it out! To go along with her book she now has nail polish! Nail Polish to go along with her book! That is so awesome. You can read the first chapter of her book on her site too. You simply must go and see and sign up! Only 4 months left until it comes out!

Menu plan Monday

Monday- bbq at the park- I will bring this Chinese Chicken Salad
Tuesday- Bourbon Chicken
Wednesday- probably mac n cheese with the boys - if I get fancy I'll make this delish version
I just got called to work with the young women in my church and we have our first activity on Wed.
Thurs- Raclette skillet (chicken marinated in italian dressing and cooked with green peppers and monterey jack cheese- served over rice)
Fri- steak in the crockpot- probably the basic cream of mushroom or onion soup variety- though maybe I will switch this with Wed....
Sat- eat out
Sun- Baked Ziti- as long as it is not too hot

Featuring the Letter I

So this week we will feature the letter I in our activities. I words that I came up with to highlight this letter were : Imagine, Ice, Ice cream, Ironman, Imitate, and I like...

Here are the activities that we will do to go along with each of these words:

Ice Cream: Make homemade ice cream with this recipe. Make this I from this post.

Imagine: Tell stories with Kaden. Every night he tells his Dad a story that usually goes something like this: "Once upon a time there was a boy named Kaden. He liked to play with his Dada. They went to Target to look at Toys. They saw a dinosaur, some cars, and helicopters, and Ninja Turtles." So we will expand on this. I'll introduce some new half sentences to him and have him fill in the blanks.

Ironman: So this reminded me of an ironman marathon that my BIL was in a few years ago. I think I will make an obstacle course for Kaden to go through. Maybe I will have Matt hose off the plastic pool so I can use that as part of it too. :)

Imitate: So we might try some Simon Says- though I am not sure if he will get it. We will do some pretend you are this or that animal. That he gets and enjoys. We have some animal cards so I will use those to pick the animal at random.

I like: I will interview Kaden about things he likes and scrapbook the list for posterity. :)

Ice: This activity or this one or both...

I will take suggestions... any other I words you can think of? Any activities to teach the phonics of the letter I? He recognizes the letter fine and connects some words with it but he doesn't know sounds yet.

Bree's got more Awesomeness on her site

My former roomate is publishing her first book in 8 months!!!! wow! To celebrate she is hosting giveaways on the 22nd of every month until then. woohoo! The first one started today(I guess technically yesterday). Go check it out and sign up to follow her blog. Then leave a comment saying that I sent you so I get more entries in her contest. Her current give away is for YA fiction and I think I went to London with one of the Authors of one of the books she is giving away. It’s a small BYU world. And I was an English major (not that you can tell based on this blog).

Also, you should read Bree’s blog ‘cause her kids are hilarious(or her writing about her kids is hilarious… I think it’s a combo of both). If she has half the imagination that her kids do- well let’s just say her book is going to be Fantabulous! Read Bree!

Boys rule!

Fabulous Fun Finds is having All Boy giveaways next week!!! Woohoo! Fabulous Fun finds is so much fun. Every day I go there to see what new giveaways they have or if I am a winner. There are no strings attached. You won't get tons of e-mails (unless you choose to sign up for every newsletter of all of the products- but then it's your choice whether it is worth an extra entry for you or not). The products that are highlighted are all drool worthy. Frequently the vendors give coupon codes for their wares as well so if you aren't lucky enough to win you can still get a discount. Check it out!

Goal Check in

Budget- We go up and down with this one but I am doing better at not shopping for random stuff. I am doing better at cooking from the pantry and using up ingredients. Our biggest weakness is eating out but we are meeting our savings goals(mainly because of all the OT Matt is working). WOOHOO!

Kaden is potty trained so I will change this goal to sleep training Asher. The kid still wakes up every two to four hours. It's driving me batty and makes me grumpy. I am not getting enough sleep and then I use it as an excuse to stay home and watch tv or be on the computer all day. NOT GOOD! This weekend- hopefully he is done with his cold- will be tough love weekend. He can cry cry cry or Matt will pat him on the back but no more mommy milk and snuggles in the middle of the night.

Spiritual- I need to plan my lessons earlier in the week. I have started reading the daily sunday school lesson scriptures again. I rarely stop praying during the day-I always need something(patience and calm!) or I am thankful the boys are asleep, or playing nicely, or asleep. :) I do need to make time for some more thoughtful prayers(ones where I sit and listen too) though instead of all the in the moment ones.

No TV and getting out more with the boys- We tend to get out of the house 4-6 days aweek. So that's pretty good. The Mom's club I joined is wonderful! We love our first five classes! Kaden is doing really well participating in circle time. He still has his freak out moments but they are lessening(at least when it comes to preschool time). Now I need to do more with the boys at home. I think I will plan 4 activities for the boys each day (each activity lasting about 15 minutes each) So between that and us getting out to the park or class we should be doing good. So starting next week I will plan activities and post links here. Check in on me and make sure I follow through!

Cleaning house- man I suck at this one. I have made progress but I still need lots of work. Since Matt is working 6 days a week right now I have hired my cousin's 11 year old daughter as my mother's helper once a week. She comes for two hours and plays with the boys (no tv :) ) while I clean house. Sadly so far I have had to use this time to get my kitchen under control and laundry and so far I have not been able to do further deep cleaning like I had hoped. Today I have made the goal that I will have the dishes and basics done before she gets here so that I can clean out my fridge and mop my floor. I accidentally dumped a bunch of kool aid in my fridge last night so, yeah, it's time for the sticky nasty deep cleaning. And Asher had a blast splashing his juice on the floor on Sunday so it's mop time too. Hiring a mother's helper was the best decision I have made in a long time. She's great with the imaginative play with my boys. I love hearing it as I rush around trying to get everything done. :)