Fire Station Field Trip

Nash has the best little preschool co-op.  Thursday we went to the fire station. I am sure that if Nash didn't have his heart set on being a junk man he would definitely want to be a fireman after Thursday's tour.

STOP, DROP, & ROLL!

Race Track

Nash would watch TV or play Angry Birds all day if I let him. I have to make an effort to create things for him to do that will distract him from those two things.  Yesterday we made a track out of blue painter's tape in our kitchen.  Although you can't tell in the pictures, the track wraps through the dining room, living room, foyer, and back into the kitchen making quite a huge loop for his cars.

Mission Organization

 I rarely accomplish anything without a list. There is something so fulfilling about checking something off of a list.  I must confess though, sometimes I write things down that I have already done just so I have something to cross off.  Lists are cool, right?  And didn't someone say once that a goal that isn't written down is just a wish.  So, in an effort to complete all of my resolutions and fulfill my need to cross something off of a list here is my booklet of lists/charts/organizational tools. They are all laminated and hanging by a jump ring in my kitchen. Laminating my lists makes it possible to use a dry erase marker and re-use them everyday. 

 I didn't invent any of these lists I just tweaked them to work for me.  I don't have time or space to include everything in my booklet but here are a few of my favorites for your list making pleasure.

I posted earlier about our Book of Mormon family reading goals for the year, but HERE is the chart that we use to mark our progress.

My favorite and most important list.  You can find it right HERE.

Weekly Menu Planner a must!

SOURCE

Daily Cleaning Schedule.  This isn't my checklist.  Unfortunatley, my list extends into the weekend, but THIS BLOG allows you to download a schedule and costumize it for your own home.

Also included are some of my favorite workouts.

Look What Harley Has?

Harley learned the price of beauty today when she got her ear's pierced.  I have been wrestling with this decision for the past 20 months and finally decided to bite the bullet.  She looks so cute but a little too grown up for my taste.

Before...so excited!

Still before...but a little nervous, like momma, because of the lady's speech about all of the horrible things that could go wrong!

During!

After...pretty as a picture!

This, That, & The Other

What has been happening at our house? Well, I have been sick and I realized that one sick day for mom requires a minimum of 3 days make-up housework when she recovers.  I am feeling much better now. All that remains of my illness is a creepy looking sore in my mouth. I am trying really hard not to check WebMD and diagnose myself with mouth cancer. 

The kid's have been busy. We went to a birthday party and they and Scott are now hooked on KARAOKE!  I guess we will aim for American Idol instead of the NFL.

As is always the case in our house, the boys and girl are in constant competition for our attention. Sibling rivalry was exhibited in true form this week when Atley decided to make me breakfast one morning, complete with a squirt of Easy Cheese for dessert.

 

Not wanting big brother to one-up him, Nash followed suit with a yummy breakfast of Nutella dipped banana among other things.  Did I eat it all? Of course, come to think of it this might be the explanation for my sudden illness.

It snowed here!  Not much, but enough for the kids to get excited and make our hill slick enough to sled down.  Plus, Harley was the cutest snow bunny EVER!

Atley's Snow flower!

Harley is finally starting to watch TV.  The moment every good mother waits for! She is hooked on Elmo & Cookie Monster and will devote at least 7 concentrated minutes to them each day! This just so happens to be the perfect amount of time for me to cook one of my gourmet meals of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. WINNING!

When the children discovered just how talented they were at Karaoke, they decided to diversify by learning some dance moves as well. What can I say, they got them Moves like Jagger!

Harley has been a tomboy since birth and probably even before, but so far I have  been able to dress her in frilly things with girly colors.  However, that is changing.  Today she had on an adorable outfit and her hair was done in two pig tail buns! Of course, she put an angry bird shirt on over her cute outfit and a frog colored stocking cap on the cute hair. She was ready to ride and boy does she ride-like a maniac on her squishy cow.

Back to Baltimore Aquarium

I was looking back at previous posts and I realized that nearly every winter there has been a post about a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium.  Of course there is a reason for that, Friday night's throughout the winter, tickets to the aquarium are only $5.  At least they used to be $5 and now they are $8, which is still a bargain considering that admission is regularly like $25. Wow, sorry about all the math! The kids and I drove up after school alone because daddy was grouchy  needed a break. Don't worry we still love him but also enjoy making him feel guilty for missing such a memorable evening with the children!

Baltimore's inner harbor is beautiful and the weather was fantastic, but I must say that Baltimore is also a little bit scary, especially when you are alone and walking the streets at night.  We had trouble finding parking so we ended up parking several blocks away in Little Italy and walking to the harbor.  It was all fine in the daylight but when we were leaving and it was pitch black, I was pretty nervous. When we found our selves alone on a dark back alley with water on one side and darkness on the other, I made the kids start running.  I quickly realized it was fruitless because they were way too slow.  Never fear I always make a plan. My plan was to either ditch them if someone got to close or have everyone jump in the water if we were assaulted.  I figured no one would want to hurt us bad enough to jump into the freezing cold water too. I told the boys my plan, not the ditching them plan, but the jumping in the water plan to which Nash replied, "I think I will take my chances with a bad guy!"

Maybe I wouldn't have been so frightened if we could have just walked to our car but no, we had to stop every 10 feet for Nash to do another planking move on the street!

We ate at Potbelly before we went into the aquarium.  Why is eating with my children always such an adventure?  We were sitting by the front and every time someone from outside would start walking towards the door to enter Nash would stand up and lock the deadbolt. He said he thought it was more romantic with just the four of us.  I think the management was getting a little annoyed.

Harley enjoyed the evening but everything seemed to be even better when she had a cookie in her hand. Funny, I feel the same way about life.

For the Love of Popcorn

If you were to ask my husband and children what one food item would be the most frightening to run out of in an emergency, they would unanimously tell you popcorn.  There is some sort of wacky Butler gene that programs each one of them to love popcorn, until the rest of us want to hurl.  My house has smelled like a movie theater for almost 13 years and I think popcorn is at least 1/3 of our food budget.  Popcorn is a DAILY staple in our household and I am nearly positive that it is consumed by my family in far greater quantities than water.  Amazingly, Harley is probably the most obsessed with these fluffy white morsels.  She, honestly wakes up in the morning and it is the first thing she asks for.  She also knows that her Dad is the popcorn maker in the family and all she has to do is approach him any time, day or night, and say, "Pocky!"  Her popcorn wish is his command. 

She then commences her popcorn dance! I find it very similar to a Native American Rain Dance. She doesn't stop until the popcorn is popping!

Wait for it...wait for it!

AHH! Popcorn Ecstasy!

When all else Fails, go Bowling!

Today was the last day of Christmas vacation and I had a fabulous day planned. Unfortunately, I failed to calculate just how many other people also had a fabulous day planned because everywhere we went it was either full or sold out.  Forlornly, we started driving home when Atley noticed a billboard for a bowling alley. "Hey, mom we should go bowling."  Nash replied with, "Yeah, mom I'm with Atley."  Why not?  Bowling alone with three kids, one being a baby, sounds like great fun!

Atley looking up at the score board and realizing that he just beat us all, while Nash tries to deal with the defeat.

 

Look at that form!  Nash's favorite part was crossing the penalty line to hear it beep and then sliding half way down the lane with his ball!

Usually, the most gross thing at the bowling alley is wearing other people's shoes. Today I was much more grossed out by the fact that Harley was convinced that the ball was a giant jaw breaker that she must lick and try to chew.

And yes, she is barefoot and holding a 10 lb. ball.

Strong=Yes!

Smart=No!

 

YUM! YUM!