Valentine Overload

I'm not sure why I got so into Valentine's this year, but I did and I was done with the holiday by the time it actually came.

We had a FHE at the beginning of the month and wrote on hearts what we loved about each other. Got the idea from here.

One of Luke's hearts.

One of Katelyn's hearts.

Ashley's contribution which I'm sure says I love my mom so much that I need her to hold me all the time. ;)

We peeled the paper off a bunch of crayons to make a Valentine for all of Luke's kindergarten class and Katelyn's preschool class.

This was the result. Idea found here.

We did some heart braids.

Made some easy teacher gifts.
Made some yummy heart treats that got me off of my trying to eat better plan.

These were for a Valentine party at a friends house where all my kids were invited.

Ashley enjoyed licking the spoon and eating all the chocolate that was around the house. She was also heard saying, "I need chockit (chocolate)." Just like her mother. :)

These were for my Laurels because they needed a heart treat on Valentine's day. :)

Valentine's day finally came and I was burned out. So Kevin and I just gave each other a card and he was sweet and gave me some pretty flowers. Kevin also made the kids heart waffles in the morning, but Luke wanted Honey Nut Cheerios instead. At least Kevin tried.

Katelyn loved her waffles. Can't you tell by the cheesy smile?

And I attempted to get a picture of the kids for a Valentine to send to the grandparents. I didn't end up using this picture but did make some Valentines that I still need to send. If it makes it there before the end of Feb. I will be happy.

I was practically standing on my head trying to get them to all look, all smile, and to all have their eyes open. It didn't work. Oh well!

p.s. I just had to add(so that I have record of it :) ) that Kevin and I did go out to a nice dinner on Friday night and saw the water show at the Bellagio. We had a great time! So I guess we did celebrate Valentine's day, just not on the actual day.

Sometimes I Like to be Crafty

I have not done anything crafty in forever. I usually see cute ideas, go buy the stuff to make it, and then it sits in my spare bedroom waiting for the perfect opportunity to make it. That perfect opportunity rarely comes.
Well, I finally saw a cute Valentine craft, went and bought the materials, and actually came home and made it.

Got the idea here

Robot Birthday Party

Growing up my parents did a friend party for us every other year and so I decided to continue with that birthday tradition in my own family. So my kids get a friend party on their even birthdays starting when they are 4. This was Luke's year for a friend party and he was so excited. I had so much fun planning and making everything for this party, but in the end was so exhausted. It was worth it for my Luke. I will admit that some of these things were not necessary, but I loved how they went along with the theme so I had to make or try them. :)

None of these ideas were my original ideas except for one of the games. I love how you can get so many ideas from other blogs and sites on the internet. I will link to the places I got the ideas as I talk about them.

Luke had an all boy party this year. There are so many boys his age in his church and school classes. So I had to limit it to the boys that are currently in his church class or were just in his class, a few friends from school, and cousins. That was 13 boys already and I was wondering if we could handle it. It turned out great and all the boys were so good!


The boys were greeted with this friendly robot that I made. I got good use out of dollar store aluminum pans. :) The front door robot idea came from here.

When the boys came in the house we gave them all an "on/off button", which was a sticker that looked like a button. Luke is wearing the button in this picture. The idea for the button came from here (this is my cousin's wife's blog, she is super funny and super creative). This came in really handy when we wanted to get the attention of all the boys. We would just say, "Ok robots, press your off button." Then they would all pretend to power down and were quiet. I really wish I had a video of it because it was pretty cute. Then we would have them press it again to power up.
We played a couple of games. I found some robot arms that have the pincher on the end and we had a relay. The boys would run down with the arm, pick up a candy or small wind up robot and bring it back and put it in their take home robot. They had three chances to run in the relay. I forgot to take pictures of this game. The second game was build a robot relay. The boys were in two teams and each boy had a robot part. They ran down individually and put their part on the robot. I took a couple of pictures of one of the robots, but didn't get the other one.

Then the boys just wanted to run around and be boys. They had fun playing outside and wrestling the giant robot (Kevin) to the ground.

We had pizza for lunch, opened presents and then had cake and ice cream.
The invitations, cake idea, and take home treat were from this blog.

I got the idea for the robot head take home "bags" from several blogs and I believe they got the idea from Family Fun. The ideas were from here , and here


I probably went a little overboard, but Luke loved it and everyone had fun! Now I get a little breather until August when Katelyn celebrates her 4th birthday and gets her first friend party.

Birthday Boy!

Luke turned 6 on January 16th!

6 Things about Luke:

1. He is a smart boy and can figure things out so easily.
2. He loves playing the Wii.
3. He loves playing with friends and asks everyday for a friend to come over.
4. He is reading really well and writes the cutest stories.
5. He is such a good big brother and has so much patience with his 2 little sisters.
6. He always tries to choose the right.

I was so blessed 6 years ago when Luke entered my life and made me a mother. I am proud of him and the person he is becoming. It is crazy for me to look at pictures of him over the past 6 years and see how much he has changed. He is growing up too fast for me. :)








Birthday Party Post coming soon!

I know, I know...

Christmas was a month ago, but I still want to post a few things so I won't forget Christmas 2009.

We had a nice Christmas here at home. We spent Christmas Eve with Kevin's side of the family where we had yummy food, did a white elephant gift exchange, had the kids act out the Nativity, sung around the piano, and visited. It was a nice way to spend Christmas Eve.
It was nice to have Kevin's mom was with us on Christmas morning. The kids were really into Christmas this year so it was fun to see them get excited about their gifts. The family got a Wii and we have enjoyed playing it, especially the new Super Mario brothers.


One of the many attempts to get a decent picture of the kids all dressed up. We never got a decent one.

The cousins who participated in the Nativity. (Katelyn was a wiseman wearing her Aunt Holly's tiara. She is cracking me up in this picture at the way she is looking at her cousin.)

New pjs from my parents opened on Christmas Eve. Isn't that tutu adorable? I didn't think she would wear the tutu because of previous experience, but she loved it and still loves these pjs today. She even wants to wear the tutu with her regular clothes.

Katelyn's new nightgown came with a matching doll nightgown. Too cute!

Luke's new pjs were Star Wars Lego themed. Perfect for him and here he is with his favorite Christmas present. A power ranger transformer thingy.

Time to Catch Up

I can't believe my last post was Halloween. I don't know what my problem is but I have not wanted to blog. I think it is because I am so far behind.

Here is a quick recap of Thanksgiving...

We spent it in Utah with my family. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time!


We took the kids to see...

"reindeer" not far from my parent's house.

Kevin and I were able to go to Salt Lake for a night without the kids. It was so much fun and thanks to my parents we didn't worry about the kids. How was that for a quick recap?

A Halloween to Remember

You take Obi Wan Kenobi

a tall witch

and a small witch

and you take them to the church a week before Halloween for the Trunk or Treat. There you will find Obi Wan Kenobi working on his Jedi skills,

the tall witch taking a break and eating corn bread,and the small witch chillin' beside daddy to help pass out candy or to eat all the candy.At the trunk or treat they will score lots of good candy and their mom is thinking they don't really need to go trick or treating in a week. But of course she gives in.

Obi Wan Kenobi, the tall witch, and the small witch all wanted to carve pumpkins (okay, maybe the small witch had no idea that she wanted to carve pumpkins). So for Family Home Evening we did just that.

(It looks like I'm the only one having fun in this picture.)

And this is what resulted from that fun carving party...
(These pumpkins barely made it to Halloween before they turned all yucky inside. Next year we better carve them closer to Halloween.)

The Jedi and the witches were looking forward to Halloween day but little did they(and their mom) know that a special trick or treater would show up a day early. Around 11:40 on Friday morning there was a knock at the door and it was Grandma Cottrell. She woke up early that morning and drove to our house by herself to surprise us and spend the Halloween weekend with us. We were thrilled!!!!

The mom and dad of the Jedi and witches decided to try the Treat Street put on by Mix 94.1. Little did they know that it was so far away and that the small witch would scream for half of the ride there and for half of the ride home. The screaming and the long ride proved to be worth it for the great amounts of good chocolate candy they were giving out and

for the chance to see Jim from The Office.

Who could ask for more? It was definitely a Halloween to remember.


Treat Street Pros and Cons:
Pros: one designated area, free stuff, great candy, perfect for little kids
Cons: far away, you come home with way too much candy (I guess this is only a con if you have no self discipline like me and end up eating most of the candy.), it was only about 7 or 8 houses (but you could go around as many times as you wanted)