Bye, bye Mickey!

A few days ago I did something totally invigorating, completely freeing, and oh-so-very good. No, it wasn't a trip to the spa complete with mudbath and all day massage, though that does sound pretty darn good. I did something much more simple and much closer to home...I got rid of Disney channel (and Nick, Disney XD, and ABC Family)!! 
What prompted this complete purge of my children's entertainment choices, you ask?  Well, perhaps it was the annoying characters, or the disrespectful way these children speak to adults?  Or maybe it had something to do with how dumb most of the adults are on these shows?  It could have had a little to do with the completely inappropriate commercials shown during the children's shows?  (ABC Family...I'm talking to you here).  I can answer honestly it was all of the above and so much more.  And why I didn't think to do this earlier, I have no idea!
I simply blocked the channels and made it where they don't even show up on the guide.  The next day I heard the inevitable, "Mom, something's wrong with the t.v."  whine.  But after explaining that those channels were no longer available, the kids haven't complained about it once!  Who knew it would be so simple?  Now...give me a little time and this sneaky mama may be able to get rid of the dish completely :)

It all started 12 years ago...

Here we are 12 years ago at the Salt Lake temple.

Here we are 2 months ago at the Dallas temple.

It's been a great 12 years!

Great Day!!!

Today was an absolutely fabulous homeschooling day...definitely one of our top 10 ever! And we've been doing this for 5 years now :) What, you may ask, made it such a wonderful day? Well, we didn't really do anything extremely cool or exciting, but I changed things up a bit and just loved the results.

Let me explain, I always worry that I'm short-changing someone. If I spend too much time with the big ones, I worry that the littles may never learn their letter sounds, how to count past 20, etc., etc. But, if I spend too much time with the littles, my older ones may not be able to get into college....;) So today I decided to do things a little differently. We had our opening like usual, but then instead of everyone just scattering and mom trying to work from person to person like usual, I had a plan. I spent 30 minutes or so with each child from oldest to youngest. In that 30 minutes we could work on academics if needed, ask questions about assignments, or do something that each kiddo wanted to do. We ended up finishing "Just David" ( a fabulous book that I highly recommend to all!), playing Monopoly, having some one-on-one reading practice, playing a phonics game, playing go fish, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, practicing ABCs, and coloring. Each child got some needed one-on-one with Mom and then had time for regular assignments! It was fabulous. This is what I've always dreamed homeschooling would be like...let's see if we can do it again someday :)

School is back in session...

We've really been back at school for about a month now, but I've decided to start writing about some things that we do. Here we are trying out our quill pen skills :) We just finished studying about the Constitutional Convention and figured we would be like the original signers. Let's just say we have a new- found respect for James Madison!

Down & Derby

So proud of our boys! Big Boy and Mr. Fix It took 1st and 3rd place, respectively, at the tri-ward Pinewood Derby last night! Big Boy goes on to District now, and he is mighty excited about it. The boys (with some help from Big Daddy, of course :) worked really hard on their cars this year, and I'm very proud of them! Way to go!

Crazy Kid!

So it's bedtime at our house...my least favorite time of the day, by far...but, oh, the sweet rewards that follow!!! But that's not the subject of this post. This post is about the ridiculous, sometimes out-right dumb, things my kids do around bedtime. For instance, here is the exchange I just had (keep in mind that they've already been in bed for over 15 min...supposedly sleeping)...

Big Boy: Mom, Mr. Fix It tied his legs together and can't move.
Mom: (Going in to examine the situation, I find that, in fact, Mr. Fix It has tied his legs together with one of those loop thing-a-ma-jigs you use to make potholders, and he can not untie it) Why did you do that?
Mr. Fix It: Sweety Pie (who is "sleeping" on their floor) told me to.
Mom: If Sweety Pie told you to jump off a building would you?
Mr. Fix It: No. How am I going to go to school tomorrow with my legs tied up.
Mom: I guess you'll just have to hop, but the most embarrassing part is going to be you showing up in pj's or half naked because there's no way you can get pants on with your legs like that. Good night!

I would like to say that scenes like that are atypical...sadly, I can not. Heaven help us! :)

Happy Birthday, Angel Baby!

Well, today is Angel Baby's 4th birthday...not much of a baby anymore, huh? She's so easy to please. When I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday party she said she wanted to have it at her daddy's office. So...lunch at Daddy's office with the family and one of her little friends, Jet, and she's good to go. After bbq sandwiches (we are Texans, after all), hot dogs, and cake we headed to the park where we played for a couple of hours. She loved it! Can I tell you, I love low-stress, lots of fun birthday parties! Happy birthday, sweetie! We love you!