Jellyfish, Stingrays and Sharks,.. oh my!

Today I finally took the kids to the Aquarium for the first time. I have been wanting to take them there for over a year. They LOVED it! The whole way home, I turned off the radio so we could talk about the stuff they liked and their favorite parts. It was a 45 min. drive home and we never ran out of conversation. I'm glad we finally made the trip.

Designing Women...

Today Erin wanted me to see her bed that she made. She loves coming up with different looks for her bed. Not only is she my little fashionista, she is my little interior designer. I went to look at it and was surprised once again at her ability to come up with new designs. I love the color block stripes with the blankets and the different pillows. It's funny because I remember when I was little, loving to decorate for parties and making everything look stylish and cool. I still enjoy design. I love watching her enjoy it even more. Here's her design of the day...

Some new tools...

We had a great time at the Successful Mothering Convention this weekend. We listened to speakers on everything from parenting peacefully to getting the spice back in our marriages. As promised, I took notes on the things that the speakers presented. So here are a few things (by topic) that I learned...

Parenting:

1. Explain EVERYTHING that a child can expect in a new situation. Then check for comprehension.
2. TEACH instead of TIME-OUTS. Personally, I like to combine the two. But I think the point of the speaker was that we tend to focus more on the punishment than on the teaching that could go on before, during and after the situation.
3. Get your child to "Buy into" the consequences of their actions. An example: Your child bites another child. They need to understand their actions have hurt someone else and they need to help in healing/taking care of the other child (i.e. Going to get the Neosporin and the Band Aid for them). I think there are situations in which this might work.
4. Say YES! every chance you get, but on your own terms. i.e. "Yes, you can have a cookie, right after you finish your dinner" I know I am guilty of using the word NO far too often with my kids.
5. Use "preventive parenting" and avoid control battles. Head them off at the corner.
6. Pull them out of their bad mood and into a happy place with your imaginations and positive outlook.

The last one is my favorite. I've already tried this on Erin and it works wonders...
7. To eliminate whining or sassy talk... i.e. "MOMMY! I WANT IT NOW!" (imagine the whiny, demanding voice) Get in front of their face and repeat it exactly how they just said it in a whiny voice. Then say it the polite way, "Mommy, could I please have it now" (in a sweet voice). Then say, "Repeat." If you make it clear that they have to repeat it and show that you are waiting to hear it, they will do it in the nice voice that you used. I tried this one for the first time with Miguel in the audience and he was amazed at how well it worked. Frankly, I was amazed too.
(combination of teachings from Shelly Locke and Paula Fellingham's classes)

Dating your Husband:

1. Use what little time you have together to talk about uplifting things instead of venting about the bad parts of your day.
2. Plan for dates like you did when you first met. Put on your best outfit, perfume, make-up, ect., and get excited about the date.
3. Take pictures on your dates and make an album or blog you can refer back to. Sounds cheesy but it could be cool.
4. Get into your husband's head. Maybe he would rather have tickets to his favorite team than a new tie. Or he might love it if you cleaned his car.
(Lindsey Rietzsch's class)

Grocery Deals:

1. Don't go to Costco or Sam's for food! Always buy the smallest, and buy it on sale. (Use a coupon too)
2. Plan your week's menu solely around the sale items on the front of the grocery ad. from your favorite store. Don't go to multiple stores.
3. Don't clip coupons and organize. For every 100 you clip you will probably only use 10 and you wasted time clipping the other 90. Just 3-hole punch the insert and stick it in a 3-ring binder that you take with you.
4. Grocery coupons typically last for 2 months and the same ones come out every 4 weeks... meaning you don't really need 4 or 5 copies of the Sunday paper. 2 will suffice.
I am guilty of having 5 copies. So I learned something new. Although I do enjoy the 5 copies of coupons when I get great deals on non-grocery items like shampoo, razors, ect.
This class was a great supplement to the other couponing classes I have taken. I do have to point out that food storage was not addressed and that is a major thing that I coupon for. So maybe it isn't so bad having 5 copies when you get something down to a "stock-up" price.
(The Grocery Guru's class)

Motherhood:

This class was titled, "Exchanging Martyrdom for Motherhood"
1. We need to remember that we CHOSE motherhood as a career. No one forced us to become mothers.
2. Just like any other job, it has its glamorous points (pros) and its not so glamorous points (cons). Maybe we should exchange the word cons for "not fun things."
3. We need to start giving OURSELVES high fives and pats on the back because it will be a long sad journey if we are waiting for someone else to do it. Motherhood is not like other jobs where you get praised by your boss or promotions/raises.
(Rachelle Hughes class)

The convention was awesome. I feel refreshed and ready to put these new tools to work. I can't wait for next year's conference!

p.s. Thanks Jenn, Cynthia, and Abby for going with me.

Sunbeams...

I just have to say that I love our new sunbeams class. We had great kids last year and we miss them all. But I love our new kids. We are just getting to know them as they've only been in ourclass for 3 weeks. But they are so much fun and they say the cutest things. They definitley keep me on my toes though. As stressful as it is sometimes I'm really glad we have this calling.

What a mess!

The kids did this to the wall in our bedroom! What did moms do before Mr. Clean came out with his magic eraser?

Happy 1st Birthday Anya!

Anya had her first birthday this week. As some of you know, I have long since believed that when a baby turns 1, it is the mother that deserves a party-- for surviving the first year. We had a small family party for her. I made the cake very last minute. Not my best work, but she loved the cake... obviously.

Yes Ashley, I do have Zapatos!

Ashley is the only one who will get this post.

Successful Mothering Convention...

It's that time of year again. The day I look forward to all year long is just a couple of weeks away! Every year I go to the Successful Mothering convention. It's a day just for moms. I go with my friends and am always excited to invite everyone I know to attend. They have the best classes and presentations for every type of mother out there. It is in Sandy at the South Towne Expo Center and it costs just $15 if you purchase your tickets online in advance. I hope all of you in the Utah area will come with us on Sat. January 24th and enjoy a really fun day for mothers.

You can get more info from the website www.successfulmothering.org

GO UTES!

Go UTES! The University of Utah just won the Sugar Bowl! I don't even like football, but I was glued to the TV for this one. Miguel is a student at the U, and proud of it. Great game UTES!

She's walking!

Its official. Anya's walking! We were hoping she would walk while her aunt Paula was here visiting and she did. Before she could only walk one or two steps and then she would fall. She put on a show for us this Tuesday and walked a record 7 steps and then a few minutes later, 10 steps! We got it all on video too but I was unsuccessful at transferring the video to the computer. I did get some pictures of it though.

"mommy, me feed Anya..."

This morning I heard Erin and David get up but I still hadn't heard anything from Anya yet. She normally cries until we go to get her out of her crib. I went to check on her and found David next to her crib feeding her cereal through the railing. I asked David what he was doing and he sweetly reported back, "Mommy, me feed Anya so she be happy." He is such a nice brother.