Birthday Season

We just had our family birthday season with three birthdays in two weeks.  We kicked off the season with Caleb's birthday on February 28.  Finally, I laid down the law and didn't allow Caleb to have a friend birthday party, or anyone to have a friend party.  It was so much less stressful for me!  Josh was traveling over Caleb's birthday and I was traveling for Ali and Cara's birthdays so we just couldn't add to the craziness.

Caleb turned 9.  Every once and a while I think he is growing up, but mostly he continues to pull the same old junk.  He fights with me every day about doing his homework and hates to practice the piano.  He would do almost anything to get out of helping and chores.  He is an expert at stalling.  He has more excuses up his sleeve than I ever thought imaginable.  He is always willing to do his homework "later." When later roles around he is still unwilling.  Luckily he is really smart and social.  I am just struggling to teach him discipline.

Caleb thinks that he should have a theme cake every year.  Art is NOT my thing.  I let him decide and we work on it together.  This year he wanted a trampoline since we went to the trampoline park for his birthday.

Caleb and his BFF Isaac jumping at the park.  I loved that Caleb just had one friend.  We went to dinner at his very favorite restaurant after jumping, Golden Coral.  He pigs out on shrimp and steak and dessert.  I always feel like I've gotten my money's worth with him.

One of Caleb's greatest strengths is playing.  He can play with anyone.  Of course he prefers his friends, but he has a great time with his siblings too.  He even managed to put together his lego birthday present with his sibling committee.

Ali's birthday was next on March 8.  She loves all of the gifts and attention that her birthday brings.  Grandma Iva always gives great gifts including this darling doll and wagon.

Ali is so independent and getting more and more helpful all of the time.  She is strong willed, but I'm sure the things that are making her one of my harder preschoolers will be the things that are going to make her a fantastic person.

I have been wanting to get the kids and electric car for some time.  Caleb has been begging me to get one for Andy.  One day I walked into Walmart and they were selling this $350 car for $125.  I couldn't resist.  It is adorable.  It has a real radio and real lights.  What kid wouldn't want their own red sports car?  It was Ali's birthday but it was as much for Andy (who's birthday isn't until September) as it was for Ali.  Now we just need the weather to get nice so they can really enjoy it. Josh has always wanted a sports car kit to build his own car.  Hopefully this will satisfy his desire.

  Don't they look cute and happy? Andy had a pain in the back of his knee for a few weeks which left him limping terribly.  I'm not really sure what happened, but it was awesome that he had a car!

Cara's birthday was March 15. She did got plenty of celebration even though hers was last of the three birthdays in a row.  The highlight was that Emi, her only girl cousin near her age came to visit from Alaska.  They had a fantastic time together at Grandmas house.  

Merle bought the little girl cousins matching Easter dresses.  Getting a picture of Ali and Kate is always a challenge even though they are so so cute.

Emi and Cara were much easer to get to hold still and smile for a picture.

Here they are all together Emi, Cara, Lena, Ali and Kate.

Even without birthdays this month would have been insanely busy.  I have been doing Diamond Club  and teaching many more essential oil classes than normal (due to the fact that the company is reimbursing a portion of my travel expenses.)  I love really love teaching the classes and helping to improved people's lives in a positive way.  I feel like I have been so blessed in my journey with essential oils and I am constantly receiving confirmations that I am on the right path.  I am so grateful for this opportunity even though it is creating a crazy home life for a few months.  I know that the little sacrifices we are making right now will create huge opportunities in the future.

Every three years I have the opportunity to attend a reunion/overnight retreat for the CES program I worked for while I was in college, Academy for Girls.  Academy was a highlight in my life and these reunions help me to become refocused on my priorities and to remember that it is the little things we do every day that will lead us to exultation.  I was open to having the feeling that I should not be dedicating so much time to my business when I was at the reunion.  I was open to feeling guilty and cutting back if the spirit so directed, but it further confirmed to me that I am on the right life journey for me.  I was so inspired by my time at the retreat.  I came away with three goals for improvement in my life:

1. I will make reading and sharing the Book of Mormon a priority in my life.  We were challenged to give away a Book of Mormon before this retreat.  I am not the scriptorian I used to be and I haven't given away a Book of Mormon for a very long time.  I gave it to a friend in Alaska who has been going through a tough time.  It was easy and wonderful.  It reminded me that sharing the gospel is the most important thing to share with people.  It is a wonderful thing to testify that our understanding of Jesus Christ and of his Atonement will be strengthened as we study the Book of Mormon.  It felt amazing to give away such a gift, and I want to seek for those opportunities more often.  I strongly believe that if we are seeking and praying for opportunites to testify and to share the gospel they will come.  I used to know the scriptures so well.  I need to rededicate myself to gospel study.

2. I am dedicated to making my personal Sabbath Day observance more purposeful and meaningful.  I taught a class on Sabbath observance and felt the spirt confirm to me that the lives of those who spend their day in service, study, the building of family and faith will be blessed.  I feel like keeping the Sabbath Day Holy is so much more than a "to do" and "do not do" list.  Sabbath Day observance is not so much a day of rest as it is a day of service and of spiritual progress.  I want to apply these principles more fully in my life.

3.  I phrased my third goal as follows: I CHOOSE to life with PURPOSE and come what may and love it." We can't control everything in our lives, but we can control how we respond to it.  I will respond with a positive attitude and look forward with faith and hope.

I am so grateful for talented friends who make this retreat a reality.  I could never possibly explain how amazing it is, but one of the gals who planned and hosted it posted pictures and some great thoughts on her blog if you're interested:  TheVintageMother.com. 

The kids are busy with school.  Caleb did a "Sound Waves" project for the science fair.  He was proud of his project and he should have been.  He and Josh spent many hours on it.  The poster wasn't quite what I had in mind.  It is interesting to let my children to learn to do things on their own.  Josh and Caleb also "bonded" working on his Pinewood Derby car this month.  It got the award for being the "Fastest Looking" but it wasn't the fastest.  So many things to do!

Cara Update

I was so frustrated with my testing experience at USU for Cara as expressed in the previous blog entry.  I expressed my frustration and got a meeting with the Early Childhood Department Head, who happens to be a leading specialist in reading, as well as the Director of USU After School Tutoring Program. The two of them spent more than 90 minutes with me and went over all of the data I have gathered from the schools testing as well as the testing they did.  

By definition she is dyslexic.  The only thing we can do is give her lots of practice and the opportunity to master one skill at a time.  She will progress slower than the other kids, but she should progress.  Skill mastery before moving on is imperative.  They also believe that her speech and reading delays are absolutely related.  After reviewing how much reading help she is getting at school they don't even think that the after school program is a good idea.  It was wonderful to have them really take a look at the data!

Following are my major "take-away's" from meeting with Dr. Reutzel.  

1. She is being bombarded with too many programs that are unaligned.  Each program has it's own objectives, language, cues, etc.  She needs to work on a single objective, in a variety of ways, until she masters it.  She is currently doing four different reading programs at school and being pulled from the classroom 90 minutes a day.  She is doing reading over three hours per day. (He sent me home with a published research article entitled, Does Instructional Alignment Matter? It can be found in The Elementary School Journal volume 112 number 2 page 259.)

2. FOCUS on a chosen program and even if you use materials from a variety of programs make connections to the common objective.

3. She needs to start back at the basics and not move on until she has mastered each skill.  She needs to go all the way back to letter names and not move on until she first has accuracy and then fluency.  Then move on to blending.  First shoot for accuracy and then fluency etc.

4. Teach her through modeling.  Most teachers say, 1) sound it out, 2) give the child the word, 3) interrogation, sound it out, 4) look for cues to figure out the word.  What we should be doing is modeling (thinking out loud) how to decode a word.  "Watch me, this is how I figure out this word.  This letter is d it says d. This letter is o, it says o. Together they say do.  The last letter is g.  Together they say d o g.  dog."

5. Perceptual Reasoning (Block Design, Picture Concepts, Matrix Reasoning, Picture Completion) are a huge strength for her.  Whenever possible we need to capitalize on that strength.

6. Her IQ is high enough that she may have some success with whole language.  We me want to implement some whole language memorization for high frequency words.

He sent me home with two research papers he has published on topics he felt were relevant to Cara's situation.  The second article is titled "Behind test scores: What struggling readers really need"  Published in The Reading Teacher Volume 57, Number 6, March 2004 page 520.  Her hearing has been tested before, but she will have a full auditory test at USU on March 20 to eliminate a hearing impairment because she is getting further and further behind in speech. 

What's new?

I have been longing for the day that I would be able to do things "with" my kids rather than "for" them.  Don't get me wrong I like to do things for my kids, but there is something really satisfying about doing things with them.  We are just entering that gate, and I think I am going to love it.  Tuesday night was a great example of doing something with them.

We had the opportunity to go night skiing with Josh's work.  We have been trying to get Caleb to ski since he was almost 3.  He talks about going, gets excited about it, signs up for a lesson, gets rentals, gets a pass and then refuses to get on the lift.  We have done this every year for years!  At our night ski party this year at least he skied.  He didn't get on the lift, but he did use the magic carpet.  Cara also began skiing at our party last month, but didn't get confident enough to do more than one trip down the hill.  Tuesday night Caleb convinced us to let him snow board and he loved it.  He even went on the lift multiple times.  Cara really caught on to skiing too.  She was amazing.  We could hardly keep up with her.

We just might become a skiing family after all!  I was beginning to wonder if that day would ever come.  I have learned my lesson not to push too early.

I have a hard time getting around to blogging these days.  I think the thing that has really cut into my blog time is that we get together almost every Sunday with the Kirks and play games.  The kids love to play with their cousin, and we enjoy eating and playing games all evening.  It has become a fun family tradition, but doesn't leave time for blogging on Sundays.  We are headed into birthday season though so I am sure there are some posts forthcoming.

Josh seems to be really enjoying his new job.  It is challenging enough to really keep him on his toes.  He has been preparing for convention (which he is gone to this week) and so he has been working a ton.  He loves that, but I was really hoping that with a "job" he could cut back to 8-9 hours a day. (As apposed to his crazy subcontracting hours.)  Maybe after convention he can cut back a bit.  The requirement to periodically travel is really a down side for me.  I don't know how single moms do it.  One bonus is that we get to use the ChemDry equipment to clean our carpets.  The night that Josh borrowed the stuff he was telling Caleb that he would need to help.  Josh was teasing Caleb that he needed to teach him some job skills so he could get a job when he grows up cleaning carpets.  Cara piped in and said, "yah, you can be a carpet-ter."  So cute.

I received a heart braking call from Cara's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Miller, about a month ago.  I knew it was coming, but I was hoping what I was seeing wasn't reality.  Mrs. Miller is very seasoned and a great teacher.  She started the conversation with, "Have you noticed that Cara isn't making any progress in reading?"  She reminded me that she is getting 2 on 1 resource help for an hour each day as well as 2 hours of reading in the classroom.  She must have said, "I just don't know what to do" at least 5-10 times.  She asked me to see if I could find some testing or some more help at the University.  She said that she and the IEP team were out of ideas and resources.  I reminded her of a conversation we had a back to school night when I told her that I had been reading with her every day during the summer and her reading skills were so poor that it was as if she had never been worked with.  She said, "I really thought I could teach her to read, but something isn't clicking, we need more help."

That weekend I dedicated my fast to getting the proper testing and proper diagnosis for her so that we could use the right tools to teach her to read.  When I told Josh what I was fasting for he said, "I'm not fasting for that.  I'm fasting that she can learn to read."  It is a little frustrating for me to deal with a child who has an apparent decoding learning disability and for the vast majority of people to think the way that Josh does, that it is just a matter of more practice.  If that were the case, if she could learn to read like most children, she would already be a fluent reader based on the amount of practice she has already had. The bottom line is that she has got to learn how to read no matter how hard it is for her, but I am looking for tools that will make her more successful.  As a side note she is doing well in math and other subjects, with the exception of speech where she is still really struggling.  Her reading and speech disabilities may be related as they are both language related.

Finding help at USU was a faith promoting experience.  I started by calling the Special Ed department, they sent me to the CPD (Center for Persons with Disabilities) and they transferred me to someone for testing.  I left a message, but felt like I hadn't reached the right person.  So I started making more calls.  I called the El. Ed. Department who sent me to the Early Childhood Department.  They told me that I needed to talk to a PhD student who runs the after school reading program.  I tried to catch her every day for a week and she wasn't returning my calls so the staff assistant finally transferred me to the Professor over the Early Childhood reading program who's credentials are out of this world.  He took a vested interest in Cara and my dilemma and spent almost an hour visiting with me on the phone.  One little test he had me perform over the weekend was to have her name the letters of the alphabet in random order for a minute and see how many she could do.  He said it should be properly identifying 50+ in a minute.  On her cold run she got 15.  After she'd warmed up and practiced she go 25.  She defiantly qualified for additional testing.

I received Cara's test results and I was frustrated to tears.  The results were terrible, which was no surprise, but my frustration comes from the fact that I know nothing more now than I did before.  I could have told them that she knew about 50% of the sight words that she should know. I could have told them that her letter identification is improving since I tested her two weeks ago, but there are still a few letters she gets confused on.  I could have told them that she can only read about 50% of the most basic CVC words and that more difficult words have an even lower percentage.  The fact that she is reading 30 words per minute and has a fluency accuracy of 46% was no surprise.  And I already knew that her comprehension is decent if someone reads to her.  I am FRUSTRATED because this data only tells me that she is delayed.  It doesn't tell me what to do about it or what is going on in her brain.  Why isn't she responding to the normal interventions?  Why is she shutting down?  The test administrator recommended the after school reading program.  It is 3 days a week and costs $20 for each 30 minute session.  Does that seem like a fortune to you?  It normally isn't even one on one it is two on one.  The tutors are bachelor students and although supervised it seems like their rate should be linked to their level of education, not $60 for 3 30 minute sessions a week.  To put it in perspective I pay $60 a month for 10 one hour sessions for Cara's suzuki violin and piano lessons.  I know that is an incredible deal, but still.  The gal telling me that I should do it and that it wasn't over priced also told me it is the same price I would pay to have her in piano lessons.  True if she were taking private lessons from someone with a PhD.  So now what!!??

While I'm posting about the latest, I've got to share how adorable John is.  He is the sweetest, best baby.  I just love that little, okay maybe not so little, guy.  He has his bottom two front teeth and he'll be nine months next week.  He isn't even close to crawling.  He doesn't roll over although if I lay him on his tummy there is a chance he will push himself backwards.  I've stopped nursing.  I nursed him for two months longer than any of my other kids.  The fact is I just can't loose weight when I'm nursing so I can only stand to keep the extra chub for so long.  Selfish, I know, but I feel proud of myself that I lasted for more than eight months.

Andy and Ali live simple but good lives.  Ali eats around the clock but still looses her pants when she jumps.  She is so skinny.  Andy doesn't eat anything healthy, but seems to be thriving.  He does think it is cool to pull funny faces when he is getting his picture taken.  He is good at them too.  The highlight of the day for Andy and Ali is when Cara and Caleb come home from school.  That is when life gets exciting.  Here we are sporting our John Deer gear in honor of Grandpa Neil.

Disneyland or Bust!

We did it!  We survived a road trip to Disneyland - mission accomplished - the kids made wonderful memories and had a great time.  For me, I wasn't sure if I was going to survive.  It was so much work.  I'm glad we did it, but until my kids are older and help a little more I think a leisurely week at a condo is a better family vacation idea.  

The trip started at 3:00 AM driving in a blizzard out of Cache Valley.  I was convinced that the kids would sleep and we could get the majority of the trip behind us if we left in the wee hours of the morning.  I was wrong, not the Kirk kids.  They didn't sleep a wink.  The only advantage was that they went to sleep easily the first night, in Vegas. 

Caleb was awesome at helping us get packed up the night before we left.   He wanted to leave at midnight.  At 11:56 he came upstairs and said, "I know I'm a little early, but it is time to go."  Josh insisted that he go down and take a nap before leaving.  

The drive wasn't too bad.  We enjoyed our stop in Vegas to brake things up and arrived in LA in the early afternoon in time to go to Hollywood.  The kids found the prints of the Harry Potter cast. 

We also saw the sun set at the observatory.  It was really amazing!

We hit Disneyland really hard for three days.  The crowds were low (for Disneyland) and we were able to do everything many times.

My mom, my Aunt Merle, my sister Connie and her husband Colby met us there as well as my sister Cathie and her family including her five children who my kids adore! (Grandma and John)

When Caleb was younger and scared of every ride I wondered if he would ever grow up, but he has and he loved every ride.  (Caleb, Colter, Connie, Colby) 

Ali and Andy were the best.  I especially loved Ali's excitement and happiness.  It was the happiest place on earth for her!

It was so fun for the kids to be with their cousins.  It wouldn't have been the same without them! (Corbin, Colter, Caleb)

There were plenty of characters with short lines.

Connie did the girls hair cute each morning.  Look at that darling bow she created out of Cara's hair.  Amazing!

Caleb, Cara and Andy all got to be Jedi Trained.  I'm just hoping the stay away from the dark side.

The park hours were short because it was low season, but we were exhausted at the end of each day.  

Kate and Ali

Merle and Connie got the girls Minnie ears.  They were so cute! (Cara, Emi, Lina, Connie, Ali)

Merle got us all matching shirts.  Here I am with my sisters Christie, Cathie, Me, Connie.

Andy and Corbin were best buds.  They were always trailing behind the rest of the group at a very leisurely pace.  

Caleb and Colter loved to hang out with Colby and Connie and go on the "big kid" rides.  

Johnny was really sick for the first half of the trip.  In fact I spent one night in ER with him for breathing treatments.  (Instacare wouldn't take him because he was under two.)  He was a real sport.  When he was upset all he needed to settle down was Grandma's iPad.

We spent two days at Lego Land as well.  It was a cute theme park, and our kids were the perfect age.  It defiantly isn't for older kids, but there were no lines and our kids had a great time. Ali was a terrible driver. 

The lego displays were amazing.

Caleb had some money that was burning a hole in his pocket.  He was obsessed with spending it the entire trip.  He looked up here realizing that he hadn't budgeted enough for tax.  He spent every penny he had.

Cara loves to have her picture taken and doesn't mind being a ham. 

We went to the Lego Land Sea Life center as well.

It was a so fun to be together and to get out of the freezing cold of Cache Valley.  The drive home wasn't bad, and life has settled back into a routine.  I feel blessed that we have the means to create these experiences for our children.  

Interviews

I thought it would be fun to interview the kids for the new year.  I did it weeks ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it.  They didn't hear me interview each other.  It is interesting that Caleb and Cara both said that they would be a cheata if they were an animal because they are so fast.  I wrote just what they said, bad grammar and all. 

Ali:

What is your happiest memory? Jesus Christ and my mom and my dad going to church

(That is her answer for EVERYTHING.  Every night we ask the kids to tell the best part of their day at dinner and that is Ali's answer.  At age two she has learned the Sunday School answers and she runs them all into one comment.)

Andy:
What makes you happy?  Jesus Christ
What is your happiest memory? Making cookies (he wants to make cookies today)
What is the best part of being a kid? be happy
If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? A Power Ranger because I love to
What is your favorite thing to do? Why? Play with the toys because I love to and play on my computer
What is your favorite food? Macaroni and Cheese
What is the best age? Why? seven because I love to actually four because I want to be four

Cara:
What is your happiest memory? Going to Disneyland and playing with my cousins
What is the best part of being a kid? Having fun
What advice would you give your parents? Its okay to go out to eat
If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? A cheetah because I am so fast
What is your favorite thing to do? Why? Going out to grandmas because it is fun there
What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? (16) Maybe go on a mission
What do you think makes a person good looking? nice hair and nice cloths
What is your favorite thing to do with your family? go out to dinner
What is your favorite food? chicken pot pie, brownies and popsicles
What is the best age? Why? Any age I don't know

Caleb:
What is your happiest memory? Going to Alaska and Disneyland
What is the best part of being a kid? You get toys for Christmas
What advice would you give your parents? To do my chores
If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? A zebra or a cheata because I just like zebras and because cheata's are really fast
What is your favorite thing to do? Why? Play with friends because it is fun
What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? (18) I will probably be doing piano
What do you think makes a person good looking? Their style
What is your favorite thing to do with your family? Go bowling and go to the fun park, the fun park bowling and soft play, and going to the trampolene park
What is your favorite food? Chinese chicken and stake
What is the best age? Why? ten because you can help people better

Holiday Fun

I'll admit it, I was ready for the kids to go back to school today.  We did have a great Christmas though.  My mom has been very sick and couldn't make Christmas Eve happen at her house this year so we ended up having the Owen Family Christmas Eve celebrations here.  It is just so different without dad.  I think it would have been more sad if we were at my parents home but having Christmas Eve here allowed us to have it a little different without the obvious difference of no Grandpa Neil.

There was a major snow storm so we took advantage by going sledding.  We gave the kids their new sleds a day early and we had a fun time braking them in. The kids were so hyper we needed to do something to ware them down and to get them out of the house!

We kept our fun traditions of the candy bar game as well as a gift exchange and my mom reading Christmas stories, but we added a nativity.  It is so easy to loose track of the true meaning of the holiday in all of the excitement.

Of course my mom gave us all awesome presents.

Merle, Christie and Kate also spent the night which added to the excitement of the holiday.  Ali was SO FUN to watch.  She LOVED everything she opened.  She would squeal in excitement and run to Merle for help getting it out of the box.  It was a wonderful morning.  

We spent Christmas afternoon at the Kirks and enjoyed more presents.

And, of course, more great food.

The rest of our holiday brake was really quite lazy and unstructured.  I tried to do something fun with the kids every day.  We went sledding at my mom's one day with the runner sleds in honor of my dad.  He loved taking the kids sledding.  We had a great time!  The best part about sledding there is that we use the truck to get to the top of the hill.  Andy was the cutest little sledder.  He had more than his share of crashes insisting on driving himself.  One time he was sitting on top of Caleb, who was laying down.  Caleb turned sharp and Andy went flying off.  He just laughed and laughed and went running after the speeding sled as Caleb continued down the hill.  Andy also decided to do everything Mia, mom's dog, did.  Mia would jump into a snow bank, Andy would jump into a snow bank.  Mia would eat snow, Andy would eat snow.  What a cute boy!!

Josh and I each had major accomplishments on December 31st.  First, Josh accepted an offer to work for Harris Research (the ChemDry corporate team).  He wasn't really looking for a change, but he had been subcontracting for them.  They were looking for someone full-time and made Josh and offer that was good enough to accept.  I am excited to see what changes it will bring into our lives.  Off the bat it will bring benefits, and a steady income.  Two things we haven't had for a really long time.  Josh is excited about the people he is working with and the challenge the job will bring.  It is not a graphic design position with is strange since he is so talented at that.  It is more of a mid-level management position helping all of the the current franchises get onto a new data-base program.  He was the perfect candidate being techie and personable.  It should be a wonderful new chapter for us.  

My accomplishment was reaching a milestone rank advancement with my business.  I love the good that essential oils are doing in the world and I am thankful for those I have been able to share them with.  It is wonderful that I can make money doing something that I am really passionate about.  Hitting the rank of Silver is a sign of great things to come.  

  

New Years Day is the day that dad usually took us sledding, but we didn't make it back up to moms for New Years.  We did go sledding on the hill by our house.  The kids were all so happy.  They never even complained about the hike, they just loved the ride down. 

I just love to listen to Andy laugh.  My dad would have loved watching how brave the kids were.  They were probably a little too brave!  It did end with a near emergency trip when Caleb landed on his face braking his glasses and gouging the bridge of his nose.  He could have used a couple of stitches, but he and Josh talked me out of taking him in.

Ali preferred to watch more than sled, but she was happy. Life is good!  We are so blessed!

The MAGIC of Christmas

I've always believed in Santa and in magic, but nothing makes me believe more than watching the excitement of my kids at Christmas time.  I must admit that it feels a little wrong to celebrate Christmas without my dad around and with my mom in such a sad state.  In an attempt to keep my spirits up I have started some new traditions this year that are blog worthy.  The first and best, one that I recommend to every parent, is the Elf on the Shelf.  This is our Elf Ruby.  She watches the kids during the day and then she reports to Santa at night.  She comes back in a different place each morning.  The excitement of waking up to see where Ruby is has not gotten old.  Cara talks to her, and Caleb and his friends have written a few letters.

Yesterday started the 12 days of Christmas.  I have tried a few different versions of this in the past, but I am really excited about what we are doing this year.  Each package has some kind of Christmas activity.  They are mostly things that we would be doing anyway. For example, Saturdays bag has all of our Christmas cards and we are going to work together to stuff and label them while listening to Christmas music and eating a christmas treat.  Another bag has gifts for the neighbors that we will package and deliver on that day.  I love the idea because it isn't adding significantly to my Christmas work load, but engaging the kids in helping by making it a game.  It also forced me to plan and schedule all of the remaining Christmas projects so we can get them done.  Each day also has a scripture and a song to help turn our minds to the Savior.

I was really busy in November sharing essential oils and wellness products.  This picture is two of my good oil friends Deonne and Caroline at a holiday gift show that we participated in.

It has been a year and a half since I was first introduced to Essential Oils. It has been a wonderful journey and they become a significant part of my life.  

Somehow in the craziness of the last 6 weeks Ali got potty trained.  She changes her pants and under-ware every time she goes, but other than is doing pretty good.  There are just two things that I hate about potty training, #1 and #2.  Just glad that is over!

This picture is an example of what happens if I don't give my kids enough attention!  Note to self, don't ignore the kids or you will pay for it.

Speaking of which, Johnny is in the phase where he needs to get moving.  He is no longer happy laying around.  He just started reaching, but he wants me to entertain him.  Not my style.  Good thing he is cute as can be!