Friday, July 27, 2012

Thrice

The new floor in the girls room is 99% done. We still need to put some molding around the edges but for now this is what we have. It is such a delightful difference from that awful carpet. Here are some pictures of the new floor and 3 girls sharing a room. This post is mostly for me to remember what their room looked like and what items they really liked to play with at this age.


View from their doorway. 
The desk is Lizzie's property.  Beware if you try to touch anything on her desk :)
  Her desk (or the kitchen counter) is where she can usually be
 found working on some craft project .

The dollhouse in the corner is one of the most used items in the room.  I love listening to Afton and Lilly play together with the dollhouse using their imagination.  Many times  Disney princesses and Littlest Pet Shop animals make their way over too.  
Bonus, points if you noticed it is a bi-racial family :)



Bookcase I moved over from Ethan's room.
  Lizzies books and Caldecott books are on the bookshelf.  Other ones are in the book basket on the floor.
  In case I forget each basket holds the few things our girls ALWAYS play with......
-Barbies
-Mr and Mrs. Potato Head (with accesories)
-My Little Ponies
-Princess figurines and Polly Pockets

Afton and Lilly showing off the bunkbeds. 
Lizzie has the top bunk and sometimes Afton and Lilly sleep together on the bottom one.  There is a trundle mattress we can pull out where Lilly can sleep when they are not in the mood to share. 
 They each have a Pillow Pet that they use every night. 
 Lizzie- Unicorn, Afton- Bubble Bee, Lilly- Ladybug

One of my attempts of trying to make sure they each have their own area of a shared room.  This is on the side of the desk.  Each girl has a shelf and box that they can put only their special "treasures" in. 

Afton, Lilly and their cousin Grey showing off how awesome their new floor looks. 
 By the way, all their dress up clothes are in the trunk.


Sadly,  their room is only this clean when I am trying to take pictures.  Most of the time it looks like a bomb went off :)

-Mine and Jim's room is next with Ethan's close behind on the to do list.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

July 18th Celebrations

On July 18th we celebrated our family birthday by going up Big Cottonwood Canyon to have a BBQ for dinner.  After dinner we went and explored Silver Lake a little. 
That night I just kept thinking to myself,.............
 well in between Lilly's bloody nose, Afton's scraped knees,
 and four kids who are ALWAYS making some kind of noise......
 THIS IS EXACTLY HOW OUR LIFE SHOULD BE! HOW LUCKY WE ARE!

Our Family (if you include the person who took the picture :))


We told them to act like they like each other!

Me and the very different personalities of our 3 girls.

My new FAVORITE picture!

-Jim and I will be heading up to Park City this weekend for our own time just the two of us.   We plan on  going to see Chicago the musical at the Egyptian Theater in Park City, go out to eat, relax and actually have uninterrupted and finished conversations :)

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

14

Happy Family Birthday to us!
Happy Family Birthday to us!
Happy Family Birthday,
 Dear Jim, Alisha, Ethan,
 Lizzie, Afton and Lilly (and Lucky)
Happy Family Birthday to us!



14 years ago today our family began when a boy named Jim and a girl named Alisha were married. 

As always, thank you Jim for asking me to marry you! 
Happy Anniversary!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Unexpeted Milestone

With summer vacation close to being halfway over,
 I thought I would write a few things that we have been doing-

 
which includes....
Swimming a lot!

   This summer was a big milestone for me as I can now safely and comfortably (well mostly) take all four of my kids swimming BY MYSELF!!!!

 Since the girls were born I just didn't feel safe enough with only my two arms for everyone's skill level and age to go swimming with them by myself.  I always had my mom come with for extra help and arms.   While I SO APPRECIATE her extra arms these past few years it is so nice to make impromptu trips to the pool whenever we want.  Ethan and Liz are amazing in the water and the girls are much easier in the water than even just last year.    Most of the time the girls play in the shallow end but sometimes I put a lifejacket on them when we all want to go to the deep end.  They think it is amazing to be able to "float"

We now go swimming 2 to 3 times a week at Draper Pool!!!!  FABULOUS!!!!

Other things we have been doing since school got out. 

  • Summer jobs*
  • Worksheet pages*
 * I need some sort of incentive for swimming or other activities.  So once they get jobs and worksheet done we can go or do!

  •  Making Slime


 
  • Saving plastic animals and princesses from icebergs


 

 

  •  Weekly trips to the Sandy library


 


  • Eating homemade smoothie popsicles
  • Making Hot Rocks


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  • Discovering and playing with Crayola Model Magic (better than Play-Doh in my opinion)
  • Catching yourself trying to figure out what day of the week it is


  •  
    I REALLY love summers with my kids. 
     Even though it is noisy and crazy and chaotic (more than usual) and my house is messier than usual, it is so nice to have them all home.

     
    Summer is also a good time for them to  work on problem resolving skills by practicing with each other (aka-  arguments. ) :) Good times.

     
      But overall,  it is fun to see them just be kids and explore and play and relax.

     Sleeping in+ no schedules+good summer food + late nights =
    Seriously my favorite season of the  year!