Happy Birthday Jonathan!!

We have celebrated a decade of birthdays together. I can't believe it. Each one gets better. Every few years or so, we have a new addition to share birthdays with. It is so fun for the kids to celebrate your birthday, and try to spoil you.

I have enjoyed our tradition of making homemade icecream on your birthday. I like knowing that you would rather have that then a cake. I think that the kids enjoy it as well.

I am so glad that I got to share this birthday with you. I enjoyed dinner with you at PF Changs. The dinner was great, but the conversation and time was just what I needed. You were made for me, and I know that you have blessed my life beyond measure. I am thankful for you everyday.

Thank you for making me a part of your life, and sharing your birthdays with me. I love you so much!! Happy Birthday Babe!!

I Love You!!
P.S. You may be one year older, but you are still pretty HOT!!

Time for my Hobby...

Since Jonathan has been taking the car, and since the move; I have had a lot more time at home. This has given me an hour or so during the day to get back to digital scrabooking. It has been so nice to sit down and do it. I forgot how much I love creating pages.

Now that I am back to it, I hate the pages that I made for Isaac's baby book. His pages were the first pages I created, and I am not at all thrilled with them. With digital scrapbooking, I have the luxury of doing them over. The best part is that it cost no money to do it over, it only costs my time. I would rather them look the way I want, so I have slowly been doing some of them over.

So... I just wanted to share what I have been working on the last few day. (btw, while Isaac is taking his afternoon nap, the kids have "rest time." They love it because they get to watch a movie, and have a mix(goldfish, gummy bears, m&ms, marshmellows, nuts, and dried fruit.) This gives me some time to get things done, or... SCRAPBOOK!!!
I have a few more, but that might be scrapbook overload. It has been fun to have a part of myself back. Thanks for looking!!

{More of our Alphabet Summer...}

Here is what we have been working on with our alphabet the last few days.

S... is for Stella, Scrapbook, Swenson, Smoothies, and Space.

Today we talked about the day Stella was born, and looked at her baby scrapbook. We also made a Scrapbook page all about Stella. The kids each took turns making the page. They picked out everything, and came up with the design. They also picked out words that begin with the letter S to describe her. Here are there pages. We had also had Strawberry Smoothies for lunch, and we will read a book about Space tonight before bed.

Stella's Scrapbook Page:

Jex's Scrapbook Page:

G... is for Give, and Gratitude.

Last Thursday, we had the missionaries over for dinner. We talked about giving, and also being Grateful for what we have. The kids helped with dinner, and then enjoyed giving to them as they ate with us. They also picked some food items off our shelf to Give to the Arkansas Food Bank. Our primary is doing this as an activity coming up in August. Now our kids are helping to contribute. They enjoyed thinking about all that they do have, and finding some things to give to others.

B is for... Baptism, Belong, and Believe.

On Saturday, a young women from our area was baptized. Her husband was a member, and she has decided to join the church. We took the kids to the baptism, because we thought it would be good for them to see. We also wanted to support Jackie. We also sang the song, "I Belong to the church" to the kids. I talked to the kids about what it means to belong to something. The song also says, " I Believe in the Savior Jesus Christ, I'll honor his name." I talked to them about what it means to Believe. It was a nice day, and a great way to talk to the kids about faith, and belonging to a wonderful church. The kids enjoyed the baptism, and have been talking about Jackie the last couple of days. I know they were impressed with her decision to join the church. They were also excited because Jackie is pregnant with twins. It is a big year for her.

I loved all of the response I got the last time I posted about our Alphabet. I am in need of help again. I need some ideas for these letters, A, K, N, O, U, W, and Z. If you have any please let me know.

I don't think I mentioned this, but on Jonathan's first day of work, he was in a car accident. He is doing fine, but it totaled his car. He has been driving my car to work, and so I have been car less. All of these activities need to be things that we can do at home. If you have any please let me know.

Thanks for your input. This really has been a great learning tool for the kids. I will keep sharing what I have come up with.

Kitchen

I am slowly getting pictures of the house posted. I still have all of the bedrooms to post, but here is the kitchen.

I love this room, because it is so open, and flows right in to the great room. It is just one big space. The breakfast nook, reading nook, great room, and kitchen are all connected. I love that we can all be in the same room, but doing different things. Open concept floor plans are the best. Jonathan and I really wanted to find an open floor plan when we bought our home. I am so glad we found it.

I also love my nice big refrigerator, and the built in ice maker. It is such a luxury. I have enjoyed cooking in this kitchen. Oh... and for my OP estates friends the large dishwasher is so wonderful. I can't wait until you can all experience a full sized dishwasher. What a change it makes for cleaning up.

Alphabet Summer

This summer I wanted to do a refresher course on the letters of the alphabet. I wanted both of the kids to be well prepared for school. They also do so much better when we have something planned out for the day. I wanted to keep it simple, and fun. So... we are doing a letter a day, or every other day. It has been so easy, and relaxed. I am usually planning it out at the last minute. It has been successful so far.

I pick a letter, and then we do some sort of fun activity that goes along with that letter. Then the kids practice writing that letter, and also talk about the sound that letter makes. The kids have loved it. Here are the letters we have done so far.

M.... is for Movie(Mary Poppins), and then Macaroni Art.
(we cuddled up one rainy afternoon and watched Mary Poppins, and then the kids drew a picture and covered it in Macaroni) V... is for Volcano.
(we made a baking soda and Vinegar Volcano. The kids thought this was really cool.)
C... is for Clean, and Cards.
(the kids helped me clean the bathroom, and then I let them use my scrapbook stuff to make cards)I plan on posting the rest of the alphabet for my journal. So... just bear with me. Any good ideas for letters like Q, Y, and others... please let me know.