Raspberry Fingers

We have been so into these sweet, red, little thimble shaped berries for months!


We eat them from the package, add them to muffins and use them in our fruit smoothies. I really think they are a little piece of heaven on earth!!

I discovered that Target has the best crop all the time and thier price is very comparable to the grocery stores.

I was talking with a friend a few months back about how I feel like I spend so much on produce. She told me she never feels bad for spending money on produce because she only has to pay for it once. If you buy sugary and junk food you pay for it with your waist line, at the dentist and at the doctors. I loved that gem of wisdom and since then I don't feel bad for how much I spend on produce. It keeps our family healthy and that's what matters most.

It's feeling like a library around here!

We're keeping the libraries around here busy!

Simeon was introduced to The Hunger games last December by his school librarian. He would tell me everyday about what Katniss and Peeta were doing. I decided that I should read the books to find out what he was reading and telling me about.

I fell in LOVE with the 1st book and read it in less then a day. I checked out Catching Fire for Simeon and I took it from him and read it cover to cover in a few days before giving it back to him to read. Luckily for Christmas he got his own copy of Catching Fire.

He told me he wanted to finish the series before I did. Little chance that would happen!

Beginning of December he made himself a bow and arrow, and then a quiver to hold his arrows. A few weeks ago he made this "dummy" that he used for target practice. Nearly every day he is out with Joe and/or Nick practicing on the dummy. The poor thing has been beheaded, has a dislocated shoulder and had been run through too many times to count anymore!


I finished Mockingjay before he was halfway through Catching Fire. When I get into a book, it consumes me and I want to make it last longer because I love the book, but I can't put it down.
Simeon just finished Mockingjay less then 24 hours before it was due back at the city library, and he went right to the copy of The Hunger Games he got from the school library.

Funny story-I went to the library and got a copy of The Hunger Games (even though there were 40+ holds on the book because I was told where they keep a copy of the book with another record # and this is the 2nd time I was able to walk out with the book the same day!) When Simeon got home from school he told me not to worry about getting a copy of the book because he had gotten one at school that day. We
both had checked out a copy of The Hunger Games from different librariess on the same day because we both love the book!

We are counting down until the movie comes out so we can go see it together.


One day I was at the store and saw a series of books by Cassandra Clare. It looked interesting so I wrote the info down and checked at the library if they had it. They did!! I knew from past experience that it was best if I checked every book in the series RIGHT THEN. Less then a week later I had read through 4 books around 450 pages each and I went back for the next book which is a prequel and have 2 more books in the series on hold. One doesn't even come out until May 8th! And they are going to make the books into movies.

If it wasn't for the libraries around here we'd be broke from all the books we would've bought!

Simeon

Simeon is so into The Hunger Game Trilogy. He's read The Hunger games book twice and will read Catching Fire again when he gets his book back from a friend.
The other night at dinner I had recooked the night before's dinner in the same pan, so part of it had burnt. Simeon looked at it and said "That looks like the burnt bread that Petta threw out to Katniss in The Hunger Games."
Then again tonight we sat down to dinner with a nice normal sized dinner. We had chicken drumsticks (that were so incredibly good because of Johann's marinade), a twice baked potato bake, corn and I said that the rolls were almost done, and I'd bring them out as soon as they were done. Simeon instantly looks at it all and says "This dinner looks like dinner in the Capital!"
What a compliment that was! In the Capital they eat super nice food that they describe in detail as being the best food around.

New Exhibits at the Children's Museum

Rebecca and I went to the Iowa children's Museum this morning and it was empty. It was snowing so I'm guessing lots of people didn't want to go out. It was awesome having the museum almost all to ourselves.
Last week I was able to go help the museum open the train toys for the new train/ABC reading exhibit that opened this past weekend, and today we got to go play with those toys and see the new exhibit.

They have a miniature train set that in mostly in the main train exhibit room, but also goes into the 2 rooms on either side. The artist of the train set really paid attention to details. The track runs through town and has pictures and buildings just like the train really goes by. They even have a Hawkeye Express train that picks up passengers out by the mall and drops them off by the Hawkeye Stadium. It's so fun! They have all the trains and tracks out for the kids to play on, and then they have a big train for the kids to climb in.

They made some new trees for the ABC/reading part of the room that has a tunnel through one and stairs leading up to a window. Rebecca thought that was pretty cool!
Usually I stay clear of the art room, but today we went in to paint and I'm so glad we did! We used tempera cakes, which are awesome! (I bought Rebecca some this afternoon I loved them so much!) They are similar to water paints, but the colors are more vibrant. It's tempera paint dried into round disks. You wet them like water paints to paint. When your done, you let them dry out and they are ready for your next painting session. Less mess, less waste, more fun!

I loved seeing the concentration on Rebecca face as she painted. We worked on painting straight lines and then I'd help her make the legs to make an "R" her most favorite letter!!

She was so proud of her masterpiece!


We also played in their new bank exhibit. They have a cute little car next to a drive up teller window complete with working movable teller window. We played bank teller and customer for a long time.

I'm so glad we have a museum pass and can go whenever we want to. The 3 older kids are pretty bored with it, but Rebecca still loves to go and play. I can see a few more years of fun for her here.

Snow Much Fun

This winter has been so warm and dry, until last week when we finally got some snow. Today we went to Longfellow school to go sledding.


When we first got there Rebecca was pretty grouchy and didn't want anything to do with sledding. She wanted to go play on the playground. I had her come to the hill with me so I could take some pictures. She decided to go down on her bottom. I went down the hill laughing a few times. I got on the sled by her, and she climbed on and LOVED it.


She then went over to Corrine and the 2 of them went down the hill together dozens of times.






We tried to get Rebecca to go down by herself but she wouldn't, so we finally tricked her and got her to go down by herself. After that she only wanted to go by herself. She LOVED sledding, the faster the better.



Ammon meanwhile was going down fast on his own. He tried snowboarding, but preferred the fastest sleds.




Simeon is getting good at snowboarding. He was having a great time with Joe.

Since it was in the low 40's the snow was wet and slushy. The kids all took off their jackets and gloves, and by the time we left they were soaked.




After sledding we met dad at McDonald's for lunch and then came home and washed all their snow gear so it would be ready for school in the morning.

If you do an color activity with Rebecca...

she'll love putting the trains and blocks on the colored squares, and will want to do it over and over again.

Then you'll remember you have a roll of brown butcher paper in the closet. You'll ask if she wants you to draw her on it and then color it in. Oh course she'll want to do that, because yesterday during sacrament meeting she drew hers and your hands over and over. You'll trace around her and when she gets up and sees herself on the paper, she'll squeal with delight!



She'll love being able to color her clothes and lips, and when asked what she wants on her shirt she'll say "Rebecca Lucy Smith, because that's my name!" She'll want to point out the "R" in her name because she LOVES to find "R's", on signs when your driving, on words on your shirts, and words in books.

From that she'll want to play a names and faces game.


You'll write all of your family members names on index cards, making the 1st letter larger and underlining it, because this'll help with recognition of the 1st letter, and the line under will help her know which way the card goes. Then you'll get a picture of each family member. She'll pick a card, look at the 1st letter and put it by that person's picture. She'll catch on really quickly that each persons name was written in a different color and that'll help her remember whose name is on the card. She'll want to do this at least 10 times, each time mixing up the names and pictures.


Then she'll want to get her Toy Story friends and make name cards for them too.


You'll need teach her how to tell Buzz & Bullseye apart since they both start with B. You'll show her that Buzz has 2 z's in his name and Bullseye's name is longer. She'll want to do this game at least 10 times too, changing the way she does it each time. Sometimes she'll want to drop the friend on their name card, and other times she want to put the friends out and she'll put their name card by them.


After she's played the name game with her friends, she'll tell you "They're my favorite and I love them so much!" and she'll ask you to take a picture of her with her friends.


Once she sees you taking pictures, and seeing her face in them, she'll want to do the same thing. So you'll give her the "old" camera so she can take pictures galore.

She'll then want to follow you downstairs while you do the laundry and talk the whole time about the names and faces game. She'll want you to make up things that start with the letter that starts each person's name. She'll decide that Ammon likes Apples, Corrine likes cake, Simeon likes snakes, Rebecca like running, mom likes mountains and dad likes dogs.

Then she'll want to go back upstairs and she'll want to see the pictures she took.

Once she sees the pictures and all the fun activities she's done this morning, she'll want to do the color matching game again, and you know if she does the color matching game, she'll want to draw herself on brown butcher paper.

Beautiful day in Iowa

Today was one of the most beautiful days you can get in January in Iowa. The temperature hit 61 degrees. The kids were outside without jackets on. It was gorgeous!!!! On the news we saw that we crushed the last high record temp by 6 degrees. Our normal temps for today should have been in the 20's. Oh we'll take 60's anyday in January!



Simeon and Joe played football in the back yard.



The girls were swinging and playing in the sandbox.




Ammon was jumping fences and escaping the camera!



The trees must be confused because they're budding in January. There were so many planes out flying today soaking up the blue sky and warm temps.

They made chalk houses on the driveway, rode their scooters, rip sticks and bikes.

The long shadow shows it's winter, but the light clothes shows spring temps.


Then we spotted the giant bird that's been hanging out in the neighborhood today and we were able to get some pictures of it. We're pretty sure it's a hawk.



This morning Simeon went early to school for science club. I was getting ready when I spotted a big bird in the tree behind our house. I called the kids to come see it. Ammon saw it, but Corrine looked after it flew away. We left for school and about a block up Corrine realized that she forgot her backpack so she ran back to the house. I went back with her because I had the garage door opener, which decided to stop working right then. AARGH!! I told her to run around back because the back garage door might be unlocked. AS she went around the house she saw the bird in the tree and she said it was staring right at her and she was scared to go back by herself. The back door was locked, so I said lets walk to school and I'd bring it up later. I got out my cell phone to call Johann to ask him if he could come unlock the house, but my cell phone was dead. I said I'd use the phone at the school. I told Corrine it could still be a good day even with all the things going against us right then (and it was a great day). I had a short meeting at the school and as I was walking out the lady I was talking to said there's your husband. When he unlocked the house he grabbed Corrine's backpack and brought it up.

Tomorrow is suppose to be beautiful day too. We are getting so spoiled and loving every moment of it!

Our 2012 Goals

It's that time of year again. Time to set our goals for the year and mark how big the kids are. I took pictures of the kids with something that they are really into right now.

Rebecca 2 1/2 years old
LOVES Toy Story and Monkeys

24.4 lbs 33" size 5 or 6 shoe

Goals
Learn all the alphabet letters
Ride my Strider bike

Ammon 6 years 7 months
Knight Legos

42.4 lbs 3'11" size 13 shoe

Goals
Read all the Magic Tree House books
Get dressed without reminders in 5 minutes
Learn how to make scrambled eggs

Corrine 8 years and 10 months
Horses and her pink cowgirl boots

60.2 lbs 4'4 3/4" size 3 shoe

Goals
Stop sucking my thumb
Read 10 Junie B Jones Books
Improve my spelling
Run a 5k in 25 minutes


Simeon 10 years 8 months
The Hunger Games Trilogy

66lbs, 4'7 3/4" size 4.5 shoe

Goals
Read at least 10 chapter books
Get to 70 lbs
Not fight with Ammon
Learn to cook more
Earn my Duty to God


Family Goals

Read the Book of Mormon
Calmer house
Family Prayer at night

Kari
Lose another 10 lbs
Exercise 5 days a week
Keep house cleaner
Be more positive
Organize recipe book
Keep better touch with family
Run 5k in under 30 minutes


Johann
Better communication with YM
Walk 10 miles a week
Lose 12 lbs
Daily Scripture study
100 sit ups a week
Better client contact (birthday cards)

Here's to a wonderful 2012 and to us bettering ourselves and family!