February Update

I've been neglecting the blog a bit lately. It's important I at least do these quick updates though, so I'll have something recorded about this time of our lives....so WARNING----REALLY LONG POST AHEAD.......

::JARED::

Jared has been crazy busy lately. He's been working a lot of late nights. Also, he's been busy organizing and working on the Scouting Fundraiser for our ward, thatching and aerating lawns. You know, all the sort of yard stuff he just loves. {Insert sarcastic voice.} In addition, soccer just started and he's coaching Carson's team again.

::LINDSAY::

The last month or so has just been a blur getting ready for the Destination Imagination Regional Competition. {Don't worry, I'm not going to go about that again....} In addition to DI, I was busy getting ready for our Relief Society Birthday Dinner which took place last Thursday.

Our RS Board got the idea for our Birthday Dinner from this amazing girl. The theme for the evening was, "Women Who Create" based on the talk, "Happiness, Your Heritage" by President Uchtdorf.

First, we had a yummy dinner which comprised of an Asian Wonton Salad, potstickers, and rice. After dinner we moved into the Relief Society room where we had 3 speakers that spoke on some aspect of creating. They were told to read the talk and then let inspiration take over and speak on what they felt like the women in our ward needed to hear. Kim spoke on creating a nurturing home through service, Sonda spoke on creating self-worth in the home, and Debbie spoke on creating covenant-centered homes. The talks were all amazing!

After the talks, we then moved back into the gym where we had made a book for each sister. Each book had 5 qualities/characteristics that made that sister special. Then there were blank pages in the back so women could write in others' books and let them know what they admire and appreciate about them. The idea was to end the evening on an uplifting note and celebrate the wonderful women everyone already are. It was a lot of work, as we had to find comments for 140 sisters, but it was completely worthwhile and everyone left there feeling special.

Our committee worked so hard together to get this done. I absolutely love the group of women I get the opportunity to serve with. Each one of them are talented, amazing women, hard workers, and I really look up to each and every one of them.

I have to give a shout-out to this girl. Jen was in charge of decorations, not to mention designing the books for the women. Originally we were going to have the evening in the multi-purpose room, but then when we realized the amount of women actually attending the evening we had to move it to the gym. We made this decision literally 2 days before the event. Never mind decorations had already been made to hang from the ceiling in the mult-purpose room and we could no longer do that. It required an overhaul on what we were going to do decorations-wise, to put it mildly.

Here is what she came up with:

We had tissue paper pom pom flowers hanging---



Cute flower garlands made out of coffee filters--- {This was in the Relief Society room and the gym}



And these super cute flowers on each of the tables in the gym. She made these cute flowers, put them on sticks, in vases filled with sugar.


Those decorations looked amazing, especially on the black + white damask print runners on the tables.

Jen shares a tutorial on her blog on how to make those super cute flowers. Check it out here.

Oh, and here's a picture of the books we made:

::CARSON::

Carson has been a busy, busy boy the past few months. In addition to DI, Carson just finished up his basketball season. Last year, he played basketball for the first time. While it was a real learning experience last year, he wasn't too fond of basketball because he felt like he was very good. Luckily, after talking to him and getting the point across that you don't have to be the best at everything, to just go out there, have fun, learn some new skills, we convinced him to give it another try. He really liked it this year. Not only did he improve, but he really had fun too!

Now, soccer has started again. Some kids on the team dropped out to play baseball, so we have some new players on the team this year. One of his buddies from school is on his team now, so Carson is completely pumped about the soccer season this year.

School for him is going great. He LOVES his class this year. We had a homework issue we had to clear up a few weeks ago. Upon talking to another mom in the class and both of us realizing that her son had tons of homework everyday and my son had NO homework EVER, I had to talk to his teacher to clear things up. She said that it was common for half of them to have homework and half of them to not and that she wouldn't expect homework from Carson, BUT maybe I could talk to him about slowing down because he's obsessed with being the first one done and that maybe I could also tell him to actually wait to listen to her ENTIRE instructions before he started working. Does that sum up Carson in a nutshell or what?!

::KAIYA::

Kaiya is doing terrific and we've been making some great headway lately. She is making videos for people and then able to play the videos for them. I can't even begin to tell you how HUGE a step this is.

Here's a video of her first message to Miss Molly, her preschool teacher.



These videos have been the first thing in a very long while that have made me feel like we're making progress. Hooray! I signed her up for Kindergarten today {which is a source of major anxiety for me} so it's nice to feel like we are moving in the right direction.

I'm constantly overcome by the sweet, tender girl she is and how much I love this girl. I'm so grateful I get to be her mom.

::CHLOE::

Oh, how I love this girl! Sure she constantly has to eat, always looks a bit disheveled, thinks her cute cheesy smile will get her out of every jam, barely talks because she knows a sibling will talk for her, and barely walks because she knows I'll carry her, but I love her to pieces because she's my baby.

There is something to be said for "the baby" of the family. Current Chloe-isms are:

"I want some!"
Copying everything Kaiya says {which drives Kaiya up the wall, and makes Chloe flash one of her mischievious smiles, because she knows it drives Kaiya crazy. How is it that my 2 year old picks on my 5 year old? Poor Kaiya!}
Copying everything Kaiya does {wearing princess dresses, wearing play makeup, playing the same toys}
Claiming something before Kaiya does---for instance when she sees something pink, Chloe says, "Chloe's pink!" When we read Polar Bear, Polar Bear, Chloe replied, "Chloe's pink Mingo!" which ticked Kaiya off because it's just known that Kaiya likes flamingos and pigs because they are pink.

Well, that's it in a nutshell for our family this last month!