My Birthday Month...

April is my birthday month!!!!!!
Do I have a surprise coming up for you.......
But you will have to wait.
Just like a present.
You have to wait.
But it will be worth it, I promise.....
Love, JL
the April Birthday Girl :)

The Easter Bilby

I can't believe Easter is almost here!!! Where the heck did the time go???
I am really getting excited, with the flowers blooming outside, the warmer weather and of course, concentrating on the real reason we celebrate Easter... Our Savior.
I have an amazing friend who lives in Australia ( my dream, where I want to live :)
and we were emailing today about our Easter plans. She told me that they dont really have the Easter bunny... maybe an Easter Bilby??? So of course I had to go look up what the heck a bilby was... oh my goodness, it is the darn cutest thing in the world!!
I have been working on the penpal program today, and I just get so amazed at the fact that we have friends from all over the world now, and that with homeschooling, my kids are getting to learn about things like the "easter" bilby!!! Just from her mentioning that, we got to go look up what it looks like, how it lives etc.. what a fun learning opportunity! Im pretty thankful for it.
I hope everyone has wonderful easter plans.. this year I believe we are going to take pics of the kids in their Easter outfits and do the hiding of eggs, etc... then have a nice lesson and dinner... lesson on the real reason of Easter and dinner because we like to eat :)
With Love, JL
ps-- im not posting a picture of a bilby... go look it up with your kids!! It will crack you up!!! :) I love it!
pps-- check out my friends blog... from down under :)
www.flowersnplaid.blogspot.com

Beautiful Day :)

Finally! It is nice outside!! Spent the morning cleaning up winter garbage around the yard.. while the kids rode their bikes and jumped on the trampoline! What a great way to start my day! This afternoon I will be working in the strawberry "patch" getting it ready.. we already have little strawberry plants coming up and I need to get alot of work done in it and get ready to plant the new plants!! :) Im a happy girl when I can play outside!!!
Does anyone have any good tips for storing outdoor toys like skateboards and baseball bats, etc???
Love, JL

A Dream I Had Last Night......

I have always had very vivid dreams. Sometimes its a blessing, sometimes its a curse.
There are three dreams I remember very clearly. All three have really helped me in my life.
I will start with the dream I had last night. It was "inspired" by two things, one, my oldest Dylan has been giving us some trouble. He is almost 9 ( I cant believe I just wrote that!) and has been stretching his wings for independance. Which translates into throwing fits, talking back, you get the idea. The second thing that inspired the dream was my friend Laura texting me. She has a son who is the same age as Dylan. Her text was simple. " we have tweens." It hit me with full force!! Maybe that's why Dylan is acting like this. Maybe its not because Im a horrific momma. Maybe he is just entering the "tween" phase and truly trying to find who he is, what his limits are etc.
So, after another night last night of back talking, and praying, Heavenly Father what the heck do I do with this boy???? I had a dream......... ( note: my dreams can be wierd, but stick with me here)
We were in a parking lot at a place like walmart.... It was a big parking lot. There were cars parked there and I came out of the store and there was Dylan.... rollerblading ( remember they are wierd, but stick with me). He was going really fast, and he was really good, but when I called for him to come to me, he ignored me and rollerbladed farther away. There were cars driving around, I was frightened that he was going to get hurt!! I began to run, and as he went faster and faster around the parking lot, I began to get really frightened. I started screaming his name and running as fast as I could , I felt so much frustration and fear, I knew he was going to get hurt! Soon, a worker from the store came out and started yelling at Dylan to stop also... Dylan ignored him too. Sometimes Dylan was almost in my reach, and I missed him. Soon, I looked up and here comes my husband in our suv, zooming as fast as he could to try and catch Dylan. Now I was worried that Keith was going to cause an accident, but his face showed his fear that we weren't going to catch Dylan, and that he was going to get hurt.
This went on for way to long, I was seriously exhausted when I woke up. I finally did catch Dylan, and I wanted to wollop him!!!!! I was soooo angry that he would not listen to us and put himself in danger. When I woke up, I was shaking!
Now, here are my thoughts on this dream. Dylan is at an age, where if I don't work hard with him, try to stay "close" emotionally etc to him, he is going to get to the age where he can just rollerblade away, and I wont have the opportunity to teach him the rules of the "road". I realize that I have only a short time with my children before they become adults and fly away. It really strengthened my resolve to teach my children as much as I can, and to rely on Heavenly Father to show me the way. I made sure to give Dylan a BIG OLE HUG, when he woke up this morning. Dreams are wierd, for sure, but in this instance, I realized that Dylan is at an age where he should have more accountability ( he has been baptized) and that he needs to be taught continually , how to make right choices ( dont go rollerblading away from your momma in a busy parking lot mister!!!!)
I joined valuesparenting.com and signed up for their neat program for elementary aged children. They give such neat ideas on how to teach your children obedience, how to make decisions, and all of the other important values that we need to instill in our children. I still have alot of praying to do. But I know that Im not going to "lose" my son to his bad behavior. He just needs to be taught the tools to deal with his emotions, which are all over the place, and to be taught how to make better decisions and show respect. So I guess Im glad I had this wierd dream.
This post is kinda long.... I am going to leave the other two dreams for seperate posts, as they both have their story. Even if no one reads these, I will have them for posterity :)
Love, JL

Dear Mom HELP ME

I received this lovely handwritten note this morning... Translation:
Dear mom HELP ME
I have like 100 kids
I need your help
with my kids
SOS
p.s. help me now

Dont we all feel like writing this note to our moms??? Oh and by the way, the other picture is of my kids and my 100 grandkids. Dont I look hot for a grandma?????
:)

Being a momma is never dull....

So my kids have a new "thing". They love to hide around the house and when their momma walks in the room.... they jump out and say BOO!!!!!!!
They get me every time!
Being a momma is never dull....

so much goin on...

Well, i have been cleaning like a mad woman. The playroom is done :) my bedroom is done :) the living room and dining room need their daily cleaning then they are done :)
The kitchen will be done today! Woo hoo! My house is starting to look normal.
Unfortunately this weekend, we begin outside clean up. Major work!!!! It is always a big job when we start to get the yard ready for spring and summer, but its good work, because we spend alot of time outside :)
Oh, and then there is the cleaning of the storage room. SHEESH. That will take quite a long time. But then its yard sale time!!!
We have been staying busy, cleaning, playing, getting stuff ready for the lds penpals and getting Flat Stanley on the way. The kids are DONE with school for this year. It is time for me to order the books for the next school "year" ( we do school year round, sort of, we take big breaks and just work when we are feeling like it, but we get a ton done when we do work, so it works out perfect!!!) We will be making nature journals for the spring and summer so that will be fun!!!!
So much to do!!!
I love spring!!!

Spring where are you????

Today is the official first day of spring. We have been TEASED by 2 days of playing outside and digging in the mud and riding bikes. Oh, don't forget, no jackets!!!!
Today on this official first day of spring, we have snow. Yup, I said it. SNOW!!!!!
Spring, where are you?? Don't you know I need your sunshine, your warmth, the beautiful buds on the trees and the birds singing? I need you!!!

green jello with carrots

Ok, Im officially in love. This is the link people.... www.greenjellowithcarrots.blogspot.com and their blog is giving away tons of CUTE stuff!!!! For free!!!! I love all the cute things they have and the music that comes up is darn cute!!!!!
Go check it out... you wont be sorry!!!! If only I was this talented!!! My dream!!!
So many cute things for your family!!!
:)
Love JL

They need their momma....

It has been a very rough week. Keiths moms has been in the ICU, we didnt know if she was going to pull through. All I could think of is, how are we going to explain another death to our children? We have had 5 deaths in under 2 years. Our kids have been through alot of trauma, but they are amazing, because they know what happens, they have strong testimonies. They know that Heavenly Father loves them. After this week, I hope they know how much their momma loves them.

Keith and I spent quite a few days, back and forth to St Louis, leaving the kids with my parents, so that they would be safe. Long days. Im not used to being away from my babies. They were excellent though, no tears, no momma i want you to stay, nothing like that. lol. They were happy we were going. But today was a different story.

Today is the first day, where daddy has gone back to work, and momma was here all day with her babies. I was theirs all day long. As I was working on trying to get our house put back together, I would hear little voices say, " i love you momma" just out of the blue. While folding laundry, I had sweet little arms wrapped around me hugging me. While making lunch, i had many little helpers, happy to have lunch in their home, with their momma. You see, my kids need their momma. :)

Organizing Junkie Day Two

Ok, so today I organized my pantry shelves that held the cookbooks and cereal, etc.
I also organized the photo album shelf, but I think Im going to go back and do the first shelf over, because im not 100% happy with it when I see it in the photo.... lol. anal i know :)
Did you organize a small spot of your home today??????
Love, JL

Day One Organizing junkie :)

Ok, today I organized the drawers under the entertainment center. They were sooo awful! Tons of empty dvd cases, dvds everywhere, paper, broken crayons, lol. awful!
So here are the pics of the two drawers. One is for our dvds, the other is for coloring books, drawing paper, etc. :)
They turned out quite nice and I like that Im only doing a little each day, then posting a pic so I am actually accountable! Im so ready for my home to be organized!!!
With Love, JL

I've Been Inspired :)

I adore the blog www.orgjunkie.com I love to look at the pics of her home and how she organizes it and also, i love the menu plan mondays! So... Ive decided that each day I will take a spot in my home, organize it, then take a pic of it and post it on here. It will make me be accountable for organizing my home. I love my home. Its not huge and fancy, but it is perfect for us :)
So... if you wanna play along go for it! Just pic a spot each day ( not a whole room, just a spot) and organize it then post a pic !!!! :)
Dont forget to send my your links so i can go look at the progress you're making! Im ready for spring!!! Time to get this house in order!!!!

Another Edition of Syd Sayings, or Singings :)

Here we are at another edition of the ever popular, Sydney Sayings, or in this particular case, Syndey Singings! My 5 year old has found her singing voice. She now has decided that she is going to be a rock star when she grows up. She goes everywhere with a microphone, you never know when you might need to sing.
A couple of fun singing times:
Tonight while Syd was in the bathtub we all had the joy of hearing a la "o brother where art thou" , sydneys version of " well i went down to the river to pray" she got all soul sister and started belting out " oooh sydney, lets go down, lets go down, wont ya come on down, oooh sydney lets go down, down to the river to pray"
then she proceeded to announce that she was going to baptize herself HAHAHA

The other day during play time, a la " mommy is tired so go find something to play with" we had the joy of hearing at the very top of her lungs, sydney singing " the sun will come out" by annie. Of course the lyrics are quite fun when sydney sings it . " the sun will come out tomorrow, betchya bottom that tomorrow, there will be sorrow." hahahaah

This ends this edition of sydney sayings. LOL!!! :) she brings us such joy, but she is SUCH a sourpatch kid, first she's sour, then shes oh so sweet :)

A School Day :)

My girls are so cute. Not only do we homeschool daily, but they like to "play" school! It was so funny this morning, as I was doing the dishes and Dylan was helping me cook dinner to stick in the fridge for tonight, the girls were sitting at the dining room table. Marlee was saying things like " After prayer, we will go over our family rules and then we will read from the scriptures" and they had a little prayer, read over the family rules, then Marlee read a verse from the scriptures. The whole time Sydney was sitting like a little angel. Why doesnt she do that for me?? LOL. After that Marlee decided to help Sydney work on her reading and writing. Marlee has been so wonderful in helping Syd to read. I am so proud of both of them. It was just so darling to watch them as they played and to realize that I am just such a proud momma, because my kids are so cool!
Im thankful to be a momma, and Im thankful I have the three beautiful children that I do, and Im thankful we homeschool so I dont have to miss a minute with them!