Blizzard 2017

This winter hasn't been too bad.  We've barely had any snow and it hasn't even been super cold like some years.  We've had two major snow storms.  One occurred in January and one happened in March.  The storm in March gave us enough snow to fulfill all our winter fun activities in a couple days.  To be honest that's perfect for me.

The snow was too soft to form actual snowmen so we did the next best thing and made snow people laying in the snow.

Tim made a couple forts in the front yard and the boys decided to use them as bases for their snowball fights with our neighbors Max and Tony.  Gavin and Tony were against Xavier and Max.

Reid had more fun climbing up the tree.  It was easier for him to get in it because the snow mound was level with the lowest branch.  He called himself a baby Koala.  He makes the cutest Koala bear ever.

Three little Eskimos.

We did a little warm up of sledding in our backyard

and then decided to head to a bigger hill for some better runs.

It was a perfectly sunny day for sledding.  I took Tony, Max, Xavier, Gavin, and Reid to the hill by our old town house and they were delighted to go try their tricks on the hills.  They had a blast and I even went down with Reid many times.  It made me feel like a kid again.  

Gavin and Max.

X-man

Tony

Trucks or Tutus?

The BIG day of anticipation is finally here.  I've mostly just been expecting that the ultrasound would confirm I'd be having a boy.  I mean, I've been a mom of boys for almost 10 years.  I think I've started to think like a boy because it has been all I've known as a mom.  I almost couldn't think of having a girl at this point and having another boy just means he'd fit right into the pack.

When we got there our friend Heidi just so happened to be working that day.  Her husband, Larry, has been playing basketball with Tim almost every week since we moved here.  Heidi and I have gotten to know each other because our hubbies became friends.  She's been studying to be an ultrasound technician and recently finished her studies.  Now she's working part-time in this field.  Most of the time she works in other offices, but someone at my office was out on leave for a short time so Heidi was filling in.  I was so excited to find out she'd be doing our ultrasound.  (And she got to find out the sex of the baby before any one else.)

After about 15 minutes of Heidi checking all the babies vital organs and making sure everything looked good, she moved on to determining the sex of the baby.  

Are you ready for the news?  It's a GIRL!!!  I don't think it really hit me when we were in the room. Part of me still believed it could be wrong and the other part of me kept wondering how I was going to be a mother to a little girl when all I've known is being a mom of boys.  It felt a little strange.  Of course I was excited, but I guess I wasn't really prepared for the exciting news.  Heidi told me as she continued the ultrasound that she kept checking to make sure it was a girl.  Since she knew me she was that more conscientious of not being wrong.  The head doctor came in to review all the results of the ultrasound and said that the baby looked wonderful at this point.  He even gave me a second opinion on the sex of the baby and confirmed it was a GIRL.  I was most happy with the fact that our little baby girl was growing and healthy at this point.  A huge sigh of relief for me when I know things are moving in the right direction.   

After our ultrasound Tim, Reid, and I headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for some lunch to celebrate.  Reid was excited with the news!  We notified everyone in our families our happy news and then decided to surprise Gavin and Xavier at school with the news too.  We had two big Mylar balloons filled that said "It's a Girl!"  and headed over to Shawnee Elementary.  We checked in at the office and asked if we could go to our boys classrooms.  Unfortunately the secretary said she couldn't allow the boys to have balloons at school because it would be a distraction in the classroom and on the bus ride home.  We were super disappointed our plan was not going our way.  Tim then asked if the secretary would call our boys to the office so we could at least "show" them the balloons and announce the news.  She said yes to that and the boys came to see us.  They were all smiles when they saw the big pink balloons.  It was so fun to share this moment with them and to surprise them with the fact that they'd be having a little sister.  We gave the boys hugs and sent them back to class.

All in all this was such a super exciting day!  Even though I've already been a mom for 10 years I feel like I'm starting over again, but in a good way.  I can't wait to meet this little princess of ours and see how she'll fit into this crazy house of boys.  But I'm sure glad to have a little more support on my side this time around.

Little DaVinci

Xavier had a unique opportunity this year to participate in an awesome community event.  His school hosted an assembly where an organization came to teach them about healthy living.  At the end of that assembly the kids could fill out an information sheet to enter a drawing to participate in what they called a Community Canvas event later in the year.  Originally Xavier was not picked for this event (which he was super bummed about), but a couple kids that were picked couldn't participate and he was next in line.  I got an email the day before the event asking if Xavier was able to participate and I said "absolutely!"  

You're probably wondering what this Community Canvas event is all about.  Let me tell you!  Xavier, along with 9 other Shawnee Elementary students were selected to come to the Easton Public Market and show some of their artistic skills.  They were given one hour to draw a depiction of something they learned from the assembly on healthy living.  Each child received a bucket of art supplies to use while creating their masterpieces.  The winner of this event would then be entered into a finale round with other children that participated in these events in other communities.  Each student that created art at this event would have their art displayed in a local hospital.  

The host of the night said many professional artists work their entire life to get a piece of artwork displayed in a hospital and never get the chance.  So this was definitely an opportunity of a lifetime.

An empty canvas and a boy with a mind full of ideas!

The set up.

Artists during the creative process.

Xavier went with a comic book style art piece.  He did a great job and had so much fun doing this.  Before the kids started he shook hands with a couple kids around him and said good luck.  It made me smile to see how respectful he was of everyone participating.

The final product.  At the end of the night all the people that were there got to vote on their favorite art piece.  Let me just say these kids did a fantastic job!  Each piece was unique and so different from the next but were all creative and well planned out!  It was so fun to see everyone come out and do their best.
They also had healthy food to eat while the event was happening and some dancing activities for the kids to get their blood pumping.  After the host and assistants collected all the votes they announced the winner.  There was a tie.  Xavier and another young lady won!!!  He was so incredibly excited and can't wait to participate in the finale at the end of May.  I'm so glad he got to take part in such a neat experience.

Another exciting opportunity came a month later when Xavier entered a blue print to be considered for a STEM team at his school.   The STEM Challenge was given to those who wanted to try out .  In order to be considered for the team each entrant had to develop and draw up a blueprint for a new rollercoaster.  The rollercoaster would be used in a new theme park that was trying to promote greener building models in their rides.  Included with the blueprint the student had to write a brief description of what building materials would be used and what would make it a "greener" option.  Xavier created one he called the "Fire Breathing Dragon" that used solar panels for energy, a rechargeable battery to power the rollercoaster, and green building materials for the body of the rollercoaster. 

Well, he ended up being one of four students selected to form a Shawnee STEM team.  Once all four students were selected they spent about a month and a half coming up with a final rollercoaster blueprint to present at the regional competition.  Xavier went to school early many mornings to finalize their plans.  

On the day of competition, I dropped him off at the middle school where they would ride a bus to a local community college and participate in the regional competition.  This was such a cool opportunity and such a BIG boy activity. It was the first thing he's participated in that I nor any other parent was allowed to go and watch.  (I was so sad I couldn't be there to cheer him on and support him. I was biting my nails all day so nervous and anxious to hear how it all went)  

After Xavier got home he told me he had a great time!  His team didn't win, but they did a great job in their first year participating.  It was so cool just for him to see what something like that was like and he got to see middle school and high school kids creations too.  So it was all around a positive experience and something he'd like to do again.

I'm always so grateful that Xavier is open to trying new things and isn't afraid to jump right in to new experiences.  He's met some great friends this way and makes life enriching for him and all of us that get to see him shine!  Way to go Xavier!

Master Builder

Gavin is my engineering minded boy!  He loves taking things apart and building them again or taking things apart to make something new with it.  He also loves to build with all sorts of different items.  Our local library has started hosting "Stay and Play" events after school.  The first one was centered on building materials.  I knew this would be something my boys would love to take part in so we went and Gavin had a ball.

He built with Magformers.

He built with Keva blocks and tried over and over to make it as tall as possible.  He used every single Keva block there was available to him.

Lastly he built with good old fashioned Lincoln Logs.  

I think we might have a possible future architect in the family.  

He was sure proud of all of his creations and I loved seeing that smile on his face!

I Heart My Boys

This year to celebrate Valentine's Day I made the boys a special lunch complete with heart shaped strawberry kabobs, heart shaped cucumbers and carrot sticks, a heart shaped sunbutter and jelly sandwich, and yogurt with some pink sprinkles.  As an added bonus I included a Valentine joke to bring them a smile at lunch time.

Every year we have a tradition of making a special Valentine boxes that the boys can take to school to hold all their Valentines.  Gavin (my sports fanatic) wanted a basketball themed box including a Cavaliers logo on his backboard.

Xavier  wanted Bulbasaur (a Pokemon, if you're not familiar with the zillion Pokemon characters) This year Xavier pretty much drew everything and completed the box himself.  He did a great job!

I do love this holiday because I can steal even more kisses from all the loves in my life.  

Crystal Garden

This year Gavin was super excited to participate in his school's science fair.  We looked at many possible ideas for his project and came upon one that excited him more than any other, making his own crystal garden.   We took some time to collect our materials.  The one ingredient we needed that sent me on a treasure hunt all over town was Bluing.  It used to be a common product people used to do laundry, namely keep white clothes whiter.  But after visiting four stores I couldn't locate it anywhere.  Finally Amazon came to the rescue!  Once we had all our materials we began our five day process of growing crystals.

Day 1 was to cut up sponges, sprinkle with a cup of salt, add bluing and water.

Day 2 We started to see some crystals forming!  We added more water, salt, ammonia, and bluing and then let it sit again.

Day 3 We just had to observe.

Day 4 We added some more salt, ammonia and water and then some food coloring.

Day 5  By day five the crystals were taking over the pan.  They were even growing on the edge and falling out of the pan!

Yay!  The experiment worked!  Gavin was so excited to see his crystals flourishing.  These crystals weren't like the crystals you may think of that are solid.  They were very delicate to the touch.  If we touched them they would crumble like snow falling from the sky.  Any sort of movement could ruin the garden, so we had to be very gentle with the crystals so we didn't disrupt it's beautiful landscape.

Now that we knew the experiment worked we waited until 5 days before the Science Fair to do his final crystal garden and make it more colorful.

This was his final crystal garden with much more color!

And this was his smiling face showing how proud he was of his project at the science fair.
Well done little man.

Science is pretty cool.  It's kind of like magic!

Young Women's

We've had some fun activities recently in Young Women's that I wanted to share.  The first one was Broom Hockey.  This was a combined activity with the Young Men.  It was super easy and the kids had a blast.  All they needed was a ball and a bunch of brooms.

Gavin had to get in the mix.  Even though most the kids were twice as big as him he was quick and helped his team out a ton!  

He was in it to win it.

Then Tim joined in too!  I wanted to join in, but being pregnant and totally nauseous I thought it better to just watch from the sidelines so I didn't get hurt or puke on anyone.

Some moments got pretty heated.  In the end they all had a great time and learned a new sport.

The second event was the biggest event to kick of the new year and that was New Beginnings.  After looking on the internet and Pinterest for ideas for this special night I found a theme I really liked. We went with "Taste the Rainbow, Savor the Blessings." As with many things on Pinterest the examples of this theme were a little over the top for me, so I took the idea and simplified it a little bit.  The theme was perfect since the skittles motto "Taste the Rainbow" helped us incorporate the colors of the young women's values.

I set everything up in the Relief Society room.  I used portable chalkboards as the backdrop and I just covered them with white tablecloths.  Then I used crepe paper to make the main backdrop below.

I just taped it to the backdrop and made a sign that said "Taste the Rainbow".

I used disposable tablecloths in every color to decorate the tables on each side of the podium.  I found artificial flowers at the dollar store in every color!  I was so excited about this find because it was super cheap and perfect for the table setting.  Inside the vase we put skittles to hold the flowers in place. I made table tents with each value to place in front of each vase of flowers.  Simple and pretty.

In the hallway right next to the entrance of the Relief Society room I made a values pennant banner and put a picture of Mary praying with the little boy Jesus and a printable with this year's scripture and theme on it.  These years theme is Ask of God and the scripture is James 1:5-6

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."

This is such a great theme for the youth to internalize at such a critical time in their lives when they are faced with a lot of peer pressure, a lot of decisions to make about their future, and when many find their testimonies.  I'm really excited to focus on this in what we do this year with the youth.

Finally I sprinkled some colorful confetti on top of the table and filled a vase with some huge rainbow swirled lollipops.

Ta-da!  This is the final reveal of the main decorations.  I was happy with how all of this turned out.  It set the perfect ambiance for our evening.  But the best part was the program that the Young Women organized.  Sister Haisley spoke about the young women program, we all recited the Young Woman's theme as well as doing it in sign language, I spoke about the theme and motto and welcomed the incoming beehives,  each young woman spoke about a couple of the values (what it meant to them and an experience they had with the value they spoke on), and we had a special musical number.  The spirit was amazing that night and I loved being able to help in making it special for these young women.  I'm so grateful the youth have such inspired programs to help them build a strong foundation on the gospel of Jesus Christ and if I have a girl I know it will be a blessing in her life!  Who knows, maybe I was called to Young Women's at this time in my life to prepare me to be a mother to a daughter of God.  In March I have my ultrasound and just maybe we'll add a princess to our little family.