1st Piano Lessons

My kids love the rain!

Today was a BIG day for Porter.  Not only did he have preschool, but he had his FIRST PIANO LESSON!

My cute friend Jill is going to teach Porter piano lessons and she is amazing and amazing with kids!  Porter had a fantastic lesson and is already wanting to work on his workbook pages.

How cute is this?!

Let me just tell you about how fantastic Jill is.  Not only is she teaching these piano lessons but she also taught a few of us a Barre Class this morning while all our little rug rats ran around her house.  I'm so blessed to have such incredible friends!

Shutting Down the Deal Site

Just an FYI, I've shut down my deal site, Simple Mom Solutions.  (i know it's weird to just obliterate the .com address, but I have an addictive personality and I know that if I don't take it off I will slowly find myself going back to it and that is something I don't want to do even if it did make some money:)  But I've had requests from some of my friends for access to the recipes and the content so you can access that here: http://dealsyouwant.blogspot.com/

A New Year

As one of my most MAJOR New Years Resolutions, I am going to try to be more interactive with my kiddos.  And well, I'm a planner so I do better if I plan.  So we are doing theme days. . . Here's a little glimpse.  We will have to see how long I can keep this up, but Porter loves the anticipation.

ANGRY BIRDS DAY
Complete with an Angry Birds Preschool Pack,
 Angry Birds the Game and the Iphone App Game
oh, and the Pizza

BAKERY DAY WITH A NEW APRON
ok, so we "baked" Rice Krispy Treats at 10 am
but we were out of some necessary ingredients
Next on the docket is Cars and Dinosaurs

My main Resolution this year is Time Management.  With this I hope to be a better mom and get more organized and get more accomplished. Another resolutions?  Getting Jack sleeping through the night.  We are  also trying to focus on reading the Book of Mormon with our kiddos (well Porter) and so far it is going quite well.  Who knew I would actually learn more from reading the Book of Mormon with Porter than I have on my own?  

Self Expression

We fully believe in individuality and self expression around here!

Crazy Days!

My how time flies!  Life has been nothing short of CRAZY around here.  This past week was a whirlwind of Tom and I switching off back and forth each night with the kiddos.  He leaves for school at 7:30 am, then goes straight to work for 9 hours (ten starting next week as we begin busy season, boo!).  This week I had Relief Society stuff 3 different and he had Young Men's as well which meant we essentially inhabit the same house but have no time to spend together and I can tell this Busy Season stuff is going to be hard on all of us.  I'm struggling to work out balancing my time as it seems to have gotten all jumbled up and more complicated.  I am use to working at night when Tom gets home and after the kiddos go to bed.  But this week I found I had NO time at night because of Relief Society obligations and a naughty little boy whose medicine was discontinued which meant sleep was non-existent (more on that later) and I struggled to work with 2 kiddos whom I would much rather spend time with.  But, I guess it's time for me to pick myself back up and face reality because this is it!  But I am super grateful for what I do have:

Porter learned about Bakeries this week at school so we have been busy baking things in the kitchen this week:
Bread, Cookies, More Bread, Muffins and more!  (in case you can't tell, that is a baker's hat)

Oh in Jack news, we had started him on prevacid which was working great until they discontinued making the generic form.  He had started waking up only once!  That is huge!  Well, we couldn't afford the full price name brand prevacid and our insurance won't cover it so we have now been for a month without it and waking up 5 times a night screaming again!  But. . . the silver lining is that my awesome Doctor talked to a special pharmacy that will take the generic adult form of prevacid and create a children's dosage.  So here's to  sleep, hopefully its coming our way soon.

Beans or Apples

Porter never ceases to crack me up. He is incredibly clever and the way his mind works astounds me.  I also have to laugh when I see things I have said or done be repeated by him, even if they aren't in the same context at all.  We are closing Mr. Sandless due to a lot of reasons, but anyways, we have been making preparations to close and one of which is taking all the decals off the car to sell it.  Tonight Porter informed all of us that we need to call one final meeting for Mr. Sandless and insisted he bring his notebook to take notes.  He said that we needed to talk about selling the car and his idea is to put it up for sale online for $55,000.  Tom questioned the price and Porter stated that if we can't sell it, we will trade it.  When asked what we would trade it for, without missing a beat, Porter replied that we would trade it for beans. . . or apples.  What a ruthless business mind this child is developing.  Ahh, and I can see myself with the notebook needing to take notes.  Having kids definitely keeps you laughing.  I feel like Tom and I go to bed each night laughing at all that has taken place during the day and I'm grateful for the joy of children in my life!

Come They Told Me. . .

Porter's newest obsession is the Little Drummer Boy.  We've been listening to the Josh Groban Christmas album in the car and all I can play is that song.  So it was fitting that this year he requested to participate in our Nativity as the Little Drummer Boy.

He was a little crestfallen when he found that there is actually no real account of this boy in the scriptures so I quickly added the entrance of the drummer boy onto the end of the presentation.  Please note the drum because this was the most important part!

Christmas, as always, was fabulous this year.  I tried to keep it more low key and less stressful (especially because I have been fighting for 2 weeks and what my grandpa is now treating me for:  mycoplasma aka walking pneumonia)  Our Christmas festivities began on the 23rd with a LeBaron Christmas Eve party.  We had a fabulous dinner and a great program.

Christmas Eve then happened with Porter serenading the Boucher family with his rendition of the Little Drummer Boy, a screening of Arthur Christmas (which is darling, totally loved it) and then the Christmas Eve festivities at my mom's house.  And lucky for us, the elves came and brought pajamas!

Porter and Jack with their new towels- Mickey Mouse and Captain America 

Elmo and Cap too excited to stand still for a picture

 Christmas Morning was nothing short of magical in our house.  We tried to keep things simple with the whole something you want, something you need . . .

SANTA CAME!!

Porter got Dinosaur Train, Legos, Clothes and Books

Jack got Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street

Unfortunately, the English grandparents and Uncle Justin didn't get the memo. . .

Leap Pad, Cars Car, Grocery Cart and a Toy Story "Castle" gave my kids everything they wanted and needed and more!