Potty Training

I have tried just about everything with my three year old as far as potty training goes... I've been working with him since he was 18 months old! I'm once again trying the chart method... we'll see how it goes this time! Here's the chart that he was most excited to use!

The only thing he seems to have a problem with is peeing in the potty... so I'm giving him a sticker every time he pees in the potty and keeps his underwear dry. Hopefully this will help with having less accidents because the amount of laundry I've been doing just for this kid has gotten ridiculous!!!!

Chargers Onsies

I'm getting more and more excited for our third little boy to be joining our family... today I finished putting some appliques onto onsies for him. Go Chargers!!!

Baby Shower Quilt

This is the baby quilt that I made for one of my sister-in-laws that is due about the same time as I am. I had each guest at the baby shower iron on an applique onto a quilt square, then I assembled the quilt.

 This is the back material that I found, perfect for her Mickey Mouse theme!

 I also like how it turned out using the fabric scraps for the binding.

 And of coarse I had a square where those who helped with the quilt signed, kind of a fun memory for mom-to-be!

Value Life Savers

I saw some printables for Value Life Savers with the Young Women Values, however, the only one I could find had the theme before it was revised and was before they added "Virtue" to the list of values. So, I took it and adjusted it! I think these would be fun to give to the Young Women at Girl's Camp this year!

Baby Hats

These are some baby hats that I've recently finished crocheting! Thanks to having two sister-in-laws and myself all pregnant!

Super Cousins!

For each of my kids and each of their cousins I have made a super hero cape, my youngest niece is turning 2 in May and this is the cape I just finished for her!

M&M's General Conference

So, for the Young Women with General Conference we are doing PJ's, Pancakes, and Prophets for the Saturday morning session.  With this we are having them assemble their own BINGO cards with different topics to listen for. First three to get BINGO I have some glow in the dark star wands that will be their prize. And every girl will be given a bag of M&M's with a note about Making the Most of General Conference. I had seen this idea some where else, but wasn't able to download what they had, so I made my own.

Along with this we will be serving the girls pancakes and waffles. Hopefully it'll encourage some to pay attention to conference and not just feel that Conference weekend is a "vacation" weekend from church. I feel that Conference is just SO spiritually uplifting and I hope the girl's will get a glimpse of that too!

Easter Handout

So, this Easter I just found out that I not only get to talk to all the Young Women, but I ALSO get to talk in Sacrament Meeting! I kind of rearranged our teaching schedule in Young Women's so I'd be able to talk about Repentance on Easter. I also have read the Jelly Bean Prayer, so I'll give each Young Woman a bag of Jelly Beans with the prayer attached!

 I plan on making sure that in the lesson the Young Women see a connection between repentance and Easter (specifically the Atonement).

"Shine" Pendants

For 2012 the mutual theme for the youth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is "Arise and Shine forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations" (D&C 115:5). So for New Beginnings I decided we would have a theme of Fireworks, based off of what I saw at the Sisters in Zion blog, our focus will be on being or becoming the "spark" of light that can share the light of Christ with others!

So, I've decided to use this image:

and combine that with a tutorial I saw on pinterest.com through this link here and would make shine pendants for each of the Young Women in our group. So, I took the "shine" image above and printed it as shown below.

I found some glass pebbles at the dollar tree that were all flat on the bottom, all were different shapes and had some other "flaws" that one could see in them which I thought was perfect for the pendants to give to the Young Women to remind them that each of us are different and we can see different flaws, but we are all just as precious to our Heavenly Father! The other supplies I used we an exacto knife, paper glaze (also called Diamond Glaze), E-6000 glue, decoupage, and bails.

So, here is what the pendants look like. I'm still trying to figure out what to hang them from... but I was just thinking of something simple, we'll see what I come up with!

They're about 1'', but each one is shaped a little different... I did learn that the best way to make these was by putting a layer of decoupage on the side of the paper that I was going to attach to the glass pebble and let that dry before attaching the design. It seemed to keep the ink from spreading a little.

A Daughter of God

Manual 1: Lesson 1

I am teaching this lesson and I LOVE to have a cute handout to give to the Young Women along with lessons. The manual says to give the Young Women a handout with 2 specific quotes on it, I decided to add to those quotes and this is what I came up with:

Along with this handout I will give each of the girl's a warm fuzzy to help them remember that Heavenly Father gives us the little blessings to let us know that He cares about us individually and as His daughters! Each of the warm fuzzies I made are unique, just like each child of God. Here is the template I made for the feet of the warm fuzzies.

 And here are what a few of my fuzzies look like.

I'm SO grateful for the warm fuzzies, or as Elder Bednar called them, tender mercies of the Lord that are given to each of us that let us know that we have a caring Heavenly Father who is aware of, and cares for, us individually!

Arise and Shine- Oquirrh Temple

As a gift for the Young Women this year I had a bunch of pictures of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple that I had found amongst the items left from the previous presidency, so I decided to take some Vellum and print the theme for Mutual for 2012 on it. Then I used decoupage to attach the vellum to the picture of the temple and will be putting it in a frame to give to each of the girls. The finished picture kind of looks like this with more texture from the decoupage:

Bucket List

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details.

1. Visit all 50 states
2. Take my kids to Disney World
3. Run a Marathon
4. Go to New Zealand
5. Meet Paula Dean or Rachael Ray
6. Serve a mission with my husband for the Church of Jesus of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
7. Become a millionaire
8. Own a home in Southern California
9. Become part of a greater cause - I'd love to do family photos on a regular basis for those who can't afford them
10. Participate in a Mud Race (i.e., Dirty Dash)
11. Write a cookbook
12. Have a successful garden!
13. Get all our family pictures put into photo books
14. Become debt-free
15. Go in a hot air balloon

Some People...

I don't want this to sound like a rant, but every now and then sometimes it just has to come out. I think it's SO sad that there are some people out there who can't just be happy for other people who are trying to do something with their life and live their life as best they can. No there are those people who for some reason just seem to find pleasure from trying to be as mean as they possibly can to others. Well, to anyone out there who is just being MEAN, just for the sake of being mean... to you all I have to say is please STOP being such a bully... REALLY!!! Once out of High School can't you mature just a little beyond that and just either ignore people and stay OUT of their lives or just learn to at least bite your tongue. And to those who see or hear those "Bullies" making rude remarks about other people... PLEASE be brave enough to tell them to stop. One person standing up and making a good choice does in deed make a difference!

The Perfect Relationship

Romance is nice. But it is biological in origin. That dizzy head-over-heels feeling is a species of losing your mind, and most of the time it lasts only as long as the chase. What we keep forgetting is that in marriage, as opposed to romances, you aren't marrying the thrilling wonderful perfect Someone you're looking at right now. You're marrying the man who decides not to have the dazzling career with the high salary, refusing promotions and transfers so the kids don't have to change schools. You're marrying the woman whose body doesn't bounce back after the third baby, so she's no longer slim and attractive by the standards of the magazines. You're marrying the migraines and the hemorrhoids and the heart attack and the cancer; you're marrying the irritable, forgetful, lazy, thoughtless, sarcastic, distracted, too-busy days as well as the Kodak-happy ones.

You're marrying the one who works with you to raise the crippled child, or stands with you at the graveside of the child who dies. You're marrying the one who can't find work after the company folds or he's laid off; you're marrying the early Alzheimer's, the diabetes, the obesity, the pain of conflict and the struggle of forgiveness. The foundation of that isn't some ideal of romantic love. It's a commitment based on the goals you share. And real love, married love, is not what you start with--it's what you create together along the way.

--Orson Scott Card

A friend of mine posted this quote by Orson Scott Card I think it's one that everyone who is married, considering marriage, or in a committed relationship should read and think about. I am SO glad that I have found a man who I can share goals with and have created so much together already! I look forward to all that we will yet do and create together!

Valentine's Gun Ad?

I saw this ad in a newspaper on Valentine's Day and just thought it was HILARIOUS!!!

In case you can't read it the three levels are:

Like her a little

• 30 day range pass
• 1 flashlight
• 1 pepper spray
• 1 mace whiste

Like her more

• Taser
• 30 day range pass
• 1 flashlight
• 1 pepper spray
• 1 mace whistle

Love her a LOT

• Firearm
• 30 day range pass
• 1 flashlight
• 1 pepper spray
• 1 mace whistle

My Famous Baby!

Back when we first moved to Utah I was able to get my youngest a little modeling gig... pictures are now up! You can now check out my famous little guy here: http://www.sevenslings.com

Wish List Meme

I figured why not just give this a try... it sure would be fun to win!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to:http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family? That we can get out of debt.

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition? Open presents, youngest to oldest, eat cinnamon rolls and enjoy our time together! 

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? A new home, big enough for 9 people. I would love to be able to make it so my in-laws could live with us, yet feel like they had their own space.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? I make A LOT of gifts. I try to make sure that the gift I give shows that I put thought into what I got that person.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up? Boggle, still one of my favorites, but it's sometimes hard to find people who will play me.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? Opening presents youngest to oldest, and having a little advent calendar that I finally made this year!

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip? If we're taking the kids then I'd say Disney World, if it's just my husband and I... probably Hawaii!

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? XBOX 360, Xbox 360 Kinect Family Bundle, and Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout

If you're interested in getting in on this giveaway check it out here!

Potato Stamp

To help make part of Christmas gift I am working on I made my own stamps, out of POTATOES!!! I made both a batman and a superman stamp, I think they turned out great! Since I was stamping onto fabric I just put fabric paint right on the potato and then stamped away!

What a nice cheap way to get exactly what I wanted!

After Christmas I'll post the whole project!

Advent Calendar

I am just SO happy with how this turned out that I just HAVE to share! This is the advent calendar I made this year for our family.

(***WARNING*** This is a LONG post!!!!)

Here are close ups of all the little ornaments (they are all quite small and took quite awhile to make, but I really didn't want to sew ornaments and I couldn't find any I liked to buy)!

I am really happy with how our little advent calendar turned out! I hope our kids will enjoy it as they grow up... I know it was something I enjoyed doing as a kid!

Here is another one I made for my younger brother, Trevor, who really enjoys video games and is in his own apartment now. His birthday is at the beginning of December, so he'll get to enjoy it this year and hopefully for years to come!

The Gamers Advent Calendar!

This is Trevor's XBL Avatar character

This is Trevor's Mii (Wii Character)

 Sonic the Hedge Hog

 Wii Bowling

Kirby

Mr. and Mrs. Pacman

 And the Ghosts 

 The Golden Gun, and a helmet and Grenade for those Call of Duty games.

 Mario and Luigi, a Star, and Mushrooms

 Tetris Blocks

 Pikachu 

 Yoshi 

 That's all 24 ornaments and the calendar! PHEW! I hope he likes it!!! I think it turned out pretty good. I just wish I had remembered to take a picture of it with all the ornaments on it... I'll have to ask him to do that for me!