General Conference is coming...

Holy cow I feel like I am dragging my ragged body and spirit to General Conference this time around. With Lydia being born right before last conference, I didn't get much out of it. Yes, I had my Ensign but it isn't the same as that adrenaline shot of the conference weekend itself. So I am pumped for this go around... and trying to ignore the fact that Ryan will be on call that Sunday, which is conference and Easter! We will adjust some of our activities to suit his schedule and realize that it is part of what our life is. Besides it is more of an inconvenience not the end of the world.

Anyway I wanted to tell you what I was gonna do this time around. I was scrolling through sugardoodle's awesome newly done site. She has a whole General Conference Page dedicated to conference stuff for all ages. I was going through there and came across this great lady's love hugs and giggles blog and an idea she used called the conference wall. Check it out here. Seriously just click on the link and check it out.

Now that you have taken a minute to look at what she did. Here is what I am going to do. We will have our conference wall. I have compiled 16 coloring pages from The Friend magazine. Each page representing a possible topic that one of the general authorities may speak about. If you want to print the ones I gathered click here. Print them off and color them, or let your kids color them, or gather your own pictures. I am going to run get them laminated in hopes of using them again. Then gather small pictures of the general authorities for your children to use during conference. If you are a little confused about what I am talking about that means you didn't click on the Love Hugs and Giggles blog post!

One other idea I liked from the sweet lady at Love Hugs and Giggles was the crafts so I think I might just do some of those too. A couple weeks ago I made this for myself:

I made it mainly to hang my weekly menu from or my daily check list of things I have going on. It seems like everyday I have a piece of paper or two that I take the time to write out and then loose it or a child destroys it or it gets tossed. In comes my clip board that I can hang on the wall and see easily or grab it and take it with me if I want! I made one for Ryan too I didn't get a picture of it before it went of to work at the hospital. Don't worry it doesn't have flowers. Its actually pretty dang awesome.

So this craft costs $1.... let me repeat myself... this craft costs $1. That is if you are a regular crafter and have paper, embellishments, and mod podge. The dollar store has these clip boards or if WalMart is easier they have them too but they jack up the price to $1.40... I know painful.

The point is Kaylie can totally do this craft. She will love it. And she will use it. She is always writing or drawing or doing homework, and would love to have a clipboard! So I am excited to do that with her.

I am still working on some of the other activities of the weekend.... so if you are interested check back. What are some things you'll be doing I would love hear about them.

If you are wanting some help getting your wheels turning check out Sugardoodle's General Conference page for loads of ideas. If you are looking for packets she also has them. Think about your children. There are lots of things out there to utilize. Take the time to think about your child and what makes them tick so they can be in a position to feel the spirit of conference. Don't forget modeling behavior can be the best way to get results. Do you have your journal or note pad out, do you have your hands quietly working on something?... Just a thought.

Match Day

This post is going to be a lot shorter than it ought to be.... but really I could ramble forever so lets keep it short and sweet.

All of our 4th year medical school friends now know their fate and where they are headed in just a few short months to continue their training. When it is all said and done they have all matched in programs and places that are a good fit and the Lord has taken care of all them.

This is our third year to go through match day. I cried when I went through our first match day and I had only known those girls a year and still keep in touch with most of them. To try to explain the dread of saying goodbye to the girls that have been my well everything.... my connivence store when I forgot eggs, my babysitter when I had an appointment, my workout partners to keep me lookin' hot, my playmates out at the playground, my hairdresser, my shoulders to cry on, my sisters and mothers when mine were too far away to help. K I have to stop cause well I can't see the screen through my tears anymore, but you get the idea. The thought of them all leaving breaks my heart.

Somehow there were never any other families that moved into the housing area that we live in that are in Ryan's class. Luckily there are few in the classes behind us, I hope I can be as much of a support to them and pass on the priceless knowledge I have gained from the ladies who have gone before me and them. My resident mama will still be around to keep me grounded. As well as my besty (at least for a while) that has the luxury of not having a husband go through medical school. She gets other adventures and has already been Sainted for her commitments and efforts =)

Below is a photo from match day of some buddies that are going to missed!

Sneaky Little Visitor!

This year the kids made a leprechaun trap before they went to bed on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. The Trap is the lego contraption to the left. The wooden blocks were some sort of booby trap.... which definitely made things interesting for the leprechaun. The trap had steps and a little basin type area for him to get stuck in. The tall tower was to lurer him in. (You may not be able to see it but the red legos at the top of the tower make an arrow pointing downward. "To tell him to go in here"....obviously). The little leprechaun got a way though. He did leave some of his gold and treasure behind for a lucky treat though.

But wait that's not all he left behind...

That naughty little leprechaun left dirty footprints too!

He made up for it with his big box of Lucky Charms that he left!

Poor James those long thick eyelashes are hard to hold up sometimes.

James took very little time to devour a few bowls of cereal.

(Did you notice he was superman and by the time he was eating he is now spiderman.)

Once again that naughty little leprechaun left some footprints on his way out.

Lucky for us he dropped some more gold on his way out!

Kaylie insisted on green eggs and ham (I added the hash browns to the order).

The drink is Green Machine Superfood juice... yummy!

I meant to get a self portrait before the end of the day because we all looked pretty snazy in our green. But I had to rush off to a Relief Society meeting and everyone was in bed when I got home. Oh well it was a fun day!

Snuggies!

Someone has been sick at our house almost continuously for about 6 weeks ... yeah it's getting old. We try to keep to ourselves as much as possible, but with kindergarten, and daddy always at the hospital, not mention just life. I consider myself a fairly hygienic person too. We wash our hands, have hand sanitizer everywhere. We bathe regularly, I am always doing laundry, disinfecting surfaces, I am starting to think it is all pointless!

Anyhow being stuck at home... again. I made some banana bread with chocolate chips (yum) and Kaylie took this artistic photo of the yumminess!

We have played many games but also watched a ton of TV... I am so sick of TV!

(Except for Studio 5 and Glenn Beck of course)

We were watching television the other night and Kaylie was getting irritated that her blanket wouldn't stay on her. She has asked for one of those snuggies before, they have them for kids now ya know. So I asked her should we make your blanket into a snuggie?

She looked at me like I was crazy. I am I have been stuck inside for many many months... it happens eventually. She was a little leery, because this was a gift from Aunt Melanie and Uncle Jordan and she didn't want them to be mad that she cut it. I told her I think they would be happy that you were using your present. So hopefully you aren't mad Mel.

After explaining what I thought we should do, Kaylie happily consented.

We cut a slit for her head.

Leaving and opening for her arms, we retied the fringe down the side to create sleeves.

I made the front long to cover her feet well and have a little room to grow.

The back was then left shorter so she isn't sitting on it, causing it to choke her.

She was super excited with the result.

She has been fighting a fever about 102 for two days so it has gotten good use.

And of course James didn't want to be left out, so I made his blanket into a snuggie as well.

Snow Day

This winter can't end soon enough. The last storm brought the east bench by the university like 8" of snow on friday. I was super irritated! Trying to keep positive we bundled up after picking Kaylie up from school, and headed out to play in the snow. Itty bitty is even acclimating to horrid weather, and was quite happy the entire time we were out.

Kaylie and James were happy that their stick in the snow mom took them out to play.

I couldn't really help make a snowman with Lyds stuck to the front of me,

so I told them to make snow angels...

And we made a face on the snow angel!

We ended up having a great outing,

and even got a pretty dang good self-portrait to document the afternoon.

(Nevermind the fact that I don't have makeup on...

that was part of my protest of the snowy day.)

Horton Hears a Who!

James had a couple boys over to celebrate Dr. Seuss week on Wednesday! They are 3 year old boys so I wanted to do something a familiar and engaging for them. So we did Horton Hears a who! I have loads of Dr. Seuss books but Horton isn't one of them (Sad). I have the newest version of Horton (with the talents of Jim Carey) but that was too long for our allotted time.

We watched this version of Horton by Random house that was put on YouTube. It is read by Dustin Hoffman who does a fabulous job:

We talked about how Horton had good listening ears to hear those little tiny Whos,

and the he was a good friend to help them find a safe home!

Then we made these fun Horton ears. Because kids work at different paces I usually have a coloring page to keep the faster kids busy. So they had a Horton coloring page.

When they finished we went outside to play and I gave them a clover with a "speck" on it so they could take care of their Whoville.

The day was a big hit James played with his "speck" and his ears for a few days!

Random Pictures of the kids

James got a hold of Camera and took a picture of his baby sister...

and his other true love.

Self portrait by Kaylie

James Loves his sisters

Painting

there was some on the paper too.

This one makes me a little sad... my baby is getting so big!

But she is so cute

Yummy Chicken Nuggets

A while back Ryan did the grocery shopping for the week. Chicken nuggets were on the list, but I can be picky and he got the wrong ones. I avoided them for a couple of weeks and decided we had to eat them. I thought what can we do to mask the fact that these chicken nuggets are not the greatest? One of my cooking theories is cheese almost always makes anything better! So we grabbed the mozzarella cheese (because that's what I had on hand). Our other ingredient is BBQ sauce (we use spicy honey) because it is an easy way to add tons of flavor.

Now that you have your ingredients.

Preheat your oven as per the instructions on your package.

Seriously this can't yet any easier.

Cover a baking sheet with tin foil,

this will make your clean up take 2 seconds!

Lay out your desired number of chicken nuggets.

Bake your chicken nuggets a little over half of the directed time

(aprox. 12 min.)

Take your pan of nuggets out of the oven and

generously paint on BBQ sauce with a basting brush.

For your older preschooler they may be able to help

with this step as well as the next.

BE CAREFUL THE PAN IS HOT

Pile on the shredded cheese.

It will slide off a bit as it cooks so try to pile it on

as close to the center of your nugget possible.

Place it back in the oven for about 5 minutes or so.

And Wa La! Yummy Chicken Nuggets!

My kids loved them even more than normal!

This isn't an exact science so have fun with it.

I can't wait to try this out

with the chicken nuggets I normally buy!