What I love about Ethan

1.  I love that Ethan will read books to Hannah if she asks him too.
2.  I love to hear him play with Noah.
3.  I love how excited he is to learn.
4.  I love that he calls his Dad his "best buddy"
5.  I love that he sings and isn't embarrassed

What I love about Hannah

1.  I love that she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to tell you what it is.
2.  I love that she calls a porcupine a pokey pine.
3.  I love that she usually is humming a song.
4.  I love that she tells me she loves me about 20 times a day.
5.  I love that she loves learning new vocabulary words and thinks candy is delectable.

What is Love?

Love is what you have when the feelings are gone...really...when you no longer have those butterflies or excitement....that's when love really kicks in.  When your kids are being bratty, when your spouse isn't measuring up to what you think they should be.  That's when love kicks in.

According to the 2 Corinthians 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. 

Love never fails if you believe the beginning of this passage, the patient, and kind part.  

When I was pregnant with my first son Ethan, I had only been married two years. I was sick as a dog, I was vomiting all the time, my face was covered in pimples, every bad thing that happens when a woman is pregnant happened to me.  I was a emotional mess, not very lovable.  I'm sure my husband Evan wanted to run away, far away.  But he didn't, he was patient, he was kind, he was protective, he was a perfect example of love.  He told me that someone had told him, what makes marriage special is the commitment, and he was and is committed to me.  That's what love is....

In life we can either look at each other's faults or treasure other people's good qualities.  I strive to focus on the positive and pray to "love" others the way my Savior has first loved me!

Cleaning more efficiently-The Bathroom

I was complaining to my husband, once again, about how much time I spend cleaning our house.  With 3 little ones always under my feet, it's hard to get anything done.  My husband suggested coming up with ways to clean more efficiently.  So I am starting with my least favorite job, cleaning the bathroom!

One of the reasons it takes me so long to clean the bathrooms is that I have some cleaning supplies in one bathroom and a some in the other.  I spend half the time looking for the different items I need to clean.  So I decided to buy a whole set of supplies for each bathroom.  Here is my list
1.  Rubber Gloves
2.  Glass Cleaner
3.  Paper Towels
4.  Toilet bowl cleaner
5.  Clorox wipes
6.  Comet
7.  Sponge
8.  Plastic bags to line the trash cans
9.  Toilet brush
10.  Big bottle of soap to refill smaller one on the sink

I keeping all of these items locked in a cabinet under the sink in the bathroom.

Order of cleaning.
1.  Clean the bathroom mirror
2.  Clean the sink
3.  Clean the toilet
4.  Scrub tub
5.  Empty Garbage-  I am putting about 5 bags in the trash can as liners so I can just pull the top one off.
6.  Sweep and Mop the floor

I think I can get the bathroom clean in under 10 minutes if I have all my supplies right there.
How about you?  Do you have any efficient ways to clean?

Motivational Television for Kids

One of our FAVORITE programs at my house is Nova Science Now, this program is about the latest scientific discoveries going on right now.  My 4 year old even finds this program interesting!  Growing up I was never really interested in academics, so watching this show is truly inspirational.

The latest episode we watched was on the new materials companies are manufacturing.  It is really cool stuff and what better way to motivate kids to learn than seeing the result of studying and understanding chemistry.  I guess that's what I love so much about this program, it makes learning full of purpose, so useful, not just memorizing the periodic chart in order to pass a test.

Another episode we watched was about how scientists figured out that the pattern on shark skin was great to prevent bacteria from growing.  They are starting to use this pattern in hospitals to prevent super-infections.

Set your DVR's right now, or go to their website to watch NOVA Science Now

Turn off Wipeout people and turn on PBS!

How to safely clean baby toys!

Our family is sick again this season.  And before I break out the bleach I figured I would do a little research on some natural ways to clean off the toys versus using bleach and lysol.
I don't want my clothes getting bleached and I feel like I don't want the toys going back in the babies mouth covered in lysol.
So here is an article I found that might help some of my friends out there.

How To Clean Baby Toys

How to save money when going out to eat.

I love what Jerry Seinfeld has to say about going out to eat ....


Went out to dinner the other night. Check came at the end of the meal, as it always does. Never liked the check at the end of the meal system, because money's a very different thing before and after you eat. Before you eat money has no value. And you don't care about money when you're hungry, you sit down at a restaurant. You're like the ruler of an empire. "More drinks, appetizers, quickly, quickly! It will be the greatest meal of our lives." Then after the meal, you know, you've got the pants open, you've got the napkins destroyed, cigarette butt in the mashed potatoes - then the check comes at that moment. People are always upset, you know. They're mystified by the check. "What is this? How could this be?" They start passing it around the table, "Does this look right to you? We're not hungry now. Why are we buying all this food?!"


I love going out to eat but I have felt the pain after the check comes.  We didn't calculate how much the drinks, appetizers and desserts would cost...UGGGGGHHH!


So here are some tips to avoiding the painful bill after a meal.


1.  Order water to drink
2.  Set a limit each person can spend...my mother used to make us order something under $5, you can pick whatever you want under that amount
(that was awhile ago....LOL)
3.  Choose restaurants that aren't too expensive.
4.  Go out to lunch instead of dinner.  Lunch menu's are generally less than dinner.
5.  Share a meal
6.  Get take-out
7.  Have an appetizer before you go out
8.  Bring your younger kids something from home (Most kid meals aren't really that healthy so bring a little sandwich with some goldfish)
9.  Figure out how much the total will be before you order- when I do this usually I end up deleting items from our order