Monday, January 17, 2011

The kids and rewards!

Kyle and I were just talking about how much we love our kids. Each of them brings something different to the table. Gideon is my little Blonde BombShell. He is so sweet and handsome to boot. I laugh when he talks about his friends at school and all the girls that chase him everyday. He is very sensitive to others feels and loves to get things right. We had some Christmas money to get a few games/toys for each the kids on after Christmas Sale shopping and the game he wanted the most cost too much (they only had $10 each) and he had the option of getting, but that cami would not get her horse and would have to wait. He said "No mom, I don't want it then. She can have my money to get her horse". His response was so fast....he didn't need time to think of what his answer was. I was so touched I put my $10 item back and let him get his game. Gideon loves to draw and I love his fun pictures. He also loves to create stuff with Legos. Kyle made him a Lego table the built together a week ago.  His best friend is a inactive boy named Johnathan. He is the sweetest kid with really big teeth and kind of small, but I am so glad they are friends. Gideon always seems to go out of his way to be friends with the less popular kids and never thinks twice about any physical flaws they may have. He is still a little behind in writing and reading, but he flies by with math. He really enjoys reading the Scripture stories. and my most favorite thing about my sweet Gideon is his Love of Sushi. Here is a picture of him going to Kyle's and my favorite Sushi Restaurant in Vegas~Sushimon.

Blake Blake Blake. He is my SUPER independent boy. Anything he can do by himself....you better back off and let him do it. He is NOT a sensitive kid by any means. he could care less whether I was happy with him and he is fine doing things his OWN way......don't laugh mom. He loves to dress up and YES sleep in his dress up concoctions.....unless it is toy story PJ's and he wants to wear them all day. Hence the picture. Blake is super fun though. He has great sound effects and is very animated when he is a character. He loves to have any part of his body tickle scratched. I have to control Kyle on Sundays because I will look over and see Blake practically taking his shirt off so daddy can tickle scratch him. He does not give me lip kisses anymore and hasn't for about a year now. Well, I steal them sometimes, but he prefers kissing my check. He wipes grandma Kris's kisses off his lips. He likes to squeeze hug people and make a growling sound. Blake loves Buzz and Woody from Toy Story and Darth Mal from Star Wars. He loves to sit on the kitchen counter and help me cook ANYTHING. He loves singing Primary songs and his favorites right now are Scripture Power and Book of Mormon Stories. Blake is NOT liking the idea of going to Sunbeams instead of Nursery. It's funny because all 3 boys that transferred to Sunbeams cry when they are dropped off and the girls look at them like they are crazy not to want to be in Sunbeams.  Love you Blake!
 Cami is the Princess of the house. Ever since Hannah moved in her Princess preferences have kicked in. Anything with a skirt is a "Princess" dress. She wants to sleep in her princess attire as well. She is still obsessed with horses and has a momma horse, baby horse and a Jesse cowgirl she sleeps with every night. She is too the point where she will sit still long enough for me to french braid her hair and keeps he hair neat. We are potty training her right now and it is going well. She has 3 mini ponies as potty prizes and a miniature castle with unicorns for when she is fully successful. Her funny word right now is for sandwich~~she says Mamich and she refers to anything with bread as mamich. She is doing well in Nursery and has finally started staying in her seat for the entire lesson......even though she attempts to run up to the podium during Sacrament Meeting. She likes to look at books and gives LOTS of kisses and hugs. She like to hug Kyle and I together and practically squish our heads together. She is very polite and uses Please and Thank you often. She has sweet prayers that start out "Oh Father". She loves her church books and makes it a point to show me which pages have Jesus in them. She is so sweet and caring. This picture is for my own benefit. It was taken about 6 months ago and her hair is a disaster, but it makes me laugh.
 I have been meaning for a year now to make a reward chart. It is not exactly what I wanted, but it works. Plus Kyle helped me design the gems. It is so easy to point out to your kids when they do something wrong, but not as easy for them to remember you praising them on a daily basis. So I came up with a reward chart so that they could easily recognize me praising them when they do good things. They get silver (.25 cents) or Gold (.50 cents) pirate coins for chores done or extra jobs. The bee is a busy bee and they have another chart that has brush teeth, make bed, Pj's etc and when it is complete they get  a bee. They heart is for when they show exceptional love to someone else. The orange diamond is when they serve someone else......make a card, show service etc. The pearl are prayer pearls....whenever they say a pray. The Diamond is for spirituality....reverent at church, reading scriptures etc. The purple triangle gem is respect for others(mainly to brothers and sisters). The Emerald is showing respect for parents or elders.  The yellow gem is if they eat a good meal the entire day without fighting about it. And last, but not least it the Black dot......when they make a wrong choice to the point I am going to blow.....talking back...not listening repetitively, hitting etc. Once they fill the category up they get a prize or treat. Everything, but the work and good eater can roll over each week until it is complete. The good eaters get an extra special treat Saturday night (we had toaster strusells last Saturday) and they cash in their pirate coins Saturday night as well so they can get their tithing slips ready. Complete bees gets to pick from the prize box....I stocked up on ring pops, pencils, etc at the after Christmas sale (4ring pops for .25cents) The other categories get other prizes like icecream, playdate at the Artic Circle, scripture stickers and etc. It is not super easy to get gems and it has to be me caughting them being good not them telling me just to get a gem. It definitely is something I can't slack on, but it has been really good so far. I still need to add their pictures to them and I am going to have them bound.

I got the best deal the other day at walmart. They had coats and snow pants 75% off. I got Snow pants for me, Janel, Gideon and some for Gideon next year for $3.75 each! YEAH!!!!

Sledding and New years!

We spent New Years Eve playing games and eating good food with Mike and Jessica. We did a little early New Years Eve with the kids at 9:30 with a little bubbly. Proper Time management is a definite New years Resolution for me ......it has really been that for the past 6 years (since I had kids)

We also went up to the hills to do some sledding. This hill was VERY long, but not really steep, so the trek back up was not bad.
 Cami liked going all by herself even with her first trip down going backwards the entire time.
 Down she goes!
Cami is only about half way down the hill in this picture
 Mike sitting down putting on a snow board and Jessica holding Logan
 Mike showing off some skills. Jessica smokes him on the snowboard though!
 Gideon had more wipe outs than everyone combined. Kyle said it was because he didn't want to go down the entire way so he had less of a trek back up. He had a BLAST!!!
 Blake and Gideon had a blast going over this little ramp. Gideon would do it on his knees and Blake liked going down on his stomach!
 Blake on his belly!
 Mike and Logan
The boys spent most of their time on the bottom half of the hill!

 cami and I
 Cami resorted to eating snow when she was not on a sled.
 Kyle and Mike are attempting to assassinate Jeremiah with snow!
 Mike and Kyle battling it out using these flat boards as shovels and throwing it on each other!

Christmas!

Christmas was fun. We don't put out any gifts under the tree until Christmas morning. I made all the kids PJ's to open Christmas Eve. Us adults were up to about 2PM wrapping a bunch of Janel's stuff and playing games. I love filling the stockings. Santa only does stockings at our house, but honestly the kids don't even ask about what Santa brought. I love watching the old school claymation Christmas cartoons. I like it that way. Brian is with us again this year. He spoiled us ROTTEN!!! We had a great Christmas filled with love for each other and a love for our Savior Jesus christ who is the REAL reason we celebrate this season.

The kids enjoying there stockings and new socks! I found a bunch of Grinch/Dr. Sues character socks for Gideon, Toy Story Character socks for Blake and Princess socks for Cami.
 I got a bunch of fun socks as well.
Cami got some pretties in her stocking as well.
 Everyone getting ready to start opening presents. We were all waiting until 9AM for BRIAN to wake up.
 Present time! We also had a Secret Santa drop off 2 HUGE bags full of presents for us and Janel's Family....including some cash!!! WhooHoo!
 cami absolutely LOVE Princess attire. anything with a skirt is considered "Princess" clothes

 Yes, I cried. Brian bought me a new Kitchen Aid. He said he was sick of me talking about one for the past 2 years. i should complain about needing more things around him. LOve you Brian!

 It's roping time. I made Blake the CUTEST chaps and grandpa Lainhart made him a rope to practice with!
 Santa Brian hits again with spoiling Kyle with a 30-6 rifle.
 YeeHa Cami. Rope those boys!

 cami the cowgirl!

 Santa Brian got Gideon an art Isle. He loves it!
 Grandma Kris got Blake this cool Book of Mormon book you can use a dry eraser on. He and Gideon fight every Sunday at church who gets it first!
 Love for uncle BJ. He got Blake a Woody and Cami and Jesse doll!
Kyle looks ready to do that again!
 
Christmas dinner. Our Home teacher Families brought us the fixings for an entire Christmas diner. So sweet!
 Gideon loves to eat the Turkey drum stick!
I guess Brian likes it too!
Cami looking pretty ready to go to church!

Kyle's 34th Birthday

Kyle had his 34th Birthday on December 15th. We had a simple family party with Steak & Shrimp dinner and Cheesecake with candles. The shrimp was SOOOO good...I even impressed myself.

 Yes, he ate that big Mammoth steak!
 His Cheesecake. My mixer broke a few weeks before this and so I couldn't make him a homemade one!
 Happy Birthday to YOU!

 There was a lot of bartering going on with who got what piece!
 Cami, Janel, Hannah and Colton enjoying the cheesecake. 
Cute Colton!
 
Daddy got some of his favorite Summer Sausage, Chocolate orange, a Homemade card, a wallet and a picture from Grandma Kris! The picture is of Kyle and Blake canoe in the spring at Kyle's parents house!