Haley-ism

Haley is talking to her cousin Kenna, who is over playing while her mom is voluteering at the school. It is time to pick my kids up from school, so I asked them to turn the tv off. Kenna asked Haley why she turned it off, and Haley, mocking me, said, "cause my mom said...TURN IT OFF! She always say that...then she always say...GO TO YOUR ROOM! You. You. You. To your room."

At least she pays attention, right?

I hate the TV.

Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone had a spectacular Valentine's Day!


When I was taking these photos, Jake and Kyle did a secret handshake that I didn't know they had. I thought it was hilarious!

Middle of Nowhere, NV

So, as most of you know, I took the kids and headed to Vegas for a few days. In the morning, I am headed home. We are going to the Planetarium tomorrow night. It has been a super fun trip! Erin and I took some newborn photos together. They can be seen here. Today, we took the kids to take their photos. It was a new location we wanted to try out. We got a little lost on the way out there. Let me tell you, this GEM of a place was in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how the FEW people survive living out there. Here are some photos I took. Beware...HUGE overload!

First, are the photos of all the kids together, as well as with their Fonnesbeck Friends. They had fun, except for when we were taking pictures. They naturally feel that is torture. And naturally, I don't care. I LOVE them all. My favorites have to be the reflection in the puddle one, and the shadow one.











Here are photos of the kids individually. I have the most of Kristin, of course. She is always the one ready and willing for photos.

On parenting...

I have been thinking a lot about parenting lately.

**DISCLAIMER**There are MANY styles of parenting. I am not talking about how any of you parent, so don't flatter yourself into think I'm talking about you, I am just evaluating my own parenting and posting it for my own posterity...feel free to skip this post...

I read this on my friends blog today:
In our day, many children grow up with distorted values because we as parents overindulge them. Whether you are well-to-do or, like most of us, of more modest means, we as parents often attempt to provide children with almost everything they want thus taking away from them the blessing of anticipating, of longing for something they do not have. One of the most important things we can teach our children is to deny themselves. Instant gratification generally makes for weak people. How many truly great individuals do you know who never had to struggle? ~Joe J. Christensen, “Greed, Selfishness, and Overindulgence,” Ensign, May 1999, 9~

It got me thinking, am I guilty of this? I think in this day and age, most kids are spoiled. Although, just yesterday, I got told that "You're the meanest mom." To me that means I'm doing my job. My job is to be a parent. Not a friend - although I'm hoping that I can be friends with my kids when they turn 20, and I have to do less 'parenting'.

I pulled out my dusty patriarchal blessing a few weeks ago, and was reminded, "Rear your children well, so others may enjoy them." Have I been doing that? I have really tried, as I think we all do. But I guess, only those of you who know my kids can answer this question.

I sleep train my kids. It's the best thing I have ever done for me or my kids. I read a book on how to do this when Kyle was a baby. Let's be honest, sleep training is the hardest thing any parent can do. In this book, it explains how detrimental sleep is to a child and how it will affect their sleep patterns for the rest of their life. As most parent knows, listening to a crying baby in the next room waiting for them to fall asleep is utter torture. You know they're not hurt, but if you just pick them up, they would be happy...I remember when I first did it with Kyle, I had to shut my bedroom door, turn on the TV, and call someone out of state I haven't talked to in a really long time, to try to distract myself from the crying. In the book, it says, no matter how long your child cries, you're not going to feed him poison.

The quote above got me thinking about this. While my kids are great sleepers now have I 'fed them poison' in other aspects of their life? I don't know. Probably. I guess I need to think about what my main goals of parenting are in order to decide this (these are not in any particular order).

1. Keep them safe. Easier said then done, but for the most part, I believe my children are definitely safe. (This is where my meanness comes into play.)

2. I want them to grow up and contribute to the world we live in. Be an active member of the community and to be good people.

3. I want them to know they are Children of God and that they have a divine calling in this world, to also become good parents and husbands and wives.

4. I want them to value their family.

5. I want them to know they are loved and to feel the love, but unfortunately right now, I am often the 'mean mom'. Hopefully when they are older, they will realize the extent of the actual love. Although, I think they feel they are loved, even being a 'mean mom'.

6. I want them to learn. Everything they can.

7. I want them to be happy. Not material happiness, but to be happy people.

8. I want them to find a husband/wife that they truly love. I want them to have happy marriages.

I am sure there are more, and I may add a few more as I ponder in the next few days.

I never posted about Christmas Day. There was a reason for this. We had a VERY meager Christmas. Our Christmases usually aren't huge anyways, because I have a husband who HATES holidays that require gifts. (That's another post in itself) With our car getting broken into, and having to buy a new microwave, we just didn't spend a lot of money. Our Christmas was ended up being fabulous. I refused to go anywhere on Christmas Day. Each of our kids got 1 toy. Which they played with ALL DAY! We spent time with each other, and welcomed extended family into our home, instead of going back and forth all day. For once, I actually enjoyed Christmas Day. It taught me that less really is more, and that spending the day together as a family outweighed any other presents that the kids could have gotten.

So, do I spoil my kids? Sure, we all do. There are people out there who spoil more than me, and less than me. My kids are spoiled in other ways - to which I am very grateful. They have GREAT Grandparents -who love them and want to spend time with them. The have the best dad ever. Troy is always happy to spend time with them. Take them to games, play sports with them, everything. He does it on his own a lot - and NEVER complains. Right after my eye surgery, he took all 4 kids by himself to a BYU Basketball game in Provo. Afterwards they stopped and got ice cream and brought some home for me.

So, yes, my kids are spoiled, and I am the LAST person to think I am a 'good parent' because deep down I know I could do better...but because I have some goals in my parenting that I really am striving for, I think we will all be okay...and if not, my kids will tell me all about it when they are 30, right?

Off Track...

I hate my kids being off-track. I have decided to put them on a waiting list for a charter school near me, for that reason alone. The charter school is a traditional school. No other politics...my kids don't hate their school now, I just can't stand the track schedules...

Anyways, since my kids have been off (it's only been 1 week, out of 3) we have done the following:

-I let each of them pick a friend and we went to the dollar theatre and saw Rocket Boy, or something...I don't remember...
-Classic Skating. It's this old roller rink that has evolved and allows kids to take their scooters in and has blow up slides and stuff. They even have laser tag that one of my YW got us into for free. It costs $7.50 per kid, so it's kinda pricey. The bonus, was that they asked me a few questions and gave me passes to go back for free. So, next week we will go back. We were there for 3 hours, and the kids had a blast. I had fun playing my first game of laser tag. Don't worry, I won.
-Swimming at Murray Pool. This was awesome. They are pretty lenient with the rules, and my girls went down the big slide on their own. Haley I 'tricked' into doing it, and Kristin went down over and over by herself.
-Building Forts. Ughhh...every mom groans at the thought of kids making a fort...well, my kids made one and I told them they could sleep in it. You would be amazed at how long they can get along without fighting when they are busy building a fort. Here is a photo I snapped of them afer they fell asleep...Jake was hiding somewhere under the blankets...

For those of you wondering, I decided against Disneyland...for now. Reason being: we would only be able to go on rides Haley could go on. Which, aren't very many. I think we will just renew our passes, and go in April or May. I will just take them out of school.

We are... going to Las Vegas! We are going to hang out with the Fonnesbeck's and just let the kids play, and of course go to some new locations in Vegas for a photo shoot! Troy will stay home and work, and I will take the kids - we will just be gone for a few days, but that is long enough to enjoy warmer weather and allow the kids to play outside!

Next week we are going to the Planetarium and back to Classic...so hopefully I will survive this off-track time...

Groundhog Day

Today is the big day. Haley had preschool today...she goes to the best preschool. Haley's teacher, Jen, does the greatest crafts. Last week was space day, she made them all space packs (cereal boxes covered in white wrapping paper) and space helmets...which they decorated in USA stickers. Today they made the cutest groundhog. The groundhog is a wooden spoon. Isn't this so cute? Anyways...I love my girl who LOVES preschool. She goes on Tues/Thurs mornings and she is so sad she can't go on Wednesdays too! I think that just makes Thursday morning more exciting for her. She got her ears pierced yesterday and is tickled pink...she cried a bit, but LOVES them now...she has to show EVERYONE! If anyone needs a good preschool, let me know!