I am AWESOME!

For a while I have been talking to Seth about how much I needed a family car because I was ggeting tired of having to throw the kids into the truck and last week he gave me permission to do whatever I wanted (but said he wouldn't have time to help me because he is busy studying for the bar). So I did!
On Thursday I put the truck up for sale and on friday I sold the truck (which wasn't starting at the time...read bottom for more details).

Then on saturday I looked at a a TON of (crappy) mini vans and bought ( a pretty decent) one...ALL BY MYSELF! It was like a complete switch-a-roo.. got paid cash for the truck then paid the cash for the van! Awesome! Seth was pretty impressed with my quick deal making abilities! We are LOVING the van and I really feel so blessed that it all really worked because for a while there I was thinking that maybe I made a really bad decision to sell the truck and pay cash for a van.

MoRe DeTaiLs: Just a little side note about selling the truck... On friday two guys called wanting to see the truck so they both came and were looking at the truck forever. With the guy who got there first (Carlos) we started the car a few times and he was looking all over the truck then Doug asked if he could start the car and it wouldn't start!!! What the freak! So they were both like.... huh? and of course I was like.... huh? But I told them, hey its really crazy its not starting but sorry I am not taking a low price because it was just starting I will have it looked at and fixed before I take a low price. Doug's telling me he thinks Carlos did something to it so it wouldn't start... and Carlos is just playing dumb... well long story short Doug pays me almost full price for the truck that is NOT STARTING and then today tells me that there were two unplugged something or others that he is guessing Carlos unplugged. Isn't that crazy!!!

It''s so QUIET!

Its 7:05 pm the girls went to bed at 6pm and Seth is at school late tonight, I am now taking a break from playing Rock Band (yes all by myself! I am getting pretty good at the drums...). Now I don't know what to do with myself! I guess I will go play some more Rock Band, maybe the guitar this time. Anyone bored and want to come play?
Its so weird for it to be this quiet!

Polka Dots

A few months ago my darling little girls cut up their fitted sheet so I was left with a DARLING top sheet. I have done a few fun things with the sheet...Made a tent for our play fort, made a pillow case dress and today I made a cute little skirt. It was a nice easy Sunday sewing project... with two little Princesses you can never have enough skirts!

Our New Chore System

I have been looking for a good chore chart that worked good for us and have tried a few that failed and then I saw this idea on someones blog and so we tried it out and..... WE LOVE IT! So I thought I would share it with all of you encase anyone else is looking for a good system.

The system is centered around these pictures that you take of the chore that needs to be done. You take the pictures and label them and then lay them out each morning so the child can see them. Once a chore is finished they place it in their basket. If all the chores are in the basket at the end of the day they get a stamp or sticker for that day on their chart.

Here it is all set up, my girls each have their own 3 jars... tithing, savings and spending, and then their basket with the pictures in it.

On Saturday morning or Friday night after they have had a chance to finish fridays chore they get paid for all the hard work, or pay you for your hard work. We decided that we will pay them 10 cents per day that their chores were all complete. (we will increase the pay as they get older...probably) For the days that all of them weren't complete, and I had to do some of the chores, the child has to pay me for doing the chore for them... so I would get 10 cents from their spending jar. Its like they hired the maid for that day.

This is the chart

We have really loved this system, hope its useful to others as well.

A Day at the Lake

Yesterday my friend and I packed a lunch and headed to Lake Mead to play in the water. We stopped and asked the people at the toll booth things which beach was the best to play at and so he gave us directions to a nice SANDY beach.... we drove past this area a few times looking for our sandy beach but decided that this must be it.. (we were a little confused by the mans description of the area). We parked our selves on this not so sandy beach and spent the afternoon playing in the water.. the kids had such a blast... The water was so clear you could see the bottom of the lake. Look at these little baby ducks , the kids fed most of their lunch to the baby ducks.

Here the kids are floating on their "raft"

Meika found this thing (I am pretty sure it is an avocado seed) that she was sure is a duck egg and claimed it was cracking open and the baby duck was coming out.

Look how cute her little sad face is.

Meika and Cooper playing, you can tell by the way Meika is standing that she was giving Cooper a little bit of attitude right before I took the picture and stopped to pose.

Graduation Weekend

Last weekend Seth graduated from law school, and both of our parents came down from Utah to support him. We had so much fun with all of them in town, the girls were in Heaven with so many grandparents here willing to take care of them and play with them.We had a fun filled weekend, here is a little summary of what we were up to.

We all went to see Star Trek, the girls were very bored in the movie.

We played at the park, here is Grandpa balancing Meika

Here are the girls playing at the squirty park

We went to the outdoor movie at town square and watched Wall-e.

Here are all the grandparents.
Papa, Grandpa, Grandma, Nana

Sethie with his little girlies.

Seth and I with his parents, we really appreciate them driving so far to come support Seth, they are such great parents and such wonder in-laws. We love them and appreciate everything they have done for us.

Seth with my parents, we are so glad they were able to come up to celebrate Seth's graduation with us. We love them are are so grateful for all the love and support they have given us these last 3 years.


Seth with his boss & his wife Anthony & Miriam. We love them they are such kind people and have been so sweet to our family, but especially to Seth.

GO SETH!

Good job Seth we are all so proud of you!

Today was my second day in the Kitchen, yesterday was all the deep cleaning and today was the decluttering and organizing.
I am not posting a before of my pantry because it didn't really change much, I didn't even really do anything to it besides straighten some things up.




























Yesterday and today were really hard for me... I kept having to force my self to just get it done. I had to stop and take a few breaks in between cleaning so that I didn't go crazy.

Tuesday was the 2nd day of the cleaning party and it was the family room...I ended up doing the whole family room in one day which was a lot of work and took me along time... but our family room was SOOO clean. I cleaned every single thing in that room... starting with the ceiling fan and the high ledges to the baseboards. What a great feeling! I didn't take a before picture because I was too excited to get started and guess I just forgot.
I reorganized our movies and got rid of a whole bunch that we had duplicates of or never watched... When Seth got home I told him I alphabetized the movies (I was really proud of myself) and all he had to say was "that was a waste of time" so I guess he wasn't as excited as I was... but oh well. I feel great about my sanitary family room! :)

If you haven't joined the party yet, but would like to... go ahead join in!

On Monday I started the Spring Cleaning Party with Simple Mom, it has been a lot of fun and ALOT of work. I am behind on updating my pictures but this is day ones pictures, on day one the plan is to walk through your home cleaning up clutter or garbage...so here are my before and after pictures....I know, the before pictures are pretty nasty...





I had already gotten rid of A LOT of clutter things a couple months ago after reading Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston so most of my Day 1 clean sweep was in our bedroom and then just putting things away like toys, clothes, all that fun stuff to get ready for the real cleaning. More updates to come....
Is anyone else doing the Spring Cleaning Party? If so I would love to see some pictures!

Last Day of Law School

Seth had his LAST DAY of class on Tuesday and I think we are both in awe that it is really coming to an end. Seth has done such a great job these last few years going to school full time and working full time and still having time for his family. He wanted to go to Law School since he was in high school so I am so proud of him for accomplishing his goal!
I wanted to show some pictures of us around the time Seth started his first year of Law School. Right before we were getting ready to move to Henderson Seth broke his foot and had to have surgery. So we were a little bit handicapped with Seth on crutches and me 7 months pregnant, but our families really helped out doing pretty much EVERYTHING in our move. They packed us up and then drove our stuff there and unloaded and decorated our house!! We can't express the gratitude and love we felt for all those who helped us!

So here is a picture of Sethie at the doctor right before our move (Look how tiny Meika is!)

Here is our cute little Meika, I can't believe she was ever this tiny! She is such a doll! We had put curlers in her hair, thats where the big hair is from.

Here is a picture of me prego with Sienna. It looks like I have a beer belly but I promise there was a baby in there!

I can not believe how fast this time has flown by, now lets just hope all goes well with his finals the next couple weeks and taking the bar in july.

Going Private

I have decided to make our family blog private so if you would like to view it please leave your e-mail address in the comments.

Easter Morning

They looked so cute in their new little Easter dresses, and were so excited about wearing them. I had them hangin in my closet for a month or so and they were always begging to wear them. Once they were all dressed they ran out into the family room to show their cousins how cute they looked.

Look at those cute little faces, I could just squeeze them! I feel so blessed to have such sweet little girls in our home, they are so much fun and keep us busy with one new adventure/mess to another... we sure do love them.

I put the girls in the bath and came back to find the dog had decided to join them! I thought it was pretty gross, but the girls had so much fun washing her and Cinderella seemed to really enjoy it too. We have loved having our little puppy, she is such a little snuggle bug and is just so sweet. Meika and Sienna carry her around, wrap her up in things, snuggle her in bed and she just puts up with it...