I have been trying to be pretty strategic about the toys that enter our home. One on my list for awhile was wooden animals. Unfortunately the ones I really like are rather expensive, so I decided to make some. I started trying to carve with my pocket knife which was super slow going. Andrew came…
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Happy 4th Birthday Emily!
We celebrated Emily’s birthday all weekend! In July she told us she wanted to go hiking at Turkey Run State Park, get frozen yogurt, and have a pink cake with purple frosting. Last week when we were finalizing plans she added in having her friends over for cupcakes. Andrew bought the supplies for the Pickler…
September Preschool: Water
Last year we followed the official joy school curriculum with three of our neighbors, meeting twice a week. It was a wonderful experience and the kids loved it. This year we decided to create a simplified preschool option that was realistic for three moms with eight kids (soon to be nine) between them. We meet…
Creating More Music Autonomy with a CD Player
When we were at my family’s home in August I was surprised at how Emily and Nathan spent their time. In a big house with lots of fun toys they chose to dance to music blasting from a kids electronic keyboard. All day long. Listening to a handful of songs on the keyboard all day…
General Conference
One of my focuses for the month of September was to prepare the kids for general conference. We ended up doing a 14 day countdown chain from lds.org. We used the prompt as the topic of our dinner discussion each night. When Saturday morning arrived Emily couldn’t wait for after lunch for it to begin. We…
Nature Fridays
With fall underway (sort of – it has been in the upper 90s here for over a week!) we’ve been developing our new family rhythms. We’ve made a point not to schedule too many things each week, but aren’t heading outside from 8-12am like we did for the months of morning sickness. I think it…
The One Green Smoothie our Entire Family LOVES
We’ve been green smoothie drinkers for a few years. I would say I’ve enjoyed 80-90% of our smoothie combinations. Andrew would be closer to 50%. The kids drink whatever we give them a lot of the time (at least a little bit), but not all the time. I figure a mostly good smoothie isn’t worth…
#FunParent
This weekend wasn’t particularly out of the ordinary, but Andrew loaded up the normal moments with fun. I was impressed and loved joining in on the laugher. Andrew came home a little early on Friday afternoon. He was lying on the floor and Nathan ran to join him with a ball and said, “Up! Up!”…