Feb and March Mobile

I love, love it that my phone has a camera.  It's not the best camera, but it comes in SO handy because I usually always know where my phone is, so I can grab it for a quick picture whenever.  I love to use it for things like this:

taking a picture of my running grocery list on my whiteboard as I walk out the door to the store,

taking pictures of things to put on instagram and facebook, (have I put this cute profile ultrasound pic on the blog yet?  Here she is!)

taking a picture of something before I forget, (this hilarious paper Whitney brought home from school, where her phonetic spelling of blueberries made me and Eric think of "bloodbath" and laugh)

and take pictures randomly when I'm out somewhere and I don't have my camera!

Owen enjoying stomping in a slush puddle,

The literacy festival at the girls' school- each class performed.  Kate is in the top middle, all decked out.  They did a cute dance.

Owen taking a selfie!  And I didn't get a picture of Whitney on stage, but she was cute too.

At my cousin Laura's wedding reception.

Eric was on a campout with the scouts, but luckily Derek wanted to come with us!  Here he is with pegleg Owen!

And I really wanted a picture of me and the kids since we all looked so cute, but this was the best we could get!  You can kind of see my belly...

Gems Eric brought me back from the Topaz Mountain campout:

The ladder I made last fall, finally decked out as I imagined it!  Yay for Spring!!

And Owen's last nap in his crib- bittersweet!

March

Here are all the random things I took pictures of in the end of February/beginning of March:

the Cravens came to hang out for a few hours one day, and it was so fun!  Lydia is such a big girl, creating tea parties and everything!  

 But mostly the kids were enthralled with Ryder (sorry Katrina I didn't take the time to edit out the red eyes!!)  since we're expecting a baby and all.  He is ADORABLE.  and he loves me haha!

 Yay for cousins!  Katelyn did play with them too for a little while, she was good at making Lydia laugh but she's not too interested in babies. :)  Poor lonely oldest cousin!!  But she was fine up in her room reading, she didn't feel bad that there was no one her age, I just did!  But I guess that's what I get for marrying someone who's also the oldest in their family!

 Here is Owen in a sweater my Grandmom knitted for him, he's finally grown into it!

 a cool hairstyle I did on Katelyn one day...

 Owen's always like "mom, take a picture of me!" so here are a couple of those:

 And the momentous occasion arrived: Owen got a big boy bed!  The kids enjoyed helping Eric put it together.

 And I enjoyed putting together a quick quilt for it!  Seriously it was probably the fastest sewing project of my life!  I decided to do some simple strips, bought the fabric on Tuesday (tools, trucks, basketballs, and minky), cut it on Wednesday, sewed the top on Thursday and Friday, and since Eric suddenly decided to build the bed on Saturday, I spent most of the day Saturday quilting it so he could sleep with it that night!  I just did some big zig-zags down each strip to quilt it together, and used an old sheet for the back and trim.

 I was pretty sad to see the crib go- my baby is growing up!  and his last night in the crib I didn't even KNOW it was the last night!  So for his last nap I kept peeking in there to see him one more time and I realized how HUGE he was in that crib!  It was kind of sad too, he was excited about the new bed but when he woke up the first morning he cried for a while and kept saying we should go to the store and get him another crib!  I'm glad we didn't move the crib right into the baby's room at first, because he probably would have wanted to sleep in it still, or he would have been upset that she stole it from him or something!  (It's taken apart in the basement for now).  He's fine now but it took him a few days to get used to it, obviously, since he's had the crib his whole life, that's all he's ever known!  One night he came into our room crying 4 times, and a couple of times he has come out several times during nap time, but I think overall he's getting the hang of it and he's only fallen off a couple of times.

 The girls have been looking so cute for church lately, I really need to take a picture like every Sunday!  Here they are a couple of weeks ago:

 that day I did a special hairdo on Katelyn:  Anna's coronation day hairdo from the movie Frozen!  Her braid over the front was pretty small, but other than that it looked pretty good.  Thank you cutegirlshairstyles.com!

 And here's proof that I actually do DO Owen's hair- almost every day actually!  Any time we leave the house!  Apparently I only take pictures at home though, so his cute spiky hair never gets documented!

 St. Patrick's Day!  We had a treasure hunt made by a leprechaun and green waffles, and yes it is still dark outside!  It is light by the time I take the girls to the bus stop at 7:45, but this was at like 7:15am.

 Cutie Whitney in her green outfit

 Kate was annoyed because I made her unzip her jacket to take a picture of her green clothes haha, and Owen refused to wear green!

I finally finished sewing for my baby girl: 

a car seat cover so people will know it's a girl- since our car seat is green!

 New crib bumper that I LOVE!

 the other side- love the owls!

 and an awesome blanket for stroller rides/picnics/soccer games/laying on her floor etc. Her room already has green walls, so I went with hot pink, purple and green for all her stuff.  The blanket and crib bumper are minky/felt/cotton.

 And here's our little Newsie boy in this adorable outfit he got for Christmas from Grandma!!  I thought it was too big but tried it on and it fit!  He wore it once and now we're going to save it for Easter. :)

February

I keep thinking I have nothing to post about, but then I looked at my camera and saw all these pictures!  Boy am I glad I captured these moments so now I can save them!  Just a bunch of random stuff from February:

Owen in his "basketball clothes" he got for his birthday- he has to wear the whole ensemble together, it's hilarious.

 Whitney in the play dress I made for Katelyn.  I love to see her in all of Katelyn's old clothes, and now that we're having another girl we'll get to do it all again!

 The Olympic cake me and Owen made for Opening Ceremony night!

 Katelyn and Whitney helped with the frosting.  The kids actually enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies more than I thought they would!  We had the globe out and looked up each country as they came out, and the girls liked the big dance performances.  As for the actual Olympics, they watched some, but got bored of the skiing pretty quickly!  I enjoyed the snowboard cross and free skiing and of course short track speed skating.

 Eric took Owen to a BYU Basketball game, so cute.

 We did fun Valentine Heart hairdos for Valentine's Day!

 One day Whitney decided to make herself a salad for a snack, haha!  Her body must have been really needing those greens, she ate a lot of it!

 Owen has started looking at books on his own more, making up stories and songs to go along with them.

 We have been cleaning out a lot of junk in preparation to move my craft and sewing stuff and some toys to the basement, the rest of the toys into the new toy closet or the family room or Owen's room, the girls and all their STUFF down to the toy room, the crib and nursing couch into the girls' room, and the big brown chair and Owen's new bed into Owen's room.  Before the baby comes.  oh and we're finally going to finish the new bathroom (the shower and baseboards).  So anyway, the first step was de-junking the basement, and one project I did was go through and get rid of about half of my remaining teaching stuff.  This crate is all that made the cut!  I was just going to throw this away, because seriously I don't think I will be a full-time teacher again, and even if I was all this stuff is probably outdated!  But it ended up that Donny wanted to at least check out my lesson plans- skim through them for ideas.  (he'll be doing his student-teaching in the fall- History!)  That made me feel good, and I was able to pass them off to him and feel totally good about the end to my teaching career. :)

 Katelyn lost her 7th tooth in a funny way- the kids were out on the deck eating apples and suddenly Katelyn's yelling "mom! mom!" and she runs in with her mouth open and a handful of half-chewed apple--and a tooth!  It came out when she bit the apple, and it was funny because it wasn't even the tooth we thought was loose, it was the other side!  Once again the tooth fairy forgot to come, so she got paid double the second night! :)

More random pictures from March coming soon!

The points system- 5 weeks and going strong!

Thought I'd share the most effective and long-lasting reward/punishment system or chore chart or whatever that I've ever used!  It has blown anything else I've tried to do out of the water, since my other charts or systems have lasted about 3 days each.

I usually shy away from stuff like this because I don't like to keep track of things.  I don't like to take m'n'm's in and out of their jars or put stickers on constantly.  I just can't keep up with things that are too structured.  I haven't even organized any kind of official chores for my kids because I just can't handle it- I feel like every day is different so I need something flexible.

This points system was born on President's Day weekend.  We had a rough Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I was kind of dreading a long day Monday by myself with the kids.  Whitney was out of control with her constant name-calling, and time-outs were not proving to be effective in curbing her habit of hitting/kicking/injuring in some way all the members of our family.  I was having a hard time getting Katelyn to practice the piano, do any chores, or really do anything other than fight with Whitney or read.  

I was thinking and praying on Sunday night about how to survive the next day with the kids, and really, how to make some positive changes in our house.  And this was one of the rare times when I felt truly LED in a certain direction in parenting.  I mean, I feel help from heaven every time I ask, but usually it's just peace and comfort or a calming influence that helps me have more patience or know what to say.  But this time the basis for this points system kind of jumped into my mind, and as I expanded on it I kept feeling good about it.  I talked to Eric and felt good about it.  And when I tried it the next day it was an instant success!  But I really didn't think it would last longer than a week or two- I definitely thought the girls would stop caring about it or I would get sick of it, but that hasn't happened yet!  I'm sure it eventually will, but for now, we are enjoying a very effective reward system! We still have huge problems with attitude that keep me up worrying at night, but our house is generally cleaner and we have at least a few less behavior problems than we used to.

So here's how it works.
Every day the girls have to earn 10 points.  If they do this the reward is a fun bedtime: they get a treat and get to have Dad read Harry Potter to them.  (We are on the 5th book.)
When they have earned a point they go put a magnet on their paper (which is in the kitchen on the door to the garage).  I love that I don't have to keep track of it- they do it themselves.  I do reserve the right to get an accounting of what they've put points on for that day if I'm skeptical about what they've gotten.
My favorite part of this system is the flexibility of what equals a point.  A few examples:
homework, piano practice, making their bed, reading practice(the easiest point Katelyn gets every day), doing any kind of chore, sitting in their chair and having good manners at dinner,  being reverent during Family Home Evening, exercising (so they get a point for going to Tumbling class)......
On school days they also get points for going to school, since they aren't home all day to earn points here.  Katelyn gets 4 and Whitney gets 3 because she's not there as long.
I have also given points for things like: playing nicely with your sister for a long time, playing with/taking care of Owen while I make dinner, being good at the store or during visiting teaching, etc.  Basically any good thing they do can be turned into points.  But usually they do end up doing a couple of chores every day, which is great!  I love that some of their favorite chores to do are ones I do not enjoy, because it helps me get them done: Whitney's most common chore choice is unloading the dishwasher, and Katelyn likes to clean the bathroom for some reason, which is awesome!  Owen doesn't have to earn points yet, but he occasionally will do something to earn one.  Mostly he does chores whenever he wants a fruit snack or extra juice- he'll clean his room or put away the kid dishes or help me sweep or cook for that!
So here's the punishment part of it.  If the girls hurt each other or call names I take away a point, and they can get it back by doing something nice for the person they hurt.  That's the theory anyway- taking away points has been a very emotional thing for Whitney.  She freaks out and throws a fit that keeps her from being able to earn it back very quickly.  Luckily the threat of loosing points has been enough to keep her from doing things very often.  lately though I've been a little lax- like if Katelyn complains that Whitney hit her but then Whitney says "she hit me first!", I usually just split them up and try to distract them with something else because I figure they are even.  But I need to still take away the point from them both so they both have to do something nice!  Their petty fights are just exhausting.  And so often Katelyn has bugged Whitney to no end before Whitney finally snaps and hurts her that I feel like she deserved what she got and I don't want to punish Whitney!  I know I still need to though, I can't allow violence to be the solution to problems in our house.
And while violence and name-calling have decreased this last month, I think I need to start focusing on the whining, yelling, and attitude problems that are cropping up.  But since those often are a conflict between a child and ME, maybe I need to have a points system too, so if I yell or get snippy/attitude-y with them I loose a point too and I have to do something nice to make up for it if I want my treat at night. :)
I don't know.
But I'm really happy I found something that motivates Whitney, and somewhat Katelyn, to do a few more good things.