Food Show

While Brayden was out of school I took the girls to Josh's annual food show. We all LOVED walking around eating all the samples (think Costco X 100!) 

2 Months!

I can't believe 2 months has gone by!!! Brielle is growing so fast and is still such a good baby. Her reflux is the only challenge we've had. It is much worse than any of the other kids. I've even had to cut out chocolate, tomatoes, garlic, etc. bc they really bother her :( Here are her stats:

10.2 lbs (40%)

22.25" (50%)

She is sleeping GREAT!!! I've always had good sleepers, but only because I have done a lot of sleep training. This little girl has done it all on her own! She now sleeps about 8-10 hrs through the night before eating and sleeping for a couple more. She takes one 45 min nap in the morning, one 20 min nap in the evening, and one awesome 4 hr nap in the afternoon! She has great head control, as she is always wanting to be up looking around. We love you Brielle!

Final Dance Recital

Brooklyn has loved dance this year. She continues to dance all over our house...the other mom's at swim lessons kept commenting on her perfectly pointed toes while swimming. She had her final dance recital. She was adorable and we are excited for next year!!!

New Haircut

A few months ago I saw a little girl at Mcdonalds with the cutest haircut. Ever since then I've wanted to cute Brooklyn's hair. Her hair is SO thick that it is just in knots every morning. And since her senses are extra sensitive, we end up fighting every day while I do her hair. When I spray her hair with a spray bottle she cries that it is "itching" her skin. So I finally took her to Cookie Cutters to do it. We are loving it! It's hard for me not to be able to put bows in her hair like I used to, but she loves it! And I love it!

Chore Sticks

It seems like every 6-9 months it's time to come up with a new chore chart/system. It helps get us all excited again to do chores, and it helps to create a new system as they get older and can handle a more complex system. I've been slacking the past few months so I knew it was time to come up with something new. I searched and searched for weeks looking at all the different chore charts on Pinterest and the ones I found through google. I saw the chore sticks and really liked how easy they were. After 3 weeks of planning and organizing how I wanted it, this is what I came up with:

The sticks were easy to paint. I just used a foam brush and painted about 1 1/2-2 inches on the end. The jars were empty plastic containers that had juice packets in them from Walmart. I used a razor blade to cute about 2 inches off of them. Then I modge podged paper onto them and added ribbon.

I don't like the idea of giving my kids money for each chore they do. I want my kids to learn that they are responsible to help out bc they live here and are a member of the family. I don't want them to feel entitled to getting money every time I ask them to do something. I also don't want to just give them money. They need to earn it by working and doing extra chores. So each of my 3 kids have their own color...blue, pink, or purple. Every day they have about 3 chores in their color that they have to do (bedroom, 2 rooms on the main floor, and one extra chore. The extra chores were specific to the day...Mon-empty garbages, Tues-gather dirty laundry, Wed-bathrooms, Thurs-empty garbages, Fri-mom's choice.)

After they do their colored chores, they can put them in their own "done jars"- the one's with their names on them. Then they can pick 2 yellow sticks. These ones they can do for .25 each. I walked around my house and wrote down any random thing that could be done 1-2 times a week. Some of our money chores include making mom's bed, cleaning the sliding door, vacuum under the couch cushions, mop kitchen floor, vacuum stairs, empty dishwasher, dust entry table, etc. and then there are a bunch of mom's choice sticks. That way they could do things that are needed to be done right then. The first 1-2 weeks I did most of these with them to help teach them how to do the chores. Now they know how to do all of them on their own. I'm surprised how much they are able to do on their own...even clean a bathroom! It's great and it's nice that I don't have to be doing everything. When they are done with each chore they put them in their "done jar."

When one of the kids is naughty, they pick a chore from the green naughty jar. These chores are the same ones as the yellow money chores, but they don't get paid for them. It's amazing the difference their attitude is depending on if they are doing a yellow or green chore. I love that they are happy while they are doing their money chores.

On Friday or Saturday we count up how much they earned during the week. I try to keep it around $2.50...which is 10 quarters. They put 1 quarter in their tithing jar, 4 in their spend jar, and 5 in their save jar. I'm running out of quarters so we'll start using dollar bills. I think $10 a month for a 2, 4, and 6 yr old is plenty. They love saving their money, and then I let them use their spending money on anything they want...even if it's a waste. They have learned that not everything they want is worth buying. I bought these money jars from the Dollar Tree.

So far the kids love it and they are doing great. Their rooms have never stayed clean this long, and we are getting things done that haven't been done in months...baseboards, cupboards, organizing drawers, etc. 

Brielle's Blessing

We woke up early to finish getting all that we needed done in the yard and with the food. We made it to church at 1. Josh did such a wonderful job giving her a beautiful blessing. Brielle was quiet and content the whole time. She looked beautiful in her dress and the kids were great as well. After sacrament meeting we headed back to the house for the luncheon. We were able to relax and spend the rest of the day visiting with family and friends. We sure love you Brielle!

It was pretty windy, but the tents we had help up quite well. That is until the end when one gush of wind took out this tent and 3 of the poles snapped. Bummer.

The picture doesn't do justice to this gorgeous dress. She looked so pretty!

Hanging With Grandma

Grandma took a break from helping us plant our garden and hung out with Brielle. She loves being outside and she loves being on the swing. Thanks grandma for all your help!!!