They're trying to SINK me!

I signed up Sabrina and Roderic for swimming lessons at BSU this summer on the recommendation from a few friends. Roderic was placed in level 1, which was good for him. He was so stiff, wouldn't do "bobs", tried to have a death grip on his teachers when they were working with him, etc. After the second day, he came home saying, "They're trying to sink me!" His teachers called him "Roady" - a nickname Roderic liked, but only coming from them. I am not EVER supposed to call him that. By the end of the 3 weeks, he did "bobs" at the start of the lessons, and wasn't nearly as stiff when the teachers would help him float and do strokes.

Sabrina was in level 4. She worked on several strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breast stroke, sidestroke. She improved a lot over the 3 weeks of lessons. She would still like to work on her dive, and butterfly stroke (they only did that one on the last day). She said it was a lot of fun to play water polo on the last day of class.




We'll be doing lessons from them again next year, for sure!

Sew Fun

Sabrina needed a new dress. We picked out fabric and made it. Unfortunately, the size I made for her is a bit on the small side. In fact, I discovered that it would not be possible for her to be able to put it on if I sewed the sleeves, so it's sleeveless. And, it is short - knee length. Needless to say, we'll be passing it on to some friends soon. (We've already purchased some new fabric to make the larger size.)

Gibby Midway Invasion

At the end of June, we took a quick trip to Midway, UT, nestled in the mountains on the East side of the Wasatch Mountains, to spend some time with Ryan's family. We ate good food, played mini-golf, played giant chess, slept in the closet (Roderic's idea), rode the Alpine Slide and Alpine Coaster in Park City, and had a lot of fun.

Searching for a Star!

When I heard that our local music store (Dunkley Music) was having a music contest last month, I got excited about having Sabrina enter it so she could have a recording of her playing her violin. After a few hours of thinking that way, I realized that I was wanting to push her into this because I wish I had recordings of ME when I was younger. (Once again trying to relive my childhood through my children.) So then the wheels started turning in my brain. I called my friend Fe' and asked her if she'd be my accompanist (she said YES!). I called Dunkley's to schedule a time and find out more about the contest. Each contestant got 1 hour in their recording studio (recital hall), a blank CD to lay down track and a chance to win one of 6 $50 Gift Certificates.

I prepared "American Lullaby" by Gladys Rich, since I sing it so often to my children. When I went, I brought along a book of Broadway musical songs to sing and record (like it was going to take a full hour to record a song well enough to be judged).

In order to post it here, I've put the song to a photo slide show of my 3 babies - from birth to age 1. They look a lot alike.



I have received news that I did not win one of the gift certificates. I know I will enjoy the CD I recorded immensely for years to come. Oh, and I'll be preparing even more songs for next year's contest. I need more than just 3 songs performed by me on a CD.

Set the table = White Token

My parents gave us "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. I liked a lot of what he said, in fact I'd been doing quite a bit of it. What intrigued me was commission for kids. We were counseled by our bishop several years ago to provide a way for our kids to be able to learn the law of tithing. So we started to give an allowance that they could then pay tithing on. Except it felt like they were paying tithing on money that we were already paying tithing on. It wasn't their increase.

After learning all about Dave Ramsey's commission system, I made up a chart for each of the kids - at first I didn't include one for Hyrum because he is only 2, but after a month of watching Roderic and Sabrina earn tokens, he wanted to be included.



We pay the kids as they do their work in tokens (poker chips) and then once a month we have banking day where we exchange their tokens for cash. The kids get different amounts of money for their tokens. For example, Sabrina: White token $0.15, Red token $0.30, Blue token $0.60. Roderic and Hyrum: White token $0.10, Red token $0.20, Blue token $0.40. (Doesn't that sound like the money list in the Book of Mormon (Alma 11), except we don't have a token that is worth the sum of them all!)

Everyone who helps with the task earns a token, regardless of when in the process they join. (See Matthew 20:1-15) We want the family to work together. And when it works, it is wonderful! Work gets done together; the kids know what we want them to do; they are able to have money to spend and save.

Thank you Krazy Coupon Lady!

In case it's not apparent, we have train enthusiasts lovers in our house, and have wanted to take them on a train ride with Thunder Mountain RR in Banks, ID for some time. The cost has kept us from pursuing this. Enter my new find of Krazy Coupon Lady's blog and we got to go for cheap! Thank you KCL! All I had to do was tell Ryan about it and he called up and made reservations for our family.

We drove up to Horseshoe Bend after a rainy morning garage sale and to enjoy the Wild West Train ride. There were some actors who were playing the Hatfields and McCoys on their way to become rich in Idaho gold mines. It was entertaining. My boys just loved walking on the moving train -- no menacing seat belts or restrictive car seats here!

they made me pose with the gun

Fire Station Tour

Remember when the firefighters were in our neighborhood doing checks on the fire hydrants and they invited us to come up and tour the fire station any time?

Well, I took them up on that offer for Roderic's 5th birthday party! The kids got to see where the firefighters eat, sleep, exercise, relax AND climb in the fire engine! The firefighters gave them all helmets and Jr Firefighter badges. Even better was that the firefighters remembered these boys from their hydrant checks. Totally cool!

Roderic was really excited to see his birthday couch when he first woke up.

I made 2 fire engine cakes for his birthday. They were yummy, although all of us decided that we don't like pull-apart cherry twizzlers (I used them for the hoses and windows on the fire engines).