Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving in Duchesne with Ben's family this year. Sean wasn't there, JD and Maegan both got sick suddenly, and Sunny had to work so it was a small group. Sarah and I worked all afternoon on Wednesday making pies. They were delicious. We just lounged around and had fun the rest of the week with our families. Ben went four-wheeling with Andrew and fishing with Grant, we all went shooting (yes, even me!), we played games, and laughed till our sides hurt at youtube videos. We also went and saw New Moon finally and we made homemade hot chocolate for Christmas gifts. All in all, it was one great weekend. Thanks Sarah for letting us steal your room!

Parenting is like a garden.

Yay for me! I finally got my paper done. Once I sat down and actually started thinking, it went pretty fast. I can now enjoy my Thanksgiving break without having that looming over me.

So my idea was... Parenting is like a garden, the children are the plants. The sun is like time and attention from parents. Children needs lots of good quality attention like plants need lots of good quality sun. Shade is the break from parents or the need to not be constantly hovering over children. The soil is like good communication. Fertilizers added to the soil are like extracurricular activities and church involvement. The roots are based on the give and take from parents to child and child to parents. A good stake to help support the plant is like a good parenting style or authoritative parenting. Water is like rituals and traditions within the family, both on a daily basis and with holidays and special events. The consistency of water, soil, and sun is likened to the consistency of attention, communication, and rituals for children. Weather is like struggles children go through. When they are young, it is good to coach them through struggles but constantly "saving" them from their problems will make them weak and unable to weather life's storms. Basically gardening is a journey and if it's done well, the rewards are great and lessons are learned. Just like a garden, parenting is lots of hard work but well worth the effort. That is a very brief synopsis of my paper. Sorry I just had to share, I thought the assignment was really quite interesting once I started doing it and maybe a little fun. Haha.

Have I mentioned I miss our garden?

Metaphoric Family What?

So I am in this balancing work and family class and I have only one more assignment left to do and I am finished. Only problem is... I really really really don't want to do it. I am almost considering not doing it at all and taking a lower grade in the class and that is not like me at all! That is how bad I really don't want to do this. So I am turning to my blogging friends to help me here.

The assignment is... Create a metaphoric family framework, based upon the information presented in class. List important concepts that affect parents, and tools, social supports that parents can use to make decisions about child and family outcomes. This assignment is meant to be a fun and creative way for you to start to conceptualize your individual parenting theory. Fun and creative!?? Sounds like torture to me.

Her example was Parenting is like a boot. The tread is like bidirectionality in the parent-child relationship. Just like as a boot travels through mud - leaving an imprint, taking some dirt along with - a bidirectional relationship addresses the idea that parental interactions with their child is driven by the give and take of conversation.

So okay then, makes perfect sense right? I really need some help here. What is parenting like? I suggested straight jacket but Ben didn't think it would be a good idea. :) I could come up with a really great metaphor for this whole class but we won't go there. HELP!

New look

After much tribulation... I have successfully waded through the abyss of html code and figured out how to make my blog have three columns! Yay! So welcome to the new look of my blog. The amazing part of this whole thing is that I managed to not throw my computer out a window while doing it. :)

Randomness

With two little kids running around this house, you're bound to find some randomness. Lately it seems to be happening more frequently.
Exhibit 1:

I don't know what is going on in this picture, all I know is that Andrew insisted it stay that way for the whole day.
Exhibit 2:

I thought crayons were non-perishable.
Exhibit 3:

I walked into the backroom to find all of my food storage rearranged on this stool. Apparently the food storage is in time out.
Exhibit 4:

I had these socks, shirt, and underwear folded on my bed at one point, not stuffed in the diaper bag.

I actually caught the culprit of the food storage rearrangement in action. That smile could get anyone out of trouble.

So You Think You Can Dance

We went to So You Think You Can Dance last Saturday and it was awesome! I told Ben next time he has to come. It made me miss my old days of dancing. :( I got to see most of my favorite dances (the addiction dance and the wade robson dance or the battlefield dance or the hip hop dance okay I loved them all!). I also got to see my favorite dancers Janette and Brandon. My sister took pics but most of them are blurry so here is a pic of everyone that went in my family and a pic of the breast cancer dance, another favorite.


I am so excited for this season, if only I had tv...

Vacuums...

So a friend of mine posts stuff that she is learning in her classes every week or so and I think it's an awesome idea. I am learning so much in school that I just want to burst at the seams sometimes to spread the knowledge. Hehe. Not only that but it helps me retain my knowledge to share it. Soo... with that said. Today's post is on (drum roll please...) VACUUMS! Yeah that's right. For my consumer and the market class we are learning about comparison shopping. Basically knowing how to be an informed shopper. My project, which consisted of: research at three stores, internet searches, consumer reports searches, talking with family and friends, a seven page paper, two graphs, and a ten minute presentation with handouts(phew!) was on VACUUMS. So... from my project I learned about lots of different vacuums. The one I picked is the Hoover Windtunnel Platinum Anniversary for just 160$. It rated extremely well on Consumer Reports and other consumer guides and it was cheap. It also was relatively quiet and lightweight. It had great suction and was easy to move around. So if you are in the market for a good vacuum, there you have it. I also liked the Eureka Smart Vac for 170$. Eureka seems to be a more reliable brand but this vacuum was louder and heavier than the Hoover. If you have a lot of money I recommend the Hoover Lightweight bagged for 400$. It rated number one but was out of my price range.

The main thing I learned from this assignment is that... Consumer Reports is awesome! I definitely recommend using this magazine for all your big purchases. Often the items you think are quality are actually rated quite low. For instance- I have wanted a Rowenta iron for some time now, they just look fancy and they are expensive. I looked it up and it actually rated very low. I chose one for 30$ that rated much better. Perhaps many of you already use it and I am just learning about it but nevertheless, its awesome. So there is a tidbit into what I am learning right now. Happy Shopping!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I am back-tracking a little because I have been so crazy busy with school I haven't had time to keep up with blogging. Andrew was Peter Pan this year, made from a little green felt and two 3XL mens shirts at Walmart for a dollar each. Yeah that is creativity people. Haha. Olivia was tinkerbell. She hated her wings and her skirt but besides that she loved her costume... so basically the green wand and green shirt. I made broccoli soup in bread bowls for dinner, yum. My grandma used to always make soup for Halloween so I try to make soup every year too. Ben got home late so we didn't get out trick or treating until dark but Andrew had a good time.


Olivia was pretty grumpy so we just took her to a few houses. She had a hard time letting go of the candy in her hand to get new candy. Andrew absolutely loved it. He told us to stand back on the sidewalk so he could go up and ring the door bell by himself and say "Trick or treat!" It was so adorable. My baby is growing up! As we walked along he would say, "Lights off. They can't give me candy, huh Mom." And after we got done at the houses he would say, "Thank you for standing back mom." Haha. It was so fun watching him this year. I am already excited for next year.


These were his goods! Check out that huge grin.

Only in Logan...

Does it go from this...


To this... in about a week.


Please stay for a little longer Sunshine! I am not ready for winter.

Pumpkin Walk

We went to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk for the first time this year. It was pretty fun. Here are some pics...

Livy waiting for the bus

Andrew in the scene "Where the wild things are" He looks confused and Ben is not so good at the ducking thing... :)

Andrew playing on the Star Wars scene.

Check out the huge giraffe behind Andrew

This was my favorite scene, a little veggie garden. Maybe I am just wishing I had a real garden this year.

Ben makes one good looking Cinderella. The line was too long for Genie from Aladdin.

This is for my grandpa.

Olivia was exhausted when we got done.