If life gives you ice . . .

. . .then make icicles. Ephraim is always begging to do crafts. So, I looked in my Family Fun Magazines and found two ideal crafts--we had the items in the house, so they were free to make. First, we were making a giant icicle to hang outside. We started by making ice cubes with water and food coloring. When they were frozen, we added them to a pan of water and froze that (with a fruit cup in toward the top, for a hole for hanging). Once frozen, we took it out and hung it up outside.

Our second craft is a trial run of what we might do for Valentine's day. We made birdseed ornaments in the shape of hearts. We mixed bird seed, a little flour and water and then patted that down in the heart shaped pan. Bake for 1hour at 170 degrees. Oh, and put a straw in the seed for a hole for the ribbon to hang. Bake it with the straw.

Visit Family Fun Magazine for more ideas.

And now for a random picture of Emmet . . .

He was determined to wait up for Ephraim on Wednesday night since Ephraim had Boy's Club at church. Well, he was laying on the couch with his bath towel on his head because he was cold. And then apparently he decided that his pillow served more of a purpose on his legs than for his head. Need I say more . . . there really is never a dull moment in our house.

Cash and Coupons

First, a random picture of the kids in front of our "Growth Board" where we record their height and age.

Second, a note about coupons. I didn't use to clip coupons. I was quite content with store or generic brand items until . . . Hy-Vee ran a sale on General Mills cereal this fall. I just happened to read the store flyer about the deal, scrounged up a few coupons online and got my General Mills cereal for $.50 a box! I was hooked after that! And let's not mention that I took advantage of that General Mills deal 3 times in 2 days. We go through a lot of cereal so I don't feel guilty about doing that. I started a coupon organizer for free with things I had around the house. It's a 3-ring, zippered binder with photo album pages to hold my coupons.

Now, I'm getting coupons from family, friends, co-workers and from a coupon collection tote at church. I could easily end up with 5 or 6 coupons for a certain product and then I hold it until the item goes on sale. That's when it's time to stock up. I have listed a few of my favorite coupon sites on the right hand side of my blog. And I'm always adding more or looking for more. Just the other day we got Frosted Flakes for $.49/box.

On another money note, I've started the boys with chores and they can earn commission. This is the style of Dave Ramsey. Visit his site.
Their chores range from picking up toys to making their bed to loading/unloading the dishwasher, putting away laundry, etc. I'm hoping to add/delete different chores as their ages change and as some of these become second nature. I'm really pleased with the response from the boys so far. Ephraim saw me folding laundry and right away started helping. And just this morning, I was in the shower and Emmet comes in the bathroom to tell me that he set the table for breakfast! They can also earn rewards for good behavior (helping, sharing) and the rewards include computer time, movie and popcorn night, baking a snack, trip to the library, etc. Mostly, non-monetary things.

They can also lose their commission or rewards by fighting, complaining, etc.


With their money, they have to divide it three ways: Giving, Spending and Saving. They give 10%, get to spend 50% and save 40%. The items they are saving for are also posted on the fridge. Ephraim is saving for a DVD from Discovery Channel and Emmet is saving for the new Toy Story Legos. They both cost about $25. If the boys work hard they might be able to order their items by late spring. Their commission for chores is only $.05 for each job and $.10 for a few things that only happen once a week, like change their sheets. They might make $2/week but they have to split that three ways. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how things are progressing.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

First, a few pictures from Wednesday's ice storm.

We were one of the lucky ones to have our power on the whole time.
Grandpa Arlin built a tunnel a few weeks ago in a snow drift. Here is Emmet trying it out.

Eliza jumped right in and crawled through (with her stuffed puppy, too).

On the drift . . .

Under the drift, sledding through. That's Emmet.

Eliza, not to be left out.

And Ephraim.

Where's a picture of Eden, you ask? Here . .

Ask her if she's having fun and the answer will be "No."

Ask her if she wants to go inside and the answer will be "No."

Last Saturday we had the chance to go sledding with some friends. This was no ordinary bunny hill for sledding!

On Eden's second trip down the hill, Emmet crashed into her and she was done for the rest of the afternoon. The picture of Seth and Eden below is how she spent the afternoon--on someone's lap watching the action! Eliza on the other hand was sledding down the hill very fast on her own!

Ephraim trying to snowboard. And Seth trying to snowboard.

Ahhh, yes. The 4-wheeler to take us back to the top of the hill. This is Tim, Sevanna and Ephraim.

Emmet, getting cold and ready to go. A picture of Ephraim with the fast sled. You can kind of see in this picture how long the hill was.

Playing in the snow at home. Eliza and Emmet in their fort.

I'm pretty sure that the boys are the workers and Eliza is supervising.

Grandpa gets a "new" tractor!

Taking it for a drive.

Now that's a meatball!

We've never done a show like this before and I was able to get discount tickets as a State employee, so we surprised the boys with Curious George Live! We had a great time with friends Michelle and Becca, although we were sad that Micah was sick and had to stay home :(


Ephraim with George at the gift shop stand. Ephraim is kind of pouting that he didn't get to buy something.

In our seats--plenty early!

Our view--we were the 2nd row in the balcony.

The show started at 2pm, which is usually Emmet's quiet time. He was kind of sleepy through some of the performance.

George finds himself on an airplane headed to Rome to enter Chef Pisghetti's meatballs in the Golden Meatball Contest. The show was a musical with lots of songs and the actors were great!

The boys enjoyed this time and so did we. It really was a special treat since we haven't done something like this before and probably won't for a while. As you can imagine, I did take more pictures of the performance . . . just email me if you're bored and want to see them.

Happy 2010!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with some friends, although we did not stay awake long enough to usher in 2010.



A rousing game of Clue Jr.

Whose idea was it to give 9 kids noisemakers? :)

Even the little ones had noisemakers and could make them work!
We don't always know what the year has in store for us, but we know who has our future planned. We pray that you will experience God's blessings and guiding hand this year. We hope to make the best of what we've been given!