Went to lunch with these two girlies...

 The boys and I went to lunch and had Pizza! It was fun and I learned something new about each of the girls. Violet loves to go outside and play so she has very little on her plate, the bare minimums and then eats them as fast as she can and then runs outside to play. She was trying to be polite by staying in a while but then to her relief I told her she could go outside. 

Shell however sits with her two bestest friends and introduces me to them and then has not only pizza but a salad, some fruit and to my amazement she even loves cherry tomatoes ( I didn't know she liked them!) She eats her food slowly and enjoys lots of fun conversation with her friends.

I learned lots today about my two girls!

My Twins!

Look at these two, they look so much alike that if they were even close to the same age people might think that they are twins. My two red headed girls look alike and because they are close in age, People think that they are twins. These two even have similar personalities, they are both very sensitive, demand attention and if they don't get it they throw fits, they are both strong willed etc. We love them both very much! Lately EB has been acting up a lot  and doing little naughty things so I thought maybe he just needs more attention. So I tried reading to him, showing more attention etc. Nothing has been working! I had the impression today while we were happily making sandwiches together that I had hurt his feelings somehow, so I asked him if I had hurt his feelings and he said yes and I appologized and gave him a hug and ever since then he's been the best kid! He even came out to greet JR at the bus and gave him a big hug, he's never done that. So I thought about what I could have done to hurt his feelings and the thought came to me that geliousy with JR might be the reason, but all he needed was an "I'm sorry," and a hug, how simple, that's why Jesus says become as a little child. 

JR's Amazing New Chart..

 JR has amazing Preschool teachers and we love them! I was venting one day to his preschool teacher about when I would get the time to make him a chart for home, because he uses one at preschool all the time and I knew it would be helpful for him at home too but when do I have the time to make him one, Never! So she said that she would make him one for home and all I had to do was make a list for her. He came home with it yesterday and it has been a huge blessing! He immediately started using it and put his own coat, shoes and backpack away, it was great, he was so proud of himself! He has a hard time transitioning from thing to thing and he throws fits, but if we show him what comes next and point to the picture, he's ok and doesn't throw fits and he feels empowered, it works like a charm;)

She works hard for her money!

I love that she loves to help her daddy with work stuff and earn a little money too! It's so nice that Sloane has things for them to do to earn money because we don't pay them for doing their chores. I have a couple of reason's why I don't pay them: 

Reason #1: I knew a family that payed their children for doing chores and then when they became teenagers and got jobs they stopped doing their chores or became really lazy at them and told their parents that made more at their jobs, so why do them.

Reason #2 (my favorite reason): We don't believe in paying our children to be part of our family, because we all make messes. 

 I made this decision a long time ago when I was a teenager watching other families and comparing because I didn't have younger siblings to compare to.

 I love our children and that they are all hard workers, I feel so blessed!:)

I did nothing today...

Ok so I would normally not blog about what I do for the day but since I am doing this "Challenge," I will! I did something extraordinary today, I did nothing...well I never do just nothing but I didn't clean, I didn't exercise(but I will later), I didn't do anything but, give kisses, cuddle, rock my baby wipe runny noses, get bottle after bottle, changed lots of diapers, wipe bums, watched Lilo and Stitch for the hundredth time, tried to feed my very picky eater and then watched as he refused the banana I was trying to feed him(which he normally loves) and prefer to eat crumbs off the floor, answered emails and texts, talked to a friend and to my mom and took a shower, ok I did do something.  All I have to say is it's exhausting doing nothing, maybe I will do nothing again tomorrow!;)

Faith of a child...

Yesterday as we were driving home from getting groceries at Winco, our van started acting up. We were kinda far and all the way down in Eagle and the van wasn't going very fast at all. I was worried that we wouldn't make it up the big hill in Eagle so the kids said a prayer and it was a good prayer too! We made it up the hill but we had to put on my hazard lights but we made it. Then of course all those thoughts ran through my head of how much I depend on this vehicle and how we need it to work to fit all our children in the car, ect. Well needless to say we made it home, barely and I had my hazards on the whole way home because I couldn't get it up past 35 or 40 miles an hour and it would shimmy a little, it just wouldn't go. Then when I got home I turned it off and Sloane then jumped into the van and drove it around the block to see what was wrong with it, he came back and said "What's wrong with it again?" Apparently what ever was wrong with it had stopped. So the faith of my two little girls had made our prayers answered. I am so grateful for children, you truly can learn from them.

We made it back!

Sloane and I took a quick buisness trip to Idaho Falls and Hired Erin Ferris, our good friends daughter Who is 19 to watch the kids. Yes, she even watched our precious baby! She is such a good baby that we weren't worried and Erin did fantastic. She is pretty amazing to be able to handle all eight children and the house was in one piece too! She even handled getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby and getting up early this morning, that's the hard part about watching them all, getting up in the middle of the night and then Danny boy waking you up at 6:30 or 7:00 and is sometimes cranky, which makes me cranky sometimes and then to top it off he's a picky eater!! Good job Erin, you did fantastic!!
Sloane and I had a great time going out to dinner with his associates and then we went back to his amazing 6 thousand square foot home and stayed up late talking and he kept making me Hot chocolate and making me laugh at how much whip cream he would pile on top of it, it was too funny!  Then Sloane and I stayed up really late and watched TV, that was fun. Then he was generous enough to let us stay the night. It was a fun little get away, thanks honey:)