Amanda's Blog

We made it to the final prize for Landon getting all his marbles!!! (If that sentence doesn’t make any sense to you, you may want to check out this previous post!)   He finally moved his last marble over to the “good” jar!!!   (Tuesday night might have been the only night we had this week for him to go swimming, so maybe Josh and I rigged it a little…maybe.)  He was so proud when the jar was empty that he immediately said, “Mommy, take a picture of me with my jar!”  And of course, Brooke and Austin weren’t going to let the picture happen without them, so here you have the three of them with the jars.  (And before you ask…No, I do not pose like Brooke in pictures…she didn’t learn it from me!  Ha!).

They had a great time swimming at the YZM (as Landon calls it).  As you can see from the picture below, Landon decided to take Austin and Brooke along.  At one time, he agreed that we could all go, but only him and daddy could swim and the rest could watch:)  That wasn’t an option, so he opted for them swimming with him.  Caleb and I opted for staying home (well actually I opted for staying home and Caleb really didn’t care), which was like a reward for me because I got a quiet house for a little while!!

The swim was pretty uneventful, unless you take into account the super swimmer that was doing 25 laps in the pool, so Josh spent his time pulling children and toys from his path and the man that gave Josh the “look” after getting hit in the eye with water from our super-sonic water shooter. (Thankfully, it wasn’t one of our kids that shot it, just a girl that Josh had let borrow it…pretty funny that Josh still got the “look”!) Ha!

They really did have a great time and made some new friends, too!  Thanks to an awesome dad that isn’t afraid to venture out with three young ones to the Y alone for a nice swim!!!

I got this great idea from a deals blog that I follow, Hip2Save.  I love this site and there is no telling how much it has saved us. (Josh may think it has cost us b/c I do tend to get wrapped up in a good deal, even when I don’t need it, but I choose to focus on the savings:)  Anyhow, I found this cute idea for time capsule ornaments, and I am so excited about doing them every year (well, at least we did the first year; we will have to see if I even remember or find time to do it next year…ha!)  They were really kid friendly, too!

All you need are some plastic ornaments that will open up (I got mine from oriental trading),

 paper to write on to put inside (we used cut up tissue paper so it would be prettier),stickers to decorate the outside, a picture of your child, and ribbon to make it prettier and hang it on the tree.

The instructions are simple…write the kids favorite memory on the paper and put them inside the ornament.  Then you can decorate the outside however you or your child would like.  We chose to put their names and ages in stickers. (If I weren’t so OCD, I would have let them put the stickers on themselves…but I really wanted them to be straight…I did let Austin do his own, but only with thorough instruction on how to get it perfectly  almost centered:)

I have plans to put a picture of each child in the ornament soon sometime!  It may go the way of all the other picture ornaments that I have bought since having 2 or more children (why do they have to make the frames such odd sizes!!!).  You are now ready to put a pretty ribbon through the hole at the top of the ornament (don’t know what that is called…) and hang it on your tree!!

I look forward to doing this every year (I hope) and then looking at their favorite things/firsts from each year as we decorate the tree each year.  This was also a very inexpensive craft and as I mentioned before, the kids loved it!!  We also used the plastic ornaments and supplies to just make pretty ones to put on the tree or give as small gifts.  It was fun to get creative with these.

Oh, and here is what Caleb did during the ornament making:)

As you read this blog, you will quickly learn that my third child, Landon, is quite the character!!  He is three years old and FULL of life!

So, after adding the fourth child, Caleb, we decided to try a new strategy to encourage and reward good behavior.  We started using marbles…it’s really quite simple.  We put 25 marbles in a mason jar, then labeled a second mason jar as “Good.” (I know you are thinking how creative that is! Ha!)  The object is that he gains a marble in the “good” jar when he is particularly well-behaved or when he doesn’t listen or obey, he has to move a marble from the “good” jar back to the original jar.

Now, one would think that the process of moving 25 marbles would be a fairly quick task, especially since the end reward is a swimming date with daddy at the YMCA (or YZM as Landon calls it).  However, for a FULL of life boy, this has proven to be a fairly slow task that has taken over 2 months!  (That is not a typo…I meant to write 2 months!!!)  We have had  A LOT of marble moving over the last two months…even a few times where he puts a marble in the “good” jar and takes it right back out without dropping it!  (I did mention he is a FULL of life boy, right??)  It’s been pretty funny to hear the constant refrain at our house, “Do you want to lose your marble?”…(I think I have lost a few along the way:)

Well, we are FINALLY pleased to announce that as of tonight, he only has one marble left!!!  He is so proud.  On the way home from church tonight, as we were discussing this, he says, “I am going to try to not go backwards anymore.”:)  So, maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will be the day that we finally get all his marbles in the “good” jar!!! (We did spend about a week going between 4 and 6 marbles left, so only time can tell:)

Here is a picture of him with his almost EMPTY jar of marbles…

The end prize of swimming with daddy was meant to be a solo date for him if he would so choose.  However, we have learned that his brother, Austin, is pretty persuasive and has convinced Landon that swimming without him and Brooke would be no fun, so they have now conned their way into the reward…

Well, I am finally sitting down to write my first blog post, EVER!!!  I am excited, nervous, and…confused.  My technology-loving husband has just given me the short version (actually he wanted to give me the long version, but I insisted on the short) on how to use WordPress.

I have enjoyed reading mommy blogs for quite a while.  I learn a lot from other moms and enjoy sharing in the everyday life of others, via blogging (mainly because I rarely leave my house since I am a homeschooling mom of four…).  I look forward to sharing my life with you in pictures and stories.  I hope you will be able to take something from this blog…at least a good laugh if nothing else:)

So, here goes nothing.  I hope to post a few times a week, if life goes as planned (which rarely happens with 4 kids).  I also hope to use this to keep family that lives away up-to-date on what goes on in the everyday lives of our family.

Oh, and just because I can (since this is my blog and all…) here is a picture of my wonderful kids:)