Daily Affirmations

You thought I was kidding when I said I was getting my kids started on this.
Here is how I came up with affirmations for my children:
Step 1-make a list of things you want your kids to improve on or just work on in general
Step 2-make a list of areas that are important to you and your family (family, friends, school, church, future, work, health, etc)
Step 3-Write definitive statements using terms like "I am" "I do" "I love" "I always"
Step 4- Avoid statements like "I can" "I will" "In the future" "When I grow up." Those can have the opposite effect (I will- someday? When is the future exactly? You see?)
Step 5- Know that they aren't set in stone and can change as needed

And here is what my 3 cute kiddos will be saying each morning:

I love my family

I love to help and obey

I am kind and share with my family and friends

I am smart and healthy

I love to sleep. It helps me be my best

I love to go to school to learn and work hard

I love to dress nice and have my hair done

I always talk politely

I love to read. Reading is fun

I choose friends who are kind and good

I can do anything

I always choose the right

I am a child of God

Now you do know that I have no expertise in this and no experience, so my methods and affirmations are unprofessional and untested, but for us they will work (I'm especially banking on that "dress nicely and have my hair done one")!

Everyday

This school year our family theme is "EVERYDAY." We will be focusing on the important things we need to be doing every single day with hopes of forming lifelong habits.
Here's how it works:
We have a magical creature in the house called the "sock fairy" (she's very pretty). The children made little posters with a lonely sock attatched and paper chains 14 links long. These are hanging in the kitchen.


So every morning they have to make bed and clean up room, brush teeth, say prayers and do their affirmations (oh yes I did! Details on that later).
Every afternoon they have to do homework and/or reading and a chore.
Every evening they have to shower/bathe, brush teeth, and say prayers.
If they complete these things, they get to take a link off their chain. When the chain is gone, the beautiful sock fairy will come in the night and leave a surprise in their sock.
Simple as that. It's been very successful the last day and a half.
See how happy my big 2nd grader is on his first day of school.





He fought me on that outfit that I laid out for him the night before. Today he wore basketball shorts. Oh well.

FHE at Ikea

Last Monday we took a family outing to Ikea and had a better time than planned (which is saying something because...do you know me?)
We started with dinner and found the cutest little lady doing free face painting and balloon animals. Bailey is too short to play in their "smileland" so while Austin and Addie played there she was painted into a princess. John and I had to look at a couple things and she ran behind screaming "HAPPY." Too cute. We had to get Austin and Addie happy too.





And, of course, ice cream cones on the way out.

BTW locals- the face painter is in Ikea Draper Mondays 5-7.

God Be With You

Our family baby Jonathan Troy is officially a missionary. He will spend 3 weeks (which is already down to 10 days since I'm so behind here) in the Provo MTC, 6 weeks in the Peru MTC, then on to Cochabamba Bolivia for the remaining 22 months.


Jonny with the future missionaries after being set apart


The proud parents at the MTC.


Our little family will miss him so much


I wonder if Bailey will remember him. We will talk about him enough and of course he is in every prayer


Don't look back Elder!

Til we meet again

Random thoughts for my blog since it's been so stinkin' long

I have been out of town and have a great trip to blog about, but here's the reason I haven't.....I did not take one picture on our trip! I let my brother Todd be the photographer and he got some great pics. I just need to get them from him. Ah well.

My 3 kids slept at my mom's house last night. (I only have 3 kids. I should have more. I feel like someone is missing.) I had a really nice morning. I woke up when I woke up. I laid in bed and read my scriptures until I felt my morning poop come on. Seriously, every morning! It's awesome. TMI, you say? Then you are out of style because I learned at girls camp that we don't use TMI anymore. That came and went as fast as "NOT."

Then I worked out with Jillian Michaels. That's my cop out work out because it's only 20 minutes. But something is better than nothing, right?

I think I'm allergic to flax seed. I thought it was cayenne pepper, but now I think it's flax seed.

I'm a pretty level gal. I don't cry that much. I've got pretty good emotional control. I pride myself on that. This week has been emotional. Lots of things going on with lots of people around me. I am feeling like a crystal this week...absorbing everything. I'm not usually like that. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe I will have a baby girl next and name her Crystal. What do you think, Cam?

I got a lot of cleaning done after my work out this morning. Then I took the kids to the dinosaur museum with my sisters. Now I am home and should be doing more cleaning, but I turned on Oprah and it's about hoarders. Now I don't feel so bad about my house (or shopping habits), so I'm blogging.

My bro Jonny leaves on his mission in less than a week! That's a little sad, but very happy.

Lots of HAPPY!