More Cali fun

Lets see... I'm trying to think of all the funny stuff that has happened here so far. Davis ate nail polish, and peed on the floor, Rylie puked all over her bed...twice, I saw Twilight again, been to the movies 4 times so far, my dad hit a skunk with his car and now the entire house smells like skunk, the kids have been chugging baby immodium because they have been eating so much candy they both have the runs, we had a Harry Potter marathon 1-5, it was awesome, it's just been really exciting around here. Christmas was really good. We got to talk to my brother and sister who are on missions. The kids got so spoiled as usual. We don't really want to go back to Utah. We don't even have a date that we're going back on since Mikey didn't get the job that we were hoping so badly that he would get. So we're feeling a little bitter and depressed. And the awaiting snow doesn't help. We're just going to hang out until we feel like leaving. Here are some really funny pictures of some of the wierd things my family does.

Our sweet new PJ's. Busting the gangster faces...........mom, just don't.

Creepiest picture ever.

If you shake your face really fast and take a picture its hillarious every time. We do it every year. It's so funny.

Another shakin face pic, so attractive.

This is our model shot. One of more to come. H O T (if you look real close, Mike is peekin through the back. thats the best part of the picture)

A very sunny day at the beach as you can tell

Carosel rides at the beach, the kids loved it!

Sweet boy with a stick. So adorable.

Home sweet Santa Barbara

I am so happy to be home!! I love it here. I'm also enjoying taking over my sisters room and getting sweet sweet revenge on her for borrowing all my clothes in high school! Her closet it full of awesome trendy things that I cannot afford. All she spends her money on is clothes. She makes a lot of her clothes too, like taking an older pair of jeans, turn them inside out, sow the legs and make them instant skinny jeans. Love it. I think I'm going to adopt her style, I really like it. It's sorta a retro, punk rock, chic style. Very original. And I'm finally able to fit into her trendy little skinny jeans so thats fun.

We've been doing tons of fun things since we've been here. We went to the beach and to Solvang, this cute little Danish shopping center, and we made ginger bread houses. So fun. I'll try and get more pictures of my sisters sweet wardrobe, since that will be all I'll be wearing while I'm here.

Davis and my cute mom

Our trip to Solvang. Unfortunately on the way there through all the windy roads, Mikey got car sick. Beautiful.

One of the famous danish pastry shops in Solvang. Yum.

Making cookies with grandma

Pepper spray in the Bishops office!!!

Doesn't that title intrigue you? It's true. I carry pepper spray in my purse for my job. We were in the bishops office and I was trying to find snacks for the kids to keep them quiet and they started coughing like crazy. Then I breathed in and I seriously thought I was being poisoned. Seriously. I could not stop coughing, not even enough to ask what the crap was going on. Then Michael started coughing uncontrollably. The bishop at this point was laughing at us because, obviously, he could not possibly know what happening to us. Then Micheal says, "I..cough...think...cough cough.....your pepper....cough...spray...cough..went off." How does this happen? I have no idea. But we couldn't breath or see. If you ever wonder what it feels like to breath in pepper spray, just take a hand full of pepper, mix it with fire and death and snort it up. So I took my purse out and walked back in and the bishop has now gotten a big whiff of it and now he can't breath. So we're all dying coughing and laughing and crying. What a night! I have no idea how I'm going to clean out my purse. Seriously. I can't even open it without the gas coming out. I think I have to throw it all away. Its really strong stuff. I'm glad I haven't had to use that stuff yet at work, the whole office would have to evacuate. So this was our evening. My lungs are still burning.

Simplfiy Supper

So being the good little Mormon mom and wife that I am, watching Good Things Utah this morning, like I always do with all my free time, they had a segment about this website called simplifysupper.com. Its actually really cool. You go on and register and they have tons of really easy recipes and they have the whole month already planned out for you. Or you can pick and choose which ones you want and make your own calendar. So after you pick your recipes they categorize everything and you can print out the weeks ingredients and its all separated into groups making it so easy to shop for it. It sounds confusing but its really not. Go on and see for yourself. They have tons of good recipes and it makes it really easy to make your shopping list.

Cookie day!!

Rylie wanted to take a picture like this, she told me where to look and everything. Funny. I guess its a tradition now to make tons and tons of sugar cookies and buy lots of toppings of sprinkels and frosting and decorate for hours and make a big fat mess. It's really fun, we've done it for 3 years now, I guess thats the criteria for a tradition. Rylie loves it and she dumps as much sprinkles on as she can.

I have to decorate some of them so we can give those ones away. Rylie's cookies are.....interesting.

Do you see the mounds?

This is Rylies ginger bread house she made in preschool. She's so proud of it.

So Martha Stewart!

I saw these cool glitter ball on a Martha Stewart Christmas special and I thought they looked pretty easy so I decided to give them a try. Ya, the magic of television is quite deceiving. They weren't to hard, but kinda time consuming. Here's how to create these sparkly wonders-
Needed:
String
small balloons
glitter
Elmer's glue diluted with water

Step 1- Get small balloons and blow them up, not to big, just so they're round, and cover it with Pam

Step 2- Tie string to the top of the balloon and put some Elmer's glue at the bottom and start wrapping the string tightly around the balloon. (hint: I found out the hard way that its way easier if you coat the string in glue before you start wrapping it so it has something to hold it to the balloon, otherwise it will keep slipping off.)
Step 3- When balloon is covered with string (you can do as little or as much as you want but it holds up a lot better if you do more) brush on glue all over the string

Step 4- LET IT DRY COMPLETELY!!! I am notorious for being totally impatient when it comes to letting things dry, but if you don't it will get ruined quickly. I popped one to early and it collapses. I gave them a few hours in front of a space heater to be sure. Pop the balloon and the string stays in a ball shape. Cut balloon out. There will be some extra glue in the spaces but it just flakes off.


Step 5- Brush on more glue all over string and roll in glitter. Let dry again for another half hour or so.

Wa La!

Guilt trip

Today Amber Phillips was over at my house and she asked Rylie what she wanted for Christmas and she said "I just want a baby sister. That's all." Wow, that makes me feel guilty. She says in her prayers every night for Heavenly Father to "bless my mommy to get another baby in her tummy." I wonder if little girls prayers are stronger than birth control? She tells me all the time "I wish we could change Davis to a girl so I could dress him up." not that that stops her, she dresses him in her dress up clothes all the time. Poor kid plays with headbands and bracelets and hair bows and dresses. We call him our little fruity baby.

Therapy Session 5

Session 4 was pretty much a review of things I've already posted so I didn't write about it. This session was really good. It focused of setting limits for the child and learning how to rienforce consequences. The rule of thumb for this session is: If you can't say it in 10 words of less, don't say it. Kids start to think of us as the adults on Charlie Brown after a while and totally tune us out. A good way to remember limit setting is A-C-T, Ackowledge the feeling or desire, Communicate the limit, Target alternatives. Examples:
A- I know your mad at me..
C-But people aren't for hitting
T-Go hit the pillow if you need to

A-You think throwing food is really fun
C-but food is not for throwing
T-After lunch we can go throw a ball outside

A-You like to color on the walls
C-but the walls are not for coloring on
T- Lets color in your new coloring book instead

Its all about validateing thier feelings and showing them that you see how they feel and then giving alternative options. The next step in this process is obviously enforcing a consequence if they choose to continue the behaivior. It's important to use the word Choose a lot in this. Example:
If you choose to keep coloring on the walls you choose to sit in your room for 10 minutes
If you chose to keep throwing food, you choose to get your special movie time taken away.
If you choose to hit me, I choose to hit you back. JK

They need to know that they are still in control of the situaltion (when you are really controlling the situation)In my house we have a "Thumbs up chioces" chart and Rylie gets to put a sticker on when she makes good choices. It teaches her that she is still choosing what she does, and when she chooses good things she gets rewarded.

After they have chosen to stop the behaivior, they get praise.

This is used in the special play time a lot because the child is suppose to feel like they are in control if the play time but there are still limits. They can choose to get their anger out on the bop bag but not on you. They can choose to paint on the paper, but not on the floor. If they don't listen to the limit, they get the item taken away. It's important to remember the rule of thumb and not use more that 10 word while limit setting. Make it short and sweet and to the point. And remember: CONSISTENT LIMITS----->PREDICTABLE, SAFE ENVIRONMENT---->SENSE OF SECURITY.

Facebook Virus

The other day Michael was on facebook and tried to look at someones video on their page and it downloaded a virus onto his laptop which completely ruined it and we had to go and get the whole thing formatted and everything was erased. We figure that the persons facebook account was hacked into and started downloading viruses to anybody who clicked on it. So be careful with Facebook!! It cost us all our pictures and music and files that were on our laptop. Sucky!