Update on us.. it has been tooooo long

I know that I posted pictures of my house the other day on here, but I never did update the blog back in March when we moved from my mom's to this cute house on the corner. We stayed in the same school and ward. It was a decision that we made for both us and Andruw.

Since we moved in, Caity started Kindergarten. She is as naughty as ever with her little tricks. She loves to "bury" her testimony and often makes grandpa take her to do so.

Andruw has started 3rd grade. He is doing very well. It seems that we are finally seeing the product of all of the work we have done with him. This month he got his Wolf in scouts along with a gold and 3 silver arrows. He and his dad have been working hard together. He loves going to scouts and really just wants to ride his bike there.

I have quit my job in Salt Lake in order to stay home and do daycare. Most days it was a good choice. I am working at Farm Bureau again, this time studying to become an agent. I should soon take the test, then I will be doing that rather than daycare.

Trevor is still working at Autoliv. He does wish that he was framing again, but the economy makes that a poor choice. It is good because we have the good benefits that come with his job. I can't express enough how grateful I am for them!

We are getting geared up for Christmas. I will post some pictures of our decorations tomorrow. :)

Messy Jenn and Clean Jenn are feuding... who will win???

Today I cleaned my house. Like every day. Just like every other Monday morning.. it was like a bomb went off before I started. So many people have told me lately that they don't believe that my house can get that messy.. I am here to show you before and after pics today. We will start in the living room:

From looking at these you would think that picking up after yourself is discouraged in our household??? Well, I spent 15 minutes working my little tail off and this is what you get:


Well, now someone needs to clean that kitchen... the garbage has overflowed all over!!! WTH?? Somone needs to get a handle on their laziness??!!! I'll say!
Oi, this is going to take forever... that is the only thought I could muster. Well, after 15 minutes, lets see how it looked....

Well, at least you made some progress self.. lets try to get this looking spic and span... 30 minutes later......

AHHH that is more like it!! Now what, you ask.. my bedroom. Oi! Somone should have probably made my bed one day this weekend.. it looks like crap. And the fact that the hamper is running all over the floor.. no worries, right?
well 15 minutes later....



Uh oh.. we seem to have forgotten one very important room. If someone gets that stomach bug that is spreading around town, they are going to want the bathroom to be clean, but this is what it actually looked like...

Well, 5 minutes later and we are looking more like this.....


I know that you are noticing the absence of Caity and Andruw's room, that is because I am not cleaning it today.. sorry!!! LOL

Butterfly bows

Start with a piece of ribbon...probably about 5 inches long (you will actually need 2). Burn the edges of the ribbon with a lighter to prevent fraying ribbon.
Place a drip of glue on one end of the ribbon

Put both ends together, with the ends perpendicular to each other, forming a tear drop shape like so:

Place the tip of the "drop" under the center of the opposite rounded side and secure with glue. It will look like this:

Repeat the above steps to create the other side:

Place the "wings" on a ribbon colored clip running perpendicular and secure like so:

Place a curl of ribbon down the center parallel to the clip. I used a baked curl ribbon from my corkers....

This is a really cute bow! I am really happy to share!

The Atkinson Family Christmas party..This is for you Grandma!!

Jaxson got a frog game. He had fun learning how to use it. The best was when he growled at Andruw when Caity was trying to help him! Ha ha!
Kade was super excited for his Kung Zhu pet and battle armor!!


See, he was the only one that got 2 things.

Caitlynn was the most beautiful princess when she put on her make up. Jason's family hit that one right on spot. She just wants to be fancy!

She says, "Am I gorgeous yet?"

Andruw was happy that it was finally his turn. He is a good boy.

ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTS?!? Heck yes!

Kody got a Star Wars game for his DS. All the boys seem to love Star Wars!

Check out that excitement!

Clay was SOOO ready to open his present.

Good pick Andruw! Clay likes his Dart Gun!

I wonder what Ty wanted........

That's right, Lego Star Wars!!

Grandma, we all missed you. We did have a good time like you asked though.

Thanks for a great time everyone!!!

Liar, Liar. Pants on fire!

Its here, Caitlynn's lying phase has arrived. Oi, she is good at it too. Yesterday I got home from work, only to find a half eaten bag of chips in my bed with crumbs everywhere! I asked both kids who was eating in my bed and got the classic answer "Not me!" from both of them. I asked them if that meant that Grandma and Grandpa decided to eat chips in my bed and would you know that Caitlynn said "uh huh". That is how I knew that it was her, but there were so many crumbs that I was sure that she couldn't have done it herself, so I asked Andruw if he was sharing with her and he stood firm on his answer. I asked Caity if he was eating with her and she said he was. I didn't know who was lying at this point so enter creative parenting. I grounded them both from electronics and friends until they came to me with a MATCHING story. I realize that they could have made a deal to lie to me together, but I didn't assume that was very likely because they both hate being in trouble.
About an hour later they came to me and Andruw said Caity is ready to tell you I was watching cartoons in my room. She looked at me and nodded, so I asked "did Andruw eat chips with you?" and she shook her head yes. I let them know that their stories still don't match and that they were still grounded. I also used the classic line, "When you lie, Jesus gets very sad." That was what it took. Caitlynn confessed that it was just her. I told her, you aren't in trouble for the chips Caitlynn, I just wanted to know why you did that. You are in trouble because you lied and lying is unacceptable.
I thought, okay, lesson learned for now. That was, until bed time when Andruw was looking for his new library book and it was NO WHERE. Caity had it earlier as she was showing it to me and such. We looked everywhere trying to find where she would have put it. We looked under furnature, outside, in the cupboards, litterally everywhere she would have put something. Finally I said, "Caity, you have to tell me where you put the book. Don't say you don't know because that is a lie". She looked at me and said, "It's in my bed mom." Sure enough, she was hiding it under her pillow! UGH!
Any tips for fixing this behavior would be appreciated :)

A New Life

Today I have decided that I am going to start over. Not a huge overhaul, but starting over. I have been neglecting so many area's of my life the last month or 2. It is hard when Trevor is on days because we stay so much more busy..but I really have to get organized.

Step 1. Cleaning

I am going to clean up my room and keep it that way. Honestly, what is 15 minutes a day?
I need to manage that mountain of laundry. I think that it was much easier when I was washing 1 load a day. :)
I can keep my kids busy for 30 minutes after work and daycare everyday. It is not illegal to make your kids do chores.

Step 2. Exercising

Recently I have been turned away from plasma donation 2 times. This is in part because I have not been exercising. The lack of excersize means that my body is not using the protein that I am taking in. I will spend 20 minutes a day working out. I have to.

Step 3. Financially

We have made some big changes here recently and the light at the end of the tunnel just keeps getting closer and closer. I would like to sit down and make a plan. Not only a budget, but plan the time frame that we will take to move from my moms, the time that we will take to get another car, and the time that it will take to have a down payment for a house for when we can get approved.

I am giving myself 2 months to really accomplish these goals. I don't think that it is too unattainable.

My Little Pranksters

Last night, I needed to go to the Evil Walmart to pick up some stuff for my mom. I decided to take the kids with me and told them that if they were good, they could have a suprise. When the time came, I told them that they could each have a toy that costs $1. As i am sure you understand, that is hard to find. Caity got a jump rope, but Andruw thought a lot about his decision. After deliberating for a while, he chose a Whoopi Cushion.


It was decided that the first "victim" was going to be Trevor. It was perfect since we had to go pick him up from work. We got there a few minutes early so we had to wait. Caity and Andruw watched very patiently for their dad.

They stared out the rear window of the car for about 15 minutes counting down from 20, then back up to 20. I am not sure why, but I kept telling them that they would be counting for a long time.

In the end, when Trevor sat on the whoopi cushoin, it didn't make the fart noises that we were all waiting for. It was sad, but Andruw said it best when he said, "Oh well, there is always tomorrow."