Kaitybug turns 3!

Kaity totally got into the opening of presents, she was truly spoiled and had a great day!

This is a Mater book from her Daddy, she loves look and find books - and she is really good at them, too!

She actually squealed when she opened this Princess Hair (Rapunzel) doll.

She then had to hold Princess Hair with every additional present she opened.

Got some lipgloss and knew exactly what to do with it - don't tell me gender isn't inherent.

I got these dolls in a four pack to get the one for her cake, she loves the extras, especially making the wedding Flynn and Rapunzel kiss.

One breath!

This is her cake, it turned out awesome!  I was so excited because I was able to recreate the idea that was in my head.  Also, the little 3 girl with the doll was on my cake when I turned 3!

Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped us celebrate, we had a perfect day.

Kaity cut her hair

I promise to get birthday festivities up soon.  However, I sat down to work on that post this evening and had to go to the bathroom.  Thinking I could go solo (a rarity in my house), I locked the door.  When I came out, there was hair all over the floor.  Kaity got into the preschool supplies (I started a preschool, more later) and cut her hair on both sides.  She had a great mullet.  Anyway, a friend across the street has an aunt who was visiting and knows how to cut hair.  So she evened it up and Kaity now has a cute sassy little 'do.  I will soon stop mourning the 4-5" loss and the adorableness of Kaity in a ponytail and will begin thinking how cute she is with headbands and clips.  Here's a phone pic because I can't find my real camera right now. Oh, and also notice the adorable cheesy smile - this is what she does when you tell her to smile. :)

Kaity's new best friend

We finally got a puppy.  You would think with the way I love dogs that it wouldn't be too hard to find the right one, but we need a dog that is good with kids but can also hold her own against an overzealous one.  Also, we have a small yard and a short fence - nothing too big or that can jump too high.  Anyway, we finally found one.  Her name is Laney and she is a cattle dog/lab/border mix.  She is 6 months old and we got her from the pound.  Kaity loves having her here, and often asks if she can go play with the puppy.  Laney knows to be gentle with Kaity but sometimes she gets too excited and Kaitlyn gets knocked over.  Some quick loves and they're best friends again.  Kaity loves to help out and has decided that it is her job to give the puppy food and water every day.  It's so cute to see them together, especially to watch Kaitlyn try to walk Laney.  They weigh exactly the same, so either one on the end of a leash is a hilarious exercise in futility.  Luckily, Laney stays close to me or Jared on walks, so we don't have to worry about her running off.  Here are a few pictures, as you can imagine, getting a puppy and a three-year-old in the picture at the same time is near impossible.

Scripture Study

Many friends in Provo saw my scripture study method and this past weekend my sister came to visit and asked about it as well.  So, here's the basics.  I certainly am not a pro, I was just looking for a system that would help me remember things and be able to find notes more easily after I had taken them.  Before, I would write in the margins of the Ensign, but then I'd have stacks of magazines to look through before I found the article I was looking for.  Now, I have everything together in one source.
First off, gather the following supplies:

• Whatever you are studying: Ensign, Sunday School lesson, Church book, etc.
• Have your scriptures nearby
• a blank notebook.  I like Mickey, so that's who is on the front of mine :)
• Post-it notes
• a six pack of highlighters (I like to color code things, and six is what I've found works for me)

So, as I read, I take notes of what is important, what stands out, and what I am thinking/feeling on the subject.  First, I write the date and the source, then I make note of anything I liked about the article, chapter, whatever.  Direct quotes, scripture sources, personal thoughts, and summaries are all common.  When I've finished with the article, I write the general topic or theme in the margin, making it easy to find talks about specific topics later.

Then, when I've finished, I go back with my highlighters.  Above is the first page in this notebook so I included a color key, but if you can't read it I use the following:

• Yellow: Author, speaker, source
• Blue: direct quotes from the article
• Green: my personal thoughts
• Orange: scripture notations
• Purple: anything that has to do with parenting (since that is my focus in life right now)
• Pink: major announcements 

So, what if I find a quote that I like so much and think it pertains to a specific scripture?  I write the quote on a post-it and stick it right to the page in the scriptures.  Post-its don't ruin the thin paper in the scriptures and can be moved and replaced multiple times.  Also, you'll note a purple bracket around a talk in the notebook above.  That's because the whole talk related to parenthood, but I also wanted to use other colors to denote scriptures and sources.

That's pretty much it.  It sounds complicated but it actually only takes about 30 extra seconds at the end of my study to highlight items.  It has helped so much with giving talks in Sacrament meeting as well as Family Home Evening lessons and impromptu supplements to our couples scripture study.

Moving Day!

Today we are loading the truck, cleaning, and packing a few last minute items.  We will be headed to West Jordan tonight and then onto Boise in the morning!
We will have pizza available starting at 7:00 for anyone who wants to help load.....

I haven't blogged because...

First off, I had a terrible toothache, it kept me up for three nights in a row - of course it was the weekend.  After a trip to the dentist on Monday I learned that root canal that I had done about a year ago was infected.  I went to a specialist and found out that there was an additional canal that was so small it couldn't be seen on an x-ray and that was why the regular dentist hadn't seen it to fill it and why it had become infected.  So, I had to get a root canal done again.  Good news: at least I didn't have to lose the tooth or get a bridge or whatnot.  Later that week my tooth flared up and I had to take an antibiotic and loritab to keep the pain down.  So, that's why I didn't finish the next week of Easter stuff.
Second week, we received a call from Micron in Boise and they paid for Jared and I (we paid for Kaity) to fly up to interview.  They put us up in a nice hotel in downtown Boise and paid for food as well.  We played in the hotel pool with Thomas and Michael and then went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and Red Lobster.  After the interview, we decided to stay with Mom & Dad B so that we could enjoy Easter weekend.  We had an egg hunt with the cousins (sans Weston who was in DC) and played tons.  It was a nice little vacation and we came home the following week.
Jennie came into town with baby Brett, aka "Chunk" and we played, shopped, and had lunch with Whitney and Megan.  While I was out with the girls and Chunk (Whitney and Megan both have baby girls in various stages of development), Jared got a phone call: Micron wanted to offer him a job!
After checking with me and praying over the weekend, we called back and accepted last Monday.  Then started the crazy list of everything that needs to be done.
Jared will be a Semiconductor Engineer and will work 4 days one week and 3 the next.  He starts on the day shift from 7 am to 7 pm and then will switch to night shift and back every 4 months.  He works Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and every other Wednesday.  We are so excited that we got assigned to the end of the week so that Jared still gets to go to church with us.
After talking with a realtor we decided to go up this past weekend to start the long process of looking for a house.  There are currently some awesome deals with buying a first home in Idaho and buying a home wouldn't be too much more monthly than renting.  Why waste our money?  Yeah, we came to the same conclusion.  So we drove up on Thursday and Jared worked on his thesis on Friday while Mom, Kaity and I looked at houses.  We narrowed the list down a lot (only one repeat and one that we didn't get the chance to see) and took Jared and Dad with us on Saturday while Megan watched Kaity (thank you again, Megan).  Well, everything was either too expensive or too small and we really wanted a home we could grow into.  We narrowed it down to two homes, one that Jared liked and one that I liked.  Neither felt right, however, and we decided to pass completely.  After feeling very discouraged, we took the day off, went to church, and then expanded our search radius.  We had been looking very close to Micron so Jared wouldn't have to commute, but when we expanded the drive by 10 minutes we found 60 more houses that fit our criteria!
We put together a list of 11 and set out bright and early Monday morning, Jared, Kaity, Mom and I.  The first one was cute, the second really great.  The third had a beautiful yard and the fourth had a crappy one.  On our way to the fifth house we were debating what home to keep on our list and what to rule out.  We really liked the second and third homes and felt comfortable putting an offer down on either one.
Then we pulled up in front of this house:

The house is right next door to a ginormous park with a playground, basketball courts, and a community pool.
We walked in.
It was home.
Because houses number 6 & 7 were right around the corner, we thought we should go look, just in case.  Yeah, we were really unimpressed with the sixth and didn't even walk next door to open #7.  We went home, put Kaity down for a nap, got lunch and took Dad out to meet with the realtor to put in an offer.
At about 8:30 Monday night our offer was accepted.
We start at Micron on June 4th, and move into our new home on June 1st.
Oh yeah, it has 5 bedrooms, we definitely have room to grow.
We can't believe how blessed we are to have found our perfect home in one weekend.  And that our first offer was accepted.  We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for leading us to the place where we should be.  I can't wait to start saving and decorating (it's gonna take some time to fill up that big house with furniture).
So now I'm packing and throwing out all the junk I've accumulated over the last 5 years in Provo - and not being very sad about leaving this college town.

Easter Countdown Week 1

Kaity loved unwrapping a Christmas book each day so much, that I thought we'd do it again for Easter.  Also, there are several blogs out there that do craft countdowns for holidays, and I think Kaity is old enough to try this.  She loves helping me put together crafts for our home, so I found some simple ideas online, at craft stores, and in old teacher artbooks I have from my teaching years.  We'll be trying them over the next month.
I'm starting on Saturday, March 10, which will give me a full 30 days with Easter Sunday as the last day.  Because we are blessed to have General Conference the week before Easter, there will also be some General Conference items the last week of March.  Some days are simple coloring pages, some are more involved crafts.  Where things are not copyrighted, I'll post them or the link here so you can try them with your kids, too!
Please note that the crafts and the books don't necessarily match - I don't have the patience to go through all of that work, I'm just trying to get a good mix of Bunny Easter and Jesus Easter.  Saturdays tend to have larger craft projects, so Daddy can help.  I also tried to get Sundays to have more religious themed activities.
Books for this week:

Little Bunny's Easter Surprise by Jeanne Modesitt, ill. by Robin Spowart
A cute little story about a little bunny who wants to share the fun of Easter with her whole family.

The Golden Easter Egg by Katherine Zwers and John Tobin, ill. by Carol Heyer
I was so excited this past Christmas that I found an Easter book about Sebastian and Hopscotch!  The roly-poly shepherd and his lamb are back in an adventure to find the greatest Easter treasure.

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown by Charles M Schulz
Yep, Charlie Brown.  We love him at our house

The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous
This is a Caldecott Medal winner with illustrations based on Ukranian Easter egg designs.  A very sweet story.

The Little Duck by Judy Dunn, photos by Phoebe Dunn
Showing the life cycle of a duck as it hatches from an egg and grows.  The photos are great.

ABCs of Easter by Patricia Reeder Eubank
Really pretty water color pictures accompany each page featuring alliterative descriptions of Easter fun: "B is for bright-ribboned bonnets, bold, busy, bunnies, and baskets of flowers."

My First Easter by Tomie dePaola
A short and sweet board book about the new things in Easter.

Supplies Needed for this week:
plastic suncatcher kit, crayons, cupcake liners, popsicle sticks, jewels or stickers or buttons, paint or markers, glue, green cardstock, plastic eggs, Easter erasers (make sure there are two of each), veggie party tray, scrapbook paper


Activities:
Saturday, Day 1: 
You know those plastic suncatchers that you paint and then hang up in the windows?  We got one for $1.50 at Hobby Lobby and it'll be much fun!
Sunday, Day 2:
First Easter Story and Coloring page.  From sugardoodle.net, one of the Primary 2 Lesson Cards.  You can read the simple story and then color the picture of Mary at the empty tomb. Download here.
Day 3:
Cupcake liner flowers - looks like so much fun! See directions here .
Day 4:
Happy Easter coloring page.  I found this at Kaboose.com.  Just search for coloring pages and there are several free ones to print.
Day 5:
Eggs and erasers memory game: match the erasers hidden under the eggs.  Directions
Day 6:
How Many Eggs? activity page from Evan-Moor (an old teacher workbook of mine).
Day 7:
Easter egg sorting.  I used some cute scrapbook paper to make Easter eggs and a veggie party tray as a sorter so Kaity could match the similar patterns into each section of the tray.

I hope you have fun with your little ones, I am looking forward to playing each day with Kaity.  I will post pictures as we work on each project!