Leap Day! Yay!!

What a great time to have an 'extra' day!! I feel like I should post something to make this extra day possible.

I was asked to do a booth at BYU Women's Conference. I was hesitant at first because I thought I was going to have to sew something or do something crafty. Anywho, they said I can pick my own topic. What better topic than ... Securemama!

Here's a link to the latest post. I am going to focus my booth on the "Top Ten ways to Protect your Kids on the Internet." Let me know if you have any ideas. I get to bring a helper and my mom said she could come. She has called me a few times already about this and now I am reminded of my days in school when I had a project due. I guess it helps to have a kind reminder!

Not much else is new around here. We are just "In the thick of it" with these four kids. Little Henrie is starting to smile!!! Yay!! What a cute little guy!



I'm starting to exercise and venture out more. Here's a picture from a walk I took. Oh Beautiful!

Happy Birthday Lily!

We had a Pretty Pink Dancer party!

I watched part of Lily's Dance class and saw how much she LOVES to dance around like a little ballerina. Her teacher told me she got hurt during the class and she told Lily she didn't have to keep dancing. But Lily said, "I want to Dance!!" I've noticed that Lily always has a little skip in her step and walks around the house on her tippy toes.

So, we moved the furniture, pulled up the carpet and had a dance party! We hired a REAL dance professional straight from Broadway. Ummm ... Me! hahaha! Pete even showed the girls a few moves.

My sister Suz sent me cookies for the party favor. So cute! Lily wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. (good choice!) I'll post a recipe later. I've been experimenting with box cake recipes.

We did some dancing games and Lily wanted to play Duck-Duck-Goose which was a LOT of fun.

Cake, chips, and drinks (check out my FANCY party fountain below) and lots of presents and the party was over. Whew! I'm glad I had help and had a GREAT celebration for Lily!

Happy Valentines Day!

It was a fun Valentines Day this year! Pete and I went out the night before which was a very welcomed break! Thank to Pete's parents who watch all four kids! We went to dinner & exchanged cards. Pretty simple and Pretty Great as I remembered the holiday THAT day.

Phillip came home with a LOT of candy from school. I had to try my hardest to keep the kids from eating candy all day.

My heart pizza turned out great! Too bad the kitchen was too messy to make cards. Ah well ... Maybe next year.

Phillip took the trouble to make his own Valentine cards. Here is what he gave Pete. I think Phillip believes that it is an empty gesture unless there is money included. A very generous gift from Phillip. Or was it an investment? Phillip ended up getting $5 from Pete for Valentines.




The girls liked the Valentine app that I downloaded for them. We all said what we loved most about each other In all, a great day for the family.

Securemama is BACK!

Well, it has been a while, but YES I have a new post on my securemama site. www.securemama.com. It's a site to raise awareness about Internet Safety and give adults the tools to keep their kids safe on the computer and Internet. I am hoping to get this going again. If you like it, tell your friends. If you have a request for a certain topic, leave a comment here or on the site.

Here's the latest post - How to secure an iTouch, iPhone for kids and Teenagers.

Impromptu Photoshoot

I needed to switch out pictures in my picture frames. My original idea was to have the kids hold wooden hearts for Valentines day. But ... since it was February 2nd, I just took their Portrait. I have very good afternoon light in our family room. (Thanks Bountiful windstorm!) I put two king size sheets on the couch opposite to the window. It was kind of crazy and I didn't get a shot of all four kids (I don't know if that is possible). Maybe I could try and switch heads on photoshop.

I started by bribing "Who wants a Doughnut?" (They really wanted a doughnut after seeing a segment on 'The Chew' about doughnuts). It was hard but it only took a half hour. AND I did make good on my promise and against reason bought doughnuts for the kids right before dinner.

I kept using my LONG experience of watching America's Next Top Model to help them have a good smile. Phillip kept having a goofy smile. In a moment of weakness I said, "Think of Money!" You can see the delight in his eyes below. Lily and Amelia I kept saying, "Beautiful!" "Princess" "Gorgeous!" and this then got Lily motivated to take more pictures. She got different outfits and had her own photo shoot.

I'm glad to capture their cute smiles along the way!