Goodbye... Fairwell... Sayonara....Adios...

before:

For those of you who know Katie well, you know that she has sucked her fingers since she was 3 months old (Thanks to Jen! ha) We have tried everything it seems to get her to stop. We tried rewards, charts, stickers, bribery, taping her fingers, taping socks on her hands, yucky tasting fingernail polish (which she likes actually).
Finally last week I was really stressed about it because she was actually sucking her fingers MORE (if that's possible) and every time she put her fingers in her mouth I was getting mad at her and telling her to take them out and she was frustrated and crying saying she liked her fingers.
Greg and I had a talk about possibly taking her to a psychologist to see if they could help. Then, I thought as one last effort I would try something new. I knew I needed something more possitive because my nagging her was NOT working!
So I came up with this idea:

I took her to the store and she got to pick out 4 or 5 small treats and one big prize (Barbie Rapunzle).Holly (my sis-inlaw) told me about this chart system she had learned at her high functioning autism class she is taking. If it can work for autistic children, I thought it should be able to work for anyone. So you just make a simple chart on paper with a smiley face column and a frowny face column. When Katie is seen not sucking her fingers she gets a mark on the smiley column, when she is seen sucking her fingers she gets a mark in the frowny column. We don't get mad or tell her to stop sucking her fingers, we just show her that we are marking the chart and she quickly stops! We started out with about even numbers the first day and then slowly each day we have less and less. Yesterday we had ZERO frowny faces!!! I can hardly believe it.
Then at the end of the day we count up her smiley marks and she gets a pom-pom for each one and for each frowny mark she has to give one back to me. I LOVE this system because it really focuses on what she is doing well but she is held accountable when she doesnt. She then puts the pom-poms in a container that I marked lines on and she gets rewards when she reaches each line. Then when it is all full... she gets her BARBIE! She is so excited, she can't wait to fill it up each night and see if she gets a prize. A friend of mine says she does this same thing with her kids but with marbles. And when the container is full they do something fun as a family (what a GREAT idea!)So far yesterday and today I haven't seen her sucking her fingers once. And from just a few days ago it was constantly I would say we've been doing pretty good! I hope we can keep it up, she is so proud of herself and so am I!!! Love you KATIE!

after:

"this is my favorite... get a picture mom!"

Yesterday I took Brielle and Katie to the zoo. We have an annual pass that expires the end of this month and I wanted to use it just one more time. We LOVE the zoo. Katie was so funny this time, every animal she would say "this is my FAVORITE, get a picture!" I have an entire camera full of pictures of every animal in the zoo (I won't bore you by posting all these pictures). I love spending time with my kids, they are so much fun!

Making the best of it

Well the warm weather didn't last forever but we were determined to make the best of this cold rainy Saturday. We wanted to get a jump on our Garden this year... I know you aren't supposed to really plant until Mothers Day but thats only 2 weeks away and we did put protection around our plants. So here's to hoping our Garden actually produces something this year, and doesnt freeze!

The cold rainy weather didn't keep Brielle from enjoying her swingset... she is so funny! I told her she couldnt swing on it because it was all wet so she went inside and got a towel to swing on.

Summer Saturday

Today was so nice outside, we were outside working on the yard... getting the grass mowed etc... I was trying to talk Greg into just buying a swing set for the kids that all we have to do is put together because for a few years now he has been drawing up plans for a big playhouse and I know that it would take ALL summer to make one. So our compromise was to buy a cheap set that the kids can use for the next couple of years until we have less projects (yeah right!) and Greg can build the one he wants.

Greg put up the hammock but it didnt really work because when he got in it, his butt touches the ground. The girls had fun in it though.
The girls couldnt be happier. They LOVE the swingset and have been on it nonstop! They really love the "horse swing" that they can both ride on and I LOVE it because they can get it going by themselves and I don't have to push them!

Our Boy

Katie was at school today so her and I played in the front yard with Hunter.
Brielle LOVES Hunter and calls him "our boy". He is her best friend as long as she is eating any kind of snack and when she will throw a ball for him.

Photo by Emilie.... the most talented photographer ever!!

My cousin Emilie is amazing. She just has such a talent for photos. We were lucky enough to get them taken at temple square.... rightwhen the flowers are so beautiful, they look fake!
Here's some of the pics she took and I LOVE them all! Check out her blog if you want great family pics, she also does wedding, kids, anything really!

Happy Easter

We had the best Easter. My mom and grandma came out for breakfast and church this morning. The girls woke up at about 8 and "patiently" waited until after breakfast at 9:30 or so to even do the Hunt for baskets outside... after finding the baskets they complained it was too cold and didnt even care about finding any of the eggs that were hidden (note to self: too many easter egg hunts... just do baskets next year!)

The girls got a butterfly house that you send away for the caterpillars and can grow butterflys. They were so excited when they found it, they were already naming the future butterflys! Dang they are cute!

Then we went to Karma and DJ's for dinner and another hunt. The girls love to do anything with their cousins so it was a lot of fun. Karma always does such a great job! I think we officially have enough candy to last us until next year, and I'm sure that I'll be saying "no more candy!" especially to Brielle who is seriously addicted.

eASteR FuN!

This morning was our wards very first Easter Egg Hunt. It was fun but would have been even more fun if I wasn't in charge of it! But luckily the weather cooperated, my many prayers were answered! It was a great activity but I didn't get very many pictures of my kids because I was running around.
The last few years we have gone to West Jordan park for their Easter Egg Hunt and my kids HATE it... its always so crowded and I don't think my kids got anything last year. I swear they have the eggs scattered in a 10x10 area for like a thousand kids! This year, since we had the entire church property for about 70 kids... it was much better.
I think after everything was said and done I will definitely do it again next year....

Tonight we decorated Easter Eggs. The girls are really at a fun age, they really enjoyed seeing what dipping the eggs in lots of colors would do to the egg.
They were soooo careful taking the eggs in and out of the colors so that they wouldnt break and then I was helping one of them and totally dropped the egg on the counter. OOPS!

General Conference

Living in Utah its so easy to take for granted how close we are to the many temples, the prophet, apostles etc... In all the years that I have lived here I have only actually attended conference twice. We were really lucky to get some tickets to go to the Sunday Morning session. It was so amazing to see all the people that can fit into the new Conference Center, that place is huge! And even though we were in nose bleed seats (literally! Jen got a bloody nose and so did the lady behind us!) It was a great experience to be there, in the presence of some of the most amazing spiritual leaders. It was also good to just be focused on the talks instead of distracted by kids at home and usually falling asleep on the couch.

I LOVE to Read

I had a really hard time getting Katie excited about reading. She ccould sound out the letters but got frustrated easily... until I got these great books. BOB books are the best for new readers. The words are mostly 3 letters and easily sounded out so she has really gained a lot of confidence in reading. She will read me 2-3/ night and as soon as she can read the entire book herself then she gets to color it (the pages are just illustrated w/black and white pictures.

To reward her for doing such a great job learning to read, I took her to the library and she got her very own library card. She was so excited to check out her own books. I know I say this all the time but I can't believe how fast Katie is growing up, and don't remind me that she is going to kindergarten in 3 months!!!

Our markers are reproducing?

I decided a few months ago to put the art supplies on a small table in the kitchen so the girls could color or do crafts whenever they wanted. This worked well except that I had to remove and hide all the markers because Brielle likes to express her creativity everywhere!!
But no matter how well I "think" I hide them, Brielle always seems to find some.... so this morning I heard Katie screaming for me while I was in the other room.

Katie: MOM, Brielle has a marker! Brielle... put that marker away its pregnant!!


I think what she may have been trying to say was PERMANENT... ha ha
But it would explain why the markers keep multiplying around here!