Winter Season & Snowy Days

 We have had such a dry fall and winter here in Northern Utah.  I was a little bit afraid and kind of sad at the thought that we weren't going to have a white Christmas this year. I sure love having the four seasons here in Northern Utah, it makes celebrating the Holidays so enjoyable! I even love the snow, at least for Christmas. I typically get sick of it after New Year's and wish it would go away. Howeve, we were relieved when Santa brought snow with him for Christmas this year. He didn't bring much snow but we were happy with what we got.

 Several days after Christmas, the kids needed a morning out of the house from being cooped up for too long so we headed to our neighborhood park and did a couple runs down the sledding hill there. Even Mark and I joined the kids and we had fun going sledding as well. We had fun spending time as a family. Kaleb brought one of his neighborhood pals, Will Searle, with him and the boys enjoyed sledding with each other. Karmindy was content to sled with either Mark or myself. After we got home sledding, Karmindy insisted on building a snowman. The snow was very fine and wasn't sticking well so she had to settle with a tiny snowman but it turned out so cute!

Several days later, we met back up at the neighborhood sledding hill with our friends the Bradfords. Karmindy had fun sledding with her friend Carson and I enjoyed sledding down the hill with cute little Brayden to give his mom a break. I also enjoyed visiting with my friend Natalie. It was bitter cold out so we didn't stay long but it was a nice little outing with friends.

Its been nice this winter to have just a taste of snow so we could have a White Christmas and enjoy going sledding with friends at our neighborhood sledding hill.

Christmas Piano Recital

Back in August we switched Kaleb to a different piano teacher, her name is Kellina Norby. We decided to switch Kaleb from Tauna Broadhead to Kelli this semester because even though Tauna did a great job we didn't feel like Kaleb was progressing as well as he should be after taking for two years. Also, Kelli had majored in Music and Vocal so we thought we would give her a try. Kaleb has done very well over the course of the past few months while taking lessons from Kelli. Kaleb has worked so hard on practicing and memorizing his piano pieces this semester and did a great job preforming his pieces at his Christmas Piano Recital. The two pieces that he preformed were: "Angels we have Heard on High" and "Hedwigs Theme" from Harry Potter.  Kaleb is a huge Harry Potter fan and so I know "Hedwigs Theme" was his favorite piece to practice and perform. Kaleb did an excellent job and we couldn't be more proud of him and his amazing performances. Mark and I are both so proud of Kaleb for taking the time to memorize his pieces too. This boy has some amazing memorization skills!

Kaleb truly has put a lot of time into practicing and developing this amazing talent. I know there are many days that Kaleb gets discouraged from practicing and wants to quit because it gets difficult, but I sure hope he will stick with developing this amazing talent. We are so proud of you bud!!

Let's Dance: Winter Dance Performance

This year in Dance, we enrolled Karmindy in ballet again and decided to give Jazz a try. Karmindy has been going to dance practice each Wednesday night since August and has truly excelled. It has been such a joy to go and watch her practice on the first Wednesday of each month and see how her dance techniques and training are progressing from month to month. Karmindy has tried ballet, jazz and tap thus far but after watching her over the past two years, I think ballet is her forte. She seems to really grasp Ballet and has a knack for it.

For the Winter Dance Recital, Karmindy performed a jazz and a ballet number and did an excellent job performing both of her dance numbers. Her jazz number was entitled, "Sleigh Ride" and her ballet number was entitled, "Do you want to build a Snowman?" from the hit Disney movie, Frozen. I think her favorite dance number she performed was her ballet number because she loves Frozen. You could just see how into it she was while performing. I am sure dancing to a song you are familiar with is quite motivating.

Karmindy we are so proud of you little sister and have truly enjoyed watching you excel at ballet and jazz this year! Keep up the hard work girlie. We love you!!

Merry & Bright Christmas Lights

For the past several years we have had the tradition to go see the lights at Thanksgiving Point and each year it gets better and better because they add more and more light displays to look at. Going to Thanksgiving point is a tradition that our little family seems to enjoy. I feel bad that we haven't taken the kids downtown to see the lights at Temple Square since we have lived here in Northern Utah but it is always so bitter cold and we have just enjoyed the convenience of getting dressed in our jammies and staying in our nice warm car to enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights. However, I don't feel too bad about not going to Temple Square to see the lights because at the end of the display at Thanksgiving Point they have the most darling Christmas Story about our Saviors birth that you can read and then drive by a Nativity. I just want my kids to always remember what the true meaning of Christmas is all about- Our Savior.

This year we picked up some Dunford donuts at Harmons and then drove to Kneaders to pick up some hot chocolate before heading down to Lehi to see the lights. We had a fun time staying in our warm car and drinking and eating our yummy treats. It was such a nice evening spent together as our little family. I truly love Christmas and all of our fun family traditions. I hope my kids never forget all the fun we have and how hard I try to make each holiday special for them.

The Sky is the Limit...

Mark's brother Kevin just recently got hired on to be a Heli Skiing Pilot up at a few of the Major Ski resorts up Little Cottonwood Canyon this winter. Kevin is also living with us while he works at the resort. Kevin is an amazingly talented pilot and I am so proud of my brother in law for achieving his dream of flying. After getting home one morning from working out at the gym, Kevin invited Mark and I to go pick up his Helicopter and fly with him to Salt Lake City International Airport for some maintenance. Mark and I jumped at the chance to fly with Kevin and to be honest even though I don't like to fly, there is no one else I would trust to take me flying than Kevin.

Mark and I had a great time flying with Kevin and it was so fun. He flew us along I-15 and over several buildings around downtown Salt Lake City, including the Temple. I did wish I had taken some motion sickness pills before hand but compared to flying it wasn't bad. It sure was a fun experience to be able to fly with my brother-in-law, especially since a ride like this would cost several thousand dollars to take!!

Santa's Little Helper!

Jingles the Elf has officially returned to the Frisbey Home to keep an eye on Kaleb and Karmindy for the next few weeks. Its amazing how nice the kids can be to each other and how eager they are to help out around the house when they know Santa has one of his special little helpers watching and reporting back on their behavior each night. Kaleb and Karmindy sure get a kick out of Jingles and enjoy waking up and racing each other to find him in the wee morning hours. Jingles is quite the mischievous  and creative little guy and tends to be found doing some very fun things around our home. This year he toilet papered our tree, snuck downstairs to play Minecraft and even brought the kids strawberry milk and donuts for breakfast....how thoughtful! We sure enjoy when he comes to visit our home each year at Christmas time.

Time Out for Women

My dear friend, Crystal Albrecht, invited me to go to Time Out for Women with her mom and Sisters at the Maverick Center in West Valley, Utah. Time Out for Women is a convention for women to attend of the LDS faith. It isn't put out by the church but they have several amazing speakers come and speak, as well as, several LDS singers, songwriters and musicians. The conference took place on a Friday night and Saturday day. It was such an uplifting weekend of inspiring messages and uplifting music. 

The theme for the weekend was entitled, Inevitable Light. Some of the speakers on Friday Night we got to hear from was Sheri Dew, Olympic Gold Medalist Noelle Pikus-Pace. For the music portion we got to listen to pianist Josh Wright and Sandra Turley.

On Saturday we heard from Several Speakers: Sister Elaine Dalton from the General Young Women's Presidency, Emily Watts, Kris Blecher, Wendy Ulrich, and Camille Fronk Olson. Mercy River provided the musical portion. 

I wish I had enough space to write about what each speaker spoke about but that would take up so much space. However, they all spoke about sharing our gifts with others, overcoming trials and trying to become the very best selves we can be. It was a much needed pick me up, because so many times I am so hard on myself when it comes to being a mother. I sometimes  feel like I don't measure up and can be so hard on myself. Going to this convention reminded me that I do have worth and no matter what my talent is I need to share them. We aren't all given the same talents so it is important that we share them with others!! 

I had so much fun spending time with one of my very best friends listening to some inspired messages and great music. I am so grateful I got to share the weekend with Crystal's mom and sisters.

Giving Thanks!

 Its become a tradition during the month of November to pull out our laminated Thankful tree and write our blessings on laminate leaves and stick them to the tree. This year, I decided to switch it up. I was at the "Wood Connection" with a friend looking for crafts to make one afternoon and found a wooden thankful tree to make. I thought it was so cute and knew that it would be a lot more durable than our plastic one was, so I purchased it and made one for our family. The kids loved it! Each Monday night during family home evening, the kids enjoy writing down their blessing on paper leaves and sticking them to the tree. It has been so fun to hear what the kids are thankful for. I love this tradition and the kids seem to as well.

This year for Thanksgiving, we were all set to head down to Hurricane to spend the holiday with my family. My sister Kamberee (we were going to stay at her home) called me on Tuesday

to tell me that Karev, my cute nephew, was sick with a high fever and cold! Boo! We would have gone down but we didn't want to catch any bugs before we head out this next week on our Cruise. We have had a Caribbean Cruise planned for months for our Christmas present to the kids. We didn't want anyone getting sick before our departure so we decided to stay home. 

It was nice to stay home and do our own thing. We ate yummy food, watch Christmas Movies, decorated the Christmas Trees. Even though the kids were a little bummed they couldn't see their Grandpa and Grandma DeMille and cousins, I still think they had fun being here at home. We even took them to go see a movie (Big Hero 6) and that seemed to make up for not going down.

I sure love my little family.- my sweet husband and darling kids. They are my biggest blessings and I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who has given me so much in my life. There is always something to be grateful for and I truly have been given so much!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

The kids arrived home from school one afternoon this week, with some exciting news to tell me. They were both beaming!! Kaleb and Karmindy both shouted, "Mom, we won!" Karmindy proudly held up her puffy heart shaped pen and Kaleb held up his brand new scooter! The kids have a reading program at school and depending on how many minutes of reading they do each week they get to put their name into a drawing to win prizes at the end of each quarter! They both had won prizes and were so excited! I don't blame them because we really never win anything as a family!  I was so proud of them both. I was also so very proud of Karmindy who even though her prize was a lot smaller was equally excited that her big brother won one of the big prizes. I sure do love my kids and all the hard work they put into their studies at school. They are both such hard workers and are doing really well this year in their classes. Mark and I work with them at home and that makes a huge difference but I also know that their love for learning stems from having great teachers! Great job Kids!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

 

Since we were planning on going to Hurricane for Thanksgiving this year we decided to decorate our trees a bit early this year. We figured that we better do it sooner than later because we were going to be gone from December 6th to the 14th on a Family Vacation to the Caribbean. I wanted to have all our decor out before we left so I wasn't stressed after we got back in  putting things out. I also think its nice to celebrate the Christmas season for as long as you can! This year I finally got to have my very own tree to decorate the way I wanted and I think it turned out splendid. I love seeing the tree I decorated in our formal living room and I don't have to worry about the kids rearranging the ornaments. 

This year was also the first year that the kids got to decorate their very own tree. Last year, I got them an ornament for each year since their birth and told them that they could decorate their tree with them. We have decided to get them a new ornament each year. The ornaments we got the kids this year were a snowy white owl with glasses for Kaleb since he likes Harry Potter and got glasses and Karmindy a pretty pink cupcake since she loves to help bake in the kitchen. The kids were thrilled with their new ornaments and loved decorating their tree the way they wanted. I also love the kids tree because we can put up all their cute ornaments they have made over the past few years at school! We can't wait til Christmas to get here!

Paint Nite With Friends

I had the opportunity to get together with some of my girlfriends in my neighborhood and ward, Tara Names and Nicole Rowe and we went to a Paint Class together, called Paint Nite. Paint Nite is held in local bars around the Salt Lake City Valley. I was a little nervous about taking a painting class in a bar but it was actually held in a back room with in the bar. I am sure the three of us stuck out like a sore thumb because we weren't drinking unless you count our Cherry Cokes. Regardless, we had a great time and it was a fun night out with my girlfriend's. Another bonus was being to take home a canvased painting that I made!!

Family Pictures 2014

I have a love-hate relationship with getting our Family pictures taken. I stress out about finding matching outfits, getting everyone ready and getting everyone to the location (on time) is about more than I can handle. On the bright side though, I enjoy the outcome. I love getting to see the pictures that were taken and displaying them in our home. It is also so fun for me to compare the pictures that were taken of the kids of  the previous year to the current year and see how they have grown in the years time!

Christmas is just around the corner and it is a tradition to send out Christmas cards from our family to our friends and family. Since we are taking our kids on a 7 day cruise for their Christmas present this year, I wanted to get a good jump on things. I love sending cards and I love getting them! It is sad to me that it is a dying tradition to send out Christmas cards. However, for me, there is something so fun about getting an actual letter in the mail. I still enjoy getting snail mail despite all the technological advancements we have these days.

This year I was told by a good friend about a photo studio in West Jordan called Camera Shy. We decided to mix it up and get some in-studio portraits taken indoors, instead of going outside and having outdoor shots taken. It is also getting so cold outside that I knew taking the kids to some outdoor setting would be miserable for them and us! Family Pictures are stressful enough but then to add driving to a location and making sure everyone still looks nice when we get there is just an added stress. 

We loved having our pictures taken in the Camera Shy studio this year and we were grateful for all the different back ground options the photographer gave us to choose from. We also liked being warm, no cold weather photo shoots for the Frisbey's this year!! Getting a disk of our pictures on the same day instead of waiting weeks to get the edited pictures back was also a perk. I think we will do in studio portraits from now on!

I was pleased with our pictures that were taken this year! We got a lot of great pictures of the kids and of our family. We are all set to order our Christmas Cards and send them out for the Christmas Season, I can't wait! 

Cookies for Sale!

For the past couple of weeks, Mark and I have been mulling over the idea of taking the kids on a cruise for their Christmas presents this year. Our Friends, the Albrechts, approached us and invited us to go with them and their family because they had found a great deal through the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. The deal they found was that kids sail free. We decided we should jump at the chance, especially since it was a great deal. Neither Mark nor I have been on a cruise before and we thought it would be fun to not only go with another family but go with them since they could show us the ropes since they had been on this particular cruise before. We surprised the kids and since then the kids have been chomping at the bit to earn money for souvenirs. 

The kids have been begging me to let them have a lemonade stand since school let out, but I wasn't too excited about it. I told them that very few people ever stop and it ends up being a sticky mess for everyone involved. I told them that we needed to get creative and we did just that! I had the thought come to me that most people like homemade cookies and so I presented that Idea to the kids. They were on board and they jumped at the chance.

We made a deal that I would make the cookie dough and bake the cookies, while they set up the chairs outside,decorate signs and make thank you notes to staple to some brown paper bags (that i had on hand) to help put their customers cookies in. The kids worked so hard! The three of us decided to sell Chocolate Chip cookies and White Cranberry chip cookies on this afternoon. 

The Cookie stand was a huge success and the kids ended up making a whopping $42! It was so funny to watch the kids in the neighborhood, as well as, some of the adults in the neighborhood stop by and buy warm cookies. We got several requests from neighbors to do our cookie stand more often. Funny things is, is that I have earned a good reputation with sharing my home baked goodies with the neighbors so it was fun to have the neighbors come running for my baked goods! The kids were so giddy helping their customers and with the amount of money they made! 

 In the end it was a lot of work for me but It was worth every bit to see Kaleb and Karmindy so excited. It was also a good lesson on hard work. Unfortunately, now Kaleb and Karmindy think they should do a cookie stand every week now since they earned big bucks the first time around! I think I only have one cookie stand in me each summer! Until next year....

Birthday Time!

When did I get to be so old? I turned 33 this year. I am kind of getting to the point in my life where I don't want to keep track of how old I am and just enjoy living! I am loving my 30's and I love how I finally feel secure in who I am and what people think of me doesn't seem to bother me so much. I truly just enjoy being me and spending my time doing things that make me happy and spending my time with others who make me happy and make me a better person. However, I feel like Time seems to be speeding up and I hate that feeling. 

Despite feeling older, I did, however, have a nice birthday. Mark took the day off from work and we went and saw Disney's movie "Maleficent" while the kids were ate school. We also went to lunch too. I had a nice relaxing day and Mark and the kids spoiled me rotten!

A week later, we went out to eat for my big birthday dinner with our friends, Joe and Crystal Albrecht. Crystal also has a June birthday and we begged our husbands to take us to the Melting Pot  Fondue Restaurant to celebrate our special days for a joint celebration and date night. It was a great evening! We had a great time visiting, enjoying each other company and gorging ourselves on delicious fondue!

Mother/Daughter Lunch Date

I really enjoy spending time with both of my kids. I also love being able to spend some quality "Girl Time" with my little girl. I have enjoyed that Karmindy is getting a little older, and that I can take her and we can go and spend some time together as a mom and daughter. I love being with her and I hope she enjoys our time together as well.

One of my favorite things to do with Karmindy, is to go to lunch and visit and then occasionally treat her to a manicure and pedicure. Mani/Pedi's are expensive but I found a little nail salon near our home here in Riverton, that only charges 10 to 15 dollars for Karmindy to get her nails done. Karmindy has grown to love Mani/Pedis and it is a fun thing for us to splurge on together from time to time. On this particular day, Karmindy and I went and got our nails done and then Karmindy chose to eat at Zupas (a soup and salad cafe) for lunch. We both love Zupas so it is an easy compromise for me. As long as she doesn't choose McDonalds than I am good. I would take her to McDonalds if she asked but I am grateful she has a more refined palette for her age. Karmindy loves Zupas chicken nuggets, their fruit cup with assorted fruits and the special treat that is included with her meal, a chocolate dipped strawberry. I am sure this is the reason why she chooses Zupas!

I truly enjoy spending time with my baby girl and enjoy our girls afternoons out

!

Oh, Sweet Strawberries!

 

Our Strawberry Patch that we planted a couple of years ago has really taken off this year and ended up  producing 3 big bowl fulls of Strawberries this Spring!! I am completely mystified as to how they grew and did so well because I do not have a green thumb and usually kill everything I plant. Nevertheless, it was an exciting event for our family to have something to pick and enjoy eating from our little backyard garden!

The kids especially enjoyed picking our strawberry patch every few days! It was so fun to see them get so excited and race each other to the back yard and see who could pick the most!

 

 

I think I got just as excited as the kids, when it came to picking the strawberries from our patch this year. I especially enjoyed making several strawberry pies for our family to enjoy. The picture of the strawberry pie is just one of several pies I made. Nothing beats fresh strawberry pie and homemade vanilla flavored whipped cream in the spring/summer time!

3rd Grade Field Trip

 Today was my turn to go on Kaleb's 3rd grad field trip with him! I wasn't originally planning on going because another parent beat me at signing up to volunteer but then another parent canceled and I was able to go and fill in. I was thankful for the opportunity to go with Kaleb because for the past two years only room moms were able to go. I am sure poor Kaleb has felt jipped the past few years. So when I found out I could go, I jumped at the chance.

Kaleb's field trip started when we left the school around 9:15 and we returned around 2:30 in the afternoon. We traveled by school bus to the Museum of Natural History where we were welcomed, briefed and then allowed to explore throughout the Facility. I was assigned to look after 3 of Kaleb's classmates and Kaleb was thrilled when he found out his good friend Lukas was in our group.

 The kids and I took our time and made our way around to several exhibits. There are like 3 floors that you can explore. We saw native american pottery, baskets, totem poles, fossils, dinosaur bones and displays of dinosaurs.

 After visiting the dinosaur exhibit and the native american exhibit we headed over to "The Chocolate" exhibit which was an entire display dedicated to educating the kids on where chocolate comes from, how it is made, and the different kinds of chocolate. My favorite display was the life size box of Chocolates the kids could stand in front of! I wished it wasn't made of plastic because the Chocolates looked so real you could just take a bite out of it. Our mouths were salivating too because throughout the room you could smell chocolate. I am sure this helped promote chocolate sales in their chocolate candy store at the end of the tour. It worked on me and my kids I was chaperoning, so as a surprise, I bought them each a truffle as we left the facility. I received some brownie points with Kaleb's classmates for that!

After touring the Museum we went to one of their cafeteria's to eat lunch and visit. After lunch we headed out to the Red Butte Gardens that are right on site for a hike with several other groups.

Our tour guide Lauren, was a cute girl from Massachusetts and did a great job of teaching the kids about the different vegetation in the Utah mountains. A favorite of mine was the desert sage and seeing and touching a plant called Lamb's ear. It is a plant that is incredibly soft to the touch. We also learned about a bitter bush that had little pods that you could eat but were bitter. I didn't try it after watching the kids eat it and spit it out. Apparently, it was Bitter! Hee hee. The Bitter bush was made into a tea and the Indians used to drink it for medicinal purposes. We also saw a magpie nest, and lots of wild flowers along the trails. We also saw an old pioneer house in the canyon that used to be a quarry keepers home. The canyon that we hiked through has provided a lot of the stone that was used to build the Salt Lake City Temple. I love history lessons!

Our tour guide led us down a trail called Rattle Snake pass and it was quite exciting for the kids. They all were scared we would see a rattlesnake along the way because of the history of the trail being filled with rattlesnakes. Seems like a dumb idea to take little 3rd graders through a place like that but um, okay. I was worried about the kids too but the hike turned out great and we didn't have one student get bit or see a rattlesnake. Thank goodness.

Since Its been in the high 80's all week and it was toasty. I am glad that I brought several frozen bottles of water with Kaleb and I because some of the kids in Kaleb's class were not prepared and were getting sick because it was so hot. The hike was also not a simple hike and was quite difficult for most of the 3rd graders. They were all troopers though and I am proud of all the kids for making it through. I had so much fun hiking with Kaleb. It was fun to reach the top and take a few pictures of us and the Salt Lake City Valley. Kaleb expressed wanting to do the hike again with Mark and Karmindy at a later date. We had a great time and I am thankful I got to spend the day with my sweet boy!

Kindergarten Field Trip to Farm Country

Today I spent my morning with my baby girl on her first field trip! Her kindergarten class had the opportunity to go to Thanksgiving Point and visit Farm Country. I volunteered to be a chaperon and I am glad I did! We left around 9 am and returned back to the school around 12:15. During our 3 hour jaunt to Farm Country we got to go on a wagon ride, pet cows, horses, see rabbits, ducks, pigs, pet a baby lamb, eat lunch and play at a park. The field trip was jammed pack with fun activities! I was assigned to look after two of Karmindy's classmates/friends to be in our group: Eden Dressen and Presley Fisher. The girls had fun palling around with each other. Karmindy also hung out with her friend Jake Simmonds who is in the morning Kindergarten class. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to go with Karmindy and see her have a fun time on her field trip with her friends.

Put a Bird in It!

Spring time is here in Northern Utah and normally that means tulips and daffodils are blooming and there is popcorn popping on the trees. BUT not this year! This year, it means that birds are in full nesting mode. Now I don't know if it was just a "cold" winter (Wink. If you know what I mean) and those birds had some hot passionate nights but there have been reports of other neighbors in the neighborhood that have mentioned that the birds have been busy nesting in any place they can find! And apparently, that includes nesting in wreaths!!! Seriously, there was not a place that was sacred when it came to building nests...wreaths, bbq grills, hedges. You name it, neighbors were reporting a bird infestation. If it was a secluded surface, you might as well put a bird in it or on it for that matter! What the heck happened to building nests in the trees? We have plenty of trees they could choose from in the neighborhood! Just saying....

 At the first of the month, I decided to get festive and I put out my Patriotic wreath on my front door. During the morning hours, I kept hearing something rubbing against the door. I kept going to the front door to check to make sure there wasn't a cat or dog or even a neighbors child hanging out on our front porch. Each time I didn't see anything. As the morning turned to afternoon, I went about my routine and went and checked the mail. The mail always comes after I drop Karmindy off at the bus stop for afternoon Kindergarten. On my way back into the house, I noticed a birds nest hanging out on my wreath. I couldn't believe it! It was amazing to look at and I admired the handy work of that amazing Momma bird. After taking a look at the nest, I decided I didn't want it to stay up there because the kids go in and out of the front door and I didn't want her poor eggs (she would eventually lay) to fall, crack and break, so I dumped the nest onto our front lawn. After I did that, I ran some errands and arrived several hours later just in time to be home before the kids came through the door from school. When I pulled up our driveway, I saw a bird immediately fly away from our front door. When I looked at the lawn I noticed that the bird nest I had dumped on the lawn just hours earlier was GONE! WHAT THE HECK! I parked the car and went to the front door to inspect my wreath and sure enough the entire nest that I had dumped earlier was back up on my wreath and was bigger than it had been two hours earlier. I was ticked and was sure that that dumb bird was plotting against me. Again, I went and dumped the nest on the front lawn. You would think the bird would learn or maybe I would learn but we were both stubborn and this kept happening for several days!  The bird(s) would build and I would dump the nest on the lawn. As you can fathom, I was done with the dumb bird and so I took my wreath inside for a couple of days. I figured I had won this little bird war and so I decided to try one more time to put my wreath out. Sure enough by the end of the day, that &%$# bird built another nest. I was so mad!! So needless to say, I removed the nest, threw it into the garbage and brought my wreath in.
Just this week, I decided that egg laying season might be over with and put my wreath back up for Memorial Day. Thankfully there hasn't been any nest building all week and I am hoping it stays that way!

Lunch Date

One of Karmindy's strengths is that she is a friend to everyone she meets. Karmindy has a lot of gal pals but she also has a lot of guy pals too! It is something I admire about her. She truly loves everyone and when she sees a friend it isn't unusual for her to go up to them and give them a hug or pat them on the arm. She is very tender-hearted and just loves people. I am pretty sure she gets this trait from her mom because I also love being around people and making friends. She makes me a proud momma! 

Since Karmindy had an all girl birthday party, her cute neighborhood friend Keegan was a little disappointed he wan't invited to her princess party. We didn't think any boys would really want to be invited. My bad and a lesson was learned for next year! However, Keegan still wanted to spend some time with Karmindy for her birthday. So I made Keegan a deal and told him that we would have a playdate and we would go to Chick-fil-a one afternoon for a playdate. He seemed to perk right up. Keep in mind, Keegan and Karmindy's favorite place to eat and eat together is Chick-fil-a. On the day of the lunch date, we picked Keegan up and headed to Chick-fil-a. Keegan and Karmindy both have a love for Scooby Doo things right now and so knowing how much Karmindy loves Scooby Doo, Keegan wrapped up a Scooby Doo movie and some Scooby Doo action figures for Karmindy's birthday. (The movie has been viewed at least a dozen times and the Scooby Doo action figures haven't left Karmindy's side). Both Karmindy and Keegan had a great time eating their "nuggets" and playing in the playplace. After Chick-fil-a, we went back to our home and let the kids play. It was a nice afternoon for both of them. I sure love my little social butterfly!

Kindergarten Lunch

Its a tradition at our school where the Kindergartner's get to have school lunch one day in the cafeteria. By doing this, the kids get to run through what they will do when they reach 1st grade when lunch time rolls around. Having lunch in the BIG CAFETERIA is an event that all the kindergartners look forward to participating in. Since I am the Room mom for Karmindy's class, it comes with some perks and I am able to go and assist her teacher when they have activities like this. I was happy to go and help and it was so fun to watch Karmindy and her classmates get their "taste" of what school lunch will be like as a big 1st Grader. The kids were so excited! I was able to snap this cute picture of Karmindy and her two friends, Avery Wallin and Megan Loeffler. I remember loving lunch time at that age, not only because I like to eat but also because of hanging out and visiting with friends. I truly enjoy watching my kids go through these fun rites of passages!

Frozen Birthday Party!

One thing for sure about me, is that I love to throw parties for my Children. I delight in the planning, the prep work, the research, the baking, the crafting....everything! Planning parties for my kids usually starts several months in advance, one, because I hate leaving things to the last minute and two, I love to have time to see what things are out there to include in making my parties fun and memorable for my kids. I hope Kaleb and Karmindy will remember the parties that I have worked so hard to throw for them over and throughout the years! It really is a labor of love and I love celebrating them, their lives and their interests!

This year, Frozen parties are all the rage among the girls Karmindy's age. Now, please note Karmindy likes princess things but hasn't gone gaga for them until now! Karmindy L-O-V-E-S anything Frozen with a capital L! Karmindy's favorite princess is Elsa and you can find Karmindy on most days, in her room singing and humming all of the songs from the popular Disney Movie. Again, this behavior isn't typical for my daughter since she loves all things tom boy. I think that may come from having an older brother. I also think that Karmindy is growing up and the girly things like dolls, princesses and makeup are becoming more enticing to her, which I love because as much as I love to rough it with the boys (yes me) I also can appreciate all things girl...glitter, clothes, shopping make up, mani-pedis, crafts.

I really consider myself more a girly girl so it is so fun for me to have a little girl that gets excited about these things too!

So let me give you an over view of the party I threw for Karmindy. Several months prior to the party, as I was searching pinterest for ideas, I came across a beautiful Elsa dress on an etsy site. I decided Karmindy needed a Elsa dress for her party and bought her one. I figured she could wear it for her party and it could also double as a Halloween Costume this year! Bonus! Win. Win. A little background on the dress....The gal that sews them sells all different sizes and customizes them to the size you need for the princess in your life. She was also kind and not only sent the Elsa dress I paid for but as an added bonus, crocheted Karmindy a snowflake clip to wear in her hair. Karmindy was thrilled with her Elsa dress and was so excited to greet her friends all dressed up when her party rolled around!

Now Back to the over view, before the princesses arrived, the girls were greeted by this Olaf sign welcoming them into our home. Upon arrival, the girls were given an Elsa crown to wear that I made out of blue foam that I had cut into the shape of crowns and then fastened them  in the back with blue sparkling ribbon. Each crown was also adorned with a sparkly snowflake jewel sticker. Thank goodness for living close to a Hobby Lobby because they saved my bacon when it came to finding all the "right" supplies for this party. After being crowned, the girls made their way to the Living Room where they watched, "Frozen," until all the guest arrived. 

After all the guests and by mean guests, all 15 little girls! Gah! One of Karmindy's friends wasn't able to make it and we missed her. So we would have had 16 girls in all. I was stressing about having that many little giggly, screaming girls but it turned out to be wonderful and not stressful or dramatic. In fact, it didn't even seem like I had 15 little girls in my home. Anywho, after the girls arrived, we went down stairs to make Elsa Pendant necklaces. I found some cute Modge Podgeable pendants and Modge Podged purple or blue jewels to each pendant and then let the girls thread their pendant and add blue and purple beads. The girls were thrilled with their necklaces!

After making necklaces we headed up stairs to open presents! Karmindy made out like a bandit and was completely and utterly spoiled by her friends, like every princess should be. Right? Seriously though, Karmindy has some very sweet friends who really made her day showering her with gifts.

After presents, we headed down stairs again to play several games. We played pin the nose on Olaf and Cold Snow Flake (Like Hot Potato). The girls had a great time playing the games. 

After games, we headed to the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday to the Birthday princess and eat cake and Chocolate Icecream! Karmindy was in heaven!

After eating cake and Ice cream and drinking waters, the girls headed out side to play. The girls seemed to all have fun and all seemed to really enjoy themselves. When the guests parents arrived to pick them up, we sent them home with little gift baggies to take with them. I thought they turned out so cute. I filled the gift bags with blue and white swirled suckers (blue raspberry flavored), hug chocolates, little rice krispie treats, and tiny little hand sanitizers that had glitter in it. The party guests were over the moon!

Planning this party was so fun, I think our little "Princess Elsa" thoroughly enjoyed the morning and enjoyed spending time with her girl friends!

Karmindy's party guests:

Back Row LtR: Sienna Evans, Emilia Pidcock, Cambree Albrecht, Eden Dressen, Megan Loeffler, and McKenna Rowe.

Middle Row: Lulu Ewell, Claire Trimble, Avery Wallin, Teagan Smart, Madison Jackman, Erin Tavita.

Front Row: Kiya Smart, Karmindy and Takara Chasten.

I sure love you little Miss Karmindy Rose! Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!