Some of our favorite things

Some of these things are newly discovered and some we have loved for a while.
All of these things make our lives easier.


As some of you may know we have been trying to potty train our now 3 year old for a while. He is one of those kids that know what they want and are determined. So if it is something he doesn't want, you can't make him. We have tried everything from bribing with toys and treats to yelling and screaming. We had tried these fruit snacks before with no success but now this is what worked. He finally has decided that he wants to be a big boy and has made it a couple of weeks with almost no accidents. So we are getting there, FINALLY. So these snacks are one of my favorite things because they were that little push that my 3 year old needed.


As a kid I liked fruit pies but mostly the crust with a little of the flavoring on it. I wasn't a big fan of all of the fruit that was in the middle (unless it was the chocolate). We found these little fruit pies a while ago and have fallen in love with them. They are just the right size for a good little treat without too much of the inside stuff. Plus my kids can eat one and I don't have half eaten pies everywhere because they wanted to try one (like I would with the bigger sized ones).


This thing has come in handy so many times. We first bought it for a soccer tournament that Kylan was going to be in when he was 5 or 6. We have used it for all the soccer tournaments and July 24th celebrations. We will be able to use this for years to come and has been well worth the money.


If any of you are still using an old fashion mop, STOP and try this product. I love this thing. We only have one place in our house that needs to be mopped and it is so much easier to use the swiffer than the mop. There are different swiffer products but this little one works great for us. If we had a big area that needed mopping I would try their other products. It is just so nice, you just grab a cloth, put it on this thing and mop the floor and then throw the dirty cloth away. There is no dirty mop water to worry about and no dirty mop to clean. I love this thing.


This is a newly discovered thing. I love 7 layer dip but hardly ever make it. I think that about the only time I eat it is for New Years and my mother in law makes it for me. This dip tastes a lot like 7 layer dip. It is a little bit more spicy but not really. My 5 and 3 year olds think that it is too spicy but my 10 year old loves it as well as my husband and me. I am glad that we tried this out a couple of months ago.


My kids love Mac and Cheese but when I don't have time or don't want to make it this microwavable mac and cheese is great. Three and a half minutes and my kids are happy.


Same thing goes for the waffles. I don't have time to make waffles every morning. In fact Sunday morning is the only morning I make breakfast usually. So these waffles that go in the toaster are wonderful.


I love these little "foods" for my little one. He is so much happier that he can feed himself. These are his snacks for church or other outings that we might take. The biscuits get a little messy but he isn't too bad with them. My other kids would have the biscuit in their hair and everywhere so I was hesitant to let my little one have these. I didn't like the mess. But he has been pretty good with them. Usually only his hands and face get messy and those can be easily cleaned with a wipe.

When you don't know the answer to a test question.... be creative!

Stephen brought these home from work and I thought that they were pretty funny. Hope they make you laugh.

(you might need to click on the picture to make them bigger so you can see what they say)


If I were a math teacher and a student had answered the find the x question in this way I would have a hard time not giving partial credit for being creative and making me laugh.

Why are you eating cardboard?

A couple of months ago we bought Gavin these little puffs.



The first ones we got were pretty gross (yes I tried one, as everyone else did), I don't remember the flavor. Anyway, I called it cardboard because that is how it tasted to me. Beck actually liked the taste of it (Gavin did too). The other day Beck asked me if he could eat something and I had a hard time understanding what he wanted. Finally I understood that he was saying cardboard and it took me a minute to know what he meant. So now I have to watch Beck whenever I get these out for Gavin to eat. We have bought a bunch of different kinds and have found that some of them actually are pretty good. These blueberry ones aren't too bad.



Gavin loves that he can be "big" and eat like everyone else.

What we did for Labor Day

It seems that all we have done this summer is fish and here we are again. We started the day fishing.


Kylan and Beck getting the worm on the hook.


a picture of the boys fishing from above



This is a funny picture because Kylan is in the background casting.



Hunter and Beck



Hunter playing with the bait (worms)

After we went home and cleaned up and napped we headed to the in-laws. The weather didn't co-operate with our plans, it rained. So we had our bbque inside. After dinner we made smores but no one wanted to go out in the rain and cook the marshmallows, so we improvised.


the kids "roasting" their marshmallows



The marshmallows cooking with the broiler



The finished product. Doesn't it look good. Looking at these pictures I want another one. I was surprised with how well it worked. The marshmallows browned up really well. We even started a couple on fire, just like outside with the fire pit.



Beck enjoying his smore.

We are so lucky to live close to family and enjoy activities like these with them.

The Name Game

With everyone having babies lately and trying to figure out what to name them has made me remember naming our kids. My plan is to make a scrapbook page for each of my kids telling them how we decided on their name. But that hasn't happened yet, I know that I am behind. I will probably be behind the rest of my life.
The funny thing is we had girl names picked out for each of our kids but with all of them we had to make the final decision on the boy name at the hospital. With our kids their first names were just names that we liked and their middle names have meaning to us.

Kylan - was going to be named Kylie Anne. We were actually told that he probably was a girl. The doctor couldn't really see very well and guessed a girl. Luckily, it was not a sure thing and we didn't buy any pink things. We went neutral. Anyway, I looked in a baby naming book for the definition of Kylie and saw the variation of Kylan. I thought oh, that is a cute name but I am not going to have a Kylie and a Kylan. Another boy name we thought about was Shae(I am not sure on how we would have spelled it). But in the end we liked Kylan the best. I think that he likes his name and the uniqueness of it except he gets a little tired of repeating himself when people ask what his name is and how to spell it. I put a lot of thought into his name before we named him and decided I like it partly because there were options with it. He could go by Kylan, Kyle, Ky.

Hunter - would have been Taylor Jena if he had been a girl. We knew he was a boy while I was still prego (I can't wait), so we had either Hunter or Gavin picked. When he was born, while we were still at the hospital, Stephen and I were both leaning toward Gavin. Before we named him, we asked Kylan what he thought and he was determined to name him Hunter. He would not hear of anything else. So we let Kylan pick Hunter.

Beck - would have been Brooklyn Jena if he had been a girl. Once again we knew that he was a boy while I was still preg., so we liked either Beck or Gavin once again. We decided when we saw him that we liked Beck better. Contrary to some beliefs the name Beck did not come from a BYU football player or the Beckett magazine. Stephen heard the name and liked it and actually I think he saw it in a baby naming book first. The middle name Jena is a combination of my mom's name (Jan) and Stephen's mom's name (Debra). I thought that this would be a cute name and have some meaning.

Gavin - with Gavin, I knew that I wanted a girl with the nickname of Brie. I liked the name and it had a connection to Stephen's mission. So I was debating between Brielle or Briette and then Jena for the middle. Once again we found out he was a boy and started looking for a name. As soon as I find out I am preg. I have to start looking for names. I spend so much time looking through baby naming books and probably drive Stephen nuts talking about it all the time. Anyway, by the time he was born we couldn't find another name that we liked better than Gavin.

So middle names...
Kylan's is Randall which is Stephen's middle name
Hunter's is Richard which is my dad's name
Beck's is Stephen, enough said
Gavin's is Maddux which is one of Stephen's favorite baseball players. Stephen has always wanted to name one of his kids after a sports person. I finally let him with the fourth one. My only rule was that it had to be an upstanding person that my kid wouldn't mind being named after.

Before we started having kids Stephen wanted to name one of his girl's Elodie after a little cute girl that he met on his mission. I didn't like the name because it sounded like Melodie, which I don't really like and it reminded me of a girl in high school. But now if we were to have a girl I would consider Elodie and nickname her Ellie. We don't plan on having any more kids so I don't think this will ever be an issue.