What to do with myself...

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon. Rhett is asleep on the couch, and the boys are playing downstairs. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is on both TV's - I think we've seen them three times this weekend. Usually this is the time when I pull out my Preschool binder and get ready for the week... But there's no preschool tomorrow!! Last Wednesday was our last day, and as much as I enjoyed teaching my five kids and having fun with them, it marks the beginning of the few events that signal school is out and summer vacation is beginning. Many of you have asked where I get all my ideas; this are a few of my favorite website:

http://www.preschoolbystormie.com/ : This is the best and most organized website I've found. Stormie has all her ideas organized and laid out in a monthly curiculum by theme. I base a lot of my themes and monthly planning off her ideas. It makes planning really easy!

http://www.childfun.com/ : This site is organized by theme and has a bunch of great ideas as well.

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/ : This is one of my other favorite websites as well. They have their site broken down by themes as well, and has their ideas under each theme further broken down by music, science, etc. They have coloring pages and even have some already developed lesson plans.

http://www.preschoolrock.com/ : I haven't looked at this website very deep, but the few ideas I've seen on it are great.

Books:
Read, Sing, and Play Along: Children's Lullaby Songs. I orginally bought this book for the lullaby cd's, but it has a bunch of activity worksheets and has every story (Jack and the Beanstalk, The Little Red Hen, Etc.) and lots of fingerplays, as well as other theme extending ideas to go with each. I plan on using this a lot more next year.

The Toddler's Busy Book: This particular book is designed for 1 1/2 -3 year olds, but I found a few ideas in there for some fun reinforcement activities. There is also a Preschooler's Busy Book by the same author and others that she has put out. (I may have to extend my collection!)

And I have a whole slew of other books and things that I pull ideas from. I hope that helps. If you know of any other great websites, books or cd's, please share! Also, I'm looking for a good CD with all the favorite songs on it: Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance, etc., so if you know if one, please let me know! Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all my mother friends and family!! Hope you had a great, relaxing day!!

Tagged

5 things on my to-do list:
1. Make 20 crayon rolls for Porter's Kindergarten teacher
2. Clean my bathroom (it's really time to stop putting this off)
3. Clean my craft area (just so I can make it messy again)
4. Call Just Brakes to get the brakes on our car fixed
5. Take all the junk that is cluttering my closet and the garage to Good Will

5 jobs that I have had:
1. Assembler and Office Manager at a Machine Shop
2. Personal Trainer at 24-hour Fitness
3. Office Manager for a software company
4. College Textbook sales rep
5. MOM!!

5 places I've lived:
1. Canoga Park/West Hills, CA
2. Logan, UT
3. West Valley City, UT
4. Sandy, UT
5. Albuquerque, NM

5 favorite snacks
1. Anything chocolate (as long as it's without nuts)
2. Cheese on Triscut crackers
3. Cut up apples or pears with a yummy peanut butter/yogurt dip
4. Dried berries
5. vanilla ice cream with lots of hot fudge


5 things I would do if I was a Billionaire:
1. Build our dream house on lots of land
2. Have horses and chickens, a huge garden and a fruit orchard
3. Buy Rhett a boat and a Dune Buggy
4. Throw out all the clothes in Rhett's and my closet (except for my favorite jeans) and get a new wardrobe for both of us
5. Eat King Crab legs, shrimp and salmon every week

5 things you may not know about me:
1. I really would like to go back to school again to get my Masters in Early Childhood Education
2. I would really like to go back and live in Salt Lake; alas, it's probably never going to happen
3. I would love to live back East, but it's too far away from family (I know it contridicts #2, but oh well!)
4. I would love to teach Preschool and have my own classroom
5. If I could afford it, I would have plastic surgery (That's all I'm going to say about that)

5 Things I love:
1. Rhett - He would much rather be home playing with us, but he gets up everyday to go to work to make sure we are provided for. He is the hardest worker I've ever seen, is very professional and takes his work very seriously. I also appreciate that he sees my role as a stay-at-home mom very seriously and does everything to make sure I can stay at home. Plus, he puts up with all my creative and insane projects.
2. Porter, Zach, and Andrew - They are the cutest, craziest, funnest, funniest, sweetest, looniest, best boys ever and I appreciate that they have taught me patience, laughter, tolerance, joy, despair, understanding, hope, and all the other qualities that I need to learn to be just like Heavenly Father. I can't imagine life without them.
3. Our great families - you couldn't ask for a better (and crazier) bunch of people. I pray everyday that my kids grow up with that same closeness.
4. My house - I love the layout and the space we have; I'm not particularly fond of where we live, but that will change soon
5. Chocolate


I tag Tanya, Debra, and Deon.

I hope I survive...

I hope I survive having the boys home all summer. I have been counting down the days 'til Porter is out of school and we get to start summer break - meaning, sleeping in, no schedules to keep and lots of free time to play. Sounds heavenly, huh?

Porter has had an ear infection lately along with a fever and a cough, then the stomach flu yesterday, so I kept him home from school today to let him recooperate. I cancelled preschool today and didn't have the boy I watch come over, so Zach was left with nothing to do all day... except bug his brothers, which he does quite well. Zach has a tendency to get bored quickly, and when he does, he creates lots of trouble; which results in some quality time in time-out. Between that and Porter's tattling, and Andrew's fit over what he wanted for lunch, I don't know if I'm looking forward to summer break so much anymore. I guess it just teaches me that I'm going to need A LOT of activities for the boys to do. So if anyone needs a play-date - you know who to call!

Pause...

Earlier this month, I was reading the First Presidency's message in this month's Ensign. It is titled Treasure of Eternal Value and in it, President Monson talks about three things that will help with Eternal Happiness: learning from the past, living in the present, and preparing for the future. It really struck a cord with me; My goal for the past few months has been to spend more time with my kids and playing with them instead of worrying about what the house looks like or other piddly stuff. After reading the article, I promised myself that I would start living in the present; use it to do those things that are the most important and not spend my time wishing away my life. To compliment those thoughts, our last MOPS meeting was about taking the time to have a Spiritual Spa Break - meaning, taking some time each day or whenever possible to think and reflect and have a pick-me-up spiritually. The lady who was speaking to us emphasized the importance of learning the art of waiting; to wait and enjoy each day and enjoy our children along with it. She made the comment that we should not wish away our time or our children's lives - that sometimes we get caught up thinking, "I can't wait till he gets bigger so he can do this" or " I wish he was old enough to do that". But she made the point that we should enjoy our children everyday because before we know it, they will be big and on their own.

So with that as the background of my thoughts, I was sitting at the table eating dinner with my boys tonight. Rhett was at the temple with the Young Men, so it was just the three boys and I eating an informal dinner of Mac-n-Cheese. The conversation quite cute - the boys talking about the year they were born and other things I don't remember. But I do remember looking at each of them and wishing so much I could just keep them in that state forever. So eager for learning, so eager to please, so innocent, so good, so happy. My thoughts fell on the future children we will have and how much joy they would bring as well. It made my resolve to enjoy each day with them even stronger; and not that they won't stay as wonderful as they grow, but I realized that as each day passes, they are a little bit different each day - a bit bigger, a bit more independant, a bit older. There's a line in the movie Finding Neverland by Jonny Depp's character; he says, "A boy should never be made to go to bed, for he only wakes up a day older. And before you know it, he's grown." Maybe I need to find myself some pixiedust...

I'll take any suggestions...

Lately I've just been feeling "Blah". I don't want to do anything, I don't have any energy to do anything and I'm perfectly content sitting on the couch watching TV. Usually, I can't wait for the boys to go to bed so I can work on one of the many projects I usually have going, but lately, I just don't want to do a thing. Every now and then I'll get a burst of energy and get something done; then I think, "wow, that was so cool to get something done; I'm going to be more productive and get more done tomorrow". But then tomorrow comes around and I don't want to do anything again. It's making for a very long list of things I need (or want) to do. Ugh...

Rhett's parents came to visit two weekends ago. It was General Conference weekend, so we spent Saturday and Sunday watching and listening to our Church leaders. Rhett and his dad went to Priesthood Session Saturday night, and the boys, me and Grandma Hunt stayed home and played. The boys went out with the neighbors and took turns riding down the driveway on their skateboards. They did all sorts of "tricks"; going down on their stomachs, while playing air guitar, going down with friends, while sitting, under their friend's legs - it was quite the show. Even Andrew took a turn or two going down with the kids. (I don't know if you can tell, but in the picture of the boys going down on their stomachs, Zach's eyes are closed. He pretended to be a transformer most of the time).

Sunday, of course, was spent at home and the boys spent some time outside playing "boxing". To insure they had the ultimate experience, they donned bare chests and had "tatoos" (thank goodness for washable markers). However, that fun had to be put to an end after Zach came in complaining his chest hurt (Aparantly, Porter was doing some real boxing).

Monday we got up and took a drive down to the the Quarai ruins in Central New Mexico. The pueblo indians lived here from about 1400-1600 when a Spanish mission was then created to convert and save the indians. It took about 100 years for the Spaniards to use up all the resources and the indians either died of famine or war with the Apaches or left the area. The boys had a great time climbing all over and walking through the mazes of ruins. We had a picnic at Quarai , then went to Abo to see more ruins. Abo is about 20 miles west of Quarai. Abo was the center of the Spanish missions in New Mexico in the 1600's. We walked through all the ruins again and did some more climbing. We headed home to feed the missionaries, then afterwards took a walk down to the Rio Grande river to throw sticks.

Tuesday, we spent the morning hiking along the Petroglyphs. The boys, grandpa, and Rhett climbed all over the rocks to find all the different pettoglyphs. After, we went to Blake's Lotaburger to treat Grandpa to an authentic Green chili cheeseburger. It was sure a great weekend and we sure enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Hunt here.