Anatomically correct...well, kinda of

Logan's kindergarten class had a valentine party yesterday of course, it's like mandatory. They had a cookie decorating/eating table (btw...when your kid is in school and they have that table, get them there for the first round! You would not believe the knife licking and then sticking it into the frosting that I saw going on! It gave me the heebie-jeebies.), a bookmark with stickers decorating table, a coloring station, valentine bingo and a cute little heat shaped guy to put together.

So finally Logan makes his way over to decorate his valentine guy and I decide to strike up a conversation with another of the mothers there. Found out it was Alivia's mom (Logan's 1st little crush) and we got to talking about how it's shocking the need to have a "boyfriend/girlfriend" in Kindergarten. I don't remember it being that way, but Logan's teacher says it happens every year.

So while I'm in the midst of this conversation, Logan comes over to show off his valentine guy. Being the proud mom I am I look over and get excited to see what he has done....Here is what I see....

Logan proudly points to the green heart on the front and says "Look mom, it's a boy, I gave him a penis." (I debated whether to type the word, but it looked really dirty with astricks instead of the letters. At which point I figured we are all grown ups and could deal with the word...Hopefully I was right with that assumption.)

Then he proudly flips it over and says "and this is his bum-bum." At which point I try not to turn bright red, laugh and send him over to show his dad. Alivia's mom to her credit said something nice like "at least he got them in the right spot" and picked up the previous conversation where it had been left off.

It wasn't until Logan was explaining to Steven about his creation that we found out what the top two hearts are....guess in Logan land valentine guys have back boobs.

Thought you'd enjoy this small foray into the mind of a 5 year old....oh, while you are still laughing, let me show you the library book Logan checked out a couple weeks ago.

Safety Guide for Babysitters (I believe was the title)

When I asked him why he picked out this book he replied "I got it so Kim could read the 6 chapters and be a safe babysitter." What a nice considerate brother.

That's my Logan. Don't know if I would trade him for another...

Sports Wall Art

For quite some time, I've been trying to decorate the kid's rooms, but on the cheap. I started this project last summer and it has just fallen off the radar until recently. I finally finished these up yesterday....check out Logan's new decorations.

Soccer

Football

Baseball

Basketball

ASU's SPARKY

BYU's COSMO

Here are some extra photos I put in a floating frame.

How did I do it you ask? Simple.

1. Picked up some art canvas' while Michaels had them on sale.

2. Got some sports scrapbook papers on sale at Hobby Lobby.

3. Cut scrapbook paper to size and mod podged them on.

4. Found and printed my pictures.

5. Cut pictures to size and matted with plain colored scrapbook paper to give some definition.

6. Added some sports stickers for the sayings and decor.

7. Added a couple sports scrapbooking tags.

8. Covered the whole thing with 2 coats of mod podge.

9. Hot glued 5/8 inch black ribbon to the sides to cover uneven spots and "frame" it.

There you go...super cheap and cute art for for the "Sports" room. Now I just need to find some cool pics of cars to make some for the "Transportation" room.

Cosmetic Surgery

Got you there for a second didn't I? You checked to make sure you were on the right blog? If not, you don't know me very well...there are way to many projects that would get my money before cosmetic surgery....Like that beautiful Silhouette I've been eyeing for months, but I digress.....

Today I had to perform some cosmetic surgery. Good thing I was medically trained in my previous working career. Here are a couple before images of my patient:

Notice the one handle completely ripped off and the other hanging by a thread.

Poor little thing. So innocent. So cheap...glad I only spend a dollar on it.

After much love and tape she she was almost made whole again. (We won't mention that because of this needed repair I had like 2 minutes to shovel food into my mouth for lunch before taking Logan to school.)

At least whole enough for a little Kindergartner to take to school.

Now how did this happen, you ask? Well....I being the smart mother I am finished the decorating of the box on Saturday and placed it with also completed valentines on top of the coat rack where little men couldn't reach it. Logan in his ill-fated wisdom realized he needed to take it into school today and got it down and placed it by his backpack. Of course when he got into a fight with his younger brother (I won't point fingers here, but think about if for a sec and you'll figure out which one was to blame), said younger brother proceeded to pick up the box and tear it apart....

Ah, the tales of this lovely SAHM in Idaho. How was your day?

Sharon

Just finished posting my last blog and realized it is Sharon's Birthday.

It's the big 22! Which I can't believe...it seems like just yesterday she was born.

For those of you who don't know her you are missing out!

This girl has the greatest fashion sense...

makes killer desserts...

changes pee diapers without much complaint...

and always has a gorgeous smile on her face!

See...

All Us Rays out here in Idaho sure love you and hope your birthday is wonderful!

(Anyone who knows a really nice, cute, smart, single young man looking for a wife....she might just be the perfect candidate. Email me.... :) )

FHE at the Rays

Having a house full of boys is a whole different world then the one I grew up in. When I was a kid, I only had sisters, so we had girl toys to play with. (My brother didn't come along until I was 14, by then I'd outgrown the need for Barbies and such.) But I remember spending hours playing with Barbies...changing their clothes over and over, creating houses out of shoe boxes, making them fall in love with Ken over and over, driving her around in her car...hours of entertainment. I'm sure my mother was thrilled.

Fast forward many years and welcome to my world of boys....mega bloks strewn all over the floor, hot wheel cars in every nook and cranny, balls of all sizes and colors everywhere...boys flitting from one activity to another on a whim...it's a whole other world.

Enter Christmas 2011, Logan and Owen both got dart guns. They love playing with them while at the McEntire's house, so Steven and I decided to get some for the boys. They have since been informed you are not allowed to shoot mommy (or anyone else) in the face.

The other night, after family home evening, Owen decided to brake out his gun and start shooting. It all innocently started with him shooting up in the air to have it fall back down to Earth.

But then it happened....the dart stuck to the ceiling....

Oh the excitement! After a few minutes, the dart disentangled itself from the ceiling and fell. Of course Owen reloaded his gun and fired again...

Here is Steven lifting Owen up to retrieve the dart from the ceiling before it fell again.

Logan holding his super, awesome Star Wars dart gun. Can you tell he is having fun?

Of course, everyone got in on some of the action....even Kim.
Since hitting the ceiling is so easy....they finally opted to try hitting the ceiling fan. I think they might have even turned it on....

So just in case you were wondering...this is what we do occasionally for our FHE activity.

The Living Christ

Every year for Christmas, our little family does a "Gift for Christ" exchange. Like the little drummer boy, we can't do anything that would equal the gift that we receive from Christ, but it's our little way of showing the kids the true meaning of Christmas.

In past years, there have been songs sung, pictures drawn, stories or books read. This year Steven wrote a Christmas story, Kim read a story, Logan sung a song and the 2 little ones colored pictures.

For my gift this year I wanted to do something special. I decided to take apart the lines of "The Living Christ" a proclamation the First Presidency and 12 apostles put together in 2000 and put them together with pictures to help my kids better understand the meaning. So I delved into the world of digital scrapbooking (Side note...I do love the easiness of digital scrapbooking, but I miss the feel of paper and glue doing the "real" thing. I think I'll continue to do a mixture of both).

I showed my friend and she loved it! (Thanks for the praise Tamera.) I had Steven post it on his website so she could access it and print it for her use. Today, I just thought some of you might like it also. Here are a couple of my favorite pages:

Title Page

Just really love this quote and the ribbon:

Love this pic:

Love the door knob on this one (and yes, the SLC temple is pretty, but if the Meridian one was done, I'd totally have that pic instead....I may just update this page when it is):

So here is the link: http://rayznkids.us/galleries/LivingChrist

The images are 8 inches by 8 inches. I think I adjusted them on the copies I printed to 7x7 and mounted them on black paper.

Feel free to check it out. If you like it, print a copy for your family.

Snowy Day

So far this year, it has been pretty dry up in these parts. Today we finally got some snow worth writing home about. Of course, the boys wanted to go out and play. After some nudging from Neelie, I decided to bundle them up and send them outside.

Here is Evan eating the snow....by far his most favorite activity. At one point, he had fallen on his bum and couldn't/didn't-want-to get back up, so he sat there and ate snow for a while.

Logan looking all smiley. Could be that he had just barely gone outside.

Owen also eating the snow....is that just a boy thing? Notice the snow piled up on the BBQ and chair...it's up to the bottom of the car in the background.

Just couldn't resist showing you this happy little face. Look at those rosy cheeks! And gloves covered in snow. He was having a blast and stayed outside the longest of the 3.
Here is Logan and Owen having a "snowball" fight. Really they would just pick up a handful of snow and chuck it at the other one....most of the time not hitting anything.

The boys had lots of fun playing in the snow that fell this morning. It got probably 4-5 inches deep...deep enough that Evan was having trouble walking. They spent about 20ish minutes outside. Then they came in for Noodle Soup (Ramen) and Chicken Nuggets to warm up.

Unfortunately, for these guys it warmed up in the late afternoon/evening and instead of snow we got rain. Who know what it will look like in the backyard tomorrow. At least they got to enjoy some snow today.