Super Daddy Fun Week (and other stuff)

Ben had the first week of January off of work - since we didn't have a trip planned, he declared it "Super Daddy Fun Week!". He sure is a fun daddy... At the beginning of the week we made a list together as a family of fun things we wanted to do that week. So, each day Ben would have the kids do chores that needed to get done that day and were then rewarded with one of the fun activities on the list.

Monday- ride bikes to the park...




Tuesday- recipe night (we made chocolate brownies and chocolate banana licuados)







Wednesday- Yogurtology...


Friday- Jumpstreet






Saturday- train park...


























Sunday- game night...


I can't seem to recall what we did on Thursday - whatever it was, I didn't take a picture of it. This just confirms to me that I'm really glad I'm generally good at taking pictures of our day to day family activities... because otherwise, I'm surprised at how quickly I just forget completely - how sad is that?

The rest of these pictures are just random photos I took over the past couple weeks that won't really fit within their own posts...

(I've been derailed a bit from regular school time activities, but I'm trying really hard to get back on track. I'm just a happier person when I stick to a schedule and fit in time to do fun at home things with my kids. I've been going through some major adjustments the past couple months - one, I've been couponing... and as with most things that I become obsessed over, I have a hard time at first being practical with the amount of time I put into it and I tend to let it overrun every part of my life. I have been getting the hang of it lately though, and many days I'm able to keep it down to 1 hour a day (I actually set a timer!) between compiling deals into my little notebook, printing and clipping coupons, and organizing them into their appropriate envelopes or coupon folder. I really will get my thoughts in order on this subject and write up a blog post on how I coupon (yes, to coupon is a verb... haha)... but that's currently towards the bottom of my ever growing to do list it seems. The other thing that's been keeping me extra busy is I started babysitting on the weekdays. I've been surprised at how well it's been working out, and the extra money is funding some of our upcoming extra stuff (like the Sedona half marathon in 2 weeks! yippee!). So, if you see pictures every once in a while that include an extra little boy in them, that would be our new addition. ;) These are also reasons why I've been less than stellar at keeping my blog up to date - I've always been VERY on top of my blog, but recently I've been distracted from it - however, I've still been taking pictures!)

I did a playdough sorting/math activity with Jake and Blaine last week - they really loved it!...

If you notice that Jake isn't wearing pants - know that I've been potty training him (again!) - the kid is 2 months away from turning 3, so I realized I really needed to get to work on finally getting him into underwear. It's been hard - he's stubborn, and distracted - much more so than my girls were... it's been adding stress to my days for sure (and add it to the list of things that are keeping my life ridiculously busy lately) BUT he shows progress everyday, and I'm hopeful that he won't be going to Kindergarten in diapers. haha.


Math has been a focus lately, so we did some estimating on another day (this was still over the holiday break, so Emma was home with us - she was SO excited to do a school time activity with the little kids!)...

they had to estimate the number of cotton balls in the jar - after we did some counting and grouping


Now here's something really random - Emma "tossed" a train at Jake and it gave him a little flesh wound - it was a bleeder!...


For Family Home Evening recently we made snowflakes and hung them on our back sliding door (as is tradition)...






And lastly - Emma finally tried out her paints from her "art kit" from Christmas. Those girls just LOVE art projects...