A Legacy of Love

I see my Mother kneeling with our family each day
I hear the words she whispers as she bows her head to pray
Plea to the Father quiets all my fears
and I am thankful Love is Spoken here

Mine is a home where every hour
is blessed by the strength of priesthood power
with Father and Mother leading the way
teaching me how to trust and obey
and the things they teach are crystal clear
For love is spoken here.

Picture this song sang by 7 motherless children (2 were serving missions for the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints) and a recently widowed father.

There was not a dry eye in the overfilled chapel as the family of Jordan's Aunt (Dianne Litchfield)sang those words in memory of their dear mother.

2 children serving missions in other parts of the world, 1 home not even 5 weeks from a mission, 6 children trying to live the way their parents taught, 7 grandchildren (one not even 2 weeks old)

That is the legacy left this week by a woman solid and sure of her motherhood and it's divine role. She will be missed dearly, but the love will not end as we celebrate the life she has lived.

My Love Language Test Results

I feel loved when...

The Five Love Languages

My Primary Love Language is Quality Time

My Detailed Results:
Quality Time:	10
Words of Affirmation:	8
Acts of Service:	7
Physical Touch:	5
Receiving Gifts:	0

About this quiz

Unhappiness in relationships is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. It can be helpful to know what language you speak and what language those around you speak.

Tag 3 people so they can find out what their love language is.

Take the Quiz!
Check out the Book

As Requested

Here are some of the recipes for my kitchen concoctions that keep my kids busy - Jordan likes to say that I am going to blow something up, all that corn starch and all...


Homemade Slime

3/4 cup water and 1 cup white glue
mix together and add food coloring if desired

4 tsp Borax and 1 1/3 cup warm water
mix together in a second bowl

Pour the contents of the first bowl into the second bowl and let sit for 1 minute.

Time one minute and remove your slime from the soapy water mixture, if you let it sit longer in the Borax mixture it get firmer. There is no need to mix the contents of the 2 bowls, just pour and time.

store in a zip lock bag in the fridge.


Snow Paint

4 Tbsp corn starch
1 cup warm water
food coloring

Mix in a small spray bottle, and turn your pretty little snow angels blue, or your snowman pink. Yesterday we just had a purple backyard.


Homemade Finger paint

4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups cold water

Mix over medium heat until thick (will thicken more while cooling) devide into 4 or more containers and add food coloring. Let cool and paint away!


ok, so there they are, but I want all of you to post fun things that you are doing with your kids too so that I can get some more ideas. Thanks

Little Eskimos

I love these cute little faces bundled up trying to make all of the snow in out backyard turn purple.
I soo want to be able to take good pictures of Skyler again, but he is too busy doing his picture pose smile to look happy.

Something Satisfying

there is something strangely satisfying about seeing (almost) every toy in your home piled up and freshly sterilized, although it does make for a rather messy kitchen and living room...

Pee? Really?

I am currently babysitting kids, and really struggling if I should continue, or if I should continue with other children. The boy that I babysit is 4 years old, and has instigated numerous outrageous things in my home. Flour, Laundry soap, glue, cooking spray etc. Today we made slime, I sent the boys downstairs to play while I cleaned up the rather large mess. The boys had been down there about 5 minutes when Skyler came running upstairs to tell me that Nathan had peed. That is right, he whipped down his pants and started peeing all over my basement intentionally. He is potty trained, and today he peed on my couch, floor, carpet, toy box, and in all of my toy bins. Now I have 4 children who cannot play downstairs because I have to disinfect my whole basement before it is sanitary. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

keeping kids busy

We have had lots of fun this past week trying to keep the kids busy. The weather has been warm (relatively), but we don't have a lot of snow, and it is pretty wet to be at the parks, so I have been trying to find things inside to keep the kids busy.
We made homemade finger paints, and thank goodness I knew what was in them because Ethan loved to eat it.I think Skyler managed to make something like 20 pictures, and they got more and more brown as he went, but he, as usual loved it!
We made Stop and Goo Cars again - always a hit around here.

We made FOUR batches of play dough because the kids wanted all 4 colours in the food coloring box which is fine, but it soon became one kind of blah colourand my personal favorite so far this winter is the slime. So easy to make, soo gross to touch, and little boys just adore that goopy feeling on thier hands.
I must admit, I am a little nervous with Skyler getting older and wanting more to keep him busy am I going to have enough ideas to keep him busy until spring?Are we actually going to have some good, not too cold snowy weather so the kids can play outside?

Do any of you have good Winter time keep busy ideas?

Going Private

I would like to make my blog private, so those of you that read it, and would like to be able to continue to read please leave your e-mail address as a comment on this post, and I will add you. I will go Private December 01. Thanks

Family Pictures

I loved all of the cute Family Photos that were done outside with the fall colors as a backdrop, but I missed the ball, and now it is too cold (although really warm for November) to do any decent pictures outside. My sister in law Jocelyn has a little studio in her home, and is just starting her business. I AM IN LOVE with my pictures. I have never had family picture turn out soo good, and the kids WERE NOT cooperating they just wanted to play with their little cousin and her toys. Not to mention the fact that we were only at her home for a total of 30 minutes. Talk about amazing! Here are some of my favorites.
We had lots of funny faces on Skyler because he likes to say broccalli instead of cheese, and scrunches up his face, I had fun looking at them.This is Ethan in his element, getting ready to cause trouble - and loving it!
I totaly wish I had more wall space to display them all. Jocelyn specializes in Children's photography and is in her element with children, she loves them, and they love her which makes for happy pictures, and happy me!

And today we have...

Glue, lots and lots of glue. It is my dad's birthday tomorrow, and we were busy making him a card. I ran upstairs to grab the pictures, and when I cam down we were missing 2 guilty culprits, and the glue stick! I call them both upstairs only to find out that I have glue on my TV, fireplace, window, walls, toy trucks, corn on the cob and strawberry's. After they helped me clean up their mess, they were both in time outs, and we were talking. I mentioned that Heavenly Father isn't happy with behavior like that and that it makes him sad - all of a sudden we had one very upset boy, and lots of tears. Skyler was soo upset that he made heavenly Father sad, becasue he loves Heavenly Father, and wants him to be happy.

Perhaps not all of the lessons that I am trying to teach are getting through, but this blessed little spirit is getting some of them, and I love him! messes and all!

better late than never

I got a new haircut a few weeks ago, and I do really like it.I am actually growing out my bangs, and the back I am able to leave curly which is nice because my hair naturally is really curly.

Halloween Candy

What do you do with your kids Halloween candy? Let them have at it, and it is gone in a few days, Ration it out - that could last at least a year with the loot that my kids got
For the last couple of years I have let Skyler have a treat or two a day, all the while Jordan eating it at night, and then after a month or so I have made Jordan put it away, or threatened to throw it all out - then it ends up in our bedroom, but he finishes it off and life goes on. I was thrilled when I saw This idea for dealing with candy - we were already a week late, so I didn't stamp, I used a silver marker, and I didn't waste my time on brads, I used a hot glue gun to attach the cups
Skyler was able to pick 2 treats a day, and put them into his cups which are attached to paper covered diaper box (that is where all of my card board comes from)
Then I glued tissue on top so that he can use his little fist to get at his treat each day.

I love it this way the candy is done and gone in a month. Skyler got to pick out what he wanted before Jordan ate it (although he seems not to go for Chocolate, so Jordan wouldn't have had too much competition)

Next time I would plan ahead and find slightly smaller cups, and maybe a bigger piece of Cardboard and make it more into a calender, but I like the idea all the same.

Halloween Costumes

I didn't even realize that I had not posted my kids Halloween costumes until my Dad asked me to send them to him. Ethan was a puppy, Skyler a dinosaur and I wore the dollar store green devil horns, and Skyler thought I was the coolest mom around. Worth the buck I guess.

It melt's my heart

I LOVE, LOVE when I have been gone for a short while and I walk in the door to both of my boys running at me to give me huge hugs - each is jealous of the other, and both are vying for my attention, but they are happy, smiling and loving ME. It melts my heart - I Love being a mom!

Jordan 's Halloween Party

We had Jordan's Halloween Party on Saturday night, and it was a lot of fun. He really enjoys throwing Halloween parties, he thinks it is the best time of year for a party. Last year was adult scary with eyeballs in the drinks, Psychological Horror movies, and Nasty looking (but yummy tasting) food. This year (since I am less excited about Halloween) we did a murder mystery and it really did turn out great. After doing a party like this, I don't think that I would be able to go back to How to Host a Murder games.

I should have taken pictures of Jordan Mocktail bar - by far one of his best ideas for the night, and all of the decorations, but I forgot - big surprise.

Part of the game was extortion, blackmail, and pickpocketing of course, so each player started with some money. Jordan decided to charge for their drinks, which turned out great. Some of the guys were schmoozing girls to get info, or just to play up their characters. At one point Jordan got suckered into buying his whole table rinks because in Character he was the runt employee of the Boss of Bosses, or something along thoses lines.

The one thing that didn't turn out great is that those who had played other Murder games were holding onto their action and murder cards waiting for more rounds, which in this game doesn't happen.

Dinner was Garlic shrimp with Pasta Carbonara, Ceaser Salad and Tomato Basil soup, and dessert was squares so that you could mingle and enjoy the sweets.

Decoration were for the Grand opening of the club and were black, whits and red with some gold and glitz going on as well. After all this was happening in th roaring twenties.
There were prizes for best performance, best costume, most money, and best detective, it really was a lot of fun - things we learned and would do a little differently next time, but overall a fabluous experience!