nova granola: Guest Post: Food I Love//Annie

Head on over to Nova Granola. I did a guest post today. Jane has invited her friends/family to share their favorite foods. What she left out of my post was that my favorite food might be chocolate covered cinnamon bears or chocolate chip cookie dough. But since that wasn't really what she was looking for I came up with something else.

Smoothies are one of our favorite things about the morning. The kids are pretty excited about the different combos I come up with and I am excited that they have left for school with a serving of veggie, fruit, protein and some omega 3s.

nova granola: Guest Post: Food I Love//Annie

PS - Another favorite food - granola. You should all buy and love Nova Granola. I particularly love the citrus.

14 Years!

Elise worked SO hard on this banner all morning. She cut out all those letters free hand. I love that she wanted to make this day a big deal. She kept trying to give Kenyon hints all month long. And she felt really bad that our anniversary fell on the day of a big tournament because she knew we would be there for her instead. But we didn't mind. (Plus her team fought hard for 1st place and we wouldn't want to miss that. They played 4 games today and then she went straight to volleyball practice. That girl is TOUGH).


This morning at breakfast, I told the kids the story of our meeting and then the story of our wedding. I guess I haven't ever told them. It was so fun.

It has been 14 years. It seems kind of crazy that it has been that long. And sadly 1/3rd of it, Kenyon hasn't felt that great (some times are worse than others). But hopefully the next 14 years we will do a little better in the health department. :) Maybe?

To celebrate 14 years - here are 14 great things about Kenyon. I am so grateful he married me.

1 - Kenyon is a great husband and father (in spite of not always feeling well).
2 - We are especially grateful for his job and his amazing work ethic. He works so many long, hard hours to provide for us.
3 - Patience and long-suffering.
4 - Worth and righteous priesthood holder. He spoke last night at our Priesthood Preview (can you believe Teague is turning 12 soon. Yikes) and he did a great job.
5 - Good sport and good at sports and helpful in the kids sports
6 - A kid at heart - always up for a game or getting on the floor and playing with the kids. And on good days - even up for a chase with the kids - their all time favorite.
7 - Super smart. He knows and remembers everything (well the memory isn't what it used to be but it is still pretty impressive).
8 - Not picky and always grateful for my meals.
9 - Financially conservative - despite all my efforts to ruin that - not on purpose though
10 - Loves family - all his siblings and mine and parents
11 - Great willingness to serve anyone - once he realizes what they need or how he can help, he will do it
12 - Calm - which is a much needed characteristic around me
13 - Funny - if you can get him to say anything - it is either very wise or hilarious
14 -Good looking - of course I think that. (I wasn't crazy about the Will Ferrell look he had for a while but it has passed an all is well).

Funny things my children say

Gavin asked me today if I liked his Valentine card. Of course, I do. Then he said, "you know I was trying to make an "M" but it was kind of hard. And same for Dad. Then I thought "M" means amazing (?) and "D" means destiny. So when you put your cards together you two are amazing destiny."

Deep thoughts by Gavin. That kid makes me smile every day (and he can drive me to insanity too).

Yesterday morning (I wasn't at the table), Kenyon said to the kids that he was taking me out to dinner and asked Teague if he would tend.

Later in the day Teague asked if he could go to a friend's house. I said, "Sure just be back at 5:45 because we are going to dinner."

He said (laughing), "I know. Dad told us this morning. And before I could even think I said I would babysit for free. But I didn't really mean it. I really need the money and I don't know why it came out."

So funny.

Last week Teague and Elise each had 4 teeth pulled. During dinner Teague made this face and said, "Is my smile normal?"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Heart Attack wall (to replace our Christmas card wall). We copied the idea from 71 Toes. Don't you love what the kids wrote? "Mom is a good cooker." Love it.

Don't you love this Valentine from Gavin? He worked so hard on it. Remember when you thought giving your mom some money was a great gift? He was pretty sure giving me 50 cents was a perfect gift.

And OH MY these marshmallows were good. And it does calm sibling rivalry. Magic.

PS - I love this blog - Read this post and more importantly listen to this radio program - the blog authors are talking about Choosing Happiness. Working on that idea. I love it but not there yet.

The Solution to Sibling Rivalry

Don't you want to know?

For Family Home Evening, I read an article from the Friend magazine (our go to source for FHE lessons). It is a short little article where the magazine asks a question and readers can write in and give their ideas.

And it was the perfect question for our children. "My brother and I argue a lot. I want to be nicer, but it's hard. What are some things I can do to stop fighting."

So I read through the answers and then we talked about which one they liked best or if they had a different ideas. Quinn doesn't like to be left out. And most of the time, she has been listening and has a pretty good answer.

Tonight her answer to sibling rivalry was brilliant.

Quinn (said with lots of hand motions): "I know. I know. Just calm down. And then eat marshmallows." For real she said that. We all died.

And I totally agree. And if you haven't had homemade marshmallows - you should.

Check out Our Best Bites. 
Or this one. I have it on good authority that nothing beats it.

The Top Ten Party

2012-02-05 2012, a photo by PorterFam98 on Flickr.

Elise wanted a friend party this year. I was kind of dragging my feet on it. So much work. But man was it worth it.

What a darling group of friends*. They were happy, friendly, interested, excited, funny, helpful, and smiley all night long. They thought every part of the party was great (or at least they acted like it).

Elise turned 10 so we picked her 10 favorite things and built a party around it.

Late night crafts and movie, lots of treats and snacks**, lots of blue, fun music (wish I had video of the girls dancing and posing), presents, photo booth, and a little soccer (well in the form of pin the soccer on Elise's head). 
*I am so so grateful that Elise is blessed with so many wonderful friends. Too many. I made her narrow her list down to a more manageable size. So many great girls her age. They are smart, talented in many different ways, cute, and good. I love it. Probably because their moms are all the same way. I'm so lucky.
**These girls must be growing. I popped 10 bags of popcorn, sliced 8 apples, ice cream sundaes, cupcakes, 2 bags of licorice, jars of other assorted candies, and drinks. There was no stopping them.