Summer is a great time to explore new places as a family! We checked out the Provo Court building which was full of beautiful marble columns.
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1/4/2020 0 Comments Home for ChristmasLook at these sweethearts who just woke up for the most magical day of the year! We really missed being with my side of the family for Christmas. I enjoyed being in the comfort of home and basking in the warm glow of our live Christmas tree as we filled the stockings, though. Did I mention I love that tree?... It snowed in the night so it was also a white Christmas and perfectly picturesque! The kids are growing so fast and their favorite things seem to change constantly, but we totally won with presents this year. I call it the LEGO effect, because as soon as they opened it all they wanted to do was play LEGOs (including Daddy). Our Spider-Man obsessed toddler and preschooler got a figurine from Santa, and our big girl (who still believes) got a cook book and stuffed dragon she asked Santa for. They were so excited for their stockings, too!
12/31/2019 0 Comments DIY Little Passports: IsraelOur last stop on the World Explorer Club this year is a place I definitely wanted to learn about, especially at Christmastime. Welcome to Israel! I was super emotional reading and writing about Israel just because the area is so full of rich and heartbreaking history for the three biggest religions in the world.
12/30/2019 0 Comments A Grinchy Christmas GatheringOur friends are so awesome! They love Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch and have all sorts of fun things Grinch Christmas themed which they use for a Christmas party! A blow-up Grinch greeted us at the door, and my favorite detail was the Grinch themed fresh floral centerpiece on the table. There were headbands/hats for everyone to get in the spirit, ornaments hanging from the ceiling, colorful real linens and silverware, all sorts of delicious food for the “feast”... Wow. The kids loved when we played Bingo after dinner and watched the original Grinch cartoon.
12/2/2019 0 Comments Christmas Time is Here!We got our Christmas tree!! I am in love. It touches the ceiling and lights up the house with its beauty. I think it’s the same species as last year (Black Balsam) from the same farm in Elk Ridge (Peterson Trees). Jer says we should keep the tree up as long as it lasts, and I agree! We’ve enjoyed lots of family time and Christmas traditions this month—quite a lot to catch up on! Check it out below.
12/2/2019 0 Comments DIY Little Passports: El SalvadorHola from our latest stop on the World Explorers Club! We’re towards the end of the year on our journey, and have come to the “Land of Volcanoes” in El Salvador! Sadly it wasn’t even labeled on our illustrated wall map! My husband actually spent two years there on a mission, so it was really cool for him to sit down with our Explorer and get her excited about this tiny bit mighty country in Central America when she opened her package.
11/18/2019 0 Comments Batman Potty Party!We’ve had a potty for 2 years hoping our now 4-year-old son would just use it one day when he was ready, but he was showing signs of readiness so I needed to learn how to teach him. I borrowed a Potty Kit for Boys from the library with books that came with a baby doll, mini potty, bottle, and the book “Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day: Proven Secrets of the Potty Pro” by Teri Crane. I got 3 other potty training books and prayed for success since I really did only have one full day to to dedicate entirely to potty train. A ton of effort but... It worked for us!
11/1/2019 0 Comments A Happy Doctor Who-lloweenIt’s a Timey-Wimey-Wibbly-Wobbly Halloween this year in our Doctor Who family costumes! For fans of the BBC show, we dressed from left to right as Robin Hood, the Impossible Astronaut, the TARDIS in human form, the Last Centurion (Rory), and the Eleventh Doctor. Check it out because... Bow ties are cool!!!
10/30/2019 0 Comments DIY Little Passports: KenyaI cried—a lot—while reading the materials before approving them for this package. Stories about kindness, giving, gratitude, making a difference, following your dreams, unexpected friendships, and what it truly means to mourn with those that mourn... I hope my Little Explorer is as touched by discovering the beautiful culture and people of Kenya with our homemade World Explorer’s Club! My Little Explorer wears her souvenir everyday to school (it helps that it’s her favorite color and matches most of her current clothing). It’s been a busy month so we haven’t gotten around to the activity yet. More details below!
10/21/2019 0 Comments Dinosaur National MonumentWe are the dinosaurs, marching marching; we are the dinosaurs whaddya think of that! Fall Break is family time, and what better way to make our little aspiring paleontologist’s day than an all-day road trip to the National Dinosaur Monument in Vernon? There’s a wall of fossils to check out as well as a hike where you can spot fossilized shells and bone, petroglyphs, and some of the most beautiful desert rocks with striations and flora. We had L’s big dinosaur book, her pink stuffy she’s named “Dina”, a little notebook, dinosaur toys/stickers/coloring pages, and the iPad. Plus the boys were dressed warmly in their Dinosaur outfits! Next road trip we will pack more snacks because these Dino-kids get hungry in traffic! It was a long drive for us, but it cost $$ to enter the monument which we weren’t about to turn back at that point for—so we went all the way and purchased a National Parks Membership to do Zion next summer!
10/12/2019 0 Comments Meet Me at the Pumpkin PatchThis cute little pumpkin patch is right in our price range and perfect for our family. It has fun corn activities for the kids, and pumpkins of all varieties. We know we’ve had a great time when we arrive home and our shoes are a lot dirtier than we remembered, and we find corn kernels in everything for a few days.
9/29/2019 0 Comments DIY Little Passports: EnglandCheerio, g’uvner! Honestly I was super excited to properly introduce my World Explorer to England solely for the Beatles! It’s been awesome being able to listen to Beatles songs every day and even rent the movie “Yesterday” (it was so enjoyable!) to watch with my sweetheart near their 50th anniversary. Since we live in America and have some Welsh heritage, our little Explorer has tons of western and specifically English influences so the only difficult part was choosing a handful to focus on this month!
9/22/2019 0 Comments TrainsEvery morning when I wake up for the past month I feel a little hand on my face and the sweet little voice attached to the hand says, “Mom, trains! Trains!” He looks at them all day, plays in slow motion, and does all the sound effects—much like Big Brother played with cars at that age. Trains are also their favorite subjects in books! Their favorite titles at the moment are the Shine-a-light Inside Trains book we have, and The Little Engine that Could.
From this..... To this! We re-arranged the boys room again recently :) It started with me asking Jer to anchor a bookshelf to the wall because I caught the boys climbing it several times, and I was having panic attacks of them being crushed. Since anchoring it would put a pretty significant hole in the wall and we wouldn’t be able to move it later, we ended up reconsidering the room layout and moving everything around. Our vacuum broke in the middle of the process so it became an all-day adventure, but... I. LOVE. IT!!! Same furniture but so much more roomy, check it out below! (See here and here for past posts about this room.)
9/12/2019 0 Comments Back to School 2019It’s such an exciting time for the kids when school starts up again! We went to Open House to meet their teachers and get all excited for the upcoming school year. My third grader will be learning multiplication! My preschooler is in his second year of speech therapy with the same teachers and bus drivers (and a lot of the same classmates), so he’s comfortable.
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AuthorI'm Kat - designer, code monkey, teacher's wife, and maker of home. This blog is my personal and creative outlet chronicling the special moments of our family. Archives
January 2020
CategoriesAll Adventures Decorating Kids Little Passports Party Personal Projects Teachers Why I Believe |