I recently shared a picture on Instagram of my kiddos sitting at our kitchen table working on their summer preschool activities. I did this with Caden last year and used the Big Preschool Workbook. I have also used the Kumon books with the kids too and really liked those as well. We send the kids to an amazing preschool and each summer the teachers send the kids home with a packet to work on over break. We usually finish these activities fairly quickly and I decided to search the internet to see if I could find more of these already created packets. Now that the kids are getting older I wanted to be able to focus more on certain topics that I wasn't able to find as many worksheets for in a store bought workbook. Thanks to google I discovered the website Teachers Pay Teachers. It has soon became my favorite go to website for finding no prep or low prep learning activities for Caden and Maisie. There are so many amazing resources available on this website. I am linking to a … [Read more...]
A Father’s Day Tribute
Dear Dad, Since you are not on social media I am not sure when you will see this. I am fairly confident Mom will fill you in about this post as soon as she reads it. And my guess would be that this will happen sometime in the next 24 hours. The purpose of this tribute is to give you the honor you deserve and to display my appreciation to God for the Dad that he gave me. With Father's Day coming up this weekend I wanted to share and express these thoughts publicly. Is it crazy that you have a 33 year old daughter? Caden just turned 5 and it is crazy to me that I have a 5 year old now. So I am assuming that this is how you feel about Evan and I. Time sure goes fast. This is why I wanted to be sure to take a moment and let you know how much I love you. Thank you for being there for me and for supplying so many fun and meaningful memories that I cherish to this day. Do you remember playing street hockey with Evan and I along with all the neighborhood kids on rollerblades? … [Read more...]
The East Valley 2017 Summer Guide for Preschoolers
This post is for all you local blog readers! I spent my youth (and college years) growing up in Tempe, whatup 85284! We currently live in Chandler but 3 years ago rented a house in Gilbert for a year, so we are also familiar with that area. And for the last 12 years Josh has worked for the City of Mesa. Having lived in the east valley for 26 out of my 33 years I feel I have a pretty good idea of the local spots that are fun, free/inexpensive, or air conditioned to hit up during the summer months. This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but this is a list of things that our kids enjoy or we think they will enjoy this summer, we enjoy doing with them, and also do not cost much money. Our kids are 4 years, 2 years, and 6 months old for reference. EAST VALLEY SPLASH PARKS Our community has so many splash parks! Many master planned neighborhoods are featuring these in the parks surrounding new homes. I know there are probably many more that I could have included in this … [Read more...]
A Mother’s Day Tribute
With Mother's Day approaching this weekend I wanted to share a public tribute to my Mom. The purpose of this tribute is to give her the honor she deserves and to display my appreciation to God for the mom he gave me. I am linking back to Tim Challies for the great idea! Check out his series The Commandment We Forgot that looks at the fifth commandment (“honor your father and mother”) and explores the idea of how to obey this command once we are adults. #dearmom17 Dear Mom, I know I don't always take the time to say thank you for all the amazing ways you have shown and continue to show your love to our family so I am taking time today to rectify that. First off, you are beautiful. You may not hear those words enough from your family, myself included. You have shown me over the course of my life that true beauty comes from within and most importantly when Christ shines out of us. Thank you for teaching me that it is the small moments in the day that develop our character for … [Read more...]
Jesse’s Birth Story
Last Monday, I made an appointment to go and see my chiropractor for an adjustment and accunpuncture session. If you are local and looking for a chiropractor be sure to check out Spine and Disc Center of Arizona and schedule a visit with Dr. Jason Taylor. Josh and I have been going here for adjustments and massage for the last 10 years. With my due date coming up in two days I knew it would be beneficial to get an adjustment before labor. Plus, I was also hoping that the focused acupuncture session would encourage labor to start. I dropped the kids off at my parents house before heading over for my appointment at 5pm. By 6pm I was back at my parents house after having had an adjustment and an acupuncture session. Up until this session I had only been having inconsistent contractions and nothing that was indicative that I would be going into labor soon. I called Josh at the fire station and let him know to keep his phone nearby just case I went into labor. The kids and I got in … [Read more...]
Seeds Family Worship: Seeds of Christmas Review
Our kids have enjoyed our recent family devotions using Seeds Family Worship albums and the Jesus Storybook Bible. If you aren't familiar with Seeds Family Worship all of their songs are scripture put to music. And the music is awesome and the singers are talented. When Seeds Family Worship contacted me asking if I would like to review and host a giveaway of their new CD/DVD Christmas project Seeds of Christmas my answer was YES! The Christmas project features Christmas music & videos with lyrics directly from the Bible! This musical video journey will take your family through the prophesies in Isaiah and Micah to the incredible accounts of Jesus’s miraculous birth in Matthew and Luke. We have been listening to the songs in our van and the kids quickly started picking up the words and singing along. The first song features John 3:16 and Isaiah 9:6 and Maisie is continually saying it is her little friend singing the John 3:16 portion of the song. The music is great … [Read more...]
