How Do I Get My Kids to Listen????

Okay someone out there has to have the answer. Does anyone have children that can actually do everyday things on their own without being asked 5 times? Stuff like - get out of bed, get dressed, clean your room, practice the piano, pack your bag for school, put on your shoes, put on your coat, get your lunch box, do your homework, etc.

My girls know exactly what needs to be done - but it seems I have to be standing over them saying "do this, do that" or it won't happen. Like if I don't watch them pick up their clothes and put them away then they honestly can't do it.

I am beyond frustrated. I sound like a broken record ALL DAY LONG. Well except during preschool - those kids actually listen to me! So, I know it's possible.

How do you guys manage all that stuff? What are the consequences when you have to ask a million times or if they don't get their stuff done.

We are running out of consequences. We don't typically have time to play with friends, so I can't ground them. They don't watch TV or play video games. They could care less if I take toys away from them. Even taking the their blankets isn't really working anymore.

My darling oldest daughter and I are battling this the most and the only thing I could take away, that she LOVES, is reading - but I can't take away reading. I've always said reading/not reading could never be a punishment - I want her to continue to love it. I have said she isn't allowed to read in the morning until she gets all of her other stuff done - but I can't take it away any other time.

What do I do????? Am I just micro-managing too much? Maybe I just need to lay off and if they don't get things done they don't get them done and do them later?

Ahhhhhh!

Can Opener Salsa

Many of you have asked for this recipe in the past. As reluctant as I am to give it up (only b/c then maybe we'll bring it to the same party on the same night) - (just kidding it's not like it's really my recipe, who am I to say who can make it and who can't) here it is:

Can Opener Salsa:

1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with green chili's
1 can corn, with juice
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small onion grated or chopped
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1 TBS vinegar
1 avocado diced

Mix everything together, except for the avocado. Chill. Add avocado right before serving. I've found it actually freezes okay - not as good, but good enough. Freeze it before adding avocado though.

There, now you have it. Enjoy!

(p.s. obviously I'm not a food blogger - otherwise there would be a delicious looking picture of the wonderful salsa here - oh well. At least you've all had it before.....just picture that okay!)

Just Because . . . . .

I love this girl. . . . . .

Happy 9th Birthday Kimber!

Kimber turned nine this week. Here are a TON of pictures of all the festivities:

Gma and Gpa Riding, Gpa Crabtree, Great Gma Crabtree, Great Aunt Julia, Steph, Doug, Jack, Jordan, Kenzie, and Aleigha came over for the family party on her actual birthday.

Opening presents:

She was so excited to get this mirror - my dad says "like mother like daughter!" - not sure I know what he is talking about though :)

I got this bike for a killer price - in fact in total I spent around 30-35 dollars on all her presents (most of them used of course) but still I got her the bike, 2 DS games, a DS case, and 4 shirts - pretty good shopping if you ask me! :)

Kimber and Jack getting ready for cake time. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted she said "A Grandma cake" that translates into white cake with chocolate frosting - a Riding Family favorite!

Grandma Leanne, Doug, Jordan, and Steph

Alli and Jack decided to make a train during the party. Gpa Crabtree was the engineer.

Aleigha and Kimber licking the frosting of the candles:

Now for the friend party.

Kimber wanted an DRAWKCAB party. So we sent out invites with the words written backwards, some of the kids wore their clothes backwards, and we played backward games. We also ran the party backwards.

first was cake. We did upside down cupcakes - easiest cake yet :)

getting ready to blow out the candles as we were singing "You to Birthday Happy" - pretty tricky!

the girls hung their shoes up and threw their coats on the floor:

I had to ask her to frown in order to get a smile out of her. The kids also wore name tags with their names written backwards and we had to use their backwards names during the party.

I still love the faces she makes while opening presents. (even Konrad - or Darnok - has his clothes on backwards - he's sitting on the stairs)

It's amazing how even as they get older they still hover while opening presents. One friend is yelling "forward! forward!" (remember everything is backwards - forward means back!).

After presents we played - pin the donkey on the tail (furthest away won - they didn't know that of course until afterwards), guess how many Gobstoppers - again furthest away won, walking backwards musical chairs, Limbo, and a bean bag toss game where they had to stand backwards and throw the bean bag onto a target.

After games came lunch.

We had inside out hot dogs. What is that you ask? I just cut the hot dog in half and tooth picked the halves onto the outside of the bun. The girls thought it was pretty funny. I did realize I should have put the toothpicks towards the middle of the hot dog - not on each end. They had to take them out to eat it and then it all falls apart. About half of them opted to put the hot dog inside. One even said "this tastes even better than the normal way - I can't taste as much hot dog" (~H.B.) :)

And of course a backwards picture:

Over all I think this 9 year old had a great birthday.

Here's a little info on Miss Kimber:

~she weighs about 50 lbs

~she is about 49 inches tall

~she still loves to read - we have to set an alarm for her at night b/c she can only read until 8:30 and many times we'd go upstairs after 9:30 and her light was still on. She would have no clue of the time (or so she claims :)).

~she loves to sing and dance

~she loves to ride her bike

~she scored her first goal in soccer yesterday - for the WRONG team though - oops!

~she is taking piano lessons and really enjoys it - she isn't too fond of practicing but it is getting better. She is going to have my same problem - she hates to count :)

~she is singing a solo in our Primary Program next week - it brought me to tears today in our practice, we'll see how I handle the "real" version!

~she will now eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - she used to HATE jelly. All though she only likes strawberry freezer jam - luckily we have that coming out our ears here

~overall she is a GREAT little girl - not so little anymore, I guess - she is really good at helping me out as well as helping her sisters. She is still stubborn as all get out, but with me as her mom that's a given :)

Love you Kimber! We're glad your in our family!

Look what Alli did. . . .

nope - I'm not pointing out her "marker nose".
look closer. . . .

In case you didn't notice - she pierced her ears.

(Oct. 9th, 2009)

10 years - WOW!

And look at us now....

(picture taken by Ashley Shultz)

I remember sitting in our first married ward down at BYU. Someone got up and said they had been married for 4 years - that sounded so long back then. Now look at us - 10 years! I'm not sure what makes me feel older - being 30 or the fact that I've been married for 10 years.

I thought I'd do a little tribute to Konrad today to celebrate.

10 reasons I'm glad I married Konrad Justin Crabtree

10. He'll eat pretty much anything - which makes making dinner much easier. He only draws the line at Hamburger Helper (which I'd never eat) and Chinese Chicken Morsels (some recipe I tried once that was NASTY - I think I made it for my frozen dinner exchange as well - sorry friends!)

9. He very rarely complains. Which I often complain about - ironic, huh? It really is a good trait, but sometimes can get frustrating b/c I tend to complain and whine a lot - therefore I end up looking like the bad guy!

8. He is very committed. Obviously to me :), but also to everything he does. When he is involved in something he gives it his all.

7. He loves the Lord. He has a very strong testimony of the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and isn't afraid to share that testimony.

6. He never thinks bad of anyone. Seriously. He is the least judgemental person I know. He definitely believes in "loving your neighbor".

5. He love his daughters and they know it. He constantly plays with them, reads to them, teases them, dances with them, sings with them, etc. He is a great father.

4. He supports me in everything I do. He helps me with my calling at church, he let's me go on vacations with my friends, he helps me with preschool stuff, and lets me get out of the house when I just need a break.

3. He makes me laugh. He makes me smile. He makes me happy.

2. He was one of my best friends before I married him and still is.

and the #1 reason:

1. He puts up with me. He puts up with my whining, my complaining, my mood swings, my grumpiness. Seriously, I could never do it. He really is amazing!

Love you Konrad! Happy Anniversary!

Pet for a day - or more like 20 minutes

Our neighbor's dog was found wandering the streets last Saturday and a teenager that also lives in the neighborhood brought her to our house (hoping we could help track down her owners). We couldn't get a hold of them so we took her in (well not really "in" - more like to the backyard).

All the girls were excited to have Ginny over to play. Kimber and Alli gave up pretty quickly, Sam lasted the longest.
It was pretty cute - and made me think for one split second, that maybe a dog wouldn't be so bad. Luckily a split second isn't that long!

Speaking of pets - I took my preschooler's on a field trip to the pet store today. We got to pet a chinchilla, a ferret, and a snake. The kids seemed to have a great time and we left without causing any harm to the store (or each other)! Yeah us!!! I did learn one thing though at the pet store, that continues to feed my "no pets allowed rule", pet's stink! (sorry to all you pet lovers out there!

Mackenzie makes 8!

Sorry for those of you who read my sisters' blogs - this will be a major repeat....all though, I am way behind so maybe you've forgotten already! :)

Michelle, and her family, came up to see Mackenzie the weekend after she was born. We took the opportunity to take an updated cousin picture. This is our first "photo shoot" without anyone (typically Steph's boys) crying! Jack was a little nervous that there wasn't enough room for him, but we squeezed him in.

I couldn't pick just one.....

Mackenzie, Kimber, Jack, Alli, Jordan, Kenna, Sam, Natalie

Pretty cute kids!

I'm already envisioning the fun cousin pictures we'll take in July when we're all in HAWAII! Whoo-hoo!

Swimming Samantha

Samantha has been in swimming lessons for the past 5 weeks. It is so fun to see her actually getting it. Today was her last day of the session and we found out she passed the level she was in - so it's on to the next one. She didn't really want to take them again - felt she "needed a break" - but I convinced her otherwise, under one condition: She HAS to have the same teacher. So hopefully Miss Fran will be teaching Y-3 at 4:30 next Monday or there is going to be one UNHAPPY 6 year old on my hands!

doing a little back float:
Samantha can now swim across the pool doing either crawl stroke or back stroke. She is still working on perfecting the side breathing, but otherwise does AWESOME!