New calling - Bulletin Boards

My girls crack me up. They make me laugh every day.

My new calling at church is to be in charge of the church bulletin boards. Tonight the girls and I completed our first one. So, now I feel like I need to brainstorm for ideas. The board above is just for the Relief Society. That one was easy. I added information from the last Relief Society activity. I think it turned out pretty good.

I still need to do the bulletin board that is for the whole church. Picture above. It has several different sections, a section for Primary, Young Men and Young Women, and a section for General information. My Dad suggested I do a quote of the month. I need some more ideas. I am free to do whatever. Let me know if you have any suggestions! Thanks in advance!

Play House

After a beautiful weekend, the girls finally got their playhouse. It was given to them by my parents for Christmas. It came as a big box of wood and big bag a screws. It took several hours to put together but the end result was rewarding. The girls absolutely love it. It is actually a pretty decent size. I can even stand up straight inside of it.

I started us off on Thursday with just laying out all of the pieces and organizing the project. Then Nick our neighbor came over and helped for a while, finally when Lance got home he conquered the majority of the project. It took all of us to get the finished product up on the deck. Lance and I tried, but decided it would be better to wait for a third person. So thanks Nick for offering to help. I am sure he heard us screaming at each other from inside his house.

I am beginning to get really excited about the summer, even though I signed up to go back to school starting May 10th. I plan to get the majority of the yard work and all of my mulching done prior to my start date. Wish me luck. Lance and I are both a little hesitant for me to start my MBA again. It is such a sacrifice. I just keep repeating to myself...it's just another year and a half.

Art Project

Last weekend I invited my cousin Amanda over to work on a little art project. I have had this idea for about a month and I wanted to finally execute it. So during the week I bought all of the supplies we would need. We used a 24x36 board. Painted it black, then roughed up all of the edges. We then decoupaged copies of pictures to the back of the board. Then we staple gunned a concrete metal mesh to the wood. To top it off we laminated photographs and attached them to the metal with flashcard rings. The final project turned out way better than I imagined it. I have to admit that it looks way better in person. It is an interactive family collage and the girls love it.

Happy Birthday Grandma Baur!

I just want to wish my Grandma Baur a very Happy Belated Birthday. I was a little stressed about starting a new position at work today so I completely neglected to call her on her Birthday.

So...here goes...

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Grandma! Happy Birthday to you!!!!

We Love you Grandma!

Jack and The Beanstalk

Cincinnati Children's Theatre

Jack and The Beanstalk

at Taft Theatre

Friday, 2-26-2010 at 7:30pm

Center Section Row O seats 1, 2, 3 & 4

Friday, February 26th we took the girls to their first theatre production, Jack and the Beanstalk. Thank you Amy D. for the tickets! I finally felt like they were old enough to handle it and I was right the girls absolutely loved it. I thought the best part was watching the girls watch the play. Their eyes were so big and they were completely immersed in the moment. The hour long play flew by. They especially loved the fact that we bought them each a bag of cotton candy. Can you say sticky hands!!! We really had a great night. Maybe we should consider getting season tickets next year.

Grandma Laney's Birthday Dinner

Monday, February 22nd The Laney family met up at Rick's Tavern and Grill for Grandma's birthday dinner. My aunt and uncle pulled the whole thing together. It was so nice to get together as a family. We all really enjoyed it. I think Erin and I especially enjoyed ourselves because it was a quite evening without our children. Our husbands were nice enough to take them for the evening. Thanks Mike and Julie for extending the invitation to all of us to celebrate such a joyous occasion.

Happy Birthday Grandma Laney!

Brown County Inn - Nashville, Indiana

In lieu of Dad coming home from Iraq, we thought it would be a good idea to escape away for the weekend with the whole family. We decided Brown County would be the perfect place. Lots of shopping, swimming and hiking. We were able to have four rooms right next to each other, so the kids were able to go from room to room.

Sunday, February 14th - Happy Valentine's Day!!! I knew we were spending Valentine's Day away so I brought the girls and Lance's Valentine's Day gifts with us. The girls were so funny. I could have given them a pack of gum and they would have been happy.

The second we told the kids it was time to swim they would throw on their suits and take off down the hallway.

The pool was so warm and we had the whole pool to ourselves. The kids really enjoyed every moment they were able to swim. They especially loved being able to chicken fight. Samantha was hilarious. She is my little fighter. Very determined and also very competitive.


In the park we found a look out tower to climb. It probably wasn't the safest thing for us to do. The steps had ice and snow on them, but we had fun climbing it anyways.

There was also a nature center in the park that we were able to visit. There was one room full of different stuffed animals and another room set up for bird watching. It was neat to see all of the different kinds of birds that would come right up to the window.

These pictures are the best of the four kids. The girls are both wearing the Valentine's presents. They loved getting compliments from complete strangers.

The lodge had a very nice restaurant in it. They had excellent food and it was nice not to have to leave the warm inn to get a meal, especially with all of the kids.

Back to the swimming pool. You may have to click on the below pictures to see them well. My children are up in the rafters of the pool room. Reuben can throw them higher than anyone else. They absolutely loved it. Poor Reuben must have been exhausted.

We headed home early on Monday, due to the incumbent weather. We drove for about an hour then stopped for some breakfast. Everyone was in good spirits and optimistic about the ride home even though we were in the middle of a snow storm. Erin was even feeling better. She had spent the weekend in bed and missed most of the activities, because of an illness and fever. We all felt so bad for her.

The ride home was fine. We just took our time and the girls watched one of their princess movies on the DVD player. I think we made it home in a little over three hours. Which is not bad at all considering the amount of snow on the roads.