Shaving Cream!!

I was speaking to my mom a few weeks ago looking for ideas to entertain a certain three-year old. She mentioned at the end of the school year, some teachers spread shaving cream over the desks and let the children play while they clean the desks. I thought what fun idea. When I saw a similar idea from a curriculum program we tried out, I thought I'd try it out. Well, tonight was our first attempt. I learned a couple of things:

- Explain first how it's not food (whipped topping, now that would be messy and sweet.)
- Loads of fun
- Cannot be contained to a cookie sheet
- Blue Food dye is cool
- Mommy makes a GREAT target! :)
- Aprons help a little
- Keeps a three-year old busy for 20 to 30 minutes :)
- One three year old can make quite a mess especially when she claps her hands full of cream :)

Overall it was a blast. She had even more fun washing her hands, face, hair, apron, cloths and cookie sheet.

Here are a few pictures and a short video.

It's Raining, It's Snowing

Our former paper shredder gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago and we welcomed this AMAZING new shredder into our family. It cross cuts paper and shreds credit cards or CDs. VERY COOL! It even has a sensor around the opening of the blades. If you touch it, the machine turns off. Makes me feel much better, but Ms A is still closely supervised by mommy. Whenever there is paper laying around our home, Ms. A and I race to the shredder. She'll giggle and dance as the paper enters the slot. She will also get down on her knees and declare "Mommy, I see the knives cutting the paper!" (with a HUGE grin.) She loves to watch the paper 'snow' down on her evergrowning mountain of paper. Thank heavens she hasn't figured out that she can empty that mountain on the floor. :)

FYI : If you need any paper shredded, let Ms. A know. :)

Magic Soap

In the Nelson household, we are addicted to Magic Soap aka Purell Hand Sanitizer. We've trained Ms. A to use it after every dog she pets and after playing on the oh-so-fun-to-play equipment at the park. We {HEART} Magic Soap. :) So when I saw this adorable idea on my fabulous friend's blog, thanks M, I had to try it out. I love the way they turned out.

I think I may have to make a few more for some of my friends to give away on Valentine's Day. :)
Nothing says 'I love you' like clean hands. :)

Tender Mercies

I love the talk by Elder David Bednar entitled "The Tender Mercies of the Lord". This weekend was full of tender mercies.

We had a wonderful weekend visiting Reed's family. All four of his sisters, their families and his parents were together. It had been a few years since that last happened. We had a fabulous time visiting and catching up with each others lives.

The two highlights of our weekend was watching Reed's sister, Laura, and her husband, Russell, and their two daughters were sealed together for eternity in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. The ceremony was beautiful. I don't think their was a dry eye in the room when they brought Ms. S and Ms. C in. I was touched by the depth of emotion Russell showed as he was sealed to Laura. It was a perfect moment in time. After the sealing we went out to lunch at the Olive Garden Yum! We went to Russell and Laura's afterwards. We visited and let the cousins play together. Thanks Laura and Russell for sharing your beautiful experience with us.photo of Mt Timpanagos from LDS.org

The second highlight was watching Ben, Reed's brother-in-law, bless his and Cindy's new little daughter, Ms. H. I was touched to see a large group of men holding tiny, little Ms. H in their arms as Ben gave her a name and a blessing. I remembered Ms. A's blessing and how grateful I am to have her in our family. I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to know the priesthood is available to us. Another perfect moment!

I loved watching Ms. A playing with her cousins. She was laughing, giggling and having a grand time.

Other tender mercies:

• We drove approximately 1788 miles for 30 hours without any major problems despite fog, snow, wind and ice.
• Ms. A was the perfect little passenger with all the driving we made her endure and the cold that she caught the day before we left. She entertained herself and was very patient with us. As we drove into the driveway at 3am, she very tiredly said: "That was a LONG drive." :)
• We enjoyed having a safe place to stay (thanks Stephanie and Sean) and family to visit with.
• How fortunate I feel to have an eternal family and that we can be together forever.

Ms. A-ism

Ever since Ms. A graduated into the Sunbeam class she's been obsessed with the concept that Reed still is in Nursery. She asks me repeatedly "Why is daddy in my old Nursery Class?" I typically respond "Because it's his job at church." Tonight as I was cuddling with her in bed, she asked the Nursery question again. I responded by saying I didn't know. Never missing a beat, she replied: "But you USED to know!!" Sometimes I can't win. ;)

Keeping Myself Distracted

I have so many better things to do with my time, but I made them anyways. :)









A blogging friend of mine posted this delicious calendar on her blog. I fell in love with it and since we needed a calendar I decided to try out her idea. I love her's a bit more, but I wanted Ms. A to learn about calendars and the days of the week.
This one is a bit more hands-on. I laminated it for wear and tear or if I want to write on it. I stamped two sets of numbers and then added monthly decorations.

Ms. A loves to craft and cook, so after cleaning her clothes from all her crafts, I thought an apron would be beneficial. She picked out the fabric and chose the style and then I went to work. I had extras so we made an apron for her cousin, Ms. E. :) I'll have to find some boy fabric for Mr. P. :) (Maybe Green and Yellow will work.)