Kaylyn's dance at Texas Roadhouse

Kaylyn's class was asked to perform a line dance at Texas Roadhouse during a school fundraising night.  Of course, by the time we were seated and ordered, it was time for her to go practice and perform.  Adam and Morgan stayed at our table to eat and watch.
Here she is with classmates getting ready for the dance.

And the video of the dance....

After their performance, all the kids headed outside to see the fire truck that came (for a visit not because their services were needed).  Adam went with them so that I could eat my (semi-cold) dinner

Everyone came back in and we finished up our meals.  When we were ready to head home, the firemen were still in the parking lot so Morgan climbed in for a tour.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day!

Me with Mom

I am blessed with a wonderful mom who has taught me so many things and encourages me all the time. She is also an incredible grandmother to my girls and spoils them rotten and introduces them to experiences I never could on my own.

Can you believe this beautiful woman in 94?!

I have been blessed with a Nana (my maternal grandmother) who has always been a great example. I love that my daughters are building a relationship with her and carrying on the tradition of playing cards at Nana's.

My Mother-in-Law is an amazingly strong woman. She carries her burdens with ease because of her testimony in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and her love of family. Her journaling encourages me to improve my own recording of our family.

Me and my sister

I have a sister who is also my best friend and 4 wonderful sisters-in-law who I treasure.

On top of all this, Heavenly Father has seen fit to put so many "sisters", friends, and extra "mothers" in my life. I am surrounded by examples that I try my best to emulate. Thank you to all of you for your examples, encouragement and love! You are my inspirations!  May you each have the Mother's Day you desire.

For those who may be struggling this day, my thoughts and prayers are with you. For so many years, I HATED Mother's Day. It was a reminder of all that I wished for and didn't have. I am so grateful for all the love and direction all the women in our lives give my daughters! You are a great influence on my children and I thank you for it!

Princess Naked Toes and Princess Smiles A Lot

 Finally, I must thank Princess Smiles-A-Lot and Princess Naked Toes.  You are my joy and my heart!  I am so grateful every day to be your mom!

A new Adventure for our family

I know that many of you are not on Facebook so this is how you keep up with our family.  I apologize for not doing a very good job over the past year.   I'm not going to promise regular posting to this blog but I'm going to try to do better. But here's one reason that I've been absent lately (doesn't excuse 2011 but this is my excuse for 2012).... I have become a Shelf Reliance Independent Consultant. I fell in love with Shelf Reliance's THRIVE Foods products last Fall and after a few months, decided to take that love and become an Independent Consultant.

As part of my business, I have launched a new blog that is highlighting how I am using Shelf Reliance in our home, particularly the freeze-dried foods. I'd love to have you join me at the I'm THRIVing! blog as well as here. This will continue to be where I post how I'm striving to be a Mother Who Knows and then there's the family blog which is almost as neglected as this one. The I'm THRIVing blog will be my go to blog for recipes as I try to utilize my food storage in everyday ways.

For the month of May, I am hosting a Dreaming Big Giveaway on the I'm THRIVing blog to celebrate it's launch. So head over and enter today!

If you're not familiar at all with Shelf Reliance, here's some basic information. To help achieve their mission to help others become more self-reliant, Shelf Reliance has three main product lines:

• THRIVE Foods. These are quality freeze dried and dehydrated foods, including meats and cheese. Many of these products have a 1-2 yr shelf life once opened, and 25 year shelf life unopened - and yet they taste amazing! My family has found many of the products to be delicious as a snack - and how can you complain when your kids are eating fruits, vegetables, and yogurt with no preservatives as their snack? In addition to the products, Shelf Reliance offers a Food Storage Planner to let you identify what foods and how much you would need to store for anywhere from 3 months to 24 months. You can place small individual orders, sign up for monthly shipments, or purchase everything you need/want in one large order.
• Food Rotation Systems. This includes the Cansolidator Cupboard which is the prize for my Giveaway. These systems help you by organzing the foods in your cupboard, pantry shelves or as standalone units. They work on a first-in, first-out basis, allowing you to see what you have in your shelves. This prevents you from buying food that you already have, and using up the oldest first before it expires.
• Emergency Kits and Supplies. I live in tornado country and we often have to take shelter when the storms are on their way. How nice it would be to grab a fully-stocked 72 hr kit and be able to provide for my family's needs during these disasters. Whether you need a pre-assembled 72 hr kit, supplies to update your personal kit, or alternate heat and cooking sources, Shelf Reliance can help! Like the Food Storage Planner, Shelf Reliance also offers an Emergency Kit Planner to help you identify what you need in your kit and you can specify the types of disasters you are wanting to be prepared for.

I have so many things I love about Shelf Reliance - their products, their mission, how they treat their Independent Consultants, and many more. But the last thing I want to share with you that is a great help to me is the Q Club option. My family set a goal to build up a home store in our home to help us be better prepared for the future (you can read our unemployment story here). We had great intent but it was very sporadic and we didn't make much progress. And then I discovered the Q program. First you use the Food Storage Planner to identify what you want in your home store. Second you sign up for the Q, which are monthly shipments of the items in your plan, and YOU set the budget. The shipments can be automatic or you can adjust them each month to take advantage of what's on special. In addition by being a Platinum Q Club member (free if you sign up for a $100+ monthly Q), you also can take advantage of a special Q-Pon. May's special is Black Beans.

Walk A Thon

Each year, Kaylyn's school holds a Walk a Thon for the 4th grade to earn money for their trip to the state capitol.  Kaylyn is in a combo 3/4 classroom this year so her teacher has started noticing a few differences between 3rd and 4th grades.  4th grade has about 5 field trips this year, but 3rd grade has only 1.  So it was decided that this year the 3rd graders would also participate in the walk a thon to raise money for them to have more than 1 field trip this year.  Kaylyn was NOT excited about this.  She complains that when she runs, it makes her head and stomach hurt (which we're going to figure out how to figure out).  So I set a goal on Friday to be back from the pumpkin patch in time to walk with Kaylyn at the walk a thon.

They had already started when I arrived but Kaylyn came straight to me when she finally got finished with her first lap, apparently I was standing at her finish line.

 And we started off on our walk together.  Halfway around our first lap, we spotted one of Morgan's besties Savana.  So Morgan diverted off the path to visit Savana and we continued on around.  As we were on our 2nd lap (K's 3rd lap), she was attacked.  She was starting to freak out a little bit but I made her leave the bug on her until I got a picture.....of her adoring fan, a lady bug.

 Here's her face AFTER I got the lady bug off of her.

 And we came back to where Morgan was.  She was VERY happy to be with Savana and that let me focus on Kaylyn who was having some friend troubles she needed to discuss.

 Kaylyn stopped to visit with her friends Leah and Ryan, and to get a water bottle, before we did our last lap.

 We did our last lap and Kaylyn got rewarded with a popsicle and capri sun.  She also took the chance to chill with her friend Lilly D (as opposed to her friends Lilly P., Lilly B., and Lilly N. - seriously?  Did everyone in 2003 name their daughter Lilly?).

Overall, I thought Kaylyn did awesome.  She walked 6 laps in 1 hour.  3 laps is 1 mile.  So she walked 2 miles.  I believe that except for our walking all over DC last summer, Kaylyn has never walked that far at one time.  so it's a personal best for her.  But we are not comparing to those kids who jogged the whole time and did 20+ laps!!

Pumpkin Patch Oct 2011

Morgan and I took a trip to the pumpkin patch on Friday (Oct 14th). We brought along several friends and had a great time. I love this patch because they are simple, fun, outdoor fun, for a low price.

After checking in, we went exploring around the barn.  And found some pigs...





 Some cute photo spots...

 We had a short program on different kinds of pumpkins.  The moms learned something new - the type of pumpkin that is in the can is "cushaw" - and it looks nothing like I expected but I failed to take a picture.

 There was a mum "garden" by the photo spots.  Savana couldn't resist the purple ones.

We loaded up onto the trailer for our hayride out to the pumpkins.

 Here's Morgan and her besties - Avalee and Savana.  The 3 of them talked non-stop for the 30 minute drive from the Church to the pumpkin patch.

 First stop was the whirlpool maze.

 And then we explored Charlotte's web (maze)

 Now we're off to pick our pumpkins.

 The kids didn't want to wait for us to pull them on the wagon so Morgan and Ava took turns pulling Zane.



Ben and Ashley

Our friends, Ben and Ashley, are wanting to adopt to help their family grow.  You can check out their profile here.

Ariel's Birthday

We left for our Allison Family Reunion on Saturday, June 25th. After meeting up with Spencer and Sheree at our hotel in La Plata and checking in, dropping off Beggar (our cat) and getting her settled in, we all headed north to Chris and Naomi's house in Kirksville for a birthday party. Our niece, Ariel, was celebrating her 3rd birthday. What a great way to start off a family reunion!

 As the Allison siblings (plus Sheree) greeted at the door, I grabbed this picture (minus Alma who was still inside).

Then we ventured inside - the kids immediately loved on Grandma...

 Sheree quickly grabbed William to love on.

 A little about William - he will be turning 4 at the end of July.  He's a special kid in that he was born at about 24 weeks.  He may be little - in May he finally hit the 1%ile for size but he's strong, healthy, and extremely active.  And being Naomi's son, I'm sure he's strong-willed and independent.  Fortunately, he's also very eager to be a helper around the house - his favorite is helping with dishes.

Two of the girls decided to take a ride on Grandpa.

 Here's another view - it's Rebekah and Ariel.

 We ventured outside to have a little more room.  Alma immediately grabbed a spot on the rocker.

 The boys and "boys" got a basketball game going.  Chris was mighty impressed with the skill of his brothers-in-law.  Adam showed off his moves and Spencer proved he could dunk (with the bruises to prove it).

 The girls decided just to run around.

 These two - Morgan and Rebekah - were born just a month apart.  They get to see each other every other year for a few days but yet they are immediately best friends each time.

 This is little Hannah exploring the gravel in the driveway.

 Daniel, Rebekah and Morgan played tag, an unofficial version.

 We then all headed inside to celebrate Miss Ariel's 3rd Birthday.

 She didn't cooperate with blowing out the candle so Morgan was trying to instruct her.

 She thought she could stare down the candle, though.

 Finally, she got the idea but still needed her Mom's help.

 After cake and ice cream, it was back outside.  Some of the kids kicked a ball into the neighbor's yard.  Spencer and Hannah retrieved it for them.

 Then it was back inside for presents.

 This pink purse is from Grandma Allison.  Ariel carried this around at Church the next day and all over Nauvoo.  Grandma picked a great present.

 We just couldn't separate these two.  You'll notice that as I continue blogging about the reunion.