Fontierland

Frontier Land was one of our favorite spots. The trading post was a great place to trade pins. With 6 of us trading it took a bit to find what each of us wanted. We almost completed a couple of sets too. I almost didn't do the pin trading but am so glad we did. It was fun. We just ordered a set on Ebay, added them to our lanyards, and asked each cast member we saw with pins if they would trade. It was fun to watch the boys looking for their favorites. Their was a wonderful gal in the Trading Post that helped us out. Tyler lost one of his pins just outside the door in the dark. She went to her desk behind the scenes just to get the replacement. She also gave Matthew a pin he really wanted but didn't have any trades left. (You can only trade 2x per day per cast member) She was WONDERFUL. Made the boys smile each day we were there. The cast members at Disneyland are all really great. They go out of their way to make things enjoyable for you.

Carsland and World of Color...wordart freebies

Have you seen the new Cars ride? Holy Cow! It is awesome. If you haven't just picture riding with McQueen and Sally on their scenic ride and finishing with a race off with Doc! It was so cool. Our boys loved it. We were able to get fast passes the first day so we got to ride it 2 times. Yeah! I think it was one of our favorite parts. If it hadn't been so busy we would have ridden it lots more.

The Fantasmic firework show was one of my personal favorites. Mickey tells his story with water, lights and fire. So stinking awesome! I wanted to go back again our last night but we were so tired my body scream "Nooooo!" It all ended with a parade of characters on the water. No one can do it like Disney eh!

How are your pages coming? I am getting quite a few done. COOL!

Enjoy!

Braver than you believe- wordart freebie

How has your week gone? Mine has been good. I have been working a ton but now I get a few days off. Whoo hoo! I work 12 hr shifts while you are all sleeping. I love working in the ICU. My sweet hubby has commented that I actually sleep better (when I do sleep) since moving to the ICU. Interesting. I am happier. I love the challenge and enjoy the people so much. It's a great place to be (well, only if you have to).

My boys have birthdays over the next few weeks. Spring brings 3 of 4 birthdays for us. It's party time around here. I will be sure to share our fun. 

Today's fun is from Christopher Robin. You just gotta love Winnie the Pooh! Such a smart little bear. 

Have a great day and enjoy the new wordart!

Disneyland...wordart freebie

Just because you need a title to your photo's!

Before we had the boys we were able to enjoy a cruise and a trip to Walt Disney World. I am so glad we went. We almost didn't. It seemed everything worked against us. We were about to toss our plans but followed the advice of friends and went. It was lovely. I was actually 4 months pregnant  with our first so needless to say we haven't been back. This year was our chance to share the magic with our boys at Disneyland. It was a rough start but we had so much fun. 

The boys are already making plans for our next trip. Disneyland just gets in your blood. The buildings on Main Street are built with "forced perspective". They angle to draw you in and make you want to linger before leaving. It's amazing. 

Planning your vacation? Just getting back? Let me know what you loved the most.

                                                                             Enjoy!

Ohana...wordart freebie

Sometimes family just drive you crazy. Come on admit it! It happens to all of us, but I don't know what I would do without my family. My boys are what drive me each day. They drive me out of bed, drive me to work, drive me to play, drive me to the school, the store, and the park. They may even drive me mad but they are MY boys. They are my blood. The wonderful thing about vacations is you leave the day to day grind behind and get to just BE. Be a family. Be together. To have fun. To enjoy each other. All too soon I know my boys will grow and leave to start their own families. I hope each day they will remember all the fun trips we took together. The camping, the roadtrips, the Disney vacations and remember they will always have a home to return to. No one gets left behind!

Click on the picture to download.

Enjoy!
ETA: Sorry about the missing link. I fixed it so download away!

Hakuna Matata- free wordart

Here is another fun Disney wordart for you. Adding to my Disney folder.

Some of the Disney phrases just stick with you. 

You hear it and the whole scene comes to live all over again. 

This is one of them.....dodo, da, doo.

 Since you know you are finishing the rest of it in your mind I also made this one.....

lala, la, lalaa......

I left room for this one to wrap around a photo. You could even use it for a birthday invite. Let me know what you come up with.

Have fun!

Click on the picture to download.

It all started with a Mouse- wordart freebie

I am getting ready to scrap our trip to Disneyland so over the next few days you get to join in the fun. I will be sharing all the wordart I do. I thought it would be helpful to do up several phrases then just throw them in while I scrapbook. I am hoping it will make the process go a bit faster. I am falling behind but these photos will be so fun to do. I have already found several Disney kits. Whoo, hoo!

Do you have any favorite Disney phrases? Let me know. I would love to hear them, and perhaps do something fun with some of them too.

"I smile because you are my sister..." Wordart

I may run a house of boys but I grew up in a house of girls. I have 2 sisters and we have so much fun together. I am sure dad felt out numbered (thankfully he had 1 boy). We were country gals so dad made sure we knew where the oil went, which tool was which, how to change a tire and how to work the potatoe fields along side the boys. But we learned how to sew and can and cook from mom. 

We ran through the irrigation water, floated the canals, road our bikes 5 miles to school, made mud pies and built forts. 

Whenever the neighbor boys would pick on us my brother made sure they new HE was the only one allowed to pick on his little sisters. 

Now we still tell each other our secrets and fears. We can chat the night away or sit comfortably in the silence. We yell at each others kids as we do our own. We trade clothes and purses.

As all siblings we have our moments but they are forever stuck with ME as their big sis! I love it!!! No one will ever love you as a sister. No one will ever understand you as well as she does. No one will ever fill your heart the way she does.

I love both my sisters!!

This is for you sis!

Click on the picture to download.

Rays of Joy...PTA board

It was time (past time really) to change the PTA board at our school. I have been working 50-60 hrs a week at the hospital but finally got into change the board. It is always fun to hear people comment as I work. They are excited to see what the new board will be. They know when to anticipate the change and take guesses on what the final result will be. Even the kids enjoy the process. The kids I know personally always wave hi in loud whispers. I love it! It fills my bucket each time I do it.

I always try to incorporate our latest activity but this time I wanted to highlight all the activities we have been a part of this year. We really have done some great things. The principle has commented on it, the teachers feel it and the kids are enjoying the rewards of it all. I was amazed at everything myself. I started going back through notes and FB posts and just writing each activity down. It didn't take long before I started to worry that I would have enough room. I originally wanted the sun in the top corner but with all that we had worked together to do I needed more room for more "rays". 

The sun is made of tissue paper. I cut the sheets into 4. It was perfect. I love thinking of ways to make it 3D. 

 The rays have all the activities written on them.

What a great feeling to look back knowing you made a difference! School is wrapping up and the kids are setting out on their field trips. We started with 2 goals: send each class on a field trip and increase the technology in the classrooms. We added tablets, a smart board, and the field trips and so much more!

I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish next year!

Father's Day Printable

Remember our PTA Santa shop? Well, I have been on the hunt for dad's gifts...with little success I'm afraid to say. I am hoping that Father's Day will bring some ideas out. Until then I am scouring the internet and Pinterest for something I can make. 

I did find some wordart that I thought would be simple and fun. Something like this....

Just print it out.

Add a frame of your choosing and VOILA!
A great little something for dad.

I am hoping to find some frames at the thrift store to repaint.

I did it up in 4 colors. You can download which ever you like.

Just click on the picture you want.

Let me know what you think. I love hearing from you.
ENJOY!

Homemade Goodness...free wordart

I added it to this quick page I picked up years ago. It seemed just right for Mr. Matthew licking the beaters to the cookies. 

                                   Sharing another simple wordart. I hope you have fun with it!

Homemade Goodness

4growingboys on FB!

After much debate I decided to add a FB page for my blog. For those of you on FB now you can follow along with me there....Now if I can just keep everything straight. Here's to hoping. ;-p

Check me out HERE.

Or just click on one of my fancy new banner icons.

Sweet Boys....free wordart

I got to spend time scrap booking this weekend. I started by sorting numerous photos from this past year. I plan to work backwards to "hopefully" catch up. At least this way I will no longer be falling behind. Let's see how many books I can have published by the end of the year.

 I made this up to go with our Easter pictures. All dressed nice in their Sunday best they look sweet and adorable.

See what I mean?! They are a handsome bunch huh!
Click the wordart or HERE for the download.

Gecko neckerchief slides

This past month we talked about respect and pets. I ran short on time so I stopped by the $1 store. I was hoping for a bag of pets of some sort. What I found was a bag of geckos. Not the puppy I had pictured but it worked none the less.

Add a simple ring to the back and VOILA!

This months neckerchief slide.

Hope On... free wordart

Hope On Wordart

We enjoyed the weekend. Twice a year we get to hear from the leaders of our church in a General Conference. We spend the weekend with family listening and talking about what we can do to improve our lives. 

There were so many great talks. Lots about chastity, family, marriage, following Christ. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a great talk about faith and belief. Belief is often all we have but it is enough. It is the building block for conviction. He urged us to continue to build our belief in our journey to conviction. Hope On...Journey On...Qwest On. I love it.

I hope you enjoy this little wordart and use it as a reminder to Journey On.

Cub Scout Advancement Ceremony

We have some of the best Cub Scout leaders!! They do an amazing job. My Wolf den leaders put so much into the meetings for the boys. Of course Markay tends to be a big boy himself. The boys love all the activities and fun they have. 

This young man even called his leader at work to let her know he had finished his last requirement for his wolf badge. Love it!

Markay has a wonderful advancement he does for the boys. The first time he did, the room was filled with ooohs and ahhs. It was simply COOL!

Cut open a glow stick (use the larger ones) and drain the liquids in separate jars. During the ceremony explain that if the cub has followed the path of Akela and completed his tasks the jar will glow, proving he is worthy to advance. Turn out the lights and pour the liquids together. The kids just love this! Truth be told, so do the adults.

School lunch ideas

With 3 boys in school lunches get a bit tricky. Thankfully my boys are not picky eaters but I am always looking for ways to improve their lunches without breaking the bank. Our elementary school has great lunches but the cost still adds up. The Jr. High simply doesn't serve enough food for my long and lean 13 yr old. He always comes home saying he didn't get enough. He opts instead to always take home lunch.Now, I don't mean to brag but he does spoil me...he makes his own lunch each morning. I will even offer but he says "No, I can do it". Of course he likes to cook but I still count it as spoiling. I do feel bad however when his lunch becomes monotonous. He enjoys meat and cheese sandwiches but day after day....yeah, let's mix that up a bit. 

There are lots of ideas out there. I have tried a few but this has become the biggest hit among the men in my house. We need 4 lunches each day counting dads. Buying that many fruit and pudding cups did not help my grocery budget at all. Not to mention all my bottles of home canned produce that continue to sit on the shelves. No more of that. Here is the system we are using to provide a variety of lunches, using my own stores.

These ziplock divided containers are fantastic. I just fill them up and the boys slip them in their lunch boxes and they are done. Walmart and such stores use to have these all over but I couldn't find any this time. Once again, thank you Amazon. I love how easy you can find anything you want online.

I ordered enough to fill all the lunches on the weekend for the coming week. I try to have 4 items: a fruit, a vegi, a treat and the entree.

Before my containers came had to use bags so I just prepped 4 of each item for the boys lunches. Carrots, grapes, pretzels, string cheese...whatever was on the menu. I prepped it all at once then placed them in the fridge together. All the boys had to do was grab 4 items. It worked well but the boys didn't keep their meals balanced at all and little man thought they were his personal treats to snack on throughout the day.

Once my containers came I was able to really get to work. It didn't take long at all. The best part is I was able to rotate through the food I had purchased for lunches (before little boys good devour it all) as well as rotate through our homemade goodies. Applesauce, fruit, pudding, jello, cookies...all from home.

4 lunches prepped for each day.

Carrots, Yogurt covered raisins, granola bar.

Yogurt, orange jello or grapes, pretzels.

Cherry tomatoes, applesauce, pita chips, rice crispie treat.

Cucumber strips, orange jello, mixed nuts, rice crispie.

I used fruit from my pantry. Then made my own jello and pudding and poured it directly in the container to set up. By putting the pretzels or chips or cookies in a ziplock bag I could put it in the container in the fridge (all ready to go) without them going soft.

The sandwiches get made the night before. Meat and cheese, BLT's, egg salad, chicken salad, PB&J...whatever it is. The salad mixes I prepped early too. Toasting the bread helped it not get soggy. Once the sandwiches are made the boys are ready to load up and go.

Believe it or not, very little, if any of these lunches return home. Just the container ready to refill when the weekend comes again.

Here is a list of items I put in their lunches. Hope it helps you too.

Entrees/sandwiches: 

meat and cheese sandwiches

meat and cheese kabobs

egg salad

chicken salad

wraps

PB&J

BLT's

Tunafish sandwhiches

pizza (we all eat the leftovers cold anyway)

salad in a bag

Carrots

celery sticks

cherry tomatoes

cucumbers

apples

applesauce

pears

peaches

grapes

fruit cocktail

jello (make your own cups)

Pretzels

pita chips

crackers

mixed nuts

yogurt covered raisins

yogurt

string cheese

Cookies

rice crispies

pudding (make your own cups)

Take a moment and plan it out, save money, and smile that your kiddos have one of the best lunches at school. Even dear dad is loving this system.

Try it and let me know how it works for you.