I'll Read to You, You Read to Me

Elisabeth's favorite book, we read together e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y... !! She is getting better about reading aloud to me. This is a really great book where the words are color coded. There are portions for Person A to read and then Person B to read, and then a third color for them to read together.

The Cutest Baby on the Block!!

Guess who is 6 months now?? That means lots of fun milestones! Rychen P. says Taylor is "zero and a half" which happens when Rychen P. has his birthday so there is lots to celebrate around here.

**PRECIOUS**

Rewind to Mothers Day

 For Mother's Day, my visiting teacher Connie helped the kids make this basket of paper flowers. They thought of things to write together, and she wrote some and Rychen P. wrote a few of his own.

 I LOVED IT.

 How thoughtful is that?!!

I wanted to photograph these so I could always remember. When I read these flowers, and again now as I reflect, my eyes are filled with tears. This was the sweetest gift anybody could have given me. Thank you Connie!

Lessons on Investing

Rychen P. has been learning about investing money... I bet you're not surprised considering Dad's employment. However this was all my idea! Rychen P. spends his money way too much buying toys. I have started talking about saving money and even investing to make more money. A lot of kids are taught to save money, even "for their mission" - but why let cash sit for 10-15 years?? teach the kids to buy and resell. Teach them skills they can use later in life if ever their hourly wage job doesn't work out...(or they end up being a housewife homeschooling mom.. just saying)

It started at a garage sale, I found some Steve Madden heels for $2. I knew I could get at least $10 out of them. I asked Rychen if he wanted to buy them and try it out but he said no. So I said, "Okay fine...but watch and learn."  So I had him watch the process of taking pictures and doing an eBay listing. Then we watched the bids over the week and talked about it. They ended up selling for $8 and change BUT it was a buyer in Canada which is a super lucky thing because they pay the worldwide shipping rate when its actually much cheaper to ship to Canada. So with the excess shipping money, and after paying the eBay fees I ended up with $10.80 profit. Of course I rubbed this in Rychen P's face like you wouldn't believe!! So now he understands and is convinced he needs to do it too.

So after that when I was listing my usual stuff, I asked Rychen P if he would like to buy an item from me at cost, and he could do the listing and keep the profits. (This also means if the item doesn't make a profit, he will learn that side of it too and be left with that loss)  He chose two items. One we did an auction and the other a buy-it-now, his choice. He set the BIN price at exactly what he would need to make a $6.75 profit because that minus tithing would be enough to buy an Angry Birds watch he has been eyeing at Walmart. (but I think he set his price too high... we will see... he is learning about waiting longer for a sale when price is high) 

I presented Rychen P with another opportunity, to invest $100 and sell for $150. Sounds like a great deal but unfortunately he doesn't have a hundred dollars of course. So I was trying to show him that if you put off buying toys and let your capital build up, you can make better returns.

Today we bought a Dwight Shrute bobblehead, hand me down from one of the Bingham boys, $3.00 My first thought was to give it to Rychen for an "office" decoration (he no longer has an office, that's why its in quotes) but then we came home and found out its worth $10-20 so naturally we decided to sell it. (Sorry hon)

You may bid here.

YES YOU WANT IT!!!!! :-)

Happy Birthday Sara!

Today was my friend Sara's birthday. Earlier this week I was asking her if she had plans, and what they usually do for birthdays. She said they usually have cake but she doesn't think she wants it, and I told her about how we celebrate holidays with fruit feasts! She liked the idea, so I invited her over for lunch on her birthday, and I would prepare a Fruit Feast for her. It was so much fun. We made a peach mango smoothie, fresh watermelon, fruit salad, and orange slices.

Okay we got it!

Remember I said Elisabeth is too shy to read for people? During family scriptures tonight we sneakily recorded her reading her verse without her knowledge.

Taylor is Growing up!

..And Taylor is growing up so fast too! Where did my little infant go? I swear he was born yesterday! He is so close to a bunch of milestones, he is pretty much inching across the floor now. He just needs to start doing it on purpose! He is a very strong boy. Very active, alert, and involved. He likes to be a part of things. He is very social and is always stealing my own friends' attention! He is so good with babysitters, I sure hope he stays that way.

 This picture shows his soft spot. How funny!

This quilt is his baby blanket from Grandma Jones. I love these bright vibrant colors! Such a fun play surface.

Elisabeth is Growing up!!

I like this picture because Elisabeth really looks like a big girl in it. Not a toddler anymore by any stretch of the imagination! She has grown a lot lately and filled out. She has been such a sweetheart, such a sweet little thing. Now she is maturing and prefering to do more things on her own. I fear her pixie voice won't last much longer either! I need to take some videos of her before her little girl days are completely over! 

Elisabeth the Book Worm

She reminds me of my sister Laura. If we can't find Elisabeth, she is probably upstairs by the bookshelf pouring over all her books. She really reads them - she is a skilled reader. But she doesn't usually like to read aloud to me, because she is "too shy" !  She didn't even want to pose for a picture, I was intruding on her space. How do you like that!

Well she reads every night before bed, and she would read for hours if we let her. She stays up later than Rychen some nights, just reading quietly in her bed!

 

We got this purple Tinkerbell chair for her at a garage sale today for $2.

 

A Few New... Pets

When Rychen and Elisabeth were playing outside the other day, I wasn't paying much attention as they came in and out, gathering things like plastic cups and spoons to play in the dirt... Before I knew it, Rychen was showing me his pet Rolly Polly and asking if Louis was an acceptable name for a Rolly Polly. And of couse I only paid half attention...until he was asking me what are some other good names. This time I looked up and realized he was creating multiple Rolly Polly habitats out of plastic cups!