Mario and Tim

We are so excited to be living in Tucson.  One major perk of living here is that Mario gets to know his little brother that he hasn't seen (except once) since Tim was 2.  Tim has a beautiful little daughter, Mackenzie who is 3.  

Cheap Labor

As a mom, I am always trying to figure out how to get my kids to do their chores.  I don't care if they complain about doing them-just do them!  I often think of my favorite babysitter, Brianna, and her family (Kristy-I hope you read this).  Brianna used to tell me that their family did most of the cleaning chores on Saturday.  Her dad was the supervisor and would make them redo their chores if they didn't do them well.  Their house was always immaculate.  I wish Mario and I could get our kids to do an equally good job.  

The other day after FHE we started discussing chores for the new house.  I decided to make a list of all the chores that need to be done and I assigned a monetary value to each one.  Then I let the kids choose which ones they wanted to do (with the condition that if they didn't choose, I would choose for them.)  Well, we are on our third day and my house has never been cleaner. Erin loves to buy Breyer horses so she is motivated.  She has even asked for additional chores that aren't on the list.   

I wonder how long this will last.  Probably not much longer, but I am going to enjoy my dusted shelves, clean blinds, mopped floors, clean bathrooms, swept patio, sanitized doorknobs, etc for today.   I probably better think of incentives to keep it going.  Maybe a bonus!

Legoland Pics

On our way to Tucson, we stopped in San Diego to visit Legoland and Seaworld.  I loved Legoland.  The rides were mild and the Lego statues were amazing (especially the Obama Inauguration one)  Just a thought, if McCain (or my favorite-Romney) were to become president, would Legoland have done a great big Legoland Inauguration for them too?  I wonder? 

New Favorite $4.99 Toy

The other day I took Zach and Nathan to Toys R Us.  Zach has a lot of money in his savings account but he doesn't want to spend very much of it.  He goes around the store and asks how much everything costs.  It doesn't matter what it is, if it is $5 or less, he wants to buy it.  Of course, most of the things are junk!

But then he came across the yo-yo aisle and decided that he wanted one because it cost $4.99.  I said, Eric probably has one for you to borrow.  Nope, that wasn't good enough, he wanted his own.  Turns out, we didn't have a single yo-yo in the entire house until Zach bought this one.  It was a hit with Eric.   He was letting Zach play with his most favorite (and even expensive toys)  in exchange for using Zach's new yo-yo.  Zach decided to be generous and buy Eric his own yo-yo.   Then Erin decided she wanted to try it out.  Next thing I know Zach is playing with Erin's American girl dolls while Erin plays with his yo-yo.  I decided this was way too much power for Zachary and decided I may as well purchase Erin her own yo-yo so she wouldn't have to let Zach play with her expensive dolls anymore.

It is amazing how many hours the kids have played with these $5 toys.  I love it because they are spending time together learning how to do tricks with them and best of all, they are off the computer!

Way to go Zach for picking out a great toy!  

Having Faith

Today we were having FHE and I asked the kids a question like, "What should be some new rules for our house." It was apparent that Zachary was not paying attention. When I called on him, he said "Faith!" Mario told him that would be a good answer for almost any question at church, but not for my question.

But speaking of faith, I am so grateful to have faith and to know that Heavenly Father knows best. We had been looking for a rental home. The top priorities for finding a house were good schools, a church very close, and a short commute for Mario to work. We thought we had found a great house in a new neighborhood with brand new schools and about a mile from church. Mario and I really wanted the house. It was a really good price, but we couldn't get the realtor to send us any pictures. It was very frustrating to us because we were ready to send in our deposit if we could just get some pictures. We were so disappointed when the house rented out. I felt like maybe we should have just rented it sight unseen.

Fortunately we found this other house that is about 800 sq feet bigger with room for food storage and close to the park and 1 mile from church. We felt very blessed. Then we found out that the original house we wanted was not in the ward that we thought. It was actually about 6 miles to the church instead of 1. I know that to some 6 miles doesn't seem like much, but when you have 4 kids and callings, you spend much of your time at church (esp. when your kids start seminary). If we would have rented that house and then later found out about the 6 mile drive to church, I would have been so disappointed.

I am sure Heavenly Father knew how important it was for me to be close to the church and schools and he blessed our family with the perfect place. I need to always have faith that things will work out because they always do.

Our New Rental Home

Mom's fun day at the park

Today I dropped the big kids off to school.  Then I took the twins for a little walk through the park behind our new rental house.  They love the area because it is very "desert" and has lots of wildlife (maybe too much--snakes).  So, this morning was all about the twins having fun walking and running around the park and skatepark.  

When we were leaving I said I needed to run to Trader Joe's for some groceries.  On the way we passed a McDonalds.  Nathan asked to stop for ice cream.  I said no, we aren't getting any sweets for awhile.  His reply was "We did what you wanted to do this morning, now it is our turn to do something."  

I guess he thought we stopped at the park for my enjoyment.  If I would have known we were there solely for me, I would have left much sooner!    I really should think of my kids more often!!