Back 2 School - my awesome kids

Welp, I guess it's time to say goodbye to summer. Or at least to summer vacation.  The kids just started back to school this week, Zoey on Monday and Gavin on Tuesday. I'm going to brag on my kids in this post so if you don't want to hear it.... now would be a good time to dismiss yourself. :)


 Zoey is in third grade this year. Seriously?! Third grade? Already?! It seems like she was just taking her first steps and now she's in the middle of her elementary school career. I was pretty worried about Zoey on her first day of school.  We moved from one side of town to the other in October of last year but I kept her in the same school until she finished second grade. She hasn't had a lot of opportunities to meet kids her age out here so I was super worried about her. Zoey is a very special little spirit.  I know that all mom's think that their kids are the best. But I honestly feel like we won the lottery with Zoey.  Ever since she was a baby she was super mild mannered and a happy soul. She hardly ever cried as a baby and even now as an older girl she doesn't get involved with all the drama that most girls do.  I've never had Zoey come home crying because someone hurt her feelings or someone was mean to her.  She just shakes off the mean stuff and gets over it. (I still have trouble doing that and I'm....well....not 8 years old.) I honestly worried about her last year because I was afraid that she wasn't sure when people were being mean to her. I had a conversation with her teacher at parent teacher conferences about this concern and her teacher said that she was not worried at all. She said Zoey is a special kind of kid.  She knows how to pick good friends and is friends with everyone.  She has the ability to walk away from the popular group of girls when they're not making good choices. I think that's what every mom wants to hear! I'm so proud of miss Zoey.  I worried about her first day of school for nothing.  She came home with two new friends who "made a pact" to meet on the benches every morning.

3 year old little Zoey Bagoey

Little Miss Sassy Pants strutting her stuff on the first day of third grade!

 I found this brilliant idea on Pinterest to take a photo of your kids and write some stats down so you can look back and reflect on how much they've changed over the years. I wish I would have thought of that before this year so I could have begun with Zoey in Kindergarten but I guess now's as good of time as any to start! Look at how much she's grown in five years!


This year was a pretty big year for us. Gavin officially started school.  Talk about time flying! Gavin has been soooo excited for Kindergarten to start.  It's really not fair for the school's to have Kindergarten round up in April.... I've had to answer the "When do I get to go to school?" question at least twice a week for the last four months. Honestly, I wasn't as nervous for Gavy to start school as I was for Zoey.  I guess I figured that everyone in Gavin's class is in the same boat.  No one knows anyone yet.  Zoey, on the other hand, has to compete with kids that have gone to school with each other for three whole years! I did get pretty emotional dropping Gavin off though.  When we got to the school the first graders were out on the playground and it was still pretty early to drop him off.  He got to play on the playground for a few minutes before the bell rang for him to line up.  He immediately found a few little boys to play with and Jon commented (this was my first tear up moment) "He's already made some new friends!" When the bell rang he got in line, grabbed his bag, and was off to follow his teacher. I was kind of in shock! I needed a hug! I needed a kiss! I needed some closure here!! I snuck in a quick hug and he was off.... just like that. No tears, no holding back... he was a pro (second tear up moment)! This next part made my mom laugh so hard.... I don't get it. So, Jon and I needed to pay Gavin's school fees and we walked around the front of the school to the office.  The office is just a few feet down the hallway from Gavin's classroom so while Jon was waiting in line I wandered down the hallway to have a little peak.  I popped my head in the open door to see if Gav was melting down or if he was fine..... there he was.... sitting like a little gentleman singing his little heart out while Mr. Green played the guitar. I just wanted to peak... Gav didn't see me but when I told him after school that I snuck a peak he exclaimed "YOU SNEAKER!"

Gavin at about 6 months with his beautiful blue eyes!

He sure does make me laugh. Of course when I got out to the car I had a total melt down.  My little buddy is growing up so fast! I can't stand it! Gavin is a total goof ball. He's always making us laugh with his silly voices and songs.  He can do a perfect Roger from Open Season 2. Youtube it when you have a chance... it's hilarious!Gavin LOVES music. I like to brag that he can sing along with pretty much anything that I listen to in the car.  Here are a few artists from his collection of songs he knows: Tho Who, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Gaelic Storm, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, FUN., and many many others.  I'm pretty proud of his music knowledge! He so gets that from me :) No surprise that on his first day of school he told me his favorite part was Music class. AWESOME!

All ready to go on the first day of Kindergarten.

Baby Tanner around 5 or 6 months old. This was his first "real food" feeding ever :)

So Tanner is still my little guy at home and I'm kind of excited to spend a little more one on one time with him.  Zoey and I got super close before Gavy was born, and then when she went to school it kind of gave me some one on one time with Gavy, and now that Gav is headed off to school I really look forward to having some alone time with my little guy.  He's so different from my other two kids.  The older two have been so laid back and pretty easy on us as parents... but then Tanner Royce comes along and turns our whole world upside down.  He's so funny and smart but he is sure stubborn and loud to boot! He likes things just the way he wants 'em and if he can't get it he will holler until he does. But as much as Tanner loves to yell and boss others around, he loves just as much to cuddle and give loves.  He's a super sweet boy and definitely my shy kid of the three. He LOVES music too! If he's in a bad mood all I have to do is crank up the tunes and he'll start dancing and the crankies are all gone. He's really good about memorizing songs too. It's pretty funny to hear him sing along with the radio. He's pretty tall for his age and I catch myself thinking that he should be farther along (developmentally) for his age.  I have to remind myself that he's only 2 1/2 and he already talks so well.  Some of my favorite things he says are: "Mammer" - instead of calling my mom Grandma he reffered to her as 'Mammer' for the longest time. I loved it! He also loves to have his window down in the car and will almost always ask Jon "Daddy? My dow down, peese?" His biggest thing right now is when you ask him to do something or stop doing something he'll say "No, I not". This most of the time winds up with him in time out for sassing but it's still cute! We also really have to watch what we say. He repeats EVERYTHING.. and I mean EVERYTHING!

Tanner B at 2 1/2 years

I had a lot of fun putting these together. I can't wait to look back when they're ready to graduate high school and seeing how much they've grown. On second thought, yes I can wait. I will wait ever so patiently and enjoy every minute I get to spend with them. And when the day comes when they're ready to graduate and move on.... I'll have these to look back on and cry over ;)

Odie Von Scnitzle vs The Peeping Tom

Today while making my boys lunch I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. (Remember we don't have blinds or curtains on our sliding glass door?) At first I thought maybe it was a kitten from one of our neighbor's zillion cats that roam through our backyard every day. But then I realizes it wasn't a kitten.... it was a squirrel! Peaking through the back window with his little paws( I dunno what you call em) up against the window.

Okay.... I freaking HATE rodents. Any kind. I don't care if it's a "cute" (rabid) chipmunk or an "adorable" (rabid) squirrel or just a "little" (rabid) mouse... they freak me out! Gavin was playing in the living room so I told him to hurry and come look. (Because we were safely behind the glass door) We walked slowly and quietly up to the back door because I was certain as soon as he caught a glimpse of us he would take off running. But the thing just sat there and stared at us.

THAT'S when Odie Von Schnitzel, our wonder dog, noticed the intruder and all heck broke loose! Odie LOST it! Now one would think that Odie would have scared the squirrel away with his ferocious bark and terrifying growling.... but that dang squirrel just held it's ground like "What chu gonna do, dog?!" - Yes, this squirrel also has a terrifying Brooklyn accent. Seriously, though! This squirrel stared down my dog. After about a minute of Odie barking his head off at the stupid squirrel, it finally decided it had enough and took off down the right side of our house.  I decided to open the door and let Odie have a little fun. I didn't want that stupid thing coming back. Can you imagine what would happen if one of the kids let it run inside my house?! Or worse, what if Gavin or Tanner tried to pet the "adorable" (rabid) squirrel?! It gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Odie ran after it but wasn't able to catch up to him. Hopefully that thing won't come sniffing around our door again.

This picture actually makes it look like Odie was just staring... but I promise...there was a LOT of growling and barking going on!

Anyway, I called to tell my husband about the whole thing because he's in Denver today and anytime either one of us said the word Squirrel we said it like this little girl.
WARNING!!! THIS VIDEO IS DISTURBING... there are SO many things wrong with this video that I can hardly stand to watch it. For instance the way the little girl moves the squirrel's little head around or how about the way the parent's act like it's not really that big of a deal? GROSS!

Chik-fil-a Bla Bla Bla

I'm sure you were all just dying to know my standpoint on this whole Chik-Fil-A debacle. I knew it!


I don't typically read the newspaper and we choose not to have cable in our home so I don't watch the news most of the time.  If I see something on MSN or Facebook that catches my eye I will do a little looking online but most of the time my current events don't involve my family. It's pretty hard to ignore this whole Chik-Fil-A thing right now. I mean, it's all over facebook. Both sides have blasted their news articles, pictures, and status updates pointing fingers and calling names. When this started happening I had no clue what the controversy  was. I gathered that the CEO of Chik-Fil-A said that he doesn't support homosexual-marriage and that the gay community was outraged and boycotting Chik-Fil-A. Wanting a little more info than that before I formed an opinion I took to the web to find out EXACTLY what was said and why it was such a big deal.

This is what I read.

I love Snopes.com because I feel like it will tell the whole story without offering a biased opinion on the matter. Based on what I read and what I've been seeing on Facebook posts, this is my opinion:

1. Chick-Fil-A is a known Christian organization. I mean anyone that walks through their doors, or doesn't walk through their doors on Sunday, can't help but to notice the Christian music playing over the speakers. You can't tell me that you were surprised at all to find out how a Christian company feels on the issue of same-sex marriage. It'd be like going to a Catholic Hospital and asking them how they feel about abortion. Christian's are pretty black and white when it comes to same-sex marriage.

2. As a company, I think it's best to keep your political agenda private.  If you want to donate to political campaigns that's something I feel you need to do as an individual and not a business. Chick-Fil-A donating money and backing anti-homosexual legislation is what opened this door in the first place. That's one of the mistakes I feel Chick-Fil-A made in this whole ordeal. Just my opinion.

3. The CEO of Chick-Fil-A was asked in a biblical interview his standpoint on same-sex marriage and gave his biblical answer. Again, what did we expect him to say?? And... he is entitled to have an opinion on the matter. He never stated that Homosexuals wouldn't be welcome in his restaurant, that they were dumb/stupid/disgusting (just making a point, this is NOT how I feel). He simply stated his stance on same-sex marriage. If we really wanted to blow up the controversy why don't we make a big deal about his stance on being divorced?! I mean, he says that they as a company are "first marriage" people.

4. If people have a problem with Chick-Fil-A as a Christian company with a Christian standpoint on same-sex marriage, it's their business if they want to boycott that company. That's their right! Just like it's your right as a Christian to eat at businesses who support your beliefs and values, they have a right to do the same thing.

My final point is one that comes from my beliefs and values as a member of the LDS church. Our Savior was the only perfect soul to walk this Earth. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, fed the hungry and the poor, and befriended the outcasts. How are we, as Christians, setting an example of Christ's love by flaunting our opinions and responding to conflict with more conflict? Blessed are the peacemakers... remember? I've been really disappointed in some of my friends and the choices that they've made to make such hurtful and hateful comments on their facebook pages.  The hypocrisy that's being demonstrated on both sides of the fence saddens me. We all want to be heard and given equal rights and treatment, yet we are not willing to listen and treat others fairly. Recently, in Relief Society, we were speaking about how to share the Gospel effectively. One of the comments that was made was that we should lead by example and always act with love. Where's the love in all of this mess?! We're all in this together.

Okay.  So, that's where I stand on this issue. I hope that I did not offend either side. My point of view is one that comes from love. I hope you can see that in this post. If not, I do apologize. If you feel the need to comment on this post, please know that any comments that are hurtful or hateful will be deleted. I won't stand for hate!

PEACE AND LOVE
-Kim

I Make Little Girls Cry

Since moving into our home in October our kids have struggled with finding kids to play with.  We live in a pretty small culdesac with just 10 homes on it. We're not a part of a bigger subdivision, just a small little culdesac in quite little Fruita. We love our home and MOST of our neighbors, the ones across the street are awesome and we've really enjoyed getting to know them. There are only two other houses on the street that have children at all, and one of them is a baby girl who just turned one. My kids are pretty limited on who they get to play with.

Outside of the neighbor boy who is 9 and the baby girl across the street, there is a little girl who stays with her Grandpa during the day while her mom and dad work. If I had to guess her age I'd say she's probably 6 or 7. She's a pretty sweet little girl, but she has some MAJOR boundary/manner issues. Over the summer she has managed to teach Gavin most of the "I'm Sexy and I Know It" song, explain to Gavin what "sexy" means, and ask if she can come in to "have a look around the house". She's also one of those little girls who asks "Where are you going?" every time we get into the car and "Why?" when I tell Gavin and Zoey that it's time to come inside. I'm not sure why that bugs me so much. Probably because if I ever did that as a kid I would have gotten slapped upside the head! I kid. I wouldn't have gotten slapped but my parents did a great job of teaching me that it's none of my dang business. She also manages to ring the doorbell EVERY SINGLE DAY in the middle of nap time. This is where the making little girls cry part comes in.....

Let me set the stage so you fully understand why I totally lost it yesterday. My kids have generally been fantastic sleepers.  They go to bed at a decent time and will most of the time sleep until I go and wake them up.  Gavin has a record sleep in time of 9:30am! Anyhow, lately Tanner has started getting up with the sun. Literally. As soon as the sun pops up over the horizon he is out of bed and wanting breakfast. This wouldn't be such a big deal if he didn't go to bed at 10:00pm the night before.  Don't judge me, this ONLY happens during the summer because it is still light out at 8:30pm. I promise! If he doesn't get a nap he is completely unmanageable. He will melt down over the smallest things and just sit on the couch and wail. It's not pleasant, to say the very least. So Tanner had gotten up pretty early yesterday, we had finished breakfast by 7:15. We had a pretty laid back day just laying but I had a few errands to run which kind of overlapped with nap time. He dozed off in the car so when we came home I hurried and ran him inside and lied him down. He woke up just briefly as I lied him in bed but quickly went back to sleep.  Ten minutes later I hear the doorbell ring. DANG IT! Tanner's and Gavin's room is just a few steps away from the front door and this little girl is LOUD. I was busy in the other room and heard Gavin say it was the neighbor girl and that he didn't feel like playing outside. I told him it was okay to answer the door and to tell her politely that he couldn't play right now. She asked him why and he told her that he was too hot to play outside. He also very politely asked her not to ring the doorbell again because his brother is sleeping. She said okay and left. As soon as the front door shut Tanner was out of bed and over nap time. I tried to get him to lay back down and he just screamed and cried. So I came to terms that Tanner was not going to get a nap that day and went back to cleaning the kitchen. 

Twenty minutes later or so as I'm working in the kitchen my dog starts growling and barking. We don't have blinds on our sliding glass door and he normally barks and growls at every cat that wanders through the field behind our house. I assumed this was what was making him go so crazy and hollered at him to stop. This went on for about five minutes or so before I went to get the squirt bottle. As I rounded the breakfast counter and headed toward the front bathroom I saw a little face peeking in the front door. Okay... I'm going to be honest here, she scared the CRAP out of me! My first reaction was to scream but it kind of came out as a yell "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!"  (I know if I don't put this down my sister is totally going to rat me out... I didn't say heck... I said H-E-Double Hockey Sticks) she was clearly as scared as I was because she began to back out and head back to her Grandpa's house. I opened the front door and said "That's not okay! You don't peek in the windows, you don't open my front door. If you want to play you knock on the front door and if we don't answer you go home. And if Gavin tells you he can't play you don't keep coming back! You need to go home, now!"

Looking back I was probably a little more forceful than I needed to be. I mean, she's 6. But I can't stand bad manners on little kids. And she scared me! It was totally not my fault! She had it comin'! A few minutes after our encounter I was chatting with my sister and told her what had happened. She said "You cussed at a little girl?!" Now I feel like a terrible monster. To be fair, she didn't cry. She just kind of stared at me and probably called me a name once I closed the door. She most likely will never come to the door again and Gavin will be friendless. Way to go, Kim! Mom of the year right here..... anyway. I feel like maybe I should apologize. Thoughts????

My Best Friend's Wedding - not the story you're thinking of

Jon and I just got back from one of the most amazing weekends ever! It was absolutely perfect!
Let me start from the beginning!! THIS is me and my amazing friend, Cammie. We were dancing in the back of our young womens president's van. I chose to share this picture because I believe it truly captures the essence of our friendship.

2001

 My family moved into the area when I turned 9. I can't remember if Cammie's family was already there or if they moved in later but our families knew each other as we grew up. Our friendship became really strong my Junior year of high school when we had choir together.  Over the years Cammie has been the most amazing friend to me.  She is one of the most genuinely kind and selfless people I have ever met.  She NEVER gossips, something which I find extremely admirable because it is just so hard for me! More than anything Cammie has set the most incredible example of how to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Cammie served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for 18 months of her life in Aruba. She wrote me several letters while she was away, each one filled with more and more encouragement and love. Each one sealed with her testimony of our Savior's love for us. I kept every single letter!

Not only was she an amazing friend to me, she instantly clicked with Jon. Even though she was attending school at BYU, she was right by my side when Jon and I tied the knot. Cammie graduated from BYU and went on to attend Grad school at Auburn University in Alabama. We kept in contact through text messages and facebook and got to see each other occasionally as she would come to visit family. Although Jon and I were raised in the LDS church we hadn't attended church regularly since we began dating in 2004. We still felt like we had a testimony of our Savior but simply lacked the commitment and motivation to make it part of our daily lives. With the examples of some dear friends, Cammie and a few others, and the birth of our youngest son quickly approaching, we knew that our lives were missing something. We felt the hole that could only be filled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We began attending church again in 2010 and set a goal to become an eternal family by being sealed in the temple.  We were met with several challenges that year, physically and emotionally and when 2011 rolled around we were ready to finally enter the temple and become an eternal family. Most of my family had been inactive for several years and as Jon and I finished our last temple class I had a hard realization: none of my family would be able to go through the temple with us for our sealing. This was so hard for me to swallow. For those of you who are not LDS, the temple is where we as members of the church go to complete sacred ordinances that are required for us to have eternal life. Eternal marriage, or being sealed in the temple, is one of these ordinances. Because these ordinances are sacred and they are done in a sacred place, members have to meet certain requirements to enter into the temple. So, this was a huge deal for me and Jon and our kids and to not be able to have a single family member go through with us was very sad. A few weeks before our sealing I called Cammie to tell her the news that we had finally had our interviews with our bishop and were ready to through the temple. She happened to be planning a trip to visit family around that same time and was able to be by my side again as we became an eternal family. (My pictures from that weekend ended up not capturing on my camera so you'll have to imagine what we all looked like). Along with Cammie we had some pretty amazing friends join us for our sealing. Some of our ward family from Grand Junction made the trip over, my young women's president that was living in West Jordan,Utah my good friend James that was in Eagle Mountain, Utah and Jon's dear friend Tyler from the same part of Utah came up as well as Jon's Mom who was living in New York. It was so awesome to be surrounded by so many people who loved us when my family was unable to be there. I have been so fortunate to have such amazing friends in my life.

SO.... longest blog EVER?? To tie everything back into my intended post: Cammie is just the most amazing friend anyone could ever ask for. Everyone loves her! Cammie and her boyfriend, Chad, came to visit over this last Christmas. Because of our crazy schedules we were only able to visit for a short time but I enjoyed it SO much! Cammie just glowed around Chad. After just a few  minutes I felt like I had known him for years and that we were already great friends. He was obviously head over heels for miss Cammie, and for good reason too! She's amazing! Not to mention she's absolutely gorgeous! Jon was working out of town and wasn't able to meet Chad but as soon as he came home I talked his ear off about them. I said to him "Cammie's gonna marry that guy! They're perfect for each other!!" So in January of this year Chad asked Cammie to marry him!! We were blessed enough to be able to attend their reception here in Junction and also their actual marriage in the Manti temple on Saturday. It was SO beautiful and I felt the spirit so strong (I had to choke back tears so bad so that I wasn't a blubbering mess when we went up to congratulate them). It was such an amazing weekend and we were so blessed that Cammie and Chad asked us to attend. It meant so much to us!  I did take a camera and I got some super cute shots of this weekend BUT I took my SD card out of the camera and it is MIA. I'm sure it's in the car or tucked in a bag. I'll probably blast them all over facebook when I find them. Don't you worry! ;)

 I did manage to grab this awesome picture of the temple as the rain clouds were rolling in. I LOVE this temple. Everything about it is so amazing, including two spiral stair cases that have no center support beam. They span over 70 feet and each stair is supported by the previous one. AMAZING!

Anyway, to make a very long story short, I couldn't ask for a better friend than my Cammie. And I couldn't ask for a better husband for her than Chad. They are an absolutely adorable couple (stole this pic form their announcement) and I'm so grateful that Jon and I were able to be part of their special day. Cheers to the happy couple!

Independence Day

These last few weeks have been absolutely a whirlwind. I keep thinking "my life is going to slow down after ________" but then that event comes and goes and things are just moving even faster. Seriously. SLOW DOWN! I plan to blog all sorts of stuff but am waiting on some pictures and a few extra minutes to make it all happen. This post is dedicated to the tons of fun we had on the 4th  this year! Next year I totally plan to have a huge 3rd of July party with tons of cute snacks and stuff for the kids....but our plans had to change when the city of Fruita cancelled their fireworks display because of the fire danger. We still had fun!! I love the 4th of July!!!

My sister and I started this tradition a few years back where we either make or buy t-shirts for the fourth of July. I REALLY wanted to make another Captain America Shirt for my boys this year but it was so challenging last time that we decided to go with something a little easier. (By the way, I've become totally obsessed with Captain America since I saw The Avengers. Husband is aware of this fascination....so we're okay.) ANYHOW, my sister and I decided that we would get together and make tie dye shirts for all 5 of our kids. It was so fun! I have never really tie dyed before...  I had to google and youtube videos (yes I just used Google and Youtube as verbs) just to figure out how to do it. I felt a little lame but I'm really glad I did. We got some pretty sweet tie dye shirts out of the deal. I got a little fancy with Gavin's shirt and I ended up pretty much hating it. Luckily, the shirt we made for Tanner ended up being HUGE. We had expected it to shrink and then it didn't... so I bought Tanner a new shirt, gave Gavin his old one, and made a new one for Tanner. Jon and I also made shirts but had to use different dye that didn't really match and our shirts were HUGE as we also expected them to shrink and they didn't. The kids looked super cute in their tie dye but the only picture I managed to capture was Gav showing off his new GJ Rockies hat that my parents bought him. 

Zoey's Shirt

Gavin's shirt that I hated... I don't know.. ..it just looks funny

Gavy and his cool new hat!

Tanner's shirt that ended up on Gavin for the 4th of July

So our 4th of July was pretty low key considering our entire county (and most of the outlying counties) all had strict fire bans in place. This was the first year that I can ever remember Grand Junction not having a fireworks display. I've lived in GJ for 26 years now and even on the years where there was a fire ban they at least had a display at the stadium put on by the Fire Department. So instead of risking a $750 fine and a class 3 misdemeanor, we decided to get together for a (gas grill as charcoal grills have been banned) barbecue as a family and let the kids play in the water.  My sister spent the day filling up water balloons and the kiddie pool. We played this cool little game as a family where we drew a bluesy in the center of Jen's cul-de-sac. We each took turns standing in the middle of the bulls eye while the rest of the family hurled water balloons at us. The rules were the family could only throw one water balloon each and the person standing in the middle of the bulls eye couldn't move. Yeah... no one really followed the rules. By the time my Dad ended up joining us there was only one water balloon left. Jon was posted in the middle of the bulls eye and we were all trying to hit him. I guess my dad figured he only had one shot and he didn't dare miss, so he hurled the water balloon at my back. I was standing about 4 feet in front of him and had just launched my balloon at Jon. Didn't even see it coming!


So the kids played in the pool and water for awhile before it got too chili and we ended up heading home early. We were seriously home by 8:00pm. We popped Brother Bear into the ol' VCR and just had a chill night hanging out as a family. Not really how I imagined my 4th of July going this year but it was still good!

CHORES!

So about a year ago I posted about an idea that I had to get my kids excited about chores. I had picked up these super cute little mail boxes from the Target dollar store. (They were actually on clearance when I picked them up so I got them for .50 a piece!)

 

The idea was that each kid has their own little mailbox. Each day I would select a few chores that they needed to do and put them in their mailbox. When they completed the chores they would put them back in mommy's mailbox to receive their rewards. Well last year was a whirlwind with the fire and moving so needless to say our little chore system slipped through the cracks. Plus, as the kids get older, they're able to take on more responsibility and the chores have changed quite a bit.

Well, a year later, I've decided to implement this idea again. It's a system I like to call: CHORE MAIL!

I came up with a list of chores that my kids need to do on a daily/weekly basis. Then, I created little "letters" that have the chores listed on them. I added a few pictures to help Gavin who can't quite read yet. 

Each chore is assigned a point value from 1 point to 5 points. Obviously, harder chores get more points. Here's a quick example of how I put my chore "letters" together:

I made a couple of the same chores so that Zoey and Gavin can work on the same chores at times, like putting their clothes away. I cut out each of the chores and matted them on a little piece of scrapbook paper (because scrapbook paper makes everything so much cuter) and then laminated them. I chose to laminate them to make them last longer and also because I wanted to be able to use a dry erase marker to put their initial on them. Sometimes when they turn their completed chores back into my mailbox I can't tell who did it. So by marking Zoey's with the letter Z and Gavin's with the letter G I can tell them apart. 

I felt a little guilty after I finished putting all the chores together, the kids have over 36 chores they are responsible for. They obviously wont be doing every single one of them every single day, but still! Oh well, more opportunities to earn rewards! And, speaking of rewards, because the chores are each assigned a point value, the kids have the opportunity to earn rewards.  Once they reach 100 points they get a reward.  I found these adorable little point tracker's that I customized for my kiddos to keep track of their points:

I got the point charts from http://www.alittletipsy.com/2011/02/printable-behavior-charts.html. I saved them as JPEG images and edited them with Paint.Net.

So we just started this back up today but I'm feeling really good about it. The kids were excited to check their mail boxes this morning and I was excited to have a little help with the house!