New Year's Resolutions

We took an idea that I got off a friend's blog to do some simple family New Year's Resolutions that we all thought we could stick to. Each of us chose three: #1-something that would help our family, #2-something that would make Jesus happy, #3-Something new you would like to do this year.

Here's our resolutions:

Shayne:
1. Do one thing for my girls everyday.
2. Keep up and read on my own with Gospel Doctrine Lessons.
3. Find a new job.

Jonna:
1. Play something special everyday with the girls.
2. Keep up with scripture reading in church.
3. cook 1 new meal each week.

Olivia:
1. Play nice with Izzy everyday.
2. Look my best for Jesus and say my prayers everyday.
3. Ride a big bike without training wheels.

Izzy:
1. Play nice with sissy everyday.
2. Go to nursery and don't hit and don't cry.
3. Go potty in the toilet and wear panties.

Phoenix Children's Museum

We went to the coolest Children's museum in Phoenix. The girls could have played there all day! We didn't even get to all the exhibits before I was too tired and needed to go home. Everything was hands on and the girls could do everything themselves. It was quite a fun preschool field trip.

My motorcycle mommas

They had an art center where tons of projects were going on and the kids got to join right in.

They had a musical instrument petting zoo. Olivia was able to get quite a bit of sound out of both the trumpet and the trombone.

There were all kinds of vehicles for the kids to try out, way fun!!

Izzy loved the flexible tunnels.

They had a noodle forest that all the kids loved, it was huge!

25 Random Things About Me

I was tagged on facebook to write 25 random things, and since I thought them all up, I thought I would put it on my blog:

1. I had really messed up teeth growing up: braces from 3rd grade to 5th, palette straighteners and retainers until 7th, again braces from 9th to 11th, never lost all my baby teeth, and had an adult tooth growing in the middle of my palette, had to have oral surgery to fix it and supposedly wear retainers for the rest of my life (I don't wear them now though)

2.When I was little I called myself Jonnarella because I felt like Cinderella and had to do all the chores around the house.

3. I did an exchange program to Japan for a month in high school, but couldn't really speak a lick of Japanese (Ian Bannerman was there, he can vouch)

4. My first kiss was in 6th grade at outdoor education with Jared Lungren!!

5. I served a mission for my church to Japan when I was 21. There I ate: pig's ear, fish head soup, goat sushi, pig's feet soup with floating toe nails, cow intestine, cow tongue, sea urchin, and fried eel bones among many other things.

6. I played basketball in 7th grade, but quit because I thought I spent too much time on the bench.

7. I was voted Senior Class President in high school because no one else ran. Not until later did I find out that the class president is responsible for reunions...FOREVER!

8. The only "F" I ever got was from my piano teacher in 3rd grade because I didn't practice. I quit...I really regret that now.

9. In college I was in a "Best Buddies" program where we did activities with mentally handicapped adults every week. My buddy, Darren, only ever wanted to hang out at my apartment with six cute college co-eds, pretty smart if you ask me.

10. When I was little, I always planned to run away from home, so I would stash clothes and underwear all over the house because you never knew when you would need to make a quick get-away, and clothes and underwear are all you really need.

11. Being LDS (mormon) I attended four years of early morning seminary and attended an hour of scripture study class every morning before school...serious dedication!

12. I decided to try swimming in high school. The first two weeks were killers and I wanted to quit (I sense I quit many things in life), but my dad wouldn't let me until I got to my first meet. I grew to LOVE swimming, swam all four years of high school, and then kept swimming into college and after (not on a team of course, I wasn't that good).

13. I love doing service, you would think I was very altruistic, but it's actually more selfish, I love the warm fuzzy you get when you are serving others, my own natural high.

14. I knew my husband for at least 15 years, and seriously dated him for a year before we got married. I really wanted to make sure I knew him...

15. I always wanted to have six kids growing up. Now however, we're taking them one at a time.

16. I have no fashion sense whatsoever...growing up my YOUNGER sister would correct my outfits and make me go back and change. Even now sometimes my four year old questions what I put on for the day.

17.I have absolutely no sense of direction, and my auto-pilot just drives randomly, my husband thinks this is hilarious.

18. My favorite food is SALAD! I would eat it three meals a day.

19. I have never broken a bone in my body.

20. I love to bake. I would bake all day, but then I love to give it all away. This really frustrates Shayne.

21. I love children's books, I've collected them for years. I have hundreds.

22. I'm LDS so I've never drank, smoked, or done any type of drugs (other than prescription of course).

23. I'm a stay-at-home mom, but in order to have a reprieve from mommy-land, I teach preschool in my home two days a week. Some people think I'm crazy to want a break from my kids with more kids, but I love it!!

24. I used to drink pickle juice as a kid. Not only did I love the salty taste, but I figured it would help you live a long life because pickles seem to last forever.

25. I love blogging. I don't write in a journal or scrapbook, so my blog takes place of both: sjblackfamily.blogspot.com

Just doing what Daddy says...

Daddy said I couldn't have a treat until I finished my grilled cheese...

Why we live in Arizona

Tank tops, short sleeves, skirts, sandals, swings in the backyard...all in the middle of January, that's why you live in Arizona!

Challenger Space Center

We took a family field trip to the space center where we got to go inside their inflatable planetarium and see all the nighttime stars during the day! Then we toured the center and looked at the models of space shuttles, some unique science experiments and some great cut-outs of us as astronauts.



Olivia liked trying out the different astronaut tools, but Izzy loved the astronaut ice cream that we found at the gift shop the best!

Our New Favorite Recipe

The girls love to cook and I like to let them try. I remember when I was a kid, my mom would let us make english muffin pizzas, and we all loved them because you got to create your own. However, we've never made them in our home until now. They were a huge success!
Here's all you need:
English muffins
Tomato sauce
cheese
toppings (we did pepperoni, ham and pineapple)
Bake @ 350 for about 15 minutes
The girls loved putting on the sauce and toppings, and they ate everything they made! Olivia created a special mountain pizza with every topping possible, and Izzy created a pre-licked pizza claiming stake on every topping she wanted.



Here's our finished product of super-cheesy pizzas, everyone loved it and we had NO left-overs!

New Jewels

We've recently discovered that Mrs. Potato Head earrings also fit our ears. The girls have been wearing them every day for the last few days. Olivia keeps telling me that she really wants to get her ears pierced but when she hears how they do it (poking a hole in her ear) she always says, "Maybe when I'm five". But for now, these snazzy earrings will have to do.

Izzy's ABC's

Izzy loves singing and has a magnet on the fridge that she tries to continually sing with.

Visiting the new aquarium

The zoo near our house just opened a whole new section, a huge 3-building aquarium with all sorts of exhibits. We've been a couple times, but I keep forgetting to bring my camera. The girls are really into the exhibits, not so much posing for the camera. You can't really see in the tanks, but they are chucked full of fishies and sharks, sea horses and alligators, etc.
Because of the huge prego belly, we had to take some breaks, so here we are sitting at the penguin exhibit, they probably have 12-15 penguins swimming around. It was one of our favorites.
They also have a few touch tanks, you can touch horseshoe crabs, stingrays, starfish, pencil-urchins, etc. The girls were a little spooked of touching, but I think Olivia touched some starfish and a stingray eventually.

Izzy is in PANTIES!!

For the last month or so, Izzy has been telling me that she's done wearing pull-ups and wants to wear panties. She already poopy-trained herself, and I just didn't want to have a kid potty-training when we had the new little one, but I gave in. We went to the store and she bought some Ariel panties (of course). We've been doing it for almost a week and she has only had 2 accidents. I think she was ready way before I was. WAY TO GO IZZY!

Snow in Arizona??

We went north about 2 hours and found tons and tons of snow! This is the girls first real experience with snow and they couldn't get enough of it. Living in warm climate, we weren't really equipped to be in the snow for a long time, no snow boots, snow pants, no snow gloves (just regular mittens), etc., but that didn't seem to stop the girls at all. We went with some friends, the Haverkamps and got some really fun sledding in. I'm about 7 months pregnant, so I didn't do any sledding at all, just took lots of fun pics.

The kids spent a ton of time trying to improve a struggling snowman, I'm not sure we helped him out at all.

Olivia and her friend Danika playing on the really yummy plowed snow full of dirt and gravel.

Walking in the snow was a bit difficult for Izzy, she chose to ride Daddy's shoulders to and from places.

Sledding was by far Olivia's favorite. Everyone was freezing by about an hour into it, but I don't think it phased her. She could have sled frozen for hours! We had so much fun, the girls already wish we lived somewhere with winter, but trying to change them into dry clothes in the falling snow, in our car, I remembered why I'm not a huge fan of living in the snow.

The Polar Express

Even though Christmas is over, we took a trip with some friends up to Williams, AZ to ride the Polar Express. It was so much fun! The girls had more fun than they could handle, and they both got to experience snow for the first time (at least that Olivia would remember).

On the train, they served hot chocolate, cookies, read the story "Polar Express", and even had a visit from SANTA who gave them the first gift of Christmas... a silver bell from Santa's sleigh.

The girls loved every minute of it! It was definitely a trip worth taking.

Happy New Year's 2009

We went over to our neighbor's house for dinner and a 'smores roast on New Year's Eve. The girls loved roasting marshmallows, and thoroughly enjoyed the messiness afterwards.