Super Why!

I'm not sure if it's Ikaika's favorite show but he does like it and so do I!

Attributes on Ikaika's list of what makes a great kid show

1. it has to be a cartoon

2. it has to be a cartoon

3. it has to be a cartoon

....getting the point? lol

Things that make a great child show on my list

1.It's child friendly, you know regarding language and content

2.it's educational

3.it's entertaining (this usually only applies to Ikaika, kid shows can be agonizing to sit through, ha ha) but hey, I wont complain about about the good benefits that come from shows like Dora, Sesame Street, Diego, Dino Dan and Team Umizoomi!

Called to Serve

Young Women

“There is no more

beautiful sight than a young woman who glows with the light of the Spirit, who is confident and courageous because she is virtuous.”

—Sister Elaine S. Dalton

you are called of God. The Lord knows you. He knows whom He would have serve in every position in His Church. He chose you. He has prepared a way so that He could issue your call.

Henry B. Eyring October General Conference

Recently in my new ward, I have been called to serve in the young womens, my initial response to Justin was "I don't know why anyone would want me to teach." Needless to say, I wasn't very confident in how I would fulfill my calling but nevertheless, I do know that our Heavenly Father does things for a reason and I needed to accept and complete my calling.

The other young women leaders and the young women in the ward are such great examples for me and it encourages me to work a little harder to do a little better. Today I went to my first auxiliary leadership training at the assembly hall. Who knew all the great resources members have to help them fulfill their callings? In a computer savvy world full of apps, it was only a matter of time before before we could use these resources in our weekly lessons, even family home evening. Which by the way, Ikaika knows way more about computers than I think a 4 year old should, it'll be a funny and sad day when he has to teach me about new technology like I taught my mom how to check text messages on her phone! lol

Anyways to get to the point, here's a great scripture....

12And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Helaman 5:12

As I continue to fulfill my calling I need to trust in my Savior and put in the work. Then hopefully the girls wont fall asleep during my lessons but come to enjoy young womens like I did and find it a strength in their lives. I know I looked up to my young women leaders and still do to this day.

Festival of Color

Can"t wait for spring? Why not celebrate the coming of spring at the Holi- Festival of Colors? Partly for a school assignment and because it looked like so much fun, my family, my parents and good friend Jessica, went down to Spanish Fork to the Kirshna Temple, so we could celebrate the Festival of Colors.

Holi-Festival of Colors is a traditional Indian holiday and to my understanding the throwing of colors (colorful chalk) is to celebrate the coming of spring. It's an awesome sight and everyone is covered in this brightly colored chalk! and when I say everybody i mean everybody from the babies to the elderly and it's a total riot!

Just check it out!!!

Finals are done!

Now that finals are done, I feel like I have some time to breath! This semester was a tough one for me but I'm glad I stuck it out. Here's my final portfolio for my photography class, one of my favorite classes. I chose to do light painting photography (aka using lights like flashlights to draw out your photo). Anyways, I had never done it before and wanted to try it out for myself. Thanks to all my helpers, I couldn't have done it without your help. It just seemed like a waste to put so much effort into this project and have no one see it, so take a look and enjoy!

Also, a little about the project. Each picture correlates to a saying about the home.

My whole theme surrounded the home and my photos are my interpretation of those sayings.

I live in my house as I live in my skin: I know more beautiful, more ample, more sturdy and more picturesque skins but it would seem unnatural to exchange them for mine.

Primo Levi
If I were asked to name the chief benefit of a house, I should say: The house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.
Gaston Bachelard

Home is where you truly believe

They are the happiest, be the king or peasant, who find peace in their hands.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts to build a home.

Home is where we love- home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Home is where we are free to create who we are.

Give a Little...

Now that our family is back into our own place again, it's been fun celebrating the holidays together and finding new traditions. This year we got to help Santa out by giving a toy that would go to another child.

Justin's Aunt Sherri told us that in her neighborhood the kids get to bring a gift for another child and tell Santa what they gave. If I remember right, they've been doing this for about 4 years. It's all in a garage, there are tables for presents, refreshments and of course Santa is there too!

Santa passed out candy canes to all the children. Marie was the first in our group to talk to Santa. I was hoping that if she did then Ikaika wouldn't be so leery of him.

Marie and Sherri. Santa was calling a bunch of kids by name and i think they were so stunned that Santa actually knew them. It was funny seeing all the kids reactions

Ikaika and Daddy. This is what i get when i say smile! ha ha

I was proud of Ikaika he jumped right into his wish list, which consisted of the toys he saw other kids bring in. ha ha. and he did tell Santa what he brought. He took Justin up with him as well, didn't want to do it without his daddy, his hero!

I Love this kid so soooooo much.

Sydney was so cute with Santa. If she was scared of Santa, i didn't see it. She just smiled and answered all his questions.

Jordan was probably the warmest one there, it was pretty cold in that garage.

Conner wasn't feelin it but he did let me take a picture of him :)

All the yummy desserts, but i think the hot chocolate was the best!

I think this will be a fun family tradition for us and someday Ikaika will understand what it's all about.

Cutting Coupons...

The Davidson's are now a coupon cutting family. Yes we have used them before but not often. In an effort to be more thrifty and better with our buck we decided to use coupons more often.

One of my professors at the community college loves to use coupons, in fact she has a binder set aside for just her coupons and such, which she did bring to class. On average she saves half on her total bill. After hearing that I wondered "why the heck haven't i been doing that?" Well now I am and so is Justin.

We saved ourselves maybe $15 off our last grocery store visit. I don't know about the whole binder thing, actually i already started putting one together. haha

Here's to being Thrifty!!!

Can't believe my baby is 4!!!!

Talk about time flying, can't believe Ikaika is 4 already!! Since Ikaika loved his Spiderman costume so sooooo much for Halloween, we decided on a superhero party theme!

First we made super hero masks! They turned out great although tying them was more tricky then i thought it would be, but the kids had a blast!

Next we played pin the spider on spiderman and being the procrastinator I drew that spiderman the morning of. not too shabby if i say so myself :)

Third came the spider walk aka cake walk. I wasn't too sure how this game would work out and eventually we just let the kids pick out whatever prize they wanted. Hint: make all the prizes the same! luckily most the kids didn't notice and those that did, got what they wanted

Then there were cupcakes! red and blue, don't let the pink fool you! lol also we made the mistake of using regular sugar....duh! But sugar is sugar, the kids ate them. I even found one where just the frosting was missing....IKAIKA! ha ha ha

Finally Presents! You could not believe how fast Justin was attacked by the horde of pizza and sugar filled children, when he brought out the presents. Plus their little hands had sugar and cupcake all over them! lol, the back of Justin's shirt was covered with sugar and crumbs!

Ikaika and his best buddy Lucas playing with their balloons!
Ikaika's party was a lot of fun! I'm so glad we decided to let him have a little party with his friends!


Now for the After Party!!!

We had a little get together with grandparents and aunts and uncles later that day, plus ikaika's friend Riley and her family minus her dad.

I'm not quite sure why but Ikaika decided that opening his presents with his mouth was the better choice. ??? I don't get it

After a long and fun filled day, this is what Ikaika slept on! You may think it uncomfortable but he had the biggest grin on his face. He was in heaven!!

Happy Birthday Son!!!