Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny ate the carrots!

See?

A basket filled with allergy-free candy, a notebook for church, and a cup for collecting the chocolate eggs!

Gracie found lots of eggs.

Matt found them and ate them all at the same time.

Some were pretty high.

Andrew's were the hardest to find, but he got them all!

Fun at the Park

My kids sometimes do really weird things.  For example, Joey takes his socks off every time he goes #2 in the bathroom.  He doesn't know why he does it, but he does it.  Haley used to hide coins in her sock drawer.  Andrew used to stand in the trash can, and sit in the cupboards.  Grace licks things.  And Matt gets an orange to sit with Daddy.  We don't quite understand this tradition that he's made up, but it works for him.  He grabs an orange, and that's how Daddy knows he wants to sit on the couch with him.  He does not want to eat the orange, and if Daddy peels it, he gets very upset.  He just wants to sit with dad, with the orange.  Weird.

We took advantage of a break in the weather to go to our favorite park with the cousins.  Matt is very excited to be able to do all the big kid stuff by himself.  He only tried to run away once or twice.

Here's a group pic.  The only one missing is Zach -- and Haley was there, but was too mature to be in the picture with the little kids.

We love to swing!

"I'm so thirsty!"

Up in the tree, Andrew found out that sap is very sticky and doesn't wash off very well.

April Fools' Day

Ben and I had fun rigging our house the night before April Fools' Day.  We put plastic wrap on the kids' doors, so they walked into it in the morning.  Trust me, that's a lot less messy than putting it on the toilet.  Who wants to clean up that mess?  I clean up enough bodily functions every day -- I don't want to add more.

Andrew thought it was funny, Haley did not.  She still can't believe how dumb we are.

I also turned the milk blue.  The boys thought that was hilarious.  They were a little afraid to try it, but it they found out it didn't taste any different.

Later in the day, we had everybody over for dinner -- enchiladas.  We also made cookies to decorate, since we can't do eggs.  Cookies were just as fun, but pretty messy.

This is the sugar crash.  He just plopped down on the floor, and then he was up until 10:00 PM.  Fun.

Spring Break

We're officially on Spring Break and not going anywhere!  But, we do have our Utah cousins here, thank goodness.  We started the week off with a nice lunch from the microwave (plus some apples -- organic, I might add).

Then Matt got his elbow stuck in the chair, again.  This happens almost every single day.

He and Shoji waited for scraps at the edge of the table.

And Gracie did her best impression of a model.  I think it is pretty good!

Emma, Grace, Matt and I went to IHOP for breakfast this morning.  Matt was a nightmare.  He wouldn't stop grabbing all of the syrups, salt and peppers, straws, and silverware.  He wouldn't use his fork because he thought it belonged on the windowsill.  The crayons belonged on the floor, and the seat was a wonderful bouncy trampoline.  The other patrons thought he was precious and the wait staff was relieved when we left.

I'm sure our week will be filled with many more adventures.  But right now, I have to go pack something because one of these days we're going to have to leave this place, and I hate procrastination.  I also hate packing.  Plus, Matt keeps saying, "mo mo mo" and he acts as if I should know what that means.  If anyone can translate, please let me know. 

I'm in Trouble

I know I'm going to get in trouble for this:

Matt just wanted to be like Gracie and I -- painting our toes pretty colors.  Ben's going to tan my hide, but you have to admit that's pretty cute!

I'll take it off later.  But for now, he's happy.  No harm done.

Allergy Test Results

Well, we had our allergy doc appointment today.  Thank you to Colleen for getting Andrew for us -- we didn't get home until 3:30!!  That was a long appointment.  And thank you to Grandma Nan for babysitting the little ones for so long!  It would have been impossible to have them there.

I was really hoping that the results would be better.  We were hoping that the egg allergy was going away, and that we could start cooking with eggs again.  No such luck.  It hasn't changed one bit.

Joey was a champ.  He was poked lots and lots of times, but he held it together.  The worst part was the itchy back.  He couldn't touch it for 15 minutes after they poked him, and it was torture.  But he survived, and they rubbed anti-itch cream on it and gave him an antihistamine also.  By the time we got home, the marker was still on his back, but the giant welts were not.

So instead of outgrowing some of his allergies, like I had hoped, he has new ones as well as the old.  Here is his allergy list.  New allergies are in bold:

eggs

tree nuts (almond, brazil nut, cashew, hazelnut, pecan, walnut, sunflower seed)

peanut

grasses

weeds

mold

dog

cat

horse

He also has asthma and has to be on an inhaler.  Can't wait to see my pharmacy bill.

Poor Shoji is the probable cause of his skin outbreaks and breathing problems.  But we've got prescriptions for those too.  If you don't hear from me for awhile it means I fainted at the pharmacy and had to be hospitalized for shock.

This Week

I have been busy selling my house this week, so not much blogging going on here.  But we're still undecided where we'll go.  We're still waiting for our buyers to sell their house, so hopefully it won't fall through.  We'll see how it all turns out!  Hopefully we'll decide here pretty soon where we're going to go.  Do we build?  Do we wait?  Do we find a house?  I have no idea.

But the weather was great this week, so we cooked hot dogs over the fire pit.  Joey loved them.  Lots of them.

Dad about had a conniption fit when Haley's friend came over, and it was a boy.

Matt wanted out in the front.  He settled for the back, but he felt like he was in jail.

I love that he can go down the slide all by himself now.  That makes me look forward to playgroup!  Maybe I'll be able to sit and talk with the other mothers without having to follow him around the whole time.

And we had a great time with friends.  That's what sandboxes are for.

And thank goodness Grandpa Fred always has time to beat the kids at a quick game of checkers.

Today

I think Grace would make a great author someday.  She constantly has a story going on, and usually I tune it out (because it goes on all day).  But today I turned the radio down and listened to her narration in the back seat.  She was telling a story to an imaginary friend that was a little hard to follow.  Some of the interesting things she's said today are:

"Mom, I just got married."

"I just found my spirit!"

"My mom died.  She fell out of a plane."

"My dad is so great.  He teaches me lots of things."

The ladies at the grocery store were laughing when they heard her narration.  She also quietly sang the alphabet, emphasising her favorite letters ("A, B, C, D, E, F, G).

She tried really hard to make him look at the camera.

I have been lamenting today at my little baby growing up.  I am going to miss my kids' little baby fingers and toes.  But good thing for cameras.  At least I'll still be able to look at them, wishing I was kissing them.  Although I kissed Matt's fingers yesterday, and they smelled like onions.  Gross.  But I love them anyway.

I stuck a pair of shorts on Matt today, and I'm looking forward to gazing at his little knees, toes, and ankles all summer!

I have a great friend who is training to run a marathon for a great cause.  Here is a link to her video.  Please watch and if you can give, please do.  Mandy, I wish I was closer so I could be running with you.  Keep going, you're doing great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4W0Q26hGjA

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Haley thought it would be fun to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade this morning.  Nevermind that she wanted to go because her friend was going to be there (although she never could meet up with him because there were too many people and they couldn't figure out where the other was).

We had a great time at the street fair and parade.  Can you believe they had hot dogs, chips, and a soda for $2?  I couldn't either.  So, although I had no intention of buying anything, especially since I couldn't read labels and I forgot the Epipen, I got us food for $10.  We sat and ate elevensies while waiting for the parade to start.  We got a great spot right on the curb.

The kids were delighted to have candy hurled at them from various characters.  Grace liked the clowns the best because they make funny noises.  Joey liked the fire truck and all the motorcycles.  Andrew has been talking non-stop about the Young Marines group that went by.  He thinks that would be a great thing to try.  We'll see.  Matthew yelled "tank to!" everytime he got a candy.

Ben and I watched in delight as four DeLoreans went by.  We decided it was time to watch "Back to the Future" with the kids and let them in on why they are so great.  They couldn't figure out why we were so excited.  I should have just told them that it's because we're a couple of nerds, but I didn't want to out us just yet.

I also liked the horses with green hooves.  The last one left us a present that we got to enjoy aromatically throughout the rest of the presentation.

It was a successfull family outing.  We came with five kids, and left with the same five kids plus a bag of candy.  What more could you ask for?

Happy Birthday, Linds!

It's my older sister's birthday today.  Happy birthday, Lindsey!

I thought I'd share a little of our "good old days":

We each had our own issues -- Lindsey with her fingers, me with my binkie.

But who cares?  We were so darned cute!  And sweet, too.

We always found intelligent, exciting ways to occupy our time out on the farm.

And we've always had a great backside.

We have always been at the height of fashion.

And we've got talent to spare.

Here's to the good old days!