Happy Easter

Easter.  What a great holiday.

A day to celebrate the more important things in life.

And...attempt to take a picture of our little ones in their classy Easter outfits.

Here's how it went down at our house this year.

The girls (at first) happily obliged.

I told Brooklyn to kneel next to Aubrey,

which made Aubrey kneel. 

So Brooklyn stood up,

and then Aubrey stood up.

So...they both sat down.

The boys on the other hand were a bit more "challenging."

Bradley, who always marches to the beat of his own drum, was following his own agenda
and couldn't wait a moment longer to get out of those restricting clothes.
(And parade through the front yard in his underwear)
His only problem was that darn top button.

Jack was being...
well, Jack.
He decided that if I was going to make him take an Easter picture
that he would sit on my plant and make a big pouty face.
I'm sure his grandchildren will enjoy this one someday.

While I was trying to convince Jack to cheer up (and get off of my plant)
Dave was chasing down the runaways.

Seriously?  Why does every picture moment have to turn into a 3-ring circus?
I was just about to give up and go inside
when the Heaven's opened and they all sat down together.
[Insert Hallelujah chorus]

Sure, Bradley has no tie or pants and Jack looks like he's in pain,
but hey, they are all in the picture, all looking at the camera, and all basically smiling.
I'd say that for this family, it's kind of an Easter miracle.

This n That

Nothing too excited going on around the old homestead these days.

Just a little of this and a little of that.

But the everyday happenings are worth documenting, right?

First of all, the parent's in this house have finally given in to an extracurricular activity.

We've been kind of dragging our heels because
A) we like not having to be 1 million places,
B) it's expensive, and
C)  our kids were blissfully unaware that they were missing out on anything.

Sounds like the perfect conditions to pull a quick one, eh?

We thought so too.

But, I have finally decided that it is time to branch out a bit and try to "round out" these kids of ours.

And I'm quite glad I did. 

I feel like I've graduated to some new level of parenting.

For now, I smile as I hear small successions of notes
(over and over again)
while I am preparing dinner.

Soon I will not smile as I threaten to remove her left arm if she doesn't practice.

It's all part of the joys of parenting, right?

She is cute sitting up there with her make-shift piano.

And she totally staged this picture,

but wanted to make sure that it didn't look like she staged it.

That's a Motherhood Lesson 101 course in itself.

Making it look like you "caught them in the moment."

Even if you and I both know that you likely tortured the kid
and made them re-do that special moment at least 6 times just for the perfect picture.

She's ahead of her time.

~~~~~~~

Around here the blossoms are in full bloom (achoo!) and spring has definitely arrived.

Which means that the gardener at this house has to get to work!

He painstakingly spent a billion years building that beautiful

self watering garden box.

He has planted his little plants and takes great pride in whatever is growing in there.

He comes home from work and stands out there with his hands on his hips
just willing those precious little plants to grow.

And then he asks me which child put the tire marks through the garden

and whose "bum print" he can see.

I've already got 4 of them to watch,

I can't possibly babysit the garden too.

If those plants are going to grow around here,

then they better be tough.

~~~~~~~

Speaking of tough...

What does she think she is doing?

Oh ya know, just playing naked outside in the water bowl in February!

Sheesh.

I'm running around with a fleece jacket (cause I am a wimp)

and she's running around in nothing.

And for the record, it was the dog who left the "bum print" in the garden, not Aubrey.

~~~~~~~

About a month ago we got a letter in the mail that basically has ruined my entire last month.

It said something like this:

"Because we are mean, we want you to get rid of your trampoline

and only allow your kids to sit on little pillows in the corner.

Love, your Home Insurance Company"

Boooo on them.

I LOVE the trampoline.

My kids LOVE the trampoline.

And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it when Dave takes them out to jump while I am making dinner.

What kind of American family will we be without a trampoline?

I seriously might shed a tear.

And then put in a zip line from the second story into the neighbors pool.

See what the insurance company thinks of that one.  :)

~~~~~~~

On a serious note,

last week we had to say goodbye to our beloved and cute little Grandpa Bowen.

He was Jack's birthday buddy and was nearly 96 years old!

This guy was only about 5 feet tall, but was at least twice that in personality.

He was a darling little man with sparkly blue eyes.

We'll miss him,

but we are thrilled that he has been reunited with so many loved ones on the other side.

Because my Mother made me feel guilty...

Sheesh.

My Mother made me feel guilty about not posting pictures of her adorable grandchildren.

Slothful daughter, I am.

In response, I will post a long and picture-full post for her viewing pleasure.  ;)

I love the morning hours when I just have my two littlest ones at home. 
I miss the big ones (of course),
but having time to just hang with the pee-wee's is nice.

And who wouldn't want to hang out with these guys?!

That guy on the right - that's a true little gentleman.

Man - I could eat him up.

(even if he is a little lot rough)

He takes good care of that sister of his.

When he steals the end of the loaf of bread while his mother is cleaning the bathroom,

he happily shares.

(he does still have a right arm...even if this picture looks otherwise.)

And when that same Mother puts Bradley in charge of the bean scooping activity 

while she sneaks in a shower,

he takes care of business.

By the looks of things,

maybe "that Mother" should put Bradley in charge of getting Aubrey ready for the day.
She we could use a little help.

Potty Talk

I'm so behind on everything it seems. 

Or at least not finding the time to do everything  that I want to. 

Like post on my blog.

I think my new calling sucks all the creativity I have.

I've always been afraid of this calling.

That "Primary Chorister" calling.

But as it turns out, I haven't died.

Who knew?

The kids haven't thrown rotten tomatoes at me or requested that I please stop singing.

Hooray!

But still, my normal blogging time is being spent searching the right hemisphere of my brain
(and the internet)
for ways to frighten teach the kids.

And when I am not traumatizing other people's kids,

my own are traumatizing me.

Potty training.

Ugh.

Isn't there a summer camp for that?
I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one who would happily write the check for that one.  (Sarah?)

This boy definitely has not made it easy on me.

Just look at that face,

taunting me...

He is almost there though.

Which is a really good thing, because I am was getting desperate.

And a desperate mother is capable of doing absurd things.

Like paying her 7 year old to try and potty train the baby over Christmas vacation because she was just sure that at the rate we were going, the baby would be potty trained before the 3 year old.

10 bucks, she would have made.
And I would have paid more.
Much more.
Wouldn't that have been beautiful?
Too bad it didn't work...
Maybe summer vacation??!!
Brooklyn will have all kinds of time to be tethered to the toilet,
read stories, serve up juice, and just generally rot away in the bathroom.
That should free me up for all kinds of projects.  :)

Holiday Lessons: Part 1

Well, hello there.  I've almost recovered from a wild and fun holiday season. 

Every Christmas season that passes, this mother-of-four gleans a few valuable lessons.  I would like to chronicle these lessons in hope that I may keep you from learning a few things the hard way and/or make you feel better that you aren't the only one....  (I am not the only one....right?)

Ahem.

Sugar Cookies.

Delightful little piles of not-good-for-you but Oh so good stuff. 

Lots of frosting topped with Red Hots is my favorite.

Just in case you wanted to bring me some next year.

Here's how this activity went down at our house.

The Mother (that's me) ran out of time (surprise) and had to cheat and just buy the Pillsbury sugar cookie dough.  

And do you know what?

I'm glad I did.

Because most of these little people lasted only 10 minutes.

So there. 

The eldest child was a champion froster.  She did plenty of finger licking, but she was in it for the long haul which I appreciated because I had no need to frost 4 dozen cookies alone.

Jack could not keep that knife off of his tongue. 

I told him before and plenty times during this process NOT to LICK the KNIFE. 

But really, can you blame him?

It is quite tempting.

Bradley would ONLY use the yellow frosting. 

And for him, just a dab will do. 

He was also awarded the prize for the most consecutive dips in the frosting

with the top of the sprinkles container.

Hold it a little higher there, buddy.

I've just got two words for Aubrey.

HAIR. NET.

Forget the bib, this child needs something to contain that mane.

She did a fine job consuming all that we would allow,

and definitely should not have been standing up in her high chair.

As for the Father - he kept making that furrowed brow/disgusted face.

He was watching those kids and cookies very closely.

As if to memorize who frosted which cookie.

I guess he doesn't like kiddie germs/slobber on his cookies.

As a final piece of advice:
(you'll want to pay attention here)
Be careful where you decide to store your newly frosted cookies.

The oven sounded like a good idea.
Until I preheated it for something else.
At least Bradley didn't find them though!

Greetings from Visalia

Whew - what a month.

Basically, moving is e.x.h.a.u.s.t.i.n.g!

And sometimes (in retrospect) funny.

I mean, I suppose now that it is over,

having baby cockroaches crawl out of my oven when I turned it on was pretty hilarious.

Oh wait, no it actually wasn't.

Pretty much, it was just gross and creepy.

I was going to put a picture on here to give the full effect,

but they all made me squirm,

so you'll just have to imagine those little antennas...

BUT, the bank did have to buy me a new one because of it, so all is well.

And I am certainly not bitter. 

(Even though we only had a microwave to cook with for a month....but I'm not bitter, remember?)

Besides that, I'm spending lots of time painting the house.

Which it seems I shouldn't do.

Why?

Oy.

That would be my laundry room floor.

And in all honesty, I can't even blame that on anyone but myself - and maybe my ladder.

But for the record, cleaning paint out from under a washer and dryer

 is about as much fun as jabbing a pencil in your eye. 

What is fun though, is turning yourself into a human paintbrush.

Really, what are the chances that he could be running, trip,

 and just happen to fall right into my 5 gallon bucket of paint?

For the love, child.

Really though, I think I might blow this one up because it seriously makes me laugh.

This picture really is worth a thousand words. 

Or at least makes you wonder a few things.

Like why do neither of these boys have pants on?!

I'm still wondering about that one...

And where is their mother?

I was painting, of course -

and taking pictures of my paint-up-to-his-shoulder-pants-less-boy.

And his very guilty looking brother...

All Dave said when he saw both of these pictures is,

"I told you not to paint when the kids are around."

He may have a point.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Guys -  I haven't died.

But I feel like it some days.

Things have certainly been wild lately, but I've missed all my blogee's.

Is that what you would call your blogging buddies?

And to think, all you've had to remember me by is a very blurry picture at the top of my blog.

I promise I'll fix that someday.

Because seriously, it's bugging me.

Which means it's probably bugging you too.

Here's a quick recap.

The Good

We finally found a house to buy.

It was a very long and gruelling (and frustrating!) process.

I think I was about to just sit in a corner somewhere with a bag of Cheetos or something.

But I didn't.

I chose Reese's Pieces instead.

But now that it's all over (almost) I am super excited.

We've been working and saving for a long time for this.

Just ask Brooklyn, we've been wiping with spinach leaves for months.

Uh, was that too much information?

The Bad

I found mouse poop under my bed.

Gross.

I've been obsessive about finding that little varmint.

Dave tells me not to worry about it, that the little guy has probably moved out.

But I'm just sure that he sits and stares at me at night.

Laughing his evil little mouse laugh.

The Ugly

Moving a family of 6 plus a year supply of food takes alot of work and alot of boxes.

Good grief.

When did we get so much stuff?

The poor Elder's Quorum.

They are seriously going to wonder why they are moving 3 zillion boxes marked

"Food Storage."

But it's good because since we just spent our savings on a down payment,

we'll be spending some time knawing on wheat and rice.

And because no post is complete without a picture,

here are my dirty kids tormenting our pig dog.

Next post will be brought to you from the happy land of Visalia.

Disclaimer:  We have not been wiping with spinach leaves (Leslie?!) ...because we've got our year supply of TP...which we will have to move.