Easter Weekend 2011

So this is not a great picture. But it's the only one I have of the kids with their baskets. We set out our Easter baskets on Friday night for the Easter Bunny to fill. That way we can have lots of fun and sugar on Saturday and have Sunday be a little calmer and more spiritual. The kids all got new water guns for the pool this summer.Zach left this note in his basket on Friday night...
"Please don't give me jellybeans! They make me feel sickish."
Love that kid.

Landon got a teething book that is noisy when you squish it. It sounds like his favorite package of baby wipes that he loves to chew on, so this is a much better alternative.

Saturday morning we were all feeling a little better overall. We still have some runny noses and scratchy throats, but we're better than during the week. I loaded up the four older kids to go to the city Easter egg hunt. We were all going to go, but Landon was really tired and teething. So Dallin stayed home to give him a nap. I was so glad he did because it was crazy! There were hundreds and hundreds of people there. It took almost 20 minutes to park in a field. Savannah's age group went first. Basically they let the kids in by age group and have them line up around the edge of the fence they've made. Then they say "GO" and the kids make a made dash to the middle and pick up their loot. Most of it was just candy on the ground, not in actual eggs.

Savannah is on the left...

Connor got to have an adult go with him for his age group. I stayed outside the fence with Savannah and her friend while this family friend took Connor in with his friend.

Then we had some fun climbing while we waited for Jacob & Zach to have their hunt.

Savannah and Connor had fun and got lots of candy. But by the time they let the older kids in they had run out of most of the candy and their was hundreds of kids. So they only got a few pieces each. They said they still had fun though. I don't think we'll be going back next year. I think they would like it better if I just filled some eggs and hid them really good outside like we usually do.

In the afternoon we dyed eggs. We used the kind that you squish around in a bag. Landon wanted to eat the bag.

Zach requested weeks ago that we make this recipe that he found. They're called "Bunny Buns." We made them in the evening to have on Sunday morning. We also had the missionaries over for dinner.

Here are the kids on Sunday morning...

It was a fun weekend. This is how I found Connor after dinner. Easter wore him out.

Landon started to get more sick after church. He's got a hoarse voice and nasty stuff coming out of his nose. Poor kid coughed and sneezed all night long. Hopefully this virus will decide to leave our house pretty soon.

9 months old

Can you believe it?

Landon loves baby food, but doesn't really like anything he has to chew. It's too much work to chew I guess. He does like ritz crackers though.

Landon loves to get into mischief now whenever he can. I bought clamps to hold on the tablecloth. He got taller and figured out how to pull them off after just a couple of weeks. His other favorite thing is to explore the kids' bedrooms (in his walker) if they forget and leave the door open. They're learning quick to close it.

Playing with the light on the wall coming in through the cracks in the blinds...

Landon is getting up on all fours all the time now, but still doesn't go anywhere. I am perfectly happy with that. If you stand him up he can sometimes balance in the middle of the room for 10-20 seconds at a time. He's started babbling more consistently (dadadadada, mamamama, etc.), but his most common "talking" is something that sounds like "hey." He waves occasionally if he feels like it, usually only to the kids as they're going to bed. We love this little man!

The Last Man Standing...Falls

As of yesterday Zach was the only one in our family who hadn't caught this nasty viral infection we've been sharing. He was so proud of himself for being the only one who didn't get sick.

Then last night his throat started to hurt before bed. And he woke me at 2:30am with a fever. Jacob is the only kid at school today.

As long as I'm posting about Zach, here are some pictures of him recently. He and I went alone to his soccer game on Saturday since Jacob was sick. He played defense and really liked it. He had a few really good kicks.

Zach has started a coin collection of state quarters. The kid has always been really interested in money, so it was only a matter of time I guess. Here he is trying to trade money with Savannah for coins that he thinks are cool.

When Zach gets on a kick about something there is no stopping him. Yesterday he decided to make his own book with interesting facts about sea creatures. He started it at school and finished it at home. He basically copied the information from a couple of library books and then drew the pictures to go with it. The funny thing was that he complained about doing 3 minutes of homework, but then as soon as it was done he shut himself up in the computer room and wrote a book for the ENTIRE afternoon.

Property Taxes

I found this in the family room on the floor. I was wondering how Savannah knew what taxes were. So I asked her what she drew.

"That's our street and our house in Texas."

One of those days...

Friday:
3:15pm - All kids come home from school happy and healthy
4:00pm - Jacob suddenly has a fever of 101.6
5:45pm - Take Zach to soccer practice; Savannah comes and whines the whole time
7:30pm - Zach has an emotional meltdown
10:00pm - Savannah comes out crying with a sore throat
10:40pm - Landon has a bad night terror for 3 or 4 minutes; finally wakes up and is calm as can be
1:30am - Connor is sobbing in the bathroom; Dallin gets there just in time to help him throw up in the toilet; he has a temperature of 102.4; I make him a bed on the guest room floor and sleep next to him for the night while he coughs until 4:00am
7:00am - All kids wake up happy and fever free - ???!!!???

Saturday update - Connor's fever went back up, but no more throw ups. I'll take it.

Monday update - Jacob is better, but Savannah and Connor are still sick. Guess it's turning into "one of those weeks."

Monday night - Landon has a fever now. And my head is all stuffed up. So glad I don't have anything scheduled this week that can't be rearranged. I did take Savannah to the doctor this afternoon and it's not strep. I'm thankful it's just a virus. We'll take it easy and watch movies this week.

Tuesday - Sick kids were all up in the night at different times. Dallin and I both have it good now. Dallin stayed home from work. The little kids all took naps voluntarily...Connor and Landon took two each and Savannah slept for 2 hours. The school nurse called this morning and I had to go give Zach his allergy medicine so his asthma didn't act up. Luckily Dallin was here so I didn't have to take 3 sick kids with me. I'll count that as a blessing. Still just very happy it's not strep. Being sick definitely forces you to slow down and take it easy at least! I'm happy about that too. Savannah & Connor's fevers are pretty much gone now.

Wednesday - We're all feeling much better overall. Dallin went back to work. Savannah woke up happy and perky and begged to go to school, so I let her. And the nurse called within an hour for me to come and get her. She and Connor still have really nasty sore throats, so she'll be home tomorrow too. Savannah & Connor played "Go Diego Go" all morning and it was so cute to listen to them. Savannah would hide her lost pet and Connor would have to go and "rescue" it. Love my kids!

Easter Egg Hunt

Today for playgroup we went to an Easter Egg Hunt with most of Connor's friends. It was in one of his friend's backyard. He had a great time hunting for his 10 eggs and then jumping on the trampoline. Thanks to those who planned this fun playgroup!

Counting his eggs...

This house has a creek right behind it. The whole yard is covered by trees, so it was shady with perfect weather. We loved being outdoors today.

Landon loved watching over the eggs while Connor was on the trampoline. He tried to eat the eggs first.

But then decided that he liked the basket better.

I love this picture of his kissable cheeks and squishy hands.

Connor made this gelatin bird feeder at a friend's house the other day. It is perfect for hanging in a tree. I'm going to make more with my kids. Here's the link if you want the recipe...
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/tweet-treats-671034/

This is what they used instead of a bundt pan. It's just a little miniature pie pan with a dixie cup. They poured in the bird seed around it and stuck it in the fridge.

Principal's Office

Savannah came home really excited from school the other day and said "I got to go to the principal's office!!!" Normally this is not something to be excited about. But apparently she did a really good job on her first book report. She did this all at school on her own. I never even knew she was doing one. She got selected from her class to go and read her book report to the principal, who gave her a coupon for a free meal at Jason's Deli. That's the kind of visit to the principal's office I like to hear about!The same day Zach had also turned in 40 blue tickets to the front office. They get these tickets when they are caught being good, by any teacher. He's been saving them up for a while now and put them all in at the same time. His name was one of the names chosen and he got to go to the front office and pick out two new SillyBandz. Good job Zach & Savannah!

Family Camping

On Friday we went camping as a family for the first time in 2 years. The kids were SO excited to go! I think I spent almost as much time preparing for the trip and unpacking as we did actually being there, but it was very worth it.

We went to McKinney Falls, which is a state park just a few minutes from the airport near downtown Austin. I love that there is camping within 10 minutes of downtown. It took us about 45 minutes to get there from our house. We didn't get there until about 6:00pm. Dallin and the boys set up the tents while I unloaded other stuff and made dinner. The main bummer for the kids was that there was a fire ban. So we could only have a propane cooking stove. I have to say though that I was a little glad we couldn't have a fire. It was humid and in the 90's, so we were plenty warm. We had hot dogs and hamburgers.Happy Camper!

A classic Zach scowl. Dallin took this picture, so I'm not even sure what he was mad about.

After dinner the kids played around with all the flashlights. Savannah was impatient waiting for her turn with the head light that we have, so she improvised. She stuck this flashlight in her headband.

Landon did great at night. We laid him down around 7:30 or 8:00 and he talked to himself for half an hour and fell asleep. He slept through all the noise and everything for the whole night. Connor was having so much fun and was wired. He kept Savannah awake until we came to bed around 10:30pm. Then we had some lovely neighbors (college type guys and girls) who were very, very loud. Once they finally quieted down after midnight or so a car pulled up in the spot next to us. Some people pulled out the brightest lamp ever and set up there whole camp until about 1:00am. Seriously. The light actually woke Landon up for a minute, but he fell right back to sleep. Needless to say, I got about 2 hours of sleep...but oh well.

We can't all fit very well in our big tent anymore, so the boys got the little tent all to themselves. They had a fun time chatting until late also.

I'm so glad we had the playpen to keep this little guy out of the bugs.

This is where Connor & Savanah spent the majority of their time...in the dirt. Here they are making a nest or something for the rolie polies.

After we packed everything up in the morning we headed over to the creek to do some fishing. Dallin helped Connor & Savannah fish for a few minutes and then took the big boys to a fishing hole farther away where I couldn't take the stroller. It worked out great.

This spot made me really nervous with Connor, since it dropped down like 10 or 15 feet to the water.

There were a lot of people fishing that day because they were having some kind of kid fishing program that morning. I don't think it's normally that crowded.

The little kids and I went back to the car to have some lunch. Landon was NOT a happy camper. He did NOT want to take a nap. Period. I finally strapped him to me in the baby carrier and we walked to a little museum nearby. He finally fell asleep after about 45 minutes of me carrying him.

I got a blanket out of the car and we walked until we found this nice shady spot on some soft grass. He took a good 30 minute nap until Dallin came and found us.

Then we headed home and got back about 1:30 or so. Dallin commented as we were unloading "Boy we brought a lot of stuff." It definitely does take a lot of stuff for 6 people and a baby. But it was a fun time overall and I'm excited that we'll probably get to do more camping as Landon gets older.

Camping from the kids' perspective

The kids were begging to take pictures while we were camping. There were just so many important bugs that HAD to be documented. So I gave them the camera and turned them loose. These are the pictures that weren't so blurry as to give you a headache when you looked at them.

A caterpillar on our water spigot.A grasshopper (in the very middle...kinda dark)

A cricket...again in the middle. At least Zach can center the pictures pretty well.

Zach was not loving the bugs so much.