Easter Sunday

What a wonderful, chill Easter we had this year!

The Easter Bunny found us & brought Marlee what she wanted.......a whole basket full of Cadbury Creme eggs.
Gross, I know.

And I love it when Easter falls on General Conference Sunday, or "church-on-TV" as the kids call it.

I quickly noticed a theme this Conference.
The primary role of parents as teachers of the gospel to our children.
I felt they were all talking specifically to me.
I fall way short in this & I felt very inspired.
But the inspiration faded so fast & the busyness of everyday life just shoved it out of the way.
Must. Stay. Inspired.
But right now I blame everything on the fact that I look like this!

A big slug is what I am.

After General Conference we had a fabulous dinner,

then on to the Easter egg hunt!




I don't normally condone "potty-talk" in our home, but I let this slide.
Every year we have a Poo egg. One that spent too much time in every color of dye to end up a nice brownish color.
There's alot of excitement when someone finds the Poo egg.
Weird, I know. But I have 4 boys so this kind of stuff happens.

Happily checking out the goods.

Then.......

the first egg was thrown..........

..........which quickly escalated..........

...........to this!

HAPPY EASTER !!!

And I had to include this picture because he looks just so dang hot!

Cute cousin Blake.

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday, with my beautiful family of seven......soon to be eight!

Only a few more weeks to go!

coloring easter eggs

it's one of our favorite things to do

we all kind of get into it

but we never end up eating them

i'm always afraid they've been unrefrigerated too long

the neighborhood egg hunt

Our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt is shrinking a little each year as all the kids grow up.
I don't like it. I don't like it at all.
So I'm doing my best to keep our neighborhood young by having this baby.
No one else is willing to help me. Chickens.
This poor baby will be the only one born this year in our area.
I'll have lots of babysitters to choose from, though.

LOVING Gus's face in this pic. WOO HOO!!!

family party at the park

It was a springy sunshiney day and perfect for a party at the park.

So we rode the paddleboats around the little lake & hung out with grandma & grandpa & aunts & uncles & cousins......

.......like Collette & Blake.

It was cousin Jolie's birthday. I love the look on her face in this picture!

Good times!

Finally!

Zane finally decided he wanted to learn how to ride a bike.
He's 7 1/2 and it's about time.

It's not that he wasn't coordinated enough earlier, he just did not want to.

A couple years ago when all his buddies were learning to ride bikes we asked him when he wanted to learn, and his reply was, "but why would I want to ride a bike when cars are much faster?"

A totally typical Zane comment.

We laughed our heads off.

Later he declared he was going to be "a skateboarder guy & a scooter guy, but not a bike guy".

He's so very proud of himself.

And so are we.

We had a long day.........

Zane just couldn't quite make it up to bed tonight.

We found him like this. Fast asleep.

I don't blame him.

It was a really long day.

Our Spring Break Staycation

Brian was going to take the three oldest kids up to Utah to ski for Spring Break this year.

Since I wasn't exactly up for a road trip.

But they decided to stay here last minute & enjoy our awesome spring weather instead.



So here's some of the things we did.........

Juiced lots of oranges. And tangelos. And tangerines.

Dad's the official family orange-juicer.
And Gus is his official juicer helper.



We planted some garden pots.


What would we do without Gus around to help?!

We went swimming.

Mostly in the heated-up jacuzzi, or 'little round pool' as Gus calls it..........

..........with cousins.......

............like Bronson,

and Jolie......who totally rocked the camera.

We ate popsicles with friends in treehouses.

And just did alot of hanging out...........amongst the orange blossoms.

We also went bowling, and played several games of Risk & Settlers, and went to Taco Bell, and took Max to the dentist to get 2 rotten teeth pulled (really embarrassing when Dad's in the dental profession), and grilled shish-ka-bobs, and went to the movies, and ate wings, and went on bike rides, and got Nielsen's frozen custard, and cleaned out some drawers & closets, and hit a Suns game, and drank alot of Dad's fresh-squeezed OJ which he likes to call 'liquid gold'.

The week was a little louder, a little more chaotic than I had planned on.......but alot of fun.

Saturday night at the Drive-ins

So this picture is not great, to say the least, 6400 ISO couldn't cut it with no flash, but I wanted something to help me remember this super-fun night. I tend to think that if something isn't documented with photos, I won't remember it later & all the sweet moments of my life will be gone forever from my swiss-cheese memory.

For several years now we've said, "we really need to take the kids to a drive-in movie one of these nights!"
And we just haven't gotten around to it.
Til last Saturday night.
And we can't wait to go again.
Brian & I hadn't been to the Drive-ins since we were kids & our kids had never been. Some of them didn't even know what we were talking about!
But the weather could not have been more perfect, & a double feature of Diary of a Wimpy Kid & The Lightning Thief were playing, so we packed up the Suburban with pillows & blankets & camp chairs, picked up some 5Guys to go & headed out.

It was so, so fun!
And I was surprised at how good the picture & sound was.

Zane & Gus passed out during the second movie, as seen in the picture, but before that, during the first movie, I was sitting up in the back of the Suburban with these two littlest of mine on either side of me, both resting their heads on my big pregnant belly, happily watching the movie & covered in blankets, and I had one of those moments when you think to yourself, " OK, I want to remember this little moment right here, forever", and you click a secret picture in your head & hope it burns into your memory. (that was a super long run-on sentence)

We're totally going again before it gets too hot.
We better hurry!

Double-digit Max

Ten days ago, Max tells me, "Mom, I'm turning 10 in 10 days in 2010."

He's my millenium baby.

He's also proof that an extremely hyperactive small child can grow up to be perfectly normal.

And he's much more than normal.

He's a really fast runner, awesome climber (as I've said before), excellent student, and when he's given a task to do, I can always count on him to get it done & done right!

And he can be such a tender-hearted sweetheart with his brothers when he wants to be.

Max is the creative one in our family & has serious artistic skills. He says he wants to be an artist when he grows up.

I would like it if he never grew up & stayed just like this!

Happy Birthday Max! We love you!!

frustrated......

I'm huge and uncomfortable and anemic and too old to be doing this and I don't think the veins in my legs will ever be the same.....among other things.



I'm really trying to LiveStrong and everything, and I know I need to somehow enjoy this & embrace the miracle of this beautiful time in my life........blah, blah, blah, especially since this is my last one & all......



But really? Stop & smell the roses when your ankles are as big as your calves???



The truth is, I am so, so, so excited for this baby girl, but this has been a rather tough pregnancy. I've never been so tired & useless in my 3rd trimester like this.



And it's freaking me out! But not in a hyper way. In a slo-mo kind of way.



I had big plans for home organization & decor updating & photo projects.......... & decorating her nursery! Still not done!



But instead I'm watching the last few weeks of semi-productivity slip through my fingers as I nap on the couch!



Because I've had enough babies to remember how it's after you have the baby that you really get absolutely nothing done.



I've always associated productivity with happiness & satisfaction, so this is hard for me. My best days are when I've knocked a bunch of things off my to-do list.



I need to somehow make peace with non-productivity. Embrace it. Find joy in unfinished projects. Smile at piles of stinky laundry and walk on by. Hmmmmm.......



I wonder if you can feed a baby & work on the computer at the same time?..........







And since I can't post without a picture, here's a random one.
Max sitting for me while I do lighting test-shots, finishing up his daily after-school-bowl-of-icecream.
Classic.