Our Family: Week of 4/21-4/27

On Monday we all s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e-d getting up.

Leaving behind our fun week of sleeping in, no schedules, and fun that spring break was.

And went back to school.

That evening for FHE we dyed our eggs and ate some bunny cake.

It was fun.

And my kids are now thrilled, because they have hard boiled eggs to eat!

They all LOVE those things... I should be a good Mom and make them more often.

***

On Tuesday we went to basketball practice, put the finishing touches on Grace's school project, went to Scouts, and picked up a sleepy Mike from work, who works way too hard for our family.

We really appreciate that guy.

***

On Wednesday Josh, Sam, and I stayed at school with the kids during morning assembly, because Grace had a project presentation on Taylor Swift first thing, and we wanted to see her present.

She made a Taylor Swift scrapbook.

We were able to see the kids at morning assembly.

That is the entire school... I love it!

She did a great job!  For this project, they had to choose a famous person, do a memorized oral presentation, and make a visual aid.  She struggled with the memorization, but she did great!

Mike ended up having to stay later that afternoon than planned, so we stopped by Sonic for happy hour drinks, while we waited for him.

Water for me (Sonic ice water is the best, right?) and slushies for the kids.

***

On Thursday we had Activity Days and my cute girls tied the quilt together that we had pieced and sewn previously.

Mike was home, and took the boys, so it worked MUCH better.

They did a great job, and are so excited to donate it to our ward's youth camp auction.

***

On Friday, a cat adopted us.

Three people in our family are thrilled about it.

It's a beautiful orange and white cat that has set up shop in our front yard, and runs in (to the kids' delight) each time the front door is open.

They named him Tiger.

They sneak him out a steady stream of bologna.

They love and hold and pet on him every chance they get.

In spite of my threats to cancel Christmas if they touch that thing.

So, in short, he's never going to leave.

(I may be a terrible mom and start posting some "found" posters around the neighborhood, hoping its owners claim it.)

***

On Saturday, the YM/YW camp fundraiser finally was here!

Each year, our ward has a dinner and silent auction, with items donated, to raise funds for the youth to go to camp.

Mike is the YM President right now, so he has been hard at work getting it together.

We enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner.

Sam slept.

And Josh bounced excitedly, waiting for the pinata!

The youth made a pinata and charged each kid $1 for 3 hits.

They made it so sturdy that it got through 25+ kids and teenagers, before the stick broke, and they ended up tearing the pinata up by hand.

It was awesome!

The kids worked really hard to earn some money to bid at the auction... and they made out like bandits.

Adam got a TV set... his first piece of furniture for his future dorm room.

Grace got a Kindle and a new quilt

Well, we bought the quilt... she still uses her baby blanket quilt that is way too small for her.  And the quilt I've been promising to make her for years, wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

Josh got a Tigger.

And Mike got a good night's sleep, after all of the months of planning/prep/setting up/cleaning up were finally over.

Our Family: Week of 4/14-4/20

Monday began our "official" start to spring break.

Adam, though, had Cub Scout Day Camp bright and early... no sleeping in for him!

It was a "jungle" theme this year, and he got to see animals, make a catapult, cook over a campfire, check out a firetruck, make a marshmallow gun, shoot B.B guns and archery.

He came home happy and tired after 7 hours of fun.

While he was off, I had my very first visit with a lactation consultant.

We've been having a hard time with the nursing lately, and I can tell my milk supply is decreasing, and I wanted to find out why.  I really want to nurse without supplementing all through Sam's first year, and we figured with how expensive formula is, that paying a lactation consultant for a visit or two was less than even one month of formula.

So, I went.

Turns out Sam has a pretty bad tongue tie and lip tie, and it's making latching on properly impossible.  Thus, slowly killing the milk.

So, he's all set to get that lasered later this month at the dentist, and I'm hoping that cures the problem.

That evening was the eclipse ("blood moon").  The original plan was for the kiddos to go to sleep, and I would get them up at 11:00 to see it.  They were all too insanely excited, though, so they stayed up with me (while Mike slept).  At 10:30 I realized we were too close to being out of diapers, so we all made a late night run to the store.

The moon was gorgeous... totally worth the wait.

And the crazy kids.

***

On Tuesday, Adam had his second day (and final day ever) of day camp.  He cooked, played tug of war, climbed a huge rock wall, leatherwork, and did some science stuff.

He had a blast.

While he was at camp, the rest of us got some things done around the house, and spent some time outside, enjoying the last of the gorgeous weather.

And, true to form, my sweet kiddos picked me some flowers.

I've mentioned it before, but my kiddos always bring me flowers, whenever they see them because they know how much I adore them.  Last week, Adam even fought some bees off of a prickly pear cactus to pick me a flower.  They are soooo sweet!

We picked up Adam from camp at 3:00 and then headed over to hike Red Rock Canyon.

We LOVE Red Rock!  It's gorgeous, and the weather was awesome.  In the past, we've paid the entrance fee and gone on the hikes inside; however, we were recently told that if you turn in on the turn right before the official Red Rock, there is an area set up with trails, picnic tables, etc. that is free.

We tried it out, and had a great time!

Like our "hike"?

(I'm carrying an 18-pound baby in a cotton carrier, so we took it easy.  But, there are harder trails we will have to get to when we can scrounge up a hiking backpack for Sammy).

;)

***

On Wednesday, after over a year of not having a single illness (huge blessing) I woke up with a fever and sore throat.

Mike took the kids to the mall to play (and get a See's sucker), while I stayed at home with Sam and let my fever run.

(My theory is we get fevers for a reason).

That afternoon my fever broke, and I felt perfect!

So, we ventured over to the "Dinosaur House," since it had been awhile.

Afterward, we found a fun park in Henderson we had never been to, and played there until the sun went down.

***

On Thursday, Mike headed back to work.

We hung out until Mike got off at 4:00.

He came and picked us up, and we headed over to Container Park.

And it is absolutely the coolest place.

It is an open park in the middle, with a very cool kids area (including a gigantic tree house with slide).  There is a fun electronic playground and lots of foam blocks to play with.  In the back, there is a grassy area with live music on a stage.

It was the first place in Vegas that I've been to that felt like it totally belonged to the locals.  Which doesn't make a ton of sense, since it is right by the strip.

But, it does.

I loved that kids were running around doing cartwheels on the grass, with no one telling them to stop.

I loved that they brought a ton of drums and instruments out onto the street in front, for the kids to form an impromptu band with.

I loved how friendly everyone was to each other.

We all just loved it.

So much, that first thing the next morning the kids begged to go again.

We will have to very soon!

When we got home, we all worked together to make dinner.

I love when that happens and we get to do that.

***

On Friday, I edited my talk, and called it good.

And began our Easter outfits.

I was so stinkin' proud of myself!  We have a tight budget right now, paying for expensive baby #4.  But, I got us all outfitted (2 dresses, a cardigan, 4 ties, a white shirt, and gray shirt) for under $20 with some sewing, re-purposing, and thrift shopping.

It helps when you know a guy (who also happens to have a discount) at the thrift store.

;)

They turned out really cute, and I had a blast making them.

***

On Saturday we played in the yard, cleaned the house, did some last-minute homework, and got all clean and shiny for Sunday.

***

On Sunday we got to church (on time... wahoo!).  I gave my talk, taught my lesson, Mike taught his lesson, the kids had fun in Primary, and we came home for some pictures.

I was just a 19-year-old girl getting married... how the heck did I get 4 kiddos?

Crazy.

Ideally, I like to celebrate "Bunny Day" on Saturday, and keep Easter Sunday all about the Savior.  But, Mike couldn't get Saturday off (or go in late), so we settled to do our Easter egg hunt and baskets after church.

See all those Peeps?

That's what happens when Mom and Dad don't communicate and both buy Peeps.

We are going to have Peeps around here for-e-ver.

As per our tradition, each kid got their swimsuit for the year and some treats in their basket.  We normally do a kite for them to share, too, but they had just received some from Nate and Jess, so we got them some washable paint instead.

They all have been begging to paint lately.

Sam had already been gifted a swimsuit from a friend (and he can't eat treats or paint), so he got a few toys instead.

They then hunted for eggs around the house.

And we made a homemade carrot cake bunny together, along with dinner (this pork, asparagus, potatoes, salad).

Everyone was kind of sugared out, so we ended up eating our bunny the next day after FHE and egg dying.

We had such a fun spring break week!

I am sad to see it go, but excited because it's almost summer and that I get these guys home for 3 whole months then!