Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!!  I am exhausted after a very full, crazy, and yet wonderful all at the same time kind of a week!  I have lots and lots of things to post coming up this week, but wanted to share a few pictures of our cute Easter outfits with you tonight!  We had a great day.  It was raining this morning, but sunny this afternoon for our egg hunt!  It was finally warmer - about 60 - and I was thankful for that!  I had all the kids match.  I am sure that they won't go for it that much longer, but it is fun while I can do it!!  :)

 Somehow, it was hardest to get a picture of Weston looking natural of all the kids.  How can that be?  I'm not sure, but he sure is getting to be a handsome young man!  Only one more month till I have a teenager!!!!

 Our handsome Brian!  He busted his mouth open today on our egg hunt trying to get an egg that was up high on the outside window ledge in back that I had hid there for Weston.  He tried to jump to get it and his mouth hit right into the water spicket on the back of the house!!  Ouch!!  He is feeling better tonight though!

 My happy, silly Aaron.  His front two teeth are soooo wiggly!  I keep wanting to pull them out, but he keeps telling me that he wants to wait because it will hurt!!  I can't wait for some snaggle tooth pictures!

 Our little Miss Mambers!  I curled her hair this morning with a curling iron to make it look beautiful!  Then we put lots of hair spray on it.  ("Just like Grandma Whitley," she said!) She wanted to know if it would still be curly tomorrow.  I told her she would be lucky if it was still curly after church!!  :)  The picture that I took of her before church in her full dress came out blurry, so I took another one right after we got home.  That one is below.  You can see that most of her curls have already fallen out!

 This was a cute little dress.  The bad thing is that they always seem to make Easter dresses that are sleeveless these days.  And while I don't have any hang ups with letting Amber wear a sleeveless dress at this age, there was no way she would want to wear a sleeveless dress when it was chilly outside.  It is back to the 40's for us again tomorrow!

And my sweet little Evan from heaven!!  What a good, sweet, loving thing he is turning out to be.  We have been singing the song, "I love Mommy" in the car lately and then singing through everyone in the family's names.  The other day as I thought I was finished singing, he pipes up and says, "Mommy, who did you forget?"  I said, "I think we got everyone.  Who did I forget?"  His reply?  "Mommy, you forgot our baby sister!!!  You can't forget about her!!"  So sweet!

At this Easter time, I am thankful, not only for the sweet family that Heavenly Father has blessed me with, but most importantly, my savior, Jesus Christ.  I am thankful for His atonement on my behalf.  I am thankful that He has made it possible for me to return to live with Him and our Father in Heaven someday.  I am thankful for the knowledge that I have that Christ lives.  That he loves me.  And that He knows me and the things that I need!  I love Him and am grateful for Him!!  Happy Easter!

Decorating Easter Eggs

 Monday night after talking some about the real meaning of Easter, we set out to dye our Easter eggs.  Our week is insanely busy this week, and this was our only free night!  :)  The kids had a great time doing their eggs.  Here they are as we were about to get started!!  

 Evan really loved dying the eggs this year.  The funny thing was that he would drop the egg in the glass, and then use the little dipper thing to stir and stir and stir the egg in the dye.  I think that his fingers were just as colorful as his eggs by the time it was all done! 

 I used food coloring this year for the dye.  It seems like the last so many years that those tablets just were not working all that great.  I mixed colors too, so the kids had 8 colors to choose from.  Brian made lots of multi-colored eggs.

 Aaron was slow and meticulous about his eggs this year.  He took the longest of anyone.  He wanted to make sure his were just right!!

 Weston colored on all of his eggs before he dipped his.  He also wrote a "W" on each of the eggs that he did so that he would know which were his later on when we hunt!!  :)  Right now, there is rain in the forecast for Easter day (at least it isn't snow) so we may have to have our hunt indoors.

 Most of Amber's eggs were pink and purple this year.  Big shock, I know!!  :)  She didn't need any help on her eggs this year.  Every time I open the fridge, she wants me to pull out the eggs so that she can look at hers.  There are too many things in the fridge at present, so she will just have to wait until the egg hunt on Sunday to see her eggs again!

 The whole gang working on their eggs.  It was a fun family night!!  

It was nice and toasty inside, but this is what it looked like outside.  Spring hasn't arrived here yet.  Today we are having a "warm" day.  It is supposed to be 43.  In other news, Amber got to go up to the elementary school yesterday for Kindergarten registration!!  It was a lot of fun for her.  At one point, someone asked her if she was excited to be going to Kindergarten.  Her reply, "No.  I really like preschool!"  I know she will love it and be excited for it when August rolls around!!!  :)  She has had a great year in preschool this year!  I am glad for that.  Happy Easter week!

7 Months

Things have been slightly crazy at our house lately.  Every time I think we are all better, someone else gets sick.  That is okay though because that Tamiflu is some good stuff.  This week was Amber's turn to get sick.  Thankfully we saw a doctor this week that we see often and she prescribed tamiflu for Evan and Weston to take as well to keep them from getting it.  Momma wanted a new picture of what I am looking like these days, so I took one this morning.  I also snapped a few pictures of the kiddos playing before we left for school this morning. 

Brian was my photographer this morning!  :)  He is getting so big!!  He is glad to have his Thursdays free again.  He is really enjoying 4th grade this year.  It is hard to believe that we just have less than 2 months of school left!  I know it will fly by!

Evan is busy, always busy!  He got some train tracks out and everyone has had fun playing them upstairs the last few days.  He loves trains and blocks.  I could hardly get him to look up for the picture.  He has actually been my best medicine taker thus far!  I was worried because he is such a picky eater and the other kids said that the medicine tastes horrible, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with it, so I just go with the flow!!  :)

Mambers actually got to feeling better the fastest of any of the kids with the flu.  But, her tubes in her ears are working their way out, so she has developed an ear infection.  Poor thing.  She has been miserable the last 2 nights.  They called in an antibiotic for her yesterday, but if she has another bad night tonight, I will take her in tomorrow.  She woke up every 40 minutes crying all night long!  She feels better when she is up.  Probably because there is less fluid on her ears when she is sitting up.

And here you go.  I have just over 2 months to go.  I also included a picture down below of me at the same stage with Amber for a comparison.  In other news, it is snowing again today.  Spring will get here sometime soon I hope!!  Also, our kitchen sink got all clogged and backed up the same day that Amber got the flu.  We had someone out to fix it the next day.  Things have been fairly busy over here.  Today I plan on just taking it easy!!  Thankfully, for today at least, things seem to be a-okay!!  :)

Band Piece

I made a post below about Weston's Select band concert today. Here is a video (mostly for the grandparents) of the first piece that they played at the concert!! :) I know that it isn't the most steady recording and I apologise for that in advance! :) Enjoy the music! I know I did. And scroll down for my other post from today!!

Kentucky Middle School Select Band Concert

 Starting on Thursday evening, Weston had his clinic for the Kentucky Middle School Select Band that he made a few months back.  It was held on a college campus nearby.  They practiced Thursday evening, all day Friday and then again this morning before performing at 1:30 this afternoon.  It was SUCH a good concert!!  I really enjoyed it!  I am in the process of trying to upload some of the music since they said that we were allowed to record it after all. :)

 Weston was the only boy french horn and also the only 7th grade french horn.  He was 6th chair out of 8.  I'm so thankful that I got my new camera for Christmas.  It has a great zoom on it so I was able to get some good and close up pictures from far away out in the audience.  We got a perfect spot to see him.  He kept smiling at us during the warm ups.  :)

It really was such an excellent concert.  Better than some high school bands that I have heard.  I was really impressed.  It was beautiful to listen to!  We had a bit of a wait before it started and Barth was concerned that Evan wouldn't sit still for the entire thing.  I told him that he didn't need to worry, and I was right.  Evan loves music and was mesmerized by the concert.  He sat so still and enjoyed it all!  On the last song, both he and Amber were dancing a little in their seats.

Weston has worked so hard this year to really improve on his french horn and to play well.  He enjoyed practicing for this concert.  :)  I am proud of him and his hard work.  He is getting to be quite the good little french horn player!!! 

News from our Zoo! :)

I don't have any new pictures for today, but thought that I could at least give you all an update on what we have been up to the last few days.  Aaron was all better and fever free on Sunday but we kept him home from church just in case.  That Tamiflu is some great stuff!!  I am thankful that we got it!  Sunday, Brian came home from church and asked me to turn on the heat (it was already on) because he was cold.  Yep, he came down with the flu too.  Monday we went to the doctor's office and we got some Tamiflu for him as well as some Zofran so that he would actually be able to keep the medicine down.  Those are miracle drugs I tell ya!  By yesterday he was feeling better in the afternoon.  He still had a little bit of a temp, but it is all gone today.  He will go back to school tomorrow.  It was very short as far as the flu goes!  I am waiting to see if anyone else will get it, or if we are all done.  I smell like clorox wipes all the time because I am busy washing and sanitizing everything around the clock.  And I wash my hands about a bazillion times a day.  But really, I do not want to catch the flu!  :)

When I went to my OB appointment last week, the doctor was concerned about where my placenta was placed and worried that I might have placenta accreta.  He was worried that the placenta, since it implanted on my previous c-section scars, could grow through my uterine wall and cause lots of trouble.  So, I had an MRI last Friday to check things out.  It was all normal, thank goodness!!!  No more worries in that department.  I also did my glucose check last week, which I failed.  That means that tomorrow I have to go in for the 3 hour fasting one.    I failed the short test with Evan too, but passed the long one just fine.  I am not too worried.  I also set the date for my c-section this week.  The baby will be born on May 28th.  The c-section time is 10am.  This will be the longest I have ever carried a baby.  She will be born just 3 days before my due date.  Because of some of the new laws passed in conjunction with Obamacare, the soonest you can have a planned c-section is one week before your due date.  But, my doctor is out of town Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for Memorial Day weekend.  That left me with Tuesday the 28th.  Not really what I wanted, but I am sure I will survive!!  :)  We don't have a name picked out yet, but we have narrowed it down to 4 names, which will probably change half a dozen times before she gets here in May!!!  Right now the front runners in the name department are: Kylie, Katelyn, Brooklyn, and Candace.  Who knows what we will actually name her?!?  :)  We still have lots of time to decide.

Tomorrow Weston starts his clinic for his select band that he was selected for a few months back.  The clinic will be Thursday evening, all day Friday (we don't have school on Friday), and Saturday morning.  The concert in early Saturday afternoon.  I will be sure to post some pictures, but video is not allowed at the concert since they will be taping it professionally!  I can't wait to hear the concert!

Besides that, things are just chugging along.  We are busy and happy.  It is still cold most of the time here.  We woke up to an inch of snow this morning on the ground.  No school delay though!  March is turning out to have more snow than February did!!  :)  Soon enough it will be April though and Spring will be here!  I can't wait for a little bit warmer weather.  I think that is it for us!  That is the news from our zoo!!!  :)

OM competition

We had a great day today at Brian's competition.  :)  They did a great job on their skit.  He didn't get to do the spontaneous this time.  It was a verbal problem and since there were 7 kids on the team and only 5 can do that part, he sat this one out.  He didn't mind though.  It was fun for me to spend time with just him.  I was able to tape his skit this time, but it was in a large auditorium and although it was easy enough for us to hear the kids, you can't really hear them on the video.  I tried to upload it, but it failed. I will have to try again later.  We went back this evening for the awards ceremony.  This time though, his team did not place in the top 3.  They gave medals for the top 3 and the top 2 teams continue on to the World OM competition.  After the awards ceremony was done, we headed over to the score sheet and saw that his team placed 5th overall.  Not bad.  Brian was a little disappointed that they didn't place (although it was good news to me since the competition was at the same time that I am going to be having the baby!) but we went and got a concrete mixer (or an ice cream with mix-ins) from Culvers to celebrate what a great time he had participating in Odyssey of the Mind!!  He really, really enjoyed everything about it!  He has already said that he wants to do it again next year.  :)  It's always good when our kiddos can find things to do that they love.

As a side not, today was a MUCH better day for Aaron!!!  The Tamiflu is really helping!  This afternoon after I got back with Brian, Aaron asked if he could go and play.  It was the first time since Wednesday that he has wanted to move off of the couch.  He continued to improve as the afternoon went on!  He wanted to eat today and everything!  I am thankful.  I will stay home from church with him tomorrow, but the way things are looking, he should be good to go back to school on Monday! I am so glad.  :)

Snow Boarding

 About a month ago, I saw some fun snowboards on clearance sale at Target for $5.  I thought that they would be fun for the boys, so I got 2 thinking that perhaps they could use them next year.  Well, this past Wednesday we had a pretty good snowfall and we got to try them out this year instead.  The kids were off of school, and Barth worked from home in the morning so that I could go to my OB appointment.  He and the boys shoveled the driveway for me and then Barth had me get the camera so that he could snap a few pictures of the boys snowboarding on the hill!!

 I came out to watch and got a few picture on my phone of the boys!  (You can see me on the porch.)  The boys had a grand time out there snow boarding.  Aaron had already come in.  He didn't stay out that long.  Probably because he had the flu and I wasn't aware of it yet, I just thought that he had a cold.  And Evan doesn't really like to go out in the snow.  I'm not really sure why, but he likes to stay in when it snows.  

 The boys started out on the small part of the hill but eventually worked their way up to the steeper part over by the front door.  Brian got the hang of it very fast!!  He loved it!!!!

 Brian is in the green coat and Weston is in the red and black coat.

 They had so much fun!  I am so very glad that I got the snow boards when I was at Target!  They are just beginner and plastic ones, but they boys really did love them and had a great time.

 Amber was actually out there with the boys too.  She watched them for a while and then went to climb the snow fort.  The boys love to build the snow forts when it snows.  They like to shovel the driveway up to the basketball goal and make their forts.

It was a fun day!  Thankfully the roads were relatively clear by the time I went to the doctor at 10:45.  I had to go so that I could do my one hour glucose test.  I failed it!  The cut off was 135 and my blood sugar was a 174.  I now have to go over to the hospital this week and have the long and boring 3 hour test done!  Yuck!  Hopefully we will be well soon so that I can get that done.  And I will also make sure that they get my blood type blood draw while I am there since it wasn't ordered with my initial blood work and the doctor's office has been bugging me to go and get it done!  :)  Tomorrow is the big OM state competition day!  Brian is excited!!  I am thankful that Barth will be home to take care of our Aaron since he is still quite sick!  I actually think that he was worse today than yesterday, but that may be because he was throwing up today as well.  He mostly rested and slept today.  I am hoping that he gets to feeling better soon!!!

Flu

It's official- we have THE FLU! Well, not all of us. At least not yet. Aaron started coughing and feeling bad yesterday. In the evening I was shocked to find his temp was 102! I took him in to the doctor this morning. The flu test came back positive. :( Thankfully we are still within the first 48 hours so he can have Tamiflu. Hopefully everyone else will stay well. I just hope and pray that Brian stays well until after his state Odyssey of Mind competition this Saturday!!! He would be soooo upset if he got sick and had to miss it! Here's hoping that the medicine will help Aaron to get over this quickly and that no one else catches it!!!

The Best Boys Ever

 Sunday on the way home from church, Weston told me that he had something that he wanted to give me when we got home.  It was a special gift he said.  Once we were home, I got busy making the little ones lunch (since it was fast Sunday and the bigger boys were fasting).  After lunch was on the table and most of the way done, Weston came up to me with a gift in his hands.  He had his hands closed around his gift so that I could open it.  When I opened his hand, this is what I saw.  :)  He told me he wanted to make me a sparkly gift of silver and so had been saving his gum wrappers.  He took all of the foil off the wrappers and had put them in this bottle.  Then, he wanted to make it look just like a bottle of gold flakes that Brian had, so he added water to the bottle to make the sparkly foil float.  I was so touched!!  It was so sweet of him to think of me and go to all the trouble to make me such a pretty gift.

 About a half hour later as I was sitting outside the door to Evan and Amber's rooms waiting for them to go to sleep, Brian came upstairs.  He said that he wanted to make a special gift for me too, just like Weston.  And this is what he made.  You have to make the picture big to read what it says since he wrote it in pencil.  It says, "I Love Mommy".  I thought that just that was sweet.  And then he turned the papers over.

And I think that my heart just about melted!!!  He wrote me something nice on each of the pages!!!  I was soooo very touched.  I swear that I have THE BEST boys ever!!  So thoughtful and sweet.  Since it is hard to read what Brian wrote for each letter, I thought that I would type it on here so that I can remember it. 

I- I is for inquisitive.  You can ask mommy any question about anything and she knows the answer.  She is a smart super computer.

L- L is for Love.  Everybody thinks and I agree.  Mommy loves everyone and everyone loves her back.

O- O is for ocitude.  Meaning: You're awesome.  Mommy I have to tell you 1 thing.  That ocitude.

V- V is for very happy.  Mommy makes all very happy each day with her smiling mouth and her kind and gentle hands.

E- E is for Everything.  Mommy mainly buys us everything.  Our toys, clothes and she takes us to school.  She rocks!

M- M is for Mommy.  Mommy is a kind and gentle person with a great attitude!

O- O is for Overall.  Overall Mommy is the greatest person in the world and is number 1 in the world.

M- M is for Mature.  Mommy's matureness is very great and has helped us through our trials.

M- M is for Momosedy.  Mommy's momosedy has helped many people from Weston to Evan.

Y- Y is for Yorke.  Yorke is the last name you have after you were married to Daddy.

Such a sweet note.  And no, I have no clue really what ocitude or momosedy are, but I love it all just the same.  This is something I will treasure for ever!!  The Lord has truly blessed me with such sweet, loving spirits.  I think I am the luckiest mom in the world!!!

Blue and Gold Banquet

 Our pack hasn't had a Blue and Gold Banquet in a looooonnnngggg time.  But we had one this year.  The theme was cowboys.  Amber had a cute little cowgirl outfit that we got her when we were in Texas this past summer.

 I then got bandannas for everyone else.  They all had a lot of fun with them.  The pack provided hot dogs for everyone.  Then we all signed up to bring either chili, cornbread, stew, or desserts.  We brought cookies and rice crispy treats.  :)

 Evan didn't want to be a cowboy.  He said, "I just want to be a regular person!!!"  When it came time for me to snap some pictures, Evan kept covering his face, so I took one when he wasn't paying attention. 

 We also brought the cap guns!!  The boys had great fun telling everyone to "stick um up!!"  Cutest bank robbers I've ever seen!!!  :)

Brian thought that it was a lot of fun that night.  It was basically just a regular pack meeting with a yummy dinner.  Brian finally got a few belt loops that he had earned at summer camp this past June that they kept forgetting to get!!  :)  They talked about summer camp for this upcoming summer.  Brian is super excited to go again this year.  This will be his last summer in cubs though!  Come September he will be going on the same night as Weston to 11 yr old scouts!!  It was a fun evening!!!  :)