excuses

I can think up a lot of reasons that I haven't taken the time to sit down and blog recently!

1. I will begin my excuses with the fact that I had a lot of fun company and I didn't want to miss out on any moments spent with them!  First of all, my Aunt Ellen, Uncle Mac and cousin Jerry came.  They were followed by my cousin David and his family.  I was, of course, horrible about taking pictures, but I did get a couple of Maddie and Emmie, as they took off on a little picnic!  (I let Maddie skip school to spend time with her cousin).

They LOVE having their pictures take;)

I can't wait for Talbie to come up here for college this fall!!

2. This little fella has kept me hopping this week!:

He has been super sick with ear infections, and a horrible cold that will not. go. away.  Maybe he has allergies? But, on a happier note, he has started crawling all over the place!  He was getting to where he wanted to be for the last few weeks, but suddenly this week he really took off.  Yesterday he crawled from the dishwasher, clear back to my bedroom looking for me.  It was so cute!! I love it when my kids get mobile because they can entertain themselves much better.  BUT his mobility has also called for some serious rearranging, which led to some serious spring-cleaning, to keep him out of plants and such. I moved furniture around and redecorated lower spaces:

He has everything all over the place in no time and is so happy to find adventure everywhere he turns:)
He and Abram have been enjoying reading all of the baby books together:

Boy do I love these little boys!

3. Soccer started for Maddie and Nolan= a few practices during the week and a couple of games on the weekend.

4. We got to make a new purchase this week:

Shawn was kneeling down in the garage fixing something this week and when he went to stand up, one of his knees wouldn't straighten out!  He went to an orthopedic surgeon that said it is a "classic miniscus tear." So, unless the loose or torn cartilege moves enough that he can straighten his leg again, he will need a surgery very soon. Whether sooner or later, he will most likely need a surgery eventually to fix the problem.  Yesterday his leg straightened out, so I vote for later:)

5. While at the grocery store this week I couldn't resist purchasing the most ginormous box of bananas I have ever laid eyes on for only $5.  So...I froze most of them for smoothies, and have been baking an enormous amount of banana bread with the rest!

6. I also couldn't resist the beautiful weather outside this week, and one day left Pace in the house napping with his invalid dad and sprayed all the weeds around the yard and pruned back all of the old plants from last year.  It was heavenly.

7. Easter was on the way, so I had to research how I wanted to present everything to my kids this year! My favorite thing that we did, and do every year, is to read each day from the scriptures about what Christ did on that corresponding day of the last week before he was resurrected. Then I threw in a few more Easter things.

So there you go!  All of my excuses:)

We've had a beautiful Easter! Hunting eggs:

Maddie and Abram:

Watching the egg hunt:

Some post-church pictures:

We noticed that Pace and I matched:)  Some women accessorize with a snazzy bag or purse; I prefer to accessorize with a cute baby:)

We had Easter dinner with Shawn's family at his parent's.  We all planned to prepare food for at least 34 people! Dinner was delicious! Afterwards, all of the kids that were involved in music festival played their pieces:

Caden 14:

Maddie 11:

Ellie almost 13:

Fisher Anderson:

Abby 11 (above) Colter 14:(below):

We also did some singing, l-r: Ellie, Kristi, Kami, Colter and Caden:

l-r (above) Carrie, Tom, Terry, Phoebe, Suzette, Caleb, Abby
We sang a song that Kory wrote:

  Happy Easter everyone!!