Here's the Deal...

Okay, so if you want to see what we've been up to, scroll down a few posts and start at Landon's Band Concert.

We have had a crazy month! We have been out of town, sick, back home, sneezing with allergies, out of town again, back home, and sick again. Now we are on the mend, except for my blasted allergies, which seemingly will never go away.

I have been sneezing and blowing my nose for about three weeks now, and it has been pretty miserable! I am not one to take a lot of medication, but I am about ready to go to the doctor and get a prescription for this! On top of it all, the traveling has worsened some of my symptoms and I have ended up with a head cold and fever twice! I am feeling okay tonight, but we'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Since we have been gone for almost the whole month, I have not been able to keep up my Photo-a-Day blog, so I'm going to quit doing it and maybe try again next year when I can start at the beginning of the year. It's kind of a relief to not have to do it now!

My blonde hair has finally grown out and now I am back to red! And I'm pretty happy about it!

In other news, Eden has been screened by the Speech department at Jonah's preschool. She made it through the initial screening (meaning she can get evaluated further) and today had her appointment with the Speech Pathologist. I think she knows now why I brought Eden in. Eden is pretty hard to understand because she talks really fast and slurs her words together. She also has some bad articulation. So now she has the last appointment with the school's psychologist and then we'll find out if she's in! Even if she does get into the program, she won't be able to go until next school year, which starts the end of July. I think she would love it. She has loved visiting Jonah's class and going to her screenings. She is always excited to "go to school."

Levi made his Nursery debut while we were in Logandale and has loved it ever since. He is just like the rest of my kids- runs right in without so much as a goodbye kiss or a glace backward. Are we doing something wrong or something right?

We are excited to have some company coming this weekend. One of Peter's brothers and his family are coming down to stay for a few days. We love seeing cousins we don't get to see often!

Besides that, my sister blogged about it, but I thought I would too for those of you who don't read her blog. I found some buckets of hard white wheat at Costco for only $21. These buckets probably contain around 40 lb. of wheat. I'm too lazy to go downstairs and check for sure. But that's pretty cheap, and on top of that you don't have to buy the buckets and do it yourself. Awesome! I also found the Morning Moo's powdered milk, which my friend assures me actually tastes GOOD. No, really. She buys it for her kids to drink. I remember using powdered milk in my cereal as a kid, and that was NASTY! I hated it in cereal; I never would have drunk it! (And yes, that is correct grammar- look it up!)
Anyway, the 37 lb. bucket of Morning Moo's will run you $58, but my food storage guru/friend tells me that you will roughly need one bucket per person in your family per year. I am so tempted to go buy 4 more buckets! I hope Costco keeps stocking them!

Anyone remember this post, where I bore all by revealing pictures of my horribly messy downstairs junk closet? Well...I cleaned it! Now all of my papers and fabric and other stuff is all organized and you can walk into the closet! And now I have some nifty shelves to put my three-month supply on! Some of the stuff on the shelves needs to be moved upstairs, but other than that, it's done! Man, it feels wonderful!

And here's just a cute photo of Levi I snapped tonight!

Just Got Home, and Now To CA!

Beware, lots of pictures coming your way!

Peter's maternal grandfather passed away last week and we got to go out to L.A. for the funeral. It was a really quick and crazy trip with the kids, but I'm really glad that we were all able to go. I learned a lot about Grandpa Mingus that I hadn't known before and it was great to see extended family members that we don't see very often at all. The last time I saw some of Peter's family was when we got married almost 6 years ago! The kids also had a great time seeing their cousins that live far away.

Levi, apparently bracing himself for the long boring drive

We headed out on Friday morning and made good time. We wanted the kids to be able to at least see the beach while we were out there. We drove out to Oceanside where Peter's brother, Jack, lives and where a bunch of the group was staying the night. We took the kids to walk on Oceanside Pier. They loved it and were so excited to see the ocean and the surfers!

I just love this shot-

Eden was afraid to walk on the cracks, like she would fall through or something. She was cracking everybody up!
Here is Jonah, begging me to let him stay at the beach longer.

We finally made it over to Jack's house and had a fun time hanging out and eating pizza and brownies.

Charlotte showed off her acrobatic skills

The next day we drove up to Northridge for the funeral. It was a really beautiful service. Grandpa was a Marine, and some Marines came and played Taps and did a flag ceremony. (Is that what it's called?) It was the first time I had seen something like that and it was truly touching. I have never heard Taps played so beautifully. Grandpa Mingus will be missed. He was always really kind to me and he made it clear that he loved our kids' red hair! Jonah was even due on Grandpa Mingus' birthday, but decided to come 5 days late instead.

Eden on the drive to L.A.

Levi, with his Uncle Tom, who we rarely see (hint, hint)

I am so mad at myself that I didn't get better pictures (or any with Grandma Mingus for that matter). Peter's brothers were even all in attendance and I don't think anyone got a picture of them all together. In my defense, I was chasing my kids most of the time.
After the funeral, the wonderful Relief Society sisters served the family some desserts and punch before we headed over to Grandma Mingus' house. The kids were really getting hyper and it didn't help that they were being chased by their cousins. But I was about ready to scream by the time we left the church. I was afraid that we'd have to leave for home early because our kids were just being so bad! But by the time we got to Grandma Mingus' house, they were doing a lot better, and besides, Grandma had the coolest backyard and toys! Yeah! I was so excited that the kids could get their energy out without causing a scene. The trusty RS also served dinner at Grandma's, which was yummy and kid-friendly as well! These ladies knew what they were doing when they brought a plate of PB&J and some Cheetos! I can't tell you how thrilled I was!

The kids had a blast playing outside. Grandma Mingus had some cool toys.

My adorable nephew, Henry, looks just like his Grandma Harper to me!

My sister-in-law, Shelley, made us do this, but I think it turned out well.
And we met for the second time, our nephew, Luke! He looks so much bigger!
And just to round out the evening, Henry ate his fill of potting soil!

I swear, his mother was right there with me when I took these pictures! I didn't just let him eat a bunch of dirt while I snapped pictures!

We left L.A. at about 8:30pm and drove all the way home with the help of sunflower seeds and No-Doz. We got in safely at 2 am and were glad to be home in our beds!

Spring Break in Logandale

Jonah had two weeks off for Spring Break since he is on the modified year-round schedule. So instead of being cooped up here with all of my kids for two weeks, I decided that we could visit my parents in Logandale and share the insanity. The kids had a lot of fun and I was glad to get to hang out with my siblings a little and watch Landon play ball and the drums. (It stinks being the oldest with siblings still at home and in high school. I feel like I miss out on a lot.)

Levi spent a lot of time climbing on the Elliptical machine on my parents' porch...

While the other kids dug in the dirt,

which resulted in plenty of bath time!

Jonah jammed on the piano,

Levi ate lots of food

and Eden drank a gallon of milk everyday (or so it seemed).
Eden, the Princess of Milk!
Tibi watched Eden and Levi so we could go to Landon's band concert without chaos (videos in the next post). Jonah loved it, of course. It was a spaghetti dinner and the orchestra and band both played. It was the perfect outing for Jonah; he loves spaghetti and good music! He was really excited to see Landon play the xylophone and drums. When he tasted his spaghetti he said, "This is GOOD!"
We also went to the park with the Chappells to play soccer. The kids ran around the field, mostly getting in the way, but they seemed to enjoy it. I think we have a distance runner on our hands; Jonah kept running all the way up and down the field and around the track and never got tired!
We did some dancing

and some relaxing
and we watched a lot of this:
We also ate plenty of junk food, including some yummy Girl Scout Cookie ice cream. Well, most of us ate it. Eden seems to have bathed herself in it.
The day before we went home, we got to go to a morning Easter egg hunt and breakfast that my cousin was in charge of. It was a lot of fun and the kids figured out what they were supposed to do really quickly! They got a ton of eggs and had a great time.