Good Times

We've kept ourselves busy this week - just busy enough to enjoy it - but not so busy that we stress out. We had some of Dan's friends from work over for dinner on Thursday and had a really nice time - good food and good company!
Earlier today we invited some friends from church over for the crock pot stew we had waiting for us when we got home - had a great time eating and chatting and letting the kids play together.

Evie's favorite pass-time is the jumper - she could spend hours in this thing - she's even managed to fall asleep in it.... She has figured out how to jump forward and in the process - swing herself back and forth as well as bouncing up and down. And she just jumps and laughs and makes funny faces at all of us.
She also learned pat-a-cake this week. She just figured out how to clap her hands together and loves to do it - and as soon as I start singing pat-a-cake - she drops what she's doing and starts clapping!
We made a trip to the library this week - which is always a big hit with the kids. The found princess books, barbie books, train book and hours of entertainment. Yesterday I found them like this - that's right this isn't posed - they all wanted to read on this chair - the girls didn't even glance at me when i got the camera out - Aaron just glared at me for interrupting him! At least Aaron is reading Thomas the Tank Engine instead of Barbie... :) He comes to me with these and the Dora books many times each day, it's so cute to see him getting into books.

Countdown!!

Countdown to what? SUMMER!!!! Yey- school has just 2 weeks left and we are all looking forward to seeing a bit more of our WONDERFUL husband/dad. Monday was kind of an insane day and we spent most of the week recovering from it. We did the grocery shopping, laundry, went to the zoo, went to a primary activity, family home evening, and somewhere in there we tried to get the kids naps.... :) Here are a couple pictures from the zoo. Dan's birthday was this week as he likes to tell me - he is now OLD!!! LOL - he had a school thing he had to go to that night - so we got a sitter and I went with him.... not very exciting, but I did make him a cake and my parents chipped in to get him a PS3.
I got to go to a women's conference on Saturday and LOVED it - it was so uplifting and it was the pick-me-up that I needed. Hopefully I will be a better wife and mother because of it - I'm trying anyway! :)

(Credits: "Desmond and Molly" by Amy Sumrall)

Adding Insult to injury...

This has been a week filled with minor injuries. The week started off with some beautiful weather!! It was sunny - not too hot and perfect for playing out side. We were all out back - me picking weeds and the kids running around playings - barefoot as usual. Unfortunately for Anna she discovered the first fire ant hill of the season - with her bare feet. I heard her crying and screaming and looked over to see her poor feet covered with ants. I grabbed her as quickly as I could and started swiping the ants off her. Shortly after - her feet began swelling around the stings and my poor little girl was limping around for the next two days on this swollen foot while doing her best not to itch it. She has a few stings on the other foot - but they were mostly concentrated on the one. Evelyn has gotten very mobile and wants to pull up on EVERYTHING now. She had stood up near the girls door frame and the girls accidentally shut the door on her fingers - not realizing they were in the frame. Her poor little fingers swelled up and she screamed inconsolably for a good 20 minutes - and would break out crying after that anytime she touched anything with that hand. My poor baby girl!!

LOL - ok I did take pictures this week - of more than just injured body parts - we didn't do anything too exciting, but we had fun being together and enjoying the weather (at least until it turned rainy on Friday) Eileen LOVES doing puzzles and the kids have all done a LOT of puzzles this week. Eileen wanted to show off this 100 piece butterfly puzzle that she did all by her self.
Sweet cranky Aaron right after getting woken up at the end of nap time so he could eat dinner. Aaron has finally figured out how to climb out of the crib (where we still put him for naps) but he still wants to nap in there - so he gets his blanket and a toy and throws them in - then climbs in himself! LOL - yep he puts himself down for naps! Anna is now feeling much better after her ant ordeal - but she has shown a MUCH greater reluctance to go anywhere near any bugs since then - she now gives VERY wide berth to any bugs she sees - especially ants.

Evie is on the move. She crawls everywhere and gets into everything. She loves her jumper and loves try and climb up things (including me) she is a sweet happy baby (unless her fingers are squashed....) She could happily play in this thing all day - especially when her sisters load her up with toys like this!!

I survived!

Well - I did it - I survived a week with no Dan. My Dad is also out of town so we had lots of fun hanging out with my mom, and did our best to keep busy so that we didn't miss Dan so much. We also had lots of stuff planned this week. We made poodle skirts with some friends of ours for the Ward Sock Hop on Friday Night. The Sock Hop was tons of fun - I managed to enjoy only having my 4 very short dance partners and the kids LOVED the skits and ice cream and balloons. I'll post pictures once I get them! I know I promised to take more pictures this week - but I did really badly at it! However here is one of Evie showing off some of her new crawling skills. She is totally mobile now. Still no teeth - but that might be a good thing.... :) So after a week of sewing, library trips, dancing, baby showers, parks, and no daddy - we are all exhausted and so now I'm going to go spend time with my sweet hubby (who actually had a present waiting for me at the house on Mother's Day and woke up at 5 am his time to call me and wish me a happy Mothers Day) since he's finally home. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to waxing sentimental about all the AMAZING mothers who inspire me.... but since I'm generally not that eloquent and I'm rather tired (after not getting more than 5 hours of sleep a night while Dan was gone courtesy of a cranky baby...) I wouldn't count on it - just know that I love you, think of you and hope to be more like you!

Bad Mommy... :P

So I guess I'm a bad mommy this week - because I didn't take any pictures! LOL The kids pretty much all look the same as last week. :P The main reason for this gross oversight is the fact that my camera spent the better part of the week on the charger (not because it needed that long to charge but because it got put there and just didn't leave.

We did however have a fun and busy week. We went and visited friends (and had so much fun doing it that the poor people are going to find them selves accosted much more often....) We went to the library and read lots of books, and we went on a long enough drive that mommy and daddy let the kids watch a movie in the car!

One of Dan's friends from work got married this weekend, and Dan was a groomsman, so we got to go to the rehearsal dinner Friday night and the wedding and reception on Saturday. The kids came Friday (hence the long drive....) and had lots of fun with a sitter on Saturday. We have started supplementing Evie with a bottle - so we left her with the sitter for the first time and had a night out together! We had fun with good company, good food and dancing! I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy dancing - I told Dan that when we (by that I really mean the kids) are older and we have some time that we should take dancing lessons for fun and he actually thought that it wasn't a half bad idea! :P Anyway - we had fun - exhausted ourselves (I'm more out of shape than I thought!) and even came home to 4 happily sleeping kids! YEY!

Today was our Stake Conference and there were some wonderful talks (wish I could remember more - but with 4 kids crawling on me - I figure I was doing good to remember this much...) Our Stake President talked about S.O.S for Sacrifice, Obedience, and another S that neither Dan nor I can remember.... shoulda taken notes....(and this talk happened while I was nursing Evie - so i actually heard it- but the last S came after...) and how when we remember these things we can be saved.

Ok - long wordy post - I promise I'll do better this week and have pictures.... :)