Easter Festivities

We had a great week celebrating the Easter Season. The weekend before Easter we attended an Egg Scramble at Vet's Park, which was more like a free for all in the mud. Great fun for the kids, not so much fun for the inside of our van. Later in the week we colored eggs and had a ball seeing who could get theirs the darkest shade. Each day during the week we tried to talk about the Savior's week before the resurrection. It really made Sunday more meaningful, not to mention helping our week to be better too. The Saturday before Easter some ward friends were getting together to do an egg hunt for the kids. With the 5+ inches of snow we got the night before, it turned into a sledding/egg hunt outing. It was actually really fun because the snow made it easy to hide the eggs (you could just throw them on the ground and they would vanish) and it made it pleasingly difficult for even the big kids to find the eggs. The Easter Bunny has been so kind to agree to come to our house on Saturday before Easter Sunday. This has worked wonderfully for our family, allowing us to focus on candy and stuff on Saturday, and the Savior on Sunday. The Easter Bunny had a junior Bunny helper this year which I read on his blog was a super cool new thing for him and the junior Bunny (I am trying to be vague, but if you are thoroughly confused, please let me know!) The hunt for the candy was a riot this year with Lucy being the star of the show. She was a little shocked by all the candy around and that we were letting her eat whatever she wanted. She had her little fists full of candy, and the eggs that were not wrapped would immediately go into her mouth. I think she was afraid we would all of a sudden tell her she couldn't eat any more so she was going for as much as she could as quickly as she could. That day she learned to say "candy" and her new favorite word was "open". It was pretty funny.

Sunday was a delight with no bishopric meeting in the morning (thank you kind Bishop!) so Byron was able to help get everyone ready and we all drove to church together. What an Easter treat for me! We had a yummy ham dinner with some friends, the Mitchells, and our next door neighbor, Flo. I was so glad we had been talking about the life of Christ throughout the week, because I had multiple "friends of other faiths" ask me if we celebrated Easter. I was able to tell them a little about our focus on the Savior and how grateful I am for the resurrection. And of course, back to real priorities, I had to get some shots of Lucy in her cute hand-me-down Easter dress (thanks, Emily!) and her snow queen coat direct from Gma and Gpa Garn in Hong Kong. I thought it was too funny with her out there in her spring dress checking out the snow. She did not want to come inside even though it was freezing. Good times, good times!

Real Priorities

Anyone close to me, or an acquaintance in the store, knows I am totally bugged by the fact that my ONLY daughter has no hair. She was so squeaky bald as a baby, she was "smooth as a seal"! All three of the boys had way more hair, in fact, right now, Sam at 3 months old has more hair than Lucy does at 18 months old. DUH! Well she is finally not bald, even though there isn't much there still. This picture represents a great day for me, however. It was the first time I pulled her little wispies into a ponytail on the top of her head. It was nearly impossible, but I somehow made it work. What fun, what fun!

Spring in Michigan

I was talking to my sister Amy on the phone last week. She lives in AZ, where it is nice and springy and the day we talked I believe it was around 80 degrees and sunny, of course. I started telling her how wonderful it was here, that it was warm and sunny and almost felt like spring was approaching. In fact it was almost 50 degrees! She said I was psycho, that she would die if it was in the 50's. I told her it felt so warm finally that Max and his friends were heading out to jump on the trampoline. Again, she thought we were crazy. I thought it would be a good laugh for everyone in warm places to get a glimpse of Max enjoying our version of spring, with proof of the lovely weather, so I took a picture of him, then of our computer. The true irony hit about 10 minutes later when I was no longer on the phone with my sister, but looked outside at the boys to find them with their shirts off! I opened the door and called out, "Hey, you crazy boys, get your shirts on!" The great Michigan response from Max, "But Mom, we're HOT!" You gotta love it! By the way, this is what it looks like today, here in "Springy" Michigan. You don't gotta love this! In fact, we really quite despise it!

Jack Of All Trades

We were trying to remember how long ago Jack began racing. We do not remember him racing in Milwaukee, but vividly remember him racing when we lived at Grandpa Harbaugh's house during Byron's intern year of residency, which would've made Jack 4 years old. So for the last 4 years any time Byron or I leave the house in the car, Jack wants to RACE. He waits until we are pulled out to the middle of the street, counts to three with his fingers, then takes off as fast as he can. Sometimes he races all the way down the street, but usually he goes just one house away, raises his arms in victory, then turns around and goes back inside the house. Jack is PASSIONATE about racing! He loves it and nothing deters him from doing it. So much so in fact, that we have had to make rules about racing over the years. Jack can no longer race before 7 am and cannot race after 8:30 pm. These rules have come after episodes like this where Jack could hear Byron leaving for the hospital at 10 pm or so and was devistated that we wouldn't let him race. He has also lost "racing privileges" at times for leaving the door wide open consecutive mornings, letting our beautiful Michigan winter into our home. As you can tell from the pictures, even the weather doesn't discourage this kid. He will plow through snow or carry an umbrella. He doesn't even care if other people are in the car, and some of you lucky people may have had the privilege of driving somewhere with us and racing this speed demon of ours. This all sounds pretty intense, but mostly it is just such a normal part of our day now that we don't even notice it as being unique. The other day when there was a ton of snow and I once again thought he was crazy for wanting to go out there and race, it occurred to me that I needed to capture this and write about it because it really defines Jack and makes up who he is. He is an ambitious, driven kid when he wants to be. The years seem to be racing by and I don't ever want to forget my boy happily racing along beside me! (Notice the pajamas and my boots, sweet combo!)

MidWinter Break

Here in AA, it is so blasted cold for so blasted long that Spring Break for the kids is just not sufficient. So we get a week off school in Feb. and then again in April. I actually don't know the real reason why the public schools have the two different breaks, but blaming it on the weather right now seems about right. Typically the "breaks" don't seem like much of a break for moms at home, but I sure got one this time. We were lucky enough to be able escape the cold and the snow for a few days, which helped us embrace it when we got back and actually get out there and play. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week, we went to one of the fabulous indoor water park resorts called the Kalahari. Resorts like this dot the Midwest, and for me will really be something we miss when we leave. I think it is a great family thing to do in the winter, and think it would be an awesome place to have a reunion for extended family. ANYWAY, the park is complete with wave pool, lazy river, kiddie splash zones, 2 family hot tubs, 2 surfing/boogie boarding simulators, and dozens of different types of slides. The resort also has other features outside of the water park, like a climbing structure, mini golf, an arcade, and various restaurants, and all of this accessible a short walk from your room. The boys had a blast checking out the different rides with Daddy, then taking me on the favorites. Many of the rides had height regulations so Max couldn't go on everything. Oddly enough, there was no restriction for the surfing simulator and he became the boogie board champ!! He loved it and from the start could stay on the board forever. He even got to where he was trying to tricks like riding on his knees or pulling his feet up over his back. Way to go Max! Jack loved doing everything, and since a friend of his from school happened to be down there too, they were able to rule the place together. Lucy didn't seem as sold as the others when it came to slides, or even water for that matter. She really liked going up and down steps and playing in the little bubbling fountains, and eating snacks on a chair. But, she looked dang cute in her swimming suit, even if she is almost transparent white! Little Sam was a good sport. Never in his life has this little guy been so warm, he actually got to hang out in a onesie and not wear socks! Woohoo! As for me, my favorite ride was the blue "toilet bowl". You start out on a raft down a regular tube but after a while it opens to a big bowl that swirls you around then dumps you out another tube to finish you off. I ended up being the one with my back toward the front so I couldn't see the drops or curves, and boy it was a great, scary ride!! It was great to put the little ones to bed or down for naps and have some fun with the big boys. Byron and I took turns doing this and it was wonderful having uninterrupted, quality, relaxing time with Jack and Max . Some families from our ward were also down there for a day and we had so much fun splashing around with them, and eating Cafe Rio Salads for dinner together, it was a blast! As for me, the favorite part of the trip was actually being warm and wearing FLIP FLOPS! This AZ girl knows what is truly important! On the way home it started to snow again and over the next day we got another 6 inches of snow! But unlike the typical Michigan winter day, on Saturday the sun came out in full force. It was still freezing but it made for a great day to play in the snow. The boys and I and some neighbor boys had a blast making a snowman, clearing off the trampoline, and of course having a snowball fight. It really was a great week for our family, I was almost sad when it was time to go back to school.

Tagged

This week we got tagged, but not your typical blogging tag. Lucy got tagged by one of her "friends" with the stomach flu that has been going around. Everyone said it was just a 24 hour thing for them, but poor Lucy got to experience it for FOUR full days. So she and I have been enjoying the rocking chair this week, watching a lot of Doodlebop to stay happy during Sam's feedings, and trying to avoid getting puke on anything non-machine washable. I think she is finally on the mend just in time for her well child check up tomorrow, in which she will be at least 5 pounds lighter than her normal self. Jack got tagged with the corner of a cereal box right on the nose. He was reaching up to pull down the cereal from the pantry when another box decided to come too. It didn't bother him too much, he was too excited it was a snow day and he could eat cold cereal for breakfast! (His mean mom only lets him have cold cereal on weekends or after he's eaten something substantial!) I got tagged with single-mom-itis this week as Byron has been working late and our paths have missed each other every night. How do single mom's do it? My hat goes off to them! (Or anyone early in their medical training experience) All in all it really has not been a bad week, we are just looking forward to a great, healthy weekend. By the way, we are NOT tagging anyone. It all stops here!

A Day of Blessing

Today our little Samuel received a name and a blessing at church. This has always been a sweet thing for me, witnessing Byron take our little ones in his arms and use the Priesthood to bless our baby. Once again, I was touched. We are so blessed to have had four children now come into our family, and even though it makes life unpredictable and leaves very little time for ourselves, I can't think of anything that would teach us more or bring us more joy. What a huge blessing children are! Now if I can only remember that as the week begins once again.....