SPRING!

A Michigan Spring.

I'll let the pictures do the talking while I go snuggle my baby back to sleep. 

:)

A glimpse...

There are so many things that I've been wanting to post about lately, but I haven't been able to make sense of them in my own head.  They keep swirling around trying to make connections so that they can come out in complete sentences.  Must be the four kids that have done that to my brain.  I wouldn't trade them for the world. :)  Way back in March when the weather was cold and grey, the husband was gone a lot (still is - 3 cheers for the end of April!!), and everyone at home (including Mom) was sick - oh so sick.... I had a week.  It was a rough week.  Trying to stay on top of everything and do everything and BE everything.  From a husband who was working 75hrs a week, to homeschooling my rug rats, to keeping up with the laundry, and keeping everyone healthy, clean AND happy along with no where to go but our own little house.......I had a week.  It was a rough week. And by the end of the week I realized I could not live life like this.  It was a week of grumpy, depressed, yelling, frustration.  My overwhelming emotions were being felt and expressed by my children (especially my sensitive Wilson) who also became grumpy and frustrated yelling things like, "I hate you!"  "You're Stupid!"  etc.  When I saw their sweet little faces dissolving into tears and anger, I knew it was my fault.   I just didn't know what to do about it. 

Well, actually I did.  I knew exactly what to do about it so that I could figure out what to do about it. :)
I love the scriptures.  I have without fail always found exactly what I needed when faced with a struggle in my life.  While pouring out my heart to Heavenly Father I asked how to do it all.  Then I opened to Deuteronomy 4:9.  "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons and thy sons sons;"

I knew immediately that I had to take better care of myself.  I had been fairly diligent in exercising and eating healthy, but I had been reading my scriptures in the evenings when I was so exhausted that there was no time to ponder or search.  I read THIS post and was inspired to make some changes.  Big changes for me - because I am not a morning person...no I thought I was not a morning person. But I'm learning that with God I can be anything I want to be.  I CAN be a morning person.  I CAN be outgoing and share the gospel.  I CAN go without chocolate for longer than 24hrs. :) I CAN sacrifice things that I thought were important so that I can gain things that are even more important.  What a beautiful thing it has been the last month to arise early - earlier than my babies, fill my heart with truth, and then, if the littles didn't wake up first, exercise my body.

The peace in our home has returned.  My joy of motherhood has returned.  Easter came! We celebrated the life of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I am so so so grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ.  I am not who I am without Him.  I need Him everyday.  And I am slowly learning how to let Him in every moment.   The grass has turned green again!  Spring is mostly here.  Perhaps a little slow coming here in Michigan, but  it is alive and vibrant in our hearts. :)  I find so much joy in working in my own little home to fill my children up with reading and writing and arithmetic....but also with faith, and hope, and charity.  We are not perfect and we have a long ways to go but we are going and that is the important thing.  We are going up.  Not straight.  Not down.  Up.  And it's a beautiful journey.

Sammy is 3!

Oh how we love our little Peanut.

Sammy has been asking about his birthday since last fall when everyone else in the family had their birthdays.  Poor boy!  I think the next baby will have to be a spring baby like Sammy was.  Sammy is a very intense little boy.  He always has been.  He can be silly, but also has a mature level of responsibility/seriousness for one so little.  When walking the halls of the church he is always reverent - with arms folded and sober face.  He always says, "excuse me Mama," when he wants my attention.

"excuse me Mama, can I sit on the floor?"

"excuse me Mama, I need to go pee."

"excuse me Mama, can we go home now?"

His serious little face is hard to say no to. :)

He is naturally obedient and loves to snuggle up to Mama in bed. 

He is scared of lots of things - from spiders, to the dark, to the ogre in "Little Einsteins."

He is deathly, ear-split screaming, afraid of the ogre.

Sometimes I wonder if homeschooling has been hard on my little Sammy. 

I feel like I am always teaching the older ones and Sammy is always saying, 

"excuse me Mama, what do I do now?"

And I just want to hug him and say, "Sammy, you get to play!"

But he doesn't want to play. 

He wants to do school because he wants to be with me.

So I've learned that I have to schedule in play time for my Sammy.

Story time

Train time

Imagination time

He loves to be Peanut the mouse.

He loves to sing Darth Vader's theme song, "Da da da da da"

When he has an idea he sticks one finger up in the air and raises his eyebrows.

so cute.

He is a super picky eater and as a result is our skinny little "peanut."

He actually loves lots of different foods but if any of it has a black speck or anything that he doesn't like on it he refuses to eat it. 

I am always SO happy when he actually eats dinner and often find myself feeding both him and Davey at the same time.

Sammy's birthday breakfast was German pancakes with kiwi and strawberries.  Sammy LOVES strawberries!

He got to open his presents from Zina and Wilson. 

His very own flashlight from Zina and "guns like Owens" from Wilson.

He helped me decorate his birthday cake.

And then when it was time to eat it he didn't want to eat it!! He wanted to PLAY with it!!!

Wilson helping light our 3 candles.

Sammy's current obsession is Lightning McQueen and Mater. :)  He LOVES his "tow-mater" that Grandma Nancy gave him and he has worn his Lightning McQueen shirt from Grandma Judy almost every day!

Oh how we love our Sammy. I can't imagine life without him.

He makes us giggle all the time at the adorable things he says and I even catch Zina and Wilson watching him with a twinkle in their eyes saying things like,
"Sammy is just SO cute!"

We love you Sammy boy.  

Happy 3 years old!!

Easter & Conference

Easter came...and went.... without any nice pictures of us on Easter Sunday or doing Easter-ish things at all.  But here is proof that we did do something!

The kids loved dying Easter eggs this year.  We did them for FHE the Monday before Easter and then the next day they did even more because they loved it so much.  

I also enjoyed reading scriptures with the kids and watching the LDS bible videos about the Savior's life with them all week long.  I felt like it really helped us to tune into what Easter is really about. 

Sat. we enjoyed the ward Easter egg hunt and we 

had a great time at the Mills house for Easter dinner and I wish I had gotten a picture, but oh well.  Pictures were just not happening that weekend.  The Easter bunny came Monday morning and by about noon ALL of Sammy's candy was gone.  Amazing.  He didn't even get sick!

I love General Conference weekend.  It was such a blessing that even though Mark has been working SO much lately he was miraculously able to be home all day Sat. and almost all of Sunday.  It was nice to be home as a family and to be edified by the Prophet and Apostles.  The kids did so great playing conference Bingo, legos, and coloring.  Even Sammy would shout out "I heared Missionawy Wowk!"  A couple times I heard him scoff and say, "We don't keep HIS (referring to the speaker) commandments! We keep Heavenwy Fathew's commandments!"    I am so grateful to be a part of this marvelous work and wonder!

March in a nut shell.

Wow.  How do you catch up a whole month and then some  These pictures are not in order but oh well!  Better here than not. :)

Back in Feb. Mark took all the kids on a date.  He took Sammy to the Kzoo Valley museum, Wilson out to the movies & games after, and he was going to take Zina ice skating, but she had different plans! She wanted them to go get treats (donuts and hot chocolate) and then park the car and watch Princess Bride in the back seat!  She's a girl with a plan and always has been. 

Haha, I think this was our Valentine's date (with Davey of course). :)

After some yummy Mexican food we slipped into Meijer for a few things. 

We took the kids ice skating......

Sammy would not even get on the ice. He sat on that chair and froze the entire time.  Wilson actually LOVED it and did not want to go home.  And obviously the rest of us are off skating. :)

A trip to the Air Zoo!  It's never complete without our free popcorn and Sammy was finally big enough for the parachute ride!!  (and Mark was a little to big...his bum didn't really fit in the seats haha)

Just a nice shot of Sammy learning to put his own underwear on. Looks comfy. :)

And his mad face.  He ALWAYS dances with a mad face. :)  While the others are leaping and dancing around Sammy is marching around with a mad face. So funny.

Maple Syrup Festival. 

This was SO fun I really really loved it.  It was cold but so worth it.  

Above is where they are cooking all the water out to make the syrup.

Below is as fresh as it gets Maple syrup!

Tapping the trees.

Wilson in a Michigan maple forest!

Nine Mans Morris - a game they used to play in the sugar bush. 

Wilson rocks this game.  It makes Zina really mad when she loses to him. 

:)

Face paint!  Mine is supposed to be a maple leaf.... seriously!!

Back in Feb. or March we had a FHE about Lehi's family leaving Jerusalem.  We acted it out and ended by putting the tent up in the family room and having homemade marshmallow smore's in the fireplace.  The kids thought it was the BEST and were sad when we took the tent down the next day. 

Of course St. Patricks Day happened.  Here are the kids homemade leprechaun traps.  They had a lot of fun making them and I loved how each one was so unique!  Zina's was the green one, Wilson's the rainbow ladder one and Sammy's the one with all the letters. He kept telling me what they said..."I wuv Momma, I wuv Wilson, don't cwimb the  wadder, I wuv Davey...."

The Leprechauns tipped over all the kitchen chairs, turned the Milk green and left the kids some Lucky Charms and candy in their traps.  Zina didn't want lucky charm's though so I made her some pancakes shaped like a pot and put scrambled eggs to make it look like a pot of gold.  Sometimes I feel like a run a restaurant....but I just couldn't bring myself to make her eat lucky charms for breakfast...yuck.

And one... ONE..sunny day in all of March!  We were outside in a heartbeat.

Davey tried some bananas and rice cereal and avocados this month. 

Not consistently though.  

His hair also grew a whole bunch. 

Check out the mullet!

so we gave him an impromptu haircut right before church.

Aww, why is that first haircut always so hard to do?

Can't forget 3.14! 

Pi Day!!

We had chicken pot pie for dinner and the kids helped me make mini apple pie pops for dessert.

Yum!

Doing a little Math on the computer. We use IXL for our homeschool math.  Wilson LOVES doing math on the computer. Zina hates it.  She would way rather work out of her curriculum book.

I swear Davey has been teething for months but has NOTHING to show for it!!  Poor baby. :(

An attempt to entertain the kids on a Sunday.  

A grey cloudy sunless Sunday. 

Boy are we glad spring FINALLY came to Michigan!

And last but not least.  We still love our Moby wrap. 

Mak'n dinner with my sweet love bug.