Mario!

I cut out all of these for decorating the goodie bags for Gideon's 8th Birthday Party!

Eden was not happy about me forcing her to wear a mustache.

Christopher

It seems like every picture I got of Gideon by himself his mouth is wide open.

Cousin Lauren!

Eden and Lauren skating together.Bryce

Cousin Spencer-Gideon's favorite cousin

There it is again!

Gideon just had his 1st outside the home birthday party. We went to Skate City with friends and family and had a great time. I did some preparation before hand making party hats and goody bags for all the kids. The hats were so easy and it was so fun to see the kids in them. The bags were definitely more time intensive. Lots of gluing and cricut cutting. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun making it cute. The most stressful part was the kids wanting me to be finished so they could see it all done. They all were so excited for Gideon's party and were begging for days to put the bags together. Then when they were put together they wanted to have them. I had to hide them away in the basement for a couple of days. My favorite part of the goody bags were the gold chocolate coins and the mustaches that we put in them. It was so fun to see the kids skate around in their hats and mustaches. I loved the Princess Peach hats for the girls, they turned out so cute. From school Gideon had Lauren and Kaitlyn. From Church Gideon had Bryce, Daniel, Christopher, Joshua, Paige, and Isabelle. Of course he had his sisters and brother there and his cousins Ellie, Spencer, and Lauren. The kids were all happy and well behaved. I believe I will declare success for this one.

Hail King Silly!

One morning I came down to find Rushmore like this. It made me happy so I thought I would share. I'm pretty sure he did it all himself.

A Most Horrendous Knot

So combine World Market, 4 kids, boredom (waiting for Mom to decide things, not fun for kids), cool little fan toys, and Eden's long hair. What do you get? This time it was one horrendous knot. Gideon decided to see if the small toy fan would blow Eden's long hair while I was shopping. Well I wasn't paying complete attention until Eden screams and I see Gideon tugging trying to pull the fan out. Poor Eden. I got the fan out. We bought our stuff. We left. I thought maybe I could comb it out. Nothing doing. When we got home I felt around the knot and it was actually hard in several places. So we cut it off and Eden was so relieved. It looks kind of like a rat's tail. Don't you think?

Snow in April

There really is nothing too crazy about snow in April. The crazy thing is that it was 80 degrees the day before and my kids were running through the sprinkler in their swimsuits.

6 And Counting

Lauren gave Eden fake nails, which she loved and was able to keep on for a whole day. She actually lost most of them in her sleep.
Lauren spent the night and the girls had fun doing water color on each other.

Eden being a puppy

Eden wanted a pink puppy cake with cherry frosting. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Her school crown
Her new dress!
Her long awaited pillow pet.

Eden's birthday was over Spring break so we got to go swimming which she really wanted to do. It was a fun day, but she was just a little under the weather.

Some things I love about Eden at this age are:

*Her fashion sense- she loves clothes and shoes, but doesn't fight me nearly so much as she used to about wearing pants

*She is learning how to read-she is getting so good at sounding out words and she is constantly impressing me with the words she can read without having to try. Her handwriting is also getting very nice and she is getting good at writing complete sentences all on her own.

*Eden loves her siblings-she tries to make sure everyone is happy for the most part and loves being the mother. The favorite game is Gideon is the Dad and Eden is the Mom and Larke and Rush are their babies. I am of course not so pleased with my role which is of course, Grandma. She plays well with any and all of her siblings as long as she is happy. Which is most of the time.

*Eden has a great sense of humor and often makes us laugh. She says she wants 10 kids. I say, more power to you sister friend.

*Gideon says his favorite thing about Eden is that she is playful.

*Eden says her favorite thing about herself is that she shares her toys. (This is a direct quote. I can neither confirm nor deny this statement.)

*Eden has gone through 2 boyfriends her first year in school so far, I am afraid of it getting worse as she gets older.

*She is beautiful, and her smile is contagious. She is an excellent helper and is often happy to do anything I need help with.

I love you Eden! Stop growing up!

Hospitals

I took Rush to the hospital the first part of March. He had a low fever and a terrible sounding cough, but what really had me worried was how fast it came on and how labored his breathing was. I tried to get him into see our pediatrician, but they had no appointments til the next day and the nurse said not to wait to take him in if he was having breathing issues. I debated and debated about whether or not to take him in. After the other kids got out of school and I found them all a place to go I took him to the Hospital#1 around 3:15pm. I felt dumb. I thought for sure they would send me home with nothing to show. Well, I was wrong. The Dr did a test for RSV which to my surprise came back negative. So they did a chest x-ray and found that he had pneumonia. Thankfully we caught it pretty early and it was only in one of the lobes of one of the lungs. They put him on oxygen which he hated and put in an IV which he hated worse. The IV was the absolute worst part of this whole experience. Three different nurses tried to put in the IV, finally on the 4th attempt they were able to get the IV into the left hand. Rush and I both cried through the whole process. He looked at me while I talked to him with tears streaming down my face. I tried to be brave, but I felt so helpless. I knew they were helping my baby by hurting him, and it was so terrible. He looked like he had a cast on with how well they padded and protected the IV. None of us wanted to do that again. Through the IV they gave him some saline and a dose of some really good antibiotics. The Dr and I discussed whether or not to admit Rush. She really encouraged me to have him admitted, so I agreed. Enter Hospital # 2. They said they didn't have room for us at #1 so they called an ambulance to transfer us. Then the nurse came in and told me a room had just cleared and we wouldn't have to leave. Then the nurse came back and said even though the room was available there weren't enough nurses to take care of my boy. So the ambulance was summoned yet again. In the meantime Matt and Matt Porter arrived to give Rush a blessing, which I was so grateful for. It was hard to want to let Matt return to our other kids. I was feeling a little scared, confused and alone at the moment. I am so grateful they were able to come by and give me a boost to strength. The ambulance came and they had me sit on the bed and hold Rush on my lap. I think Rush actually really enjoyed the ride and was glad to goodbye to the nurses who had put in his IV. For the whole time we were at #1 after the IV the nurses would come in and he would say Ouwie, ouwie, ouwie until the nurses left the room even when they didn't touch him. At #2 the nurse got us all settled around 11pm. I didn't really get a good picture of the bed that they had Rush in, but it looked like a crib. It was about 3 1/2 ft off the ground, maybe a ft or so longer than a regular crib, but definitely not as long as a twin. Anyway all this to explain that that is where I spent much of the night and the next day climbing in and out of. Rush finally was able to sleep after we got to #2, but he woke up about 6 times during the night saying ouwie, ouwie, ouwie. He woke up once when they came in to give him an albuterol treatment, but he calmed down as I sang him back to sleep. I finally gave up on sleeping on the couch and climbed up into his crib in the hopes that he and I would sleep better. I had to put up the rail as I was a little worried about falling out, but we both slept a little better after that.In the morning I was able to get him to eat some food. We spent some time snuggling in this chair, we spent some time sleeping, we spent some time waiting for the Dr watching cartoons. We played peek a boo and tickle tickle. By late afternoon Rush was starting to feel better and I really wanted to give him a bath and take him for a little walk. He had gotten a bloody nose because of the oxygen and I wanted to get him good and clean. After his bath the nurse got us a wagon and we went for a walk up and down the hall about 20 times. Every time we passed the nurses or an open door Rush would say Hi and wave. He liked to look at the posters on the wall, especially the puppy one. I could really tell he was feeling so much better which was relieving. It was actually nice to dedicate myself to just him that day. I love this boy so much. They discharged us that night around 10pm and we finally got home at around 10:30pm. Rush got to be on oxygen and antibiotics for the 2 weeks after our adventure, which was not so fun. I am so grateful our stay was not longer and that we caught the pneumonia so early. A few days after Rush was off the oxygen he got some other bug and threw up several times. I think I can safely say that he will hopefully be able to stay somewhat healthy for the near future.

Choir Boy

Gubber Peas

When Testing

This year Gideon got to have his first experience with choir. They would meet twice a week after school for January and February. The 1st week of March they did 2 performances for the students and one evening concert for parents and families. His favorite songs were Gubber Peas which was a song about roasted peanuts) and All Night, All Day (a gospel song). They also sang On Top of Spagetti, When Testing (they wore sunglasses for that one, because testing or atleast doing well testing is oh so cool), The Boompah Band, Shortnin' Bread, Be a Friend, The Loco-Motion, Triple Play, Our Song, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, We Got The Beat and Gideon got to sing a short duet in A Place in the Choir.

The kids all did a great job. There were definitely songs they knew better like Gubber Peas, but you could tell they worked hard and were having fun. The day after the concert they got to have a choir party which may have been Gideon's favorite part. He got pizza and candy and got to watch a movie. Matt and I both like to sing so it is fun for me to see him participate in choir.

Larke and Rush

Whether it is swinging on the swing together, Rush allowing Larke to put him in handcuffs, dancing around, wrestling, or playing outside these kids are so funny together.

My Cowboy

Stick 'em up!

Gideon's music teacher at school taught the class how to square dance. Rush, Larke and I all got to go to the school to watch Gideon dance. He was so excited to dress up as a cowboy. We even borrowed some cowboy boots so that he could be authentic. One of the things I love best about Gideon is his enthusiam. He gets excited about things and it is so nice.