Yup, Uh huh.

I've been trying to post this all week, on and off; picture here, words there.  That's just how it goes sometimes, right?

This is going to be a rattling off sort of post of a bunch of stuff that's up over here.

My parents gave us this 'uge roll of paper.  Butcher paper-like.  It has entertained my little ones for hours.  And me, too.  

I love Kate's little drawing of my hand and Weston's hand together.  We had done that in the garage cement when it was poured last year.

It's sunny there at the table most of the day, so it is always a cheery spot.

Zoe is now 8 months old.  Well 2 weeks ago she turned 8 months.  She crawled for the first time on that day.  Now she is everywhere, and pulling herself up to everything.   I didn't give her baby food until that day, too.  Feeding solids has gotten later and later which each child.  It is just soooo much easier, and less messy, and faster to nurse.  And time goes by faster with each child, too.  Has it been 8 months already?  Guess I should get on that feeding solids thing.

These 3 pictures are all within seconds of each other (She changes moods fast, I guess.):

Spencer's sweet after school activity: pest control:

We have 10 million box elder bugs just on that one tree alone.

We decided not to do any spring sports this year.  It is just way too much driving for kids that are only a little bit into it.  They would really just rather play at home right now.  I'm good with that.  I signed Spencer up for lacrosse camp at BYU for this summer instead.  He's excited.  So am I.  

We have taken him off of dairy, and we think that that has helped quite a bit.  Me, too.  That is, I've noticed the last few times that I have had milk, my nose started running and my sinuses got clogged, or whatever they do.  My friend (all natural, organic farmer's wife) told me to boil water, pour it in a mug, put in one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and some honey and drink it warm.  Sure enough, 3 times I drank milk, 3 times my nose started running/sinus troubles, 3 times drinking that mixture, and 3 times it dried me up. 

Jiles has been quite the kid lately.  For the last 5 weeks or so he has wanted me to hold him or be next to him all. the. time.  He hasn't wanted to have his clothes or diaper changed, hasn't wanted to take a bath, or hardly even leave home.  Some sort of separation anxiety maybe?  It has been quite the challenge, let me tell you.  None of my other kids have been like that, or, at least, to that extent.  I have been trying to leave the house less, and lighten my activity load outside of the home, like stopping doing P.E. at the school.  Okay, so that is pretty much the only thing I stopped doing.  But even just that has helped.  Well on Fridays anyway (which is P.E. day).

This week he has been getting better, though.  Maybe he has SAD.  It is nice out now and he is happy (and it probably helped that he slept for 14 hours last night).  Just joking.  It is probably some sort of emotional growth spurt.

One thing that would calm him down right away when he would cry forever was this:  

Playing cars in a bowl of wheat.  Who knew?

Spencer discovered a new hideout for hide-and-seek.  (Does anyone else call it hide-and-go-seek?  I know that isn't right, but that is how I have always said it.  Is it a Virginia thing?)  It's on the very top of the bookshelves in the library.  You can lay down and no one even knows you're there.  It took Weston forever to find him the last time that they played.

Family home evening singing Follow the Prophet with hats/headbands that I made for singing time in Primary last year.  Jiles is trying to make his "pa" (spot) bigger by pushing the big brothers over.  Ezra really didn't like that:

Jiles leading his verse, which was Adam ("first one that we know").  His first place ribbon is upside down:

Ezra leading his verse, which was Jonah (that whale has seen better days):

Kate so exuberantly leading her Daniel verse:

Listening to Daddy's lesson:

Last weekend was Grandma Great's funeral in Utah.  We drove down last Friday and stayed with Weston's brother Ammon and his wife Leslie.  And then Saturday night with my sister Julie and her husband Drew.  We got to see my other sister, Wendy, and her family.  There is always so much to do, and so many people to see when we go there.

The funeral was Saturday.  It was so very nice.  What an amazing lady!  All of her 5 living children spoke, and 34 of her 35 grandchildren were there, plus lots of great grandkids and spouses.  It was a big reunion.  My mother-in-law spoke, played the violin, and the piano, all with an eardrum that busted 2 days before.  What an amazing lady she is, too!

Ezra handed this rose to me saying, "Here, Mom."  It was on Grandma Great's coffin.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch another kid was born:

It is so cute.

But this...:

...little mass of chub is waaaaay cuter!

I finally got her crib put back together after we took it apart to take it out of Kate's room.  Kate kicked her out because she wasn't getting her sleep due to Zoe crying.  Kate would bring her in in the middle of the night to me saying, "Here."  I would not have even heard her and she probably would have gone back to sleep.  Oh well.  Kate said she would take her back when she learned to sleep through the night.  That girl Kate is 7 going on 21.  

I painted Zoe's crib yellow last summer because I loved the color against the teal walls in the girls' room.  Now she is in the yellow craft room, and there is a whole lot of yellow going on in there:

I  guess I can't complain that it isn't bright and cheery in there.  It so totally is.

Spring is just around the corner, and we are loving it:

Now it's even nicer out than it was when I took those pictures.  We're heading out to get the big kids from piano lessons, and then we are going to play!
And it's Friday! Woohoo!

Here is a short video that Ezra and I put together when he was home from school (He goes all day 4 days a week, so 1 day a week I get to keep him home with me :) ):