WHAT??

New post? No way. I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I last posted. Big time fail. Anyway, Hallee turned the big 4 on the 12th, and we were lucky enough to go visit Uncle Aaron and his family down in Lusby, Md. And lucky for us, their neighborhood has their own beach. Yay! It was lots of fun and Hallee had a blast with her cousins. So we had fun at the beach and then came back to their house, let the kids crash for a while, then had her party celebration with a Costco cake and presents. She was in heaven.

I am so grateful for my Hallee. She is so incredibly smart and so funny. She is the best helper a crazy mom like me could ask for. She loves her sister and brother with all her little heart and would do anything for them. Her sense of humor is to die for, and I just love it when she catches jokes and busts out laughing. She is so beautiful, inside and out, and I love her so much!

Happy birthday, little Hal Pal!

The Resurrection and Bunnies

"Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead--what should we do?"

"How 'bout eggs?"

"Well what does that have to do with Jesus?"

"Alright, we'll hide 'em."

"I don't follow your logic."

"Don't worry there's a bunny."

Hallee doesn't quite get the oddities of the Easter tradition either. "The Easter Bunny hides the eggs." "Why?" "He likes to hide things. He is going to hide your basket too." "Why?" "Stop asking questions, you'll get candy out of it." "Candy?"

We started the weekend with an Easter-egg hunt on Saturday morning. I don't think anybody told Saturday about the plan because it decided to rain which kind of killed the festivities early, as in nobody wanted to stick around, but we still hunted for some eggs despite the rain.

That evening we dyed some eggs so that the Easter bunny would have something to hide, since he enjoys hiding things so much. Que the ginormous pictures (yep, it's a Kyle post).

Sunday morning, before church, was filled with finding what the bunny had hidden and also getting ready for church. Connor is modeling his new tie that Megan made for him. That's right, Megan made that. (I'm not acting surprised I'm just stressing the point, in case you read that wrong). I now want her to start making ties for me. At church Hallee sang with her primary for the first time in her career. We both got teary eyed seeing our little angel up there. Maddie was there for me though and broke up my sobbing with laughter everytime she would yell "hi" to Hallee and wave. She was excited to see her sister up there.

To end the evening we ate a delicious, yet meat-less, Easter dinner. We made margarita pita pizzas and used some fresh basil from a basil plant we just planted. We are hoping for the plant to keep on providing us with its delicious leaves, but we are not the best plant people and today we awoke to it already wilting away. Hopefully some more water will perk it back up.

We also had a family night to make sure that we did focus our Sunday on the real reason we were celebrating. We watched the video below and bore our testimonies to the kids. What a blessing that after this life is over my family and I will rise again, to be together in the eternities. I love my Savior for making that possible. He lives!

The China Study

So, Kyle just went to Utah this last weekend to go to his cousin's wedding. While he was there, he learned about this book, "The China Study." To my surprise, MY husband came home requesting that we eat less meat. WHAT?! His favorite places to eat dinner are Outback Steakhouse and on a night of extravagance, Ruth's Chris. Anyway, we talked more about this book which shows different studies that prove PROTEIN to be a likely cause of cancer. And where is most protein located? In meat. You can read the book yourself to discover what it all entails. I won't go into details, but after discussing this protein business and our personal eating habits, we decided to look into getting recipes that involved little or no meat. We will still enjoy our steaks and chicken from time to time, and this will be a gradual process, but I am actually excited to explore a new way of thinking and a new way of eating. We are buying a lot more produce, trying new foods, and experimenting on new flavor combinations. It is actually really fun, and we have only been doing it for 2 days. ha! I am also at a point of frustration with this whole weight loss business, so it's refreshing to have a new perspective on food and what I am putting in my body. Anyway, we will see how this goes, and if it will last very long. But it should be fun!

Not gonna lie...

I have to admit, I really really love when I get a good deal on something. I also now understand why people get addicted to couponing (something I really don't have time for right now in my life.) BUT, yesterday, I hit a JACKPOT! And since my dear hubby wasn't as excited about it as I had hoped, maybe someone else out there will appreciate it. :o)

Ok, here's what happened. At our grocery store, Acme, if you buy 3 boxes of Kellogs cereal, you got a gallon of milk for free. Then, most of the boxes of Kellogs cereal were on sale for 3/$5. So, that's $5 for 3 boxes of cereal AND a gallon of milk. But there's more...attached to the front of 2 of the boxes I got was a coupon for $1.00 off fresh fruit if you buy 2 boxes of kellogs cereal (which I was already doing.) So, I got bananas and lemons for free. THEN, on a Rice Crispies box was attached a coupon for a free bag of m&m's (up to $2.99 value) with the purchase of 2 boxes of reg/chocolate rice crispies (which I was already doing). THEN, the yoplait yogurts were on sale for $.50/each, and before going to the store I printed 2 coupons for $.40/off 6 yoplaits. So, that's almost 2 of those for free. AND I got 4 gerber 1st foods for the price of 3, with a coupon I had. To sum it up;

2 gallons of milk-free

bananas-free

lemons-free

large bag of m&m's-free

a yogurt-free

1 baby food-free

I was on cloud nine when I got home! How incredible is that? I think I'll be going back next week to do it again...that was too fun!

On a side note...yesterday was also the worst day of my life...I accidentally poked Connor's head with a seam ripper, trying to do too many things at once. And it. bled. a lot. I immediately freaked out as soon as I saw blood, threw him in his carseat, put a kitchen towel on his head, and rushed him to the ER which is thankfully 5 min away. When we got there I was uncontrollably sobbing realizing what happened/feeling rediculous guilt. They took him back, cleaned off the blood, and informed me that the cut was pretty small and he would be ok. The doctor came in and goes, "so I hear this is much ado about nothing?" My reply, "yeah, I guess so." The entire time, Connor smiled at every person that came in the room, flirting if you will, with every nurse that came in, and was a total ham. That was a pretty good indication that he was ok. The nurse kept asking, "is he always this happy?" So the doc made sure everything was ok and in place on his head, put a little glue (not elmers) on Connor's cut to stop the bleeding and hold it together, and sent me on my way. I have never in my life felt so awful, terrible, guilty, sick to my stomach. Making your own kid bleed is the worst feeling ever. All I ever do, every day, is my very best to protect them, and then I (put nicely) poked his head. As you can tell I am still not over it. :)

(It was more like a stab, about 1/4 inch wide. It's just too hard to use the word stab in relation to my kid...)

Today has been a much better day. It is sunny and warm, so we had a picnic for lunch out on the back deck, let the girls play in the grass, while we listened to conference. And for the last hour, all the kids were asleep so we got to just sit there in peace, soaking up the sun, listening to the Prophet and Apostles testify to us the truthfulness of the gospel and the teachings of our Savior. I wanted to freeze time. It was rejuvinating. In that moment I truly felt the love that our Father in Heaven has for me and my family. What a great feeling!

(wow...this post was an emotional rollercoaster.)

really?

So I finally decided to write a huge long blog post about what was going on with our family. Then the power went out and all was erased. poop. I am not writing it all again. Sorry. Just know we are doing great. Kyle got a job for the summer. Yay! He is so excited. The kids are awesome. So much fun. Hallee is a braniac. Maddie is her shadow, so she is too. Connor is finally the wonderful, happy, silly little boy I knew he would be. We are IMpatiently waiting for summer (or even spring) to get here.....Oh, and Connor is 6 months old. WHAT???

This is the day he turned 6 months old.
Kyle took Maddie on a daddy/daughter date last weekend to celebrate her potty training success. No more diapers for her!

I love winning free stuff

This awesome swimwear site is giving away a giftcard for a new swimsuit. I am so excited! Let's hope for some good luck.

http://www.hapari.com/

You can also enter the contest here!

Stats

Today I went in for Maddie's 2 year apointment (yes I realize she turned 2 back in November.) and Connor's 4 month appointment. Well, lucky for Maddie, or rather unlucky, she had a double ear infection and a kid-version sinus infection, so little missy didn't need to get her shots just yet. But...my poor baby is so sick! Despite her sickies, she is growing really well....maybe a little too well!

Height: 95%

Head: 99% (that means only 1 person has a bigger head than her, out of 100.) :)

Weight:85%

Holy cow! I loooove my cute girl! She is just growing great and talks so well, and she is such a sweetheart.

And then there was my peanut, Connor. He is doing great, growing right on his own little curve. His little problem is his eczema. Really bad. Oh, and he has a herniated belly button. Look it up, they are a little scary and painful looking. Back to the eczema. 2 different doctors looked at it, and since there is some psoriasis in the family, they want him to go to a dermatologist to look at it and make sure it's only eczema. That's how bad it is. I really can't imagine being a tiny baby and not being able to scratch where it itches.....ugh! Anyway, here are his stats:

Height: 75%

Head: 75%

Weight.......10%

SERIOUSLY!!! He eats EVERY 2 hours and then every 3 hours throughout the night......and only 10 PERCENT!?!? Oh dear....Oh well...The doctor wasn't concerned. At least he is super tall compared to his weight. But then the doctor had the nerve to say that Maddie will probably be taller than Connor when they get older. Thanks lady. Just what I wanted to hear. (for those of you that don't know this about me...I hated being so tall in highschool because there weren't a lot of guys taller than me, so I was self conscious about it.) I am sure my girls will be a good height, but lady please let me believe that my son will be taller than my daughters someday.

please excuse that little rant.

Anyway...good to know that my kids are somewhat healthy and growing and have no major problems. And thank goodness for modern medicine.

I hate that I am once again not posting a picture....

(post-blog edit: Just so everyone understands...I will still completely love all of my children no matter how tall or not tall they are, and I will support and encourage them to be confident with however tall they may be. I just didn't think that lady needed to say that....that's all.)