It has been such a long time since I have sat down and blogged, I know that I have been needing to do it but there just does not seem to be enough time in the day. I am buried in dirty dishes, laundry, dirty diapers & bottles, school papers, etc. Four kids is a lot of kids, maybe not for some people but it is definitely a lot for me. Dave has been busy with his usual work and his side work, teaching seminary, and his newest endeaver.... P90X. He has been waking up every morning at 4a.m. just about the time that I am going to bed a lot of nights. He has lost a good amount of weight, and is getting pretty lean. He is really happy with the results that he has seen so far. I have been busy working at the hospital and the YMCA and working out trying to loose the rest of my baby weight. I am happy to say I have lost 20lbs. since January 1st and am back to pre-baby body, it feels so good! What are we getting so fit for you ask? Well, we are counting down the days to ...........................................
Our Carnival Cruise with 16 of our best friends! We have been talking about taking a cruise with our friends for a long time and didn't know if it would ever actually happen but everyone is booked and we are going- yippee, we can't wait. Stay tuned for pics of that.
Now to an update on the kiddos
Tatum is 8 months old now, wow where did all of that time go? She is such a fun little baby. She is a happy baby, well as long as someone is paying attention to her. She has become very attached to me, more than any of my other babies have been. It is nice to know that she loves me but geeze she makes it tough for me to get anything done. I am a little fearful of the after effects of leaving her for 5 days, she may never let me leave her side ever again.
We set up her little booster seat in a chair at dinner tonight and it was kind of strange having her sit at the dinner table with the rest of family and munch on her cheerios. This is our family, this is everyone, and it feels just right.
She is a great eater, and has gained a lot of weight over the past few months. She was a tiny little thing, but not anymore. She is a full size 8 month old with a crazy head of hair.
The poor thing has had a rough couple of months though. In early February she got RSV and has been battling it ever since. I have been to the Dr. more with her in the last 2 months than with all of my kids in the last year. She keeps getting double ear infections, runny noses, and is wheezing a lot. We have to give her breathing treatments everyday and may still need to for the next month. She hates those breathing treatments, and honestly so do we- they are torture. I really hope that she can finally kick this illness, I hope she isn't always going to be my sickly child.
Paige is almost 3, which breaks my heart everytime I think about how big she is getting. She cracks me up every single day. I wish I were better at writing down all the things that she says but even if I did my delivery just isn't nearly as comical as hers. She has so much spunk and sassiness in her, I guess it just goes a long with being the 3rd child. She knows who she is and what she likes and no one is going to tell her different.
These days we spend most of our time just hanging out at home or at the YMCA and she wouldn't have it any other way. She does not like to go shopping or run errands. She just has way too much energy and curiosity to be bothered with walking with mom or sitting in a cart.
Addy and Ethan had a day with dad about a month ago that they absolutely loved! The school has a program called Watch D.O.G.S(dads of great students) where the dads are able to sign up for a day of volunteering at the school. The best part about it is Dave was able to spend half of his day with Addyson and half of his day with Ethan. He helped in the lunchroom, at recess, in art etc. He had a lot of fun and the kids always love having their parents with them at school.
Ethan has had a great year at Kindergarten. He loves learning! He has been doing exceptionally well with his reading lately, Dave and I have both been really impressed with some of the words he is able to read these days. He always says how he wants to be really smart. I was actually able to get him to eat his broccoli tonight because I told him it would make him smart. I wonder what else I can convince him to do with that line. He was accepted into the schools Gifted and Talented program, which he is really enjoying.
He just finished up his first season of basketball, which he enjoyed. He wasn't the best player on the team but he had a lot of fun out there with defense. He is quite the trash talker, which I am not proud of, but it does kind of make me chuckle. They had a great season and finished 2nd place in their age brackett.
Coach Jason was a great coach and he was able to play with a couple of his friends from church.
Addyson has been doing really well with a lot of things lately. I guess she has finally reached that age where she doesn't feel the need to test us anymore and she has been a great kid at home. She still really needs to work on her cleaning and being responsible skills but now I have a lot more faith that she will grow into it. She has been such a help with Tatum and loves to hold her and play with her.
Which is great for me especially when I am trying to get dinner fixed. Her teacher said the best things about her on her last report card, I was so proud of her. She has been busy with gymnastics and activity days at church. She spends a lot of her time reading, still playing school, and doing experiments- she loves science. We took the kids to the park tonight and a boy that she has a crush on from her class was also there. It was hilarious to see her behavior around him. She is getting older and I don't want her to. Dave and I went to a wedding the other night and as the bride and groom were dancing Dave said something about what it will be like when Addyson gets married and the tears started rolling.
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Easter
We had a beautiful Easter weekend, no rain, not a cloud in the sky. We spent the whole weekend with the kids, my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, my mom, and step-dad. We colored eggs, had egg hunts, ate candy, had a yummy meal, and just relaxed while the kids played. It sounded a bit like Christmas morning when the kids woke up to find their Easter baskets. I was of course still in bed, and didn't get my butt out quick enough to take pictures of them finding their baskets. They were thrilled with all of the fun stuff the Easter Bunny left for them. Addyson was a little disappointed that he didn't leave her any Pokemon cards but needless to say, I wasn't:)
Everyone came over Sunday afternoon and we hid a ton of eggs throughout the house and outside for the kids to find. Paige was excited with every egg she found, she even found one of the prize eggs with $$.
There was a big golden egg with $5 in it that they were all determined to find. There was some serious competetiveness in all of them.
Digging for that prize egg.
Hope everyone had a great Holiday!
Just in case I haven't said this enough, We have the greatest group of friends! They are so great, that they were all willing and excited to take 5 days away from jobs and kids to 
5 a.m. the morning of April 17th our amazing friends Earl and Cyndi(the newlyweds) picked us up in what we like to call "The Party Bus". Earl has a bus just laying around to haul people around and what better time to use it then to haul 14 of us down to Galvaston together. We arrived, boarded our boat, had some food, and slept! Exciting, I know, but we needed our energy for the good times to come.
The girls had a lot of "girl time"
The guys had their "Guy time"
Lots of relaxing, sunbathing, reading, chatting 
Late night hot tubbing.
Late night junkfood fests and games.
Good times with Darla at the Karaoke Bar.
Dancing, even those who don't dance- they danced:)
Getting dressed up and eating nice dinners.
All the girls on Formal night
And the men! 
When we went to Progresso on our last trip we visited the Chichinitza Ruins, which was very cool but we weren't allowed to climb the pyramids- not cool. At Uxmal they were able to, I was a little jealous.
Justin, is the photographer of the crew. He took some amazing pictures. 
Dorky picture but I love it! 
Enjoying the sunset on our last night. We even saw dolphins leaping in the water.
The aftermath in the cafeteria. I lost my mongolian grill- dangit!
On our way to the shuttle from the pier we noticed camera crews trying to get stories about "the tilt" so of course some of us couldn't resist getting in front of the camera and telling the most dramatic story possible. Unfortunately the camera crews later interviewed children, which of course trumped our story.
