Easter Blessings

We spent Easter weekend at Papa and Binga's this year...with all NINE cousins! It was crazy, but a lot of fun.

First up was an Easter egg hunt at their church. It had rained that morning, so it was more of a free-for-all than a hunt. The kids from the church put on a little presentation about Easter beforehand which was neat.

And of course we had to dye eggs, too! They made a bit of a mess, but not bad considering we had 8 kids around the table, two of them only 2!!

We had a couple days of beautiful weather, so the kids had a lot of fun playing in the backyard. I think they were playing freeze tag here. Isaac had to be right in there with the big kids!

Easter morning. Uncle Windell sent their outfits again. SO CUTE! This was before Isaac puked all over his new suit. Not fun. At least we had made it home from church and were in the driveway...What a mess to clean up, though. Let's just say there was a large amount of vomit and he was still in his carseat. Luckily it wasn't projectile but his carseat is toast. It was beyond its time limit by law anyway, so he needed a new one. So our plans changed...Aaron went home with Jamie and Cassie and got a ride from there, and the kids and I are staying until Isaac is better. He seems fine tonight, so hopefully we can leave in the morning before anyone else gets it! But aren't they so cute?!

Rhys!! She's such a good baby! She can make a mess, but she's mostly a very content baby. Her dimples will make anyone melt! :)

Alisha couldn't come this weekend, but we're glad Jeremy was brave enough to bring all 4 kids by himself! Notice that Bryce and Isaac have almost identical outfits?? And Kaedyn and Anna matched with their dress colors, too. Totally not planned.

And Cassie and the boys even matched the others with the turquoise! Not planned, either!

Dad's cousin Cherie even came, too! It's been a few years since we'd seen her so it was a lot of fun to catch up with her. And since Mom was sick, it was nice to have another pair of able hands to help with the meals.

My kids are growing up way too fast!

 All nine Stinemetz cousins! Tate wasn't having the couch-sitting-picture-taking. And of course there have to be a few that are making weird faces! :) I still can't imagine what Grandpa and Grandma felt like when all SEVENTEEN of their grandchildren were visiting at once!!! Craziness.

And here we all are, except for Mom and Alisha! What a crew.

Now....if we can just keep anyone else from getting the stomach bug....I'm pretty sure that's not going happen. Jamie came down with it when they got home tonight. Aaron is starting to feel sick.

Busy Week

Grandpa and Grandma are visiting this week so the kids are having fun playing, doing art projects, and when it was nice going for walks to the park.
Isaac fell asleep in the van after lunch and guess who's still awake at 9:45?! He's tired but not enough to give it up and go to sleep. Ugh. He slept for less than an hour.
Anna and Grandma made a "Grandpa face" pancake the other morning. It took them quite a while, but they had a lot of fun doing it!
While we watched the movie "Wild Horse Wild Ride", Anna and Isaac made their own wild mustang corrals. :) If you haven't seen it, do! Scott is actually in it for a couple of quick glimpses!! It's a documentary on the Extreme Mustang Makeover competitions. It's neat to watch how different trainers work with the horses.
All my kids love watching Duck Dynasty. The other day, Jacob was sitting at the table, shirtless with a toothpick in his mouth, and he said "now we're cookin' with peanut oil!!" It was so funny!!

Changing Table?

New use...growing things! On top we have our garden plants and flowers and a blueberry bush. Next level is a new experiment-testing the growth pattern on 5 yr olds. Then on the bottom we have the same new experiment, only with a 2 yr old instead. I'll let you know how it works.....

Spring! Gardening!

Yesterday afternoon was absolutely beautiful!! The kids and I were outside from 1pm to almost 7pm. I spent the entire time tilling and getting some seeds planted. We got a plot at the community garden this year, so our plan is to plant our garden at home all to tomatoes and put everything else at the other plot (kale, cucumber, zucchini, corn, eggplant, cabbage, cantaloupe, onions, peas, beans, broccoli, and pumpkin). I also went together with a friend and bought all seeds. We were a little late getting them ordered but I think we'll be okay. I've tried seeds for 3 yrs now and I'm determined THIS will be the year it works!! Plus I got a self watering seed tray. :) That was the problem the other years-the seeds didn't get watered! I've got 4 different tomato varieties and 6 different pepper plants. Thanks to Pinterest, I've found a space-saving idea for planting smaller plants using pallets. I used 2 pallets to plant lettuce, spinach, carrots, green onions, and herbs in. Dad should be proud of me...I had to take a small pallet apart to put ends on the big pallets so the dirt would fall out. ;) But next time I need to wear gloves. I still have splinters I can't get out!
Anna will also have her own flower beds this year around the playhouse. She saved her money and picked out her own seeds to plant. So she has a seed tray too :) She even shared and let Jacob pick one to plant as his own. She will have Forget-me-nots, pansies, African daisies, rose moss, and marigolds in her garden!
Now, we just need Spring to stick around for good this time!!

To Nap or Not to Nap

We've been trying no nap this week for Isaac because he's had such a hard time going to sleep at night. Let's just say it hasn't been working that great. He still hasn't been sleeping all night but at least it isn't taking him hours to fall asleep at night. This afternoon, he literally ran into a closet door. Smacked right into it! Of course he climbed up in my lap for kisses and promptly fell asleep! Even a cookie couldn't keep him awake!! Poor kid. Not sure what we're going to do...

A language all his own

Isaac doesn't speak English. Some might say he's a little Dutchy. I just hope Miss Susan can work with him...Jacob made such improvements with her before he turned 3. Let me back up. A couple weeks ago, I talked to Jacob's speech teacher (Miss Amy) because Isaac has been getting pretty frustrated with not being understood. I was going to wait until he was 2.5 and see if things just clicked for him. He's not really far behind, but enough that I'm a little concerned given what we've experienced with Jacob. Now, Isaac isn't nearly as bad as Jacob was. But since he is getting really frustrated at times with us not understanding him, I asked Miss Amy what she thought. She recommended calling Sunflower (which is the place that did Jacob's speech before he turned 3). Early intervention is always best and with his frustration, there's no reason to wait any longer. They came and it was Miss Susan!! She was so excited to see Jacob again (even though he didn't remember her). Isaac is right on the edge. He technically qualifies for services, but he could just get it on his own soon. Again, since he's frustrated with not being understood I decided to go ahead and start speech therapy. I'm still waiting to heat back from them on when he'll start.
So to give you an idea of what his language sounds like, here are a few examples...
Bust = toast
Nuh = Anna
Buh = Bubba (Jacob)
Paw = potty
Puh = poopy
Pa = Papa and Grandpa
Ma = Mama and Grandma
Bee = Binga

There are others but that's all I can think of right now. He absolutely loves Toy Story and he says Buzz very plainly! Most of the time I can figure out what he's saying by either his gestures or by having him show me. When I can't figure it out, boy howdy does he get fired up!!!