Easter

Here are the kids decorating eggs on Sat. I don't think you can see anything incriminating on Brody but he would be decorating his eggs without any pants on. Lucky for us he just decided Sat. morning he was going to start using the potty all the time now. So he has been doing great the last few days but likes to run around the house when we are home in undies and a shirt which is just fine with us since we aren't changing diapers any more!

We actually got just a little bit of snow on Easter. You probably can't tell too well from the picture of our backyard but there was some blowing. Luckily it stopped but it was still a bitterly cold day!My Mom had gotten a coconut to have with the kids, although they pretty much all just discovered that they don't like coconut. But they had fun smashing it with a hammer so that was a big highlight of Easter.The kids after we got home from the Fellowship. Actually only the three younger ones went with me and Kain and Dave went to the grocery store. Dave and I couldn't help but laugh when I asked the kids who wanted to go to church and who wanted to stay home with Dad, the two older boys said right away they didn't want to go to church that day since it was Easter and all. Like one should get the holidays off from church. It is a good thing they didn't grow up in our parents house! But Gage at least changed his mind and decided to go and Aubriel LOVES going.
Kain's silly face...Gage's silly face...
Brody's silly face...
Aubriel's silly face...

Just another pic that didn't turn out too bad.... it is hard to get a good one of that many kids, soon to only be made harder in a few months!

Spring has Finally Sprung

At least it felt like it today on the first day of Spring (well that is what our calendars say but then I have heard that it is actually mid-spring... who really knows anyway). It was warm today, for here anyway, in the 40s but I think we are still suppose to get more snow. Nothing like snow for Easter to give you warm spring feeling. The boys are just happy their spring vacation starts today so I doubt the weather is going to keep them in doors all week.

I have some recent pictures of Brody, not that they themselves have much to do with Spring but while I think of the earth defrosting and being renewed these pictures remind just why one with many kids never stops experiencing the "newness" of having children. You see I think many times people think that once you have gone through all the stages with a few kids there isn't possibly anything that could take you by surprise any more but Brody disproves that theory on almost a daily basis. Never when Kain and Gage were this little would we have been woken up to a two year old laughing as he played a video game. Yes, he recently learn how to actually play them and I fear his brother's have created a monster. Many times he will play when he first wakes up in the morning before breakfast. Sometimes he will sneak in his room when his brother's are falling asleep to try to play them.He has played them half naked... sometimes even completely naked if he takes off his own clothes.Here he is playing them while wearing his sister's headband... Dad was so happy with this picture!And he has even fallen asleep while in the middle of playing a game.I think I could write for Dr Seuss... You can play them in the nude, you can play them while you snooze, you can play them all dressed up or even while you sip your cup... (I didn't get the picture of him eating and drinking while playing his vids.)

See these are just precious moments I don't think we ever would have experienced with just two or three kids! Or even these pictures that were just newly discovered on my camera when I went to download the others from the day that Aubriel and Brody decided to take pictures of one another...

The Shape of a Mother

I came across this blog the other day titled "The Shape of a Mother." I think it is absolutely beautiful! What a wonderful idea to make real mother's bodies super models?! This is really the type of models all of our daughters, sons and husbands should be using as a form of comparison. To look upon the beauty of a woman in her completely natural state after nourishing such a beautiful gift with her body.

I can remember as a small child my favorite body part of my mother was her cheeks. When she would tuck me in bed at night and bend down to give me a kiss, I would take a deep breath and inhale the scent of my mother's face and nestle my face against her smooth soft cheek. I wonder what memories of me and my body my children will take with them into adulthood?

I can remember looking at my mother's dimpled belly and feeling so lucky that she was willing to "sacrifice" her body to give birth to me. Being born at home "where babies come from" was very prevalent in our home. I think more women should have pride over the changes inflicted on their bodies due to having children but I can admit even for me this is a struggle. How beautiful would our world be though if this became the norm?