Is it Spring already?

I know that I have been absent for over a month now and I always feel the need to explain why. This time I am going to assume that you all know that I have 4 kids, 10-13 kids including daycare kids, you know my van driving schedule and all the church activities we are involved in, etc. So there you have it. Life has been happening all around me.

Then we emerged from our Winter cocoons and stretched our white and cold worn bodies in the warm rays of the sun for a  few weeks, just to be slapped in the face by Mother natures cruel sense of humor that is called Spring. We were blessed with more snow and more cold. I still see the light at the end of the tunnel though, as buds are popping out everywhere and green grass is daring to peek out of the ground. Somehow I believe that Spring is definitely coming and bringing it's old friend warm weather. Then I can kick the kids outside all day!

It looks like I left off on my life update with Tess' first birthday which was ages ago already! So now where to begin...I think I will just give a general update about everyone then include some of my favorite pictures from February and March.

Owen is getting closer to the end of his 1st grade year. I can't believe that he is getting so old! In just a couple months he will be 7 years old and that makes me feel super old. I can remember when I was 7! That was a long time ago. He has lost his bottom two front teeth back in Nov. and is working on losing his top two. He is doing awesome in school and can read like an advanced 2nd grader! Crazy to think that a year ago he was just learning how to read! Now he can read virtually anything. He just started playing soccer for the first time with the YMCA, is signed up for little league baseball and just started swimming lessons again. He is a busy boy. Last month he got lots of attention at school. He was chosen by a visiting author to be a guest at luncheon with only 5 other kids! Then he got to eat lunch with his teacher for passing a Math test, and then he got to be a Rockin' Roll Model (basically student of the month for first grade). He's doing very well. He's still getting sick about every 4-6 weeks though and we don't know why. He ends up complaining of a headache, which turns into a fever which turns into throwing up (but I think the throwing up is from his sinuses draining down his throat). The doctors can't find anything wrong with him other then saying he is getting frequent sinus infections. He has now had an MRI (which he did AWESOME at) and the results came back as nothing wrong with him. Then he got some blood work done to test for all sorts of stuff including allergies, and everything came back totally normal and that he had NO indoor or outdoor allergies (which surprised me). Then he got put on a 21 day very strong antibiotic to see if he just had a sinus infection that never really went away, but in the last four days of the dose he ended up with a fever and head ache. His headaches can be migrainish too, so that worries me. So now the doctors are supposed to be putting their heads together as to what to do next. We are all stumped.

Raymond is also doing well. He is ornery as ever! :) But too smart for his own good at times. His teachers love him and he has lots of friends at school, even though he says he doesn't. He's funny and crazy and busy all the time. He will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall and we've just had disappointing news about that. We had transferred Owen into a different neighborhood school when he started last year because we weren't fond of our neighborhood school. Now we tried to transfer Raymond into Owen's school and they say they are over capacity next year and Raymond will not be accepted! We just found that out on Friday - this is public school by the way - but we are now in limbo as to what to do with him for Kindergarten. Our choices are to put him in our neighborhood school  where he is guaranteed a spot, but that means having two kids in two different public elementary schools, or putting him in a private church kindergarten, which means paying tuition. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

He is SO excited that it is baseball season. He has been sleeping with his glove and ball and bat periodically throughout the winter and asking incessantly when he can play baseball again. Now's the time. He is signed up for Little league with Owen, which Tony is coaching, and he just started swimming lessons with Owen too. Raymond is very good at  baseball and lives for it. So I am excited to see him play this season. He loves school and is getting more into playing the computer and stuff. He also learned how to tie his shoes a few months ago and is about to lose his first tooth, ALREADY!!!

Judd has had a busy couple of months too! He turned 3 at the beginning of March and that still seems crazy to me! He is a funny, happy little boy. I swear he could be a stand up comedian. I wish that everyone could meet him and see his true funny side. He usually has me and Tony laughing hysterically. Or if that career doesn't work out for him, maybe he could be a singer. He sings no matter what he is doing. Non-stop, 24/7 you will find Judd singing. He sings real songs or makes them up. His made up songs are pretty funny too. He's very creative and good at remembering song lyrics too. He loves all things Scooby Doo (which was his 3rd birthday party) and all things Super heros. He loves playing with both. This year he is signed up for his first sports ever! He will be playing little league for the first time. He even got his first baseball glove for his birthday. He's very excited, even though daddy decided not to coach his team because he thought Judd would be too clingy if he was a coach and wouldn't get as much out of the experience. He is mister independent too. He doesn't want you to help him with anything, but he is also my very good helper. He likes to help do the dishes and other chores cause it makes him feel important. Next year he will be starting preschool which makes me feel old and sad. I know he'll love it. At the cost of sounding conceited or cocky - he truly might be a genius! He's so smart!!

Last but certainly not least is my most beautiful and darling little girl Tess. She is funny and strong, girlie and smart, loves to rough house with the boys but play dress up and have "pretty fingers" as we call them. She's versatile as I hoped my daughter would be. I wanted her to be girlie because I have all boys, but I wanted her to be able to get dirty with the boys and not care too, which she loves the dirt. So I got it pretty good. I think her hair is turning more red every day. I'm told alot that she looks just like me, which makes me happy since my boys don't look a lot like me. She is more like a two year old than a one year old and acts like a toddler all the time. She is opinionated and a screamer! But she is cuddly and loves to laugh and eat! She just got to spend a special weekend with just me, Grandma and Aunt Kimmy in CO wedding dress shopping for Aunt Kimmy. So that was fun. She got to be one of the girls. She gets into everything and climbs on everything and takes it as a personal offense when she is told no or gets something taken away from her. She pushy with her brothers and likes to get her way. We might have to break her of a few bad habits as she gets older like bossing her brothers around. I think she has them wrapped pretty tightly around her little finger (daddy too). She's learning to say new words every day and will be 15 months old on April 12. Time is flying by! Her hair is getting really long too, so we are trying out new hair-dos all the time, however she usually doesn't keep the rubber bands or clips in for very long - but soon she will I hope! She is working on her last four teeth, the  I-teeth, and then she will be done. She's has all of her other teeth since before she turned one, not sure why these I-teeth are taking so long, but I'll be ready to be done with the teething stage for awhile! :)

So the group is doing well! We will hopefully be better at staying on top of what we are up too. The kids are growing like crazy!!