Life is flying by as always. Seneca is getting so big it's insane! She finally figured out how to scoot forward really well so now she has become  what I lovingly refer to as a "stalker baby." You see before she would just cry when I left the room, now she can cry AND follow me. She has started saying "Dada" when she sees Jess, little does she know she should be saying that to the mailman...wawawa. She also loves jumping and will jump on your lap if you hold her. This is especially nice during sacrament meeting because it really looks like I am making her jump and being really irreverent, oh well think what you want peeps. She also figured out the fishy face and does it constantly, again she is getting SO BIG!

 We had a campfire  as a family on Friday night. It was such a blast. I guess this is why people go camping just to get away from life and enjoy eachothers company for awhile. The kids took turns telling us funny and spooky stories. My favorite was probably when Pantera told a story about a werewolf and then she was asking me afterwards "What would be the worst part of being a werewolf?" I said "waking up naked" she agreed and I added "or maybe waking up with blood under your fingers and not knowing where it came from." She agreed and said "Yeah, what if you got HIV?" Exactly.
 Jess is determined not to let any of his siblings see his sweet mustache so all of his picture will look a little like this from now on...

Amari was pretending to be a mom the other day and listed some of her mom skills "I can clean the house, bake a cake, make you dinner, take care of kids, I can do all of the mom stuff." So I asked her what kinds of things dads do "They tell you to go to bed and sometimes make you an egg burrito." She invited herself to the neighbors house and I told her that was not polite to invite yourself over, she replied "I wasn't just inviting myself, I was inviting ALL of us!" In that case...

The dog was in the house and Amari went to check on her, when she came in to me to report she said "She is upstairs in the bathroom, drinking BUM WATER." And speaking of bums Amari never remembers to wipe grrr...and she told me "I have a rash on my butt." Zeke added "Mom, I wipe and there is nothing on my butt, not even a crack."

Zeke and Amari are quite the nurturers. They came to me and were so proud with Amari saying "Katurah got hurt so I kissed it better." Then Zeke said "And I told her 'poor thing''. That is how he comforts everyone now, walks up to them and says in a semi monotone voice "poor thing" and walks away. Love him.

Katurah is talking more and more. Her older sisters taught her to say "shake your booty!" She can't say her ink it comes out unk so her favorite pony Pinkie Pie is Unkie Pie. I bought her a pair of Tinkerbell shoes and she LOVES them so much that she insisted on wearing them to church and I caved, so she was all dressed up with her cute hair done wearing her "Unkerbell" sneakers. I guess I am officially that mom.

Pantera still constantly leads the kids on wonderful adventures. I love listening to them play all the creative games they come up with. She is so good at getting them all involved. You are going to be a wonderful mother someday Pantera. 2 more weeks until her school is out!!! I can't wait!

 Little miss Seneca is so close to crawling. She is doing an awesome army crawl forward and also gets up on her knees briefly now. She is into EVERYTHING, but honestly it's a really nice change of pace. A little bit of independence is doing our relationship a lot of good:)

Zeke and Amari graduated from preschool on Thursday and Zeke I registered Zeke for Kindergarten the same day. He made some really great crafts at registration including on totally sweet 1st day of school necklace that he informed me he would "Never take off, ever." Later that day he said "I was just joking, I am allowed to take it off." He seemed really happy to be done with preschool and has asked everyday if it's kindergarten time yet.

I was listening to him play with Amari while he was being darth vader. It went a like this "I am luke's father, but one time I cut off his hand, then I took off m mask and my face was white and grumbly. Then I didn't want to hurt my son anymore." Star Wars in a nutshell. And he has never seen it btw.

 Amari says she doesn't want to go to  preschool next year because she is worried she will cough on the other kids. But she does sing some amazing songs about it "I pledge allegiance to the fla-ag, I really pledge allegiance to the fla-a-ag at my pre-e-school. I'm a superstar!" Please sing that in your mind with a sweet shaky 4 year old pop voice. Last night we had salmon for dinner and while I was cooking the girls were playing bears. When Amari asked what was for dinner and I told her it was salmon she said "Pantera, let's pretend salmon is fish ok?!?"

 

 Pantera doesn't think it is fair that we have Mother's day. "It's like you get 2 birthdays." She is in charge of feeding our cat and often forgets so I have to come up with new ways to tell her she needs food. Last night I wrote her a note from the cat that said "Please feed me or I will die!!! I sure do love being alive. I'm so thirsty my tongue is like sandpaper! WATER!!! I'm blue-oo-star, super starved, I'd love to eat the  turkey you carved. (not really cat food is sufficient). 9 out of 10 vets recommend feeding your pets. FOOD!!! HUNGRY!!! Love, Bluestar. She was annoyed and said I could have just asked.

 Katurah found Pantera's glasses and was so excited to wear them. So I found an old frame and popped the lenses out so she could pretend to be her preteen idol Pantera. She sat in Pantera's seat at dinner and wanted us to call her Pantera. Yesterday at church she took my mom's  cane and walked through the chapel with it during sacrament meeting, I hope she continues to imitate wonderful women.

Swingset

 This is what my dad and I have been working on...

I installed the slide and built stairs and temporary railings on the front of the playhouse yesterday. The playhouse is made from mostly free recycled wood and would have cost a small fortune otherwise. We have a swing for each kid...thank you Papa!!!

 

Last Sunday Jess was feeling a little off, but nothing too bad. Then on Monday morning I called to check on him at work and he said his right side hurt. We decided he should go see the doctor just to be safe. They took his blood and sent him home saying to go in for a scan in a few days. Later that afternoon the doctor called back and said to go to the ER, his white blood count is really high. He had his appendix removed that night, was home he next morning and has been a permanent fixture on our couch ever since. He gets to go  back to work light duty tomorrow and I think the poor guy is ready. Totally random...I love me some medical bills...seriously though I am so glad he is ok it could have been really bad.

 

Onto the funnies...

 

Seneca does jumping jacks in the bathtub and gets me soaked everytime she is bathed. One thing you might not know about me is I HATE being splashed in the face...like really bad, so it is rather amusing to watch I am sure. The other kids probably slip her some candy or something to splash me real good, payback mom. She also does this awesome growl, she sounds like a monster! She sings at the top of her little lungs whenever she is happy but the song is just "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH" trying to get through a grocery store with her is crazy because she sings so everyone stops to talk to her. She then kicks her chubby little legs and smiles and melts whoever sees her.

 

Katurah loves to tell us "No" these days. She has developed quite the little attitude. She is sleeping on the bottom bunk in Pantera's room now so she might just think she is so big she doesn't have to listen, just a theory. Yesterday I was taking a shower and when I opened the door she was waiting on the other side and in a really creepy voice said "Surprise!" Yikes.

 

Amari is a little manipulator with her siblings. She wanted to go down the slide first so she told Zeke "Zeke, first is the worst and I wouldn't want you to be the worst. So I will go down first so you don't have to be the worst." How kind of you Amari. She was describing a mixed breed dog to our neighbor the other day and said "She is a slice of a german shepherd and a slice of a dog."

 

Today Jess was watching his shows and Zeke saw the cars and said "Dad, is this Nascar?" When Jess confirmed it was Zeke said "Then I will watch." Then sat for the next 20 minutes watching the cars go around the track. He is obsessed with star wars and says all the names so cute like "Obi Wah Kenobi" or "Dark Vader" and "Anikin episode three."

 

Pantera was hesitant to hug Jess when she found out he had appendicitis. We had to tell her it was not contagious. She replied "Oh it's like HIV." What?!? I guess she thought she  read in her healthbook that HIV is not contagious. I think she may have misunderstood just slightly. I signed her up for a football league yesterday, she and Zeke will start practices in the summer. She is so pumped and proud to do football and not cheer. I hope they like it.  

 

 

I can't believe how big all these kids are getting. Seneca is rolling all over the place, thank goodness for baby gates. She is a lot more pleasant now that she has some mobility. If only she would let Jess hold her...a girl can dream right? She loves her toes so much, she is constantly playing with her feet. She was half awake the other morning but was too tired to open her eyes, she lifted her little foot to my face and grinned with her eyes closed when I told her she had stinky feet.

Katurah thinks she is a dog most of the time now. She is the cutest pup I have ever met, and her little puppy voice is adorable. Adorable until she is supposed to be talking to her speech therapist and she will only talk like a dog. She loves the game "This little piggy" and will pull off your shoes so she can play with you.

Amari got a magic wand for her birthday. She uses her powers only for good. Like the other morning when she waved it at me and said "Bibbidy bobbidy boo, make my mom beautiful! Mom, pretend your beautiful ok?" Thank you Amari.

On our way home from preschool Amari was complaining about how hot it was. "Mom it's so hot in here, there is no air!" Zeke chimed in "And no internet!" Air internet totally interchangeable.

Zeke informed me that he needs to do his "beauty reading" I asked if this makes him beautiful and he said "No, there is beauty sleeping and beauty reading. Beauty reading makes me handsome, and I've been reading lots of days." True story.

Pantera is counting down the days til 4th grade. Apparently in 4th grade all the teachers give out candy and pet unicorns while never giving homework. It's recess all day and all the kids are always nice. At least that's what you would think was going to happen if you talked to her. I keep trying to tell her to enjoy the rest of this year but 3rd grade is tough so good luck with that.

Jess and I have been married 10 years today! What the heck?!? When did we get old?

Easter pics!

I let a friend borrow my photo lights a while back, so these were all natural light...because I know you were wondering why my background is shadowy.

Amari 4

 

 Amari turned 4 this week! I can't believe she is this big already. I know everyone says it but it really does seem like she was just born, of course I could be confusing this with the twenty other kids I've birthed over the past few years;) She wouldn't be a four year old if she didn't smile like this...

 Amari has more personality then she knows what to do with. She is constantly cracking us up. She informed me that this year she is turning 4 and on her next birthday she will be 54. I asked her if she thought she should be all the numbers in between and she thought that was a terrible idea. I guess middle age does seem pretty fun. So to sum it up she has 12 years til she retires...I sure hope she outlives her savings.

She loves her big sister so much. She would follow Pantera everywhere if she were allowed.

She also loves to play with Zeke and Katurah. She is just all around easy to get along with. Amari you are such a blessing to our family. You are so fun, funny, and sweet. I hope you are as awesome at 54 as you are at 4! I love you Amari girl!!!

April Fourth

I took all the kids with me to the grocery store earlier this week. While we were waiting in line Pantera got really upset while looking at the magazines on display "Mom, that's pornography!" it was a picture of a lady topless with a black sensor bar over it. So she went about turning all the magazines so the other kids wouldn't see the porn. I'm glad she recognizes when something just isn't appropriate. She made this super cool king pig out of play dough this morning.

 Zeke and Seneca are the best of pals. He is constantly in her face saying silly things to make her laugh. Sometimes when she is really tired and crabby this makes her cry, which in turn makes him cry. "I was just trying to make her smile, but she did not smile." Zeke you make me smile everyday. In other news, miss Seneca got her first tooth in!

 This week we celebrated April Fools day. Because I am such a nice wife I convinced Jess that I was pregnant. I have never heard someone sound so relieved as when I told him I was just pranking him. So when he got home Amari decided to prank him with her own joke "Dad, there's a baby in my tummy. APRIL FOURTH!!!" Yes, April Fourth indeed.

Katurah has been a little pill. She has missed her daddy who has had to work a lot this week. She even lays in his spot in bed and invites me to snuggle under the blanket with her when he is gone. Usually she only snuggles daddy and papa so she must be feeling pretty desperate.