Lots of Catching Up to Do

I've been awful at blogging the last few weeks. I will admit that I am NOT going to try anymore because honestly, every time I say that, I fail. So, I think I'm just going to shut the good ol blog down. . . Ok, maybe not that extreme. :)

We have been spending a lot of time at the museum (don't be too surprised).

The boys have started baseball practices. Malachi. . . well, he's more interested in the wildlife/insects on the field rather than practicing, but hey, we tried.



I think we are going to have a TERRIFIC summer with our neighbors! They are such a godsend to us! Oh how much fun we have together. Our kids get along (so far. . . .) and so do we! :)

Malachi will be writing letters to his pen pal in California. I hope that maybe that will motivate me to get some writing done as well. I'm terrible at sending letters/cards.

A few weeks ago, we were given a box turtle (to have for a couple days and then release). The boys named it Kevin and he was one of the most aggressive and active box turtles that I've ever seen.

Last weekend, we made a trip down to Oklahoma City for a funeral. Shawn's cousin, Kari, went to be with the lord at such a young age of 27 years old. :( The boys did surprisingly well during the trip for the most part. We are more compact in our new car so it was challenging at times, but they did good.

At our stay in Wichita for the night, Shawn's mom, Grandma Brenda, found a red-earred slider turtle. He was cute!

Malachi had a lot of fun finding bugs too, like this huge beetle:

We had a lot of fun with cousins we don't get to see very often.

The weather has been getting hot finally, and some of our friends helped me take the boys on a walk to Sonic for some drinks and sand volleyball (the boys, not me). :) I love how I can do more without having heart problems. It is just amazing and hard to explain the difference.

We started the summer reading program at the library. Zach even preferred his book over his ice cream cake.

Malachi preferred to check out a lot of snake books. Don't worry Hays,KS, we didn't take even half of the section!

The boys have been eating like crazy. I wonder how they make it through school with appetites like they have! They've been eating hard boiled eggs as a snack. The other day, they were shelling the eggs over the trash and I asked where the extra egg was. It was right under the dinosaur. . . duh, mom!

Thankfully, some days the boys have been helpful with chores. Of course, when they are, it's always in a dramatic fashion:

Naps are definitely on the list of to-do this summer! We LOVE our naps.

And we'll get more opportunities to volunteer at the museum, which means, more of this:

I guess some of the pictures got out of order. Here are a few of Malachi with his cousin Ashlee and also the cousins on Shawn's side.

Here is Miss Treya. I love FaceTiming with her while she is at daycare! She is going to be a big sister any day now!

Baseball

The boys had their first baseball and t-ball practice tonight. I think they are all pretty excited. Shawn took Zachary and Logan and I took Malachi to practice. Of course, Malachi found ants, bugs, and a cricket. He was very distracted. I kept thinking- oh lord help us if a snake tries to cross the field. We have had such a super busy week that I finally realized tonight it is ONLY Tuesday! ;( school is out for the summer on Friday and I think we are all very ready for a break. I hope I can start blogging more. I just have had a difficult time w pictures.

Family movie night watching the Life of Pi.

Volunteering at the Museum

We have started to volunteer again at the museum. I took a few weeks off after my surgery, but now I am feeling stronger and able to move around a little bit more. Malachi had missed it SOOOO much. He LOVES feeding the animals and playing with them. We learn so much each time we go there and we love the staff too. They actually can put up with my boys and those kind of people are keepers in my book. :) Malachi loves when he's finished with the "chores" so he can hold the snakes. We love the kingsnakes especially. They get spoiled.
The other day, Malachi needed to carry in some prairie hay for the tortoises:

He also likes to play in their big sand box. I can't wait until this exhibit is done. I think we will be helping get it constructed some more over the summer.

The mama hognose snake laid eggs last week. I'd never really seen snake eggs. None of them ended up being very good or hatchable. ;(
 Malachi has been awful about taking pictures. He likes to "pose" with weird hand or facial expressions. Here he is feeding the mice their food and treats. The mice are so stinkin cute!

Darius and Pebbles love to wander through the grass and get fresh air. They especially love finding and eating the dandelions. Pebbles is about 60 years old and is much smaller than Darius. Darius is about 9 years old.

After they ate, it was time to herd them to the kitchen area for their baths. This is quite the chore and they stink!

The school year has been flying by. I think we are all anxious for school to be out. We have so many appointments and mini-vacations. Most of all we look forward to sleeping in and catching up on some quality family time (if we even have that anymore). The boys are all signed up for baseball again this summer. It should be interesting getting used to a new system of coaches and teams. We sure miss our Riley friends and the families from the teams we helped coach in the past. I'm praying each day that this summer will not get as hot and allow me to enjoy watching my boys play their games. I've already had 2 dehydrated days and it's NOT fun.

We hope to look into getting a home loan this summer, but its been depressing to think about lately with how incredibly high the house prices are and also how many medical bills I have. :( We miss our puppies so much. I have a feeling that Suzie Q won't be ready to move back to town. She's loving being a country doggie. She runs all day, chasing rabbits and birds and then flops on the couch passed out and snoring for the evenings. It must be a rough life.

Liam is growing up way too fast and soon he won't be the baby of the family. Courtney is due at the end of May with her 4th so this summer we hope to travel to see our cousins and spend some fun times with them.

Here is a bad phone picture (all these are awful phone pics) of the snow we got last week (I think)- toward the end of April. This spring has been soooo weird!

And lastly. . . . this boy is going to have to learn to STAY IN HIS OWN BED . . . . ALL NIGHT!!!!! He has such a connection with me or attachment issue that he thinks he needs to be beside me ALL DAY AND NIGHT. :( It was cute and nice for awhile, but I like my space and my uninterrupted sleep.

Logan has been practicing his basketball skills. We bought him a new ball as a reward for being such a big boy while I was in the hospital.

Yesterday, we got some devastating news- our pastor and family friend, Pastor Gil passed away. He had been having ill health but was continuing to preach. We just saw him while we were back for the Easter service. He has been with our small church and our family for MANY years (since 1996) and married Shawn and me (we were his first wedding to perform). He also baptized all my boys (including Shawn) and attended almost all of their birthday parties and celebrations. He was like a grandfather to us and we will surely miss him.