Value of your House

I laughed so hard when I was sent this email:

Your house as seen by:

Yourself...



Your buyer...


Your Lender...


Your appraiser...


Your Tax Assessor...

Staging your house #1---Clean

This is a second take but I found Megan with like 5 wipes around the crib cleaning today. I had to laugh as she has just been copying what it seems like we've been doing over and over again....like that movie Groundhogs Day. Not that I don't clean on a daily basis anyway but having our house on the market has definitely increased the amount of smudge-removing, floor moping, etc. I've been trying to keep up with. So here is our little mimmick hard at work! I love when they are so helpful:)

Easter dinner

This year for Easter dinner we decided to eat like Jesus did: fish and honeycomb. My dad has enjoyed beekeeping in the past. He has retrieved beehives from people's trees and even a railroad car not too long ago. So he had some real honeycomb they sent up to us to try. The kids thought this was interesting and couldn't wait to try it. Even Grandpa Spriggs had a taste. I think we will continue this tradition next year. It was a wonderful Easter.

Edible Tombs

This year I found a really cute idea of keeping Christ in Easter. Each day we talked about the last days of His life and then had an activity to go along with it. So on the day we talked about His body being taken by Joseph and sealed in the tomb we made "edible tombs". I think Dave about died with me giving these to the kids before bedtime:)

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a little egg hunt at our playground with several friends and family. It turned out to be a pretty day but the wind made it colder than I had hoped but of course that didn't bother the kids:) Not everyone made it in the picture but here was part of the kids crew.

I didn't get the best pictures as Dave wasn't quite home yet but this is my cute neice Isabella trying to make sense of all the craziness.

Megan didn't really catch on either--at least the part of finding the eggs. However, once they were in her basket, she knew right away to pull them apart and find her "chocate".:) It is so cute how she says it!

Beautiful Haley

Today Haley got her new glasses. She is so beautiful. She is worried to wear them around her friends but we keep reassuring her that she is as pretty as ever. It was amazing to me that she would be so worried. Thanks to grandma's great idea we also got her doll some glasses too. She was excited about this:) and I think it is helping a bit. We also took her to get her haircut (and she was so happy to get a free ice cream coupon with it). So we took a picture to show off our beautiful daughter. That is what parents (or grandparents (haha) do best right?

Funday

Today we got a surprise and saw Dave for about 5 1/2 hours. He wasn't planning on coming home this weekend but then his roommate was making a trip over so we got a little time with dad. Jordan's school does one fundraiser a year. It is a carnival day they call "funday" and so dad got to take the kids to play the games and here are the prizes they came home with. They had a great time playing and winning but also spending time with dad. It was a truly a "funday"!

Dancing Queen Megan

This is a little blurb of what we call the "Megan dance". She is so funny. Last week I barely got into Old Navy and the music was going and her little shoulders just started going up and down and her arms start to twist in a circle....she was getting her groove on. Well today, she came and told me she wanted the music on. She has this little sound she makes with her tongue for "music". The cd was skipping so I took it out and put a less "peppy" song on and she totally said "uh hu" and I was like "sorry it isn't working." A few minutes later she came into the kitchen with the black and white cd that was skipping! She had gotten the cd case and gone through it and found that one cd she wanted.....talk about determination and to her good luck and fortune when I tried it one more time--it worked! Here is Megan busting her move.

Monday---all in a days work

I know that many of you have already dealt with the lovely sickies that have come around this year. It seems this one has been much worse than I remember any other. So this is isn't a cutsey blog post--but real life---and that is what it is supposed to be right? You may think I'm crazy for wanting to remember this (as if I could forget it, hard to believe right now) but this is a journal and not everyday is chocolate ice cream and candy:)

Monday---All in a days work...

Well...let me back up and say Meg has been throwing up since Friday night when we were in St.Louis seeing dad. Now you know there were like 10 other children in the room and I'm sure every parent is wondering what I am doing...I had NO idea. She had played all day. Dave said she then did it 2 more times in the car to the hotel and another time in the 15 min. he had been at the hotel....it starts. Yes it was disgusting. Can I just say those people who make car seats must not have children? I mean really...trying to get them apart to wash/bleach the stupid things is like being stuck in the middle of a labryinth. I decided that I hated car seat companies because not only have I had to buy so many as new laws keep getting passed, but the ones I have are not user friendly. The whole time I kept thinking of the 'latest and greatest' that I have now seen that the cover is actually easy to come off, safer, and actually made so children can buckle themselves(boosters)--but then that is ONE more I'd have to buy---but after the fiasco I'm seriously debating. I should have bought stock in those companies! Anyway... Sunday she started diarrea (I told you this isn't a nice story). I thought she was doing better...at least she wasn't throwing up anymore---then Monday:

So Megan is still sick and now she has both because the vomiting is back. I, however, have to go to the post office. I know, I am one of those bad people that take sick kids to contaminate others. I really didn't have much of a choice (do you really think I would have gone if I had?) and it was going to be like in and out. As I was trying to get the stroller to click I slammed my head into the rear view mirror (no I'm not proud of this, I'm sure it was hilarious to anyone watching, but seriously I thought I was going to pass out right there in the parking lot. I still can't touch the spot today without it hurting). In and out, and thank goodness the nice man helped me.

All day, seriously was like that groundhog's day movie. I just kept repeating myself. Megan had 3 seperate baths by the end of the day, loads and loads of laundry, wrote out the monthly bills, called to dispute an insurance claim inbetween the time of rocking Megan to sleep, feeding kids, doing the dishes and etc,etc. I lost track of how many diapers we went through. Bleach, bleach and more bleach and by the end of the day I had borrowed a wet vac from a friend to disinfect my bed. Let me tell you....I think it is true that when you are pregnant you have a more sensitive nose and puke, diarrea, lysol and bleach are not a really good combo when you are 8 months prego. I tried the BRAT diet my doctor's nurse told me about---it works if your child will eat those things (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast)...she wouldn't touch them after I got them from the store (yes again I was bad). I was of course worried because she is only 20 lbs to begin with and it was so bad. She wouldn't even eat the popsicles I bought trying to get fluid into her. I knew it wouldn't be short because a lot of people have said it took awhile. The doctor said it could last as long as 7-10 days. So we were on day #4. At 10:30 I make a bed on the livingroom floor out of extra blankets (my bed was drying) and laid down..ahh.

Now I know this is a lot of complaining which isn't a good thing. We have been doing this thing Elder Eyring talked about where each day we answer the question: "how have you seen the hand of the Lord in you or your family's life today?" And as much as this wasn't a "super" day, I honestly can see many blessings and things to be grateful for like the fact that me and the other two children have not gotten sick. I have had the energy to care the kids. The older two have been troopers running for towels, diapers, wipes, or anything else I have needed and trying to be patient in waiting for the things they were needing. I have a warm and comfortable house. I have loving family and friends checking on me and praying for our little family. Things could be so much worse. I'm grateful to know simply that we are not alone and this too, shall pass. Today she didn't throw up until 5 p.m. (yes she is still having bad diapers too) but she played for about 10-15 minutes and ate a little bit! I think we are on the home stretch...tomorrow is day #7:)

Update on Dave

I thought I would mention that after a week and a half Dave is really enjoying his new job. He is already working on a NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) project. So of course that is really exciting for him. We have also been blessed to find someone he can room with for the next few months until we all join up together again and it just happened to be a few blocks away from where he works! Bonus on saving gas--for sure:). He even got steak dinner from the guy's family on Sunday night after church---living it up, huh? haha. Seriously, we are just so blessed.