The Week

Kelsey started getting a fever last Sunday night and began a chain reaction (of course) of sickness in our family. It was not fun to have everybody getting sick, especially because we had cousins over here from Tuesday morning to Thursday evening. I felt so bad that they were being constantly exposed to our germs but couldn't do much about it. First Kelsey, then Briggs, then Madison, now Brynlee too. Oh and Kenny also hasn't been feeling well but it doesn't seem to be the same thing as the kids. He never gets quite as sick as everyone else, he sort of has a super-immune system. But anyway, it was a pretty crazy week with everyone here and being up at all hours of the night (literally). But I think Kels and Briggs are getting better now. They're still coughing a little and have cruddy noses, but at least no more fevers!

Tuesday night all the kids were out on the trampoline and Briggs was sleeping so I took advantage of it and decided to grill some chicken for dinner. I noticed a big storm cloud and told the kids it was going to rain! But I figured I still had time. Seriously within a few minutes it starts hailing like crazy!! They all ran in and I had to finish dinner, which was interesting haha. It only lasted about an hour, maybe less. But it was pretty crazy. We also got to hear thunder!! I think that's the second time since we've lived here that we've heard thunder.

Wednesday, April 29th was our 9 year anniversary!! It's fun to look back on 9 years and think about all the things we've experienced together. What a very blessed life we have with 5 beautiful children. We obviously weren't able to celebrate that day with it being a weekday and having 8 kids in our home, but we had gone on a date the weekend before, and hello! We just went to France! So we're feeling like that definitely counts :). I did make a chocolate cake and we blew out 9 candles in honor of our family being 9 years old. Then I left with Tyler and went to Scouts while Kenny put all the kids to bed.

 Madison and Jeremy are so dang cute together. They're such good buddies. On this morning Madison had said, "Jeremy, let's go get married!" So she led him into this room and tried to dance with him. It was hilarious. Apparently, getting married means you slow dance! ;)

She even went for the spin! She was most definitely leading haha.

They got to help me make the cake and so they each got a beater to lick! :) 

Cute little Kate still won't look me in the eye after a year of living here, but I know we're still buds ;). Here we were all enjoying a little picnic snack.

This weekend was extra nice having Kenny home on Fri. and Sat. We got quite a bit done. I started doing my 6-month purge this week. I obviously didn't get it all finished as I had scheduled because of everything that happened but I still got a few closets and rooms done and it feels good to make progress. I don't know why, but having organized and de-junked closets FEELS SO GOOD. We got to the garage on Friday which was a huge checkmark on my list. I also went to the temple on Friday night which was a nice get-away. Saturday morning I went on a 7.5 mile run with my friend, Kary Hafen. I'm doing the half-marathon and she's doing the full, and has for several years in a row. So it was really nice to run with her and have her get me excited about the race and tell me what to expect, some advice, etc.

I had really gotten off track with my training schedule because I was sick and just not doing well. A couple weeks ago I felt like my body was just crashing down on me. I was seriously fatigued all the time and just had no energy, no motivation, some days just depressed. My hair is still falling out like crazy and I was cold all the time and my muscles were really achy and sore, even though I wasn't running from not feeling well. I was pretty confident I was either anemic or having low thyroid (both things that have come up during pregnancies, but I swear I'm not pregnant). But instead of going to the doctor I called my sister, Steph. She's getting her masters in holistic nutrition and just knows a lot. She suggested a bunch of vitamins I can take to help my body balance itself out. So I've been taking Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Selenium, Vitamin C, Vitamin B, and Iron every day and I'm feeling better! haha. That's a lot of pills, I know. But I'm getting back to normal and I'm so grateful for good health. So anyway, I ended up running several days this week and it feels good to get back into it. Plus it's warming up and getting lighter for longer every day which is nice.

We also got the cars all washed, put up some cafe curtains in the kitchen so I'm not blinded while trying to do dishes at night, and a few other things that were on my to-do list. Today Kenny and Tyler were the only ones that went to church. I stayed home and took care of sick children and made crumb-topped apple pie and taco soup. A nice way to break a fast. Of course we had our regular Sunday-night google hangout with my family, which I love so much! This week was particularly cool because the Bakers, (Kim and Caleb and kids) just moved to Cambodia a couple days ago!! They will be there for a year and we've all been praying for them. Tyler even fasted for them today which I thought was so sweet.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend.

The rain has come back and it rains almost every day even for just a few minutes. One night as we were reading books putting the kids to bed, we looked out of their window and saw a double rainbow! Then a bunny hopped across the street in front of our house. It was a fun little moment right before bed.

Can you see the steam rising? Yum!

 I hate to choose favorites, but Kelsey is by far my favorite child to watch interact with the chickens. It's simply adorable.

Other big news is that Briggs officially started crawling this week! He still does his army crawling a lot when he gets worn out, but he's definitely crawling on hands and knees now! It's so cute to watch him. I got a video of him this week with Bryn and he's trying to get to food she has and she keeps scooting back and he keeps crawling after her. It was so funny. Now nothing is safe!! haha.

Family walk today... I love how Kelsey holds on to his forehead.