Belated Easter Wishes

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. I just love Easter weekend. I love that there is still a holiday that, at least at our house, still manages to stay focused on it's meaning. I love all of the symbolism of spring bringing new life and the resurrection. I love that it is overall a very spiritual holiday. Normally, the Easter bunny does slip by and leave a treat on Saturday, but this year, he didn't make it until Sunday after church. As it turns out, the whole family stayed home sick except for Derrick and Tannon. Myah was determined to wear her new Easter dress anyways, so she wore it around the house all day. She thought she looked like Bell (from Beauty and the Beast).

Here's the sicklies. (still can't resist helping little bro and sis look for eggs)
After exerting all of our energy looking for Easter eggs, we took a nice Sunday afternoon trampoline nap. One of my favorite pastimes.
And we even saved the Easter bunny a few nice, big carrots! We didn't manage to get them harvested last fall, and apparently, they continued growing over the winter months. Funny thing is, they are still good. I guess that's one way to store carrots for the winter, right?

'Two Peas In A Pod'

Or at least I like to flatter myself in thinking so!

I love this girl....

a lot.

(by the way, this is not really my hair-do for the day. We're just playing around.)

Saturday Morning Surprise

Ya, so our kids have been sick for about a month now. Miracle of all miracles though....Tannon is as healthy as can be. How'd that happen?

Yesterday, I woke up to a little surprise from Des. I'm still not sure how I've managed to have 5 kids without recognizing what I was seeing, but I panicked just a little. Derrick wasn't around, so I called our neighbor/dermatologist to come have a look. He came right away, to tell me that it was just a few hives. 'JUST a few hives?' First of all, shouldn't I know what hives look like by now? Zac did have them a while back, but I didn't examine him very closely. And second of all, WHY? My first thought was that it must be the formula that he recently started on. But the friendly doc calmly explained that babies sometimes just get hives as a reaction to a virus that they have. And ya, 'virus' is a common word around here lately. So it's no big deal. They come and then after a couple of hours, they're gone. And then they come back in all new places. The bad news, it can last for up to 6 weeks. And I really don't think it's very comfy for Des. The good news, though, is that he's not really old enough to know how to scratch them, so he's not able to make matters worse for himself. And, of all the things he could have, we'll take hives!

An Update of Why I Haven't Updated

I haven't blogged for a while, and I'm not really going to right now either. But I am going to share my excuses for NOT blogging.
1. Doctors appointments. Way too many trips to the doc.
2. Pneumonia...Zac, going on 3 weeks of absolute misery.
3. Infection (me, myself and I...not wanting to go into great detail.)
4. Loss of the ability to nurse...due to before mentioned infection that I don't want to go into great detail about)
6. Cold turkey...teaching Des to take formula...due to before mentioned loss of ability to nurse, due to before mentioned infection...that I don't really want to go into great detail about. He'd never even had a bottle at all. He still looks at me like I've really let him down every time I give him a bottle.
6. Exercising....I always swore that my body isn't one of those that burns calories while nursing. But now that I quit nursing, I'm packing on the poundage. (not a good thing with the biggest loser challenge) I thought the weight would just magically disappear when I stopped. WRONG. So I'm trying really hard to counterbalance the forces of nature with a good workout every day.
7. Laptop issues. It's funny how dependent we get on those dumb things. And I'm too lazy to come downstairs and use the computer.

That's it! So I'll be back and update soon!

Wii Ski

Why do I love skiing so much? I mean, I don't really love the snow (other than for one week before Christmas and one week after). I hate being cold. And it's totally expensive (although we've found ways around that....you just have to learn to 'cheap' the system). But I LOVE it. It feels so good to get out and do something active. To get some fresh air and even some sunshine. And I love spending time with the kids and it makes me proud when they conquer something that can be a bit scary at first! But most of all...I love to get them out of the house, away from the wii (and other sources of electronic entertainment), and doing something. It sure makes me excited for summer, when I traditionally hide away most of the in-house entertainment for a couple of months.

Anyways, we had a fun ski day out at Pomerelle last Saturday. Having the Crawfords come up and join us for the day made it even better. And, of course, with Nicky along, I have PLENTY of pictures to post!

Brayden, Zacary, Skyler

Myah (aren't her little pink skis so cute?)

Myah and I

They had this funky little tunnel, and the kiddos thought it was so much fun to ski through it
Myah and I

Derrick and Ira stayed at the lodge and watched the babies for most of the day. They even grilled us some burgers for lunch. They were able to sneak away and check out City of Rocks for a while. They ran out of gas on their way back up the mountain, and Derrick hitched a ride with some girls (who told him that they would kill him if he even tried to touch them). The boys all gave the van a big push, and then it coasted all the way down the mountain and right into a gas station. Lucky day.

Ira and Kam

Myah and Emilie

Skyler

Nicky and I
Tannon and EmThe Crawford Crew

NickyAnd, of course, we had to end our day with the traditional stop at El Herracero's for some tacos.

This may be the last ski trip of the year. So we may be turning in our ski poles for wii controls to get us through until the weather is nice outside...and then we'll be turning in the wii controls for hiking boots!

This IS Our Final Answer....we think

The decision has been made.
The verdict is in.
This IS our final answer.
It looks like the Swaner family will be staying in Pocatello for a while. We couldn't be more thrilled. Although we LOVED St. George, and could have possibly tolerated Reno (maybe), we're sure happy about staying put! I never thought I'd say that about Poky, but we just feel so at home here. We have good friends, the kids love their sports, we love our house and our yard, we have great neighbors and an awesome ward, and it's so nice to live a bit closer to family.

So while we know that this still may not be permanent, and there are more 'definite' options out there, we're willing (and so completely thankful that we have the option) to just go with it for a while! We have been praying for a long time that this would be the case.

All of this 'not knowing' has had its benefits though. We got almost the whole house painted (need to finish my bedroom and the upstairs bathrooms). It's always a good way to get some of those projects done. Maybe we'll have to look at moving again next year!