Jelly Belly's

I'm a little late on this.  Actually, our whole family

was a bit late celebrating Easter together.

Since we were driving back from our trip to California last week,

we opted to hold the traditional Cousin's Easter Egg Hunt

at my folks house the other night.

 This was the year Kean got into the swing of finding candy

scattered about.

 We didn't do too much but the highlight in our family is a golden

egg (with five bucks inside) one with the name of each of the cousins

written on it-- and hidden relatively hard.

It keeps the older kids quite busy!
(Which is good, trust me).

 The girls were all so good at helping Kean find his candy.

 He'd take it over to Grammy and she'd help him put it

in his bag (we forgot to bring baskets-- lame mom).

I think Kean's favorite part of the whole Easter Egg Hunt

was not eating the candy in his bag (the good stuff)

but pawning jelly beans off of Grandpa.

(My dad always has a pocket full of Jelly Belly's).

Downs and Ups

No dull moments

should be our mantra.

Lucky us.  Kean and I got to spend

much of Thanksgiving Day in the E.R.

After poking, prodding, X-rays (I refused to let

them catheter him for a urine sample)-- they determined

he has Strep and a virus.

Poor little guy.

 By the time we got to my parents, dinner was done

but leftovers still tasted heavenly.

 My Aunt and Uncle joined us-- along with lots of cousins.

And Kean perked right up once he got away from the hospital

torture chamber.

 The day after Thanksgiving, we have a tradition with all of

my cousins- we head up to the mountains, sled, snow mobile, play

in the snow and cut down Christmas trees.

My parents kept Kean so the rest of the family could go.

And Reese scored on finding the best tree.

No Charlie Brown Christmas tree for the Barker's this year.

Plus, we are thrilled to have a live one again.

We weren't able to have a live tree for the past three

years because of Kean's health.

Things are slowly getting back to normal.

Thriving

You will never guess where I am...

sitting in the waiting room of St. Luke's

while Byron has surgery.  He's having the

plate and ten screws taken out of his leg

(they drive him insane and constantly zing him).

At least I brought my computer and can get some stuff done.

This morning, I got to go to Kean's school

for the Kindergarten Costume Parade.

I know it will come as a shock to many of

you-- but he dressed up as a motorcycle man.

 All the little kids went room to room to show off their cute costumes.

Kean (and his aid) were always at the end

and get this, the most popular.

The kid is a rock star at school.

EVERYONE knew him and wanted to give him "high fives".

 He did great giving the kids "fives" until the last few classrooms

when he started petering out.

It was so funny to see the kids he didn't pound their hands--

and how disappointed they were.

This video is from early on when he had lots of energy.

Then it was back to the classroom for a little party.

I just love the look on his face as he gets directions 

from his teacher.

 I couldn't stay for all of it but Kean started out

at the cookie decorating station

(he loved it-- took three bites and then wanted Goldfish).

 Then it was on to the game station--

for matching and a rousing match of balloon toss.

 The final station (while I was there) was crafts.

We made little skeleton and pumpkin bracelets

(which he wouldn't wear, of course).

 Just before I left, he came over and gave his teacher "Hymas"

(nobody gets a Mrs. in front of their name)

the biggest hug.

So, so sweet.

He had a great day

(Bhyron?  Probably not so much).

The Lamb to the Slaughter

Bet you didn't know today was

"Happy Sister Day".

Yep, me neither.

Greer decided to make it up.

I swear, Hallmark should hire that girl.

 Actually, I shouldn't ridicule.

The girls have been doing each other's chores,

giving little gifts and decorating their rooms.

Maybe, Happy Sisters Day should be everyday!

 And remember how I told you about how we had that

Habilitative Therapist come to the house last week

to help us get Kean over his hitting and pulling hair issues

and ready for Kindergarten.

Well, today he had his first official play date with a friend's son

while Dee observed and corrected.

When I asked my friend to bring over her son, I warned her

he'd be putting himself at risk.

 I can't really say they played together.

Kean played alongside him a bit, wanted the toys Levi had

and eventually took turns doing tricks on the trampoline.

I was surprised at how well he did with Levi "in his space".

Here's Kean doing his trick.

Dee, the therapist said he was probably in the "honeymoon"

phase where they are both being really nice since they don't 

know each other.

Of course, it probably helped that there were three adults

hovering over them, watching every little move.

We'll try again.

But for tonight, Levi should get a blue ribbon for

having a very one sided play date at our house.

Flags, Flowers and Blue Teeth

You know what I loved about today?

The fact that it was packed at the cemetery.

Everywhere we walked there were flags and fresh flowers.

We specifically went to clean off the gravestone and take

flowers to my nephew's grave.

He only lived a day and his parents now live in Texas,

so we have the yearly tradition of taking the kids

to visit Isaac's grave (and my cousin's children's graves).

 My parents and my brother and his family met us there.

 Kean was marginally into repeating the colors of the flowers

and really into eating jelly beans (especially blue ones)

he pawned off of Grandpa.

Happy Memorial Day everyone.

Easter

About all I can say is we got through Easter.

Kean has been edgy all day and wasn't much into the whole

tradition thing.

The girls were all over the egg hunt at the grandparents.

 Kean?  Not so much.

 All he'd say was "candy, no!"

At least we got some good speech practice out of him.

 Actually, he had hurt his thumb- pulled all of the skin off

his knuckle about an hour before the egg hunt.

That clearly put him over the edge

and he was pretty much inconsolable

 until he finally fell asleep in my arms watching Cars.

 He missed the family dinner and the "golden egg hunt".

 My parents put five dollars in an egg for each of the

grandchildren-- and we hide them in really, really hard places

and then just laugh as the kids go crazy trying to find them.

Happy Easter everyone.  How thankful we are

for the real reason for this holiday-- the knowledge we have

that our Savior died for us and was resurrected so each of

us may have the opportunity to be made whole through Him.

What great comfort He brings-- to realize that one day

Kean's struggles will be made into strengths thanks to the Atonement.

El Destructo

Turn your volume up.

Because this picture speaks a thousand words loudly--

notice Kean reaching up to grab the Easter eggs the girls

are trying to decorate.

 Yep.  He was shut down by three sisters

and one friend.

 

 But not before he had crushed a couple of eggs-

this one he got to decorate.

Thank heavens for stickers.

 All was not lost.

The girls still had plenty to decorate

and plenty of fun.

Happy Easter Eve and Passover.

Oh the Shenanigans

I have seriously been dreading today-- April Fools Day.

Holland has been researching, plotting and conniving.

So of course defensive maneuvers had to be employed.

Reese helped me make sandwiches for Greer and Holland's lunchbox today--

hot dog buns with a big carrot in the middle, smothered in ketchup and mustard.

Yum, yum.  Tasty.

Plus a few other lunchbox surprises.

 Reese got caught up in the spirit of things and came up

with this one all on her own.

She wrapped her ankle, donned crutches, 

 smeared black marker on her toes and told 

everyone at school she had broken her foot

and was to get a cast later today.

She got away with it royally!

 When I dropped the girls off at school, I was greeted

by the friendliest drivers-- lots of waves and honks.

It continued clear to the dentist's office

where Kean got a check up today.

By the way, this time he didn't bite the dentist

(only nibbled his hand).

Progress, I guess.

 It wasn't until I got home that I discovered why

today of all days everyone was so doggone friendly:

look at what Holland plastered on the back of my car!

That girl.

She also put a cardboard cut out inside the toilet

with a hole about the size of a nickel.

cut into it.

On it, she wrote "Expert Level"

and poor Byron had to try and aim into it.

Lucky us, he made it.

Lucky you, I didn't take a picture of it.

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

Another Halloween for the books.

Kean even got to go out for a bit.

We took him to a few neighbors we just had to visit.

Starting with the Bodily's.

Kean didn't quite get the getting candy part.

He just walked in like he owned the place.

 And of course, better than any candy was getting hugs from G and G.

Reese dressed up as a Monarch butterfly.

 Greer was a perfect Maleficent.

 And Holland went as Alice (Wonderland).

 Kean got to use that super cool tattooed shirt with the chest hair.

 Our next stop was the Kwid's.

Gina Kwid was Holland and Greer's 2nd grade teacher.

They live just down from us (that' s Cadee-- Holland's friend in the picture too).

 We then popped by Motorcycle Jeff's house--

where surprisingly, Kean did not beg for a ride.

He was happy to terrorize Jeff's cat and check out his house though.

 Kean actually got a lot of walking in-- during our short time out.

He walked up to every house and pretty much walked

right inside and all around.

Thank goodness it was all homes of those we know well.

 Here we are at our former neighbor, Nancy's house.  We have a tradition

of always visiting Nancy before trick or treating.  About four years

ago, her home burned down and she moved about a mile or so away.

We still always visit Nancy and her puppy, Gracie.

 Our last stop was Byron's brother's house-- Uncle Craig

and Aunt Missy.

Kean wouldn't hold still long enough to take a silly picture.

He was too busy exploring.

(Remind me why we worked so hard to get him to walk?)

 Byron and I headed home with the boy.

For the first time ever, the girls all went out with friends.

Yikes, they are growing up.

So get this, Reese came home first with 96 pieces of candy.

Greer showed up next-- all sad and teary.

She said her friends had quit Trick or Treating about

an hour after we had said goodbye and then headed

home to watch a Harry Potter movie.

She was so weepy over her "measly" haul of only 32 pieces of candy

and her "boring" night.

We soothed her with promises of kind sisters who likely would share

and to get to bed.

Miraculously, in the morning, she had more candy than anyone.

How did this happen you ask?

Nope, her sisters hadn't dug into their candy stashes...

it was all a nefarious trick.

Greer came home last night, dumped most of her candy out in her room

before emerging all weepy and teary.

She told us she had wanted to practice "acting" on us

and announced she can now cry on demand.

Not sure what to think of this new drama queen

or the fact that next time she comes crying...

we might be too suspicious to give her much compassion.

Oh, these crazy girls-- we are in for a wild ride!