What are we doing this weekend?

Twice per year we watch General Conference.  This is a worldwide gathering of church members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but everyone is invited to watch.   There are several two hour sessions throughout the weekend.  The sessions send messages of hope, inspiration, and instruction.  We usually watch on the BYUTV station, so if you have that you can watch on TV.  It is also available on the internet or at church meetinghouses.



You can learn more about Conference here:
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/about-general-conference?lang=eng

We love Conference weekend!   Enjoy yours too!

Six Flags

Joshua's band took a trip to Six Flags in New Jersey for their annual band competition.  After the competition, they get to spend the remainder of the day at Six Flags.  Their school won 1st place!  Mike went with them during 2011 and I went on the trip during 2010.  It was a fun (and long) day!



If you look closely at the above picture, you can see a man walking up, because the roller coaster stopped.  Mike was on this trip....watching....if it were me watching, I'd be having a panic attack.  The boys were waiting in line at this point...not on the roller coaster yet.  I'd be so afraid there was something wrong with the roller coaster, I might have embarrassed Joshua in front of all his friends and told him he couldn't go....  Mike is a bit more laid back than I am about these things.  I'm just so happy they all came back alive.

Cafe Rio

Last Spring (2011), Cafe Rio opened up here near D.C.   I went with my awesome friend, Emily, and with my fabulous sister-in-law, Joni.  We were excited to merely have Cafe Rio, but there was an additional suprise....the meals were all free!  They quietly told as after we ordered that our meal was free.  It was opening day and they gave free meals to the first several customers.  Our family has been back many times since.



I love their salads.  They are just the best salads ever.

Easter 2011

We had family over for Easter last year. We always have a great time when we get together and this time was no exception.

Madeline helped me make cookies. She loves to help me with anything involving decorating or anything crafty. She is, in fact, becoming quite the little crafter all on her own, lately.



We have the BEST Aunts and Uncles in our family, seriously! Aunt Joni was reading a book to O and M here.



Speaking of the best Aunts and Uncles. Here's one Uncle doing one of the things he's great at....playing chess with nephews (the nieces haven't shown much interest in chess yet.....)



I went a little crazy with the camera. I'll let some of these pictures speak for themselves. You'll find more chess pictures. Chess is obviously a favorite game.















Some of the girls wanted to be beauticians, so a couple of Aunts let the girls beautify them.





We had a fun Easter Egg hunt.  The older kids hid the eggs and the younger kids found them.  The older kids began hiding eggs outside when suddenly it began to rain, so they frantically (while laughing at the same time) ran out and retrieved all the eggs before they got too wet and re-hid them inside.  They all had a very enjoyable time!





Aunt Joni made these adorable little eggs for each child.  She made them the same way a pinata is made.  I thought they were super cute!



Madeline loved her mini-pinata egg!

I was on a roll......

....and then things got crazy.  I was doing well with catching up on last years events here and then I just quit posting to my blog.  I now realize exactly when I quit posting.....yes it's exactly when I found out I was pregnant with #5 in November.

Things got very busy and I barely had the energy to survive!  I had to find an endocrinologist very quickly.  I have an out of whack thyroid, which can cause all kinds of problems with being pregnant and with baby, so I found an endocrinologist and she's good.  Then I found out I have to go in for blood work and for appointments several times a month.  I have to do this on top of the OB appointments!  Of course, I HAVE to go or it could mean serious consequences for baby, so I scheduled those appointments and went.

In addition to my appointments, there were others.  A few of those are: orthopedic surgeon for one child's broken thumb, dermatologist for one child's warts, dermatologist for another child's acne, blood work for another child, eye doctor for all 3 of my boys (seriously?), orthodontist appointments....and there are probably some I'm just forgetting about.  I feel like I've spent 4 exhausting months at every doctor in town.

Now the doctor's appointments are not over with, but I'm feeling better.  I'm almost 5 months pregnant and I finally have my energy back (for a little while anyway), so I'm trying to catch up on the blog once again.

And, by the way, Madeline is one very happy little lady.  We recently found out that baby number 5 is a girl.....yes a GIRL!  We are so happy she gets a sister!

Fishing Trip

Every Spring for the past 2 years, Mike has brought one of the boys with him on a fishing trip in the Chesapeake Bay. He has a friend from work with a fishing boat. They catch big rockfish, bring them home, and cook them. The boys have really enjoyed this. Last year (2011) it was Joshua's turn.



It ended up being a chilly, rainy day, but they still had a great time.





This is what they caught, so we had plenty of fish to eat. I don't love to clean fish, so I was happy they cleaned these and made them into nice fillets before they came home. After baking the fish, they were pretty good.

Howard County GT History Fair

Joshua works pretty hard in school and I was so proud of how hard he worked on this project! He created a website about a battle over water rights in Los Angeles. He spent hours perfecting his website. He got an interview with a famous author. He put pictures and videos on his website. He worked on it almost every single day for a few months!

Here is Joshua with his friend Duncan who won first place in Howard County and who's parents both attended Yale. For that day we felt kind of proud to be in the mix with a 'Yale' family:) Joshua won 3rd place on his project in all of Howard County.


Here is a link to his website: http://50331554.nhd.weebly.com/index.html

Winter Break 2011 Part 2

The weather outside was perfect for miniature golf!


Mike and the kids inside the lodge (they packed their own clothes, can you tell?..I especially like Cameron's all red outfit...ha ha):


Another fun thing they have right next door is this:


My kids love Sonic! Joshua usually loves to get that giant hot dog and eats the whole thing!

Winter Break 2011

Last February we started to get really tired of winter. I started getting really cold! I just wanted to escape to someplace warm, so we did just that! We drove south a few hours near Williamsburg, VA to a fun indoor water park. It was also really nice outside, so we enjoyed a bit of miniature golf and some touring around town. If I had it to do over again, I would have stayed longer:) Oh and since it was also my birthday gift, Mike surprised me with an appointment to the spa with a massage! Isn't he thoughtful?

The first thing Joshua did when we got to our room was this (I don't know what he would have done if he had forgotten his yo-yo):


Can you tell Madeline was excited? She was the first to get her swimsuit on.


This is how happy Madeline was after she went on a few water slides. She surprised me a bit, because she wasn't afraid of any of the slides. I had to hold her back, because I was getting frightened for her!


There was this really cool wave rider that the boys all had a fantastic time on. I'm just so sad because all of those pictures somehow got corrupted on our memory card and all we have is this lame, teeny tiny picture, so if you can squint enough to get the idea..here it is:


Madeline on one of the many slides she excitedly rode:


Cameron coming out of the ginormous water playground:


Madeline after swimming to the side. She has become quite the little swimmer.


Cameron running off a slide, trying to hurry to the next one:


Joshua must have been coming from and going to the next slide:


Zachary walked across some logs that wobble around in the water and he did a pretty good job!


The kids and I in the hot tub. After all that talk about going to a warm place (it was 80 degrees in there), I still longed for more warmth! The hot tub was super nice for that!

More of Christmas 2010

Two good looking shepherds, Joshua with his cousin, Jared.

My sil, Jennifer made the costumes for all the kids. Isn't she talented? The kids love acting the story of baby Jesus out and this year we even had a few babies to choose from (we went with the youngest). Oh and my brother is trying to put one of his kids in the picture, who didn't want to be in the picture. ha ha:)

Christmas with Cousins 2010

Every Christmas Eve we gather with siblings and cousins to eat dinner, act out the manger scene, and open a few gifts from each other.

The cousins have a great time together! (Madeline is wearing an angel hat.)

Isn't this just the cutest thing ever? This was almost a year ago. Now they are all three running around, so this Christmas Eve should be even more exciting!

3rd and Last 2010 Baby Blessing

Can you believe there were 3 Schoeny boys born in 2010? I think they are going to have tons of fun together when they get older! It's so fun to watch all three of my brothers with their kids.
The baby blessed in December 2010 is on the right:

I made a cake for him (well really us, since he didn't eat it):

Cake close up (it looks crooked to me..does it to you? I'm going to say it happened on the car ride over...must have been Mike's driving:)

Here's the happy couple cutting their 1st baby blessing cake! Ha ha, we had a great time:)