Loving spring time in Arizona...

One of our favorite things to do with the gang, is to explore, there are not many places that we won't try.  Burro Creek is absolutely beautiful this time of year, and so much fun..

you can watch the river flow under you from hundreds of feet up....

you can see who's rock can make the biggest splash....

you can climb the side of a very steep, rocky mountain in your

Heely's with the wheels in just for a little extra excitement....

you can take family pictures and laugh that we can never get more than half to look at the camera...

you can gaze at the beautiful scenery, then remember you have 5 kiddos who you are not watching.....

you can be thankful that even the littlest ones, are amazed by God's awesome creation...

Life is a highway...

So my wonderful husband and I got to see a lot of this over spring break, and at last count we logged 1,974 miles together on the road!  Our travels carried us from Bullhead to Phoenix to  Las Vegas up to  Brian Head, Utah to Bullhead, and Bullhead to Sierra Vista and finally back home again!  What a busy week, 3 states, 6 days it was a blast, I love traveling with my super hot hottie he is a hoot!

This is what happens..

This is what happens when Papa and Memaw get the grandkids for the week....

The boys love to shoot and do everything outdoors, so when they get to go to Papa & Me-maws house it is like the best thing ever!  All the kids spent most of spring break with Papa & Me-maw and had a blast, there was lots of stories every night when we talked to them, some of the highlights were fishing with grandpa, hunting for rabbits and quails everyday, catching a rabbit in a trap, making a leprechaun trap for St Patrick's Day, eating elk, roasting marshmallows outside, getting as dirty as humanly possible, and sleeping by the fire every night.  They all had so much fun!  Thank you Papa & Me-maw for the fantastic time and all the fun memories!! XOXOXOXO

Day 3 of Passion week

TUESDAY:  Jesus' feet anointed in Bethany.  

(Other things happened too, but we focused on this tonight)

Tonight we focused on the anointing of Jesus.  This was a little hard to explain to the boys, but got through and had fun learning once again.  Tonight for the hands on learning we made sugar scrubs to use in the shower.  It was the closest thing that I could think of to relate to the story, since we don't do a lot of anointing in our house :) I figured essential oils was similar, right...hey if I use potatoes a rotten in a passover dinner, essential oils will definitely work ??? The positive is that our bathroom now has a minty orange scent to it.  The boys thought it was pretty cool how slippery they were!  We are having such a great time, studying the passion week, and trying to experience what we read.  We are absolutely in love with our wonderful Savior, and so thankful that He was obedient to the point of death, for our sins!!!

Passover dinner...(sorta)

Monday Day 2 of Passion week around the Dunlap home was fun, and full of wonderful learning experiences.  Passover begins Monday at Sundown.  I love the picture of Passover, when obedience led to deliverance from death.  Christ was obedient and He was the sacrifice for our deliverance from death in our sin.  Tonight we held a very loose symbolism of the passover dinner, something I really had to stretch (super duper) We have 5 children who might get a little bit angry if bitter greens, and pured apples, and nuts were the highlights of dinner.  So I pulled from the traditional Seder dinner, and accommodate the family.  Now remember I said I really stretched.  We had Lamb and (grilled steak for those of us who don't like lamb - me), romaine lettuce instead of bitter herbs,  potatoes a-rotten (as Kylor calls them), instead of roasted potatoes, and deviled eggs, instead of roasted eggs.  I did do plain apples, no nuts or wine mixed in though.  So all in all it was a great night.  The kiddos had a blast talking about what everything means on the plate, and what the bible says about everything that happened on passover.  This is one of the boys all time favorite stories, what boy does not love to hear about bugs, blood, and gross lesions on people, not to mention the Angel of Death.   I adore the beauty and foreshadowing of the Old  Testament.  I found great information about the Passover Dinner here, and fun coloring pages for the kiddos here.  

Our dinner looked nothing like this, but it sure was fun anyway!

Apparently Blogger has some issues uploading pictures so pics will come when they get the problem resolved!!

Lets Celebrate...

I'm excited.  It is almost Passion Week, and for the first time ever I'm really excited about celebrating!  Not because Christ's death and resurrection have never moved me before, but this year I have decided that we will really "do it up." Have you ever realized that we celebrate more for Christmas then we do for Easter...hmmm that got me thinking about something else no where in the bible does it say to remember Christ's birth, but we are frequently reminded to remember Christ's death.  We are celebrating God's love, sacrifice and power this week in full force.  My hope and prayer is that each celebration, activity and observance deepens our understanding and awe of exactly what Christ's death and resurrection means to each of us personally.   
So this is how we celebrated today: Palm Sunday:Jesus' Triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  The kiddos and I talked on the way to church today what happend to Jesus today.  We talked about how excited everyone was for Jesus to enter town, and how they threw down palm leaves and coats.  We talked about a way we could celebrate and remember that very special day.  So we made crafts with palm leaves, laid down palm leaves and jackets to walk on (Kaden's idea) and ended the day with a yummy special black cow dessert to celebrate Jesus triumphal entry, and the story from Luke.  

I am so excited for this week and can't wait to tackle the Passover tomorrow..Kaden asked if we were going to kill a lamb, I said no!

Spring Break..

What a super duper fun spring break we had around our house.  Tiring but fun.  We took the kiddos to Phoenix, and had a blast.  We visited the train park in Scottsdale, absolutely fantastic - Thanks Gina! The train park is the cutest little thing ever, we rode the train, and merry go round, and ran and ran in the grass and playgrounds.  The next day we hit the Zoo.  Crazy crazy crazy! The big boys are so smart, and love to read maps so they lead and we follow behind with the little ones.  The down fall to them leading is that they run, and by the time we get to the exhibit they are ready to move on, so needless to say we get to cover the whole zoo in half a day.  Darn those Heeley shoes, I need a pair for next time.  The kimoto dragon was the favorite of Kaden, the cheetah was Kylor's and the flamingo,  Kendall.  The babies liked the ducks at the entrance the best, they are pretty easy to please!  We had a fantabulous time, but I recommend to anyone going to skip over the big horn sheep, oh my goodness, the legs were screaming at me!  Kylor pointed out the sheep on the hill, I thought that it was good enough to see them from where we were at, not so, so we headed straight up the dirt hill, pushing babies, and of course by the time we got to the top with our last breath, and ready to die, the boys said okay lets go back down, No way, my heart is beating out of my chest, the legs are like Jello, and I can't even holler at you cause I don't have enough breath, now look at those sheep and enjoy it, while I try to find my lungs!!

Happy Spring Break!

Brussel sprouts and.....

My always loving eldest son, has been in a mood lately about what we eat for dinner.  Each afternoon, it is the same conversation, "mommy what are we having for dinner?  Tacos, Mongolian chicken, Chicken Parmagiano, you name I could respond with it, and the response is always the same from Kaden, "eww, yuck, I don't like that"  I usually ignore it, and watch amazingly as he ingests all his food, even sweet potato fries, with out a complaint.  Well last night he asked what was for dinner, I said sloppy joes, and sweet potato fries, "gross I don't like that, why don't you ever cook anything that I like?"  Hmmmm, how would Jesus respond to this one, cause his Mama is about to help him to meet Jesus :) So I told that no matter what I cook, he will not like it, so there is no point of trying to cook for him...he quickly responded with well I like Pizza, if we ate that every night, I bet we would all be a lot happier, cause you wouldn't have to cook, and we could all eat good food!! Hmmm I think that the next nights menu is going to be liver and onions, followed by peas, and brussel sprouts, that'll teach him!!! Happy Schmappy  I say, you will eat it and be happy Mr.

A family that builds together.....

This is what our family does in our spare time.....well actually we mostly watch daddy, but we are there for support!!

So that is how we take some boards and pieces of MDF to a wonderfully perfect little entry way table.  I have quite an amazing husband, who caters to my crazy ideas.  I found these plans at my favorite blog in the whole world right now.  I have convinced Kev, that we have to build the babies a whole bedroom set (when they get out of the crib that is) I love it, and I think that the kiddos had fun too.

P.S. I had to put the pic of the kids blocks, (on the new table) Kaden said that maybe someday Kendall and the babies might get their pictures up there too, another strike for the bad mom award...I am working on it!!!

No ribs for lunch here....

Gotta love middle children, there is never a dull moment...Kylor comes home today,
Hi Kylor how was your day
Good, he replies, I didn't play with Emiliano today
Thats to bad, was he sick
No, he bit a 3rd graders rib during recess, I guess he was hungry or something, because he had to eat with the principal the rest of the day.
I quickly respond, thats alright, I don't think you need to play with him at all anymore, you never know when he may get "hungry" again, by the way maybe we should invite him to church!!!

Is That Bad?????

So I was reading today about a woman who visits Chick-Fil-A so much that they know her by name, and she asked is that bad?


It got me wondering of all the things that I do....


I am afraid that the twins may begin to think that their names are "no" & "get down" since that is all I tell them...is that bad?


The oldest got a bowl out of the dishwasher and I din't bother to tell him the dishes weren't clean, hey he's fixing breakfast on his own....is that bad?


My three year old got into the pantry the other day while I was in cyberspace.  She dumped out a bag of tiny marshmallows.  She, and her brothers shoveled them in their mouths.  I let them.....  Is that bad?


I do not enjoy unloading the dishwasher.  Every once in a while, when I feel overwhelmed, I pretend they are still dirty and wash them again.....  Is that bad?


When we are driving in the car and babies find something to eat in their carseat I don't stop them......Is that bad?


Sometimes I go to Target.  Okay, I go 4.5 times a week.  The cashiers all greet me with hellos and hugs, they know when I have been gone longer than a day....  
Is that bad?


My little girls first word was more, I wonder if I wasn't feeding her enough....Is that bad?


My middle son asks me what part of the chicken the nugget comes from, I respond with the rear...Is that bad?


I have been know to close the blinds & curtains earlier to give the feel that it is later, thus time for bed....Is that bad?


Sometimes I innocently hand one of the babies to my hubby, KNOWING he's  stinky.  
Is that bad?
I love ice cream!  More than some people.....Is that bad?

Since I’m starting to see faults in my moral compass, I’ll leave it with just one more . . .

I have been known to hurt people for chocolate. Is that bad?

This is Kelson...

The sweetest baby ever, with the grumpiest looks ever!  I always joke that he gets that look from his daddy.  When Kevin & I first met, Kev had this look a lot, he was not angry,  it was just how he looked, I always asked him what he was so angry about, nothing he replied, why? have YOU seen your expression???  So anyway, I see my wonderful husband in my sweet baby boy!!! Two of the sweetest boys in the world...maybe they are just putting up a front???

Quick pancakes...my style!

Puff Pancakes..what fun these are to make and even funner to eat.  We love them in our house, I am not a very quick short order cook, IHOP would not be interested in my pancake making skills, but I can pop out 24 of these puppies in 15 minutes, Whohoo!!  These are really good with strawberries too!!