Back in Dixie again- Henry.

We got home late Tuesday night. We found out last Friday that they were going to be repaving our parking lot on Monday (not the week's notice they promised). But we overnighted our keys to our neighbor and they moved our car for us. Unfortunately, it wasn't finished when we got back so we had to park about 60 yards away from our house on the street. It made for a good time unpacking the van.

While mama unloaded our car, I stayed busy with my new kid safe scissors. I don't like coloring, but I can cut for a long time without distraction. I didn't want to cut any plain paper, so I cut up my Jonah and the whale picture I made at school.

We've been working on my bedtime habits. This is my positive reinforcement "Henry's Don't Get Out of Bed" Chart. When I filled up the three boxes, I got a new matchbox car.

While mama was unloading, Juner found the box of ginger snaps. You can't really see it, but she's got one in each hand and one in her mouth.

After the car was empty, the house was full of stuff to be put away. Instead of helping, I found this old straw and prceeded to make train sounds for the next 45 minutes. I think mama really liked it.

Monday in Mern- June.

In Henry's words "we're all out of smoke," or we ran out of steam. We were supposed to go home on Monday, but we decided instead to stay until Tuesday. The promise of grilling out the bleu cheese bacon burgers that Grandma picked up at the store helped with our decision too.

We spent most of the day in our jammers until Henry decided that he had better fit in a workout.

When the chalkboard was full, mama told him to use the paper towels to clean it off, so he did.

Eat it up Aunt Jenni, Grams has her old horse, exposed springs and all. And Henry can really make it buck. It jumped all over the floor and mama was sure a spring would break and send Buster flying into the cinder block wall.

Of course that didn't happen and Henry had a good time demanding that mama go in the other room, wait for him to call her, then come out, DON'T TALK, and just take pictures.

Monday was also papa's birthday. As a special present, Aunt Girl took Henry out for a McDonalds picnic in the park while mama, papa, Grams, and I went out to eat. Thanks Aunt Girl! We actually had a good time! We all met up at the park afterward.

Aunt Girl and I liked going down the slide.

This playground was great because it was all enclosed and there were very few places a little girl could fall off, so I got to go wherever I wanted.

After supper, we played outside. Henry and I dared each other to do tricks on the slide.

He went down the slide headfirst.

I dangled precariously.

Either mama and papa are just more relaxed or I am much more bold than Henry was at this age. He's still known to be quite cautious. But I throw caution to the wind.

Take that, slide!

And although I refused to walk at the Seiberts, I took a couple steps at the Cooper's. There's less of a chance of getting clobbered by another kid there.

A big highlight of the weekend was the birds nest next to the back door. When we left on Friday, there were just eggs inside, but when we got back, there were baby birds. We all conquered Aunt Girl's fear of getting dive bombed by the mama bird and stole a peak. Turns out that newborn birds aren't quite as cute as baby bunnies. Yuck.

Grams got an ice cream cake for papa's birthday. Henry made sure to count the candles.

And we all sang him Happy Birthday!

Back in Mern- June.

We were all pretty tired after the big party and slept a while in the car back to the Cooper's.

When we got there, we found out Grams hit up the consignment store and brought us back matching outfits. Sadie was excited to model, but I was a little embarrassed.

Henry tried to show me how to sit still and smile, but I wasn't buying it.

Don't you guys no that you're not supposed to wear white pants before Memorial Day?

Sadie knew that a temporary nuk fix wasn't going to help.

Finally, I explained there was no way they were going to get a good picture outside.

So instead, they just made us sit inside. I still was into it. Sadie was getting a little bored.

Why won't they just leave me alone?

In my defense, that big harmless arthritic dog that never moves more than 4 feet in an hour was always there menacing me.

At least there were a few cute shots of Sadie.

And one more reason to rebel against my parents when I turn 15.

Not even diaper changes are sacred anymore?

Turn that camera off, mama!

Since I wasn't going to perform for anyone, Sadie took it upon herself to ramp up the cute factor.

And she did a pretty good job.

To the Seiberts- Henry.

Next we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Seibert's house for the main event.

Mama hit up a church garage sale and brought home about 20 new books for everyone. Papa found two Taller girls who were eager to cuddle in and hear about the Magic School bus.

On Saturday, we went over to the Czartowski's to swim in their awesome indoor pool. It was pretty rowdy with 7 kids and only 4 adults, but everyone that went in made it out in one piece. Aunt Elizabeth captured some of the excitement. You'll have to check their blog when they post the pictures. (Please don't post any embarrassing photos of mama, Uncle Kevin!)

On Sunday morning, everyone woke up nice and early and in need of a cuddle. Fiesty as always, June didn't want to share her mama with anyone else.

Luckily, Annalise didn't hold a grudge and still bestowed mama with some special kisses.

Since June's been sick, she hasn't been eating much. But she was pretty happy to thrown most of this great breakfast on the floor.

We all got cleaned up and headed to church to celebrate something really huge- Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Seibert's 60th wedding anniversary. And they have alot to show for it- 6 kids (plus wives and husbands), 19 grandkids, and 19 great grandkids (we think- it's hard to keep track of numbers anymore).

The Doug Seibert family got a picture- our first complete since Juner's baptism, when Tessa was just a bump in Aunt Elizabeth's belly.

And we tried to get a good shot of the four of us.

The Tallers cleaned up real nice-like too.
Mama made Juner's wear this big dress that she got from cousins Andy and Christina. I loved it and insisted several time that week that juner put on her "princess dress." June, who was short on sleep and hungry after Mass, did not feel the same affection for the dress.

Poor Gugger. Lucky for her, the dress was too big to fit in the car seat, so she got to change out of it for the second half of the party.

We headed to the Ramada in for brunch and managed to fit the whole family on one loooooong table.

My second cousin Corey and I found each other and decided to sit beside each other. We were both very well behaved and were only reprimanded because we kept sticking our fingers and cars into our water glass.

As usual, the aunts and uncles turned the meal into an opportunity to spoil their nieces and nephews with junk. Uncle Jim took me through the line and I came back with three different colors of jello desserts. Annalisey got a big powdered doughnut.

Poor Juner fell asleep in the car, but had to be woken up. Poor kid just needed a nap.

Tessa "Smiles" Seibert showed no sign of slowing down and smiled all weekend long.

When it came time to open presents, I wanted to help. They said I could, but only if we posed for a picture first.

Congratulations Grandma and Grandpa!

Finally, here's a short video on how to feed 7 kids at the same time. Grandma and Grandpa need to get a bigger house. We had to eat in shifts, though I spotted some of the adults sneaking pizza in the kitchen.

Leg 1- Marion- Juner.

As mama mentioned, we were out of town last week for a trip back to Ohio. We started on Thursday and drove to Columbus to visit "Unkie" Adam and Aunt Kate's new house. It was awesome and I know that when mama put me down to sleep with Sadie, they were out in the lving room playing Rock Band. They never invite me.

There's a new consignment store in Marion, so when we headed up to Grams Cracker's house, mama immediately headed to it, seeing as how all of Henry's warm weather dress clothes were too small. She came back with this tie- it almost exactly matches one of Papa's. I tried it on and thought it looked pretty good.

We brought Sadie to Marion with us. And no one can resist all three Turner grandkids in one place. so soon after we arrived, GG and GG showed up!

It was GG Grandma's birthday so we celebrated with a special angel food cake. Henry led us all in song. (And before you ask, Sadie shut herself in on the back porch. We eventually let her back in.)Then he licked the icing off each candle.

And really savored each taste.

Luckily he still had room for a piece of the cake. More cool whip please.

I pulled out all the stops and wore three necklaces to celebrate.

Since Sadie's parents were there, mama took it upon herself to load Sadie up with an extra piece of cake.

Sadie must be a prodigy because she says about a thousand words. Here she practices our names (and her trademark screech), before she notices that Uncle Bran is missing and goes off in search of him.

The sugar hit Henry hard and he spent the rest of the day showing off.

Mother's Day Videos- Mama.

Did you notice we're really far behind? Thanks to all (or most of) our loyal readers for not calling and demanding a blog update NOW! We were out of town and by the time I got around to updating the blog we were at the Cooper house- or should I say "The black hole of wireless internet." PawPaw, you need to get that fixed before you leave.

In an effort to update you on a very exciting week, I want to keep everything chronological, so here's a few videos I found on the camera from mother's day.

Henry demonstrates his singing and rocking skills. Then he spontaneously morphs into a sleeping baby. And check out the new set of drawers I picked up to house our ever expanding Matchbox collection. $4 at Goodwill. I'm never shopping retail again.

June didn't prepare any song or dance for mother's day. But the big payoff comes when she yanks Henry's trains from the track.