Abshire summer all in one post.  Ready? Go.

Tansy graduated from preschool!  She was adorable as she did her songs and dances.  She didn't know where we were since we were in the very last row in the chapel.  That's why she doesn't look happy when she's carrying her certificate.  She was still trying to find us.

Her graduation was also Ben's birthday.  I let the kids decorate the cake.  They had a great time.

The Wings Over Whiteman air show was as fun as ever.  The girls got to perform.  Sydney was in a dance/cheer class that she really enjoyed.

Tansy has been doing tumbling and loves it.  So glad it is starting again this fall!

We took a little family vacation to St. Louis.  We always said that we would schedule a trip sometime when we went to the temple.  We now have a temple in Kansas City, so we had to just plan the trip anyway.

Our first stop was the Cahokia Mounds (or "Hokie Mountains" if you ask Tansy) in Illinois.  They are huge mounds of earth created by the native people hundreds of years ago.  They had different functions depending on the shape.  We did that first because we didn't think the kids would be very interested.  But they really liked it.  We climbed Monks Mound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk%27s_Mound) and got to have a good look around.

The next day we went to the zoo.  The carousel is free for the first hour the zoo is open so we rode it a few times before getting started.

My allergies decided to assault me shortly thereafter and we nearly scrapped the whole trip because I couldn't open my eyes.  I used WAY too many prescription eye drops, but after about an hour of that, my eyes calmed down and we had a really good time.

We tried to go up to the top of the arch, but they were sold out for the day by the time we got there.  We bought tickets for the next day, but we still had to get a picture.

We also visited the science center, which my kids absolutely love.  They had some fun shows as well as a hands on area where we played FOREVER!

As you can see, we finally did make it up to the top of the arch.  It was amazing!

We also went to Utah for a couple of weeks this summer.  The following three pictures are the only ones we took because we are lame.  Tyler was a horrible bed hog.  His pillow is actually at the foot of the bed on the other side so that he wouldn't bug Zack.  That worked well.  This room also had a set of bunk beds (one of my kids favorite things about staying here) so the boys got to sleep in those on the way home.

On our way back to Missouri, we were getting back in the car after a potty break.  The boys could not take their eyes off of this motorcycle next to us, and the owner offered to let them sit on it for a picture.  I couldn't get the boys to look at me for the picture because they were so impressed with the bike.

About a minute after we got home (okay, more like a day and a half) Ben found out he had to leave for a three-week training in New Mexico.  He left five days after we got home.  My parents decided to come keep us company.  Since bowling is the only thing to do around here, that's what we did.  I beat my dad for the first time ever.  Go me!

Zack celebrated his fourth birthday last week.  Unfortunately, Ben was still gone.  We opened presents while on Skype during his lunch break and had some friends come over that evening for cake.

We picked Ben up from the airport yesterday after getting Zack's portraits taken.  I was surprised that we were actually able to do them considering how much Zack's beat up his face the past few weeks.

This picture was taken at the ER after he fell on to concrete while trying to get off a trampoline.  He isn't bleeding.  That's all bruising.

Two days later, he did this on a different trampoline when he collided with his friend.  It turned in to a magnificent black eye that extended to his right eye as well.  Sorry for the poor quality cell phone shot.

He also fell off his chair at dinner a couple of days after that and got a bump and bruise on the top of his forehead.  Somehow, the kids managed to completely heal in just a couple of weeks and we got some good pictures yesterday.

Zack wanted to go to Rib Crib for his birthday dinner with Daddy, so we headed there from the airport.  It's amazing how happy the simplest things can make me when Ben is finally home with us.  I love my family and how we have such great times together.

Sydney turned 8 last month.  She requested a red dragon party.  I managed to find a pinata from Oriental Trading and I made this cake.  The picture actually makes it look better than it turned out, but Sydney and her friends thought it was awesome so it was a success.

We had a family party Sunday night, the 22nd, because Ben was working a long-shift the next day on Sydney's actual birthday.  The family cake was a LOT simpler.  However, Sydney was impressed with the sprinkles.  I was buttercream-making master by the time I finished frosting both of those cakes and the cupcakes we took to her classroom on her birthday.

Tyler did not bother waiting for a fork.

The following weekend, my parents and Ben's mom were able to come for Sydney's baptism.  I was busy making dinner one night so I asked Zack to take the carrots out of the fridge and put them on the table.  He left with the carrots then returned them to the fridge a couple of minutes later.  I told him again that I needed him to put the carrots on the table.  He gave me an exasperated look and said, "I did!" and left the room.  When I walked into the dining room later, I found that he did, in fact, put the carrots on the table.

Sydney was baptized on April 29, just in time to attend the temple dedication the following Sunday.

She shared her baptism with two other girls in our ward.  It was a good service, and I'm really glad our parents were there, even though I apparently didn't take and pictures of them.

Sydney adopted a pet a couple of weeks ago.  This is Turty the Turtle.  She really wanted to keep him, but we did some research and decided it wouldn't be a good idea.  When I told Sydney that we were going to release him, she was really sad.  I told her that keeping him would be like if she had to stay inside all the time alone and not get to eat any of her favorite foods again.  She understood so we had a goodbye party at the lake behind our house.

Tansy and Zack and both playing tee ball.  Tansy is on a 5&6-year-old team, and Zack is in Start Smart, which is a parent participation, skills-building program.  They are both really enjoying it.

This past Friday, we promised the kids a backyard campout.  We bought a 10-man tent from our neighbors a few weeks ago.  Sydney is the only one of our kids who has been camping.  Tansy turned 5 in March, so that tells you how long it's been.  We decided this would be a good trial run.  The kids loved helping Ben set up the tent.

Meanwhile, I built a fire.  This was my first fire ever.  Sure, I used 8 matches, but this girl made fire!

We roasted hot dogs and had watermelon.  Of course, there were s'mores!

We stayed up until 9:00, so these little people were exhausted!

Ty woke up nearly two hours after Zack and Tansy.  It might have something to do with the fact that he stole my spot on the air mattress.

Round one of playing catch up.

March 13 was Tansy's 5th birthday party.  We had a few friends over during the day, but I wasn't able to get many pictures since Ben was in Vegas.  They decorated cupcakes, had a pinata, and colored their own gift bags.  All in all, a success.

March 14 was Tansy's actual birthday.  Between the toys donated to us my neighbors, the clearance rack at Walmart, and the bike I won in a raffle, there was a pretty spectacular haul.  You can see Ben in background on Skype.

From March 20-28, I got to go to Vegas to see Ben.  My mom stayed with the kids.  We were planning a 10th anniversary trip to Oregon this summer, but since Ben had to work a grand total of six hours while we were there, we took advantage of the free hotel room and rental car.  We bought tickets through the base and got great deals.  These pics are Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (fun, yet creepy) and the gondola ride at the Venetian (short, but we had an awesome gondolier named Cosmo pictured below).

Ben wanted to take pictures of cool cars we saw.  Here are two.  Yes, the gray one is a Delorean.  Even I thought that was awesome.

Hoover Dam was cool.  This is a view from the bridge facing the dam.  We also went on the tour inside the dam.

We walked across the dam and took pictures of Ben in Arizona and Nevada.  Too bad we were already on daylight savings time, so both clocks were the same.

We also went to the Las Vegas Temple.  We showed up for the only session of the week in Spanish so we had to wear headphones.  We went to Blue Man Group (super fun!), the Louie Anderson show (good thing these tickets were free to military members; it was awful), Ka by Cirque du Soleil (absolutely stunning!), the Mac King Comedy Magic Show (hilarious and totally kid friendly), The Phantom of the Opera (disappointingly shortened but still a great show), the Ethel M Chocolate Factory (go early since they stop production about 2:00), the Bodies exhibition (honestly, weirdly cool), and the Titanic exhibition (amazing and beautiful).  We visited the aquarium at Mandalay Bay and saw some incredible animals.

In the gift shop, this guy was hand-painting whatever name you wanted for $5 a letter.  We couldn't resist picking up one with our last name.

We ate ridiculous amounts of food, slept whenever we wanted to, and generally had the most relaxing vacation of my life.  I left a few days before Ben did, so I didn't get to enjoy the Red Rock Canyon with him.

Ben got home March 31, so that weekend we colored our Easter eggs.  Tyler didn't quite understand the procedure and tried to eat his yellow egg, shell and all, shortly after it came out of the dye.

For Easter break, we had a visitor.  Her name is Midnight.  She is a guinea pig that lives in Sydney's classroom.  We might get to have her again later this month since Sydney's teacher is going out of town for a week.  They kids loved her and went into hysterics every time she left "poo poo pellets."

Easter morning involved the standard Easter baskets.

Followed by an Easter egg hunt.

Sydney might have had a little trouble finding hers.

Who forgot to post the Valentine's Day pictures?  Oh, yeah.  That was me.  The girls had a blast giving and getting valentines at school.  I cut out lip and mustache shapes from craft foam and stuck a Dum Dum through the middle so it looked like you had big lips or a mustache while you ate the sucker.  That's what the girls gave as their valentines.  We had to make a set of lips for everyone here at home too.  Yes, I make my kids dress in red and eat ham cut into heart shapes, garlic mashed potatoes tinted pink, strawberries, and broccoli.  No, broccoli is not pink, but it is good for your heart!

Ben left February 21 for two exercises at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.  The federal government was kind enough to schedule a three-day weekend in honor of Presidents' Day right before he left.  We told the kids we would take them bowling on Monday, and they we so excited.  When we got to the bowling center on base, the parking lot was ominously empty.  I checked the hours and discovered that the are closed on holidays.  The kids are just about to freak out, while Ben and I deperately search the GPS for another bowling alley.

We found one in Sedalia, so off we went.  We had planned to get pizza at the bowling alley, so with the change of plans, we now had to find somewhere to eat.  We settled on Golden Corral, which was right across the street from the bowling alley.  We kept looking out the window while we ate at the empty parking lot at that bowling alley as well, and tried to quietly decide how to appease four kids who wanted nothing more out of the day than to shove heavy balls down highly polished floors.

At noon, cars started pulling in and parking.  We were saved!  We packed up our well-fed and kids and headed over.  We walked in, and I nearly walked out.  It smelled so bad!  It was like 50 years of smoke and foot odor had collected and never been give an chance to escape.  Even the kids were complaining.  I asked if they wanted to leave, but they insisted they could handle it.

We gathered our cracked balls and headed for our lanes.  Tyler nearly got hit in the face a couple of times when he tried to follow me or Ben on our turns, but other than that, the kids had a great time.  It was the dumpiest bowling alley I'd ever seen, and our balls could constantly get stuck at the end.  We would have six balls rolling around behind the pins until someone would go down and clear them again.  I would never go back there, but for that afternoon, our family was happy.

That evening, while Ben was packing, I woke up with a monster of a head cold.  I had been sleeping for two hours and came stumbling out of the room in search of meds.  Ben apologized for waking me, but I assured him he had nothing to do with it.  Ten hours before he leaves for six weeks, and I'm sick.  It made for a rough first week, but nothing this Air Force wife couldn't handle!

Sydney participated in her 2nd grade music program on March 1st.  This was the best picture I could get with my camera and kids.  The first video shows her saying her line.  There was supposed to be a second video showing the last song of the program.  That kid was so tired.  Tyler was climbing on me the entire time, so at least you'll miss that.

There isn't much else to report.  I tend to keep the adventure to a minimum when Ben is gone.  Saves the sanity.  Although this week is shaping up to be a doozy.  Tansy's birthday is Wednesday, her party is Tuesday, plus we have Kindergarten screening, two doctor appointments, and a couple of other appointments, all while I am getting ready to go see Ben in Las Vegas!  My mom will be staying with the kids while we enjoy and early anniversary trip.  We are celebrating ten years and plan to have a blast.  Yeah for us!

The greatest story of this week is the ongoing saga of the bed.  Last month, we drove out to Nebraska Furniture Mart, which is an hour and a half away, and bought a king-size bed.  As we approach 10 years of marriage, we have decided that we need to accept our bed-hogging ways and just get more room.  We picked out a bed that was more firm than our queen bed because Ben prefers a firmer mattress.  It was still a pillowtop, so I thought it would be okay.  They had the very mattress we wanted in the clearance center because it had a small hole in the top that could easily be repaired.  We patted ourselves on the back for getting a great deal and went home to await delivery.

Five days later, the bed arrived!  They set it up, and we were so excited.  Until that night at about 2:00 a.m.  That's when I woke up with a very sore back.  After tossing and turning for a while, I finally got up and went to sleep in the old bed in the guest room.  This is how I spent most of the next few weeks.  After a few days, we knew we couldn't keep the bed.  We were able to sell it on craigslist, and it was picked up on Thursday, less than four weeks after we got it.  We lost about $250 on the deal, but we felt like we should sleep in the same room.

Yesterday, we got a babysitter and went back out mattress shopping.  We ended up back at Nebraska Furniture Mart because they were having a sale where you could get a king mattress for the price of a queen.  We got a great deal, but it won't be delivered until the 3rd.  Ben leaves Tuesday morning for 5 weeks, so it's only a few days of sleeping in the guest room.  Here's hoping we got the right one this time!

Flu and poo.  That sums up my week.  What am I saying?  This only started Thursday.  It feels so much longer.

I don't know what is up with Tyler's digestive track, but we are not friends right now.  I had several errands in Warrensburg on Thursday, the first of which was Zumba at the church at 9:00.  Tyler slept until 8:40, which should have told me that he wasn't feeling well.  I figured we'd get going and he'd perk up.  He was pretty weepy while playing with the other kids.  I held him while doing Zumba, because I'm awesome, but he still seemed sleepy.  I had him lay on my coat so I could finish the class.  Then the smell hit.  I was hoping it was one of the pregnant ladies passing gas.  But it lingered.  I looked suspiciously at my baby, who had rolled over with his bum in the air.  I carefully peeked, and, oh, the horror!  I whisked him off to bathroom and placed him on the changing table.  (WARNING: Grossness ahead!  Please proceed to the next paragraph if you cannot handle poop stories.)  I put him down and this nasty diarrhea flowed out of the back of his diaper onto the changing table.  I used no less than 600 baby wipes (possibly an exaggeration) to clean the baby, the table, and the lid of the garbage can that I also managed to get poop on.  Thus, ended Zumba.

We went home, but then I had to meet someone back in Warrensburg at 11:00.  So back we went.  Halfway there, the school nurse called to say that Sydney had a fever and needed to come home.  I told her I was in Warrensburg, but would be there as soon as possible.  Then Ben called saying he was headed to Warrensburg for a work errand and wanted to meet for lunch.  I told him Sydney was sick and asked if he would pick her up and meet me on my way back and I would just take her home.  However, Sydney told Ben that she didn't actually feel sick, just cold.  So we all went to lunch anyway.

Later that night, she got a headache, a higher fever, and a sore throat.  I tried to get her into the clinic Friday morning, but they were booked.  I got a referral to the urgent care clinic in town, but they were also booked.  I was worried that she might have strep, so I waited until after hours and took her in that evening.  There was more traffic than expected so I didn't get there until a few minutes after 4:30, with four kids in tow.  There were already about 10 people ahead of us, so we were there until after 7:00.  The nurse did Syd's strep test while doing her vitals, but it was negative.  The doctor decided to test for influenza, which I thought was unnecessary because we were all vaccinated.  Apparently, this particular flu didn't care.  So we were off to Walmart with six prescriptions for Tamiflu.  I cringed at the total for the medication, since I am a spoiled military dependent, but Tricare didn't cover all of it.  But it worked.  Sydney is doing much better today.  I was sick yesterday, but not as bad as it could have been.  Just tired today.  And the others seemed to have dodged the bullet.

Back to Tyler.  Things had been going better in diaper-land, and I thought we had gotten over whatever Thursday was.  Wrong.  Yesterday, Tansy frantically informed me that there was a melted granola bar on the chair and the floor.  We like to Sweet and Salty ones that have the nut butter on the back so that's what it actually looked like.  I wondered if someone had thrown up.  Then I saw Ty looking at me out of the corner of his eye from the living room.  I walked over, lifted up his shirt, and there was the poo.  While he was sitting in his seat, (grossness again!) it had filled his diaper, flowed over the top onto the chair, then dripped down to the floor.  Another 600 baby wipes later (again, a possible exaggeration, but it sure felt that way), baby, furniture, and floor were clean.

Don't get me wrong.  I love being a mom.  But I don't love the flu and poo.

In fact (this is too much information, so feel free to move on) it was so bad yesterday that his bowel movement filled his diap