April Happenings 2015

April was a very fun and busy month.

1. We started the month out with Easter weekend. The Easter Bunny comes to our home on Saturday morning so that we can keep our Sunday all about the Savior and his Resurrection.  We also do all of the traditional Easter activities on Saturdays as well.

The kids baskets are always hidden by the Easter Bunny so they have to spend some time looking around for them Saturday morning.   I love that they found them, and went through them, all before I had even gotten out of bed.

So… then I wanted a photo, and I wanted it just the way they were.  This is them.  This is real at our house in the morning.  Crazy socks and hair.  It’s just us.

One of the important gifts in their baskets was a piece of jewelry that represents our church, and some of the beautiful thoughts and sayings we use.  It’s important to me that they have something in the basket that actually reminds them about what we are really celebrating.

Tessa’s say: “I am a child of God.”

Stella’s is a little different.  It is a locket, but it also says, “I am a child of God.”

Isaac’s is a tie clip and says, CTR which means “Choose the Right.”

Jex’s is also a tie clip, and his says, “Called to Serve.”  Which is something that we use and say for boys that our serving missions for our church.  I bought it a little early for him to serve as a reminder that we can always be missionaries, and it’s always important to serve.

I decided to invite my family up for the weekend.  Kristin and Jared were able to make it, and the kids were so excited to spend Easter Weekend with a few of their cousins.

We started Saturday with the traditional egg dying.  The kids really enjoyed it.

I always go a little over board on egg buying; and then we never eat them.  None of us like hard boiled eggs.  After I had thrown them all away, someone told me about the tradition of rolling them down old main hill at the University.  I think we will try that next year.  Then the seagulls clean up the egg mess.

Easter Weekend also happened to fall during our LDS General Conference weekend so we watched Conference and enjoyed Easter activities in-between the sessions.

After Saturday Conference was over we had an egg hunt.  The kids loved it.

We hid about 170 eggs so there was plenty to find.  Some had candy in them, and some had quarters.

 

It was a great afternoon.

I also hid giant eggs that looked like carrots.  Each child was required to find one. 

Each egg had a word in it.  They were required to put the words together and make a phrase.  The phrase was “The good news is he lives.”  Just another simple reminder of why we celebrate Easter.

The kids spent the rest of the day hanging out with each other.

Then when it finally got dark we did our annual glow in the dark egg hunt.  It was fun for Luke to be a part of this because he had never done it before.

It was a beautiful weekend, and we loved being able to spend it with some of our family.

2. The weather in April was so unpredictable.

One day we had this….

Then a few days later Jonathan was out playing BBall with the kids; because it was so warm.

I think the old mans still got it.

3. In mid-April, we made the journey down to Utah County to see this cute little baby be blessed.  It was a great weekend.

It is so nice that we can come down to share special events like these with our family.

We also enjoyed some time at the greatest park that weekend.  It’s called Neptune Park; and the kids loved it.  It was once again fun to share it with cousins.

Tessa decided she was completely in love with Cade, and wanted to hold him all day.  She then decided that we should adopt a baby.

So…. with that in mind, one day on our way to dance she said, “Ok, mom after you pick me up from dance, we should run and adopt a baby at the place that you adopt them.”  We need another mommy baby, so get one.

It’s so funny to me how easy she thought it would be to just adopt a baby.

4.  Jex started Spring Baseball again this spring.  There are lots of practices, and lots of games going on.  It’s always nice to get away from the house and just sit at a ball game. 

Once again, some games were cold, and then some were warm. 

Ugh!!! make up your mind weather.

I really enjoyed my blankets, and I was so thankful to have lots of them in my car one evening when the weather turned off really cold.

5.  I always make Strawberry Freezer Jam in the month of April.  The kids count on it.  On this particular day, I had a few helpers.  My sis-in-law needed some help with her kiddos; so my niece and nephew got to help me out.  They were actually very helpful.

Jane, my niece enjoyed eating Strawberries the most.

I think strawberry jam is so beautiful once it’s all put together.

We love having it all done and in our freezer throughout the year.  It makes great PB&J’s and it’s even better on ice-cream.  I can’t stand store-bought jam.  I am all about the homemade.

6.  As we got closer to the end of the month, Teacher Appreciation week snuck right up on me.  I really wanted the kids teachers to know that we appreciate all they do for our children.

I think being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs.

This is what we came up with.  I love flowers, and I thought it would be nice for the teachers to get something they could take home and add to their yard.  Maybe something they could look at all summer, and be reminded that we love them.

This is what we wrote on the tag:

“Thank you for helping me bloom.” Love, Isaac/Stella/Tessa

April was a great month.

7. We ended the month on a little bit of a sour note.  I ended up seeing a neurosurgeon for the pain that I was having in my arm, neck, and head.  We had figured out that I had a cyst growing on my T1 nerve.  This neurosurgeon decided that I should think about going through with having the cyst removed.

So as April ended, we moved on to May with a lot to think about.

It was a very risky surgery, and I needed to process the whole thing.

May Happenings will answer more of that for y’all in a few days; so stay tuned.

Thanks for being here; and seeing what we have been up too.