April in Review

April has been a fun and busy month for us. We've had a great time playing hard and getting lots of things done. We've loved the warmer weather and the snow was fun too. Our kids seem to be growing faster than the weeds in our yard and they're so much cuter to look at so we'll post pictures of them and you can see the yard when we've got the weeds under control. :)






Jacob and some of his preschool friends (two of them couldn't come this particular day). We had an alphabet party to celebrate our completion of our letter-of-the-week preschool. The alphabet cake we made was a big hit! (April 9)




Jacob giving a big cheesy grin with his buddy Daniel Nevers.




Kara has a big grin to show off her chocolaty smile - who wouldn't smile when having such a sweet treat!


I just love this picture of Jacob - what a great, happy kid! He's looking a little too grown up though - kindergarten in the fall! Four and a half years ago I never would have thought he'd be this big!


Matthew making a funny face for the camera.



Anna has really done some growing! Look at those chubby cheeks!
(6 weeks old)


Kara has been working on potty training lately and she's doing a great job! And, her funny personality comes shining through in all she does. Here's what I found when I went to help her.

I laughed and ran for the camera. She does this all the time now. And, in the next series of pictures more of her charm comes out. Enjoy!







Kara loves to dress up in everyone's hats and shoes. Here's she has John's BYU hat and had John tie Jacob's balloon to it. We love Kara's random ideas and her happy smile.







Anna still sleeps a lot, which is nice. I think a baby sleeping is one of the most peaceful scenes in all the world. One of my friends, Kathey, described babies as candy for your eyes, and I think that's a very good description. I just look at my baby and want to keep looking at her and holding her as she sleeps. But, with three others to take care of and enjoy, it doesn't happen as much as I'd like.



Happy Easter! The kids were mostly excited about their new clothes for church, except for Matthew. He HATES wearing sweaters and I think this is probably the last time I can make him wear one. John share his same opinion and I wonder if things like this are genetic... Jacob loves sweaters and so do I. Anyway, we sure love our cute crew and we had a wonderful holiday. (April 12)


Matthew, Jacob, and Caleb (our cousin!), pretending they're pro golfers. They saw part of the Master's golf tournament on TV and thought they'd try it out. Jacob pointed out to me that his club was particularly dangerous and he had to be really careful. He also thought is tie looked better outside of his sweater instead of tucked inside.
(April 12)

The rest of these pictures are in no particular order because I'm tired of taking forever to drag and drop them where I want them. So, here's the rest of our month in photos.

Our boys love to dig and John spent Saturday, April 18 building a sandbox for the boys. We had a picnic outside in the backyard because no one wanted to go inside to do something as tedious as eat when such high excitement could be found outside. We'll have to document the sandbox - John did a great job and the kids LOVE it! They're still thankful for it in most every prayer they offer.

Matthew and Jacob love building with legos and this is their lego construction crew. Cute builders I've got here!

And this is what Anna does best. She's the sweetest little thing and is as good as can be. We love having her in our family!

Our Rowley cousins came over to hang out while they were in Provo visiting and the kids had a grand time running around the house pretending all sorts of things. Cousins are so fun! And getting a picture of them is tricky! (April 16)

This was supposed to be the "nice" picture before the silly one just above this. Matthew is 6, Caleb is 5, Jacob is 4, Emily is 7, Rachel is 3 and Kara is 2. Our kids had so much fun playing with Emily, Caleb, and Rachel and when they left Matthew said, "I'm sure going to miss those guys!" We wish they were closer.

We woke up during Spring Break (April 15-17) to a few inches of snow. The kids were thrilled and headed out to play as soon as breakfast was done! At first I wasn't too excited about the snow. Then I realized that if we have to get some precipitation, a quick snow storm that melts off by afternoon is way more fun than a rainy morning. The kids sure thought so too!

Kara in her cozy snow suit - she went out because the boys did and I'm not sure what she really thought of the whole snow venture.

Matthew loves to play in the snow and will stay out even if he's the only one out there.

Jacob also loves to play in the snow but doesn't love it quite as much as Matthew does. They do have fun out there together.

My three snow buddies! (April 15)


We went to a place called Jumpin' Jacks and the kids had a fun time climbing and sliding on all of the inflated slides and toys. It's a great place to get the wiggles out!

Kara wasn't sure about it at first but she was in tears when we left. Somewhere in the middle of our visit she decided it was really fun and she wore me out with her constant requests for help climbing and sliding. I had fun too and I think I used muscles I didn't realize I had. :)

This is Jacob climbing up a huge ladder for the slide. This one was his favorite! And this one made me cringe because it was so big and he's so little!

Matthew posing very randomly on his favorite slide. It looked like a big ship that was sinking and Matthew thought it was great!

Jacob on the top of one of the slides ready to slide down.



Anna has changed so much this month! (7 weeks old, April 26)It's making me sad that my baby isn't really a newborn anymore. I worked so hard to make her a perfect little body and it sure isn't staying very little! We love her to pieces and we especially love it when she does this...




Her baby smile melts my heart every time. She has a full blown grin that shows her cute toothless gums and we'll try to get that on camera next. Talk about sweet baby love! I can't get enough of this girl! (April 26)


And this is what Kara was doing while I took those pictures of Anna. Apparently I took too long and she decided to get on with nap time. Poor little sweetie - she did sleep much better in her bed. (April 26)