Life's Happenings In April

April has come and gone like the wind. What did we do in April, I can hardly even remember... and it's not like it was that long ago. I can tell you one thing for sure. Kelly worked A TON!! I'm SO happy tax season has ended... well I guess it never really ends, so I should say I'm glad that April 18th (this year) is behind us.

I started the month off by making this DeLiCIouS soup. It's my favorite. It's got tortilini and sausage and spinach and tomato's and lots of garlic in it! It's so good! Kelly and the boys even love it!


The boys and I sent Kelly and his friends to the Devey Lodge for a long awaited, nice, relaxing weekend. Full of computer games, sledding, movies, good food, and even better friends. Thankfully Dusty took some pictures while he was there, and so I stole them from his Facebook page. Thanks Dusty!





While the boys were gone, Shelley, Kim and I gathered with the Kids at Shelley's for some scrapbooking fun. I couldn't tell you when the last time I scrapbooked was before then, but I got 4 or so pages completed and the kids had a fun time playing together.


On the 9th Landon, Carter, Mason, Brandon, Morgan, Cayson and I spent the day at the Zoo. It was cold, but the animals were out and pretty active. It was a lot of fun. Mason LOVED the monkeys and chimpanzees. He would get so excited and point and say, "kee-kee, kee-kee!"


Landon's favorite thing we saw were the yellow monkeys. There was a box of Mac-N-Cheese in it's habitat and he decided that they were yellow because they ate so much Mac-N-Cheese.

Carter's favorite animal was the leopard. It was right up at the glass, and was growling and scratching at the glass. It was so cool!


The next week was Spring Break. No school for an entire week! At first as I sat here writing this, I was flipping through the pictures on my computer and could not believe that I hadn't taken a single picture during that time. But, then I remembered that I now use two camera's and I had only downloaded one of them. Thank Heavens!! I really didn't want the worst Mom in the world award. ;)

We kicked off our spring break fun by meeting up with Kim and Derek and having lunch at the Chick-fil-A. We let the kidlets play and enjoyed a good bite of food.


The next day Kim and I took our kids and rode Trax up to the Church History Museum to see the Children's Exhibit. They had a great time and loved riding the train up. There was a lot to see and do there. Lots to explore. My favorite part of the whole day though was watching Abby and Landon dance!

On the 16th we celebrated Alivia's 8th Birthday!! It was a fun day. We went to Monkey Island in Lehi and played there on all the jump houses and slides. There are a few arcade games there and that's all the boys wanted to do was play those games. I couldn't believe it. I would have thought that they'd be all over the slides and jump houses, but we kept having to pull them off the games to get them to jump. Silly Boys!!

After Monkey Island we went back to the Devey's house and had pizza, cake and ice cream. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera in so I didn't get any cute pictures, but we had a great time. Alivia wanted a music themed party, so Shelley had a cake with a guitar on it (it was DarLinG!) and then had them make their own party hats with all these fun music stickers. They all loved it!

As part of our gift to Alivia, Kim and I made a Baptism book for her. We scrapbooked a whole bunch of pages and left space for people to write a message to her on the day she gets Baptized. Then on the day (May 7th) Kim and I will pass out the pages to everyone that comes, and we will take lots and lots of pictures to then stick on the pages. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's complete. This is what some of the pages look like for now:






The next few days were just normal, random days. Here are some pics to showcase some of the ramdomness...













On the 21st we went to Heber to Rhett and Erin's for a cousin's Easter Party. It was SO much FUN! Erin and Turia went crazy and created the most spectacular food and Easter egg hunt. We got there late (of course) and they were dying Easter Eggs. Landon and Carter loved this! They jumped right in and started on their own dozen eggs. Each of them only dying their eggs one color. Any guesses?

Landon's were Blue

Carter's were Green

Are we surprised? No... not at all!

Mason and I did some too, and we branched out and did much more colorful ones, and even drew on some before dying them.


After that we went inside and had lunch. It was so yummy! I loved the table decorations too. Erin grew some grass in little buckets and then took some of the colored eggs and stuck them in each one. I loved it!







After lunch we did the Easter Egg hunt. I couldn't believe how much stuff there was... no wait... I could. It's just like Erin to go all out! She's so funny, I love her! The boys were ecstatic!






We had such a fun time, and can't say thanks enough for such a great party!

That same night we celebrated Kalen's birthday at my Grandpa's in Midway. We got some pizza for dinner and had brownies for dessert. While we were there, we were playing with the camera on my phone and came out with these. I laughed so hard, I almost wet my pants!

Me

Landon

Carter

Spencer and Morgan

Mom

DustinKim

Candyce

Morgan

Spencer

On the 21st, Kelly had the day off work and that afternoon, he and the boys took me up to Logan for a book signing. It lasted all night long and they hung out with me all night just because they loved me so much! I have the best family ever. I can never say Thank-you enough to them.

As for the event... I Loved It! Shannon Hale, James Dashner, Ally Condie, Brandon Mull, and Jessica Day George were all there. Talk about a sweet, sweet book signing! They were all hysterical as they answered questions. My amazing and super talented friend Amy Olson wrote up a great article for Eve's Fan Garden about the event. You should check it out here! Once again, I didn't take any pictures, so I stole some from Amy's write up... I hope you don't mind Amy. ;)

Amy and all her books! She had a TON!

The boys brought Amy and I these chips to eat while we were waiting in line to get our books signed.

Wow! This post is super long, but I'm going to keep on going!

On the 23rd, I got to spend the day with some of my most favorite friends in the whole world! Vicki's son Shae got married, and I was so thankful to have received the opportunity to attend their Sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. It was Beautiful! Thalia's family is from Guatemala, so their ceremony was done in Spanish. Though I didn't hardly understand one word that was said, I can tell you it was amazing and beautiful! The spirit was so strong, and seeing Shea's face while looking at his beautiful bride was priceless. So sweet and tender.

That night we partied it up at the reception! They had a fiesta with great food and fantastic music! Amy, Kim, Abby, Ian, Shelley, and I all met and went over together. We had so much fun dancing with Vicki and Summer and the kids.

Taking off the garder! Woot! Woot!!

Ian wore his bunny ears the entire night!

Oh Mac! How we love you! All of us wanted to put you in our pockets and take you home.

I had to post this picture of Vicki dancing with Shea even though it's blurry. It's just too sweet!

EASTER was the next day! Who doesn't love Easter? Celebrating the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ! What a wonderful day. As for the commercial side of it, the Easter Bunny didn't forget our house. He left candy everywhere! In the boys Easter baskets he left Landon and Carter each a new game for their Explorers, and Mason a bunch of new cars and trucks. They all received a new outfit and so much candy. I'm going to have to have a talk with him next year. Mason was so excited about all the candy! He ate so much that at church he barfed all over me and him. Yeah! Real fun! I'm definitely having a chat with the Easter Bunny...

Nothing like a Diet Coke to start your day!

In the last few days of the month, we watched my friend Angela's baby, while she went to Hawaii. Lucky girl! We had Liam for 3 days, and it went surprisingly well. He's just 2 1/2 months younger than Mason, so the two of them had a good time.


And finally yesterday, the last day of the month of April, we spent the day in the basement cleaning it up. It's been a horrific nightmare down there for longer than I care to remember, and I couldn't take it any longer. So we spent the day cleaning up. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the before, but here are some of the after and what we didn't get cleaned up. Just look at the unclean parts and multiply the disaster by at least 75%. It was a mess!

All the scrapbooking stuff that's a huge disaster in the basement still.
I'm going to need some anti-anxiety drugs to help me get all that sorted!

Kelly standing in the recycle bin to compact all the boxes we removed from the basement.

Now it's so much better and I feel like I'm not suffocating in the basement. Thank you Kelly for building the extra shelves and helping me clean up. Love you with all my heart!

Can't wait to see what May brings us! I know a few things and CAN NOT WAIT!!!!