April Happenings

We started off the glorious month of April with General conference!  These smiles lasted all of two talks before the griping and complaining began.  Somehow GC is a little more uplifting when you don't have to break up sibling fights and calm down bored whiny children.  I'm just saying.  

3 birthdays later(my Mom, neice, and sister) we celebrated Easter!

The kids really loved dying the eggs this year and Rylynn developed a new passion for hard boiled eggs.  Carter wasn't feeling it.

Due to the fact that I had been rehearsing for three months for a Stake Easter program, we had to have a pretty low key Easter weekend.  I had performances on Friday and Saturday night.  It was an amazing program and such an awesome experience to be a part of.  I was planning on hosting the neighborhood egg rolling contest but due to the program we just had a family contest with the addition of our neighbor friend.

Garrett prefaced the contest with the most important rule that no one was allowed to cry if they lost:)  Rylynn was much better about that than Carter.  We all had fun though and once again Daddy's egg came out on top.  He let Carter roll the winning egg on the last round so he wouldn't be too sad.

Then we did a few egg hunts in the backyard.  Garrett's family used to hunt for the dyed real eggs when he was little so we decided why not try it so the kids can search for eggs longer.  They ended up wanting to do this about five times. 

Carter hid the eggs the last time and he did a great job but when Rylynn and the neighbor came to hunt he kept telling them where they were hidden:)  He was trying to help his sister to find them all!

Rylynn was quite the searcher

Seriously this entertained them for over an hour!

Beckett just stood in the yard and gave directions:)

Oh and looked really cute!

This little man is obsessed with the trampoline these days.  He seriously wants to go out there first thing every morning.  He calls it "bonk". We aren't sure if that's because he gets bonks when he jumps on it or if he is trying to say jump:)  He was enjoying watching the hunt from his favorite spot.

He was a big fan of the Easter bunny too!

The kids got a few little things in their easter baskets and then they searched for candy filled eggs around the house.

Proudly displaying the loot

The kids came to my Easter concert on Saturday night with the exception of Beckett but they were not very good for Garrett so it turned out to be a big let down for me.  After the program I walked back to find my supportive family and the first thing out of my kids' mouths was, "why was it so long?!"  I was kind of shocked they didn't like it because the previous two weeks we had discussed the passover and the resurrection for FHE and they loved it.  For our Easter lesson Garrett showed them an easter video and they wanted to watch it over and over again.  Oh well.  It was still an amazing experience for me.  The music made such an impact on my easter experience this year and I felt like I drew so much closer to my Savior through the performances.  The director was the most talented musician I have ever worked with and I have worked with a lot of talented musicians!  This woman arranged most of the music and wrote all the narration and directed a 75 person choir, piano, synthsizer, and violin and she pushed us all to perfection.  I loved it!

These are the kids Easter outfits.  We took these quickly before church but didn't get any with Garrett and I.  We all had matching blue and yellow for our theme.  We had Easter dinner with our friends the Chambers and the Brockbanks.  It was really yummy and we all ate way too much.  I was just so happy to not have to host after the crazy weekend.  Thanks Chambers!!

After the chaos of Easter died down it was time for my birthday!!  Garrett spoiled me endlessly with treats, shopping, girls nights out, birthday lunch to a brazillian grill, and a yummy family dinner on Sunday that he cooked for me.  My parents gave me a kindle which I am loving!  On the afternoon of my birthday my friend and neighbor Brenda threw a birthday luncheon for me and some of my girlfriends.  We didn't take the picture until after a few of them had already left but it was so much fun and really yummy too!  Brenda gave me some beautiful flowers too which always makes me happy:)  There are so many amazing women here and I am so happy to have so many wonderful friends.  I was just sad she couldn't invite them all!

Here are the pretty flowers from Brenda and my little collection of birthday cards from family and friends.  Even the little neighbor boy Seth made me a card (he's five:)  I felt very loved!  It was a crazy and fun month.  Now if we can just get some summer weather our way!