April Highlights

This year is FLYING by! I can't believe April is over now. About this time last year I found out that I wouldn't be working the next year, and I remember thinking I didn't know how I would make it through the year staying home. I thought I would be bored. Guess what? Definitely NOT bored! I LOVE staying home with the kids. I was only going to take a year off of work, but I have officially decided that staying home with my cuties is where I want to be. So for sure another year at home, and possibly more. I really love that I have the option to take things year by year. And I am so thankful that I have a really hard working husband that supports me staying home.

Here's some highlights from April that didn't make it into our other posts:

See all this really fancy jewelry Makayla is wearing? Let me tell you why she got it:

 One Wednesday morning we were watching t.v. before we left for dance. Makayla wanted some of her Nerds candy that she got for Easter, so I let the kids have one box. Pretty soon Makayla came over to me and said, "Mom, we don't put candy in our noses, do we?" My eyes got all big as I put it together. I said, "Makayla, did you put a Nerd up your nose?" She said, "No!" But started to cry. I had her lie down on the couch and looked up her nose. I could vaguely see a yellow thing in there, so I went and got some toilet paper and told her to blow. Well, Makayla hasn't figured out how to blow, so she sniffed and the darn Nerd went higher up her nose. My next idea was to put saline spray and try to use a bulb syringe to get it out, but that didn't work either. I text Tyler, but he was in a meeting, so I finally called her doctor's office and talked to the nurse. She suggested we bring Makayla in and they could use an "extractor" to get it out. I told them I was going to watch it for a few hours and maybe take her in later that afternoon. Well we went on our way to dance and I was telling some of the other moms about it. Becca (our new dance friend) said she had an electric suctioner that we could use, so we went to her house after lunch. Long story short, it took both me and Becca holding Makayla down while she screamed and we tried to suction her nose out. I don't know if we completely got it, but there was some gross yellow snot that came out. We had to suction her out one more time and Makayla freaked out, so I told her I would take her to the store and buy her something if she let us suction her again. So Makayla got some Frozen jewelry out of it, a bruise on the forehead (from us trying to hold her down while she fought us... she is freakishly strong for a 4 year old), and a reminder to not stick ANYTHING up her nose ever again. Sheesh... some people's children! :)

In other news, remember how Brynnli got upgraded to the sink to prevent me having a melt down over the dirty mirror. Here's some adorable pictures of her bathing in the sink.

 Remember how I also said that Brynnli sometimes wakes up at 10:00. This was one of those nights. We were just watching t.v. so we let her join us. She was loving "Nashville".

 These sisters have such a strong bond already. I just know they are going to be best friends.

 Tyler and Makayla were dancing one day. Have I told you that 4 years old might be my favorite age so far? Oh my, Makayla can just melt your heart with her cuteness. She has definitely made up for the terrible twos and threes. I keep telling her that she is not allowed to grow up, and she responds with, "But I want to grow up... what if I make you a picture so you can remember me?"

 Love these cuties more than they will ever know. I love looking through my camera and seeing random pictures like this.

Gettin' ready for church in our new Sunday clothes.

 My handsome little guy all dressed up.

Not so funny story here... We were sitting in Sacrament meeting and Caden looked up at me and said, "I'm going to throw up!" I ran out with him as fast as I could, but the poor little guy threw up all over the hallway and his new outfit. I tried getting him into the bathroom, but we didn't make it. There was throw up all down the church hallway. Some random guy found the janitor's closet and helped me clean up the puke while Tyler took the kids home and gave Caden a bath. If there was ever a worse time and place to throw up, Caden found it. 

Whelp, April was great! Can't wait for May!

Spring Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken and I LOVE them! I wanted really springy pictures, so we got all gussied up in our matching spring colors and headed to Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival. Here's some of my favorites of the family:

 And of course the cuties:

 LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my boys!

 I mean seriously, can this picture be any cuter? The little hand in his pocket, just adoring his daddy!

 And I love my two little princesses...TWO! I have TWO princesses.

 Me and the hubbs. I kinda like him.

 Here's some individuals of our three adorable kids.

7 Months

On April 23, this little cutie turned 7 months old!

At 7 months Brynnli: 

• Is crawling all over the house. She loves to crawl all over and sometimes gets high centered on things (toys, chairs). She screams and I end up getting the camera first to take a picture before I help her get down. 
• Is starting to pull herself up on furniture which means that walking is not far behind!
• Loves to play with Caden and Kayla. She loves to be in the middle of them when they are playing Legos and break all their towers. The kids get so mad at her and try to box her out. It's pretty hilarious.
• Loves to eat. She loves her baby food and her Mommy's milk :)
• Is getting some serious attachment issues. She has to be in the same room as us and a lot of the times has to be held or else she screams bloody murder. A lot of times she only wants me (which I love when we can snuggle, but hate when I have to get things done). 
• Got upgraded to the kitchen sink for bath time. She loves to splash, and it was so adorable when she would, but by the time bath time was over, we were soaked, the counter top and floors were wet, and the mirror was wet. If you know me, you know one of my biggest pet peeves is a dirty mirror, so we had to reconcile that situation fast. But the good news is that she loves bathing in the kitchen sink and she can splash without all the mess. Moral of this long story is happy baby, happy mommy!
• Is finally sleeping through the night again! It took a week of listening to her cry in her crib at night, but it was worth it now that we're all getting more sleep. She does still have a hard time going to sleep. Often times she will start crying at 10:00 and when I go to console her, she is totally sleep crying.

We love our Brynnie-Goos!

Confused? Us too.

This picture was taken on Sunday, April 12

Makayla did a cute little fashion show in her new Spring dress in front of my favorite Spring plant.

Three days later we woke up to this...

Confused? Welcome to Utah!

Easter Time is Here Again!

We had a busy weekend with Caden's party and Easter Sunday the same weekend. We were busy, but we managed to get all our fun plans accomplished. We colored Easter eggs with Grandpa Craig and Grandma Terry on Friday night. 

 I forgot to take a picture of my egg, but I totally won the contest for cutest egg this year with my Minion egg.

Saturday night after Caden's party, we set out the kids' Easter baskets and made them take the traditional picture. From the looks of this picture, I would say Brynnli is stoked for her first Easter!

 The next morning the kids woke up bright and early and started to look for their baskets. The kids were so nice to Brynnli and found her basket for her. The Easter Bunny hid it in her bath tub.

 She got an outfit, jammies, and a snack container. The Easter Bunny must be a little more practical this year.

 Then we headed down stairs to look for Makayla and Caden's baskets.

 The Easter Bunny hid them really well this year, and we didn't find anything down stairs, so we headed upstairs and finally found Caden's basket in the oven. Caden later told Grandma and Grandpa that his basket was, "where chocolate chip cookies come from."

Caden got an outfit, Toy Story 2, and a Jake the Pirate toy. 

 We kept searching for Kayla's bag and finally found it behind the downstairs tv.

Makayla got an outfit, the Princess and the Frog movie, and a Palace Pet toy. 

We started out our party hopping by going to the Easter egg hunt at Terry and Craig's. We took a lot of pictures with every combination of grouping we could think of.

 Then it was off to find our goodies around the yard. We ended up with six garbage bags full of goodies!

 Brynnli always manages to sleep at the most exciting things.

 After the Evans party we headed off to my mom's house for dinner and another party. My Grandma Draper and Aunt Karen joined us this year.

Everyone says that Brynnli looks like my Grandma Draper, and I totally agree! Tyler said he is going to call Brynnli Mini-Max from now on. FYI, my Grandma is going to be 90 years old this August. Doesn't she look great!

 We were so happy my Aunt could join us too. We haven't seen her for a while, but it was so good to talk to  and see her again.

 Then it was time for the Thomas Easter egg hunt. Love my dad in the middle of all the kids.

 The kids had a blast looking for eggs.

Another great Easter for the books!