April 2012

April showers and flowers in my kids' hair:) It's not often that I take the time to really try to make my girls' hair look cute, but every once in a while they might look like this:

It seems that April was full of the usual business - teaching violin lessons, taking LucyMae to swimming lessons and gymnastics lessons and violin lessons and practicing violin with her, changing diapers and wiping butts, reading books and giving snuggles, storytime at the library, trying to train for a half-ironman triathlon, trips to the park, wonderful weather, and trying to take advantage of any moments when Sam is home to play with us.

But - it aslo included an AWESOME visit from Grandma Michelle and Grandpa Don and Howie! Man did we have fun is those 3 short days! They stayed at a hotel in town (sadly we lack comfortable accomodations for guests now that we have 3 children - sorry:(), and it had an awsome waterslide that we took full advantage of. I want you to notice the SMILE on that LucyMae's face below...funny story...

The frist night we were there I could tell she wanted to go on the waterslide, but for some reason was a little scared and also just being kind of stubborn in saying she didn't want to go. After all of us trying every way we could think of to convince/bribe/threaten/coax/tease her into going...I decided to take matters into my own hands...you can call me a mean or bad mom, but I know my child and I knew she really did want to go and would love it. So I talked her into going to the top of the slide with me to watch the other people going down. And then I just jumped on with her and took her down on my lap. Now this is the best part - she was screaming bloody murder when we got to the bottom because she was mad at me and ran to Sam crying....but literally 30 seconds later she was running up the stairs to the top of the slide by herself and she proceeded to go down the water-slide approximately 463 more times that night - always with a look of sheer delight on her face! There were a few people that gave me dirty looks when I took LucyMae on the slide - I can only assume they were thinking I was the worst mom in the world. But those same people were laughing at LucyMae's pure enthusiasm the rest of the night - and I can only hope that they could see that what I did was worth it and were willing to withdraw their previous judgement.

Even Ben had a great time on the waterslide:) But I'm not sure who had more fun - Sam or Ben?

Howie was the favorite to go with down the slide. Samantha LOVES Howie:)

One of those moments that always hard to capture on camera - these girls LOVE each other and play so well together. I love that LucyMae is willing to "read" books to her little sister.

 I got to go on a long run with my mom too...that hasn't happened in ages. She's always training for some marathon, and I'm getting ready for my triathlon, so we went for a 12 mile run. It was beautiful, perfect weather, and really good for me to get my distance legs on again. That is the first time I've run over 5 or 6 miles in over 4 years! It felt good!

We seemed to celebrate Easter for 3 straight days - which was fun, but it was a lot of candy (thank you MOM!) These girls were spoiled rotten by Grandparents and loved every second of it. I'm not sure if we've recovered from the sugar high yet...

Their first Easter Egg hunt on Saturday with Grandma Michelle, Grandpa Don and Howie. My mom filled tons of plastic eggs with pennies and nickels and dimes, and even some quarters. These girls are loaded now!:)

Goofy LucyMae

And we had the chance to get up in the hills to enjoy the beauty and do some rock-climbing. I can't believe how cold it was this day, especially considering the 70-80 degree weather we'd been enjoying for weeks before they came to visit. BUT - we didn't let a little cold stop us...

Aren't these little munchkins the cutest? I can't believe how big they are getting!

 

We did a climb that's on the back side of the dam at Sylvan Lake. It's a fun, easy climb and it's BEAUTIFUL! And most importanly, the sun was shining on it so the rock wasn't too cold to touch.

Some of these pictures were taken with my mom's phone, so they're not as great of quality...but that's a good butt-shot of Sam anyway right?

 

Howie is a master climber, and way faster than me! Wish we could have done more climbing with him:(

 

And I'm glad I did the climb, even though I was a little reluctant to with the cold. It was worth in and fun. Don't I look like I'm terrified the way I'm clinging to the rock like that? I was just resting against the wall....

Love this picture! So thankful for people who are willing to take a picture so that we can all be in it.

More pool time!

 

And then our company left on Sunday morning to get home (after a scrumptious feast of lamb roast and everything else yummy - thanks mom!) So after church we had another little Easter Egg hunt so that Ben could join in the fun (he was sleeping for the first one)

He thought he had died and gone to heaven!

Creative art by LucyMae...

And then we went on a temple-trip with the Baums to Billings, Montana. This is our little pott-break on the way....

We felt very protected on our way to Billings when we barely missed a deer in the road. And then we LOVED our hotel (Marriott Residence Inn) - awesome room, awesome pool and hot-tub, and AWESOME continental breakfast. Thank you Marriott!

And after we went to the temple on Saturday morning we checked out the Billings Zoo. Although not very big, it was very fun and affordable.

And the bears were the best I've ever seen at a zoo...these two were wrestling non-stop for about 30 minutes.

This Siberian Tiger is HUGE!!!!

And a picture of the whole crowd. We are so glad you moved back to Rapid City Baum family!

Then there were play-dates at the park and trips to the Outdoor Campus a couple blocks away.

And to really start the month off - LUCYMAE LEARNED HOW TO RIDE A 2-WHEELER!!! She is awesome. She went from her "stryder"-type bike to pedals without a hitch. I guess the only downfall of those stryders is that Sam felt jipped of the whole fatherly-right to teach your kid to ride a bike....

And ben has mastered the art of fake crying and whining....if he hears someone crying he feels left out and has to join in...watch to the end of the second Ben video...