April 2014

April...I love April here! One can actually begin to see some light at the end of the long and cold tunnel of winter. It was a crazy winter around here, so we were pretty anxious for some relief from the onslaught of storms and school-cancellings, and cold (not that this compares to South Dakota or many other regions of the globe...but it was cold). April is full of TONS of rain and mud, but it's warmer and lighter and better:)

I got to teach Joy School at the beginning of April. We were working on their "All About Me" books. They had so much fun making them. And I had fun learning how to create these awesome silhouette pictures of all of them. I think they turned out pretty good:) I'm just including Ben's and Samantha's here, but the others were really good too.

I loved getting to take LucyMae and Samantha to the Suzuki Enrichment Day this year. Last year it was just LucyMae. We had fun, but she had a hard time participating in a lot of things. This year was a whole different story. They both did a fantastic job, and had fun!

Between General Conference sessions on Sunday we drove to a nearby lake/reservoir to go for a family walk. It was such a beautiful, warm day. Not a lot of growth on the trees yet, but still beautiful. The warmth and sunshine breathed new life into my soul and the world seemed like an amazing place with potential for all kinds of happiness again. Sometimes winter does not do the same for me...especially when there aren't any mountains or ski-slopes nearby...

These girls decided to have a race to see who could get back up the hill, on that road to where the trail I was on would join theirs, the fastest. While Samantha may not be the fastest little runner in our family, she certainly has the most endurance. She did not stop until she got to the car, and then ran back to me and back to the car with me. It was probably very close to a mile of running nonstop for her. She's got marathon genes in her....:)

Ben, on the other hand, is VERY fast but has very little endurance. And it's hard when your shoes don't stay on very well. Sam had to help him put a shoe back on several times....poor kid.

April Showers are certainly plentiful around here....but the flowers don't have to wait until May. Easter had plenty of blooms and blossoms on the trees for us! And this is my yearly Easter attempt at a posed, semi-formal family photo....not very successful, but better than nothing I guess...I like to post the whole series b/c I think it is funny to see all the mess-ups:)

And our egg-hunt was much better than last year's, which got rained out. The kids had to do it several times. And they were really pretty good about helping each other so they all had a pretty equal amount of eggs in their baskets.

Love that the girls are in short-sleeves and skirts while Ben is wearing pants and a coat...warmth is a personal thing I guess...

And I was EXTREMELY happy to be able to hit the Forbidden Valley Drive trail again this Spring. This place breathes new life into me every time I go there. Nature does that really. Nature, the sun, trees, mountains, rivers, water in any form that nature has to offer really.....I'm a nature girl...what can I say? I NEED this kind of stuff in my life or I feel like I'm suffocating!

Isn't it just amazing? So beautiful!

LucyMae won an art contest! Everyone in the school district either drew/painted a picture (K-3) or wrote a poem (grades 4-5) for and Earth Day competition/celebration. And each school selected a 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place from each grade. LucyMae was the 1st place winner for the kindergartners at her school! Hers is the bottom left.

All the winners were bussed to Prophecy Creek Park, where a special Earth Day Celebration and Ceremony was held for them. It was pretty cool for her to be a part of...

I think she was pretty proud! Not very keen on standing up in front of a huge crowd to receive her medal, but at least she didn't have to say anything:)

They had a little puppet-show/musical presentation for all the kids after....

and then they all got to plan a flower seed to take home. And for some reason she did not want me to talk to her or take her picture, and did not want to smile at me. Thanks for supporting me mom.....? Feelin' the love.

And this is just my cute Samantha on a Sunday after church, waiting for her parents to be done with their boring meetings and choir rehearsals...

April is a good month, a welcome month, a wet month, a beautiful month, a fresh month, a blessing!