We started off April with a visit from my college roommate Kelsey and her three kids. The last time I saw her, her second was a brand new baby instead of a dinosaur-loving ball of energy. She's already got a third who can sit up and scoot around the room.
Mostly the kids ran around the house and yard while Kelsey and I chatted, but we did go out and see the Logan Temple and play at the teensy local zoo.
Hazel taught Macey how to climb trees and Jack and Miles went crazy feeding ducks.
The babies just got carted around, sleeping and snuggling and nursing for the most part.
Later that week, my parents and I took the kids to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center. Hazel rode a pony and Jack positively beamed as he rode the train.
We saw plenty of baby animals.
The kids were fascinated by a sheep shearing.
They got their faces painted. They were ecstatic to impersonate their favorite animals for the rest of the day.
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| tiger |
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| cheetah |
My parents came to my house to watch General Conference. My kids were real troopers. I was impressed with them. Hazel listened to three of the four hours each day, while doing crafts and listening for words that earned candy. I loved the strength I gained from listening to the messages.
Hazel is turning into a master up-ender. Stools, chairs, blankets, etc. get moved around daily to become poacher traps or animal lairs.
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| Can I play up there? |
Jack and Hazel have a little too much fun at bedtime. The child lock on the door and bribe of a treat in the morning if they stay in bed are not enough to persuade them to sleep at night. I had to pull the cord on their ceiling fan so they cannot turn the light on, because Jack was playing with it constantly at night.
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| busted! |
In the middle of some beautiful sunny weather, we suddenly woke up one morning to snow! The kids begged to play outside. Jack was jumping up and down, he couldn't contain his excitement, and then we stepped outside, and suddenly he didn't want to get snow on his boots, and he kept proclaiming, 'It's cold!" He is a California boy for sure.
Hazel knew what to do with all that snow. She pelted me with a deluge of snowballs until I showed her how to roll them and make them grow. She was so proud of her "snowgirl."
Gemma started sucking her thumb. Three for three here. All my kids suck their thumbs. I think it's adorable and quite functional, although it's a pain with Hazel now. (She broke the habit last year and then promptly took it back up again after she had her reward.)
Gemma started pushing up during tummy time. She's so, so cute. I love that she can hold her head up now, so I can carry her around on my hip and put her face-first in the Baby Bjorn.
Why take the bikes back to the garage one at a time?
We met up with another dear friend from college, Tiana, at a park in Brigham City. It was short but oh, so sweet. I haven't seen her since Hazel was a newborn. I love true friends like that, that you can pick up with after years and have it feel like you see each other every day.
Jack loves to help out in the kitchen. He's happy to pull up a chair and "have a nibble" of whatever you're making. He also spends a good amount of time pretending to bake at the toy kitchen.
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| so stylish |
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| fangs |
I finally craved popcorn enough to attempt to pop it on the stove the way Todd does. Normally, he makes us popcorn a couple times a week. Now that I've done it, I don't know why I was so scared that I wouldn't be able to do it right. It was scrumptious.
Unfortunately, it reminded Jack of where we keep the popcorn kernels. I had a lovely time sorting out this mixture of red and blue popcorn, rice, and sugar that he put together while I was with Gemma.
I had two really rough weeks right in the middle of the month. Nothing was really any harder than usual, but I wasn't dealing well with it. I don't know if I got bombed with post-partum depression or if I had just run myself ragged, but I wasn't coping well. After I had called Todd in tears and panic for the third time in a week, Todd enlisted his sisters' help. Missy took Hazel and Jack down to Lehi to play with cousins for a long weekend, and Laura came up and helped me prepare a ton of dinners I could freeze and save for later.
I've had the kids back for a week now, and so far, so good. We've had some great weather and have spent a ton of time outside, which is good for all of us. We've been doing lots of bubbles and bikes, and set up a sand table on the back deck. I've been trying to have lunch ready early so we have time to walk Hazel to preschool, too.
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| Jack is currently obsessed with bubbles. |
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| ants! |
If Jack promises to stay on the deck and I keep the window open so I can hear them, and I make Hazel alert me if Jack tries to leave, and I check that they're still there every minute or two, I dare to let them play at the sand table while I stay inside and make dinner. (We're on a 35 mph road and don't have a fence - in most cases, I don't trust Jack out there alone.)
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| Hooray! |
We had a superhero-themed baby shower for my sister-in-law Caprice. I got a kick out of seeing my grandmas don masks and shoot bottles down with Nerf guns!
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| Grandma Holley |
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| Grandma Bingham |
The owners of the house came over to test the sprinklers and set the program. Hazel ran inside and came out again in her swimsuit. She had a blast, and it was only in the upper 60's. She is going to love summer!
I'm in love with this happy girl. She grins and coos and cuddles and almost never fusses. She is a real keeper.
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| Smooch! |
