April in review

Wow. April is over. What a busy month for us! Ready for a re-cap? Nothing dramatic or anything like that. Just very busy and eventful. Here's the journal log. Take a breath.....

Okay....Begin.

It started with General Conference. Wait no! It started with this! April fools! I drew mustache's on them in the night ;)


April 2nd & 3rd: Okay, back to Conference. What a fabulous time. I always feel renewed afterward. We stayed in P-town for the Saturday session and went to Mt P for Sunday. And I was so proud of my kiddos for sticking it through the morning sessions each day. We did not make them sit through the afternoon sessions....that would have been ineffective for everyone. But they were present which, at their age, I think is just right. During their viewing/listening sessions we played LDS bingo. It certainly had them listening!

Some of my favorite talks:
**Quentin L. Cook
** Dallin H. Oaks
**Lynn G. Robbins, He had me at "To be or not to be."

Sometime in the month of April our bunny rabbit, Otis, had quite the eventful time. First, he nearly got ran over by a car. Luckily, the driver stopped, pulled over and brought him home. It seems nearly impossible for a pet rabbit to be struck by a car, doesn't it? Well, the kids like to take him outside when they play. However, Jocelyn had forgotten that he can jump off slightly high spaces. So she left him on a play chair, came inside and forgot about him until the driver brought him home. Poor little bunny! He was so scared!! Luckily, his life was spared because he was in a photo shoot the next week! By one of my favorite photographers. If she posts some photos of him, I'll share them!

April 9th: Heidi's wedding.
Heidi married Dustin. Heidi is Tyler's sister. What a happy couple. I had the privilege of making their wedding video. I spent countless hours (you don't want to know how many hours it took us....Tyler helped in the end with the final edit/ technical stuff) looking at those two faces and I know that they are happy. (Steph, your copy will come in the mail once we have the wedding portion edited!) We had a great whirlwind weekend in Denver. Then the kids and I stayed for another week. Samuel was on spring break and Tyler had to head home to begin finals.

Jocelyn did not have the same fierce jealousy of the bride at this wedding like she did two years ago at Rose's wedding. But she did get a chance to hold the bouquet for a little bit.

Can you tell which is the cardboard cut-out? They had their sister Stephanie, who is currently serving a mission, in attendance. haha. She looked so real!

Heidi with the kids! Cecily's dress is from the Gap, Samuel's first suit was $10 on clearance at Macy's, and Jocelyn's dress is a women's skirt from Down East Outfitters that I turned into a dress! Luckily, our outfits were taken care of for Easter too!! Wahoo!

Tyler, his brother Troy and Samuel.

Troy took the rest of these photos for us. Thanks Troy!

April 15th: We drove back home to Utah and brought along my sister Jennie and her two boys Warren and Luke along for the ride. Actually, they came out for a bunch of other activities. Our car was full. 5 kids and 2 mom's. We were outnumbered....but we survived.

April 16th: My cousin David's wedding in SLC. Another lovely couple.

April 22nd: Carnival party for my niece Anna and nephew Warren in Mt Pleasant. You can see more photos and details here.


The best entertainment. A cardboard box. My nephew Owen sat in this box while we cleaned up forever! He just kept opening and closing the flap. Easily entertained.

Look at these pretty girls!

These two little guys are just months apart. Two of the three grand kids born in 2010 (Cecily is the 3rd at the beginning of the year). They sat here for a long time, just happily hanging out while set up.

Jennie making homemade corn dogs.

Some of the photo booth pictures. Cecily missed the mustache memo. Tyler wouldn't let me post the photo of our family because he's wearing a funny wig. He has to be "serious" now that he's on track for the professional world. haha.


April 23rd: Egg dying and hunting.

The oldest participants. Cecily was happy walking around shaking her filled eggs until she knocked them together and they cracked open she discovered they had candy inside!

Samuel and his loot. Each kid got 16 eggs (except Cecily, she got something like 6). Grant hid them all over the studio and it took them a good amount of time to find them!

Jennie and Warren.

I think it's hilarious that he wanted to sleep with his winnings.

Egg dying. We included Otis, see him? Jocelyn had a hard time eating that one.

Cecily's first time egg dying.

April 24: Easter Sunday.
We tried taking family photos the morning before Church, and actually succeeded. Well, just as I was going to gather our little families outfits (the same from Heidi's wedding) tragedy struck. I realized they were not in Mt Pleasant, but left on our bed in Provo!!! I was so mad!!! So much for coordinating! I ended up wearing one of my mom's dresses. Jocelyn wore the same dress she wore the day before. Cecily wore a dress that my mom had in her closet for another future granddaughter. Tyler brought his suit!! And Samuel.....well, the poor child. He had to wear jeans, with brown shoes and a long sleeved shirt and a sweater from my 16 year old brother's closet!! Oh my word!!! This will be one family picture that will not be on a Christmas card. In fact, we didn't even have a family photo taken because it was so painful to see our unfortunate twist of fate. Ah. But everyone else looked good and I love the one of my mom with her grandkids! And the weather was fun for photos too! And I can laugh about it now.



Love my sisters! (but not this picture...) Sadly, the two on the ends (Marci and Jennie) will both be living in Denver by August. Jennie already lives there but Alex and Marci and their children will be moving there soon. Fewer large family gatherings but one more reason to visit Colorado!


Easter dinner. Fabulous! My mom made her yummy funeral potatoes, in addition to ham and asparagus. Marci made these cute napkin bunnies for the kiddos.

Dessert--just simple sugar cookies. But these penny sized chicks are to die for. My mom used to buy us these mini chicks when we were little. But these are so small! And they come in the coolest colors now!

Then after Easter we went back to Provo. Tyler finished up some grading and Samuel some school. Then we turned back around and dropped them off in Green River, 2 1/2 hours away to meet his Dad en route to Lake Powell. Samuel and Tyler helped him paint the houseboat and were able to fit some fishing in. As I nearly drove off the side of the road from fatigue, I headed back to Mt Pleasant to stay with my parents while the boys played/worked at Lake P. I was able to get some work in, relaxed, attended my mom's 4th/5th/6th grade Shakespearean play, and ate waaaay too many mint, chocolate covered oreo's (better than thin mints!).

April 30th: St. George

Then we headed down to St George to visit Troy and Jana for the blessing of their newest addition, Trent. We also celebrated Tyler's birthday at Red Robin. mmmm, love that place! I won't go into details about his birthday because Tyler honestly does not like to celebrate them. So I try not to make a big deal because he doesn't care! Except the times that I want to celebrate his life. Ugh, big dilemma every year. And sort of ironic that I am in the birthday business.


Samuel made a new friend with Troy and Jana's nephew, Karter. Once they overcame their initial shyness they were best buds. Good times.


Notice how Samuel is absent from this photo. He was on a pancake protest. He claims he doesn't like them until he tries them (and they cannot have oatmeal or whole wheat in them...dang). Silly picky eater!


And this concludes our April!! Did you make it through? Tired just from reading? Yeah, me too. With General Conference, wedding, Easter and a blessing in there, I think we attended our homeward once the entire month. I am tired of traveling and party planning...for a while anyhow. It's good to be home :)