Our APRIL Highlights - So much Family Fun and Easter!

 April was such a fun month for our family! We had so many wonderful events and visits and really enjoyed the warm weather and being together. 

One of the most fun things to happen was we had our ultrasound to find out we're having a baby boy! We're all ecstatic. I honestly didn't care either way. I would have loved to have four girls and I was also excited to add a boy into the mix. Ashtyn really wanted a brother and Ben really wanted a son, though, so I was rooting for a boy and would have been disappointed for them if it had been a girl. We're all so happy to be having a baby and that he's a boy. 

Easter was a lot of fun! We had an Easter egg hunt at Lindi's with cousins from out of town and other family living in Vernal. The kids had a blast both helping me fill the eggs with candy and finding the eggs. I went with Rylee to help her, but she did not need my help. She knew exactly what to do and lost no time in filling up her basket. The kids ended up with way too much candy, but they loved it. 

After the egg hunt, we had the gender of our baby written on an envelope and let Ashtyn read out to everyone what we were having. She was so excited! She told me, "I thought it was going to be a girl, but I really wanted it to be a boy!" 

On Easter morning, the Easter bunny came and we made a little pregnancy announcement for Facebook. We also got to watch General Conference all weekend, which always adds such a sweet spirit to Easter. During conference, we made and decorated sugar cookies, decorated Easter eggs, did jelly bean sculptures, and drew and did some activity pages. 

That evening, we went to Lindi's for a barbecue. My favorite part was the potato salad I made, though Parker's favorite part was the sugar cookies. The kids had a lot of fun playing outside--it was uncharacteristically warm, reaching almost 80, and it felt so nice to be out in the warm weather. 

We also had a lot of fun visiting with family from out of town! At the beginning of the month, Melissa and her family were able to visit for almost two weeks and we had so much fun. 

We tried to let the kids play as much as possible. A few days, they got to be together all day. Often, we would do our morning stuff and then get together after naps. We had a hot dog roast, karaoke nights, a pizza party, a park day, a water day, and lots of just hanging out. We got to writing group in person, which was so fun. 

One day, we left the kids with babysitters and their cousins (which was so fun for them to get to spend the whole day playing together) while Lindi, Melissa, Ben, and I drove to the Jordan River Temple for Ben's cousin's sealing. They have a little girl and have been working towards this for awhile. It was a beautiful experience. I hadn't realized until we were in the temple how much I missed the peace and Spirit of the temple. We went to the cheesecake factory for lunch afterwards and I had a really yummy hamburger lettuce wrap.

At the end of the month, Jessica and Donovan came down for a short visit from Texas. It was really fun to see them and visit with them! Rylee was especially excited to see them, though all the girls loved spending time with them. 

April, Ben and I also had our 8th anniversary. We took the kids to spend the night at Makenzie's house and it was so nice to celebrate together! We relaxed together and learned to make steakhouse style steak. It was really yummy! 

Some other highlights from the month: 

A little jump spider that Ashtyn found. The girls and Ben all love jump spiders. 

I'm not quite as scared of them as I used to be. 

A cute picture of Rylee sleeping. We really wore our kids out by being outside so much, especially when their cousins were here. They were all falling asleep sooner and sleeping in longer.

When I took Rylee to the library once without her sisters, she was so proud to pick out and carry her own book. 

Gee, I wonder who wrote on the car ... 

This month, we started doing silent reading as a family after dinner sometimes. We just do it whenever we can and I love it. The girls are growing to like it. 

This was a picture of our family, drawn by Parker. 

This was one of the days I went to tell Ashtyn to turn off her reading light and found all the girls asleep already. 

Ashtyn and Parker love their gameboys. 

Grandpa Danny hatched some eggs in an incubator and the girls loved the chicks. 

For astronomy day, one of the activities we did was make the planets out of Legos. 

They are not to scale lol

For Earth day, the girls tore up and cut up paper to make some Earth pictures. 

Ashtyn loves Legos. This was when she was making Narnia. I wish I had gotten a picture of the finished product. 

Ashtyn's favorite activity recently has been doing Pixel art on Ben's laptop. She does mostly Pokemon, but sometimes does other stuff. 

For Superhero Day, the girls colored and put together these superheroes. They had a lot of fun, though Parker got frustrated because hers (the middle) didn't turn out how she wanted. 

This was when Rylee dressed herself up like a mermaid and it was too cute not to share! 

We had so much fun in April. It's almost a let down for it to be over. We are still excited for May though and the fun things we have planned! I am also already preparing for the baby, which is always fun (for me, I love planning and preparing :)). And we have a fun trip to see some of my family, which we're all way excited for!