April

 

This picture really sums up how I feel a LOT of the time these days! Our life with 4 kids is so busy- I can't even figure out how or why we are so busy but I'm completely exhausted by every night!

As it got nicer in April we started hanging outside more. Chase hosted some friends over for a fire night and smores. It was a really fun night for them and it made Ben and me happy to see them all hanging out, throwing around a football, and enjoying our backyard that we've put so much work into for this very reason!

Hudson had his spring piano recital! He did awesome! I loved the song he learned, even if he did make the purposeful decision that he would NOT be playing any B flats in the song (total stinker). I'm not sure if his teacher really knows what to think of him, but honestly I'm just glad he's still playing the piano. 

One morning my mom and I took Lila to the Tracey Aviary. It was absolutely gorgeous with so many trees in full bloom! And Lila loved the birds! Also, my sometimes-yearly tradition of taking a photo of LilaC with the lilac!

There was a books and buddies breakfast one morning at the boys school. They were both delighted to pick a new book and eat a donut!

I finally invested in a proper tea pot so our fine china tea parties could be more legit. This also means we do tea parties ALL the time now and Lila loves to pour everyone's drinks (almost always lemonade).

Will and Katie went to France and my parents had the girls for a week, which meant we spent some extra time with all the cousins together and they had a blast. This little group of cousins just makes my heart so happy! Shortly after I snapped this picture I told them all to say good-bye and right on cue each kid turned to their respective cousin and embraced in a big bear hug! (Sad for Chase that he doesn't really have a cousin his age). 

Ben was out of town for a week and Sundays without dad get LONG. We walked to the temple and back! Sweet Chase actually piggy backed Davis a good portion of the way, and Davis was absolutely giddy about it.

My dad and I also had all the kids at Chick-Fil-A for lunch one Saturday while he was watching the girls (I think his exact words were, "If I buy lunch, will you come help me") It was wild and crazy and adorable. And luckily, Chick-Fil-A is one place all 7 kids can agree on!

Ben finished this beauty! After over a year of looking for patio furniture and not really finding what we've wanted/could reasonable afford, he decided to just build it! It's turning out so beautiful and he's really enjoying this hobby! Now we spend way more time out here!

Hudson's hair is long enough to french braid! I think it looks awesome like this!

We had an eventful night one evening with Lila. She was jumping on a neighbors trampoline, I was right by her, and she did some sort of summersalt and immediately started crying that her neck hurt. I took her home and she kept crying and wouldn't move her head. Then a weird dark red mark appeared across the back of her neck where the pain was. We quickly decided it would be better to take her into urgent care (it was the same time as Chase's first baseball game! Luckily he got a ride to his game but we were sad to miss it). We spent a few hours in urgent care, some really traumatic x-rays, and concluded it was just a bad "kink" in her neck and some motrin and tylenol should take care of it. We were glad she was okay, but she did have a good 48 hours of "princess time" (No one can milk a sick day quite like Lila) and then she was as good as new!

This was Hudson's outfit idea for class picture day! He knew he'd be on the back row and you wouldn't be able to see his shorts. He thought it was hilarious and I did too!

This was Davis for picture day! His teacher later told me "I'm so glad you just let Davis wear his headband in that class picture. I'll smile every time I see it because it's just how I'll always think of him!"

Davis looks so relaxed here at the dentist! I always do all their appointments together- all four kids. It's kind of a circus but then we are done for 6 months. All my kids love the dentist (I hated it growing up, still do actually). Our dentist is awesome.

Our little lemon girl had a few photoshoots where her real personality came right out!

Easter

Easter started off our spring break this year. It was the coldest, snowiest Easter I can remember. But we still had a lovely time- although we kept remarking how it didn't really feel like Easter! The kids sang the most beautiful songs in our sacrament meeting that day- The Miracle and Gethsemane. I love listening to them sing, it was the highlight of the day for me!

We did Easter dinner at my parents house and it was delicious and so fun. The kids loved having their chocolate eggs with their names on them right on the table- most of them ate them before dinner was even done. I love seeing Davis eat his whole dinner with his egg in hand, alternating bites of dinner and chocolate!

I had a different dress planned for Lila to wear, she had other plans. In fact, I had nice, cute new clothes for all my kids to wear on Easter and only 2 of the 4 did. 

We dyed eggs a few days before and also hosted a brunch for Ben's parents. It turned out lovely.

 

Over Spring Break we got Nate and Halie in town unexpectedly for a few days! Halie's dad suddenly passed away and they came out for the funeral. These little kids totally understood the assignment as cute little guys and these two were never without a niece or nephew in their arms, lap, or nearby. I sent this cute picture of them with the first graders and Halie wrote back "I think niece/nephew love might be the cure for anything". So true. These guys sure love their aunt and uncle. 

We went to the church history museum one day with my mom, who is a new tour guide there. We stopped to see the cherry blossoms at the capitol. They were stunning! We had a picnic on the grass, and Davis cracked us up when he suddenly hopped up and ran laps around the picnic before plopping right back down in Nana's lap. 

And for more spring break fun, we took a little road trip to BOISE! I had been wanting to do something and this was such an easy option. We had lots of people we love in Boise and it was so fun to see them! Lila did about as well as expected on the trip (so....bad) but she did fall asleep for a few minutes one time and we all appreciated the repreive.

I snuck out one night for dinner with Jana! It was so fun- I just loved getting to spend time with her!

The kids loved the hotel! Free continental breakfast, a pool, TV, what more could you want?! 

We spent most of the time with Keely and her family, which was so so fun for me! Cody even joined us for lunch one day which was a special treat!

Keely and I took the younger kids to the children's museum and it was darling. These two were newscasters for quite awhile. Lila also did some emotional processing for her upcoming dentist appointment.

The kids loved working out in the hotel gym each morning. It was kind of hilarious, but no one else was using it so I felt okay letting the kids kind of do their thing. 

We went and got ice cream potatoes at the cutest little drive in with Keely's family! They were funny and actually delicious!

We took all the kids rock climbing at the YMCA one afternoon. I was so proud of all my kids for trying it!

Davis and Brooks totally hit it off- they are the same age and became fast friends!

We walked along the Boise River on the greenbelt.

I took the kids to see my old houses in Boise! The top one is where my parents lived when I was born. I don't remember this one at all- we moved before I turned 1. The bottom one I definitely remember- we lived here when I was 2-4 years old and all my early childhood memories are right here. This street is so beautiful now with huge mature trees- they were all just brand new when we lived here.

The "heated" hotel pool was pretty cold by our standards, but we still managed to have a good time!

And then we drove home! It was a wonderful spring break!