April

For Christmas this year, all my mom wanted were pictures.  She wants pictures of the kids and our families to hang on her walls.  Since the last family picture was from Jason and Tabatha's wedding, we decided that a new family photo was long over due.  So we gave mom a gift certificate to have family photos done.  April 1, we were all able to get together and have Tony Guzman do our family photos.  I am so anxious to get those pictures back!  But since he is only doing this part time and just started a new job, I am really trying not to pester him.  (I may have just found the source of Evan's lack of patience, hmmm!)  We had such a fun photo session!  Of course Jaxson and Madi were perfect and the uncooperative one would be my Evan.  But we couldn't help but laugh it off.  He was acting the part of the photographer to a tee!!  He did and said everything Tony did.  Directing everyone and using the tripod.  It was just too funny!!  We eventually had to trick him into getting some pictures done.  We even had to take a few shots with the tripod right next to him.  All the editing being done could be the reason it is taking awhile to get them back ;) I sure hope they turn out good!!  We also had to bribe with ice cream :)  Here's all three grands patiently waiting for their ice cream afterwards.  Of course, now he sits and smiles, stinker!

April 3, the kids are giving us a concert.  They play a mean barrel and cinder block drums!  The featured songs were "Red Solo Cup" and "Shake It For Me Girl"!  It was a great free concert.

Favorite mode of transportation!

 April 8th was Easter.  The kids are really enjoying our church and church family.  I am so happy that we have made this commitment to raising them in the church and having them at a young age learn about God.  We have been really active in our church community.  We enjoy the Mid Week Manna sessions.  Evan absolutely adores his Sunday School teachers and can't wait to go to "his classroom."  The adult Sunday School classes are paired with a kids class during Lent.  Both kids were able to visit their Lent Buddies and sing to them and they got gifts from their Buddies.  I have had several older adults stop us and tell us how much they enjoyed the kids coming in and singing to them.  Chris and I have also gotten involved with various groups and committee's.  I enjoy helping in the classrooms and look forward to VBS this summer.  We have met a lot of great families with wonderful qualities that we want our kids to be around.  Love it!!

Dressed in their Easter best!

April showers bring May flowers!  I love the rain but please don't send us any more severe weather.  April 14th was a long day.  The kids spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out in the basement, totally oblivious to the tornado weather around us.  I don't like tornadoes, have been deathly afraid of them since I was little.  Kids even slept in the storm shelter for a couple of hours on the air mattress.  My nerves were about shot by the time we were finally able to make it up out of the basement and to our beds well after 1 am.  We had three very close calls and thank you Lord, he spared Salina two direct hits and one direct hit at our house.  This picture is from the first storm that went through.  These clouds kept lowering and lowering as they traveled through the middle of Salina and opened up again right after clearing Salina city limits.  We were just waiting and hoping to not see a funnel dip out of these clouds.

After some very agonizing days of worry and tears over this loose tooth, she finally pulled it out herself!!  April 20th Madi lost her first tooth.  It was so loose but she had so much anxiety over it falling out.  It got to where it was bleeding most of the day and she wouldn't let me look at it or try and pull it out.  I finally convinced her to reach in and pull it.  And surprisingly, she did.  She was one happy girl!!  All smiles and so proud of herself for pulling that tooth all by herself!  But the tears quickly returned the next day :(  She found that the tooth next to it was now loose.  "Mom, I wanted the new one to grow in before I got another loose tooth.  Why do I have to have loose tooths?"  Oh, the pain of growing up.

The tooth fairy visited and left her a dollar!  She was so excited!  And even more exciting was the trip to Wal-Mart where Daddy bought her a new big girl bike.  Tooth and tooth fairy, forgotten!

That's a pretty smile!

Evan enjoying his bike too!

More gymnastics this month!  She is getting to do more and more things that the big girls have been doing.  The big balance beam and even an introduction to the uneven bars!  So exciting and so much chalk!

Towards the end of the month we had some unseasonably warm temperatures.  We had a couple of days well into the 90s, YUCK!!  But it gave the kids a chance to get in to their old bathing suits and play in the sprinkler.  It's been such a long time since they got to play in the water.  Even though the outside temp was warm, that water coming out of the ground was still mighty cold.  But the cold water never seems to bother Madi.  Evan on the other hand, well, he either doesn't like the cold water or just doesn't like the sprinkler.  He is content just to play in a big bucket of water.  He loves the water, bathtime, pool, just not a fan of the sprinkler!

Love that smile!



Cheeeeeese!



The last couple of winters we had show tractors for The Flywheels to work on during the winter months.  But not this year.  So Chris was able to finally restore a tractor for himself.  He pulled in his John Deere 720 on March 3rd and started tearing it down.  He wanted to get it all done and ready for the Tractor Drive on May 5th.  Two months of work, evenings and weekends.  It makes it nice for all of us to get out of the house and hang out in the shed together.  Even though the kids aren't quite old enough to actually be really good help, they at least were by our side, checking in and "helping" here and there.  Evan got really good and stealing Daddy's tools.  He found any and every bolt or hole to stick some kind of tool into.  He loved it!!  That boy had no option but to fall in love with tractors and tools, and he did!

Beginning

Middle

Evan helping sand the paint on the tool box.  Look at that joy!

Almost end!

TA DA!!  Looking good!

Chris did an amazing job!  April 21st he pulled it out of the shed and was able to drive it down the road.  Very proud of his work!  Looking forward to doing more work with him and the kids.  Such a great activity that we can all enjoy and do together.