April 2009

I love spring time!! Warm weather, Easter, General Conference, blooming flowers, bike rides. Our community had a month long event called Middleton Unplugged in March. The purpose was to unplug from electronic devices and plug back into the family. They had a different activity to do each night as a family. We also made a goal as a family not to turn on the tv or play the computer for the whole month of March. It was so awesome. We went on bike rides, made cookies, played board games, did yard work, looked at picture books, did spring cleaning, had barbeques with the neighbors, and stuff like every night as a family. About once a week, they also had a community sponsored event for the family. The kids loved it, and they rarely complained about not being able to watch tv. They would get the calendar out every day to see what we were going to do that night. It was probably the best month of our lives. Then came April and General Conference. We made sticky buns for breakfast Saturday morning, thanks to a tradition started by our friends the Woodruffs'. Landon calls them stinky bums. So, the kids tell everyone that we had stinky bums for breakfast, and that they are really good. That story President Monson told in his talk about the lady who had a seven year old boy, a five year old, a three year old, and a baby girl made me cry. That is my family right now. I can't imagine my precious kids starving and freezing and then one by one having to bury them. So many of the talks seemed to be about the importance of the temple and attending regularly. I know I need to do better. It's hard with little kids, especially a nursing baby, but the blessings are worth it. It was great to have Jess home all day Saturday and Sunday, and as you can see by the pictures, we spent most of the time between and after sessions playing outside. Easter was good. We took the kids to the Easter egg hunt Saturday morning, and did all the normal Easter stuff. Once again, it was nice to have Jess around on Sunday more than usual. We had a nice dinner and had Jess' dad out because his mom was in Alaska with his sister who just had a baby. Tomorrow Cordell has a program at school called the Kindergarten Rodeo that he's been practicing for. And Friday Jess takes his test. We'll be soooo glad to have that over with.