April Roundup

April brought lots of showers, lots of sun, and lots of fun! Sophie played soccer, we had General Conference and celebrated Easter, got a fish, found some new trails to hike, and got Davey potty trained!! Sophie's school year is also winding down and it's hard to believe there are just a few short weeks left. She has loved kindergarten, and although she's excited for summer and swimming, she's really going to miss school. Dave's winter semester classes is almost finished as well, which marks two years teaching for WT! We are looking forward to having him around more for a couple weeks in May before his summer courses start up. And now, here are some photos and videos from April:

Davey looked ravishing after his trip to the Sophie salon

Charlie cruising around on the bar stools - he started walking just a few days later!

Eating lunch at school wtih Sophie - we brought chocolate banana muffins!

Perfect park day (except I did have to carry Davey down from that rope climbing tree)

We love the Taylor family! We see them a few times each week and all the kids are best friends.  Sophie loves Emery, Davey loves Jaxon, and one day Charlie will love Rossi. For now the babies just steal each other's snacks.

The hammocks are back up for spring/summer and we are loving them!!

The toddler program at the Discovery Center was bubble themed this month

Snuggling this boy while he takes his bottle. Even though I've cut back on nursing, he still likes to be close to me while he takes his milk. 

We went out for ice cream at Braum's to celebrate Davey's success with potty training and Sophie scoring her first goal in soccer! The love to order "birthday cake" flavor, which always results in blue faces. 

Conference weekend was low key. We ate food, did puzzles, and tried to stay awake and focus on the messages. Sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we didn't...

The kids had dental checkups this month. Both did great and had no cavities! They also had a great time playing with this mirror in the waiting room. 

Fun with geometric tiles at the Discovery Center

A week without naps finally caught up to this dude

Dave let Sophie punch in the numbers on our tax forms this year, while Davey supervised. Hopefully the good return we got was legit!

Davey has been on a book dumping streak lately. We're trying to hold him accountable for his actions, and he did put them back in a manner of speaking...

Temps are warming up again - we had several days in the 70s and 80s this month. Thanks to some help from grandma, these 14 pairs of destroyed pants have now been turned into shorts for Sophie! 

Davey requested corn for lunch one day. I obliged. 

April marked the beginning of spring and thunderstorm season. We've had a lot of rain this month, which our dry area of the country really needed. Everything is green now!

The kids love helping me at the car wash - we made the van sparkle and shine!

Charlie did some modeling for the new Duck Duck Goose pattern for Aunt Amy

I brought Sophie with me to a YW service activity one night, and I took her to Sonic for slushies afterward. We ordered one watermelon and one blackberry, but could never figure out which was which, so we just kept trading back and forth. 

Charlie loves napping on my lap. He's becoming less of a baby each day, so I normally let him rest there for a few minutes before moving him to his crib. 

I am enjoying my free smoothies, especially now that the weather is warming up. 10 down, 42 left to enjoy!

Sunday Selfie with dad - don't mind Dave's double chin, just check out those cute kiddos

I gave Charlie a summer trim and accidentally forgot to take off his diaper when I put him in the bath afterward. He was very waterlogged!

We attended a fun, book-based carnival at the library before gymnastics. They had a bunch of little games for Winnie the Pooh, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wizard of Oz and others. Here the kids are fishing for Toto in a tornado. 

April Video Clips

Kindergarten Field Day

Sophie's kindergarten year is winding down... The last Friday in April was field day, and she wanted me to come watch her compete in the games. I used to take photos and help out with field day during my time at Noah Webster, so it was fun to be back at an elementary school, this time with my own daughter!

There were about 15 different games and she won some, lost some, but was always a good sport. I was really proud of her that day!

Each student was assigned a buddy to stick with during field day, and Sophie was paired up with her friend Charlee. 

It was supposed to be a really nice day, but that morning was windy and cold! No one was prepared. Charlie was in shorts so I tried to put a spare onesie on his legs to keep him warm. 

Sack races!

Rubber Chicken Relay 

Tire roll

Bean bag toss - normally she struggles with this game, but surprised me by going 5 for 6!

I only took a couple videos, but you can see how careful she was in each challenge. She cared way more about finishing with no faults, than competing with speed.

While we were at field day, Dave was at the pediatrician's office with this dude, who was diagnosed with a killer ear infection. Poor Davey was in a lot of pain and cried for pretty much the entire morning. One of his few moments of happiness was this free cupcake (with blue frosting!) that we got at Walmart while waiting to pick up antibiotics. It was short lived, however, and at home we went back to crying in my lap until he fell asleep. Luckily the medicine worked pretty quick and by the next day he was back to normal!

Charlie is Walking (and eating some too!)

Charlie was standing well on his own by the end of March, and then started taking a few steps here and there over the next couple weeks, and by mid-April he was an official walker! This is such an exciting milestone and one his siblings have been anxiously waiting for him to achieve (you can hear them cheering him on in the video below). 

I have mixed feelings about babies learning to walk because they suddenly become much faster at running away, and they can get into so much more trouble, but it's also so fun to see him toddle around with a huge smile. You can tell he's so proud of himself - Go Charlie!!

Video Clips of Charlie learning to walk

Charlie has also been making small gains with eating. His favorites are crunchy foods, like goldfish crackers and pretzels, and condiments, like guacamole, ketchup and honey mustard. Now we just need to work on all the textures in between. His feeding therapist got him to eat a little bit of chicken and cheese, but he hasn't wanted to continue those foods at home. The stinker. The only non-crunchy, non-smooth food he will eat on a regular basis is fruit leather, which at least has some vitamins!

I've also started the weaning process in hopes that taking away that calorie source will push him to eat more table foods. I am down to nursing just 2-3 times a day, instead of 6. So far it's only resulted in emotional breakdowns and him clinging to me all hours of the day, but I'm hoping that it's just a case of things getting worse before they get better. We will make an eater of him someday!!