APRIL

I'm slowly (but surely) catching up. :) Here is April...

{April Fool's Day} 
I like the harmless sort of pranks that don't really hurt people (or their feelings) but are just sorta fun and funny. Unfortunately I usually tend to forget about April Fool's Day until it's too late to pull any sort of really cool prank off. But this year I did remember seeing this super fun idea on Pinterest... and seeing as Easter was the day before, I thought this would be a fun idea for Dixie's April Fool's Day lunch. :) She thoroughly enjoyed it and all the kids at lunch thought it was pretty awesome too. :) (Her lunch was in all the eggs... including a PB & J sandwich that I had quartered up, stuck in snack size baggies, and then put into those extra large eggs.) :)

{General Conference Weekend}
I love General Conference! It wasn't necessarily my favorite thing as a kid, but now I completely cherish the opportunity to hopefully have some peaceful time listening to the General Authorities and just enjoying an extra spiritual weekend. What a boost to the soul. Anyway, the past couple Conferences, I've been making activity packets for the kiddos to work on during the sessions. This time around, I went a little overboard. :) First off, I made a packet (I call it the "Ultimate General Conference Packet"... it's on my Food Storage And Beyond website for download) that took weeks (if not months) to put together. Then I was feeling extra creative (seriously??) and wanted to put together a whole Conference Basket. So I did. And I made three extras to give away to some other families that I love. Um... ya. It was not one of my more sane moments. But it really was fun to do. I just had to figure out how to keep three little munchkins out of my hair while I did them. Lol. (Not my best mommy moment, I'm sure.) :)

Anyway, the girls loved their packets... especially Dixie who has gotten way more into details and making sure she does everything just right. (Oh heavens... she is so me.) So it took Dixie all sessions to get through hers. (Success!) Summer, is definitely still more of a free spirit with her coloring and cutting and pasting, and since she still can't read or follow multiple directions very well, it was still a bit of a challenge to keep her quiet and occupied. But we were still able to get quite a but of quiet time during the sessions... mostly due to the fact that Austin happened to take a nap for the exact amount of time of both morning sessions. A minor miracle in my book, and I was extremely grateful. :) Anyway, one of my favorite quotes from this conference came from President Monson, talking about obedience. He said, "The great test of this life is obedience." And then quoted the scripture (from Abraham) 'And we will prove them herewith to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.' And then he gave a promise. He said, "The knowledge which we seek, the answers for which we yearn, and the strength which we desire today to meet the challenges of a complex and changing world can be ours when we willing obey the Lord's commandments." This was the answer to the question/concerns I had taken into conference with me. I had been wondering/worrying a lot about these crazy days and how to keep my family safe and how will I know what I should do if/when times get really bad, etc. You know... those mommy fears. And this promise spoke the peace to my heart that I had needed to hear. Obedience. Now I just need to do it. :)

{Austin's First Haircut!}April 19th
My curly haired little man is no more. Those little locks had to go. He was starting to look like a little 'she'. :) Daddy cut the hair while Mommy distracted.

{Before...}

{After...}

 And yes, I only got this one picture. Don't know how!

Bye bye, little curls. *sniff*

{Cutie Alert!}April 23rd
Look at this handsome little man!! Oh my goodness. He makes my heart smile. :)

{Summertime Fun}April 26th
Summertime weather starts around March for us. And although this spring has actually been wonderfully mild, we were still out swimming well before the rest of the country, I'm sure. :)

Okay, and this next picture has a story. I took the picture and then looked at it on my camera screen and immediately thought... I've seen this picture before.

 It's JIM!

Jim was on the cover of the BYU Track and Field Magazine back in the day (side note: is he not the HOTTEST??) :) and he had some copies of the magazine that he'd saved. He gave me a copy when we were engaged I think, and I had it stashed away in my memories box. Anyway... I saw the picture of Austin and had total de-ja-vu.

Isn't that crazy?? Like father like son. :)

Anyway... back to the cuties...

And here are the other two cutie patooties...

{And in other news...}
Sometime during this month, Jim took... and PASSED, his final test (the PPR test) for becoming an officially certified teacher!!! WOOHOO!!!! We were so excited!!! He had taken it about 2 months prior and had barely missed the passing score. So we were SO relieved when he passed it this second time around. No more worrying about it! SWEET! Good job Honey!

We've also been having some fun trying to raise more chickens (our original 4 had dwindled down to 2... and then just 1). So anyway, we've been trying to raise some more hens, but are having a time of it! Jim picked up four baby chicks (back in January) that we started caring for. One of them got eaten by an animal the first night we put them out in the coop. One had Marreks Disease, so Jim put her down. That left us with these two. (We called them Ebony and Ivory.) :) And then... bright and early one April morning, we discovered that Ivory was actually a 'he' instead of a 'she'. That little rooster started cock-a-doodle-dooin'. Well, needless to say, we can definitely NOT keep a rooster in a subdivision that doesn't even allow chickens. We would be ratted out for sure. So it was bye bye to Ivory. Sad. He was such a beautiful bird.

Since then we picked up four more baby chicks... one of which again had Marrek's Disease and had to be put down, but the other three were doing alright. Until two nights ago. When a possum got the littlest one out in the coop again. So sad. :( (And wouldn't you know that Jim was out of town with the Young Men... so guess who got to clean up the remains? Oh my. But that's a story for another month.)  So we're back to having four chickens. But Ebony is finally starting to lay eggs, so we finally have farm fresh eggs again! Yea! (Our 1 initial survivor (the black and white one in the picture) is no longer laying eggs. She may have to go soon too. Oh, the life of a 'farmer'.)

Okay, well that's all I remember from April. :) I'll be back again for May. Someday. :) Loves!