End of April

April brought us a lot of busy evenings and time at the ballpark. However, we found plenty to do in the little spare time and light we had left at the end of the days. Kenney planted some more grass and has been watering it to get it to grow. We went to Lubbock and had adventures with kids throwing up in the van, but since we were there we were able to get some berry bushes to plant. Mackenzie keeps growing and now moves constantly, much like all of our other babies. She climbs up our bodies when we hold her, and she always wants a toy or anything really in her hands and mouth.

We are so excited to finally have some grass on this side of the yard!!

It will be so nice!

Eventually it will all be green.

Blowing bubbles from her Easter basket.

This is how I feel about life right now!!

Playing with Nanny...

and loving it!!

This little girl loves to play and be talked to, and Nanny loves all babies!! It was a perfect match.

We asked for help to plant the berry bushes and they mostly just dug around to look for worms and grubs.

Yeah, our help is not very helpful.

Always working in the yard!

Holding a grub, well at least until it moved then she threw it down!!

It's hard to see, but we've got 2 blueberry bushes and 2 raspberry bushes.  Wish us luck that we actually get some berries!

Radley was practicing his scooter tricks while we were all outside. He's come up with quite a few of them recently.




Mackenzie has been learning new tricks of her own too!  She concentrates so hard to transfer this toy from one hand to the next.  It's pretty impressive she can do it this early.

Easter

We tried to make this Easter week much like our Christmas season. We tried to reenact or discuss what occurred each day during Christ's last week on earth. We did really well at the beginning of the week. We wanted to kids to understand that this holiday is celebrated because the most miraculous and important event happened because of Christ's sacrifice, death, and resurrection. Overall, we think they grasped the concepts, but we have improvements to make before next year. We were able to do 2 lessons with cousins which makes it more fun for our kids.

All the kids making 'palm leaves' for our Palm Sunday reenactment.

I think the kids liked being able to act out the Triumphal Entry. 

Learning about parables, specially the 10 Virgins with their 'lamps.'  We also had one night where we discussed the last supper and Gethsemane while ate our dinner on the floor in the living room.  I had intentions of washing all of their feet, but time got away from us so we didn't get it done.  However, we were able to learn about almost every day of the last week of Christ's life on earth.

Egg hunt at the church.

My kind of egg dying!!  The had individual bags for each egg.  It was awesome!

Volcano eggs.  These eggs had special powder that fizzed and changed color with drops of vinegar.

Egg dying is a special occasion, so naturally Bentley needs lipstick!!

An Easter miracle!!! All 5 kids smiling and looking at the camera Easter Morning.

Oh I love these little squirts!

Special Easter FHE lesson with all the cousins.

Getting ready for the egg hunt.

Gathering eggs is serious business.

Checking out their loot!

She got the money egg!!!  And she was really happy about it!

Easter Egg time!!

A Busy Saturday

This was a very productive and busy Saturday! By 11am Kenney had fixed a faucet, gathered all the fishing stuff for him and the boys, did some yard work, got water for the chickens, loaded all of his supplies for later in the day, and helped me. I was able to prep all the food for Easter Sunday (and fed the baby twice which took the most time). We were ready to go hunt some Easter Eggs at the Assisted Living where Kenney sees patients.

After the egg hunt we drove to Childress to let the boys fish, Kenney helped his brother for a few hours, went to Walmart, ate dinner, and Kenney setup the beehive while the kids and I played with cousins!

I think this is the first picture I have ever gotten with Easter Bunny for any of the kids!

Getting all set up!

Go, Go, Go!

There were a lot of eggs for just a few kids!

So excited for her candy!

Pretty sure we didn't even tell Bentley to say cheese.

Checking out all of their candy!

A very patient Dad helping 3 little boys fish and a little girl just trying to be involved.

"Look I got my fishing shoes on!"  Very appropriate don't ya think!!

Kyler down by the edge.  He, along with everyone else, couldn't stay put long enough to get a bite.  They were constantly moving around after just a few casts.

Damon doing his own thing across the lake from everyone else.

Such a beautiful day, but it got a little too windy so the fish weren't biting.

And then he got his pole stuck in the tree.  He got hung first and then let go of his pole so it was dangling over the water.  Thankfully he was resourceful enough to find a long stick to grab the pole again, but he lost his lure because even Dad couldn't free it from the tree.

Getting another boy's line out of the trees!

Having fun with the cousins while Dad had one more job to do.

Just ask Kenney about the colors on his beehive, hahahaha!!!

Crazy Kids

There is never a dull moment around our house!!

"I have something on my face?"

He just 'can't stop'!!

This weather has been great!!

She's 4 months!!!  She's loving her siblings and is moving all over!!

Some more gems I found on my phone!

Their faces, hahaha!!

She's getting stronger and stronger every day!

Getting ice cream for Honor Roll at school.

Some cousin time when the bigger kids went to a movie.