April 2019

We had an opportunity to take all of our children to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' temple in Denver for a short tour of the grounds with a guide. We talked about how it is a sacred place because it is God's house where we make covenants with him, and the kids could really feel the spirit and knew it was special. It is particularly neat to see Cole feel the spirit and start to develop his own testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel.

On a lighter note, we have been outside much more this month and Macy's new favorite thing is her swing. She's even learned how to say "Weeeee!" when you push her - cutest thing ever.

A close second to her swing is the push car. She can climb and fall out of this one though, so not one of my favorites right now.

This smile and happy girl are always on my favorites list.

Another happy girl.

Macy found one of the dolly bottles and knew exactly what to do with it. Unfortunately for Clara, her aim was not quite on... 😂

Macy has recently discovered the kitchen windows and loves standing on the counters and telling me all about everything she sees. I love her chatter.

This has been a more common occurrence at our house than I would like. Poor girl is teething something mad and has had a cold, making both of us lose a lot of sleep.

I finally mastered baking cinnamon rolls in Colorado Springs! Between the high altitude and the bad oven in our rental house it has taken me quite a while to figure it out, but here's to many more good batches!

I found this valentine from Cole from last year stuck to my notebook the other day and it made my heart happy. I sure love that boy and I think the feeling is mutual. ❤

Clara recently started taking a gymnastics class at the same time as Lexi and this was her first time in the harness on the trampoline. I'm not sure she really understood how it worked, but she was pretty proud of herself afterward.

I'm learning that this is going to be a regular occurrence at our house during the months of April and May. We have beautiful, warm spring days followed by amazing drops in temperature and snow. Our inventory of big buckets has tripled this month, and the small cement bricks are perfect for keeping them in place with the wind. 

Lexi still managed to fit into Macy's car seat and Macy thought it was pretty funny.

Cole lost one of his teeth at school this month, and he came home defiantly proclaiming (in front of his three little sisters) that he knew that the tooth fairy was not real and that Mom and Dad were the ones who put money under his pillow. I told him he better be careful what he says or the tooth fairy might not come. The next morning he sheepishly told me (after quite a while) that he still believed in the tooth fairy. I asked him why and he said that she had left him a few quarters with a note. It took him even longer to tell me what the note said - he was definitely put back in his place by her. 😂

Lexi finally lost her first tooth at the end of her kindergarten year! After Cole's experience with the tooth fairy earlier in the week she was a true believer in the tooth fairy and was thrilled to find her tooth gone and money under her pillow in the morning.

Clara dressing up in half her mermaid costume and Grandpa Blacker's boots. She thought she was pretty cute.

Grandma and Grandpa Blacker came up for a visit and brought some Easter candy for the kids. This was Macy's first time having a piece of chocolate candy. Needless to say, she loves chocolate as much as her mama.

Happy Easter!

Lexi's primary teacher gave her this sign to color for Easter - she was so proud of it that we had to laminate it for her to put in her bedroom.

Easter baskets and egg hunts are a favorite at our house. As the kids get older the hidden eggs are getting trickier to find, meaning we're finding them for days after the initial hunt. I love it.

The older kids loved their Easter egg hunt this year, but Macy was more fascinated by the plethora of open eggs than she was anything else.

Cole participated in his first pinewood derby this year. Thanks to Grandpa Blacker for lots of help in designing and carving his car, and Dad for helping him paint it, he had a pretty fancy looking car (#8).

Unfortunately for him the other boys had some pretty fast cars and his didn't do so well in the races. He was a little frustrated at the end, but overall a happy kid.

Cole had his second piano recital this month and played, "The way you look tonight". He had the whole thing memorized are really did quite well. We love his teacher, Mrs. Howe.

Our fishies at swim lessons.

Dave and I had a rare night on the town to go see the comedian Jim Gaffigan when he came to The Springs.

Macy has discovered the stairs in the bunk bed room and was so proud that she could get up on the bed herself. I found her reading a little book all by herself.

Cole has been working on this Pokemon with our iron beads for about a month and a half, and he finally finished (thank goodness!). His attention span is not the greatest for big projects, but he was proud to finally finish it.