April, the month where we begin to get a taste of things to come. I just love watching Utah nature come back to life. And the sun, oh welcome back nice, warm, therapeutic sun.
Over spring break we all got a big dose of sun! Our 2nd annual trip to St George was, again, a HUGE success! We love it there! Its the perfect mixture of playing hard and relaxing. We swam for hours everyday.
We hiked, played tennis and basketball and curled up with books and Smores every night.
The kids even put THEMSELVES to bed at night… so tired from their fun days. Heaven.
The first day of our trip we started things off with a little hike up on the cliffs of St George. Everything went great until Bryan got stuck in this crevice. HA!
I didn't even attempt squeezing through that thing with my little friend strapped to my back. I'm not fond of tight spaces anyway.
A perfect evening with the family. Since it was Monday night (our scheduled night for our Family Home Evening) we declared this our activity and had a little lesson about how our Heavenly Father created this beautiful world for us to enjoy. Truly, I am most at peace and happy when I'm in nature.
And of course every FHE needs to have a dessert too, so snow cones it was!
The next day we drove into Zion National Park to hike. Bryan and I wanted to attempt the Narrows with this bunch.
Even though the water was SUPER cold it was so much fun. Once your feet went numb it wasn't too bad.
GORGEOUS! Little side fact: Bry proposed to me in Zion 12 years ago. It's a special place for us and I love sharing it with my kids.
I was so proud of the boys for "doing hard things" and sticking it out in that freezing water for a couple hours. (A repeated phrase in our family is "Christensen's do hard things").
The third day we found our spot on the Virgin River. I wondered if it would have the same magical effect on my kids that it did last year. The answer is yes. Happy exploring and playing for hours and hours.
Knox was in heaven, eating sand, throwing rocks and splashing in the water until I thought his diaper would explode (literally).
Tessa and I were busy building a castle, turned birthday cake. I love vacation, where I can put aside all daily grind responsibilities and really see and play with my kids…. and have time to read a good book. I did that too while sitting here watching my littles.
Our last day we cleaned up, packed up, swam and then headed out for one last hike at the Red Cliffs.
Awesome hike up to a couple waterfalls. And then Bry decided to throw himself off this exact spot on the cliff into the little hole of water below. He thinks he's still 25. He fractured his ankle when he hit a rock hidden under the water. Poor guy had to hike out of here on it too.
But on the bright side, it happened at the very end of the trip! We piled everyone into the ol' Burb, gave Bry some Advil and drove back home. Tired and happy. Already looking forward to next year's trip.
Tessa DID NOT want to go back home. She literally cried when we drove up to the house but then she remembered she missed her dog Maeby. When we picked Maeby up Tessa loved on her like this the whole way home.
A day after we got back we were thrown into Easter mode! First was our super fun Easter party at Auntie Karen's and Uncle Marc's! Seriously, these two know how to throw a party.
In my kids opinion the best part is the easter egg hunt (never mind the yummy food, fun games, cupcake decorating and awesome people to talk to).
Families are the BEST. And Easter, the Atonement and Resurrection, is the way families can be together forever. What a wonderful truth and thing to celebrate.
Easter morning. I can't believe I went though an Easter without taking a good picture (with my fancy camera) of all the kids together all dressed up. Thank goodness I snapped one with the ol' camera phone before heading to church.
Now if this pic doesn't shout EASTER I don't know what does. This heavenly backyard is at my in laws.
Nanna hooked them up with so many yummies.
Someone has begun posing.
And someone else is SOOOO close to walking!
Look behind Cason, in the trees, can you see what else Nanna hid in her yard?
Hula Hoops!! At first a couple of us were just trying to show the kids how to use them… then it got competitive. So funny!
Knox spent most of his time digging through easter baskets that had been left unattended and showing off taking a few steps for his Nanna.
It was a beautiful Easter, filled with great food/candy, family and gratitude for my Savior who made all the wonderful things in my life possible. PS I wish they made a bird dress in my size.
Well the fun continued a week later! I had planned a trip to Oklahoma to surprise my bestie Megan for her birthday! The morning I flew out my kids surprised me with my first ever breakfast in bed. Ignore my nasty retainer in the pic.
I left 4 kids with Bry but took Mr Knox. It was his first trip on a plane. He loved it.
I loved having so much one on one time with my baby.
I also LOVED getting to surprise Megan! And getting to see her oh so yummy new baby. And loved all the amazing food we ate. And staying up 'til 2 am every night giggling like college girls with no responsibilities. And seeing all my beautiful Oklahoma stomping grounds. And catching up with some of my Oklahoma friends! Sadly I was having so much fun I forgot to take very many pictures. But it was a much needed, soul feeding, girl weekend. I came back refreshed and ready to take on reality.
My reality (when there's no cool trips to take and holidays to enjoy) mostly consists of kids and this house. This month the house has been transforming before our eyes. We started out the month looking like this
And ended the month looking like this! It's going from looking like a cardboard box to a home! I'm lovin' the rock we chose.
And we'll have a lot of the board and batton on the house, still trying to decide on what color to paint it.
And inside we've had lots of fun things going on! They've begun painting (with the WRONG color!), put up the rock on the fireplace, started tiling bathrooms and my favorite…
my front door came in!! I designed it and it turned out just lovely. Can't wait to see it stained! Crossing my fingers, we'll be moving in by sometime in July.
So when I'm not dealing with house stuff, I'm busy keeping kids alive and happy. We've been playing outside (with the warmer weather and the fact that Cason put on Knox's size 12 month pants as shorts made me realize it was time to bring out the summer clothes!)
Decorating spring sugar cookies with friends.
Went on a school field trip to the zoo with my kindergartner.
We're still playing basketball, though I can't say we've been good at making it to every game. (Cason is on a team with one of his besties)
And Bry and I went on a fun date to see the Blue Man Group. No this isn't a pic of our date, but what I found when I got home. Ha! Not sure why they were all in Tessa's room or how in the world they fell asleep like this.
I even squeezed in a baby blessing photo shoot for my darling cousins. Nothin' better than babies.
And we ended with a birthday party with cousins.
Now I'm beginning to count down. As soon as I saw May 1st I realized how close we are to summer! Close to having no more homework, closer to warm lazy days, to moving out and moving in to the new house, to days where we aren't rushing to go anywhere, but just enjoying this family I call mine!
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