1st half of April

Aren't these the coolest boys and building tools?

My favorite weekend all year is spring conference.  The boys did such a great job again this year of listening and playing Conference Bingo.  The messages were just what we needed to hear.

Matt as a member of the surgical quality improvement team presented in D.C.  He works hard at his job and I am always grateful to be married to someone that excels in everything he does.

While Matt was away, the boys had a hard time.  This is Joshua crying because I told him to throw away the sandwich from his lunch that had been sitting on the counter.  This is Nathan crying because Joshua didn't want to throw away said sandwich.

Joshua learning to follow a recipe.

Joshua said he was thirsty and I had been waiting on that request.  I had frozen a cup with water in it.  I then introduced him to April Fools Day!

He was giddy the rest of the afternoon as he tried to execute successful revenge stories.  

I took the boys to an Easter egg hunt with inflatables and games.

It was fun but the boys got hot and the egg hunt was divided by age and it took them a long time to set up in between each division.

Joshua tried to council Nathan on the best approach for getting eggs when it was his turn.  This resulted in Nathan getting zero eggs.  He did get candy which was sprinkled on the ground but not any actual eggs.  He was heartbroken and so was Joshua.  Joshua then grabbed as many as he could during his turn and split them with his little brother.

The boys both injured each other on separate times by playing rough.

They clean up nicely.

Nathan needed to finger paint.  I forget to do this stuff with him sometimes because Joshua was so opposed to anything messy.

Taking Joshua to school on a rainy day and Nathan said he needed his "gubbles."

So, I'm trying to cherish my time with just my boys before I happily welcome my girls.  Joshua has had some rough times at school and we decided to play hooky.  We went to the zoo.  Shhh don't tell anyone.

I also welcomed my new nephew.  Isn't he the cutest little guy ever?  I haven't seen him in person yet but we are grateful for technology!

We have been going to consignment shops, craigslist, and every other place as we collect the goodies for our girls!

We talk to the girls' birthmom almost daily which is amazing.  She needs our support and we have developed a friendship.  This came to my mind as I was talking to her one evening.  

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  This verse is my anthem for the current situation in our lives.  ALL things work together for our GOOD for HIS purpose. We don't know if our girls will be born healthy or not. We don't know how long their sweet birth mother has left on earth. We don't know many things but we know of our fathers love for all of his children.

April is flying by but we are slowing down this week every night as we prepare for Easter Sunday.  I love the tender moments where we get to teach our children the gospel.