April

In April we had a lot of sickness. Laken was the first to get strep throat (I guess that was before we went down to Missouri and Arkansas for Easter). Then a couple weeks later Kaliya got strep throat and two ear infections. Carter also had a cold then. So there was a lot of sleeping on the couch.

Kaliya loves to help with Makai. One thing she likes to do is spoon feed him.

This was what was going on while I was trying to make dinner. They all brought their toys into the kitchen. Even the dog was laying somewhere near my feet and the baby was in his exersaucer.

Makai also ended up with a cold and wasn't feeling too well. So he was a little more snuggly.

We got some nice warm weather and enjoyed spending time outside once everyone was feeling better.
Kaliya loves riding her little trike around and has gotten pretty good at it.

The boys enjoying some popsicles after school. 

One thing I didn't get a picture of that happened in April was that our van quit. One Friday morning, we all got in the car to take Laken to school but the van wouldn't stay running. Then the starter quit. So we had to walk Laken to school. I'm sure that was quite the sight. It was a mile walk so I put Carter and Kaliya in the stroller and strapped the baby onto my front and made Laken walk. I felt bad that he had to walk so far and do it quickly so he wouldn't be too late for school (he ended up being 15 minutes late, so not too bad). Then we had to walk to pick him back up since the van still wasn't working and Jared was at Spirit Lake and couldn't come help. So Laken and I got lots of exercise that day. Finally we got the van towed to a shop and got a courtesy car to last us the next few days. I think we got the van back the following Tuesday? maybe Wednesday. 

Kaliya keeping Makai happy

Spending time at the playground. Makai's first time in a swing. I think he liked it.
And I take my boys to the playground so they can apparently play in dirt and rocks.

Kaliya loves climbing on things.

Kaliya got mad at me when I took this picture. I'm not sure if she didn't want her picture taken or if she thought I was coming to help her.
Laken impressed me by climbing up to the top of the dome, then dropping between the bars to hang, then dropping to the ground.

We have lots of dead sticks outback that have fallen off the trees so we decided to have a fire outback to burn some of them. The kids enjoyed having smores and marshmallows.

Kaliya just ate the marshmallows.

Laken roasted his own marshmallow for a smore. He ended up eating 3 smores! 

We put Laken in soccer this spring. He was pretty hesitant about getting the ball most of the time and would just follow everyone else. But there were a few times he seemed to know what was going on and would kick the ball (if it came his way). He said he enjoyed playing so that's good.

Jared bought a brand new lawn mower this year (after having no luck with used mowers the last two years). When he went out to mow one day, Carter ran into garage to get his lawn mower to help.

Our ward opened up the pinewood derby to anyone. We told our kids we would do it this year (since they watched last year without a car of their own and were not happy about it). So I drew up some designs and let everyone pick their favorites. Then we took the top design and drew it on the car. Then Jared got out his jigsaw and we took turns cutting it out. It didn't turn out exactly like we planned and we had to make some modifications to it but it turned out ok. Then I sanded it at night and the next day each kid took a turn painting a side of it. Then when it was all dry we put some tattoos on it to make it an Avengers race car. When it was time to race, Laken was pretty excited to watch it. We ended up coming in 2nd place in the open division and Laken chose a prize of cookies.

Kaliya says the darndest things: 
One night while Jared was putting her to bed, he was helping her with her prayer.  Kaliya said "help me be naughty." He corrected her then her next line was "help me not be nice." Looks like she is determined to be a hellion, glad I only have one girl.

One night while putting her to bed she was on my lap trying to talk to me. (She is currently going thru a stuttering phase.)
K: "mommy, eee...eee...eee." *sighs* "mommy, eee...eee...eee." *sighs* "mommy i cant talk right" 
Me: "why?"
K: "i have a hiccup stuck in my mouth"

It was funny but i felt bad for her. She realizes she is having a hard time talking. But both her brothers went thru this and got over it so hopefully she does too. 

Laken came home from school with a paper saying he didn't pass his hearing test. So we needed to get him scheduled with an ENT Dr. At that appointment, the dr said there was a lot of fluid in his ears causing him not not hear well and that his tonsils were really big. So we needed to schedule a surgery to get those out and that should also take care of the fluid. We just need to decide if we are putting ear tubes in to make sure the fluid gets out, or if we are going to see if taking the tonsils out really will help with the fluid in his ears. There are pros and cons to both ways and we still aren't sure what we will do. But his surgery is set for June 13th.