April

I haven't been good about blogging in April...
I'm going to do the whole month of April in one post so I can try to get caught up. :)

The first weekend in April we started by cheering on Meredith and Dave as they ran our Bentonville Half Marathon. This is the race I had trained for and gotten up to 9 miles in and then couldn't run anymore due to injury. It was very frustrating! Which is odd...I never before in my life would have thought I would enjoy running and how I felt while training. I am trying to get all healed up to (maybe) train for another one.

We had our annual girls' weekend in April. As always we had a great time relaxing, playing games, getting massages, sitting in the hot tub, talking... It was awesome. This will be our last girls' trip with Christine for a while since she is moving to Africa, but we'll still FaceTime her in with us! :)

 My friend Tricia had a sweet baby boy in April. We had a fun shower for her. And now that little Stone is here, I love "stealing" him and getting lots of snuggles!

 

We have been busy with softball and baseball. We all love it!
Norah cracks me up because she can go from being a princess to being a fierce tball player... 

At the end of April, Kylah and I participated in the Walk for the Cure to support my nurse Maragaret who is battling her second round of breast cancer. (I had to only do the mile walk because of my bum leg...)

Doesn't Kylah make a beautiful walking buddy?!

 

Here is my sweet nurse Margaret. Please be praying for her!

 

Joey looks so handsome in his glasses. I don't usually buy spring school pictures, but I couldn't resist this one...

We had a few glimpses of nice warm spring weather. We took every advantage we could. The kids love playing out front. The rice bin that my mom gave to Norah has been a big hit with everyone.

 

I'll keep getting this ol' blog caught up soon! :)

baby Abigail and Easter

 This past weekend I got to go meet my new niece, Abigail. She is the sweetest little thing ever. Such a calm, happy baby.

 

Look at that sweet face.

 

I got to play a lot with this sweet little thing too. I love that curly haired blondie!



 

Abigail was just starting to smile, and I got some good smiles from her!

 

When I booked my trip I didn't realize it was over Easter weekend, so Joe and the kids had to fly solo on Easter Day.

I was sent a picture of my kids in their (self-picked) Easter attire, and told not to judge hair or clothing choices. :) It wasn't too bad. :)

 

They went to church and then to the Harris' house for a fun get together with their family. The kids had a blast doing the Easter Egg hunt.

Family weekend

We had a full house a few weekends ago. Joe's brothers and dad came to work on the plumbing for our new house. As a bonus, we got some fun cousin/aunt/Nana time too!

The men worked HARD all day long...like 12 hours of hard labor. But they got it done, and we are so appreciative!

It was fun to go out to visit them! 

 

We took the little kids to the Amazeum. They had a great time. (Joey stayed and worked with the men all day long.) 

 

 I was amazed how much these two twin cousins still look like each other!

 

 

We had a total of 7 adults and 7 kids sleeping in our house. It was crazy but so much fun!

 

Fun times with Aunt Courtney!

 

Silas was SO happy when Joey finally got back.

 

Silas adores his big boy cousin Joey, and Joey loves Silas right back. Those boy cousins (the only ones on our continent...) have to stick together!

 

Relaxing at night.

I think Joey won??

Kylah was Leah's little caretaker all weekend. They were so cute together. 

 

I love the way Norah has her arm draped over Jeff. :)

 

A little pre-bedtime snack and hot chocolate.

James and Brianna stayed a few extra days, so we go to babysit baby Brooklyn so they could go out on a date. We all love that sweet baby!

 

She even let Uncle Joe hold her!

 

What a sweet girl!

 

What a fun, family-filled weekend! I'm pretty sure we have more plumbing work this summer, so we can get our PI Manthe cousins in on the action. We can fit 7 more people in our small house, right?!?! :)

fun family time

 We love visiting our local children's museum (Amazeum). The kids could spend hours and hours there, and never run out of things to do. We have a yearly pass so we can go as often as we want which is perfect!

I only took a few pictures of our last trip there (Joe's first time!)

 

 

The kids love when I come have lunch with them. And I love getting to see into their world at school.

 

Norah does a good job of staying for 2 different lunch periods. It's hard to believe that next year I'll have 3 students at school to have lunch with!!

 

These two are just too cute together. Matty and Norah will both start Kindergarten at the same school next year. It would be so fun for them to be in the same class.

 

Little goofballs.

reading

 Kylah contributed to a book that her class made. The book was about Greece, and Kylah's entry was about Athens. The fun thing about making this book was that each 2nd grader got to pair up with a 7th grader, and the 7th grader interpreted the paragraph into Latin.
Here is Kylah reading her paragraph about Athens at the "Author's Tea."

I'm too cheap to buy a (very expensive!!) book that mostly contains other kids' writings, so I did the next best thing... I took a picture of Kylah's pages! :)

 

Here is Kylah with her sweet little group of friends.

(Elle, Valentina, Grayson and Kylah)

 

Joey and Audrey are in the same grade at their school. Audrey came over to stay the night with Kylah one Friday night, and her and Joey ended up doing their homework for the weekend. I thought they were kind of cute studying together... :) (but don't tell either of them I said that!) :)

 

Speaking of cute... how cute is this? I love when the older siblings take time to read to Norah.

basketball

Both Joey and Kylah have been playing basketball this season. This is Kylah's first year to play, and she loves it! Joe is coaching both of their teams, and I think Kylah has especially loved having daddy as her coach since she's never had him before.

 

Kylah is just so cute out there with her headband.

 

She is a hustler and has really learned a lot this year.

 

She gets a sweaty, red face with white around her mouth and nose just like I used to! :)

 

Joe has never coached girls before, especially 1st and 2nd grade girls. He learned quickly, though, how to deal with them, and he did a great job!

 

 

Joey was really fun to watch this year too. He works so hard out there. And he LOVES it. He usually has a smile on his face still the entire game. :)

 

And Joey is still usually the tallest one out on the court... :)

 

Norah is still too little to play basketball, so she sits in the stands with me or runs around the gym.

 

What a fun basketball season it's been. This is the last week and then we'll be moving on to baseball/softball.

 

Oh, and speaking of basketball, Joe got to show his basketball skills at the high school game a few weeks ago. They always do a free throw contest at home games by drawing a random ticket number. The person gets 30 seconds to make as many free throws they can, and they get $20 per made basket. Joe has been hoping to get his number called for years now. He made a deal with Joey that if Joey's number got called that Joe would go shoot for him if he wanted and then Joe would split the money with him; or Joey could go shoot them on his own. Well, Joey's number got called. He quickly gave his ticket to Joe. Joe went out there and made 8 free throws! So after splitting the winnings, Joey made an easy $80 that night... :)