April School Holidays: Adjusting to life with Sofie

After Easter, we still had a whole week of school holidays left to have fun and relax and just enjoy our new family dynamic.  And it was dreamy!  I am loving four kids!  It has seriously been magical!  The girls have been so helpful and kind.  Will has been so accepting and mature. It has been a joy to watch my family grow this time around.  Of course, we all still have our off moments and bad days, but for the most part, going from three kids to four has been dreamy!

Now the true test came on Tuesday, April 22, when Ava had an immunization appointment.  It was scheduled a month earlier thinking I wouldn't have had Sofie yet.  I decided to keep the appointment and see how we went actually going somewhere with four kids.  And it was the best afternoon ever!  We'd been home bound for a week so the kids were all so excited to get out of the house.  So first we hit the immunization clinic, which for my deprived kids is like an amusement park.  They have a fantastically fun waiting room area.  Then all the immunization nurses are so nice and they all get a helium balloon to take home.  So then from there we went to the movie shop because it was $1 New Release Tuesday.  We rented (seriously, isn't it weird that they still have movie rental places open?  When I first got here and went to Video Ezy, the movie rental shop, I felt like I had gone back in time!) Planes and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  Then we headed over to a park to play while we waited for our pizza that we had ordered to be ready, because Tuesdays are $4.95 pizza days.  Tuesday is the cheap day for everything if you haven't noticed.  They call it Tight A** Tuesday around here.  Anyways, it was a beautiful autumn afternoon and everything in the world was right!  We picked up our pizza on the way home and ate it while watching our movies.  I felt like super mom and the kids all had a great time!  They were so well behaved also.  It was a blissful first outing with four.  Tender mercies from our Father in Heaven.  :)  

Here's Will playing at the park that afternoon.

 Here's week old Sofie snuggling with me on the couch while we watched Planes.

 The kids all adore holding Sofie, playing with her and taking good care of her.  They are such proud older siblings.

 Will is quite smitten with this little gal.

 Such a great big brother!

 We went on a bike ride to the nearest park.  We should really get Will a proper bike!  He's ready for one!

 Oh, Ava and her shoe selection.  We almost always have dramas over her shoes!

 We made it to the park.  It was great to get fresh air!

 Taking Sofie down the slide.

It was so nice to have that time to adjust to life with Sofie and spend quality time with all four of my kids before we had to go back to school and life and everything.  The timing couldn't have been better.

Easter Blues

So Easter Sunday this year was a little depressing.  For one, Ava was vomiting.  So that was depressing.  So we couldn't go to church and celebrate our Savior like we would have liked.  But Cory had to be at church, so he was gone all day and I had some breast feeding problems that were pretty painful, so all and all, it was a pretty depressing day.  However, I am so grateful that I have a Savior who went through the atonement and because of that atonement He understands and even cares about my depressing days.  I love my Savior, Jesus Christ so much!

So we watched a you tube video about the atonement and resurrection of Christ and called it good.  So the next day we broke out the new Easter clothes that we didn't get to wear and had some fun taking pictures...well the girls had fun.  Will not so much.  I don't think he is a fan of picture taking.

We had fun playing dress up with Sofie.  Little girls are so fun!

 Sad Will...but also handsome!  :)

 Love my big kids!

 So I also bought this dress for Sofie in a size 1, what are the chances that these dresses will still fit Lily and Ava next year and won't be stained or ruined?  Not good probably.  But we can hope, so they can all be matchy!  I'm such a dorky mom!

 My girls!

 Playing dress up took our blues away!  :) Well, except maybe Will's!  But playing on the computer with the girls did that just fine!  :)

Easter Weekend: Egg hunts, baskets and fun!

I like to have the Saturday before Easter be all about the fun stuff.  That way, when it's Sunday, we're able to just focus on our Savior and his resurrection.  So Saturday morning the kids wake up and find their Easter baskets and then later in the day we do an egg hunt.  I had this awesome idea this year that we were going to have some friends over for the egg hunt so it would be more exciting, but since I had Sofie early, we'll have to wait and do that next year.  :)

Here are the kids enjoying their baskets.

 Will was so excited about all his new Toy Story toys.  If ever there was a kid who loved Woody and Buzz, it's this one.

 Ava got a piggy bank, which happens to be an owl and not a pig, but she had been wanting one for months.

 Lily with her basket.

 The girls got right to making their crafts, bunny ears for starters.

 Then they moved on to these super cool egg rings that came with markers that you could decorate the egg ring with and still eat it...edible markers!  Pretty cool.

 Look at that edible bling!

 Will with his bunny ears, that never did get colored...he isn't as excited about the crafts as the girls are.

 Ava's edible bling.

 Now it's on to the egg hunt.

 Here are the kids ready to go.

 Can you tell that Ava is a little out of it?  I think this is about when she started to not feel so well.  She vomited later that night.  :( Poor little Ava!

 We had so many people bring over chocolate eggs when they came to see the baby.  So the kids got to find quite a few eggs.  We just hid them all!

 Not sure if Ava sees the egg right in front of her face yet.  Haha!

 Haha, love this one of a little hand poking out and snagging this egg.

 Oh, poor girl, she just doesn't look like herself!

 Oh and of course, here's cute little Sofie!

Happy Easter everyone!