April Showers, April Birthdays

April....the best month of the year. Why, do you ask? Because there's singing in the rain.....

 And because there's my birthday (and William's too, but we'll get to that in a minute)!  We actually did not get one picture of my birthday this year. I promise....it happened.....I got older even though there is no documentation of it. It was a great day though. Trav was actually out of town to Boise that week so I knew he would miss my birthday. (He also missed the power outage the night before, I might add). He told the kids to take care of me, and take care of me they did!

I first woke up to Josh asking me what I wanted for breakfast and that I needed to stay in bed. I was getting breakfast in bed! I requested toast and an orange, but as they were getting it ready it sounded like a lot more was going on than just toast. A few minutes later Rach came in and said..."Ummm....I wanted to make you orange julius, but I accidentally put in 1/2 cup of vanilla. Should I just start over?" It was hilarious and it was very fun. The kids are so good to me....and the 2nd batch of orange julius was delicious.

Kate, Will and I went to playgroup, then out to lunch with some friends. I told the kids that we were being 100% lazy the rest of the day (and since it was the only snowstorm of the season....it was easy to do) We ate cracker sandwiches for dinner then watched The Princess Bride. We went in the living room and started reading scriptures when Trav called. We usually call him for family prayer when he's gone...we just weren't to that point yet. He said "Hey, so I've got a surprise for you on the back deck. Go see."  So we all went to look at the back door and there were 33 candles outside the door along with an ice cream cake! We were all so surprised! But what we didn't see at first was that Trav was there too! He wasn't supposed to come home until the next day but sneakily took an early flight home so he could be home for my birthday.

We all stayed up late eating ice cream cake. He's a keeper!

Then a few days later....we celebrated William's birthday! This little man is officially 2 years old now! His birthday fell on a Sunday. We let him open 1 present before our 9am church.

 

It was a farm set from sweet Kate.

 After church he couldn't handle it (or should I say "Rachel, Josh and Kate couldn't handle it.") and opened another present...

 A new shovel for the sand box!

 That night we had the real birthday party when grandparents came over for dinner. Then he FINALLY could open the rest of his gifts.

  A new beach towel! One that's not pink stripes.

 It's good he has lots of helpers.

 Instead of a cake this year I decided to make dirt dessert. One of the favorites at our house. Of course you have to have some tractors!

 Here's the wild, raging party....

 I kept trying to get pictures of Will with his cake but he couldn't help but pose with Kate.

 It tastes as good as it looks!

 And these 3 monkeys were just being silly today during lunch so I took some pictures of them. Erika is Kate's BFF, but William thinks she's pretty awesome too. What cute friends!

 I know the pictures look kind of weird but they were making all kinds of funny faces and noises. Of course, Will was the leader of the pack.

 Bunny ears and bunny ears.

 And look at these pearly whites! Kate got her cavities filled yesterday. I'm glad they look pretty because they cost us an arm and a leg! Keep smilin' Kate! (and maybe brush a little longer next time)