Well, it's going to look like I did all kinds of long posts for the month of April, but really I didn't blog all month long. It bothered me all the time. My friend Delma taught me a trick to help me get by with it. On a certain day that I knew I should be blogging, I would open up a new post. Today is actually May 6th and I'm blogging for part of March and all of April. I think there were 170+ photos that I deemed absolutely necessary to post, so I guess that's why I've been sticking them all into collages for this month. Hopefully I will do better for May. I guess something has to give when you add another kid, and this was it....oh...and laundry and cooking...and cleaning. But personal hygiene is staying at my consistently good level so I'm telling myself I'm doing pretty good for a new old mom.

Happy 40th Birthday to Peter!! It used to sound old but now that it's creeping up on me, too I think 40 is the new 28! We just need some drive-thru botox and lipo and we'll be good to go!

We didn't do much for the big day. Peter's co-workers decorated his office with black and all that Over the Hill stuff. They brought him a walker to use that day. I had to admire their effort and take pics, of course. That night we played the wii that I received on my birthday from Peter and my family. Warren & Marjean stopped by for birthday cake made by Katy with lots of egg shells in it. Gotta take care of my sugar daddy!

These photos are pretty self explanatory. Allen makes a new mess at the rate of one per 30 minutes, or so. Sometimes he's really on his game and he can take it to the HNL...Whole Nutha Level. There is a photo of our 5 pound bag of M&M's from Sam's that he dumped into his rocking chair and sampled in his room. He's getting entirely too independent. There is a pic of Hannah enjoying her new bumbo seat from the Stockton family. We love it! Why didn't I get one for the first two nuggets? I still haven't written more than two or three thank you notes for all our many, many gifts, either. Add it to the list of things that are falling through the colic-filled cracks. Katy and Allen and I played Little People one day and had the best time. It had to be documented because she ended up with all the best stuff and Allen just made sure he had a "truck" which was really just a car. I love that we were playing with my toys that my Mom saved from my childhood. Fabulous! Hannah has already had several photo shoots. She is scrumptious!

These are mainly photos to show off Katy's school activities. She had her first of many Pajama Days and she absolutely HAD to wear her "zebra princess" jammies, as she calls them. She knew she was too cool for school that day!

Katy's class finally had their group photo. Allen and I happened to be there that day so I stood by the photographer and threw Allen up in the air to make the kids laugh. Katy doesn't look very impressed, but several of the others were at least smiling. Allen LOVED it! Plus he got to play on the playground afterward which is one of his favorite things to do. He is such an outdoor man.

Just lookin' cute one day on the way to school...

Katy's birthday isn't until summer so her teacher set up a fake birthday party for her. She loved it! Katy was the first of the summer kids to celebrate so they all looked a little confused at the explanation. She didn't care. She had cupcakes with 'rostings and all kinds of fruit. Mookie came and fed Hannah for me. Then I read one of Katy's favorite books to her class: David Shannon's Pirates Don't Change Diapers! She had a great time! I dressed her up like a princess for the day and on the way to the van that morning Katy found a ladybug. Of course, you have to stop and chat when you find one.

And finally, we finished off our last Saturday in April with Katy's big school festival. I was on the Tea Party committee with McKenzie and it was a huge job. Katy loved the real sugar cubes and she carefully placed three into her tea cup filled with apple juice. She nibbled the chocolate off the chocolate covered strawberries. She scarfed down the colorful sugar cookies and skipped the cream cheese sandwich quarters completely. Allen had his face painted with a red car and I loved looking at him all that day. When he entered the petting zoo pen with two baby lambs he kept spanking them instead of petting them. I told him we were going to have to take away his PETA card. They also had a horse and Katy was horrified to see it try to eat her friend Maggie's blonde hair. Apparently it looked like hay to him and that's all she would talk about for a while. She also kept her distance from him, just in case. Katy ran the obstacle course and earned a blue ribbon (everyone got one) even though she kept telling people it was a bow. The fastest time was 19 seconds and her time was one minute and thirty-six seconds. She spent half that time trying to make it across the tires and had to be helped down from the hay bale she scaled. Allen only participated by sneaking under the rope and playing while other people competed. It was a solo event but he's just too social for that. Hannah had her face painted and I think we didn't get a photo of it. WHAT?! At least I couldn't find one. She had a little pink daisy on her cheek and she received tons of compliments. Julia and her family was there but we were running around so much we didn't get any pictures with them. Of course.

April has been a fun and crazy month. Luckily I am trying not to sweat the small stuff. These nuggets will only be young once and I'm going to keep trying to make the most of it, dragging Peter along with me!

I am so happy to be catching my poor lil' ol' blog up finally! It's been so long I'll probably forget a ton of things but here goes...

We had a great time at our annual Easter Egg Hunt at the local Presidential library. They do a fabulous job with all the activities, games, treats...and all for free! It was Hannah's first egg hunt experience and we were late getting there. The kids all swarmed when the fire truck sounded the siren. Luckily we had Maggie and Lily there to share their eggs with us. Plus Sage, Jade and Baby Rane kept us company through the whole thing. We convinced their dad that we would help him juggle all three kids since Rebekah had to attend classes. The kids had their faces painted, ate cotton candy (their favorite part), sat on the Easter bunny, played with a miniature fire truck named Freddy, pretended to drive a real fire truck, and played all kinds of games. Allen got kicked out of the duck pool area for throwing ducks and splashing everyone. Surprise, surprise. It was tons of fun and then Sage and the gang joined us for lunch at McDonald's with the play land.

For our real Easter weekend we had a hunt with Emily and Abby at Mom's house. Katy and Allen absolutely ADORE spending time with their cousins! Once Allen found his Hot Wheels air planes and helicopters he stopped looking for eggs and just played. We really missed Sarah and Amy. Sarah had to spend time with Chad's family and Amy was busy eloping in Hawaii. Yup. She eloped. I have a new brother-in-law named Paul and we already love him! He's an Army man who is stationed in Iraq so I guess I finally get to tie a yellow ribbon around one of our trees. :o) They came back from Hawaii and met Dad first, then Amy's friends, then came here and met Mom, Sarah and us, then on to Laura's place, then she met his family. What kind of honeymoon is that? Leaving Hawaii to tour the Texas in-laws? That just proves they're crazy!

Our third hunt took place on Easter Sunday at Jerry and Kathy's home. Jason's roommate Manny came instead of his fiance because Kristin had to stay with her family for the holiday. Katy didn't seem to mind because, thanks to Aunt Amy, she is now very interested in getting married. When I suggested one of the boys from her class she told me he was too small. She wants to marry "Handy Manny" from Easter. Karli snagged the silver egg and Jason grabbed the gold...lots of fun!

Some post-Easter fun with Allen's new Cars chair and a little Max & Ruby. This is a rare sight because Juice Box does not ever watch tv for more than 30 seconds.

Gramma Grape headed back to Iowa at the beginning of April and we still miss having her here. Katy asks for her all the time. Mom says she's missing us, too. All this excitement happened just after she left. At least she got to meet Hannah before she went home.

I wanted to post a few of our photos from our time in Utah. Marie brought her boys over and we had Brendan and Jamie so all the "siblings" got to play together. When we head back in September we are going to get Jim and Tara and Marie together so they can swap stories and experiences. I love our family!

When we returned from Utah the bluebonnets were in full bloom. It's another of our traditions to snap the kiddos in lovely Texas bluebonnets. This time I did it on my own and it was cuh-razy. There were lots of out-takes and bribes.

For the first time ever I felt free to send out an April Fools joke that I was pregnant. I pasted my face over a pregnant woman's body and e-mailed out my announcement. Some people fell for it, but most knew right away that it was a joke.

Mom had a birthday on April 2nd and Katy insisted on designing, baking and decorating her birthday cake. What a pro! There were only a few egg shell pieces in it. And Katy specified that the cake should have Mom's picture in the middle with pink words written in "rostings" that said, "Happy Birthday Mookie Love Katy" on the side. She is quite talented.

This is Hannah's hospital portrait. It's the best one I've ever seen. The same photographer took it who did Allen's. She's really good but Hannah made her job easy. Tara says that Hannah's perfectly round head is like an apple. Our little apple head!

This is one of Hannah's photo shoots. I was going for the Anne Geddes look and she happily cooperated. The pink stroller is actually for a baby doll but she looks just right for it!

Our first Sunday together at church as a family. Don't we look proud!?

And here are the two oldest nugs on their "sicles" which they love to ride! They both prefer the $3 one from a g-sale that Katy is riding below instead of their new ones from Christmas...go figure!

And finally, here is a photo of Hannah's first bath at home in our kitchen sink. All of our kids had their first home bath there. Shortly after that I started bathing her in a white mixing bowl. I don't have a photo because I did it alone and couldn't let go of her long enough to grab a shot. She looked good enough to eat! Now I just put an inch or two of water in the tub and she gets all suds up.

Now almost everyone has met Hannah. The Utah family, Mom, Gramma Grape, Marjean, Warren, Dad, Uncle John, Jerry & Kathy's family, my sisters and their families...almost everyone! She is already spoiled rotten and VERY popular with all her visitors! We are so blessed!