FINISHING APRIL

The reason we could not celebrate Rian's birthday on her birthday-- 

we had a bridal shower!!

Steven and Kira were out for the wedding the day before and were leaving the following morning..

so the ONLY time to throw a "surprise" shower was Friday night!

The bachelor party was also that night.

Not many in attendance, but sometimes it works out better that way.

Surprise!  Bridal craft night was put on hold...

Bride to be

We did actually sing to Rian and she blew out a candle.  :)

Later on, after the guests had left, we did have that craft night--working on stuff for the wedding and reception.

Hope you had a nice shower!

Stay tuned..wedding pictures in the near future.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Someone turned FIVE this past April!

Birthday celebrations usually consist of a meal of your choosing and presents/cake with just us after Daddy gets home from work on the actual birthday.  Then, we will usually have immediate family over to celebrate on a weekend that is convenient.  Five is a big number in our family.  It is the first time you can invite some friends and have a "big" party, not just our normal small-ish gathering.  (As if 20+ of immediate family is SMALL!)  Anyway, Missy's birthday fell on a Friday..BUT it was the day after the wedding AND an unavoidable event that night (I'll explain later)--so we did things a bit differently.

Mike was home and since we couldn't do a special dinner, we did presents first thing in the A.M. and then went out for breakfast!

This is a rare treat, breakfasting (well, dining really..) out. 

So, it was a nice alternative to our normal birthday routine.

We even brought along a candle to stick in her pigs in blanket.

 After that, we headed to our next place on the list..only to find that we needed to wait a half hour or so until the place opened.  It just so happened there was a park RIGHT down the road.  Perfect for a half hour's worth of play.

When time was up, we headed back to a paint-your-own-pottery place (now open!) to wrap up the birthday celebration.  It had a two-fold purpose.  #1, something fun to do on a birthday and #2, the kids each picked out a piece to give to the grandmothers for Mother's Day.

Rian picked out a teacher mug.

Carina a ring holder

Michael a dragon.

Travis a vase.

Even Mike got in on the painting.

Jared slept the whole time in the stroller.

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the finished products after we picked them up.

Everything was lovely though.

That concluded our birthday day celebration.

The day however, was FAR from over!

APRIL WEDDING

The end of April was one major event after another.

Literally.

Wedding, bridal shower, birthday..

First up, wedding.

My uncle got married at the end of the month.

The parents.

The happy couple

The reception.

It was at the Lafayette House.

All the times I've been there, I've never been to a wedding reception there.  

The room was nice.

Mother of the groom and her oldest son.

Blurry bridal party.

Congratulations!!

Wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness.

OOOOH BOY!!

Hey!  Miss me?  May was seriously crazy busy.

I have a whole bunch of stuff to catch up on.

Events that just cannot be skipped over..

You'll have to bear with me for a bit.

I'll admit that I did have a couple of opportunities to sit down and update, but honestly it felt like a waste of time.  Sleep, people, quiet etc. were more important at the time.  You could say we've been too busy living.  Anyway, shall we get to it?  I don't promise to go in order.

OKAY!

April saw the boys in their new room!  There are still a few things left to finish up, but they are minor.  I'm still loving the carpet.  I tell you--it is softer than my mattress!  As for the rest of the house, well....it is still in a state of chaos.  We are down two closets currently, so there is nowhere to sit in the living room because the contents of the closets have taken up residence on the couch.  My living room decor consists of clothes, totes, and bed frames..not to mention toys and papers.  The girls are currently in limbo.  They don't have an official room.  They are camping out on mattresses in the old boys room.  Their old room is empty.  Well except for tools and building supplies.  We have the majority of the supplies needed to complete the room, but as May was so busy, we're looking for time currently.  We can't really do anything else until that room is done.  We need to move out of our room before the girls can have a bedroom.  Fun times!  Character building, right?  

April brought a trip to Liberty Science Center with friends.

I have never been there when it was so crowded!

It was P.A.C.K.E.D. full with people.

The kids still enjoyed it, even though there were some things we could not do because of the crowds.

April also brought Easter.

Here are a couple of shots.

There is always one that doesn't want to cooperate.

Last bit of April to come in the next post.

Thanks for sticking around!

FORWARD!

We can finally move forward!

Carpet was installed this morning.

We were expecting it early last week, but there ended up being an issue with the warehouse..so we had to be a bit patient.

The audience.

Finished product.

(I will be taking down those posters.)

I'm hoping we can move in the furniture tonight! 

Then comes the next room!