April, pre baby

A 10 week break from blogging was not what I intended, even with the excuse of having a baby.  Life has definitely been busy since our new bundle arrived, but not unmanageable by any means.  Let the blog hiatus end today.

At the beginning of April, we had our first visitors come into town.  Yes, everyone- Hotel Andros is still alive and well. 

In preparation for our visitors, we did some cleaning.  The big kids were on Spring Break from school, so everyone was able to participate in our cleaning over haul.  It was a great excuse to do some deep cleaning, as we all had just gotten over the stomach bug the week before.

It was our first time meeting baby Jeter, the newest Blakeslee grandchild/cousin.

My kids were just smitten with him.

Obsessed, really.  Thank goodness they were going to get a baby of their own in just 2 weeks.

Jeter had his own fan club every hour of the day.

We love when Uncle George comes to town.  He spends most of his days here playing with my kids.  He is up for almost anything and is so sweet to give any of his free time to them.

Papa did his traditional coloring contest with the kids.

He gives awards and prizes to each kid and their coloring.

Ben took the 4 big kids and Grandma, Papa and George to ride bikes one afternoon.  Our kids could die happy riding bikes.

Saturday April 4th was the start of General Conference.  Just 2 years ago we started the tradition of going to the church and watching one of the Saturday sessions of conference there.  It is our best session of conference, as the kids sit so reverently and it allows Ben and I to listen, and gives the kids a much better opportunity to listen.  Livy was exhausted, apparently, and fell asleep on my lap (which never happens anymore).  As per tradition, we took the kids out to eat after.  It's a fun and very beneficial tradition.

At home, after the second session, we stuffed easter eggs with candy and hid them in the yard for an egg hunt for the kids.  This was Livy's first hunt and she caught on quickly.

It was a beautiful Spring day. 

Livy warmed up to Grandma after a day or two and then didn't want to share her.  Luckily, Jeter was great a sharing.

She also wanted nothing to do with Jeter for a few days, and cried and cried when Chloe or I would hold him.  By the end of their visit, she was quite taken with him.

Our visitors had to leave on Easter morning.  Livy was sad to see them go!

With Conference on Easter, we had a relaxing day watching the 2 remaining sessions together.

The kids were thrilled to get another set of Picasso tiles from us.  Hands down the best toy we have ever owned.

The also each got their own box of pop tarts.  They shared flavors and traded back and forth.  All of the pop tarts were gone within 2 days. 

Grandma had also baked an Easter cake for them the day before.  We had plenty  too much sugar on Easter. :)

Later the following week, we had our first visitors from Auburn/Seattle.  They stopped by on their way back to Auburn from their Spring Break visit to Tri-Cities to visit their grandparents.  We got to spend a few hours with one of our favorite families, the McInelly's.

Our kids were all good friends and it was so fun to see some familiar faces.

These 3 were so happy to be reunited and wasted no time getting down and dirty (literally) together.

This picture sums up the fun they had and their friendship perfect.

They came with us to Mitch's first game.  He made a good looking first baseman!

Later that week I took the twins to a nearby school to test them for the Spanish dual language program for kindergarten.  We were originally turned down for it, but have since found out that Alexis was accepted into it when another dual language program was added in the district.  I was very bummed that Leah was not accepted as well, especially after her twin was accepted, but she has been put on the waiting list and we are hopeful she will be accepted before school starts as well.  Fingers crossed!

We have had gorgeous weather very consistently since late March, early April (really since February).  The kids have loved playing outside nearly non stop since we moved here.

The twins have been so sweet to include Livy in their outdoor games.

With General Conference on Easter, the kids weren't able to wear their new Easter clothes until the following Sunday.

Livy also sported her first pony tail that week- a big milestone in the Andros family, as our babies don't have much hair until close to 2 years of age.