April Happenings 2014

1) At the end of March, Alan surprised the whole family by buying two snowmobiles, something he's talked about doing forever, but finally did on the spur of a moment.  I wasn't feeling up for a ride with my first trimester nausea, so on April 4, Burke took Daphne up to Brian Head with the Rowleys and his parents to test the sleds out before the snow melted away for good.  Daph's thumbs-up while drinking hot chocolate pretty much sums up how they felt about it.

2) Despite snow in the mountains, spring had arrived in the valley.  Our fruit trees started to blossom and swarms of bees could be found pollinating for several days - we were so excited!

3) We bought a lawn mower and instead of throwing away the box, Daphne and I decided to turn it into a little house.  We painted that thing all morning and she was obsessed with it for days!  It's still hanging out in the basement and any kids who come over think it's the coolest.  

My favorite was when she hauled her baby doll, lawn chair and books inside and sat reading for a good hour.  Simple pleasures.

4) In March, Burke's work started a health challenge called "Get Fit On Route 66".  The health insurance company they go through was encouraging ($100 bucks per person - employee or spouse covered) everyone to develop healthy habits to help reduce health costs.  The Route 66 program could be entered as individuals or teams, so Burke's office became the "Southern Utah Rocks" team comprised of myself, Burke, their secretary Vicki and Burke's boss Darrin and wife Cami.  There were 217 teams competing across the United States and each day you could log a maximum of 90 minutes of exercise, while a minimum of 30 minutes would get you a "road sign" along Route 66.  In just a few days we had risen to the #1 spot and Burke and Darrin's competitive fires were raging, "gently encouraging" us ladies to log 90 minutes every day.  Although there were a few days I only did 30 mins, it was a great excuse to get out as a family and go for lots of walks.  Some days we would meet Burke at the park for lunch, eat quickly and spend the rest of his lunch hour walking with Daphne up the canyon.  Daph loves an excuse to see Daddy in the middle of the day, especially if it means a little bit of park time together and I felt like the exercise was a major preggo energy boaster, even if I could only manage a brisk walk.  (Also, just as a disclaimer, I was not walking 90 minutes a day.  Most days I would clock 45-60, but you could also count "household tasks" as exercise.  At first I felt guilt tracking that as "exercise", but between chasing Daphne around and doing all our regular tasks, I figured I was burning more calories than some of the other forms of exercise you could enter such as horseshoes or lawn bowling.)

Playing with Daddy at the park on his lunch break.

5) Walks combined with gardening left me with this bad boy one day.  Ow.

6) We got to know several more neighbors in the months of April and May.  The cute Barton girls brought these cookies by one day.  I can't believe how welcoming and kind our neighborhood/ward has been.

7) Mike brought two baby lambs home for his girls to bottle feed and one night while we were at their house in Parowan, Daph had the chance to feed the dogies herself.  It was actually the first time I've ever been up close and personal with a baby lamb myself and I couldn't get over their adorable wagging tails and the texture of their woolly fur.  I had no idea that sheep have long tails until they're docked.

Get a load of Daph's outfit - she had an accident and had to borrow those sweet pants from Laney.

Here we are on another day visiting the lambs.  I love the dog leash that Laney put around one of their necks so she could walk it around the yard.

8) Over conference weekend while the boys were at Priesthood Session, I went to dinner with my mother and sis-in-laws.  We stopped at Wal-Mart after for some things and I ended up picking up this standing fire pit for Burke for Father's Day.  I lasted two days before I showed him and we got a fire blazing that night.  

9) The day we went horseback riding at the Parowan Gap, we spent quite a bit of time down at the farm helping with the chores.  It was the first time I had ever seen the entire cow feeding process from start to finish: loading the feed wagon, hooking up the tractor, dumping it in the several different fields/corrals for the cows, etc.  Every time Daph tried to get close to pet one of the cow's noses, a whole group of them would shy back about 10 feet from the fence in fear.  Daphne was getting so frustrated, she just wanted to pet one so bad!

10) Towards the end of April, my cousin Michelle (who lives in Cedar) told me our other cousin Lillie was going to be traveling through Cedar that night as she moved with her little family down to Arizona to start a new job.  We all decided to meet for dinner at The Brick House in town.  It was brief, but so wonderful to see my cousins and get our babies together.