Active April

April was active, and we accomplished many things during the month!


General Conference

Wasn't that a great conference?  What a great way to start the month!  I felt like many of the talks were focused on how to be a better person and improve your life so that it will affect others.  And thank you Elder Holland for letting us know how much the leaders of the church care for us, and love us.

Nathan and I did out typical song pool.  I got 45%, and Nathan got 30%.

Hannah enjoyed snuggling with us during a few of the talks.  But she really enjoyed leading the music when the songs were sung.

Girls camp stuff

So I am on the Stake Camp committee this year which means I get to help plan girls camp!  I am not the camp director (thankfully!), but being on the camp committee makes your life pretty busy, especially with camp quickly approaching.

We had the Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs) throughout the stake come up to my house for a sleepover. We did some training, and they helped us plan girls camp as well.  It was a lot of fun, and the girls enjoyed themselves too.  Hannah especially loved having so many young women over at my house.

We also got to travel down to the camp we will be attending to check it out.

One of the things that our stake has asked the young women in the outlying units to do is to help raise money for girls camp.  So our ward had a fundraiser/talent show.  I took a couple of snap shots from the audience participation during one of the talents.

We had a great turnout for our activity, and we raised over $1000!  Way to go girls!


Other church stuff

Our stake had a women's conference toward the end of the month that was really good.  Nathan and Hannah came to help out with the lunch being served later that day.

During the clean up she enjoyed dancing around on the stage.

Ukulele

Back in March, Hannah had saved up enough money to purchase a ukulele.  When she met her goal, she gave Nathan and I the money while we ordered it online for her.

Well, it finally came this month and she was SUPER excited!

She has especially enjoyed playing her pink ukulele while Daddy plays his brown ukulele.


Preschool Graduation

Hannah had her preschool graduation.  The school always holds the graduation a few weeks before school ends because it's hard scheduling around the "big" students classes/finals, etc.

It was fun to watch her preform her songs that she learned throughout the year.  Can't believe that our little one is getting ready to go to Elementary school.

Rugrats resale

Last summer, I participated in a large kids consignment sale and I did it again this year.  I cannot believe how much stuff there is out there for kids.

One of the days there is a half price sale: items that are marked with the word "reduce" on the price tag are 50% off.  Yep!  I shopped for some clothing for Hannah, while Hannah and Daddy shopped for her to buy some things with her money.

Here is what I bought:

• White shirt = $1.50
• Gymboree jeans = $1.00
• Gymboree swimsuit = $2.50
• Children's place green skirt = $3.00
• Lands End Strawberry skirt = $4.00
• Old Navy Brown plaid skirt = $1.50
• OshKosh red shirt = $1.50
• Pajama set = $3.00

Total = $18.00

I also bought her a princess lunch pail for $3 (shh..she doesn't know about that yet.  I'm surprising her with that later).

Hannah was so excited for her clothes that she wanted to try them on immediately!  She also keeps asking "how many days until my swim lessons?"

As for Hannah, she purchased 3 things:

• An apron for $1.00
• A Hello Kitty memory game for $1.50
• A Princess birthday book for $1.00

She was excited for her own apron because she likes to wear them in the kitchen while she helps make pancakes with Daddy.

Painting

Our house is painted!  All of it.  It's done and it kicked my butt!

I finished painting an Armoire that was given to us.  Here's the before:

Here's the after:

Dining room before:

Dining room after:

I had an accident in the dining room when I was doing touch up paint a week later.  I lost my grip on the paint can and it spilled all over my hard wood floor!  I cried for about an hour.  It took about 8-10 hours to clean up.

Fireplace before:

Fireplace after (sorry, can't get a good shot with the lighting):

Living room before:

Living room after:

Miscellaneous

I often pick up a few kids on our street from the bus stop, and when we were walking back I saw what Hannah had done to her socks and had to take a picutre.

One Sunday morning I was getting ready for church in my bathroom. I came out to go eat some breakfast, and I saw Hannah sitting in the hallway.  She was patiently waiting there for Daddy to come out of the bathroom.  So cute.

That folks, was our April.

Oh, wait.  I had a birthday during the month of April too.  I'm combing through my pictures and I can't find any photos of the event.  Oops.  In fairness, I did request from Nathan that all I wanted for my big day was to have the house painted by the end of that week -- and it was!  And I told my family members that I all I wanted was some money so that I could have some girl time and go shopping for clothes -- which I also did.  So thank you everyone for honoring my birthday requests. Happy Birthday to me!

March -- in like a lion, but not out like a lamb

Our March was busy.  Very busy.  And it never stopped.  The phrase "in like a lion out like a lamb" kind of describes our month.  March came in like a lion with all kinds of business and commitments. But it did not go out like a lamb.  We pretty much kept busy all month long.


Eye doctor

A few months ago, Hannah had her 1 year check up with her pediatrician.  They did a quick eye exam and recommend she go see a specialist.

So, we made an appointment and saw an optometrist.

The diagnosis: Hannah's left eye is not focusing as well as it should so she has to wear glasses for 1-2 hours a day with an eye patch on the other eye to help strengthen it.  It's not something she will have to do for the rest of her life, but if we don't take care of it now then she'll have major eye problems later in life.  For a few weeks she kept telling people "I can't see so I need glasses."

So she got to go shopping and pick out some glasses.  When she saw the glasses with Ariel on the side it kind of sealed the deal.

Crazy hair day

In honor of Dr. Seuss, Hannah's school has crazy hair day.

It's kind of hard to do her hair crazy with it so short (and with her not really wanting me to do her hair).  But her teacher had an awesome hair do that was very photo worthy.

Our new (used) vacuum

Our vacuum that we bought when we were first married is officially dying.  It doesn't suck anything up anymore, which is kind of a problem.  So, for a couple months we just stashed some cash in a "vacuum fund" envelope while keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a used vacuum.

I saw this Dyson vacuum and watched it for a few weeks to see if the price went down.  The price or vacuum didn't move so I emailed the lady and offered $150 for the vacuum ($80 off her asking price). To my surprise, she accepted and we are now the proud owners of a Dyson vacuum -- which is AWESOME by the way.  There is a reason why these vacuums are pricey, and now I know why.

St. Patrick's day

Hannah had a St. Patrick's day party at school the day before March 17th, and a leprechaun came to her school (though she didn't see it).  They followed tiny footprints to the library where there were some surprises for the kids, and when they came back to the classroom it was all messed up.

Hannah would not stop talking about the leprechaun footprints for the rest of the day.  So I told her "maybe the leprechaun will come to our house tomorrow."  Sure enough, he did.  Not only were their footprints around the house, but he left a "pot of gold" for her (by the way, Hannah made that little pot at preschool).

Easter

As I said earlier, March was just nuts for us this year.  Nathan and I got asked to speak on Easter Sunday.  I had to spend a lot of time prepping for my talk due to it's unique assignment (I was assigned to talk specifically about Mary Magdalene).  So we were very distracted on painting the house (more on that below), and prepping for our talks that we kind of forgot about the Easter bunny.

Luckily though, the Easter bunny remembered to come at 4:00 am on Easter morning!  Yep, I heard it.  Not only could I hear it stuff the eggs with money and then hide them in the house, I also heard it squeal as it noticed a HUGE spider!

After the Easter bunny left I fell back asleep.  Hannah awoke around 7:00 am and came running into our bedroom saying "IT'S EASTER!  IT'S EASTER!"  It took some extra love for me to get up from a nice sleep and go out to see what the Easter bunny brought.  Hannah on the other hand, was full of energy and excited.

After church, we had dinner at some friends house, and then we came home and crashed from being so tired.


FPU class comes to an end, but brings new beginnings

Our FPU class that we hosted came to an end and it was a bitter sweet experience.  We had such a great group, and the camaraderie was amazing.

We ran some stats for our class:

Of the 8 households that attended, the average household paid off $5,000 in non-mortgage debt and saved $1,900 in the course of 9 weeks!  Oh, and there were 19 credit cards closed and cut up too! How amazing is that?!

Well, it was so inspiring for us that we are actually setting up to host another FPU class.


Painting

Well, this is pretty much the same reason we've been so tired this month.  I have painted 5 rooms in 5 weeks.  I am learning of muscles that I never even knew I had.  I took some after pictures with my phone, but I didn't have much luck with the lighting.  And I can't use my regular camera because it's broken at the moment.  Sigh.  So, these after shots will just have to suffice for the time.

Guestroom before:

Guestroom after (and we are getting a new bedding set):

Guest bathroom before:

Guest bathroom after:

Master bathroom before:

Master bathroom after (it's a very pale, pastel green that's hard to see in this lighting):

Master bedroom before:

Master bedroom after (I can't get a good picture of my bed on my phone with the lighting):

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after (I'm not putting my decorations on top of my cupboards until the dining room and living room are painted.  Sanding creates too much dust):

Women's broadcast

Every 6 months The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a Women's conference broadcast, and it is truly amazing.  Well this year, my mother-in-law got to sing in the choir.

As the broadcast started we gathered around the computer and told Hannah we were going to look for Grandma.  And we saw her!  Lots of times.  Each time we saw Grandma we pointed her out to Hannah and she would clap.  It was a very precious and tender moment.

Well, that wraps up March.  We've got two rooms left paint in the house, and I will be so grateful for when they are done.  Despite the busy schedules, we have had a very pleasant March.  Spring has definitely come and we are embracing it with open arms.