April

April started out with Mckayla sick and us headed to Spokane.  We almost cancelled, but Steve had to pick something up in Idaho that week, so we had to make the trip regardless, and with Mckayla on all her medications for her poor mouth, she seemed to at least have stabilized.  We figured we would go see Grandma and Grandpa and decide from there if we would continue with the trip we had originally planned for spring break that week.  Regardless of any plans, we were grateful that Mckayla continued to get better.  So, our spring break had us visiting grandparents, and on April 2nd the girls were healthy enough we went out and enjoyed a spring day feeding ducks and geese with Jen, Wyatt, and Aubrey at Riverfront Park in Spokane.

After the park I went to Jennifer's baby shower with my Step-Mom Kerry and Steve took the girls home to Papa's house for naps.  It was a fun day.

After a few days of recuperating at Papa's house, MG seemed to be on the way up, with her medicine going down without a fight, her sores healing, and her beginning to eat food again.  So, we decided to continue with our spring break plans.  We headed out on April 4th and visiting Grand Coulee Dam first.

We then caught lunch and headed to visit some old friends from Steve's first job in Mabton, the Tyus family.  After catching up with them for a few hours we headed to a hotel in Chelan for the night where we had a good laugh at our bed being held up by a 2x4 on one side.  The next morning we drove to Cashmere where we had lunch and enjoyed the afternoon with one of Steve's old mission companions, Elder Meyer, and his family.  The girls had a blast playing with their kids, and it made for a great day.  Eventually we had to head for home though.  Considering how stressed we were about travelling at all with Mckayla at the beginning of the trip, we actually had a great Spring break, mostly because we got to spend time with so many wonderful people.  It was great to be able to do one last trip before I wasn't allowed to travel anymore, too!

The next couple of weeks flew by as we tried to prepare for the upcoming birth of our baby girl.  I tried to go through things and clean, while enjoying a total loss of appetite and some nausea.  We got ready for Easter, made sure the nursery was completely ready to go, and just went about our lives.  April 16th I taught my last classes, pulling back at work so I was only doing office work and wouldn't have to worry if I went into labor on my Tuesday work night.

April 17th was exciting as it brought the birth of our newest nephew.  Jennifer was induced that day, and at 7:29 PM gave birth to Enzo Edmund Patrick Rose.  He was the biggest baby in the family yet at 9 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long.  We weren't able to go see Enzo right away since I was just a few weeks from my due date.

We flew straight from Enzo's birth into a busy Easter weekend.  We opened Easter baskets on the 19th, and although we had planned to do our egg hunt that day too, a combination of nap times, fits, and weather prevented our following through with those plans.

 The girls made out like bandits - as always.  Big hits were MG's Elmo and Frozen poster, Ellie's princess watch, dolls Grandma Moon had sent down with their names on them, and these fairy costumes we picked up.

The next morning tried to get pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses, with only limited success as usual.

 I also grabbed a belly shot since I was awful at taking them all pregnancy again, but thought I was starting to feel some small contractions once in a while, and figured I should document the pregnancy before it ended and I couldn't.  This was April 20th at 37 weeks pregnant.  Given our birth story blog, it turned out to be a good thing we took this picture...

After the girls had their naps, we then headed outside for our egg hunt.  The girls loved the eggs Grandma and Papa Bennett sent up, as well as all the little things we had found to put in them.  Ellie was so excited to get more Polly Pocket clothes in some of her eggs.

 I love this picture.  Our girls are young, but we didn't want to lose the true meaning of Easter, especially where our egg hunt ended up being on the Sabbath, contrary to our original plans.  So, Steve brought up a video about the birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Savior from LDS.org and we watched it with the girls.  They were so focused.  I may have cried.  Maybe.

 After that Ellie had to put on every piece of jewelry the girls had found in eggs earlier so she could be "like Lilo" from Lilo and Stitch (hula dancing).

 Then we got ready and headed out to enjoy one of our typical Sunday evening activities - throwing rocks in the Columbia River.  Yeah, our Easter was busy.  And fantastic!

I know this blog is already long, but a few other fun things from April:
Mckayla had her 18 month check-up and was 29 lbs (96th percentile) and 34.25 inches tall (98th percentil).  She may make Ellie our runt...  Also, being 18 months old meant that MG started attending nursery at church full time, just in time for me to only have one baby to care for at church.  We had been taking her to nursery for the first hour starting a few weeks before to help her adjust, and it worked.  About this time she started staying in class all on her own.  It didn't actually last, but we did eventually get there.  We have a fantastic nursery leader, Sister Hess, who was/is always great at reading Mckayla and knowing if she needs distraction, space, etc.  We love her.

Steve also had to interject some science into our month.  The high school he works at had some liquid nitrogen for another project, and he brough the left overs home to show the girls.  They loved it, of course, especially Ellie.  Here Steve is showing them how the cold shrinks a balloon, and demonstrating his 'teaching face'.

 Mckayla wasn't sure about putting her hands down in the steam, but she was so interested.

 This was literally Ellie being a cheerleader and telling me, "Take a picture of me Mommy, and I'll yell "SCIENCE!""  She loves being Daddy's little scientist.

 Tuckered out after learning, and watching a movie as a family.  These girls sure do love their Daddy, and I think it goes both ways...

After all those adventures, April ended with our biggest adventure of all:  Miss Kassidy.  The story of our crazy doctors appointments, unexpected hospital trips, and eventual delivery of Kassidy is on another blog, so if you want to see that, you'll have to go back to it.  But, she sure was worth it all. Yeah, March may have been rough, but April sure was a great month for the Bennetts!