Life in March

Here are a few snapshots of things that went down this month:

We've had quite a few days with decent weather especially for this time of year here, and the girls have loved going on bike rides.  (Hopefully their enthusiasm will rub off on their older brother here soon!)

 Aaron loves when I wear him outside in the bjorn, which is happening almost daily now as I follow the girls on their bikes- though often with a blanket over his head.  That little red mark on his cheek is eczema and has been there for over a month.

which I guess goes hand in hand with his asthma.  It's hopefully not a lifelong thing, but since getting really sick he has reactive airways now, so in addition to the albuterol he's been doing as needed, the doctor wanted him to do an inhaled corticosteroid twice a day til he's at least 8 months to help open up his airways more.  So we spend a lot of time doing this, but he is a good sport about it all.

We took advantage of National Pancake Day at IHOP again.

We only have a few months left til Josh is done with residency.  Neither of us are the counting down the days type but it is fun to think of things in terms of little milestones he's reaching.  Last week he worked what should be his last Sunday ever!!  I celebrated with the Lorna Doones he brought me home from the hospital:)

We've been doing a lot of Insanity lately, the girls are my exercise buddies and they keep me entertained while I'm doing it.  We did it on Sadie's birthday and she picked one of the harder DVD's and I told her "oh, this is kind of a hard one" when she showed me and she said, "Mom, I'm 3 now."

Aaron seemed to enjoy his first swing experience.

 We found some gold at the end of the rainbow:)

 We found the Easter bunny at the Y,

and went to an Easter egg hunt.

 Here is cute Aaron tagging along.  He discovered his tongue and it is hanging out most of the time.

 See?

We colored some eggs, it was just warm enough to do them outside which made things a lot more relaxed.

 The Easter bunny came,

 and is there anything sweeter than a little girl in an Easter dress?  I guess two little girls!

 The missionaries have been teaching Shane the lessons since he is old enough to be baptized this year and it is good practice for them too.

 I have loved watching him soak it all in and seeing things through the eyes of a child again.  They gave him a Book of Mormon and he immediately set to work reading it.

 

Having four kids is a lot of fun and I feel very blessed- but it definitely has its challenges too.  With a baby especially I feel sometimes like there is a ticking time bomb in the back of my head- hurry and do this or get ready to go somewhere before he is tired or hungry etc. and I don't always get around to all the things I would like to do.  A lot of days I have sort of a loose checklist in my head- did they get a fruit and vegetable sometime today?  did they work on something that was challenging for them?  did they get a minute with me to do something they enjoy?  did we get outside for a minute?  did we read scriptures and say prayers?  do they smell enough to need a bath or shower??  A lot of days, with some discipline and planning on my part, we are able to get a lot of good things done and manage to have some fun in there too.  And some days someone or something need a little more attention and the others suffer a little.  But looking at the whole sum of our days, I think they feel loved, and safe, and happy, and are learning and growing, and I am learning and growing right along with them I think.