spring-er...CHAOS is in the air!

April is INSANELY busy. It always has been, but it's one of my favorite months of the year. Flowers start to bloom, the air gets a little warmer, and there's much to celebrate!

First- General Conference. We had a fabulous Conference weekend. I did something new for the kids in hopes that it would keep them busy and a little more quiet. It worked! They loved their binders and the activities inside! :)

And of course, we made yummy cinnamon rolls per tradition and we are STILL eating them (I always freeze a bunch and save the extra frosting).

The Spirit that we felt as we watched Conference filled an emptiness that I've had for a while. For the longest time I've felt like something about how I started my days needed to change. The kids wake up, tear their rooms apart, come jump on me, and I begin the day irritated and often raise my voice because I feel like I have no control. While we listened to the talks, I had a very distinct, very specific prompting to write this down:

"Right after you wake up, forget everything. Sit down with the kids and say a prayer. Let them say it sometimes and keep the prayers simple. Then read 1-2 pages from their Book of Mormon storybook. Do this FIRST."

We have been doing this for the last week. It takes no time at all, invites the Spirit immediately into our home, calms my heart, and reminds us all to be kinder and softer to each other. We pray for thankfulness and kindness and patience, and we pray for daddy. It has brought us so much closer to one another and definitely helped subdue my angry/frustrated outbursts. This is just ONE of the many reasons I needed General Conference. I don't often have those WAM-BAM slap in the face moments, but this was one of them :) Although, it felt much more comforting than painful..ha.

And because of the lovely warm 70 degree days, we've been spending lots of time outside!

the kids love to "hide" Easter eggs all over the yard and then find them. We've been hiding them inside, too! You can never have too many egg hunts :)

 These two just make me so happy I can't even put into words how much I love and cherish them!!

For my birthday (at the end of the month), Jonathan let me get my hair done. I've been wanting to straighten out my a-line for a while and he knew I felt like drab-blab-blub. I checked out the price of highlights and it wasn't within our budget, so I opted for just a cut. When I went to the salon, I mentioned that I wanted highlights sometime when we could afford it. My hairdresser was like "Well we can make that happen for you at a discount!" Jonathan was super surprised when he got home and I had blonde streaks in my hair. haha...I'll be honest, it took me a while to get used to the color chnage. But I do love it :D

This month has been full of surprises actually...like, we went to go "look" at a minivan at the Honda dealership and came home with it. We did not plan on that and we were so unprepared for the hours of paperwork..I felt soo bad for the kids- they were trying to be patient but they just were plain out bored! So we treated them to Wendy's afterward in our new ride :)

Reasons why we jumped on this sweet deal:
The price point was below our budget. yay!
The van was flawless- it had everything on our checklist and more. 
We fell in love with the color- whatever it is. It's mostly silver with a "champagne shimmer" as I like to call it. Jonathan laughs at me every time I say that. He also laughs at the name I chose for it- Sparkles. (Yes..cheesy..but it fits!)
Having it before the summer, we can use it for all our summertime outings.
The salesman did not pressure us at all. He let us take it for a drive and we discussed our options. But once we decided to buy it, he rushed like a mad man to get us approved before this other couple showed up- because apparently they were coming to purchase it that very evening.
The longer I go without a car at home the more insane I become. This was long overdue!

We love it! And I now love running errands, which is a first. Welcome to the family, Sparkles!

So for the rest of the month...we have a ton going on. Talmage has his birthday party followed by his actual birthday, a trip to the coast for a family wedding, Easter, my birthday...and some smaller things- doctor appointments, activity days, primary lessons to prepare for...it's just one heck of a crazy time for us. But we're enjoying it so far :)

Happy springtime, everyone!