Welcome to Month in Review: April 2008, documenting events for our family history. This month kept us pretty busy, so this was a good chance for me to catch up...
- The month got off to a great start, with a very special General Conference--including a Solemn Assembly where we sustained Thomas S. Monson as our new prophet.
- One of the highlights of my month was being invited to Emily's baby shower, where I got to see quite a few Sherry family members--including Sara, Emily, and Leah, plus their mom and lots of extended family. I haven't seen any of them for many, many years, so it was a real treat to be there. This is a great example of the impact blogging has had in my life; I got back in touch with this family during the last year or so because of blogging, which turned out to be the only way they even knew I was nearby to be invited to the shower. Also, having been reading each others' blogs, it was so much more fun to see everyone and feel like we were all caught up! Having said all that, amazingly, I have no pictures of the event, and no link to point you to either (shame on us).
- Chris and I attended an Elder's Quorum activity, which was a session at the Bountiful Temple. It was my first time at that particular temple, and it was a great night.
- Our Stake Young Women Presidency (I'm a counselor) was invited to be in charge of a Ward Young Women activity teaching card-making. I've never really been into scrapbooking (with paper, that is), but I must admit, I enjoyed the chance to get a little creative with paper, glue, stamps, ribbons, and brads.
- We spent a lot of our spare time at the beginning of the month doing spring cleaning and getting ready for a big trip we were taking. I wanted to make sure the house was in order for our friends who were coming to stay with the kids. Chris took a day off, plus we spent a few weekends cleaning closets, and taking load after load to the dumpster and D.I. I love the feeling of having things cleaned out and put away--even if it never lasts long enough.
- We mailed in our taxes the night before the deadline (also the night before we left on our trip). Usually we take care of all that as soon as we possibly can in February, but this year the time kept slipping away as we tried to decide whether to figure it all out ourselves or hire someone to make sure we're getting the more complicated stuff right. I finally found out an old friend had started an accounting business, and we were very happy to hand all of the "garbage" over to her. Let me know if you need a referral next year :)
- We had a fabulous time on our East Coast Baseball Tour. We have always mused about this idea with Andy and Mara, and this year we finally made it a reality--just in time to count it as Chris's graduation celebration, and in time to see Yankee and Shea stadiums before they're torn down.
- Unless we were totally lied to, our kids did a great job for their babysitters (a couple we are friends with through Chris's work, plus their 1-year old daughter), and our babysitters weren't entirely miserable.
- At the tail end of our trip, it just so happened that my Mom and sister Karen arrived in Salt Lake City (before we were back). They got to take over with our kids and had a great time. We were happy to spend more time with them when we got back. I love having my mom visit, because she is not only great company, but she is constantly trying to find projects around the house that she can help with or do for me. It was especially fun to see Karen, who recently returned from a mission to Chile. She is so great with our kids and she always captures lots of fun moments with the kids and family:
- Chris conducted his first training on the Getting Things Done program (he was trained to teach it last month in Boston). He presented the training to a small group at work, and even let me come be a fly on the wall, observing. Actually, can I still call myself a fly on the wall if I couldn't help myself a few times and interjected a few observations of my own...? oops :)
- Tommy (6) is learning about plants right now and has been busy with an experiment testing whether sunflowers grow faster in a darker pot than in a lighter pot. I'm pretty sure the experiment should have been to see if a mother with no gardening know-how can help her son salvage dying plants. Another highlight of Tommy's month was attending his friend's birthday party at the Young Chef's Academy, where they wore chef's hats and made their own pizza.
- Michael (3) is reading beginner books to us now. One of our favorite series is the Bob Books (there's a great deal on a boxed set at Costco). This month we discovered that Michael doesn't like short sleeves. He was all excited about a new pair of striped frog pajamas that I got him--until he got the shirt on and was extremely frustrated as he tried to pull the sleeves down to his wrists. We tried explaining about changing seasons and weather which require us to wear shorter clothes (finally!), but he flatly refused, and now reminds us every night, "I don't want showt-sleeves."
- David (22 months) is slowly but surely adding to his vocabulary, but still not putting together any types of sentences. His most-used word is "ook-ook" or more often, "ook-ook-kk-kk-kk-kk." It means "look," and he repeats it all day long as he points to things. He has discovered counting, and the other day he entertained us in the van by pointing to his toes and counting to ten over and over. Even though he only weighs around 24 pounds or so, David seems so big (especially in comparison with his brothers). He fits into clothes as soon as Michael outgrows them. When people pick him up, they are often surprised at how solid he seems.
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