Hospital Visitors Part One: Family

Starting, of course, with the three BIG brothers:

Grandma Pam brought the boys to the hospital right after they got out of school, which was perfect timing - we had just been moved to our room from recovery. Clyde and Will were both especially thrilled to hold their new baby sister. 

[I love seeing these pictures because they were right out of my line of sight from my bed and seeing as how I had just barely recovered feeling in my toes, I couldn't move over to watch the introductions. Plus I was having a slight emotional meltdown since I tried to order some food right when I got into my room, but, understandably, they didn't have my chart in the system down there yet so blessedly my nurse's assistant brought me the best-tasting orange jello I've ever had and a few minutes later I was able to order dinner.]

Some more darling pictures from the boys' Sunday evening visit:

Family pictures from Friday and Sunday! (the boys visited on Saturday but I wasn't feeling stellar and lots of grandparents were there and it was a bit chaotic so we have no photographic evidence... but I did love seeing the boys for a bit each day we were there) I don't know what it is about the difference between three kids and four kids, but these pictures seriously make me think of the Duggars - look at how many wee beings there are!! I'm going to have to start one of those 'count-off' systems whenever we leave the house to make sure we're all there (you know, Clyde says "One!", Will says "Two!", etc...)

Jack was MUCH more interested in baby Carma on Sunday that he had been on previous visits, as evidenced in the picture below. Of course, his interest extended to really, really wanting to take her home, as evidenced in the next set of pictures...

When Grandma Pam and the other boys started heading out the door to go home, Jack slid off Chuck's lap and grabbed Carma, football-style, and attempted to follow, all the while saying "Bye! Bye Mom! Bye Dad!". It was seriously the most hilarious thing I've ever witnessed in my life, especially at the end when Chuck was saying, "Jana! Jana! He really won't let go!" and I had to help ungrip his strong little fingers, hahaha.

And if that last set of pictures is the most hilarious I've seen, then these two pictures are surely the sweetest:

Jack has definitely had a rough go of it, and I love that Chuck knew that our little boy just needed a snuggle right then.

And now for the all of the grandparent visits! My dad came on Saturday evening and brought me beautiful roses and Carma lots of love and admiration:

My parents now have nine grandchildren altogether, including three little granddaughters born in the last seven months: Sam and Terri's little Miko in October, Quinn and Eden's little Leila in December, and now Carma in May.

Chuck's mom and dad drove up from Elko early on Saturday to see their newest grandbaby (their eleventh!):

This was our first baby since Clyde that they were able to come and see in the hospital, so that was pretty special. They visited on Saturday and Sunday and got lots (hopefully enough!) of good cuddling time with Carma - Pops even sneaked in a nap with her, as is his habit with all of his grandbabies :).

This next one is technically a great-uncle, but we'll count it: Uncle Larry! Larry is my mom's oldest brother and has sweetly made it in to see me every time I've had a baby.

And of course, Grandma Pam! I've said it before, I'll say it again: my mom's best and favorite calling in life is as a grandmother. She's been able to spend quite a bit of time with all nine of her grandchildren over the last three or four months, and she truly delights in those relationships.

Finally, I don't know if Chuck technically counts as a 'visitor' but he was Carma's and my favorite person to have around. He had to step out a bit during the days we were there (staying with the boys while my mom worked at the temple on Saturday, meetings and part of church on Sunday, meeting up with Clyde and his field trip on Monday) but as with all of our babies, he braved the super comfortable 'guest bed' in my room every night and nearly froze to death when I insisted that the temperature be lowered to 64 the first day and a half we were there (what? I was HOT!); I generously raised it to 67 for the last couple days of our stay :). Chuck was thoughtful and protective of me and my recovery and was my advocate in all ways and was so so so good with baby Carma. In all of my anxiety of having a girl, I've always been so excited to see Chuck with a daughter and it's perfect so far.

And to end on a laugh, my favorite memory of the hospital will be how often Carma caught Chuck off guard whilst he was changing her diaper - cries of "Ahh, she's pooping again!" were frequently heard. At one point, Chuck had mused about what to call Carma instead of the 'buddy' he uses for the boys. A few minutes later Chuck went to change Carma's diaper and I heard "Lady! Hey lady, quit peeing!!" aaaaand I pretty much died laughing :).

Carma's birth story

{disclaimer: this is about a baby being born, so proceed with caution. granted, it's via c-section so nothing gets real dilated but there are pretty graphic pictures of her emerging from my belly, so get ready to scroll quickly if you're squeamish like me!}

As seemingly slow as the rest of my pregnancy went ('specially the first few months when I was sick...) the last few weeks went by soooo fast and before I knew it, Baby Day had arrived. We spent the morning getting last minute things ready, having some sweet family time where Chuck gave me a blessing, and getting the boys to school before it was time to head to the hospital.

Once there, we got to hang out in pre-op for a while, slowly getting ready for the surgery. I awesomely got pretty woozy after my IV was put in, hence the super cute 'cool washcloth on the forehead' look I sported for a bit. I was pretty done with fasting at that point (no food or water since the previous night, blech) so Chuck sweetly gave me the room service menu so I could start planning my meal schedule for the weekend. He knows me so well :).

Naturally we whittled away a fair amount of time taking goofy pictures of each other and ourselves, including this one. I told Chuck it looks like he just found out we're having a baby!!

And then it was time to head into the OR! As always, my surgical team was fantastic. Elise was my main nurse (I think her official title was my 'circulator'?) and was amazing. Terri was the surgical tech and was really sweet; she kept assuring me afterwards that my scar was still low enough that I could wear a bikini, despite my assuring her that it really wasn't a priority :). Dr. Klomp was a superstar, of course, and the assisting ob, Dr. Thompson, was great as well. And my anesthesiologist, Matt, was awesome - from the spinal and throughout the c-section, he was right there monitoring me and checking on me and reassuring me. I know I said this with Jack, but I rely so heavily on the person in that position - everyone else (including Chuck!) has divided attention and other jobs to do, but the anesthesiologist is solely focused on my well-being and comfort and I love being able to bring up concerns or discomfort, etc, without feeling like I'm being a problem. 

OKAY, NOW IS THE TIME TO SCROLL ON BY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE CARMA MAKE HER GRAND ENTRANCE IN TO THE WORLD DIRECTLY FROM MY STOMACH AREA. SERIOUSLY, IT'S REALLY GROSS.

Still here? Okay, I don't want to hear about it if my abdomen gives you nightmares tonight...

And there she is! The c-section went smoothly in that Carma was delivered safely and there weren't any major complications, but it was a little intense; my uterus was a lot thinner than it's gotten in the past and something about it attaching to the bladder and tearing and being trickier to close... ahh, I even had Dr. Klomp explain it to me twice, and that's still the best I can do.

At this point, I was just so happy to hear everyone's admiration of my new sweet baby! As I said before, the first comments were about her chubby chubby cheeks and her dark hair and how beautiful she was.

As usual, they whisked her off to be cleaned up and measured and such, but then they brought her back to me for some skin-to-skin time.

This was the first time I've gotten to do this and it was pretty sweet... for a little while and then I started to feel pretty sick so they took her back :). 

 Mom and Dad and Carma! 

(Also, how cute is Chuck in the scrubs and mask and such? Just when I think his eyelashes couldn't be any more striking...)

At this point Chuck and Carma headed out to recovery and I lingered in the OR to be, you know, put back together. I amazingly didn't get nauseous at all (I credit Matt) but I did feel pretty crummy in general; hot, tired, and some weird discomfort in my shoulders - which apparently stemmed from the fact that my uterus had been temporarily removed from my body and was kind of plopped on top of me... I kid you not, I have pictures. Dr. Klomp and Dr. Thompson and Terri did a great job of tucking everything back into place and Matt did a great job of keeping me as comfortable as possible - I definitely got hooked up with another cool washcloth on my forehead :). 

(sidenote: am I the only person who loves cool washcloths on my forehead? I'm pretty sure they cure all ailments...)

 And then I got to join my husband and daughter (yikes, gotta get used to that...) in recovery!

 I made Dr. Klomp pose for a quick picture with Carma :). And that's the fantastic Elise in the shot too, she'll be featured more in a future post. [OH, and just to disprove the notion that scheduled c-sections = looking awesome in all your pictures, there's a super hot view of me and my wild hair after my cool hat/hairnet came off, haha. But since it's a picture of me holding my sweet baby for the first time, I naturally think it's the most beautiful thing in the world!] We spent an hour or so in the recovery area; Carma was a superstar and nursed really well right there and Chuck and I mostly just sat and marveled at how gorgeous she was and texted out pictures so that everyone else could chime in with how gorgeous she was :).

 I'm so grateful for this blessing in our lives and for all of the people who have shown so much love and support to our family. I'm especially grateful to Chuck for co-creating such a sweet baby and for being such a rock - strong and immovable and steadfast - in my life.

 And that's Carma June's birth story! 

Muuuuch more to come: first visitors, our hospital stay, how she came by her name, our first days at home, her nursery, etc, etc. OH, and maybe even some non-baby related things, like the boys' last weeks of school - field trips! assemblies! etc! I promise it will all get recapped soon-ish, but for now, I'm off to hook myself up with a Norco and a nap...

Making her official blog debut . . .

Carma June Izatt

 Carma was born on Friday, May 16th just before 1pm and is absolutely darling! She was a perfect 7lbs 3 oz and a lengthy 21 1/2 inches. As soon as they brought her out, everyone in the OR chimed in with comments about her adorably chubby cheeks and her dark hair and how beautiful she was!

 

 The c-section went well and my recovery has been probably the best out of all four (knock on wood...).

 The boys are all obsessed with her; Clyde loves everything about her and to hold her (he wore his 'big brother shirt' to school on Monday), Will loves to hold her and investigate her ("Her hair feels like fur... did my hair ever feel like fur?") and Jack loves to possessively hold her and helpfully point out all of her body parts ("MY turn! MINE! Tongue, eyes, ear, other ear....").

 We feel so blessed and fortunate and only slightly overwhelmed to be a family of SIX now.

Chuck and Carma and I came home Monday (thank you Grandma Pam for taking such good care of the boys in our absence!!) and we're all settling in well, especially since Chuck is off with paternity leave for a while, praise the Heavens. Thanks to everyone for all of the love and visits and well wishes; it's clear that Carma is already a very loved little girl and we're so happy to have her in our family!

A farewell to pregnancy

Well, we are officially on the clock for the conclusion of this pregnancy - baby girl Izatt is set to make her debut early tomorrow afternoon and I am, I think, hitting every high and low on the emotional rollercoaster: 

I'm anxious and excited and terrified and so thrilled not to be pregnant and so worried something will go wrong and so psyched to meet her and so not psyched about the c-section and then there's the typical worrying about leaving the boys for 3-4 days and also I have some heartburn/late in the game nausea and I'm just itching to order me some delicious hospital food (no joke, I legitimately think it's delicious) and I'm nervous about the immediate recovery after the c-section (last time I was soooo itchy) and I'm looking forward to Jeopardy tomorrow, the last night of the 'Decade/Champions/Tournament' thing and I think I've cried at least once a day for the last week and I'm grateful for the sweet gifts friends have dropped off lately (two today!) and I'm thankful I'll be in an air-conditioned hospital tomorrow when it hits the mid 80's again and HOLY MOLY tomorrow I'll have four kids...

SOOO, basically that sums up my current levels of crazy.

Which means this is the perfect time to postpone (for the zillionth time) packing the hospital bag and instead sneak off to the computer to blog real quick! I figure pretty soon I'll have cute pictures of an actual baby to post, so I should finish off the maternity shots now.

March:

(Pregnancy weeks 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)

The first Sunday of March was the Academy Awards and blessedly I had recently come across my old 'movie star' black and white polka dot dress at my mom's house, so I stuffed myself into it (albeit as a skirt). I had a sick kiddo that week, so I actually stayed home from church... but still got dressed up for the picture. I don't know if that's better or worse than actually attending in that get-up, haha... I don't remember anything too particular about the other weeks or outfits, except that the middle week was St. Patrick's Day and I was so sad that I didn't have more green clothing items/accessories that fit. Next year I'll redeem myself. 

 

 April:

 (Pregnancy weeks 35, 36, 37)

Sorry about the absence of week 34, it was General Conference and I totally spaced taking any kind of picture, whoops! That red skirt is my new favorite; it was two bucks at D.I. and it's safe to say that its elastic waistband will ensure it's a staple of my post-pregnancy wardrobe this summer and fall. The last week was my ode to the rainy April weather of the day, but I think most people just figured pregnancy brain had robbed me of my ability to match shades of blue :).

 May:

 (Pregnancy weeks 38, 39, and 39 1/2)

Okay, that last picture is cheating (from my doctor's appt yesterday) but I stuck it in there because I thought I looked cute and I needed to not end on the low that was my Mother's Day outfit. I had a long cute colorful necklace for that outfit, but then Will sweetly gave me a handmade orange beaded necklace that I promptly and happily put on... to find that it fit more like a choker, haha. The first week is the one and only time I wore that pink maternity shirt, I always feel really exposed in bright colors... but I might get brave and wear it again sometime, in which case forget that I specified it was 'maternity'.

It was pretty fitting that Mother's Day fell so late into this pregnancy; I've been uncomfortable and hormonal and whiny and really, really uncomfortable and possibly emotionally unstable :). So Mother's Day was just what I needed - a reminder of what a blessing (again, an at-times really uncomfortable blessing...) I've been given to carry these four children and raise them with Chuck. I joke about how nervous I am to have a daughter, but my anxiety levels about something going wrong tomorrow serve as a testament to how much I love her already. I joke about how batty my three sons drive me, but they each so, so central to my world and I can't imagine life without them. 

 Some of the Mother's Day fun: sweet school/church made fan letters, crayons and markers JUST FOR ME, flowers, a nap! (this pregnancy I acquired a weird habit of sleeping with a pillow on top of my head... not completely flat on top, kind of at an angle... I don't really know how it happened but it's fantastic...), and an after church picture of me with my kiddos in which I thought that my comfortable legs up and tucked to the side would apparently be flattering. I was very, very wrong, haha.

Okay, and that's all she wrote! Next post will hopefully be of the introductory sort to a sweet, healthy, straight-from-heaven baby girl; we can't wait!!

Youth Talent Showcase!

Each year the youth in our church ward (kids ages 12-18) embark on some sort of fundraiser to help finance their summer activities. This year the kids decided to hold a talent showcase with a Hollywood theme:

Awesome entry way, courtesy of the decorations committee.

Chuck oversees the Young Men in our ward, so he was pretty involved - although there was a big emphasis on the youth doing as much of the work as possible, which was really great to see. They were in charge of the majority of the planning and execution, which led to some really great achievements and also some really important learning moments :).

The day before the real thing was busy - we hosted the food committee (aka the McCall boys, who were superstar hard workers) at our house to pop and package a gazillion bags of popcorn and then headed to the church for a dress rehearsal.

Friday night was showtime! Oh, did I mention I got to co-host the evening with my good friend Kara? Here are a few of my favorite shots of us: Kara going old school and apparently telling me to 'talk to the hand', our dubious expressions when we introduced 'Napoleon Dynamite' and 'Kip' came out instead, and us hanging out on the staircase offstage before we realized we could definitely be seen by half the audience in that spot - we quickly hightailed it outta there!

We have such incredibly talented youth in our ward; it was so fun to see all of the different acts they put together. Here are some of the song/dance numbers: a sister trio singing, a YW song/dance with help from some primary girls, a song duet, another YW number (from Frozen!), and a dance routine.

I've referenced before how many of our youth are involved in drama at school, and we were psyched to see their fantastic acting on display. Here are some of the skits and comedy bits, including (but not limited to) an amazing monologue, an amazing pantomime, two Studio C skits, and Bishop Fleshman telling hilarious family stories: 

And a few more: Jared and Raquel on the top left leading off the show with some audience-participation, the Deacons on the top right doing a billy goats gruff adaptation, on the bottom left Kara and I led the whole audience in singing Happy Birthday to Annina, who was turning 18 that day and who was one of the driving forces behind the whole evening. 

The bottom right picture still makes me laugh - Kara and I came up with a gag where as I introduced the Bishop, I encouraged the audience to really ham up their reactions to his comedy/storytelling. He had mentioned the previous Sunday in church that other times he's been onstage have been flops, so I conspiratorially declared that we would ensure tonight would be different. As I was doing so, Bishop came out and interrupted me - not something that had been planned or rehearsed, so that was extra funny :). 

[We also did a follow-up later in the evening where Kara and I chastised the audience for taking it too far, saying that the Bishop had gotten a bit of an ego from their standing ovation and was hurriedly putting together an encore backstage.]

Kara and I had so much fun co-hosting -- right, Kara? You were just joking about never ever doing it again, weren't you?? One of my favorite things was starting out the evening really dolled up (because who doesn't want to stuff their pregnant self into their junior year homecoming dress??) and then slowly getting more and more comfy throughout the evening. At one point we referenced trading our heels for slippers and Crocs, but from then on, we'd just come out every now and then wearing new pieces of sleepwear:

And please enjoy the awesome shots on the left that Kiki took as we were eating our dinner and getting ready before the show - poor Kara found out how ridiculous the process is to make me look cute, what with my extreme fears of curling irons/eyelash curlers/etc :).

Chuck and I were both backstage/onstage so we weren't able to be out there taking pictures or video, so I'm extra grateful for everyone who did and let me steal from them! Including the McCalls, who got a lot of video footage, including this bit. Kara came up with having me insist that I was a participant in the talent show, going as far as sneaking out on stage for my musical number - banging together pot lids at random intervals during the "Where's the Beef?" song before our fantastic stage director Sister Waldron comes to escort me off:

And Kara is, of course, hilarious as she continues the running selfie gag (at various points kids would run out to take pictures with audience members and Kara and I kept reassuring ourselves as to why we hadn't been yet selected to be the pictures) and recovers when she can't find the dang opening in the curtain. That was the most ridiculous part of the night, we had to awkwardly feel around for it every.single.time, haha.

And finally, here are some more shots from the night, Chuck and Dan's 'selfie' is obviously my favorite:

I'm so, so proud of and impressed with the kids in our ward who worked so hard to make all of this happen - and the incredible leaders and adults who guided them and volunteered so much of their own time and talents. It was a great night, and the audience-contributed donations will allow these kids to have a great time at Girls' Camp and Scout Camp this summer, wooo!

BFSC Reunion Spring 2014

[that title implies that there might be another reunion in 2014, which is slightly unlikely given that Heidi is moving across the country this week, but I'm going to choose to be optimistic and leave the possibility open because otherwise I'll cry :) ]

So after our perfect and wonderful BFSC reunion last fall, I promised Heidi up and down that I would visit her at Utah State sometime this spring before she graduated. And, like most promises I make, it became more and more clear that it was not going to be fulfilled - so Heidi and Courtney came to me instead!! They braved the road trip with Courtney's two little boys in tow about a month ago, just in time for my baby shower :).

Did I mention all the presents they brought me?? In addition to supercute gifts they gave me at the aforementioned shower, Courtney also made tons of DARLING bows for baby girl Izatt AND a ridiculously cute Minnie Mouse onesie (with matching bow). So fun. 

 Heidi just kept pulling things out of her bag for me: an iPhone, chocolate from Paris, Nutella, cookies, etc. (My favorite line: "Hmm, maybe I should have saved the iPhone for last..."). I seriously felt so spoiled - by them coming, by all the gifts, later in the weekend when at one point Courtney was straightening my hair while Heidi did my make-up. I honestly don't know how I scored such amazing best friend/sister/cousins but I'm sooooo glad they're mine!

 We were total bums and didn't take enough pictures, but we had a fantastic couple of days together. Highlights were talking, talking, talking, possibly Heidi and I not getting dressed at all one day, spending an embarrassing amount of time facebook stalking/online stalking complete strangers to figure out their backstory hahahaha, running errands, making a late night visit to my mom's house and me volunteering Heidi to do her makeup (it's cool, I chipped in all four pieces of my makeup collection), more talking.

 The little boys were all champs and got along awesomely; I loved how quickly Jack and Hudson became co-conspirators one morning to eat all the leftover rolls and commandeer the ipad :).

 As I said, we for sure didn't take enough pictures, but please enjoy these group shots that we braved the elements (sun and wind) to capture. L to R: Clyde, Jana & Jack, Heidi & Chase, Courtney & Hudson, Will.

And a few of us from my shower. 

Heidi and Courtney: I can't wait to see you again and in the meantime, I'm so grateful for how close we stay via calling/texting/emailing/fb. Love you both buckets and buckets!!

Marpril (get it? March/April?) Recap...

Okay, in my logical mind I know that whether or not I'm caught up on blogging has no impact on how/where/when/etc this baby will come, but in my current crazypregnant mind, I would place the importance of catching up on the blog above, say, picking up newborn diapers (which we've yet to do...) on the priority list.

Thus, this lengthy write-up of a bunch of March and April stuff!

Two evenings a week for SEVEN long weeks found us at the Rec Center for swim lessons. This was one of those things that I'm glad we did but holy moly did it suck in the meantime. The first session was a semi-private course for just Clyde and Will and the fun that I had trying to keep Jack happy and out of the water is impossible to describe... without expletives :). 

The next (longer) session was regular class lessons for all THREE boys, woo! Clyde dove headfirst into Level Three, Will strengthened his strokes in Level Two, and Jack and I tried not to embarrass ourselves in Parent-Toddler. This was Jack's first time in swimming lessons and he took to it like a fish [who doesn't really care to exert himself that much] to water. 

The real treat was getting the boys all dried off and changed in the family dressing room afterwards; Jack decided two locked doors felt oppressive, so he'd try to unlock them regardless of the state of nakedness his brothers were currently in, so that was fun to try to stay on top of. And I have weird germ issues with wet floors so that was special. Luckily Chuck was there to help a few of the nights and if I was so exhausted by the time we left each evening that we for sure got McDonald's for dinner, then so be it :).

One of the brightest spots of March was a happy happy reunion with HOLLY and ELLA!! All the way from Seattle, hooray! We celebrated with a trip to Krispy Kreme:

and then came back to the house to enjoy the beautiful weather and let the kids play off their sugar high :). It was such a perfect flashback to days gone by when Holly and Ella lived close enough to just walk over and hang out for a few hours.

And Ella did awesome dealing with these three crazy boys:

Ohhh they make me happy :).

As I mentioned before, the end of March brought Will's sixth birthday, woo!

The festivities kicked off the weekend prior with a special Daddy-Will date to the Morrison Center to see 'Sid the Science Kid LIVE!'. Will loooooves Sid so when I found out it was coming so close to his birthday, I decided to splurge. I also decided to send Chuck because a) if there's anything Will loves more than Sid, it's hanging out with Chuck and b) Sid drives me slightly batty. And it was all well worth it - Will had an absolute blast. Per Chuck, he stood up almost the whole time and danced and laughed and called out answers and we'll probably never be able to top that birthday gift :).

The festivities continued on Will's actual birthday with a last-minute playdate/party. He invited over some girls his own age (Ivy and Hallie) and some girls a little older (Grandma Pam, Holly, and Karlina) and we had a great time:

Of course Will wanted a Sid birthday cake and I said no, because that sounded really hard to finagle. Luckily grandmas are indulgent and nice and creative, so my mom put together that super cute Sid cookie and luckily bffs are indulgent and nice and creative, so Holly did the "W" and the magnifying glass on the top of the cake. Will loved it all!

Chuck helpfully told all the wee children they could have seconds of cake and ice cream, so he was obviously then in charge of taking them outside to burn off that energy with some freeze tag:

And because, again, Holly is awesome, she got in on the action. These are some of my favorite shots: the one with both of my little boys on the ground, the one with Chuck on the ground, and the one of Holly snaking out her hand to unfreeze Will. That was basically her main job; Will would get tagged and immediately call out, "Holly! Come unfreeze me!", which she would and then he would go about two steps and get tagged again, thus continuing the cycle :).

Then we came inside to open some cute cards and presents, including his brrrrannnnddd nnnneeewwww bike! Which he profusely thanked Daddy and Clyde for, since Clyde was the one to wheel it in. It's cool; I'm not in this parenting thing for the credit. That much.

Hmmm, it's all becoming a bit more clear why Will invited so many girls to his party.....

Will's final birthday festivities occurred that weekend when I was gone for my girls' trip. Chuck took the boys to the church parking lot for bike riding AND to a real fancy movie theater to see the LEGO Movie, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Izatt! (Thank you, thank you; they loved it!)

We've done lots of bike-riding in the front yard lately; Clyde is now old enough to tool around in the street (we love living on a quiet stretch!) and venture as far as a couple friends' houses nearby. In fact, there's a fairly hilarious story related to that buuuut I think I'll save it for a rainy day. It deserves a post of its own, haha.

Oh, right after I had my girls' trip, Chuck got to split town himself and go on a work trip to . . . . New Mexico!

Specifically, Albuquerque. We missed him lots and were happy to have him home at the end of the week and mad props to anyone who sends their spouse off on a regular basis!! Jack and I did enjoy picking Chuck up at the airport, minus the bit where Jack ran THE WRONG WAY INTO THE PLACE WHERE IT SAYS DO NOT ENTER A BAJILLION TIMES and I had to run in after him (an hilarious sight, I'm sure) and grab him and I expected TSA to tackle us both any second. Good times.

Oh, here are some cute pictures I found on Chuck's phone:

Oh, it was Easter a couple of weeks ago! Chuck had to work, but he was a superstar and filled eggs the night before and hid them that morning so the boys could wake up to an Easter egg hunt, which they loved:

 Obviously my priority on Easter was making sure the boys looked cute and pastel-y for a happy family Easter picture. I'll let you decide how well that worked out...

 

 Buuuut if you take Clyde from the first picture and Will from the second picture and Jack from the third picture and put them all together, then I did it! Go me!

 And that night after Chuck got home, he spearheaded a family egg-dyeing activity, to rave reviews:

 Random pictures of cute brothers gliding together :).

March and April took us outdoors for some gardening work, which is always fun and also adorable:

 We had a Will-led Family Home Evening outside one night to plant some of our early crops: spinach, lettuce, sugar snap peas... maybe something else? Can you tell I was super involved? :)

 And finally, I joined instagram, wooo! The incredibly sweet Heidi bequeathed me her old iphone and I figured with instagram I can flood the interweb with pictures of the new baby without clogging everyone's fb feeds (although I'm sure plenty of them will be cross-posted, no worries).

So here are the last pictures for this post, in their instagram form:

 Chuck was around on a Sunday, woo! He works every other Sunday and the Sundays he's off are usually pretty full of meetings, so we were pretty thrilled when he had some extra time one week to read with the boys :).

 That same afternoon/evening, we followed up reading time with a family walk around the neighborhood. The sunshine may have been a little bright when I went to take this picture:

 And after months of talking about doing it, I finally got together with my dear Andrew and Emily for lunch, hooray!

Next up will be a girls' date (sorry, Andrew and Tim!) to a creperie Emily brought up - sometime around your bday Em??

HOLY MOLY, congratulations if you made it through this whole post. I wanted to quit like five times writing it, so you're a superstar for reading it all! And there's still more from April (bfsc weekend! youth talent show for church!) that will require their own posts. Soon!! Before I do laundry again! Priorities!