April 2022

 I keep forgetting to put the photos in backwards because if I select the pictures from the beginning of the month it inserts them from the end of the month first! So here we are from the end of April moving to the beginning. It's really not the full month of April because we left for the UK on April 27th. 

Joseph and Nicky came to visit right before we left for UK! It was so much fun to have them. One of the days we went to the Botanic Gardens with them and Charity's family.

We went to see Mary Poppins at the theater with our homeschool group. Liam almost made it through the whole show!

This is one of the few homeschool groups that Liam wandered off from me.

He crawled into the bin of balls, his "house", then wet his pants.

One morning when I got home from seminary Liam was awake so we handed him off while Lamoni got in the car and left for work. He was screaming mad that Lamoni was leaving, and ran down the sidewalk after his car. I followed behind curious how far he would go. He got nearly to the end of the block before I grabbed him and brought him home. He screamed for another 30 minutes in the laundry room trying to get into the garage to go after Lamoni again.

We did a play with our homeschool group. Benjamin got really into it and I snuck this picture of him during it. I rarely see him smile that big!

I went to leave the house and Peter was dressed like this. Inside out, backwards shirts are his thing right now.

Annual Easter hunt at Grandma and Papa's house.

The Easter Bunny came to our house too of course. Liam picked up on it right away, and the older boys were sooo sweet in giving a bunch of eggs to Liam every time they walked past him. Liam carried his bunny around with him the whole time.

I had a studio recital at the church building. It was nice to have one somewhere besides my house after 2 years of small recitals

The boys get a lollipop after church on Sunday if they recite and Article of Faith. Liam copies after them so he gets one too.

Decorating eggs

Our good friends, the Beans, were driving through Albuquerque and stopped at church. It was such a joyful reunion! Benjamin wrote in his journal that day "Today is the best day of my life. Matthias came back to visit!"

Grandma and Bampa came for Mel's brother's funeral, and brought Dantes and Qunisa with them.

Liam had some good bonding time with Bampa, and the kids all sang at the funeral.

At a wildlife refuge on the other side of the mountain.

I went to lunch with my mom, Charity, Ryan and Jacob (and my tired, hyped-up-on-sugar-kids).

Lamoni woke the boys up early on my birthday, bought Dunkin Donuts out of apple fritters, and showed up at seminary to surprise me. I sure was surprised, and had an especially fun time that morning with tired, sugared-out kids!

He was so out of it that he didn't even flinch when they gave him his IV.

Peter got really really sick in early April. I kept waiting for him to wake up better, but he didn't. On Wednesday Lamoni brought him to urgent care, and they weren't too worried about it. On Friday he was barely responsive. I prayed to know if I should bring him to the ER (super inconvenient with 2 other kids, canceling our other plans etc.). I came downstairs and immediately there was no question but to bring him in fast. I brought the other boys to a neighbors and rushed to UNM Children's ER. They got him in within 15 minutes. His blood sugar was at 42 (!), and he was really dehydrated from all the diarrhea and vomiting, despite how many liquids we had been giving him. We spent the day in the ER, and the next two days in the hospital. They got him all taken care of and said he probably just spiraled downwards from the virus he had.

The view from our hospital room.

Getting an ultrasound when I insisted they check to make sure it wasn't his appendix.

It was so relieving when he started perking up. It was extremely worrying to have him fall asleep mid-sentence, have no appetite for days, and cry in pain.

All the healthy food they get at the hospital... He said "this is the best day of my life! I get birthday cereal, XS (soda) and TV!"

Back when we thought Peter was getting better because he actually sat at the table with us. He wouldn't even eat ice cream, though.