Crazy month!

You know those months where you blink and its gone? That's what April was for me! I can't believe it's almost over all ready! I've been told by several people that the more kids you have the faster it all goes by and I totally believe it. In my defense I've been sewing like a crazy woman for all the birthdays and baby showers and trying to build up inventory for the store we're working on. It's amazing how fast you get at sewing a dress when you've made the same one 10 times!

So here's a quick recap of this month, you'll have to excuse the randomness, I really don't want to do multiple posts. I swear I'll do better next month!

To start off Melody got her hair cut! They cut 6 inches off! Can you believe that? It had grown so much! I just love it short, it just seems to match her personality. She also graduated from her car seat to a booster. Makes getting in and out of the car so much easier!

Melody finally conquered the art of puzzles! She has tried to do this puzzle several times, but if she can't do it by herself the first time she gets mad. So after about a month of trying and much help from mom she FINALLY put together her very first puzzle!

We've done a TON of sewing this month! I usually wait until Katie is napping to pull out the sewing, she has a knack for causing large amounts of chaos. (Once she managed to dump my entire tin of pins! That was a fun one to clean up!) I throw all my scrap pieces into a basket and while I'm sewing Mellie keeps herself busy 'sewing' her own projects. She cuts and glues and piles and occasionally brings me something to iron. This little project was a book for Alexis and Sophie to read. lol! The only thing better than crafting is knowing your bringing your daughter to the dark side with you! :)

I threw together this cute skirt one night after I made some shorts for Katie. I had cut off the legs of some jeans that had a huge hole in the knee and couldn't throw the left over away, look at all those yummy ruffles on the bottom! You just don't throw away ruffles like that! So after some measuring I figured it would be just the right size for a skirt for Mellie. Unpick a few seams, sew a few more, add a knit waist band, a few appliques to cover the ketchup stains and WAHLAH! Super cute skirt for Mellie! It's a little shorter than I like so I made some leggings to go under it out of the same fabric as the waistband.  Jared is obviously as unhelpful of a model as my children! 

 

We spend a lot of time at Walmart and Target, enough that Katie knows to make herself at home because she knows she's gonna be there a while! Lol! Eventually she pulled the towels out and was using them for a blanket while she pretended to eat lunch off of the plates. She was so cozy looking that Melody asked if she could get in too. That pretty much never happens!

 

We spend almost as much time at the park as we do shopping. If the weathers nice enough I break out the jogging stroller and get in a work out on the way to the park. I've managed to find a long way there that is about 2-4 miles depending on which park we go to, so I get in a pretty good run. Then while I stretch and do strength training stuff the kids play. It all works out quiet nicely. However in about a month we'll have to be out the door by 7 every morning or it will be too hot to go! Melody is digging in the only dirt to be found in our park. I remember playing in the sandbox all the time, but apparently they don't have those any more!

I finally finished the kids shower curtain and I'm still not sure if its finished. The white strips on the purple is ribbon that I ruffled and sewed over the seams so they wouldn't show. I think I may take it back down and add a few more in random places so it doesn't look so uniform. Either that or sew some white flowers on randomly. It needs something...I'm open to suggestions!

And finally an example of how Katie whiles away her time in the car. I thought this would be a good note to end on!

A day at the zoo...

We went on a field trip with our preschool group to the Dallas Zoo. I have to say after living my whole life in a state that has one zoo it's kinda cool having a two zoos within 30 minutes of us! I'm kind of a lame mom and think that one trip per year to the zoo is plenty. I think as the  kids get older it'll be more fun, but for now once a year is more than enough for me! At any rate last year we went to the Fort Worth Zoo so I was excited to check out the Dallas zoo this year. I had heard it wasn't as good, but I have to say from the small amount that we managed to see it was a pretty great as far as zoo's go.

The drive down was kinda crazy to start out just because I haven't ever driven that far into Dallas before. Imagine Salt Lake times 10 with about 12 more free ways! It was harrowing to say the least! I think the crowning moment, though, was right after the bumper to bumper traffic started Melody announced that she was going to throw up. In my car I have bags on hand for such occasions, not to mention extra clothes, but we were in a rental so no bags and no extra clothes. Thankfully we managed to make it there with no problems.

*warning* picture overload! I got too many good ones to leave any out! 

I love this face. She's very intent on riding that lizard! She kept yelling 'ye-haw!'

There were statues of all different animals all over the park. I think that was one of my kids favorite parts. They love to climb anything and everything.

There was a bird down there in the corner and Daniel and Katie were determined to get it!

They were trying to figure out where the bird was hiding. Daniel was really good at finding them.

These two play so well together. He's the little brother of one of Melody's friends from preschool.

When we finished lunch we went to the play area so the kids could run off some of their energy. I had no idea they had this cool little wading stream or I would've definitely brought extra clothes! The concept of wading is lost on my kids. I took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their jeans and sent them in. They jumped in and promptly laid down in the water. *sigh* At that point I just decided I'd let them play for a while and then call it a day. I have to say it was a great way to end the day! The kids had a blast!

This is Melody's friend Shannon. Her mom's one of the people that has been so great in toting Melody to and from preschool.

I wish I had zoomed in closer, he was sticking his whole face in the waterfall and drinking it!

This is her friend Bryson. He was so funny, he kept climbing up on top of that rock and jumping off to the side. His mom was having heart failure every time he did it!

Poor thing. Her pants were practically falling off by the time we left! 

a few videos

I don't know if it's blogger or just me but I can't get the video bar gadget to work properly so I thought I would just post the links. The first two are from the Easter egg hunt on Saturday, and the last one was the day my mom left. The kids were having a hard time so we decided to make it a fun movie night and headed to walmart to pick up some pizza for the kids. Katie was obviously hungry! lol!

Tug of war

Dad's turn for tug of war

PIZZA!!

Easter Dresses

I fully intend to get better pictures, but the girls looked so cute in their Easter dresses today and they were in such a good mood I had to try and get a few shots. Someday I'm going to take a photo class so I can do my cute kids justice, but for now this is what you get :) Great Grandma and Grandpa Carter sent these beautiful dresses for the girls. When we got them I had the kids try them on and had to hold Melody down to get it back off! I've never had so little trouble getting them dressed for church, they were ready almost a full hour before Jared and I and we were still late! Go figure!

I took the kids out on the porch and draped a sheet over the railing the get a solid background. Katie started out really well, but she wasn't very happy that the sheet kept falling on her. Finally, just to get a decent picture I gave her the binky. I know, I know, I'm a sucker. It was worth it since I got a smile in the end!

Melody on the other hand was perfectly happy to have her picture taken. The only problem I had was the sun went behind the clouds so the lighting wasn't as good. I asked her to spin around like a ballerina so we could see her dress pouf. What I got was the princess version of Nascar! I finally got her to sit down like a lady and smile. I started snapping them fast at that point because I knew it wouldn't last! We finished off when the sheet fell again and she couldn't resist the urge to play monster!

Easter egg hunt

We got to go to our first primary activity that both of the girls were invited to! I can't believe Katie will be a Sunbeam next year!! Our primary planned a really fun egg hunt this year, we started with a fun activity telling the story of the resurrection and then the kids got to go hunt for eggs throughout the church. After that they played a few games. I think the parents had as much fun with the games as the kids did! Here's a few random fun pictures for your enjoyment.