April was a great month!! The weather was hit or miss ranging from some really chilly and rainy days to some perfect days for playing outside. We took advantage of every nice day there was by spending a lot of time outside. Carter is following in the footsteps of his big brother in loving to be outside. Most days when I pick him up out of his crib after nap, the first thing he does is point out his window and say "Out!" Then he signs more, to go outside more.
Unfortunately the pictures are WAY out of order (I'm not sure if it's our computer or the blog that's causing them to be out of order), but keep reading to see what we've been up to in April!
The last weekend of April we went to Huntsville to attend a bridal shower, visit friends, and check on our house there. We visited Bridgestreet Town Center (the outdoor shopping mall) while we were there. Carter loved having the freedom to walk around by on his own rather than ride in the stroller while we were there. See how proud he is of himself above and below!
Our wonderful friends, the Houghs, again welcomed us to stay in their home while we were in town! Their little boy, Henry, is about 5 or 6 weeks older than Carter. Henry has this Cozy Coupe-style John Deere ride on that Dawson and Carter were immediately drawn to. Here are my boys on Saturday morning still in their pajamas going for a ride in the John Deere.
Dawson, Carter, and Henry munching on some Cheerios. We put a few Cheerios on the table and all three boys gathered around! Haha!
On Friday evening when we got to Alabama, our friends the Williams had us over for dinner and playtime! Dawson loves playing with Jude (4 years) and Jasper (2 years). Here are all three boys swinging in the backyard before dinner. Seriously, almost every picture of these three playing came out blurry because I'm convinced they did not stop moving the entire time they were together! These boys had a great time, and I only wish that they could play together more!
On Saturday night while we were in Alabama, the Houghs had everyone from our old small group over for dinner and fun! Here are all the kids. Left to right: Dawson (3.5 years), Carter (12 months), Connor (4 years), Henry (14 months), Chloe (21 months). Dawson had a blast running around with Connor while the adults visited! Again, I wish that these two got to play together more often!
The bridal shower that I attended on Saturday afternoon was A LOT of fun! I only wish we were going to be able to go to the wedding in Mexico at the end of May! They had these cute name tags for everyone, and I just had to share a picture of mine because they included Nora Kate's name on it too! :) Her first bridal shower and her first name tag!
Carter enjoyed having a buddy to eat beside at every meal! Check out these two cuties enjoying their dinner!
In early April we purchased a van!!! I never thought I would be so excited to have a minivan, but I absolutely love it! The extra space is so nice. And being able to push a button on the key so Dawson's door opens so he can climb in while I'm buckling Carter is so nice. Anyway, we are loving the van, and we know the extra space will be necessary come August when Nora Kate arrives! We were excited to get to take the van on its' first road trip when we went to Alabama! Here are the boys in the backseat riding on the way home from Alabama! I love those sweet smiles...and this was after we had been in the car about 3 hours already! Also, when Carter turned one we rotated his carseat so he's forward facing, and he loves being able to see so much more now!
The last Monday of April, we went to pick strawberries at Rutherford's Strawberry Patch with some friends. Unfortunately it rained for a couple of days before we went, so it was pretty muddy. We didn't mind though. At this point I was entertaining Carter in the grass (away from the mud), and John and Dawson were picking berries with friends. John and Dawson are in the left of this picture in the red shirts and khaki shorts. I'm hoping to go back one more time while strawberries are in season!
After we picked some strawberries, Dawson and his friend Colt hopped in the back of our van and ate a few strawberries! YUM!
Some of the delicious berries we picked!
We have still been enjoying going to storytime at the library. Now that the weather has gotten nicer, we have been able to enjoy the park behind the library after storytime too! Here are Dawson and Carter on the bridge in the park after storytime.
Dawson in the park after storytime. One week we met several friends in the park gazebo for a picnic after storytime and then walked through the park and fed/chased the ducks! Another week the boys and I enjoyed the park and then walked downtown and had lunch at John's mom's bakery!
This picture is WAY out of order, but here are our wonderful friends the Williams who had us over for dinner on Friday night when we were in Alabama! At this point I think all of the kids were pretty exhausted from running and playing nonstop for our entire visit, but I'm glad we got a picture of all of us before we left! We had a great time visiting them!
At the very beginning of April, our MOM group had a Spring Scavenger Hunt at a local park. We let the kids decorate bags (that's what they're doing here), and then they had to find a list of items Spring items to put in their bags like flowers, green leaves, etc.
The kids enjoyed decorating their bags and playing on the playground more than actually looking for the items, but we all had fun! Here's Dawson showing me how high he can climb!
Dawson climbing over the dino at the playground!
Carter LOVES being outside and picking up grass, flowers, and rocks to carry around while he's out there!
This is one of Carter's birthday presents! He loves this Thomas that he can push through the yard, but his favorite part of it is the bubbles it blows!!
Dawson and Carter have a lot of fun together in the sandbox!
Carter grabbed Dawson's shovel and started pointing. Looks like he's ready to help us with some yardwork!!
Dawson loves swinging on this big swing under a tree in our backyard, so we got a swing for Carter to put on this tree too! Both boys love being over here and swinging!
We did our monthly visit with our friends to Tumble Bears Gym in April too. Swinging on this rope has become Dawson's very favorite thing to do there, and he always wants me to take pictures of him swinging on it!
Dawson loves to have lunch at Nana's Bakery because he gets to pick out a cupcake at the end! Here he is enjoying a chocolate one after storytime one day!
In the middle of April we made our first Spring visit to Dollywood, and we all had a blast! We went on a Thursday, so it wasn't too crowded. Dawson loved every ride! Here is he driving the 50's style cars. I was the passenger. When I asked him to look at me for a picture, he said he couldn't because he would crash! He really is a good driver!
Dollywood has this roller coaster especially for kids! Here you can see John and Dawson in the back car. They rode this a few times, and Dawson loves it.
John and Dawson on riding the Flying Elephants!
One of Dawson's favorite parts of Dollywood is feeding the ducks. It's funny because before taking Dawson if you had asked if Dollywood had ducks, we would have said no because they ducks were not a big deal to us. Dawson loves them though because they are so tame they will scoop the food right out of the palm of your hands! While Dawson feeds the ducks, Carter yells at them...or maybe he's yelling about them! Both boys love animals!
Dawson played a game in the "country fair" area of Dollywood.
Nora Kate and I weren't left out of all the rides. Here I got to ride the ferris wheel with Dawson!
John and Dawson were proud to win this elephant playing on of the "country fair" games!
Dawson and Carter loved playing in this car in the 50's area of Dollywood!
After enjoying some rides, we decided to take a break and ride the train, Klondike Katie which goes through Dollywood and up the mountain a little. I was afraid Carter would be afraid because it's loud, but he loved it! He bounced up and down, clapped, and yelled even when it "choo-chooed!" I was also worried that Dawson would think the train was boring after riding roller coasters and other faster rides, but he loved it! He's already asking to ride the train again next time. Here are me and the boys about to take off on the train!
Dawson loves helping in the yard. In April he got to spend the night with Lolly and Pop and help them mulch their landscape. Here he is "helping" with the mulch! He thought this was a big deal!
Carter had fun getting to walk around some at Dollywood. Here he is directing us which way to go next!
No month is complete without a couple of visits to the Knoxville Zoo. We visited on Carter's birthday, and went back again later in the month too! Here's Owl Dawson!
These two boys love being outside!
I vaguely remember a time when John mowing the yard didn't mean we all had to be outside. Now both boys love watching the mower and playing on it too of course!
Dawson with his friend Colt during a recent visit to the zoo!
In Alabama when we visited Bridgestreet, John and Dawson rode the train! Dawson, of course, picked his favorite color car to ride in!
Jude, Jasper, and Dawson had fun playing inside this cardboard rocket! Look at those sweet faces!
Not picture, but also this month, John got the opportunity to travel to Dallas for 3 days for leadership training, and we're very proud of him. We had fun celebrating Grandad's birthday. We had a couple of playdates with Charlie and Olivia! Dawson enjoyed going to Tataru's Gym and meeting friends there to play. He was SO brave jumping into the foam pits off the stands! The foam pits were his favorite part of going there to play this time. Carter had fun running around in all the open space at Tatarus! We also enjoyed a few park playdates with friends this month too! April was another great month!
No comments:
Post a Comment