April Awareness

April was not too crazy! Maybe it's just that I didn't take as many photos as normal? Who knows. Anyway, here goes.

I caught Dallin being a sweet big brother. He loves Lydia so much.

Cool hair!

Brianna says she's like a lion in this picture.

Lots of time with all the kids around. Lots of time.

See? All the loves in his heart for his little sister.

Whenever Brianna holds Lydia she tells me take a picture of them together.

I like this one a lot.

Sorry if it's a little too graphic (is it really though?), but this is my life!!! Ryan had gone somewhere and I had to put all of the kids to bed by myself for the first time. This was story time. This sort of scenario is not rare. I am climbed on quite often.

We went for a walk and stopped by the pool. It's almost time for it to open!

This particular morning Ryan said, "Do something quick, like a braid." Okay. Will do! *wink wink*

Lydia won't sleep anywhere for very long unless she is strapped to my body. Exhibit A. I get a good 20-30 minutes before she's up if I put her in a bed to sleep (which I do every time hoping that things will be different). I hate that it's a habit I created but man oh man if she doesn't sleep and I can't get anything done then there is not a happy mama in this house. In fact, she is currently strapped to me after taking a 30 minute nap and I wanted her to sleep another 90 minutes. 

I might be smiling in the picture above but this one more accurately depicts my emotions about this situation.

Oh look. A crying toddler! Right after Lydia was born he started throwing tantrums over ridiculous things, such as a toddler does. I often take pictures of crying children and send them to Ryan at work so he can see what my day is like. 

Lots of crying over here in the recent months. It's been a rough one.

After preschool drop off, more than once, I had to sit in the car and nurse Lydia because she was crying super duper hard and I didn't want to make her wait another 15 minutes to get back home. Dallin was an absolute angel when that happened and would just hang out in the car with me.

One day a magical thing happened! Both Dallin and Lydia took a long nap, and neither one of them was strapped to my body! I took the opportunity to make Swig cookies while they slept. It was a great use of time!

Dallin was coloring in the kitchen while I nursed Lydia on the couch. He started whining and came over to me expressing distaste at all the marker on his skin. I laughed at him and told him he's silly, and that helped calm him down. I think it's so funny when kids get annoyed by some mischief caused by themselves.

Maya attended a birthday party for her friend, Emma. They went to The Butterfly Pavilion. I made sure to make her hair match the day!

Coyote Ridge had a fundraiser called a Fun Run. Maya ran laps around a small course to help raise money for her school. I love watching her run, but I couldn't make it to the event. Ryan was able to be there to cheer her on, which I was so grateful for!

And that is it!

As I was writing this post I realized that I was making it "real". Not covering up what life is truly like for our family sometimes. There are good and bad days, and I guess in April there was a little more bad than good with  having to adjust to life with a new baby, and that baby being #4. We are getting a hang of it, one day at a time!