April in our lives!

Moments captured in April...

Tired and hungry in the car as usual.  

The favorite yogurt pretzels are a little melty in fingers...but this is what a 2 year old does to them...licks off the yogurt...or something...and gets it everywhere.  Can you see his tired eyes?

Barely can smile he's so sleepy.

And he's out.

Up laaate working on Mission Report!  Only quiet uninterrupted time!

NO DISTRACTIONS!

Left over Easter Jelly Beans kept us going!

I found a cute idea for a General Conference gift kit...and modified it a little:)

And added laminated Conferenence BINGO cards on clip boards...inside the box was a bag of Peanut M&Ms, gum (I think), microwave popcorn, and tissues (I think)...

Conference Cuddles!!!

Sean's 8th Birthday!

Cade somehow came out of his room while Scott was in NYC...I found him when I went to shut down the house for the night...and had no idea he had come out of his room!  Crazy!

Sean entertained us one Sunday evening with his crazy costumes and dances.

We got to watch a bit of the Masters Golf Tournament!  One of our favorite things to do:  Snuggle while watching Sunday afternoon golf.  It's so nice.  I like to fall asleep like that.  Remind us of days gone by...before kiddos...we did this much more than we get to now!

Starting young!  Yay!  Great habit to begin while little...he can reach his books from his bed...so found him like this and loved it.

Kyle's 5th Birthday!  He is such a happy boy most of the time!  Such a joy to have around!!!

And we sorted the hand me down clothes from cousins Atherly's and Watsons!  So loving Cade's new clothes!

Car sleeping is the best when it works with our day!  Sometimes I avoid it at all costs...but sometimes it can work perfectly when it coordinates with arriving home and transferring to bed for napping ~ something Cade has been quite good at!  Yay!

After baseball Tomato Shopping!!!  Oh and some more game day napping!

"Brother's don't shake hands, Brothers gotta HUG!"

Lots of brothers playing lots of baseball and one toddler who still naps...sometimes you gotta sleep!
He fell asleep this time in the car and stayed asleep on me while we walked to the field and after we sat down in our chairs!  Won't lie...LOVED IT!  Sweet face boy!

A shopping success!  Two boys might have been a bit loud and somewhat crazy...but they were contained on my cart and happy!  Success to me!

Scott is Ryan's coach and a cute and great coach at that!  So grateful these boys have had such a great coach and leader! A teacher, counselor, friend, great man, example = GREAT COACH!
And check out how Sean and Scott are standing while they are talking to other coaches after the game!
TWINS!

Beautiful run while the sun is coming up for the day!  LOVE IT!

Neighbors backyard benefit concert.  Cade's groovin!

Cade woke up from his nap and said in a sweet voice, "Hi Kyle!" and gave him a big bear hug!

So cute...got an appliance in his mouth - made it so hard for him to talk and swallow his spit.  We could hardly understand him for weeks!

Newest Cub Scout!

GORGEOUS bike ride!

Stinky feet!  They were cracking themselves up in the car.

Cade Bed-head is the BEST!

District Choir Concert for Ryan!  Our school is on the far left.

Ryan mowing the lawn entirely on his own...starting, turning, etc.  Did great!

Cade with Emma and Anna

After bath cuddles.

Kyle's birthday...love when these little boys play together!  I remember Ryan and Sean at similar ages having so much fun together too!  Brother buddies and I love it!

A few birthdays and parties made April one busy month!

Smarts came to town!

We had a great time when the Smart's were in town...back in March!  

Reagan just loved jumping on the  trampoline - no fear!

Cupcakes for snack makes everyone happy as can be!

Bubbles, beads and sidewalk chalk...another successful afternoon with the cuzzies.

Another day we all went to Fairytale Town and Funderland.  

I love how this picture turned out on King Arthur's chair!  Everyone but Reags.

One of our favorite spots for kiddos!

The Crooked Mile..

Owl's Treehouse...they loved it this time and Cade could navigate the slippery winding metal steps...always makes me nervous so with little ones I would pass by this one quicker than I should have...but this day it seemed magical!  The gorgeous tree...cute treehouse and our cute little people popping out and slidding down.  I loved it!

Of course the train is always a favorite!

Somehow Reags fell into some mud...and then I'm not sure what happened...but it was funny.

Cade found this tractor that I don't think my kids or I have ever seen at Fairytale Town!  Behind the cows.

He didn't want to leave it!

Funderland was fun too...Cade was pretty nervous on the rides...at first, after he got used to the motion, he loved it.  For the record, this was the fastest Carousel ever! Caught me off guard too!

On the fishies he was holding on for dear life ... until he decided it was fun!

And Kyle just loved going with Own on the Roller Coaster!

He loved going on the fishies with Reagan and talked about it for a long time afterwards...
The best though was the ginormous tantrum Reagan throws when she gets off these rides.  It was HILARIOUS!  That girl loves a good time!

Impressionism

Impressionism is a style of painting that began in Paris, France in the mid-1800s. Unlike artists before them, the impressionists painted most of their paintings outdoors and liked to portray natural subjects like trees, fields, and oceans. Impressionists would often take their materials outdoors and paint what they saw. This is called painting “en plein air.”

When impressionists painted pictures of people, they made them look like people you would see everyday. Rather than painting religious figures or royalty, impressionists painted people like the local tavern owner, a girl eagerly awaiting the beginning of a play, or workers resting in bales of hay. They often used their own family and friends as subjects in their paintings.


Before the impressionists, painters usually placed the main subject of their painting in the center. It was the first thing the viewer looked at and the background was not nearly as important. Before the impressionists, the main focus was, more often than not, placed in the middle of the painting. Impressionists often put more emphasis on the scene than on the person or main subject of the painting. To do this, they painted the main subject off to the side rather than in the center of the painting. An impressionist painting looks more like a photograph in this way. A photograph captures not only the main subject, but everything around the subject and everything in the photo is important. Photography was just becoming popular in the mid-1800s and influenced the way the impressionists looked at things.









The style was called impressionism because the artists were not as exacting about painting a realistic picture. They used many short brush strokes, applying paint thickly, to create the idea, or impression, of a subject. Vincent van Gogh is a good example of this technique. The paint on his canvases is often so thick it looks 3D. Look at this painting, Starry Night Over the Rhone, and notice the short brush strokes. Also, the painting is so thick that you can see the shadows from the paint. Because of the quick, short strokes, if you stand very close to an impressionist painting and look at it, often the painting won’t look like anything but a bunch of paint blobs. When you back away from it, though, you can see the whole picture.

Another characteristic of impressionist painting is the study of light. The way light changed the shadows and colors of subjects was of much interest to impressionists. For example, Claude Monet often painted in series, making many pictures of the same subject at different times throughout the day and in different seasons to see how the lighting affected his paintings. Look at these paintings of the Rouen Cathedral and see how the lighting changed the colors Monet used.