April 2016

 April was a busy and exhausting month.  It was the beginning of some hard times for our family.  But I digress.  At the beginning of the month, Brian and I travelled down to Bowling Green for his State Odyssey of the Mind competition.  It was fun to see the things they added and tweaked, and fun to watch.  I always love having one on one time with my kids and I had a great few days with just Brian and I.

 Here they were assembling their props to get ready to go on stage.

 The judges afterwards checking everything out.

 They didn't place and so didn't advance on, but that was okay too.  Brian still had a great time!

 Amber's hair had grown really long and we were finally able to do a crown braid in it!  She wanted to see what it looked like so I took a picture.

 Right next to the schools, there is a HUGE farm that has several hundred acres to it.  When the weather is nice, they let their chicken roam free in the yard of the house.  One afternoon as I was going to pick up Evan from school, there was a chicken crossing the road!!!  :)

 Just days before we were supposed to travel to Florida for Spring Break, Evan had something strange happen.  He was walking across the kitchen to refill his glass of water and suddenly his leg gave out from under him. He couldn't use it at all.  It was on the side that had been giving him problems from the moyamoya.  A call to his drs and they wanted him seen at the hospital, immediately!!  When we got there, they rushed him back to the "urgent" part of the ER where they bombarded us with drs and questions.  After some fast blood work, and a CT to make sure that he hadn't had a full blown stroke and was hemorrhaging, they took him to a less urgent part where we waited.  Since the episode lasted about 30 minutes and he still had some weakness, they admitted him.  4-5 days later, they determined it was a TIA (transient ischemic attack - or mini stroke), and he was released from the hospital but we had to cancel our trip.

 There was lots of monitoring and he had imaging done.  By 24 hours later, he was pretty much feeling back to normal, but he had to stay a few more days.

 So he took advantage of things and ordered his favorite meals of donuts and chocolate milk.

 We went to the playroom where he played his favorite things, like slaughtering me at super heroes. :)

 And he did lots of crafts and painting.

 A week later we had some follow up visits and that called for an ice cream cone. :)

 By this point, my hair had gotten quite long and I was ready to get it cut and to donate it.  But I had to make sure I curled it one last time for Barth, since he likes it curly!

 We took advantage of a warm spring day to head over to the zoo before our pass expired.  I love it in April when the flowers are in bloom.  We took the wagon for Evan and Katelynn since Evan would get so tired to easily.

 I always love the beautiful tulips that they have!

 The Cincinnati Zoo is always just so gorgeous this time of year!

 Checking out the Sumatran Rhino before he was shipped back into the wild.

 The cougars were active and close by.

 The sun was a bit bright but the flowers were so gorgeous.

 We enjoyed our day at the zoo since we couldn't go on our spring break trip.

 During that spring break week, I also went and got my hair cut.  I donated 11 inches.  This was right before I got it cut.

 This was after.  So short!

 I do love a sleeping baby!!

Since we weren't able to go to Florida, we did a few things around home. One of the days we went over to Big Bone Lick state park here by our house and had a picnic dinner and played at the house.  Everyone had a good time enjoying the sunshine.

Nothing like a little king of the mountain on the monkey bars.  :)

Oops!  It looks like his eyes were closed on this one!

Weston and Brian enjoyed walking around together a little bit as well as a bit of football!

My monkey bar girl enjoyed being upside down!

I tried getting a good picture of Katelynn, but she was in a kind of whiny mood that day.  Poor thing.

She did have fun playing with Weston.  He is such a nice bother to play with her when she is crabby.

How many Yorke's can you get on a teeny little monkey bar thing?  Apparently 4!  :)

Ta da!!

Me too!

Wearing Daddy's glasses on the car ride home.  Love it!

I treasured the days with both of these guys at home in the afternoon.  At nap time, they would always run from me.  This day Evan had been hiding Katelynn so I couldn't find her and then burst into laughter when I pretended that she was no where to be found. 

Brian also made the middle school select band.  He was last chair trumpet in the 7th grade band. 

Waiting for the concert to start.

The place was packed but we had good seats because we got there early.

Brian did an outstanding job at his concert!

These two are the very best of friends.  I am so thankful for that.  I couldn't ask for better boys.

At the end of the month, Amber cut and donated her hair too. She cut 10 inches off!  This was right afterwards.  Of course, Katelynn wanted to be in the picture with Amber.  These girls sure do love each other.  :)

Amber and her ponytail to donate.  Great job Amber!!