BYU Grad & Birthday

I am pretty proud cause this post is all about April, so I am only 3 months behind now!

When we were down at my mom's, we discovered that Will loves to put necklaces around his neck, which can be a scary thing in more than one way. Although he did look pretty cute loading on string after string of grandma's play beads!

My brother, Joey, graduated from BYU so we just had to dress Will up for the occasion. GO UTES!

For my birthday the last couple of years we have gone to Thanksgiving Point for the tulip festival, since my birthday always falls within the time they are holding it. It was as beautiful as ever.

The tulip festival is always a fun activity for us since I took my bridals in these gardens, so we end up reflecting on the time that we were engaged when we come here. The bottom left picture is where I was standing in my bridal portrait that we have hanging on our wall, so it is fun to have a picture now standing in that same spot with our little guy who is the joy of our lives! After the gardens we went home and had friends and family over for cake and presents. I love it now that I am older how birthdays just seem to be special not because of the presents or parties you have, but because of the people who surround you. I love you all!

Easter & Anna's Baptism

The Easter picnic on the Saturday before Easter Sunday is a big event in my family. My mom's mom always had a huge picnic and all the cousins would come find Easter eggs in the park. I remember it being a wonderful day with lots of food and fun times. Now that she is gone I feel that my mom has carried on the tradition very well.

This year was a touch different because my niece, Anna, was baptized on Easter Saturday this year. She asked me to give a talk at her baptism, so we were able to wake up that morning and go witness her baptism. It was a very special event for me. I am over baptisms for our ward, so I am lucky enough to be able to attend baptisms almost every month. I have to say it is my very most favorite event that I attend in primary. It touches me every month to witness a loving father/uncle/grandfather who honors his priesthood standing in the font next to an innocent child who is so eager to enter the waters and follow Christ's example. It is a testament to me every month of the goodness of people in this world, and of the desire to do what is right. I am grateful to every priesthood holder who honors his priesthood, thereby blessing me even when they don't realize it.

After the baptism we went over to Richard & Nikki's to change and have our picnic.

This is picture proof of why grandma always gets in trouble for feeding little Will. I think he must have had a pound of chocolate in his tummy! (Just kidding mom, that's what grandmas are for.) Will just thought he was the biggest hot shot, reaching into the baskets and getting whatever chocolate he wanted and taking it to grandma to open up for him.

Ahh, the memorable first Easter egg hunt. It actually snowed/rained a little that day, so we ended up having to have the Easter egg hunt in Richard & Nikki's unfinished basement. The kids could not have cared less. I was surprised how quickly Will picked up on finding eggs. Easter egg hunting must be an inherent skill kids are born with, I decided.

The grand finale: finding the baskets. I have to say that Will was pretty cute this whole day and made me smile a bunch, even though I was starting to come down with something and feeling pretty sick. It is amazing how he can put a smile on my face no matter how I am feeling!

A Whole Lot of Will & Presidency Sleepover

A friend was making fun of me the other day for blogging about Valentine's in May, so I figure I need to hurry and try to get caught up to real time with my pictures on the blog.

As a preface to this blog, I know I vowed never to blog pictures of solely Will, but I had a bunch of him when he was about 15 months (3 months ago) that were so fun that I just couldn't pass them up. To my defense, there are one or two of Ry and I, so I am keeping the promise...I think. I guess my new goal is to try and not blog only Will too often. :)

Will likes to drive the car into the garage with daddy. I know this looks like a great collage for child protective services, doesn't it?

Top left-I can't remember if this was rain or snow, but he just had to be outside in it; top right-Will's so glad when daddy comes home; bottom left-Will not getting his way when he wants to go play with Rusty; bottom right-our very own little Schroeder

Top-Will's spontaneous photo shoot in the backyard; bottom-our kind friend brought over a treat, but I can't figure out if Will liked it or not

Top-he got himself stuck in his wagon, which seems to be a very common occurrence; bottom-he used to think it was just the funniest thing when I would clip Rusty's leash on his pacifier and pull it out of his mouth. It is so weird to see him in pics with a pacifier now that it has been so long since he had one!

The primary presidency that I am lucky enough to serve in is very close and we enjoy each other's company so much at our meetings that we decided we needed to have a sleepover so we could talk ALL night and not just a few hours. So Karen was kind enough to volunteer her house. It was also Jana's birthday that week, so we celebrated that night since we had forgotten about it earlier in the week (sorry Jana!).