April was kind to us.

April was equally good to us.  There were a few more interesting things, too.  For example: 

We shared Easter dinner with some of our favorite folks.

Tom Turkey came around for a week or two to strut his stuff.  That is to say, we had a rafter of turkeys come through our backyard and show off and go into full display.  Methinks we'll be seeing some nice looking poults pecking through our yard later this summer.

Graham cought on to the spontaneous smiling thing.  He wears that face like a natural now.  It's almost like those cheeks were made for smilin'.

We have been very happy to grow our "family club."  We do silly things together and make faces at each other and have a good time pretending.  It's really a treasured season of life for us, where Jen and I can look at each of our kids and say, "Isn't _____ the cutest kid you ever saw?"  This is what life is made of.

And here we have Graham trying on 30-some-odd year old baby Jennifer clothes.  Yeah, his legs don't really fit.  His belly doesn't really fit.  The baby needs to wear big boy clothes, it seems.

Graham and I took on a fascination with the new Dr. Who on Netflix.  It's tough to tell which Dr. he likes the best, but no matter.  Just a spin around the galaxy in the Tardis and Graham's ready to fall asleep for a few hours.  Not through the night, but at least until 1:30 for his late-late feeding.

Blake goes in for his first tooth cleaning.  He went in with me last time to watch Ian get his teeth done, which I think was a feature.  If you look carefully, you'll see my shirt there.  Yes, he insisted that I ride the chair lift with him, and he had his checkup on my lap.  Baby steps.

This was a neat resolution to a year-old problem.  Last July we started having problems with the gas oven not heating.  It plagued us so much, that we basically avoided baking through the fall unless we were desperate and willing to cook at 450 F.  Well, turns out a $20 igniter can solve that problem.  Why didn't we think of that sooner?

Check out this cool pattern on the under-side of the flame spreader.  I'm a fan of textures/colors found from natural processes, like heating/cooling of metal from a natural gas flame.  Awesome.

General Conference at home proved to be a win-win for paying attention from the comforts of our own computer.  The boys had an envelope with snacks set aside for the time when each Apostle spoke.  They were VERY attentive to match names with the envelopes.   After all, wouldn't you if there were gummies and mints and such?

For Patriot's Day weekend, we went to GG's house in Chatham.  This year, we also got the family pass to the MASS Audobon, which meant we could go to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was beautiful and overcast.

We made an attempt to get our family photo for the first time.  I'd say it was... a success.  Well, we were all in the picture at the same time, at least, and I think that's what counts!  GG enjoyed helping us get the boys ready and engaged, then they let us take their picture a few times, too.  It was really a treasure to have some down time with them with just a big RELAX on the schedule.

We had our annual, "Dig in the backyard" saturday, and had another day at the more local MassAudubon location.  It was fun to spend a cool day with nature.

In April, Jen caught a nap.

Blake began to learn the fine art of diapering.  Which is good, because we could use a hand around here!

I discovered that an easy way to get Blake ready for a great day while Ian was at school was to set up his train set in an intricate pattern and let loose his imagination.  The way I see it, 15 minutes setting up in the morning to yield 2+ hours of imaginative play with twains was well-worth the delay!  (And fun to figure out how intricate I could make it!)