April...

I knew that with 3 boys it would only be a matter of time before my house started to look like a demolition zone...

...this is what happened recently to our collection of kids books...
page after page torn from book after book! It didn't stop after the first time I put the boys in time out or slapped their hands, in fact, the page ripping just continued to get progressively worse, so...
this is how I decided to solve the problem.

I removed EVERY book from their bookshelf
and hid them away in our office closet.

Shh. Don't tell the boys where I've hidden their books.

But their destructive behavior didn't end there. Oh NO, they're boys, and it's ingrained in their DNA to plunder & pillage through the house!

I walked into Ian's room one afternoon to wake him from his nap to find this!
He broke his little reading chair I purchased a couple years back at an Amish store in New York; he snapped it right in half!

Then on another occasion, I went into Ian's room to wake him from nap and found this picture frame I made destroyed! He even tore up the picture that was inside the frame! (It was a picture of Noah and Spencer at the zoo when Noah was just 1 years old; perhaps Ian was a little unhappy, maybe even jealous, about being left out of the picture).And that's not the last item in the house I have from April exemplifying Ian's destructive behavior... remember this?
Yes, it's Ian's tinny tin drum we gave him this past Christmas. CRUSHED and no longer functional.

He SNAPS things in half, CRUSHES things with his bare hands, and RIPS things up like he's a kid on steroids! SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, I'm living with the HULK- he just so happens to only be 2 and he's NOT GREEN.

GOOD GRIEF! What am I to do with this kid? This had better just be a phase, and not an indication of what life with 4 boys in my household will be like for the next 18 years. I can handle sporting events, B.O., boogers, farting, dirt and grime, bugs and reptiles, wrestling... but it's when things start getting broken or damaged around the house that I am no longer "June Cleaver".

If it's not a phase, my guess is that this book, "Where the Wild Things Are",triggered some sort of "destructo" gene in my children.

Sometime during the first part of April the boys and I saw the new movie trailer for "Where the Wild Things Are" (I'm really, really excited to see the movie, but maybe it would be wiser for me to leave Noah and Ian home if it's going to encourage any bad behavior desire they may have). Anyhow, it was just after we saw the trailer that Noah started asking me to read him the book (it was already part of our book collection but he never showed much interest in reading it prior to seeing the movie trailer) and so upon his requests I would read it to the two older boys just before bed time; they continued to request having the book read to them just before bed for nearly two weeks and it was shortly there after that the two boys began their wild rumpus!

Yes, now that I think of it, I'm CONVINCED it was the book that encouraged their "WILD" behavior, and now while I think I know what has caused it, I've had to wonder, WHICH OF THE BOOKS CHARACTERS ARE THEY TRYING TO EMULATE???

MAX or the BEASTS???

I'll settle for a Max, but PLEASE, don't let it be the beasts!

The first weekend in April we relaxed at home as a family and watched General Conference; the dreary weather outside made it even more enjoyable to cuddle up in blankets with yummy snacks and listen as our prophet and other leaders of the church spoke. I L.O.V.E. the rain! Sunday, in between both conference sessions, we invited Spencer's parents and his aunt Dorothy, who was visiting from New York, over for dinner and ice cream sundaes.

The weekend after conference was Easter. We invited Spencer's entire family over for Easter brunch... but... before the guests arrived, I let Noah dye Easter Eggs while the two younger boys still slept...

Noah working hard coloring eggs wearing Great Grandma Truesdell's fancy schmancy apron.

and we let the boys hunt for Easter Eggs inside the house (it rained like crazy the day before Easter, leaving the grass outside too muddy and wet to let the kids run around in). In all my years, I have NEVER seen an Easter Egg hunt done inside a house (remember I grew up in Sunny San Diego where nearly EVERY holiday could be spent and enjoyed outside in warm sunny weather), but when weather just refuses to cooperate and be nothing but dreary and drab for the holiday, my motto is: "let the good times roll" inside the house!

The Easter bunny left a fancy trail of Easter Eggs that led the boys from our upstairs bedroom down to the kitchen island where their Easter buckets where waiting for them.

Both of the boys had fun collecting eggs; though Ian gave up the hunt after gathering just a few eggs because he was more interested in getting at the candy hidden inside each egg!

Noah was the first to find the Easter buckets the Easter Bunny left behind.

As you can probably guess from the look on Ian's face, he wasn't sure whether or not he had permission to take his Easter bucket; he hesitated a good minute or two
before finally just taking it and running off with it!
I dare to say that the pinwheels were a bigger hit than the candy itself Easter morning!

The Easter Bunny left the two older boys HUGE chocolate bunnies

to munch on Easter Morning.

Ever heard of that silly game called "7 minutes in Heaven"???
well we thought we'd change the game rules up a little and let the boys have their own
"7 minutes in Heaven", Campbell style, with the chocolate bunnies.
The rules were simple.
The boys each had 7 minutes to devour
as much of their chocolate bunnies as they possibly could.
Once the 7 minutes were up,
what was left of the chocolate bunnies was then tossed in the garbage.

Ian just nibbled on his bunny,
but Noah chowed down on his chocolate bunny!
In 7 minutes he'd eaten more than half the rabbit!
It was more than his little tummy could handle
because about 20 minutes later,
just as we were getting the boys dressed in their pajamas,
Noah vomited a chocolate mess!

Oh hold up...
you're probably wondering whether the Easter bunny
left behind anything for our dear baby Cohen???
Of course.
He couldn't be forgotten.
Since Cohen doesn't eat candy though, the bunny decided to leave Coey a duck.

I mentioned earlier that we hosted an Easter Brunch at our place,
inviting Spencer's family and some friends, T.J., Mata & Eden.
I prepared most of the meal the evening before.
Here's a look at the table settings.
(I set the table the night before hoping it would save me time
in the morning before the guests arrived.
Sunday mornings at our place are generally ALWAYS busy & a bit chaotic,
Easter Sunday was by no means any exception to the rule).
Just a glimpse at the Easter spread...
We ate cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls, Orange glazed rolls (thanks to Rhodes),
homemade country style potatoes, bacon, fruit salad, and french toast with all the fixings.
I didn't get to enjoy eating the cinnamon rolls or caramel rolls (they're not gluten free),
but,
I did get to eat some yummy gluten free french toast Spencer made me.
It was the first time I'd eaten french toast in years! So GOOD!
(we found making gluten free french toast works best if you use
Whole Foods own brand of gluten free bread,
thaw it out for a minute in the microwave and then dip in it the egg batter and fry up.)Megan, John & T.J. dishing on 2nds & 3rds.
One of Noah's aunts, either Laura or Megan,
thought it would be funny to let both the boys eat a lemon.
Can you say, "cruel punishment"???
Take a looky-loo at the expression on his face, it's classic!
(Ian actually liked eating the slice of lemon; he would though...
the kid probably doesn't have any taste buds.
He eats Flaming Hot Cheetos like it's popcorn!)

Our church begins at 11 Sunday mornings, but because we didn't eat brunch as a family until 10:30 Easter morning, Spencer and I decided to skip our ward meetings and accompany his parents to church later that afternoon at 2 instead. But, before doing so, we attempted to take at least one good family Easter picture outside in Spencer's parents backyard. Again, the weather wouldn't cooperate; it was SUPER windy but SUPER SUNNY outside, so we were all squinting in each picture that was taken (I think it's appropriate to add here that we had A LOT of pictures taken but not one turned out really good with ALL 5 of us looking at and smiling for the camera in unison).

This was our BEST family shot taken on Easter
(not really "our best", but as good as it gets with 3 boys, varying from ages 3, 1 1/2 and 9 months old).

In the picture below, if you look real closely, you can see me gritting my teeth;
this is my "usual" expression any time we try to get a family picture taken.
It's not easy being outnumbered by a bunch of boys!

The boys practically MAULED Spencer's older sister Laura to death;
she may have had some hair pulled out in the process of getting her picture taken with them
and gotten hit one too many times by the pinwheel Noah was holding.
Despite it all though,
I think even she managed to get a better photo
taken with the boys than we did!
Isn't he just a STUD?!
Mom & Dad, Ian's definitely a Truesdell.
I think he's a good mix between Dad and Jeff.
I had hoped at least to get one good shot of all 3 of the boys
sitting together in their Easter attire.
This was the best shot.
Looks like they still need to work on their stage performance
before they hit it BIG like the Jonas Brothers.
B.T.W. Cohen absolutely HATES the grass;
the funny expression he wears on his face in the following picture is one of angst.

Hang on folks, lets rewind a little bit, before I proceed to write about everything else we did in April, I nearly forgot to add one important milestone that Cohen met... the day before Easter, we took him to get his 1st haircut! Yup; he was starting to look like Zack Efron with all the fine flyaway hair he'd grown- it was time for a trim. Our friend Rachel cut his hair; I considered letting her cut it short, really short, but didn't have the nerve to let her once she got out the scissors; Coey's hair was part of his signature look, so I asked her just to trim around the ears and neckline.

Cohen looks pretty thrilled about his 1st haircut here, huh?

Okay with that milestone mentioned, let us move onto the next big "happening" that occurred in April.

Grandma Truesdell (my mom) came to town! I'm not sure who was more excited about her visit, the boys or myself! She flew up here to Utah the Tuesday just following Easter and visited for a week and a half until the following Saturday. She spent the first couple of days with my sisters' families, and then on Monday came to stay with us at our place for 5 days!

My boys just can't get enough of "grandma time" when she comes to visit. My poor mom probably would like to relax some while visiting us, but the boys don't spare her a minute!
They also weren't always on their "best behavior" during her stay with us; you'd think they would be since they usually are for ALL GUESTS, but they weren't gentlemen during this visit; they were a bit WILD! My apologies Mom if you're reading this.

The weather was pretty CRAZY here in Utah while my mom visited; the first day she arrived it snowed a foot; then it rained and then we had some really HOT, HOT weather! On one of those sunny days, a Sunday afternoon to be exact, my sisters, mom and I met up at Sugar House Park with our families to enjoy a picnic together. It's such a gorgeous park, and it was so nice to finally be outside enjoying nice weather.

Some of the family just hanging out.Noah and Bella attempted to climb a tree at the park,
but didn't make it too far off the ground before giving up.
Cohen finally made peace with the grass and even ate a few pieces of it.
He also fell "head over heels" for the soccer ball!
Cohen learned how to walk along furniture in April
and quickly assumed the role as Ian's shadow;
pleased to snatch what ever he possibly could from Ian's grasp.
In this picture below, Cohen's after Ian's cookie!Sugar House Park has a HUGE pond/lake where tons of geese and ducks like to gather
(on this particular afternoon there were more Seagulls than ducks or geese combined).
My mom and the grandkids all took a few minutes to feed the birds;

some of the younger kids, namely Ian, chose to eat the birds bread instead though.

During the course of my moms visit here with us, Cohen had surgery done up at Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake. My mom was going to watch the two older boys for me the day the surgery was done while I was at Primary Childrens with Cohen, but, the hospital staff called the night before the surgery and asked us to have Cohen there by 6:15 a.m.! (keep in mind, just the drive there alone is 1 hour). To make matter worse, the kiddo had to be fasting and had to go without food or liquids the whole night before, so... the early wake up call + no food rule was certain to result in one grumpy baby I didn't want to deal with. Generally speaking, you'd think since I'm the mommy and my child is undergoing surgery, I'd want to be the one there with him, but truth is, my body CRAVED SLEEP more (disclaimer: I'm not lazy guys, I'm just in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy) and so I asked Spencer to take him. We've already been through so many other unexpected surgeries and medical emergencies that have emotionally just drained me with our other boys, (2 surgeries for Noah, 1 for Ian, and countless hospital visits); I had complete confidence in the doctors who would be performing Cohen's surgery and FAITH that everything would go well.

The surgery did in fact go really well; better than both either Spencer or I, even Cohen's doctor expected. Cohen had an orchiopexy done during surgery. Originally, the surgeon, Cohen's pediatric Urologist, was only going to use an endoscope through the naval in an effort to try and see if Cohen only had one testical like he and other doctors had always suspected since Cohen's birth since no doctor had ever been able to detect it otherwise, but, during the scope, Cohen's doctor located the 2nd testical high in his abdomen and decided to do move the undescended testicle into his scrotum and permanently fix it there so Cohen wouldn't face any future problems, such as testicular torsion (this happened to Noah when he was only 1; he had to have an orchiectomy). The entire surgical procedure went pretty fast, and Spencer was back home with Cohen in arm just an hour or two after the boys and I woke up. We had specific orders from the doctor NOT to let Cohen jump in his jumper for at least two weeks and "rough house" with his brothers for a few days so his wounds could heal; his brothers were surprisingly gentle with him once we explained how Cohen had "owies"; we had more of a difficult time keeping Cohen from wrestling with his brothers!!! Now that he's mobile, Cohen's ALL OVER the place and LOVES playing with his brothers. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is crawl into the toy room to look for Noah and Ian and the toys!

Speaking of crawling; up until the day of Cohen's surgery, Cohen would only pull himself along the ground, commando style; he knew how to crawl on his knees but would NEVER do it!... but, since the surgeon made two incisions on Cohen's lower abdomen, one on his belly button, and one on the "unspeakable place" (sorry folks, I'm not going to name this particular one since I'm trying to be at least a little modest since there's a chance one day, years from now, Cohen might actually read this post; I wouldn't want him to be COMPLETELY embarrassed because I decided to share his personal "MAN" info with the world via blogger) he was no longer able to pull himself along surfaces with out it hurting him, so he adapted immediately, and began the "Spider Walk" (that's what the two older boys call it; they like to call him a SPIDER now; some other family members have said it looks like a camel walk, and a few friends of ours have said it's his elephant walk; while the actual name of the walk is still yet to be decided, it has been agreed that the walk in itself looks pretty silly, since he walks now everywhere with his butt up in the air and on his hands, but NEVER his knees).

I think I've mentioned previously in other posts that I've been lucky enough to have a lot of friends and family who live outside of Utah come to visit us this year. Among the more recent of our visitors, was my friend/old mission companion Shara and her son Jackson. She lives in Kentucky but flew to Utah to stay for just over a week to visit her family and friends. She had some time to spare one afternoon during her visit here to stop by for a visit with me and another mission companion of mine, Heidi.

Heidi's on the far left, holding her daughter
and another little girl she was watching for the afternoon;
Shara's in the middle with her baby Jackson (he's only 4 or 5 days older than Cohen)
and that's me holding Cohen on the right.
I might be missing a son in this picture;
Ian was sent off to bed for a nap after being a rotten stink all afternoon.

Remember this post about the FABULOUS PAUL FRANK FANCY SCHMANCY DESIGNER KIDS UNDERWEAR that worked like a charm in March helping Noah to become completely potty trained??? Yeah, well, the novelty eventually wore off somewhere during the middle of April, and my once, briefly, potty trained son, ALL OF A SUDDEN prefers to be in diapers AGAIN! It's not that he never was fully potty trained, NO, he was in fact totally 100% potty trained, but he made a conscious decision to regress; oooohhhh, if only he wasn't such a STUBBORN child (he didn't get it from me of course)- it seems nothing now, but his own will, can seem to convince him to use the toilet.

I think maybe he's watched "Peter Pan" one too many times and doesn't want to grow up.
Maybe that explains why he doesn't want to use the toilet "like big boys do".

On a last note; we got some good rain showers in April.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the rain!!!

On the days that it rained and we couldn't go outside with the boys, Spencer and the boys perfected their golfing game indoors.

The boys LOVE putting the golf balls
into their own little make shift holes inside the house.

Oooh, I nearly forgot; we continued "house hunting" through out the month of April (we've been at it for months now) and found two homes we LOVE so we sent in our offers, and we've been waiting patiently to hear if either of the two will be accepted from the banks. We're keeping our fingers crossed, not only cuz if we're lucky enough to get either one of these two homes we'd be COMPLETELY thrilled, but we'd also be totally relieved; it's EXHAUSTING looking for the "right" house, I'm pretty much over it in fact!