Lilly

I truly have debated whether or not to post about this because it makes me so upset, but here goes.

On Sunday April 25th, my nephew Kade found a baby humming bird. (I'm not sure why I decided we would take care of it rather than Glen and Dayna, but it just happened that way.) We have tried to take care of a couple baby birds in the past and they both died. So I figured it would be the same fate with this bird too, especially since it was so small. So, we just let the kids play with the bird and discussed with them the possibility that Lilly (affectionately named by Kaitlyn) would not make it until morning. We made Lilly a nest in a super cute Easter basket and waited. That night while talking to my brother-in-law, he reminded me that humming birds drink sugar water. So, I made some sugar water, soaked a Q-tip in it and started rubbing it on Lilly's beak. All of the sudden, her tongue starts going a hundred miles an hour, drinking it up. Sweet!! She continued to eat and get stronger over the next three days. Well, she seemed hungry all the time so we decided to give her some more meaty food. Tim cut up some worms and soaked them in sugar water. We would feed them to Lilly with tweezers. She loved them. Well, on Wednesday, we ran out of soaked worms so I went and got some more and cut them into pieces. I figured it would be Ok if I didn't soak the worm so I just fed it straight to Lilly. After she ate it, she started sounding a little funny and I immediately regretted not soaking and softening the worm first. I kept checking on her for the next couple of hours and then left to go get Kaitlyn from school. When Kaitlyn gets home, first thing she does is run to check on Lilly. She starts petting her and then says, "That's ok sweety, just keep sleeping." My heart skipped a beat. Then Kaitlyn says, "Mommy, Lilly is sleeping with her wings open." I knew what had happened at that point. I walked over to Lilly's basket and looked in to see that she had died. Choked to death by that stupid worm I had fed her! I lost it. I was so mad at myself. Kaitlyn and I cried and cried the whole day. I still regret it. So, there you have it. I'm a baby bird killer. It doesn't get any worse than that.

Lilly

Kaitlyn making a grave for Lilly

Lilly Grave - by Kaitlyn

Women's Health Retreat in Young

So, with much thanks to many people for helping out with the kids, I was able to go to Young for three days on a Women's Health Retreat. My sister-in-law Dayna invited me to go and it ended up being one of the greatest things I have ever done for myself. We learned about eating whole foods, the importance of drinking lots of water, getting 30 to 60 minutes of exercise daily and overcoming negative self-talk and doubt. We wrote positive affirmations to repeat to ourselves, prepared our own whole food meals, exercised together and had lots of class time for learning all the good stuff. There was so much it is hard to sum it up. But, I can say, it works for me and I am so, so glad I did it!

Meal preparation time

Dayna on the Cellerciser

Outside for our run/walk time

From left to right: Colleen, Ann, Erleen (hostess), Lenore, Me, Dayna

Happy Chefs

Beautiful Dayna Darling

We had a drink this 2.5 gallon jug of water empty in three days.

Mine is the jug on the far right. I finished drinking mine first, just in front of Dayna. I peed constantly while there. Sometimes three times an hour.

Hard at Study

Southern Estates Ward Round Up

Tim is the Activities Committee Chairman for our ward. He recently planned and oversaw our ward's first annual Ward Round Up. He worked so hard and I was so proud of him. The activity included a pig chase, chicken chase, petting zoo (complete with rabbits, goats, lambs, chicks, turtles, and chickens), horse rides, train rides, relay races, goat dress races, foot races, gunny sack races, wheel barrow races, tug of war competitions, an egg toss competition, steer head roping, goat milking and dinner with dessert. We had a lot of help and the whole event was a huge success and super fun.

My Cowboy and Cowgirls

Yes, two out of three even rocked boots.

Classic leaning on the fence post cowboy shot. Too cute.

Tim catching a break

Konnor at the petting zoo

The kids loved the train rides

This is my nephew Kade. I call him "Tex" when he wears his cowboy boots. I had to take his picture because I think he makes a really cute cowboy.

Yes, this is me, having a great time in a tug of war.

Random April Pictures and Video

Makenna at the zoo, doing a cheese face

Kade, Konnor, Makenna and Bryson checking out the fish pond

Sting Ray Bay

Tim and the girls at the Daddy Daughter Date night

Konnor singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Easter Fun

On Good Friday my sister-in-law Dayna organized an Easter egg hunt and Cookie decorating activity for the kids.

Getting ready for the hunt

Kaitlyn

Makenna

Konnor

Decorating cookies

Later that evening, we had more Easter fun at Tim's office area in Tempe. We had another Easter Egg hunt, Egg drop contests, ate dinner, jumped rope and decorated rice crispy treat Easter Eggs.

Kenna and Daddy

Lined up ready to run on the Easter egg hunt

Ready, Set, Go!

Kenna finding an egg

Beautiful Kaitlyn

Family Picture - (I had a wear glasses for nearly two weeks straight because of horrible allergies and pink eye. Not fun!)

The guys dropping eggs in various contraptions from the Third Story window. My and Tim's egg was inside of a jar of peanut butter encased in a box full of flour. It weighed like 9 pounds and landed like a brick on the cement below. But, the box received only minimal damaged and the egg was untouched. Other contraptions included airplanes, balloons, and dropping eggs into buckets of cereal.

Kaitlyn decorating rice crispy easter eggs