Moments 04.2021 JoyFoodSunshine – April was a full month for our family! We celebrated Easter and two birthdays, went hiking, and more! 

“I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. At the end of every month I share a recap of our family’s favorite moments!  Here’s a snapshot of our life from April 2021!

Life lately

April was a full month for our family! We celebrated Easter and two birthdays, went hiking, and more! 

Baby Zach (3 months)!

My little nugget is growing so fast. This month he is smiling a ton and he even started giggling a little bit. His favorite place is still wrapped up, snuggly on mommy, and I’m not complaining. 

He isn’t sleeping as well as he was last month! He started waking up around 2 in the morning just crying, and he does that 3 out of 4 nights in the week. He’s not hungry, and Ritch usually just rocks him back to sleep, but it’s definitely a little bit of a regression from sleeping until 4:30 or 5 Am every day! 

He’s still nursing well and overall is a pretty good baby (although Ritch doesn’t really agree with me on that LOL). 

He’s getting so big he’s starting to break free from his swaddle at night. I thought this picture was hilarious! 😉 I usually stop swaddling my babies when they can roll from their back to their front, because I want to be sure they can roll over if they need to. Z almost never gets tummy time, because he hates it and I hate hearing him cry. So a goal of mine for this month is to get better at making sure he gets some practice on his tummy. 

Easter

This Easter was SO much better than last year (hello crazy world events). Our church body got together and worshipped and it was so wonderful. I love getting the kids matching Easter outfits, so I found these cute dresses for the girls which I love. 

One thing last year alerted us to since Ritch was home for the first time ever on an Easter morning, was that we really liked getting up and making the morning special before church. So this year we let the kids get up early and Ritch stayed home so we could do our Easter festivities before breakfast. It was so great and the beginning of a new tradition, I’m sure! 

Mara’s Birthday

My sweet Mara turned FOUR years old. She requested a unicorn cake, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and pizza (homemade pizza dough and sauce) for dinner. She is just a little fireball of sunshine and spunk, and she loved being the center of attention. 

Funny story: since her birthday was on a weekday, we made her “special day” the Saturday prior and we went hiking then out to lunch. While we were hiking she got tired and said, “See, this is why I didn’t want to go hiking on my birthday.” LOL OOPS! It made me feel so bad (even though she chose hiking hahaha). 

So on her birthday (which was a Wednesday), I got the kids up and going on homeschool early. They finished quickly and early so we went to an indoor trampoline park where we have a membership so Mara could have a super special and fun day – and it eased my momma guilt a little LOL! 

Gabe’s Birthday

At the end of the month by G man turned 8! Not really sure how that happened but here we are. We told him he could do anything he wanted on his special day (I’m talking anything – arcade, ninja warrior gym, fun center, anything) and he chose to go on his favorite hike so he could rock climb. MY HEART. I love that sweet boy so much. Just watching him scramble all over the rocks with a serious face was the highlight of my month for sure. You could see his wild and free spirit rise up and manifest itself as he leaped from rock to rock and felt like he was conquering the world! 🙂 

Gabe requested pancakes (with chocolate chips for breakfast), then we went hiking and picked up In ‘N Out for lunch (his fave). He played with his gifts (legos, bow and arrow, etc.) and went to a homeschool PE class with his friends in the afternoon. Then at night we had homemade mac and cheese for dinner and he chose brownies with chocolate frosting for dessert instead of cake! All in all it was a boytastic day perfect for my sweet little guy. 

Hiking

We took Z on his first hike ever on M’s birthday! It was a beautiful day and we went on one of our family’s favorite hikes. It’s crazy how in a few weeks it goes from ski season to hiking season -but here we are! We love spring hiking and went on a few this month. 

A few of my favorite things…

Here are a few things I have loved lately!

• Bose Speaker . I’ve wanted a great bluetooth speaker forever, and I don’t know why I didn’t just order one earlier! But I got this speaker and I LOVE it! Perfect for our family dance parties! 🙂 
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Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are a few recipes I made this month!

Burrata Salad

My summer love affair with burrata has officially been rekindled and I’m not mad about it. 

Homemade Brownies & Chocolate Frosting

A bomb combo for dessert. I made a double batch of the brownies for Gabe’s birthday so he could enjoy the leftovers for a couple days. 

Chocolate Cake & Vanilla Frosting

My usual go-to for birthdays. 

Snapshots

Here are some snapshots of our life this month! 

B is the best big sister.

Still snuggling this girl to sleep. 

She is doing SO great at swim lessons! She’ll definitely be ready for summer!

Baby yoda got a new outfit! 

And I can’t stop putting her hair in french braid pigtails. 🙂 

She got this bunny for easter because she is obsessed with bunnies. She named it floppy (seriously) and it joined her sleepy time stuffed animal crew. 

We got family photos taken, can’t wait to get them back!

These girls are goofballs while I nurse Z. 

So many baby smiles, and his eyelashes just won’t quit. 

Homeschooling is so fun. Numbers, check. Spelling, working on it! 😉 

Just a Sunday selfie with two crabby patties. 

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