April was still a pretty chilly month in Wisconsin, although the kids did get out side as much as possible! They both LOVE being outside. Chad recently bought a swing set for the kids, so watch my May post for some photos! In the meantime, here are some pics of our adventures in the backyard!
Here's Makayla helping Chad plant some little trees! I'm afraid these little trees are going to get trampled by the kids, but hopefully a few of them make it!
Here are the girls in their toy house! Makayla likes to put the bark chips in the little sink (where Lydia is standing) and Lydia likes to put the bark chips in her mouth! She loves it even more when you tell her "icky" and try to take them out of her mouth!!
Here's a photo of Lydia splashing in the rainwater that collected in the little sink!
Lydia loves to take Makayla's stuff and run away with it. Here's Makayla chasing Lydia to get her crocs back! 
One of the first times we took Lydia outside, she spotted the neighbor's rocks. She thought it was a bunch of balls and she ran over to take a look (and a taste)! 
I took this photo one morning because the sunrise was just beautiful! The photo hardly does it justice. The trees were just glowing in a bright orangish-yellow color!
We had a fun play date with Ella and Jayden! Here's a photo of the kids...it was funny trying to get them all to sit still and look at the camera!
For some reason, we really didn't take a lot of photos in April. Even though we didn't take a lot of photos, I did keep a list of a lot of the amusing things that Makayla has been saying these days!
We were outside playing one day and I showed Makayla some of my daffodils that were starting to bloom. She told me that the flowers had been sleeping in the ground and that the sun woke them up! Then she began singing a song about the sun called, "Mr. Golden Sun!" A few days later, Chad had called diggers hotline, so there were flags all over our yard. Makayla went outside, saw all of the flags, and told me that the flags must have been sleeping in the ground too!
Makayla is learning about her favorite things. Makayla likes to tell me her 2 favorite friends are Breckyln and Lydia. Brecklyn is a friend from school who Makayla loves to play with! One day I moved a lot of baby books from Makayla's bedroom into Lydia's bedroom. Makayla noticed this and was kind of upset. I was trying to explain to her that these were baby books and she had lots of her own books. She grabbed one and ran off with it and then turned to me and said, "Mom, this is my FAVORITE book!" Then she marched off to her bedroom with it! One day she told me that I needed to share with Dad because he was my favorite!
Sometimes Makayla likes to tell me strange things that I know can't be true. One day she couldn't find her "Brown Bear" book, so she told me, "Dad must have sold it!". (This was shortly after Chad sold our boat.) One day she told me that Chad had been carrying her on his shoulders and that he scratched her eyes on the ceiling! Hmmm... One evening I asked her where her sheet from daycare was. She said, "Lydia ripped it so Dad threw it out!" So later that night I was asking Chad what the sheet said before it got ripped and he told me it was not ripped and he did not throw it out! Hmmm.... One night Makayla woke-up in the middle of the night and she peed the bed. I went into her room and she did not want to get out of the bed. I tried to explain to her that she peed the bed and we needed to change the sheets. First she tells me, "Mom, that's just my water, it leaked!" (She has a sippy of water in her bed) So I checked and the sippy still looked pretty full. The she still didn't want to get out of the bed and I explained that there was pee in the bed. Then she tells me, "Mom, that's bath water!" Hmmm....
Makayla also likes to be a little mother-hen to Lydia. She will tell me all the naughty things that Lydia does and she'll talk to Lydia like she's the mom. She likes to tell me, "Lydia isn't listening" when Lydia doesn't do what I ask. She will repeat things I say to Lydia. She will say, "It's okay sweetheart" and "I know sweatheart" when Lydia is crying. She always wants to help me change Lydia's diaper and get Lydia dressed. I think if Lydia would hold still, Makayla would be a pro at changing her diaper! One day, Lydia threw her sippy cup of milk on the floor. Makayla picked it up and said, "You're all done with this!" and put it in the fridge!
Lately, Makayla really likes to read the book, "The Cat in the Hat." One day it was thundering pretty loudly, so I told Makayla to listen to the thunder. I said, "The thunder goes thump and bump!" She looked at me and asked, "Are the Cat-in-the-Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 up in the sky?"
Chad got me some flowers for my birthday and Makayla and I were admiring them together. She was asking me the names of the flowers in the vase. When I told her, "This is a daisy", she looked at me funny and asked, "Where's Donald?"
Lydia is continuing to be more vocal. She clearly says, "ball" and she'll say, "dad" and "water". In the bathtub, if you ask her where her toes are, she'll smile and laugh and grab her foot and lift it up! She also likes to play peek-a-boo by putting a blanket over her toes! Then I ask her where her toes are and she laughs and moves the blanket!! Lydia has very little fear and does her best to keep up to Makayla. Here's one final photo of Lydia climbing up on the register in order to see out the window! She's become a pro at at this...and all sorts of other climbing lately!
