April: A Whirlwind

It was a whirlwind of an April for us, both figuratively and literally (see tornadic weather).  I am finally sitting down to write about it.

New Addition:

 We had a new addition to our family...meet "Bodie" our new blue merle Australian Shepherd.  We all have fallen in love with him, and who can blame us, look how cute he is:

Anniversary:

Torie and I celebrated 13 years on April 10th.  We were extremely blessed to get to have a 3 day get away (something fairly rare with young children) thanks to some generous people.  My mom's friend, Joy, knew a guy who ran a B&B in Muskogee, OK - The Historic Hayes House.   She got us in touch with Jim, who allowed us a nights stay at no charge, and Joy paid for us to receive the 5 course gourmet meal (more on that in a moment).  Then my mom and dad wanted it to be special for us and paid for an additional night, what a blessing!  Not to mention that mom drove from the Dallas area to our small part of Oklahoma to watch the boys for us.  So the day before we were to head to Muskogee, we stayed a night in OKC, to spend some more time together and cut down the length of the drive to Muskogee.  We had a wonderful evening, eating at one of our favorite Italian restaurants and then went to see The Hunger Games.  The next day we arrived at the Hayes House:

Frontage Picture

Backyard (included Koi Pond, Tree Swing, Deck, Pool, etc.)

My B-E-A-utiful Bride on the swing

Jim, our host, was very friendly and welcoming and a very good cook.  I mentioned the 5 course gourmet meal, but want to do it justice so I am going to do a separate post concerning the most amazing meal I have ever eaten in my life.

Upon returning from Muskogee, my wife immediately left the next day for OKC again to attend  the Women of Joy Conference.  The boys and I, thinking we would have a fun guys weekend, got to endure tornadic weather through which we spent an adventurous 3 hours in our storm shelter.  The day after Torie returned home, we left for a week long trip in Dallas....wheeww...

Baby Gets Older:

Braeden, our youngest son, turned 7 on April 15.  With my sister's 31st birthday being the 16th, we made a trip to Dallas to have a dual birthday celebration (which means my sister gets a little boys birthday party, but she doesn't mind). Braeden is BIG into pirates and requested a "pirate treasure" birthday cake, to which "Gammaw" was happy to oblige:

The Cake

The Boy

Did I mention he likes pirates - LEGO Black Pearl

Odds and Ends:

Well, those were some of the major things that kept us busy.  The boys continue to excel in their music lesson, Braeden (piano) and Joshua (violin), and we have also changed our Homeschool Curriculum to My Father's World, which Torie and the boys are loving!!!  Other than that, I continue to be blessed as, through the Lord's strength, I preach and lead our church.  What a blessed busy life I have, thank you Lord!!!