Roth Randoms - April

I know I should be better at writing things about each of us in these monthly posts, but I'm just plain swamped right now! Between four young kids, being the Young Women's President and the tasks of everyday life, sometimes I feel like I'm drowning! So while I don't have the time (or memory) to write about the month, I'm grateful for these pictures that remind me of fun memories and my reasons for doing it all!

Dinner with cousins!

Reagan LOVES to hold Dirk!! She has become so attached to him :)

Passed out on Pops

Three cute sisters

Reagan wanted to help Madison with her homework

McKinley and I read together every day and she is doing so well!!! Now I catch her reading to herself quite frequently since she's getting so good at it!

I seriously cannot get enough of these three! I hope they're always great friends!

Some random Mom sightings

Sporting my new water sling!

We took an end-of-the-year fieldtrip to the splash pad with the preschool group

Sunday morning church movies!

Roth Racers

Our ward did a family pinewood derby, and despite the overabundance of estrogen in this house, we had a great time participating!! The ward gave each household one car, and I knew the girls would love decorating ours!! But first we had to cut the car from the block of wood! We don't own any wood-working tools so I was worried about how that was going to happen. But Jordan was awesome! He looked on Pinterest (yes HE looked on Pinterest!) and found a bunch of car shapes and then let the girls pick which one they liked best. After tracing the design onto the wood, he got to work cutting it out. It was definitely a process, mainly involving one of my kitchen knives and a nail file. At one point he even tried drilling holes at strategic intervals to make it easier to break the wood where he wanted it. He did finally break down and buy a regular file from the hardwood store. In the end, the car looked great and the girls were so impressed that Dad made it for them out of just a block of wood! They painted it and then added acrylic jewels and stickers :) They were very proud of it!! On race day, they proudly displayed "Elena" and got to race a couple times. Jordan was just happy it went down the track but they actually won of their races! Then the big kids (aka adults) took over the track and we all marveled at the rockets, CO2 cartridges and potato gun-powered race cars. A couple even spit fire! It was a really fun night!!

We Belong In The Zoo

Jordan's sister Jonni came to AZ for her spring break after Easter, and we had fun doing a few things with her and Jenna and all their kids! Having so many cousins around is one of the main reasons we wanted to move to Arizona, and I love watching my kids have so much fun with their cousins! One of Jenna's kids, Mayli, was going on a school field trip to the zoo so we all decided to join in. We used our Pogo passes so it was free (!) and I pulled Madison out of school so she could come too! The Memphis zoo is still the best zoo we've ever been to (which now includes Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Phoenix), but Phoenix was pretty good! I was a little nervous since it was my first big adventure with all four kids and no Jordan, but we had a great time! I think we'll go back in November when it's not so hot :)

Flamingos, one of Madison's favorite animals

Everyone loved Lulu the rhino!

The giraffes spent most of their time by the feeding platform, which you had to pay for, so we didn't get to see them very well

 This tiger was prowling back and forth in front of the window

There's an elephant way back there under that yellow umbrella

McKinley had to get a picture with her favorite animal

A bunch of cute kids in front of the tortoise

It's tough to get them all in front of the camera looking in the same direction :)

What a good boy!

My first big adventure with all four kids and no Jordan. I'm pretty awesome ;)

Although there were some moments that weren't so awesome! Poor Dirk :)

Love these three girls!

They had a couple really fun splash pads to cool off at! We let the kids get soaked!!

The komodo dragon exhibit. My girls were so excited when they learned that the Phoenix zoo's two komodo dragons were actually born at the Memphis zoo!! We loved the dragons in Memphis and saw these two as babies several times while we were there

Madison was our official guide and loved looking at the map!

Splish Splash

Jonni, Jenna and I also took all the kids to Mesquite Groves one day, which is a really fun pool/splash pad. My kids love the water! I had my hands full, but thankfully Jonni took a couple pictures for me. She told me later that as she watched me with Dirk and Reagan, she was kind of grateful that stage is over for her! :) It's a lot of work, but I'm so grateful for my family!

I borrowed a water ring sling from a friend, and it was perfect for Dirk. He slept almost the whole time. I loved it so much I ordered one for myself

McKinley and her cousin Haidyn (who is 4 months younger)

All the kids! I snuck in the picture so Dirk could be in it :)

Easter Weekend

We decided at the last minute to go up to St Johns to celebrate Easter and Jordan's birthday, which happened to be on the same day this year! All of Jordan's siblings were there with their kids, and Jordan's brother's birthday is the day after his so we had a big crazy weekend of celebrating!

We took our girls to the city (ok, more like village - there's only 3,000 people in St Johns) Easter Egg hunt, which was lots of fun!! They got to search for eggs, take pictures with the Easter Bunny, get their face painted, play games and eat lunch! I tease Jordan a lot about his tiny hometown, but it really is so fun to have community events like this. Gilbert tries to do this kind of stuff, but it always costs money and there's always 20,000 people there. That afternoon, Jordan's sisters and I hid eggs for the kids in Jason and Jodi's backyard. They had a lot of fun finding them! Madison and McKinley found tons but Reagan was over it by this time so she hung out on the grass.

Sunday we got all dressed up in our Easter duds and went to church before enjoying a yummy early dinner with cheesecake for the birthday boys. It was a fun weekend!

Ready for the city Easter egg hunt

They released the kids by age so Reagan got to go first

 There goes McKinley!

And finally Madison

Showing off their haul

Here comes the Easter Bunny

 Reagan wanted no part of the bunny but the big girls loved it

Madison wanted a unicorn with a sparkly horn

McKinley got a heart with a crown on top

Dirk was there too :) He had fun hanging out with Pops

Hunting in Jason's backyard

Reagan's just enjoying the sunshine

Happy kiddos!

Happy Easter from the Rothlisbergers