Sarah gets married!

Early in May, Stephen's sister Sarah married her long time best friend Alexander Howe in the Houston Temple.

It was a wonderful occasion that we were thrilled to be able to attend.

Things to remember:

• Stephen was THE brother of the year, leaving almost a week ahead of us to go down and create an outdoor lighting set up that "made" the event, it was magical, and his mother was trying to figure out how to make what he did permanent.
• Sarah left the morning of her wedding and forgot her temple dress in her room, so we had to hurry up and get everyone bathed and out the door following behind them to get her that dress just in time for the temple ceremony--HAIRY CRAZY!
• Our kids really LOVE wedding receptions, behaved themselves like angels, danced their shoes off--seriously I think we need to regularly have dance parties with McKneely cousins, they have a ball!
• How hard everyone worked, Sam was a trouper staying up the latest he ever has to help take down the lighting after the event was over.

Other April happs.....

Mathew is obsessed with building forts.  He wants me to build one almost every day.  He is very persistent.  But every time I take the time to build one, once it's built, he doesn't want anything to do with it and doesn't use it.  This was the same, but it made him happy for a moment....

Matthew also had preschool open house with a song performance.  He really has a special situation in his pre-school.  The way it's worked out he only has 5 kids in his class.  One girl, Lauren, who will be at Marion in the Fall, and 3 other boys.  With a class so small, the teacher can do a lot with the kids.  She says it's like having a play date each day at school.  His teacher (Ms. Jessica) says that even when his class has recess with the other 4-5 year old class, these 5 kids gravitate toward each other.  They've grown very close.





Mom was able to go on a fieldtrip with Lindsey to an exotic animal farm called Sharkarosa.  It was anti-climatic.  We were able to see a kangaroo and some cool lemurs before lunch.  The weather leading up to this day had been warm-ish.  The forecast was for a slight chance of rain, not in the area we were going, and more of the same pleasant weather.  Well, I wish I was a weather person in Texas because I don't have to be right and I still get paid.  It was in fact quite cool up in Aubrey, and just after lunch it opened up and poured on us.  Due to the warmer weather, hardly any of our kids had coats or even sweatshirts.  None of us adult chaperons had umbrellas.  It was miserable.  We tried to do the better half of the tour complete with a tram to go out and see more animals but the teachers decided to just go home early.  We had a super sweet bus driver who got the heater on full blast on the bus, he pulled out all his umbrellas and even took off his coat and put it on a couple kids until their teeth stopped chattering.  We're hoping for a do-over this summer.

Sam's Birthday/Sarah goes to the temple

It is birthday season at the McKneely home.  Sam turned 9 on April 12th.  That weekend we were actually in Houston spending time with the McKneelys.

Aunt Sarah has gotten engaged and was having a bridal shower and going through the temple to receive her endowments in Houston.  It was a very tight schedule to get all this done on the same day!

The shower was wonderful.  Hosted by long time family friend Laura Nixon.  It was fun to have the big girls there too.

Going to the temple with Sarah was wonderful, especially to be in the temple with most of the McKneelys.  But it was a bit stressful....Susan had delegated to Stephen to call a particular restaurant and reserve their semi-private room for a dinner after the temple.  He delegated to me, or rather asked me to help him remember.  Getting the children all settled at Laura's house (all 9 of them with only 1 sitter) was a bit of a swirl and when we all gathered in the temple, Laura confirmed that we'd indeed called the restaurant.....but we'd forgotten.  Stephen and I worried and stressed through the whole ceremony in the temple and as soon as we could we excused ourselves to hurry out and make the reservation.  It all worked out but it was really stressful.

Sam turned 9 that Sunday.  He was a good sport allowing us to put off celebrating.  Stephen was watch dog at school the next day.  We're so grateful for this kid.  He's a rule follower, loves to learn and is a good and loyal friend.  Happy Birthday buddy!

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General Conference

We look forward to General Conference at our house.  It's a semi-annual conference our church has that is broadcasted online and we sit at home and listen and learn.  We make it a big deal with special snacks, games, and family time.....

This year's conference actually fell on Easter Sunday which was special.  And it rained--not surprising, we're having a crazy wet spring, and, so we had our Easter Egg hunt inside and wouldn't you know, I didn't take ANY Easter pictures this year.......I can't believe it!

Kaitlyn turns 11

I cannot believe how grown up this girl is getting.  She is truly blossoming....and she turned 11 on April 1st.  She got a much needed new backpack and a cute new outfit.

And in lieu of a birthday party, we went on a family outing with a friend of her choice, our neighbor Katie Glaser.  We went ice skating, which is always fun.

Happy Birthday to my Kaitlyn girl!

And since she's 11, there was a special stake activity for those girls who will go to girls camp the following summer, it was an outdoor campfire eating "walking tacos" and making S;mores.  It was fun to be with her, she's growing into such a wonderful person.

Matthew turns 5

This guy turned 5 on March 25th.  He's such a joy.  Happy 99% of the time, always down for fun, full of energy, and I can't imagine my family without him in it.

Grandpa Lewis took him for Donuts at Max's Donuts.  This was somber for me because this is what my parents used to do together.  I somehow heard the theme song from my mom's favorite musical "Fiddler on the Roof", "Traditions!" and I thought about her and cried for her as I went for a good run.  I miss her so much.





Later I met him at school to have lunch with him.  He's been all about the Legos so he wanted brownies to be made to look like legos.....In fact a few weeks later, he had a friend birthday party based on the lego theme.  We had pin the tail on the lego man, we built cars and raced them down the slide outside (thankful for fabulous weather), and he had a wonderful time!

That Easter Morn

The girls and I participated in the Spring Millennial Choirs and Orchestra's concert.  It was heavenly.

The music of "That Eastern Morn" was especially poignant for me as the songs were all about the Resurrection.  As this is the first Easter without my mom, preparing for this concert has been incredibly healing, testimony building, and emotional.