April 2013.

Ahhhhh.  April.  It feels good to be catching up a little.  

Brian turned 30 on the 4th.  His birthday present to himself was knee surgery.  Poor guy.  My parents just so happened to have already planned to come to Florida for his birthday, so we were lucky to have them around during the process.  The surgery went beautifully.  The surgeon was able to remove the extra piece of bone in his kneecap and fix the tear in his tendon.  We were in and out of the hospital in no time, of course the process may or may not have been sped up because of Brian's sarcasm with the nurses.  

That evening we celebrated Brian's birthday with a delicious German chocolate cake that Brennan & Grammy made for him.  They also decorated the house while we were at the hospital.  (And did a million loads of laundry as you can see in the pictures.  Aren't Moms the best?!)

Brian did lots of working and resting over the next few days, in fact he went to work the very next day, so I was grateful to have my parents around to help with the boys.  Spring is pretty great in Florida, so we spent lots of time outside soaking up the beautiful weather and learning how to swing a bat.  We're still working on holding it the right way.  And the good thing about having a jock for a Grammy is getting lots of pointers. 

By the time they were ready to leave, Brian was moving around much better.  The boys had a blast, we cherished the help, and we were all sad to see them go!

Five short days after his surgery, Brian was back to doing "projects" with Brennan.  He made a few changes to the balance beam in the back yard and of course had no shortage of helpers to do so. 

Brennan took his brothers for rides in his car and they LOVED it.  It made me tear up a bit though because it gave me a glimpse into the future.  Lord help us!

Brian was preparing for a long business trip again, so he was trying to spend as much time with the boys as possible.  Luckily, he's a work-hard-play-hard kind of a guy, because these boys kept him busy!  They love being outside and riding their bikes.  Unfortunately, all of that bike riding caused Mommy to throw her back out.  Is there a good way to help a kid learn to ride a trike while using proper body mechanics?  Me thinks not.

We spent the better part of a day out there bike riding, Brian got home from work, I went grocery shopping, came home and laid down with Brennan and Brian and couldn't get up.  I honestly haven't been in that much pain since labor.  Of course Brian had to leave for his trip two days later, so I was on my own with a bad back and 3 littles to take care of.  Luckily, I have wonderful friends who came over to help.  Brian took my camera on his trip and phone-camera-selfies make the boys happy, so we have lots of those!

A few days later, bad back and all, the boys and I headed to the airport.  We picked up Brian's Mom, then Mr Beckett and I hopped on a plane to Michigan while Grandma took Brennan and Kiernan back to our house.  She had fun with them while I went to class, attended my new god-daughter's baptism, and took photos with my sister Teresa of ourselves enjoying some Mexicali dip to send to our little sister George.  Because she loves it and lives far away and that's what sisters are for.  When the weekend was over, we headed back to FL, enjoyed an evening with Grandma, and delivered her back to the airport on Monday.  We're so lucky that she is able to take the time off to come down to help!

When Daddy got back from his business trip a few days later, he was exhausted.  So we laid low for a few days and just enjoyed each other's company.  Brian likes to make a giant climbing hill/slide/energy burner in Brennan's room for the boys by laying his mattress on the floor up against the dresser and then propping the box spring up between the mattress and wall.  It's nice and secure and the boys have a blast climbing all over it.  

Even Mommy popped out from behind the camera lense in a few rare non-phone-camera selfies. The boys were true-to-form crazy wigglers, but that's just how we do it around here.  No makeup, hair a mess, still in our PJs at 11am.  Keepin' it real, folks.  Days like that sometimes make the best memories.

Toward the end of the month we decided to try our hand at blueberry picking.  In my mind, it was an unstructured event that involved food, so I thought it might actually be a very successful event for our little fam.  And I was right.  Big time.  All 5 of us loved it.  Blueberries are awesome to pick because the bushes are fairly tall and not pokey.  The Brothers loved wandering down a row of bushes, grabbing berries and shoving them into their mouths faster than Brian, Brennan, & I could fill up the buckets.  Brennan was THRILLED to be in the "blueberry garden" as he coined it.  And Brian and I found it pretty relaxing.  It made me wish that blueberry season was year-round!

As April wound down, I got more and more excited for May.  No big travel plans for me, a short little cruise with Brian's company, and hopefully lots of quality family time.  It's hard to believe that Brennan is now 3.5 and the Brothers' half birthday is just around the corner.  These silly monkeys are growing like weeds and making life more fun, and more crazy, every single month!