Everything About April!

Andrew is hanging in there with school. I'm starting to get the sense from him and his classmates that they are getting burned out on schoolwork and are just ready to be in the field, applying what they are learning!

This was a funny photo from a geriatric lab application. Everyone went to Walmart with walkers and pedometers and they had to shuffle around the perimeter of the store slowly. They even had to use a crosswalk at the intersection out front!

Which reminds me--this month we finally heard about Andrew's final internship. He interviewed for the coveted spot in Charlottesville and got it! However, when his adviser submitted his name, they learned that all of the internships had already been awarded to candidates from other schools who had registered earlier. Bummer! We were able to secure an internship locally here in Lynchburg which may be a blessing in disguise since we won't have to move our family somewhere over Christmas break.

April 4th and 5th were Easter and General Conference weekend. It certainly is busy  yet extremely special when those two coincide.

Our family celebrates the Easter Bunny on Saturday and then have Easter Sunday the next day. It's a nice separation for us and a great way to spread out our traditions over two days.

Saturday morning we woke up to our Easter baskets. Cambria got bubbles from the Easter Bunny--something that I remember from my childhood--and a pink pinwheel. And so I wouldn't just eat candy for breakfast (per Isenbarger holiday tradition), Andrew made waffles, bacon and eggs for the three of us!

The Parks & Rec department hosted at Easter egg hunt at the Point of Honor home in Lynchburg. I was really excited about this activity because it would be Cambria's first memorable Easter experience (for me!) and so this made my "Mommy dreams and wishes" come true.

Cambria was pretty nonchalant about this Easter Bunny encounter despite his "creeper stance." As we walked away, I noticed that the Easter Bunny was wearing an ankle bracelet. I'm sure there is a logical explanation for it, but I wasn't sticking around to find out what it was.

Flemish Giant rabbits to cuddle

The Easter egg hunt was organized by age group and the volunteers were really great at explaining what time each age group was starting, etc. However, when it came to the first hunt of the morning for ages 0-3, every child in a 10-mile square radius answered the siren song of candy and lined the perimeter. There was this poor young guy with a bullhorn in the center of the chaos that was trying to get everyone's attention. I grabbed Andrew and Cambria and we started walking towards the opposite end of the field so that we wouldn't get crushed. Somehow, someone, somewhere jumped the gun and suddenly all heck broke loose. Thankfully, we were far enough away from the starting point that Cambria was able to pick up a handful of eggs undisturbed before the other, older kids caught up with her.

Cambria's first taste of chocolate. Of course, she loved it!

And an unsuccessful encounter with a second Easter Bunny (ankle bracelet free!)

What a fun day for our family!

We went home to watch the Saturday sessions of General Conference. That afternoon, for some strange reason, as I was watching from our couch, I DIDN'T raise my hand to sustain the General Authorities. I don't know if I was lazy, or distracted, or just didn't think I needed to. But I was quickly reminded how important my sustaining vote is (even in my own home!) as shouts of "no" echoed from a vocal group of dissenters in the Conference Center. Our family sustains President Monson, the First Presidency, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators. We sustain them in our hearts and with our hands and voices. I will never forget the lesson I learned that day!

The next morning, I was reading books to Cambria as we waited for the Sunday sessions of Conference to begin. She started insisting that I get the Peter Rabbit pillow that Grammy made for her off of the glider. I could not distract her! I pulled it down for her and she put it in my lap and started trying to "open" it. It is made from the same fabric as her quiet book and so she thought it was her book. It made me laugh so much!

We enjoyed the final sessions of General Conference together and afterwards I took some Easter photos of Cambria. 

We hosted our traditional Easter dinner with the three other families we do potlucks with the first Sunday of every month: the Duludes, Davises, and McNaughtons. I made a holiday ham, Hershey pie, strawberry trifle (thank you, Amy Silva!), and a seven-layer salad. I just wish I wasn't so pregnant--I can never eat as much as I want to when we have so much yummy food! Maybe that's a good thing, though. Ha ha!

Wednesday, April 8, it was time for our baby's anatomy scan. We were so excited to find out what we were having. Cambria picked between a pink and a blue block to share her vote:

 And Julie had a fun video:

All of the cousins voted:

(Whitney says "twins!)

I caught a little peek of a pecker as our ultrasound tech was working, but when she confirmed that we were having a boy, I let out a shriek of excitement that startled Cambria. Andrew's response was even better. He gave his full attention to the screen and asked, "Now, wait. What am I looking at here? I need someone to orient me." It looked pretty obvious to me!

 

We were never able to get a 3-D picture of Cambria because of her position, so I was ecstatic that we got to see such a fun, snuggly view of our baby boy! He looks so much like Cambria! Looks like he has Mommy's nose (sorry!) and big, yummy lips. We are in love!

We were able to see our boy's toes and feet as the scan progressed but we weren't able to get any good photos so I will have to return in four weeks for another ultrasound per clinic policy. Another look at our boy? I don't mind at all!

 Since our baby announcement seemed confusing to so many people ("I don't get it...Cambria is having another birthday?") we decided to make our gender announcement even more confusing. I was inspired by this clip from an episode of "Friends":

We celebrated the news with an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse. This has become our "spot" in Lynchburg to commemorate special family moments (especially baby news!)

Saturday, April 11, we had a school baby shower for Jordan and Meredith Molstre. We had a "Where the Wild Things Are" theme and served ice cream sundaes. It was so fun! We are so grateful for our friends here at Lynchburg College.

I painted the two canvases with quotes from the book and Kathleen Hetrick did the rest of the fun decorations.

Andrew's work of art to add to the Physical Therapy ABC book created by Kate Cook

Cambria helped to decorate my page that celebrated all of the DPT babies

Left to right: David Reynolds, Jesse Cook, Kate Cook, Jordan Molstre, Caroline Hall, Kathleen Hetrick, Meredith Molstre, Zack Hetrick, Cambria, and Andrew

Cambria spends Friday afternoons while Andrew is in school and I am working with the Malones. She adores Sydney (almost 4) and Brooklyn (2) and was so excited when they came over to our house for a play date! She wanted to sit right next to them on the couch and pretended that she was interested in watching "Dora the Explorer" reruns.

Cambria is obsessed with belly buttons right now. She loves to find her and Daddy's (so hairy!) and Mommy's (so funny-looking!)

I hosted another baby shower with Michelle Samples for my amazing Visiting Teacher, Jess Shorter. We were all having such a good time chatting and eating (ice cream sundaes again!) that I forgot to pull out my camera until Jess had opened most of the presents. I feel terrible! But I'm glad we all had so much fun together.

Think pink! Hooray for girls!

On Saturday, April 25, we drove up to Roanoke for a 5K mud run with some of Andrew's classmates. It was definitely a rainy, muddy, messy day so about as ideal as you can get! The event was very loosely organized and we are pretty sure it wasn't a full 5K. It took place in this random field that was in the middle of absolutely nowhere. But it was super fun and Cambria was a trooper despite the rain, cold, and lack of sleep.

"Yea, Dad!"

Andrew, Lacie Windsor, Caroline Hall

Cambria continues to enjoy her weekly trips to the library and I love the chance for her to make a mess somewhere else. She insists on getting every bin out and playing with every toy the library has. 

We continue to turn in her reading bookmarks (I think this makes 700 books since we started keeping track!) and it's not uncommon for our little bookworm to listen to more than 20 books a day. She is super sneaky about reading books and will usually corner me somewhere in the house with a book. I will sit down on the couch to read to her and she will run in to her room and bring back two more books, and then two more, etc. until I have a stack of books and she is satisfied. Only then, will she get up on the couch next to me so that we can read together.

This was a goofy photo of Cambria during one of her afternoon naps:

Generally she only has her monkey and her "baba" in the crib with her but today she wanted her puppy and the giraffe as well. It's hard to see her under that pile!

And some final notes about Cambria from April:

She started stepping up onto things this month. She loves to get out our family games from the bottom of the bookshelf and use those so that she can reach and bang on our HVAC vent.

Cambria folds her arms for prayers and on April 13, she folded her arms and started mumbling a "prayer" much to Andrew and my surprise. That same day she was frantically pointing to a painting of Jesus hanging up at Church and I realized that she could identify that it was Jesus just like she does with our paintings at home. It looks like April 13 was an especially spiritual day for Cambria! Haha!