Goodbye April

 it didn't take long before Evelyn was pretty proficient at walking:

 

with no planning at all we welcomed a 5th addition to our family; she's fuzzy and walks on four legs. The kids have always wanted a dog. We kept telling them it would have to wait until we had our own house. Soon as we had a house the kids kept asking where the dog was. We were planning on getting settled in for a bit longer.

One day I randomly decided to peruse the local classifieds. A furry little face jumped out at me. She was only 7 weeks old and needed a 3rd home. Some students had her in their dorm and couldn't keep her (they had picked her up from a couple who had a new baby and didn't want her). I wasn't ready for a dog but I kept going back and staring at the picture. I have never really liked dogs, or pets for that matter, but I could not stop thinking about this dog:

I sent Jake a message while he was at work and told him we were going to get a dog when he got home. He agreed it was time.
So, we took the kids to meet this fluffy ball of energy. She's a Pyrenees-lab, and who knows what else mix.

It was love at first sight so she came home with us. On the way home the kids decided her name should be Mako: (there's a Star Wars game character with that name)

The kids all love her; too much. They love taking care of her, playing with her, and especially taking her for walks:

best unplanned decision we've ever made. She is such a gentle, loving and mellow dog:

Alexander got to be the Super Star at school. He put together a poster that showed a little about who he is. He also brought in his favorite book to read to his friends:

Having fun before heading to church; the boys hair was so long dad had to help them slick it back:

and then my camera decided it had been dropped and abused too much so it slowly died:

We finished off April with a very sick baby girl. One morning she felt very warm. The temperature I got was 101 which isn't too concerning so I decided to just wait and watch. The next day it had climbed to 102, still not too bad. By the 3rd morning it was 105 so I rushed her to the doctors where her fever registered at 106.4
It's times like these I am even more grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mom. I feel so blessed to be able to love and comfort these children:

They gave her some fluids and medicine and after a few hours sent us home. Thankfully within a few days she was feeling better. They diagnosed her with baby measles.