Marvelous March 2023

Pat me on the back, readers! I'm only a month behind! Even though the goalpost keeps moving I'm closing in. Warning, this is a long post. Now onto the month of March! 

So remember how I said Eli wasn't feeling too great after his kung fu test? I kept him home from church the next day and I get a message from the dojo saying that Sifu came down with Covid. I grabbed one of our tests and sure enough:

I took one too as I wasn't feeling 100% and I was positive. I suspected Sam had it but he was adamant that he couldn't take a test because he couldn't afford to miss work. Well, that didn't last long! He came home Tuesday as sick as a dog and finally confirmed he had the Rona. Everyone in our family came down around the same time, and just in time for Noah's and my birthdays. Happy birthday to us. The good thing that came out of this is that we got to be together the whole two days which wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Crepes for Noah!

 

Woke up pretty happy!

What's a birthday without balloons and presents.

Since Noah is still too young to pick a cupcake flavor, I got to choose! Yellow cake with blackberry frosting.

 

Yasssss.

 

Opening presents: a toddler busy book, bubbles from Grandma and Grandpa.

 

With a bubble machine. What was not pictured was the balance bike we bought him.

And a doodle pad!

 

Noah's favorite present: Mario toys! Not pictured is the balance bike we got him.

Time to sing to our two-year old.

I had each of the kids pick their favorite Mario character for the cupcake toppers. This is Joseph's (Lemmy).

Happy birthday little man! Sorry all of us were so sick!

Skipping to the next day, it was time to celebrate my birthday! I skipped out on a fancy meal as I couldn't taste or smell anything (thanks, Covid). The kids and Sam all picked out my presents so it was fun to see what they chose.

Water color markers!

Noah still wants to help open presents.

New shirt for mommy!

As for Covid, this was the first time anyone in our family tested positive. I don't know if it was the first tie we had Covid, but it was I think that's pretty cool we made it three years with a big family, three kids attending school and Sam working in the hospital. I think Sam and I got hit the hardest, but the kids didn't attend school for ten days and Sam did the bare minimum wait period before going back to work. His co-fellows weren't thrilled to cover for him but what can you do? Skip forward a month two of his co-fellows caught Covid so Sam covered for them. It evened out in the end. This little guy wasn't feeling well one of the days. He was so tired he fell asleep eating his lunch:

A true plumber: the hat, the crack, the wrench, and there's a pizza right by too.

 

(3/9) New Lego shoes from Grandpa Kartchner! Thanks, Dad!

In our first year living in Los Angeles, it was super dry and there was a major water shortage. All the news talked about the major drought and the bleak future. Well, all the freak storms started coming in recently and now parts of California are heavily flooding. The good news is that all the water restrictions were lifted so hopefully the rain did more good than bad. We seem to move to places that have unprecedented weather, but I guess that might be the norm soon with climate change. Although the rain made it hard to go out, there were fun times too!

(3/9) Dance class stops for nothing, even rain!

Always happy to be dancing!

Found these gigantic puddles and the kids could resist jumping in.

 

 

After some baths and clean, dry clothes, time to gather around Daddy
while he plays Paper Mario Origami King.

 

(3/12) Family walk around the neighborhood!

 

We may or may not take perfectly good fruit that has fallen off our neighbors' trees. 

 

(3/13) "Mom look at me!"

Eden's school had a blast celebrating St. Patrick's Day with Lucky Charms for breakfast, a leprechaun trap, and of course, wearing green! I couldn't choose, so I posted all the photos I had.

 

 

 

Eden is in the front second to the right.

Noah has been refusing naps so when he's tired, he will sleep anywhere!

This pose is called the Newborn Photoshoot.

I went to look for Noah and found him here...

On the printer. I bust out laughing!

Sharing more kung fu moments, it's so fun to watch him!

A sister in our ward likes to put on a free musical theatre for kids 3-8 and has a practice every week. She is so sweet to do this and so far Eden is a chick and Eli is a pig in The Little Red Hen. I'm sure I'll have more photos when we attend more practices.

Yummy snack time!

I was going to do the entirety of March in this post, but I ended up having to split it into a few different posts as this post was getting way too long! So stay tuned!