An Easter for the Books

Hello to our avid readers! Easter this year was a little different and memorable. For the secular part of it I bought things for the kid's baskets weeks ago and was set there. However, I've been having trouble getting eggs as they are a pretty hot commodity these days. To help the eggs go farther I only hard-boiled the kid's eggs to dye so we could use the others for other cooking. Here are our sweet boys enjoying the process of dying eggs!

The next day was Easter! Sam had to work today so the kids searched for their baskets and got dressed while Sam was away. We also had an Easter lesson and watched a video about King Benjamin. Always nice when I can catch these kids smiling at the camera at the same time!

FYI Eden just loves to dance and starts dancing whenever she hears music. This is a video I took when the boys were playing with the different doorbell options.

Deviled eggs for lunch!

When Sam got home we started the Easter Egg hunt. The kids were really enjoying themselves. Eden totally got it this year and loved putting eggs in her little bucket.

WARNING: BLOOD! Not far into the hunt Eli tripped and feel into our patio furniture. This resulted in a good gash on his lip. I really did not want to head to Urgent Care, especially these days with that virus going around, but Sam happened to have stuff on hand to sew it back together. Eli was such a trooper. I held his hands and covered his eyes while Sam injected lidocaine and put a couple stitches in. He actually had to do it twice because Eli kept messing with the first set of stitches and they came undone.

Before

After

A week later. Lots better!

Sam's family did a family Zoom session and we enjoyed seeing everybody! I think technology is what is getting us through this quarantine.

Like I said, this was an Easter for the books. We sure love our family and so grateful for the Savior's sacrifice and victory over death. I can be with my family even after this life because of Christ!

Dear Joseph,

You are 7 years old today. Each year just flies past faster than the last and I'm just amazed we landed such an awesome boy in our family. You have your challenges, but I feel you are doing amazing things at school, at home, and at church. This particular birthday has been memorable because of the COVID-19 virus that has shut down schools and banned birthday parties, but you took it rather well.

You are well into first grade and I have seen amazing changes. Last year we struggled to do any reading or math. Well, something must have clicked because you really enjoy reading and can read words based on context. I just love it! You also have an "Excellent" grade in math from your last report card so you are grasping that well, too. Your absolute favorite subject is Science, particularly biology. I can totally see you doing something in that field as a career with how passionate you are.

And if we go even more specific, you love zoology. Animals all the time! They are your favorite thing to talk about and you jump around as far as your favorites. The animals that have had a solid place in your heart are hammerhead sharks, frogs (particularly the strawberry poison frog), and praying mantises. But you have gone through a penguin phase, jelly fish phase, cobra phase, Hercules beetle phase, and today you told me you wanted a box turtle. You love learning facts about all the animals! Life cycles, habitats, you just eat it up. And I'm an animal lover at heart, too, so I love learning along with you.

You are a growing boy! I recently had to order you new shoes and I need to put away the size 6 clothing. You also lost two teeth (not including the ones that got knocked loose and taken out)! We probably won't visit the doctor too soon because of the quarantine but you seem like a nice, healthy boy. You are starting to like new foods, like mushrooms. I'm so glad you are getting less picky, but you have your total favorite foods. You love lemonade, watermelon, green apples, olives, and I guess a lot of other fruits! I can always tell someone the things you love because of how passionate you are.

Some challenges you face are usually socially related. At school the speech therapist mentioned your problem with pragmatic speech. I can really see it. You don't use any pleasantries when speaking, but jump right in with whatever you are thinking about, especially with animals. It is hard to start and end with an "undesirable" topic and not stray. But you have made friends at school, and it makes me happy to hear you talk about friends again. Last year in school you had trouble keeping your hands to yourself but they haven't seen that issue this year and I'm so glad. Now to keep your hands to yourself at home!

Other things you like to do is draw, make books, and watch shows about animals and science. Your favorite shows include Wild Kratts, Mystery Doug, and Octonauts. Your favorite books are usually non-fiction books about animals. You got a lot of books for your birthday! We also got a book on how to take care of Praying Mantises so hopefully we can keep the ones we have alive. You named yours Pinchy and you love carrying it around. You also love watching our frogs hop around and climb.

One of the best things I've noticed is your knowledge in the gospel growing. You are grasping more and more concepts and read from the scriptures. We are a year away from being baptized so the next year will be a year of preparation. I love you! I love how sweet and giving you are. I love how the simple things make you happy. I can always take a leaf or two from your book Joey. The world is a brighter place since you came along.

Love, 

Mom

Social Isolation

2020 has been wild! Lots of bad news, like Australia being on fire, WW3 threats, heck, Kobe Bryant died! But this virus has really hit home. Literally. But there has been good that has come from this. We have had a lot of time with our family and that has been really nice (for me at least). Humor has been on point with the internet as well.

When my kids ask about the Corona Virus toilet paper shortage 20 years from now, I will have no explanation for that.

Some things that has helped us to social isolate are long walks. Luckily there are some beautiful trails around us.

This tree was crazier looking in person

This cracked us up

At least the weather has been super nice and all the flowers have been blooming.

These beautiful lizards have been coming out as well.

 Sam has had a really weird schedule and has been shuffled around a lot. It still changes day to day as far due to Covid-19 but as of now he has been home the past couple days. The kids have really been eating it up having their daddy home. Heck, I have been too!

Eden popping a squat next to Daddy.

 Sam loves to cook and bake a lot more than I do so we've been eating that up too!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls.

Some of the best homemade pizza we've made!

 The kids approve of his baking!

And some delicious orange rolls! We froze these for General Conference weekend.

Tried to teach these boys how to wink. It was pretty hilarious.

My pretty girl!!

We had a wacky Wednesday at home.
Joey refused any of the props I offered and made his own:
a frog taped to his shirt. 

Having fun outside. I bought a lot of sidewalk chalk for us.

Joey has been telling us for a while what he wanted to do for his birthday. He wanted to invite all the boys in his class for a party. I thought we could order some praying mantis egg cases in hopes that they would hatch before his party and the boys could take some home to either release or keep as a pet of their own. Well, this party is not happening sadly, but we still had a lot of fun when these egg cases hatched and we now own hundreds of praying mantis nymphs.

One of the first that hatched

One for each of the family to keep. We ended up releasing them to
help them find better food.

The boys are loving it!

The mantises protecting our new garden from harmful bugs.

What it looks like when they hatch.

 One of the biggest changes for us is Joey now doing school at home. His teachers are amazing and have done everything they could to make sure Joey has all the tools he needs to keep up with his school's learning schedule. Sam is something else too. One assignment was to draw and label a bluebonnet. Well, he took the kids for a walk to find one so Joey could sketch it. Our kids have been so lucky to have him at home.

Last Saturday I broke down and decided to grab some things from Sam's Club. I thought showing up a half hour before opening would suffice. Hahahahahahaha. That was a trip and I'm so glad I decided to go by myself because it would have been miserable waiting there with the kids. I waited over an hour and it happened to be really rainy. My umbrella was in the van, which I let Sam keep. Then it got COLD! It's been reaching the 90's here so it was so weird and I was so underprepared for all of that. They came out and said they were out of toilet paper, but I otherwise ended up with everything I was hoping to get. I knew the toilet paper was a long shot though. And we still have some. But we don't have an infinite stash so at some point we will need it!

Best 2 1/2 hours ever. Not.

All the cold and rain went away by the evening so we went to a pond we've never been to before. It was super nice and we brought dinner and things to feed ducks, primarily oats. We also had to tell our kids we couldn't play on the playground because of the virus, even though there were kids still playing there 😒

The bees wouldn't leave me alone.
They loved the honey mustard sauce on my fingers I guess!

Lots of ducks to feed!

The boys kept trying to climb this sideways tree. We didn't have a change of clothes so it was nerve wracking!

Joey always throws the oats fabulously like it's a fist full of glitter, ha.

We then spotted these cute fuzzy ducklings and had to feed them as well!

I hope everyone is staying safe and hopefully the better we practice social isolation, the quicker we can get out of it!