On Saturday, Fay was baptized! She was so excited to finally get to do it, since her birthday was back in May. I’m so proud of her choice to make covenant promises with Heavenly Father, and so impressed by all the ways she has prepared herself. She is truly an amazing young woman and I am beyond honored to be her mother!

• 

• 

• 

• 

I am also so grateful, in light of Fay’s baptism, for Josh worthily holding the Melchizedek Priesthood and therefore being able to perform these sacred ordinances!

Before quarantine even began, we had decided to combine Fay’s baptism and Bianca’s baby blessing. Fay was thrilled to be able to share her day with her brand new sister!

• 

• 

There were so many more moments I would have loved to have captured from this ultra-special day. But despite the pictures we didn’t get to take, and the Zoom call dying at the church, and the whole pandemic situation, Bianca is now blessed and Fay is now a baptized, confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, possessing the gift of the Holy Ghost as her constant companion, and we are thrilled for both our beautiful girls!

• 

Our experience trying to get this all to happen has been a beautiful reminder to me that, though Heavenly Father does allow us to experience disappointments and setbacks, He also prepares a way for “every needful thing” to be accomplished.

Thank you to everybody who supported us by coming, or watching over Zoom (or trying to), or just thinking about Fay and Bianca! We truly appreciate all your love and support!

Plus some other stuff.

On Friday, I FINALLY turned 30! I feel like I’ve been living the life of a person in her thirties since I was 22, so I’m really glad to finally just be official!

• 

For my birthday, Josh got me my dream tea-set! We have had tea (aka: steeped herbal beverage) with it once with the whole family and I am VERY pleased to report that nothing is broken!

• 

I celebrated my birthday by eating anything and everything I wanted and braving a baby-sitter in the pandemic so Josh and I could go on a date! Thanks, Mariel! It was lovely and relaxing, and I feel very celebrated!

Josh figured out this past week what he wanted to do with his birthday money and “motivosity” money. So he bought an electric skateboard. 😀 Josh was into skateboarding as a kid, and his new electric one means he can have all the fun without any of the work! He has taken the kids on many rides and gone on some lengthy pleasure cruises by himself. I must confess, he looks really good on it! (If a little bit like a teenager…) But I don’t have a picture of him on it; I only have a picture of his dad on it. Apparently Dad used to be into skateboarding too.

• 

I’ll have to get a picture of Josh on this thing! Especially one with one of the kids!

Anyway, back to business (and I don’t mean the American lady with her cats, sisters).

On Thursday night, we went to Farmington where one of Josh’s LP associates had a GIANT fireworks show in a park near his house. He sends requests each year to the people in the office for the coupons for fireworks that come in the mail, and then invites everyone to come to the show if they want. Well, we sent him a coupon last year, and sent him three coupons this year, so we figured we definitely merited our invitation. Apparently when he began doing this show, it was a group of like 30 people or so who would meet at his house. But it has now grown into a GIANT production at the park with food-trucks, music, and around 700 people in attendance and SO many fireworks! It was fun to be part of it.

• 

• 

• 

We had a fun week! But Saturday was the real highlight! Check the next post!

This week we endeavored to ignore the pandemic by camping again! Although, I feel like it was boarder-line glamping. But it was still lots of fun!

We finally made it to Jordanelle to play at the Utah-beach! Our campsite had hookups so we had a fan going during the day and a heater on for the second half of the night. It was pretty incredible that there was an almost 40 degree difference between day and night!

• 

• 

In order to camp with hookups you have to either have your tent on a teeny tent-pad (not pictured) or put it on the parking pad for trailers. Since our tent was way too big for the pad, and you can’t stake it to asphalt, Josh made these really cool PVC frame-type-thingies to structure it. Then we put our bags and things in the corners to keep it from blowing away. It worked great!

After getting all settled in on Tuesday afternoon, we went down to the beach and played in the water. Josh and I didn’t wear our swimming suits because we weren’t planning to stay too long. I joked to the kids that if they went too far out in the water they would be busted because then Josh would have to dive in and get his clothes all wet to save them. I had no intention of being prophetic; but only a few minutes later Fay lost control of the floaty (a giant watermelon popsicle :D) and started panicking. Josh, sure enough, ran into the water to save her. Fortunately, he had just deposited his phone and keys with me and Bianca in the shade tent. After saving Fay, he figured he might as well just keep playing with the kids. They didn’t mind!

• 

When we got all dried off, we took a little drive to Heber for dinner where we got burgers, fries and shakes from Granny’s and ate them at a nearby park. Best camping-dinner ever!

We slept well in our mansion-tent (once Helen and Portia decided to settle down for the night) and when we got up, the kids all played at the playground right by our campsite. After that and breakfast, we headed back to the beach to play in the water. We were the second people on the beach at 9:00 when we arrived; by the time we left at noon, it was super crowded! There were many highlights from the beach: turning little girls into little mermaids, eating yummy snacks, the rental of the stand-up paddle-board, more floating on the giant popsicle, and sleeping in the shade-tent (guess who)!

• 

• 

After the beach, we went back to camp for a HOT lunch break, then we took off back home. It was lots of fun! But, as I said to Josh, no matter how long or how fun a trip is, it always feels nice to be back home.

On Saturday, we met up with some friends up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a baby hike and a BBQ. It took us an amusingly long time to figure out how to get to Hidden Falls (I guess it really was hidden); but it was worth the effort!

• 

• 

• 

As we adults were chatting and enjoying our dinner, we heard the kids start erupting with excitement followed by a very distinct rattling sound. Daphne reported “I first thought it was a sprinkler; but then I saw that it was a snake and I knew that it was a rattlesnake.” We got everybody away to a safe distance and watched as the rattler slithered through some trees and then finally away from our BBQ. It was a little freaky, a little strangely coincidental (as Tanner had just killed and eaten a rattlesnake days before), and a little fascinating. I’m pleased to report that we all returned home safe and sound with lots of good memories! So fun!

Maybe I’m just a brat; but even with all these fun things we’re doing, I still feel like there is this cloud of COVID-despair and suffocation hanging over me and all of life. And yet, simultaneously, I feel like there are so many ways that we are being blessed BECAUSE we’re staying home and together and BECAUSE there’s so much uncertainty out in the world. I’m grateful for the ways the Lord is blessing us and helping us grow! But, at the same time, I am thinking that it would be REALLY nice to have our world back. I know that one day this will all just be a crazy page in our history; so I guess, for now, I’ll try to keep on being patient and looking for the good.

Wish me luck. 🙂

We have so much playing the past few weeks! It almost feels as though life has recommenced since COVID began–but not quite, because we just got notice that we are un-returning to church now. 🙁 But STILL, we have done a lot of fun summery things!

The first thing we did was Fay’s family party on June 15. She had a vision of what she wanted–snacks and drinks and everybody partying in the pool! I have yet to go in the pool, actually, because I’m always on baby duty; but the kids all had tons of fun and it made Fay’s pool party dreams come true.

Our next party, and our first grand adventure of the summer was camping in Green River. Our original plan was to be at Jordanelle; but there was a giant rainstorm that drastically lowered the temperature all over the Wasatch Front and the temperature was supposed to get down to about 33 at night. We still really wanted to go camping, so we tried to find the closest place to camp that wasn’t affected by the storm. Green River fit the bill. Josh EXPERTLY packed the car with gear and food for everybody (Seriously impressive! We have a lot of people.) and we set off. We stopped at Provo Bakery on the way down to pick up an early addition to Josh’s birthday–buttermilk bars! If you’ve never had a Provo Bakery buttermilk bar, you SHOULD!

The campsite at Green River was just about perfect for our age group. There was grass and shade abounding and the river was plenty close enough to go investigate, but plenty far enough away to set parents’ hearts at ease. We had lots of fun running around, playing/sleeping in a tent, and making food on our portable camp-stove.

• 

• 

• 

The next morning we decided to drive the extra hour and visit Goblin Valley. It was probably the most pleasant weather in history! We happily climbed all over the goblins with Josh and I taking turns holding Bianca/watching the little ones. We met some cool people from South Carolina who have been driving across the country for the past month and will continue on their journey until September, visiting their children as well as cool things along the way! I said it sounded like a great way to spend quarantine; and they said it was how they were spending their retirement. It was a happy encounter.

• 

• 

Our next party was for Josh’s brother Aaron. His birthday is on June 18, and on our way home from camping, we stopped at his birthday open-house and ate some really yummy chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice-cream cake!

The next day, June 19, was Josh’s birthday!!! He is now 32 years old and more fabulous than ever! I had been trying for about a month to get him to tell me what he wanted to do for his birthday and he never could think of anything awesome enough. After work on his birthday, he decided he would head out to the store and come home with a birthday party. DID HE EVER!!!

• 

• 

He got a ton of delicious foods that turned into an instant barbecue along with a bunch of outdoor games and party poppers for us all to play with. Then he got out his giant speakers and had his current favorite music playing. It was all so much fun! Happy Birthday, Josh!

The next day, June 20, we got to go to Kathryn’s midsummer party at her house and Bianca was honored to be the midsummer princess. I don’t have any pictures, sadly.

June 21, we celebrated Father’s Day with Josh in the morning and his dad in the evening. Lacey made some delicious peanut-butter cup cookies to go with yummy tacos, and we ate them outside in the lovely weather.

• 

We woke up on June 22 thinking it would be a normal work-day Monday. But when Carter remembered it was his turn to pick family party he decided that, since we had finally finished reading Harry Potter 2 on the way to camping the past week, we needed to have our watch-the-movie party THAT NIGHT for his family party.

This is a moment where I’m going to indulge in a bit of tooting my own horn. Carter decided he wanted our big Harry Potter party that evening at about 10:30 AM, with all the exciting things we had talked about. By dinner time, the three big kids each had a robe–two of them homemade and a custom-made wand. With our dinner of homemade bread (made that day) we had Professor Sprout’s garden, Hufflepuffs, snitches, and home-brewed polyjuice potion. Josh did go to the store while he was out for lunch and got some of the things we didn’t have yet; but I basically made all of that happen in about 7 hours!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We also had our little lesson from Come Follow Me. And, most importantly, Carter was very pleased!

Then this past Saturday, June 27, we joined Aaron’s family once again for Medli’s 3rd birthday party. She was just about as cute as you can get as she lapped up every detail of her Pinkalicious party.

Today’s family party was Portia’s choice and it was just what we needed. We all played dress-up after the lesson–even Bianca!

All the things have happened since the last time I posted! School is now officially over, Fay finished up dance after having a 3-week bout of sickness, Bianca is two months old, we went to church last week (!!!), and things are really getting summery around here. Since it has been so long, I’m going to skip an actual “story” and instead just post pictures with explicatory captions.

Home Life

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Summer Time

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Pool

This one actually gets some commentary.

Because of COVID and a newborn, we are feeling pretty grounded these days. We don’t have the usual museums and library to go to, and we’re not planning any vacations. Josh and I were trying to think of something we could do to make the summer still fun for the kids. They love playing in water, so we thought about getting another large wading pool, like we have had in the past. Josh looked at approximately 5 different stores in-person, and countless places on-line and couldn’t find one available anywhere. (Apparently, we’re not the only ones in quarantine right now.) We talked about trying to make something out of wood and tarps, and we just couldn’t figure out a way to get it to actually work. We found some above-ground pools on Amazon and we decided that since we weren’t doing a vacation this summer, we could splurge.

About 47 seconds after we clicked the button to place our order, I started panicking. We have little kids! I could totally just imagine Helen investigating that pool when I was inside working on dinner or something and falling in and drowning!! I told Josh we should cancel the order. But, as always, Josh had a plan to save the day. He proposed a fence with a locked gate to go around the pool so that the kids couldn’t get in! And, of course, he was able to build it for us!

After many considerations of where to place the pool we picked a spot, and Josh set about making it level enough for the pool (basically none of our yard is level on its own). We also decided to take advantage of fence that was already there, so we only had to build two sides of the one for the pool.

• 

Josh also hacked away at the rosebush in the corner (NOT the first time we have done that) to make space. He also had the fun idea of the kids making concrete stepping stones to go around the pool.

• 

Josh spent about a week leveling the corner, and about 3 hours building the fence. He is so awesome! None of it is perfect or fabulously beautiful; but it is a fenced-in pool and we are loving it!

• 

Since it arrived last Tuesday, we have played in it every afternoon except Saturday (because it was chilly, and we had somewhere to be). I was nervous that the kids would just want to poke around it all day while they play outside; but I guess with playing in it for at LEAST an hour every day, they get their fill and really just ignore it most of the time it isn’t officially pool time. Even so, I still pray basically every day that nobody will drown in the pool.

Conclusion

It just felt fun to have another heading. 🙂

Summer is definitely underway around here, and it is, so far, turning out to be better than I had feared, considering the restrictions of COVID. I am hopeful that it will be a good one for us!

• 

Our favorite Fay finally reached the great milestone of 8 years old on May 7th. She is anxiously awaiting the day when the world will open enough for her to make her long-anticipated first covenants with Heavenly Father through baptism; but for now, she is still excited to have left the number 7 behind her.

For her birthday this year, Fay wanted EVERYTHING Unicorn! She specifically requested a unicorn tablescape along with a unicorn cake and a unicorn stuffie as a gift. I feel like we fulfilled her wishes adequately; but you’ll have to ask Fay what she thought. 🙂

• 

• 

• 

Also, here is the birthday girl opening gifts!

• 

But Fay is about so much more than just unicorns!

One thing Fay has always loved, and continues to love, is arts and crafts! She can frequently be found making beautiful pictures on her easel (she kept her room clean for a week to be allowed to have the easel right in her bedroom), putting flowers together in fancy arrangements, and following Carter’s lead by making wood creations in the garage. I also include, in her love of art, her cupcake creations. She enjoys experimenting with all art media.

• 

• 

Fay is also all about adventures! Another thing she requested for her birthday was adventure gear, especially a rope. She loves to roam around the backyard, trying to find unexplored areas and interesting things. She also has requested that we get a bigger, less fenced-in yard so that she can go on more adventures and rescue animals. One day I came out to the yard to Portia yelling that Fay had fallen off the chain-link fence as she was returning to our yard (she is NOT supposed to climb over the fence). I asked Fay what was going on and she declared rather dramatically “I just wanted an adventure!”

• 

• 

But Fay is also a total princess! She loves teaching Portia about Princess etiquette, dressing up, dancing and singing with Princess songs, watching all the Barbie and Disney princess movies, and being every kind of fancy! She is a total ham for pictures and will try to sneak into as many of the other kids’ photos as as she can. And, appropriately, she is naturally as pretty as any princess there ever was!

• 

• 

Fay will also try just about whatever is available to try! Her school teacher happens to also be a yoga instructor and offers online yoga classes each weekday morning. Fay enthusiastically joins in; and her enthusiasm spreads to her siblings.

• 

Fay also loves reading! Her reading frequently leads to new things to try out and be excited about. She loves to read just about whenever she has a minute. She reads books about animals and people who help save them, princesses, adventures, mysteries, and even sometimes the scriptures!

Just for fun, here is a picture of Fay dressed up for Star Wars Day which was part of at-home school spirit week. She ROCKED the Rey get-up!

• 

And finally, Fay is still and forever the best big sister! She is a leader, teacher, and adorer to all her siblings. She is especially excited about being my big helper with Bianca.

• 

Oh Faymous! We just love you so much! We’re so glad you’ve been ours for 8 whole years!

Carter turned six this past Tuesday! Josh and I were looking forward to this birthday even more than normal, because it was the day we got all our cuties back after Bianca’s arrival!

Carter really got the best of both birthday worlds, because Grandmother made his dream birthday breakfast before bringing the kids home. Then when they got home, the kids got to immediately hold their new baby sister, and then Carter opened presents! Then in the evening, Grandpa dropped off Carter’s requested birthday dinner–pizza–and we had the cake and ice-cream Carter had selected weeks ago. Grandma and Grandpa Monson also came by and brought even more gifts! The only complaints Carter had were that both Fay and Portia did something unkind to him during the course of the day, which he took SERIOUS exception to. He believes, and I agree, that people ought to be exclusively nice to you on your birthday. (And every other day, really.)

• 

• 

A little about Carter these days:

Carter’s interests are impressively varied. He likes riding his bike and scooter, and is making a lot of progress with each; he likes crafting and coloring; he likes adventuring in the back yard; he likes school; he likes building things and watching Josh work on whatever he is building; he likes reading; he likes video games; he likes helping in the kitchen and yard; he likes dancing and making music; he likes eating. And he’s happy to engage in basically whatever the family is doing. He’s a seriously fun dude to have around!

• 

• 

One thing I love to watch Carter do is play with the dog. The girls like to snuggle with her or try to walk her; but Carter likes to get down and play with her. He will play chase and keep away and fetch with Charlotte for several minutes at a time. Charlotte would never admit it; but I think she probably missed Carter most of all while the kids were all gone. I wish I had a picture of them playing together.

Carter has lots of fun, creative ways of entertaining himself. He–along with his accomplice, Fay–finds ways to recreate experiences he’s had or things he has seen others use with whatever he can find available around him. They both amuse and amaze me with what fun inventions they contrive.

• 

Another creative thing that is purely Carter is his “wood.” Whenever Josh has extra pieces of wood or other parts of workshop projects, Carter will claim them. He gets Josh to help him screw, hammer, drill, saw, etc. his things together into some random assembly which he basically always calls his “wood.” He has been doing this for probably about two years, and now his sisters are seeing that it is pretty fun and cool. Again, I wish I had a picture!

For Christmas, Carter got a camera. He frequently takes pictures and videos, and they are always a hoot! We’re still working on getting the pictures uploaded before they accidentally get deleted, so we don’t have a full repertoire to choose from; but here’s a little taste of the fun he has with his camera.

• 

Carter is also a fabulous brother! I asked him yesterday what he thinks of having 4 sisters! (For some reason, that just seems like so much more than 3 did.) He declared, with an exhausted expression and voice, “Ugh! Too many sisters!!” But the truth is: he loves every one of them. He plays with each of them in a unique way and manages to enjoy all (well, most) of their ultra-girly activities while still being the boy.

• 

• 

We love our boy! And we are so happy and grateful that he has been ours for six whole years, now!

I know that the title of this post is a big statement, especially considering the events comprising the first Easter. But here’s my thought: everything that made that first Easter miraculous, amazing, world-changing, and glorious is STILL in effect today, just as much as it was on that day! So the events of this past Easter are a bonus on top of that first Easter, and accentuated by that first Easter. So, the title still stands.

Anyway, the reason this has been the best Easter ever is because this Easter, Heaven sent us this little miracle!

• 

Meet Bianca Reine Monson. She was born on Sunday, 12 April 2020 at 1:46 PM, was 20″ long, and weighed 6lbs 5oz.

Bianca is a name I really liked and Josh approved. Reine (pronounced like the bird, wren) is French for queen. I really like that each of our kids have at least one name (first or middle) that reminds them of somebody wonderful, and I wanted to give Bianca such a name as well. My three fantastic sisters are all named after queens and Bianca’s middle name is after them. They each have a beautiful light they share with the world, and their light has shaped who I am in countless ways. I think it is also fitting for Bianca, because she likewise has 3 sisters. My prayer for her and my other girls is that they can have a love and friendship as happy and eternal as I share with my sisters.

• 

• 

• 

Some interesting things surrounding Bianca’s birth include some mistakes in the recording of facts. The first one is a little one on our part: we told the first round of people that Bianca was born at 1:51 PM. But we apparently took note of the wrong number on the clock (the 10 instead of the 9) because we were 5 minutes off. 1:46 is the correct time of birth. The other mistake was a little bit more exciting! When the nurse first told us her birth weight, she said Bianca weighed in at 5lbs 7oz. We had been guessing what we thought she weighed and nobody guessed less than 6lbs–she looked really healthy for her 20″ length. We were all surprised to hear such a low weight, but we didn’t question it. Later in the day, after lots of extra tests because of such a low birth weight, she was weighed again and came up weighing 6lbs 5oz. That kind of weight gain is literally impossible so we re-weighed her multiple times. The result was always the same, so we declared the first weight invalid. Apparently that is a very uncommon thing to have happen, because every time we told hospital personnel about it, they would say something like “Oh yeah, I heard about that.” We’re grateful that she is at a healthy weight and that all her extra tests came back with flying colors. And it is also fun to have a story to tell!

• 

• 

Another thing that has made Bianca’s birth rather memorable is this lovely little pandemic we have on our hands. There was a risk of me being separated from both Josh and Bianca in the name of COVID-19; but happily it was not an issue. But what was very different, and a bummer, is that we had no visitors in the hospital. The visitors I was saddest to lose were Bianca’s adoring siblings. They are staying with Mother (thank you so much, Mother!!!) until Carter’s birthday on the 21st, and have still not met Bianca in person. I am SO excited for them to see her and love her; but I am also thankful that they are being well loved and cared for while Josh and I figure out how to newborn again.

• 

• 

We are loving this precious bundle, and are so excited to get to know her better for the next forever!

Easter is not quite yet; but I know I will have other things I will want to post about by the time it has actually come. 😉

Anyway, we have been enjoying lots of Easter festivities this past week! One thing that the kids and I have had lots of fun doing is looking at the messages we get from the Church each day of Holy Week. It has been a huge blessing to be able to remember Christ more specifically each day leading up to our celebration of His Resurrection.

Our kids love crafts (I can’t imagine where they get that from…), so we have done some fun Easter crafts. One was paper bunnies, the other was paper carrots with hand-print bunnies popping out. The kids had fun making both of them, and we are enjoying displaying them!

We also did egg coloring. But since real eggs are reaching luxury status, we decided this would be a good year to try out an alternative.

• 

• 

Another fun thing we’ve done is the traditional Monson-family Easter hunt. Josh found loads of fun things for the kids and hid them around the back yard. They all loved gathering all the goodies they could get their hands on, and have been snacking basically constantly for 3 days!

• 

• 

• 

Also in honor of Easter, Fay made us some Easter/springtime cupcakes! She decided she really wanted to do these ones all on her own; so all I did to help was get out some ingredients that were up high, preheat the oven, and put the cupcakes in. Josh helped with sugar and food coloring amounts on the frosting, and took the cupcakes out of the oven. Other than that, it was all Fay. We’re so proud of how she’s working on her goal!

• 

And, of course, there’s decorating! I realized that I didn’t have much in the way of Christ-centered Easter decor–mostly what I had was a LOT of plastic eggs and paper bunnies–so Josh and I made a sign to make a foundation for the mantel. The inspiration came from a sign I saw at Hobby Lobby back before the world closed. Since I couldn’t go get it (plus it was smaller than I wanted it to be for the mantel), we recreated it!

• 

I also made both the pillow covers on the chairs (the green one is old), as well as the tassel banner. Projects like these are good stress relief for me. It’s just so exciting and energizing to create something beautiful!

Speaking of which, Josh knew this past week was going to be rough for me, so on his weekly grocery trip he went and found a bunch of craft supplies for me to make a wreath with. It was a challenge for me, because I had never used some of the supplies he chose, and didn’t have any prior vision. But after a bunch of pinterest and youtube research, I decided to just go for it! It was a TON of fun to put together, and I feel like it even turned out at least half-decent!

• 

Here is documentation of some other fun goings on.

• 

• 

• 

The last thing I wanted to mention is how Josh has twice magically turned ordinary dinner into a party! A week or two ago we ordered dinner from a Hawaiian grill, and Josh decided we should get out all our island themed decorations (of which he have a fairly impressive amount) and turn it into a Hawaiian party! He even got out his giant new speaker so we could have hula music!

• 

Then there was April Fool’s dinner.

Also, the kids and I played a fun April Fools prank on Josh. We all came down to his “office” where he was working and told him we had made him a pan of “brown-Es”. He was excited to have dessert at 10 AM; but he was disappointed. Don’t worry, though. He got his real brownies later that week.

• 

Since I last posted, for Helen’s birthday, the world has essentially turned upside down. I must confess a lot of me wants to not even mention the COVID-19 pandemic; but I think it is probably good to document such a momentous time in history.

I know that a lot of the world is experiencing a lot more trouble due to this pandemic than we are; and for that I am immensely grateful. I just hope that we can help lift others’ burdens somehow. I’m grateful for the gift of fast-offerings that makes it really easy to do something even though I can’t leave my house.

Anyway, rather than focusing on the anxiety and uncertainty I have experienced, I want to focus on the good stuff: being at home together. For us, quarantine has actually been pretty fun. Because we don’t have anywhere we need to be (like Young Men’s, Dance practice, school, work, RS meetings, etc.) everything feels so much more laid back. Josh lets me sleep as long as I need every morning; and yet we still have time for exercise in the morning as well as breakfast. Josh doesn’t have to catch the train and I don’t have to get the kids to school. It’s great! We are still doing school with the kids; but it’s whenever we want to do it–which is never before 9:00 AM. This is the best I have ever felt at 37 weeks pregnant: extra sleep, low stress lifestyle, exercise, lots of Josh time!

Here are a few of the things we have been doing to have fun.

#1–St. Patrick’s Day!
The day of St. Patrick’s Day, I was actually really stressed out by the whole quarantine thing. Plus we fed the Sister Missionaries for dinner (which I usually LOVE doing; but this time was just the straw that broke my camel’s back), and I basically didn’t have anything cool planned to do. We did have some cool shamrock-shaped ravioli for dinner; but other than that and the decorating I had done prior, I had nothing. Fortunately, Josh always has fun up his sleeve, and he threw together a little Irish experience for the kids, complete with Celtic music, treasure hunting, games, and a Leprechaun Legend! He’s the best (if you haven’t heard).

Here are my contributions to St. Patrick’s Day.

• 

• 

• 

Also, Portia’s joy-school has been cancelled–like everything else, and the mom who was supposed to teach on March 16 sent her St. Patrick’s Day crafts around to each of the kids since they wouldn’t be able to do them at school! It was so sweet! Of course, the other three kids wanted to do the same project, so I pulled what I could together so that they could.

• 

#2–Family Party!
The kids have continued to plan fun and exciting activities for us to do each Monday. Fay’s activity two weeks ago was family outdoor games and play. We swung on the swings, slid down the slide, played with frisbees, walked on stilts, played fetch with the dog, played catch with hand-held nets, and just had a great time!

• 

• 

Carter’s choice for last week was a family game night on the Switch. We all played Mario party, which is about as sophisticated a game as we can handle right now. 🙂

• 

• 

#3–Random little games people frequently forget exist.
We have played Huckle-buckle beanstalk, a Leprechaun version of Sardines, Pictionary, and tag. Josh also made up a little beanbag game where the kids were supposed to run beanbags from one basket to another. When you have so much family time, you start getting creative. I, personally, am really enjoying it all!

• 

• 

#4–Playing outside
I am feeling VERY blessed to have a big back yard with lots of toys for my kids. I am also grateful that we live in a circle and that each child has a bike they can ride. When the weather is nice, the kids will happily spend most of the day outside doing a lot of those things we did for Fay’s family party. It is healing for all of us to be able to enjoy this beautiful spring even though we can’t go out.

• 

#5–Going out…very cautiously.
We went to a park last week just to play in the grass–not getting near any people or the playground. We also took a little road-trip out to the Bonneville Salt Flats last Saturday. Both times were thoroughly enjoyed by all!

• 

#6–Etc.
The kids have also been working on school, we’ve all done some crafts (more on that another day), we’ve been watching more movies together (all 4 of Portia’s birthday Barbie movies), eating together, and more etc.

• 

• 

• 

We have also felt very privileged to be able to have the Sacrament in our home for three weeks now. It is definitely not the most reverent Sacrament experience ever; but it is still really special. I hope the kids will remember it.

Writing this post has reminded me of a couple of things. One is that we have a really good little life around here. Even with earthquakes and pandemics we are happy together and have a lot of fun. I am so grateful that we are a happy family, especially at this time of relative chaos. The other thing this post reminds me of is that reading any kind of social media is rather deceptive. We HAVE been doing these fun things, and they ARE as sweet and simple fun as they appear. BUT, that’s only one little fragment of our life. Most of the time we’re still just trying to do school and work, do laundry, wash dishes, stop people from fighting, keep the house clean enough that we can at least walk in it without danger, and all those other things that make up real life. And I’m not saying it’s not good. But it’s also just real, and not photograph or blog-post worthy.

The last thing I wanted to mention was the last date Josh and I had before going into quarantine. For Christmas Josh gave me a session at a place called The Gem Studio. I’m kind of a pretty-rock nerd these days, and this place lets you choose a semi-precious gem and you (with the help of silversmith) craft your own ring or pendant out of silver! I think Josh originally intended for me to go alone; but everything is more fun with Josh, so I arranged for us to do it for our date (Thanks Mary for watching the cuties)! If anybody is interested in hearing about the experience I will totally tell you more! But, in the mean time, here’s a picture of us (me wearing my new malachite ring!!!) after the workshop.

•