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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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Here is documentation of some other fun goings on.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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#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!

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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. 🙂

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#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!

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#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.

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#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!

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#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.

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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.

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Today is Helen’s birthday! It truly doesn’t feel like two years ago that I got sliced open to bring her into the world; but then I can’t quite recall what life was like before her. Or even what life was like before she was who she is now. I’m so glad she’s ours!

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One fun/exciting thing about Helen is that she is a mover! She was our earliest walker by 2 months and is a remarkable climber! She has figured out that if she gets a chair to the counter, she can get whatever she wants that we put “out of reach.” We’re very proud of her cleverness and determination; but we’re also grateful for the times she has too much trouble to move the chair all the way to her intended destination.

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Another thing that characterizes Helen is her all-around mischief. She is my first child to have removed a stinky diaper and played with its contents. She also once removed her diaper and then pooped all over the upstairs. (If any of the other children had done this sort of thing we may never have made it to 4 kids.) She loves to get markers and crayons and color on everything she can–the wall, library books, herself, etc. She likes to dump out cereal, craft supplies, water, and anything else that makes the floor a little more interesting. And yet, she is just SO ADORABLE and smiley while she does it all, that we just clean it up, laugh it off, and keep loving our sweet little cutie! (Except in the case of the poop. I lose all semblance of “cool” when there is poop all over the house.)

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A new love Helen discovered in the past few weeks is dirt! When its’ time to go outside and play, she will almost always spend some of that time in the dirt. She also says “dirt” and it is super cute!

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Helen also LOVES to swing! One of the cutest things ever is when she is being pushed on the swings and plays peek-a-boo at the same time!

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Helen is at that point in her development where she is learning new words every day! Some of the cutest ones include: dee-dotto (teeter-totter), mo (snow), wada (flower), bot (spot–meaning a place to sit), go-goak (coat) and wado (water)–which is one of her favorite parts of life.

Other Helen loves include: Her swaddle blankets–usually referred to as “meeeeee!!!!”, baths (called bass), Anna and Elsa (but mostly Anna), riding in the push-car or her new push-bike outside, pulling out anything I’ve put in her hair, her fuzzies (meow), kitties, books, and deciding what she is going to wear.

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Here is the birthday girl today!

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We love you, Helenator! Happy Two Years!

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A last note:
It is about two weeks since I initially wrote this post; but there was something I really wanted to record and didn’t think to do it then.

One very notable thing about Helen at this point in her life is her ability to sing tunes. Since she was about 18 months old, Helen has been able to sing little snippets of tunes to her favorite songs even though she can’t yet say the words. She began with “e-i-e-i-o” and then wowed us with her version of baby shark around Thanksgiving time “Baby la-la-la-la.” She can also sing snippets from Frozen 2 and Moana. I am consistently impressed by it, and it is so much fun to listen to!

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Let’s talk about Portia! Yesterday, this little ball of fire turned four years old; and we couldn’t be happier that she has been ours for every day of those four years!

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Here are some things you might like to know about Portia:

• She has ALL the opinions and ALL the preferences! Don’t you dare try to tell her that she can sleep just fine with a different blanket; or that her other Elsa shirt is dirty and this one looks almost the exact same; or that keeping her underwear dry is actually going to allow her to play more than wetting in the middle of playing. She knows what she likes. She knows what she wants. And you’re going to get it if she doesn’t get it.
• She loves cuddles! If shes’ not on some exciting mission you will often find her under her beloved diamond-blanket (affectionately termed “dime”) with her thumb in her mouth. She especially loves cuddles with the dog, which the dog equally detests.
• She can talk and talk and talk. If you’ve ever met Portia, you didn’t need to hear this one. She started speaking in sentences when she was about 21 months old and says just about anything and everything that comes to her mind. One example is: when told to brush her teeth for the night, Portia responded with ” My toothbrush is invisible!!!! It says on my toothbrush Portia’s. Tooth. Brush. Is. A. Visible!”
• She loves having stories read to her (as many as she can possibly get), playing with dolls, Barbie–especially the books and movies, Frozen and Frozen 2–especially the music therefrom, playing outside on the swings and teeter-totter, riding her bike (a new skill she is very proud of having practiced!), and playing pretend with her big brother and sister.
• She has the most striking features! As you can see from the pictures, she has hair that countless women pay hundreds of dollars a year to mimic, almost porcelain-like skin, and bright, sparkling blue eyes. She is as beautiful as a princess!

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For her birthday, Portia chose Cotton Candy Crunch for breakfast, unicorn mac n’ cheese with popcorn for lunch, and pizza for dinner. Despite having looked at character cakes and unicorn cakes, she chose a chocolate cake with strawberries.

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Some other fun tidbits about Portia include:

• Her love of 4-year-old-fashion–including, but not limited to: high-heels, “messy ponytails” (where mom does NOT attempt to detangle the hair first), skirts and dresses over pants most of the time, and anything that makes you look like a princess.
• She is our family’s ultimate night-owl. She is frequently the last child to fall asleep, and almost always the last one to wake up. She has been a good sleeper basically her whole life, but she does prefer later to earlier.
• She’s just fun! Basically everyone who knows her is completely smitten with her sparkle and enthusiasm. I know we definitely are!

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Happy Birthday, Portia-Roo! We love you SO MUCH!!!

I am loving being back in the habit of blogging more the past few weeks; so even though I missed last week, I’m going to try to touch on some of the fun things we did for the past two weeks.

I heard something I really like from a guy in our ward. He says that when he’s feeling weighed down by life, work, responsibilities, etc. he likes to look through the pictures on his phone and remember all the good things that have happened in his life. I feel like that is a really great, simple and easy way to remember just how much love and joy Heavenly Father sends us! This blog post is kind of like an extension of that idea.

One thing I have continued loving is our new version of Family Party where the kids get a chance to arrange the activity. Almost two weeks ago, when it was Carter’s turn, we had a fabulous family craft night! Carter started collecting potential craft supplies–like strawberry clam-shells, cardboard boxes, etc.–the week before and added those to the other craft supplies we have on hand. Everybody found a way to make something creative and new, and everybody had a lot of fun!

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We crafted up until past the kids bedtime, so we left a lot of the stuff on the table. The next morning, when I wasn’t paying attention, Helen decided she was ready to play with the craft supplies again….

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This past week it was Portia’s turn to choose the activity. She chose a family karaoke night! She and Josh made sure it was super impressive! We had Josh’s new giant speakers, fancy lights, and a disco ball. Here is a video of Portia rocking out to her favorite song!

Tomorrow I’m going to take a turn planning Family Party. I feel like the kids have set the bar pretty high!

Last weekend, Lacey and Richard cashed in the Christmas gift we gave them, and we had Lucy with us on Friday night. She was so good the whole time! It was so fun to hear her talk and see the kids interact with her! Plus, she even slept great for us!

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The next day, after Lucy returned to her parents, we cashed in the Valentine’s gift we got from Mother and Daddy and got frozen yogurt at Menchie’s. The kids love Menchie’s because of the toppings, and they loaded up on them. The parents did too. 🙂

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A month or so ago Fay ran out of pants that fit her. So we went to the store looking for pants, and a years-long dream of mine came true! We found Fay the perfect jumpsuit! I feel like Fay’s age and its environs are the demographic for whom jumpsuits were truly designed, and I have been dreaming of having one for her since she was in kindergarten! I was taking a picture of Fay in her adorableness the other morning, and all the kids needed to take their turn also being photographed. It was cute and happy, even if we were a little late to school drop-off.

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They’re all so cute!

Last Sunday, Fay made another batch of cupcakes for her church youth-program goal. The family all enjoyed the delicious vanilla Valentine’s cupcakes, and then we brought some to our neighbors. Fay made a sweet card to go with her sweet treat. It is a genuine pleasure to support Fay in this goal. I’m excited to see what other goals she makes in the future!

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Another very exciting thing that happened this past week is the arrival of our new camera!!! We have loved using the camera that Josh got for Christmas back when we were dating. I honestly would have just kept using it forever, basically–especially since I already knew all the controls and settings I like to use–but the last time I went to use it, it wouldn’t turn on. Silly me, I must not have charged the battery. I charged it to completely full, replaced it, and the camera still wouldn’t turn on. I called customer service/repairs and they walked me through some possible things I could do to get it to turn back on; but to no avail. It was just broken. But that’s what tax returns are for! So now we have a beautiful new camera! So far I’ve learned the settings I generally use; but I have the goal to learn more cool things the camera can do!

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Here are some pictures I have taken with it so far. (It is a much better photography tool than my phone’s camera.)

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The last thing I wanted to mention was that the weather most of this week has been GLORIOUS! The kids and the dog have played and played in the sunshine! Carter taught himself to pump this week; Helen developed a love for playing in the dirt; and the kids at home and I even enjoyed a picnic lunch outside this week! I’m very much looking forward to more spring weather!

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We have had a lot of fun this past week! I’ll start with Valentine’s Day festivities and then hit some of the other things.

This past Friday was Valentine’s Day, but we started partying the night before. Our library hosts some pretty fabulous events, and this one might be my favorite. It was called The Tall and Small Princess Ball. In the past it has been The Daddy Daughter Princess Ball; but perhaps Carter isn’t the only brother and I’m not the only mom who have gotten left at home and felt a little bit bummed about it, because this year it was open to the whole family!

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Anyway, the ball included everybody getting to pick out a crown and decorate their own magic wand, light refreshments–including crown-shaped cookies, fruit kebabs, pink lemonade, and little sandwiches–dancing, and a production put on by an impressive assortment of Disney princesses. There was occasion for us to wait in line to meet said princesses; but we opted to take the kids home and put them to bed.

Some of my favorite memories from the ball include:

• We had gone out to dinner before the ball, but talked about how we were getting ready for it on the car ride home. When we got in the house, I tried to take Helen up the stairs to get dressed, and she was beside herself. I couldn’t tell what was wrong until she cried, saying “ball!” After I told her we were going to get her in a pretty dress for the ball and then go, she was all smiles again. She also declared joyfully “ball” multiple times throughout the evening.
• Portia kept requesting to be spun around while we were dancing. It was so cute to watch her giant smile as we spun.

It was a ton of fun to be there altogether as a family, dancing and singing, etc. Plus, we saw lots of friends there. We actually even saw our dental hygienist who, though not from West Jordan, had seen the event advertised and brought her kids. That was a fun surprise.

The next day was Valentine’s Day! The kids were so excited to have received valentines from both sets of Grandparents! We started the day with strawberry oatmeal (pink) and strawberry milk (also pink), and a balloon for each of the kids. Fay and Carter had their Valentine’s parties at school and both came home loaded with cards, treats, and other fun things (Carter got a water-color paint-set and a Valentine’s puzzle in a fabric bag)!

That evening, we had a fancy dinner on a fancy table with a fancy guest, Mary!

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Our menu consisted of fresh asparagus, mini beef-wellingtons, and fancy mashed potatoes. For dessert, we had this:

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The food was yummy, and it was so fun to celebrate with Mary! I also made Mary earn her dinner by doing me a favor.

I have a new sewing project as of late, which is making seasonal aprons. I love celebrating holidays and seasons throughout the year, and I like that you can enjoy seasonal decor, etc. for the season and then just put it back in it’s bin until next year. I also liked the idea of aprons because you can get away with more exciting patterns on your fabric than you can with just everyday clothes.
Anyway, what I needed Mary’s help with was my Valentine’s Day apron. I found this super cute style of apron on Etsy and thought it was perfect for the V-day apron (each apron will have a unique style). The only problem is that it calls for a natural waist. I’m severely lacking in that department right now and Mary’s got a killer waist, so I asked her to do it for me. She looked GREAT in it! Though I apologize for the poor white balance in the picture.

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Thanks Mary!!! I just love how ultra-feminine it is! I am SO excited to be able to wear it all next February!

It was a fun and LOVEly day! But we have also had the privilege of enjoying the love all month thanks to the mantel!! I am really pleased with how it turned out this time around!

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Another fun thing from this week was thanks to some personal revelation I received this past Sunday during ward conference. I feel like sharing it, so I will. (If you don’t feel like reading a novel, just skip down to the next paragraph that begins with the word “Anyway.”)

We have been struggling to get in a really good routine for our family Come Follow Me study. We have tried doing it on Sundays, Mondays, other days during the week, etc. I felt like I needed to have done my own study of the chapters before we talked about them as a family; and I felt like we had to discuss lots and lots of the stuff in each chapter. And all that should be done before church on Sunday, so the kid were prepared for their lessons. But that was really hard to manage every week on a certain day; and so we had absolutely no routine, and some weeks we probably didn’t discuss it at all.
Anyway, in ward conference, the theme for the second hour for adults was ministering, specifically in our homes. One sister quoted President Hinckly on Family Home Evening (which had also become a non-habit at our house as we tried to figure out Come Follow Me). One thing he mentioned in the quote was gathering your family together to read the scriptures, learn the Gospel, and have a good time. At that moment, I remembered the revelation I received years ago that turned our “Family Home Evening” into “Family Party.” We want our kids to have wonderful memories of time we spend together, and we felt like having a party planned out for every Monday was going to help us get closer as a family than just forcing the kids to sit down and listen to a 20 minute lesson. I knew we needed to return to family party being a routine on Monday evenings.
The next lesson in that meeting was on Come Follow Me, specifically, and what it looks like in different homes and circumstances. I feel like our nightly family scripture study is really good, and that the kids learn a lot from it, and I don’t ever want to give that up. But Come Follow Me is also a big blessing; but it doesn’t have to be every single bit of what’s in the manual to be a blessing–especially when our kids are so little. So, I felt the Spirit directing me to simply take our little lesson (which we have always had with Family Party) from the Come Follow Me reading for the week.
Shazam! Come Follow Me feels doable, and even exciting!

Anyway, all that leads up to our Family Party from this past Monday. Another bit of revelation I received regarding Family Party was that we should give each family member, in turn, the opportunity to decide on the activity (and eventually the lesson as well) for the week. This week, Fay decided on a talent show!

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Josh set up fancy lights and a stage, and each person got to do a talent! Josh’s talent was being the MC (he had fun voices and music and sound effects to go with, and it was tons of fun!); my talent was reading poetry like a hipster; Fay’s talent was playing some songs on the piano; Carter’s talent was playing with Charlotte (he genuinely is very good at that); Portia’s talent was “dance all over the stage to ‘Don’t let the Dogs Out'”; Helen’s talent was turning around and around in a circle to music. It was so much fun! And we even had a great lesson beforehand that came from Come Follow Me!

Yesterday, Saturday, everyone wanted to do “a fun thing.” Since it was cold outside, we tried to think of something to do inside. We ended up going to Scheels and riding the ferris wheel (except for Helen and me, because she is too short and I am pregnant).

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We also just looked around the store at all the fun sporty stuff, let the kids play on the playground they have, and had lunch at the little cafe. It was so happy! Last night, we got a movie from the library and watched it with popcorn. Movie nights with popcorn make the kids’ lives!

It’s so nice to have these little fun things to break up the routine a little! And speaking of fun things, I’m looking forward to starting on my Saint Patrick’s Day apron pretty soon. Maybe I’ll actually be able to wear this one. 🙂

This post is just to capture this moment in the history of our family. So no story, really. Just pictures with explanation.

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We had a snow day this past Monday and the kids had SO much fun just playing at home. One thing Carter really wanted to do was make an aluminum-can phone. They had lots of fun with it, even though they had a hard time actually hearing each other through it. I think it worked the best when you could seal the can all the way around your face with your hands. But their faces and hands were too small, so I was the only one who was really able to do it. Still lots of fun, though!

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This is just Portia being herself. We went to King Buffet (an Asian buffet) last Saturday to start our fast on. I had gotten myself a plate of dessert and brought it back to the table. Portia saw it and said “I want a plate with that exact thing on it.” And then she essentially just claimed my plate as hers. Good thing she’s so cute!

And then there’s Helen.

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Helen is at that age where she is just a riot all the time. Above, she is enjoying one of her favorite pastimes: peeling an onion. She and Portia are both actually really good at it!

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Helen is passionate about several things. One of those things is her fuzzy, footed pajamas which she calls “meow.” (She does that because once I was putting on some fuzzies that had cats on them. I said “Look, kitties! Meow!” and ever since then all fuzzies have been “meow.”) Another thing she is passionate about is baths. In this picture, she had just been removed from a delightful bath with Portia, put into clean jammies, and then–unwisely–ignored for a moment. If Portia was still having fun in the tub, then Helen wasn’t going to miss out! She climbed in, “meow” and all, and was then very distraught when she discovered that she and her meow were now soaking wet. Portia was amused. 🙂

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This picture is just such a good depiction of our life with Helen right now. Here she is, having climbed up onto the table and dumped out all the cheerios. She is also wearing a dress she had already worn multiple times over the clothes that Josh had picked out for her, because she insisted on it. Each element of this situation is just so typically Helen right now.

I love these cuties so much! It is so fun to watch them be exactly who they are at this moment in their lives.

Here are some things you ought to know about Josh. First of all, he’s great! Second of all, he loves trips to warm weather and Disney. So, to escape January in Utah, we took a trip to Florida to enjoy warmer weather with David’s family and hit up some Disney while we were there! It was seriously a dream!

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David and Megan completely spoiled us on this trip! They gave us our own apartment to stay in, let us borrow their car, and fed us most of our meals! Seriously, though, thanks to Megan, this was one of the most relaxing vacations I have ever taken with kids, because I didn’t have to worry about anything!

We arrived Saturday night and the kids and cousins just played and played outside in the delightful weather! We had dinner together and then watched a movie in the theater in the apartment. The next day, we all went to church where we got to see Harry sing in the choir while Megan accompanied the music. Multiple people told us about how great David and Megan’s family is; but we already knew. 🙂 That afternoon, Megan read Dory Fantasmagory to all of us, and it was so much fun! If you ever get the chance, you should ask Megan to do her Mrs. Gobble Gracker voice for you!

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so there was no school. This was such a fun day! The first thing we did that morning was go to a u-pick garden with strawberries and citrus trees!

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After fruit-picking, the kids played and explored outside for HOURS! David and Megan’s house is really more of a fairy tale experience than just a regular house. They have all the fun backyard toys, of course (like two trampolines). But they also have a jungle that circles their whole property! There are standing and fallen trees to play on, cool trails through the foliage, and a creek at the back! David just recently cut a fallen oak tree into a bridge to go over the creek, and we got to watch him place his craw fish trap. The kids just went back and forth between excursions through the woods and jumping on the tramp. Oh, there is also a tree-house that David recently put in, AND train tracks right by their yard. The train comes only occasionally and drives very slowly. But we got to see it! The kids ran up the drive-way to where the tracks cross the road (about a 45 second walk from the front door) and the conductor waved to them as the train passed. Calvin informed us that the train had 6 box cars on it. Does that not sound like the kind of place that kids visit in books and then something turns out to be magic or enchanted or something?!

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That night, after hide and seek in the park by the lake, we had a fire and hotdogs. Plus Megan made DELICIOUS strawberry shortcake from the strawberries we had picked that morning (or at least what remained of them 😉 )

Tuesday, the older boys had school. But we went with Megan, Titus, and Naomi to the Orlando Science Museum. It was a ton of fun! We stayed for about 3 hours and still didn’t see all of it!

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After the museum, we said goodbye to Megan, Titus, and Naomi who went home to see David off on a trip and pick the boys up from the school bus. Then we went to a place called The Crayola Experience! Everybody got to customize a crayon wrapper (I named mine Fantasmaglorious), melt a crayon into a cool shape, sculpt with clay, decorate a cat, color to their heart’s content, and learn all about how crayons are made. Plus there were two playgrounds, one of which you could color all over.

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Wednesday was our first Disney day. We went to the Magic Kingdom, which is basically just like Disneyland. Some things I thought were improvements on Disneyland include: It felt like there was a lot more space; and there were live shows on a big stage periodically throughout the day, all of which were fantastic! Another highlight for the kids was riding the monorail into the park! Carter was very proud of the fact that the monorail was featured in his book about trains.

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We just went and went all day long! When we decided it was probably time to head home, we got a very surprising response from the kids. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Hey kids, we’re going to go on this one last ride, and then we’re going to head back to the house.”
Carter: “That’s good. I want to go back.”
Fay: “Yay! Back to David and Megan’s house!”

They loved Disney World. But nothing is quite like the fairy tale house!

Thursday, we had another Disney day, but this time at Animal Kingdom. I really wasn’t sure what to expect; but if anyone cares to know my analysis, I would say that Animal Kingdom is basically a zoo with a little bit of Disney theme-ing and logistics mixed in. Fay said it was her favorite of the two parks because she LOVES animals. We did get to see a lot of really cool animals! We went on a safari ride on which we saw giraffes, multiple deer/zebra type animals whose names I can’t recall, lions, cheetahs (I think a first for me), a hippopotamus that was very active (a first in the history of zoos), wildebeests, hyenas, crocodiles, and a wart hog! It was really fun to get to see them all. We saw a bunch of other animals not on the safari. One of my favorites was the gorillas. One of the grossest things we saw was a giant frog that weighed over 2 lbs!

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Another thing the kids really enjoyed was The Bone Yard, which was a giant play area in the dinosaur part of Animal Kingdom. Carter did some exploring–while we frantically looked for him :)–and found a giant sandbox! All four kids were happily entertained there for probably half an hour.

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Also, here is a picture of us at the Tree of Life. It is GIGANTIC!

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Part way through the day we got hit by a rainstorm. It lasted about 2.5 hours; so we took the opportunity to enjoy a rather extended lunch. Inside.

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After the sun had set, we watched a really cool water, light show on the lake in the park.

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On Friday, January 24–my half birthday, we got breakfast at I hop in Sanford (where David and Megan live) in lieu of the character breakfast we had originally planned. After the excitingly expensive dinner on Wednesday we looked a little closer at the price of the breakfast we had reserved and found its price to be even MORE exciting. The kids were slightly bummed about missing the breakfast with Minnie; but they seemed very pleased with their chocolate and cupcake pancakes. Carter got a mad-lib on his kids menu, and I took a picture.

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After breakfast, we headed back to Orlando to Disney Springs. We looked around the stores there and had lots of fun. One highlight for the kids was the Lego store. We didn’t even have to go inside the store, actually. They had all kinds of Legos set up on special tables outside for kids to play with. They also had a small table of Duplos which Helen thoroughly enjoyed.

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The last thing we did at Disney Springs was try out a crazy cool, fancy cake shake at Planet Hollywood. We also got a regular shake. They were both really yummy and a perfect treat for my half birthday!

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After that, we came back to David and Megan’s house and the kids swam in the pool. They had been dreaming of doing it since the moment we arrived, but it was quite chilly the whole week, so we hadn’t done it. It was still chilly that evening, but we just had to let them do it anyway! They loved every frigid minute in the pool, but weren’t too disappointed when we told them it was time to get out and get dressed. That night, we had pizza for dinner and did karaoke. It was a lot of fun, especially with 9 kids who all wanted to sing most of the songs!

We slept well in the apartment again, and then David took us to the airport early the next morning. We arrived safely and uneventfully back in SLC Saturday afternoon where we were greeted by Lacey (THANK YOU for the rides to and from the airport)!

It was such a fun and memorable trip! We are so grateful for David and Megan for everything they did to make it so wonderful!

Also, I just have to add one thing. We got to go to Aldi while we were there!! Just being in that store makes me want (even more) to move back to the East!

I’d like to start with a thanks to my cousin, Nancy, who reminded me that I have a blog on this day when I actually have time to work on it!

So far the year 2020 has been lots of fun, and a little bit of drama. The drama has basically all come from me and my pregnant self. If anybody has any tips on how to take care of one’s own seemingly ultra-elevated needs while simultaneously taking care of that family you are working so hard to grow, PLEASE let me know! Josh and I are working on solutions to my weekly melt-downs, but we would love suggestions!

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Anyway, other than pregnancy, 2020 is already shaping up to be a great year. I decided on a theme-verb for the year which I am super excited about! Here is some background on my choice:

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On the drive up to the women’s session of October general conference, Kathryn and I listened to a podcast she had found. The title of the podcast was “Elegant Weight Loss.” I do hope to lose a significant amount of weight starting in April, this year 😉 ; but that isn’t the inspiration for my word. She described a principle that really rang true for me. She suggested picturing, in detail, the person you hope to be. The future you. Then think of the habits that person has. –For her, she thought about a slimmer person whose habits included thinking about food only when she was hungry/at meal time.– Then you do your best to practice those habits. And if you mess up, it’s fine. You’re just practicing. She made the analogy of potty-training a puppy. You get a puppy who is not house trained. But there is NO way you are just going to let that dog continue to do her business wherever she pleases. You practice taking her outside. You take her out after meals or naps. You take her out if it’s been a long time. You take her out when she has an accident in the house. No matter how many times that dog has an accident in the house, you keep taking her outside, giving her the command to go, over and over again, until she gets it right. If she has an accident, it doesn’t mean she’s a terrible dog and you should get rid of her immediately or give up. No! You just keep practicing with her until she finally gets it right. And she does! I had my serious doubts about Charlotte actually becoming house-trained. But she is! We made it! We just kept practicing until she is now a different dog: a house-trained dog!

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So that’s my word: Practice. There are a lot of habits, skills, traits my dream/future self has that my current self doesn’t have. And so my plan this year is to practice the habits of that future, dream-self. If I totally blow it, and go a month without practicing that habit or skill, it doesn’t mean I’m a failure and I should just bag the whole project. No! It means I’m still practicing. And I fully intend to continue practicing basically forever. I like this notion and method of reaching for goals because it is kind of no-pressure. I’m a completely decent, worthy-of-love human being right this minute; but, at the same time, I’m not all the way where I want to be. So I’ll just keep practicing until I reach goal after goal. And I’ll never be done practicing. But it’s okay, because I can also take a break from practicing whenever I want/need.

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I’m very excited to see how Practice helps me be more of who I want to be, and most especially how it helps me access the Savior’s grace a little more this year!

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Also, fun addition to this year’s theme, is a theme song!! If you have seen The Swan Princess, it is the song “Practice” with modified lyrics. Here they are:

Day after day all Elisabeth does is
Practice, Practice Practice!
Trying to be a little more than she was
Practice, Practice, Practice!