Keeping busy

 If there's one thing I've learned about myself through all of this is that I do prefer to be busy. And see people! Staying home has not been easy on me. But we have tried to stay busy at home and that has helped. Here's what we've been doing.....

Rylee learned to ride her bike with out training wheels! She was bribed with a new bike for her birthday!

 Silly pictures. The kids love posing like this. It won't be long though and Bri and Ry may have to change spots!

 Lots of bike riding, corn hole and playing outside. I figured if the kids are on bikes they are social distancing so we let them ride bikes with neighbors.

 Hikes! I'd go on one every day if the kids would be happy doing them! Our friends send us some family challenges over Marco polo and one of them was to hike and find the treasure they hid for us!

 Challenge accepted and treasure found! Thanks Maughans!

 On both hikes we've done this spring we have found random deer legs laying in the path. EW!

 We've done several fires in our fire pit complete with s'mores!

 Then Carter thought he should sleep outside after the fire. He did for a few nights! Keep in mind this is early April!

 I was absolutely ecstatic when the kids had dentist apts! This was the first approved outing we have had as a family! It felt super strange but I really wanted to hug everyone I saw!

 Clean teeth with a few cavities!

 Brielle challenges herself every day to try to wear every color of the rainbow! She almost succeeds!

 When you can't play with your friends, you find a way anyway!

 A fairy garden happened...with lots of glitter.

 Spring Break came around and no one was really excited. Which was a bummer. School filled most of our days and it was cold so we couldn't really go outside to play. So we made JAM!

 Mollie found a conjoined strawberry! They shared one stem!

 We fed goats.

 We played with neighbors.

 We social distanced with friends walking by our fence.

We built and crafted. 

 And rode bikes. Rylee learned how to ride the hill at the dirt track.

 Oh and we switched rooms all before this started. So I made some fun things for the girls new room and Carters new room.

I do miss crafting!!!! The days have gone slow but the weeks have passed pretty fast. I am ready for a change of pace though! Hope things start to lighten soon!

Just for the record

Just so I NEVER forget..... April 3, 2020

Gas prices at a record low.
6.6 million people filed for unemployment as of today.
Stock market tanks.
Schools cancelled till April 30th...but I dont see kids going back till September.
Self-distancing measures on the rise.
Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other.
Limited number of people inside stores, therefore lineups outside the store doors.
Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
Church services are online.
No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.
Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.
Children's outdoor play parks are closed.
We are to distance from each other.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel no hand sanitizer.
Shelves are almost bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
Fines are established for breaking the rules.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from Governors and President.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Fauci gives daily updates on USs new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
Barely anyone in the street or on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Why, you ask, do I write this status?

One day it will show up in my memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious. To not take the things we dearly love for granted.

We have so much!
Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other - love one another - support everyone.

We are all one! ❤️

A very quarantine birthday to ME!

On April 2nd I went to bed peaceful. I had accepted that this birthday was just going to be different. I had struggled with it throughout the week but I had just accepted it and swallowed it like so many other unwanted things right now. We had a few plans as a family and I was happy with that. 

As we watched some TV at night some friends were up to LOTS of GOOD! 

 When I got up to go to bed and turn out the light I saw this out the window!! WHAT?!

 I went to bed with a huge smile on my face knowing who was probably behind it. I hadn't been forgotten! My sweet friends decorated my door and sidewalk and car and steps!

 They are so awesome. Way to make a girl feel loved! Then The kids gave gifts and Chad cooked me breakfast.

 Chad surprised me by taking the day off and we went for a little jog! By this time, Chad has lost about 20 pounds on our keto journey! I agreed to do it until my birthday and then I planned to enjoy the day!

 After lunch we took a drive to Stansbury Island for something to do. It really was so pretty! The salt water leaves salt deposits on the shore and the sun was hitting them and it looked like the shores were covered in glitter! Such a sight to see!

 Chad made me the regular cupcakes and I enjoyed several!

 So many thoughtful friends dropped off gifts...probably more than normal! It was so nice to be shown some love in this trying time! Look at all this loot from friends!!

 A little while later Chad took us for a drive and pulled randomly into the church parking lot...THERE I SAW THE COOLEST SIGHT! My FRIENDS! All there in a circle waiting for me to get to the party! Oh I wanted to run and hug every single one! The Maughns, Eashs, Farris, Rowleys & Ogilvies were all there!

 All I could do was scream and clap so I wouldn't burst into tears. Chad had planned ahead and got some wrapped cup cakes and put them in the middle for families to go get them. They sang happy birthday and showered me with treats.

 I've got a good man you guys that is so good to me not just on my birthday but everyday. But he sure knows how to make a girl feel good on her special day!

 The evening was filled with watching Onward and eating Chubbys for dinner and texts and phone calls from family. This cute little picture made my day though....love this sweet little Camry!

I will NEVER forget this birthday. Ever. 35 might not look like the other years...not even close, but I know it will be a happy one because I have incredible family and friends around me who are so good to me. I've seen several social distanced parties and things and it seriously makes me happy seeing people going out of their way to remember birthdays and make sure during this crappy time they are remembered. I'm so grateful for all the love that was shown to my on my birthday!

Zoom Zoom

 Who would have ever guess that our lives would be able to continue through a pandemic with Zoom video calls? I've never heard of them before but we first tried it out with piano zoom. It went flawlessly enough for the first time. Then it turned in school meeting zooms, and exercise zooms, soccer zooms, and church zooms!

Here is Mollies soccer team in their first video chat. Honestly it made me really sad. I just want these girls to be able to play!

 Mollie and Carter both had several meetings a week. Brielle and Rylee also got in on that.

And when I was approached by a friend about doing a STEP ZOOM I was so excited! And so for the months of april and may I taught step from my living room! It was so great to be able to still do it! A few friends sent me pictures of me on their screen!

 We had church with Chets family via zoom, then played some kahoot with them online! So amazing that we can do this and something we never would have thought to do before all of this!

 This was Mollies awards zoom from the last week of school. I got a little emotional. These kids are being robbed of so much right now!

 And I also took several other workout classes through zoom. It was amazing how quickly this all came together to help life keep going on and to feel some sense of normalcy. I'm grateful to Zoom for allowing us to use their program for free. I'm grateful for instructors and teachers and family and friends that put in effort to do zooms with me or my family. Even though this has been hard, I STILL can't help but feel how blessed of a life I have. One meme I saw said something like - Our ancestors were asked to go to war and we are being asked to stay home and watch TV...don't mess it up. Puts things in perspective a little!

APRIL FOOLS!!

With the new dreary life we were living, I knew I wanted to give the kids some laughs (and me) on April Fools day! I planned several tricks throughout the day but some started the night before! We drew mustaches on the kids so they would wake up to a silly sight. Carter and Mollie both woke up for it but didn't stop us. Chad and I were laughing so hard we could barely contain ourselves! 

 I was hoping they would wear it a while before they noticed but they knew first thing! For the record I drew simple mustaches on the little girls...Chad is responsible for the beards on the bigs!

Other tricks included:
-Jellybeans in the ice maker
-blue food coloring on the faucet so the water would run blue which Rylee found and screamed
-a spider drawn on the toilet paper which also scared Rylee
-jello in cups with a straw to look like juice
-a pig nose cut out on the bottom of pink cups so they looked like pigs when they drank
-and the best 2 at the end of the night.....we were getting ready to read scriptures and i asked bri to turn on the lamp. I had taped a giant spider the inside of the shade. I think Carter screamed louder then Bri! Then at tooth brushing time I prepared Carter's toothbrush very carefully...with some more food coloring! His teeth turned blue!

Oh we had some good laughs! The kids even tricked me by switching the salt shaker with sugar! I didn't find it until the next day though when I put it on some chicken. The joke is on them though because THEY get to eat it!!