April

The kids pulled the tramp over to the play structure so they could jump from the monkey bars down to the tramp.  Justin bribed Stockton with some money if Stockton learned how to do a backflip before the end of the month.  Brynn already knew how to do a backflip so she just worked on perfecting her tricks, working on her aerial and double backhandspring.  Molly worked on front flips.  They used the tramp probably every single day during quarantine.  They even figured a way to "hang out" with the neighbors.  The Anderson's pulled their tramp over to the fence and, that way, the kids could talk from their respective tramps.

Okay, we go through cats so fast.  They always seem to disappear-we don't know if they go find some cozy barns or if they get hit on the highway (we've never seen proof of this) or something else entirely.  We should probably have them fixed but we never do.  We like to have a couple of cats around to take care of mice and other critters.  We take care of them but not a single one has stuck around for good.  We just tell the kids to not get too attached and replace them when we need to.  This is Socks. (Quarantine Day 17)

 One afternoon Ivy said she was going to do an egg drop in the house by throwing plastic Easter eggs from the loft.  That made me think that it would be fun to do a real egg drop off the roof.  I had plenty of eggs so I boiled a bunch and then the kids went to work building their egg containers.  They each did their own and we did a couple extra for fun.  Justin and the girls went up to the highest roof to throw them off while Stockton and I observed from the ground.  When all were thrown they came down and opened their containers to see the fates of their eggs.  All survived!  They were very pleased with themselves and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. (Day 19)

one egg in the bag of popcorn and one inside a plastic egg connected to a parachute

This was Molly's egg.  She had seen the design somewhere before-we were skeptical but it ended up without even a crack on it.

 

Justin got the little bike out and gave it some much-needed TLC.  He kept the training wheels off and tried to have Ivy go out and try to ride it.  She was too scared so he ended up putting them back on.  We'll have to try later.  No rush.  She did, however, love riding her bike with the training wheels and we have done several bike rides since.  We even rode down and fed carrots to some horses. (Day 20)

We put the final pieces of our temple puzzle (500 piece) together during the last session of General Conference.  This was also our last puzzle that we did.  We still need to do our 1000 piece Harry Potter puzzle but our card table got taken over by Justin's temporary "office."

 

We played a games with Gene, April, and Brett via Zoom a couple different times.  The kids always enjoyed doing that.  This particular time was in leui of our traditional Conference Sunday dinner that we always spend with them. (Day 21)

 

Stockton wanted to learn to play Settlers of Catan after seeing Molly do it a few weeks earlier.  I wasn't sure he was going to finish but once he started to pull ahead of me, he was all in.  He managed to beat me-and I don't lose that game very often! (Day 22)

 

Brynn learned to carry Ivy on her shoulders.  There is only about a 5 pound difference between these two so it was quite the accomplishment.  Brynn manages to stagger around to the closest place to dump her-a couch or a bed-both of them giggling the entire time. (Day 23)

 

Molly has directed some pretty great movies over the last couple of years, but the one they made this month might top all.  It was called "Freaky Friday" and in the movie Stockton and Molly switch places and have to wear each other's clothes.  There is a legit blooper (totally not staged) at the end when Stockton, wearing Molly's pants, has his pants fall down to his ankles.  His reaction (shock and mortification) and Molly's and Brynn's reactions (shock followed by cheering) had me laughing so hard I was crying.  It will be one of those moments I will never forget and I am so glad it was caught on video.

 

One Wednesday we were having a mid-week slump so I made everyone get out of the house to go on a bike ride with me.  We rode to the elementary school and back-about 6 miles.  Brynn's legs almost gave up on her that last little bit but she persevered and we all made it.  I thought it was great fun and so good to get everyone out of the house and active-and I think that everyone else agreed, for the most part.  Our days go so much better when we can be outside. 

Molly, to her credit, was able to stay very active.  Everyday her soccer coach assigned soccer "homework" and had the girls check in and tell everyone what they had worked on.  Molly was going on a 2-2.5 mile runs a few times a week and was excited to shave seconds off her pace each time.  She would do footwork with a ball everyday and strength training every once in a while too.

lunges in the backyard

We had promised the kids a campfire that night so Justin came home from a long and stressful day of work and did the last thing he was feeling like doing: starting and monitoring a fire.  I had ordered stuff for s'mores but made the mistake of ordering giant marshmallows.  They were probably double the size of normal large marshmallows that we would roast.  That's what you get with online pick-up!  The kids were delighted! (Day 24)

Gotta love these gems that pop up on my camera roll every once in a while.  Nice one, Brynn.

The kids had been planning on having a "last to leave the tramp contest."  They packed bags with books, games, snacks, drinks, etc. and planned to stay out as long as they could.  Unfortunately, a huge windstorm came up and it starting raining and got cold so they had to dart in about an hour after they started.  They tried to ride it out but ended up coming in.

The kids decided that they wanted to have a sleepover in Molly's room-they had so much fun that they ended up doing it 9 nights in a row.  I kept thinking I needed to put a stop to it but they were having so much fun and they were sleeping in-so I could see no reason to tell them they couldn't.  There were some issues on the last night so that is what finally put it to a stop.  We told them that they could have a sleepover once a week and that worked out well.  It makes me happy that they still want to be together like that-even Molly seems to really enjoy it. (Day 25)

These girls love their tea parties.  When we are in stock, they always include chocolate chips and marshmallows.  Goldfish usually make an appearance and maybe half a granola bar.  Ivy always pours the "tea."  We have had that dishes set since Molly turned 2.  A well-used set!

 

Molly had a light soccer assignment on Good Friday-the second day our prophet asked us to fast.  Her coach told the girls to go on a walk so that's what we did.  I took the kids over to the walking/bike trail that leads into Midway.  We walked a mile to the Legacy Bridge and then the mile back to the car.  Ivy scootered and Brynn roller-bladed.  I had printed a scavenger hunt of things to look for and we checked almost everything off.  It was a beautiful day. (Day 26)

   

We had to buy a new lawn mower this year.  We had been making do with the one that we “inherited” with the house but it wasn’t going to last too much longer.  Last year when I would mow the lawn, I would have to charge the battery every 20 minutes or so-it made mowing our large lawn an all-day project.  Molly and Stockton think that, now that they can drive the mower, they are going to be mowing the lawn.  I have been hesitant to hand that job over to them because I really enjoy mowing the lawn!

Justin has been watching for a good deal on some windows to put in a chicken coop.  He found a bunch on Heber Yard Sale Facebook page from someone in Kamas and decided to get them.  After work one day, we went for a drive.  The guy lived in a cool place up Mirror Lake Highway.  We got the windows and noticed our favorite pizza place was open and so, since it was 5:30 already, we ordered pizza for dinner. We had to kill a little bit of time while it was cooking so we found a river and threw rocks in the water. (Day 30)
Make-up day.  (Day 31)

Molly was hired (!!) to draw a picture for a friend of mine (Diana Dye).  She wanted Molly to draw her and her 7 siblings as they were growing up.  She sent Molly some pictures and then Molly went to work.  She would draw one of the kids, send it to Diana, and then make the corrections that Diana wanted.  She spent one full day working on it and I was very proud of her for working hard-and I thought the finished drawing was so cute!

  

My parents were having a hard time staying away but they also knew that we wanted to stay as safe as possible.  They decided to go on a drive one afternoon and drive by our house.  The kids were so excited.  I didn't tell them because I knew it would be a long morning but as soon as they saw the car pull up outside, they made a mad-dash outside.  They each had things that they wanted to show to them.  It was really sweet.  It was a long drive for 10 minutes of visiting over the fence but made a lot of people happy.  They had even gone to the trouble of picking up some lunch for us.  I also got restocked with my mom's canned items-applesauce, pears, peaches, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and grape juice.

I was needing a few new things in the afternoons to keep the kids busy and give them each something to look forward to.  They always want to do some baking/cooking with me-but one-on-one-so I decided to start doing that three times a week and rotate kids.  It was really good and accomplished the two things I was hoping it would-fill an afternoon and give them something to look forward to.  Stockton went first and made peanut butter protein balls.  He did not like rolling the balls but we all enjoyed the fruits of his efforts. (Day 33)

 Stockton and Brynn made some sort of "ships" out of storage bins.  They were really creative-if you looked inside, you would see headsets, phones, buttons for different tasks, etc.

 

One Sunday, during "Come, Follow Me" study, I wrote down Ivy's first and last name in bubble letters thinking that she could color them for entertainment and to keep her quiet.  She surprised me and got her own piece of paper and copied the bubble letters I had made.  She needed help with a couple of letters in the last name but I was impressed!

 

Our Sunday activity that week was to walk down to the end of our street and down the hill to the stream to see if there was any water yet.  There wasn't.  So we walked down through the stream bed instead, found some friendly cows, and realized how many burrs there were down there...poor Cash came home covered.  We felt so bad.  We have since bought a special brush for him that works really well to get those sorts of things out of his fur. (Day 35)  

For Brynn's baking day, she make cake mix cookies using Funfetti cake mix.  They were soft and yummy and did not last long.  I haven't made these since college days and forgot how easy and yummy they are-perfect for a 9-year-old.

 

So that is is on record...this is what Justin's "work-from-home" set-up looked like for April and May.  In an effort to keep branches open, each market (for Justin, the Heber, Park City, Jeremy Ranch, and Orem Harmon's branches, all of which he is the manager for) closed one branch, formed A and B teams and had each team work a week and then be off a week.  Managers and lead tellers were expected to work from home during their "off week."  The credit union went and purchased computers for all the managers to be able to work from home during their off weeks-and to do all the PPP business loans that they did.  It wasn't an ideal location but he had to be plugged into the router to access our internet so we made it work.  When the PPP loans were finishing up and it looked like his work at home weeks were going to continue, we purchased a longer cord and moved him to our bedroom upstairs.  It's been a lot better to have his "office" out of the way and he can concentrate a whole lot better. 

One thing that I really enjoyed with the stay-at-home order/quarantine was the evenings.  We would eat dinner together, clean up dinner together, and then have the night open-as opposed to running kids everywhere like usual.  Often, if the kids were entertained outside (on a nice night) or watching a movie (on a colder night), I would go outside for a run.  I'm not a huge runner and would much rather be hiking or playing a sport, but these nights felt so good.  And the views were so pretty-all the green coming back after the winter.  We live in a lovely little part of the world. (Day 36)

 

We made slime.  We learned how to do it well by the last batch so Molly's was the best.  I bought a huge thing of glue so we have plenty more chances to make good slime.  Brynn's tip? "Next time we need to add less saliva."  She meant saline. (Day 37)

 

Ivy wanted to make chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cupcakes for her turn.  Licking the bowl was fun.  So was adding the sprinkles.  And tasting them.  She walked around with chocolate on her face the entire day and I never bothered to wash it off.

 

Brynn and Ivy took a night and half of the following day to organize my cupboards.  This was totally their idea, no encouragement from me.  Probably I would have discouraged them...I had to do a little rearranging but I got my cupboards wiped out at least.  I stopped them from doing the big pull-out drawers with pots and pans, mixing bowls, and the like because they are organized just how I like them. (Day 38)

 

My friend, Leanna, was posting about some fairy doors they had made out of popsicle sticks and I thought that sounded like a cute idea so I pulled out all the craft supplies one afternoon and let the kids go crazy.  It did not go how I thought it would in my mind...the kids were great and had fun, but the finished projects were not what I had pictured.  And it was messy.  But it filled a few hours one afternoon and that's what we were going for.

Molly's creation

 Friday's were our "easy" homework day.  Brynn and Stockton probably had their normal work load but Molly's school assigned no new work on Friday and used it as a make-up day.  Molly rarely had any work to make up so it was always a nice, early start to her weekend.  One nice day I took them to grab school lunch and on a picnic to Huber Grove in Midway.  We love visiting this quaint little apple orchard and have been several times on golf-ball scavenging missions but, since Justin wasn't with us this time, we just ate and hung out.  The outing ended up being much longer than I had planned because the kids spent so much time make a movie about kids in 2020 who time-traveled back 150 years (there are some of original pioneer buildings on site).  It was quite cute.

 

 Brynn had been working on fractions and her teacher sent them an optional assignment to make playdough.  They had to add and subtract fractions to figure out how much of each ingredient to put into the mixture.  When we got home from Huber Grove, all the kids played with it for a while.  It was really soft!  I put on the audiobook of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone while they played and it was some good down-time for them.

Cute

Cute

Cute

Molly wanted to make maple bars for her turn in the kitchen.  She did a great job with them!  She is still needing a little assistance working with yeast but she is miles ahead of where I was at her age-so well on her way!  They were good but felt more like scones to me-a little heavy for donuts.  And we used imitation maple when it would have been much better with pure maple extract.  But a good little kitchen project for her! (Day 40)

 

Ivy getting her hair combed for church and hating every minute.  But selfies are fun!  Kid are so un-self-conscious about selfies. 

My parent's gifted us a croquet set for Easter so we pulled it out one Sunday afternoon and played a few rounds.  I had to take those pictures of Brynn-it's hard to tell, but she was prancing around the yard in her high heels! 

We ate dinner outside that night for the first time.  It felt wonderful! (Day 42)

  

Stockton's turn for cooking came around again.  He chose chocolate cake, with no complaints from anyone else except Justin.  It was delicious and not a bite was wasted. 

  

Molly and Stockton teamed up together one afternoon and made a bike scavenger hunt for Brynn and Ivy.  They had them hunting on our street, the propane factory, down Little Sweden Road, into the Heber Meadows neighborhood, all the way to the Webb's and Phelps's, and then back again.  Ivy rode on her bike for the clues on our street and then got moved over to the back of my bike for the rest of the clues.  Molly and Stockton walked and we caught up to them before we found all the clues so we had to stop and take a break while they hid the last couple of clues.  At each clue was another clue and a Swedish Fish for each of us.  The prize at the end was cotton candy ice cream in sugar cones.  Then later that night, we enjoyed Stockton's chocolate cake!  We were full of sweets that day-but had burned plenty of calories biking all over the place!

 

Justin stepped away from work for a bit and came to find us

Another night, another beautiful run.  I saw a herd of deer that night run back into a grove of trees. (Day 43)

I told the little girl's that I would get out my wedding dress for them to try on.  They couldn't stop giggling.  Molly even surprised us and tried it on.  It was way too close of a fit for her.  She has always been so beautiful but is getting a little too grown-up for my liking.  They talked me into trying it on as well.

I took an afternoon to get all the sprinkler pipe and sprinklers up and running.  After five years, I have finally figured out this watering business and have a pretty efficient system.  An automatic sprinkler system would be amazing but that's not in the cards for a while, so I keep running hoses around the yard each day.  The yard has come so far in 5 years, and I feel a lot of pride in the work spent keeping it up.  And it makes me so happy to see it.

 

I don't think it was that warm that day, but as soon as the sprinklers came out, the swimming suits came on.

Silly Stockton. (Day 44)

Brynn's turn again. Since she had made cookies on her last turn, I told her she had to make a non-treat.  So she make breadsticks.  She was busy playing outside all day and reluctantly made time for breadsticks.  Our baking fizzled out after this a little, once we were able to spend more time outside, but it was fun to have them doing some more things in the kitchen, and hopefully learning a tiny bit. (Day 45)

 Brynn learned how to do a little crocheting-just the single loop.  She kept at it for a while and made a fairly long chain.

Molly took Brynn and Ivy out for a photo shoot one afternoon.  She took lots and lots of cute pictures.  That swing is a favorite of Brynn and Ivy-they spin and spin and spin all day long. (Day 46)