Tahoma Mascot

Cameron was a good support when our friend asked Cameron to be the “face” of Tahoma for a XC Brooks running challenge. We all had a good laugh.

Quarantine Hair cut-- Take 2

Julia decided that she wanted a quarantine hair cut and was brave enough to let me cut it.  She said, "well it doesn't matter what it looks like, people won't see me for months and months."  So true but I think if turned out cute!

It is your birthday.

 Another year older and wiser too...

I had a nice birthday. Mitch surprised me with my very favorite dinner ( I thought that Spaghetti Factory wasn’t open for takeout, so it was a surprise!) The kids decorated the house, bought me my favorite cookies and gum and got me an ice cream cake.  They know me well.

Natalie made me the cutest present ever. She is so thoughtful and really knows me! She knows how much I LOVE Piggie and Gerald books so she wrote one just for me. The book was spot on and seriously the cutest thing ever. It really was perfect! 

Lucy wrote me a story called “The family of 6” By the 4th kid. Her personality kills me. 

And I got exactly what I asked for... a new range hood to match my stove. Now if my back would stop hurting I might feel my age and not 100 years old!

Newspaper

I adore watching Cameron read the newspaper.

It is so cute.

Today the paper came again after having taken a break for quite some time. We have taken the newspaper for years but stopped because unfortunately the Seattle Times has become a dumpster fire of liberal non-journalism that makes it impossible to read. Watching him read it today makes me ALMOST want to continue.

Penny Books

The rain has returned to Seattle after a few weeks of lovely weather. It was great timing today that Amazon decided to finally deliver the penny books I ordered on Prime over 4 weeks ago. The kids had fun looking for pennies. Now to order more books...

Desperate times = Desperate measures

When you get a buzz and you would rather not. Ha ha

Quarantine Life- Lucy edition

Lucy had to make “homemade drums” as part of her online music class.

We have now moved on to hammock city instead of the forts. Thank goodness Lucy got a hammock for Christmas.  

She has been playing detective. That day she was in search of a cat named Tate.

Stealing Mom’s phone and taking a series of selfies.

For whatever reason, every time I view this video I laugh! 

Oh my Jules

Today I went into Julia’s room and saw this message. Sort of breaks my heart. Cameron and Julia have been training ALL winter for this track season in freezing cold temperatures. They had been holding out a small bit of hope that they might still have a season or that maybe Junior Olympics might happen this summer. Unfortunately it won’t be.

Last night we went to the track to let Julia run the 400 as fast as she could. She was quite impressive. Last week Cam went to the high school and ran his fastest mile yet..by himself.  Proud of these two.

RIP track season

Tough

I got to tell you, yesterday was a hard day. The news that the kids won’t be going back to school was tough. We expected it, knew it was coming but we were holding out just a glimmer of hope that the announcement wouldn’t happen.

This school year has been HARD. In fact each month that has passed I have mentally done a victory dance that one more month has come and gone. So it took me by surprise the level of sheer sadness I feel knowing that what we had is no more. I realize it has more to do with the many, many things that the kids are losing out on and not the homework but it is still hard. Last night for Family Home Evening we talked about blessing and how blessed we are. The things that are happening are so discouraging but it is all in our attitude and perspective to make things around us better. I think the lesson was for me. One of my favorite quotes is by Elder Wirthlin “Come what may, and love it.” I think for now, that is what I am striving for.

Lucy made these cute Easter signs and have them hanging in her room. What a sweet girl.

Day 20-21

We have come to the point in our quarantine that the house has now become one big fort.

I saw this yesterday and thought it sums things up nicely:

Day 9- Blah

I think I have the blahs. Not much motivation to do anything. In fact I just woke up from a long nap in the middle of the day. Although this time is good for a reset, it kind of has me in a spin. I don’t normally  have 10 minutes of down time so full days of nothing are sort of a hard adjustment for me. The kids are handling this well. Cameron seems to be struggling the most with nothing to do but they all seem to be in good spirits. The girls are making “Heart Lake City” at the moment which means they are putting every LEGO set we own together. This should keep them busy. Yesterday the three girls learned a dance from High School Musical and the day before they all played barbies for long parts of the day. They were cracking me up... “let’s pretend the barbies are on a reality show....”

My goal for the day is to win my solitaire game. Wish me luck!! 

Day 1 of no school

1 down, 41 more days to go. But who is counting?

Corona virus blues

I will tell you what, I HATE the Corona virus! It has pretty much taken over our lives at this point. People are in a PANIC over this in Maple Valley and there is no where to turn to get away from it. I feel for the most part people have lost their minds and aren’t thinking clearly. Our schools are still open but I feel like we will be lucky to make it through next week. Church was sacrament only. Have to say, if they think cancelling 2nd hour is the answer to not spreading germs not sure how sending around a tray of bread and water for the entire congregation to touch is really the answer.   🤦🏼‍♀️ Not sure what the next few weeks or months are going to be like but I think I need to pack my patience!

My order of the Corona virus came this week.

This is what Costco looked like. I think the reason people are buying so much water is because they need to make themselves pee to use ALL OF THE TOILET PAPER they bought. Seriously!

Here are my cute girls doing a puzzle. Thought I might need to liven this post up a bit! 

I spy...

SPRING!

Nothing says spring like 40° and raining. Welcome to track season!

Leap Day 2020

Four years ago we decided to make a time capsule for the next Leap Year, February 29, 2020. As the day approached we were getting excited about opening it up.

Inside our time capsule was a picture of us and of each of the kids. Also included was questionnaires that each of them filled out. On the back of the paper we traced their hands and feet. We also made a video. We all had a good laugh about some of our answers and marveled at how much we have grown in 4 years. Funny how things that seem so important at the moment are not even relevant now.

This year the party had a similar theme as last time. The girls took over the decorating and had fun. They decided to make Jello Jigglers cut out like 2s, 9s, and frogs.  They were a bit disappointed in the lack of frog themed items at the grocery store.  

The next 4 years hold some BIG changes for our family.  As we made our new time capsule we talked about who might not even be here when we open it. Crazy!  Where does the time go?!