Welcome to our World

Happy 10th birthday, M!  The day before her big day she pretty much made her cake all by herself. I just cracked the eggs, took it out of the oven and frosted it. She mixed and decorated it perfectly. I am so proud of all the things she can do. M appears very ready to be in double digits and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see what the next 10 years brings her.  As I look back on her first decade I feel such gratitude that this wonderful girl is a part of our family. M put on the Minnie Mouse shirt I ordered from Etsy for the cruise and was ready for the day.  M is thrilled about her Harry Potter bedsheets and duvet cover and lamp. Yes, she wasn’t going to get all that before but I ordered it for her ASAP (and the Penderwick set of books) after finding out our cruise was canceled. Am I buffering?  Heck, yeah. Take my Disney away from me and I will turn to retail therapy, junk food and too much screen time just like the next mom looking at home schooling...

I took the following picture on the walk home from D&N's school on Thursday.  These three cute neighbors figured out how to share one scooter.  Little did we know we would get a whole lot of information later that day, including information that would prevent joyful walks home from school. March 12th has held a lot of different emotions for me for years.  This year I was worried about the news I was hearing about coronavirus & COVID-19 but was still hoping for the best.  On Thursday I sent my children off to school with N having picture day, I did her class's Thursday folders, helping K's language arts teacher at the middle school, dropped off a allergy friendly spice cake for M's teachers as part of their parent teacher conferences when I picked her up from early dismissal, took M  down to Sol Vista to pick up a bigger sized viola, came back to the school just in time for her parent teacher conference, took care of the dogs, and picked up D and N from...

The very first day of March found K and I waking up at 5am to head to Colorado Springs for a volleyball tournament at Doherty High School. What a high school!     K made some really good contributions and I’m so proud of her. Sadly, I began to feel sick while watching her play and a couple days later found myself getting an IV to solve for dehydration. I was quite grateful we made it home safely and Hubby could hold down the fort while I went to bed early. Hubby also did a wonderful job helping my boy finish his Inquiry Expo project for school. D chose to make a water bottle to turn sea water into potable water using a camp fire. I thought it was really neat how it turned out and as I looked around at the projects after doing Thursday folders, D’s was one of my favorites. Of course, he’s my favorite boy in the whole world, so I might be biased.  Also that week we had Girl Scouts at our house with a Hawaiian theme to earn our Flowers and Social Butter...

This was M’s last time having an entire week off school when her siblings didn’t so I wanted to make sure we did something special. I wanted to stay close due to our other obligations that week such as Hip Hop and Activity Days so I chose to take her down to The Great Wolf Lodge in CO Springs for the night. We did everything there was to do and I’m pretty sure we spent just as much time playing Magic Quest as we spent in the water park! It was a great little overnight to supplement a play date with her best friend, planning her birthday party, watching Goblet of Fire, cleaning out her desk, and beginning Order of the Pheonix. We also had too much fun at IKEA on the way home and bought 4 new stools for our kitchen island (since the puppies have managed to break two of them). The day M and I returned from Great Wolf Lodge Hubby and D headed for Utah to spend two skiing/snowboarding and watch two Jazz basketball games with family. They had a great trip even if I-80 got shut down due t...

It’s hard for me to believe it was a full ten years ago we announced on Facebook we were expecting baby M to arrive the next month. Where has the last 10 years gone?!? We have four children now instead of two, we live in a different house, attend a different ward, all my children are in school full time instead of being home full time, both Hubby and I drive different cars, none of us wear the same clothes we used to, I don’t eat dairy and wheat anymore, have many more smile lines, I have an iPhone and Apple Watch and air pods instead of a flip phone and even my dog passed away and I have two new ones. For the most part, I am much more calm and have learned tons in the last ten years. I miss certain parts of the last decade but am so grateful for the life I have now. February is packed! Basketball and volleyball and Girl Scout cookie sales and horse back riding and puppy training classes and volunteering at the elementary school and planning for summer activities. Natalie lost h...