Officially One Year Older

Gaupo and I have our birthday's just four day apart, so we love to celebrate for the whole week. Our extend celebration really revolves around having our favorite meals and extra treats. This year was probably a little more crazy just because for us at least its really hard to say no to some things during quarantine. For us, that is good food. We can get pretty much everything we want and, so we did. Last Sunday we started it off with making 7 Layer Pie. Gaupo has been wanting it for probably about a month now, but really wanted ice cream on his birthday, so we did the pie before hand. It was really good. We think we might try cheesecake next time instead of banana pudding for the middle layer. We had to try something else because we can't find butterscotch pudding, so we had banana, chocolate, and the cream cheese layers in a graham cracker crust.

Monday was a great day because the kids had no school! I know it sounds crazy to love a day with no school, but I loved it. I loved that we didn't have to do anything we could play, play, play. So, to do that we had a picnic outside, played outside, did a craft, and the big girls waited impatiently for the their new sandals--Chacos. I know its kind of crazy, but we wear our sandals all the time and everywhere, so I wanted my kids to have a good solid sandal. So, I hope I am not creating little shoe snobs, but they love them, they are good sandals, we can bike, play in the water, and all sorts of other fun all in the same shoe. Anyway, they didn't arrive till about 3:30 on Monday and boy the girls were getting impatient but luckily they came and everyone loves their sandals. Monday's celebration food was one of Gaupo favorite meals and a family favorite of Navjo Tacos. It was so good.

Our outside picnic. We have done one on the grass, but this time they wanted a table.

The girls new chacos.

Tuesday was Gaupo's big day. We played too much the day before and didn't get his sign or his presents wrapped so before work he had to settle for making a birthday breakfast for all of us. I usually take all the kids on my morning run while he gets ready and starts breakfast. Such was the case on this day. Anyway, he made a delicious pancake breakfast with hashbrowns and sausage. It was really good. We also sang him happy birthday during scriptures. That afternoon the girls and I got up his sign and wrapped his presents, so when he got back from work it was all ready. The girls were so excited for him to open his presents, but he made them wait until the twins woke up. During that waiting period he also got a brief nap. Which was a good thing because when the twins woke up he opened his presents and one of them was a bike helmet that the girls insisted he needed to use right away on a bike ride. So, Gaupo was nice enough to go with all us on a bike ride. He usually really like riding bikes but right now he has a cyst on his shoulder that has started ozzing out all its stuff (this is a good thing) and it causes him quite the pain sometimes. So, he humored us and went for a ride. Then we came back and reheated the Chinese takeout he picked up on his way home from work and we had a great meal. Or Gaupo and I thought it was great the kids not so much although Kylee really like the sweet-n-sour chicken without sauce. After dinner, it was time for cake. Gaupo wanted crock-pot cake so that is what we had. I kind of felt like we didn't do the best job of celebrating him, but he swears it was just fine, so we will go with that because it really was a good.

Tia, Kade, Gaupo, Abby, and Kylee

A happier one.

The Birthday Boy!

Gaupo opening his present. The girls wanted all the gifts in one box, so thats what he got.

Abby rocking Gaupo's new helmet.

Kade in it.

Family and cake time.

We were pretty proud of our birthday sign, so they had to take a picture with it.

Wednesday and Thrusday were pretty normal days filled with school, work and play. We had pretzel dogs for dinner on Wednesday and Burritos with Pico De Gillo (no idea how to spell that) on Thursday. Although, Thursday night we had a meeting with the missionaries via Zoom. It was fun to visit with them and meet them. We really miss being able to have them in our home for dinner and lessons. It was also really fun to have them teach our kids for us. Right now we have a pretty sweet gig being the only source of information for our kids. All questions they have about school, the gospel, snakes, whatever come to us. They aren't really old enough to use the internet, so we have the responsibility to provide or help them find. Sometimes its a lot of pressure, but I also love it. I love that they will ask me. Its quite a time to teach them what I want them to know without tons of other conflicting influences. Anyway, we had a great lesson with the missionaries. Thursday was very normal nothing special except extra burritos toppings.

Friday was a really good day. The kids got all their homework done in the morning except reading, so that left the afternoon open for fun. I went to Walmart (by myself this time) and got some more stuff we needed like more gauze pads and a few things we didn't need, like sandals, and plastic plates and silverware for the babies. When I got home the girls were in the sprinkler, and  by the time they finished the twins were up, so everyone got to enjoy a Popsicle. As the kids were eating those, Guapo and I prepped the potatoes for dinner. We had Gaupo's favorite meal and good one for me too. It was steak, dutch oven potatoes, coleslaw, and baked beans. It was so good.  Its always kind of a lot of work especially when your dutch oven doesn't start out super clean, but it was super good and very tasty. That night was my virtual birthday party. I invited my family to play games via google hangouts. We played Wits and Wagers, Imagine IF, and a fun prompts game Kitt and Matthew organized for me. It was really fun and I went to bed around midnight. Sadly Gaupo's shoulder was killing him, so he went to bed early. However, it was a fun night and I am glad I got to celebrate with my family. I really miss my family around holidays and birthdays, so it was fun to join together to just play.

Continued Writing: 5/12/20

Saturday was birthday day. I had made overnight french toast bake and I thought it was good, but no one else liked it and so then I had to deal with complaining about food. However, they didn't starve and were able to find other options that filled their bellies while I filled mine on super sugary breakfast bake. Then we opened presents. I got some petunia seeds that I had been wanting. I also got a Roku which is just a TV device, but it allows us to watch Disney+ on our TV screen, and the kids love that it also puts PBS kids on the big screen. We don't have any tv so this is a big deal for us. I also got a water bottle holder for my bike. It is a flex size so it can hold my bigger water bottles. After opening presents and trying to setup the Roku we decided to grab a bike ride while the weather was holding. It was cloudy and overcast so we didn't know when or if it was going to rain. We went on a short but good bike ride and then we came home and let the kids watch show. For lunch we had delicious leftovers from Friday. That afternoon we watched on of my favorite Disney Channel movie "Double Teamed." It was a little advanced for the girls, but they always enjoy watching tv and ever since Kylee has been practicing dribbling her basketball, so I call it a win. Gaupo ordered us Domino's pizza for dinner. We had all the kids bathed and everything right before it arrived. It arrived at 5:00 which was the perfect time and it was good. Gaupo got two pizzas and a cheese bread and it was so good and so nice not to cook and everyone ate without complaint. I had skor bar cake for my cake. Although instead of score bars I topped it with butterfingers. Then we had our traditional Saturday night video game night. We were ahead of schedule so the twins played with Gaupo and I until they got cranky and we took them too bed. Really they loved it for quite awhile and it was fun to all play together. After we got the big kids down to bed, Gaupo and I played a game called the Labyrinth then watched a show or two and headed to bed. It was a good birthday. Filled with motherhood, but lots of fun thought and family. It is also sometimes nice to have a day where we don't really do anything, but whatever it is we decide to do.

Me with the kiddos at breakfast.

Me with my presents.

Birthday Dinner.

I really enjoyed turning 31. I had a birthday party, a fun family, we went for a bike ride, gifts to open, and good food. Year 30 was a good year and so far year 31 isn't bad. The Covid-19 virus is wrinkling a few things, but like I have mentioned before it has given us way more family time, play time, and time. So, hopefully it gets controlled and we can keep moving with year 31 and it will be the best year yet!