Memorial Day Weekend

Sometimes when I blog about things a week later I have to think to myself was that really just last weekend? Most of May has seemed that way for me. I mean my birthday was the very beginning of May and it feels like that celebration happened an eternity ago. I have heard and seen on social media making jokes about how March was the longest year, but for me it has been May. It has seemed like a year and its only been a month. This whole week has seemed like it should be June because it has been after Memorial Day, but nope still May. Oh well, tomorrow is June and that means a whole new month to live to the fullest.

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend and it was also Gaupo's last Friday of Covid-19 leave. This leave is what city employees have been able to put down to still get paid for their full hours even if they didn't work all the ours (or in some cases any of the hours), but its gone now. So, we decided to live it up. I let the girls do no school for 4 days which was really weird because in some ways having a little bit of school works seemed to jump start their imaginations, but they still enjoyed it. It was nice to have no school and no work but mostly because we had some good family time together. Friday morning we worked on the yard. The girls are wanting watches, and I don't want to out right buy them for them, so we decided that their are some jobs they can do to earn the money. One of them is pulling weeds. So, Friday morning we had them help us weed the rocks. They actually were really excited about it and worked on it for about 30 minutes on their own while I finished cleaning up breakfast. Then Gaupo and I went and help the girls. They stuck with it for awhile, but were so done with it by the end. Then as one thing usually does it led us to finally find out the answer to the question of does the sprinkler system actually work and where is it? So, Gaupo got to work while the kids and I hung out around the yard. He finally got the heads doing what they should and replaced on of the heads and so then everything was working. Or so we thought. We ended up looking at the back flow valve later that night and found out it was totally cracked and we needed to get the repair kit, but we still felt pretty fortunate that we only had to replace one head and that there was plenty of coverage from all the sprinklers.

After that work in the morning, it was time for lunch and naps. After that we had a family night out. We went up to Loveland and picked up take-out from PF Changs. We got there a little early because there was hardly any traffic. Since we were early we took a walk around the African sculpture garden that was there. The kids did really well walking around and it was fun to see some different scenery. The statues were a little weird, but there was lots of trees and grass, a few ponds, and great walking paths so it was a win for us. We also walked past the mall there and it was EMPTY, it was so crazy, usually it is packed cars and people everywhere, but nope not this time. Sometimes it seems like COVID is not real, like when I stay home and just am with my family, but then I got out somewhere like that and its like nope, this is really happening. Anyway, we picked up our dinner and headed to the temple. We found a good spot of shade across from the temple it like a little basin-ish type area. That is where we setup our take out picnic. The kids did pretty well with what we got. Kylee like sweet n sour chicken if you don't make her have it with sauce. Tia like the rice with a little of the sauce and Kade and Abby like the chicken and then we somehow ended up with noddle beef thing that was actually really good and they kind of liked that too. It was just so nice to be out be together, be near one of our favorite places. After dinner, I took some family pictures. I took some earlier this year, but I didn't like them. So, I decided to try one more time and I like these way better. I would really love professional pictures, but it is so expensive, so we will do what we can. Anyway, after a pretty fun picture shoot, we headed to the temple. We were going to walk around the outside of the grounds, but then our car started acting kind of funny. So, Gaupo puttered around with the car for a little while the kid looked at the temple. Okay they did not just stand and gawk at it, they tried to stand on the gate before I told them to get down. They stopped down to pick up the landscape rock. They tried to press a button they saw and really they had a great time at the temple. Blessedly for us the car started acting normal again, so we went while that was the case. We haven't had a problem since and the emissions light turned off on its own, so we think it was only gas that had sat too long. I haven't filled my car since March 12 and it is barely a half of a tank as of this moment. I just haven't driven and I think it wasn't that great for the car especially since it doesn't have very high octane gas in it. Anyway, we enjoyed the car ride home and everyone stayed awake which was great because then everyone was ready for bed when we got home. The twins are actually really good travelers or at least so far. We will see how they do when they have to take some long trips. After this adventure was when Guapo and I went to check the back flow to see if it was still leaking. It was and so thats when we found our cracked internal parts which though it sounds bad is actually how its designed to protect your pipes. Thus, we now had our adventure for Saturday.

Tia and Kylee at PF Changs.

Kylee, Tia and Abby eating dinner.

The picnic

Abby, Tia and Kylee at the temple.

Saturday we had a griddle breakfast. I love griddle breakfast because it gives flavors and hints of camping but I don't have to go camping. Also its a great way to start off a weekend and a holiday. After it was cleaned up Gaupo spent the morning and actually somewhat into the afternoon going to every hardware store in Longmont to find the kit we needed. While he was gone I recruited the kids into some cleaning. Then we were getting close to finishing and I knew there was a graduate parade that would have a few of the kids from our old ward in it and decided it would be fun to go see that. So, I loaded them all up super fast and headed to our old corner. The parade was fun. I think the kids that chose to participate really enjoyed it and the end had about 20 corvettes that Gaupo loved. I totally thought Kade would wig out over the fire engine siren at the beginning, but he did great. While were were gathered on our corner we saw our old neighbors. It was so good to see familiar faces. We chatted it up with them and also got to see the new deck they put on. It felt so good to be a part of something. To see people I know and that care about us and to also feel part of a community. One thing I feel like Covid has done is made life kind of isolating, which for the most part is fine. My kids and husband are my favorite people and are where I love spending my time and energy, but sometimes I want to have bigger than that. I like friends and neighbors, and community. So, Saturday was really good for that. I also decided that I need to show my support to a few of the grads around and so took my girls to drop off a few cards. It was good to see those families. One of them we visited with for a while and then we got to take a spin in her Jeep. I have some really good friends, so it was fun to see them. We got home and made the last drop-off with Gaupo and the twins and then came home had pizza for dinner and then played video games and called it a night.

Gaupo, Tia, and Kylee cooking breakfast

Sunday was cloudy. After church we did our after church walk hoping to squeeze it in before the rain. We started it dry, but it began to rain and so we headed home. On the way home, we decided that this rain was the perfect for a drive. It was getting kind of close to lunch time, so we just took a quick drive up to Lyon's and enjoyed up there. It was fun to all be together in the weather. We came home and had lunch and then it was quiet time/nap time. Part way through that quiet time it decided to down pour and the girls went out and played in it. I was watching them think, Oh that looks so fun, wish I could do it. Then I was like what?! Why am I not, just because I am an adult now, LAME. So, I went puddle jumping with my girls and it was so fun. It was so fun to walk in the gutter with the water rushing past, finding giant puddles to jump in and then trying to get each other wet by splashing. It was time well spent. After getting soaked we came in to change and talked to Grandma and Grandpa. After that it was a pretty normal Sunday, just dinner and chatting.

Monday was the last day of our weekend. It was pretty low-key. Its been awhile (its now 6/7), and I don't really remember anything super exciting about Monday except that while chasing around town Gaupo picked up a slip-n-slide and a little pool for the kids. This summer the pools aren't opening until at least July and so we needed to have our own way to cool down. Anyway, we pulled all that stuff out and let the girls play and when the twins woke up they played too. Kade wants almost nothing to do with the water, although he does get warmed up to scooping up cupfuls and dumping them on the grass. He will also get in the pool if it is warm enough. Abby just does what she wants when she wants. She loves the water and in usually mad when I make her stop. That night we watched Zootopia for our holiday family home evening. We had hotdogs and rice krispy treats for dinner.

Kylee

Tia

Tia and Kylee

Kade and Abby.

It was a fun weekend. It was good to do some 'normal' things. It was great to take a break from school and work. It seems weird to still love having 4 days of just us time, but its true I loved it. I love my family time. 

Approaching The End An Update of Sorts

I have tried to write on my blog, but just could get what was really happening or what I was really feeling out on here the way I wanted to. Since our birthday celebrations it has been a lot of the same as we always do which is school and work mixed with a hearty amount of play. I really like this schedule and this life, but it doesn't leave a whole lot to talk about. However, Mother's Day we went caroling to a couple people in our ward. We sang 6 verses of Book Of Mormon Stories for them. I got the idea from The Friend and have been wanting to do it for a little while, so I pulled it out for Mother's Day. As an add bonus, the last house we went to which was the Richard's said, "We are okay with it if you guys are okay with it. Do you want to come in?" Well, we did. It was fun to be in someone else's house and visit with them. I really love visiting with my family via phone, but I miss visiting with other people in real life. Just chatting about nothing particular, just chatting and being together. They brought up a Hotwheels track for the kids to play with while we were talking and the kids loved that. The girls had even brought little cars in their purses. Bro. Richards is a pretty big car guy and this just made him so happy that girls would have cars in their purse. We stayed for about and hour and then came home. However, they told the girls they wanted them to come back and visit, so right after the lunch the girls asked if we could go back. We said no, but Kylee and Tia are super persistent, and asked at least once a day until Thursday when I finally let them go back. This time the kids got to play in the basement, and they had a total blast and I enjoyed visiting. It was fun. It makes me so sad my kids aren't suppose to have friends over. I mean I love that there is no pressure about it, but I miss that we can't do it even when they want to. It is such a bummer. However, these kids are a pretty fun bunch and have a good time together. Kylee and Tia play together a lot and for the most part are willing to let Abby and Kade be part of the game too. They are very fun and resourceful kids.

Also for Mother's day we dipped our own strawberries.

Most recently the two big kids finished up school this week. Both had their teachers drop-off their stuff and a little gift by the house. They loved that. Kylee got a flower pot and seeds and Tia got a sign for the front yard that says I rocked Kindergarten. This whole last week they maybe had an hour each of homework at the most. Then I still had them do their reading to me in the afternoon. They were great about it and have been enjoying our little break from school since Thursday. We will be back at doing some school work here come Tuesday, but we need a little vacation from it. These two kiddo's worked really hard finishing up school and doing what was required of them. School is not Kylee or Tia's favorite thing, but both did it and did what they needed to do. Nothing extra, but all that they were asked to and considering we were doing school at home for 2 months they did it with very little complaining. We had a few days of tears, frustration, bad parenting, and bad kid moments, but you know it could have been so much worse. I really feel like these two girls made progress in the last two months and that really encourages me for this summer, as we try to get ready for 1st and 3rd grade.

Me and Kylee working on school work.

Kylee and Tia jumping.

Tia with her sign.

Kylee and Tia prepping for the penguin walk. This was for virtual field day. This picture makes the day look awesome, but in actuality it was a very hard day.

Kylee reading

To that end, we have gotten a private tutor for Kylee for literacy. She will do math facts and maybe some other basic math things with me here at home. She is so excited to have a tutor and I really hope it gives her the leap she needs to be successful in school. I think its possible, so we will see what happens. Tia is doing reading and math with me this summer. Our focus will be CVC words, her current sight words, some fun Reading Journey books we got from Oma, along with numbers from 1-20 and some basic adding subtracting principles if we can. Its kind of a lot to do, and I am super good at following plans, but have a hard time making them up, so we are going to do our best and see what happens. Also, I am hoping to make Fridays more fun by playing more games with them, so we work on our strategy, number skills, possibly reading, but through learning to play games. We will see how it goes.

Kylee and Tia do work hard, but they also play hard. Lately they have used the food storage boxes, and extra moving boxes to make a house in the storage area. They are currently down in the basement playing something. They also play in the sprinklers, ride bikes, scooter, jump, play family, and all sorts of other things. They have loved having school at home because it means they have also gotten some 'video' game time. They get about 15 min to share of PBS Kids games. My kids will probably be forever backwards when it comes to 'video' games unless there Dad takes over. I much rather spend time outside, learning, something or using their imagination, so when mom's in charge gaming doesn't happen too often.

These two were having a jumping contest with their cousin Betty via video chat.

In other news, Tia lost her first tooth.

And wrote this note to the toothfairy. It says "I want a car please."

The twins may not be going to school, but they are growing and changing. During the day I have what I call the magic hour and it is after everyone is fed and the big girls can usually do some homework or play and the twins play everyone does their own thing and doesn't need me unless I don't look busy. If I were to try and sit and read or something that wouldn't work, but I can usually get breakfast cleaned up, and do a couple other quick things all by myself. The time is brief, but I'll take it. The twins will sometimes play together and sometimes not. Generally speaking, they play in the same room as each other, but often do their own thing. They can both 'build' with Duplos. We have a little slide inside that they like. They also play with everything else especially real books, which is good and bad. I am glad they like to look at books, but they aren't the softest with them, and I don't keep the best eye on them, so between these two babies they have wrecked twice the amount of books as the first two kids combine. Kade and Abby typically love the stroller and bike trailer. Abby super independent. She does not want to hold your hand while walking, she prefers to feed herself until she gets frustrated with it, she would love to know how to ride a bike, she tries to get everything herself, and loves to get her own clothes for the day. Kade is independent too, but differently. He will hold your hand while walking because he can take you were he is going and he can walk faster. He will feed himself, but it fine if you want to feed him to although, if he doesn't want to eat that food anymore he will refuse to open his mouth, or he will accept the bite and then spit it out. He also loves to carry his clothes to go get dressed. He does not like having to stop what he is doing to get his diaper changed. If he doesn't like something you know.

It never ceases to amaze me how different these babies are. They are really their own little person. Abby like girl things dolls, purple, pink, and shiny stuff. Kade loves his blues and greens, trucks, cars, lawnmower, and slide. Kade also loves to watch you cook, get his hair done, ride in the wagon, bike trailer, or stroller. Abby loves to play in the dirt, water, draw with chalk and do whatever she thinks is fun. These two are so silly. Kade has started to say Mama, and Abby will sometimes say Uh-oh, but I think she also say DA. They have both learned to give fives and knuckles.

Abby and Kade playing on their slide.

Abby after self-feeding pasta.

Kade on the same day.

Abby outside in the rain playing on her slide.

Kade and his lawn mower.

Abby and a doll, and Kade with his truck

Gaupo continues to go to work and provide for our family. He recently has gotten the yard in order by having the lawn mowed and trimmed, the sprinkler system now works, and we have weeded the rocks so that's looking good to. He has enjoyed the extra time at home that Covid-19 has given him. We sure have enjoyed it too.

We have had a chance to do lots of family walks during this Covid time.

As for me, I am still the mom. I make sure all the stuff mentioned above can happen in a home that isn't completely filthy. I try to fill those active bellies with good tasting and mostly good for you food. I love the beautiful weather that has allowed me to spend so much time outside with my family. I enjoy my morning runs with the kiddos in tow. I went once by myself this last week and it was fine, but I do not like passing people in masks alone, its just kind of creepy. I talk on the phone plenty still and even though I make plenty of mistakes in raising these kids I love that I get the chance. These sweet spirits that fill my home fill my heart and I am so glad I can find such joy and satisfaction in this great work.

This cutie and some long blonde hair.

The four kiddos that fill our home. Kylee, Tia, Kade, and Abby.

Yep, kind of what its like here.

Me in some new shorts I bought.

Me because every once in awhile Mom's should have their picture taken.

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!

Another Week in Quarantine

When I talk to people on the phone or sit down to write this blog it becomes really hard for me to think of what we are doing. We have settled into a very nice routine here and I could do it always. I love having my kids around. Sometimes it is super crazy and we really miss the parks being open, but I love watching them learn. I love that they have time and energy to play. I love that they play so well together. The major thing I miss (besides parks) is the one-on-two time I had with my twins while the big girls were at school. I still really miss that because the twins are at my favorite 'baby' stage. I know its more like toddler but under two so baby it is. Anyway, the girls are getting the hang of school and the one-on-two time happens sometimes. Like today, the girls were playing amazingly in the basement and I got a good 30min or so with just the twins outside on the tramp. It was so fun and they were so cute and I remembered how much I love that time. However, having their big sisters home is hard to beat, because if they aren't doing school then they are playing with each other or with the twins and for the most part its really fun.

Anyway, this last week mother nature changed things up for us by dumping about 12 inches of snow. It was a lot of snow. The kids and Gaupo went out before school and work and cleared the tramp and sidewalks off. Then that morning we worked on school. By afternoon Tia was ready to be out again, so we practiced her spelling in the snow and then she played out there while waiting for Kylee to be done. Once Kylee was done with her school work she didn't want to go, but I finally convinced her to go out and those two played for about 2 hours out there. It was awesome. They had so much fun. Our deck will need to be restained now because they were sledding off it, and they did break one of the sleds, but you know they had a great time, and I got to read a book. I decided to pick up one of the books that Gaupo's grandma gave me for Christmas. It was really good to just read a really chill fun book. After reading the twins woke up, and I decided to stop being lazy and get them bundled up and let them go outside. Abby loved it minus her snow gloves. She hated those. She was always pulling them off and then I was putting them back on. Probably most of my time out there was spent putting gloves back on, but no ones hands got too cold. Kade was content to sit in the snow and pat any snow you brought to him. He was super apt to go crawl around and pick it up, but he liked what he did which was pretty much sit in the snow. 

Kylee and Tia in the snow.

Shoving off the deck. Kylee is the that purple coat just off the edge.

She is still there but now showered with snow.

Wishing they were big and could go play.

Also the day it snowed I hosted a virtual Activity Days activity. The real story is that I planned it sent out the link and then totally forgot about it. So, at 7:00 PM when I was on a mission to get my kiddos to bed my phone starts receiving texts like crazy. I just thought it was family chat, but Gaupo decided to look and said "Do you have an activity tonight?" AGHHHHH!! Yes, I did. So, I hurried up and started the meeting and got everyone logged on. Lluckily I picked a super easy activity. We made 3 ingredient Peanut Butter cookies, so I could just you quickly grab stuff as needed. I actually think it turned out well, but I just could believe I totally forgot. Like not even a thought about it earlier and then forgot, nope, I just strait up forgot. Luckily everyone was patient and we had fun and it was good to see the girls there.

Another change up this last week was we setup our big tent in the basement for the kids. We orginally set it up to watch a conference talk in for Family Home Evening and we just left it up. It has been so great though because the kids have finally started playing down there. As you know the weather was kind of yucky last week, so having another place for them to play was great. Plus, Gaupo decided we needed more light down there. So, when he went to home depot to pick up some materials for a project at work, he picked up the stuff to wire in 4 more lights in the back area. He started it Friday and it was completed on Saturday morning. It is so nice to have so much light down there and to have them on a switch, so the kids can turn them on themselves. Plus the switch Gaupo put in has an outlet on it so we can plug a space heater into it and then it warms up the basement too. Guapo was pretty proud of his handy work. He said he hasn't wired anything since high school, so he was very pleased it turned out. I loved it because not only did we get new lights which I LOVE, but we finally got all our storage put away on shelves and so now the whole basement is cleaned up and it leaves so much more room for the kids to play. They already had a ton of room, but I really think it helps them go down there when they don't have to walk past all our stuff anymore. The girls even helped us and discovered some of Gaupos treasures, and all parties involved thought that was so cool. Probably the coolest treasure found was some walkie talkies that we need to located a charging cord for, but the girls thought it was so awesome!

The girls modeling the new lights and switch.

I guess after writing it out, our week wasn't same ol' same ol'. We had a pretty great week. I really am going to miss all this time together. I love Gaupo's lessened work hours. I love that the kids only have like 3 to 4 hours of school a day. I love the play time, and the imaginative time they have. I love that I don't have to worry about my kids not making friends, or being left out of stuff, because right now that isn't really a thing. Some times things are really rough like this morning when Tia could not remember anything we were trying to learn, or come up with any thing she could do to save the Earth, in short she was really struggling with school work. Kade was crying holy terror fits, because I wouldn't let him climb on the table which he can now do by himself as he has learned to climb onto the kitchen chair. Then if I held Kade, Abby wanted up and two babies is really heavy. Then sometimes amidst all of that Kylee would want help or attention on her work. Yeah it can be really overwhelming, and I don't always have great parenting skills in that moment--my voice gets loud. But, then there are other moments like how accomplished my kids feel when they 'cook' (mix up ingredients I premeasure) a giant cookie and it is so good. Or yesterday when the whole day was really pretty much amazing. The kids did there school work with almost no complaining and seemed to understand and do most of it on their own. Then we played and had a picnic lunch. Then Oma read them a book and we finished school work. The big girls played while I made lazagna. Then the whole family went on a bike ride where we actually talked to a real person (thank you Bro. Richards for saying hi). Also on the ride no one complained and really probably would have done more. Then it was dinner and bed. Maybe a little late on those last two things but it doesn't really matter because we are just around ourselves right now. Days like that make me wish my whole life could be like this, and mornings like today make me glad its not all up to me. 

Bike ride/ walk after snow fall.

One happy dirty little girl. This little one LOVES dirt.

Tia, Kylee, and Kade. The girls love to play with Kade.

Remnants of the giant Peanut Butter cookie.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Cooking away.

The stay at home mandate lifts here this weekend, so we will see how that goes. The kids wont go back to school this year, so come August I will let you know how I am doing with all this, but right now most times I love it. I love the time to just be us.

We had take-out!

Chicago Dogs!