Life during lockdown

We've done lots of hanging around at the house lately...much like everyone else in the country.  The kids school was out for originally 2 weeks and now it is out until May 1st.  I wouldn't be surprised if they don't go  back at all before next year.  That will be sad because I love most of their teachers this year.  And this is Sadie's last year in elementary school!  I can only imagine how hard this is on those students who are seniors in high school! 

Our schedule usually consists of school work in the morning, and playing in the afternoon. 

Zac has been so good with his sisters.  He will snuggle with Finley, set up obstacle courses and other surprises with Sadie for the younger kids and he is working on being able to do 10 pull ups.  

I also introduced the kids to speed scrabble and they love it!  Especially the older two.  We play it almost every night when the younger kids are in bed.  

This girl's life has been turned upside down.  She got used to having mom all to herself for a few hours each day, but now with all the kids home and mom trying to run back and forth trying to help them all with their school work she finds ways to pass the time.  ha ha.  This is her masterpiece she drew on the wall in dry erase.  I thought it would just wipe right off, but nope.  It's still there.  I can't get it off!  

This picture is for one of Zac's assignments.  He had to use the word unimportant in a sentence and then submit a picture that went with his sentence.  He said something like "toilet paper is unimportant during an earthquake."  ha ha.  

Visit from Uncle Scott and Aunt Christi

 A month or so ago, my brother Scott and his wife Christie came up for a visit.  It was great to have them with us for a few days, although my kids were sad that they didn't have their kids with them!  She is pregnant with a baby boy due in April.  The kids just love any visitors but especially uncle Scott. 

They loved watching him play Zelda- Breath of the Wild and felt pretty important giving him pointers and tips since they had been playing the game longer than him.

 We went to a volleyball game with them one night down at BYU.  We really should bring our kids down there more often.  It was fun showing the kids the place we met and the BYU bookstore and other things from our college days.  Here they are with Cosmo in the Bookstore.

 You have to look really close, but you can see the Y on the mountain in the background.  It really blends in with the snow.

 At the game.  BYU won easily.  We also randomly saw my cousin and her husband (who live in California) in the crowded gym and ran over to say hello.  I told Rob we should go to more BYU sporting events.  It was a blast!

 We visited my grandparents on Sunday afternoon.  They are always fun to visit.  I'm glad I got a few visits in with them before the Covid-19 hit.  Now I would be nervous to visit them anytime soon.  I wouldn't want to pass along any germs we didn't know we had.  

Scott and Christi took the kids and I out to FIZZ drinks before they headed home.  The kids thought that was pretty great.  Thank you!

Outside fun

 Back before "social distancing" we had some friends stop by while we were playing 4 square in the driveway.  We stopped to chat and then started to roll the ball with the girls.  My friends baby was loving it!  It was adorable. 

Finley did an ok job sharing too.  :)

After 4 kids without one of these iconic play cars, we finally got one for Finley.  Actually a neighbor was getting rid of it so we inherited it.  But the other kids are enjoying playing with it too.  Emery barely could squeeze in there and drive Finley around a bit.  

Finley loved it I think...what do you think?

My Birthday- I'm 34

 A few weeks ago, I had my 34th birthday.  We didn't celebrate on my birthday because it was a really busy day, but Rob did have these flowers delivered to me:

I love Tulips!  

Then we celebrated my birthday on that Saturday.  Funny story, the Friday night before I was going to the movie "Emma" with some friends from my neighborhood.  I plugged my phone in so it was charged for my outing.  Not ten minutes later I went to get it and it was unplugged and gone!  I went out and asked the kids if they had moved it and they all said no.  I enlisted Sadie's help to find it.  She called it with the Alexa, and we listened for it.  I heard it buzzing and Sadie found it in Rob's backpack!  I went and asked him about it and he said "I knew I should have put it all the way on silent!"  ha ha.  He wouldn't tell me why he needed it, so I just left it at home and went to the movie.  Needless to say, the next day, I got a new phone for my birthday!  ha ha.  But it was just a phone.  No charger or box or anything.  I thought that was odd, but wasn't too worried about it.  Later Rob mentioned he payed for a screen protector but it didn't look like there was one. So we took it back to the Tmobile store and talked to the employee about it.  I mentioned I thought it was weird that it didn't come with a charger and then he was like "wait a minute!" and he ran to the back of the store and came back with my box and charger.  Rob mentioned that he had all 5 kids with him and he was just trying to keep them from breaking and touching everything so he left in a hurry.  The worker had left the box with a note in the back.  Pretty funny.  

I asked for a store bought cake but I forgot to specify that I wanted the whipped cream frosting.  This chocolate cake was yummy too though.  

 Rob wrote out "34" with the candles...He accidentally made the 3 backwards.  Haha!

 I'm so grateful for an amazing husband and wonderful children who I got to spend my birthday with.  They really are the best!

Corona Virus, Social Distancing, and homeschooling...oh yeah, and an EARTHQUAKE!

 We have had a lot of change recently.  The Corona virus (Covid-19) that originated in China has spread throughout the world at a very fast pace.  There have been a lot of deaths from it and right now in Italy, they are on quarantine.  It made it's way to the United States and now it is spreading here too.  So President Trump and the Governor of Utah suggested we all practice "social distancing".  I think that means to try to avoid large crowds, they said to not have gatherings of more than 10 people, and to wash your hands a hundred times a day. 

Then, they started closing the schools and work places to further hinder the spread of the virus.  It is so bazaar.  So we went from normal to not so normal really fast.  The teachers at the kid's school have been working hard to get content online so they can stay caught up for the two weeks they will be schooling from home. (I think it will probably end up being longer than that!  I'm wondering if it will go through the end of the year!)  They have been amazing.  So the kids had Friday the 13th off of school because they had parent teacher conferences on Thursday.  But that was the first official day of social distancing.  So no playing with friends. Rob worked from home because he had a cough.  Then people started buying up all the toilet paper and water bottles at Costco.  There were lines to the back of the store.  Actually, people started buying the toilet paper before that because I went to Costco with my friend on Wednesday morning to get some things that were in their coupon book, and they were already out of toilet paper.  I'm so glad we went then because the next day was when the Costco lines were so crazy.  But we were running low on toilet paper because I had decided not to get some the last time I went to Costco to stay within the grocery budget that month.  Big Mistake.  ha ha.  I don't know why everyone is buying up all the toilet paper. 

So Wednesday was the first day we were supposed to officially start homeschooling.  That morning Rob got up with the kids. I stayed in bed, but I was awake reading about the Corona virus on my phone probably.  Then a little after 7 I started to feel our room shake.  It took me a few seconds to figure out that it was an earthquake.  It didn't stop so I ran out to the living room where everyone was and saw them huddled under the table.  Apparently they had been eating breakfast at the time and Rob was over on the couch.  They felt the earthquake and Rob called them all over to him, but Sadie grabbed Finley and got under the table.  Then Rob said "yeah that's a better idea!  Get under the table!"  ha ha.  Thank goodness for Sadie.  That's about when I got out there.  I huddled under the table for a few seconds and the shaking stopped but then our whole house started swaying like it was riding the waves of the ocean.  Such a crazy experience!  Then for the rest of the day, we were all on high alert.  Every time we felt a rumble or heard a loud car we would brace for another earthquake.  There were 3 or 4 aftershocks that we felt.  I think I felt one this morning even.  But the kids didn't sleep well last night because they were terrified of another earthquake.  The three older girls slept together on Riley's bed and Zac slept on the top bunk. Finley walked around all day saying "scary" and pointing to the hanging light above the table. I think it's because it was swaying for a while after the earthquake and so she thinks that was what caused it.  :)  It was a crazy morning. 

Then after that we were supposed to get our kids all working on their school work.  Yeah right!  ha ha.  We actually were able to get them going on it.  We are still getting the hang of it.  I'm just so grateful for their awesome teachers and school. 

Everything has been cancelled.  Zac had a chess tournament that he was supposed to go to on Saturday the 14th, but he had to miss it because it was cancelled.  Church is now happening at home to help slow the spread of the virus.  How neat that President Nelson had Come Follow Me in place before this happened.  We didn't even skip a beat with church because we were able to just use our manual at home and have a discussion with our kids for the lesson.  I was really glad all the kids were out of school for the earthquake too because I can't imagine sending them to school after that.  I'm just seeing God's hand in all of this.  It really is amazing.  You can look at it an see all the bad, but you can also see the good. 

We got a new game on the Nintendo Switch called Mario Party.  We had enjoyed playing it together.  Then Zac made his own version that we played in the basement.  It was pretty fun!  It took him a while to put together too.  

 After we had "church" Zac decided to be the M&M guy. It was hilarious.  There is a man in our ward who sits out in the foyer and has a little spoon that holds 4 M&Ms in it.  The kids all get in a line and he scoops up 4 M&Ms and gives them to each kid.  If you look at Finley's hands in the picture above, she is showing the proper technique that he teaches the kids to catch the m&ms.  Zac used a much larger spoon, but I thought it was so funny that he thought of doing that.  

 The kids made a huge fort while we were out on a date.  They always text us and say they have a surprise for us.  I have stopped hoping that it will be that they cleaned up for us.  It's almost always a big mess...I mean fort that they've built.  Ha ha.  But we let them leave it up overnight and the next day I caught Riley reading to Finley in it.  

 Zac has had a lot of time to build things.  The legos on the ground next to him are a marble maze that he built, and the tower is made out of Quarkle tiles.  

 The finished pyramid.  Which fell right after I took this.  

 I put this tape on my face to make the kids laugh.  When they finally noticed they didn't laugh.  They just asked me what I was doing.  Haha  Fail!

 Emery made this leprechaun out of Duplos on St. Patrick's Day.

 My friend Robyn invited us to go to her family's Green party for St. Patrick's day.  We didn't end up going because of the whole social distancing thing, but Robyn was so nice and brought us a chocolate pudding pie that she had made for the party.  (it was pi day)  It was so yummy.

 Trying to get outside, but the weather isn't cooperating very well...

 The kids have gotten along pretty well so far.  Lots of Legos, games, music, dodgeball, and 4 square are going on at our house the past week or so.

 We actually got an official 4 square ball because we lost this blue on in a wind storm with thing.  Who knows where the wind blew it.  Serves us right for leaving it outside!

 Finley and Riley.  Cuties!

Zac started learning to play the guitar.  So did Sadie.  So we got another guitar.  

Phew!  That was a long post.  But we are hanging in there.  We are looking to the future with faith in Christ.  We are so glad for our testimony of the Savior.  He is our Rock, especially during times of uncertainty.  

Piano recital for Grandma and Grandpa Selin (of the great variety)

When the church came out with the new youth programs, I had the idea that the kids could plan and perform in a piano recital for my grandparents who live in Syracuse as one of their goals. (I actually had seen my sister in law post on their instagram that they had done a Christmas recital as a family and I loved it so much so I had been waiting to use the idea!)  The kids all chose some songs (and other random talents) they could share.  I also told them it might be good to do something that is more out of their comfort zone so we all decided that they could sing a song while I accompanied on the piano.  (This also pushed me out of my comfort zone a bit!) 

The kids made a program and printed it out so grandma and grandpa could follow along and see what it was they were playing/singing/doing.  We also brought lunch and dessert.  There always has to be dessert after a piano recital right!?!  The kids did a great job.  And we really enjoyed our time with my grandparents.  They shared a few stories from their life which were fun to listen to. 

Picture as we left.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for letting the kids share their talent with you!

Rob's talent was picking up some dog poop we noticed on our way out to the car.  Let's all give it up for Rob for picking up the dog poop!  Ha ha.  Just kidding.  His job was keeping Finley occupied.  He did great at that!

In the car on the way home.  

Finley fell fast asleep with the ear things on.  

We recorded the whole recital.  Here is a link to it on youtube if you want to watch it.  :)

https://youtu.be/lpWe4QCylgw

After the recital we ate lunch (two sub sandwiches that I had made and some chips) and then after lunch I had made cookies and an apple pie.  I was pretty proud of myself when my grandpa got up after lunch and said "I think I'll run to the store and get some vanilla ice cream for that pie."  But I informed him we had brought some with us!  He seemed pleasantly surprised by my being so prepared.  Score!!  It feels really good being able to serve some of the people who have served you so much in your life.  I sure love and appreciate my grandparents!

I had an idea...

 A month or so ago, we were reading the Book of Mormon.  We were reading about how Nephi was commanded to build a boat.  I was really struck with the enormity of the task this time as I read it.  I mean, he had to find the wood, cut it to size and put it together in a way that would float and carry people across a body of water.  Oh yeah... and first he had to MAKE HIS TOOLS!  So I had the idea to invite the kids to make dinner with me one night.  We would make spaghetti, but we would have to first MAKE the noodles and then eat them.  I related it to the story of Nephi and the kids weren't super excited about it at first, but as we got going they got more into it.

I borrowed a pasta machine and we made pasta for the first time.  I printed out instructions and told the kids it was like when Nephi had a question, he had to rely on Heavenly Father to provide the instructions.  He didn't have the convenience of having a printed version.  But we did. 

The noodles turned out yummy and I'm hoping the lesson stuck with the kids. 

 We needed everyone's help as the noodles got longer and longer.  

 I think next time I will use smaller pieces of dough.  ha ha.

Isn't this an amazing sight?? The kids helped with making the salad while the noodles cooked.  

Overall it was a yummy dinner.  And my kids are excellent dinner helpers.  

Daddy Daughter Dance

 Every year, the youth group for 8-11 year olds has a daddy daughter dance around Valentine's day.  This year Emery got to have Rob all to herself because Sadie is now too old to attend.  I'm pretty sure she really enjoyed the one on one time.  :)  These two had pasta for dinner and danced the night away together.