Around the house

Riley isn't one that loves to cuddle a lot anymore :( so when she wants to sit with me, I try to take a break from what I'm doing and soak in the cuddles.  

 Finley figured out how to make us look funny by smashing our faces with her hands.  

 Rob had a zoom meeting with Elder Uchdorf.  It was pretty neat to peak in the room and see him on the screen!

 Smores out of peeps are a must after Easter.

 The girls were so nice letting Finley tag along with them for their game.  Emery at one point ran in to tell me to bring my phone out so I could make a video of them making her laugh.  It was cute.

The kids have discovered foot massages.  They love them, I love them, so we take turns giving them to each other.  Even Finley gets in on the action.  This day, I told the kids I would give them each a foot massage.  But even more recently, I've made it an incentive for getting their school work done in the morning.  :)  

 I hope this will become a tradition that lives on forever.  Foot massage swap.  You should try it.

 All of these Ty beanie babies were given to us from my grandma.  Finley had a fun time playing with them one morning.

Riley made this sun on our fridge one day out of our Magformers.  I loved it so much I left it up all day!

Quarantine with a 2 year old.

Up until a few months ago, I was thinking Finley was such a breeze to parent.  I mean she definitely has her days that she throws fits and tantrums, but that just comes with growing up.  I can handle that.  Until a few months ago, she never really got into things that she wasn't supposed to.  I thought (hoped) we had skipped that stage.  Well, I was wrong.  I think before it was easier for me to keep her out of things because in the mornings, it was just her and me hanging out and if it got quiet, I noticed really quickly and found her before she could get into anything.  Well, now that all the kids are home, whenever I realize I've been helping a child for a while and haven't heard Finley, I panic a little bit. 

She's such a cutie it's hard to get upset with her.  Here are just a few things she's been up to lately:

She knows how to open the back door.  Most of the time she just goes out there when there is another kid out there to play with.   But it's harder to open the door to come inside.  So sometimes she gets shut out in the backyard.  I will come and find her quietly knocking on the back door, who knows how long she's been standing there waiting for someone to let her back in.  This time she was squishing her face against the glass.  

 We got some puffy sidewalk paint and she loved it.  I made the rainbow.  But she was really good at tipping those bottles upside down and emptying them all in one big blob on the ground.  ha ha.

 When she plays with our bean bucket, she always is very careful when I'm in the room.  Then if I leave for a minute or two, I come back to this.  She has mastered the art of timing.  

This one is recent.  I've had to warn Rob about her tactics because she does this while he is working in the same room as him!!  She will sneak into my bathroom and get into my makeup drawer and put as much on as she can before I realize she is being too quiet and come find her.  She always puts it on her forehead.  The other day, I caught her wiping my pink lip gloss on her forehead.  And when I find her, she sprints away giggling.  Silly Goose.  I just need to find a new spot for my makeup.  It has happened a couple times a day the past few days.  I told Rob that if she is back there behind him being quiet...assume she is up to no good!  

 When we went to go look at the flags at the park, she walked up to each one for a long stretch and hugged each flag and quietly said "I love you flag".  It was so cute.

 She was my helper when I was making my new chair.  I looked back and saw her doing this.  I had just been doing the same thing.  I thought it was so cute!

 With all the older kids home, the markers and crayons get left out a lot.  Finley takes full advantage and gets as much coloring done before I catch her.  This time she "painted her toes." 

This was her giving her baby a bath.  The green blanket was the water.  Then she decided to join her so she took all her clothes off and jumped in.  ha ha!

Meteor shower tender mercy

I am going to write about an experience Rob and I had last night so I never forget.  I think sometimes we easily forget these small tender mercies from our Heavenly Father because there is so much other stuff going on in our lives that we forget to remember them. 

On Monday night around 11 pm, Rob and I bundled up in blankets and headed outside to lay on the tramp and look at the sky.  I had heard there was a meteor shower that promised as many as 30-40 meteors per hour that night, so we decided to try to see some.  I remember my mom would tell us about these when I was young and she would even wake us up sometimes to see meteor showers or lunar eclipses, so I guess I get my excitement about these types of things from her.  Normally I would be fast asleep by 11. 

We looked up in the sky but our view was blocked by our trampoline net.  We only had a small circle where we could see the sky clearly.  Even so, we saw quite a few shooting stars that night.  It really is amazing to see.  We saw 2 that were pretty good, the others we saw we just quick flashes of light, but still fun to see.  We also saw 2 satellites, which I always think is amazing.  I mean, we have huge hunks of metal in orbiting the earth.  Pretty neat.  We called it a night after seeing maybe 5 or 6 and headed back in and went to sleep.  I thought it was a great success. 

The next night (last night) I asked Rob if he wanted to go out again and look for meteors because the shower was supposedly still going to be happening.  The moon was really bright on Monday and was even bright last night so I wasn't expecting to see as many as the night before.  We were laying on the tramp again with our blankets.  Same small viewing window as before because of the trampoline net.  The meteors were supposed to be mostly coming from a different part of the sky, but we just looked straight up because we had had success the night before doing that.  I spotted another satellite in the sky and we saw a few brief flashes but nothing as cool as the night before.  We had been out there about 30 minutes when we were discussing going back inside in a bit. We had also reminisced about the few times when we were dating that we went out to a park in Spanish Fork and would see satellites and once we saw an amazing shooting star.  It was so beautiful.  The biggest one we had seen in our lives.

Rob suggested that we say our nightly prayer while we were out there.  It was my turn, but I felt weird praying with my eyes opened (because I didn't want to miss anything while we were praying) so Rob said it.  As he was praying, I had the thought, "It would be really cool if we saw a huge shooting start right when Rob finishes the prayer."  In my mind I was thinking if that happened, that would be a sign from Heavenly Father.  But also in my mind, I thought "but even if that doesn't happen...I still know He is there and loves me."  All of this of course went through my mind in just a split second or two. I didn't really think we were going to see anything amazing when Rob said Amen.  I just thought it would be really cool if that happened. 

Rob was starting to wind his prayer down and before he ended his prayer he said "Oh yeah, and thank you for this wonderful meteor shower..." and as those words came out of his mouth, a huge shooting star started flying across the sky.  It started right where the trampoline net stopped blocking our view and it flew all the way across to where the net started to block our view again.  We both just started hooting and hollering things like "Oh my gosh! DO you see that?!  It's STILL going!!"  It lasted probably 3 seconds.  It was so long.  And beautiful.  There was an orange tail behind it that sort of broke into pieces.   It was amazing.  Then when it was over, Rob was like "I guess we should finish our prayer!" and he thanked Heavenly Father for that wonderful gift he had just given us. 

It's really interesting because I went right in and wrote about it in my journal and I knew it was a simple sign from Heavenly Father that he loved Rob and I individually, even though we aren't really anyone special.  Today as I was thinking about it I kept letting my mind wander over to thinking that some people would just think that was a coincidence.  But as I thought about it more and more, there is really no way that could have been a coincidence and here are some of the reasons:

-The fact that I had the thought that it would be cool if that happened and then it actually happening.  Heavenly Father speaks to people in ways that they will hear and understand.  I know that this was a sign to me letting me know that even through this weird time we are having with so many new and strange things in the world, He knows me and loves me and my family.  He speaks to others in ways that they will understand and hear too.  Whether it be through music, nature, books, words, or other people.  It's pretty amazing. 
-The shooting star started literally right after Rob thanked Heavenly Father for this beautiful meteor shower.  I mean...come on. 
-There was a whole sky above us and all around us.  Most of it was blocked by our trampoline net.  We mostly just saw the big dipper in our view.  The star started right at one end of the net and slowly made it's way to the other end of the net before it fizzled out.  I mean, right in the middle of our view.  It was amazing.  When the entire night sky is out there, and it happens at that time right in the view where we don't even need to turn our heads or eyes, that's amazing. 

Anyway, I just wanted to write all of these thoughts down before I forgot any of them.  Heavenly Father knows us an loves us individually.  And he wants us to be happy and have joy.  And we can have joy even when we are going through scary things like Covid-19 or earthquakes or unknown futures and anything else we might be facing.  I'm grateful for that knowledge and hope that I can always see the little tender mercies that are being shown to me. 

Easter 2020

We had a great Easter this year.  It was nice, not having to rush to get ready to go to church.  We did our sacrament meeting at home early in the morning and then the kids went to see if the Easter Bunny came in the backyard.  The collected eggs and then we had the sorting and evening out ceremony after.  :) Then Sadie and I made "resurrection rolls" to have with lunch.  They turned out yummy. 

 Sadie is getting good in the kitchen!

 I was worried when I saw what the pan looked like coming out of the oven.  I didn't think they worked, but they did!

 I eventually did my hair and makeup, which I hadn't done in WEEKS.  So I thought I better document it.  And this is the picture that I drew (following someone's instructions) that she colored for me.

 Opening all the eggs.

 Finley discovered this little nook that she likes to play in.

 Beautiful Sadie with her stash.

 Sorting and seeing what they got!

 They found everything!

 There was an egg up really high and I happen to time this picture perfectly when Sadie jumped up to get it!

 Finley was a good little finder!

 There is always something on the tramp!

 Riley's excitement is so fun to watch.  She is genuinely happy for everyone when they get something cool.  

Before the egg hunt.  

It was a great Easter this year.  All of this staying home has helped us all realize the important things in life.  We have had some amazing discussions with our kids about life and on this day in particular Jesus Christ.  I am so grateful for Him and that he lives.  And that we can strive to be like him and when we fall, He will lift us back up to keep going.  He will help us all through this strange time if we let Him.  

Chalk Art

 I had seen this project floating around on the internet but never really wanted to do it.  Then, the kids got this as an assignment from their art teacher for school.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  And I love how it turned out!  We were really low on chalk, when we were done there was just a few tiny pieces left!

 Before we took the tape off...

 After.  These three and I were the ones who worked on this piece.  Zac wasn't very interested.  But he made his own picture on another part of the driveway...

It is 4 different habitats and things that live there.  He worked on this for a good long time getting everything on it that he wanted.  

Our friends moved across the country :(

 Our neighbors and really good friends moved away last week.  It's been really hard because this last month before they moved we couldn't even hang out with them because of Coronavirus.  It's been really hard.  Before this all happened, the kids would be together literally every day after school.  They would either be at my house or their house and they would go back and forth playing.  It was crazy, but also so fun for the kids.  But this last month has been so quiet (well as quiet as a house can get with 7 people in it!)  So we planned a little picnic lunch social distancing style. We met in a parking lot and sat across from each other and ate lunch. 

Here is Sadie and her very best friend Brytin giving each other a "hug".  

 Zac and his best friend Bryant.  They will miss each other so much!

 Here was our set up.  They brought pizza, we brought boring sandwiched and cookies.  

Tessa was someone who was so good at bringing people together.  I was really sad that we wouldn't be able to throw her a big going away party.  She really deserved one, but with what is going on with Covid-19 it was impossible.  So I put together a "drive by goodbye."  I was worried nobody would show up, but so many people did.  It was amazing.  They really will be missed.  We love them so much.  

This was the line of cars waiting to talk to them.  It was a tear fest in our car by the time we got up to them.  Finley was sitting in my lap and kept asking why I was so sad.  Sadie broke the rules (with our permission...and theirs) and gave Brytin a long hug.  They were both crying  by the end.  Those two will definitely miss each other.   

 Sadie was so nice and took pictures with her poleroid camera for all the kids to have. Each of the kids got to keep a picture.  I love it.

Then the day before they left, I was feeling really weepy and crying at everything and nothing.  We decided that we were going to break the rules again and let the kids play together all day.  They were in our house while everything was being packed up in their house.  It was so great to hear the chaotic noise that having 9 kids running around in the house brings.  I missed it so much.  

 Riley and Haidyn.

 Sadie and Brytin working on a 3D puzzle and the rest of the kids playing Mario Party in the background.  :)

 These kids....we will miss them so much!!

 Of course the crazy picture.

They have only been gone for 6 days and we have already video chatted with them a few times.  Ha ha.  We have been changed for the better by knowing the Lefler family.  We know that they will bring light and happiness to Pennsylvania.  Good luck you guys!