Visit from grandma and grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came to town!  We love it when they come.  They had to postpone this trip because of Covid-19, but better late than never!  Finley is just in heaven when they are here.  She follows them around and talks their ears off.  It's pretty cute.  My mom always brings fun crafts for the kids to do and helps with lots of projects around the house.  Same with my dad.  He helped cut a hole in our ceiling, fix our oven and he fixed a key on our digital piano that was playing too loud.  They also helped us move a real piano into our house which is always a huge job.  Thank you!!  We love that they help us with things but we also just love to visit with them.  

Finley and Grandma shooting the breeze on the front porch.  

The day they got there we did a primary parade where the primary leaders and teachers drove around to wave at the primary kids in the neighborhood.  Since I'm the music leader, I got to participate.  I rode a bike with a friend at the back of the parade and we threw fruit snacks to the kids.  It was fun to see them.  Here are my kids and grandma and grandpa waiting for the parade to get to them.  

Finley loved trying on grandma and grandpa's glasses.  They had to clean so many fingerprints off of them while they were here. 

We did a chin head concert for my primary kids while they were here.  Thanks for the help!

Grandpa brought his marbles!  Every single time we facetimed with them, Finley would ask him to bring out his marbles and dump them out.  So when he brought them with him, it was a great surprise!

Playing legos is a fun Sunday activity around here.  Or any day activity.  It happens daily. 

My mom is so talented.  She painted these peg people to look like our family.  They turned out so great.  Finley loves playing with them and knows who each of them is supposed to be.

From left to right: Grandma and Gramdpa Kevan, Grandma and Grandpa Selin, Rob, Lindsey, Sadie, Zac Emery, Riley, Finley.  I love how Finley's little head is barely sticking out of the cup.

Our family.  Complete with Rob wearing his Kung Fu outfit.

Grandma and grandpa Selin complete with bowtie.

Grandma and grandpa Kevan complete with wheelchair!  

Uncle Scott sent down this doll house that one of his kids wasn't using anymore.  Thank you!  The kids love it!  Finley would talk whoever she could into playing with it with her.  One time I came downstairs and saw her and grandpa relaxing on these pillows.  So cute!

Grandpa and grandma set up a mystery box adventure for the kids.  They loved it!  Thanks for setting it up!

It first led us to the farm at Gardner Village where the kids got to go on a pony ride!  The farmer that worked there was very friendly and invited the kids to make a smore around the fire.  It was a welcome change from all the social distancing we've been having to do to have someone just welcome us in instead of making sure they were staying away.  It felt good.

The kids had a great time on their ponies. 

Then they had to figure out the next clue.  They really impressed me and figured it out all on their own.  Probably faster than I would have!

Riley and Emery wanted to check out the fairy wings.

So fun.

Rob wanted to be a fairy too.  :)

The kids figured out the next clue and then we saw this duck family.  Why are baby animals so adorable?

The mystery box ended up leading us to Dairy Queen for a yummy treat.  Thank you grandma and grandpa.  It was a fun adventure!

This is one of the crafts my mom brought for the kids to do.  I was impressed because they all got one of these things they had to hand sew together and they all put in the work and did it!  It took a few hours and they all stuck with it and finished it.  I'll have to add pictures of the other kids with theirs.  

My dad is so good at figuring things out.  I learned a few things watching him.  He takes pictures as he goes in case he forgets how to put it back together.  Genius!! Thanks for fixing the piano.  It sounds great now!

Grandma even played Mariokart with the kids.  

Here we are loading up the piano into the truck we rented from Home Depot.  My uncle even came and helped.  That was really nice to have all of the extra hands.  When we returned the truck to Home Depot, we talked to the same guy that rented it to us.  He had given us all the rules and had a fun conversation before we got the piano.  I remember Rob making a joke when he said we couldn't even chew gum in the truck.  So when we returned it the guy went out to check on the condition of the truck to make sure we didn't trash it.  When he came back and said everything looked good Rob said "You didn't find the gum then huh?"  He replied "no, you must have hid that good!"  It was so funny.  I couldn't stop laughing all the way home.  Now it doesn't seem as funny, but it really was.  Guess you had to be there!

My mom painted our front door.  I will have to post picture of it all done.  I love it. 

Ladybugs

 We found a treasure trove of ladybugs near our peach tree one day.  Finley loved finding them and picking them up if they were walking on a piece of bark, but she did NOT want them to touch her.  Ha ha.  Riley on the other hand was not afraid.  She was holding 8 or 10 of them at a time.  It was fun. 

Then we found this little guy who had no spots!

Puffy Sidewalk chalk paint

 Someone in our neighborhood was selling this puffy sidewalk chalk paint to earn some money.  So I bought one of every color!  It was a fun activity.  When you spray it with vinegar, it fizzes.  We had fun for an afternoon in the shade making pictures. 

 I made this rainbow.  Finley liked it.

 Sadie was good at the abstract art. 

 I made these tulips.

 Zac and Emery worked on this one together.  

 It was a fun afternoon activity.  Doing something different is always fun.

Then the kids hung out in the pool while waiting for their Orbeez to grow.  :)

Zac's 10th birthday!

 About a month ago, Zac turned 10 years old!!  He only has one more year that he can show his age on his fingers.  He was pretty bummed that we couldn't invite friends over because of Covid-19 and social distancing.  But we made the most out of it. 

Zac is such a great brother.  Of course, he likes to tease and bug his sisters (like all siblings do!) but he also is so great with them.  He loves when Finley will play with him.  He loves to make up games to play with his sisters.  In fact, he is working on creating a board game right now.  He does great in school and catches on to new things quickly.  He claims his weakness is "work".  ha ha.  But he can do some types of work for hours at a time.  The other day he hand stitched a sequin cactus.  It took him most of the day, but he did it!

 Here is Zac after he found his treasure hunt gift.  

 It was air soft guns.  

 Here he is trying to figure out how to put this big one together.  He stuck with it and I had to tell him multiple times to follow the silver rule.  :)

 Then we took them out to the back deck and he spent the rest of the day shooting at targets.  All the girls tried them out too.  We had the safety talk with all of them before we let them shoot.  

 We are already out of ammo.  Zac will need to save up his money to buy some more.  But he loved it!

 And of course.  Cake and ice cream.  

He was using paper plates as his targets and one of the bullets got stuck halfway through!  cool!

Happy birthday Zac!

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.