Grandpa Wilcox's birthday

Today is my Dad's 63rd birthday.  This man is amazing is so many ways.  I love his gentleness and his fairness.  He has a fun sense of humor that he shares with the grandkids.  

We met at Nelson's Grove to have a picnic.  We lasted about an hour and had to retreat back to my parent's house.  The kids played with bubbles and fed the ducks.  When we got in the car, the temperature read 105 degrees.

So, we had taken the COVID tests a few weeks ago and stayed quarantined while waiting for the results.  That was our plan when we took them.  I was surprised at how many people thought we wouldn't or shouldn't stay quarantined.  I have never had so many people trying to give their very strong opinions one way or the other.  Ironically, our results all came back negative but because of our quarantine I ended up missing being exposed.  Our Ward was given permission to hold small youth gatherings.  We had planned the 14-18 year old girls to get together social distance style and gather 150 Book of Mormons with testimonies in them to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Young Women's organization.  ALL of girls forgot about the activity and I was quarantining.  2 days later, the Young Women's president and her family all tested positive for COVID.  I guess that the activity being a bust was a blessing in disguise, especially because the activity had been scheduled for her house.  

Then two days ago, our area authority sent out a letter saying that numbers were rising too quickly here in Utah and that as members of the community we needed to wear masks when we couldn't properly social distance.

Seth drew a picture of swords for Grandpa for his birthday.

We didn't wear masks outside, but we did in the house.  The kids did fairly well.  Seth and Evelyn wore face shields like mine and Sam wore a bandana like Jer.  Ada wore a full on mask, but she kept taking it off and putting it in her pocket.  

In the evening, Jer took everyone to shoot rockets down in some open fields next to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  

Aubrey, Michelle and Sophie made a cake for Grandpa.  (We took masks off for the picture).

Jordan's baptism

My nephew, Jordan, got baptized this last week. It was really neat.  He was worried that they wouldn't be able to do the baptism and that my parents wouldn't be able to make it out to Virginia for it, because Virginia's still on lock down.  Their family ended up coming out to stay with my parents because my brother was working from home anyways and at least here they can leave the house.  They couldn't even leave their apartment out there.  Jordan had his birthday and they approved having his baptism here.  ALL of us got to be part.  That was fun.  

]

After the baptism in the morning, I went a school board meeting and Ada decorated Sam's cake.  She had all these plans to make it fancy and Sam said no... nothing but Oreos.... so that's what she did.  Then we sang to him and had birthday cake at Grandma's since the cousins were still together after the baptism.

I can't believe this kid is 11.  In some ways he's so mature and in others he's not.  He can't wait to be able to attend the temple next year.  He's really disappointed that he has to wait another 6 months.  He, Ada and Dad were supposed to go on a backpacking trip for his birthday but it rained so they rescheduled it for this next weekend.  They're actually leaving later today.  I hope he has fun.  He really likes doing things.  He hates boredom.

Earlier this week

So this happened this week too.... Evelyn, who has had the ability to ride a two wheeled bike but has been too scared to decided that she was no longer scared.  She's been going everywhere on her bike and it's adorable.  Most of the time when she's out there, so is Seth who is using Evelyn's old bike with training wheels on it.  So much fun.

For our YW's activity, we borrowed a golf cart and had a 'driving school' complete with obstacles and parking challenges.  It was fun and we had one of our very anxious YW come for the first time because they had wanted to drive the golf cart.  They brought their mom with them and I think it went okay.

Brickslopes came to Utah last weekend too.  The kids didn't want to go originally, but I wanted them off the computer for a while so we went anyways.  They had a blast and wished that we had more time to play.  Because it was May 4th, they had a Star Wars theme.  not only were there characters, but they had almost every Star Wars lego set ever made on display.  That was fun.

Evelyn was the only one brave enough to take a picture with these guys.... so the guy gave her his blaster for the picture.

My sister and brother in law gave me a gift card to Home Depot as a thank  you for taking pictures for them... so I picked out and Jer replace the leaking kitchen faucet.  I like it and it works well. 

Our neighbors are Samoan.  We don't know them very well because we always have conflicting schedules, but we've taken them bread before and lent our lawn mower in the past.  They were making Samoan pancakes and gave us some too.  SOOOOOO good.... like donuts.  They're not too hard to make either.  If they weren't fried, I'd want to make them all the time.

Ada has decided that her favorite part of salads is the red cabbage, so I bought a whole red cabbage and that was our veggie for dinner.  They thought that was pretty funny.

It's been pretty windy, so Seth and Evelyn went to fly their 'kites'.  Of course you need to fly kites on bikes.... it's just not the same otherwise.

This is Ada' team.  There are supposed to be 9, but only 6-7 come each game.  It makes it a challenge for the whole team, but each of them are such good girls.  Several of them have been on the same team for a couple of years and several are making plans to sign up again together next year.  

Sam had his pinewood derby this week.  We forgot about it until the night before, so we decided to make a very easy car.  Sam decided on a bathtub.  Jer cut it, Sam painted it, and I added the bubbles with a hot glue gun.  It didn't win anything, but they gave Sam the Rub a dub dub award.  Jer and I laughed about that and Sam had no idea what they were talking about.... which made us laugh even harder.

This week Ada also participated in the highly anticipated Hope of America program.  She's been singing the songs and practicing actions for months now.  She loved being part of it, Sam said he'd be terrified to sing in front of that many people (then continues to belt out the Star Spangled Banner), Seth and Evelyn said it was too loud but loved dancing and singing in the bleachers.  For me it was an all day deal.  I had to get her there by 9 am, pick her up at 11 am, then wait in traffic for almost an hour to get her there on time for the actual performance.  So instead of driving back and forth all day, I dropped her off and Seth and I went to the Paleontology lab on campus.  Seth kept pointing out to me that the bones had to be glued together with plaster and that the petrified trees used to be wood but they were now stone.  Cute buddy.  And he's never scared of the bones, except for one of the giant elk heads on the wall.  Which I think is hilarious, because most dinosaurs would be more dangerous that the prehistoric elk.  After that we went to the Bean Museum and looked at animals.  Again, he was only scared of the giant fake ants in the play area.  We picked up Ada and her friend Taevia, went shopping, they made cookies at our house, went and got Ada and Sam's hair cut, got Evelyn to dance and then headed out to the Marriot Center.  Us going to the museum worked in our favor though.  When we got there for the performance, there was a baseball game at the same time and there was absolutely no parking anywhere, but I still had my parking pass from the museum, so I parked there. That gave us a shorter walk and I was 'legally' parked though it felt a little weird. 

Days like this make me so glad to be a stay at home mom.  Trying to work this all out without a parent available would have been really hard.  

Just a couple more busy weeks like this and we'll have a heavenly summer schedule.  I can't wait.  

Here's Ada's performance on YouTube.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoivSur7Ars

Sunday

This last Sunday was a little crazy.  We had to be at the church from 8 until about 11 and then back in the afternoon for a orientation meeting.  The Bishopric that Jeremy has been working with for the last 5? ish years was released.  We love these dear families and their work to keep the Ward working smoothly.  Jer was called to stay working with the new bishopric, so we're in for another 5 or so years, but he's doing a great job.  

It's interesting to see the family situations of all these brothers.  None are the same, none have the same humor, job status, etc.... One is a widower with grown children, us with older kids, a family with grandkids and older kids at home, a family with lots of little tiny kids and a family with all grown daughters that are out of the house.  But they all work well together because of what they're working for.

(I don't usually mind too much how I look in pictures, but I mind in this one!  Gah!  I had just lost some weight but then had to take some steroids to help my foot.... now not only did I gain the weight back, but I'm retaining water and look more puffy around my face than before.... the never ending fight.  I also had been up getting kids ready for church by myself an hour earlier than normal and wasn't planning on having pictures taken... just threw on the first dress I saw.  Not a great choice in this case.  Oh well).

Weekend of cousins, St Patrick's Day, and Women at the Well

This one was on my camera, but it's from a couple weeks ago at the baptism.

This Friday,  my brother McKay who is moving to Virginia, asked if they could stay with us until they left because all of their furniture had been packed.  We loved having them here.  I love people being around.  Remember that book about love languages?  I think that my love language is time.  When people give me their time I feel loved.  The first night, Janelle had them all over to sleep at her house as a niece and nephew sleepover.  That had so much fun and came back chatty and happy.  Sam woke up at 4:30 and chatted with Janelle, woke up Jordan and then eventually woke up every one else too. McKay and I stayed up late talking.  Jer had TERT training on Saturday and McKay was still cleaning the house up there, so I  took the kids and we just hung out all day.  The Bronleys were visiting their grandparents, so they came to play too.  I had 11 kids for most of the day.  It was fun to see Sam loving baseball and cousins.  Evelyn and Ada playing dolls with Michelle and Lizzie.  Aubrey asking to cook all day and Jordan getting out games to play.  I have a hard time loving Hannah, my friend's 6 year old, but everything was so fun.  It was such a nice day outside.  I asked the kids to pick up dog poop and then they played out there for most of the day.  After asking the kids to put away the same game three times, I put everyone in our two cars and Jer and I took them to the park.  That was fun despite Sam and Ada falling and getting scraped up.  

On Sunday, we got kids up and dressed for church.  It was cute to see Jordan hugging his Dad all through sacrament meeting.  Evelyn and Seth were particularly wiggly.  I'm guessing that they were tired.  We've been going to bed late.  Sophie had flown in from Virginia to Las Vegas to see her sister and parents before meeting up with McKay and the kids to drive out there.  She took the shuttle up from St George and got up to Orem about the time that church got out.  It was fun to chat with her.  Sunday was St Patrick's Day.  Janelle made and brought all of an amazing Irish dinner with fun green veggies and desserts.  It was delicious corned beef and potatoes with brussel sprouts.  Monday we got to spend the afternoon and evening together before they drove out on Tuesday morning.  

Tuesday morning, Ada and I got up to go to our barre class before she had to leave for school.  She's such a trooper.  We usually go in the evening, which is easier for me physically, but she wanted to spend more time with cousins so we opted to go the next morning.  She never complained once about having to wake up at 5:30 am.  She did have some problems with some of the exercises, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I have to modify some of the exercises because my plantar is still inflamed.  She sees me modify and doesn't push herself as hard.  It's hard for me to tell her to work harder so that her feet get stronger when I'm just proud that she's there at all.  Jer would be a better work out companion for her, but I need these same exercises for my own feet so she's stuck with me.  I enjoy the time with her too.  It's fun to get one on one time with her.  I think her love language is time as well.  

Two weeks ago I was asked to play the Women at the Well program on the piano for our next Relief Society meeting.  It was fun.  I made lots of mistakes, even going back to the wrong coda.  It was pretty funny.  But my favorite thing that came out of it was Ada.  I would practice and she would come and watch me play.  Sometimes even asking to sing along with me.  I LOVED it.  

Aubrey gets a little anxious with all the chaos, so she always asked to do the cooking or do something by but not with everyone.  She loves my camera because she's part of everything but not directly involved.  She took all these gems and many more.  

She had a million pictures of our cat on in the trailer with the stuff that was waiting to get hauled to the dump.  That was pretty funny.

She even took a selfie in the window.

She took pictures of the messy rooms after days of cousins too.  I thought that was pretty funny.

We were trying to get a picture of everyone smiling... Each one had someone with a funny face, like Evelyn and Isaiah here.

We did finally get one though....

Me, Jeremy, Sophie, McKay, Janelle, Seth

Ada, Michelle, Devin, Aubrey, Jordan, Sam, Isaiah

Evelyn and Seth

Way home from church

Watching Into the Spider-verse with Uncle Seth and Aunt Nellie

We had an expired fire extinguisher.  Jer took the kids out and taught them how to use it. (Not cousins, just neighbors).  I think being prepared it a good thing and hopefully none of them will need it.

This is the cousins playing baseball in the cul-de-sac.  They used a soft ball so it wouldn't get hit as far and hurt anything.  Sam LOVED it.

We did a taste testing experiment too.  That was really cute.

The girls after church.  I loved doing our home scripture study with our Wilcox family.  They all are very eager participators and it was easy to feel the Holy Ghost.  So much fun.  We're still working on getting our youngest one to be an eager participator.  One step at a time.