Tender heart

Sam is a tender hearted guy.  I was talking to Jer over breakfast about how Cristina's mom, Ramona (who is my mamita from my mission), has stage 4 stomach cancer and that Cristina's anxiety is going on the fritz.  She was taken to the hospital weeks ago to get tests done, but she tested positive for Covid and was hospitalized for a few weeks before they could even get the tests done for her.  Now she's too weak to do treatments.  They have said that the only hope is for her to try to get a lot of nourishment and get stronger so that they can even try to treat her.  Sam knows that Cristina's family doesn't have money at all.  They have 6 people in a two bedroom apartment living off of temp jobs.  Sam disappeared and came down with the cash from his room and quietly asked me to give it to them.  I love that he loves people.  Ramona wanted to get out of the house for a breather.  We took her on a drive to see the new Orem Temple building site and then past the Provo temples.  We came by our house after so that I could help Cristina fill out school registration forms for her 4 year old.  Sam was so worried about Ramona and kept asking if she was okay.  I love my boy.

 

Evelyn

 

The most crucial time for Evelyn to get her skewed feet stronger is from now until she is about 12.  Covid hit and we did zoom ballet for her physical therapy, but she just doesn't pay as much attention. We still have the option of doing it over zoom, but I prefer in person.  She's not going to stop growing pandemic or not.  She just had a parent demonstration day for both her ballet and acrobatics classes.  You can tell that she likes acrobatics the most, but she's getting some good exercise in.

Braces round 2

 

We have two of our kids that are probably going to get braces by the end of the year.  Sam has adult teeth coming in behind the baby teeth like I did when I was his age.  Evelyn has adult teeth that are growing sideways into the 4 adult teeth's roots in the front of her mouth.  Ada's teeth did that too and they just don't want to damage Evelyn's permanent teeth.  First step is to go get Evelyn's baby teeth pulled.  It will take a few months because I'm not pushing being in offices a lot lately, but I really don't want her permanent teeth to have permanent problems.

Evelyn

Sam

Memory boxes

 

We went through Jer's and my memories together as a family.  It was so fun and the kids loved trying on and touching all the doodads that were part of our growing up.  

Indian outfit from my mission to Ecuador.  I used to fit this.... 

Seth is wearing a night shirt made by Judy.

Pioneer clothes from the time the Robertson's did a week on the pioneer trek reenactment for the bicentennial. Judy and her girls stayed up for days sewing authentic clothes for everyone to wear on the trek.

Did you know?

 

Did you know that movie theaters are desperate for business right now?  We rented a whole movie theater for the Wilcox family to watch Hook.  It was $100.  That's really quite a steal and works out to about $5/person. It was so fun and we all had comfy reclining seats that heat up!  Before the movie there was some good sledding action happening too.

Handy man

Jer's favorite desk chair was absolutely disintegrating, so he recovered it.  It looks spectacular.  It was his first time reupholstering anything and he did a great job.  He needs to not use his pocket knife to cut off his fingers next time though!

 

Valentine's Day

 

Valentine's Day dinner.

Wedding portfolio

My cousin, Stephen and his wife Lindsay just celebrated their anniversary.  I took their wedding photos, but I just gave them to them.  I didn't have a chance to make any copies for me because it was in Idaho and I had to drive home.  They posted this and I thought I'd add it to my blog portfolio.

 

Recent shenanigans

Seth's head it healing really well.  There is a thin line and the hair is still growing normally there.  The last time he split his head, we glued it at home but his hair doesn't grow there anymore.

I was sick of the kids asking to watch movies, so I told them we were going to play games for FHE.  They thought I meant board games.  I didn't.  They had so much fun and giggled forever.

This is one of Ada's art assignments.  While I have an absolute love of art, it is hard for me to draw.  3D is much easier for my brain.  Ada is opposite.  3D is hard for her, but she has a talent for pen and pencil drawings.

Evelyn lost her tooth.  It was very wiggly and she wanted to try pulling it out by tying onto the doorknob.  We tried with a nerf gun once and that just didn't work.  This time it worked without any effort.  Sam shut the door kind of softly and her tooth came flying out right away.

 

Valentine's Day

 

Our Valentine's Day has been a little bit more low key.  Between Covid and it being on a Sunday, we are sticking to home base.  Jer and I showed the kids a movie last night, my Mom brought over her traditional Valentine's Day sugar cookies, the kids had Valentine's Day parties in their classes, I am picking up garbage all over the house, and I got to sleep in a ton.  We are planning on a family steak dinner too.  

Sam and Ada received their temple recommend interviews this morning.  It's too bad that we won't be on Oahu so that we could go to the temple.  The Hawaii temple is open last I heard. Sam has been looking forward to doing baptisms for the dead since Ada started going 2 years ago. Currently, the Utah temples are only open for live ordinances.  I think that's smart, but that's more time for Sam to wait.

Sam taught his first lesson today.  It was all over Zoom, but he prepared for it.... coordinated with our neighbor who was co teaching with him.... and did a great job.  He always wants to contribute to the lesson, so I bet it felt great to direct the lesson.  You could tell he was pleased, because he has been happier and kinder to everyone all day. Currently he is in the kitchen making brownies to share with everyone and getting after Dad that the brownie recipe is in the cookie section.

Jer made this shelf behind my computer yesterday too.  It's an electronic charging station.  We now have all our bluetooth devices, kindle, tablet and Ada's electronic drawing pad charging in one spot.  The cover is so that the daycare kids to throw anything on it from the kitchen.  Jer loves making things and everything he makes is always well thought out and useful.

Seth's class was asked to make bags in class rather than bring something from home.  Seth was kind of mad about that, but he got over it when he actually got to making a bag in class.

Evelyn made a monster out of a shoe box all by herself.  She was very proud of herself and it turned out super cute.  It will never fall apart though.  She used two whole rolls of tape on it.  I don't mind though.... creativity first, then conservation.

Daycare ring around the roses.  Seth was the only one that really knew how to do it.  He helped me teach them ring around the roses and London Bridge.

exciting

 So we did a thing.  

We were supposed to be going to Yosemite with Jer's family in May, but we weren't able to get a camp site.  We still had the money set aside for a family trip, so we were looking at going to Grand Canyon or Glacier National Park.  We also thought about renting a cabin in Colorado and going hiking. 

And then.... we got the idea of taking our whole family to Hawaii.  We were going to go last year, just Jer and I, for our 15th wedding anniversary.  We didn't because of Covid. (We tried booking tickets for it in Dec of 2019, I just didn't feel right about it.... then we couldn't have gone anyways.)  Tickets are insanely cheap right now.  The Airbnbs are more reasonable than normal too.  We got cheap tickets, a cheap airbnb, an expensive rental van and we're good to go.  As long as the travel restrictions between now and then don't change, we just have to all have negative Covid tests within 72 hours of the flight and register them with the Hawaiian government.  So it will be a little tricky, but doable if we time it right and get a 24 hour test done.

I'm so excited.  I love the beach.  But Bear Lake is my usual beach!  I'm excited not only to go, but also to be able to take our family.  That was never an option before.