Lately- May

The state of Utah started our phased re-opening since the shut down of the Covid 19 pandemic. There have been lots of moments of life feeling more free and good again. I'll admit, I don't know if it's a good idea or not because there are, of course, so many conflicting things we read about in the news. All I know is that I have felt so much happier and ALIVE. We're still being careful with social distance in public, wearing masks when required, washing hands like crazy, and all that jazz. 

First up on the review of the month: The many outfits and dress ups I see everyday! haha

Johnny always needs his many "bebes" and "kitties" to sleep.

The butterfly biosphere opened back up!

I was wearing a mask also but vanity won me over and I took it off for the photos.

We tried out the free school lunches a few different times for some variety and sometimes we'd have simple picnics. They'd give us so much food!

Some early summer thunder storms are starting to roll in!

First time back out together at Denny's for dinner!

Kisses from Johnny.

Saving field mice that my cat keeps bringing back to the house and trying to terrorize and play with before killing it. We haven't made it in time to save them all but still have rescued several!

Didn't want to make dinner one night so we ended up at In and Out and then decided to go to the park by our old house to eat. Parks had just opened back up so it was exciting to play on.

He had to have his milkshake with him at all times.

I Went to check out an interesting antique store that I saw on the news was closing due to the economic strain from the virus. So sad. In the store there were thousands of old chairs, hanging from the ceiling, stacked in corners, all over the place! There were old tribal carved statues from the jungles of Africa and the Amazon, stained glass window cupboards, three story tall church doors, thick tables and armors and even a velvet thrown! Old postcards and photos and dishes were strew about the place.

Car rides get crazy

June can't just make some muffins. She has to decorate them with different sauces and syrups and sprinkles. This sums up so much about her personality. 

Getting to hold my dear friend, Tracy's, new baby for the first time! Now that I am done having my own babies, I find that I am so much more excited to hold someone else's. ;)

Buck's always loved holding babies.

Speaking of babies, we puppy-sat my friend's new baby puppy for a weekend! The kids loved her. It was good practice for us too because we are planning to get one!

Kid free trip to the mountains to get some fresh air.

Buck in his happy place. Sitting around the fire pit he got to make with the family he loves (except we were missing Haben here.)

Kids playing in precarious places....

Hazel was so sad when she found a dead lady bug so she made a burial for it with lots of colored rocks. I love her.

Got a new little couch in the loft!

I tried to take the kids outside to fly kites because it was so windy. I had these cheap kites that I had bought from the dollar store, and it became clear why they were only a dollar. That was the first mistake, the second one was trying to assemble the cheap kites in the wind. The plastic streamers blew away, the strings kept getting carried off in the gusts, and the kites themselves were also mere pieces of thin plastic trash that kept getting blown about. Why we didn't stop and go inside, I'll never know. Then Johnny was raging around crying and screaming, trying to take the girls' kites, for some reason wanting nothing to do with his. Rose's kite kept breaking, the tiny plastic poles ripping holes in the kite. I tried to tape them and they kept breaking so she was crying over and over again. Meanwhile Hazel's kite is done and she runs away then June then Rose and Johnny are crying and we go after them and it was a mess! I try to get them all into the field across the street and in the process June's kite gets tangled up with another one. Trying to untangle the web thin strings while the flimsy kites whip about was the nightmare you would imagine it would be. Haha So many tears and in the end Hazel's kite was the only one that had any success.

For Memorial day we got to see my grandma and some other relatives and it was great to hang out!

Winta and Haben and I had some fun shopping adventures.

These are all out of order! Sorry! But why hasn't Haben been in so many of them? She was feeling sick! After being tested for Covid, just in case, and that was negative, she had gall bladder testing done and in the end they determined it was ulcers and she got some medicine for that and has been feeling better finally. But seems she was in bed for a couple weeks dealing with not feeling well!

We also had another long day of testing at the hosptial for June and Hazel, testing their kidney reflux issues. It's not an awesome test so afterwards they got ice cream.

And now here are some various cute photos of Johnny because he is my baby.

Bed hogs

Cats are so random and cute and cuddly!

Found a big fat lady bug with lots of spots!

Kids have no sense of a personal bubble.

Hazel had braids in her hair for a couple weeks. The frizz got a little crazy! haha

Karaoke birthday party for a friend! (where they sanitized the microphone between each person and had individually wrapped snacks.)

End of the school year was weird. Here's June picking up her stuff and getting to say good bye to half of her teacher's face.

Splash pad fun with the neighbors!

And then, okay, I'll admit, this was a social distancing fail buuuut, we went to a foam party at the neighbors and it was really fun! I mean, the suds made the virus die, right? ;) And the group stayed under the 50 gathering amount! Rachel and I were the only moms in our suits and who got in. haha

And, lastly, the other weekend I signed up for an hour "family swim" time at the place we used to do swimming lessons. $20 for the whole family and the pool to ourselves!

And then we got (and spilled) some snow cones afterwards! "This is the best day ever!" claimed the girls. ;)

While the world has not been so ideal this year, I feel like we've been able to still find ways to give our kids plenty of happy things to do, and I'm grateful for the privileged that we have to be able to do so. And of course, because of this, we always need to be searching for ways to help others and give back!

I'M SO HAPPY IT'S SUMMER!!!!