covid-19 continues

It feels like our days were slow and simple during the continuing pandemic, but as I look over pictures, I realize how much we were actually doing each day!  

We set this tent up during our Conference Campout, but Brooke was the only one who slept in it on Saturday night.  She loved it so much, she slept in it for the next 10 days I think, haha. She just kept telling me how cozy it was. 

One afternoon, we played on the grassy field with the Hawkins.  We were avoiding the park since it was believed that the virus could live on hard surfaces, but we figured the field was a safe place to be. (If you don't consider the terrible Texas fire ants!)

I'm sure the kids wanted more toys from the garage, so the playdate was moved over to our driveway.  Brooke ended up reading to the kids from her Princess cookbook while they had a snack.

More time at the lake, where it's perfectly easy to practice social distancing...

The Spring weather has been seriously perfect, which I am so grateful for.  We've been able to spend hours upon hours outside because it's just been beautiful.  Bubbles on a windy day was the best, I literally didn't have to do a thing besides hold up the wand in the air.

It was bound to happen, but Colby had his first big fall off his bike.  And of course it happened right when we were able to call it a day and head inside.  His little face says it all...

During the great closet clean-out, Colby inherited this tiny laptop.  He already had a "real fake phone", so he was feeling pretty official.  I was busy making cookies in the kitchen, but he kept telling me things like, "Pretend like you're my mom and you say, 'Good luck at work, Sweety.'" or "How was your meeting, Sweety." It was pretty adorable :)

And the cookies turned out delicious, so it was a productive day for all of us, haha.

One day, as I wrapped up some yard work, I saw Colby digging in the grass.  I about lost my mind and asked what he thought he was doing. He said he was trying to make a "finish line."  I quickly explained all the reasons why he couldn't dig holes in our lawn, but instead I let him use these tiny white poles and he fashioned this whole thing by himself...

He then had me wait on the other side to cheer him on during his pretend race.  Love a good creative mind and a resourceful spirit.

Virtual schooling continued to go fairly well, but Brooke definitely did better when we did school work first thing in the morning.  Especially when I let her sit in this random raft we found in a closet. Gotta keep things interesting, right??

Kevin and I finished our fence project, which we were pretty proud about, but the staining was a whole other adventure.  I loved the stain I chose, but it was super opaque and took an entire gallon to cover half of the fence.  I had waited in a Home Depot line for over an hour to even get into the store, so I did a curbside order for the next gallon.  I had to wait a day for my order to be ready, and hauled all the supplies out there to start the process again.  Little did I know, but they gave me the wrong stain!!  I had the correct color on my order form, but I never verified what they gave me, so I had to make another curbside order for a different location and wait a day to pick it up.  I was really starting to hate the whole project by the time I finally got the correct stain.

As I started the second half, it appeared to be a darker color, but I assumed it was because it was fresh stain as opposed to the dry stain. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and I now have a two-toned fence.  Uggh, it really is annoying, but there's nothing I can do about it now.  At least I have a story to tell, right?

That raft really has come in handy, haha...

More time outside meant more time going on nature walks (collecting rocks and sticks) and creating random wood projects.

Brooke's teacher, Mrs. Farwell, was so great about planning fun virtual field trips for the kids, complete with invitations and tickets that she mailed to each student. The first trip was to the San Diego Zoo and you better believe that Brooke was all over dressing up and bringing a stuffed animal to share with the group.

Mrs. Farwell let each student talk about what animals they were hoping to see, then led them through lots of the live cams at the zoo.

And last, but certainly not least, was fun with the old science kit.  You can never really go wrong with a bubble snake, and I guess it had been quite a while since we'd done them.

I really have enjoyed this time with my littles and the extra family time we have had in the evenings and on the weekends.  We don't want this quarantine to last forever, but it makes you stop and wonder what things you want to rush back to and what things might need to be gone forever.

fishing at the lake

Every single time we drive past the lake (without exception), Colby asks when we are going to go fishing.  We have poles from our last lake house adventure, so all we needed to do was set a date and get some bait.  Well, we eventually did it and the kids were SO excited!  

We made a quick pit stop at the marina store for a fishing license and night crawlers, and then we were off to find the perfect fishing spot.  Kevin had already given me a heads up that he didn't think we would actually catch anything, but he was happy to give it a shot and humor the kids.

Well, we must have had beginners luck because within 5 minutes, as Colby was reeling his line in, he caught his first fish!!!  The video is hilarious because Kevin just kept shouting, "Get the net!!" because he didn't want the fish to get away before we got a picture. 

His sweet face made the whole outing worth it!  He was just SO happy that he caught his first fish, and he was equally happy to hold it in his hands and throw it back. He did make it clear that he wanted to keep a big one so that we could cook it at home, but I wasn't really on board for that, haha. 

I'll love this picture forever!

Then it was Brookie's turn!  I was hoping so badly that she would catch something as well, and although she had to be more patient and cast her line multiple times, she caught one as well!!  

It was a catfish and ever so squirmy, but Brooke's reaction was priceless. 

She didn't want the fish too close to her, but was brave enough to throw it back with her gloves on :) 

We were kind of on a high from the first two fish of the day, and were pretty much in shock with our success.  A little while later, after untangling a few lines, Kevin caught a big catfish.  He let Colby hold it while he removed the hook, and then we had to snap a quick picture.

And last, but not least, was the tiny baby fish that I caught, haha.  I was feeling sad for myself that I was gonna be the only one NOT to catch something, and then this little baby came a nibbling :)

It was such a fun night for our family and I'm sure the first of many fishing adventures to come.  It's gotta be in my blood, right?  Grandpa Stadtmueller was an avid fisherman, and him and Nana took their kids and grandkids fishing too many times to count.  Even my mom will bait the hooks, gut the fish and cook them up :)  She laughed at me when I told her that I couldn't bring myself to bait the hooks. Maybe next time I'll try to be a bit more brave.

another UTI?

When you're in the middle of a pandemic, and your daughter starts running a fever, you might be a little concerned!  She had no other symptoms, so my first instinct was that she was probably okay, but you just never know.  There is SO much information out there in the news and on social media with conflicting information, so it's hard to know what's true and what's simply NOT.  

Well, the fever lasted more than 24 hours, so I decided to take her in to see Dr. Joki.  When I made the appointment, they informed me of all the safety precautions and the new protocol when arriving for an appointment.  We were to call from the parking lot and wait to be instructed into the office.  We would enter a certain door (wearing masks, of course), where a nurse would take our temperatures.  We would then go directly to one of the exam rooms and wait for Dr. Joki.

As we climbed out of the car to enter the building, I had to take a picture.  This is such an unusual time, but I figured it should be documented. 

Grandma made us these awesome masks, and I love that Brooke even tried to smile once she noticed that I was taking her picture.  We really do smile with our eyes as well!

Based on her lack of symptoms, I requested that they test for a UTI given her history. Dr. Joki was fine with that, and the sample had traces of white blood cells in it, which could either be normal or cause for concern.  (Not helpful, I know!). He didn't want to prescribe antibiotics until we received the culture back, so my sweet girl had the fever on and off all weekend. She would be fine all morning, get really tired and nap in the afternoon, and then wake up during the night with another fever.  I was trying not to medicate her unless she was uncomfortable because I had read a lot about letting fevers do their thing in fighting off infections, so I mostly gave her Motrin at night when she would wake up crying. 

She was finally fever free by Monday morning and never developed any other symptoms, so I was super confused.  We pushed lots of liquids, so I was assuming that we flushed out the UTI naturally, but the culture came back negative Monday afternoon.  I was totally confused. If it wasn't a UTI, what caused her fever for 4-5 days when she had no other symptoms?

I was, of course, happy that we didn't need antibiotics again, but it was just unusual.  Well, by Thursday, she had a fever again. I took her back to the office to see Julie (Dr. Joki resigned the week prior), and she agreed to start antibiotics while we waited on the culture results.  She also told me that staph was in her first culture a week ago, but nobody ever told me that.  Julie said that sometimes it doesn't mean anything, but it can also indicate a UTI.  This only added to my confusion.

Well, we started the antibiotic and within a day, she was fever free.  She still seemed more tired than usual and didn't have much of an appetite, but at least she wasn't feverish.  This was one afternoon that she claims she wasn't tired, she was just "resting her head."

To add to the confusion, the second culture also came back negative.  BUT, whatever she had, the antibiotics cleared it and she hasn't had a fever since. The unknown can be really hard, but I was grateful to have a healthy girl again.  I also questioned whether or not she should have been tested for COVID-19, but the office informed me that they only test children who are admitted to the hospital.  So, there was really no way to know if she had it or not. 

colby learns to ride a bike

Once Brooke learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, it was only a matter of time before Colby followed suit. We were going on SO many bike rides around the block, and Colby would try to keep up on his balance bike.  I felt bad for the kid because he was basically running around the block, but I could tell that he understood the whole "balancing" concept.  

I texted Kevin one afternoon and told him that Colby was ready for the 2 wheeler.  I had hurt my back and wasn't in a position to hunch over and run behind him, but luckily, Kevin didn't really have to either.  This kid was riding on his own within 2 minutes.  

I think he surprised himself with how quickly he could do it and I have this adorable screenshot from the end of his "first ride" video to remember forever.

Good job, Buddy!!  Of course, he wanted to ride up and down the street until dark, so eventually Kevin hopped on his skateboard to keep up. 

He was one happy little boy and we were all super proud of him.  Brooke's encouragement was pretty adorable during the video, saying "Good job, Bubbas." over and over.

quarantine life

The two week "quarantine" was extended several more weeks, so here is what we've been up to...

Brooke pulled out her sewing kit and sewed this adorable cat to go with the dog she sewed back in December. She also started on the elephant, but decided that she needed a break after a while.  It's a good thing we have so many kits and supplies around the house to fuel creativity. 

This science kit from Kimmie provided us a solid 3 hours of entertainment one morning, and continued again the next day.  With the flexibility of "school at home", we really had the flexibility to work on whatever they were interested in that day.  Schools were starting to roll out lesson plans to work on, but it was't super structured the first few weeks.

Early on in quarantine, I mentioned to the kids that I wanted to teach them how to make bread. I kept putting it off because Colby would remind me late in the afternoon and there wasn't time for the whole process, but I finally made it a priority and started early. Brooke wasn't quite as interested in the process, but Colby helped me add all the ingredients and then we waited for the yeast to activate.

Then, it was on to the fun of adding the flour and watching it mix! As Colby stood on the stool, he commented that it looked like the bread hook was punching the dough, haha. He started making punching actions and I took an adorable video of him pretending to box the dough.

We waited hours for the dough to rise, and then both Brooke and Colby wanted to be involved in kneading the dough and forming it into loaves.  The whole process was so special to me as I thought about doing this same thing with Nana (Stadmueller) each summer. She always gave us a small piece of dough to make our own special loaf, and the kids were thrilled to do the same thing.  I gave them the option of adding cinnamon and sugar to their loaves, and they were definitely excited about that. Not only did they want it inside their loaves, but they also wanted it sprinkled along the top, like a churro :)

I guess we made the bread on a Saturday because Kevin was home to take these pictures...

While the loaves sat on the counter to rise again, we went outside to work on replacing our fence.  The whole bottom of our fence was rotting, so we had to remove the old panels and prepare to replace them with new panels.  When we came back into the house, it smelled DIVINE!  Honestly it smelled just like Nana's house on bread day, and I felt so grateful for the memories that flooded into my mind and heart.  Oh, and the bread was delicious!! Everyone loved it, and I am sure that we will be repeating this in the future. 

On one particular beautiful afternoon, we opted to have story time outside with a big bowl of popcorn and plain M & M's. Whenever we have popcorn now, the kids always ask for M & M's on top.  You can't go wrong with the semi-warm chocolate shells.

Brooke and I took turns reading the books, and I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful afternoon together.

Early in the next week, I challenged Brooke to complete ALL of our puzzles.  She was totally on a roll and did probably 60% of our puzzles, but I grossly underestimated how many puzzles we actually have, haha.  (I guess I wasn't expecting her to pull our her princess books that have puzzles on every single page.) We kept them on the floor for several days until she managed to finish them all, with a little help from me. She mostly needed the company while she worked, and I enjoyed chatting with her one morning while Colby slept in.  That's another big perk of this quarantine, I don't have to wake anyone up for anything!!  I love knowing that my kids are getting whatever sleep their little bodies need.

One morning, a woman in our ward posted on our Relief Society group chat that she had some miscellaneous kid items that she was trying to give away. She set them all on her porch (social distancing), and we went over to check it out.  Colby came away with a Batman cape and a few books, and Brooke chose a face painting kit and a few books as well.

That same afternoon, the teachers and staff at Daulton Elementary were doing a drive-by parade to see all the students. ALL the students that live in the school boundaries!  The parade was scheduled to start at 4:45 and was posted on Facebook Live so families would be able to track the parade's  progress.  Originally, the staff was going to split into three zones to knock it out faster, but last minute, they decided to just stay together and drive past every house.  I knew that would take some time, but I wasn't expecting it to take 3 hours, haha.  We sat patiently on our driveway, played a bit with the neighbors, ate dinner in the back of the Armada, and then I eventually went to Kroger once Kevin was home from work.  I really needed to make a grocery run, and since I didn't want to take the kids out, I had to take advantage of Kevin being home.  I asked him to please stay outside with the kids so Brooke didn't miss the parade, and he happily obliged.

As I left Kroger and drove towards home, I saw the whole parade leaving a neighborhood, complete with a convertible carrying someone dressed as their mascot, the Daulton Dragon.  I was talking to my Mom on the phone as we drove past, and I got super emotional telling her about it.  I definitely wasn't expecting that reaction, but I was so impressed that the staff and teachers cared enough about these kids to drive past every single house, even if it took three hours!  

Kevin took a really sweet video of Brooke and Colby waving at all the cars, and I loved hearing the voices of Mrs. Hickerson (Brooke's kindergarten teacher), Mrs. Farwell (Brooke's current teacher), and Mrs. Phan, the principal.  

On one of the hotter days, the kids begged to jump on the trampoline with the hose on.  I hadn't watered the lawn for days, so I figured it was a win for everyone :)

Brooke became obsessed with these online YouTube tutorials from a channel called Draw So Cute. I was seriously amazed at the pictures she drew, and her level of interest in drawing.  For the next few days, she woke up and went straight to the office to work on another drawing. I took pictures to remember her skills :) We then taped them into her sketchbook for proper documentation.

We continued with our fence project by hanging the new panels, and then cutting wood planks to fit into the gaps.  Colby was right there with Kevin, safety goggles and all.

Then the rain came, which meant the perfect opportunity for some puddle jumping.  I knew it was a good idea to get them both some rain galoshes last year :)

The puddles around the neighborhood were pretty small, so we ventured outside the neighbored along a path that I knew would have some deeper puddles.  They rode back and forth through the puddle many times before moving on, haha.  Colby even had to stop a few times to dump out his rain boots that had a crazy amount of water inside.

Since they were cold from the rain, they wanted a bubble bath.  Then Colby stepped it up a notch and asked for some hot cocoa. They are definitely living their best life!

We  enjoyed our homemade bread almost every morning for breakfast, but one day for lunch, Colby announced that he was going to make himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I helped him cut the bread, but he did the rest on his own and was pretty darn proud of himself. My little boy is growing up so quickly, which I kind of hate, but I do love seeing his independence.

By week 3 of quarantine, we were in a pretty good groove with school work and a daily routine that we all loved. Mrs. Farwell also started doing Zoom video conferences with the kids, which Brooke really seemed to enjoy.  She was shy on the calls and didn't speak up much, but the look of joy on her face as she saw her teacher and classmates was pretty adorable.

Each week, the first grade team sends out a spreadsheet with the daily assignments broken up into subjects.  Within the spreadsheet are links to all the stories, songs, and learning pages they need to access.  It really is SUPER helpful and organized and has made home learning a breeze.

Colby works on Homer (a learning app), plays with his toys, watches a show, or works on his letters while I help Brooke with her work.  It usually takes us between 1 and 2 hours, and then we are free to fill our afternoon with whatever else we want to do.

One day, I saw the idea of throwing your dolls a birthday party, and Colby happily worked on making play-doh food while Brooke worked on her school stuff.  Once she was done, we busted out the party hats and sang to those cute baby dolls.

Before we knew it, Conference weekend rolled around. We normally camp with cousins and Grandma and Papa, but because of the COVID-19 virus and social distancing rules, we stayed home and tried to make the most of it.  We planned on setting up the tent in the backyard, but then the rains came and we set up the tent in the loft instead, haha.  We had lots of family cuddles on the couch, yummy cinnamon rolls, and a chuck roast that Kevin cooked in his smoker.

When it was bedtime, the kids piled into the tent with their sleeping bags and stacks of pillows.  Colby was really struggling to fall asleep, and finally said, "I'm just not used to this, I want to sleep on my comfy mattress."  I can't blame the kid for wanting comfort, but Brooke slept in that tent for the next 12 nights!  I wanted to clean up the loft, but she kept convincing me that it was "just so cozy inside the tent."

The next weekend was Easter, but since nobody could hold gatherings or parties, a few friends hid Easter eggs in our yard for our kids to hunt. The first hunt happened to be the day we were watching our friends Logan and Jack, so the Murrays hid extra eggs for those kiddos as well.  It was sweet to watch Brooke help Jack Jack, who she totally loves.  She has such a  mothering heart, and I love seeing her interact with little ones.

Our car was so filthy, but I kept putting off a car wash because we rarely drove anywhere, and the weather kept switching between sunshine and rain.  It seemed like a waste to get a car wash when the next day it would rain again, but since we had time on our hands and the sun was shining, we made that our afternoon project.  By the time we finished, Colby was completely soaked, but the car was shining and the kids had each earned a few quarters for scrubbing the really dirty rims.

Another day, another Easter egg hunt.  This time, from Charli Elieson, who did an amazing job of hiding the eggs so my kids had to actually hunt for them!

I saw another idea online about making a "parade" of figures using painter's tape on carpet or a rug, and that kept my kids entertained for a while :) The parade wasn't super long because I used most of my painter's tape on a chalk project we did earlier in the week, but they still used quite a few characters to complete it.

Since Brooke learned to ride her bike without training wheels, she asks for daily bike rides.  It's a great opportunity for us to get our of the house and enjoy the fresh air, but since Colby can't ride for long periods of time on his balance bike, he sometimes just walks with me.  As we walked hand in hand, I looked down at his little shadow and my heart melted.  I adore Colby at this age, and I just had this impression that I should cherish these moments.  A few years from now, he probably won't want to walk around the neighborhood holding my hand, so I wanted to document the cuteness of his little body next to mine. You can also see the bottom of his NASA shirt, which he is totally in love with.  Current favorite outfit:  NASA shirt with black soccer shorts, cozy wool socks, and sneakers.

Enjoying the afternoon sun "poolside", haha.  Our pools were supposed to open on May 1st, but they just moved it back to June 6th and I have a feeling that we are going to by dying!  I have no idea if Hawaiian Falls will open this summer due to the virus, but I am hoping and praying that it will so we can enjoy one of our favorite summer activities.

I don't know if it's just my kids, but anytime we try to leave the house, they bring all sorts of stuff with them.  I never let them take stuffed animals into stores or to the park, but since we were riding around the block, I let it happen. Brooke had a puppy in the backpack attached to the front of her bike and another puppy in a purse, but Colby couldn't figure out how to carry his puppy and ride his bike at the same time.  Hoodie to the rescue!!  I couldn't NOT take a picture of the adorablenes.  Bev says that Kevin used to sleep with one puppy tucked into the neckline of his sleep shirt, and another puppy right by his head, so it was a cute little connection to his Daddy. (This is also the puppy that Jerry and Bev brought Colby in the hospital when he was born.  They bought it from the hospital gift shop, just like the giraffe they bought for Brooke when she was born. )

We still hadn't finished our fence project, but we started on another project.  Kevin was wanting a larger TV in our exercise room, and although I thought it was unnecessary, I didn't mind if he was willing to reorganize and clean out that room.  This room was definitely the "overflow" room full of random piece of furniture that looked very mismatched.  We started by taking the large counter-height table and chairs down to the garage, removing the old tv and mount off the wall, and moving everything else to the other side of the room.  We stayed up late several nights in a row as we patched holes, painted the wall, hung the new tv, listed furniture and electronics for sale, and finally reorganized. I ordered a new cube storage unit to organize craft supplies, science kits, workbooks, etc and I was excited when it finally arrived.  The kids helped me build it, and then began the hours of organizing. The room definitely got worse before it got better, but I am in the finishing stages of that process and I'm excited about the overall effect.

The table and chairs sold, along with the microwave cart, a magnetic bike trainer, and a few electronics.  We are still hoping to sell a few more items, like the old tv that is currently sitting on my bedroom floor, but I'm trying to give it time :)

And last, but not least, soccer!! Colby was most definitely still in his pajamas, but since Brooke was in a princess dress, I figured he just looked like he was dressing up as a skeleton, haha. He took his position as goalie VERY seriously, and Brooke took her fake-out kicks pretty seriously as well.  I love having fun with my littles and getting some exercise while I'm at it.

And that's our quarantines experience so far...