Spring break fun

Spring break started out with a visit from my bff since childhood, Susie, and her daughter, Emily, coming to visit us for a few days. It was their first time in our new home and we had a wonderful time together. When they headed home after our weekend together, my family headed out in a little road trip of our own. We drove to Rexburg, ID and spent the night in an Airbnb so that we'd be ready to explore the town and take the BYU-I tour the next day. (It's crazy that we're already touring colleges with Liliana and trying to help her figure out what's next after she finishes high school and her AA degree next year.) From Rexburg we went to Lava Hot Springs for a night and explored the sunken gardens the next morning. We drove east through Soda Springs and saw the geyser there, learning a bit of its history, then continued on the scenic route past Bear Lake and down to visit family and friends in Utah. We spent Wednesday evening with our long-time friends, the Staffords. It was so good to catch up with them and see how much their kids have grown. We spent that night at my sister's house in Lehi, and then took a tour of the BYU Provo campus Thursday morning, followed by lunch at Waffle Luv, suit shopping for Emmett, and spent the evening with our friends and neighbors from Lynnwood who now live in UT (the wonderful Meyers family), who graciously hosted is in the gorgeous new home and fed us a delicious dinner. From there we heading up to Park City with my sister's family and my parents, where we stayed from Thursday night until we headed home on Sunday. The older kids got to go snowboarding, we all enjoyed the pool and hot tubs, we took multiple gondola rides, are yummy food, celebrated some birthdays, attended a session of General conference in person, and had a lot of fun catching up and playing together. It was good to take a break from all the ongoing house projects we've been working on for over a year and just have fun making memories. 

A Home of Our Own (once again)

After the adventure of moving out of Western WA rather abruptly in the latter part of 2020 and house-sitting for my in-laws for a few years, we finally had a house built last year and are grateful to be in our own home once more. The home came with a mostly barren dirt yard with a handful of mature trees on one side in the back and an unfinished basement. We've spent the majority of our available time over this year doing some initial landscaping and working on finishing the basement. First we planted 8 fruit trees and 4 shade trees last spring. Over the summer we worked as a family digging trenches, installing a sprinkler system, and laying sod. Then we turned our attention indoors and pulled down the bat insulation off the concrete walls, cut it in strips, and tucked it in the ceiling. Next we painstakingly removed the metal fasteners from the concrete that had been used for the concrete pour and those used for holding in the insulation. After that we scrubbed all the caked-on mud off the walls (the basement had been poured in late fall and got coated in mud that the builders just covered with the insulation). Then we attached foam board to the walls and laid thinner foam board over the concrete floors with subfloor on top of it. Next we framed in all the walls, including adding "strapping" to the ceiling to stiffen the upstairs floors and give more solid places for framed walls to be attached and later for drywall to be hung. After that we ran the electrical and then put in the insulation. We hired out the drywall - which was so worth it. They delivered and hauled over a hundred 12' x 54" pieces of drywall that were 3/4 inch thick downstairs and that alone was worth it. Then they had it all hung in just a couple days time and they completed the taping, mudding, and texturing in less than a week after that. We then took back over to prime and paint all the walls and ceilings down there. We ended up paying to have the laminate flooring installed because a little more levelling was needed for the product we wanted and the manufacturer's warranty is only fully honored if the product is professionally installed. We have ordered and installed the swinging doors, but still need to do the bi-pass and bi-fold closet doors and the pocket door for the bathroom. We have the trim materials and will be working on that for the next little while, then we need to paint the trim and doors and finish the bathroom. We have accomplished a lot, but we still have a ways to go. Hopefully we'll be able to get our kids in their rooms soon. 🤞 This has been a fun project, but I do look forward to being done with it. Of course then we have further landscaping to do, the shop to build, raised garden beds to build, and our fire pit to complete. One of these days we will be done with it all, but not this calendar year. Maybe by next summer? 🤞

New Beginnings

After a family fast and some serious praying, we felt led to pack up our family, sell our Lynnwood, WA home, and move to Post Falls, Idaho this past Autumn. Covid-19 created many changes in our lives this past year, one of which was that David and the kids all ended up fully-remote, working and doing all their school learning at home. This new location-independence opened the door for the move to the place David's late mother had called home for the final 13 years of her life. It's bittersweet to be here without her. Upon arriving in Idaho, we learned that the local schools were opening for in-person learning, with masks and other covid-prevention precautions. The kids each opted to attend the local schools in person rather than continuing online with their WA classes. It has been a real blessing for them to have a return to a sense of normalcy and opportunities to socialize and make friends. The kids are thriving and happy. Our new home has parks and kids nearby, adding to our kids' enjoyment. I don't know if this is where we'll have our forever home, but I know this is where God wants us for now.

The Math of Injustice

While on our camping trip in Seaside, Oregon last week, there was a night where Liliana and her 2nd cousin, Maddy, were given the opportunity to sleep in a tent together without any grown-ups. They thought this was excellent fun. Emmett (age 7) repeatedly tried to climb into their tent leading up to bedtime, hoping he'd be allowed to join them. I pulled him aside and let him know that we were only going to have the 2 girls sleep in there together (for various reasons). I reminded him that both the girls had had to wait until they were 9 and when he turns 9 we will let him sleep in a tent with cousins without grown-ups as well. Tears ensued, punctuated with some questions and comments between sobs...

"Mom, a year is 365, right?" Emmett tearfully inquired.

"Days? Yes," I replied.

A loud sob preceded his next comment - "But that's over 700-something days!" A brief moment to inhale and cry was followed by, "It's 730 days!"

"Wow, Emmett, that's really good adding, buddy." I told him. " But it's actually less than that, because it's already July and you will be 8 in November. Then you'll be 9 one year after that." 

He sniffled and wiped his cheeks while the wheels turned and then he looked up and said, "485 days."

At first I didn't realize that he had actually done the math, but after a minute it dawned on me that he had calculated the four months between now and his birthday at 30 days each, to be 120 days, and then added that to the 365 days in a year to make 485.

"David, are you hearing what this kid is doing?" I asked my husband who was getting our 4 year old situated in his sleeping bag for the night.

David was about to respond when Emmett said, "Actually it's 487 days because of the two 31 months." 

Now I just need to inform all of Emmett's teachers that if they are ever having trouble getting him to focus on a math problem, they can turn it into a scenario in which he is being treated unfairly and he will solve it with a precision and speed well above grade level expectation

Eager readers

This is a common scene around our house. Kids sitting together, but each immersed in their own literary world. Our four year old doesn't fully read yet, and the almost two year old doesn't even know most of the alphabet. However, they are content to flip through the pages looking at the pictures. Our littlest was excitedly jabbering about and pointing to all the different items he could in each picture. I love our little family of eager readers.

Liliana's baptism

A couple years ago, Liliana and her 2 cousins (that were all born within a couple months of each other) decided they wanted to be baptized together in what they titled, "A triple baptism." We all liked the idea and even though one of the cousins lives in Utah and the other lives in Connecticut, we decided we wanted to make it happen. Last weekend was the big event. Liliana, Mason, and Daxton all got baptized by their fathers back-to-back in a wonderful "triple baptism." We were blessed to have many wonderful friends (both old and new) and family members come from near and far to show their support for these young folks and their decision to follow the Savior and live Christ-centered lives. It was a spectacular day.

Discussing Marshmallow Cereal

Emmett speaking to his cousin during breakfast: Good?
Elliott nods in response while chewing.
Emmett: Yeah, it's sooooo good! You can't even believe your mouth!