Some of us have much less hair now.

We have had a fun week.  James and David both wanted hair cuts.  James had Dan cut his hair then the next day, David kept saying he wanted fuzzy hair too.  So Dan buzzed him!  It's so strange, but he's still adorable!  We had lots of fun chatting on Marco Polo with Kay and Reggie, and on google with Grandma and Grandpa.  The weather has been great so we have spent a lot of time out walking and playing outside and such.  

Anna is going a bit crazy missing her peeps - she is a very social person, and she is struggling with this limit to her socialization.  

The kids have fun going over this bridge and dropping rocks off the bridge.  They are going a bit stir crazy with not really getting to go anywhere - apparently walks don't count.  They are finishing their school work quickly and having a lot of fun playing educational games.  

We took some evening walks too - Eileen and Dan found this cute frog on one of their walks.  Animals love her.  And she loves them too.  :) 

Friday evening I headed down to visit my parents and drop off some food.  We wear masks and keep distances, but it was good to drop off some food for my mom and they were getting a bit stir crazy too.  Especially my dad!  He doesn't do inactivity well.  We ended up chatting for almost 2 hours. 

On Saturday, it was Aunt Sandi's birthday, so we drove down and did a drive by with a Happy Birthday sign,  The kids were bummed that they didn't get to get out and play with their cousins, but it was fun to get out and say hi!  

Dan got Animal Crossing this week, so we have been playing it and trying to figure out our way around it.  Some of the kids are playing too, it's been kinda fun!  

Today we got to have church at home again.  David loves to lead the music!  He insists on having his conducting stool and his conducting stick (a pencil) and he stands and waves his arms through the whole song!  

This evening, Eileen was trying her hand at drawing for the purpose of drawing her characters in her books, so Anna was giving her some tips and lessons to help her!  It was so cute! 

It's been a wonderful week - and it's crazy to think that April is almost over.  This month has just flown by! 

School work and fun!

Shelter in Place Week 4 - ish.  Well it's been 3 weeks since the official Shelter in Place order went out, but we've been self isolating pretty much since Spring Break - so over a month now.  I'm still not sick of having my family home - though our house is messier, life is good.  Schooling is mostly going well.  James tried to buck the system by submitting assignments with out doing any of the work.  Thankfully his teacher noticed and we talked to him and figured out a way for the system to show me what I need to hold him more accountable.  

We got our stimulus check this week, so Dan got me a new computer!!!  This is my first official entry on the new computer.  I'm determined to set this up and organize it the way I have always wanted my computer organized.  Even if it takes a long time...  

We have had lots of fun playing games and cooking and all sorts of fun stuff!  I've been working on another baby blanket, and I'm really excited about how it looks so far!  

This is the boys doing a dance party as part of a computer break for the kids.  The kids have some educational games that the kids love playing, but I'm still trying to make sure they get the other stuff done first.   

I made this doll shirt and a matching shirt for Anna.  Anna and I made the pants together.  It's so much fun teaching her these skills! 

The middle school kids need to practice on their instruments still - there's a neat program the school is using that allows them to practice with the music.  David loves using Anna's little doll trumpet.  He's so cute!  If you listen to the video, you can actually hear him singing the notes to play along with her!  

David is just a little bubble of sunshine (most of the time - the rest of the time he's a bit bossy)  We were talking about King David during church today and he looks at Dan and says "King ME?"  He has very specific ideas about how he wants things.  When he wants me to come upstairs to play cars, he has started telling me that I can't bring my crochet with me. 

The kids have also been having a great time on the trampoline.  I'm not sure that this isolation would have been nearly as pleasant if Uncle Doug hadn't given us that trampoline.  It was raining today, and Aaron, Evelyn and James went outside and jumped in the rain - and loved it - but they came in soaked! 

Yesterday, we made a big dinner and dropped off some to some friends of ours who just had a baby and some more to the Sister missionaries.  Evelyn made cupcakes for everyone for dessert and we had a fun, but early dinner! 

Dan got Animal Crossing for the Switch, so he, Eileen and I each spent some time checking it out. 

Today after our little Sacrament Meeting, we did a fun primary lesson with all the kids.  We all had fun doing some of the activities from the primary manual and even the older kids were good sports about it! 

Easter

It's been a wonderful week!  We spent some time each night this week talking about what was happening during the last week of Christ's life.  We spent a lot of time this week playing games, and doing school work and such.  The kids are still not too sick of us, but I think they are missing friends.  

On Wednesday, we organized a Zoom meeting chat and craft for our Primary kids Activity groups.  They all really seemed to have a fun time chatting with each other and goofing off together.  

Friday, I told the kids that once all the school work was done, we could decorate eggs.  The kids had fun, and Dan and I even did a couple eggs.  

Friday was also Good Friday.  The prophet asked us to fast on Good Friday for relief from the pandemic and protection for the health care workers and for things to return to normal and the economy to be ok.  Our whole family began our fast together with a prayer after a fun brownie sundae dessert.  Then everyone (except David of course) fasted.  Even James did an amazing job and fasted all the way until dinner time for the first time!  He asked a whole lot of times about when dinner was - but he never really complained and he was awesome!   All the kids were awesome.  It was a wonderful thing to be a part of.  Even more beautiful was that people from all over the world, of many different faiths came together for the good of the world.  

Saturday, we had an egg hunt with the kids - Anna helped me hide them and then the kids had a ton of fun finding them.  David was so cute - he got so excited with each egg he found!  

We finished our egg hunt in time for lunch and just before a big storm broke in typical Texas fashion - lots of noise and lots of rain in a short period of time.   In the evening, we got a text that a little bunny  had visited us and found this little cutie on our doorstep!

Today was wonderful - we did church at home and sang songs and watched a video from 2000 put out by the church where each of the apostles at the time bore witness of the Savior.  It was a great day.  We played some games in the afternoon and had a great time doing a group chat with the Jones family and hearing some fun stories from Grandma and Grandpa Jones. 

Here are a few more random pictures from the week - The kids and I spent Friday morning having lots of fun together on the trampoline, and of course, David loves having his picture taken.

General Conference Weekend!!

We've had another fun week home together.  The kids were pretty good about getting their school work done.  We had fun going on walks around the neighborhood and playing games together.  I think David LOVES having all his siblings home.  

Since the kids are not likely to be going back to school this school year, Anna, Eileen and Evelyn had some fun this week coloring their hair with Kool-Aid.  Anna's ends are a bright teal blue.  Evie tried the blue too, and while it's visible at the ends, it's not very bright or noticeable.  Eileen tried a red - it's still drying since she just did it tonight, so we will see how it went! 

Thursday evening, we had a pizza party night.  We ate pizza and watched Zoom with the kids (well with the younger kids - Eileen and Anna were too cool to hand out with us...)

Saturday began an amazing two days of General Conference.  There were amazing talks, and some exciting announcements!  We are so excited about the new proclamation!  We had some yummy 7-layer dip to snack on and Dan made some yummy steak and potatoes for dinner.

Anna and I have spent a lot of time doing face masks this week.  In addition to making a whole bunch for local health care workers, I made a couple for my parents and Dan and I.  The CDC is now recommending that people wear them when they go out.  Here Dan is modelling his mask.  I made the ones for my parents and I out of some of the fabric left from Great Aunt Joan.

Conference today was also wonderful.  The kids devoured the Monkey bread in very little time.  We all loved getting to participate in the Hosanna Shout on Palm Sunday and again - the talks were amazing!  We were so excited about the new temples announced!  Then perhaps the best part of the day was sitting together as a family and talking about our favorite parts and things we learned.  Even David wanted to get in on the fun and told us a crazy story about Jesus and boats and pirates....

In the evening, we (Dan and I) ran down to my parents house to drop off frozen meals for my mom, drop off their face masks and pick up some computers for the kids for school work.  Hopefully we can get this all figured out!  We took our face masks for a test drive.  It makes me grateful that I'm not a health care worker, and so grateful for those amazing people who are.  What an amazing weekend!