June Activities

 -Oh man, when we got back from Disney, the first thing I wanted to do was wash our Van. It was FILTHY inside and out. We took it to the Quick Quack Car Wash nearby and were SO impressed with the updates they've done since the last time. They have a fun animation that goes across your car as you go through. They have these AMAZING wiping towels by the vacuum area for wiping down different parts of your car (I got into all the spots inside and then touched up outside. AND the owner was walking around talking to people and I mentioned we just got back from a trip and were cleaning the bugs off the car. He said he knew his brushes could do better and offered to let us go a 2nd time for free! It's SO much cleaner now and it smells so nice so I'm really happy that got done! 

-So as much as I was hoping the kitties would start getting along better, it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. So as a compromise we decided to get a "screen door" for our bedroom in the hopes that seeing each other more would help. It hasn't worked yet, but it at least gives us the option to have our door open at certain times to let air circulate a bit better, so that's nice.

-Our silly kids are now obsessed with watching car crusher videos. Larry showed Pierce ONCE and now he always asks to watch them. It's pretty funny how much they like it.

-We got to the Lowe's workshop this month: a UTV for Father's Day. We're really getting the hang of these. I know I'm feeling so much better, especially at this one since there was a VERY angry mom there. Even Gwen said "that is not a very nice mom!" In her defense, her son kept throwing hammers and she wasn't having it.

-I decided to get some of those iron perler bead crafts for Cara and the girls have loved making different kinds of projects with them. Cara has gotten really creative. Gwen is really good at copying the ideas they give you (she does it without any help too!). I love seeing them get crafty and creative!

Cara's "Mario" creation

-We had a very high wind advisory day this month and before I knew there was an advisory I decided to take advantage of the wind and take the kids out with a kite. We got some really good height on it. We brought 2 with us, but we only had string for one. It did get away from us a bit so much that I got a bit of a string burn trying to get it back, that part wasn't as much fun, but the kids really liked being able to fly it.

-Lucy has officially started ballet class and she cannot stop raving about it after each class. It's so fun seeing her show off her new moves. Larry has to take her, but I still love asking her what she learned when she gets home.

-We also finally hung up some of our wall decorations! I still need to print off pictures, but I'm so glad we got this stuff up, finally!

-And the silly kiddo pics this month:

Front Yard Glow Up

Larry's last contract ended right before Disney, so while he's been waiting for something new to come along he's been getting a lot of yard work done. The best part is he takes the kids out with him in the mornings so they are getting a lot of good outside time. Our yard has been needing SO much TLC for a while, so I've let him know all the things I'd like and he just gets it done. 

This is definitely the "before" shot

So far he's cleared out half the rocks from our big rock pit, put down weed blocker (after raking out what was growing there) and made a walk way to the bird feeders (I'm still trying to decide if I'd like to put stepping stones there or something else). He dug out our overgrown front garden area and we replaced those with new, pretty flowers (we need a few more, but for now it's so much better). Around our trees he raked away the overgrowth stuff there, put weed blocker down, and put half the rocks back (they were a little too high). He then took the rocks out of the side garden along the garage, raked away the overgrowth, put weed blocker down, and put half the rocks down to make it look much neater.

He's now working on the back side garden and we'll do more with the back once we know what we're doing with that,  but so far I'm REALLY happy with our front yard. We even put up a bird house and chimes on our front porch and it looks so much more homey. I absolutely love it! And I am so grateful Larry's working so hard with his down time.

Busy Weekends!

Today was SUCH a great, LONG day! I've been itching to declutter our house and we have SO many spots that have a lot of crap that I just never know what to do with or the idea of clearing it out feels like it takes so much work so I decide to move it to the end of my list and it just never gets done and I get frustrated...and it's just such a vicious cycle! Our Garage was a BIG one that I knew needed to be cleaned out, but it was a lot of big stuff, it was just so overwhelming.

With Larry still waiting on a job, we decided now is a good time to figure out what needs to go and get rid of it. I wanted to donate or recycle as much of it as we could, so I did some research and we made a plan: rent a Penske truck, load it up, and get rid of it at all the places. I realized it would be A LOT for all of us to do as a family so I asked mom if she'd be willing to watch the kids for a couple hours while we go do that. She was thrilled, she wanted to take them to PG Strawberry Days, but, unfortunately, learned a little too late that this weekend didn't have a whole lot to do. She decided to just stay at our house and that way it would be easier.

Our "errands" ended up taking a bit more time than I thought. First we had to go pick up the truck and bring it back to load up. Will decided he wanted our old mower that Larry said wasn't working, but Will said he thought it would be an easy and cheap fix so he took that one off our hands (score!). We first hit up the recycle location down in Provo (they were closing first), where we made a whopping $6.75 for our fridge, fire pit, and cordless vacuum. We then headed to Best Buy to unload our old TV (where we had to pay $30 to recycle), some Roomba stands, and our old 400 disc DVD player. Then it was over to Savers for our donated items and an elliptical/bike machine we had that we NEVER used. I had hoped to donate this old craft desk, but it ended up getting quite the beating on our drive so they wouldn't take it...whatever though, because our last stop was the dump. Everything left over got dropped there: what was left of the desk and an edger that didn't work (we also had to pay $12 for that). 

We got back home around 1:45 to get our black car to return the rental truck. Technically, we still had a mower to drop off with Andy, but mom (who I think was antsy to leave at this point) offered to take it with them since Andy lives closer to them anyways. I was totally fine with that, I was DONE running errands at this point and we had plans for the afternoon with the kids. Luckily, we used the rental for less miles and time so we got a bit of our money back from that...but we were still in the red a bit for the day. Worth it for how much crap we got out of our house though!

These signs cracked me up!

Once all that was done and nap time was over, we headed over to the Planetarium. I had been so excited to take the kids (mostly Gwen because she LOVES space and says she wants to be an astronaut) and to do one of the Dome movies. The planetarium is free, but a movie for the 6 of us ended up being $40+! The movie didn't start for a couple hours so we just spent the time exploring and playing and learning different things about space. I thought it was quite cool. 

When we did get to the movie, the kids got bored if it pretty quickly, but in the end Gwen said it made her want to be an astronaut even more so it was totally worth it! We looked around the gift shop for a bit and then we headed home. It was a late night for the kids, but I'm glad we got to spend some time together as a family before the end of the day.

This Summer has been so busy so far, we've hardly had real time to focus on the goals we set, but I have to keep reminding myself: we still have 2 more months of Summer break AND it's about making memories together, I can't stress about goals as long as we're having a good time together. Plus, now our garage looks like we could have a dance party in it haha!

Father's Day

Father's Day this year was....well, kind of like last year. I asked Larry what he wanted to do and he decided he wanted to do Wendover, again. If you recall, last year he did Wendover for the weekend and it did NOT go well for him! He even said he was done going for a while. I asked why he wanted to after that, he said he just had a craving and decided to just go for the day instead of the weekend. I figure it's his day and if that's what he wants, that's what he can have. I booked the bus ahead of time (for Sunday since Saturday was Lucy's party) and told him "good luck!" haha.

Unfortunately, this last week he got a call from the bus company saying it wasn't going to be running that Sunday and they'd give him a refund. I thought that meant he wasn't going to go, but he said he'll just drive (still doesn't seem fun, but he really wanted to go, apparently). The good news is this made it a lot more flexible on when he left and when he could come home. The bad news is he was really looking forward to reading his book on the ride out there and now he couldn't do that.

The funny thing is I was going to let him sleep in and just leave when he got up. I heard him get up and assumed he couldn't sleep and was getting up early. After a while I kind of had that "shouldn't my alarm have gone off by now?" feeling and checked...it was 8:30! I shot up and ran downstairs and he was there playing with the kids. He said he got up at the normal "kid wakeup" time and decided to let me sleep in! I laughed that it was his day and yet he let me sleep in (I totally would've woken him up if roles had been reversed haha).

He left shortly after I got up and I decided the best course of action was to take the day one thing at a time. Normally, Sundays are pretty tightly scheduled, but I was NOT about to do that with 4 kids all to myself. So I took my time getting ready and then we meandered on over to the grocery store. I did realize when we got there that I forgot the list, but I felt I could probably remember most of it as we went. I am proud to say the ONLY thing I forgot was kitchen bags, everything else I remembered. I also found some good treats to add to his father's day surprise I had planned for when he got home (I had the kids help me pick some candy and hot chips he'd like and I also got him a gift card).

Normally I work out during nap time and take a shower, but I decided to let the kids guide the day and just do what they wanted to do. I played with them, put Pierce down for a nap, played some more, let the girls do their hour of "music videos" (it's just kids YouTube) while I took a shower, and then got Pierce up and we played some more. I got laundry all done and everything was going smoothly (I even had a lot of fun just doing whatever). Normally I also clean on Sundays, but usually Larry keeps the kids occupied helping them clean their rooms and doing little thing around the house, so I decided to skip it that weekend. I was even feeling good enough that I could do bath night on my own (I was tempted to skip it, but we were outside a lot and I was feeling pretty dirty). Right as I was thinking that, I got a text from him saying he'd be leaving soon. Based on the time, I knew he'd be home around dinner time so I wouldn't have to do bath time on my own.

When he did get home, we all rushed in for hugs and kisses. We showed him his surprise gifts, and he ate some dinner (he didn't eat the whole time he was out there). He said he had a good time, didn't lose ALL his money like last time, but enough that he felt he had all the fun he was going to, and then came home. We got the kids bathed and down and now I'm about to go do some laundry and watch a movie.

So, while I'm sure he wishes some things went better (the bus ride instead of driving, winning instead of losing, etc. etc.), it does sound like this year went MUCH better than last year.

Happy Father's Day to the guy who works his butt off for the family! While he's been waiting for a job to hire him, he's been doing SO much work around the house AND taking care of all the kids, while I just work, work, and work. He listens when I tell him he needs to do something with the kids or give him ideas of what he can do the next day, and he NEVER complains when I make a suggestion (something I'm TERRIBLE at - making constant suggestions AND I always complain when he suggests something haha). He is the greatest father and he loves us fiercely (and it shows!). He's so proud and lucky and I just wish nothing but the best for him! I hope he knows how much he's loved and appreciated!

Lucy is 4

Well our little girl is now 4, it feels so weird to think that. She's still a baby in my eyes (she's not the youngest, but she is the youngest girl and definitely our tiniest kid), but now she's getting to where she's growing out of her baby phase: no more baby fat on her, her feet and hands are getting bigger, her hair is getting SO long, she talks more...A LOT more, haha. 

We, of course, got her table all set the night before. She's been obsessed with ballerina stuff since she watched the movie Leap last month, so we had a Bluey/Ballerina theme going (how CUTE are the suckers I found that are ballerina shoes?). We put up pink and purple streamers (because pink and purple are her favorite colors....a true girly girl) and got her breakfast choice ready, cupcakes with pears.

On her birthday we did the usual, she picks breakfast and dinner (Leatherby's has become our birthday dinner tradition and she didn't break that) and we talked about things we love about the birthday person throughout the day. I saved her presents for her party, but she did get one gift delivered, from Stacey, that I let her open: a pop up Barbie/Mug/Color reveal type of toy. Her and the other girls loved it!

One of my favorite parts was the gymnastics birthday shout out. She was so excited in the days leading up to it. However, once her chance came you could tell she was incredibly nervous having the attention on her. She had one of those "I'm smiling, but I'm on the verge of tears at the same time" expressions haha.

We planned her party for this weekend and it ended up being a great one! She said she wanted to do a splashpad again, so I decided to choose one we hadn't been to that would kind of be more in the middle of mom's and our house. Heritage Park in South Jordan seemed to fit the bill for us. We weren't able to rent a pavilion, but we brought our own table and then everyone seemed to bring their own pop up tent, umbrellas, and chairs so we ended up making it work really well. The kids had SO much fun in the splash pad!

We couldn't find a ballerina cake so we ordered a pretty pink one and then a ballerina cake topper separate and I really liked how it turned out. We ate the Costco food we got, then did cake, then had her open gifts (it was B themed apparently: Bluey, Barbie, and Ballerina were the main gifts haha). She loved everything she got, she got super spoiled! We had a really great time, but when I noticed that my feet felt like they had gotten burned I knew it was time to leave. Pierce REALLY didn't want to, my mom was spending most of her time in the water with him and he seemed to really like it. He kept sitting on places that water was pouring out and would laugh, I think it tickled him haha.

Once we got home the new 4 year old attitude started and Lucy said she was sad she didn't get a ballerina party, but I reminded her she had a really good party and got lots of good stuff and we should be grateful for what we get rather than sour over what we didn't. 

The bonus is she's really excited because she'll be starting ballet classes next week, she's been asking to do those for WEEKS now so we're all really excited it's finally here. Hopefully she likes them!

________________________________________

Dear Lucy,

My sweet little spitfire red head. You are the sweetest little thing (when you want to be) and you are very strong willed (when you don't want to be). You are very opinionated, but you definitely know what you want and what you like. You still love to cuddle and cling, just like the koala baby you've always been. You were a champ during our Disney vacation and I'm sure that wasn't easy for you (it was A LOT of walking and very little resting!). You love to make friends and be silly when there are kids around and you are still pretty shy around adults (even Nana, who I know you absolutely love seeing!).

I'm so excited to see you start ballet classes (we call it ballerina classes) this next week, I think you're going to love it! I'm also so excited to see what you accomplish this next year, we have lots of summer goals and I look forward to seeing you cross them off your list. You still love being in a swim suit EVERY day and I swear we should just get you a whole wardrobe of those instead of normal clothes haha.

You'll be starting preschool this fall and I'm anxious to see how you'll handle such a change. I'm sure it'll be hard at first, especially when I leave you and you realize mom isn't there with you, but I know you'll make friends fast!

I love how much you love to play on the swing and the trampoline, how much you love to just come up to me and kiss me or give me a hug. How randomly you'll say "you're the best mom!" You have such a sweet heart and I hope that part of you never goes away.

Happy birthday sweet Lulu! I am so excited you are four now! You'll do wonders this next year, I'm sure of it!

RIP Grandma

Saying goodbye to my Grandma was so much more difficult than I thought it would be. When she was diagnosed with Dementia we knew what that meant: her time was now limited, but also we had our chance to spend time with her before that and make memories we needed and to say our goodbye when it got close to the end. I thought that meant it would be easier. Unfortunately, she also lost her ability to speak because she also had Aphasia (with a dollop of Parkinson's mixed in), which made it much more difficult.

While she was going downhill, we still had fun with her. I remember many moments laughing and being silly with her. I do remember telling her on a few occasions how great of a grandma she has been (I know she appreciated it). One thing I'm very grateful for is she never seemed confused by me. It wasn't like she knew exactly who I was, but I'd walk in and say "hi, Grandma!" and I think that helped her. She also lit up every time she saw my kids.

While we took advantage of the days we had and the moments we had, she definitely got worse and worse each time we saw her and that became harder and harder. She ended up having to be put into a memory care center back in January, where we found out she was a bit of a bully and would hit the other residents (one of her issues was reflections would freak her out for some reason so she'd end up sneaking into their rooms and see their mirrors...hers was fogged so she didn't have the issue in her room). Back at the end of April she freaked one of the residents out and they pushed her and she fell and broke her hip. It was a tiny little fracture so it just needed minimal surgery. I went and visited her in the hospital and she was definitely a bit goofy, but mostly okay and like her (new) usual self.

To go back to her memory care center, at the beginning of May, they put her on hospice, which meant she'd be bed ridden and they'd bring hospice nurses in to check on her throughout the day. They also mentioned she probably only had weeks to live at this point (because typically when dementia residents break a hip they tend to only have a few more weeks left). None of us loved this news or that she'd be stuck to the bed so mom reached out to see if she could have some physical therapist come in to at least get her into a wheelchair to move her about. The Saturday after she was put back she was back in her wheelchair and moved to the common area to visit. The pictures of her, she was SO happy! We really, truly believed she was going to be with us for quite a while. 

Fast forward just two weeks, and she was GONE! Mom called me on the 18th (I don't remember why anymore) and I could hear Grandma in the background making a weird sound. Mom said she was acting like an elephant and like she was a brain trauma victim. Mom said she knew she was definitely slipping and going quickly. I was in complete disbelief, it didn't feel real that she'd really be gone this quickly, she was so happy just a couple weeks prior.

Mom called me Monday night (it was so late I missed the call, but realized Tuesday morning what it was) to say she had passed. The timing was pretty awful since this was right before our Disney trip. Luckily, Mom, Cindy, and Tanny all agreed to push the funeral till we got back (which I was so appreciative of). Unfortunately, our trip was so great and it became pretty awful to come back and start our Summer Break with a funeral. I thought I had taken advantage of our time to say goodbye, but knowing she's gone now is just so surreal and unnatural feeling. I kept crying the whole funeral, more than I thought I would. But it's now over and we can close that chapter. It's heartbreaking, but I know she would have HATED being that way and having people see her that way. She's in such a better place now and I'm so happy she has that peace now.

A letter my Papa wrote about marrying my
Grandma. Just the sweetest find!

My letter to my Grandma:

My grandma was the type of person that if something needed to be done, she got it done (cleaning, shopping, yard work...she had an amazing garden!). I'll always remember her calling down to papa for his clothes to be ironed meant we had to pick a side of the house to be until she was done. I was convinced, for longer than I'd like to admit, that irons jumped off ironing boards like all the time!

She was a great supporter. I always loved coming to her and Papa to tell them my wins and they'd always be so happy for me. Always encouraging me to do my best and they helped me develop my sense of pride in my work.

I don't think anyone will ever forget how much she loved ending the night with having her hair played with or her feet or back rubbed. We always had to watch out if we took the chair behind her.

She's the reason I love Raisin Nut Bran (and that my kids love it too), the reason I will never look at a York Peppermint patty the same way, ever again, the reason I love movies (because her and Papa always had the ultimate collection), the reason I always leave food out for stray cats, and the reason I'll always do a big Christmas!

She loved my kids so much. Up until the end, they always brought her smiles and I'm so glad she got a chance to meet them and be a part of their lives for a small time. My kids even mentioned last week how they liked that she wanted to hold hands and give hugs.

I'm glad I got a chance to spend time with her before she left, I never felt like she forgot met, and I will cherish that I had my moments to tell her how she meant to me. AS much as I hate that this sort of disease too her, I will be grateful I got my chance to say bye in my way.

I love you, Grandma and I'll never forget the time we had!

May Activities

- We did our Lowes workshop this month: A Butterfly Biome. We are loving doing these each month! The girls did a fantastic job with these.

- For Christmas, Gwen got a Butterfly Garden kit. We ordered the caterpillars last month (April), we watched them turn into butterflies, and then we got to set them free this month. This was a really cool kit and I hope we can find more of these each year!

- Cara's last day of school had a fun surprise from the Fire Fighters

-We did what we could working on our summer goals

-Silly kiddo pics: