Apr 20 - 26

Monday, April 20 - Nick is quite the chef! He found a recipe for flour-less cake. It was actually only two ingredients: eggs and chocolate chips (with some powdered sugar sprinkled on top). It was actually pretty good! Tonight, he had a Zoom birthday party with his friends to celebrate Max Crawford. This quarantine stuff is no fun when it comes to being with friends!

Tuesday, April 21 - I bought Jolly Ranchers with our grocery order this week and Ricki was so excited! She sucked on a blue one forever then turned to me and asked, "is my tongue blue?" Yep, sure is silly girl!

Wednesday, April 22 - Ricki's class was supposed to celebrate their 100th day of school but school was canceled the week before. Mrs. Epperson, her awesome Kindergarten teacher, scheduled it for today. They had to make a cape and glasses to share at their class Zoom meeting. Simon had to go to work so he masked up and went. He met up with his co-workers and sweet DeeDee sent home a box of Crumble cookies. Yum! Clearly, the kids were happy to get them. 

Thursday, April 23 - The kids and I have discovered how completely awesome the school lunches are! Our friends in the neighborhood have told us but we hadn't tried it until today. They were thrilled to get chicken rings, fries, oranges, chocolate milk, and Jell-O. We were surprised that they also got breakfast for tomorrow! It was a sausage pancake stick, cheese stick, and orange juice. Plus, we got four white milks and four chocolate milks! It's awesome (& free)!! Poor Simon has been suffering from this weird thing on one of his arms. They are flat warts but they have been super irritated lately. Luckily, he sent this picture to his dermatologist and she was able to prescribe him a cream for them over email. Hopefully that helps.

Friday, April 24 - I felt like I wanted to take a picture of the wonderful women that hand out the lunches each day. They are working so hard to make sure that the kids in our district are fed. The kids and I walked over to the school, picked up lunch, then sat at the park and enjoyed it. The weather has been beautiful and I love hanging out with my kiddos.

Saturday, April 25 - Happy birthday BJ! We did a social-distancing dinner at Jenni's for his birthday. Even though we did pretty good to stay 6' away from each other, it was SOOOO nice to get together and spend time together. We are a together family so it has been hard not getting to even see each other lately. 

Sunday, April 26 - First off, happy birthday to Marisa! :) Ricki wanted to wear all turquoise today. I told her she looks like a Southern Belle! This afternoon, Dave asked if Simon could cut his hair. We went over to their house and in the backyard, Simon cut Dave, Zack, and Nick's hair. It was another nice family visit for a couple of hours!

Apr 13 - 19

Monday, April 13 - Nick has been having lots of adventures in the kitchen. Honestly, he's a great cook and baker! He made fortune cookies today and they were really good! He's got talent! Tonight, the kids were bored so they decided to make up a game with balloons. They put a string on the ground and hit the balloon back and forth. Whoever's side the balloon was on couldn't let it touch the ground on their side but the goal was to get it to touch the ground on the opposing team's side. Silly...but they had fun doing it for a long time and got some pent-up energy out!

Tuesday, April - We had a fun afternoon. We went on a two-mile walk around the neighborhood and trails. We also got to FaceTime with Ruby for her 3rd birthday. She got a bouncy house for the day and had lots of fun jumping in it with her big brother Henry. :) 

Wednesday, April 15 - Happy 12th birthday sweet Kendra! She was surprised when she came up to birthday gifts waiting for her (I might have told her that we didn't get her anything because we are quarantined). We gave her Van's (shoes) that she has been wanting for a while now. At 11:00, my family all came over and did a social distancing party in our front yard. It was fun but sad that we couldn't get close to our family. She wanted to do "crafts" today so we did a few. We made chocolate covered strawberries, sugar cookies, and did a Zoom meeting with the gals to make a stuffed Olaf. Dave & Viv stopped by to give her a birthday gift as well as her good friend, McKell. She had other friends bring gifts that just left them on the porch and left. To top the night off, we had her favorite dinner - Hawaiian Haystacks - then she got all of her gifts out to look at. What a great day this has been! Under the current circumstances, it's the best day we could have had!

Thursday, April 16 - Look what came in the mail! We have had his redemption certificate on the back door since early in March but since then, the world has shut down so we weren't sure when we would be able to get his actual Eagle Scout certificate. We were all thrilled when it came in the mail today!

Friday, April 17 - We had two very special deliveries today. First, the doorbell rang and I told my kids not to get it not knowing who it was. Well, it was Amazon delivering a surprise package for Ricki. It was a doctor kit! Backstory: Ricki wants to play doctor every day with her daddy but  her stethoscope broke in two places and she's been very sad about that. Simon surprised her by ordering her a new doctor kit. :) Then, about an hour later, the doorbell rang again. It was Kendra's much anticipated HydroFlask. She has wanted one forever but they are $50 so she had to save up. With the money she got for her birthday, she decided to go on and order this. These are the faces of two very happy girls!

Saturday, April 18 - Now that the weather is getting nicer, Simon and his biking buddies are back at it. They have gone two weeks in a row and building their endurance again to go on longer rides. I'm so happy he found this interest with some great guys in our ward to go with!

Obviously the second two pictures weren't taken today but I have to mention them. A month or so before Kayla's blessing, I have been looking for my girls' blessing dresses to let Katie borrow the slip that mom made to go under them. I couldn't find them...anywhere! I searched high and low, asked everyone and anyone that I could think of that might have borrowed them, and called everyone in my family for help looking. It's been MONTHS of thinking that these beautiful dresses that mom made and that I want to pass down to my girls were just gone. I've cried about it, stressed about it, and even lost sleep over it! And prayed. I have prayed and prayed and I know mom has been praying too. Tonight, as I was getting my kids summer clothes out, I looked all through the storage room again. This was probably my fifth time going through that area looking for them. As I was ready to give up, again, I looked in one more place. This was a place that I have already checked several times before but this time, there they were! I want to blame it on just not looking well enough the other times but I'm sure that's not it because I spent hours searching. I think the Lord put them in my path so that I could find them. It may be a small detail to Him but He knew it was a big deal to me. I am just so thankful to have found them and I definitely will be  praying for a long time with gratitude that they are found! The best way to describe how I feel is "gloriously happy"!

Sunday, April 19 - My good friend Marisa brought over this AMAZING sourdough bread so I made my favorite ham and potato soup to go with it. Let's just say...YUM!

Apr 6 - 12

Monday, April 6 - Kendra's amazingly awesome teacher stopped by for a visit today. Of course, she stayed well over 6' away but it was so nice to see her and talk with her for a while.

Tuesday, April 7 - Nick has been trying different recipes that he finds on the internet. Tonight's experiment: Homemade Oreos. He did a really good job! They were super yummy! After dinner, I talked to the family about moving our school space somewhere other than the kitchen table. It has been hard always having their stuff all over the kitchen so we moved it into my office. It was hard giving up MY space but it works out so much better! The kids were excited about the change too.

Wednesday, April 8 - We had another Zoom presidency meeting tonight. It was so great to see our cute girls and find out how they have been doing. It's hard to make any plans without knowing when we will be back to normal life but for now, we are just going on and talking about when we are together again. After that ended, Kendra and I were in my office and got looking at karaoke songs on YouTube. We ended up having an impromptu karaoke party, just the two of us!

Thursday, April 9 - The kids and I got together with the McCullough's, the Muffett's, and mom for a social distancing lunch. It was just what I needed - to see my family! We have had so much at home togetherness, it was nice to visit with someone else. Zack and Kendra have been working non-stop on puzzles. Kendra did the top one all by herself and then helped Zack finish his Sydney puzzle.

Friday, April 10 - This is what my life has come to now...sewing face masks from material scraps instead of going out for date night. :( They turned out good enough to pass and they are needed right now if we leave our house. One down, five more to go.

Saturday, April 11 - I can't believe we dyed eggs. At home. Alone. Just us. I don't think this has happened in our whole married life! The kids had a good time dying almost two dozen eggs. Grandma and Grandpa Pearson also stopped by for a second. While Simon helped Dave with a switch on his truck, Viv came out back and watched the kids jump on the tramp. She also brought each kid an Easter box with eggs, candy, pencils, and $5. They are so sweet!

Sunday, April 12 - Happy Easter! I am so thankful for this day of reflection each year to think back on the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This year, it has been especially meaningful to know that because of Him, we will live again and have eternal life. I am also so grateful for my little family that brings so much happiness and joy. I love this time we get to spend together and am enjoying watching them interact with one another as we come closer as a family. 💖

Mar 30 - Apr 5

Monday, March 30 - Our final day. Booo! After breakfast, we went to the Red Hills Desert Garden and enjoyed the beautiful sun and gardens. We stayed in St. George until about 4:00 and got home around 8:00. Our kids are amazing rock stars! ⭐ We made it both ways (to and from St. George) without making a single stop! What a wonderful trip! I'm so glad we were able to do it safely - while social distancing.

Tuesday, March 31 - Well, back to reality! The kids all needed to catch up on the schoolwork they missed yesterday. Ricki also had her first online gymnastics class. Look how cute all those kiddos are on the teacher's screen! This afternoon, Ricki's teacher came over with a conference kit. It was full of treats, a puzzle, games, and coloring/crafts. Jewel Smith is a one-of-a-kind primary teacher!

Wednesday, April 1 - Good news! Social distancing is over! APRIL FOOLS!! Actually, it looks like the lock down is going to be extended longer than we originally thought. :( Anyway, little cutie pie served Simon his taco salad lunch. How cute is she!?!? Then, like a crazy person, I spent about 4 hours in the kitchen making a gourmet meal. We had air fryer chicken fingers, fiesta ranch salad, homemade rolls, and peanut butter bars. It was yummy but admittedly way too much work!

Thursday, April 2 - I saw pictures of Henry on Instagram today because he lost his first tooth. That got me thinking that Dr. Johansen said Ricki's bottom two teeth were getting loose and he could see the adult ones coming up in the x-ray. I had her open her mouth and her bottom teeth are NOT loose but check it out, her permanent ones are already in! She has two rows of teeth! I now lovingly call her "Baby Shark"! 🦈

Friday, April 3 - With the worldwide spread of Covid-19, the Church is sending many (like almost all) of the missionaries home. We have had at least 3 young men and 1 senior missionary companionship come home in our ward. These cute moms arranged a drive-by welcome home party for the newly returned missionaries. We also have at least two coming home next week. What is happening in the world!?! Luckily, Zack has something to do in our home. He is starting to create his own Lego creations. Love his sweet face!

Saturday, April 4 - This is one of my very favorite weekends of the entire year! General Conference started this morning and it was awesome! Very inspiring and hopeful. We learned about the Church's new symbol (Christ standing under an arch and over a cornerstone that says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). In between the sessions, Amie invited me to a quarantine BFF lunch. Although I hate this picture of me, look how silly Amie is! :) We sat for over an hour, over 6 feet apart, and caught up on life. Love my BFF!

Sunday, April 6 - I really enjoyed conference this year. Even though it was broadcast from an auditorium at the Church Office Building with no choir and almost no one in attendance, it was amazing and spiritual. President Nelson introduced a new proclamation regarding the restoration of the gospel and the priesthood. He also announced some exciting temples to be built in Shanghai and Dubai. The church is go forward at a rapid pace. I really do feel that we are raising the generation that will usher in the second coming of Christ. It was also a special conference this year because it is the 200th anniversary of the first vision. President Nelson is right, we will never forget the proceedings of this conference!