May 25 - 31

 Monday, May 25 - Happy Memorial Day! 🏁 While I was at work, Simon sent me this picture of Ricki's arm. She was climbing the mailboxes out front, fell, and scraped her arm all up. It's been a pretty sad day for her. :( After Kendra and I went bra shopping (eek!), Nick and I picked up pizza for our Memorial Day BBQ...which consisted of Little Caesar's Pizza! Haha! I really am grateful for the brave men and women that have gone on before me that have fought for our country and our freedom. 

Tuesday, May 26 - Ricki finally calmed down and handled her owie arm once I taped some gauze to it. It was bothering her anytime it rubbed against her shirt. She's a happy camper now. And yay! Our shelves are done around the fireplace! The basement is done now except for the kitchen area. Wahoo!

Wednesday, May 27 - I took Kendra to work with me today. She was so helpful with the clothes and then super helpful keeping Nora entertained! Tonight, we had a digital Cupcake Wars activity for Young Women's. Kendra decided to do a reading cupcake and made a cute mini-book of her new favorite book, "The Land of Stories". She won a prize for most creative. 

Thursday, May 28 - Oh boy, here we go...Ricki said she had a headache when she went to bed last night but I just chalked it up to her being tired. When she got up this morning, she said her head hurt and that she was cold. Yep, her temp at 10:00 was 99.4°. She did great when I got Tylenol in her but between meds, she was miserable. You know she's having a hard time when she takes a nap mid-day! Happiest of birthdays to Grandma Sharon!! I think she had a good day golfing with mom and having a social distancing party with her sisters. 💗

Friday, May 29 - Snakes!!!! We have freaking snakes in our window well! Not just one - two! Yuck!!!!

Saturday, May 30 - Today is Ryan and Ashley's 7 year anniversary! We watched the kids while they went out to have dinner together. We had a little fiasco with our dinner but ended up feeding the kids before their parents came to get them. Later, at 8:30, Nick's 7 closest friends came over and sat and watched Jumanji II for his birthday late night. Now that things are a little lighter in the world, it's time to catch up on the things we missed out on. 

Sunday, May 31 - We had a fun Taco Bar Sunday dinner at my parent's house. We came home a little early to finish watching the final "Back to the Future" (we started it on Friday and finished it tonight) then have a Beat Sabers game night. It's actually a really fun game and a pretty good workout!

May 18 - 24

Monday, May 18 - I love these cute girls! Kendra helped Ricki clean her room. They cleaned it REALLY well! I was so thankful because since we've been quarantined, Ricki's room has suffered. It's that she goes in and plays for a few minutes here and there so even when it gets cleaned up, she'll go in and get a few things out...all day long. :) I'm just thankful that it's clean; if only for a moment.

Tuesday, May 19 - I didn't take a "before picture" but here is the after. I started working again last week and it was honestly a little chaotic when I came back. Liz is creative and has such a great eye for style but has a hard time working and keeping everything organized. It took a few hours but things are looking good again. It's a lot easier to get everything done/shipped when it's organized.

Wednesday, May 20 - Happy birthday to Meg! With all the social-distancing craziness, I didn't get together with them but Jenni took her out to lunch. I hope my sweet friend had a great birthday!

Thursday, May 21 - Nick was invited to Parker's birthday party tonight. They had a blast finally being able to get together again!

Friday, May 22 - I played with my friends, the kids played with their friends...we all had a good day! The first picture is one I took of my lunch. I went over to Marcy Reno's house and we sat and had lunch and visited in her backyard. So fun! Kendra had Adriana over and Zack went to Marco's house. Simon also got a fun surprise. A box of sunshine sent to him from MACU just out of the blue. It had Stance socks in so I'm excited for him to try them. I hear they are the best socks out there!

Saturday, May 23 - We are supposed to be in Bear Lake (booohooo!) so in honor of our missed visit to the shake stand, Simon bought me a shake from Arctic Circle. :) I sent it to the family and said I was sad but at least I got my ice cream! 

Sunday, May 24 - I ordered Viv a puzzle for her birthday a while ago but with all the Coronavirus stuff, Shutterfly was behind schedule. We finally gave her this birthday gift tonight at Sunday dinner. I think the tears proved that she loved it!

May 11 - 17

Monday, May 11 - Zack and Kendra have been begging to go over to the park and play soccer. It's a long story but we were supposed to go yesterday for our family dinner but the location changed to Jenni's house. Simon took these three kids to the park and they played for over an hour! I was happy to get some quiet time at home alone - with Nick in the basement playing the PlayStation. :) He's such a great dad!

Tuesday, May 12 - Ricki's class is doing an ABC countdown to the last day of school. Today was "I" day so the activity was Inside Out. She wore her jammies inside out while she watched the movie "Inside Out". :) Outside, Simon and Nick borrowed Dave's chainsaw and took down several dead branches of one of our quakies out front. I'm worried that they eventually all will die. They will be a nightmare to take out!

Wednesday, May 13 - We had another fun Zoom meeting for our Wednesday night Young Women's activity. Kaylee Price put it together and we played Bingo. It was super fun! I had a list of people I wanted to say thank you to so I made a batch of sugar cookies. We took them around to Andrea Child, The Gile's, and Jessica Burrows who recently had her younger sister pass away. I love doing crafty things like decorating cookies. It was so fun!

Thursday, May 14 - Marisa took me out for my birthday. The social distancing is letting up quite a bit so we rode in the same car, got a treat from Kneader's, and went to the park to eat it. She gave me this super cute Diet Coke shirt and a bottle of Diet Coke for my birthday. She's so great! I am blessed to have Marisa in my life!

Friday, May 15 - Well, happy birthday to me! I am feeling loved!!! I had friends and family stop by all day long to bring me treats. I also had the opportunity to have Cafe Rio lunch with Amie. After spending more time with her lately (we've been walking in the mornings before she has to start work), I know why we're BFF's. We just click. It has been such a great birthday already and the fun is just beginning!

Saturday, May 16 - The Governor of Utah announced yesterday that restrictions on social distancing are reaching a yellow phase meaning we don't have to be AS careful as we have been. Zack was able to go play with Anna and Chase all day and he was in heaven! Kendra had Adriana over for a good part of the day too and this is the happiest she's been in 10 weeks! Simon and I spent most of the day working on building the shelves for around the fireplace. Because it was my vision of how to do it, I was heavily involved. I helped cut wood, eyeball where we wanted things, and held pieces in place for Simon to screw them in. They still need to be filled, sanded, and stained but I think we will love the end result!

Sunday, May 17 - We celebrated Grandma Sharon's and my birthday at my parent's house tonight. We got spoiled with a yummy dinner (ribs, potato salad, rolls, corn on the cob, and strawberry shortcake). We also got spoiled with a lot of wonderful gifts! Simon thought he would be funny and give me a plastic bucket with an "Ice" label on it...because I asked for an ice bucket. Haha! It was such a fun Sunday dinner!

May 4 - 10

Monday, May 4 - Zack had to dress up like his favorite movie and send a picture to his class today. He wanted to do Star Wars and we have the best Star Wars costume ever! Cute boy!! Kendra's bedroom window well was really low. You could see the top of her window above the top rim of the window well. Simon ordered a new steel piece and extended her well by a few inches. He wants to build up the dirt so that water slopes away from the house rather than toward the house. He was worried that it was too high but I think it looks great! It was a lot of hard work!

Tuesday, May 5 - We went for a drive to Eagle Mountain tonight to buy a new jar for our Blendtech Blender. Ricki had been a little grouchy all day so it was no surprise that she was out within minutes! We have seen a bunch of pictures of people from Herriman with this masked up hippo. We didn't realize that it was within our own ward! Cute Vea Jean Hamilton had this hippo in her yard so we stopped to take a picture too! :)

Wednesday, May 6 - Sometimes, Simon has to go in to the office so he sends us a picture of what he gets for lunch (MACU is providing free lunches right now to employees that have to be at the office). In response, I sent back a picture of what the kids got in their free school lunch; a chicken sandwich, tots, and fruit. :) It's a fun quarantine game we are playing. Haha!

Thursday, May 7 - Ricki's awesome Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Epperson, has class meetings once a week with the kids. Ricki loves getting on, seeing her teacher, and talking to her friends that she misses so much at school. It's been such a great tool to use while we've been away. We are on week 9 of online school. Yikes! 

Friday, May 8 - Nick had a check-up on his retainers. His teeth look great! I know I'm a mean mom but I had to take a picture when they had him stretch his cheeks for pictures. :) This afternoon, our family had tickets to see the "Zack and Kendra Show". When we entered the backyard, they tore our ticket in half and directed us to pre-assigned seats. They had a whole routine on the tramp with tricks, a skit, and pre-made Mother's Day cards for me. It was so cute! And even better because they worked for hours on it and it kept them entertained and active. 

Saturday, May 9 - Kendra, Nick, Simon, and I all took turns trying to help Ricki learn to ride her bike. It was to no avail. She really doesn't want to be let go so eventually, Simon put her training wheels back on. Tonight, we got our hands dirty and planted our vegetable garden. The weather has been so warm and beautiful, it was time! We're looking forward to the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and squash that our garden with *hopefully* produce. 

Sunday, May 10 - Happy Mother's Day! What a wonderful day to get together (but apart) and celebrate the women in our lives. I am grateful to my mom, Simon's mom, our grandmas, and all of the other wonderful women in my life that have shaped who I am and the mother that I am able to be. This is a blessed day for me as I reflect on my incredible blessings.