June Shenanigans!

Summer began a few weeks ago, and we are trying to find fun things to do amid the quarantine when most things/businesses are still closed. We have been hanging around the house and playing lots of 5 crowns, but we have tried to find fun things to do as well. We went over to my moms pool and swam with them a couple weekends ago as our pool isn't open yet. 

We always enjoy a day with grandma and grandpa and they bought us snow cones to cool down after the pool.  

We've watched several movies and the kids have been sweet to get along and play together. They came up with the game hotel and for several days they stayed in each others rooms and had room service and such. They are pretty creative. 

Channing also decided to go for a summer cut and cut off 9 inches of her hair.  

She is brave and donated it. My friend Jen cut her hair and I always get so sad when she cuts it, because I love long hair. Yet, I am proud of her for thinking of others.  

Here are her 9 inches! 

Before and after. She looks cute and I am sure it is cooler for summer! 

Our friends are also out of town and they let us use their pool one afternoon and we had a great time. 

Relaxing!!!

Channing is my buddy and always wants to be with Ragnar or I. 

Deacon is a goof!! 

No one else I would rather be quarantined with than these 5! 

Monday we got to volunteer with Homeland security. Our friend works with the K9 unit and needed volunteers to help train their dogs to search and track bombs. Our family spent a couple hours walking through a couple spots in the airport to see if the dogs could track us. Ragnar and I had to plant "bombs" on us or "blanks" to see if the dogs would respond and be able to track. The dogs did really well and the kids thought it was really cool. I was happy to help the training in hopes of making the airports more secure. 

Ella also started her literacy girls/sewing class. Jeri Wyn Mumford who hosts it each summer decided to go ahead with it, and the first day went well, but the sewing day was a little frustrating as Ellas machine is super old! 

We are staying busy. Not a thrill a minute over here, but the kids are being great sports and we are doing the best we can. We are super sad our trip to Germany is cancelled, but hoping that things will get back to whatever the new normal looks like soon!

First Attempt at Fishing!

Last night we went over to my brother Chris' to take the kids to go fishing. They had seen pictures of their cousins going and Cavin really wanted to try it. We had dinner and then watched the movie Bedtime Stories waiting for the sun to start to set so we could fish. 

We walked over to a little pond in their neighborhood and started fishing.  

Cavin was the first of the kids to catch a fish and he was pretty excited.  

Ragnar tried it out and caught a fish pretty quickly.  

Crew was the master fisherman. He caught 3 like nothing and could have caught several more if he wasn't having to share the pole! 

Charlotte finally got a turn! 

Ella was excited when she caught one to! 

Hers was a catfish.

Channing was patient and got one before the end of the night. 

Deacon took a while. He tried for about an hour. We didn't want to go until all the kids caught one. He doesn't have a lot of patience since he does everything at about 100 miles an hour, but Uncle Chris was patient and he helped him catch one!  

It was our last night with John. He has been here serving his MTC training and we have loved having him here. It has been a great example for the kids. We sure will miss seeing him!

May Happenings

May has flown by and we are now approaching the end of the month. We are still in quarantine and are entering the last week of school for the kids. They have done so well, but I am excited to not have to keep such a strict schedule and have more time to play! 
Last week we were blessed to have been able to see my brother Corey who flew in to Houston to see John. My mom threw John a graduation party since he didn't have a graduation ceremony. He has been serving his 2 months of MTC training here in Houston with my parents since the MTC is virtual and it has been great to have him around. He was just notified that instead of heading straight to Bulgaria, where he was originally called to serve, they will release him to go home to Michigan and he will be recalled to Washington at the end of July and serve stateside until he is able to get into the country. This virus has definitely overtaken our normal way of life, but overall we are managing well and he seemed to handle it as best as he could. 

It's also been 2 months since I have seen my brother Chris and his family, so it was nice to have all my siblings together but Marisa. 

John is a great kid and after his mission service he will be attending BYU. 

All the cousins in Houston together again! My kids really missed their cousins! 

The kids and I made candy Leis for his graduation party and my mom had a fun candy bar! 

It was fun to have a reason to celebrate and I know John will do great things in his life! It was also nice to reconnect with Corey who I haven't spent time with in years. He was also super sweet to spend time with me and come over and help me at my job putting up yard greeting signs one night. I was grateful for his willingness and for the time we had. 

On to other news. We have enjoyed having sacrament at home and our friend Wyatt made us these sacrament trays. It has been nice to use instead of a plate! 

Cavin has been busy making Lego creations and made this sword last week. 

The kids have also been making spreadsheets to keep track of their beanie boos! They have digital slides for each one and an excel spreadsheet! haha 

They have 190 and we need 10 more to hit our 200 mark! So close ;) I am glad this is something that all the kids love to collect and do together. It has been a fun memory for them! 

Ella has been painting and made this cute picture for her friend Helen for her birthday! 

I've been doing a lot of running and exercising with the kids having P.E. I go out and exercise and come home and take the kids. I ran the United States the other day before my watch died! I just needed Florida! :) 

Also yesterday I completed my first murph workout for a fallen soldier. It is doing
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 air squats
1 mile run
It was a good workout and my shoulders are feeling it today! 

Finally, yesterday we ventured to Lake Houston Wilderness park to explore.  

We hiked peach creek trail and then the kids found a creek to play in and get nice and dirty!

Ella loved finding the tiny fish and tadpoles.  

 

Naturally they boys splashed each other and got soaked!

We hung out and enjoyed an outing together.  

I have really loved this extra family time we have had the past couple months. We have had dinner with Ragnar every night which hasn't happened in years. We have played lots of games and worked on many of our talents. I for sure will treasure the blessing of family during this time. 

Ella is FOURTEEN!

Ella turned 14 on May 5, 2020. For her birthday she has been asking to change up her room since it has been the same since she was 8. So, a couple weeks before her birthday she picked out some paint and away we went! She went from a light pink room to gray walls with a accent blue wall. 

Bye bye little girls room :( 

Painting is not my favorite thing, so it's a good thing I love her! 

The colors she picked go well together.  

She is an artist and really wanted to paint her own accent wall with a tree, so I finally decided to let her have at it! 

She did a great job on it! I was so impressed, and I love the bird! She was really happy with how it turned out.
On her actual birthday morning, we are still in quarantine, so it was nice and simple.

I put up a sign for her and we started the day! 

Have to start with donuts! 

We just hung out most of the day and then opened presents in the evening after drive thru dinner from Culvers. My parents and sister Natalie and John joined us.  

She has been asking for a phone for over 3 years, and as much as I still don't want to enter that phase of life, with the COVID and not seeing anyone and having no way to connect with friends, I felt like it was inevitable. So, here we go, she got her first phone!! We tried to wrap it in a big box, but I don't think she was that fooled.  

She also loves to kickbox/box. She is kind of random like that, so we found her this from a friend who was giving it away and bought her boxing gloves. She has been having a good time with it! 

She wanted pizookies, so we simplified with cookie bars and icecream! 

With the virus, we decided to have her blow out 14 candles on her own piece! haha

Ella is an intelligent, creative, artistic, imaginative girl. She comes up with so many interesting ideas, and I love her imagination. She is good at most things she tries and has been given many talents. I just hope that she will learn to have the drive to develop them all and utilize her gifts. She picked up the guitar this year and has been playing the cello and piano. She is very driven by music and always wants to be playing or listening to music. She is naturally very smart, and can pick up situations quickly. She still is always reading and has been writing a lot more lately. She has a lot of talent there as well. I keep telling her I expect to see her published book before I die! She has been obsessed with "The keeper of the Lost cities"series this year and has read them over and over. I am excited to see what the next year brings for her and am looking forward to her success in high school. We love you Ella!