Another bike accident

Poor Max had another bike accident! Tyler took Millie and Max for a ride while I bathed Harvey and Hazel. I got a phone call from Tyler, on their way home in our friend’s truck because Max had crashed again. Ironically, this is the same friend that grabbed our bikes the last time Max crashed on his bike! We just need to pay them to be our official bike chaperones or something haha. Anyway, they arrived home and Tyler and I looked at Max’s mouth and decided he should probably go to the urgent care. Tyler took him and I put the other kids to bed. Just a warning that these pics below are a little gory!

Miraculously, Max’s tooth did not go through his lip. The cut was only on the inside. And they were *pretty sure* that the tooth had come out, not gone up in his gums. So they basically sent him home after cleaning him up a bit, didn’t do anything else really.

After we got Max settled at home Tyler went back to the scene of the crash and FOUND the tooth! Pretty crazy. The longest tooth root I’d ever seen. Just shows how not ready it was to come out.

Max was so excited to wake up to a generous gift from the tooth fairy - his first visit ever! And a super swollen lip. Poor guy.

He really couldn’t/didn’t want to eat anything but popsicles for a few days. He got by with that and applesauce pouches. Gigi was so nice to bring him several different kinds of popsicles - his favorite were the fruity ones. Though his inability to really close his mouth made it a very messy business!

Max healed so crazy fast. I told him he was like a Pokémon with healing powers or something. This pic below was taken 4 days after the crash.

And then 2 days after that! Amazing! We’re so grateful that he was protected from serious injury and that his body healed so quickly. He will be toothless for a while, good thing it’s adorable!

Max turns 6!

How is this cute boy 6 years old already?? Max was so excited for his birthday. He had been looking forward to having a birthday party with friends since he didn’t have one last year, but that obviously couldn’t happen with everything being shut down and social distancing. But we made the best of it and are looking forward to some fun things after this is all over. He got some fun golf stuff for his birthday!

Had some fun FaceTime chats with various family members. Also a super cute video with happy birthday messages from his Primary class and teachers!

McDonald’s for lunch, of course. Anyone know when kids grow out of loving McDonald’s?? I’m waiting.

Monka, Umpa, and Sarah stopped by with some birthday goodies.

Had to include this one because the half photobomb from Harvey cracks me up.

Tyler took the kids over to Gigi and Poppy’s for a birthday celebration that evening. Hazel and I did not go - I had a stomach bug the day before and still wasn’t feeling 100%, also didn’t want to pass it around. So they went on without me and had a fun time. Max loves to hit in the backyard.

Topped the day off with gooey cake AND s’mores! Luckiest 6-year old boy ever.

Some things about Max at 6 years old:

- Very into golf and chess lately. Any game, for that matter. He loves to learn a new game and then play it over and over until he is awesome at it.

- Max loves Pokémon! He plays Pokémon battles with the cards, loves the shows/movies, and reads the books too.  He has tons of cards and knows so much about all of them.

- He does NOT like chocolate. Or changing plans/routines.

- Max is still our best eater (though Hazel may give him a run for his money). He eats dinner every night but still likes to end most days with a banana before bed.

- Sometimes we refer to Max as a puppy. He loves so fiercely and is so loyal, and gets his feelings hurt when his siblings want to do something else. He just loves to play with people!

- Max has done well at school and had several fun friends in his class. Hopefully he can be in the same class as some of them next year.

We love our Max!!

Quarantine survival

We decided pretty much right off the bat that we were still going to be seeing our families during this whole pandemic shutdown mess. It was our saving grace when everything else was going haywire!

Another big player during this time has been the amazing weather we’ve had. Not much rain, cooler temps, just wonderful.

We had a back to back Frozen viewing - the first one on one night, the second movie the next night. It’d been so long since we’d seen those, and reminded me of when Millie was 2-3 and wanted to watch Frozen constantly!

Tried a new park by Heidi and James’ house. They live in such a fun area.

First swim of the year! Yes in March! The water was frigid and all these kids had blue lips and big smiles. 

And then there was Harvey, content to just sit on the side and watch, wearing a jacket that was totally too hot for the weather that day. He has needed more of a transitional period before swimming, to put it nicely.

Playing pick up sticks - I spy Garrett and Kenna! We loved hanging out with them and playing with Morgan for a couple weeks.

The school district was very quick about setting up distance learning. At first they kept saying we would come back to school but pushing back the date that it would happen. Eventually they cancelled for the rest of the year. Pictured below was a virtual story time with the school librarian.

Picnic lunch outside. It was not all smiles as it appears here - Hazel sure had fun ravaging anything left within her reach and the kids did not like it! But it was a beautiful day and a welcome change of scenery.

I promise we have plenty of table space, but Max preferred doing his homework ON Harvey apparently. It was probably more that they were wrestling and I couldn’t get them to stop and eventually just brought Max his math workbook to work on right there.

A rare, peaceful moment of everyone doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing (including Hazel, asleep at this moment)!

Millie wrote about COVID-19 on this worksheet. Pretty cute to see her 8-year old brain work through all of this.

Hazel at 10 months

We just love this busy, happy girl!

These pictures got more and more difficult to take as the months went by.

Hazel loves to follow the electronic sweeper. I’m not sure what she would do if she caught it - maybe try to access all the leftovers it picked up haha.

Playing the piano with Millie.

Gigi got Hazel and Claire matching outfits and I was just dying over the cuteness!

Garrett, McKenna, and Morgan came to town for a couple weeks during quarantine and I was terrible about taking pictures! McKenna snapped these of Hazel though and I love them.

I caught her standing! She started to do that around the middle/end of March.

Nothing better than a freshly bathed baby.

Tyler’s cousin Cari got the cutest outfit for Hazel (from Bucee’s, of all places!) and I loved putting Hazel in it.

Hazel does not love riding in the stroller or bike trailer - anything where she is strapped down is not her favorite. But she is a trooper.

Harvey was riding his bike and I was pushing Hazel in the stroller and Harvey yelled, “Mom, stop! I have to talk to Hazel!” He always talks to her in the cutest baby voice and I love it. She brings out such a sweet side of all the older kids.

COVID-19

I am slow in posting things but this post below was written mid-April.

 I want to remember this crazy time in our lives! We’re still very much in this pandemic and I don’t know how it all will end or resolve but I want to remember how it feels and how it all went down from our perspective. 

I’d heard of COVID-19 a little bit from a cousin of mine who lived in China with her family. She eventually had to leave the country and went back to Utah to stay with her parents while the country was basically shut down. I heard on the news that the virus would make its way to the US, didn’t know of a timeline though. Just a few days after hearing this, we were enjoying spring break and hoping to go to the rodeo and the zoo. The Webbs had come and they had actually gone to the rodeo the night before we saw them. We were having a Chik-Fil-A picnic at the park near my parents house when suddenly everything just went nuts - the rodeo was cancelled, some NBA players had tested positive and all games were cancelled, and then they cancelled school for another week. Steph and I went to the store and it was crazy - no toilet paper, lots of food staples gone, we grabbed what we could. Tyler was told to work from home and we heard a lot of talk of social distancing and “an abundance of caution.” It all felt very weird and surreal. Still does, to be honest.

The first week after spring break kind of just felt like an extended spring break. We started doing a little more structured learning at home and trying to keep a bit of a schedule, but there was not any instruction from the schools yet. We had friends ask for play dates and although we said no, I felt weird for saying that, like I was being strict about social distancing. As the days wore on and more people were testing positive, everyone learned we needed to be careful with this. We have found a level of comfort for us - we are staying home, going outside a lot. We are seeing our parents, but that’s it. I’m going to the store by myself, trying to either leave the kids with a grandma or go in the evenings after they’re in bed. 

Now we’re doing homeschool, which is actually going pretty well. It gets better every week. The first few days or so were pretty rough - I wasn’t sure why anyone would choose to homeschool, especially when they have younger children in the mix - but it is pretty smooth most days now. I’m super grateful for the kids’ teachers, and how involved and concerned about the kids they continue to be. I’m grateful that we are all healthy. We have everything we need, Tyler still has a job, and we’re all happy to be at home together.

Lots of chalk art happening these days.

And lots of game playing. I actually found this game while cleaning out a closet and was about to sell it (I think we’d had it for 6 years and never opened it) but Millie decided she wanted to play it, and they’ve played it almost every day since. 

Lots of hyper, weirdly creative games. These kids are so silly!

We’ve started chatting with our families more - my family has started a weekly game night on video chat, which has been fun. We started it with Tyler’s fam too and it’s so great! Funny that it took a pandemic for us to start doing this. Not grateful for the pandemic itself, but grateful for the increased connection we have because of it.

The kids built a “fort” to block Hazel from the front room so she wouldn’t mess up their game. It worked for a little bit.

I’ve learned that letting them do something with their hands helps them listen better during our read aloud time. They have been enjoying the Little House in the Big Woods series!

So much bike riding, and sometimes our neighbors are out too.

Cute little bike race.

More chalk art, this one we saw online and had to try. It turned out so cool! I want one on every fence panel. Gotta go get more painters tape.

We still ride/walk/run to the park several times a week. I’m grateful they haven’t closed it, lots of other neighborhoods have closed theirs. It’s sad to see it empty and these disclaimers they have to post all over.

This is a unique time for sure!