Daryn's birthday

This girl is 7! What? She's not little anymore! Since her big day was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we had lots of time to celebrate.

She settled on german pancakes AND strawberry nutella crepes for breakfast. Delicious and we all enjoyed it. 

The girls disappeared for a few hours after breakfast playing or something. I can't remember. But Blade took the opportunity to play on the tramp and with the Legos uninterrupted.

He always brings me the things he builds and screams with excitement when I ask if he made them. 

Daryn soaked up some extra snuggle time. Best sister ever!

That afternoon, it was time for a party! All of Daryn's presents were hidden inside this new storage bench we got for the porch. 

A new two-wheeled scooter!

We took it out for a walk around the neighborhood, and when we go home, Aunt Meagan was there. Surprise! The kids were thrilled. 

Dixie finally got to meet an extended family member!

Time for cake! I think we maybe did cake first and dinner after. It's quarantine. There are no rules. 

She gave me very specific instructions on how she wanted her cake to look, which I followed with exactness.

It ended up being kind of a late night but no worries, we had nowhere to be the next day. We could relax!

And make puzzles- Daryn had to try out her new one.

And we had leftover birthday cake to celebrate Layton's centennial. Convenient. 

We are so so happy to have this girl in our family. I can't believe it's been 7 years since her traumatic pregnancy and delivery. Her childhood has been better and more normal than I ever could have predicted. She has handled her challenges with grace, courage, and patience. She is an example to all of us of Christlike love. She loves karate, gymnastics, tennis, reading, swimming, and riding her bike (a new skill that she just picked up!). She breezes through chapter books- her favorite is Boxcar Children right now. She makes friends easily and gets along well with almost everyone. She is 42 lbs (10th percentile) and 44 inches (3rd percentile). She wears size 6 or 7 clothes and size 10 or 11 shoes. She is tiny and fierce and determined. 

Here is her birthday survey for this year:

1. What is your favorite color? Hot pink

2. What is your favorite toy? Marble trap

3. What is your favorite fruit? Banana

4. What is your favorite tv show or movie? Lion King 1 ½ and Rescue Riders

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Nachos

6. What is your favorite game? Roller Coaster

7. What is your favorite snack? Oranges

8. What is your favorite animal? Giraffe

9. What is your favorite song? We're Off to See the Wizard

10. What is your favorite book? The Wizard of Oz

11. Who is your best friend? Jackson (he moved a couple years ago and we haven't seen him since...)

12. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms

13. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the water

14. What is your favorite drink? Smoothie

15. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

16. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My blanket

17. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Toaster Strudel 

18. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Macaroni and cheese, homemade, and burnt broccoli

19. What do you want to be when you grow up? An astronaut or a doctor

20. I am very proud because… I'm unique

21. I am afraid to … nothing. But I am afraid of the dark

22. Name one thing you do really well? Play piano

23. What is your favorite time of day? The afternoon

24. What makes you feel sad? When I'm alone

25. What makes you feel happy? When I'm not alone

26. Where do you want to go on vacation? Disneyworld

27. What is your favorite thing to do with Mom or Dad? Play

We're so lucky to have her! Maybe next year we can have a big party to celebrate her. 

Quarantine part 3

It's been a month. Another quarantine month. Things aren't bad, necessarily. Just weird. So without further ado...

This kid gets into all kinds of nonsense. Found him trying to cut open a package of raisins with safety scissors. He was not remorseful. 

He was a little remorseful after BITING my face. Ouch. Luckily no repeats so far. 

Nike and heels. His 2 favorite styles. 

I made rhubarb upside down cake but our oven wasn't working so we cooked it on the grill. It was delicious but unfortunately Lance grabbed the handle of the pan after he took it off and burned his hand pretty bad. This was several days later. 

Watching the Masked Singer. Our new favorite show. Thanks for the tip, Sharon! 

Even Blade gets super into it. 

Never enough snuggles. Holding onto every minute with this one!

Blade managed to break the baby swing, after 6 kids and 11 years. Thanks a lot, buddy. 

We dragged ourselves through the last 2 weeks of school.  Daryn's teacher, Mrs. Smith, came to visit! And see Flat Mrs. Smith! We love her so much. 

Lance is pretty fond of the snuggles too.

Sleepiest girl ever. Literally vacuumed her room and she slept through it. Blade helped.

Mother's Day! I loved spending it at home with just my family this year. The girls got me tons of cards, letters, and pictures, and Lance knocked it out of the park with a Willow Tree statue, a new mug with pics of all my kids (Blade broke my old one a few weeks ago), and a pearl nest necklace with 5 eggs. It's my fave and I wear it every day. 

How lucky am I??

The luckiest! Can't believe this crew is mine. 

I took the girls on a walk while Lance made dinner. Reagan finally caught a butterfly, after lots of tries. 

Lance made the BEST dinner ever. This fried chicken was so good, I was in heaven. Could not stop eating it. 

Zooming and Facetiming with extended family! Grandma always keeps things interesting...

Flower child.

Sending in pics for Maddie's virtual graduation.

We're done with school and SO happy about it!

Just stop! I can't even handle this happy girl. My heart just explodes.

Family walk to the park and library. We have loved our 3 mile afternoon walks so much! Best part of quarantine. 

Blade was helpful to bring his sisters' scooters along when then abandoned them.

 Best sisters.

I finally got my haircut! I got about 10 inches off and it feels glorious. 

Maddie's dance/preschool had a social distancing recital where each dancer came in at an assigned time and performed for just their families. It was great. Every recital should be this way (minus the masks).

Dixie got to try out the Otteroo. Not sure at first.

But she was quickly a big fan.

We've had lots of cooking adventures. Lance made french bread! Never thought I'd see the day. It was so good.

Every one likes to help with tummy time. 

Reagan used her money and bought a cotton candy machine. It works surprisingly well and has been lots of fun. You can melt any hard candy in it. Our favorite flavor so far is butterscotch. 

Daryn is silly as ever. She has a great sense of humor.

Somewhere along the way, Dixie turned 2 months old. I think she is officially our best baby. At 2 months, she weighed just under 12 lbs, ate every 3-3.5 hours during the day, and slept 8-9 hours straight at night, getting up around 4 am to eat. She is so sleepy and takes looong naps every day. She is super happy most of the time and handles the chaos from her siblings well. She loves being swaddled and hates tummy time and her swing. She's the most adorable 2 month old that ever was!

"Help, Mom!"

Sometimes she sleeps with her eyes open.

The girls took these pictures of a ladybug and I'm impressed.

Literally every time I'm nursing. On top of me is their favorite place to be. 

My kids are 100% of the time bed sleepers, so this was a surprise.

Memorial Day was relaxing. Reagan and I took a bike ride and the weather was perfect.

We broke out our croquet set for the first time, and after a few tears, the girls loved it. Well, Maddie wasn't interested in trying. 

This was awful. I got out of a 5 minute shower and found this. Blade took off his diaper, pooped a giant log at the bottom of the stairs (the girls were RIGHT THERE watching TV and couldn't bother to notice), came upstairs, and instead of finding me, sat his poopy bum down on the carpet to read books. WHY.

Maddie's preschool graduation. 

She's such a stunner 

First year of preschool in the books!

Lance took the girls backyard camping. They stayed up extra late and were exhausted the next day, but they had a lot of fun.

They weren't too tired to watch the space shuttle launch! So cool. And then we watched the Layton Temple groundbreaking, which was even cooler. 

This kid is such a goof. 

There isn't even anything in the cup.

We had church last week! They split our ward up into 3 groups, and our ward has the building every 3rd Sunday. We were lucky enough to get the 9 am slot, and Lance had meetings at church at 7:30, so I got my first trial run in getting 5 kids and myself ready for church. We made it, and we were even 5 minutes early! It was a 45 minute Sacrament meeting with everyone wearing masks, and about 45 people in attendance. 

Dixie wasn't super impressed, but the rest of us were happy to be back.

On the way home, we drove by the temple site. A beautiful location less than 10 minutes from our house. We can't wait to see this sacred building go up! I'm glad they've finally started. 

We finished off the day with a walk, and got to visit with our neighbor's horses that are back for the summer! With a foal this time.

And a few things from this past week. Dads and babes are the best!

And older sisters. Reagan is great.

And brothers. Sometimes.

That one time they were all sitting still watch a Rube-Goldberg machine. Dixie was sitting, too!

The girls started private tennis lessons this week. Maddie did well for her first time! And I didn't have to worry too much about germs. Reagan also started skateboard camp, and is doing pretty well for her first time (she got a skateboard for an early birthday present).  Blogger wont let me upload any videos, which is annoying.

We had quite a bit of excitement yesterday. We woke up early Saturday morning to super strong gusts  of wind coming from the east, which is unusual for us. We opened our blinds and laid in bed watching the ornamental plum tree outside our window go back and forth. Until one time, it didn't come back. I jumped up and looked out the window to see this:

Yikes. We were all very fond of this tree. It bloomed so beautifully right outside my window every spring. The girls loved to climb it and Lance built them a little seat in it. They ate the tiny sour plums off of it all the time, which was pretty weird but whatever. It gave shade to the hottest part of our yard and kept the grass alive. 

For reference, I took this picture a couple days ago. Reagan and Dixie enjoying the fresh air and watching the birds in the tree.

But no more!

From the front. Luckily it didn't damage the fence, but it did crush the cherry tree that had mysteriously died several weeks ago anyway (pictured below).

Lance spent all day cutting up the branches. What a mess!

The wind also blew a bunch of shingles off our roof, so at least we will be getting a new roof out of this hopefully. And maybe we can get the wood made into something cool. Roll with it!