Online Kindergarten and Preschool

Michael:
rode his bike to work for the first time this week, making his 5-minute commute a 10-minute commute. Whaaaat? Sometimes I still can't believe this is real life. We both took a trip to buy color on Saturday. Him: Plants. Her: Paint. He added lots of black-eyed Susans and lavender and Russian sage to our front and side yard. We like to ask each other lots of opinion questions about yard stuff and house stuff when the truth of the matter is, I just don't really have an opinion or notice much outside and he just doesn't really have an opinion or notice much inside. This set up has it's pros and cons :)

Maddie:
made a huge master project to do list that I'm going to try and bust out by November 1, because I want to enjoy the holidays!! And I want to be able to follow Camden around when we get to that stage where you just follow your kid around. Oh that stage. He's been quite unhappy lately but this is my paragraph not his, but oh we'll get to you, Cam Cam. I bought some power tools this week.... and I'm really excited about it. Miter saw, nail gun, jig saw... wall treatments are happening. I blame Instagram DIYers for "empowering" me when we all know things will NOT be as easy as they make it look. But we're going to try! First some board and batten in the dining room and a shiplap wall in our main bedroom. And Michael started talking about building something for some grape vines to grow on.
Like I said, inside outside mindsets.

Westin:
played played played with neighbor friends this week. On Saturday night we went to a neighborhood birthday party where the kids ate pizza and went on a scavenger hunt to find a piñata (watching them all hold on to hula hoops as they went from clue to clue to keep them together was the cutest thing ever), and the adults all ordered take out. Rain came on pretty hard at the end but it was so fun to chat more with a lot of our new neighbors one cul-de-sac over. They've been good friends for a long time and it's really fun to see. On Sunday Westin loved being outside with some friends during the afternoon, then to our back neighbor's house to play later. Bennett tags along but bounces in and out more from time with me to time with friends. Westin also rode 5 or 6 miles on an impromptu bike adventure on Friday when we loaded Bennett and Camden up in the trailer for the first time. We ended up at Jessup Farms where we'd gone on a date a couple weeks ago, to show the boys some chickens. Then we ordered pizza from a little Italian restaurant by the farm and ate it while we waited out another fast but strong rainstorm. Then we rode home and Westin just seemed so big! Grandma and Grandpa were going to come up on Friday to play one more day with us but Camden came down with a fever so they safely stayed at Katie's. Westin was really sad to not go on a bike date to Sprouts with grandpa, so I took him there Saturday morning. He was so happy walking around choosing his "one bad for you, one good for you" food. I try to not label foods as bad or good but Westin is just really into talking about what different foods do for your body and if I tell him something is a treat and not very nutritious then it's "a bad for you food" in his mind. He almost went with the gummy bears until he saw a package of candy corn and was over the moon. Whose kid is this. Then he chose some Pluots (plum/apricot fruit). Seriously thought... candy corn??? 

I almost forgot to mention he started school?? The first day was SO bad. So long. He hated it. I hated it. So long. So so long. Second day I just told him to hop on when he wanted and hop off when he wanted, and he did. Then Friday was only 45 minutes. My goodness, please please let's go back to school soon.

Bennett:
started school too! His preschool class is the cutest little group. He loved making a craft project self-portrait of himself. Though he kept calling it "my human" so I don't think he realized it was supposed to be him, I think he just thought he made a little person. We glued yarn on for hair, colored clothes, glued on googly eyes. And I'll be honest, I was taking a video of him to upload to his class app to show his teacher that he was working on his project, and right then Bennett colored a bunch of orange in the middle of his legs and said, "This is his penis!" So, I didn't send that video to his class. But yay for anatomically correct terms, right? He did the same thing with his self-portrait at the Cannon's house a few months back so I sent Shelley the video thinking she'd appreciate it more than Bennett's teacher :) We also rode bikes to the school on Friday to get school lunch, which I think we'll do one day a week for fun for the boys, and we saw Bennett's teacher outside. There are a few girls in our neighborhood that are prime babysitting age and they were so sweet with Bennett and Camden at our neighborhood party. We took some neighbors some cookies this afternoon and they had a golden retriever that burst out of the house and Bennett was in heaven. He played with the dog for over 10 minutes and you could tell he was so happy to see a new "Rosie" in his life.

Camden:
is being a little bum but we love him!! It's so hard to have patience when a fed, changed, played with kid who is being held is STILL crying. Why are you crying so much, bud! Westin did this same thing when he turned one. Honestly, with how much he looks and acts like Westin, I'm kind of terrified for when he turns three... am I allowed to say that. But we are in a much better place than then so at least there will be hope this time. I have to rescue Camden multiple times a night when he's screaming on his stomach. He won't roll back over, won't stop screaming if I just let him cry... it's an issue. Usually a 4-month issue but here we are at 13 and that's ok. :) He has started always saying "k" sounds when he sees Kitty, and he is giving such cute kisses lately. He loved his first bike trailer ride, but ONLY if we were moving. Even stopping to cross streets resulted in immediate screaming, followed by immediate happiness when the bike moved again. His helmet kept slipping down his face and at one point Michael looked back and it was fully in front of his face, little eyes peeking through the holes just staring, but he was happy as could be, because, moving. So funny. Bennett just rubbed Camden's head during the ride and it was so darn cute. He loves taking care of Camden.

Wednesday was a low point after realizing how long school would be, but we have come up with a few things to make our routine a little better and I think it's going to be good. The rest of the week was really great! We are loving it here.

Kitty lives outside SO much more during the day here and sleeps more during the night.
We don't miss you, Toby dog.

He

He scootches himself into this corner and then it looks like I'm forcing him to eat in time out.

So peaceful. When he's asleep :)

Outsourcing sandwich making.

Neighborhood first-day-of-school pic!

School doesn't start until 8:45 so mornings are usually breakfast with daddy, 
get ready, our two-mile walk, then log on for school.

Online preschool. Only 2020 could make that a real thing.

Westy has a permanent set up in our dining room so that he's good to go each morning.

Bennett started out here but does better on the floor with the iPad I think,
so we'll keep figuring it out.

Annnnnd this is how things went a little while later.
"School is in a building tomorrow, right mama?"
Broke. My. Heart.

These were results someone posted about advice for distance learning on Instagram and I related to this comment so, so much. Covid has been incredibly inconvenient countless times, but this week was the first time I felt really heartbroken about how far from normal things are.

Time to make a human!

Clear view of that orange... detailing that I mentioned.

Bennett is on much shorter than Wesitn is so he likes to find his way in here and color. 
I love that he hears the songs and things from Westin's class.

We took an alternate route to try and find this crane and we did!
The boys were soooo happy.

And then those kind, kind workers invited them over to check out the crane.
They were so, so excited. People are so nice.

When Bennett turned the corner and saw these chickens he said,
"Oh my gosh!"
And it was so funny. I've never heard him say that and his voice/phrasing was just so funny. He did not expect to walk up on this scene was super happy we did.

Next level pancakes on Saturday morning

I'm.... not getting as much painting done lately.

This stage is hard.

This isn't even my family.
I just love them and love that they are back in the Louisville temple district,
and I wanted to put this picture here this week.
And really they are my family.

Diggin' those holes.

Cousins on Sunday

 Michael:
spent Wednesday home with us and we had fun finding a new fish hatchery. He's been busy while at work and has been meeting a few dental offices around town each week as well. There's a place here with popular breakfast burritos, so he usually takes those or bagels around and even crossed paths with a dentist he did a group project with at BYU. He has been itching to get more plants around here so we had fun doing an early afternoon date on Saturday to get to the nursery before it closes. A nursery employee talked to us about some different types of raspberries and some planting procedures, and everything he said was so new to me while Michael had read about all the things he was saying. Plant man. I'm excited to see what our garden and yard looks like in a year or so!

Maddie:
had "virtual back to school night" for Westin and Bennett and I have a great feeling about their teachers and school. Just seems like such good people with a great school vibe. I hopeful they will be able to go in person after the first quarter. But if not, I know they'll go at some point and I know they live close to a great school. My wrist/hand keeps getting worse and I'm so worried it needs surgery. The thing I am the very most sad about is thinking about playing the piano. Fine motor stuff hurts so much, and I just know playing the piano would feel impossible right now. Finishing the living room area felt so good this week. Every time something looks the way I've been seeing it in my mind I just feel such a huge sense of peace. Saturday was the first day that I fully cleaned these things in the same day: all the floors (which is part vacuum, part mopping, part sweeping/bona now), bathrooms, kitchen, all loads of laundry including sheets, dusting, and putting away all my paint supplies for a bit (next is painting the piano room, dining room, and upstairs hallway, but I think I am going to get a feel for virtual school first) and it had me wondering how anyone lives in big houses. I feel like it took so much time! I feel like this house is the perfect size/floor plan/neighborhood for us right now and I'm just so grateful everyday that things came together the way they did.

Westin:
LOVED showing grandpa and grandma his new bike riding skills today. They came up for the day with Katie and her boys and it was the best to have some cousin time and hang out together. The air quality is horrible right now because of the sad fires happening near us, so we just stayed inside for most of the day. We were so glad they came up! Westin had so much fun running around with Jack. He seems to grasp the concept of virtual school, I hope this goes well. I ordered a few little supplemental things (national geographic little kid books, some writing books, etc) so that we can do our own thing as needed on days he might seem burned out of his school routine. But maybe he'll love it? He loved that we bought lemon and orange trees, and he loves harvesting zucchini and tomatoes whenever they're ripe. I still just think it's so nice that we moved in to a garden that had those already growing.

Bennett:
is excited to meet his teacher this week too! I hope so much there's a good speech therapy solution through the district, that's all being worked out. I'm guessing it will be online, which is obviously not ideal. Especially if he doesn't have an already established relationship with the therapist. But we're all working with what we've got right now and I feel like I have been noticing his improvements more lately. Bennett wearing a mask is just so stinking cute for some reason. We were able to go to church for the first time since March today, for a shortened and very small sacrament meeting. And just looking over at Bennett who was so good at continually bringing his mask back up over his nose was just adorable to me. His growing love for Camden also keeps melting me all the time. Also no one reminded Bennett to pee during his Sunday of fun cousin time, so after playing playing playing all day he suddenly announced "I'm peeing" while sitting on my lap on the deck that night just before his late bedtime. I want to announce that my mom spidey-skills made it so that none of my lap was peed on and between Katie and Michael and I we had a deck and a boy sprayed off by the hose in no time flat. Kids are so funny. When do you learn to pee even if you're having a good time? The things we take for granted.

Camden:
Had his first day at church in so long! And just because church has been shortened to only 45 minutes now doesn't mean he forgot to make sure he got some foyer time in there when he was being too loud. He knew he needed to fit that in early. I also tried to put the sacrament in my mouth while my mask was still on, so, must be getting used to that thing. He takes just one nap a couple days a week now, which is never too fun to have him fight that second one just to finally give up on it. But overall I'll be happy when he learns to get just one long nap in there each day. He's more chill on his stomach these days, and sometimes rolls over onto his stomach while in his crib (and then screams until you come help him back over), but no moving up to his hands/knees yet. He babbles a ton and is for sure trying to say some of the words I'm saying when we read his little books, so cute. He eats a lot lately and isn't hating on vegetables so much anymore. Still a much bigger fan of fruit, dairy, and meat though. He hated haircut day this week and hated the shower that followed and loved the books/cuddles/naps that came around after all that trauma.

The House:
Finished the left side cabinets of our TV wall! Oh I was dreading that. To put it off I painted the mudroom entryway white, both layers, the living room wall white and grey, the living room trim white, and the entryway/hallway white. The pole my friend Staci brought over has been a game changer, why was I moving a ladder around so much in here. Goodness, what else am I doing the super hard way in life. After I painted the entryway white the crown moulding didn't look white at all anymore...so, painted that! Then the last thing I did was finish painting the laundry room lower cabinets. Which was the LAST CABINET to paint! Woohoo!! The new pendant light coverings came in and I love them, plus we got a new trash can that fits much better in our kitchen and I know from how happy that makes me that I'm becoming so much more of an adult. But hey, it's joy and I'll take it!

Bennett loves asking to hold Camden lately!

Westin is making taste test cards for us to figure out if we like bacon, sausage or chorizo breakfast burritos more. I love this kid's love for food.
(Bacon won all around.)

My all-day everyday necklace broke! I'm so sad!
It was a semi-colon to remind me to pause, and be a patient mom.
So, look out kids.

Left side done!! 
I had no energy to do this after doing the right side...
so I painted the hallway, mudroom entryway, and the front entryway,
then came back to it.
Painting with no sanding required is way more fun.

We found a new fish hatchery!
The food isn't free, and there's no cute trail. But we dropped a few quarters
and loved it!

White instead of yellow, 
with my grandma's mirror on the wall.
Later that week we bought a snake plant for that corner and it looks so good there!

Found this lady on our patio table!
The boys were so excited.

Then Westin went to his desk and colored this.
I love how he processes things through coloring and 
he spends so much time at Michael's old desk now that it's in the boys' room.

Then the cherry on top was seeing this Wild Kratts episode.
If only all our nature finds and coloring time and PBS shows could be so coordinated.

Feels so good to see this room how I've been seeing it in my head since we bought the house!
Just need to get a rug now, and find a different spot in the house for that rocking chair. 

New pendant light coverings! I was so happy to find these and know that I could replace the lamp shade style pendant coverings they had without redoing the entire pendant lights.

New favorite pants...  plus they're $10 from Wal-Mart, can't beat that.

Sweetest reminder from my cousin.

Trees for date night! It was so fun to pick out plants and pots,
because it made Michael so happy.
He's been needing an orange tree back in his life for a while!

Found the perfect pots for the lemon and orange trees.

Cute cousins!

Bad lighting because it's night, but that laundry room lower cabinet spot is done! Which means I unpacked all the boxes in our living room, because all our office supplies type stuff had to wait on this area to be finished. This is also the first time since moving in that there has been no painting supplies or misc tools on that counter and it makes me haaaaappy. They'll be back soon though :)