May 2020

What an absolutely crazy month we had! It started out so pleasant. Teacher appreciation week, the boys Covid 19 haircuts and then BAM right before Brad's birthday and mothers day we get hit with a FLOOD! The stop and waist part of our sprinkler broke and flooded the storage room/closet in our basement. However water moves fast and turns out once it touch wood laminate it is toast so we (as in the company the insurance hired- thank goodness) had to rip out all the laminate in the entire basement as well as a lot of drywall. Sadly we also had to rip out a portion of our front landscaping in order for the stop and waste to be replaced and the foundation to be sealed. Home ownership! Thankfully Dad Jefferson saved some of our plants helping us dig them out and then replant. Sadly this all happened on Brad's birthday and so he will never forget moving a gigantic rock on his 40th birthday. The boys gave me beautiful white tulips for mothers day and Jefferson and I made a cake for Brad's birthday. The theme for his birthday was "FORTY is only 11(points) in Scrabble- so enjoy your year of being a kid again." Because of all the flood fiasco we had his party the day after and made smores. This May was nonstop with projects- some necessary, some used as a coping strategy to avoid the larger problems. Ha ha. We helped our renter move out and cleaned the entire basement, garage, and shed. I made my own chalkpaint and refinished an armoir and bench. I even made a couple decorative ladders. We have decided not to rent out our basement for the time being so the  boys have had a blast exploring there new play zones. It's amazing we found some time to play with the lemonade stand, and Brad and I were lucky enough to have family watch the boys while we did some date-hikes to celebrate our 12th anniversary. We are hoping for a lazy boring summer after this chaotic spring! Carter-almost 2 years old, discovered the joy of jumping on the bed. It seems to be his favorite activity now besides trailing after his bro bro and copying his every move. Goggy (his stuffed monkey) is still his most beloved possession and we have to distract him- sometimes successfully and sometimes not to give Goggy a bath because he smells terrible. Jefferson watched the life NASA live feed of the Dragon Space Ex launch and has been obsessing about all things space related and watching space facts on youtube,. He says " mama, what planet do you want me to tell you about now," and then precedes to rattle off some facts he has memorized. Our favorite Jeffersonisms this month were "Carter wants mm-mm to mean yes and MM- MMHRM to mean no"- explaining Carter's grunts to communicate. "Soon dadda will get higher to 100", "Water is made out of liquid", and our favorite was when he was talking to himself trying to get through the Mariokart level "you have one more chance, Jefferson you can get through it." After this crazy month we have to keep laughing!

April 2020

This past April we were happy to welcome home 2 of our nephews serving missions. We got to practice our Spanish when we greeted them and look forward to lots more conversations. Welcome home Hayden and Jackson! Easter celebrations came as a welcome distraction from all the stress in the world. Though not the same as the usual Easter celebrations with our entire family, we had a fun time just the 4 of us. We made Easter cookies, and colored Easter eggs (which Jefferson "saved the day" by dropping one which made us realize we got the non hard boiled egg carton out of the fridge instead of the hard boiled!) We had an Easter egg hunt in our back yard and the kiddos found a fun puppet show stand by their Easter baskets. We had a delicious Easter dinner with our annual Easter cheesecake. We continued our letter of the week with Zoo week and Dinosaur week and Space week this month.  We did puppet shows on rainy days and performed them for grandparents on face time. Brad discovered he can wear the puppet show stand while sitting and performed some hilarious shows. We had lots of fun playing outside and working in our backyard. Brad worked super hard getting up all of the sod for our landscaping project this year. One of the funniest moments of  the month was when mama was rudely awakened from a meditation by Jefferson saying "Dadda are you going to cut the other side of his hair?" Sure enough Brad thought the answer to Carter's hair in his face was a haircut. So Carter ended up with a mullet and Jefferson learned to never let Dadda cut his hair. LOL. This month Carter decided the answer to all of his problems is calling out for "Goggy" (his stuffed monkey) at the top of his lungs. We had a few scary incidences where Goggy got lost but we were luckily able to find him- phew. Carter's face after the dilemma instead of gratitude is sheer annoyance and grumpiness with us for not being able to find his precious Goggy in the first place. And our favorite Jeffersonism of the month was after Brad tried throwing a piece of garbage in the trash can and missed and Jefferson said, "better luck next time with that dadda."