With the weather turning a little warmer and the grass turning a little greener, the boys headed out to do some spring cleaning in the front yard. They replanted some bushes that had died and replaced ground cover in different parts of the rocky areas. The boys weren't too thrilled at first, but we made sure to let them know how much we appreciated their help.

​With warmer days but cooler evenings we decided it would be nice to sit outside more often in the evenings if we only had a little help with staying warm. We finally decided to invest in a heater for the front porch and we couldn’t be happier being warm and cozy lounging on the front porch on those cooler nights.

​Mike and Madeline had fun eating strawberry shortcake together outside on the front porch. Mike always made sure to put extra whipping cream on top for Madeline.

I have become addicted to smoothie bowls and get so excited every time I get to eat that for breakfast. My favorite smoothie is a dragon fruit, pineapple and mango mix. Then I sprinkle my homemade granola on top and top it with fresh fruit and unsweetened coconut flakes on top.

​I love seeing my purple tulips come out every springtime. We don’t get a whole lot of color or flowers blooming in Colorado Springs in the spring since we usually have pretty cold temperatures until late May and early June. My tulips remind me that the winter is pretty much over and the warmer days are about to arrive and that makes me super happy.

​With a shortage of hand sanitizer in the stores we were all super excited when Mike’s order of hand sanitizer came in the mail. Three of the bottles were designated for his ENT office but we kept one of the bottles for home to refill our smaller travel sized bottles. Oh, happy day!

Ever since we planted flowers in the front yard, Madeline often sees us out watering the flowers and our Japanese maple tree. She gets so excited when we let her water anything and everything. 

​Emma and I went in to get allergy tested at Mike’s office. It turns out that Emma is only allergic to seasonal things trees and plants, but I am allergic to that and to milk. What a sad day for me to realize that I have to cut milk out of my diet. 

WASHING MACHINE REPAIR 
MAY 16, 2020

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​I normally love our washing machine and dryer. We had some problems the year after we bought them due to a faulty circuit board but that was pretty much fixed. When the washing machine decided to stop working mid cycle and wouldn’t drain, we knew something was wrong. Mike spent time figuring out what was wrong and went and got a new drain pump. It was quite the project to repair the machine by himself, but he did it. 

​After spending a few weeks of planting, mulching, and watering, our front yard finally looks ready for the summer. I love this time of year when everything is alive and green!

​Trying to figure out what kind of masks work best for my kids has been interesting. I ordered a few masks, but they are backordered until June, so we are making the best of it with some homemade masks. I tried a new mask today and I love the way it turned out, but it took way too long to make for me to want to recreate that a bunch of times. 

​It is not uncommon for us to find Peter curled up asleep in the middle of the floor or on the couch at random moments during the day. Today I found him asleep on the front bench and it just made me smile. 

​Andrew is quite the baker. He bought himself a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook at college and has been trying some new recipes since he’s been home. He made a chocolate molten lava cake for all of us and it was out of this world delicious. It was definitely restaurant quality.

​The Stay at Home orders during COVID has definitely left us feeling isolated so we try to get out and go for family walks as often as we can. It has really helped us to get out of the house and feel more normal. 

​There are many things that I love about living in Colorado Springs. The beautiful sunsets we get is definitely one of them. The colors can be pretty remarkable.

​Since all the celebrations at school had been cancelled due to the COVID crisis, we decided to do a little 8th grade graduation celebration for Emma while grandpa Al was visiting. I ordered a fun yard sign and some yummy customized sugar cookies and cake pops. This lady who makes these delicious treats is such a treasure. She made the most amazing cookies for Emma. The 2020 cookie even had a face mask and a roll of toilet paper on it to commemorate the COVID-19 crazy. One of my favorite cookies was the blonde girl with the cap and gown. She really went above and beyond to make it special for Emma. Emma was an excellent student at Challenger Middle School. She got mostly A's and a few B's throughout the three years she was there. She was able to get straight A's her entire 8th grade year. We couldn't have been prouder of the amazing things she accomplished!

​We always love any excuse to go and walk around Garden of the Gods together. It had been a few years since Al had been there, so we rounded up all the kids and headed on over before the afternoon thunderstorm arrived. We got there at the perfect time. The weather was cooler, and it only sprinkled a tiny bit while we were on our walk. Madeline had fun running up and down the paved walkway, collecting a variety of rocks along the way. We made it pretty much all the way around the path before it started raining. By the time we got back in the car it started to pour. What luck that was. I was happy that I managed to get all five kids to come on our little adventure. The beauty of this place never ceases to amaze me.

​While Grandpa Al was still in town, we decided to do Andrew’s Priesthood Ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood in preparation for his mission to Frankfurt, Germany. We were fortunate enough to have Joe Hale come over as a member of our Stake High Council. Mike gave a spectacular blessing to Andrew. We are so excited for Andrew’s future and the amazing things he will be able to do now that he holds the higher priesthood. 

​With our XTERRA Beaver Creek triathlon only two months away and still scheduled to happen both Mike and I spent a great deal of time this month getting in our biking, swimming, and running. Luckily Flying Horse opened up their swim lanes by reservation only on May 11th. We swam three days, biked twice and ran 3-4 times every week. We had fun swimming together and biking at Red Rocks, Stratton Open Space, Black Forest Section 16 and the occasional road bike on the Cottonwood Creek Trail. It has been nice to have a race to work towards, even though in the back of our minds we know at any time it could be cancelled. What’s even better is that we have been able to train together. I’m so glad Mike and I like doing the same things! 

​We had a blast spending time with Grandpa Al for the few days that he visited with us. I loved watching Madeline get to know Grandpa again after he had been gone for the past 1 ½ years serving a temple mission in Taiwan. The two of them did puzzles, sang songs, and just had a blast together. 

​We have loved having our little makeshift paver fire-pit in our backyard, but the area always lacked comfort and style and we really didn’t use that area as much as we wanted. We decided to hire a company to redo that area. We had them remove all of the lavender bushes near the raised area and across the yard and put all the smaller rocks originally in the fire-pit area in those places. Then they prepped the area to put pavers down. Since we had ordered a propane fire pit, they created a hole in the middle and ran a pipe all the way underneath the pavers and out the side of the raised area underneath the deck so we could store the propane tank out of site. Our goal with the new area was to make it a little haven where we could spend time as a family. We ordered new outdoor furniture and a gazebo. While the pavers were being put in Mike and the boys started to put together the gazebo. The boys spent the next several days putting up different parts of the gazebo. Once it was finally put together and the furniture arrived, we centered it where we wanted it and drilled the gazebo into the pavers, with a little cement filler for extra measure. At first, we only did one post until we were hit with a random windstorm and it took all of us holding the posts so we could finish the rest of the drilling. That was an exciting experience. We can’t believe that it took us so long to make this area of our yard a beautiful little vacation spot right in our own backyard. 

One of the things we have wanted to do since we moved into our house was update the laundry room. It has always been an eye-sore and not very functional as the wire shelf was much too high for me to reach and the industrial sink was full of dried paint. It made me cringe every time I had to use it. With some good planning on Mike’s part, he figured out how we could update it to look nice with some simple upgrades. We spent three days straight working on the laundry room. First, we hung up new white cabinets that we ordered from Lowe’s. That was a relatively easy task compared to everything else we did but it still took us most of the morning. Next, we installed new flooring. We went with a luxury vinyl that was made to look like wood. The floating planks were really easy to install right over the original linoleum. We were lucky that we didn’t have to take off the linoleum to put in the new flooring as the new flooring was exactly flush with the connector between the two rooms. Since each plank was not exactly the same I spent most of the time figuring out which planks would look good next to each other. We ended up having to go and buy one more box since we were left with pieces that were either too light or too dark. The flooring took us most of the first day. The second day was spent cutting and installing all of the white boarding, framing, and molding. We decided to copy Madeline’s walls to give it a fresh modern look. Since Mike had done this before he just copied the process he used before. After some mathematical calculations to make the different sections even, we went to work putting all the boarding up. Mike makes everything look easy but the reality is this stuff is not that easy to do. Just to be funny, Mike wrote some fun things on the walls and floors that we covered up. You know...to leave our mark on the house! Later that night we started to fill in the holes with putty but eventually gave up and went to bed. On the third day we filled in the holes, sanded everything and taped in preparation to paint. All of the prep work and the painting took us all day long. We realized that if we ever did another project like this again, we would do the woodwork but hire someone else to do the painting. Painting the boarding was so tedious and annoying. It was a good thing we were working together to get it done. After all the painting was finally finished, we installed the new sink and the drying rack. After 3 very long and tiring days, we finally finished the laundry room and it sure turned out amazing. We took our very blah laundry room to a whole new level. With more storage space in the cabinets, I was able to finally store a bunch of stuff I had been storing in the cleaning closet. It really helped me to declutter other areas of my home. It is like a whole new world when I step into my new laundry room and it makes me so incredibly happy!

​
BEFORE

​With the amazing weather we had during the month of May we tried to get Madeline outside as much as possible. She absolutely loved riding her bike more than anything else. She became quite good at balancing on her little push bike and by the end of the month she was so fast that we really had to either run or ride the scooter just to keep up with her. 
 
One of Madeline’s favorite indoor activities this month was playing with all of the stuffed animals from the girl’s closet. Although she has her own basket of stuffed animals in her room, there were just so many that we had to store the rest in the Abby and Emma’s room. Madeline loved to dump them out and sit in the big pile of animals. She would usually find her favorites right away. It was not uncommon for us to find Madeline just in her underwear playing with all of her toys. When we asked her why she was naked she would tell us, “I was just hot, so I took my clothes off.”
 
On one particularly warm day we headed over to the drive through at Baskin Robbins and all got ice-cream cones. We headed over to a park nearby and walked around. Madeline was really excited to try the pink bubble gum ice-cream. She was really happy with her choice. Every few minutes we would have to lick her ice-cream, so it didn’t melt on her. She is not the fastest ice-cream eater. While at the park we found some dandelions and Madeline was all about blowing as many out as she could. Then she proceeded to find some nearby sticks and just play pretend. We love watching her and her imagination run wild. We will often hear her make up stories about the things she did. It’s cute to see who she incorporates in each story. More often than not her stories usually involve the older kid’s friends. She always calls them her friends too.
 
Almost every day in May Madeline would ask us a few questions. She would either say, “Is the zoo open yet?” or “Are the parks open yet?” or “Can I do some errands with you?” It became apparent that Madeline just needed to get out of the house, so I quickly whipped up a small mask for her and let her come to Lowe’s with us to get supplies for one of our home projects. She was really good about keeping her mask on at Lowe’s, so I let her come with me to the grocery store. She had the best time doing errands again with me. It was fun to see her excitement about going to the store. After we got home from errands we celebrated with popsicles in the backyard while Mike and the boys started to put together the gazebo.

​We headed to Fox Run Park this afternoon for some good old-fashioned family fun. We brought the hammock, frisbees, balls and some snacks and enjoyed spending time together in our small little section of the park. The kids took turns swinging in the hammock while the rest of us played frisbee. Madeline was our runner who just ran where the frisbee was being thrown. We made sure to throw her the frisbee often so she would feel included. She loved playing with us. After quite some time playing frisbee we got out the small plastic bat and enjoyed watching Madeline hit ball after ball. She really was quite good at hitting the ball. Every time she would get ready, she would ask, “Am I standing the right way?” We would position her with one foot in front of the other and fix her hand positions. We thought it was so cute how she wanted to be in the right position to hit the ball. This afternoon’s adventure taught us that we can still get out and have fun together outdoors without worrying about getting COVID19. We are so blessed to have each other to hang out with during this time of social distancing.

​"A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take." -Cardinal Mermillod
 
Words cannot even describe how grateful I am for my own mother and the amazing influence she has on my life. She was my first friend, is my best friend, and will be my forever friend. 
 
"There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill
 
I love this quote about motherhood. It's not about being perfect but being present and loving in the lives of our children. I love my kids and I would do anything for them. I'm grateful for this day to celebrate how wonderful motherhood really is and the blessing of being able to teach my children how to find peace and joy in times of uncertainty. It truly has been a time of uncertainty in our lives with all that has happened with the COVID crisis, but I have found joy in being able to spend more time with my kids. Being able to step away from all the noise of the world has allowed me to be a better mother and to recognize the areas that I need to work on. I couldn’t have asked for a better Mother’s Day.
 

Oh, the weather has been so good to us lately and we are super grateful. After doing home church we packed lunch, snacks, and water and headed on a new hike with the kids. We drove the swag wagon up Mt. Herman road and parked at the trailhead to hike to the top of Mt. Herman. We were lucky to grab a parking spot just as someone was leaving. The road was already lined with cars. It was around 1:30pm so we weren't all that surprised that it was crowded. We passed a few families on the trail, but it really wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be. Madeline was such a trooper and hiked the ENTIRE way up the trail. She had help with a few spots where it was slippery, or the rock steps were too big for her to step up on her own. Each one of us took turns holding her hand and helping her along. It really was quite impressive that as a 3-year-old she could handle such an incline. Mike carried the kid backpack just in case, but she didn't even ask to sit in it at all. The hike was really fun as we headed through some great tree sections and some fun rocky sections. Eventually we popped out on top and the views were pretty spectacular. We found a nice spot below the ridge line to each our lunch and enjoy the view. Madeline was all about the chips and grapes. Everyone else enjoyed the other fun snacks that Mike packed. Grapes, brie, crackers, chips, and hummus pleased everyone. After some laughs and silliness at the top we decided to put Madeline in the backpack for the descent. We hiked down so fast it was hard to believe it was that short of a hike. The entire hike was only around 2.5 miles round trip. The funniest thing Madeline said on the way down was, "I can't wait to get back to the car so I can hold my blanket and suck my thumb." Oh, she just makes us smile. It's good to be outside with all of the kids hiking in the great outdoors.