Marching Into Madness

The beginning of March started off like any other month. We had the Boyce twins over to play and I had to snap this picture of Ada, who had rolled under the bunk bed, because with the chaos that is Rory and Jackson running around together I thought that was pretty astute of her to head for safer ground. 

The first Friday in March we got to celebrate McKenna turning 2 with the Collins, and though we didn't take any pictures it was a nice little party. The next day we went to the ward's Spring Fling at the Aillon's house. I had been feeling nauseous off and on all day, but it finally got super bad by the time we left the party. Elliott snapped these pictures of Ada while we were all hanging out and it's like she knew this was the beginning of the end. 

When we got home from the Spring Fling I was too sick to do anything but lay there and feel miserable. Stephen put the girls to bed and then did his best to make me comfortable. I got in the tub and it finally helped ease the chills and the shaking that had started up, but I still felt pretty awful. I tried to sleep that night, but finally around 1 am I woke up to puke and then had a hard time doing anything after that. I opted to lay in the recliner chair and watch dumb movies on my phone. The following day was Sunday and I was supposed to do a big party for the girls who had completed personal progress. I had parents coming, lots of things to hand out, and I even baked a cake! Plus I was supposed to teach the lesson. I snuck over to the church to drop off all the materials before anyone in our ward would be there and see how miserable I looked and then texted the other leaders who were happy to cover for me. Little did I know that I missed my last opportunity to be at in-person church for months!

Luckily the stomach bug passed and by Monday I was mostly ready to start getting back to life as usual just minus the eating. We started planning for our Girls Camp fundraiser that was now just a few weeks away. I took over the making of these rainbow paper fan garlands because I wanted to step up my game after dropping all that stuff on them last minute when I was sick. I spent HOURS folding and gluing these bad boys and had just finished them when news about things shutting down around the country started rolling in. 

Schools started shutting down, concerts were getting cancelled left and right. Stephen started feeling like we needed to get a better supply of food on hand and then we got an email from our Stake President saying that he felt impressed to tell our stake members to do just that. I started stocking up, and Costco started looking just a little bit crazier than usual. On March 12 Marisa was having a big black light High class for her birthday and I made Reese's cupcakes and Mint Oreo cupcakes for treats this time. Things started shutting down, the news was saying we shouldn't be in groups any bigger than 50, and Marisa and I were messaging back and forth about whether anyone would come to the class or not. That afternoon we got an email from the First Presidency saying that church meetings would not be held until the pandemic had passed. We were still planning to hold the class when we got the notice that the church building was closed until further notice and could not be used for ANYTHING- especially a super fun high fitness class. Stephen got the notice that he was to work from home until life got back to normal, and thus we entered the self-quarantining phase of our life that I never saw coming. 

Luckily for us, aside from church our lifestyle is pretty isolation-y. Rory's parks and rec classes were cancelled, as was her dance class, and we could no longer have play dates. I thought she would get stir crazy and be begging for all of our usual activities, but it didn't really seem to phase her. She didn't ask for her friends or her teachers or even the park. I think the biggest change was that suddenly Stephen was around, and we had all missed him so much during busy season that even just having his presence in the house made everyone feel a little more joyful. 

Ada loved quarantining. She's quickly expanding her eating repertoire and has never met a food she didn't like. Plus, now that we have nowhere to go she never misses a nap. She FINALLY started sleeping through the night! It may have taken a pandemic, but this baby is happy almost all the time now. 

On my Grandma's 94th birthday in February she tripped and fell at her house and broke her hip. Doug and Connie were with her and my Dad was able to come quickly and get her to the hospital. She ended up getting surgery on her hip and required a lot of physical help for recovery. She stayed at a care facility for her rehab and that meant that she was on super tight lock down as seniors are the most at risk to not be able to handle Covid-19. She couldn't get any visitors for weeks and we all knew she was hating it in there. I asked Rory if she wanted to write her a card and she came up with this all on her own. I love that she knows who my grandma is and I love the way her sharp little mind remembers everything.

We've had to come up with some new activities to pass the days and help them to feel productive. We have done a lot of Cosmic kids yoga, especially the one where she tells the story of Moana. We paint with water colors a lot, and read a lot of books. One day I was feeling crafty so we made a new dress for her Elsa doll. I thought I would be able to let Rory have full reign on this one, but I ended up aggressively taking it over and threatening her if she kept touching the doll before I was done. Oh well, at least she was happy with the results. We also play a lot of barbies and watch a lot of Doc Mcstuffins.

Quarantine has actually worked for the girls because when Ada is able to nap well, then they are never really up at the same time, except for an hour or so in the morning and at night. Ada naps 11-1 and right as she wakes up I send Rory to her bed for quiet time. Then when Rory is done with quiet time around 3 Ada is ready to go back down for her second nap. They love just seeing each other for a few minutes at a time. I had to include this sign I made to help Rory to remember things we can do instead when she feels like making Ada cry. She kept it on her dresser and referred to it often.

Since church is shut down we have been having our own meetings at home. They are about as in depth as you would imagine when half the congregation is under 4 years old, but I have really loved meeting with my family and trying to set the day apart on our own. I try to clean up  on Saturdays so that our living room is worthy of the Sacrament. We dress up, just so that the girls know what day it is and because I have so many cute matching dresses in these sizes and I can't let them go to waste! We've done church over a computer conference call with our families several times and I love that as well. 

As the world shut down around us and I lost hope of going on our Mexican vacation after all I decide to cope in the best way I know how- eating my feelings! I have been following an instagram account of a girl who bakes cakes every day and I have been DYING to try a cake of my own (not like the little ones I have done in the past). I got a cake decorating kit from Amazon, cake pans at DI, and slowly stocked up my pantry to prepare. I decided to make a peanut butter smore's cake as my first attempt. Rory helped me with every single element. We would make one piece each day and then froze them until we had them all ready to assemble. We made graham cracker cake, toasted graham cracker crumble, toasted marshmallow filling, peanut butter buttercream, and chocolate ganache. It. Was. Divine. And so much fun. It was exactly the pick me up I needed to enjoy all this time at home even more. I ended up hosting book group in March (only four of us got together, the rest conference called in) and I had this giant cake for us to eat. It was a good way to start eating desserts again.

At the end of March they announced that the two week stay at home order was extended to all of April. So if you need me I will be in my house gaining fifteen pounds, trying to stay sane, and taking my babies on a million walks until it is too darn hot for us to do otherwise.

Foodie February

February changed our lives in a lot of wonderful ways. As Ada approached six months we got to start introducing her to solid foods and so far she is a fan! She wasn't really sure what do with the rice cereal and breast milk mixture I presented her with a spoon, but she thought these rice husks were pretty awesome from the very beginning. 

Rory and Ada have such a rough love relationship meaning Rory is really rough with her and I hope there is love involved in some way. Ada LOVES Rory so much, sometimes when Rory walks into the room I swear I can see heart pupils in Ada's eyes just like in the cartoons. She just completely lights up every time she sees her. When Rory gives her any amount of attention Ada instantly smiles or giggles, and exactly half a second later Rory will do something to make her cry (bite her, poke her, grab her, shake her, sit on her- you name it Ada has lived through it). What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? 

Since we did a second session of Toddlerschool we got to do another class party for Valentines day. Rory picked out some Frozen valentines at the Dollar Store and then as we got them ready for her classmates she insisted that really she should just keep them all since she loves Elsa the most-est. She got to decorate sugar cookies, sing special songs, and have some snacks with her friends after they passed out their goodies. Rory's favorite part was the whip cream and strawberries. She loved it so much she asked for two more helpings and then Mrs. Miller, her teacher, sent her home with the leftovers. She now requests it for every meal. 

On the way back from the party a straight up miracle occurred. ADA FELL ASLEEP IN THE CAR. She's gotten so much better about not losing her mind every time we drive, and preschool is only 8 minutes from our house that I didn't think anything of it when she was finally nice and quiet, but SHE DID IT! SHE FELL ASLEEP IN THE CAR! May this be the start of a long and industrious car sleeping career for her. 

I LOVE Valentine's day, not because I think the holiday is important or even romantic really, but because it involves presents, desserts, chocolate, and the color pink. In college Taylor and I would host big dessert nights for Valentine's day because we both loved all the pink baking and this year I finally got to get back to it. Ironically, I made a goal at the beginning of this year to not eat sweets for 100 days in an effort to help me prep for our vacation to Mexico in April. But not being able to eat the desserts was not about to stop me from making them! Marisa hosted a Galentine's High Fitness class so I volunteered to provide the treats. I made chocolate dipped red velvet Oreo pops that turned out so stinking cute I just wanted to look at them all day. I also made heart-shaped chocolate-dipped strawberries that didn't turn out nearly as heart-shaped as pinterest had promised. I didn't get a picture of them, but I'm going to just assume they tasted great. Rory was an awesome "helper". 

I also worked on making some royally iced sugar cookies to deliver to the young women for Valentine's day. We had an activity coming up where we would be decorating cookies for a care facility and since I never use royal icing I wanted to be sure I figured it out before I tried to teach it to all the young women. It was a ton of baking and frosting making, and it is almost impossible to get a truly red frosting, but they turned out really cute! I don't know why I forgot to get a picture, probably because I was too busy baking, decorating, and then hiding everything from Rory so she wouldn't try to eat it. 

With all the treats I was making, it was a busy day in the kitchen. While I was making dinner I sent her to go play. She found my paper scraps from the cards I cut out for the young women and she quickly came in and asked me for some tape so she could make "the ouchey thingy that Jesus sits on". Then she came back and asked me to write, "Jesus was putted on the cross by the soldiers" on it. This is what happens when you show your children a video depiction of the Crucifixion when they are two, by the way. Not sure whether this goes in the parenting wins or losses category but it's definitely worth remembering.

Stephen is in busy season working crazy long hours like usual this time of year, and so by the time bed time rolls around I am usually feeling pretty spent. On this night when I went to tuck Rory in she asked me if Ada could lay down and chat with her for a minute. Look at the joy on that baby's face! And Rory was so sweet and so happy! I snapped a million pictures and cried actual tears of joy because for once their interaction didn't end in Ada tears! I love seeing the potential friends they can be (though if they take after their mother it will take them till about high school graduation to appreciate each other at all).

To get us through busy season we have instituted a mandatory pizza and a movie night on Friday. I win because I am too tired to cook any more meals. Stephen gets to cuddle Rory while she watches a movie, which after weeks of working around the clock is so good for him mentally and about the only play he can handle physically since he never sees the sun or leaves his small workspace (haha jk- kind of). We love Friday pizza night! And now Ada is following suit. Apparently now that shes mastered rice husks and mauling peanut butter toast sticks she feels equipped to take on pizza. She snatched this piece right out of Stephen's hand and then clung to it with a force we didn't even know she was capable of. So it seemed only right to let her finish most of it. It's looking like Ada loves food and it makes me love her even more. 

We got back on our weekly play date schedule with Rebecca and we did another fun Valentine's themed play date after dance class this year. Sarah took these cute pictures of the girls at her house and then we had some lunch and crafts at mine. While she was there I left the girls with her and ran out with my YW adviser Emily Lott to deliver the Valentine cookies. I got a bunch of heart balloons at the Dollar store and we left a heart balloon and two cookies for each girl. I brought Ada with me because I didn't want to leave Sarah feeling overwhelmed and I thought, "It's been a while since she's cried in the car I think she may even fall asleep." She cried and cried and cried until I finally thought to turn on the Frozen 2  soundtrack (since that's what is normally playing in the car when she and Rory are with me). Literally as soon as those first chords hit, she stopped crying and didn't make a peep the rest of the time. She fell asleep by the second track. It was crazy.

Now that Ada's tried pizza we keep seeing what else she might like. She loved these Ramen noodles from Costco. Feeding her is our new favorite thing. Also this last picture is when Rory and I did each other's makeup. She said I looked beautiful, but that I didn't do a very good job on hers. Thus, it begins...