Quarantine Level Up

By the time April came upon us we were all getting just a tad stir crazy. The Team Dance season had come and gone with no events. Stephen worked tirelessly to finish up his busy season in the discomfort of our guest room. The first full week of April, once Stephen filed his client, we were supposed to be going to Mexico with my parents and just Ada. We were able to get a refund for our Southwest flights and the resort allowed us to postpone our trip for a year, but boy was I disappointed. I had so many things to look forward to in January that it didn't matter that it was so stinky, but now I had nothing! Stephen decided to keep the time off of work and we packed up the car and headed to St George instead. We checked with all his siblings first because we didn't want to risk getting anyone sick, but we had been pretty cautious about our quarantining and the only thing we had left the house for was an occasional grocery run or walk around the neighborhood, and in the end everyone was fine with it. 

Ada has always had clogged tear ducts, first in both eyes, then mostly just her left eye. We were told if it doesn't clear up by nine months that they sometimes require surgery, and for some reason it got particularly bad right before we left for St George, right as she turned nine months. 

Also, my quarantine baking was not just limited to cakes and I started working on homemade pretzels. I made salty pretzels with cheese dip one day and they were so good that I had to try to make a dessert pretzel with cinnamon sugar and frosting the next day. They popped out of the oven as we were finishing packing up the car so we bagged them and the frosting up and brought them along as a car snack. 

We had been tentatively planning to leave for St George on Saturday morning, but Rory spent all of Friday asking when we were leaving and was way too excited to turn down, so we ended up just packing up and taking off that night. As we packed she spent about an hour just sitting strapped into her car seat saying she was ready to go. She LOVES Grandma and Poppop's house. 

The girls did great on the drive, Rory watched movies and Ada slept a little bit, and we got there around 1 am. Rory popped awake as soon as we pulled into the driveway and instantly ran inside to find Grandma and Poppop and the special princess bed. It was the cutest thing in the world to see her little half awake body so giddy with excitement. She made Grandma promise that she would play with her in the little kitchen and that we could swim in the pool and then she happily passed out for the rest of the night. 

We woke up just in time to catch the first session of General Conference and had fresh Grandma Pancakes waiting for us. Ada is a true Marsh and devoured them happily. Lucina made all sorts of Conference activities for Rory to do, complete with special crayons and stickers to use. I was able to pay more attention to the messages than I have been for the last couple of years and I didn't fall asleep once while watching it (although my nap in between the morning and afternoon sessions went a little long so I missed the first couple talks of that one). It was a lovely conference weekend, and it made me reminisce about watching conference at the Marshes when Stephen and I were engaged, just two months before we were going to get married. How was that already five years ago!? 

Ada thinks Poppop is the funniest guy and she spent all week growling and shaking her hand at him. They would have growling conversations back and forth all day and she thought it was just the best. She also loved all the food that Grandma made and always having someone that wanted to hold her and cuddle her. This baby lives to be held and she was in baby heaven. 

Corona virus didn't shut down the golf courses since it's a sport you can easily socially distance yourselves while playing, so Stephen and John were able to go out just about every day and play a round. 

Nate and Linne had been keeping their distance from John and Lucina's house since Nate still had to be going in to work every day, but when we came they decided they were ready to expand their circles a little more. They came over to swim and then stayed to play for a little while and Rory was in cousin heaven. At one point she needed a little break and I let her watch Moana on the iPad (I think after watching so many movies on road trips she goes through a little withdrawal or something) and when I went to check on her she and Tanner had cuddled up to watch it together. Tanner and Rory get along so well and I love watching the two of them play together. 

One of the days Linne suggested we all do a hike together because she is so good about getting her kids out the house and doing something every day. We went in the late afternoon so that the golfers could join us. I went back and forth on whether we would join them or not, but in the end Ada woke up from her nap just in time to hop in the car and go so we decided to just go for it. We were a little under prepared, and quickly realized it when we saw Linne's group with their hiking backpacks and exercise clothes. It was hot out and I had not applied any sunscreen to our crew, nor did I bring enough snacks. We strapped Ada into the carrier, careful to keep her covered from the sun, and took off anyways. Rory loved hiking and exploring with her cousins and I was amazed at how well she did. We walked for a while, stopping to snack and drink every once in a while. At one point we took a little break in the shade while the kids climbed up a scaly mountain and Rory told me she needed to pee. I pulled her shorts down to her ankles and tried to help her sit back in a squatting position to relieve herself, but she ended up peeing all over her shorts while Stephen looked on bewildered with how poorly I seemed to have handle the situation. Her shorts and one side of socks and shoes were now all covered in urine. She didn't seem too bothered by it and ran over to slide down the mountain with her cousins some more, resulting in a dirt/urine combo streak running down her back side. 

Rory remained happy and oblivious until it was time to begin hiking again, at which point she remembered that she was covered in urine, tired, and uncomfortable. Stephen was wearing Ada, I had the heavy diaper bag, and neither of us wanted to carry our pee-soaked toddler. The rest of our party had moved on while we tried to negotiate with her to get her to move even a little bit on her own. All the sudden, John came back around the corner and scooped Rory up on to his shoulders, dirt-covered pee pants and all. I'm going to have this picture blown up for our home and title it "A Grandfather's Love". 

Linne and Stephen decided to run ahead of us to finish the trail and run the two mile dirt road to where we parked the cars so that we wouldn't have to walk with all the kids that far. I took Ada in the carrier and the backpack and John, Lucina, and I tried to wrangle all the kids on our own. We stopped in a shady spot for a minute to allow Linne and Stephen some time to get ahead of us. Cooper instantly threw a rock on a beehive and upset the bees just as Rory threw a rock at Tanner. It was a bit touch and go, but we finally made it to the end of the trail, and took long enough that Stephen and Linne had parked and hiked down to meet us on the way. 

One of the days we headed up to the Rockville house to clean it up and do some yard work. I had a zoom call scheduled with my sisters and shortly after arriving Ada fell asleep in my arms, so while everyone worked around me I got to chat and enjoy a sleeping baby. Any time spent at the Rockville house is time well spent. 

During the week we spent lots and lots of time in the pool. It was the most magical thing because there was still snow on pine mountain and the air still had just a little bit of a chill, but the pool is always heated to 85 degrees. Most mornings while the boys were out golfing and as soon as Ada was down for a nap we would head out to the pool and Rory would swim her little heart out. Towards the end of the week she started getting bold and wanted to go in without her floatie, but that mostly meant she swallowed a ton of water and would come up sputtering and smiling every so often, completely oblivious to the panic she was causing me. 

When Stephen was finally able to join us in the pool we decided to bring Ada in as well for her first pool experience. She loved kicking around and splashing on the step with me, but didn't love when I stopped her from drinking the water. She loved when Stephen swirled her around and would dip her up and down. And the kids loved watching her every move. The cousins all love Ada and want to hold her and think that everything she does it just the cutest and it's funny to see Rory who is usually so ambivalent towards her want to join in on whatever the cousins are doing and suddenly thinks Ada's the best. 

We ended up staying through Easter weekend which I hadn't really anticipated so I didn't bring any of the Easter stuff I had prepped and ready to go. Grandma Blucina saved the day with egg decorating kits, plastic eggs for a hunt, and even Easter cookie cutters for us to make some sugar cookies with. Rory loved decorating eggs with Grandma Blucina, and I loved not having to be in charge of decorating eggs! She even let her use the glitter powder on them, which I most likely would have hidden from her. While they worked on the eggs I whipped up some sugar cookies and Rory helped me frost them once she was done. Then Lucina found some bunny head molds and we even made little rice krispie treat Easter bunnies. It was the most festive Easter we have probably ever had!

Once the boys were back from golfing (a common theme on all our St George trips) we did a fantastic Easter egg hunt in the backyard, and I think Rory thoroughly enjoyed having the hunt all to herself with no one to compete with to find them. She kept stopping to check the candy inside them or to yell at Poppop, "Can you even believe it?! Dad saw the Easter bunny!" 

I didn't get any pictures, but I spent most of the week baking away in the kitchen. We made homemade tortillas, I got a lesson in cinnamon roll making, and we even tried our hand at homemade pizza, though that one went a little wonky and you can't beat Costco pizza anyways. I had the best time chatting with Lucina, using all her fancy kitchen gadgets, and learning all her baking secrets. 

We also spent most evenings playing Marbles, but tensions got so high by the third or fourth night that we decided we needed to change up the activity if our relationships were going to survive the visit and played Mormon Bridge instead. We also watched Count of Monte Cristo together since Stephen and I had just finished it for our book group and we loved comparing the book and the movie (we had both already seen it loads of times it had just been a while). 

When it was time to go back home we were all pretty hesitant to actually leave. 

Rory, the champion of road trips, didn't last long and slept most of the way home, as did Ada. We woke up the next morning to bunny footprints and Easter baskets and celebrated Easter 2.0. 

It was so nice to have a change of scenery and to feel renewed and refreshed and ready to tackle quarantine with a fresh new outlook. Ada kept herself busy with some of her favorite hobbies- kissing herself in the mirror and eating. Any time I hold her up to see herself in the mirror on my closet door, which also doubles as her bedroom right now, she leans forward to lick/kiss/eat her own reflection in the mirror and it is my most favorite thing ever. Nothing brings her more joy than "mirror baby". Except for maybe food. So far she loves all food and does not discriminate against anything that can be put into her mouth. It's funny to me because Rory was always a good eater, but Ada gets a certain amount of joy from eating that just takes it to the next level. Plus, she will lose her mind screaming at you if you are eating something that she does not have. Man, I love this baby. 

To continue my baking streak I tried out a Crumbl cookie copycat recipe and oh my goodness they turned out delicious. So delicious that I want these cookies in our family history so while I am reading about all the cute things my babies did someday I can pause and drool over these cookies I made. Mmmmm... cookies....

I knew that Rory and I would be missing the pool a lot when we got back home, and the community pool is obviously still closed amid all the chaos so I bought her this little blow up pool at Wal Mart. Her excitement was next level. We blew it up, filled it up, and set it under the slide. We also set up the PVC water park Stephen made for her last summer and had our own little splashpad in the backyard. Throw in a popsicle and Rory was basically living her dream. After about fifteen minutes of playing I noticed that she froze abruptly before letting out a giant wail that her foot hurt. She had been stung by a bee and the fun was officially over. We got the stinger out, changed into some comfy clothes, and let Doc McStuffins soothe her pain. She ended up rallying and going out to play in the pool again after quiet time, which impressed me I have to admit. We have gotten some good use out of this pool and so far we haven't had to deal with any more bees. 

One day Rory came to me out of the blue dressed in this get up and told me that she was going on a fairy hunt. She had a hat to protect her from the sun, the fancy dress to attract the fairies and to keep in the sweat, and a hand drawn map she had made to where the fairies would live. She also packed a bag full of snacks and toys, just in case. It was maybe one of my favorite days of being a mom so far. She said I was allowed to accompany her on her quest, so we left a napping Ada home with Stephen and set out on our adventure. We walked around the neighborhood and I tried to point out flower bushes or rock gardens where fairies may be hiding, but every time Rory said she couldn't see anything or find any fairies. We decided to make our way home as pink-cheeked little Rory mused that maybe Arizona was too hot for fairies to live in. We decided that maybe we could make a nice shady fairy house for our yard so that the fairies had a place to live and then they would want to come to Arizona. She checks it almost everyday to add "food" and water, but so far she says that no fairies have decided to move in yet. Man, those fairies sure are picky. Three year old mood swings are hard to deal with sometimes, but three year old imagination is one of the best things I have yet to encounter. 

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.