March Wrap Up

Here are a few highlights from the month of March. 

One day Lucy insisted on taking a nap on the window seat in the stairs. You can see her set up not just with her pillow and blanket, but her baby in her pack and play as well. 

This kids love building and playing together and managed to build this with their magnatiles. I'm impressed. 

Lydia put together a really great family home evening lesson and you can see everyone had at work on the project she had us working on. 

Lucy is so funny - here she is pulling off Lydia's sock. 

We celebrated Shantel's half birthday! One of our favorite new traditions is that we celebrate your half birthday by getting a mini-bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes and then the person with the half-birthday gets half the cake and everyone else shares the rest (which split 5 ways is basically a bit for everyone else). It has been really fun, we love birthdays and it is a good way to make people feel special all year. 

Kids cuddling up on the couch. 

Lucy playing in the boys room by flipping herself back onto the bed. 

During March Madness I invited Kevin over to watch the games one Friday night and Austin and Lydia watched as well. We had a great time watching the games and it was really fun to have Kevin over to watch as well. 

Shantel giving Lucy and "Airplane ride." I love seeing how happy Lucy is. 

One Sunday it was such beautiful weather we decided to take a walk on the Jordan River parkway. We drove drove over and we walked and the kids rode their scooters. It was a great way to spend some time on Sunday. 

Our Van's "malfunction indicator light" keeps flipping on. It is not as bad as getting the check engine light, but it is not great. Shantel had someone put in a new thermometer and that was supposed to fix it, but then it came back. So sad. 

Lydia and Camille made donuts with Shantel and they even made them jelly stuffed. 

insta-Q1

insta-january 

(none, we basically just hunkered down and tried not to get Covid in January, ha)

insta-february

2.14.22

I asked the kids to sit down on the porch ao o could snap a valentine's picture of them. (my front porch is my favorite picture taking background.) Austin leaned his head on Lydias shoulder and she leaned her head against his and it melted my mama heart and now this is the photo I am posting instead of a posed picture with a pink floral wreath.

I love these kids so much and love how much they love each other.

insta-march

3.10.22

I took some extra time last night to sit woth Caleb and listen to him talk. We dished up ice cream cones and sat criss cross on the bench of our kitchen table facing each other. We laughed as he told me something funny Lydia had said and then he told me about some of his favorite Paw Patrol episodes. I tried to memorize every second of the overgrown hair curling around his ears and his grey eyes sparkling with joy (and mischief). Soaking in every last bit of his four-year old self. And then just like that he went and turned 5. Five seems like such a milestone, and Im just so glad we got to celebrate him today.

3.15.22

In our house, on your half birthday you get a little bundt cake (@nothingbundtcakes) to celebrate. You get to blow out the candle and make a bonus half-birthday-wish. We cut the cake in half and the half-birthday person gets one half and everyone else splits the other (which is basically just a single forkful each).
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I really try not to miss the kids half- birthdays, and I usually pick myself up a cake (because I like cake and I like celebrating birthdays, even half ones) but this week was my half birthday and I had only briefly thought about grabbing a cake. But the night before the 15th, David showed up after work with a half-birthday cake for me. The next morning he gathered the kids around before he left for work and said all sorts of kind (generously kind) things about me and they all sang and it was just such a special moment for me. I'm grateful for a husband and kids who make me feel loved and appreciated. I stayed in my pajamas all day and it was cozy and lovely, and I wanted to remember how this simple thing filled my cup and has made me smile all week long.

3.24.22

I was in the car with my mom and dad this week after a super fun evening at my sister's house (meeting her new puppy 😍). David had taken the kids home early and my mom and dad were going to drop me off on their way home. My dad asked "Do you want to see the house we lived in when you were born?" Uh, YES!
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We pulled up and my dad said "This is where your mom was standing, at the end of the driveway, with a stopwatch in one hand and the car keys in the other when I got home from a mandatory school field trip for my college coursework, late of course." My mom had been having contractions all day and in the pre-cellphone times couldn't do more than just wait for my dad to come home. I love how they laughed together as they reminisced like it happened just last year, not 34 years ago.
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I love the thought of those two young college students bringing me home as a tiny baby to this small basement apartment and I feel grateful for the love that I have been surrounded with since day one. I don't remember this home, I probably couldn't even pick it out on the street again, but this part of my story is special to me and I enjoying hearing about it. So grateful for these parents of mine! 😍❤️😍 @lwalker23

Utah Refugee Connection Fundraiser - Girls Project

In February, for our Social Studies/Utah History, the girls learned about how Utah was shaped by the immigrants that came here (of all backgrounds) and how complex that history can be. We continued the discussion by talking about how immigrants are still coming to Utah seeking a better life for themselves and their families and how some of those immigrants are actually refugees, people leaving their home country because it isn't safe for them there.

These sweet nine and ten year-old girls immediately asked if they could do a fundraiser to help these Utah Refugees. The next couple of weeks were busy and so we decided on March 19th for the fundraiser date. These girls took the initiative and planned what they wanted their fundraiser to look like and be like. They made posters and flyers and delivered them to 180+ houses in our surrounding neighborhood.

On Saturday they hosted a fundraiser and donation dropoff where they sold cookies, hot chocolate, bath bombs, and jewelry. They sold the Swig cookies for $1 more than the purchase price, but the bath bombs and jewelry were donated by people in the neighborhood who wanted to support their cause and the Crumbl cookies were donated by the Lehi location to support. 

I went into it hoping that we'd sell the 50 cookies that we bought and make $50 to donate. More than anything, I wanted this to be a good experience for them and I tried to facilitate that while letting them do the work. I was blown away by the community support they received. Partly we just live in a great neighborhood. Partly they put in the effort to deliver fliers and tell anyone and everyone to come to their fundraiser. 

I was blown away and they were thrilled when they counted up their money/donations and realized that how successful they had been. 

It was an incredible learning opportunity for them. Over the next week or so, they continued the project. She and her friends counted up the money that they made: $577 dollars. They subtracted out the cost of the cookies ($107) and then took their total amount to the bank to deposit. ($470). They deposited the money, then went to the store to buy supplies for All Purpose Kits to donate to the Utah Refugee Connection. 

They filled four giant shopping carts filled with laundry detergent, Clorox wipes, dish soap, and other supplies to bring home and assemble into kits. Not only did o  buy supplies they also had a donation box where people donated supplies. Wendy Rencher collected supplies in her neighborhood as well for a Relief Society Fundraiser and it was great to connect with her to make the fundraiser even more successful. They worked together to make 47 kits!

We loaded up all the kits into our van and delivered them to the Utah Refugee Connection Center. The girls got to see the center and talk to some of the people that work there about what they do and the good that they accomplish in the community. 

This was such a neat project and a great illustration of how homeschooling can be so impactful in the lives of these children. Okay, if I'm being completely honest - this is something that you could do whether or not you are homeschooling. In fact, this is the epitome of a successful "Children and Youth Goal" goal for the new church program. Child-led, parent supported. But homeschooling gave us the time and structure to make it happen and it was wonderful. 

March Homeschool

We have had a lot of great things going on this month for homeschool. Recreational sports/activities, science with Grandpa Walker, and some great spring field trips. We are so excited that the weather is warming up and we are enjoying every minute of it. 

Swimming Lessons

Austin and Lydia are taking swimming lessons each Wednesday morning from 9:30-10 while Caleb is in preschool. It's been a tiny bit hard to have something in the morning on a weekday, but the kids love it so much and mostly have done well with the disruption to our routine.







Basketball/Softball
Austin has been playing on a rec basketball team for the past little while and he's really enjoyed it. I'm grateful for Jeff Young, his coach, for always making Austin feel great and helping him progress. Lydia is going to start Softball in April and had her "tryouts" at the end of March to see which team she would be assigned to. Austin will start baseball later this spring, so it's going to be a fun spring full of sports!

Field Trips! 

Mehraban Wetlands Park (with our homeschool co-op) for some exploring and nature study. 





Hiking at Lisa Falls (with the Haderlies) 


Matilda Jr. at Kingsbury Hall (with our homeschool co-op)


Utah Museum of Natural History @ University of Utah (with our homeschool co-op) 

Homeschooling @ Home 

Including bookworm and trying to read three books at one time. Plus a FHE lesson about choosing the right, repentance, and walking in faith (making paper shoes to write uplifting things on). 

Rotations

Our rotations are going strong. I have a whole separate post about a project that the girls have been working on - planning and executing a fundraiser for the Utah Refugee Connection. Brooke Young teaches the boys Science/STEM on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it's been SUCH a fun thing for Austin. She's SO good at making hands on activities for them to explore and learn and I love it so much. I'm grateful for her and everything she's putting into these rotations. 

Science with Grandpa
My dad is so fun and has started doing these little "Food Science with Grandpa" activities where they learn about something or explore something in the kitchen. Once he brought dry ice to let the kids explore and learn about it. Another time he did a whole "how you make a smoothie" and let the kids make hypotheses and use crazy ingredients just to see how it would turn out. Spoiler alert - grandpa cookie (animal cookie) smoothies are not as good as they sound. The kids love him almost as much as I do and I'm grateful for him taking an active part in the "everything is learning" part of their education.