Lucy Holland: 16-17 Months

Lucy Holland. The weather is cooling down but we're taking advantage of every warm minute. You're living your best life because we're past the sunniest days of summer, but it's still warm enough to be outside. The holidays are coming and I can't wait to celebrate each one with you at this golden age of babyhood. 

Stats: 12-18 month clothing. Tons of teeth. The best cheesiest smile. Her first haircut. The brightest ray of sunshine. 

Other things to remember: 

-She has started saying recognizable words! My favorite, of course, is her saying "Mama", pretty consistently (more than just babble). This melts my heart. 

However, before even saying mama, she started saying her first real word.... BALL! David is so proud. 

She's he also started saying our children's names (sort of) and It Is very cute. (Lydia saw me typing and came and added that sentence. It's true. Lucy is starting to say the kids names. Lydia is the most recognizable, but you can definitely tell when Lucy is addressing the boys.) 

-Lydia is the greatest older sister and Lucy adores her. This picture captures basically all of the feelings that I have about this month. The two of them practicing the piano together = mama love. 

-Not surprisingly, she's adored by all of her siblings. She fits right into their rambunctious shenanagains and she tolerates their overwhelming attention quite well. 

-She's constantly exploring and getting into things. Additionally, she really likes candy/chocolate/sweet things. Imagine what happened when she realized where we keep the sugar. This happened multiple times before I finally put the brown sugar somewhere else. 

-Lucy's second annual visit to Gardner Village for Halloween. 

-For Halloween, the other kids wanted to be characters from Wild Kratts. We talked about Lucy being one of the villains, but I'm so glad that we added her in as a creature adventurer - she's the sweetest adventurer you ever did see. We didn't do trick or treating this year (#covid) but that didn't stop Lucy from understanding that Halloween=candy and taking advantage of that. 

-She pulls herself up onto this bench and I can't believe her upper body strength. 

-I had Lydia and her friend doing some watercolor painting and Lucy insisted on joining in. She actually did a great job and I was surprised at her level of concentration as she put each brushstroke on the page. 

-We watched my niece, Juniper, for a couple of days. Lucy and Juniper are only a couple of months apart and it's fun to see them together. 

-Every day that Lucy moves about and hits more milestones is a blessing straight from heaven. I don't know what her eyesight is, but she's managing and even thriving. We've noticed a few head-tilt habits where she turns her head so she can see you better, but she's moving about with ease and confidence. 

-She's constantly finding my shoes in the mudroom and putting them on so she can walk around in them. 

-Her first haircut! Okay, funny story. When Lydia was a baby, I read that if you shaved your babies head when they still had their little baby hair it would grow in thicker and fuller. I wasn't brave enough to do it with Lydia. I considered it with both Austin and Caleb and never did. But I was giving the other kids haircuts and without even thinking I strapped her into the seat and started shaving. I stopped to take a picture of the back of her hair (for documentation purposes) and kept going. I had the thought "This was a mistake! What am I doing?!?" But it was too late. Haha. Hopefully it will be worth it! 

Apparently, I didn't take an after picture right away. This one is from a full two weeks later. Ha! 

Prepping for CHRISTMAS! 

We convinced David to set up the tree early, before Thanksgiving. Lucy loves the lights and the ornaments. 

Lucy Darling, we love you. 

Christmas in November

 Everyone has been extra excited for Christmas this year. 

We got Christmas lights hung up in early November on a nice warm day!

Austin helping bring us Christmas lights

Lydia and Austin both got to come up on the roof and they loved it. It was so fun for them to be so high. Lydia even went up to the very top section. 

As soon as November started the kids were begging to set up Christmas. The tradition is typically to set it up the Friday/Saturday/Sunday after Thanksgiving. Shantel and the kids all provided some very compelling reasons to me about why we should set up it early. This included: 1) We will be going to my parents house for Christmas earlier (after we quarantine) so we won't be here as long to enjoy it, 2) It's 2020 and we are living through a pandemic. That was enough to convince me and so we set everything up on the 13th! This one one of my favorite traditions because they love setting everything up and dancing to the Christmas music. 

We are so excited for Christmas this year!

COVID-19 Update: October and November

Oh how time flies in a pandemic (It's a joke). But- I did completely miss the October Pandemic update. It was more due to a busy work schedule. So here you get a two month pandemic update. 

I think the best description of things right now is captured in the last week of COVID-19 case count headlines. Thursday (2,807) and Friday (2,987) both set record highs for new cases in Utah. Governor Herbert called it "discouraging" and has had to call emergency meetings to try and address the issue. The spread has been dramatic over the last two months. It primarily has come from different family and friend groups spreading it to each other. The governor has called on us not to have groups larger than 10 people and to avoid contact with those outside our own immediate household. The large majority of Utahn's are acting as if COVID-19 is over. People wear masks to the store, but they continue to do Jr. Jazz, football games and family activities. For the most part, people are not willing to make the changes necessary to slow COVID-19 in Utah. Utah has become one of the 5 worst hotspots in the country. Our hospitals are nearing capacity and that is before the expected hospitalizations from the significant cases over the last 10 days. Worse, is that we do not have adequate health care workers to treat all the patients. I'm disappointed in our state. We should be more willing to do better. 

The country as a whole is not doing well either. Here are the numbers. 

Yesterday had a record high 127,067 cases nationwide. Total cases now top 10 million. 

There are 424 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Utah. The rate of positive tests in Utah has steadily grown and the 7 day average now exceeds 20%. 

As noted below. Utah has one of the highest rates of cases per 100,000 people right now. 

There are still hopes for a vaccine, however, as of yet, there is nothing certain. For a long time people talked about just getting through 2020 and that 2021 would be so much better. I think people are starting to realize that in terms of COVID-19 and getting back to normal, 2021 is not likely to improve. 

Amidst this dire news I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father who has watched over and blessed our family. We have had the blessing of a mother who is willing to homeschool our children. We have the food we need and the money to pay for things. I have been really blessed in my work. Our kids are growing spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally and are THRIVING. 

We have been missing my parents and have made a plan to fully quarantine from December 6-December 20th so that we will be able to spend Christmas at their house. 

Okay- a few pictures as well to see what COVID life is like. (Which is mostly just any picture we take at home since we don't really leave much.)

One week Lydia and Austin decided to set up church in the basement with rows of seating and everything. 

At Lucy's eye checkup (we'll do that in a separate post). 

Shantel at the doctor with Caleb (also, a separate post). 

Us with the new church schedule. Starting after general conference we moved to an every other week schedule. One week we attend sacrament in person and then have zoom relief society or Sunday school classes. The next week we watch Sacrament meeting on TV (and do the sacrament at home) and then do zoom Sunday school and relief society classes. We are still adjusting. I love still being able to do the sacrament at home every other week. 

Shantel on a rare trip out with the kids. 

Watching Stake Conference at home. 

I am so grateful for Shantel and our kids. I can't imagine a better life than being with them. At times, it is discouraging to see how things are going. It is discouraging that we can't do all the things we want or would normally do. Shantel and I decided not to enroll Lydia and Austin in Jr. Jazz (which I am bummed about), we can't go to the park, and there are a million other things we can't do right now. But we can continue to have faith and pray to our Heavenly Father who I know hears us and loves us.