insta-May

{5.2.21}

This Instagram account may as well be known as The Lucy Show. It would be a pretty accurate description of things around these parts.

{5.2.21}

It's a little hard to see without context, but we were at church and David snapped this photo ... Austin is storing his gumballs in his mask. So they are safe and hidden and he can eat them just by opening his mouth. 😂😆 #masklife

He knows how to make his circumstances work for him.

{5.7.21}

This girl turned NINE yesterday. We had a wonderful day but by the end, she seemed to have aged two whole years. She woke up the same as her 8 year old self and ended the day as a mature 9 year old. It's baffling to me how one day can make such a huge difference.

We love this Lydia girl and we are so grateful for her kind, funny, adventurous self.

{5.8.21}

My first real post-covid outing. Carmen at the Utah Opera. Masks and health screeners and social distanced seating and a minimal cast - but it was SO great to be back at a large event like this,. especially when the venue was the beautiful Capitol Theater. ❤️💃🎉

Grateful for this lady and her friendship in my life. I love the ministering program for a lot of reasons, but especially because it brought me this relationship that I just wouldn't have had otherwise.

{5.21.21}

How do you celebrate the end of a successful year of learning and growth? Why a homeschool-Lagoon day of course.

I'm so proud of these kiddos and the great year that they've had. Covid made lots of things tricky but they worked hard and have had a great year.

All these end of school posts can get tricky, everyone posting their highlights and successes. It's one of the hardest times of the year for me to be on social media because the opportunity for comparison is so strong. But it's okay for us to celebrate the successes that are our own as we cheer for those around us. So, great job winding down another year, my friends. It takes a lot of work and you've done great.

And yay for summer!

COVID-19 Update - May 2021 Vaccination

 The biggest news for our COVID-19 update is that Shantel and I are both fully vaccinated! We both received our second shots. Shantel is past her two weeks for it to be fully effective, and I will be in just a few days. The CDC has indicated that fully vaccinated individuals can do most things without wearing a mask (both indoors and outdoors). Shantel got her shot in the afternoon and felt pretty good that night and the next morning, but then the next afternoon was really tired and did not feel good at all. I got my second shot in the morning and felt good until that evening and then was super tired and did not feel good that night. I thought I was better the next morning, but then around lunch I was feeling bad again and it knocked me out for a little while. 

Case counts are slowly declining as more people get vaccinated. Cases on April 17 were 413 per day and now on May 17 they are down about 100 to 311 per day. 

Here is a good graph to show the progress:

In all the pandemic, this is probably may favorite photo of all. We were sitting in sacrament meeting. Austin had brought gum balls with him to eat. I saw him stuffing all his gum balls into his mask and thought he was trying to eat them all at once. Then I found out he was putting the gum balls into his mask to store there, so that as soon as he wanted to eat 1, all he had to do was open his mouth a little bit and let one in to eat it. I was laughing so hard. Shantel was sitting on the opposite end of the bench, so I texted her this picture and told her what he was doing. She looked over and just lost it laughing. It is hard to argue though- it was a very clever use of the mask by Austin. 

Here is Shantel after her second shot. I had to run to the store and she was watching the kids. She just cuddled up with a blanket and let the kids run around while she could not move. 

Here I am getting my second shot. 

After you got the shot you go to a waiting area to wait for 15 minutes to make sure you don't have an adverse reaction. The tents down there I think are probably in case they need to check you out after you get the shot. 

With getting our vaccinations, we have been able to do so many more fun things, here are a couple:

For Lydia's birthday we had about 10 of her friends over to our house for the party. 

Starting this Sunday we will be able to attend Sacrament meeting every week and have (shortened) second hour classes including primary. This means that last Sunday was our last church at home week including administering the sacrament. We have loved the blessings of church at home and in particular, being able to administer the sacrament. Our kids have seen so much more closely what the sacrament means and it has been a sacred experience. We are so excited to go back to weekly in person worship, but we have loved the chance to worship at home. Of course, we'll continue with Come Follow Me each week still. 

Last year when everything started to happen we had a date scheduled with the Shields right before everything shut down. When we went out we definitely talked about COVID-19 and all the uncertainty, but did not truly know what was coming. They were the last couple that we went out to dinner with. We have missed them and thought the perfect way to celebrate getting fully vaccinated was to go out to dinner with them. It was fantastic. We went to Dirty Bird Chicken and then grabbed ice cream at Rockwell's. It was amazing to spend time with them and was so wonderful to be back to doing some more normal things (even if it did feel really weird). 

Last- we were able to go to Lagoon for Homeschool with Lydia and Austin (and Camille) and it was so much fun.



With that, I hope that I have given the final COVID-19 update. Or at least I won't be giving them monthly anymore. Hopefully case counts continue to decline. We'll see if we have to get booster COVID-19 shots going forward, but we are looking forward to all the things to come this summer. We are grateful we have been blessed through COVID-19. 

Lucy Holland: 22-23 Months

Lucy Holland, our little love.  This is our last monthly post before you turn two! To be honest, you're already acting like a full blown two year old and your interest in the world around you is blossoming and we love interacting with you. Your two-year-old stubbornness is out in full force.   But your two-year-old sweetness is equally as powerful. Two years old is really a great age to be.


Stats: All of your teeth are fully in. You FINALLY have enough hair for tiny tiny piggies in the back.  You love shoes and insist on wearing them all the time (size 3). Clothing sizes are a little tricky, but I'm putting you in 18 month or some 2T. But we've been scavenging through boxes to find long sleeve shirts and pants that will do for the summer You're amazing at wearing your hat and wear it almost everywhere we go without complaint. Same with sunglasses. You prefer to be outside with them on, so you rarely take them off when we are out and about and if they slip for some reason, you come right over to put them back on. 
     

Some things to remember about Lucy this month:

-Above I mention that her teeth are fully in. Also- she bites when she's upset and it hurts - a lot. Caleb currently has two giant welt/bruises on each of his thighs that are remnants of her biting him. It looks like he was hit with a racquetball ball, the bruises are so big and dark and perfectly round. I feel like Lucy gets more angry than our other kids did at this age and I'm not sure whether that is because she can't see as well so that's the way she can control her body to react. Or whether it's because she's the youngest and she has to be more physical to hold her own. Or whether it's her personality. It doesn't really matter. We love her always, it's just worth noting. 

-She loves candy or anything with sugar. Like LOVES it. She's got a huge sweet tooth. 

-She went to the dentist for the first time and did great. She has an underbite which is especially pronounced when she smiles, but she's too young for anything at this point. 

-My favorite face that she makes is a surprised face. Her eyebrows shoot up, her eyes go wide and her mouth opens into a tiny little O.  

-She constantly pulls all of her clothes out of her drawers and scatters them around her room that she shares with Lydia. I don't even fold her clothes anymore - I just put them in the drawer because I know they won't last long. 

-She's opinionated and stubborn about which clothing items she's going to wear that day/night. She has her personal favorites and usually insists on one of those, but each morning and evening you have to allow her to pick what she wants because if YOU pick something and it doesn't meet with her approval, there is no way you are getting it onto her body. And if you fight and force it, she will take it off within minutes. (Even if she usually likes it, but has decided she wants something else that day.) 

Her sunglasses bruise the bridge of her nose after wearing them all day. It's so sad. 

-She loves helping me vacuum 

-Says new things all the time. She said "Purple" at my moms house and I was so surprised. It's funny how much they learn and how quickly they pick up new words at this stage. I can't even remember them all to write them down - but one of my favorites, and the one she says the very best is "Poopy diaper". I laugh all the time as she says it. I already don't remember her first word (I hope I wrote it down in the blog somewhere.) But this is the most-freqently said phrase. Just yesterday I went in to get her from her nap and she was standing at the edge of her crib. As soon as I opened the door, she burst out "Poo-pyd-iaper!" You can just tell that she understands that she is communicating and that if she can tell me she has a poopy diaper, I will change it. 

-She prefers new diapers all the time, even if we've just changed it. For a few days we were going through 10 diapers a day and we finally had to put an end to it. 

-She often takes off her clothes and diaper in her crib before nap or bed and we have to come in and re-dress her multiple times before she will fall asleep. One morning I got her out of bed and was snuggling her on the couch when I realized she was NOT wearing a diaper. She had taken it off at some point and then pulled her pants back on. She was dry, so it wasn't a disaster but she thought it was funny how surprised I was. 

 

Pictures of Lucy: 

.

.

Lucy in wooden Holland shoes at the TP Gardens. I couldn't help it. 









Oh Lucy, we love you. We love adventuring with you and being the ones to be by your side through this life!