March

 March was filled with a lot of small, memorable events.  

We had a very mild winter with less than 60 inches of snow.  Once the snow fort started melting and it wasn't safe to use anymore Joseph and Lincoln went out to destroy it.  They attacked it with a hatchet and machete and had a fun time time.  It was just the thing for a 6 year old boy!

We received word that the school district got the green light on a Spring football season.  I was hesitant because of Covid, but to keep the peace I signed Kimball up to play.  I had Kimball try on his football girdle--the pads that the players wear underneath their pants.  He said they were probably too tight, but he didn't take them off right away because he and I started talking.  After 20 minutes or so I noticed that his legs were looking blueish and swollen.  I told him to run and I meant run to his room to take off the pants as fast as he could.  The pants had been so tight that he had cut off the circulation to the lower half of his body.  About the time I noticed his legs he said his legs were starting to feel numb.  Once the circulation started to return he was in pain.  I called my favorite Orthopedic PA to ask his advice.  At first he said everything was probably fine but then he called back a few minutes later and told me to have Kimball elevate his legs and ice down parts of his legs to avoid some more serious complication.  After a few hours Kimball was fine, but we went out an bought a bigger football girdle.

You can see some of the discoloration in the next two pictures.

Rebecah had a mini-room makeover.  We updated her bedding and painted the walls to match.  The curtains hadn't arrived when I took this pictures, but they are gray just like the walls.  It is a much more grown up look and she likes it.

We video chatted with Joseph's grandma one Sunday evening so the kids could hear some of her stories and "meet" her.  It was fun to hear a little about her life.

We decided to ditch the 5 point harness car seat that we had in Joseph's car.  Eden doesn't ride in there very often and legally she can ride in a backless booster so we upgraded.  Eden was SO excited at the thought of having a booster.  Joseph took her on a little date to Chick-fil-a to try out her new booster.  She is still in a 5 point harness in the van since it is safer.

Rebecah's friend had a mini birthday part with 3 friends at a local ice cream place.  The girls had a lot of fun laughing together and eating their treat.  Rebecah and Melanie have been friends since Kindergarten and I love that they are able to maintain their friendship even when they aren't in the same classes at school.

Lincoln got up early one morning and decided to read his scriptures with me.

St. Patrick's day can not be forgotten in our house.  I feel like my kids expect it to be a grand event.  Eden asked if she would get a present and the kids asked for special foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  I made spinach (green) muffins for breakfast, shamrock sugar cookies for lunch and dinner was alfredo chicken with kale pizza with a mint oreo cake that I created.

I thought the mint oreo cake looked really yummy.  I'm considering making a non-mint version for Mother's Day since I don't like mint.  

Family time playing Uncle Wiggly.

Lincoln just knows that women like flowers. We are just beginning Spring, but Lincoln found some tiny flowers and brought them to me and even put them in some water so they wouldn't die.

Joseph wanted more storage in our garage so he installed some shelving over the garage door.  He tried storing some kids before the garage things.

Joseph and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.  We made egg rolls and ate white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.  It was a good day spending it at home with the kids. 

Remember when I mentioned that I agreed to let Kimball play football to keep the peace?  Well, a team member tested positive for Covid so the entire 70 man team has to quarantine for 10 days.  The boys will miss their first 2 games.  This is our first experience with quarantine protocol of any kind and we are finding that we don't really like it.  Kimball doesn't want to be confined to his room so we have him wear a mask if he is in the same room as us.  He also eats separately from us, too.  He is missing hugs from his mom and he doesn't like all of the reminders to wear a mask.  Hopefully he won't develop symptoms.  He has 5 more days to go.  

Since Kimball is in quarantine I took the girls to visit the Sacred Grove in Palmyra and Joseph and Lincoln stayed home with Kimball.

We took a picture on the same long last year, but we are missing half our family!

Kimball is staying busy helping Joseph with some home repairs.

It has been a good month for us.  Next week is Spring Break.  We didn't have too many plans, but all plans we might have made are canceled because of Kimball's quarantine.

February

February seemed to fly by!  On February 2nd we had our first and probably only snow day of the year.  At the beginning of the school year the district decided to keep snow days instead of turning those days into remote learning days.  Unfortunately, our snow day fell on an in-person day for my kids.  They were all so disappointed!!  It happened to be Groundhog Day and Lincoln and Annika's teacher had told them about the activities and crafts they would be doing to celebrate.  Lincoln and Annika decided to make their own groundhog pictures at home.  I loved their pictures, especially the shadow that Annika drew of her groundhog!!  In the picture below the shadow is the little blue guy.  Lincoln's picture was cloudy so no shadow for his groundhog.  We had a very mild February.  Joseph and I both agreed that it was probably the sunniest February we have had since moving to Syracuse, with very little snow.

Even though we didn't have a lot of snow fall this year the kids and Joseph made the most of it.  The snow fort had a sledding hill added to the side of it and the kids did a lot of sledding and mini-snow boarding off the side of the fort.  Joseph and the little ones cooked hotdogs for lunch in there one day, too.  The big kids were still inside in class.

My kids played a lot of Monopoly this month.  It was so sweet to see Annika and Eden playing the game.  When you are 6 and 4 money doesn't matter as much and you are just in the game to play and not necessarily win.  They would play for 30-45 minutes and then they would pick it all up and do that  a few times each day.  The problems arose when the big kids would play!  They were in it to win it!

Joseph and Lincoln had an ice/snow adventure on Oneida Lake.  Joseph took Lincoln out and they walked on the frozen lake.  They tried to dig down to the water, but after 6 inches of digging they gave up.  Hearing that the ice was at least 6 inches made me brave enough to go on the lake the following week with with Joseph.

For Valentine's Day I made an Oreo cheesecake.  It was good, but I'm going to adapt it and leave off the chocolate buttercream and make it again for Easter.  It was a lot of work, but I want to see if I can improve on it.  We had a nice Valentine's day.  I gave the kids little Valentine's I had colored for them, candy and everyone got a small present.  Annika loves to leave love notes for people so she had at least 1 card for everyone.

This was my frozen lake adventure with Joseph . We walked on the lake and then through a shallow stand of trees because it as prettier with the trees.  We were gone about an hour so the kids wouldn't worry too much.  

The kids had Winter Break the third week in February.  We met friends at the school playground one day for sledding on the big mounds of snow piled up from the snow plows.  We played there about an hour and no one seemed to mind the 20 degree weather.  My friend and I walked laps in the parking lot.  

Our other big outing was to the Children's Museum of Oswego.  It was a mini version of the children's museum we went to last year before Covid started.  This one was closer, but geared to kids under 8.  Rebecah was bored, but was a good help keeping track of Eden.  None of the kids stayed in the same area for long so it was nice having Rebecah to watch Eden while I took on Lincoln and Joseph and Annika were a pair.  The capacity was limited and we could only be in the facility for 2 1/2 hours but we were all ready to leave after 2 hours.

Annika and Joseph spent probably 20 minutes designing a craft while everyone else was playing with other things.  Annika loves to be crafty! The picture below is her finished project.  I believe she made a baby Jesus with an Angel above the manger.

We watched the Primary Friend to Friend and my kids loved it!  I wasn't sure how well they would sit through it, but they loved the songs, drawing, etc.  They felt the spirit during the messages and watched the entire thing the next day, too.

Friend to Friend drawing activity.

Joseph and I went ice skating at an outdoor rink.  I thought I would be freezing, and while I have my hood on to keep my ears warm, I really wasn't cold. We were only allowed to skate for an hour-Covid restrictions limited the number of people on the ice at one time.  I would have enjoyed skating longer, but I'll just have to go again next year.  

Eden really wanted to watch The Little Mermaid one day and after she finished her movie she drew her own mermaids.  She drew King Triton, Ariel, and one of Ariel's sisters.  I loved her picture.  She drew it on the back of one of Annika's school papers so the "I see the sno" has nothing to do with the mermaids.

Other happenings from the month.  Joseph, Rebecah and Kimball went night skiing one evening.  Rebecah was pretty miserable.  Maybe skiing isn't her thing. Kimball had a good time though. 

We also got word that football will start in March so we got Kimball all signed up and practices start tomorrow.  He has been living for this day ever since the season was canceled last Fall.

January/Rebecah's Birthday

Happy New Year!!   Joseph worked New Year's Day and that was the extent of our holiday.  We had a bigger celebration for Rebecah's birthday.  I had forgotten to buy balloons and she seemed disappointed so I quickly ran out to the store the morning of her birthday to buy some balloons.  I think she was happy I put forth extra effort for her.  Rebecah turned 11 and in the world of Harry Potter age 11 is when you are eligible to attend Hogwarts.  We gave her a Harry Potter themed birthday.  

I typed up her Hogwarts acceptance letter!  She got a big smile on her face when she realized what it was.  Every Harry Potter loving kid deserved a Hogwarts letter!

For dinner she had pizza and a frosted chocolate chip cheesecake.  I thought the cheesecake was super yummy!!

Lincoln had some blanket fun this month.  He wrapped up in Kimball's Browns comforter one morning and then He and Kimball joined forces later in the month.  

I make private blog journals for my kids so they can have pictures and a record of their life.  I then turn them into books.  It's expensive, but so worth it to me.  This year the company I use had a really good sale on books, lucky for me since I had 3 to print. I print them books every 5 years.  They were so happy when their books arrived!

In our area Covid cases really increased at the end of 2020.  In order for the schools to stay open 20% of the school staff and students had to be tested for asymtopmatic cases.  All of my kids except for Eden had to go through this.  Kimball said it was awful, but I think since he is older he got the real test. For the younger grades they did a less traumatizing test.  Annika was nervous about having a Covid test.  I gently explained to her if students didn't signed up for tests then there was a chance that they would close the school and she wouldn't be able to see Mrs. Corl even 2 days a week.  That was enough to win Annika over for testing.  Annika loves school and her teacher so much.  She makes her teacher notes almost weekly.  Their teacher sent me this picture after they had their testing.  Lincoln said it was "no big deal."  What Troopers!!

Kimball was ordained a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood.  We went to the Church one evening so he could be ordained.  Here is a picture from his ordination two years ago. He has really grown in the last two years.  

Joseph made his annual snow fort/cave.  Since these pictures have been taken he added a sledding hill to one side so the kids can sled and mini-snowboard off the side.  They love it!  Joseph is currently working on a tunnel in the front yard. 

Other news from the month:

The first two weeks of the year the kids had fully remote learning.  After all of the holiday togetherness the Covid cases were too high to allow the kids to go back to school.  Everyone was disappointed to stay home another two weeks.  When the little ones were finally back at school Annika thought it was just for 1 day and she would have to return to remote learning.  The principal at the elementary school had the teachers submit names of students that did really well during the remote learning and then the principal drew names for prizes.  Luckily Lincoln and Annika both won a prize!!  It was a highlight to our day.  We were able to watch a video of the announcements when their names were drawn.  The principal sent them each a hand written letter congratulating their efforts and gave them a coupon for a free ice cream at Burger King.

Our year is off to a good start!