The Best Babysitters

I had to run to the market - and since only one person is allowed inside from each house - I went solo and asked Andrew and Zack to watch Nick.  Chris was home - don't worry.  When I came back I heard Nick laughing hysterically.  I went outside to investigate and found this gem.  Andrew built him a fort outside and Zack decorated it with his toys.  It was the cutest thing every and Nick loved it so much!

First Cookout of the Season

The weather has been amazing here in England!  We are still in lockdown - so we can't really enjoy it as we had planned - but thankfully we have an amazing backyard.  Chris bought hot dogs and smores stuff - and we had an outside dinner.  Poor Nick was napping - so he missed it (thankfully - he is crawling now so that fire pit would have been a nightmare).

Beard or no beard - we can get smores all over our faces!

Our New Normal School and Work Day

Now that everyone has to stay home to "slow the curve", "protect NHS", and "self-distancing" I thought I would record what our new normal is right now.

We start each day around 6:30 and do scriptures.  Then kids start getting ready for the day.  Some days we do a big family breakfast, other days it is just whatever you make.  The determining factor is really how Nick slept the night before.

Then everyone 'goes to school'.  They get their computers, log on, say good morning to their teachers, and off they go! Ben and Kallie are on their own.  Andrew I have to direct a bit and make sure he actually turns in homework and attends his live classes.  Zack - well I'm loving doing year 3 again with him. 

After breakfast Chris is upstairs and working until lunch. He has calls, meetings, emails, writing, reading - we just try to stay out of his way.  Each day is different for him, but he normally can have lunch with us and dinner - and normally will have a few night meetings (when the USA people are working) - so his work schedule is pretty packed.

This one loves to take his breaks.  Often I will find him on the couch, with his computer, and the remote.  There is no TV until school is completed....he's just hopeful.

Kallie is always finished quickly....she has blown through all her books and is now reading some for the second and third time.  She is kicking herself for not bringing all the books she got for Christmas back to the UK.  But to be fair - we were supposed to be home a few months ago....

For lunch and dinner each kid is assigned a day and they get to choose what they make, provided I can find the ingredients.  On nice days we all eat outside and I love it.

Christopher, Ben and Kallie have been really kicking up their cooking skills.  Christopher and Kallie have been experimenting with sourdough bread and making their own starter.  Kallie has discovered she loves to knead bread!  Ben is a pro at Ahma's cornbread and Labosh bread - which we have at least once (twice) a week.  

Ben is the pinwheel king!

And he has mastered Lasagna and garlic bread

Zack is working on how to really do dishes and Andrew loves crock pot meals :)  He did make orange chicken one night and discovered it is a lot of work.  One day Ben was accidentally assigned lunch and dinner.  At the end of the day, we were chatting and he lamented how he had been cooking ALL DAY LONG.  I just smiled.  I think they are starting to get it....

Kallie Turns 14!

I showed Kallie how to get on the blog using her phone - and then promptly got called out for not blogging about her 14th birthday - sooooooo - without further ado!

Kallie was so lucky that she got to celebrate her birthday a few different times - once in Utah with Nini and Bebe, once in Vegas with Erickson side and Shelley's family, once on the airplane home to England, and once at home in England.  Did I mention we love birthdays?!?! 

 Utah Birthday

We wanted to do lunch, a movie, and manicure/pedicure  - but the movie was totally sold out.  So plan B was first do Manicure/pedicures then meet up with the boys at Olive Garden for dinner.

Okay not all the boys - we kept Nick so he could experience manicures/pedicure too.

He loved it.

So did Kallie...

Then a yummy dinner - I won't blog about when Kallie choked on her food and had to throw up.  It wasn't very fun for her and scared her so much she cried.  It was horrible to watch and not be able to do anything to help her!

Then we added salt to the wound and sang her Happy Birthday.  This girl doesn't like the focus on her.  She wasn't a fan.

That was hard work...so we headed back to Nini and Bebe's to do her favorite thing...watch a hallmark movie.  Oh this girl...

Vegas Birthday 

If you ask my kids you know a birthday isn't a birthday without one of Grandma's treasure  hunts!  This year was extra special because Kallie got to share her treasure hunt with her cousins - and even Ingram cousins who had driven up from Cali to say hi to us!  This wild bunch is all ready to go....knowing Grandma will have something crazy planned!

Oh yeah, we are in Vegas baby!  Kallie's theme was super hero - and of course every super hero has a cape!  I was dying at these cute boys...

And sunglasses and a hat of course :)  I actually took over 50 pictures - but they are all pretty much blurry.  It was total mayhem during the treasure hunt with kids running every which way.  A true sign of crazy fun!

Giving me their best cool guy looks

And with Grandma who made all this fun for these amazing kids!

Once we got all the kids nice and wired it was time to go to bed....well except for the big kids who got to do one last night swim before heading home the next day.  Nick (and Zack) broke the rules and joined us.

August 3, 2019 - Flying home to England 

For birthday #3, we took Kallie to Europe!  Well, home to Europe.  Poor girl has had a few years of weird birthdays.  Last year in a graveyard...this year in an airplane....next year?!  Who knows?!

I had told the flight attendant it was Kallie's birthday - thinking they would just announce it and everyone would clap.  NOPE!  Not only did she announce her birthday - she led the whole plane in singing her Happy Birthday (which we all know how much she loves), then they gave her a mug full of little treats.  It was awesome!

After a long night of traveling we finally made it home!  Kallie could do whatever she wanted - so of course she chose to read a book and play with her baby brother.

That night we had a yummy dinner and have another round of cake with our traditional firework candles.  

So even though it was not your "typical" birthday, I think she had a great time celebrating a new year of Kallie.  We love you Kallie bugs!

At Home Church

Because of COVID-19 we have been having church at home.  All churches, temples, MTC centers, BYU - everything - is closed. Thankfully we have been prepared with the new church curriculum of Come Follow Me.  The kids are each assigned a topic for that week in the manual and then we have our own sacrament meeting with the sacrament on Sundays.  The first Sunday of the month we have a Zoom devotional with our branch.  Today was our first one - and it was pretty much just technological difficulties - but it was so great to see everyone again!

We normally don't get dressed in church clothes for church, but since we had a Zoom meeting we decided to go all out and get dressed.  

Watching our Branch President on the computer screen

And we couldn't put tooooo much effort into getting dressed.  Top half ready for church....bottom half ready for a nap.

At home church has been working really well.  We aren't always great at having our lessons prepared before Sunday, but it's a work in progress.  Nick is the one that makes at home church hard.  We tend to decide to do church either right when he wakes up and he is nuts, or right before he needs a nap and he is grumpy.  Next week we are going to try to do church when he goes down for his first nap.  Not sure why this has taken us two months to figure out....