SEPTEMBER PHOTOS

 

OCTOBER

 BRAD'S LAST RACE

We got to go to Layton Park to watch Brad's last race on Friday.  He was hoping to get under 21:00 and he got 20:20 so he blew that goal outta the water!  We were so proud of him!  It's been so much fun to watch him this year.  He has really put so much into it!  I loved hearing Jami's rendition of Trenton getting his kick and passing Bradley and then Brad's look on his face like, "Oh no you don't!" and getting a huge kick to pass him!  Sounded so fun!  (I wish we'd been able to go to that one!) But it's been a lot of fun to have him be a part of this team.  He's been really loving it.  10-2-20

GENERAL CONFERENCE

I LOVED conference this time!!  It was all so useful!!  It felt like they were all working together to help pump us all up for the last stretch of this crazy trial.  I feel like I can do it!  I loved how relaxed we were able to be this year.  We did treats, but it was less structured.  We had had to hurry home from Erika's game to get the Creamed Eggs on Toast on and missed the prayer in the first session.  Then racing off to Noah's game before Elder Uchtdorf had finished his talk at the end of the afternoon session.  But other than that, we did so good!  Everyone watched it and everyone was generally really reverent!  Sadie and Porter were being little kids, but still pretty quiet!  I loved it!  I especially loved President Nelson's lesson on what Israel means (Let God prevail in your life) and how he taught that whole thing to us.  Very cool.  It's cool to hear how a Prophet of the Lord received that information and how much work and effort he went through to get it for us!  He's amazing.  Heavenly Father is amazing!  I am so grateful for this Gospel and my Savior and all that He has done for me!!  This life is great!  10-3-20--10-4-20

WOMEN'S CONFERENCE

All of us girls, over 11, headed up to Daybreak to have dinner with the Maynes girls and watch the conference.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  I felt like Becky showing up late was an answer to my prayer :).  Because we were late too.  Ruth ordered Buca Di Beppo for dinner and it was so delicious!  Even the leftovers were delicious the next day.  Good stuff.  Charity was in town and came with us, Heidi and Alyssa came also!  It was a fun time!  Charity had been anxious to go hang out with friends after so we had to hurry home, but we really had a great time!  10-3-20

FHE

I gave the lesson on "Israel" and the new thing the Prophet taught us.  I also looked up the word "prevail" so I taught by having some Rock Paper Scissors wars and pointing out that letting the Lord prevail is not a chance thing- it's something we choose.  It turned out pretty good.  Minus the irreverent little people.  We played Simon Says and then had Drumsticks and Oreos for the treat.  10-5-20

BASKETBALL TRYOUTS KJH

Noah and Luke have both been preparing for the basketball tryouts for the past week or so and finally started.  I LOVED how excited Brad was for his brothers and how bad he wanted them to make it.  Giving them priceless experienced advice.  It was cool!  Unfortunately, Luke did not make first cuts but we are waiting to hear how Noah's went.  Such a bummer, but he's handling things really well.  I'm so proud of both of them for trying!!  Noah found out the next day that he did not make it either.  Such a bummer.  He also handled it well.  I wish they didn't have to go through disappointment, but then again, I'm glad they do!  10-6-20

BRAD'S FAMILY PARTY

We had Bradley's family party Tuesday night- the night before his birthday since everyone has Youth activities on his birthday.  It was a very mellow party.  We played some UpsideDRAWN with everyone watching and guessing though, that was fun.  Even Grandpa played!  Grandpa Hatch and Grandma Hatch were our two guests for the night.  Not a huge turnout, but it was nice.  Brad got three envelopes!  Brad had requested brownies and ice cream instead of cake- so simple, I very much loved it!  It was a good time.  10-6-20

BRAD'S 16th BIRTHDAY!

Kelly slaved over his sign after getting up early Wednesday morning!  It was too big for the door so we hung it over the railing above the family room.  It was so cute!!  She did a great job.  Brad loved it.  We sang Happy Birthday for our Study Time song, then everyone drew pictures of their favorite memory with Brad surrounded by words that represent him.  I loved it.  We had breakfast burritos for breakfast since I'd talked myself out of Puffy Pancake, but then found out that his favorite breakfast IS Puffy Pancake!  Shoulda listened to that little voice!  It was fine though because burritos are a close second.  He got to be home for school that day so as soon as he was done Nate and I decided it would be fun to take him shopping for his presents.  We told him his budget and then asked him to tell us where to go.  We went to Ross first- HIS CHOICE- where he picked out some clothes.  Then over to Nike where he bought a couple pairs of shoes and a cool basketball bag.  It was amazing how well he spent this money!  Lots of things were on sale.  Then to spend the last of it he wanted to go to Cabelas :).  Where he picked out some lures and a fishing pole.  It was a really fun day of shopping with him and Sadie.  He's such a cool kid.  I really love who he is becoming.  He's doing so good.  We had to hurry him back to the school for his driving with his instructor.  Who schedules their driving test on their birthday?  Well, Bradley does!  He passed with flying colors!  When he got home he actually went out and helped Nate with the yard for a bit and then they both went down the street to see what they could do for Sister Carlson.  Her dog had killed Titan and Sherrianna's dog.  The police were there and there was a lot of commotion.  I was glad that I was able to let Nate know about that and I thought it was cool that Brad felt like helping as well.  I had been slaving over meatballs and mashed potatoes for his birthday dinner, so I made him come home and eat them before he could go to his activity :).  Just kidding, he was STARVING since we hadn't fed him any lunch while we were out!  Not sure how that happened.  But anyway.  He got to go over to the ponds for his activity and clean up garbage.  He said he found a lure that was probably worth $15!  So that was cool!  He seemed to enjoy his birthday.  It was nice to have his friend party rolling around in our heads for the next day.  But shhh it's a surprise!  10-7-20

RACE CATS RACE

Our first race was Thursday!  This was very exciting!  Jack's age was first, he did awesome!!  I think he came in 3rd place in his team.  Pretty awesome!  Erika was in 2nd place for girls!!!  Holy Moly!  And Noah was in 10th place for the boys!!  Which is really good considering the competition!  They all felt really good about their times!  It was fun to watch the Maughan's kids as well :).  We all cheer for each other!  So fun!!  10-8-20

BRAD'S SURPRISE PARTY

Kelly and I had been working so hard on planning this party!  Kelly was our communications specialist and was in charge of making sure everyone who Bradley had wanted was invited.  I was working on the silly game that I'd found online.  We were really excited to surprise him though.  It ended up being a really fun evening!  He was planning on having a friend party the next day :).  In order to get Brad out of the house, I had to carry on the story that I was feeding the teachers at the school (that was the plan until a few days ago, so it worked).  I "needed Nate to run to the store for me" at the last minute, and Brad actually volunteered to go with him!  So that was funny.  I decided to throw him off a little and pretend like I needed him here :).  Nate says I put on quite the performance.  He was confused even.  But they went.  We hurried and got all the last minute things done while the friends came and got all ready to hide!  This was really fun.  Everyone was bustling around.  Kelly had grabbed some balloons on the way home, so we put those outside as well as the big sign taped to the swingset.  It was so much fun!!  Every single friend that Brad had wanted there, came!  It was amazing.  All 20 of them!  So Luke informed me that they had pulled up, I motioned to Kelly.  Then it took a really long time for them to come inside, so I ran out, pretending like I needed help with getting my speaker in the backyard, and asked Brad to go get it.  Of course he went around the house the wrong way!!  So as I was coming out to tell the guests he was coming from the other side of the yard, they all jumped out and yelled surprise at my opening the door!  Luckily it was right when Brad came around the corner!!  That was kinda funny, but worked out perfectly.  My bad.  And Bradley acted very surprised :).  We found out later that Jake and Austin had kind of spilled, but that's okay.  It happens.  So anyway!  The night took off!  We played the Killer Among Us game, I had slaved over, and it went pretty well.  Didn't take near as long as it was supposed to.  Then they had some ice cream cake.  Then they played 1-5!  That was a REALLY fun game!  To watch even!  I'm glad I thought about that one.  Then he and his friends played around, I saw them take off down to the creek, and they moshed on the trampoline with Kelly!  Kelly was actually kind of the host for the party- she did amazing!  She should really think about doing that for a living some day.  She'd be good at it.  Then he opened his presents and turned on Princess Bride. This was when we learned that THAT DAY was Bryndee's birthday!  Bryndee is the girl who asked Brad to Harvest dance!  So we had to sing happy birthday to her too :).   I think they had enough fun.  I was glad it was a successful party.  Then Brad and Kelly took a lot of them home for the last 45 minutes!  Happy Birthday Bradley!!  We love you!  10-8-20

FRIDAY

Fridays feel a lot like Saturdays these days, with online school, and just the feel in our house!  But we had a good faux-Saturday.  Jack did his school stuff in RECORD TIME!  I was so happy about that.  He even said the words, "Oh there's more (after scrolling down on his math quiz) yay yay yay yay!!  He was actually happy about more math!  HA!  The kid is hilarious.  Doesn't love the cute little cartoon about feelings, but gets all giddy about math.  So Jack :).  I got to go help Sister Vance and Sister Chambers with their Zoom apps.  This was actually kind of a highlight of my day.  I love old ladies.  My new calling is to help them with technology :).  I love it.  Sis. Vance had eight kids so she has a lot of wonderful things to say about big families and all the blessings they bring.  She showed me the card she painted with cute little birds, then made into place mats.  Cool idea.  She is going to go visit her daughter who is dying of pancreatic cancer this weekend.  She is still mourning the death of her husband.  It's so easy to feel like life is going great when I hear these kinds of things from other people.  She's such a cool lady!  The Chambers are awesome as well.  Our visit was quicker.  We played four square and board games (well, Nate and the littles did, since I was out bussing Brad and his friends around :) ) all evening and then watched a movie.  I was having some weird dizziness so I went to bed early, but all is well.  10-9-20

LAST SOCCER GAMES OF THE SEASON

This is always a little sad, (and a little good, since we get our Saturdays back for a bit) but also I can tell that Noah and Erika gave it their ALL this week!!  Just because it was the last game!  We had Erika's game at 10:20 and Noah's at 10:40 so we sat toward the end of the field for Erika's game, Emily unfortunately didn't play Erika at the beginning- totally screwed up my plan (wink) to be able to watch Erika during those first 20 minutes.  But poor Kate got hurt and Erika was sent in, in her place.  I was glad we got to watch her play for a little bit before being torn between the two games.  I know we're not the only ones who have this happen on occasion, or like in Emily's case, every Saturday.  But ANYWAY!  We watched them both play for a good forty minutes until Erika's game was over, we sat facing neither field, and then we were able to move over to Noah's field.  It was a fun little juggling act, but we did good!  And Erika scored one and had another attempted shot, which I got to see and loved!  And then Noah played his best game yet!  He was everywhere!!  I was so impressed with his moves!  He really is such a valuable player!  And playing midfield is kind of a thankless position, but we noticed and we found yet another fan of his on the sidelines.  Another grandma :).  They all love watching Noah play!  Which I love to hear.  It was a really fun game!  We stopped at Fiiz on our way home to reward our soccer players and then over to Sanchez's for our tacos!!  They were so delicious!  10-10-20

ZOE'S PHOTO SHOOT

I love that Adele asks me to take pictures of their family.  It's pretty much the only people who do now days.  Which is a bummer.  We took Zoe over to the ponds and then up to Nichols.  I really loved how the ones at the ponds turned out.  I didn't love the ones we took up at Nichols, but I might just be picky.  She is really beautiful.  10-10-20

FIRST SUNDAY WITH RELIEF SOCIETY

WE had our first Sunday with Relief Society this week!  We have switched to having church every other week now, with half going one week and the other half watching it on a virtual feed.  Then after church, we got to have Relief Society over Zoom for the first time!  I was pretty excited about this and the hype was even more since I was called to be a technology specialist.  I helped a lot of the ladies get their Zoom accounts up and running and then they asked me to sit there and manage the meeting.  It was fun, but also I didn't love being on the screen the entire time.  But I did love seeing everyone and being able to hear Shelley's lesson.  10-11-20

PARENTING CLASS

Nate and I are taking the next version of the communications class, this one is more about parenting than marriage, and today was our first class.  I LOVED it.  We talked a lot about the importance of parenting and kind of the pressure we should feel from Heavenly Father about this job and the gift of these kids.  I LOVED reading the part of Joseph Smith's testimony about the Book of Mormon and filling in the word children when it is talking about the gold plates.  Very cool.  Then we talked about some of the parenting styles and things that we need to be good parents.  I decided that I need to spend more time with Molly and doing fun things with her during the day.  She could probably use more attention.  Then we talked about Love Languages and decided I was going to test my kids.  It's interesting which love language they all are.  I want to work on that.  And work on focusing on that.  I like that Bro. Jacox pointed out that you shouldn't punish with their love language.  I think this will be a very helpful class for us!  I'm super excited.  10-11-20

FHE

The plan was to have hot dogs for dinner and since the night kind of got away from us with Luke's non-concert, and everyone's things, we decided to just have Family Night and dinner together :).  It ended up going pretty well, minus Porter's whining.  He was not a happy camper for some reason.  But Nate taught a really good lesson about how the Spirit speaks to each of us differently.  I liked it.  The kids all participated and seemed to enjoy it.  We all had hot dogs and grapes :).  It was a nice time together, there in the backyard- we didn't go down to the creek because of the wind damage, but we used Nate's new fire pit and it was a really great time.  We attempted a round of Murder in the dark for my game, but it flopped massively.  We will have to try that again sometime.  Then we had brownies by Kelly for the treat.  10-12-20

COVID TESTING

Bradley announced to me on Monday afternoon that he had a sore throat.  After a little thought, I felt like we needed to get him tested.  We had to wait until the next day, and when Brad chose to sleep in Tuesday morning, I REALLY felt like he needed to be tested.  So I canceled my park day and music makers and started making some phone calls and tried arranging a test.  I waited on hold for too long but found an available appointment at 3:30 on Tuesday in Park City.  I wasn't super excited to drive all the way to Park City, but I wanted him tested sooner than later.  It ended up being kind of a nice drive with him.  We were able to talk quite a bit.  I actually really enjoyed the time with him.  He got his test we grabbed some Cafe Rio :) and the waiting started.  They told me on the phone it would be 48-96 hours before we would have results so at Brad's request I did try to find a more rapid results test, but after learning that those are limited, I just settled on the Park City one.  It ended up giving results way sooner than I thought we'd get them.  A mere 22 hours later, I got the text from Brad that he had tested negative.  I was so relieved!  It was such a blessing!  I am so glad we didn't sit and fret about it being positive too.  This whole coronavirus thing is stressful!  10-13-20

LUNCH DATE

Nate and I finally got to go out!  We made our date a lunch date.  Went to PF Changs.  It was really yummy, probably against the rules, but we had a nice time talking.  It was really good actually.  I was needing some good quality time.  10-14-20

SADIE

As I was nursing/rocking Sadie to sleep tonight, I looked down at her and realized that she is my last baby.  I don't get any more of my own.  It is always kind of a bummer when I think about that.  But I also couldn't help but feel so grateful for her and her choice to come to this family.  I am so glad we have her.  As much as I wish I could have my pre-Sadie body back, and as hard as it is to get going in that direction, I wouldn't have it any other way!  I love her so much.  Just like I love all my cute kiddos.  I am very blessed!  I am wondering if I will ever get to experience anything like this part of motherhood ever again.  I hope so.  10-14-20

COVID 19 TESTING

Well, I was at it again today.  Woke up at 2:30 this morning with chills and body aches, not to mention the cramps of death.  I decided to just sit it out since I learned that letting a fever or chills run it's course is better and quicker for your body.  But it was a very long morning.  Full of worry.  I started coughing and my headache got worse.  It was not fun.  I got up to serve breakfast and do study time and then I climbed back into bed to warm up and sit on hold to find out where I could get tested.  I don't really think this is Coronavirus, it's too mucous-y according to what I've read, but I guess I'd rather just know for sure.  So after my 75-90 minute wait on the phone (I don't know how long it was, but somewhere in that range) I headed up to Layton IHC clinic.  This was better than the other day with Brad, having to have an appointment and driving all the way to Park City- I wish I'd known- although I still wouldn't trade that drive with him-- this testing center was in the parking lot.  I didn't even have to leave my car.  I think this is the best way to do it.  But I chose to do the nasal test for some reason.  That was incredibly uncomfortable.  And they knocked some of my snot down my throat- another sign that this was too congested-y to be COVID.  But I guess time will tell.  I cried all the way home.  The cramps and the pain in my body and neck were just too unbearable.  And I'd maxed out.  Thankfully, Nate has let me stay in bed all day.  I've been working on my blog book and unfortunately it just closed on me, for no reason, no warning and I can't start it back up.  I'm just hoping and praying that it saved everything I've done.  I want to use my 50% off coupon that expires tomorrow!  10-15-20

COVID POSITIVE RESULTS

Well it happened.  I don't know how but it did.  I'm really confused as to where I got it, but my test came back positive.  Kinda weird.  I mean, I got almost nowhere and when I do go places I'm really careful.  It's bizarre.  But I am happy to know it's not pneumonia.  I was starting to get worried that it was pneumonia.  I have had the thought "if I have COVID right now, I could be infecting all these people" run through my head any time I've been around anyone for like the past couple weeks.  So not sure if that was just me being paranoid or some sort of warning that I ignored?  But anyway.  I'm supposed to be getting a text and an email but I haven't seen either of those.  I found my test results on the IHC app.  So hopefully I get some instructions soon.  I think I am supposed to isolate myself away from my family and they are supposed to quarantine.  That's going to stink for school stuff.  I feel so bad!  It's weird how embarrassing this is.  I didn't even do anything wrong, but I'm embarrassed.  I am glad I stayed in my room the last couple days though.  I kept thinking that was the right thing to do.  I made Kelly face time me for study time and that was nice.  I hope we can last these 8 more days.  Heidi is getting Alyssa tested right now, I hope she is okay.  I have wondered if Sadie has it for the past few days as well as Porter, so we'll see I guess.  Time will tell I'm sure.  How bizarre that Brad was tested just a few days ago and was negative?  Also, his symptoms are gone... so that's weird.  Not sure what to make of all this.  Feels conspiracy-ish.  But maybe that's just me.  10-16-20 

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

So I finally got my call from the Health department today.  It was almost a relief because I was wanting some definite information.  They emailed me an isolation order- which is pretty crazy.  He made sure to tell me that nobody has been prosecuted for breaking their isolation order, but it's more of a civic duty type thing.  Kinda funny.  I really don't want anyone to get this from me (I mean anyone else... sorry, Alyssa :(... poor little thing, but thankfully her fever is gone) so I'm happy to follow orders.  Well, I don't know if happy is the word, but I am willing to.  He said I need to stay in isolation for 10 days from the onset of symptoms which was Wednesday.  The family needs to be quarantined for 2 weeks from the last time they were exposed to me!  So that was Friday, the 16th.  Which means that if nobody else gets symptoms (cross your fingers!) we will be done the day before Halloween... just in time for Kelly's tournament and TRICK-OR-TREATING!!!  So here's to hoping!!  I am very optimistic and could totally see Heavenly Father purposely making it happen like that because he loves us so much.  I hope :).  If not- we will figure something else out and make the most of what we have!  But anyway.  This is us for the next two weeks I guess.  We'll see how it goes. 10-17-20

ISOLATION

I must say it's been a little weird so far, this whole staying up in my room thing.  I hate it in a lot of ways, but I also think this could be good.  I am going to try to make the most of it.  I don't want to come out of this having wasted all the time watching tv or something.  I want this to have been a good thing.  So I'm trying to stay close to the Spirit and follow promptings of things to do.  I started a sticky note wall for Nate on the bathroom mirror with all the things I love about him, can't wait to show it to him :).  I indexed for a good three hours today.  I decluttered my dresser and nightstand.  I need to do some more cleaning and will obviously have plenty of time.  I'm hoping I have a little more energy in coming days.  Today I felt so weak and things feel like they are going numb, so that was a challenge.  I keep trying to stay active because I don't want to have to recover from isolation.  I found my cross stitching stuff, so I can work on that.  I also need to do Erika's and Kate's Halloween costumes.  So I think I'll have plenty to do.  I listened to some conference talks today too which I really enjoyed and read some cool things in the Book of Mormon during my study of that too.  I hope I can keep my spirits up and not get too discouraged.  I miss the kids so much!  I miss the hugs and the kisses!  I hope I come out appreciating all of that so much more.  It's been interesting only interacting with everyone over facetime.  I guess I was looking for a way to wean Sadie.  This will probably do it... I don't know.  I am pretty sure there's no more milk, but I wonder if Sadie will remember it.  I hope she doesn't hate me when we're out.  I'm sad about all the things the kids are going to have to miss out on.  It's like March/April/May all over again.  I've gotta stay positive though.  I can't let myself sink into any kind of hole.  10-17-20

SNOWBALL FIGHT

As I was cleaning up my room a little today, I ran into the snowballs I had bought for the kids for Christmas that had come late.  And got the fun idea to do a little activity or challenge or something, not exactly sure what else I will do, but do something each day of the quarantine.  So I sent a letter to the printer for them to come get the snowballs from my door and have a little snowball fight.  The only rule is that they have to have me there :).  Either video, facetime, marco polo, whatever- it's called 3F (or forced family fun) adventures.  I hope they like it a little.  I should start thinking what tomorrow's will be?  

CORONAVIRUS

I have been feeling like I need to document this whole event from Day 1.  Not sure if I will want to read this or share it later, but for now- I'm documenting it.

So I'm not really sure where to start because I did have inklings of some symptoms clear back to Saturday when I was feeling kind of dizzy.  I thought that was my ears.  I remember I googled stiff neck and plugged ears or something like that.  My ears have been bugging me for YEARS though, so I don't know if this counts as part of the Coronavirus symptoms.  I did feel almost a sore throat on Tuesday when I was with Brad getting tested and had the thought that I should just get myself tested while he's getting tested, but of course didn't listen to that.  I also thought anything I was feeling must be in my head though, so there's that.  

But then, Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning, but don't tell anyone) 2:30 in the morning, I woke up with crazy body aches and chills!  Crazy chills!  Like I could not get warm!  It was awful!  Then my cramps started which was super SUPER annoying!  I had started my period earlier and thought that was the cause of the headache I had had for the past day or two.  I was feeling like 10 times the pain I normally would and I just felt like I was going to die.  I was not able to go back to sleep for the rest of the morning.  It was not good.  Nate was working the mid too.  In the morning, waking up time, and of course this is all happening on FALL BREAK of all times, I got up with Sadie, nursed her, slowly got the cereal out for the kids, and did some kind of study time- I think we talked about the Sacrament.  I was so worn out from the night and still having such bad chills that I went right back to bed as soon as I could.  I laid in bed trying to get warm and then decided I needed to just go get tested.  I knew it was a long wait on the phone with IHC but I didn't want to do the U of U again like I had with Brad.  I just laid here on hold for the 75-90 minute wait.  It actually was at least 75 minutes.  Felt like an eternity with how I was feeling.  By now I was really feeling crappy.  I had started coughing as well.  So I finally got through, the lady on the phone asked about all my symptoms- she was really nice- and then gave me a QR code to be able to go get tested.  She sent me to the IHC in Layton on Antelope just off the freeway and THANKFULLY this was a drive up testing center so I didn't even have to get out of my car!  That was a huge relief.  I felt awful the whole time I sat in line there which really wasn't too long.  I remember wondering if I was going to pass out on the way there or if I'd make it... I was not feeling good.  But I chose to get the nasal test- the woman told me is was more accurate, easier, quicker, and that I'd have to get it anyway if I couldn't muster up enough spit, so that's what I chose.  I got in another line, and then made my way to the tent.  That test was one of the more uncomfortable things I've done in my life.  I was brave through the whole thing, but as soon as that giant bobby pin was out of my nose I could NOT stop my eyes from watering and itching my nose... it was like an allergy attack almost!  And with everything else I was feeling, I just broke down.  It was pretty ugly.  Then I tried to tough it out by marco poloing Charity and ended up bawling like a baby to her about it!!  So silly.  But I made it home, climbed into bed, and hibernated for the rest of the day.  The chills were the most prominent symptom and these were not normal chills!  Then the body aches, which on top of my period cramps were unbearable.  I whined about it all pretty heavily to myself and then to Nate.  I was starting to feel tightness in my chest where it was harder to breath which is really suffocating for me.  Felt a lot like pneumonia that I had five years ago.  That was becoming really concerning to me.  I was not interested in having pneumonia again!!  So I went most of the day trying to tough it out.  I think I took some ibuprofen once to turn off my cramps, but I really wanted to let the chills/fever run their course and get through this quicker.  I had checked the IHC app about fifty million times by the time I went to sleep that night.  Even though they said it would be days... I wanted to see my results the minute they posted.  Brad had gotten his results really fast too, so I wondered if mine might be sooner too.  Thursday morning, I had convinced myself that it wasn't COVID.  I was trying to tough it out and was feeling like I just needed to have a fun day and do something fun with my family, so I got up with Sadie at 6:00- crazy girl!, nursed her, and then got the cereal down again, because by then I was already pretty exhausted.  I made myself some dippy eggs and ate them.  This was when I noticed that I wasn't able to taste them very well.  I had put tons of salt on it but it didn't taste like it.  I added more salt and that helped a little, but overall they tasted really bland.  This got me wondering of course, but as always, I assumed this was just in my head and put it aside. The chills were coming back on and I was hurting everywhere.  It just hurt to be touched so that was hard with Molly wanting to climb on me and all kinds of touching that I normally love but could barely handle.  So I told everyone to get breakfast and didn't even try to do study time.  I was out.  Didn't have anything left.  I came back up to my room to try to get some rest.  I was so sad because I had been getting Molly excited for the Farm for a few days and really thought I could tough it out and go, but something inside me was telling me no.  So as soon as Nate got home he took over for study time.  They had pizza for lunch and face timed me for study time.  It was nice, but I felt ridiculous not just being available to everyone.  I hate not being with my family and missing out.  Nate had come up to say goodbye to me after getting everyone ready and out the door for the Farm and I just melted down.  I was so sad about missing out on Fall Break and so stressed about possibly having pneumonia, it all just came out in a big soggy mess.  Poor Nate.  I wish I could have held that in just a couple more minutes! He was really sweet and offered to stay home and take care of me.  But that's never the answer.  I told him to just go and take some fun pictures for me.  So everyone was loading up in the car when I checked my app and saw the Test Results number was 10 instead of 9 which meant there was a new one.  So I anxiously clicked on it and much to my surprise and actually (this is weird of me) relief! it said, "detected"= positive.  I mean, it was weird when it hit me that I actually have coronavirus, but the main feeling I had at that moment was, "Oh good, it's just COVID and not pneumonia!"  Now I'm sure pneumonia could be better and I guess I'll find out the long term effects of this virus some day, but for now- I was relieved.  But it did occur to me that now I really needed to stay in my room.  Like more strictly than before.  No nursing Sadie, no hugs from Molly, no cuddling on the couch with Jack, no bike ride with Erika, no funny talks with Noah, no drives to Fiiz with Luke, no more drop offs to basketball, xc, the ponds or friends' for Brad, no more hangouts with Kelly, and now no more cuddling with Nate.  This came on pretty heavy and I tried to wish it away or find some sort of loop hole, but the bottom line is- I don't want my family to get this dumb bug and so I need to stay away from them.  So a little bitter... relief-ish.  I called Nate, let him know, he decided the farm was fine and went on with their plans.  Then I let Heidi know.  This was hard because I knew Alyssa had been having a fever all night.  So Heidi immediately made an appointment to go get Alyssa tested.  She'd been having diarrhea as well.  I don't know why her doctor's office was so weird, but luckily Heidi was stern and they had her come in.  She got to take a quick test and it came back positive.  I felt so bad. I know there wasn't anything I could do about it and that it wasn't my fault, but I still felt so bad.  She's three months old!  She doesn't need to have COVID!  She had already had a rough week.  I think she got it from me when I was rinsing out her eyes.  Such a bummer that it went like that.  But anyway.  They had Porter tested as well and his came back negative.  So Heidi had John take them all back to the apartment for the rest of the quarantine.  I feel so bad I won't be able to help her when she gets it.  I was able to relax a little more knowing that I was stuck in my room and that I didn't have the choice to tough it out and get up, so that was nice too.  I spent most of the day resting and communicating with everyone on the planet.  Everyone was texting and calling and marco poloing- it was kind of nice to have company, but got old talking about it all over and over again.  Plus, I know what people are thinking- I was one of them- you want to know how serious this is.  You want to hear that it's not so you can go on thinking that this whole pandemic is just a big joke.  Well, I am here to tell you that I still think the whole pandemic thing and all the precautions are a little ridiculous.  But I do realize there are people out there who are not handling it as well as others.  So I know I only have my own experience to go with.  But there ya have it.  My opinion.   I felt pretty sick most of the day Friday.  Same symptoms.  The chills may have been the worst on Friday.  I had like three blankets on me- good solid blankets- and the heating pad on my tummy, and I still couldn't get warm!!  I was freezing cold and just shivering.  I was miserable!!  This was probably the peak of the symptoms.  And one of them, my stiff neck was really getting to me on Friday.  I finally thought to put the heating pad on it and that helped a lot.  I kept trying to let the fever fight the virus for me.  I did take some ibuprofen Friday night because I had had enough of my cramps.  I have not been able to sleep very good this entire time.  I am not sure why.  My body just jerks awake every time I doze off.  It's been really frustrating to try to get any sleep.  Feels a lot like when I'm trying to sleep in the hospital.  Like a drugged non-sleep, ya know.  That's how benedryl makes me feel.  So I'm not loving that.  Today, Saturday, I have felt a million times better.  Not near the pain in my body.  My headache has been mostly gone.  The chills are gone.  The coughing is mostly gone.  My chest feels more relaxed.  My neck isn't near as stiff.  The main thing today has been weakness.  My whole body feels like it's about to go numb or fall asleep.  Kinda like when you raise your arm up for a long time and it starts to tingle because it's losing circulation.  That's kind of how my whole body feels.  Like when I sit here and type on my laptop my arms feel like they are about to fall asleep.  That has been so weird.  My lips are really tingle-y too.  So kinda weird.  Another weird thing is how big the blood clots are that I've been passing!  SO HUGE!!  I'm starting to get a little nervous.  This has been an extra painful period with extra blood.  I'm not sure if it's because of coronavirus or not, but man!  I wonder!  Today I was able to get up and do some cleaning up in my room, but with the weakness I had to keep laying down and sitting on the bed in between bouts of being able to do stuff.  I just don't want to do more damage by just laying here for 10 days.  So I'm going to keep trying to be active.  I've gotta keep my mind busy too- I get really sad and discouraged really easily thinking about missing out on things with the kids.  I think about quarantine before and how close we all felt and I know I'm missing out on that.  So I've gotta keep busy.  I'll keep documenting my symptoms I think just for record, but that's all so far.  I think I'm going to try to get some sleep now.  I hope!!  10-17-20

A LOW POINT

So today, Sunday, has been a bit of a low for me.  At first it was okay- we had church, I got to watch Charity sing in her ward, we had the sacrament, that was really nice, but then I got talking with Nate about how Noah is feeling and things just quickly went downhill.  I kinda lost it emotionally for a couple hours there.  I am just so tired but not able to sleep very good, so I think it's taking a toll that way.  I'm really stressed about all the things everyone has to miss out on.  I'm so sad that the kids are all going to miss school and race cats races, lacrosse practices and a scrimmage, dates, wrestling for Noah... you name it.  I just wish this didn't have to be like this.  I know we will be okay and that things will turn out alright in the end, I'm just not in the mood to be tough right now I guess.  I feel sick still, but I don't really have any real symptoms.  Just overall crummy feeling.  I had to watch myself cry to Nate on Marco Polo, that was embarrassing, and probably shouldn't have dumped on him.  But anyway.  That's where we're at today.  I think I'm just annoyed that I have to feel embarrassed or bad that I'm sick.  I hate how everyone says, "I heard you have Covid- how bad is it?" Everyone just wants to hear that it's not bad and then they can go on thinking it's not as bad as everyone says.  Which I agree, it's not as horrible as it's been made to sound and I'm glad it's not, but it would be nice if it felt like people genuinely wanted to hear how you're doing.  I get that it's new.  Nobody knows anything about this, so we are all just speculating all of the time.  But it's frustrating to me.  I wish I hadn't gotten this.  I wish I knew where I got it so I could stop racking my brain trying to figure out where it could have been.  So frustrating.  But anyway.  I'm doing some indexing now, and listening to conference... hopefully I can lose my bad attitude soon.  10-18-20

3F ADVENTURE #2

For the activity today I had the kids find a rock out in the yard, pick their favorite scripture and write the reference along with their name on the rock.  The rocks are going to be placed in the foundation for the Layton temple!  How cool is that!  I hope they enjoyed it.  They had me on marco polo so I got to watch Kelly help everyone find rocks and then very patiently help Jack look for a verse in the scriptures about baptism :).  It was really cute.  Kinda made my day I think.  I hope they know how much I love them.  I wish I could be down there with everyone.  This isolation thing is hard.  10-18-20

MONDAY

I gotta keep track of the days somehow.  Today was the day to go get Noah tested.  There was a lot of stress wrapped around getting him tested for some reason.  Then Nate got up to the testing center and apparently he's our ONLY KID who is not in the system at IHC, so now I gotta sit on hold for two + hours to get him in the system.  So very frustrating.  I'm sure by the time I get him in the testing will be closed and he will have to go tomorrow anyway.  This is stupid.  I keep crying.  I have good friends though.  Yesterday Jami brought me some no bake cookies- chocolate still tastes good for some reason.  Kind of a little blessing maybe :).  Or a new weakness.  Emily brought over a cute little gift with some CDs a song gram, puzzle, socks, crossword puzzle book, just so thoughtful!!!!  I don't know how I got such a good friend.  Brought me to tears and now I feel like I might make it through the day.  Just 5 more days.  

3F ADVENTURE

Today I had the kids make the Family Night treat as their 3F Adventure, but with a little twist- they had to perform all these crazy feats while preparing it.  It was really fun to watch- not sure how much fun it was to do.  But the Muddy Buddies turned out great!  We got to talk with Noah and Charity while they did it as well.  

TUESDAY

Today we found out that we probably got this dumb virus from Whitney Thaxton.  I can't express how irritated I am about that.  She has been to our house several times over the past few weeks, probably more than she's ever been at our house (now I know why) and we found out today that the entire Thaxton family had tested positive for COVID.  They didn't all have horrible symptoms, but they all tested positive except for Whitney.  She was never tested.  In her words, she quarantined by only going to school and the store.  Which isn't true anyway.  That is not a quarantine in any way shape or form.  So I'm irritated.  To say the least.  But whatever.  I've had a pretty lazy day today.  Didn't get a lot done.  But I did get some actual rest and sleep!  I talked to Noah for quite a while.  He's still down in the dungeon.  I'm so impressed with how he has managed this time.  He's been really productive for someone who is stuck in their bedroom.  Even measured out how far he would have to run in his room and actually ran a mile!!  I will not be surprised if there is a whole civilization built up in his room when we are done here.  A tree growing up in the middle of the room.  10-20-20

3F ADVENTURE

For their thing today, I had them play Spoons.  Not too creative, but a definite win :).  I think they liked it and I loved watching.  10-20-20

WEDNESDAY

We got the results from Noah's test this morning and he came up to join me.  He is my new isolation buddy!  What a nice change that has been!  We've been able to play games and talk.  Laughing has been a new addition to my room!  It's been really good for both of us I think.  I hope he's having fun and hopefully we will make the most of my last three days.  We finally watched Inception together.  I am not sure if Noah even got it.  He fell asleep during the last five minutes.  He says he liked it, but I think it was just scary and violent.  I wish we hadn't watched it.  We had to watch some Brian Regan stand up to lighten the mood after.  That was pretty funny.  Got a good stomach ache from that.  10-21-20

3F ADVENTURE

I had them do a Name Workout for today.  It was fun to see them out on the basketball court doing them.  Kelly told me that Jack really got into it :).  So that was fun to hear.  I loved seeing Erika out there doing hers too.  They all looked great!  It's so fun to see them.  10-21-20

THURSDAY

Today felt slow and kind of rough.  They weren't facetiming us as much from downstairs and we were having a hard time entertaining ourselves.  Although, we did discover that Noah likes Yahtzee!  So that's been fun.  And we got Bananagrams!  That made my day!  Battleship too has been a regular.  I have loved having this time with Noah!  We are total buds.  I love his jokes and his sense of humor.  I love it when we both just bust up laughing over his funny words in bananagrams or when I almost dropped the Yahtzee box off the bed.  We watched Bedtime Stories for our movie tonight.  That was fun.  I was finally able to get my book to upload, only took like 5 hours, and ordered!  With the 50% off coupon!  Pretty amazing!  I was happy about that.  My laptop has been doing weird stuff.  I forgot to do a 3F Adventure.  10-22-20

FRIDAY

I showered today.  Felt good.  My bathroom is still clean :).  I have some clean clothes which is nice!  And Noah and I have not killed each other yet :).  I worked on my laptop to try to get things all figured out.  I am hoping I did what it needed.  10-23-20

3F ADVENTURE 

I sent them all on a photo scavenger hunt.  I was impressed with them, both teams sent me 22 pictures!  Of the 25 things on the list!  Pretty awesome!  And THEY TIED!  10-23-20

SATURDAY

Today was the big coming out day :).  I finally got to come downstairs.  It was a bittersweet moment, thinking about leaving Noah up there, seeing all the work that was ahead of me, but oh man, those hugs when I got down here... nothing beats those hugs!!  And the beautiful faces!!  They make it all worth it!!  After some talking with Nate, we realized it was silly to isolate Noah any longer.  With the recall of everyone's specific symptoms all week, it's pretty obvious that most of the kids have had it.  So we let Noah come join us as well.  That whole isolation thing was a big fat joke!!  Not something I would repeat.  It's time for herd immunity people!!  This is nuts!!  We had a nice day together.  Nate spent most of the day getting things ready for his catering job.  He was feeding 300!!!  It was an insane mad dash at the end, and I think we got him there a little late, which was fine since there were all of four people there.  It was tricky unloading it all and there was baked beans mess all over the car... pretty typical :).  We've got to think of a new way to serve those.  But Nate did awesome!  Stayed and served it all, for free, which he didn't love.  And actually survived the whole evening!  I got pizza for the kids for dinner :).  10-24-20

SUNDAY WORSHIP ONLINE

This was our second Sunday of watching it online.  It was supposed to be our week to go, but we're still quarantining.  It was a nice Sunday.  I enjoyed Saralyn's RS lesson about the talk Be Of Good Cheer.  I really loved thinking about Heavenly Mother.  10-25-20

PUMPKIN CARVING FHE

This was a bright light in this darkness I call quarantine (sad that I'm singing a different tune about quarantining this time, but it's because stuff is happening out there without us!).  We broke ranks and took everyone out to get pumpkins at Bowmans.  Most of us were wearing masks.  It's always fun to watch everyone pick out their pumpkins.  Everyone has their certain feature that they are looking for.  I like the big handles.  We were pretty quick this time.  Then Noah and I went in and bought them along with the stuff for Root Beer Floats (Nate's treat), which I realized as we were leaving that Noah should still technically be in isolation, so I probably should have had someone else come in with me, but he did have one of those ever powerful masks on so... there's that.  On our way home we took a detour down to Station Park and I ran in and got us some dinner at Panda Express (Rice Town).  I loved Molly's, "Sadie wants Rice Town too!" from the back seat while we were deliberating where to go for dinner.  That's two more votes for Rice Town.  HA!  I was not feeling 100% most of the night.  My head still hurts and the cold was really making things hard, but it was a good, fun, family night.  I love this tradition.  I hope my kids can come back for this with their families as they get older.  We will have to develop something bigger than the sheet on the kitchen floor, but hey- I've got time to get the wheels turning :).  I'm pretty sure if Nate had his way we would be AT the table :).  Everyone did so good on their pumpkins!  Even with Sadie walking around with open permanent markers and sharp utensils.  She was our obstacle for the night.  She is a very busy little girl.  Jabbing knives into pumpkins, coloring on the walls, screaming when we don't let her do what she wants, scooping the seeds out of the bowl and throwing them all over the place.  I made Sadie's pumpkin.  She didn't help at all.  We made it to look like her cheesey ball smile :).  I think Sadie actually had some fun though.  Molly was a big girl this year- did a lot of it on her own, had some help from Erika with the gut scooping, but totally designed her own pumpkin.  I was super impressed with her design.  I helped her with it quite a bit, but after seeing what she was able to do with her eyebrows, I realized she may not have needed that much help!  She was pretty good at it!  And her pumpkin turned out adorable.  Jack did his whole pumpkin, minus scooping some of the guts, all on his own!!  And he loved it!  He wishes he had more pumpkin to carve.  His turned out really cute.  Erika did her own!  She designated herself as the Charity this year because it took her a while to decide on a design.  But she found a cool bat template and hand drew them on and then carved them so perfectly!  Turned out really awesome and she did hers all on her own- along with helping Molly!  She got the inside of hers SO CLEAN!!  I was impressed.  Noah worked really hard on his and it shows!  Did it all on his own!  A really cool skull.  It's been really fun to watch these guys grown and their skills grow with them.  Very cool.  Luke had a lot of fun this year.  I don't think I've noticed his disgust for the guts like I did this year though.  Kept having to wash his hands.  Kinda funny.  But his turned out really cool too!!  All on his own.  Brad did the coolest design I think (well and he even said this too) that it's the best design he's ever come up with!  He did an eye!  Took a lot of thinking to make it all stay on there! His took the longest.  I wasn't sure I was going to last to get a picture of his at the end. But I was really impressed.  Kelly, again, as usual, out did herself with a full skeleton!  Looked amazing!  I love how well she uses her artistic talents.  Nate and I were both able to carve this year as well.  Nate's looked awesome!  He felt like it wasn't scary enough.  Totally looks like a Halloween version of Ernie :).  Mine was a cute little toothy grin.  This was a fun night.  I wish I hadn't been feeling so tired and could have enjoyed it more.  But I'm happy I'm down here with my family and that I am able to experience them in person again.  10-26-20

WEIRD FUNK

I was in kind of a weird funk this week.  I tried so hard to get out of it, but it was not easy.  There were moments where I felt like myself, but I think overall I was completely consumed thinking about all of the inconsistencies and holes in this whole pandemic and everything they keep doing to take care of things.  It's been so ridiculous!  I have lost all patience for all of it.  I cannot pretend anymore.  It's so weird.  Then we had the whole mess with Natalie chewing Nate out on the phone about masks.  She's made it so that now they may not be able to have deacon activities, they'll have to take their dads to do fast offerings, all kinds of annoying changes because of her obsession with the masks.  I've been really irritated about it all week.  I am so sad that they are thinking of calling out all of the people who don't wear masks and telling them they need to.  Ever since this new stupid order from the Governor, we are supposed to limit gatherings to 10 people or less and have masks and social distancing.  So ridiculous.  Not to mention they sent that out on the emergency callout texting thing that they use for Amber Alerts.  So weird.  This whole thing is so crazy.  I just don't get it.  I realize people are dying and that some people are actually getting sick, but I would guess that the majority are having mild to no symptoms.  And then the whole false positive or negative cases.... you don't want to get me started.  It's been really frustrating and very consuming.  I need to move on.  It's so hard.  10-28-20

NOAH WRESTLING

Noah finally got to start wrestling this week!  That was exciting.  He was extremely sore the next day!  Which happened to be his big race, so kind of inconvenient, but he seemed to like it!  They're just conditioning right now, but he is feeling pretty confident about it all.  10-30-20

KELLY'S TOURNAMENT

Kelly worked so hard on her pumpkin costume for this tournament and her team did so well!!  Friday night's game against Elevate they were pretty close but tied it up at half and then came back with a vengeance!  Won that one.  Then Saturday morning they completely destroyed the Royals.  They had a 16 point lead!!  Kelly's coaches had asked all the star players to stop trying to score.  She was one of them of course, which was super annoying, but I think she should be flattered a little.  Then the second game on Saturday they played really well.  They were playing Riverton and even though Riverton seemed pretty good, we beat them by 3 or 4 points.  Kelly made a LOT of the points in this tournament.  How sad that she's so good we don't really keep track anymore.  But she played so good!!  So many cool passes and awesome fake pumps.  She only missed a couple of the shots she took.  She really has become a star player!  We had to divide and conquer Saturday so it was just Brad, Luke, Sadie and I cheering.  Sadie had been offered a ball during the second game by a little girl and totally loved it!!  She was kicking it around, letting it take her wherever it went.  Then picking it up, bringing it back to Brad to throw and then she would go chasing after it... so cute!!  I got lots of pictures, but 90% of them were in the wrong manual settings... lame.  But such a fun tournament!!  Go DAVIS!!  10-30-20--10-31-20

RACE CATS CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

Nate, Noah, Erika, Jack and Molly all headed down to American Fork for their big race!  This was going to be a challenge because they haven't been to race cats for two weeks!  But they were willing to try!  Oddly enough, they all did REALLY AMAZING!!  I was so proud of them!  This race was a big deal!  With a lot of good runners!  So even cooler that they did so well.  Jack ran his little heart out even with some major cramping- poor guy!  But he ran his best!  So proud of him!  Erika got 2nd place in girls her age and 12th place overall!  Pretty sweet!  She got a cool medal!  Noah got 9th place overall!!  SO COOL!!  These guys did so good!  I wish I could have been there to see it all!!  But couldn't be more proud!  10-31-20

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2020

Halloween happened!! We actually got to have Halloween!  Just when you think all fun has been canceled, surprise!  We get to go Trick-or-Treating!!  Our quarantine ended Friday morning so we were happy that we were going to be able to go trick-or-treating, but I wasn't sure how it was going to be with COVID this year.  A lot of talk on facebook about people not wanting to hand out candy or have kids at their door, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was pleasantly surprised and actually Emily and I both felt like there were more people out than usual!  So WAHOO!!!  We had a really fun time.  5:00 we ate our Mummy Dogs for dinner, then started getting all dressed up.  We had a lot of really easy costumes this year, but a few that took some effort.  So we used up the whole 45 minutes to get ready.  I was so relieved when Nate and Brad showed up from fishing right when they said they would and were able to help a little!  Noah took his picture early and headed out with his friends to go trick-or-treating through their neighborhoods.  We sure missed him!  Sadie was "a wreck" in the words of Luke, for those couple hours leading up the trick-or-treating.  I don't know what her problem was.  The only thing I can conclude is that my babies sense my stress on Halloween!  This happens every year with the youngest.  Kind of weird, but I'm very used to it.  And I really do believe it is my fault at this point.  But anyway.  We took our pictures said goodbye to Kelly who was partying with friends and then walked down to Maughan's!  We had so much fun trick-or-treating!   I loved watching Luke and Brad take turns with Sadie- and loved having their help.  They were so cute with her!  They both had parties at 7:00 so we said goodbye to them after a little while. Good chatting with the adults, lots of candy for the kids!  There were a lot of houses that just had the candy out on the porch in a bowl, but a lot that answered their doors too.  There were quite a few that didn't do trick-or-treating this year, their choice of course, but overall, it felt very normal!!  I was so glad!! There were even some fun new creative ways of giving out the candy.  Taped all over the garage door, out on tables, or dropping them down a tube.  I actually thought that was pretty fun to have new ideas like that.  We didn't even have to wear masks!  I was very relieved that it felt so normal.  And all the fun visiting with friends- it was so normal!!  Loved it. We would have loved to have seen Charity- we missed her so much! We were out for a good 2 hours and 45 minutes before the kids were done.  Jack ended a little sooner than Erika and Molly, and Sadie and Nate had called it a night just before that.  But it was a very productive night!  They all were so happy!!  I loved seeing them enjoy some normalcy for a change!  They came home and dumped out their bags.  Cute Molly set aside all of her yellow candies and gave them all to Kelly!  How sweet is that!  Made me feel bad about not letting her go back for a second candy at the Giatras's when she was begging to go back and get one for Kelly!  How thoughtful is she!!  I loved seeing Jack arranging his in rainbow order... gets that from Luke I believe.  Fun kids, fun night!!  

Our costumes this year were fairly simple.  Most of them took little to no effort and that's just the kind of year it was.  That's okay.  

Sadie was a Lady Bug.  The traditional fuzzy, cuddly lady bug.  Almost every girl in our family has been this lady bug.  Two different costumes, but same idea.  I had wanted to do a bumble bee because she loves that song, but I gave up when I realized how much money I was going to be spending on something so insignificant.  She didn't love the hoodie and lost it on me when I wanted it on for pictures, so we didn't make her wear the hood, but she stayed in the costume all night and didn't seem to mind.  She was a big fan of the treats.  Didn't need to eat them, just liked holding them.  It was funny when she was hesitant to put them in her bucket and then when she was handing Brad another one to open while finishing chewing a previous one.  She was a little on edge towards the end and wasn't her happy self.  

Molly was Rapunzel.  I felt awful because I had been searching for the costume Molly had wanted (a horse you ride on that morphed into a unicorn you ride on) but gave up before getting her something and forgot and didn't notice until yesterday!  So thankfully, Erika and I were able to talk her into being a princess and then carefully planted the idea of being Rapunzel!  I had tried earlier, but the trip to the store in the empty Halloween aisles may have been the kicker.  She LOVED her costume!  She loved the braid I fixed for her, with the flowers she loved.  She LOVED getting her dress on.  LOVED the trick-or-treating.  Kept track of each candy.  She really loved the whole thing.  It was another best. day. ever.   She did not want to take off her big dress when she got home, fell asleep in it on the living room surrounded by Jack's candy :).  I'm so glad she got a normal Halloween.  

Jack was a shark.  He used this costume last year and loved it so much that he used it again :).  I kept hoping it wasn't giving him a perma-wedgie!  But he loved it, it's warm, ya can't really go wrong there.  After I made him put warm clothes under it, he was actually too hot while we were out.  Poor guy.  He did love Halloween this year!  I was happy about that.  Totally gung ho while we were trick-or-treating with his buddies Will and later Liam.  He was satisfied with his load a little sooner than the rest of the kids, but I love that he was just okay with being done and going home.  I love that about Jack.  Resolve.  

Erika was a skeleton.  She and Kate had thought up there costume idea possibly based on my prompting of the idea and how I could make it on my silhouette.  It was a little trickier than I had imagined when I first came up with the idea, but being in isolation last week, gave me something to do.  And once I got past that they were not going to be anatomically correct, it was actually kind of fun.  I love figuring things out and learning cool new ways to do things.  Erika and Kate both seemed to like their costumes.  They looked awesome with the face paint and all.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  Erika seemed to have a lot of fun trick-or-treating as well.  She was with Kate most of the time, but whenever I got too far behind, she would hang back and wait for me.  Such a sweetheart.  She probably could have gone out for another hour, but came home without complaint.  She had fun trading candy with Kate and Jack and Will when we got home and then again when Noah came back.  So fun!  I'm so glad she got to have something normal as well.  She's missed out on enough!  

Noah was a princess riding a unicorn.  I will never forget the humor of his "unicorn costume for boys" search on my Amazon app.  Totally cracked me up.  We both cracked up about it for a while in isolation.  Kind of a funny memory.  He loved his costume.  I loved his cotume :).  He didn't wear the cute cone princess crown it came with which was a bummer, but it was fun that he thought of this idea.  He had a lot of fun trick-or-treating with Jacob and James through their neighborhood first and then ours.  He had a LOT of candy!  Pretty fun for him to be at this age where you can go for hours and hours and you're not too tired or embarrassed :).  He seemed to have a lot of fun.  Came home and traded for an hour too :).  

Luke was Crown Burger.  Decided on that after the gorilla costume was too big.  Well he was just the burger for a few minutes and then put the crown on and Brad blurted it out.  I think he went with the crown.  This kid cracks me up when it comes to Halloween costumes.  He prefers something really ridiculous.  Makes me laugh.  He had a lot of fun carrying Sadie around, up to each door.  I'm glad he got to spend that time with her- she made it fun for him and he made it fun for her.  He had a pretty good time at Austin Noriega's party, minus his little shadow, but even that was his funny story for the night.  I loved that he came home early :) to be with us and see all the kids with their candy.  He was pretty tired by the end of the night though.  

Bradley was a Jazz fan :).  I love that he was feeling left out without a costume and went and put on his jazz hat and jersey.  Fun kid.  He was so fun to take Sadie around as well, once Luke's arms were tired.  He really helped with getting her ready as well.  That was a blessing.  And I think he loved being part of that with Sadie :).  He had a lot of fun at his party too.  Watching Psych on the projector :).  I'm so glad he has good friends to spend time with.  

Kelly was a road sign.  She and her friend Eve came up with this cute idea- Eve's said, "Road Work Ahead" and Kelly's said, "I sure hope it does!"  She worked really hard on that- turned out really cute.  I was so happy that she had some fun planned and that it all went mostly well :).  Always a little friend drama.  She came home at the end of the night and watched Hocus Pocus with her friends and feeling like the queen of the world with her stack of yellow wrapped candy from Molly.  That totally made Kelly's night.  

I wish I'd had my Charity here!  It's so weird to not every have the WHOLE FAMILY together anymore.  I tried to prepare myself for this- I knew I wasn't going to love it and I was right- and I am glad that she has her own life right now and can branch out a little, but still hard.  She mentioned something about watching a scary movie with some guy friends because they wanted to watch her watch a scary movie, but I didn't get a follow up on that.  I hope she had some fun.  

This is one of the few things that has felt really normal this year.  I was so grateful for that.  Especially as things tighten up with the restrictions for COVID.  Time to buckle up.  10-31-20