School's out, summer begins!

School has been different this year, but the teachers have been amazing trying to make it as normal as possible. Bentley and Deacon have both really loved their teachers and friends at school, and always come home telling me the things they learned and the fun they had. 

Bentley has made lots of friends and always talks about Truett, Porter, Violet, Jersey, Presley, and Arianna, to name a few. She got to go to Truett and Violet's birthday parties this year and loved them. There weren't very many parties because of covid so I always loved when there were opportunities for her to go. Her teacher also sent some pictures to us of her class on different days and it was always fun to see. Bentley has excelled at everything, especially reading and writing. Her report card is near perfect! I'm also impressed with how well she can do the monkey bars these days, and climb on top of them.

She's also had fun with crazy hair day and other fun days this year. On the last day of school it was pajama day, so that made for some interesting pictures. 

Deacon has had a lot of fun at school this year too, when his teacher wasn't in quarantine! He made lots of friends and the bus driver loves him. His teachers rave about him too and how sweet he is. His speech is getting a lot better and I think he is ready for Kindergarten at RDL. He is so excited to go to the same school as Bentley next year! I've just started teaching him how to read with the same book as I did Bentley (Teacher your child to read in 100 easy lessons). We'll see how that goes. There are still a lot of sounds that are hard for him. I'm so proud of Deacon, though, and the good learner that he is! It's also so adorable to see Leo yell "DEACON, NICE TO SEE YOU!" every day when he gets off the bus and give him huge hugs. Seriously adorable!!

The school year is now over and we are ready for summer! We have been playing in our backyard with the pool, water balloons, and a big blob water pad we bought. Melissa and Steve came for a visit and the kids got to play with their kids who they haven't seen in a while. We also went out for dinner with them just adults! We've also been to lots of parks with Rebecca and friends, and we headed to the splash park one day. Leo was hilarious to watch, as he would go right under the huge bucket of water that would turn and spray everyone. In a sea of teenagers, he was right in there with them, the littlest one with the littlest amount of fear!

We also put the kids in soccer, so they've been enjoying that! Bentley is with Emri, and Deacon is with Bryce, so they have fun together. It has taken up every evening during the week (both are 2 days/wk), but it's been worth it and nice to get outside so much!

Leo is constantly getting into trouble, but boy is he cute! And he loves a good cuddle. Boston has been so good at going along with all our adventures. It's been a crazy, sleep-deprived few months, but we are feeling the summer vibes and cannot wait to go to the cabin! 

On July 2, Boston and I fly to Kalispell with my parents. The next day Jeff will drive over the border with the other kids, since he is American. They have still not opened the borders for Canadians to drive through, although it will probably happen soon. I can fly there, but not drive, as long as I have a negative covid test result first. The restrictions in Calgary are all lifted starting July.1 and I am now double vaccinated with the Pfeizer vaccine. Things are becoming normal again and we couldn't be more thrilled!

We are hoping all goes well and we will stay at both cabins for over half the summer! Jeff is planning to work from there. We will see Joce and Jeff there for a couple weeks at my parent's cabin, and we could not be more excited!! Bring on the summer fun!

Spring

 Well, life after Boston was born was pretty good. There were still quite a few restrictions, but I was so busy at home with kids that it didn't bother me too much. My mom helped me a lot with meals and babysitting whenever I had appointments for Boston, and Stacy Ann helped with driving Bentley to school for a while. Schools were open except for a 2-week stent in May where they shut down and then opened up again after. Deacon was the afternoon class in preschool, but there were some covid cases in the morning class that his teacher also teaches, so his class was cancelled three different times for 2 week stretches because the teacher was in quarantine. It's definitely been interesting with these restrictions we've had and different things going on. I'm thankful that schools have mostly been open though, because in Ontario they've been closed a lot longer. We haven't been able to do indoor gatherings in a very long time, but we've kind of stuck to our cohort and chosen one set of friends to hang out with so we stay sane! Once the weather started getting nice, we could hang out outside with people, and there was more to do with the kids in general. I'm so glad we have a trampoline and sandbox in our backyard, they've been life savers! 

Right after Boston was born it was the Easter weekend. We did some Easter egg hunts and dinner and with family and had a great time. I even made the kids bunny waffles and goodie baskets. We also enjoyed watching conference that weekend. 

Restaurants kept closing and reopening over this whole pandemic. For Jeff's birthday patios were open, but not indoor dining. So we went to the patio at Cactus Club cafe with Ryan and Angie and it was so nice! They had heaters and it felt like we were inside. We had a delicious dinner (butternut squash ravioli is always my favorite!), and they gave Jeff a free dessert. Boston always tags along with us on our dates now, and he is such a champ! He may be our easiest baby yet. 

We've attended church a few times, although it took us a while to go after having Boston. We are only invited every second week to just sacrament meeting, and we all must be wearing masks. So, it makes things difficult and less appealing, but we have been a fair amount of times and are trying to make it our routine now! Church is streamed for us to watch on TV so we have always been doing that, and there is also a lesson or primary meeting through zoom. We had 9am church, but it was just moved to 10:30, which makes things a little easier. We've done at home church a lot, and it was actually really nice. The kids learned lots from us and we had some good moments together praying, singing, doing lessons, and partaking of the sacrament. I will really love when we go back to our regular, 2 hour church again though!

One day we decided to go to the temple and have a picnic on the temple grounds. It was a lot of fun and beautiful to look at the temple and enjoy the nice weather. 

One weekend Jeff and I took the kids to Granary Road. We hadn't been there in a while and the kids loved all the different playgrounds and things! We had a great time. Boston is so easy to take around right now, although I feel like I definitely need Jeff's help to go and do things like this. Leo is our runner, so we almost always need another set of hands with him around.

We started a new idea for family home evening. We put a bunch of activity ideas in a container and each week we pick one to do for FHE. Before the activity we do song, prayer, family business, and a lesson. Then the activity and sometimes a treat at the end. We've had some really fun times together with this! We've tie dyed shirts, painted our own mugs, had games night, smore night, and a lego competition, to name a few. We've really looked forward to this each week! (It also kind of forces us to be present with our kids and do some activities we wouldn't normally otherwise do)

The kids got bunk beds which they were very excited about! They also loved that they had their very own little bookshelf to put their favorite books. When Boston gets to big for the bassinet by my bed, we plan to move Leo into this room with them too. There is a little toddler bed on the other side. We would put Leo to bed first, and then the kids would go in. 

Leo's been as crazy as ever, getting into everything and climbing all over the house. We've been trying to potty train him. With our second attempt, Jeff took off a couple days of work to help, and we think he's almost there. It's taken a long time though! This picture was in between attempts...

On rainy days we go for walks and collect worms...

This Spring we've also spent a lot of time at my parent's house. I think I would go crazy without these getaways at least once a week! They sometimes even make delicious lunches and we have picnics in their yard. Thank goodness for grandparents!

Our sisters in our ward have been put into ministering circles. So, we hang out with our groups once a month. The first time we met at Angie's house and had a very cold campfire. The second time we went to Jen Borowski's house and made pizza's in her pizza oven. It was also Sophie's birthday so we gave her a cake.