Around the House.

Messy Kitchen Table - including a Santa and Remote Control Car. 

Books. Crayons. Paint. Tape. 

Homeschooling Life. 

Coraline & Cabella 

Night Time Game Time in the Kitchen while Cecily Sleeps. 

 

Happy Sabbath!

From the Middles!

Aka Little Girls

We did home church on Zoom while Levi conducted and took Clairana with him. 

It is not the same and I miss fellowshipping with people on Sunday so very much. 

I miss dropping the kids off at their Primary classes with all their friends and I miss sitting in the mother's lounge with my littlest and catching up with all the sisters at church.

I miss Sunday school lessons with Levi (even though that didn't happen as often as I would love it to)

Someday. Again.

BUT. We still dress up and sit in front of the computer and listen and the kids still have a shortened Primary singing time. 

 

Extras

TEA HARVEST!! Everyone did such a great job of cutting down the mint and drying it out this year. 

We have lots of herbal tea for the winter. Hopefully, it will keep us healthier. 

Clairana did it! She jumped into reading a chapter book all by herself during bedtime.

 Normally, she spends most nights writing, drawing, sewing, or making crafts but she set a goal to try and unwind with a book this past month (with hopes it helps her fall to sleep faster.) 

I love that the book intrigued her all on her own and she loved narrating it back to me in the morning while I made breakfast. 

 

Thanksgiving 2020

Cousin Time! 

My Cousins Madi and Abbi. 

Coraline and Cabella working on reading together.

Yahoo for a break in life and a holiday to celebrate. 

Even if we woke up at 5 to put the turkey in ... we were sleepy together. 

Cecily has figured out the wheat grinder. 

Boys Makin' Gravy

Clairana and Nephi played the bells for everyone. 

Traditionally hot tub time! 

I caught this sweet moment of Clairana and Cecily and it melted my heart. 

I didn't take any pictures of the actual event but Randy sent me these. 

Cabella wanted a turkey leg!

Aunt Angie and Me!

Mom with Clairana and Madi 

Abbi, Cecily, and Uncle Stan

Ending Thanksgiving night with the Wallace family.

 

Christmas with Grandparents

 Jack and Jane came over to say a final goodbye today before they head to Florida. 
They brought chocolate milk, donuts, and presents it was an exciting and perfect way to start the morning! 

Levi has been home for a couple days in a row now and I love it so much.

I think Cecily is going to miss her the most of all.

We will miss them so much but we are jealous they get to enjoy warm weather for the winter! 

Books with matching stuffed animals! 

Restaurant.

 Today, I am grateful for this journey to end. Levi started building Ripple and Company this time last year. Today, he passed the health department inspection and he has two final inspections tomorrow. 

This project has been hard. Hard because not only did Levi go into this with a company that has never built a new building and does not have the staff to support it. Levi was excited to give his all and honestly this isn't anything new to our roller coaster ride of his resume. 

But I will say this one was more emotional because of the pandemic that started in March. It was hard on our marriage especially in the beginning. We Fought. Which we had given up that part of our marriage so many years ago. 

I was a mess of anxiety that we would all get sick and I would have to tend five little sick kids alone or being sick myself without a spouse -  he has been exposed to so many people from all over. Levi was frustrated knowing he had to provide for our family and not lose his job during this time.  

I watched as almost all the families I knew had weeks upon weeks off with their husbands during this time and more that had husbands switch to working from home for months or permanently.  

Most all of the staff at Levi's company left the office and worked from home. 

To say I was jealous would be an understatement. 

We made it and the building is done and I hope to spend these holidays with a spouse that can be home and I am thankful for God for watching over us and keeping us all healthy during this time because honestly after hearing all the stories of exposure I am amazed we made it through. Yes, the virus is still here but I am praying our exposure will go down drastically now and we can all take a breath of fresh air. 

Cheers to the Holidays! 

Yes, we are hosting Thanksgiving (much smaller than normal) because honestly the exposure to the handful of relatives is important and far less than what children/teachers in school have been/are exposed to.

(thankfully we never had that journey/challenge)

 Also, if I am going to get this sickness at least it was from making memories and someone I cared about and not the person at the store or subcontractor on Levi's jobsite. 

Pandemics are emotional. You don't often understand others and their decisions.

Now hopefully everyone goes and eats at this new place so we can reap some benefits of this year!

Cecily Edithe

Chocolate Sneak. 

Cecily starts every night in her own bed but she does always end up waking up and coming to our bed in the morning. 

She likes to sleep on top of me most times. 

Practically my face. 

I normally sneak out and leave her in my room while I make breakfast and have devotional with the others. She fooled us all this past week - we thought she was sleeping in my bed when she really was eating all my dark chocolate from my secret spot! 

 

The Wild Robot - Bookclub

We LOVED this book. So much we read the sequel before the month was over as well. 

I didn't think we would like this book so much but it was such a fun and emotional read for the kids and myself. 

The Wild Robot is the story of Rozzum unit 7134, a robot who wakes up for the very first time to find that she's alone on a remote, wild island. Roz doesn't know how she got there, or where she came from: she only knows that she wants to stay alive.

The Wild Robot Escapes is the story of a robot torn between two worlds. Roz was designed for her new life. She was designed to work alongside humans and robots and to live in the civilized world. But her computer brain is filled with perfect memories of her old life on the island.

Goodsell family hosted this month. The weather was AMAZING so we played outside. 

Little Girls with Lyla

Joel and Coraline - Snack Time. 

The boys playing soccer with Andon.

They built a 'nest' just like in the book. 

All the MAMAS! April suggested we take a photo because we are never in the bookclub photos - 

I LOVE IT! 

We have had this same bookclub for three years now and it is such a fun thing for all of us. 

18 littles in all! 

Lyla and Bella

 

End of the Semester.

This was our last week until after the New Year. We made it! Our house was healthy every week and didn't miss anything - knock on wood it continues! 

Erin, our director, dressed up as a surgeon to put all our body parts together that we have been working on for the past six weeks. 

Me with the Little Girls. 

Clairana's class. I love her class and that she gets to have such sweet relationships with these girls. 

This is one of my favorite pictures ever with Clairana. So Sweet. 

All the bodies! They rotated classes throughout the gym to work on putting them together. 

 

Clairana putting her body together with Mrs. Brown. I love that our community is so close that everyone is comfortable with each other. 

Nephi got Mrs. Brown as a partner too. 

Bella chose to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the Ukulele this past week for her presentation.

Mrs. Mitchell (Liam's mom) is my room mom and she went to school to be a dental hygienist and so she brought in all the bones for the kids to look at. 

Mrs. Neulieb with Coraline! I love Anne she is a mama to six and has taught me SO much. 

For the Essentials class this week they combined the two classes together to celebrate all they have learned. It was a crazy, fun, loud afternoon. I loved being able to see the other families in class that we normally do not get to be with. 

 

Clairana’s Class

CC Photo Catch Up

The week before last I taught two classes together. Clairana's class joined our youngest class. 

It was so great. It made me so excited to buddy them up and teach one room school house style - which is my normal comfort zone. 

Story Time to Learn about Abstract Art

Little CC Girls. 

We did memory work paired with sit ups. 

I LOVE my new board! This is our weekly memory work - We always have Science, History, Timeline Events, Latin, Geography, Math and English. 

Cabella giving her presentation.