light at the end of the tunnel

 2020 was a long, dark tunnel and I think we are slowly emerging. Victoriously? Eh, I wouldn't go that far. Hopefully and happily? Resoundingly. 2020 was the hardest year of my life. Maybe? Definitely the hardest year of my life since becoming a mom. (high school was no joke) Addie's sleep struggles really dominated the year, with a hard emphasis on complete and total isolation. Bad sleep and social isolation is not a great combo for me.  Days, weeks without seeing any other humans besides my family. We would sometimes escape to visit family for a few weeks, and guess who cared, or even knew about it? Nobody. I felt so unimportant in the world, but crucially important (every single second) in my own home. And although I knew everyone else probably felt similar, it was still quite lonely!

Anyways, yes lets just skip that year of blogging please and thanks and pretend it never happened. (Although there were so many positively wonderful things that did happen that I haven't documented super well!)

Since I couldn't possibly catch up on everything, here are some snippets of our life lately that give quite an accurate depiction of how things go around here:

We've got a good system that really works for everyone. We get breakfast, get dressed, the kids do their jobs. Then we move on to homeschool. Knock that out. Eat lunch. Straight to the park until it's time to come home and eat dinner. Notice how that leaves zero time for errands or anything of the sort. Park time is sacred time, not to be trampled on by a trip to UPS to return a package or the grocery store. Heaven forbid! We are so grateful for the many parks in our area. The kids take turns everyday picking a park to go to, and we usually invite lots of friends. This is recess: extended edition, if you will. Vitamin D is as vital as food and water for my kids. I also have loved that, despite the disheartening lack of nature (plants, flowers, trees, etc), my kids often spend most of their time examining the nature that surrounds the park. No tree goes unclimbed. No pinecone uncollected. No blade of grass overlooked. No pigeon unchased. Addie lives for the slide and the swings, which are both referred to as "Weeeee!" for obvious reasons. She is my most fearless child BY FAR and it is kind of terrifying. In fact, she has already broken a bone, which we will not spend time ruminating on, thanks.

Park picnics. Where I pack my children lunch and the only thing they eat are the snacks that they scavenge from their friends. 

The face of pure joy. I never get sick of helping her up and down the slide. Actually, that is false. But I really do love seeing her happy face peeking down from the top of the slide at me.

Another face of pure joy. Giving Lyla any piece of exciting news, big or small, results in this type of reaction. She is soooo fun to surprise. And it takes very little to make her this happy. (on the flip side, it takes very little to get a reaction of the opposite emotion...)

Adeline and her Blanky + Binky. She adores going down for naps and bedtime thanks to those BFF's. Can we just please have a moment of gratitude that she almost always sleeps through the night now? Hallelujah.

Speaking of Halleuljah. Hallelujah! Easter time. My favorite thing we did this year was memorize The Living Christ. Well, me, Jane, and Lyla! Some amazing lady put that entire document to music and so we learned 8 songs containing all the words. It brought the spirit so many separate times as we sang about Christ and deepened our testimony of him and his life. 

Lyla is officially a reader, and I feel like its as much of an accomplishment for me as it is for her. WOW it's hard to teach a kid to read. So much time and practice and patience. But it is so worth it. She is loving it!

I decided to really try to take a little bit of time a few times a week to focus on Cooper and age appropriate activities for him. We have his friend Niah come join us and they both love it. Whenever Cooper recognizes a letter on a sign or anywhere, he says "That's a part of my letters!" He is quite possessive of his letters. ;)

Lyla is finally getting into puzzles. They used to frustrate her too much but now she LOVES them. She finished her first 100 piece by herself the other night for her "special time" (My kids each have one day a week where they get to stay up 30 minutes or so later than the rest of the kids and choose an activity to do with me.)

The girls helped me to pick out new comforters for their beds and they are all of a sudden super excited to make their beds each morning. Please bless that lasts.

This past weekend, we had Will, Kaycee, Rachel, and my dad come visit for Easter/General Conference weekend. Consequently, my children got showered with attention and jelly beans. They had quite the crash today after coming down from that family time/candy high. Yikes.

But it was worth it, and so fun! We whipped out the back yard swimming pool that the girls "earned" with conference cash. Jane painted her heart out after Papa bought her a new set of paints and canvases. Cooper got to go golfing with the boys and was on cloud nine. Nobody ever expects a 3 year old to be able to handle doing 18 holes, but he is a champ. Of course he doesn't actually play all the entire holes, but he just has serious respect for the game and knows how to behave on a golf course. Lyla clung to Kaycee Lynn like a fly on poop, and Addie wrapped each and every person around her tiny little finger. We ate so much food, had perfect weather, and some seriously awesome games of Spike Ball. I think we are all a little sunburned and bloated from that weekend. ;)

To close this hodge podge of a post: a few pictures that I felt very much encapsulates my children.

Jane, in her harry potter robe, sitting outside, on top of the play house, reading a book. (Not Harry Potter; I'm forcing her to take a break and read other books after reading the whole series 3 times through, haha!)

Cooper, with his wrinkly nose smiles, feeling so proud of himself for spelling his name using all his favorite sports balls.

Addie, ruling the roost. Letting us all know that she plays by her own rules.