4TH of JULY. With so many festivities cancelled this year thanks to covid, we wanted to find a different, fun way to celebrate as a family. So we brainstormed different ideas and somehow ended up renting a soft serve ice cream machine, haha. And the guy we found to rent it from (on facebook marketplace) was going out of town, so he gave it to us for 4 days for the price of one! Score!! Except that meant that we probably spent more than double in supplies and ate WAY too much ice cream...! ;)
The neighborhood kids were pretty excited about it too ;)
On the actual 4th, we invited a few families to come stop by throughout the day and get some ice cream. We did our best to keep everything covid/social distancing-friendly...but there was one point when three different families ended up stopping by all at the same time, right when we had invited my mom & Denex and Cory & Allie to come see us explode a watermelon...and there were way more people there than I felt comfortable with, and I started having a mini panic attack and had to go inside. I felt so bad that we had unintentionally created a large group of people, and that it made some people uncomfortable. Dumb covid for making things like this so weird now! :(
But here's the video of the rubber band watermelon explosion--our yearly tradition:
(and so fun to have a new house to do it at, after so many years at the last house with no space!)
There wasn't supposed to be an official hot air balloon launch, which was a bummer because that's our favorite 4th of July tradition--to chase down the balloons. But then the day before the 4th, we found all of these balloons landing in the park right behind our house! So fun! So Tucker & Calvin & I went over and watched for a little bit while the two younger kids slept (& Curt went on a bike ride with the bishop).
Then on the morning of the 4th, the boys woke us up saying there were more balloons in the sky, and they begged us to go chase them down. We hadn't planned on it, and we were excited about the idea of sleeping in instead...but we finally gave in (for tradition's sake) and took the three big boys (& Duke) to go chase down balloons. (and it was fun and I'm glad we did it, even if we didn't have the greatest attitudes at the start haha)
We left Hudson & Hallie at home sleeping, and I watched them closely through our Wyze Cam, which we set up by the monitor. Thankfully, they stayed asleep the whole time we were gone! (and we were no more than 2-3 minutes away the whole time)
Curt got all decked out in his America gear--including wearing his swim trunks and patriotic crocs the whole day, hahaha:
And I gave Hallie her first pedicure for the occasion:
We hung up Curt's old hammock for the first time, and we didn't quite get it high enough at first haha:
(and you can see all the dirt in our yard--the landscapers had started on our landscaping and were supposed to finish by the 4th...but the sod was on backorder, so we sat with a dirt yard for almost a week...which was quite frustrating. But at least it was level and weed free??!)
One of my favorite memories from the 4th was watching Hudson's pure joy as he sprayed Bronco with a hose, hahaha:
Close up of Hallie & I's matching pedicure--all the heart eyes!
(P.S. It was way harder to paint her nails than I thought it would be...!)
Hallie's patriotic dress the next day for church (at home):
Mom & Hallie:
Random weird picture of Bronco that doesn't look anything him, haha:
Curt & I finally bit the bullet and got new garments for the first time in years--they were very needed, and we have loved having them! (even if they cost way more than you ever want to pay for underwear haha)
Hudson had another adventure in the pantry, with baking soda this time. (face palm) We knew he was too quiet and probably getting into trouble, but we were trying to finish our Sunday lesson...so we waited (probably a little too long) to go check on him, haha:
Video of it:
Our ward primary did a social-distanced ice cream social in the church parking lot, and Hudson REALLY enjoyed his ice cream cone ;)
This picture makes me laugh! Calvin was really excited to have rolls for dinner, so he sat in front of the oven and anxiously watched the timer count down until they were ready, hahaha:
With all the loose dirt in the yard from the landscaping, and as we waited for sod to come, we had to have nightly hose-downs to clean the boys off before they were allowed to come into the house:
Another Bronco & Hallie picture :)
We love to see all the crazy positions Calvin sleeps in:
Cute Hallie, lil sis:
Sometimes we joke that we have too many cute things in our house--between Hudson, Hallie, and Duke. And here they all were, laying together, so I had to take a picture :)
I want to get a cute picture of Hallie & my mom together, since they share the same middle name...but Hallie was NOT in the mood this night, haha. This was our first family dinner at my mom's house since covid hit:
Now that our landscaping is done, Curt loves to sneak down and work from the hammock during the day when he can :)
More of cute Hallie:
This picture represents the time when Curt & I got stranded in the middle of Utah Lake...just the two of us, with eight kids. (wide eye emoji) It was the 1 yr anniversary of us getting ownership of our house (July 17th), so we thought it would be a fun way to celebrate by going to the lake with some of our neighbor kid friends. It was going to be a quick, easy visit, and it started out great...but halfway through the boat died and wouldn't start again. Since Curt & Collin had built the boat engine by hand last summer, Curt took it as a personal insult that it wouldn't run, and he was super frustrated. And of course there were NO other boats around to help us...so we were stuck. Long story short, we ended up calling the marina, who forwarded us onto Utah fire and rescue, who had us call 9-1-1 (!!!) to be able to get a ping on my phone so they could find us to come tow us in. It was a very humbling experience (and one we hope we don't ever have to repeat, haha). But all things considered, it really wasn't THAT bad. The kids did well (it probably helped that the boys had friends to help distract them), Hallie did great, and the whole process only ended up taking about 2 hours to get us back to the dock. The worst part of the whole thing was probably the guy who came out to rescue us--he was stone-faced and not friendly at all, despite our every effort to thank him and be nice to him. Boo. It ended up being a pretty easy fix for the boat, but one that required a part, so Curt wouldn't have been able to fix it, even if Collin would have been with us or if we didn't have all the kids with us, haha.
More vehicle shuffling (this seems to be our Curt's specialty, haha). Curt never loved the Audi he had gotten back in December, and after covid hit and he started working from home, he used his somewhat-beater truck more than the Audi. So he started dreaming of getting a nicer truck...and we all know--as soon as he starts thinking about a new car, he usually ends up with one within a few weeks. ;) But I'm actually a fan of this deal, because he sold both his truck and the Audi, and he got a bigger, nicer truck...and still made a profit on the deal--and now we only have two cars, woot woot!
Farewell Dakota & Audi:
And hello Chevy Avalanche!!
The day after he got the truck, he got to use it to help Cory & Allie move--and he was so happy. And apparently Tucker & Calvin were big helps, which makes me happy to hear:
This is Hallie's miracle blanket from Great Grandma Alene. My grandma made this blanket and had my aunt Jeri help her mail it out back in January. Jeri put in our new address, but the computer program she uses at work automatically defaulted to our old address without her realizing it...so it got sent to our old house. And for whatever reason, it didn't get forwarded on like it was supposed to, and no one knew where it ended up. We talked with the people who bought our old house, and they never saw it, and the post office couldn't locate it, despite our many, many attempts to try to find it. (Jeri worked hard on her end, and I worked hard on our end to...and nothing worked.) In April or May we finally gave up and chalked it up as a sad, sad loss...and then miracle of miracles--it somehow showed up in our mailbox at the end of July?!!!! Seriously, nothing short of a miracle! A tender mercy for sure. It's such a beautiful blanket, and Hallie and I both love it. And we will cherish it forever.
Mom & Hallie selfie:
A true dog pile, hahahaha:
Duke is such a good dog and puts up with so much! ;)
Hudson shenanigans: trying to drink any last drops out of the empty energy drink cans in Curt's trash (face palm):
Always trying to steal things off Curt's desk (though in Hudson's defense, this one is 100% a toy):
And this one was the worst. (And I'm realizing--these might all have been in the same day, based off the fact that he's wearing the same shirt in all three pictures?!) This was just a few days after Curt got his new truck, and he was working on cleaning out the Audi to sell it while Hudson played around outside. Somehow Hudson found a sharpie (no idea where he found it because we don't just leave those lying around...??), and he started drawing on the garage floor. Curt was frustrated with him and trying to figure out how to clean it up, when he looked at his truck and realized that Hudson had also taken the sharpie and drawn a line COMPLETELY ALL AROUND HIS TRUCK....!!!!!! It's funny now, but Curt was SO mad at the time! A tender mercy, however, is that Curt had randomly just watched a youtube video a few days earlier that talked about how to clean graffiti off cars, so he knew to use rubbing alcohol right away. Thankfully, it all came off!!! But now we have a forever reminder with the sharpie on the floor, haha.
Tucker made this amazing 3D diorama out of paper to show Curt the kind of tree house he'd like. It's seriously one of the most amazing things I've ever seen!
He also made this minecraft armor out of cardboard one Sunday. And Curt is so excited to have this picture for future blackmail purposes, haha!
Curt built two of these amazing lofts in our garage to help store stuff--and they are so nice to have!
He also had to move around some shelves and things so he could fit his new truck in the garage. It was a couple Saturday's of hard work, but we got it to fit!
We were having a hard time with the boys fighting and whining and complaining a ton, and I realized we need to change things up a bit. After some thought and prayer, I had these ideas come to mind--to schedule some one-on-one time with each boy each week, and to do some sort of activity together as a family each day (very simple activities). So this is the schedule we've been following for the least weeks of summer--one boy going on a bike ride with Curt, one boy doing a one-on-one activity with me, and one boy being in charge of a dinner, each week. (then they rotate to do a different thing each week) It's gone really well, and I'm hoping we can keep it up (to a certain extent) through the school year.
I also decided the boys needed to do more work, so they have to do chores to be able to earn time to play minecraft each day. (beyond their normal every day chores that they already do) For awhile (before they got burned out on this) was weeding--for every minute that they weeded, they could play one minute of minecraft (up to 60 minutes). Then after they got burned out on weeding, we moved to washing walls and door jams, cleaning showers, etc. It's been kind of awesome. ;)
This was Tucker's first dinner he was in charge of--they have to plan the meal, help me shop (online), and then help make it. Tucker did so well with helping prepare his meal--it's nice that he's so old! He did JDawgs hot dogs, mangos, a veggie tray, and brownies for dessert.
Calvin's meal: he did BLT sandwiches, artichoke dip & chips, and a veggie tray.
Bronco's meal: he did mac & cheese, grilled chicken, jello, veggies, and brownies for dessert:
One of our family activities we put on the calendar was to do a fire pit in our backyard. So we did! But the only thing I didn't take into account when scheduling it was the weather--it was 98 degrees!! So making a fire in 98 degree weather wasn't really the smartest, haha, but we did it and the boys really enjoyed it.
Two cute kids, both with stinky diapers to change at the same time! This is the first time we've ever had two kids in diapers at once...and it's a lot of diapers, haha.
I have debated and debated what to do about our high chair situation. We've had the same high chair since Calvin, and it started out used at that, so it's had a lot of wear and tear going through three boys...and I didn't know if it would make it through another baby. But then buying a new high chair for the very last baby seems dumb...and adding on top of that the fact that she's a girl and I'm already worried about spoiling her more than the boys. But in the end, I did end up getting a new one for her--brand new, but still off facebook marketplace for a discount. I did a ton of research and found a reasonable one with features I liked (the biggest one being a swivel tray!), and I'm loving it! She's still deciding how she feels, haha, but I'm sure she will grow to love it too. :)
This was a big deal--mowing our new lawn for the first time! And buying our very first lawnmower of our married life together! Curt showed Tucker how to mow that first time, and he has done SUCH a good job with it! He's been looking forward to being paid to mow the lawn for a long time, so he's taking it very seriously. We've been so impressed.
Curt's new company hand delivered dinner one night as a celebration of closing one quarter and kicking off the next. So fun! We've been loving Simple Nexus!
And now for some videos:
Duke was playing with this rubber car wheel one night while we were doing family scripture study, and it was so funny to wathc:
Hudson was singing the "clean up" song so cute while cleaning up his cars one day:
Cute Hallie "talking"/making sounds...and Hudson's mouthful of salad at the end haha:
The boys had some poppers left over from the 4th of July and attached them to their bow and arrow toy and had a lot of fun shooting them off with the neighbor kids:
And this video I almost didn't post...it just makes me cringe. We had an extra mattress downstairs that was in the guest room at our old house. (but because our current basement isn't finished, it's just sitting out leaning up against the wall) We've told the boys multiple times not to mess with it...but of course they still do. But this time they destroyed it beyond repair--and I both want to cry and want to scream at them for it. (but surprisingly, I didn't yell at them when I found out...I was too stunned and disappointed) I had only seen the mattress, but then I found this video on my phone that documents what they were doing that destroyed it so bad... (face palm) Just don't have kids if you want anything to stay nice.
And on that happy, note, haha, that's a wrap!! I'm officially all caught up with blogging!!!!!
(until this week when school starts) ;)
