Three

 

These girls! Today is their birthday. They are such a joy to our whole family! Sweet and spunky, smart and sassy, silly and sensitive. I love them! Happy Birthday Ruby Lana and Cora Rae!

Monday

We enjoyed out late night mission chat. Love these kiddos and this cute missionary!

Ethan and his new companion. He said they get along well.
 

This little boy loves books. And I love him.

Baptisteries are beginning to open up. Remember when we could go to the temple whenever we wanted? When we could stop at a new temple on vacation and worship and enjoy its beauty? Remember when we sang at church? Gathered together and gave each other hugs? Good times

Grandsons & water parks

Yesterday the Johnson’s got chicks. Already they have been quite a bit of trouble. Ruby may be allergic as she has a huge rash now, one little black chick keeps trying to peck the eyes out of the other chicks little chickie heads.

The Brandt’s went to meet the flock and cute Marshall likes holding them.

Ezra thinks his Mimi is quite funny! I love chatting with him every day.

Our combined activity this month was a trip to Aquatica. It was so much fun! More fun than I expected. 

We rode rides and swam the lazy river. We stayed all day and many kids got sunburned including my own cute Gracie girl.

Laurie, me, Shannen and Kristina. Our YW presidency. 

One of the rides was a four person tube ride. Everyone had to step on a scale to be weighed. In line. Good times.

 No one rider could be over 250 lbs and the whole group could not be over 700. We had to weigh individually and then step on all together. 

It reminded me of the office.

Also I almost didn’t get on.

But I was trying to be a good example of body image.

Then I was scared and Kristina was like I’ll walk off with you if you want, and I was like I’ll walk off with you if you want. And Laurie and Shannen said you are not taking the walk of shame! Sit down and enjoy it. So we sat. And it was a little scary and a little fun. 

 In other news I got my second shot yesterday. 

back to normal

We are adjusting to life without babies at the house. It is quiet.  Yesterday I cleaned up all the toys and put them away to store.  I still have to wash sheets and clean up the beach supplies.

We got to chat with Ethan on monday.  He actually got kicked off the call, we stayed on talking for a little bit until we realized he wasn't coming back on.  He was transferred this week.  He had mixed feelings . He liked his apartment and they were having a lot of fun together, he also didn't like one of the guys and moving is good.  I can't believe it's almost April.  Will Stroud got his mission call last night, Mexico.  It's so exciting to see these missionaries going out.  Mike Martines posted Ellie and Eric's letters on fb this week and it was fun to see how they are doing. They are both assigned to South American countries.  Of course no one knows if or when they will go.  SA seems to be opening up slowly.  Europe is struggling.  The EU is not doing a good job at manufacturing or distributing the vaccine and they are spiking.  Spain is going down in cases but who know knows?  This global pandemic has really been the worst.

Last night we had a presidency meeting.  Shannen is moving.  She has been an amazing counselor.  I will be sad to see her go.  They bought a home though that will be so perfect for their family.  I am excited for her!

I gave the spiritual thought at our meeting.  We recently (yesterday) decided to go thru the handbook together as a presidency and see what we will learn. Yesterday we didn't even have to go past the first paragraph to find something to talk about.

The Young Women organization helps God’s children prepare to return to His presence. As they strive to keep their covenants with God, young women will be “armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14).

 I shared with the ladies an experience I had that day.  My friend at work came up to me and asked me about praying for children. She is a faithful Christian but her worries about her children lay heavy on her heart.  She asked if we taught how to pray for our children at church.  At first I wasn't sure what she meant but as we talked about it she shared that she had a little binder of prayers that she had printed and that she prayed each day for her kids.  I told her we had no prescribed prayers, except the sacrament.  That prayer comes from our hearts and we can talk and ask about whatever we want.  We had a great conversation.  I shared with her how I sometimes was at a loss as to what even to ask for and then I would pray to know what to pray.  I also told her that the prayers of a righteous mother were powerful, and that I believed they called down angels to protect and guide our children.  She was very touched by this and thanked me for sharing  After our chat I went on line and found a talk by Elder Holland that I thought would help her, I printed it and gave it to her before we left that afternoon.  She told me this morning that she loved the talk, she had highlighted it and was praying on those words.  I love my friend and hope this leads to more talks...and more chances to share.  I thought about the young women being armed with righteousness.  This is an amazing blessing that maybe we don't even realize.  Knowing how to pray.  Knowing we can pray. Knowing what God wants us to do.  All these things are amazing gifts and such a powerful show of Heavenly Father's love for us.  He truly arms us and makes us prepared for the challenges and battles of our day.  To survive them, to help others find the way, to thrive and have joy and to return to Him.

Yesterday was a great day.  I talked to all my girls.  Sierra called on her way home from a work dinner.  Jenna called while she was bathing the girls.  Marshall called to tell my about his soccer game and then I also talked to Dani and Penny.  Hannah and Ezra called.  And of course every day I get to talk to Gracie girl.  Rob and I also had a good day together, although interrupted sleep las night, he sometimes has night terrors and it is hard for everyone. It's all good though, we are blessed.

Last day

 

The girls slept in. First day:) 

We went to Disney Springs and enjoyed the shops and had lunch. It was a good day. The girls ate nothing but they did dance on the stage all during lunch.

We ate fried okra. Not too bad.

When I took them to the airport I was sad. I loved having Jenna and Ruby & Cora here. They are awesome and so fun to be with. I love that Jenna girl, she is the best ever. I am so proud of her and all her accomplishments and who she is. 

It’s late

 At least for a school night. Spring break is over and my alarm is set for 5:30am. I actually have a bonus day since the girls aren’t flying home until tomorrow afternoon but I will get up with Grace. I’m listening to Ruby and Cora not sleeping next door. Jenna is patient with them. She talks calmly and puts them to bed again and again. They haven’t slept great here, missing naps and staying up late. I know this is hard for them but I like the sound of little voices having important conversations on the other side of the wall.

We watched stake conference on zoom. It was good. We look forward to the day when we can meet in person, sing hymns, hug friends. For now we are grateful to hear the word however we can.

After church we went driving around Lake Apopka. I guess it was too cold outside because we hardly saw any alligators. There were lots of birds and it wasn’t an awful Sunday drive but it was disappointing.

The rest of the day was spent playing, making and eating dinner, Grace had a YCL meeting, talking to Rob on the phone (his flight keeps getting delayed), and doing some cleaning up.

More cousins, Domu and conference

 

Also yesterday while we were at the beach Allison texted and said they were in town. The whole family is going to Cancun for their spring break but they stopped in Orlando for some theme park fun first.  We decided to meet up this morning for a visit. I love to see the Idiarts and always enjoy our time together. Jenna said after that it was funny because she hasn’t spent a lot of time with them so they are barely more than strangers but she felt a feeling of belonging and love. It’s that way with family. You belong to each other.

We had a super fun visit and the girls loved “diamond” (Damian) who bought their affection with stuffed unicorns, candy and lots of running around and playing. He’s going to be an awesome grandpa! (Some day)

After our visit we went to Dumo for ramen. It was just as delicious as last time.

This weekend is stake conference. I had a leadership meeting to go to but came home to watch the adult session here so we could have dinner together. 

Grace had Katie over to hang out after dinner. 

And that’s our day.

Beach day

We headed to New Smyrna today. The forecast was for cooler weather but we were fine with that!

It was crowded when we got there and we got all set up. We dug in the sand, had lunch, took a long walk to Walgreens for batteries, and then Jenna took a long walk back to Walgreens for the right size of batteries.

Why did we need batteries at the beach? Well I brought a wonderful narwhal bubble blower. It needed batteries. All that and it blew bubbles for about 3 minutes before all the bubble solution was dumped on the sand!

While we were at the beach Jess texted to see if we wanted to come over for pizza. We did. So around 3 we packed up and headed to their house.

The three little girls were so cute together and Maverick is adorable!

 

The days are going too quickly!

SeaWorld

 

Before we started our day Grace and I went to her cardiology appointment. It’s all par for the course when you live with chronic illness.

When we got back the girls were all ready and waiting, we headed out for our sea world adventure. The parking lot was so so full and the line to get in took an hour. We also had a flat tire on the girls Bob stroller. We were off to a little bit of a rough start. As soon as we actually got into the park the crowds were thinned and we were able to see and do lots of fun things. 

The girls loved the dolphins and the orca show! Every time the whales jumped the girls squealed and laughed and cheered! It was super cute:)

At the end of the day we stopped at the gift shop then headed home to make Mac and Cheese!