~Life Pre-Coronavirus~

I TRULY regret putting off updating my blog for the past month because so many wonderful moments have passed by and now I feel like their all overshadowed by this catastrophic and life altering virus we call COVID-19. 

So I'm going to just break it up as if all the fun events pre-quarantine were all that had happened so far, and make another blog post for everything post-quarantine. 

For starters, my awesome brother came out to visit, and his timing couldn't have been better. A few days before he came we ended up bringing home the newest member of our family, Princess Tiger Lily. She is an Australian Shepherd, was born January 3, 2020, and was the runt of the litter. 

I am so grateful my brother was here because this little puppy is a hAnDfUl! 

Let's just leave it at that. 

My brother was great at keeping an eye on the kids while I spent endless outings, just trying to get the puppy to learn that bathroom breaks happen OUTSIDE the house. He also helped clean as much as he could. And he even came with me to the gym at 5:00am instead of sleeping in. But the best part of all was that he spent individual time with each of the kids, really connecting with them in ways that were special to them and made them so happy! 

-With Avery, he just snuggled her all the time, or held her hands to help her walk around the room. 

- With Adeline, he popped some popcorn and snuggled with Addie while they watched Frozen 2.

-With Aaron, he played legos, nerfgun wars, laser guns, and went to have lunch at school with him.

-With Maddix there were more nerf gun wars, laser gun battles, air hockey games, and also a school lunch., 

Thanks for the visit, Uncle Colton! 

With the puppy, we've had to adjust our schedules considerably (not as much as we'd later be changing them, as we'd soon learn). We constantly try to get her outside to play and potty. But that has been a special treat because it's allowed us to meet some new neighbors, spend more time with our friends who also just bought a puppy, and to organize some puppy battles in our own yard. 

Another rather defining moment came when I wrote an open post about how I really feel about the group of individuals at BYU, who signed their honor code contracts and now want the rules to be changed. This post was of course met with much contempt, but only from three people. It was overwhelmingly supported by many people who privately messaged me because they didn't dare add their comments to the main thread... 

... isn't the the sad part? 

I won't lie. The whole experience was less than pleasant and while I never backed down on supporting God's principles, I did regret the level of contention it created. I was glad, however, when I received a direct answer to my prayers over the matter, in the form of a ComeFollowMe discussion. Oh how I've been LOVING the book of Jacob; it's as if the words were directly written for each day I'm currently facing. 

This was at a morning playdate at McDonalds, where an old woman
walked over and told us we needed to teach our children inside
voices; and that they'd ruined her morning coffee...
At first we thought she was joking; nope.
I wonder why she chose to have coffee in the play room?

Actually made it to a library reading time

Rock climbing at Corbyn Redfern's bday party 

THIS...
I needed this from the Lord

"Who's your favorite uncle? It's not
Garett, that's for sure :)" 

I'm SO glad i whipped out their Easter dresses early; I
couldn't resist! And now I don't regret it seeing as we
won't be at church for Easter Sunday! 

Fun Uncle Colton Also made made up bedtime
stories with the boys that left off in cliff hanger
and had the boys in hysterics; they
LOVED his stories!!!

Puppy Battles!