Rease end of school

School from home has been a challenge to say the least.  We have all endured it, but are really looking forward to having a break from it all!  Rease finished up the year doing great and got the Most Outstanding Student award from one of her teachers.  That is a big accomplishment with all that has been going on!  So proud of her and completing her first year of middle school!

 

Desh turns 4!

Our caboose is getting older - Desh turned 4 today!  Time is a crazy thing and speeds up just when you don't want it to.  I wish I could freeze my kids right at this moment and keep them this way forever.  We are in such a sweet spot with all the kids and especially with this youngest of ours at the age he is.  I love him to pieces and enjoy every minute I get to watch him grow up!  4 years old - hard to imagine...

Desh loves monster trucks and I was not surprised when the request came in for a monster truck birthday cake.  He was so happy and chose one of the wheels for his very own as his piece of cake when we finally cut into it.  What a crazy kid and a crazy crew we had to celebrate his birthday!

 4 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 3'8" - 98%

Weight: 45 lbs. 7 oz. - 96%

My favorite things about Desh at 4 years old:

1) Desh is a bit of a sweet talker.  He knows what to say and how to say it, and it usually gets him what he wants.  He is quick with a compliment especially to his mom (which I will never get tired of!) and is constantly saying, "Mom you are soooo beautiful" and "You are the bestest mom ever".  See what I mean?  Who could get tired of those kinds of compliments?  Love this boy for saying nice things to me!

2) Desh wants so badly to keep up with his older siblings, especially his brothers.  He wants to and can do most everything that they do.  If they're outside running and playing, he's right along side them.  If they want to play Pokemon, he gets his cards out to play too.  He wants to do everything himself, and rarely lets me help him get dresses, buckle up, put shoes on, etc.  He wants to prove to everyone that he is a BIG BOY.

3) Desh loves his cousin Kinley.  Those two have grown up together and been best friends right from birth.  They play so good together and get excited anytime they know that they get to see each other.  It is adorable to watch them take care of each other and truly love one another.  

Happy Birthday to our darling Desh and the best caboose we could have asked for!

Puppies

Grammie's dog had puppies again!  One white and one black this time.  Of course the kids are in love and beg daily for us to keep one of them.  How do we get through to them that we aren't getting a dog?  Will the begging ever stop?

 

Gospel Study

How do you teach your kids about the confusing timeline of chapters in the middle of Alma?  With this hand drawn chart of course! I think we unraveled who was who at least, even if the drawing isn't quite  what it could be if, oh I don't know, someone with any ounce of artistic talent drew it...

The kids got the point though and they did get a good laugh (and continue to laugh) at my drawing of the children and babies...

 

Night games

The kids have been so excited to be able to play night games and we finally did it this weekend! We got this fun group of friends together and played Fugitive at the Cove.  Melissa and I were the drivers trying to find these kids as they made their way from the start to the finish without getting caught.  It was a blast and we all had fun, even us drivers!

 

Hot dog roast

The weather is warming up and watermelons and brats recently re-appeared at Costco so that means only one thing...it's summer and time for a hot dog roast!  The kids got Josh a fire pit for Christmas and we busted it out today for its debut.  It was fun to be outside and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather we've been having.  This looks like it will be a common gathering place for us in the months to come!

 

Chad and Britt

So with all the shut downs and quarantines going on around the country, everything has shifted to online.  School is being done from home, most husbands can work from a home office, amazon is amazing at delivering everything we want and need, etc...So with that happening, we got a fun surprise this week.  Chad and Britt and their family decided to move here for the summer! Wahoo!  They figured that all they needed to do could be done from a home office in Utah just as well as a home office in Boston, so they packed up and headed west for the next 4 months.  We are sooo excited to have them here and look forward to the summer spent with cousins!  Welcome to Utah Losee fam!

 

Haircut

You know your boy needs a haircut when you can do this with it...

 

Spring flowers

I love this time of year when the blossoms are out and we can get our flowers planted.  It makes me happy to see everything getting green and beautiful again!

 

Shaved Ice

The shaved ice truck was going around through Hayley's neighborhood so she invited us over for the afternoon for lunch and snow cones.  It was so fun to gather outside and eat and have a yummy treat together!  We haven't seen much of this cute family the past couple of months as they are trying to be really careful with the virus going around.  We were so glad to have the day to be able to spend with them!

 

Gooseberry Mesa

We've recently started mountain biking and have been lucky enough to find some mountain bikes here and there for the whole family over the past couple of months.  We're now completely outfitted and took our first bike trip as a family this past weekend.  Andy and Kristi invited us on their trip to St. George to ride Gooseberry Mesa and we took them up on it.  Robin was kind enough to let us stay at her place and we were so excited to get out of town for a few days.  Andy, Kristi, Josh and a couple of Kristi's family members were the only ones that actually rode the whole Gooseberry Mesa trail and Josh couldn't stop talking about how much he loved it!  It looked incredible from the pictures they took and I'm so glad he got to do that with them!  The rest of us met them at the end and there are some smaller trails and trainers there that we rode on for the rest of the day.  Since all of us are beginners it was the perfect way to ease into it. My dad came with us and brought his e-bike along which was awesome and perfect for him to ride.  He did great!  The weather was so nice and warm and the perfect day to be out on our bikes. We spent the morning riding bikes and had lunch together before we packed up and headed back to the house. 

Later that afternoon we went to the river to try and skim board with everyone.  It ended up being really high with lots of run-off so we just swam and made mud castles which was super fun too!

The rest of the weekend was spent playing games, visiting mom and dad at the trailer park, eating good food, watching movies and just hanging out.  We took a trip to the bike park before we left which was fun for the kids to get used to the hills and different terrain.  We had such a fun weekend and the perfect getaway for this early spring!

 

Space X satellite launch

Today was the Space X satellite launch and the kids LOVED watching it on tv.  They did a countdown and then we watched for a while after it was launched and the boys especially thought it was so cool to see a rocket launch!

 

Volleyball

Well...one thing the pandemic has done for us is opened up some more time to do different things.  We've started a volleyball group with some of the basketball gals and their teenage girls who are home schooling right now.  We've been playing every week for the past little while and it has been a blast!  

 

A walk and cinnamon rolls

Nothing soothes the soul like a walk around the neighborhood and a plate of cinnamon rolls.  We visited a few friends/neighbors today and dropped of some plates of yum to keep hearts cheery! It was the perfect day for it.

 

Ear ache

Desh has had a really sore ear the last couple of days and it's gotten to the point that he can't touch one ear or lay on it at night.  We headed to the instacare to see if we could get it taken care of.  Of course, there's lots of precautions but mostly we each had to wear a mask and Desh got this cute Mickey Mouse one that was just his size.  Turns out he has an outer ear infection (swimmers ear) and they gave him drops and an antibiotic to help.  And of course a World's Best Corndog will only make things better.  Oh yah...did I mention Josh is growing his beard out?  Corona beard.  We'll see how long it gets...

 

Gas Station

We love having the gas station just a mile or so from our house and take a bike ride down there for treats pretty often.  Today we had to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and a treat was just what we needed...

 

Rachel's birthday

We broke the rules and gathered together for lunch today to celebrate Rachel's birthday.  These cute girls are some of my favs from basketball and we just couldn't resist the chance to get together for just a bit!

 

Easter Week

Easter week has become one of our favorites of the year.  We have been celebrating this week of Christ's life each year for a few years now and we have all gotten to where we look forward to each of the days and what they teach us!  I love to see the kids teach us during Teaching Tuesday, love their thoughfulness on Good Friday and we loved Spirit World Saturday this year as we talked about all our loved ones that have passed on.  It has been a sweet and wonderful week to remember our Savior and friend and remember the most important things.  Happy Easter!

 

One last long run

With the marathon being postponed until later this year,  I think I may defer until next May instead.  I'm almost all trained and ready for the race and don't really want to keep training all summer, especially because who knows what will happen with the virus in the next few months.  So I went on one last long run just because I wanted to do it and end with a bang.  It's been a fun training season and I'm so hopeful that next year I'm able to do it again.

 

Date Night

Josh has saved us from pandemic boredom and started something amazing!  Friday night he dubbed "date night" and while restaurants, theaters, all sorts of entertainment are closed he still has managed to make Friday nights something worth looking forward to.  Most date nights go like this:

1-Hook up the Nintendo to keep the kids entertained for hours on end (their one night a week that they are allowed to play)

2- Stop at the Holiday for fountain drinks

3 - Order take out from some place delicious

4- Stop at Crumbl for dessert

5 - Take all our food and treats back to mom and dad's house and set up in the basement for the night

We eat and eat and eat, then watch movies and eat some more.  It is like a little piece of heaven on earth for a few hours.  While we are all shut inside our houses, it's as easy as a change of scenery to make it seem like we're far away from our crazy world.  Josh always seems to make thing more fun and less stressful than they might be.  And I love him for it.  

This night ended in a bit of a disaster for one of mom's dogs.  We left some Reese's on the counter and didn't find them until later that night.  Whoops! Charlie may or may not have had diarrhea and the throw ups all night after we left for home...

Thanks for the escape from reality at least one night a week.  It's literally the best.

 

Spring Break Corona Cruise

This year we have had to do spring break a little different since we’re officially on “Stay home stay safe” orders. One thing for sure is that we are happy for the break from home school and ready to do something new. So we decided to take a cruise around the world! 

First stop? Chicago!! 

We were so excited to learn all about this great city and do some typical Chicago things together. We played a game about the “Windy City”, drove downtown and sketched the Salt Lake City skyline and compared it to Chicago’s skyline, ate Chicago style pizza, watched Angels in the Outfield and learned all about baseball and had Chicago dogs for dinner. It was so fun! We learned some new things and had a great time just getting ourselves out of the house. Can’t wait to see where we stop tomorrow!

Next stop was Mexico City!  We loved learning about the ancient pyramids, seeing all the bright colors around the city and enjoyed delicious mexican food (quasadillas and fresh fruit).  We built our own pyramid to play in and watched The Book of Life together.  Such a fun city to learn about and now we all want to go visit someday for real!

Paris was next in line and this was a definite favorite!  We learned all about the big, beautiful city that Paris is and all the cool architecture that is super famous.  We studied about the food, the people, the language and the geography - then took a little stroll along the Seine ourselves (we walked along the Jordan River Parkway and pretended to be in the romantic city of Paris!) The best thing we did was stopped along the river and painted just like all the painters in Paris do.  It. Was. So. Fun!  We had a blast just sitting there enjoying the gorgeous day and painting whatever we wanted.  Here's a sample of some of our favorites.  After our walk along the Seine, we watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame together to finish off our fun day in Paris!

Our next stop was Hawaii and a definite fan favorite!  What's not to love about a tropical paradise?  We made fruit smoothies, hiked to a waterfall, watched Moana, and ate kalua pork and rice for dinner.  Finishing the night off with a trip to the hot tub was a must.  We LOVED being in Hawaii for a day!

It's hard to imagine that some other place might be better than any of the other places we visited this week.  But the final stop on our cruise was amazing - Fantasy Island.  All things good happen on this island and we partook of all of the goodness!  We had candy for breakfast, played games all morning, took a trip to the gas station for soda and dessert and played Nintendo for the rest of the night.  What could be better?! This night was fortunately a night off for the parents, so the kids got to play at Fantasy Island while Josh and I took a much needed night out!  Win win for everyone!

We had THE BEST week on our Corona Cruise and learned so much about all the different cities we were able to visit.  Can't wait to see what next year brings!å

Photo scavenger hunt

People have started to get creative with their "quarantine activities" during this shutdown.  We got this invite to join a friend of ours for a photo scavenger hunt for her birthday.  It was a fun break from school and being stuck in the house doing the same old thing.

 

April happenings

As April began, school continued to be at home and restlessness started to set in.  Honestly, one of the only ways to get through it was to laugh at all the funny memes going around - and trying not to take life too seriously! Oh yah, and in the middle of the craziness, Desh flushed a rubber toy down the toilet and we had to bring a plumber out to fix it.  Why not?

 

General Conference tower

As is the tradition, we pulled out the Lincoln Logs today while we watched General Conference.  The kids made an epic tower today using mostly all of the logs that we have.