April 2020

Google's "Then and Now" collages from this month- one for each kid!

Hyrum- I can't believe how grown up this kid is getting!

 Cora:

 Zane:

Ivy:

 

All of them:

 We started the month with a few fun April Fool's jokes. We put "eyes" on most of the things in the refigerator so the kids would have a fun surprise when they opened it in the morning:

Ryan used his green screen and a green shirt to make himself be a floating head for his work meetings that day:

The one the kids are still talking about though, is when we showed them a fake news article saying that they would have to repeat their grade in the fall due to the coronavirus shut-down of schools. They really fell for it, and were so relieved when we told them it was an April Fool's joke!

This little girl loves to dance, wear skirts, and just be fancy:

This kid loves attention and being crazy:

Both Hyrum and I got sick with a slight fever and a major cough at the beginning of this month, and in an abundance of caution, we sent Hyrum to get tested for Covid-19. It took four hours, missing Ryan's class, plus a lot of phone calls to even get it figured out where to go, but he did get tested. Thankfully, it was negative. Here he is hanging out in the children's hospital though:

Zane's crazy hat hair!

We played a game of balloon tennis with the kids one evening with all of the leftover balloons from Ivy's birthday party:

We listened to General Conference this month, and I don't think I've ever looked forward to it SO much. It was a beautiful breath of fresh air in the stifling sameness and anxiety of the quarantine. Also, for the first time ever, all of the kids sat and watched an hour of a session quietly, with nothing too entertain them. And it was by choice! Miracles happen. It was a very sweet moment for me:

Daddy cuddle time:

Both Ivy and Zane have been trying to stop napping this past month, which has led to a few days of them falling asleep in random places:

I enjoy nap time cuddles, I only wish they didn't have to start with a very cranky child being coerced to sit with me. And sometimes they wake up from their naps cranky too:

We rotate letting the kids pick a treat to have after Family Home Evening, and usually the kids pick Oreo milkshakes:

I posted awhile ago about Ryan and I being filmed for our friend's pest control company as an ad for them. I thought it was for their website, but it turned out they used it for a TV commercial! There's something super weird about watching the news and then seeing your face pop up in a commercial!

Ice cream eating girl:

Ryan's mom made our family masks, and we are so grateful!

Ryan pulled out the croquet set one Saturday and tried to teach the kids, but they just aren't quite coordinated enough yet:

Puzzle success!

We learned about King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon this month in our family scripture study, and the kids had a fun time pretending to be King Benjamin on his tower, teaching the people:

 I had to go to the store one morning in the snow this month, and I just thought the mask and parka combo were kind of hilarious:

April is the month I usually spend amongst the tulips, but since the gardens and other public grounds with tulips weren't open, we bought some to enjoy at our house. We bought some to share with friends too:

We had a snowstorm mid-April! We got 5.5 inches of snow one day, and it was crazy:

It all melted in about 3 hours, which left our snow couple leaning on each other. We thought it was pretty cute:

We've been continuing a weekly date night at home this month, and it's been really great! Hyrum and Cora are getting some good babysitting practice in, the kids love it, and we enjoy our nights to talk, eat takeout, and watch movies in bed:

 

Our local minor league baseball stadium put on a free fireworks show one night this week, and us and the rest of Omaha went over to watch them. It was a lot of craziness, but actually really fun, and the kids loved it:

Here's Ivy, being our chorister/dancing to our hymn for our at-home church service:

Since we've gotten a little stir crazy and are also trying to use this quarantine time wisely, we decided to do mini one-hour dates with each of our kids. Zane got to go first! We got blizzards at Dairy Queen, which we ate in the car, then played super heroes and the game Sleeping Queens on the front lawn. He LOVED it. He hugged me multiple times saying, "I love our date, Mommy!"

We got some sand for one of our marine biology lessons, and the kids have enjoyed playing with it outside since then. They've even tried to feed it to the birds... Ivy loves wearing fancy dresses everyday now, and they don't bother her to play in the sand in them!

Cora's date was with Ryan. They got Culver's concretes and then played badminton in the backyard, which is Cora's new obsession. Apparently Ryan was doing so poorly, Cora asked him, "Daddy, are you trying to play with the tree? The tree can't hit back, and I'm way over here!" She is pretty witty!

We got a new back basement door this month, and hopefully, it will solve all of our leaking issues! (Before on the left, After on the right):

I went on Ivy's date, and we got concretes from Freddy's, played on our playset in the backyard, and blew bubbles!

Cora got her scriptures from her Grandma and Grandpa Schuetzler for her 8th birthday, and she loves them! She even told me she wants to read the Bible, and has started at the very beginning:

For Hyrum's date, they got concretes at Culver's, then had an intense Nerf gun war in the basement!

Cuties!