June 2023

 Kaylee had gotten lice a few weeks ago from someone at school and we thought we had gotten it all taken care of. But as I was showering one night, a bug fell onto my shoulder and I was pretty positive it was lice. We tried another store bought remedy and this one was even worse than the first time and we still saw live bugs days later. I was desperate and drove to a lice treatment center and begged them to help me even though they didn't have any open appointments because Kaylee was leaving for camp in 3 days. They were so kind and patient with me and sent me home with everything we needed. I was pretty skeptical because the treatment they use is heat and then just a mixture of olive oil and peppermint. I couldn't believe how much easier this was than any of the chemical filled store bought stuff and it worked amazing! We never saw one live bug after we did it once and continued to use it for the next couples weeks just in case. It made our hair soft and smell good! I have no idea why this treatment isn't more well known but now I know if it ever happens again!

The kids were excited to do our summer challenge again and jumped right into crossing things off. I'm always surprised by how much they get done in the first few weeks and start to worry they will finish it all in the first month but the excitement wears off quickly. I love seeing their hard work and creativity though!

Kaylee has been wanting for years to help out at the Bishop's storehouse but was either too young or our turn always came up when she was at school. She finally got the chance to help me one morning and thought it was super fun. As we were driving home she was already talking about when we could come back and do it again. I wish it was a little closer to our house so it would be easier to help often!

That night we went to a big party with a bunch of families from the ward to say goodbye to the Wenn's. Brooklyn is so sad to have her best friend from the ward leave and I hope she can make some other friends at Primary Activities. After dinner, we headed to a nearby park and played whiffle ball and then ended the night with water balloons. It was a blast!

Kaylee and McKenna started the summer off right away by heading to girl's camp! McKenna was spoiled for her first time because I think this is the first time in years that it hasn't been raining most of the time. Both of them had a blast and couldn't talk about it enough but were definitely worn out. I got worried about McKenna because for the next two days, she took a couple hour nap in the afternoon and then slept 12 or 13 hours at night. When we tried to get her up for church, she kept just collapsing and falling asleep wherever she landed! I've never seen her like that before, not even when we've traveled for weeks at a time to Utah. Apparently her body needed a few days to recover from all that fun!

Brooklyn saw this desk on the side of the road and begged us to take it home and remodel it. At first I was skeptical because it was pretty beat up but it was a solid desk and I could see that it had potential. It became our project while her sisters were at girl's camp and she had a lot of fun working on it from start to finish and picking out colors and knobs for it. I thought it turned out super cute! We did some other crafts and projects while they were gone and it was good to have some one on one time with Brooklyn.

Unfortunately, the best day for us to have the Crossley's over for dinner before their move was while the girls were at camp. So even though Kaylee and Mckenna didn't get to hang out with them, we had a great last day with them! We had a BBQ and played some yard games and then went to get ice cream at Culver's. Richard and Jared even pulled out their baseball cards that they've been talking about for years and instantly became little boys again going through them and talking about their favorites, it was pretty funny to watch.

The next week, we also went over to their house to help them move. We are so sad to say goodbye to them but are grateful we've gotten to know them over the last several years and loved having them as friends. 

Kaylee was asked to take over for a nanny for a family in the Riverside ward the week after girl's camp. I was nervous it would be too much, and it was a lot, but she got through it and had a lot of fun with the kids. She babysat for almost 35 hours that week! She has made so much money from babysitting and is really good with the kids.

McKenna and Richard went on a daddy daughter date to an author visit from one of Kenna's favorite authors, Raina Telgemeier! She drew pictures for them and talked about how she draws different emotions and her process of writing books.

We heard about a Juneteenth celebration in Hilliard and wanted to go support it. However, it seemed like it was not very well announced because they had had hardly anyone show up! So we were extra glad we went to support it. They had signs up along the trail that explained the history of Juneteenth and then you could get a book that explained it at the end of the trail. They also had a ton of chalk to decorate underneath a pavilion and a craft to make these cute little people. They were supposed to have music as well but apparently the person they booked didn't show up! I was sad that it was such a sad little event but hopefully it will continue to grow.

Kaylee got a unique opportunity to volunteer at the Special Olympics! McKenna was supposed to go with her but wasn't feeling very good that morning so she decided to stay home. Unfortunately, they were the only youth from our ward to sign up so Kaylee was on her own with one of the Young Women leaders. Kaylee is great at jumping into situations like that and is fearless at getting involved, it's so fun to watch. She was supposed to be there for 5 hours but after 2 1/2 they told her they were all done! She got to help with the awards for the mini jav and shotput and thought it was really cool to present all the athletes with an award for all their hard work. I am proud of her for all the volunteering she's done this summer!

That same day, I went with a group of girls in our ward to a play at Otterbein University called Baby. It was not the most amazing play I've ever seen but I thought the actors did a great job and it was fun to go with friends. At the same time, Richard took Brooklyn to a sneak peek of a Mary Poppins community musical at the library and she loved it! They always do crafts related to the theme of the musical and they can meet the cast after, which Brooklyn also loves.

May 2023

May was full of all of the end of year things at school-field day, field trips and orchestra concerts and the end of sports seasons- track meets and soccer games. 

On May 4th, Brooklyn starred in the second grade play at Little Miss Muffet. She loved to tell everyone that she had the most lines of anyone! I was so impressed with her acting skills and she especially did a great job because the microphones weren't working so they had to yell all of their lines as loud as they could.

My birthday was super low key, as it usually has to be at this time of year. With all of their practices and games and events at school, there just isn't time for celebrating much, nor do I usually have the energy! But Kaylee did make my favorite brownies. She actually had to stay home from school because we realized the day before that she had gotten lice from someone so we had already done the treatment but the nurse asked her to stay home one more day. Because she was home from school but wasn't feeling sick, we had the best day together! She made my birthday amazing when it would have been pretty lame otherwise. I had so much fun baking, singing, laughing, playing games, and watching a movie with her. She is so much fun to hang out with!

Brooklyn started playing a new game that she was a little puppy and would crawl everywhere. She wouldn't even give it up for our walk and insisted that we put a "leash" on her. I'm not going to lie, I was a little embarrassed walking my "dog-ter" but she was dedicated to say the least!

On May 6th, we went to the temple openhouse as a family. It wasn't the amazing experience I had imagined in my head: we went through close a family with really crazy, noisy kids, Brooklyn seemed to have no interest in looking at everything and was just walking through as fast as she could, and it didn't seem like we could feel the Spirit. We had already gotten a family picture before we went in the temple but, when we got out, I wanted a family picture in a better spot where we weren't squinting into the sun but Brooklyn had to go to the bathroom. I told her we would just take a quick picture and then go inside the church to find the bathroom but she was grumpy and it was past her normal lunchtime and she was being stubborn (don't know where she gets that from!). We spent more time talking to her than it would have taken to go to the bathroom... but eventually we got our family picture with a not-so-happy Brooklyn to complete it.

Kaylee and I went to a ROX event hosted by the school district. She took ROX in 5th grade and they invited everyone who had taken it in the last couple years to come. They gave each girl a cute little side bag and a journal and the moms a super ugly keychain :) They had opening remarks and then we split into girls and moms. The girls went into the gym and did yoga while the moms listened to the creator of ROX tell us about why she created the program and what she hopes to accomplish with it. She scared some very scary statistics about what happens to girls when they hit 5th grade- their self esteem and confidence in themselves that they are smart and worthy plummets and doesn't go back up until age 45! After, they had us make bracelets that had a word that means something to us. I chose 'enough' and Kaylee chose '    '. They had one more thing at the end but Kaylee was getting a migraine and my back was hurting so we decided to leave. They gave Kaylee and shirt and both of us Crumbl cookies on our way out.

McKenna got a couple of field trips this year, which made her happy because she had never been on one before! They went to an art museum and the courthouse downtown and then they earned a bonus field trip because they had been so good and they went to the zoo. She was super happy with the group she ended up in and I'm happy she has made some good friends this year. She also got to go bowling on the last day of school. Brooklyn also got to go on a fun field trip to the bowling alley with her class and her teacher planned a lot of fun activities for the end of school like cookie painting, a read-a-thon, a game day, making pancakes and buying pizza for the class.

I have been feeling off for months and it just kept getting worse so I finally decided to make an appointment with an OBGYN. I had a lot of anxiety before I went because I have had such terrible experiences with doctors in the past, especially when I feel so awful and they tell me everything is normal and I should be fine. I had Richard give me a priesthood blessing the night before and that helped a lot. I was so blessed to get someone who was so nice and patient and actually seemed to be listening to me! She diagnosed me with PMDD and got me on some medication that I really hope can help! It's hard for me to feel like I can't take care of my family or do the things I want to do because I'm just run down all the time.

We got the best present for the summer! Sarah decided to do summer sales and found a company that was going to Columbus! She will be here for almost 4 full months and we love getting to spend time with her. She wanted to take some people from her company to the temple openhouse but mixed up the dates so we took her at the last minute on the last day of the openhouse.

Brooklyn brought home this project from school that brought me to tears. It makes me so happy to see her loving herself and for great reasons! I don't know why we lose that but I hope she can hold onto those happy things that she sees and appreciates about herself. 

Brooklyn really wanted to try pancake art again. Our last attempts haven't always ended so great- we've  had burns and fighting and tears. But we decided to give it another go! We made 4 different colors and let the girls experiment. We definitely didn't make it through without some fighting and frustration but it went better this time and it was fun to see some creativity! Brooklyn has been obsessed with Moriah Elizabeth videos so she made some of her characters and we had rainbows and animals and emojis in there too. 

Our old friends, the Schurtz family, was in town for a conference and asked if they could stop by and see us. We only had one night that we could make work and it made them get home pretty late so I felt bad but we were happy to see them! We are one of the few that have stuck around Ohio that we got close to in our townhome so it's always nice to see people we knew from that time of our life. 

McKenna is officially done with elementary school! That's blowing my mind a little bit. They had a short and sweet graduation presentation where they had the teachers say just a little bit and then showed a slideshow of the kids as babies, 1st graders, 5th graders, and answering the question of what their favorite memory from elementary school was. She has grown so much in the last two years and we are so proud of her!

Talon Anderson was celebrating his birthday very late and invited us to celebrate with them at Top Golf! I had a migraine and was struggling a little bit but it was really fun to be with friends who have been so good to us.

For Memorial Day, our ward had it's annual 5k and breakfast and then the Anderson's invited us over to their house for a BBQ that night. I was feeling a lot of fatigue and thought if I stayed home from the ward party I could go to the BBQ that night but still wasn't up for it. It was pretty depressing to miss out on all the fun but Richard and the girls had a blast! We let Brooklyn ride her bike but told her she probably wouldn't be able to do the full 5k but she could ride as far as she could. Surprisingly, she did the whole thing with the Martin's and was so proud that she proved us wrong!

Kaylee asked me to do layers in her hair and I made a big mistake that cut too much on the top layer so we had to cut a lot off the bottom of her hair to try to even it out. I felt bad that she hadn't wanted shorter hair but she was a really good sport about it and has loved her new hair!'

K has been wanting to work at the library ever since she found out teens could volunteer there in the summer. They had them fill out an application and do an interview with the two main librarians over the Volunteen program. We found out that she was accepted and went to a training. They can start volunteering starting on June 1st! She is very excited.