A weekend full of love

It's always a good weekend when I can get the whole family under one roof for a day or two. It's rather quiet most days with just Bryan, Lilian and myself (plus Oscar) living at home now. And though it's peaceful and not at all bad...it's always a happy and glorious time when Rebekah and Tanner pull in from South Jordan, Julianne and Jordan arrive from Provo and Brandon makes the long drive from Cedar City. Suddenly the house is alive again with laughter and music. It was a combo weekend...Valentine's Day and President's Day back to back in regards to holidays being observed, but also Julianne's birthday a few days earlier, and we had arranged to have family photos taken since we'd all be together. The weather had different ideas and the photo shoot got snowed-out and therefore had to be postponed till spring break. But Saturday evening we had a Valentine's themed birthday dinner and then played a bunch of games. The next morning Bryan made a big breakfast, we watched our church meetings online, and then Jordan administered the sacrament to us. It was a good weekend. There is definitely something to be said about "finding joy and rejoicing in your posterity." 

March-ness

We celebrated Brandon's 19th birthday a week early when he was in town for Spring Break. Living in Cedar City makes it so we don't see Brandon as much as we saw the girls when they were in college. Logan to the north and Provo to the south are still only a little over an hour drive away. Brandon's drive is 3.5 hours which means he's less likely to want to make the seven hour round trip for just a short weekend. It was nice to gather...the first time we'd all been together since Christmas and since the coronavirus hit. The temperatures were up in the 50's and since we'd all been staying mostly indoors at home due everything being shut down, closed and cancelled, and the no-gatherings-over-ten rule it felt incredibly nice to go to the nearby park together to play some games. (Yay for being a family of less than ten!)

In other March-ness...

A few days before school shut down Lilian had an orchestra concert. She auditioned for and made first chair in the cello section this semester. 

This was our last Young Women activity before church shut down. Spending Wednesday nights with these amazing girls is such a delight. 

When you are doing online school and the weather is somewhat decent, it makes it possible to do your work from the backyard.

Yoga is always a good idea to alleviate stress...

When each day kind of looks the same in terms of errands (none), school (online), girls nights (unsafe), rehearsals (cancelled), church (at home)...you tend to find your wardrobe changing up a bit. Sweats are the new norm. I'm kind of looking at it as a healthy re-set for my hair and skin as I'm realizing what's the point of make-up and hairspray? And bras? Don't even get me started. It's all about comfort. 

But when you do have to go to the grocery store...

Ha! Not really. But we did get a laugh when Bryan came in from his man cave to model his new pandemic wear. 

For some odd reason there has been a run on toilet paper. It's been the strangest thing. It's become so hard to obtain that people are standing in long lines first thing in the morning at Costco and various grocery stores to try to score some. I understand the idea having a bit of extra food on hand in case you get sick and can't get to the store is wise. I get that TP is one of those essential items you want to make sure you have. But why in the world are people hoarding it? Once toilet paper became scarce people snatched up all the kleenex and paper towels in its place. We are lucky that we had some extra in our basement already. But little by little we've been going through it and I'd been hoping that when we did indeed run out, this TP craziness would be over and the shelves would be stocked again. I was starting to worry that might not be the case. Bryan happened to be picking up some groceries on a Sunday morning when a shipment of the precious stuff was brought in. He grabbed two packages and then sent this text to his siblings and parents...

Someone posted this on instagram and it seemed spot on. 

The one where Julianne turns 22

Julianne has had another birthday. This one marking her 22nd year. I still remember the days when her birthdays were filled with gifts of Teletubbies and dress-ups. Or the one where she wanted everything wedding themed and I made her a wedding cake and put birthday candles on it. And now here we are celebrating her last birthday as a single gal. Where does the time go?

Remember back in the day how she insisted her birthday be a whiz bang, traditional celebration? She was more excited about the hoopla than the presents. As she gets older maybe that will fade a bit, I'm not sure. But just in case, I figured we'd better have a plenty of birthday revelry to ring in the big day. Or at least as much as is possible when her birthday is in the middle of the week, she doesn't live at home anymore, and you are constrained by a weekend visit/Sunday dinner. 

The girls, as per tradition, made a birthday banner. But in this case we moved the whole production into the TV room so they could also watch home movies from when Julianne was a young'un. 

Decor, dinner and gifts....

And then cupcakes. In Julianne style, when told she needed to make a wish before blowing out the candle, she made a myriad of faces as she tried to figure out what exactly to wish for. Considering she already had a fancy, new, engagement ring on her finger...maybe it took a minute to think about what more she could really want? 

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This picture is actually from the night before when Rebekah and Tanner, Julianne and Jordan all came home. Rebekah and Tanner are getting their first glimpse of the sparkly on Julianne's left hand while Jordan is fastidiously searching online for an apartment they can rent after they get married. Made me laugh. 

Pre-teen Lilian

Lilian wanted a birthday party. She was turning 11-years old and the last time she'd had an actual traditional themed party with friends was when she turned 7. Elsa and Anna stopped by and sang songs, read stories, did face paint and in all other ways delighted a gaggle of girls who were big "Frozen" fans. But that was 4 years earlier. And though we'd certainly celebrated Lilian's birthday in grand style during those other birthdays (baptism, puppy and Cherry Hill respectively) she claimed it was time to party. And not just any girlie party...this was to be co-ed. Gasp! Did I mention this girl had become quite the social butterfly? Her invite list included 22 kids! But she insisted there was just no one she could cut from the list without hurt feelings, so what can you do?

Lilian requested a movie night. In our pinterest searches we discovered ideas to turn the movie night into more of a Hollywood premiere sort of evening with the kids walking the red carpet and finding their stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as they stopped for some photo ops before heading down to the movie. Pizza first and then a snack pack for each as they watched "A Wrinkle in Time." Presents and cake afterwards and then the crew headed outside to play a few rounds of "Fugitive" while waiting for parents to come pick them up. In fact, a few kids texted their parents to see if they could stay longer, continuing the night games considering it was the first weekend of summer vacation. It was loud and chaotic but I think it was a success? (Bless Rebekah and Tanner who came down from Logan and helped out with the food and cleaning, and Brandon who was our DJ until the movie started.)

The next day we had a little family birthday dinner including Rebekah and Tanner and also Jordan. Lilian requested her favorite meal...salmon, potatoes and carrots. And then was delighted to be gifted with her first cell phone. This was something she had been requesting for awhile but was unsure as to whether or not she would get seeing as it would be a full year earlier than her siblings had received their first phones. Considering her friends had a texting chain and were using my number to chat with Lilian...meaning that it was not unusual for me to pick up my phone after maybe a half hour of being away from it and find 100+ new messages, nor was it unusual for Lilian to take my phone to reply to said messages, leaving me phone-less for however long the group decided to go back and forth via text...this may have contributed to my willingness to allow Lilian cell phone usage of her own earlier than previously decided. Her older siblings did give me a bit of good natured grief about it...but hey, it's totally worth it.

So Lilian got celebrated in grand Hollywood style. Pre-teen, here we come.

Happy 17th to my birthday boy

Brandon turned the mightily old sounding age of 17. And okay, I realize that 17 isn't super old if you compare it to say, my age...44 {gulp}. But remember when the kid was 5 and I said something about him being my son? He corrected me immediately. "No Mom, I'm Dad's son. I'm your BOY!" For some reason that little conversation has been on my mind a lot these past few days.

The thing Brandon wanted most for his birthday was permission to FINALLY take over Rebekah's room. He'd been asking for years...through Rebekah's first year of college, her 18 month mission in London and then again this past year back at USU. I continued to tell him no. The room was hers as long as she called our house her home. When she got herself engaged, Brandon could see his long wait finally coming to an end. And so for his birthday not only did he get to take custody of Rebekah's room, he also got to pick out some new bedroom furniture. The twin bedroom set he'd had since he was 4, while still pretty nice, was feeling a bit cramped and he was more than ready to stretch out into not only a larger room but also a bigger queen-sized bed.

So he went to school and I began birthday decor prep in his new room. {The furniture had arrived a bit earlier and he'd already been sleeping there for a couple days.} I ran to the store for a few more decor items, birthday cake ingredients and some smaller gifts, when I got a call from him on my cell phone.
"Wait...where are you?" I asked.
"I'm at home," he replied.
"But I was sure today was a B Day...what happened to your 8th period?" I demanded...panicking a little bit because I wasn't done birthday-ing up the house. {Yes. Birthday-ing. It's a verb.}
"Remember how I'm already done with the big project in Engineering? That's all we were going to be working on today so I just came home." he said.
"Oh...well, I wasn't expecting you home for another couple hours. Umm...have you gone in your bedroom yet?" 

When he he said he hadn't, I decided to have him meet me for lunch at Kneaders. My reasons being two fold: One, I was a little sad that he'd come home for lunch on his birthday and found no one at home to greet him. And two, I could keep him out of his bedroom for a little while longer.

He went to work a little bit after lunch and I fast tracked the birthday gift wrapping, a few more decorations, and baking his requested birthday Oreo Cake. Bryan brought home Thai food, specifically the Tom Ka Gai Soup Brandon had been craving, and when the birthday boy returned home we were ready for some celebrating!

After dinner and gifts we watched Captain America as a family. {A Marvel Movie Marathon is underway as we get ready for Avengers Infinity Wars in a few weeks.} He didn't actually go into his bedroom till 11:30 that night. Truth be told, though maybe he appreciated the sentiment, he was more than ready for me to take down the decorations early the next morning.
"But Brandon...they've barely been up even 24 hours. And you didn't even see them till 11:30 last night. Don't you want to enjoy them a little longer?"
"Eh," he replied..."it's not my birthday anymore." 

I'm guessing the birthday decor, even though I had carefully made sure it matched his bedroom colors, was just getting in the way of enjoying the real gift...the actual bedroom that was finally his. Birthday decor was just cluttering stuff up!

Brandon would only allow me to take pictures of him with the balloons if I let him hold them up as 71. ha! I finally convinced him to switch them around for at least one picture..

New birthday bedroom and furniture...modeled by Lilian.