Nicole got her braces off- a month later because everything shut down for a bit because of the pandemic. She was SO glad to gt them off!
A friend had some baby bunnies!
For my birthday, I had a hot date to Costco with my duck-billed husband.
Throw throw burrito fun with Nicole's friends.
We chalked a neighbors driveway for their son's high school graduation. It was fun to do since the sensiors really didn't get to end their school year with celebrations like usual.
With everything prettymuch closed because of the pandemic, we take lots of walks and feel blessed to have a greenway in our neighborhood.
Lovely hill of weeds
Every Sunday we take a hike and go around our neighborhood pond. It helps us relax, enjoy nature and be able to settle down for our home worship.
Mango is the best schoolwork companion. He is just enough of a distraction to keep the kids doing schoolwork instead of getting overwhelmed.
Daniel's Restaurant was the first place we went when we moved to NC. It's so expensive (as we discovered then!) that we haven't gone back much. We finally used a gift card from Christmas and enjoyed the memories and food.
We redid the back porch to be more durable than wood and have a lovely textured gray color.
Jim firing up his chocolate creme brulee at a friends house. Fire made Jim happy and the chocolate made me happy. True friends to know how to make us both happy :)
Our bishop was released because he moved and they called a new bishopric. Jim was again called to be 2nd counselor. It was a humbling and special experience to be able to again serve.
We feel so blessed to have a family for forever!
Making the back porch into a sun room has been so fun to be able to grow tropical flowers!
We put everyone to work raking leaves, unscrewing boards, and sanding.
Of course we found wildlife!
Diana stayed with Jim for hours and hours. She didn't leave his side, and talked the ENTIRE time.
The cement for the bottom step to rest on. It took several trips to Lowes but Jim got it done looking very nice.
John trying on his wedding outfit.
Nicole with a dress she tried- we ended up sending it back because it was extremely wrinkly.
Our butterflies hatched and there were enough that each kid and I got to release one. They LOVE doing this and it was fun to have something a little different going on while we are cooped up at home.
In preparation for our pool being built, we did a TON of yard work. We removed wooden pillars and their cement footings as well as the entire kiwi vines. We took down the and unscrewed our muscadine grape vines also. Both of these never really fruited and took a lot of space.
Jim and I ordered life size cutouts of ourselves so we could "attend" my brother's wedding in AZ.
We took a day trip to Wrighsville and wow it felt good to have something normal!
We met our friends the Tomlinsons there and it was fun to have the kids play together.
Mike got a little surf lesson in.
Nicole and Mike love to be out in the ocean together. They made up words to describe the waves so they could know which ones to take. A huge blessing of this pandemic has been the strengthened family bonds.
The neighborhood pool opened by reservations only so they could control numbers. And it's prettymuch empty weekday mornings and is a great way for us to get wiggles out. We do REALLY miss friends though and look forward to having them at our pool when its done.
John LOVES the pool.
It started downpouring one time and we just stayed and enjoyed the crazy.
Here's how our day rolls. We prettymuch stuck to this. Didn't end up doing stem or book share because by Fridays I'm pretty beat.
Diana turned 8!
I hired Nicole to teach the kids ukulele. 30 min a day. She stuck with this for several months and the kids learned a ton, plus were busy every day learning and I wasn't the driving force :) I also hired Mike to do an hour sports camp and they had fun playing outside and doing games to earn the prizes he bought. This gave me some quiet time in the afternoon and got them sweaty!
Mike's new shirt.
Diana wanted a loaded pizzookie. It was fresh from the oven and SO SO good.
When the zoo finally reopened we were dying to get out of the house. So on the second day it was open, despite the constant spitting rain, we ventured out into the world :)
John was constantly choosing if he wanted to get his shoes wet in a puddle or go around. It was funny to see his brain choose. He would think about staying dry, but in the end would enjoy running through.
The chimpanzees were happy to see us, it was interesting to see how they behaved after not really seeing people besides their keepers for a while.
This chimp reached out to touch John's hand. Pretty cool.
Zoo trip was a success!
The kids made kahoot games- this was an animal trivia one Nicole made.
John told me "I'm all ready to go!"
Fathers Day morning the girls taped these to our bedroom door. Sweetest ever and I don't know if we will ever take them down.
Jim took the boys super early one morning to go fishing at the beach. It was a much needed getaway and they had a blast.
The night before Benjamin's wedding we decided to do a Bachelorette and Bachelor's party with the kids to help them have fun even though we couldn't be in AZ. The girls did facials, nails, candlelit dinner and watched the Rome temple tour and made temples out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
The boys went boating!
We also played Pretty Pretty Princess and Marian/Katy team won!
The boys celebrated with root beer floats at the end.
Further preparing for the pool we had to take 3 trees down. This one had several dead limbs, very scraggly looking, and would hang over the pool (and drop those dead limbs on it). The tree had to fall in between our pines and a crepe myrtle, with about 2 feet on either side to spare.
Jim carefully made front wedge cuts to line up the fall and then down it went when he did the back cut.
Didn't even break a single branch of the crepe myrtle. It was lots of skill and luck :)
Somehow the camera wouldn't go straight for our feed, so we got to enjoy the ceremony a little cockeyed :) It was interesting that we totally got used to it and it was all fine.
We all dressed up for the occasion! The kids were impressed by Benjamin singing but told me they weren't sure if they wanted to get married if they had to sing a solo :)
The big maple tree had to go. It was sitting right where the shallow end will be. Sad, but the tree was overtaking the house as well so it was just starting other problems as well. This tree was harder because Jim had to hand saw limbs that were above him multiple times. Nicole and I roped the limbs and would pull them the direction we needed when it was ready to fall. We managed to not break the fence or our house!
For Benjamin's wedding reception (yes one of the same weekends as when we were taking trees down), I made a cake!
We made a buffet spread and got to enjoy eating and watching the newlyweds arrive at their reception and talk to them during the luncheon.
We had a good laugh seeing ourselves there in person. Marian and Brandon had sent cutouts too, so all four of us were there (and a little larger than life for me!)
Jim peeking over Benjamin's shoulder haha
Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake.
Caramel toffee crunch cake. One of each please!
The maple about 1/3 done
The last huge branch was tough because there was nowhere for Jim to really escape it besides the stumps of limbs he'd already taken down. Nicole and I had the limb roped and ready to pull away from the tree (and Jim). He sawed it until we started hearing that telltale cracking and then he put the saw aside and hung on to some limb stumps to the side. Nicole and I pulled and it came down with a huge thud. The way the limb came off, it rebounded the tree and gave Jim a really good shake in the tree! Quite exciting and we are very glad that's done!
For the final takedown of the tree we had the kids stand far away and hold a rope to "help" pull it down. It was fun for everyone to be involved.
John turned 4! He loves cars and trucks!
Our yard looks so barren with everything gone!
We have a little garden, but it's given us some great squash, zucchini and blueberries.
We leveled out the mulch near the garden- lots and lots of family work projects during this pandemic!
I had the kids doing IXL for an hour in the morning along with piano practice.
Then we had them working on digging out stumps and the wooden posts with concrete footings from the playset we took down. They got better and better at working. When we took out 6 huge bushes, Nicole and Mike learned to use a pickaxe safely. It was fun to see their confidence and work ethic grow.
One morning I had shopping and errands to run so couldn't supervise their work. I told them if they got one of the wooden posts and concrete out they'd get Chickfila. When I came back they had gotten every one of them out and had some great stories about their creative ways to get them out, They were sweaty, had worked hours, and I wasn't even home! What an improvement from our 20 minute work sessions where they got "bone tired" haha
Last posts down!
Grandma and Grandpa Ostler came to visit. Highlight of the pandemic!
Virtual singing time
Teaching John his colors
We planned their trip when we had a family beach vacation and it was beyond fun to have them with us. Can they come every time?
Day 1 was Carolina Beach. The steepness of the whole beach made for lots of shore break and not much else. Plus super crowded and kind of ghetto. We loved the hotel right there, but won't stay there again. Reminded me of Virginia Beach. Our vibe is much more laid back.
In the late afternoons, we relaxed at the hotel. Mike won Chutes and Ladders and posed like his character.
Dad beat Nicole in Stratego, but she got her revenge when they played Chess the next week!
One night there was a cool lightening storm, it was really fun to watch from up high.
A fudge and ice cream shop was visible from our balcony and we might have gone there once. Or twice...
Nicole, with help from Grandma, taught Diana in preparation for her baptism. Each of the oldest three took part of the missionary lessons and spent time teaching. Great for all of them.
This trip was the first one where everyone wanted to (and actually could) boogie board. John and Katy were surprisingly good and resilient at it! I can tell we are getting to a super fun phase of vacations!
Day 2 was Wrightsville Beach. Total winner. Waves on shore for the littles and waves further out for the bigs. Loooooong shallow walk out to the deeper water so they have long boogie board rides.
John was the lucky boy to get to sleep on the floor! We were lucky enough to find a one bedroom suite to fit us. Someday he will probably want a bed though!
Day 3 was an adventure driving in Jim's 4x4 truck over sand to get to a personal beach spot. It was awesome, secluded and with decent waves for the older kids. Jim could also fish here.
Grandma and John made a bus!
Hand feeding seagulls
John "driving" Grandpa around
Caught one! We took it home and ate it, very good!
Love Bojangles. Bonus that John can fit in the box.
Day 4 was Wrightsville Beach. We went to the far northern tip of the island and then walked around to where the inlet is. Because the tide was low there was a huge tide pool. It was like a huge swimming pool that was maybe knee deep at most. Lots of little fish- and crabs!
Jim and Dad fishing, the water from the shore slowly making its way over the sand bar to the tide pool.
We caught 4 blue claw crabs and kept 2 of them to eat!
We boogie boarded after our crab hunting adventure until we were tired. It was a fun and full vacation with family and adventure! When we got home, Mom and Dad watched the kids so Jim and I could have a few nights away.
We went paddleboarding on Jordan Lake- it was so peaceful, and after an energetic vacation it was so very quiet. We were eating dinner and I told Jim it was weird that I could hear him swallow haha
Diana and Evelyn got baptized on that Saturday!
Because of the pandemic, we could only have 15 people in the room. It was nice that Jim could be the bishopric rep and Marian the primary presidency rep, but that still left a few extra kids lol. So they got to be out of the room, and we called them in for Diana's baptism and confirmation and they switched with the Kofford boys. Worked out great.
We did a zoom call for all the relatives and it was special to share the day with them.
Random shot of our peaceful household!
We took family pics on Easter morning and finally saved them to the computer.
Nicole was the only one who was willing to stick around for more pictures :) She wanted to include Mango!
We went hiking in the neighborhood and saw a deer grazing, they are so beautiful.
They basically surfed and fished their brains out and couldn't be happier about it!
I took the kids on a hike at a nearby nature park and saw a deer. We love seeing so much wildlife whenever we are out.
This made us miss Grandma who put John in the Bo box a few weeks earlier.
In all the many times we've gone to the zoo over the past 13 years we have never seen the ocelots. They have this big sign, two enclosures and you think you'll see this cool animal? Never. So as we reluctantly walk in the baking heat to be disappointed yet again, I said I'd give $100 to the kids if they could find an ocelot. Because it was impossible. Nicole said seriously? Yep. Then 3 seconds later, she shrieks Look! And of course we could see it in the log (pic not great) and it looked back at us a few times. Nicole was so excited to see it. And that they now had $100. Of course the other ocelot wouldn't be visible right? Actually it was grooming itself at the back of the enclosure. So I really struck out! The kids divided up the money and we supported the zoo well that day in the gift shop.
9 month old chimpanzee was SO SO cute!
This ostrich held its wings up (to cool off?) and just stared at the kids up close.
Overall a very fun day at the zoo!
The new rock wall is farther back and curves all the way around to the size cement pad. The height is slightly different too so kids can sit on it.
Next week we hope the pool will be installed! It's a 40' fiberglass that they'll have to lift over the house with a huge crane. 3,000 pounds!
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