Memorial Day 2020

Well in keeping with how 2020 has been going, our Memorial Day was completely different than any other year since we moved here.  The boys were pretty bummed to be missing our normal Memorial Day Picnic with our Ward at the Park.  They always love playing in the creek and catching crawdads.  But we made the best of it and spent the day at Mom and Dad's playing in their yard and having a yummy BBQ.  We're still pretty locked down, but we felt ok being outside and "socially distant" from Mom and Dad.  Dean brought his drone and we pulled out the quad, go-kart, and motorcycles, and I schooled everyone at P-I-G.  The weather was great and it was so nice to be around Mom and Dad again.  This quarantine stuff is for the birds!

New Shed

This guy is pretty amazing.  First, he priced out what we'd need to build the shed we were hoping for. Then he happened across some sheds for sale on FB marketplace that were cheaper and bigger than the one we planned to build on our own, so we went to check them out.  We settled on one that we were happy with on the lot and then we went home and got to work tearing down our old shed to prep the area for the new one....that's when the frustration came in.  We found out that because of crazy zoning laws we wouldn't be allowed to put the new shed where the old one had been, and because of Covid-19 we wouldn't have the chance to contest that for months and months down the road.  After a few days of upset and stewing over what we should do, we decided to downsize the shed a bit which would allow us to place it where we wanted, and luckily the shed company was awesome and so flexible.  They let us change our order and even pick all new finishes to our liking since we wouldn't be taking the lot model.  Dean got to work prepping the spot for the new shed.  He put in hours and hours of work with some help from his Dad and his Dad's sweet tractor.  He had the place so nice and level with a thick layer of gravel that the shed guy was floored when he arrived.  He said he wished everyone had a set up like that. The shed was supposed to take 4-5weeks to build but they ended up building it and delivering it within the week.  So despite some hiccups we ended up THRILLED with the new shed.  It's so pretty and we are LOVING the new storage space.  The boys are dreaming up big plans for the loft and we're already quickly filling her up!

 Dean whipped up a nice bike rack for all the boys bikes.  It is SO nice to have them off the back porch and now they all have a perfect spot to park them.

Bed Fort

I often look back at old pictures and think I used to be a funner mom when my older boys were little. Largely because I had less on my plate and could spend more time just playing with them, but sometimes I channel that younger mom and pull off something great like this fort! We’re going on night 3 and it’s still holding up and in this house that’s saying a LOT!

Mother's Day 2020

This morning started off with a bang....Dean let the dog out while trying to help Landon make my breakfast and forgot about her so she got in the neighbors chicken poop! Yikes!  He put Tanner in charge of keeping her in the tub while he tried to wrap up breakfast prep.  Landon only dropped TWO eggs on the floor and added the wrong measurements to the waffle ingredients 3 times.  Hahaha!  So eventually I got breakfast in bed and a freshly bathed dog, but it wasn’t without a lot of drama and stress!  Just another day at the Nelson house right!?  And then when we called our Grandmothers we found out that we mixed up their Mother’s Day packages and my Grandma got Dean’s Grandma’s gift and vice versa! So we’re totally winning this year, but you know what!? It’s just the way I want it to be. The crazy makes it memorable and man am I grateful to be the Mom to this crazy bunch! Happy Mother’s Day to all the incredible women who influence us and our boys for the better!

 These cute boys spoiled me today.  Landon made breakfast, and the rest of them made me millions of cards.  Tanner started with a digital one and then was disappointed that his gif confetti didn't work great so he made me a real card with real confetti!  Braddock saw a cute card idea in the Friend magazine and recreated it with his own twist.  And Bridger's favorite thing is writing I (Heart) Mom so I had an endless supply today.  Sure love these boys of mine and so grateful to be their mother.

Sweetie

Looks like teaching this kid his letters is starting to pay off! 😍 On the flip side I just told Braddock that he needs to fan me and feed me grapes this weekend for Mother’s Day and he said that was a hard pass, so I guess I know who my favorite kid is!🤣

A decade in the making....

 Landon woke up to a big surprise of a brand, new, bike for his big day!  He's already put it to good use dragging Tanner on countless rides since then.  We started the day off right with a nice breakfast of German pancakes per Landon's request.  One perk of quarantine is there's no bus to catch and a slow morning with homemade breakfast is much easier to pull off.

 Then he was spoiled nearly every hour of the day with gifts from different people.  Braddock and Bridger scrounged up some fun things to give to him first...

 Playing the checkers game Braddock gave him.  Braddock was even nice enough to lose. ;)

Landon requested we make mini cakes for everyone to decorate instead of one big cake like normal.  They all had fun making them their own with only a few meltdowns from his high strung brothers who must have thought they were the Cake Boss and were disappointed when their cakes didn't reflect that.  Haha!  It all turned out in the end.

 We all got a pretty big kick out of Bridger's "turtle" with a Zelda Triforce symbol on it's head.

 Video chatting with far away family.

 A "socially distant" visit from Grandma and Grandpa.

Tanner got creative and made him a "Wumpus" a.k.a. a watch/compass.  He even managed to make his own packaging.  And he "ordered" a custom balloon from customballoons.com just for Landon...

 And a birthday dinner of pizza, bugles, strawberries and oranges....

This cool kid is a whopping 10 years old. He has seriously saved me during all this quarantine stuff. He’s hardworking, motivated, helpful, kind, driven, and thoughtful. He quickly finishes his schooling in the mornings by himself, and then is more than willing to help me with chores, meals, or even doing preschool stuff with Bridger when I’m busy helping the other boys with school. He seriously has been the BEST and I’m so very grateful for him! We love you Landon and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 🎉

So long to the old shed....

Our shed came with the house and is probably just as old as it is.  It was in rough shape 10 years ago, and it's continued to get more dilapidated as the years have passed.   We've never had the motivation to do anything about it because we knew we'd eventually just replace it.  It's tiny and wouldn't fit much, so with a little help from the stimulus money we got from this crazy pandemic, we decided it was time to take the plunge and rip it down and replace it with a new one.  So last weekend we all threw on our work gloves and started demolition.  It was interesting to see all the boy's different work ethics and responses to this project.  Tanner was hilarious....he tucked in his shirt, and then tucked his pants into his socks.  I think he thought this would protect him from the inevitable bugs, and admittedly the bugs were pretty awful.  There were piles of stink bugs in between the 2x4's, carpenter ant colonies, and more spiders of every variety than I ever want to see again.  As a result, he ended up doing more of the hauling to the garage than the actual demolition, but being the tech nerd of the family he managed to capture the whole thing on video so he can make a time lapse of it all.  Bridger shocked us with what a mighty little worker he was.  He grabbed a crowbar and went to town ripping siding off.  For a four year old he was absolutely impressive!  Braddock was in and out.  He took a long break to facetime his friend Colby, and then managed to find a million other things to do than actually help most of the time.  And Landon just rolled up his sleeves, used his big muscles, and dug in to get the job done.  It was definitely a team effort and a dirty job, but we were thrilled to get it all done in a days work.  

Of course everyone wanted in on the big push-over.  It ended up being harder than we thought, but with enough shoves she finally came down.

Demolition was a lot more fun than clean up, but now it's all cleared away and we'll be spending this next week prepping the area for our nice, new, 10ft x 20ft shed.  We can't wait!