March

Liam still wakes up 1-2 times a night, and this night wouldn't go back to sleep. Instead of waking Lamoni up I just brought him with me. Luckily it wasn't my day to teach, because he wanted my full attention as usual.

Some neighbors gave us this little Lightening chair.

Our homeschool group went to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. Peter did a great job with a security guard who thought it was his personal job to make sure Peter didn't get too close to any wall. Definitely a high-stress long tour with 3 little boys. Afterwards they had an art activity.

Papa's birthday lunch at Cheddar's. The older boys were at a friend's house, and it took 1.5 hours for my food to come! It didn't even come before I had to leave so my mom dropped it off later.

Making parachutes to drop eggs off a roof. Both boys came up with good ideas.

King Solomon

My college friend, Meagan, came to visit with her 3 kids. We had such a fun time!! We went up to the La Cueva picnic area to hike around.

Another day we went to the Aquarium....

And the botanic gardens (and farm).

Reading for Dion's reading program

We went to the Climbing Gym with Levi and Eleanor from homeschool group. The boys did a great job since they do so much climbing at Urban Air. It was tricky hanging on to Liam the whole time since he wasn't allowed to run around.

A Saturday morning car show near us

Papa always has Peter-duty at church. We really feel it when my parents are out of town.

We went to a circus in a real tent. It was in the middle of nowhere and we wouldn't go again, but it was an experience.

 

February 2022

Our friend, Sabrina, needed some patients for dental hygiene school so we went to her instead of our dentist. Yes, all that protection is for Covid still!

Liam's affectionate side has definitely been coming out and I love it so much!

Our home school group went to the Special Collections library where they got to use an old printing press, as well as other cool activities like writing in Braille, hieroglyphics, and using a typewriter.

Sometimes the boys make forts downstairs before I catch and stop them... Now that our downstairs is divided by the couch it's nice to have a family room that's not as visible from where I teach every day, though.

We got our obligatory snow storm!

This is how Peter gets himself water.

Liam got a fever randomly one Sunday. I think it's the only time he has fallen asleep on me as a toddler.

Grandma Mary got to come visit and was here on her birthday. We went to Cheesecake Factory and got some cheesecake to celebrate.

"Read you me!" as Liam would say (or rather, demand).

Benjamin's ninja costumes get better and better. Note the sword sticking out above his shoulder.

Playing at the Park Above. Usually he's clingy and wants to play on me, but he actually ventured out and had a great time.

Grandma Kara and the Valentines she treated us with at family dinner.

I came home from seminary to our bedroom door heart-attacked by Benjamin. He woke up when he heard me leave for seminary at cut out and colored all these hearts and wrote sweet messages on them without Lamoni even hearing him!

Learning how to make chocolate covered strawberries.

At Ninja Force with our homeschool group.

Just enough snow to make a snowman.

Liam wouldn't venture into the snow (or even put on his warm clothing) but enjoyed looking at it.

Upstairs forts. Much better.

Peter doing an online research study.

The toddler life.

At the zoo

On February 21st, at 1:30 a.m. someone broke into our home while we were sleeping. Our alarm was blaring and we ran to the balcony where Lamoni saw the open door. He yelled for me to grab his gun. When I brought it to him he cocked it and yelled to get out of our home and that he was armed. Suddenly someone started screaming back at us and fired a gun. We ran into our room and I called 911, where I waited with the operator for 45 minutes for the police to show up. Lamoni crouched at the top of the stairs that whole time pointing his gun down the stairs in case the guy came up. When the police did come they stormed and searched our whole house looking for the guy. They moved every piece of furniture, including beds, and curtains. Then they entered our room and we all had to have our hands in the air. Poor Peter couldn't stop throwing up he was so scared by it all. Luckily Liam slept through the whole thing but the police told us to bring him in the same room with us when they got there. The guy who broke in ended up stealing Grandma Bear's car, which wasn't supposed to be at our house. It was what kept us safe, though, as the keys to our car were in our room with us and her keys were by the front door so he could easily leave. There were so many little miracles that night that kept us safe. The guy made 5 stops that night and at each one where he stole a car, he assaulted the people to get their car keys. He also kidnapped 3 women that night. He got away that night, but the police ended up getting into another high-speed chase down the wrong way on the interstate with him and he was eventually shot.

He shot above the piano, through the wall, and it went into our neighbor's wall!

This is how we secured our door until someone could come fix it.

Where the bullet came out of our house on the left and where it entered our neighbor's home on the right.

A friend of ours sent us some money to do something nice because of the incident. We spontaneously booked a hotel with a pool and after I was done teaching and Lamoni got back from work we got in the car, drove to the hotel 5 minutes away and had the nicest get-away. It was nice to not jerk at every sound and have family time without interviews and detectives.

After swimming we watched a movie.

More swimming in the morning.

Riley and Sabrina packed us a dinner for the hotel. We were so loved and taken care of by everyone! It really felt like everyone's arms were around us the whole time.

He's a little obsessed with Cars...