March-ing on

Alex learned to climb out of his crib two months before turning two. He ended up falling asleep in big brother's bed many nights. Too cute and too old looking. For now, we've put him in his own room while the older three kids share.

We got to babysit one of our favorite kids who is Alex's age. They were so entertaining together and seemed to get each other even when I didn't. Evidence below:

I got in the car one day and found this sweet note from Adaline in my seat.

Painting rainbow trees for activity days.

The first round of starting our garden. Very promising, but everything died except the basil (and now it has almost entirely been eaten by earwigs). We are currently on round 3 of trying to start the garden and we've lost so much time!

Finally put something in these two spots

Out for a run and I was surprised to find Prison Mike. Made me laugh so hard and I had to grab a picture for Andrew who has been re-watching The Office lately.

Hours before the shelter in place order was issued for California , my brother and his fiancée arrived! It was a bit of a surprise, and we were so happy to get to meet his awesome wife-to-be. My kids are all in love with their new aunt; she spent plenty of time winning them over by reading to them, playing, and knitting Adaline a purse. Welcome to the family, Chantel! We are so excited for you and Keller! While they were here, they became the designated shoppers, we went for a walk near the reservoir, played sharks and minnows with the kids, and got in lots of time to hang out and chat since we couldn't go anywhere.

Alex took a bad fall down a gravelly hill and we narrowly avoided the Urgent Care thanks to an amazing friend/neighbor who was willing to drop everything and come over to glue Alex's head back together. (THANK YOU!!!) This was the second time he had to have his head glued together in less than 6 months. That poor kiddo is always hitting his head on stuff.

"saving the animals"-one of the kids favorite activities thanks to busytoddler.com

Gorgeous day for a hike after they re-opened the trails

This was such a fun hike! I took the kids over to Black Diamond Mines by myself and figured we would just sort of wander and explore. I didn't even bring a backpack for Alex. They ended up finding a cliff the wanted to scale and from there they led the way on a challenging and fun hike that was mostly straight up. They found sand caves and scenic overlooks like this one, and somehow never got tired or complained. It was amazing!

Adaline's picture of her helping with the dishes

Handsome boys on a Sunday

Adaline's braids are getting really good and my hair is getting really long. Every time I see this picture, I think it's of my little sister.

I built some roads out of tape and then the kids filled in some buildings, a parking lot, and eventually a playground to complete the city.

Sometimes my dad gets pictures like this while I'm taking things apart to try and fix them. So that's the only reason that I have any documentation to remind me about this day. I actually feel pretty proud of this one. Our freezing had been collecting ice in the bottom and then spilling out onto the floor ever since we moved in, three years ago. Every week I would have to break up all the ice and wipe everything up after it started dripping onto the floor. I had tried to fix it once before, but ran out of time and had to put everything back before I had a chance to find the problem. This time I was victorious! The freezer hasn't collected any ice in the bottom or leaked since this day. Woo!

First online dance class-this seems like so long ago because the boys behave very differently when Adaline is trying to dance now.

There has been no shortage of experiments in the kitchen lately. We've been sprouting beans, cultivating wild yeast to make bread, and making plenty of treats.

Back in October I decided it was finally time to sign up for a half marathon-something I'd talked about wanting to do for a long time, but having babies and being lazy got in the way. I got a couple friends on board for a race on April 11th, and started training right away. Fast forward to mid-march and I had worked up to running 8 continuous miles with just under 10mins/mile pace. Then the race got canceled and my motivation started struggling. and THEN,just to make things worse, I fell off a ladder and badly bruised my arch and sliced off and huge chunk of skin. So I was forced to take a break from running. That was definitely a low point in a past couple months. At least I had some skin glue from Wolf still!