Zwahlen Family

This month has flown by!  We've had a lot of fun, a lot of busy, and a little (we hope) drama.  So here we go in backwards order:

This is the first time our family has driven to church together in a long while.  Roy usually has meetings before church so we were happy and a little thrown off to have him with us.  We had to take a picture to document it and send proof of life to Grandma :)

We watched "Freaky Friday" last night and when the last song came on, Nora needed a dance buddy that wasn't Mom so she made Andrew get up.  But they have been walking around holding hands occasionally and it is a "be still my heart" moment every time.

These three.  I love them so much.  What a team!  They love making bubble masks.  

Roy had surgery this last week to remove a suspicious mass.  He's recovering pretty well and we've felt extremely blessed.  Right now, we are waiting to find out the biopsy results.  There were so many pieces and people that came together to help us have a smooth week.  We had a friend volunteer to take the kids for the day of the surgery, Abby babysat for us so we could go to the temple the day before, another friend brought dinner, we have had many, many prayers said on our behalf, and had neighbors and friends checking in.  A neighbor came by to bring a zip-up fleece vest for "my boy Roy" and offered to help in any way we need for the foreseeable future.  We had a friend bring dinner over the day after the surgery just because she felt like she needed to--and she had no clue that anything unusual had gone on during the week.  I have had several friends who don't normally call randomly call and check in saying they were inspired to reach out and didn't know why but had included us in their prayers.  I texted a close friend here to get some advice from her because they've had way scarier experiences and she immediately called me to tell me she was on her way over to give me a hug that I didn't know I really needed.  I already had faith that we are loved children of a loving God and that He is aware of us and our needs.  I already knew that God used people to reach out and help others.  While I have been the recipient of that outreach many times, I have been overwhelmed and humbled at the service that has been given and the prayers and sacrifices that have been offered on behalf of Roy and our family.  Our testimonies of a loving God have grown just in the last few weeks.  Our gratitude for family and all these wonderful friends who are adopted family has grown tremendously.  We know God is in charge and that He does have a plan and will help us along the way.

Abby started babysitting a lot for us.  We haven't figured out a pay rate yet but she keeps saying not to worry about it, especially with Roy's stuff.  She babysat for 5+ hours over 2 days and I wanted to do something extra special for her.  She's had her eye on this giant llama for over a year so I decided to give her a little surprise.  I put the llama hanging out the passenger window one day when I picked her up.  She came over to the van laughing so hard.  She was so excited :)

Roy has been enjoying long naps and extra video game time.  I will soon have a Roy-shaped dent in the couch.

When Sam was 11 months, he had surgery to remove a cyst above his eyebrow.  We have a great picture of Sam making this face and we just had to make Roy recreate it.

Nora is convinced she can do all the things the big kids do, including exercising on "Ring Fit Adventure".  She's so stinking cute!

There has been a lot of magnet building this winter.  Sam has a whole MagnetLand world he has created and my counters and table become the landscape every day.

We had some really fun, late nights in Williamsburg for MLK weekend.  These poor sleepy babies were sooo tired.

BACON!  This picture was for cousin MaKayla, who was super missed this trip.

Andrew was the sweetest at this playground--if Nora couldn't climb or reach, he would help her.

Grandma and Baba, the house looks great!

Lydia asked Sam if he would give her art lessons.  He's been giving her lessons once a week.  It's so sweet.

Lydia loves these new slippers from cousin Miriam!

The kids all got to go to a bouncy house party for our friend and neighbor Crosby.  He is Andrew's age, but our kids have all become friends with him.  They had a blast celebrating with him.

This is Nora getting her pjs on by herself :)

The best way to spend a sick day!  Curled up in pjs with a baby

We are ALMOST finished reading the Book of Mormon.  The goal is to finish before Lydia is baptized this spring (since we weren't able to finish before the end of 2019 like we originally wanted).  Now we are powering through so we can get back on track with the Come, Follow Me schedule.  

Be sure to read the words.  He's already requested being able to make this his email address.  I've already told him no.  We'll see who will win.

Abby and her friend Dru reenacted the "Lost in the Woods" song from Frozen 2 and it was hilarious.  Dru's mom and I were laughing so hard because they nailed it.

A different night, the same bathtub, the same kids, and the same bubbleface game.  I love my crew.

The Zwahlen grandparents are serving a humanitarian mission in Amman, Jordan.  One of the favorite things we get updated on in their work is when they pass out homemade teddy bears and dolls to the refugee and poor children they meet.  For Abby's birthday, she decided she wanted to use her money to buy supplies to make as many bears as she could.  She also decided to organize an activity for the girls her age at church to help mass-produce these bears.  We bought 6 yards of material and cut out 96 bear-shaped pieces.  Abby and her friend Dru did the first few bears:

After more embroidering and sewing at home and a contribution of 4 more bears from a friend, Abby had made or collected 52 bears.  I am so grateful for friends who helped, for Uncle Steveo being willing to be our Bear Mule, for Grandma and Baba Z for being willing to take pictures and stuff them, and for Abby's loving heart and her desire to use her birthday as a catalyst to do good in the world and help others to join her in adding light to the world.

Every year just before Memorial Day weekend, the school starts doing the End of Grade (EOG) testing for grades 3 and up.  The kids and teachers feel a lot of pressure so I try to lighten the mood.  When Abby was in 3rd grade, I sent her a Harry Potter-themed note.  In 4th grade, I sent her a note made with puzzles.  This year was quite possibly my greatest moment and I'm so excited I got to send it in with both Abby and Sam.  In fact, not to brag or anything, Abby enjoyed it so much that she ripped off the bottom that had her name and passed it around the room for all her peers to enjoy.  These are all inspired by lyrics from songs that the kids listen to regularly on the way to school with Roy.

We kicked off the weekend by going out to Jordan Lake, which is just 15 minutes from us.  We spend several hours in sand and water--the perfect way to start the summer.

The giant hole you see by Abby was this crazy combination of sand and clay and it was a sinkhole that went up to my knees.  Nora loved slogging through it.  Roy wouldn't put both legs in.  He has experience with NC sinkholes and while it's something that the rest of us still belly-laugh about, his recollection of it usually results in a chuckle and eye-roll.

Sam and his "fossil"--a catfish skeleton.  No, he didn't get to bring it home, much to his disappointment.  Yes, he did stage it to look like something climbing up a tree in the hopes that it would freak someone out.

The kids all wore blue to church yesterday so I had to get a picture.  Plus we were 13 minutes early for the second week in a row, which also deserves a picture and moment of celebration because that has not been our normal for the last several months.  One of the perks of the sun coming up so early and right into our bedrooms is that we can get up and moving a lot easier.

As crazy as life gets, as chaotic as it might feel, I'm grateful for these people in my life and so grateful they are mine forever!

Then on Sunday, we finally remembered to take a few pictures for Grandma and Baba.  And Sam's scary eyes made a reappearance :)

You guys, Nora just kills us.  She is at this great age of learning so quickly and wanting to show off her funny skills.  She has recently learned to safely climb and sit in this chair and she celebrates big every time.

We went to the local bookstore and read books for a little while.  Abby had a volunteer job interview there.  She has the coolest opportunity to be a book reader for books that are pre-publication and recommend whether or not the bookstore should buy them and write reviews to be posted at the bookstore to help sell the good ones.  She got a stack of 10 books to read over the next few weeks and stayed busy reading and writing reviews.  This was one of those perfect Mom moments--my kiddos all reading in the sunshine and Nora on my lap reading with me.

On Tuesday, we organized a group of friends to meet us at the zoo.  It was a fun, chaotic adventure and we all came home exhausted and happy.  We started listening to "The BFG" by Roald Dahl on the drive and it made the hour drive through gorgeous farmland even more enjoyable.

We also remembered to dye eggs this year.  I usually completely space on this tradition and I am proud to say that we successfully dyed eggs and not clothing, table, or each other.  The eggs turned out really pretty and Nora provided great entertainment for us as she played with that towel :)

We participated in the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning.  I love our neighborhood so much.  We have good people here who are friendly and kind.  I only got pictures of Nora and Abby while they were hunting.  I use the word "hunting" for Abby, but not Nora because all Nora wanted to do was pick up the eggs and relocate them :)

Sam was awesome and planned a great dinner for Saturday night to pass off one of his Bear requirements.  He planned the whole meal: hamburgers, french fries, corn and ranch, and mint chocolate cookie bars for dessert.  He set the table, cleared it off afterward, cooked all the food, and was super excited to use the "awesome giant spatula" on the BBQ.

Thanks to a delayed package delivery from Amazon (that we hope gets here next week some time), the kids were extra spoiled for Easter this year.  Thank goodness Roy did a last-minute Walmart run for us!  The kids are really excited to try out the slip 'n slide the second it gets warm again. 

We are grateful that our Savior provided us a way to overcome sin and death.  We are grateful to be connected to each other forever because of Him.  We are so grateful for the knowledge we have of Him and His gospel and especially grateful that we can keep learning and strengthening that knowledge and testimony that we have of Him.  Jesus Christ and His teachings truly are a light to our family.