February and March 2021

We are still enduring the global pandemic with Covid-19. The U.S. has had over 500,000 deaths and over 29 million cases. Globally, there have been over 2.6 million deaths and 121 million cases. It is still pretty scary, but we are grateful that many people are now eligible for the vaccine. Grammy, Bonnie Mom, and Grandpa have now been fully vaccinated. Carl and I didn't think we would get vaccines until much later in the year, but they have gotten better at getting the vaccines and distributing them, so we have now received our first vaccine dose!

For most of February, we didn't do too much. We continued to do school virtually. We watched The Super Bowl with the Amshoff family and enjoyed some visits with Grammy and Granddaddy. We celebrated Valentine's together at home, with gifts and pizza for dinner. The boys loved playing outside with their friends and the weather never seemed to damper their desire to have fun.

March brought warmer weather, more sun and the start of going to school! JCPS has elected to use a hybrid schedule. Some students go on Monday and Tuesday and the other students go on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is a virtual day for everyone. It is also the day the schools are deep cleaned. Preston started on March 17th and Evan will start on April 5th. Although it is VERY different than normal, Preston has enjoyed being able to attend school in person. 

During March, we continued to spend time with Grammy and Granddaddy. We mostly did dinners and watched shows, as Granddaddy doesn't have a ton of energy. Granddaddy continued with chemotherapy and he is about half way through the treatment plan. We also had an at-home movie night with the Amshoff family, where watched Raya and The Last Dragon and had popcorn. We also rented a movie theater to play video games! It was SO much fun! We will DEFINITELY do that again!

February gave us lots of ice and snow! The boys loved playing outside together and with their friends.

                                                 

The boys enjoyed pizza and gifts for Valentine's Day and Carl and I enjoyed a custom charcuterie board. 

March brought warmer weather and the first signs of spring!

We played video games at the movie theater! It definitely something we want to do again!

We celebrated my birthday with Grammy and Granddaddy and also as a family of four. I am always grateful for each year, even one spent in a pandemic. 

Preston's first day of in person second grade!

Cheers! We have so much to celebrate! It is Saint Patrick's Day and Preston's first day of school in the building! 

Carl's favorite time of the year is March Madness. It didn't happen at all last year, as so many things shut down as we first started to experience the coronavirus spread in the U.S. They are playing the games this year and we celebrated as we do best! 

  

Winter Fun

It is winter and we are still enduring the pandemic, but we are still managing to have fun. We find that doing things outside is nice, even when it is cold. We have also rented out movie theaters for our family to view movies, which has been super fun. We are excited for warmer weather, but for now, we will continue to have fun in the cold weather! 

New Year's Day brought lots of rain. Preston found the puddles to be lots of fun!

Carl and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on January 6th! We made fondue at Bonnie Mom and Grandpa's house, while Grammy and Granddaddy watched the boys. 

We made SO much food, that we could not eat it all. The boys were happy that we brought the chocolate fondue home to share.

We have enjoyed watching movies in our rented theater. We have seen The Karate Kid and Jurassic World.

Preston was a Super Cardinal for Chancey Elementary School. He was thrilled!

We love hiking! We love our nature reserve, but also enjoy Creasy Mahan Nature Preserve. 

Evan found a shed, which is amazing, as is it is still pretty early in the season. It is his best one yet!

We have been fortunate to have some snow this year. The boys have had a blast playing outside!

Evan's 13th Birthday

Evan is now 13 years old! He LOVES being outdoors and especially loves fishing and shed hunting. He also likes playing outside with his friends and playing online games, like Among Us and Fortnite. With support, he is doing well with online school. It is difficult for him, but he is persevering. He definitely has his moments where he gets on my last nerve, but he is also very sweet, kind, helpful, and still willing to hug me each day and tells us that he loves us. He is athletic, although his regular sports have been cancelled due to the pandemic. He has kept in shape by running all over the place, climbing things, jumping from high places, doing flips off of walls, etc. He has learned the joy of sleeping in, which is great on weekends, but makes getting up for school more difficult. He keeps life around here interesting and we love him more that words can express. He is also very handsome. I absolutely love his curly, red hair. As always, I can't wait to see what amazing things lie ahead for Evan this coming year.

We celebrated his birthday with Grammy and Granddaddy at home. He requested Mexican food from Los Aztecas. I was expecting him to want pizza, as that is also one of his top requests. He liked opening his presents, which including lots of outdoor gear and a cell phone! He was able to connect with Levi, along with Bonnie Mom and Grandpa, using his phone. We had a wonderful day celebrating our sweet boy. 

Christmastime 2020 and Pandemic Update

We are still enduring the Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, there have been 429,000 deaths in the U.S. and 2.16 million deaths worldwide. Thankfully, there is hope on the horizon! In December, the U.S. started distributing vaccines! Kentucky is doing a good job with distribution, but it will still be awhile until everyone wanting the vaccine can get it. They started with healthcare workers and have added other groups of people, such as teachers. Grammy has an appointment for early February and Granddaddy should be able to get the vaccine after he completes his chemotherapy later this year. Bonnie Mom and Grandpa have remained in Key West since September and have not been able to get appointments for the vaccine. We hope they can get appointments soon, since they want to travel back to Louisville. It is estimated that Carl and I will be able to get the vaccine in the fall or winter. It has not yet been approved for children under 16. Other vaccines are being developed and hope that one will be approved for children. 

Christmastime activities looked very different this year, as we are still avoiding crowds, avoiding larger gatherings inside, etc. We missed seeing our extended family in person, but were grateful for technology that still allowed us to celebrate with many of them. We were also grateful for some nice weather, that allowed us to gather outside with the Amshoff family to celebrate Andy's birthday, Alex's birthday, and Christmas.

We enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree and it turned out very pretty!

We celebrated Andy's birthday. He is now 2 years old!

Our gingerbread house turned out great! The boys ate tons of candy and icing.

We had the first snow of the season and it was beautiful! Although there wasn't a lot of snow, Preston managed to make a snow monster!

We took Grammy and Granddaddy to Lights Under Louisville. It was the best one yet!

We are still doing virtual school. Preston's teacher, Mrs. Zapp, dropped off a special holiday treat and the kids had a virtual party! They also had a fun spirit wear, leading up to the holiday break. 

One good think about virtual school is that you can attend class anywhere in the house!

We made sugar cookies from scratch and decorated them. They were super tasty and didn't last for more than 24 hours!

We visited Grammy and Granddaddy. We made cookies and Evan helped Granddaddy put up the Christmas lights outside. 

Although Santa is magic, we didn't want to put his health at risk by visiting him during the pandemic. We were fortunate that Santa was able to visit virtually. Preston LOVED getting to talk to Santa and ask him a bunch of questions. Carl and I enjoyed watching the boys and are especially grateful that Evan is such a good Christmas helper and big brother. 

We didn't get to attend church on Christmas Eve as we normally do, but we still had fun. We watched movies, read stories, and got ready for Santa.

Christmas morning arrived and the boys were up bright and early! They set a record with unwrapping their gifts and we were done in about 20 minutes! We spent the rest of the morning making breakfast and enjoying out beautiful, white Christmas in the hot tub! Grammy and Granddaddy joined us around 1:00 and we opened more gifts and ate lunch together. We also played games and watched a movie. 

Sir Christmas Pants had a great deal of fun this year! Here are  a few pictures of his shenanigans!

We enjoyed ringing in the new year together at home. We ate junk food for dinner, which is always extra exciting for Evan and Preston. We also played lots of games. Goodbye 2020! You were a crazy year! Let's hope 2021 is MUCH better for all of us!

I have been TERRIBLE at keeping the blog updated, because we don't do a lot. I do want to add a couple of good memories from the end of 2020. 

Preston continued virtual karate class and earned his purple belt!

Since we are home so much, Carl learned to make cheese! We have continued to cook some meals totally from scratch and we were able to use the mozzarella cheese we made!

We celebrated 13 years since my cancer diagnosis on December 10th, 2007. It was a low-key celebration at home, but it was nice to be together. I continue to be grateful for my health and I am hopeful that we will be celebrating that Granddaddy is cancer free later this year. 

We also celebrated Alex's 6th birthday outside on our backyard. The kids enjoyed seeing each other, having lunch together, and riding on the golf cart.