LaFeber Life Lately: Saying Goodbye to Summer!

 As school is approaching and life has become completely insane, I have been trying my best to get everyone to the pool and enjoying what is left of our summer! I'm going to let the pictures do the talking :).

Snuggling with Dad in our new fuzzy bean bag! Isla sure loves her Daddy!

Labor Day weekend fun at the pool!

Crawling around and putting everything in her mouth! Pretty typical these days :)

Always happiest at the pool :)

Friday Night Tradition: Homemade mini pizzas!

Austin built himself an army tank!

Online schooling in the raw... It has been rough.

We got out of the house and drove to St. George to Visit Grandma Wiegel and celebrate Gracelynn's 2nd birthday!

It was a beautiful day as we celebrated our favorite baby cousin!

It felt amazing to get away from all the online school drama and just chase the ducks and tease the swans at Grandma's house.

The kids have gotten pretty good at doing chores!

Austin asked if we could meditate before school and I was once again aware of how stressful this has been for the kids, as well as for the adults. I could kill the people who decided to not let the kids go back to school because their mental health is at risk and nobody cares!

Another Friday Pizza Night at the LaFeber house!

Krispy Kreme donuts for the win!

Austin and Isla, forever little buddies :)

We love having Daddy work from home so we can spend more time with him!

This year's monsoon season consisted of only one rainy day :( but we will take whatever rain we can get!

Isla's first experience with rain!

Finding a lady bug at the pool was the highlight of Evie's day!

These pool days have saved our lives this summer!

Just look at that smile :).....

This rowdy crew needs lots of pool days to keep us sane!

The kids and I both LOVE our tea parties! We learn ettiquette and manners while we have fun pretending to be different people and coming up with all sorts of fun stories to share wile we drink our tea :).

LOVE LOVE LOVE

I've been reading LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS to them at night and they love it :).

Isla LOVES grass!

Look what we learned how to do this summer!

Isla crashed Mom and Dad's day date while the older kids were in Mesquite with family ;)

On an early morning walk with Isla because everybody else was still sleeping.

Doing a little gardening, just to have a rabbit or rat eat it all a couple weeks later :( :( :(

Look who has been losing teeth this summer!

The kids used their money they had been saving to buy some pet fish! They've been begging for a dog so I thought we'd start here.... ;)

Evie's fish died immediately and then the replacement fish ALSO died a day later....grrrrr!! So she and I have been making MANY trips to the pet shop lately! This fish has lasted quite a while, thank goodness!

Austin got to spend some special time with Grandpa Nathan and had a great time!

Meanwhile, Evie had a blast sleeping over at cousin Gracie's house

Building lego forts and having army battles with Dad!

LaFeber Life Lately: Enjoying July!

Such a beautiful day! We stopped over at Jolly Beans Cafe for some treats and then ate in the shade over at the park while the kids played on the playground. It's days like these that make it all worth it :).

July has been a busy one and we have been happy for the sunshine and joy! We are still in the middle of a pandemic but we aren't letting that stop us from living life to the fullest, even if we have to wear masks everywhere we go. Thank goodness the HOA finally opened up the pools and let us cool off this summer or we would be going insane! 

Dad's first day at the pool!

Austin got to stay with Grandpa Nate and go shooting for his birthday! Now he can't stop talking about how fun it was to hold that 22-rifle :).

They also went on nightly bike rides together.

I love having a Step-Dad who loves my kids and does such fun stuff with them! It makes me so sad that my own Dad will never know them like that.

Meanwhile, Evie had a sleepover with Gracie at Briana's apartment! Gracie adores Evie and wants to do everything she does and wear everything she wears :). Because of this, we got them matching nightgowns for Gracelynn's birthday :).

Dad and Austin having a fun army guy battle!

I played beauty shop with Evie and got my hair and makeup done :)

making lemonade and lemon squares with all of our lemons!

My little buddies in the kitchen!

Evie finally had her Pre-K graduation ceremony! It was short and sweet because the pandemic has made everyone too scared to do anything social. But Evie was totally oblivious to all of that because she finally got to hug her teachers goodbye and they gave her all sorts of fun surprises in a goodiebag!

So proud of our Evie girl!

Hugging Ms. Ezree and Ms. Melissa goodbye

She loved her teachers and they were so perfect for her! Austin also had Ms. Melissa and loved her so we were so happy Evie got to experience her as well! Goodbye Children's Learning Adventure Preschool and hello Kindergarten! This is such a monumental moment to no longer be paying for kids to go to Children's Learning Adventure. Because of the pandemic, schools won't be opening up this year and I will be staying home from work to homeschool. 2020 has been one crazy year!

The sweet letter Ms. Melissa wrote to Evie :)

The sweet goodbye letter from Ms. Ezree :).

Doing yoga to try and stay sane during this insane year! It has been hard for me to accept that the kids won't be going to school next year and we are being forced to homeschool. I want Evie to have all the special Kindergarten experiences that Austin had and I feel so much pressure to make this homeschooling year incredible for them since they can't play with friends or have normal social interaction at school :(.

Grandma Helm stopped by to say hello and to give the kids their late birthday presents! It was so nice to see her! She has been staying away in fear of catching COVID-19 but she finally couldn't take it anymore :).

Isla has grown a ton since she last saw her!

Grandpa Frank passed away right before we went to Utah so we stopped in St. George to pay our respects. Aunt Gena was there along with almost the whole family and what sadness we had for losing Grandpa Frank melted away into the love of family.

I love this woman so much. She is the rock of our family.

Goodbye Grandpa Frank. We will miss you! Because of the pandemic, we weren't able to do a big funeral. Large gatherings of any kind aren't allowed right now to slow the spread of the pandemic. So we mourned him in our hearts.

The kids have had to get creative because we can't leave the house very often! So they cut up boxes and made space ships!

I love seeing their imagination at work!

 Pool days are magical days :).

Off to the pool! Bring on the Vegas sun!

Milestones: Isla is 7 Months Old!!

7 months has come and gone and our little Isla just won't stop growing! We have had an adventurous July and she has done so good at taking it all in and enjoying the ride! She is such a good baby and so happy all the time (except when you try to get her dressed. Then she's a screaming banshee). She loves to go swimming and is a huge fan of bath time! She is working on crawling and gets so close! She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth but hasn't quite figured out how to move the arms and legs in sync yet. So instead she worms her way along or rolls. Both effectively get her where she wants to go ;). She is becoming a huge Mama's girl and always wants to be held which makes it hard for me to get anything done. So I wear her in the baby carrier a lot and she loves that she gets a front row seat to all the action that way :). She is teething and so far has one bottom tooth with another one on it's way! She has been sleeping terribly because of this which means I'm not sleeping either :(. She loves her siblings and loves to watch them play! I swear she is growing up so much faster than the other two did because she wants nothing more than to be a part of their fun! She is doing so good at eating baby food now and it is so cute to have her at the table with us eating :).

This is daily life!

TWINS!!

Enjoying some watermelon :). She loves fruit!

Sadly we have to wear masks everywhere now because of the pandemic but we are doing our best to not let that stop us from enjoying our summer!

You are the light of my life baby girl and you complete our family in so many ways. We love you to pieces!!