As I mentioned before, Jason installed can lights in the front room as well. The lighting is so much better and seems more updated and spacious. We love it.
We had Stake Conference. A new stake presidency was called. Both counselors were members from our ward, so we were happy to have them back to serve within our ward. We loved this stake president, President Spencer. He was just amazing. We are sad to see him go, but the new presidency also seems great. We did not know any of the new presidency when they were called.
Charlie had a day off of school for Development Day. We got McDonald’s for lunch and then went to Kangaroo Zoo with Roman Markle’s family.
Jason and I started watching the Netflix show, The People vs OJ Simpson. It was fascinating and really good! When that show ended we started a bit of The Durrells of Corfu. That show is very interesting, entertaining, and unique. We took a break though after the first season and have not returned to it.
We got a new washer and dryer! We had noticed our washer or dryer was causing and leaving brown spots on some of our white clothes and garments. We had lasted this long with units that were either hand me downs or bought cheap and used from KSL. We decided it was time to get some new ones, like some actual brand new ones. We still went on the cheap side, but we gladly welcomed them. Jason had to do some wall filing in order to make the dryer fit in the tight space. We were just stoked to have our dryer actually tucked in that space; up to this point we had to have our dryer sticking out of the allotted space.
Charlie took a field trip to the Bean Museum and loved it. He was excited to take us later on as a family.
My cousin, Bri, and her family stayed with my parents in Draper one night so the whole family got together for dinner. The kids played and the adults stayed up and played CodeNames and Werewolf before we headed back home.
We had a fun outing one Saturday to the Provo Rec Center pool. That pool is awesome!
St. Patrick’s Day was upon us so we got busy making our Swig-style St. Patrick’s Day cookies for a Gruber Sunday dinner and decorating the house.
Shepherd's Pie, a St. Patrick's Day food
We celebrated Pi Day, as any American should. Kim, Kyle, Camry, Mom, and Dad came over and we ate pie and played Coup. Others brought pies, Camry brought brownies, and we made banana ice cream pie. Unfortunately, later that night I was in terrible pain; it was awful. It was crazy intense upper abdominal pain. I seem to get this from time to time when I don’t drink enough water and seem to eat a lot of junk. I wonder if it is related to kidneys or kidney stones. I am not sure, but when it comes on I’m in for a rough night with shakes and feelings of diarrhea and of needing to throw up. It usually lasts a couple of hours before I eventually fall asleep curled up on the couch.
I had my 28 week doctor’s appointment. Nancy tends the boys and then we go get McDonald’s for lunch.
And then it was St. Patrick’s Day! The boys woke up to leprechaun treasure and a green pancake breakfast. Later that day we test drove our first minivan! We tried out the famous Honda Odyssey. Jason had been putting this purchase off as long as he could. It’s just an ego thing to drive a minivan, especially to the gym in the morning. At least he has a truck he drives to work. We knew with the coming baby, our Ford Explorer did not have room for three carseats in the middle row. It would also be nice to have captain seats in the middle. I was excited to have lower entry access and automatic doors. We didn’t buy a van that day, but it was our first test drive at a used lot. We weren’t 100% sure if the Odyssey would be the one, Jason was hoping we could get by in a Toyota Highlander, but we quickly learned it wasn’t what we wanted. After some test driving we had dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe.
The next day was Sunday and we headed to Draper to have a St. Patrick’s Day dinner with the Arbons. We had corned beef and cabbage, had a fun treasure hunt, and we made Swig cookies again to share. We also played more Coup.
As I mentioned, Jason started looking on Roofstock.com for rental properties. There was a property we liked in Georgia, so we put in an offer and it was accepted within a couple of days. After that we were busy getting things in order for that, like a loan, property management selections, and utility details. It was a great price for the monthly rent we would receive. This passive income, however, is being saved as retirement. Jason has the ultimate goal of obtaining 31 properties, that way he is receiving income for every day of the month. I love it!
Jason and I had a date night. We got dinner at Terra Mia (a big disappointment) and saw the new Tomb Raider.
Jason prepared the garden. I played the pregnant card and bowed out this time. He weeded, added new soil, fertilized, rototilled, and planted peas and our old onion starts. The boys loved helping out there and playing with the dried up sledding slide that became their fort. That evening we went to JCWs and to the Dinosaur Museum because Charlie had been dying to go there all day.
I got together with my old PG gang (Kylie, Kara, and Stacee) and we did freezer meals with Citrus Pear in Riverton. This was the perfect activity for me, preparing for baby to come and having easy meals ready to go. It was also a lot of fun, therapeutic, and satisfying. To knock out so many meals without being bothered by children was something I didn’t realize I was missing in my life. It was great!
My mom invited me to an Austim Behavior Seminar that her district was holding. I went with her while my dad watched the boys. They rode bikes to the park and played. The reason for attending was for the overall parenting strategies, especially in helping Charlie. There are characteristics of Charlie that resemble being “on the spectrum”, so it was helpful and informative to attend. A big help was learning about how you respond to disobedient behavior as well as setting up a punishment and reward system. These things have been tweaked over time and we still are in use of the reward/chart system today.
Charlie had Grandparents Day at school. He had to be the luckiest kid there will all of his grandparents in attendance!
Charlie's teacher, Mrs. Jones
We had a date night with April, Max, and Karl. We had dinner at Maria Bonitas (a restaurant we had been raving about and were excited to share with them) and then we saw Ready Player One. It was new in theaters and Jason, Karl, Max, and I had all listened to/read the book.
And right at the very, very end of the month, we celebrated Easter! This year, Easter was the sum of everything! It was April 1st, April Fool’s Day, Easter, and General Conference all rolled into one. So the Saturday before Easter, when we do our Easter Bunny activities, was technically March 31st. To simplify things, I’m going to go ahead and add these Saturday activities to my April post to keep all Easter things together.
Here are more pictures from the month:
the boys were dying to build a snowman in the short-lived snow
a thank you note Charlie wrote for the Sites after they gifted us a huge box full of blocks, trains, and tracks
Muscle Boys!
Vasa KidCare
the boys enjoying their computer time
Jason started doing trim for Everlast as a way to cut expenses:
Jason was appalled by my pregnant morning fashion choices
a successful YM activity, after weeks of waiting for the final result
The boys stayed the night with Grandma and Grandpa Gruber. I wish I could remember the circumstances of why they needed tending, but nonetheless, here are some fun pictures from their sleep over:
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