How we THRIVED in 2020: A year in review part 1

I absolutely love New Years. 

I love the goal setting, new beginnings and the fresh start it all brings. 

Every year around this time I start to think of a word I want to focus on and use as sort of my theme for the new year. 

In 2019 my word was SURVIVE- I knew adding another baby for a grand total of five kids was going to be tough and boy was it! I survived severe postpartum depression and anxiety that literally almost killed me. It was a hard hard year for my mental health and surviving was pretty much all I could handle. After a lot of self  reflection at the end of 2019 I realized that I had overcome a lot and I came out even stronger on the other side.I knew I wanted the next year (2020) to be more than just surviving day to day, I wanted to thrive.

So that was my word for this year, THRIVE. 

It feels weird looking back at all the craziness 2020 has brought but even through a global pandemic, a new job, a long distance move and a freaking cancer diagnosis (among many other things) I truly felt like we thrived this year. I focused a lot on my mental and physical health which I think helped keep me strong and able to overcome some of the hardships we have faced. I also accomplished (almost) every goal I had set for myself at the beginning of this year and I’m super proud of that alone. 

 I felt like this would be the perfect place to record a review of the year, especially since none of it was recorded here on the blog. 

JANUARY 

• I cut off over 28 inches of my hair! What better way to start a new year than with a drastic new hair style? It felt so freeing and amazing and I was so so happy to cut off the WEIGHT both metaphorically and physically. 
• Wolfe Wallace turned 3 years old. It was such a fun birthday and day was made after touring the local fire station. He’s still obsessed with fire trucks and will probably be doing another fireman birthday next week for this 4th birthday. 
• Etta Moon turned 1! She has still been the easiest most chill and go with the flow kid. I’m so happy to have her in our family
• I got COVID! well it wasn’t diagnosed as such since we didn’t know about it at the time but I was the sickest I had even been for two straight weeks. Legit wanted to die. High fevers, chills that rocked my body, intense body aches, super bad head congestion and a terrible sore throat and a cough that burned. I also lost my sense of smell and taste which was the weirdest freaking feeling. I went into the insta care and tested negative for the flu so they just chalked it up to a virus lol. Which is why, a couple months later I was convinced it was COVID. The kids ended up getting sick too. It was a rough couple weeks. 
• I got super into paint by numbers- I have them all framed around my house and they bring me so much joy. 
• One of the goals that was unfortunately affected greatly by Covid-19 was to attend the temple each month and complete a bunch of work for my ancestors. I only got to go a few times and do family names which was so special. I can’t wait until they open back up!!

FEBRUARY

• We spent Valentine’s Day watching Remington’s basketball team win his division championship! It was his first team experience- he learned a lot. We unknowingly enrolled him into a super competitive league which was tough for a first timer but he persevered and was awarded the most improved player. 
• Olive Lou started Ballet which she absolutely LOVED. It was so fun seeing her thrive in that setting and we were so bummed when the rest of her classes were canceled that spring. 
• Harvey Doodle got his first trim! We are missing him so much. He had to stay back in Arizona because our current rental wont’ allow pets. He’s super happy on my girlfriends homestead though with lots of room to roam. We can’t wait to get him back. 
• David turned 32 years old! We celebrated by hiking up the mountain range by our home. It was pouring rain and we got absolutely soaked to the bone but it was so much fun. 
• David and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!!! We got dressed up and did a professional photo shoot out in the desert. We were planning on going on our first kid free trip later this year but like many things, was canceled. Next year, we are GOING, I don’t care what is going on in the world. 

MARCH

• I became the self proclaimed queen of thrifting/shopping facebook marketplace. I scored this beautiful sectional couch for $100. (Brand new it retails for $1300) I originally wanted it for the kids play room but once we picked up we realized that the seller was off on the measurements by a couple feet. It was HUGE, but it was so beautiful and I didn’t want to give it up so we spent the entire evening trying to get it to fit in our living area with our other giant sectional (also another marketplace score.) We finally found a layout that worked. I miss that giant living room so much!! 
• David and I went ax-throwing with my sister Natassja and her husband Travis. We had so much fun.
• Remington turned 8 years old and chose to be baptized as member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We went back and forth on when to hold it because we wanted to make sure everyone who wanted to attend could. I’m so glad we scheduled it when we did because everything shut down just a few days after.
• That same weekend, David’s mom and dad and birth mom were able to meet for the first time. It was SO emotional and SO beautiful. Lots and lots of happy tears. 
• Over spring break we met up with my girlfriends and all of their kids at our favorite plant stand. There was 12 kids between us all and we were quite the spectacle out in public haha. 
• After school was canceled indefinitely, we spent lots and lots of time outside going on walks around the neighborhood and enjoying the beautiful Arizona spring. We had had lots of rain so everything was really green. 

APRIL 

• I celebrated my big 30th birthday. I was already going into it super bummed and pouting because I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do (yah quarantine)- Def not the milestone birthday I had pictured but David went above and beyond to make it so so special for me. He decorated and did a huge theme birthday a la “the office” (my favorite show) and no detail was forgotten. It was the perfect quarantine party. 
• We celebrated Easter at home doing one of our first Home church lessons. 
• We did a ton of quarantine house projects, including painting our entire 1700 sq foot rental house a beautiful bright white! Our room was my favorite update/project. 
• It warmed up enough that we did our first swim day of the season at my moms house. 

MAY

• David was furloughed from his position. He worked at a local hospital running the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation department and with COVID  happening, the hospital census was so low they couldn’t afford to keep any other departments going. It was so stressful, not know how long he would be unemployed. There were many sleepless nights that month. He updated his resume and started searching for another job and was interviewing all month long at various hospital systems and health facilities. 
• Frances turned 5 years old! We did a small family swim party at my moms house. 
• With school closed, the gym closed and David being unemployed we started to get stir crazy and decided at the last minute to trek up to Utah to go visit family. We spent everyday hiking in the mountains and being outside-it was so refreshing mentally and exactly what we needed to get through that trying time. 
• We got a kitten! Millie the cat aka Miller (we didn’t know he was a boy haha) was Frances birthday present. He was the sweetest little thing and brought so much joy to us this summer. Unfortunately he had to be re-homed before we moved to Idaho. Frances was heartbroken but I told her when we finally get into our own home she can have all the kittens and bunnies and chickens that she wants. 

JUNE

• We were averaging 10-12 miles a week on walks every morning with the kids. We explored every single part of our cute neighborhood and met so many cool people and got to know other “regular” walkers. My favorite route was the cotton fields behind our home- the kids loved riding their bikes through the dirt roads and Harvey loved to cool off in the canal water. It started getting hot really fast so we were up and at ‘em first thing the morning. Our walks quickly became my favorite part of our days. 
• We spent 3-4 days a week at the local community pool. I was so so grateful they didn’t close down. Besides our walks, it was the only place we could go outside of our home. The kids quickly became little fish in the water and their skin tanned overnight from spending so much time in the sun. Frances even faced her fears and jumped off the diving boards. We also made some great friendships with other families at the pool. 
• I took the kids on a bunch of local hikes and we found the coolest little secluded little watering hole. We spent the entire afternoon exploring and playing in the water and sand. 
• David and I went on a date to the shooting range! It was my first time in an indoor range and I got to test out a few hand guns that I had been wanting to try. 
• I officially pulled the kids out of the public school system and decided to homeschool. The back and forth and waiting to see what schools were going to do for the upcoming school year stressed me out so much. I was absolutely against remote learning, it was a joke during the spring, and the requirements for in person schooling sounded just like prison and I was not ok with it.  After lots of research and prayer, we felt like homeschooling was the best decision. I am so happy with our choice because the kids are absolutely THRIVING. We turned our fourth bedroom into the cutest little school room. 

JULY

• We took our annul family photo at the famous flag wall in Peoria and celebrated the 4th of July at the community pool with my brother and his family. 
• Olive turned 6 years told! We had a combined pool party with her cousin Lily who was born the same day as Olive. 
• I hit up all the local goodwills to shop for school supplies and to build up our library. 
• I hit a PR for distance on the road bike, 30 miles! 
• We spent lots of time with friends.
• David returned back to work earlier in the month but quickly put in his resignation because he had been offered his current position as a CEO over a skilled nursing facility here in Idaho. We were SO excited. They wanted us in Idaho September 1st so we went into overdrive trying to figure out how to get our rental contract sold, how to find a new rental from out of state and all the other logistics that come with moving a big family hundreds of miles away. 

Part two coming tomorrow !