Cornelius Chronicles

14!!  14!!  How did that happen?  It wasn't that long ago we brought you home  and learned how to  be parents through a lot of trial and error on our part, and great patience and perseverance on your part.  I hope you had a wonderful birthday and felt loved and special, because you are.  You may not always feel like a big deal, but you are. You are always a big deal to me.  I marvel at how honest, and funny, and intelligent, and creative you are becoming.  You make the world a better place for being in it.  You make our family better by being part of it.  You make me better by being my daughter and teaching me the ropes of parenthood.  Love you  to the moon and back!

 Gerbil Snuggling Cuteness Overload!!  We love our trio of gerbil bachelor friends.   Loyd hanging in the hall with his homies.  :D Shout out to our cute little mouse, Licorice!  We love your curious, cute little face!

 Bekah made us the obligatory fancy pandemic home desert and we wanted to share.  These are yummy triple strawberry strawberry cupcakes.  Yum!  Bandito John!  He don't need no stinken badges....because he's so darn cute!  Even though we're all home, the kids still manage to wear Dustin and I out.  Good thing they are all worth all the extra work.  Oh, and it helps when they are cuddly and cute.  :D

Grandma Phillips sent us an online tutorial on how to make these handy, dandy reusable, washable face masks for when we absolutely must leave the house and venture into the big wide world.  The kids were so excited by all the cute fabric I found in my personal stash they all, except Loyd and John who were happy to let me make their masks, wanted to make their own face masks.  They did a great job and learned a fun new skill, sewing!

Spring and has sprung and Easter has arrived, Stay at home orders or not.  We've had fun keeping many of our old Easter traditions and making some new memories as we celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Happy Easter, Ya'll!  Time to dye eggs!  Everyone loves how beautifully the eggs come out and how they magically change colors as you plop them in the dye solution.   Ta-da!  Easter Basket fun!  Backyard Easter Egg Hunt  Loyd is so kind to share his overflowing basket with his baby brother, John.  Confetti Egg time!  The kids LIVE for our now annual confetti egg fight.  It always begins with excited anticipation, involves some frustration and tears in the middle, and ends with a mess.  :D Dustin took care of the colorful mess afterwards with his fancy new pressure washer.  You can't get more manly in backyard chores than that. 

Xavier illustrating how long of a snake he can make when knitting for 1 hour.  WOW! Xavier has found a new passion in life.  Finger Knitting!  He is quickly going through my stash of left over yarn and filling my house with all sorts of whimsical yarn crafts.  It's so fun to see him excited about a new hobby and working hard to get better at it every day.  I just hope my vast yarn stores last until we can go shopping at the craft store again! "Snakes in Love" diorama created by Xavier in honor of My and Dustin's 16th Wedding Anniversary Some of the many creative crafts keeping Xavier busy these days *****   Rebekah finally got board enough to ask me to teach her to crochet.  I'm really proud of her and how nicely she is doing.  She picked it up really quickly and has already made an adorable little family of dragons to keep us company while we all stay home all day, every day.  :)

 We got into the pool a little earlier than usual this year due to extra time at home, nothing else to do and no where else to go.  We've had a blast splashing in our beautiful neighborhood pool.  We are so blessed to have this resource during these crazy times.  Love the smiles on all these cute faces!