March 2020

Overall considering we're in lockdown and can't go anywhere we've been staying pretty busy.  My previous post goes into the details surrounding Covid-19 pandemic but here is what we stayed busy doing the rest of the month.

The 2nd day of online/homeschool was St Patrick's Day.  These kids love this holiday.  They spent lots of time making traps all over the house.  They are determined to catch a leprechaun one of these years.  Unfortunately it wasn't this year but they had fun trying.  And luckily our secret leprechaun didn't haven't the corona virus and made it to our house to give us treats again this year.  The neighborhood did a clover hunt and put clovers in the windows of everyone's houses.  We walked the neighborhood and counted 83 clovers that day, lots of fun!  And we had our traditional green dinner that night as well.


We've had lots of school projects going on.  Posters, inventions (Jaron made a corona virus catcher to keep and trap the corona virus), math and spelling tests.  Aria passed off the last of her addition and subtraction math facts.  Siena had done it earlier in the year and had a little easier of a time, but this had been a goal of Aria's all year and she had worked so hard so I was happy she was able to accomplish her goal even if she did it at home.  The kids also started having zoom calls with their class 1-3 times a week.


Card domino lines and buildings going on one entire day and pretending to be dogs another day.


Lots and lots of reading going on here, and I love it!


We got a pretty good snow storm the first Friday of online/homeschool so we had a snow morning and let them go build snowmen and play.  They built the biggest 2 snowmen they ever have before.


School spirit Friday still continues even if you don't actually go to the school


The kids asked if they could clean out the van one day....why yes you can! They spent over an hour cleaning, washing the windows and putting everything in it's place...thank you!!!


The kids helped me label the take home reading book order that I had placed and received.  They started reading the books after a while more than helping but hey, I don't mind that at all.


A Sunday walk around the temple grounds since our lesson for home church that day was look towards the temple.  Shane and I can't attend now and the kids aren't old enough so it was a nice talk about how we can still look towards the temple and keep our eye on it as our goal.

Gilbert and Covid-19

Wow, what a month.  When March started no one had any idea of how this month would go.

The month was all good and normal until March 9.

Monday morning, the kids didn't have school because the teachers had meetings so they were excited to stay home and play.  I went upstairs to work and the kids ran to the basement to go roller skate and play with Gilbert.  Right as I sat down I heard Siena yelling/crying that Gilbert was in his cage just laying on his side and not moving.  I thought NO!!!  But it was true, Gilbert had died in his sleep that night and we had no idea!  He had been acting fine, eating, being played with, etc.  The kids had said he was 'squirmy' the last few days and come to find out he had been constipated and we didn't know it.  The kids were devastated.  It was seriously the saddest thing.  They were heartbroken and so shocked as I was.  There was not a more loved guinea pig.  Everyone loved Gilbert, especially these 3 kids.  Even their friends and neighbors would come over and immediately want to hold him.  So we had a little funeral for him and buried him next to Diamond and then spent the day making little Gilbert stuffed animal pets like their Diamonds.  These were a lot of work but they love them and it brings them comfort to play with them.


As if that wasn't enough, the great Covid-19 quarantine started just 2 days later.  It was a Wednesday night and we were sitting down to dinner when Jennifer texted the family asking if we were watching the Jazz game.  She said they had done player introductions and were about to have tip off when all of the sudden the players all left the court and the game had been postponed.  Come to find out Rudy Gobert had just tested positive for the corona virus.  This set off a chain of events and by the end of the night Tom Hanks had announced he had it in Australia and the NBA postponed the season indefinitely.  By Friday, Utah announced they were shutting schools down and everyone would do online/home school for 2 weeks (which ended up being the rest of the school year but at the time we didn't know that)  Church has been cancelled until further notice and everyone is being told to stay home, work from home and do not go anywhere that is not essential (Basically to get food or medicine, etc.)  Everything shut down, inside dining restaurants, temples are shut down, the church is bringing home most missionaries in foreign countries, all activities have been suspended from sports to dance to music lessons.

We knew some things were going on and luckily my family had all been texting for a while and stocking up on food, medicine and stuff because when this all hit, people went crazy.  People went and stocked up on stuff like it was the end of the world. And as I'm writing this in May, it's still hard to find toilet paper in stores and many other items.  So I felt prepared on that end of things but this first week of the pandemic has been nuts.  Every day and almost every hour there are new reports coming out of what is going on.

It's been stressful and exhausting trying to keep up with all the changes, trying not to stress my kids out but keeping them busy and entertained since they can't see or play with any of their friends.  Trying to keep up with work and now home school, getting groceries, etc.


So Monday, March 16, we started online home school.  The teachers have been great and had things up and going very quickly.  Things have changed and evolved over the weeks but the first week felt crazy trying to get it all organized, go pick up things from their classrooms, a million emails from the district, principal, teachers, specialties, etc.  and then printing and printing pages off of school work for them to do.  That first week felt like a year!  Some days have been good and fine and other days have been crazy and stressful.


And as if we weren't dealing with enough, we woke up Wednesday morning to an earthquake.  I could tell it was a big one because of how long it lasted but wasn't hard enough to do damage. I thought the kids would be freaked out and so I ran into their room when it ended and they were all amazed and then said they thought it was cool and wish they could feel another one.  So at least i haven't given them my fear of earthquakes.  We felt some aftershocks but were far enough away from the epicenter that it didn't affect us much except my nerves!

Not having church has been an interesting change.  I miss seeing all the primary kids but having a break from being primary president has been a nice mental change for me.  I've sent out a couple emails to the parents with songs and lessons, etc. but for about 6 weeks haven't done much else.  However, having home church has been so different but in a very nice way.  Shane has been able to administer the sacrament for us each week.  The spirit is always present during our little sacraments.  Each week the kids have given a little talk.  Each of them has played the piano or violin for one of our songs and then we usually listen to a general conference talk.  We still have our home church again the afternoon like we had been doing before and overall it's worked out nicely.  This last week (I'm writing this in May) it was fast a testimony meeting and all 5 of us shared our testimonies.  The kids shared short but very sweet testimonies and the spirit was so strong in our home that day.  I loved hearing the things they had to say and it will be a Sunday I will never forget.


Each of the kids have been doing fine overall.  We've had lots of talks with them about this, what it means, how we need to stay home so we can stay healthy and overall things have been fine.  All 3 kids play together nicely most of the time but each of them have had their days and times of pure frustration and melt downs.  And I don't blame them.  It's hard for them to really grasp the enormity of this, they just know they can't play with friends and their mad about that.  We've gotten on the marco polo app that lets them record videos to each other so they've enjoyed that and we've seen more movies than we ever thought we could.  They enjoy more tablet time each day.  But they've also been more creative in their play, playing games with each other and just finding things in the house to do that they wouldn't have thought of to do otherwise.  Siena's been doing more crafts and a little sewing and cooking.  Aria has turned into a book worm and luckily we found a good online website that she can read book after book as even the library closed down for a period of time.  Even now we can pick up books once a week if we place them on hold first.  Jaron has maybe been the most stir crazy.  He loves to play with balls and will do anything if someone will play ball with him.


I think I'll leave this post as is and start another one now that talks about what else we've actually been doing during this quarantine time.

February 2020

The biggest event of the month was that Siena lost her first loose tooth.  Aria lost hers over a year ago and Siena has been so patient waiting and waiting for a loose tooth and it finally happened, the month before she turned 8 1/2.  Most kids start losing them by 5 so 8 1/2 is a long time to wait.  Of course the dentist is thrilled that it has taken so long.


We had a huge snowstorm and school got cancelled.  We got a lot of snow but the hardest part is always the wind because it causes such white out conditions that you can't see the street from your front door.  The only bummer is we have to make up the day the first day of spring break.


The girls got to make their first Valentines boxes for school this year.  Siena made a butterfly and Aria made a unicorn.  I thought they turned out cute for our first time.


I got to help with the girl's Valentine's party this year.  We did heart shaped string art.  I thought it would go ok but a lot of kids had a harder time with it then I thought they would but it was fun and the girls always love it when I get to help out in their class.  They get so excited and are so appreciative afterwards so it was worth all the stress or prep time.


We made our annual visit to the Dinosaur museum.  Always a fun time.  Their favorite part is still the water and sand although they did seem more interested this year in the types of dinosaurs and facts about them more than they have in the past.


We ended our basketball season.  We had a team pizza party over at our house the night before our last game and watched Airbud that they seriously loved.  They laughed and laughed and then were so anxious at the end to see if they would win.  It was a good pick.  Grandma and grandpa came to 2 games this season so it was fun to see their support and love.

January 2020

For New Year's this year we let the kids stay up until midnight.  They had asked for a few years but this was the first year we allowed it.  It ended up being a fun night.  We played mostly played games, ate treats and snacks and then watched the countdown from New York and celebrated.

Some of Siena and Aria's friends asked if they wanted to play on a 2nd grade Jr jazz basketball team with them.  They had just finished watching Jaron play his season so they were excited.  When I went to sign them up I noticed I could sign up a 1st grader if we helped coach.  So Shane and I decided to coach all 3 of our kids plus Siena and Aria's friends.  We had 2 other girls join our team that were twins.  So it ended up being 7 girls and Jaron on our team.  We had such a fun season.  My goal at the beginning of the season was to have every person score at least one basket.  And we did it!!  I was so excited as each girl would score.  We had some good games and although every other team had 1 girl and all boys we actually won a game and we were competitive and had fun.  Siena was aggressive out there and had a great season and really got into learning the game and plays and moves she could do.  Jaron had a little bit of a rough season being with all girls and being the youngest on a 2nd grade team but still had a great time.  Aria I know had fun and was proud of her that when things didn't go the way she hoped she still kept playing and trying.  She became less afraid of the ball and improved so much in her shooting over the season.


I got to take Jaron to a BYU boys basketball game.  A girl in our ward offered us her parents season tickets which was on the 6th row.  It was so fun and we had a great time.  Jaron was super into it and every time they scored we would throw his hands into the air and cheer.


I also took the girls to a BYU women's basketball game a couple weeks later and for whatever reason didn't get a picture.  But we had so much fun.  They both watched the whole game and it was interesting to hear them understand more of the game since starting to play.

For the last few years...yes years...Jaron has been begging me to 'get another baby' At  least once a a week as I would put him to bed he would start to cry with big tears coming down his face tell me how he 'just wants company' and someone to share a room with.  He didn't think it was fair that everyone in the family got to share a room and he didn't.  He wanted to share a room with me.  I kept reassuring him that one day he'll be happy to have his own room but he wasn't having it.  Finally the girls decided it might be fun having Jaron in their room and so between some begging and crying we moved Jaron into the girls room.  We moved all their toys into Jaron's room and all the beds into the girl's room.  They were so excited.  I mean look at their faces.  So far it's gone pretty well.  We have nights here and there that they talk too long but overall they're pretty good and Jaron has been so happy being in there with his sisters.


All 3 kids got gift cards to Swig for Christmas and/or their birthday, so we went and had a Swig date.  It was a fun afternoon and they were so excited to choose their own soda and eat a cookie.


We celebrated Gilbert's 1/2 birthday on January 27, which was 6 months after he came to our family.  The kids were so cute, they made him all special little toys and treats for him.  This guinea pig is such a joy to these kids lives.  They play with him every. single. day.  They love him and I love seeing how they take care of him and play with him and how they've taken on the responsibility of caring for a pet.  Don't get me wrong they complain when it's time to clean his cage and try to get out of it but overall they do a good job and they love him.


Since Jaron's birthday falls over the summer, I promised Jaron on his 1/2 birthday that I would come eat lunch with him in the cafeteria like I did for the girl's birthdays.  It happens that I had to go into an office at Thanksgiving point for the week of Jaron's 1/2 birthday but luckily I was able to sneak out of there and was close enough I could go meet him for lunch.  It was fun to see how cute he was and excited he was to eat lunch with me in the cafeteria.


Jaron got to dress up as a grandpa for the 100th day of school.  I thought we had grey hair spray but it ended up being glitter like not grey, so we had to hurry up and shower him before school and threw this outfit together.  I cracked up when I went to take a picture of him and he pulled this pose/face on me.


I got a call from the school that Jaron's self portrait from his Art class was selected to be framed and hung in the office.  I thought it turned out so cute and it was fun to go into the office each time for a month and see his self portrait looking at me.