March 2020--quaratine

On Thursday, March 12 the church made the announcement that church would be at home for the time being. Friday, March 13 the kids came home from school and we assumed they would go back the following week.  On Sunday, March 15 school was cancelled until the end of the month. It seems that every day since then has been changing and uncertain!

The next little bit was just trying to figure out what our days would look like without being able to go anywhere.  I created a list of things that they "must do" every day... it included academic learning, practicing an instrument, reading, going outside, and exercising.  Rich still was going into the office every day.

Day 1 of no school Alex and Lydia built a leprechaun trap.  They didn't catch the leprechaun but they did manage to get some gold!

On day 3 we spent some time making energy balls.

We had hummus and pita chips delivered to our doorstep.

We tried to get out of the house every day.  The middle school gate was open for a while so we were able to play gaga ball several times.

We would walk down to the neighborhood playground, grassy area or lacrosse fields to play as well.

Lydia loves having her brothers home to play with her.  She found a ladybug outside!

We celebrated Rich's birthday!  (Even though he tried to cancel it due to the pandemic!)

Eventually the schools started sending home more structured work for the kids to do.  It included a lot of Zoom meetings.

Henry and Lydia built a fort.

The kids used their imaginations... Alex froze his lego guy.

Lydia made a face from her spaghetti noodles.

And William built a fort around his bed late one night!  It was a funny thing to walk into that morning.  I called it his bat cave.

I was able to track down some sidewalk chalk.  Lydia, Henry, Alex and I created some artwork on our driveway.

We took advantage of the empty Strip to go see the Welcome to Las Vegas sign!

We went on a bike ride to the park... and then found that it was all taped off and closed!  Bummer!

So we ended up at our neighborhood playground again.

To get away from the house we drove up to Mt. Charleston and found snow!  It was so much fun to get outside and have a change of scenery.

During the week each person took a turn helping to make dinner.  It was so nice to have a dinner helper every night.

In the afternoons we watch movies and every person gets a day to pick.  In March we watched: Frozen II, The Simpsons Movie, Up, Star Girl, Heavyweights, Frozen, Avengers, Inside Out, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Togo, 101 Dalmations, and Iron Man 3.

November 2019

I love November because we have so much school off!  The three younger kids went with me to see the new Springs Preserve Exhibit--we love when it's super interactive!

We had fun making paper ornaments for Jacob's paper missionary Christmas tree.

Alexander and Henry had school off for parent-teacher conferences and they happened to be giving out free bundlets that day--so, of course, we had to get some!  The kids were good sports to wait in a very long line.

I love watching my kids read the scriptures!

For Family Night we made "gratitude granola"... we had to say something we were grateful for as we added each ingredient.

I rarely pick the kids up from school these days because they ride or walk.  Alexander was sick a few days so I ended up walking home with Henry.  It was so fun to listen to him and Lydia on our way home.

One day I came upstairs to find Lydia watching a show with all her best buddies.  She is so cute!

During the month of November Rich received the call to be an early morning seminary teacher.  Because it was well after school had started it was really a shock!  However, the week that he started teaching we started receiving texts from parents who were so grateful that Rich was teaching their child!  One family even had crumbl cookies delivered with a sweet note!  (It read: "We are BEYOND grateful that you are Peyton's seminary teacher.  He came home SO excited and not dreading the rest of the year anymore!!!)

Lydia loves to get her nails painted and recently decided that she wanted to paint mine as well.  She does a pretty good job!

We had our stake day of service this month.  Our car was in the shop so it wasn't possible for us all to go do something together.  Rich took the boys  down to Boulder City to help decorate a foster care home for Christmas.  I think it was a good experience for all of them.  Lydia and I found a service project on Just Serve that benefited our elementary school... so we spent the morning sorting out good crayons to donate to the kindergartners.  We also cleaned all the boys' bathrooms so they wouldn't have to when they got home.

That same evening we took the kids to see Frozen II at the drive-in.  It was really fun!  Olaf and Anna even came out to dance during Olaf's song.  There was a raffle that night and our kids won!

We ended the month by getting Christmas all set up!