APRIL 2020

IF YOU WANT TO SEE ALL OUR PHOTOS THIS MONTH CLICK HERE!

April was a continuation of March quarantine for the Covid 19 Pandemic.

This meant that Scott had to be CAREFUL while he spent the weekend up at General Conference in SLC and they all spread out across the newsroom. 
He currently only goes in 1 day a week for production and works from home.

Scott has been photo-documenting our experience with this pandemic.  Before they started having "Senior Hours" we went to Sams one morning right at 9 and found THIS waiting line for entering.  CRAZY!




He snapped this of me shopping.










Pretty early on, I was sent a great pattern for a face mask that I was able to make for myself and a girl in our ward who needed a mask for her work.  Pretty comfy and fitted.














We learned that there is an advantage to being OLD for all of this...when you can go to the grocery store early during SENIOR HOUR, you can get the toilet paper that your kids need!

I was able to make more masks for many members of the family with these patterns in all sizes.  These are for Austin and Laura's family including a little baby mask with soft elastic lace.
I made them for Austin, Jenna, Breanna, Braden and Jennifer's families.  Scott does not want one:) 
(He has one of my hospital masks from Pre-K dress-ups.)
The problem now is getting the 1/8 inch elastic you need for ear straps.

Scott did qualify for one of the Covid tests though so we experienced the drive-up test site over at the mall.

This is BEFORE the nasty deep nasal swab. 
He tested negative but it was very interesting and I was glad it was not me

OK...much of this month has been spent in helping GROW THINGS!

This was the wheat grass I grew for my local girls...pretty cute!

And I loved seeing our new yard in bloom.  The front forsythia came on so pretty while the back one has yet to do anything...we think it froze back in the shade right when it was budding and is still trying to recover.

I am discovering though, that things that look completely dead, may really be alive and not to write them off...most things are now budding but we do believe we have lost 2 little trees and maybe a couple shrubs, we will see!

 One of my PreK families brought me a flat of pansies and they made me so happy adding that color all over the yard.

Then we had 5 yards of compost delivered by Jennifer's landscaper and that kept us busy for a few days topping off all the beds.
Our soil is SO CLAY that we need to add this topper every year and let it seep into our poor soil.  It is already making a difference from last year.

One of the bigger projects was completing the beds around the garden boxes...they had not been mulched much so they were dry and rocky.  This is a "before" shot.

This is hard to see in the shade, but this is how great it looks with the mulch, so dark and pretty.  I really miss IOWA SOIL!!

We had decided we needed a couple more trees to soften up the proximity of the new neighbor's home right in our face so we added this last little dogwood tree back there and just love it!

Another of my projects was to seal the pergola.  Got it done last week!  We really like our space back there to relax and eat dinner and just to sit and read in the evening when it is nice out.

We have spent A LOT of time walking the parkway trail near our house and some of the lake and river trails in the area.
Here I am tempting the baby cows with some grass...they are so cute.

We saw this great horned owl on one of our morning lakeside walks.

Sometimes Braden and McKenna indulge us and come along.  They got to see a big pelican swimming in the lake by us one Saturday.

We have turned into "BIRD NERDS" as Jenna puts it.  We now take binoculars with us on our walks and have seen many varieties of birds in the area.
these are glossy ibis and this day there were TONS flocking together.

This one is harder to appreciate, but it is really a HUGE American White Pelican.  We are stalking them along the S shores and wetlands down where we live and they are just amazing!

Here you see Scott in action watching a pelican fly.  They are so big that it is really crazy seeing them fly!

We see Sandhill Crane all the time and hawks and osprey, vultures, ibis ducks, geese, all kinds of field birds and water birds.

Right by the trail, there is a mommy Kildeer protecting her rock nest.  Someone built a protective berm of rock by the side of it.

She has 5 little eggs in her nest.  So beautiful!

Speaking of beautiful...here are the Easter pics for the kiddos!

Clara, Brooklyn, Mackenzie and Evan in Duvall

Jenna, Carter, Klay, Bennett, Cassidy and Ty in Marlboro.

And Breanna and Elliot let us come along with them to deliver student packets to her 4th grade class near her school.  It was a lot of fun talking and walking and meeting some of her kids and parents.

They love her and will be excited that some get to be in her 5th grade class next year!

We have been having fun playing some online games with many of the kids.  Scott went above and beyond in creating custom questions in some of the games like this one to make it family oriented just for us!

He also orchestrated a big online group to surprise Carole with all her grandkids and kids all over the country!  So fun!

We have a little friend that roosts up on the top of our porch post every night.  We have identified it as a FLYCATCHER or PHOEBE.  It is pretty cute little fluffy bird and we see it in action swooping around the neighborhood catching bugs! 

It has been hard trying to have any activities remotely with our Church groups.  One activity they did was called "VIRTUAL CUPCAKE WARS"
Well, I decided to create HAMBURGER CUPCAKES with SNICKERDOODLE FRIES and it turned out so cute.  We then delivered about 10 trays to new members and our Ministering Sisters and Brothers and some to family!  YUM!

The latest big project is sewing masks for the PROJECT PROTECT through Just Serve.  I split a kit with a neighbor this week and was glad. My machine needs a new pedal and is a little iffy until that is replaced but I got my 50 done and may split a kit again next week.

And this week I had all my students come pick up their kits for May and some brought me work to show my from April.  I let the kids sanitize and choose treasures too, and it was just so good to see them all!

I am praying I can start teaching in the fall without too many issues.  It will be interesting to see what we come up with to be safe yet somewhat normal.

MARCH 2020

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THIS MONTH AND THE VIDEOS OF CARTER CATCHING A FISH AND MORE!



Well...SPRING may be here...March started out with my crocuses coming up at the new house, which  made me really happy.

Scott and I walk a lot down on the Lakeview Parkway trail near our house and always watch for the SANDHILL CRANES that you can barely see because they blend in to the brown so well.  We hear them all the time.  They are huge!

I was frightened and a bit entertained one morning seeing this near the trail...it looks like a skunk met his death from OVERDOSE OF ICE CREAM...really, he was dead.

We studied FARMS this month in school and I had one Dad who brought their horse for the kids to ride.  I was happy to ride with one student who did not want to go alone!

And then, while he waited for his daughter to finish school, he rode on over to IFA to get a new tack brush.  HA HA!!

We had the traditional COW...but this year NOT IN MY LIVING ROOM!!!!  You do not know how happy I am to have my dedicated PreK space and not be all over the house like before.

Austin's family took a family trip to the OREGON COASTER (As Mackenzie would say it)

We were glad they got out and enjoyed themselves in the early stages of the Corono scare.

Scott and I got to visit the other COAST to see Jenna and Ty and kids.


We did a lot of yard work and discovered this natural fort-looking spot where plants grew across the top of themselves to form a hut.

Trimmed it up and VOILA!!

We took the boys fishing...and Jenna decided to go in for a quick dip...after her phone took a dive into the pond!  Both of them recovered nicely!

The boys picked up on casting and reeling in very quickly...sometimes too quickly.  It was a test in patience!
This is Bennett.

And here is Carter when his patience paid off with this big rainbow trout!

If you want to see the video of the catch, click on the link at the top of the page, it's in the month's photo/videos.

Yes, this is the trout that Carter caught..it turned out really delicious!
Scott helped me clean it and then I filleted it.  TASTY!

So, while we were visiting New Jersey, the whole Corona Virus thing was just exploding!  Every day there were new quarantines and such and after the boys went to school the first 2 days we were there, they closed the schools and had the kids doing school at home.

So, I got to teach Pre-K after all...to Klay!!
I found some good resources online and we got to work each day!

For Tuesday's class, we had TACO TUESDAY and made homemade TORTILLAS...yes, this was for the letter T!
They turned out delicious!!

WACKY WEDNESDAY, there was an EARTHQUAKE in Utah just as Grandpa Taylor was flying out from Newark to head home.  I delayed my flight to stay and help the kids for 5 more days.


We talked to Breanna and Braden in Utah to hear firsthand how it was there and Bree had the idea for us to use graham crackers and frosting to create an earth's crust, magma layer and inner layer.
You can see here that when we broke the layer, that one crust popped up over the other one...EARTHQUAKE!!!

We got back to our "T is for TORNADO" experiment another day.  These 2 soda bottles created the perfect little tornado maker!

Another day we did a worksheet where we tested whether things stuck to magnets.  And then built with a cool magnet set they had.

Having school at home is TONS OF WORK for these Moms!  Seriously don't know how people are going to do this long term. And for Breanna, BEING A TEACHER AT HOME is insane!

Cassidy is a FULL TIME JOB...she wants to be right there doing what you do, literally (see her copycatting Jenna here?  She even crossed her leg just like Jenna after this pic.

If I left my phone anywhere that she could find it, she could not get in, but could get to the camera function so I would find all sorts of photos and videos.  This is her in action!

OK...bad screen shot from a video, but I had to document that I spent a LOT of time outside playing FRISBEE with the boys. 
I think they decided that this was something that Grandma couldn't mess up TOO MUCH so they got me out there pretty much every day to toss it for a while! 

And, this is me on the way home.  It was pretty tentative if I could even fly out, things had gotten so crazy.  But, my great big airplane flew home to Utah with like 14 passengers on board...THANK YOU DELTA!  Many flights that day had been cancelled, but fortunately, mine made it safe and sound!
Empty check in counters, empty security screenings and almost empty gates.

The yard had totally greened up while we were gone!  Scott has had to mow twice already!  Greenest lawn in the neighborhood since our landscaper told us to fertilize til late fall.

And then a couple days later...SNOW again!

And right back to the SPRING!
We have been quarantining pretty nicely.  I have worked in the yard a lot weeding and pruning and planting some pansies a student's parents dropped off a couple days ago.

My daffodils entertain me.  They look like plastic flowers someone stuck into the yard, all straight and with their flat faces, but they are cheerful and match the forsythia so I like them anyhow!

I made up big packets of materials for my students to do at home to keep busy until May 1.  We will see what this month brings and if I am actually done for the year or not.
Please stay healthy and keep in touch!  We love you all!!

FEBRUARY 2020

FEBRUARY was a fun and busy month with school and Church and family and friends.

My preschool braved the weather to visit some BYU museums including the Paleontology Museum.  This is a few of my cute students.

We hosted our first Fireside in our new home and it went very well.  We had a really nice Family History speaker and a good attendance.  It was wonderful to be able to host something on that scale so easily.

A highlight of the month was getting to go to Duvall to visit Austin, Laura and the kids.
This shot was while we were at the Seattle Woodland Zoo, a chilly but really nice day with very fun animal interactions.

It was fun getting to know little Clara better now that she is growing up and developing such a fun personality.


















Clara turned 8 months old while I was there













Speaking of personality...Mackenzie has plenty of that too!  She wanted her photo with the sea otter statue after spending a long time watching the fun otters playing in the water.








Mackenzie was my buddy different times when older kids were at school or playdates.  We made some "Frozen" Chip Cookies together!

I got to share Valentine's Day with the kids and made some fun shaped pancakes in hearts and letters and animals...reminded me of when my kids were little.  And they spoiled me with roses and chocolate and bath bombs!









Evan was fun to read with and play with and toss a football with almost daily!

Brooklyn wanted to go on a run with me one morning so I came back for her after my long run and we went on a shorter one and ended up at the climbing gym nearby.














Brooklyn loves when we work on her dollhouse when I go up.  This is the room we decorated this time.  I had sewn the little quilt and brought bed skirt ruffle, pillows and wallpaper etc. to do this cute room with her.









OK, had to tell the story of being at the zoo watching the lionesses hunting a stray duck that had flown into their pond.  This photo is after the closest one had jumped into the pond in chase...and did not succeed.  She was rolling all over trying to get dry...pretty funny!

While I was in Washington, Scott was in Durban South Africa with his brother Mitch for the dedication of the new temple there.  Mitch served his mission there years ago, and was happy to accompany Scott on this trip.  They had a wonderful time together there at the temple and exploring the area complete with a Game Preserve they got to drive through and see many interesting animals.

This is the Durban  S Africa temple at night, so beautiful!

 We are entertained...and sometimes ARE the entertainment at our YSA Home Evenings.  This night we were to dress up in disguise and be at the mall just randomly wandering to see if our YSA could discover us.
I was the hip Grandma with her sleeping grandchild under a blanket shopping all over the mall.
One young lady recognized me, but most of the young men did not have a clue.  Even when I was talking with them, they said they had not figured out it was me.  HA!
Scott, the CoronaVirus Avoiding Mall Walker, was actually stopped by Mall Security because he looked suspicious!  Made us all laugh!  He was headed for the jewelry store to rob them for sure!



Here was my "child"  made from a sleeper, bag of flour, pool noodle legs, BYU teddy bear body, arms and head.  It is no wonder I had to cover him up!  Such a big nose he had!

The last week of the month we hosted my friend Dana and another ward friend from AZ, Linda.
They came for RootsTech.

Here we are at the Saturday Family Discovery Day.

This is Linda and Dana with us at a sold out BYU Men's Volleyball game.
It was a lot of fun, but hot and super crowded.  We were glad they were good enough to win in a "sweep" of the first 3 sets!
Thanks again to Braden for getting us in!

We brought up three YSA related friends for the Discovery Day and all got our photo done at the Family Search Photo Booth.

We loved the RootsTech Family Discovery Day.  This year it really was a discovery day.  They had a cool feature on our Family Search App that would show your relatives registered for RootsTech.
I found Ian James (Carl's grandson) and messaged him.
I found Tamalyn Lively, a second cousin that I had met in Austin's ward in Redmond, and messaged her and met her and her three siblings.
This is us: Me, Shauna Beard, Corey Barnard, Valerie Wride and Tamalyn. They are Opal Hulet's grandkids, (Hope's sister.)

It was a great month!!