Elliot loves Math and Other Stuff

Oh my Elliot. At 5 years old, you are becoming more and more your own unique person. 

My current favorite picture of you

One of the many awesome things about you is that you have a genuine love of numbers. You realized a while ago that Dad will always let you stay up a little longer if you ask him math related questions right before bedtime. One time you came out of your room (well, our closet that you slept in since your cousins were in your room) and when we gave you the stink eye you said "Hey guys, want to hear all the math that I know?" You then proceeded to rattle off every addition fact that you could think of. 

You did this all by yourself a couple months ago when you were jealous of your cousin's math homework

You will sometimes go quiet for long periods of time and then say "Mom! I just counted to 137!" I found a great math game called prodigy (thanks to your Aunt Megan!) that you loved. Your math skills grew by leaps and bounds playing that awesome game. Now you notice numbers everywhere- on cereal boxes, battery percentages on devices, number of views on YouTube videos... you are just attuned to them now. I dug out my calculator from college and put batteries in it because I was tired of you trying to steal my phone to play with the calculator app. 

We have also been playing tons of board games lately and have been so impressed by how quickly you pick up games and can do them yourself. You can now play Settlers of Catan, Bonanza, Splendor, Monopoly, and a whole bunch of others. One time you were counting up your points at the end of a game of Smallworld. It is tricky because the point tokens come in 1, 3, 5, and 10. You came up with 78 points. Your daddy went to check your math and got a different number so he did it again and got a different number. He ended up checking three times and sure enough you got it right on your first try. You are also fully capable of counting our your monopoly money to buy properties and pay rent, which sometimes involved adding up money over $300k. 

Your other great love at this age is crafts. Preschool was your major source of art projects, but sadly preschool was closed because of coronavirus. 

Preschool art show

You had a LONG phase where you drew mazes. Elliot mazes are pretty much video games on paper. He draws monsters, spikes, and various cannons that have to be destroyed by scribbling on them and making sound effects. 

We discovered a YouTube channel called "Art Hub for Kids" that has tons of step by step drawing tutorials. I love this Harry Potter one so much. We are halfway through reading book 2!

You have mastered the art of building beds out of couch cushions and blankets. If only you loved actually going to bed as much as you love pretending to go to bed. 

It is rare day when you don't build a fort or some kind of pillow construction 

You have been playing great with Annie lately. I love that you can read her books now (preferably in a pillow fort)

You are going through a phase when you yell "MOM! TAKE A PICTURE OF ME!" Whenever you climb on anything

Like a monkey

Killer fashion sense, dude. 

FASHION

Some awesome photo booth app pictures

That one time that you covered your face in green chalk

This last picture is from when I told you the story of the Mars rover Opportunity. Oppy's mission was only supposed to last 90 days, but the valiant little rover kept on doing his science thing for 14 years! Eventually his solar panels got damaged. His last transmission home was "my battery is low and it's getting dark." After failing to regain communication, NASA bid him farewell by sending him Billie Holiday's "I'll be Seeing You." The last verse of the song is:

I'll find you in the morning sun and when the night is new

I'll be looking at the sun but I'll be seeing you

At this point Elliot and I were listening to the song and openly weeping about how much the scientists loved that robot that is all alone and broken somewhere on Mars. I love how tender hearted you are. I love you so much and am so glad that you're mine!

Coronavirus

The US started to freak out in earnest about the Coronavirus shortly after we got home from our Miami trip. Grocery stores ran out of toilet paper and many other staples because people panicked and started hoarding as a global pandemic became a reality. The toilet paper thing was an issue for us because we had a household of 10 people, mostly girls. Luckily, we were able to snag some bulk toilet paper before it got too bad. We also sent Aaron and Stephen out for a Walmart run right as they opened one Saturday morning, and they were able to bulk up on lots of staples. It is surreal going to grocery stores and seeing empty shelves and people walking around with face masks. 

By mid March, all Arizona schools were shut down. Originally the shut down was only for 2 weeks, but it ended up being extended through the end of the school year. All parks, pools, restaurants, non-essential retail, and fun places have been shut down, and everyone has been instructed to stay at home as much as possible. I was very glad to have a full house- I'm a very extroverted person, so having a house full of people made it easier to give up volleyball, playgroup, and all the many social gatherings that I took for granted.

The Church shut down meeting houses and even temples all around the world. It is so miraculous to me that this happened a year after the church implemented the new 2 hour church block that put an emphasis on home centered, church supported gospel learning. We already had the basic idea down, and it has been really awesome to see how we can have church with just our own little family. We are blessed to have the priesthood in our home. The sacrament water has been served in bottle lids and medicine cups, and the kids are pleased with how big the bread pieces are. Our lovely primary chorister does a half hour music time via live video on Facebook, and then we have an opening song and prayer. Then we have the sacrament followed by the lesson for the week which is aimed at the kids. Then we all review our goals from last week and set new ones for the coming week, then end with another song and prayer. It is short and sweet, and I feel like the kids get a lot out of it. 

We soon settled into a new weekday schedule. Brianna and Eowyn did their school work up in their bedroom in the morning because they got too distracted downstairs. I would take the little kids on a walk to this nearby grassy area in the morning to get them out of the way for an hour or so. The schools did this free lunch program where you could drive up and get a free lunch for all kids age 1-18, so Claudia loaded up the van and took the kids to pick them up every day. After lunch was nap/quiet time while I would sneak away and work for an hour or two. The kids ran wild inside and outside in the afternoon, and occasionally we would take the whole gang on a walk/scooter ride (which almost always ended with at least one kid screaming). We subscribed to Disney+ on the day that they announced the school shutdown, so we also got to watch a lot of Disney movies.

One day I took the older kids out for "desert school." Bree had been freaked out because there have been lots of javelina sightings lately, and she had a nightmare where a javelina ate Ethan. I was hoping that teaching them about desert plants and animals would help her not be afraid. I don't know how well it worked, but I sure had fun!

A friend from the ward organized a "bear hunt" where people could leave teddy bears in their front yards for a day. The kids got to walk around for a few blocks seeing how many bears they could spot.

Enjoying their quiet time together

My nice friend heard that Elliot was having me make up homework for him so that he could be cool like his cousins. She kindly donated her kindergartner's optional math worksheets to him.

Our biggest outing since the stay at home order came out was a morning trip to Madera Canyon. The secret waterfall had more water than we have ever seen, but it was way too cold to get in it.

Stephen didn't want Choco to get wet so he carried him across the stream. Choco's wolfish ancestors would probably howl in shame for the pampered pooch

Hands down the best part of having Stephen's family as quarantine buddies was the daily dance parties. Ethan could only speak a handful of words, but he had a few songs that he would ask for by doing specific dance moves. He usually asked to dance to "Monster Moves" or "I Like to Move It" before he went to bed each night and a few more times during the day. I loved these family dance parties so much.


It was super interesting getting Coronavirus updates from Claudia's family members in Spain and Peru. Both countries had much stricter lock down policies than we do in the US, and her family members were constantly telling her that we needed to not leave the house without face masks and to bleach our groceries when we brought them into the house (which we did end up doing). We could still go on walks around the neighborhood, but in Spain and Peru people could get arrested for leaving their houses except to get food once a week.

Aaron is lucky enough to have a job that he is able to do from home. We had to move our home office up to the master bedroom so that he could have a door to lock out the kids, but the transition has worked out great. We love that he gets to eat lunch with us. He will take little breaks throughout the day to chase the kids around and throw them on the bed. Rooms with locks on them became a hot commodity with Aaron and the girls always needing rooms where they can focus without the little kids barging in on them, and a few times I needed to work in the mornings when all the hooligans were awake as well. This led to some creative arrangements.

I was going to just sit on the floor, but Aaron rigged me up this cardboard box desk complete with the iPad as a second screen!

Sadly, Stephen got laid off from his new job at the beginning of the shutdown. He's not the only one we know who lost their job with this crazy worldwide event. He applied to several jobs in the area, but unemployment and uncertainty were at an all time high, and it seemed like no one was hiring. After a week or so, Elizabeth and Kade said they had some work for Stephen up at their house in Nevada. Three months after they got settled in, they loaded up their minivan and made the 14 hour trek to Paradise Valley. Our only consolation for them leaving is that they have to come back at some point because all of their stuff is still here. It has definitely been an adjustment having them gone!

I forced everyone to take this quarantine picture the night before they left

With the fun cousins gone, I had to start actually spending effort figuring out how to entertain my kids. 

I stole this "mission impossible hallway" idea from a friend. Annie's skirt knocked over most of it right away.

Dyeing Easter eggs. All of Annie's turned out green.

My lovely ministering sister dropped off a bag of kid entertainment including balloons

YouTube instructed me on how to turn them into swords (easy) and dogs (not so easy)

"hey girl, want a carrot?"

Our big project as of late was to turn our downstairs office into a 5th bedroom. It became apparent that we could use more space with Stephen and Claudia's family living with us, but even before that there have been times we would have used an extra bed for visitors. The major obstacle was that there was a big entry way to the room with no door. We eventually found a handyman that was willing to come install french doors during the coronavirus lockdown, but it took several weeks for the doors to arrive at Lowes. The morning that the handyman was supposed to come, he called to tell us that he just broke his finger and wouldn't be able to do the job anymore. Luckily we got a great recommendation from our brother-in-law Michael for this guy who ended up being awesome and charged half as much. Elliot and Annie both LOVED him because he let them watch and hand him pencils and whatnot. They pretty much hung out with him all weekend. Aaron decided to do all the painting over the newly installed drywall and doors which ended up being an aggravating project for him, but I am super pleased with how we turned this into a much more functional space! 

Miami with Carlos

We had an awesome opportunity to travel to Miami on a work trip to visit my favorite client! I have been working with Carlos as his bookkeeper for 3 years. About a year ago I started doing more financial advisory work for his business including cash flow forecasting and debt management. We work together really well, and he eventually hired me to help with his personal finances as well. We talk twice a week- once for personal finance and once for business finance. We have become friends through our weekly chats.

Carlos’ business, a software engineering company called Gistia, has an office in Miami but most employees work remotely. He tries to fly company leadership out to meet in person and help build more of a cohesive culture. A few weeks ago, he told me that he really wanted to figure out a way for me to make the trip out to Miami and said he would pay for my ticket and hotel and that Aaron would be welcome to come. We decided to take him up on it! Claudia and Stephen were nice enough to watch Elliot and Annie for us, which was super convenient with them living with us. We left Friday afternoon and came back on Monday night. 

The trip was awesome. We had a mix of time with Carlos and exploring on our own- all without kids, which was so liberating! Even sitting on the airplane was fun. We were able to play a game of Civilization on the computer and read without having to juggle sippy cups and all that. 

Carlos and his wife were great tour guides that made sure we saw a mixture of the classic touristy spots and the "real" Miami where the locals hang out. They are just awesome people who are so easy to talk to. I loved hanging out with them every evening while we were there.

Dinner at Dr Limon with Carlos and Ale- best Peruvian food I have ever had!

We call my dad "Dade" so we had to take plenty of Dadeland pics

Fancy hotel lobby. Honestly, Aaron and I would have been more comfortable in a less fancy hotel. Breakfast was outrageously expensive, so we walked to the grocery store across the street and had our own cereal stash that we ate out of the cups in the hotel room. #fancypeople

View from our hotel room

Saturday morning was spent at Miami beach. We walked along the beach for a long time and then walked along the streets lining the boardwalk. The weather was absolutely perfect, although we did get a bit sunburned. We wanted to try to walk over to where the cruise ships were docked, but my pregnant body needed too many breaks. 

Just me and my best friend going for a stroll on the beach!

What a neat tree

We found a nice butt. I texted this picture to my family and they immediately identified it as a sculpture by Fernando Botero. Clearly I'm the least artistically inclined one in my family

Getting all windswept on a lovely pier. We got to see a guy jump off the pier right by this no diving sign.

Carlos picked us up in his convertible and gave us a tour of his home turf. We kept on nerdily pointing out how awesome the banyan trees are, so he drove over to this golf course that has a ton of them. It is like they drop vines that turn into roots giving them this awesome twisty droopy vibe. We ate lunch at a delicious cuban restaurant and had a blast just chatting with Carlos. Aaron and Carlos really hit it off, which was fun too. We got to hear all about the future business ventures he has in the works. 

Banyan trees galore

We found a local ward to go on Sunday morning. It was a fast and testimony meeting that was completely bilingual! It seemed like there was a very close to 50/50 split between Spanish and English speakers. They had translation headsets available to everyone as they walked into the chapel. People got up and shared their testimonies in both languages. It was way cool!

Afterwards, Aaron and I ventured out to Everglades National Park. We had asked Carlos if he had recommendations about how to best see the Everglades. He said "on YouTube! There are mosquitoes and alligators, why would you want to go?!?" Well we did want to see some gators so we lathered ourselves in bug spray and made the trek. February was an interesting time to go because it is Florida's dry season. That meant that we didn't actually see any mosquitoes, but some of the plants had their leaves off, and the gators weren't as active. It was still definitely worth the trip. 

Another shout out to my Dade

On the way to the Everglades, we had to stop at Robert Is Here. It was part exotic fruit stand, part petting zoo, part cultural experience. Apparently this guy named Robert started a fruit stand here when he was 6 years old in 1959. Business has boomed, and this place is now a hopping tourist destination. 

Robert himself next to some Guanabana! Aaron and I bought a guanabana milkshake, and it was SO GOOD. I wish we had bought some fresh guanabana to try as well. 

Flavored honey tasting station

The petting zoo. Why not?

We heard that gators were more scarce during the winter, but luckily this huge guy was there right by the entrance to the boardwalk loop we went on!

Lots of lily pads

We were hoping to have a "the floor is alligators" experience. This is the closest we got. 7 alligators just hanging out right by the boardwalk!

These water birds called Anhingas do this goofy thing with their wings to dry them. The trail we went on was called Anhinga trail after the birds. It was definitely the right pick for us in terms of how much we were able to see in a short period of time.

We had some time to kill on Monday morning before our flight home. I found a place where you can kayak in a lagoon that supposedly has manatees in it. It ended up being a major highlight of the trip. 

I love kayaking

We only had to wait 5 minutes for our first manatee spotting! We saw 3 or 4 total (hard to tell if we were seeing new ones or if the same ones were moving around)

Manatees are so chill. The water is murky enough that we could only see them when they come up for air.

Miami beach as seen from our little lagoon

After our hour rental was up, we walked along another nearby beach. They had trails along the beach and also in some foresty areas. I was successful in terrifying Aaron by pretending that I saw an alligator when I was leading the way through a more overgrown part of the trail. I felt a little guilty for almost giving him a heart attack. 

A dead jellyfish!

A baby tree growing out of a coconut!

We got home after everyone had already gone to sleep. We were greeted by this sign on our bedroom door...

And all of Elliot and Annabelle's underwear hung up on our ceiling fan! We about died laughing. Apparently Bree balanced our rocking elephant toy on the bed and stood on it to get the underwear up there. 

Post trip bribery ice cream for these two

We promised the kids that we would take them out for ice cream if they were good while we were gone. Apparently it worked great. Whenever Annie asked where we were, Claudia would tell her that we were on a trip and Annie would say "Mommy and Daddy going on trip to get ice cream for me!" They were plenty distracted by their fun cousins. 

This trip was awesome, and I'm really grateful to Carlos for bringing us out and to Claudia for holding down the fort while we were gone!