FHE - Pictionary

We had another game night tonight with the kids. Tonight we played Pictionary. 

Corey was the moderator. Sophi Natalie and Daniel were Team motorcycle, using a whistle that Daniel brought home today from school (that we all want to throw away). Abi Owen Peter and I were Team bunny. 

The Bunny, the Bunny, Ooh I love the bunny. That was our team song. This wasn't quite AP Pictionary, cause Corey was moderating so he just held K. If he had been trying to play too, then it would have been AP. This was a little bit advanced though, because the three little boys were playing. But since they were evenly spread, it was ok. Owen was really good, but Peter balanced him out since they were both on our team. Owen did a good drawing of a toaster, but it looked like a Thanksgiving Turkey with those little white things over the drumstick feet, so that threw us off, but luckily Team Motorcycle wasn't having much luck drawing it either. Four Eyes was one that I got. Same thing - I didn't know what else to draw, so we just waited until they eventually said it. Abi finally guessed it, then we all started to quote Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs "Four eyes! Four eyes! You need glasses to see-ee!" Abi drew a very good priest and a very good drawing for "stomach" too, but I didn't get either of those. I did say every other word for them: pope! Bishop! Clergy! Ummm, confessions? Orthodox! Catholic! And for stomach I said tummy, belly, chest, abdomen, etc. I didn't say intestines. Peter drew wonderful pictures of planet, giraffe, cow, and elephant. He was so careful with his art that we usually had to look over at the other teams pictures to guess. We didn't get any of those though. Team Motorcycle was in the lead with some rolls of 6 and 5 on the dice, and The Bunny's team got lots of ones. But eventually we caught up, passed them, and we arrived at the finish line first. The Motorcyclists were only 5 squares behind and we were drawing to the death! 

Sophi and Natalie were actually being so crazy and noisy. They were having a marker fight and kept trying to draw on each other's faces. But since this wasn't scriptures and we weren't trying to give spiritual instruction, that's was ok.

(even if it was a bit obnoxious). I'm glad they were having fun. As we came to the end of the game, the kids were totally screaming and thumping their chests. Team Motorcycle won with this amazing drawing of a dinosaur by Natalie. 

Natalie wanted to draw cause she said Sophi was better at guessing. And that strategy proved true. Well played, good game. I'm sure we'll be having a rematch soon. 

So that was fun. A few other items. Cute picture of Katharine playing with a spy glasses thing that folds up, she opened it up over and over again this morning at breakfast and would say "Hello?" using it as a flip phone. So cute and funny. Her sweet little voice kills me, it is so cute.

Had a phone call with Wes. All his older siblings joined in plus Corey and I. It's nice to gather, even if it is just virtually.

Yesterday was a really nice day of rest too. It snowed, but that's not unexpected in Utah during the spring. I guess once we get into May, people are a little more irritated by it, but s'allright. I was glad we got a bike ride in on Saturday, since it will probably be a week before this is all dried up. Yesterday we stayed at home and I took a long nap and I cleaned up throw up from yesterday that I didn't know about. The kids had mentioned it and Abi sent me a pic over her phone to let me know there was a mess in the front room by the ottoman, but I didn't see it and so only got to it today. The kids watched Prince of Egypt, Peter said it's going to give him nightmares (killing the babies part). The girls all loved watching Young Victoria. I watched it for a few minutes, I liked it, made me want to learn more about Victoria and Albert. Abi made dinner and macaroons, we read scriptures earlier than usual, cousin Sam opened his mission call - he's going to Peru! And then on Sunday night I stayed up late blogging, buuut... I got distracted a bit with facebook and a post in my feed of mom's commenting on comments shared in this Instagram post of the Church referring to Camille Johnson's talk at BYU Women's Conference. Seems like people are quick to be stirred up to contention. Ugh I'd hate to be a public figure and have people always giving their negative opinions on things I say. I'd probably crumble, I'm not built for war. I'm happy to be here safe in our little village while Corey goes to war and goes hunting everyday. I'm also content to be a lurker and one that very rarely makes comments over fb or instagram anymore. I did a few times years ago and it didn't go well, so I retreated mostly. But blogging is a way I enjoy sharing my thoughts and feelings for my kids to read in their future lives as they grow into adults. I'll probably post something about that IG post later on my spiritual blog, which I'd like to use more. I have mostly been putting pen to paper with spiritual things, but I do try to write up when I make the time. It was a good day, things are going well. Goodnight

Weekend Activities

Corey made the kids french toast this morning, and after K ate, I took her up to change her diaper and then she threw up her breakfast. Luckily, I was holding her, and I've got some wicked fast mother reflexes and I protected all the carpet and caught it on her, myself, and a rice bag that I was holding. Into the tub she went. I rinsed off our clothes and the rice bag, but the rice bag can't go into the laundry. It might be ruined now, but I put it outside to dry, we'll see. If it's ruined I have two others. I use those  almost every night to either prop myself up if I lay on my side or behind my neck and sometimes up my spine if I lay on my back. I like it better than pillows. So, with K sick, we made a change of plans for the day. Abi and Lily had to take the bus to GMS, which was sad for them, but we needed both cars. Hyrum has been our soccer helper the past few weekends, but today he was in St. George with Mel. We were going to have everyone (SNODPK) go to soccer and the trumpet recital, so that plan was changed. I had Sophi stay home gets to be our babysitter again, like yesterday. K went down for a nap, S stayed with her, and I took NODP to a Primary Activity which was so cute. They made little cars and talked about driving on the covenant path. They had a little drive through movie at the end when I was there to pick them up. It was really cute to see.

Corey left at 11:15 and picked up Owen for his 12 o'clock game. I was at the church 20 min later to get NDP. Showing me their cars. 

After the 1st half of his game was over, I took Owen and we went with N&P to his trumpet recital. He changed his clothes in the car and warmed up on the drive over. We were just a little later than she asked (12:50 instead of 12:45) but he was able to tune fine. Cheeks are still pink from working hard at his game!

Playing Ode to Joy - video here.

He is a very good little trumpeter. Abi and I have tried to play the trumpet and neither of us know how he is able to make a sound on that thing. It's impressive. Quick photo with other students in Kyra's studio. 

 

I didn't bring any treats for the pot luck refreshments after, sorry! Just couldn't swing it all today. And I'm also sorry that my 3 kids that came with me took more than their fair share. Corey stayed with D for his game which was at 1. Corey said that Daniel scored a goal, and after he did he cheered and shouted to Corey: "Now we get to go to Wendy's!" The parents all thought that was funny. Since Corey and I were taking care of our quiver all day, we didn't workout in the morning, but Corey got a text from a friend in the neighborhood, they've been going back and forth about doing a ride together sometime. They decided today to do a long ride and bike from home out on the BST to Corner Canyon. I didn't want to do all that, and they didn't want to bike home, so we made a plan. I drove out and parked at Coyote Hollow and that way I was able to give them a ride home. They told me that they biked up Rocky Mouth and then to BST all the way to CC from there! Impressive. I only knew how to get on BST from Hidden Valley. Rocky Mouth had some wicked switchbacks, but Corey did Parley's trail ok, so he probably was good. So I parked at Coyote Hollow and then did Rush the end, then over to BST until I met up with them. Corey did 15.14 miles, 2 hours 1 min, and he got 26 achievements on Strava, like a Gold for Fly by night to Rush. He also wiped out right at the beginning of rush and got a good rash on his left leg, ouch! Totals for me: 8.99 miles, 1 hour 16 min, 14 achievements, like Silver on Brocks (4.44, PR was 4:29 on 6/24/23) Rushing Corners (1:38, PR 1:28 on 11/13/23) Quite a few Silvers on the Rush downhill so that's cool! PR on Chainless Rush (from the Ghost Falls jump in to almost the end?) 3:29, Previous PR was 11/13/23 3:32, 21 efforts doing that. Also a PR for Lower Rush, .3 miles in 57 seconds, 65 efforts on that, so that's fun! After that Corey, Rob and I also went to the jump track and did a few rounds, I want to learn how to jump. I got air twice and it was terrifying but I'm glad I didn't fall! I don't know how people keep their feet on the bike when they're floating? Or how you know where you're landing when you put them back down. I just got lucky today. I am going to go try that little jump track again. It will be fun to learn. That would make sense to get clips for that, but I should probably get better first. Anyway, that was really fun. Corey also had a good wipeout right as we were starting down Rush. Tore up his left leg a little bit but he rode the rest of the trail great. 

Bike, Lunch, & Debate

We took Katharine on a ride again yesterday. I wasn't planning on her coming, but Corey opened the opportunity for her and then he felt he had to and seemed like he wanted to. He wasn't being quiet like about it like I am. I quietly sneak out the basement, but he was rather inviting the opportunity. Ok, I guess we'll be going slow today. We hadn't even started when she wanted him to fix her gloves.

Then he had to keep helping her take them off then put them back on during various stages of the ride...

Gotta keep the toddler as happy as possible or else the ride is doomed. I was reluctant to bring her. I wanted to sneak away and leave her with the older kids, cause I knew she wouldn't make it to the techy section and I wanted to do techy. Corey was nice and after we all made it to the third bridge, they headed back home on the road and I finished going to Techy section. She didn't fall asleep today and did great! Good job K - 

We may have a future mountain biking star on our hands, once she figures out how to be ok with bumps and going over rocks. 

So our 30 year high school reunion is coming in up August. Crazy, 30 years. I was at the bank last week opening an account for the reunion, for us to use to sell tickets and to pay for the venue and stuff. The guy at the bank, as he checked my ID, noticed it was almost my birthday, said "happy birthday" and then let me know that my drivers license was expiring that day. Doh! If I had gotten a renewal in the mail, I never saw it. So I scheduled an appointment online. I had a few days with an expired license but I was able to go in yesterday to get that taken care of. Peter and K playing in the DMV line - which thankfully was open at the moment. 

My appt was at 10:10 and by 10:26 we were back in the car. In and out in 16 minutes - not bad! 

Today was a full day - Corey and I left for Provo at 12 to take Joseph and Eliza out to lunch at 1. We were all late and were sitting down at 1:20. BYU's Women's Conference was going on and we were surprised but grateful that it wasn't busy. We enjoyed a nice meal. It was a "congrats on graduating and getting engaged" date with them. We decided to take him to the Skyroom in Provo cause that is where Melodie works - 

AND cause today was the last day that the Skyroom will be open. Mel brought us our food and we enjoyed the meal very much and had a nice visit. Ethan and Bella went out to eat there yesterday to say their goodbye to the Skyroom .

Joseph and Ethan are grateful for Mel working there, cause she often took them leftovers, thus helping them survive another year of poor college life on a diet other than top ramen. 

Joseph and Eliza will be going to The Ohio State for Medical school in August right after our Wride reunion at Park City this summer. I brought Joseph his ski boots cause he's going to sell them. He's been trying to figure out how to make ends meet until then (and that will continue to be the story for the next decade plus I'm sure) Joseph is thinking he might try painting house numbers on curbs? Or maybe will be able to work for my parents or Eliza's uncle up in Idaho. Exciting decisions and years ahead for these two! We finished off with some dessert - a strawberry cheesecake thing, interesting looking!

It was a strawberry fondant mold with the cheesecake inside on top of a brownie. We hung out a bit until Mel was done and she gave us some extra steak and desserts to take home to the little kids, yay, and also gave us a ride back to our car. We came down in Corey's car. I left the van home for Abi and Lily to take to GMS, after they dropped off Hyrum at frontrunner. He and Mel are on their way to St. George for the weekend. Hyrum didn't come down with us, though, cause we needed him to stay home and watch P&K until Sophi got home. Then S was in charge of all the kids while A&L took H to the train. It was a bit tricky figuring out logistics today. This lunch date was our date "night" though - so this evening I just have been up here blogging. I took Corey back over to his dad's house after Provo, so that I could have his car to go pick up Natalie at the State Debate Championship. Took C back to his dad's to work, I had his car to pick up N and her freind from a Debate thing. She got a ride over their with her friend from school. It was a long one again, from 3:00 to 8pm. 

Natalie took home a trophy this time too. She won 2nd place in State!

Good job Natalie! Let's see, that's about it for the past two days. We have a primary activity and soccer  games and a trumpet recital tomorrow. Always busy. Oh, one more picture - K thew up at 1:30 am last night/early this morning. She was with Natalie up on her bed, and threw up on Natalie and N's blankets and pillow. So her first throw up was on Tues May 1st, Throw up #2 was at 1am this morning, then she threw up again tonight at 8:20 pm. I guess it's good I was home and not out on a date. Hopefully this was her last one? She's holding back, I don't think she's letting all the sickness get out hence why she's still got it inside her. She's been taking a lot of baths.

I had carpool this morning, then getting kids off to school and lunch date - so Corey and I hadn't exercised yet. I told him I wanted to go climbing, and it is open until 11pm M-F, so it's just past 9pm,  which is a bit late for us, but we're going to go climb real quick. Corey and I have done all our biking and climbing togehter this week! (Well, I did one extra climbing session on Friday, but we've done pretty good doing it together. Go team. Oh, one last pic of cure Owen that Ethan sent tonight. Ethan has been working on the House 2 for a few months. He says he's close to being done. Should be fun. 

Owen, you are cute!

Kat's Turn

Look at Cute Katharine! This cute pic was tonight after her 3rd (4th?) bath for the day.  

Natalie did her hair and let me know that she likes it when K's hair is more whispy. I guess we can do that. K is wearing boots that Wes sent back from Texas with Mark! He found them at a thrift store and got them for Peter but they are a bit too small for Peter. We'll try to get K to wear them enough to get use out of them, or we'll save them for Wesley's kids to wear. They are super cute with a Texas flag on them! Aww, cute. I was glad that K seemed to be well today, cause the morning started off a bit rough. She threw up in her bed at 5:30 am. I'm glad that I had moved out of her bed around 2 and I was spared. It wasn't much of a mess... she hadn't eaten much dinner, just a clementine. Still, she did NOT like not being in control of herself!

This involuntary reaction, boo! She threw up again in the tub and seemed to be trying to keep it down and not let it out. It was sad, poor thing doesn't know what's going on. 

She loved being in the kid's bathroom. The water there works a little better than the faucet in our room, to control volume and temperature, so maybe I'll give her baths in here more. She stayed in the tub for a long time, but eventually I put on a movie for her and Corey and I snuck out for a ride while Hyrum got kids to school for me. Abi stayed home sick so she was able to help a little bit too. They put K down for a nap in my bed, and when she woke up at 10, she had a big blowout that I got on my bed, so I had to wash our sheets too, and that was K's bath #2. So it was a laundry and stay at home day, and that's ok. Corey and I did sneak off to do top rope at 8pm and that was fun. We were able to make our get away cause K was in the tub again, Lily watching her. We've been trying to do all our exercising together, for climbing and biking. We'll see if we're able to keep that up in the summer. I'm glad we're still climbing! I hope that K's sickness does not mean that we're about to start another round of throwing up for everyone. Hopefully it's just her checking off her turn from the sickness we had going around here two weeks ago. I'm glad she seemed fine the rest of the day. She's a cutie pie.

Good to Get Outside

At church on Sunday, a good friend, Stephani said we should take our kiddo's to the park on Tuesday, so we did! We met up and let them play at the playground, and had a little lunch under a cottonwood tree, and as we visited I asked her if she'd ever been down into the gully? She hadn't, and I told her about the little creek, so we figured that would be a good place to have our dessert. We walked down, the kids were so cute, and it was magical.

It was just perfect for the kids - out of a Huckleberry Fin story. It was so fun to see them play with rocks, sticks, and water, and the wrappers from their cookies - they used them as little pouches to hold the water from the stream and give themselves showers. 

They got dirty and wet and didn't want to leave, and it was great. Stephani and I had a great visit and it was so good to catch up. We finally did convince the kids to hike back up to the park, where we had round 2 at the playground.

Say cheese!

Corey came home around 6 and took all the kids with him to volunteer at the Sandy Crops garden. Daniel and I came after he was done at practice. I was surprised about how much our kids all loved it. Something about being out in nature and getting your hands dirty! And your face!

That cute picture of Katharine made their facebook page!

So it was a good get out in nature day for all of us. And they got otter pops after finishing their work at the crop garden. 

One other item from today - I was on the phone today with Wesley. Yesterday was his preparation day, but today they called to let me know that he's had a few choking incidents (I was aware of one of them) and the mission nurse and area doctor are recommending he get an endoscopy done. They said maybe he'd come home for a few days to get it done here, so I'm going to call insurance tomorrow to check out coverage, but I know we have a high deductible that I'm sure we won't meet, and having it go toward the deductible is the only reason for him to come do it here, but I don't think that's worth him being here for 5 days. I'll probably recommend looking into him just getting it done there in Abilene. Although it would have been fun to see him, but I don't want him to lose momentum, so yeah I'm calling our insurance tomorrow and we'll be figuring that for what to do to help him. They said he's like choked 5 or 6 times, so yes, definitely will be good to get it taken care of. I wonder if that is what happened when he choked as a 2 year old? I can't find if I blogged that here anywhere, but it was a scary moment in August 2007 when I was 8 month pregnant with Abi and we had just moved into the Crosswood house - Corey and I were talking in the kitchen I don't know about what, he had been in the side room next to it playing with a Blokus game and then came up to us and kinda pulled my shirt to get our attention and he was choking, we tried the heimlich maneuver and he was still choking, lips started to turn blue and eyes rolled back, I called out to God in urgent prayer and I just was shoving my finger in his mouth down his throat to get whatever it was out and he was biting my finger hard and then he took a big gasp of air. Corey took him to the ER after that, it was scary and they did an xray but didn't find anything, so that is something that we're going to ask God about when we get to heaven, cause we don't even know what he was choking on or what happened. I also thought many times about what would have happened if none of us had been in the room with him? I just would have walked in found him dead on the floor. The other time that happened was when we were in Brazil, pregnant with Owen, I ended up tripping as I ran out to help, and Wes was ok but then I went to the ER to check on the baby cause I landed on my stomach. So that's one of the flashback memories we always remember when we talk about Wes choking. I know that eventually we do not get to escape death, but I'm glad he didn't die that day, or two other times. We've pointed out to Wes before that he's eluded death a few times. We're in God's hands, He is in charge.

FHE - 5000

We do a pretty good job at reading scriptures at night together as a family, with some discussion on current events, but Lily pointed out recently that we don't do a FHE activity on Monday nights. So, tonight we repented of that and we FORCED everyone to sit down and play a game. They tried to scatter, but we told them to park themselves on the bench cause we're having family time. I was lobbying for the Utah version of Monopoly "Utah-opoly" but I was out voted. I admit it would have involved a learning curve since most of the kids have never played it, plus it would have been AP Monopoly cause Katharine was crawling around on the table. So everyone said let's just play 5000. 5000 it is. I got dice, Katharine went for them, but luckily I had about 30 extra that we gave her instead of the 5 we were using. 

Look at us having family time, yay

Roll the dice and hope you get 1s and 5s! Or a large straight!

There was one player who got real lucky this game, with some triple dices and even three 1s for 1000 points. Corey was the only one who got a straight but it wasn't enough to keep him ahead of Peter! 

So Peter won that game. Then we did BS, Lily taught us that one. There were a few tears shed when the boys took the BS calls a little too personally, but it was good. We probably need to do a bit more of this to help the boys toughen up their emotions. It was good, and we're just gonna keep things simple for now, we will do a game again next Monday. Maybe next Sunday too! We played games last night so we did two days in a row! Impressive. 

Other fun things from today - Corey and I took a ride with Joseph and Eliza this morning. We all made it to the first bridge then they headed back home to get ready to go back to Provo. Corey and I went up to the techy section, then had to hurry back cause I was late for a RS meeting. 

We were able to do that cause Abi was home to help. Abi Lily and Sophi didn't have school cause it was a teacher work day, so it was nice to have them around. Well, Abi was helpful. Lily was gone on a hike all day, Sophi aka sleeping beauty was getting her beauty rest. Abi got some too when I went climbing around 2. I appreciate these big kid helpers, and they don't mind helping. They all love Katharine.

So I got in two recreational activities today, woot! It's for my mental health. We had a good phone call with Wes today. He's going good. Life is good.

It's My Birthday

I got to wear this shirt around the house today, cause it's my birthday.

I stole the shirt from Ethan's pile of stuff that is still in the basement. He got it on his mission. We were missing an “8” candle so we made due with some math multiplication, haha. It was a good day! Everyone singing to me ~

I wore the shirt before church ~ Abi helped do my hair. I just thought she was going to touch it up but then she kept curling everything. I felt like a queen with my attendant serving me, and that's ok since "it's my birthday." 

I took that pic for my BeReal, and Ethan commented "That's my shirt". And sent me this realmoji ~

This was Ethan's BeReal (they were in the car on their way up? or maybe on their way to church) 

Quite hilarious, what a facial character. He better be careful - what if he messes up his teeth doing this hamster look? Or what if the wind changes and makes his face freeze - then it will be permanent! Funny boy. So, then we all got dressed and out the door for church. LOVED the hymns, talks and lesson today I can't find my notes at the moment, but basic take away - We haven't messed up so bad that Christ can't help us with ANYTHING. Bro Clark shared a time when he got laid off, he didn't tell his wife yet, at church people didn't know, but he was given a blessing that was a huge comfort. People might not know what we're going through (it's not a surgery or pregnancy that people are aware of) but God knows, he will helps us. Our job is to not murmur, like the children of Israel did at the red sea, and to not question the Lord's care, like the apostles did in the raging tempest... Our job is to FEAR NOT and to Go forward. God will help us. Whatever big problem we think we have, like Joseph Smith trying to come up with $3000 to pay for the printing of the Book of Mormon, IT IS SMALL and easy for our great God. HE IS ABLE. That's kinda thought that I'd be having this whole past week. Loved the Follow Him Podcast with Gerrit Dirkmaat start at 12:45, so good. I'm going to paste this here from the show notes for that episode cause I loved it - 

"Now, Martin Harris is a well-off guy. Joseph Smith comes from the bottom rung of society. His family's so poor that while they're translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph's family is going to lose their home. Joseph himself with his farm down in Harmony can't make the payments on it. Martin Harris is a well-off guy, and the Lord has commanded Joseph to bring forth the Book of Mormon to the world. There is no discernible way that Joseph can do that. To give you an idea: when Joseph finally gets the quote on how much it is to publish the Book of Mormon, and by the way, he's got to pay upfront, it is $3,000. Now, that sounds like a lot if you're a BYU professor, but for a lot of people listening, $3,000 doesn't seem like a whole lot maybe in our world. But in their world, the average person makes somewhere around $200 to $250 a year. Joseph bought a farm in Harmony that was almost 14 acres with a farmhouse on it, and apparently some other outbuildings and a well, the trees are already cut down on a lot of it, so it's already farmable. He buys that 14-acre farm and house for $200. 14:58 The cost of printing the Book of Mormon is 15 times Joseph Smith's entire net worth if he did own his home, which he doesn't, because he can't make the payments on his own home. To put that in our perspective today, the Lord is essentially saying that you need to come up with, in a lump sum, 15, 16, 17 times the amount of money you make annually. That seems impossible. To me, it's impossible. I would have to have an angel come to tell me to believe that I could do that. Martin Harris not only is the only person who believes Joseph: he's the only means whereby Joseph can even perceive that there's any way this could possibly be published."

So that is why Joseph asked the Lord so many times to let Martin take the manuscript, cause he was trying to figure it out this big financial concern, and that was the only way he could see that it would be possible to pay for the Book of Mormon publishing (and it did end up being the way it was published, by Martin mortgaging his farm.) But Joseph was told to not give Martin the manuscript of the translation, and later is chastised in Doctrine and Covenants 3 for his carnal desires! Continuing to quote the podcast 23:10

"And it starts out with this: "The works and designs and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught; for God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth He turn to the right nor to the left, neither doth He vary from that which He has said." Verse three: "Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men." He goes on to chastise Joseph pretty severely. Because Joseph had made this covenant and he'd broken it. And why had Joseph broken it? In Joseph's world, he couldn't possibly see any way that he could maintain the publication of the Book of Mormon without Martin Harris. That is impossible. And it's not like I've got people falling off the back of milk wagons everywhere believing the things that I'm saying. No one is believing me. Outside of my own family, who have no money at all, no one believes me at all. No one. I have to do this for Martin or I won't even be able to do what God wants me to do. The Lord says, "For although a man may have many revelations and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength and sets at not the counsels of God," the counsels of God told him multiple times not to take them, "and he follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires," this is not a reference to Joseph carnally wanting something sinful. Carnal as in earthly. Your focus was, how could I possibly pay for this? I understand why you have that focus, and as God, I told you not to have that focus. Carnal desires. “He must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon you. Behold, you have been entrusted with these things, but how strict were your commandments; remember also the promises that you've made: that if you did not transgress them," and then probably the biggest stinger, "Behold, how oft have you transgressed the commandments and laws of God and have gone on in the persuasions of men?" Boy, at this point in Joseph's life, it took him four years to get the plates because he just couldn't overcome all of the pressures of the world around him; and then he finally gets them and those pressures of the world are still there. 25:39 Verse seven: "For behold, you should not have feared man more than God. You should have been faithful, and He would have extended His arm and supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary, and He would have been with you in that time of trouble."

  

So, we are in a bit of a time of trouble, but we will trust, we will go forward, we will not be fearful, we will show God where our faith is. It is in him, we trust in his plan and in his tender care. When I find my notes from yesterday I'll put the hymns that touched me too, cause each sacrament hymn, the opening and closing and sacrament all had a line that helped me have hope and feel trust. 

So, back at home, after being spiritually fed, I put on the shirt again. Mel was here from last night, Ethan and Bella came up again (so nice) and Joseph and Eliza who have been in St. George arrived around 6:30. My mom brought over the cake (from Schmidts Bakery) and a few other deluxe cookies and pastries from Schmidts (almond cookies are my fav) so I ate the cookies yesterday and we had cake and ice cream today. And two big salads. Corey's dad came by earlier and I sent him home with two eclairs and a maple bar. My mom and Dad came around 5:30, then Neil and Amy and their daughter Eliza came down for my party around 7. We did a little bit of dancing in the side room (wedding prep, ha!) - we did the Napoleon Dynamite Dance, followed by some Just Dance - YMCA, Spaceship, and Dynamite, and then had food and played games. 

We played Great Dalmuti, which I probably haven't played since Snow College before my mission. And they also brought a Rubik's Race game that the kids all liked. It was fun, it was so nice of them to come down. I caught up a little bit on the blog, which is why it's almost midnight, but I'm in the zone right now... I'm still not done with December, but I'm closer! Gotta finish it before April is over! J and Eliza are sleeping over tonight, and we're going to go on a ride in the morning, so that will be fun! It was a good birthday. 

Kindergarten Orientation & Playdates

Peter had his kindergarten orientation today!

All the kindergarteners are so cute. We had a meeting and then the kids got to go see the classroom while the parents stayed to hear more logistics and stuff. Katharine stayed with me, but she was glad when we went to see the classroom. They had such a cute little "house play" area set up! It would be fun to get a washing machine and all the other house stuff.

It'd be so fun to have all that stuff here! But I guess, since we don't have them, that might make it more special when they get to go to school and see and play with them there. I shall try to resist the desire to buy all the fun stuff - like the stage and costumes and props at Thanksgiving Point. I told Corey I wanted to make one in our basement, he said "Or, you could just go there?" Yeah, that probably makes more sense. Then K found some number counting pop it boards. Katharine hard at work

Pop, pop...

Peter was playing legos, but soon he was with Katharine - they really liked those. 

So I can hardly believe that I'm sending another one off to Kindergarten. The marriage didn't shake me up, but I think when I send my last kiddo off to school, that's when I'll have a real "Where did the years go" moment. And I won't know the answer, but I can come here and look on the blog to remember all the things we did. Some of it is big and eventful, and most of it is just the crazy run around of life - which was what today was like. After Corey and I dropped off carpool, we had fun at Momentum doing top rope this morning, our third time in a row going together! (Thanks Hyrum for watching the little ones for us) Hyrum actually slept in on accident and thus so did Daniel, so after we were done climbing, I took C to his dad's house, then home to take Daniel in to school. After I checked him in, I went straight to the credit union to deposit some $, and to open an account for our 30 year reunion (!!) and then to Costco to get treats for Owen and Daniel to take to their soccer games tomorrow. Then home, unload the car, Sophi came home with a friend from school and they had a playdate (is it still called a playdate if they are in middle school? Probably not - just "hanging out") and then O&D got home from school, sent them straight to activity days, Natalie didn't come home cause she was having a playdate at Hadley's house, then took Peter to Kindergarten Orientation, P and K didn't want to leave that but we hurried home to meet another friends of Daniel's who was on her way over. Kids played, I tried to get ready for my date with Corey, and cleaned up for a little bit. Friend was late being picked up, but that's ok. Went to get Corey, we went out to Beaumont Bistro for dinner, Ethan and Bella came up tonight and are hanging out with us tomorrow. They were up for a wedding. When they told us they were going to sleep over, we decided to hurry to Costco, and we got there before it closed and found a blow up mattress - there were mostly one big box that was $129, and then there was another small box of what looked like mostly the same thing... we took both boxes to check out - the smaller one was on a deep discount for $50! Yay, so that was a blessing. God is looking out for us. He helps us with all the big and small. I might like a little more help with the big, but when he's there in the small stuff, it is nice to get a reassurance that he cares. I felt that tonight with that good deal, feeling grateful that we went to the Costco in Murray cause the other might not have had that! At home, got E and B set up, and we had a fun discussion at scriptures. Abi made blueberry muffins that everyone loved, especially Corey. Turns out he really LOVES blueberry muffins, which I don't think I was aware of. The kids got crumbs all over, Hyrum helped me sweep. As we moved the stools out from under the island, Katharine came and did some counter hanging!

I think we gotta little climber on our hands!

Katharine will be a good kid to have as our caboose, cause she's going to go biking with us AND climbing!

Yay! Katharine is excited and we're excited too!