Training K or Bust!

It is time. Corey has wanted Katharine potty trained for a while. I haven't really cared. I know she's smart enough, she's just lazy, and I have been lazy too. Before our weekend trip to St. George, I told Corey that I will train her, but only if we get the carpets cleaned this year. He agreed. I haven't scheduled it yet, but I plan to have them cleaned during Park City when everyone is gone. That used to be an annual tradition, but sadly has not happened the past 3 years. Let me see... they were done in 2018, 2019, 2020, and ugh that's all I can find! Have we not done it since 2020!?!? Not sure why I've been thinking it's only 3 years that we've missed, maybe it's been 4... so not in 2021, 22, 23, 24, but it will be done in 2025. Maybe I stopped washing carpet during the Park City week in 2021 cause that was the first year I fully embraced biking in Park City? Haha and I didn't want to miss out. Our First experiment with bike rides was in 2020, then we've been getting more hardcore each year since then. But I will take a day off this year if it means getting clean carpets while the kids are all gone. It will be good. I'm impressed the carpets look decent at all considering all they've been put through these past few years. Ok. So we are in agreement: time to train K and get the carpets clean.

So we were gone in St. George over Sunday and Monday night. I told Mel I would not leave K in underwear for her, cause that just wouldn't be nice when she was doing us a favor to babysit. K, you get diapers for a few more days, but we're starting when I get back! True to my word, we got back Tuesday afternoon and so yesterday morning, I sat her on the potty after she woke up. She was dry, and she's dry most every morning, so let's get this first one out of the way to know how it's supposed to happen. Kathairne sat for an hour, but nothing. I let her get off from sitting and put her in a thick training pants and some pink Bluey underwear. Katharine was not thrilled about it. She wanted a diaper. She went and got a diaper and followed me around wanting me to put it on. Nope, I'm sorry sweetie! It's time for you to face your first great trial of growing up. No more peeing wherever you want whenever you want. She was sad. We sat on the stairs and cried about it for a bit. 

I sent a video to her siblings, asking for their prayers for K as she faces this first great step in overcoming the natural man. You can do this K! (and I can do it too!) She wouldn't wear the underwear at first but eventually relented and put it on, since I wouldn't do the diaper. Yesterday I ended up cleaning up four #1 messes and one #2, none of it was very bad. Did three loads of laundry. I did it willingly and with a cheerful attitude. She'll figure this out. 

I was just looking back at the blog - potty training for this girl started when I first introduced the idea in August 2024, gosh has it been a year?? That was when we got the potty cleaned up and set out in our bathroom and I had her try sitting in September. She welcomed it as an excuse to get free candy and an hour of screen time. But now it's getting real. Accidents all day yesterday and no success, but guess what happened this morning!! Katharine, show us what happened!

And there she is pointing at a very full toddler toilet! If you zoom in you'll see a very high water line. I think she probably didn't fully release all her #1 yesterday (prob a little stressed and unable to fully relax) but this morning she sat and sat and I made oatmeal and lunch for Corey and right after they left (Corey taking Lily to Drivers ed, her last day of class, yay) I heard Katharine call from upstairs that she did it! And SHE DID!!! I think she relaxed enough that she peed all the pee from yesterday. I am SO glad that that wasn't all let go on the carpet somewhere, cause that would have been a lot. We are so proud of you Katharine! Let's keep it up! Go team. 

Still Gone

So Abi is back home, yay, but now she's still gone all the time like she used to be. Yesterday we arrived home around 1, she hung with us while she unpacked and did laundry and stuff, then she took her sisters to the store, and then went to her friends house to hang with them before her bff twin leaves for a trip. Last night, Ethan asked for her to come down to Provo to help him with something, so she was gone all day again. I took her to frontrunner cause I needed the van to pick up Lily from Driver's Ed (this is the last week, yay). I took her to the train at 10 and picked her up around 4:30. She said that she got a picture with Kalani Sitake! Fun!

She said they were directing traffic or something. It was for some entreprenuer thing that Ethan is involved with. The thing she was helping with was from 11 - 3. 

I guess I should ask her or Ethan for more details, rather than just calling it "the thing". 

Lily had drivers ed this morning, then two drives with her instructor, from 11:30-12:30, then again from 1-2. It's crunch time for her, to try and get everything in. Tonight we were going to go on a bike ride and hike with a neighbor family that is new in the neighborhood and Owen is friends with the son in school. We just found out they live close by. Owen's been going over there almost everyday to play. So it was going to be the guys biking and us moms and the little kids exploring the rocks and stuff, but then a slight change of plans made it so it was just Corey and their dad, and Owen and his friend. They are new in the neighborhood, so we took them up to show them the Quarry trail so they could ride down it and see where to park, and yea just get familiar with a few local areas. They are a really nice family. I dropped them off at the top and they rode down, they parked their car at the trailhead, and Corey and Owen biked home. I dropped them off at Lisa, and usually they just go down from there, but today they went up a bit to the ruins! Owen said it was beautiful, and that was one of his first times doing a climb at all, and he did great! Good job Owen. We have hopes that he will join us in our love for biking. 

The girls had YW but since I was late getting back from taking the guys biking, the girls didn't end up going. Lily was making dinner (using recipes that she gathered over the weekend to make dinner every night). Corey gave them his bday money from my mom to buy the groceries. We're in a real pinch still, or "at the moment". Taking a day at a time with that. I hope we survive.

Crop Garden

Today we went to the crop garden like we did in April last year. Corey is the Elder's Quorum president, and when they didn't get people from the ward to volunteer, we were an easy choice to fill in for the job. Cause we have a lot of helping hands. They put Sophi and Lily to work punching holes in a drip line...

The little kids were told to each grab gloves and a hand shovel, and we (NODPK and I) worked in a bed planting green bell peppers first - taking the cups with the starters  in them and putting one plant at each emitter...

Katharine did great at that! Natalie Owen and Daniel did a good job digging, and Peter collected the cups after. 

After we did the green bell peppers, we moved on to planting a bed of cantaloupe starters, and then Anaheim peppers. Lily was working hard punching holes in the drip line. It was her nemesis...

Sophi waiting patiently for Lil to finish the hole so she can put in the emitter. 

Lily was working hard and her hands were getting sore from punching the line. She had to yell to finish the last 10 or so holes on the line. "This is SO HARD!!! BUT I WILL WIN!! I WILL NOT GIVE UP!!!"

I took the kids down alone while Corey finished work, and then he joined us and we picked weeds for a while in the tomatillo beds. 

It was fun working in a garden. I'd like a garden someday if our home ever allows for it. I tried here at this house, but it just didn't work with the deer that pass through our yard. They ate all my plants, so I tried one year and then didn't try again. Maybe I could plant stuff in my dad's garden if I really want to do it again, but I'm ok with Costco for now. After working tonight, Sophi said as she talked about her instagram cottage life in the future: "I wanted a garden at my house so I could cook with fresh natural ingredients, but after tonight, I don't think I want to work this hard..." haha, that kinda made me laugh. Corey said "You don't like the law of the harvest!?!?" I'm glad she sees that there's a lot of hard work and prep that goes into organic meals or cute flower and vegetable gardens. 

So that was good. Thankfully it wasn't too hot. I think I got a mosquito bite low on the back of my neck, between my shoulders. Boo to mosquitos. I blogged today, got a few posts done from May, yay. I went on a morning ride at 5:45am. We have our bikes in the garage right now (not in the basement) so I have to open the garage anyway (which I don't like to do cause I feel like it's noisy and wakes up kids) but since I had to do to get my bike out, I decided I'd just take Corey's car to the trailhead, cause there's nothing special about the ride on the road. So I started at the trailhead and rode up to the ruins, techy on the way down. Biking is fun. As for the kids, the summer books aren't going as well as I'd like. I won't throw in the towel yet. I haven't been paying them, so I guess it works out fair - they don't clean, I don't pay. They don't write stuff down, I don't pay. Sophi earned some money by helping Corey's brother last weekend. They worked for 7 hours helping him in his yard. She blew like $45 of it via an online store called Comfrt, which had things so low priced that it didn't look legit... but she was super anxious about doing it TODAY, but she didn't have money in her account to pay via her debit card. I couldn't take her cash and transfer money in cause we only had $5 bucks. Lily volunteered to help her and let her use her debit card, but to do that she needed me to take her to the ATM, which I reluctantly did - I let them deal with that while I returned books to the library. I got back and she was still working on trying to deposit it - the ATM wasn't working, I guess it's cause Lily's card is for a minor so it doesn't work at the ATM, so then since we were there I deposited her cash in our account and then Corey moved it to Lily's account. I was being kinda in a bad mood about it. I'm blaming pms. Getting outside into the garden helped my mood improve. Maybe I should garden. Hopefully monarchs will be here soon. That usually helps me get outside and into the plants. 

Nik & Emma

We celebrated with the Hibbert family today another wedding. This time it was Jerusha's daughter Emma. Jerusha's family after the ceremony - 

First Hibbert wedding was Kelsey & Jared, then Xela & Trevor, then our two boys Ethan & Bella and Joseph & Eliza. Nik and Emma are high school sweethearts and have been together for 10+ years, so their families were excited that this day finally came, as evidenced by this sign as we came into the parking lot, haha. 

Our kids were excited because this was the first wedding where they would actually see the ceremony. Waiting at the Heritage Garden's grounds - 

Ethan, Bella and Alvin came. Mel and Lily sitting by them - 

As we waited, Beka and Matt joined with the other attendants giving Alvin the royal treatment he deserves. Haha, I loved this pic! That's just how it should be.

He's a cutie!! I got a chance to hold him after we were inside and Corey got this pic of me showing him off to Ashton, who is the cousin closest in age to Ethan. "This is Ethan's baby!" 

They were good cousin buddies when they were growing up. The Heritage Gardens were lovely! The girls were all excited thinking about this being a place where they could have their reception...

The greenery and lights made for very aesthetic photos. And cause no family outing is complete without kids taking my phone for selfies. 

The ceremony was at 2, and the wedding celebration was from 4-9. After the ceremony, we hung out and had a grab and go lunch, and tried to keep the kids kind of away from the candy bar. Didn't have too much luck with that. They got their fill of sour patch candies, swedish fish, air heads, nerds gummy clusters, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, hershey's kisses, and Utah truffles (toffee, mint, and dark chocolate, mmm). We played some cornhole with Neil, who we found out was the ship corn hole champ on a cruise they went on recently! Wow, go Neil!

Katharine was sad when we told her not to touch the bean bags. This photo doesn't capture it, but from my angle across the grass from her, the little frown she was making looked just like Beaker. 

We chuckled a bit at her, which she didn't like. We finished that round and then let her have the bean bags. A taco truck came to serve everyone dinner. There was a bit of a line waiting for tacos, so Lily took a dessert plate and served herself up rice and beans, which you didn't have to wait for in the line outside. Corey followed her lead, and learned that the red sauce was VERY hot. 

Corey gave Christian the Monkey and coconut problem to try and solve as they waited for tacos. Writing out the numbers on a white paper fan.

Corey let Mel know that he's struggling to find any faults in Christian. I avoided going out until Peter was feeling left out, so when we went to place our order. We stood by Natalie, who was #42. We were #60. There was a table of desserts that kept people fed, no one starved. Chocolate chip cookies, grapefruit mint cake, chocolate cakes and dutch apple pies. Tasty. Then dancing started. Most of the songs were ones we don't know, but we did request Dynamite and That's What Makes You Beautiful, so we got those two in. Other than that, we were just goofing off. Mel and I danced with Katharine by trying to follow her actions. That was fun. Outside people were playing spikeball 

and visiting.

We stayed until the 9pm send off of Nik and Emma. I think Corey found out that they are taking a honeymoon off in the mountains of Montana. Fun. They make a handsome couple and we wish them the best on this new beginning of married life!

Store

I told Sophi and Natalie I would take them to the store ONE TIME this week. They acknowledged this provision, and decided to have their one time be today. Sophi needed a birthday present for a friend (so many bday parties...) and Natalie wanted to buy a 4th of July tank top "for only $5 bucks, which is cheaper than it would be at Uptown Cheapskate cause shirts there are $6 dollars..." Well since it's a deal. And they bought candy, some for the bday gift, and some that they ate in the car. I dropped them off at Target to do their stuff while I went in for my 4th blood draw, just to make sure my numbers are down all the way. They were supposed to be back out when I got back, but they were not finished yet. I took away their phones last night when I woke up to use the bathroom at 3 am and at that time I found them awake and texting friends. Corey took their phones with him today so I wouldn't be tempted to give them back. I went into Target to find them rather than wait out in the car with them not able to text me with their excuses of why they weren't ready. These kids!

My results from my blood draw should be back tomorrow. I think everything will be shown to be in order. 

Last night for FHE we just did some dancing and had ice cream. Corey said their might be a wedding sometime this next year (we're hoping Mel and Christian tie the knot) so in preparation (no pressure you two, haha) we decided to brush up on our Napoleon Dynamite dance (tutorial here if you want to learn it!) and did our Just Dance favorites: Dynamite, That's What Makes You Beautiful, Rasputin, and Waka Waka. We're ready to have fun. I'd really like to learn the dance that the CDK does during the chorus of "Somebody That I Used to Know" - it would be so awesome if we broke out doing that! haha

This morning I didn't go on a ride. Instead I started today by reading. I read Simple Abundance . I'm still in March and want to catch up, I did finish March today so yay now I'm in April. I read the March 28 devotional which talks about getting rid of fashion mistakes and cleaning up your wardrobe. So I spent a couple of hours going through our clothes and I now our closet looks very nice and freshened up. She also talks about having a "hope chest" (Mar 5), a "toy box" (Mar 6) and a "comfort drawer" (Mar 7) and so I went by Hobby Lobby to see what I could find to do those, cause I do want to do the homework she gives. I was ok to just wander and let my creativity get some juices. I almost wanted to buy this neon light for Peter...

I didn't, but maybe I'll go back and get it. He'd like it. I let myself splurge on some flowers - 

And then I made a summer arrangement for the kitchen table!

I used the basket that Joseph and Eliza gave us after Grandma Foreman's funeral. I really like how it turned out. 

Switching Rooms

So we've been switching around bedrooms the past few days. We started this project on Monday, when we probably should have been enjoying the last few moments we had with Joseph and Eliza. But I guess they were busy organizing stuff and loading the car up, so maybe it is ok. Sophi and Natalie saying goodbye to the small room with it's small closet.

Peter saying goodbye to the big room where there was room for all his toys and project. 

We're on our third day in and Sophi and Natalie's room looks good and is basically done. The boys' room is a bit messy still. We need to reduce their possessions to make them fit in the smaller quarters. Daniel doesn't want to help us. 

This is his "ugghhh I'm tired..." pose. He doesn't want to practice music either. He doesn't want to do anything except try to not do the stuff we want him to do.

Corey and I went on a ride yesterday morning, and just so happened to be going up to Ann's at the same time as our high school friend Mike! He and Corey were in the same church ward growing up too, so they had fun catching up. 

We rode with them up to Potato Hill then across Ann's to Rush, then he went down Rush with his Alta High biking team and we were behind their group. We said bye at the bottom of Rush. It was fun to see him! When we got home, Owen and Natalie were both awake and working in the backyard raking. Wow!

Natalie want to plant grass under the pine trees. She's got a backyard vision that she wants to have happen for her birthday party in July. I'm not being very helpful in supporting her dream, but I guess she can try to make it happen. (I don't think grass will grow back there. We can't even get grass to keep growing where it is supposed to be.) But our summer roses are looking beautiful!!

I wish rose season lasted longer. Roses are in bloom everywhere though, they are beautiful. And other things going on the past two days - Katharine was working on her cup stacking skills...

Kids were playing with costumes in the basement, and left them ALL over. This was Daniel. 

I told him to go pick them up, and he did. Good job Daniel. Peter was in the basement today working on a Duplo Lego zoo/amusement park. He was very proud of it and gave me a full tour. This is the view from the entrance. 

We talked to Abi tonight! She's doing well in Brazil. She is treated like a celebrity at the school she is going to. It sounded fun, and familiar to her brothers, who had that same "Justin Beiber" status when they went to school in Chile. They told her to enjoy it while it lasts, cause when she comes back she'll be just a regular person again. Ethan took this pic of Abi being weird before she said bye to us.

Ethan is doing well and adjusting to being a new father. Hyrum's 'stache looks pretty sweet. We call him Mario, cause he looks like super Mario. Ethan's jealous of H's facial hair. And that's about it for what's going on here. 

Headed to Ohio

Joseph and Eliza are on their way back to Ohio.

They packed their car AND they were able to fit their wedding photos in too! Except for one really big frame, so the frame is still in the basement, but we opened it and got the photo out, so now they can go thrifting to find a big ol' frame in Ohio and then put it up on the wall in their bedroom, haha. Beautiful photos though. In heaven I think God will let us have nice big photos like that of our wedding day. We didn't get that done here on earth though. 

Anyway, so they are on their way. They asked me to take a photo of them before they headed out with Eliza's car. 

Joseph wore the exact same clothes on purpose, to recreate their pre-road trip pic from last summer!

Doh, we should have had the right door open. Oh well. I like how the backpack being swapped out for a diaper bag this year! A lot changed in a year! Having Mary here is the best part. Eliza with her Mary, and Katharine with her baby Mary too. Cute. She's a little mother. 

I took a few pics of kids with Mary. Natalie had the most. She didn't totally hog her, but she was pretty quick to take Mary if she fussed while the boys were holding her. 

(She might have hogged a little bit.) But everyone did get a turn. Katharine ~

Peter

And Daniel. Yay, Mary is awake!

Owen ~

Natalie (again...)

Sophi

Lily ~

So it was fun. The girls and boys all loved having a baby in the house. We'll have to go down and steal Alvie from Ethan and Bella now and then to get our fix. 

I was kinda going nuts today and needed to get outside, so we went up the canyon for FHE tonight. I felt much better once we were up in the mountains. Walking on the quarry trail. 

Corey and I let the kids know we bike this trail every day. "Good for you, mom and dad." Yeah, you guys would be impressed if you tried to bike up to the ruins. Not to mention going on Techy. Dad and i are hardcore. We took a little path off the trail and found some trails to boulders. We saw chalk on them and tried to see if we could hold them. They were impossible. I can't believe some people can climb things like this! I was able to hold on to the beginning of this one. 

Maybe I could do better if I had climbing shoes. We got back on the main trail, passed the 1st bridge, and then explored paths on the south of that. There were lots of boulders there. 

I've never explored any of that area before! It was fun. Corey stayed back with Lily...

and Daniel, Peter and I let Katharine lead the way up a trail. We found a pretend house with door between some boulders, that lead to a table. We set our dinner with sticks for our forks and spoons. Lots of places for imagination. Natalie was a mountain goat and climbed to the top of every boulder that she could. 

Soon the sun was setting and it would be dark, so we headed back to the car. Katharine blowing a dandelion. Cute little lips

Then we got some Red Button Ice cream and I let Lily drive us home from the store. Joseph and Eliza made it to the east side of Montana tonight, 4 hours away. They plan on going to Nauvoo and so will be driving for a few days to get home.