First Day Skiing and Other Fun

Katharine had her first day skiing today at Alta. She didn't ski, she was just in the backpack. We were all laughing, she is so cute with her little eyes peeking out!! And her binky strap hanging out of her neck warmer. Taking a break for lunch - 

Everyone wanted a picture with her!

Joseph with his baby sister.

I'm the luckiest though, cause I'm her mom and I get to feed her and take care of her and be with her all day and night everyday!!

Here she is when we were unloading at the beginning of the day. She wasn't excited about the backpack. 

Actually feeling a little worried perhaps. But we just laughed at how cute she is.

I headed straight into the lodge and nursed her and warmed her up. We chilled in there while everyone else skied.

When everyone came in for lunch, I went out for a bit. Then Corey took her on the baby lift with Peter. 

He said she did great. She didn't like it at first, and didn't "warm up" to it, but she was awake and quiet, so maybe the cold did sober her up as to the vastness of the world and how vulnerable her existence is. Then I took another break inside with her. 

Taking a few pics from the balcony - Mel with Owen and Daniel.

Corey in line with Peter, Mel and a little boy in front of them.

I was able to do like 4 runs on Sunnyside with the kids. Me with Abi and Sophi - 

So I personally didn't get in a ton of time tearing it up, but the kids did great and had a lot of fun. It was good to get out, and not bad for our first attempt with Katharine. 

Skiing with 12 kids is no easy feat.

There's JMEWALSNOD. P&K were down at the base with Corey. We did a run with everyone, and then some of us did just one more run.

Cause I hadn't gotten in a lot, so I wanted to go one more time.

So that was fun. And then after we got home from skiing, I had one more activity for us to do, even though everyone was tired. I had tickets to Christmas in Color yesterday, but I totally forgot, and I didn't know how big of sticklers they'd be for following the date and time so I didn't know if they'd work for today, but I was prepared with my argument if they told us no. But we were able to get in no problem. 

We got K out of her carseat cause he hates it. 

She was mesmerized by the lights. 

The girls stood out the sunroof in my car. 

Corey's car has the cargo thing on top, so the boys were stuck inside. 

We sang Christmas songs and it was fun. Poor Peter fell asleep and they tried to wake him up, but he slept through the whole thing. And after going, I think it was fine, but a bit of a rip off, and I don't know that we'll do it again, but we tried it and it was fine. Maybe I'd do it again if we just do one car and will all pile in just one car together. :)

So, yeah, the past few days have been a whirlwind of activity, especially yesterday. Wednesday I mostly worked on getting gifts ready. Melodie helped me. I took it over the job of Santa from Corey, which has been fine, except that he uses a system that I don't like or find helpful, so we've had to unwrap presents in order to see what in inside them since I don't get his codes or spreadsheet. I was slightly annoyed with children who sent lists of their requests. It feels stupid and selfish, like they are demanding things, when it's not our job to give them anything at Christmas at all. Gift giving at Christmas has gotten out of hand, cause we don't need anything. What we really need is to get rid of stuff, not bring in more! Of the stuff that Corey and I both both, I made a bin of things to take back to the stores. I returned a few things and went by Barnes and Noble Wed evening to get a last minute book for Lily, since she needed a little more in price to even things up. I got a few Keepers of the lost Cities book, and then I went climbing for a few moments. It will be a more simple Christmas with me in charge, but with the older kids being more mature now, I trust that they will be able to lead out and it will be ok. Each kid will have like $100 total, which already makes Christmas expensive for us with the numbers that we're dealing with. For JME, their main gift is their mission blog books, Abi and Lily have a few random clothing items and books, Lego sets for SNO, random toys for DP, nothing for K.

Thursday - I went climbing and did my first V2! I was surprised that I did it and very excited. I returned some things to Walmart and Red Balloon. I am hopeful that Corey got work done. He is often frustrated with all the interruptions he gets, so I'm trying to help - he answers the phone every time they call with whatever silly thought or question they have at the moment. So I forbade him from answering the phone, I'm taking care of Christmas, and hopefully he got some stuff done. Corey also had an important demo yesterday. He was nervous and worried about it going well and about the project continuing. I have pretty much tried to keep my "worrying about Corey's work" button turned to off for the past few years. Yesterday I did my best to keep the worry part out of the equation as I prayed in earnest for his happiness and success in his career and I fasted for him and asked my parents and siblings to keep him in their prayers. The demo was at 4:00. I thought it would help if I went to the temple. I haven't done a endowment session since May the week before Katharine was born. I've been to do initiatories but not a session. But right now with Mel home, I felt I could go, so Ethan and I went to the Jordan River Temple to the 4:00 session. We were asked to be the witness couple which was really cool! (And it never hurts that being the witness couple allows you to stand up and kinda wake up during the session!) so this ended up being one of the best experiences I've ever had at the temple because I stayed awake during almost all of it (had a few fading out moments) and I was thinking about the word "endowment" - I just looked up some of the synonyms and the one I thought of is there - GIFT. More searching - here's an even better description of it: LARGE gift! Legacy! Inheritance! Or some of the nouns there - Power, strength, capacity... It is our gift from God - Our life here on earth helps us learn to be like him. So it was a great session, and afterwards in the celestial room I was looking for a triple combination but only saw the Bible, so I picked it up, opened it randomly and read the book of Joel. It brought me to tears - going back to thinking of Corey, his work, his efforts to provide for our large family (which always feels a bit more heavy at Christmas time with 13 kids to try to get gifts for) and I know Corey worries about not just the day to day expenses but of retirement and the future - and I loved loved Joel, especially chapter 2 - 

21 ¶ Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, ye ^abeasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, ye children of ^aZion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the ^brain, the former rain, and the ^clatter rain in the first month.

24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the ^afats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will ^arestore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ^aashamed.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the ^amidst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

I trust that the Lord will provide for us, and that he will send forth much rain, that he will restore to us the years that the caterpillars ate (MM years). And even considering our past lean years of famine, God has dealt WONDROUSLY with us. Fear not! Be glad and rejoice! I know that the Lord will do great things.