Park City Blogging

We are up at Park City. Our kids love it here, and we like it too. I'm glad that this place holds such great memories for our kids. 

Yesterday was a school day, and I worked hard at home. I had told the kids Monday night that bedrooms had to be clean before we would go, and after they got home, they finished cleaning things up. Since they all earned it, we had to figure out car arrangements. We took the bike rack off of Corey's car (sniff) and prepared to pack up. We could go up by taking two or three trips, but if we planned it well there would just be one trip for each car. Hyrum wasn't arriving from Rexburg until 10 pm. Joseph and Ethan were busy in Provo until then, so they were going to go with the later car. Wes still had work he could do, and would be more productive here at home than in Park City, so we decided to have him stay to make things fit in the cars. With that decided, Melodie left with Corey's car full of kids, ALSNODP, and Corey and I stayed home with Wes and Katharine and waited for the college boys to arrive (Melodie came home last night). Hyrum's 10pm got pushed to 10:45, then 11, finally 11:30. Melodie sent me a message asking if I had another van key, cause she had one of them. Doh. I had spent $300 so we could have an extra key, but we've misplaced it somehow. I looked through snow pants and snow coats... I was hoping that it had been left there, but no luck. So Mel drove back from Park City to bring the van key, and then since Hyrum was so late, Corey and Wes left with Mel and Katharine at 11. I was hoping K would be able to get to sleep at a decent time, rather than being in the car with me at midnight. I played the violin for the first time in months while I waited for the boys. I did Suzuki book 1. Gavotte is still tricky for me. I grabbed things that the kids forgot: Wes's body wash, L's swimsuit top, Sophi's swim goggles, etc. The boys were all here at 11:30, we loaded up, left at midnight, and joined everyone at Park City at 1. I'm feeling like I need a nap... I didn't sleep in. I got up  early and arranged an oatmeal bar with apples, cinnamon, candied pecans, oatmeal, cinnamon and raisin oatmeal, brown sugar ~ THE WORKS! while the boys colored with Lucky the Butterfly watching on. I also made some yogurt pies for Thanksgiving tomorrow - vanilla, raspberry, and blackberry. I think I might offer them up as a desert tonight, cause tomorrow there will be 5 other pie options, so they would be more valued if we have them tonight, so I think I'll do that. 

After breakfast, I took the kids swimming. I took Katharine, and ALSN brought down the little boys. Joseph joined us too. Corey was up in the room talking with the older kids and his niece. I did a few laps swimming. I didn't take any pics cause I was in the water. Katharine isn't as heavy to hold in the water, so that was nice. We stayed in the pool until 12, then back to the room for a shower, lunch, and we were talking with Ethan and Hyrum. 

Now I'm taking a time out to blog - hiding out somewhere on the 6th floor. I took one of my extra BeReals from yesterday (cause I posted on time) and then BeReal went off so I took another one of me here enjoying quiet time. 

I still need to finish Aug Sept Oct and November. Ethan, Bella, and Mel are taking the kids swimming and Corey and Hyrum are going to the gym, and I'm going to sit here and try to keep typing away. Lucky is up here. He's a pretty easy pet. He likes the sunshining through the window in the mornings. 

He's a good little butterfly - doesn't make a mess, is a light eater, stays put (don't keep in him a cage, he just sits there looking out the window.) I was a little nervous last night that I'd forget him, so I put him by my keys and that helped. Also this is a cute pic from yesterday - Mel gave Katharine her phone when BeReal went off so K could take the pic, which she did. And she also typed a description all by herself! 

JjakA dorright m - sounds like Katharine's cute jibber jabber to me! It is 2:50 pm right now. The plan is for a Wride group spaghetti dinner around 5-6, then Chalane has an activity for us to make a Christmas tree and ornaments for JeNeal's grave, and then tomorrow we're skipping breakfast, and having our first Thanksgiving feast up here at 12, then going down to the valley to join Hibbert for our second feast at 4pm, then games in the gym for the rest of the night, then drive back up here probably, then we check out from here on Friday morning (maybe some of us will stay in the valley). 

Update: 11:33 PM, yay I finally finished August! We had a nice dinner together and then everyone watched Mission Impossible: Fallout. I haven't seen it, the kids all loved it. Wes "It was INTENSE!" but I stayed in here blogging away and I'm glad that I got it done. I'm glad they had fun watching it together. Everyone was there except for me and Katharine. Wes just said it's a little sad that I missed out on that memory because I was in here recording memories. BUT if I had been in there, K would have been in there too, and I bet she would not have been interested in the plot, so Corey or Wes would have probably missed out if I had brought her in there. It's ok for me to miss out now and then to try and get the blog's head above water. Wes was just laughing as he gave me a few one liners that happened: Abi saying "Wait... is he a BAD GUY?!?" Ethan replies sarcastically "Let's pause the movie and talk about it!" Then clarifying "All these questions will be answered!" Ethan is really clever and funny. Bella was up here today and she used her makeup to darken Ethan's mustache that he's been growing out over the weekend, funny! 

Eth makes a good Guy from Galaxy Quest, ha! Guy Fleegman, or perhaps Goose from Top Gun? Ok, well, it's 11:41 and I was up past 1 am last night and I did not take a nap today, so I'm going to bed now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Church & Stuff

Picture of my kids at church yesterday. They are cute. They do a pretty good job of sitting still and listening. I only recently started bringing cheerios for Katharine.

Yesterday it was my turn to teach my Sunday school for 11-12 year olds. It was on the book of James. Good stuff. 

I found a few pictures of 

I've misplaced my scriptures somewhere... so I was a little sad about that, about not being able to read and mark up the quad that I've been using for Come Follow Me for the past 3 years - for all of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Old Testament, and New Testament up until recently. Sad, I shall keep looking. 

Peter had a terrible #2 accident yesterday. I'll spare you the pic, but I did take one. Ok, actually I will put it on here, but it will be at the end. Not the worst mess I've ever seen in a bathroom (that award goes to Sophi), but still very nasty and gross. I don't know how one does this, but he went #2 without lifting up the toilet seat lid, so it was all over the lid. He was trying to clean it up by himself and was not having much success, poor kid. I smelled an accident, found him, and helped fix it up. His poop is very potent, so my hands were smelling the rest of the day even after several washes and lotion-ing up. Bleach, vinegar, and some essential oils finally took care of it. We had a fun visit with the kids last night. 

Hyrum said he feels like he's still on his mission kinda, since he is the one that is away(up in Rexburg) and we are all here. Joseph shared this picture of Chat GPT not being able to write the Book of Mormon under the same constraints and circumstances that Joseph Smith did. Funny! 

They are such good kids, it's so fun to have them when they are little, and I also love seeing the awesome adults they are growing into. Ethan sent me the nicest voice message yesterday telling me how grateful he is for us. I should transcribe it, but until I do, here is an unlisted link - I took a screen recording of it. It made my day. I feel like, when E was a teen, I told myself that he was really hard, and in ways he was, but in lots of ways we were a uptight about stuff. He got parents 1.0 version. I'm glad that we've upgraded ourselves and gotten better with experience, and I'm also glad that our lack of experience and mistakes we made didn't seem to cause permanent damage on him. Anyway, his message was so nice, it made my heart happy. 

Today we've kinda been getting ready for Park City - telling the kids they need to clean up their rooms before we'll go. Instead they made forts. They are testing me to see if I'll stick to my threats. 

We're heading up there tomorrow evening. Hyrum won't be here until 10, so I'll probably stay behind and wait for him. I have been stressing out about tires on the van, and wanted to get some before we went to Park City, in case it snows, but we didn't do it. I did go to Costco on Saturday and figured out how to schedule an appointment, so then I ordered the tires, which you have to do before you schedule an appointment, and now that is schedules for December 9th. Forecast looks ok, I'm hoping it doesn't snow just yet, although it is going to really get cold this week. Cute Katharine today, playing with a tiny baby swaddled tight and feeding it with a lego bottle. Cute.

Natalie gets to take her Native American diorama to school tomorrow that Abi helped her make, with the little calico critter babies being bbq'd. She's excited. Ok, that's it! Looking forward to Park City. Too bad there won't be biking, sniff. Aaaand - Poop pic below, don't scroll anymore if you don't want to see it. That's a mom's life!

Solo Recital & Watercolor Paintings

Tonight was a night of music performances. Sophi and Natalie had a violin solo recital tonight. 

Note to self: upload their videos later to youtube. 

And Corey took Abi and Lily to their GMS Fall concert which was at the same time. 

Divide and conquer.

I think Corey was able to listen to the performance.

I really didn't see much of the recital because of this cute little monster. 

She was semi-tame once she got a cookie in her hands! I missed seeing most of the performers, cause I was watching her run around in the hall, but I did make it in for Sophi and Natalie. And while we were in the hall, I was able to enjoy a Utah Watercolor Society's art show that was on display in the Holladay City Hall. 

I must stay I was inspired by their artwork!

I want to paint. 

It wasn't all flowers, but those tend to be the ones I like the most... all the nature-y things.

Yeah, I want to paint, and I want to play violin... I really haven't practiced much since Katharine was born. 

Maybe I'll start learning when she goes to kindergarten? So in 3.5 years? No, I don't need to put dreams or talents on hold. I can find 15 minutes a day... I should atleast try to keep up with what I learned so far in Books 1 and 2, even if I don't learn more pieces right now. 

As for painting... I might need to wait until kids are all in school for that, or I need to find a room that I can lock up and keep kids out of. More nature pics...

Whole food paintings... cute pears that are a little abstract-ish. Looks like this one got a ribbon award.

Garden still life - 

Someday I could put together a still life of things I like and paint things for the kids for Christmas presents or something.

Yeah, so I stayed out in the hall, looking at all the paintings, and taking pics of my favorites, to gather inspiration for myself.

I could paint pics of places we've been ~

So there are the art ideas I had. I have taken lots of photos like that over the years, but usually haven't blogged them, so they are all just who knows were in a file on some computer. With these ones here, maybe I can actually use them to help me paint in 4 years or so. After an hour of that, the recital was done and everyone took a bow. 

Good job Sophi! Good job Natalie! I hope someday to be as good as you both are!

Owen and Daniel and Peter came with us, and they sat in there for most of the time. Daniel and Owen came out to watch K when the girls were up. Wayne came right as Sophi was going up, so that was perfect timing, and it was good to have an adult to sit with them while we waited until the end, then it was time for coooookies! It was worth the wait. 

Other things going on at a home - Natalie was working on her Native American exhibit this weekend. Abi helped her. She was doing it on the Chumash Indians and she made a little display of calico critter babies being bbq's by barbies. 

Peter and Daniel have been sleeping in a fort for the past week. Wesley made it. It is working out well, cause with Peter in the fort on the floor, the other boys each get their own bed and the boys are all in the room together. 

Sometimes Daniel is in there too, so we have an extra bed. If we keep this up over the Christmas break, and maybe have Owen sleep in the fort too, that will work well for us to have beds for Joseph Ethan and Hyrum to sleep in.

Katharine is in her own bed a little bit, we're just starting... she does usually still end upback in our bed by morning.

Lucky is still alive and kicking. Eating honey water off of my finger ~

And I'm trying to clean my desk in the laundry room. Moving my books all on the top shelf might work... trying to sort out what I have into categories: coaching, weight, health, gospel, visualization, goals, art, etc etc.

Katharine at the computer, cutie. 

In Her Own Bed

Well, this little girl has gotten a little bit bigger. This morning, she was feeding herself her own bowl of oatmeal!

She's started to freak out and yell if I try to spoon feed her. She wants to do it herself! AND she's even sitting up on a tall stool at the kitchen island! 

Sitting at the island, using a spoon by herself, AND this morning she woke up from night #3 of going to bed without nursing. We've put a pack and play in the closet with her puppy bed in it for cushioning, and Monday night she cried for 20 minutes and then slept almost all night - she woke up crying once at 3 but I didn't get her, and she fell back asleep until 7! Good job Baby!!

That one was a success. She's not sure, but is thinking about it...

Tuesday night, I put her to bed and stroked her hair for a while. But the closet light was on but I couldn't turn it off and keep stroking her, so I stopped to turn off the light, she cried, and then I left. I was proud in the morning that she hadn't thrown her stuffed dog out. I guess she learned from last night that if she throws it out, she's going without it until morning. Wed morning she woke up at 5 am, and I figured that was pretty good and I brought her into our bed to nurse. Wednesday I was cleaning in the basement and found a little mom bunny calico critter and a baby bunny that matched it, and bed and a blanket, and during the day we did a little role play of that - the mom bunny putting the baby to bed, giving it a kiss, and the mom bunny left and the baby bunny stayed in the bed. Before I put her to bed last night, we did it again and then K knew what was coming. She clanged onto me, I gave her 4 stuffed dogs, which she held tightly as I lay her down. I stroked her hair again as she lay there and whimpered a little bit, trying to be brave, and she fell asleep. I rubbed her hair for a long time cause Corey was talking to Hyrum for an hour, so I just kept rubbing her head as I listened to one side of their conversation. She is doing a super good job! Katharine! You are becoming such a big girl!

Natalie is a great helper with Katharine. Natalie is also a master typer. pics from yesterday - Natalie is also an amazing master typer. She was working on it yesterday and you need to get 5 stars to pass it off and she kept only getting 4 stars. So I tried it, thinking I could do it for her to help her out, but nope, I was terrible! Trying to pass of the China level and I got ZERO stars! That is the only one she didn't get 5 stars on. I told her that's good to not have to be perfect, but she might still try to pass it off. She might be a bit of a perfectionist!

Today I cleaned a lot while I listened to General Conference. I liked this quote by Elder L. Tom Perry in his October 2014 talk "Finding Lasting Peace and Building Eternal Families" - 

We must carefully continue to evaluate our performance as parents. The most powerful teaching a child will ever receive will come from concerned and righteous fathers and mothers. Let us first look at the role of the mother. Listen to this quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley:

“Women who make a house a home make a far greater contribution to society than those who command large armies or stand at the head of impressive corporations. Who can put a price tag on the influence a mother has on her children, a grandmother on her posterity, or aunts and sisters on their extended family?

“We cannot begin to measure or calculate the influence of women who, in their own ways, build stable family life and nurture for everlasting good the generations of the future. The decisions made by the women of this generation will be eternal in their consequences. May I suggest that the mothers of today have no greater opportunity and no more serious challenge than to do all they can to strengthen the [home]” (Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes [2000], 152).

Yesterday I talked with Nicole on my way out to Corner Canyon and we both talked about our paper problems. I don't love all the water in our basement stored in plastic juice bottles. Corey does that. I guess I'll be grateful if we're in an emergency someday. As for now, no me gusta. I hate them taking up room, and especially on a good accessible shelf... seems like we should put something there that we want easy access too. But I guess there is plenty of other stuff I could clean up to make room down there, that I don't need to start with the water. This is half of it. 

Yeah, he's not the one to blame for all the stuff around here. For example, I have a storage bin full storage bags. That's probably not very necessary to store stuff so I can store stuff. I also saw a black salamander looking creature in our window well as I was back there. Weird! We've had a bunny, skunk, little quail chicks, and now a salamander. 

Wesley's Call to Serve!

Wes called me today at 1:50 to let me know that his mission call was in his email inbox! Yahoo!!! He asked if he should wait until Thanksgiving next week at Park City to open it so everyone could be there? (aka Hyrum). I quickly shot that down, and Wes agreed - said he didn't think he could wait that long! So we decided for him to open it tonight at 7! Here he is opening it - keep reading to find out where he will be going!

We sent out texts to let family know - he texted the college kids and Wrides, I texted Hibberts and Abi Lily and Sophi at school. He put it on his Instagram. He came home early from working with Corey (I let him take the car this morning after he took the jr high carpool for me), he said he couldn't concentrate to get school stuff done, but that is ok since he got such an early start. (He has 7 more classes to do... English Part 2, American gov, physics part 1, physics part 2, financial literacy, math part 1, math part 2 - we're about to find out the real deadline he's got to finish it by!) So he helped me do stuff around the house. I was outside raking when he got here. We didn't need to do the backyard, but that was where I had been working - to load up the garbage cans with leaves and pine needles before the trash comes tomorrow. Katharine and Peter played on the trampoline as we worked. Peter wanted a blanket, and it made Katharine's hair very static-y!

Wes taught Katharine to go down the slide on Sunday when they were all at the park. She went down the slide a few times and Peter would catch her, even though she doesn't need to be caught. Then Corey and I left for a quick bike ride. The kids all chipped in cleaning while we were gone. Wes took this photo of Peter vacuuming the front room - aww!

(Abi said she had to re-vacuum it after, but they were glad that he wanted to help!) After we got back, Corey went to the temple and I took a quick cold shower and then I officially voted against Costco cookies and instead I made some Brazilian Rice and Curried Potatoes to feed any guests. Cousin Isaac arrived first, then Wayne, and my parents...

Wes had a world map on the kitchen table for people to write their guesses on. Joseph Mel and Ethan all drove up from BYU. More family and neighbors and friends flooded the kitchen. 

We had a slight delay as we waited for Uncle Mark and Aunt Chalane... soon they were here, and it was time! Reading the mission letter pic is at the top of this post, and for the exciting news of where Wesley will be spending the next two years of his life... He is assigned to labor in the Texas Lubbock Mission and will preach the gospel in the Spanish language!! Que bien!! Ethan made this story for fb/post for instagram - aww! I love it! 

Look at all those missionaries! We've got a pretty good testimony legacy going on so far, yay. So, that's pretty cool Wes! Lubbock Texas! Wes already says "Howdy" when he greets people, so now he had a reason to! He just needs to start saying y'all now. 

Welcome to the work Wes!! He starts his missionary training on January 22. He'll do like a week of Home MTC and then will go to the Mexico City Training Center to learn Spanish! Exciting!