I came down from Park City early this morning with Wes. We were both up at 5:45 and getting things ready. I went to get the car from the far overflow parking garage with two car keys, then I came to get Wes - he met me in the lobby and took the van key back for Corey and grabbed Peter. I needed the van key to get his carseat. We left at 6:20 am, right on time! Wes got to the CHRC at 7am for the 5K turkey trot. The 5K was at 9, so he got paid to play Apples to Apples for 90 minutes, then they went out to their post "To point the way to take, that the signs were already showing..." You know, just for back up. He said it was cold and his toes were freezing and he's not going to sign up for that next year, even though he got paid overtime for working on a holiday. I picked Wes up around 10:30. The low winter sun was shining in Peter's face. Wes gave him a hat - we must protect Prince Peter from the sun!!
I got some sweet potato dish ready and a Mediterranean salad. Corey and kids on their way down at 2
Corey and J were talking about girls and dating (J is getting kinda serious with his girlfriend). Kids waited in the car and I sent my food out. Joseph played a little bit with Peter as he and Corey talked - but his kid skills are a little rusty and as he played with P in the air doing some swing dancing moves, he accidentally kinda dropped him on his head.
It was not a total free fall drop, but enough to get a bonk and make him cry.
Will Peter be able to trust Joseph again?
Ok, lets go. We headed out and arrived for dinner a little after 3 at our old chapel. It is the ward house where MEH were all blessed as babies. Jared and Amy had been working hard to prepare this feast for all of us!
A big banquet table all set up
Enjoying a meal -
Video of the feast -
It was delicious. The turkey tasted AMAZING and was my favorite part of the meal.
Jared apparently marinated it for like 3 days or something. Wow.
It was delicious. Mel, Ethan, and Hyrum all coordinated when to call, so yay - we were able to talk to them, and they were able to talk to each other, yay!
After the meal, we played a few games of lightening (bball), some table games, and had a nerf gun war. We kept passing around the phone to anyone who wanted to say hi to our missionaries. Owen and Joseph playing Klask - Owen was sooo excited when he scored on Joseph, twice!
Then everyone played hockey and it was super fun.
It got pretty competitive
Abi was going head to head with Joseph and fell and got a hole in her ONLY pair of comgy sweat pants and she was sad.
The little girls were as patient as they could be for the game to finish, so that they could do a stage play for us. And the curtains got a lot of use opening and closing for each act, which were each about 2 mintues long.
We had no idea what it was about, but we gave an enthusiastic applause
So the party went a lot longer than planned, and then we cleaned up and we got to take some leftovers home, yay, and Corey headed straight back up to Park City, I went by home first to put back food. Peter fell asleep as soon as we were in the car. He slept through the transfer into the bedroom. Kids went swimming. P went to bed, and now I am going to go join him. It was a fun day, goodnight.
As I've been brushing Daniel's teeth lately, I've had a feeling that there are some cavities between his teeth, so I just took a gamble and set up an appointment for him to get some cavities fixed. And I figured if an x-ray showed that he was all good, then great and we'd just get a cleaning. Daniel and Peter were being super cute and sweet in the waiting room.
Peter was cuddling, and Daniel said "Aww! Mom! Look at Peter! He is so cute!"
My sweet little boys.
Here's another picture of him being sweet as he played with the fishing puzzle as we waited at violin lessons.
And a little video of his cuteness.
I love my little boys. My heart is a little tender cause Corey recently shared this CNN clip with us of young girls in Afghanistan being sold by their starving families, and it's kept me awake a few times thinking and praying for those little girls. That's like Natalie and Sophi... I could not and would not ever do that. I'd rather we all starve together.
Another thing regarding my little boys - I've been looking at my youtube channel and currently my most popular video is Little Brothers - Tickle at 45808 views. I'm recording these stats for myself... next few are Flapping His Arms has 20567, Wrestling and Raspberries has 11251, and Nat and Owen has 5414 views. From the bad comments I get, it does seem like there are a lot of awful people out there who want to sexualize little children. I hope anyone involved in that changes the course they are on, cause it doesn't lead to anywhere good. I pray for the children caught in human trafficking and for those who are fighting against it (God bless Tim Ballard and OUR) and I hope someday that we can donate more to helping charities like that. If you want to watch something that will absolutely break you heart, you can watch this documentary "Preying on Young Boys: Pakistan's Hidden Predators. So, kinda along those lines, I'll share that on my youtube channel, I currently have 343 Subscribers. That is super weird, cause a month ago I had around 100, and it had been about there for a long time. I keep getting emails telling me "you have a new subscriber!"
I have no idea where they are coming from or what they might see in the collection of family videos I have on there, so it is making me a bit curious and cautious and wondering if I should be concerned. Perhaps a link to my channel is in some weird or dark part of the web? Some of my new subscribers are Бауржан Шеттикбаев (translation from Kazakh to English: Baurzhan Shettikbaev) and حمزه الاحلسي (Arabic for Hamza Al-Ahly) and then today I got this one... and after reading his "name" I am wondering again what's going on and where this small flux of people is coming from. I got 2 new subscribers in Sept, and then nothing in October until Oct 30th and then I've gotten two hundred since then. I don't know what I could do to stop it other than delete my account. No one has said anything mean yet, although I do get horrible comments sometimes that I just delete. But mostly I don't get any comments, on there or here on the blog. And that is ok by me. I'm just doing this for my kids anyway, and putting it out there public because of a quote from the book "The Chosen" (the book, not the tv series) that spoke to me once, which made me feel like this was a little way to let my light so shine out there on the world wide web. From chapter 7 of Chaim Potok's book - "If a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public. If learning is not made in public, it is a waste." Being a mother is what I am learning about and know a little bit about, so write what you know about. I trust that this will be a future resource that my kids will value when they are parents and maybe can give some support to other people too. That's what I'm doing. I hope it doesn't get any of us kidnapped along the way. And if people look at that video of my sweet boys and sexualize it somehow, they should repent. They are just sweet babies snuggling. Let children be children.
Peter is just the cutest thing. He loves the Bear Snores On book, and he especially loves it when Corey reads it to him.
It's fun to see how different our children's personalities are - cause poor little Hyrum was terrified when Corey read this book, if you can't tell by his concerned expression below - when they were close to the part where the bear was going to wake up! Sometimes Hyrum would hurry and shut the book when they got to the page before that moment, it was really funny. It's one of our fondest memories of little Hyrum.
Corey still plays the bear part very well and Peter thinks it's the funniest thing!
So that is so fun. Peter loves the Bear Snores On book, His My First 100 Animals Book, and My First 100 Trucks book. And he pulls all the other books of the shelf too as he looks for those ones.
It was a normal busy Monday with 5 AM hockey practice for Wes and carpool. This morning at hockey practice, Wesley was feeling a bit dizzy but was determined to not have to sit out. He didn't sit out, but did go to the back of the line during a drill to try and catch his breath. Then he felt a little woozy and kinda gagged, then heaved again and threw up. BUT he kept it in his mouth. And then he swallowed it, cause he didn't want to be "that guy" that throws up on the ice. And then he threw it up again!! And caught it in his mouth again and just held it there for the last 5 minutes of practice. When they did the "Go Bengals" cheer at the end, Wesley wasn't able to participate with his voice, but he lifted his hand and fist pumped the air, then promptly ran off the ice and into the locker room. We thought it was quite the hilarious story. Corey picked Wes up (he was at the gym) and Wesley's coach overheard Wes telling that story to Corey and got a real kick out of it. Then the coach talked with Wes a little bit about how he's improved a lot, but also how there's something wrong with his skating and that he thought maybe his skates were too big. So Corey and Wes went by Scheels tonight to look at skates. Turns out Wesley's been wearing two sized too big. He needs to be size 7, and luckily we have a size 7 at home, so they didn't need to buy another pair of skates, but now I do need to go get these size 7s sharpened.
A few other items for today - Sophi wanted me to enter this pencil comic strip in the Reflections contest, so I did, even though I don't think she put a lot of effort into it. She might just be entering it to help get a ice cream party for her class.
It's a comic of someone cleaning up the ocean and then putting up a "No Littering" sign.
Corey handed me a stack of papers today and asked me to mail in Ethan's State Taxes, Federal taxes, and California state taxes. I was out of my comfort zone, and I was trying to make sense of it all by spreading it out on my bed, and Peter found a pencil and drew on a lot of it and I had to erase his artwork, but I did it and mailed it and was proud of myself. Peter in his dinosaur pajamas today playing with two dinosaur puzzles at violin. He's so cute.
Wes has shared with us some conversations he has with kids at his table in his ceramics class. They mostly share how they don't want to get married or have kids, and Wesley says he wants to get married AND have children, and they say he is "so weird". Some of their reasons: "Kids are so expensive..." "They're so annoying..." "They're so loud!" and I said "I hope that you have defended Peter's honor!" and he did recently by playing them his ringtone, which is adorable Peter singing the Spider Man Theme song, which is so cute. And I also texted Wes this picture of Peter to soften their hearts, and one girl was charmed and had her heart softened by his angel baby face.
I just want to say that kids are THE BEST thing ever and there is nothing I'd rather lose my life in than serving and taking care of my kids. They bring me joy every day. It's a ton of work, but it's so worth is. Just look at that face!! And little Peter has brought me joy every day of his life. The older they get, or when a baby comes and bumps them out of their place in the family, I probably don't give them each the full attention they need everyday or notice all the joy and fun they are, but I hope you'll believe me that you'll love your children more than anything, they will be worth more to you than a million dollars! And who wouldn't want a gift that's worth more than a million bucks? I'll take a million dollar gift anyday. I give babies and children a five star rating, two thumbs up, and I highly recommend marriage and family life. It's the best.
Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You! Happy Birthday To DAAANIELLLLL! Happy Birthday To You!
We went to church this morning, and then he opened presents after we got back home. Lily, Sophi, Natalie, and Owen all made him little gifts of stuff they felt inclined to share. Owen, for example, gave Daniel the paper chain that Lily had made as decorations for Sophi's birthday (you can see it hanging from the kitchen chandelier in the 2nd pic) Cute kids. I gave him a lego set from Costco, which was three lego sets in one, and his older siblings helped him put those together in the front room.
Other parts of Daniel's celebration today included a Crumble cookie, gifts, book and card from his primary teachers Brother and Sister Huber.
Then Corey took the kids over to his parents house where Daniel was the little man of the hour.
He got some clothes and a sea life puzzle, which should remind him and Peter of the aquarium when they do it. And then my mom came over at like 6:30 tonight to bring some cupcakes and popsicles and to give Daniel some gifts and clothes.
We visited with my mom and dad for a bit and talked about my siblings and what's going on in their lives. Having time to sit and visit with them is a rare treat, so that was really nice to visit with them, After all the fun was over, we gathered for scriptures, but first we watched some family videos of little silly Daniel. Here is one that we watched that made me laugh the most. We shared pictures of the videos with Mel, Ethan, and Hyrum to remind them of their previous lives. Daniel's little smiles and big giggles were just precious. I'm glad we've captured some of those years. And there were lots of other funny ones we didn't get to. I admit it, I really miss my babies! The kids thought this drinking milk one was was really funny and they want to send it to Daily Dose of Internet. Daniel said he had a good day, so yay, we'll count that as a success. I'm glad that 5 year olds are still pretty easy to please. We sure love little Daniel.
Late last night Owen lost his bottom tooth! It's been wiggly for a while, and I coaxed him into letting me see how wiggly it was, and I got a good hold of it and it came right out.
We stayed up late working a bit more on bedrooms, and Owen was just falling asleep around midnight. Natalie was still awake and asked if she could be the tooth fairy, I said sure. (They were worried that, given my track record, I'd fail as the tooth fairy, and since this was Owen's first tooth, they couldn't let that happen!) Natalie even gave him a dollar from her own money! Super sweet. She came in to report to me before she went to bed that she had taken care of it. This morning, I was in his room when Owen woke up, and he was so excited to find the money from the tooth fairy under his pillow! A dollar bill, a penny, and a post it note:
"Your a big boy - good job - tooth fairy"
Owen carried the money and note around with him all day. Daniel didn't want to wake up for church today, so I got him dressed as he continued to lay down and then we carried him straight to the car. When we got home, I let him have breakfast. Here's a funny video of him singing as he ate his cereal:
Church was nice. I enjoyed sacrament meeting. Peter does better each week in nursery. Peter taking a nap after church -
Since it's Father's Day, Joseph texted asking for some scrapbook photos of him and Corey. Specifically he wanted this one of Corey holding Joseph's baby picture:
So funny story behind this one: "Sunday morning I took Joseph visiting teaching with me before Corey had woken up. I returned home to see a broken hearted Father not knowing what had become of his wife and child. This is how he looked when I walked in the door. It made me laugh so hard! Corey is so funny! Father and son are joyfully reunited!"
And after that picture I sent Joseph a lot of Corey sleeping with him as a baby -
It is so lovely to sleep with a newborn.
Corey with baby Mel
And baby Ethan...
and Baby Hyrum...
Baby Wes...
We've had a lot of babies. There are lots of fun photos in the scrapbooks. I'll have to figure out how to digitized it all onto the blog someday. I took like 75 pictures today that I sent to Mel, Ethan, and Hyrum, so they could do a fb post if they wanted.
I am glad that I have all these old scrapbook photos.
Corey is a wonderful father.
Sure, it got more challenging as their numbers increased
but Corey was up for the challenge.
1 vs 5 kids - Sometimes they got the better of him!!
Here are some pictures from when we were at BYU - Corey getting his MBA.
Doing school work and also doing dad duty.
I think he was the most fun dad at Wyview - having light saber battles with kids in the complex -
Dominoes at home on the kitchen floor.
Waiting with Hyrum on a family walk to Bridal Veil Falls.
So it was a fun glimpse back at memory lane. Today all the kids called to talk to Corey. We had a nice phone visit and they were able to say hi to Corey's family too, who all came over for dinner. I haven't called my dad yet but plan to before I go to bed tonight, doh! Father's day usually turns more into Husband's day in my life and I don't do much for my dad. I need to do better. I hope it's not too late to call.... if I have a minute away from the kids, which is a little hard when I'm trying to let Corey have a few minutes away from the kids. Maybe I'll write my dad a letter - it's always a nice surprise to get a real letter in the mail, right?
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