Birthday Yesterday

I had a nice birthday yesterday. Best part was going on an early morning ride with Corey - it is still quite cold in the early morning hours, so we cover up with gloves, gaiters, and jackets. And it's also still snowy on the trail, so we rode up to the first bridge, where the snow stopped us, and turned around and rode up to the road, and rode the road up to the Lisa Falls parking lot! So that was pretty good - we made it up to the elevation even if it's not as fun as being on the trail. Stopping by the Temple quarry to stretch on our way back down.

Yesterday was Hawaii day at school - Sophi and Natalie showing their school spirit.  

We're gonna channel warm weather and see if that helps it feel more like spring outside. Corey and I went out to last night, as a date night/birthday date combo. But I am so bummed cause Blue Lemon is closed or out of business or something? We went to the Draper one, which was closed last week, and last week it looked like it was temporarily closed for a meeting or something, but it was still closed today! But today (thinking it was just a Sandy Blue Lemon thing) we drove all the way down town to go to the Blue Lemon at City Creek, and that one was closed too!! Noooo! It was sad. I guess we'll have to find a new favorite place to go. Sigh. We ended up eating at Vitality Bowls there at City Creek, and it was good, but I was looking forward to Blue Lemon's sweet potato fries. So sad. Corey and I walked around the Deseret Book and I laughed at this painting for sale called "Jesus and the Angry Babies" like what??? Kinda weird. I'd be interested in learning the inspiration behind that. I just thought it was funny. Whenever I see art, I think that I could do paint or draw and create something just as good as that if not better, and I hope I can someday. Having not practiced for a few years, I'm not presently at the level of Simon Dewey, Liz Lemon Swindle, or , but I could do definitely do Kate Lee or Brian Kershisnik level (no offense to them that I'm implying their art doesn't look that hard to do). I dream to someday make artwork like Jenedy Paige or Rose Datoc Dall. Dall's "The Veil is Beginning to Burst" is my favorite!!! My mom got me a calendar with Dall's artwork for Christmas, and that Veil one was the painting for January, and even though we're in April, that calendar ss still on January. Oh, or Thomas Blackshear - I love his style too. He did the artwork for the Killer's Imploding the Mirage. This one is my favorite of his work - I don't know what it's called, but I love it, it's the pic for the song Blowback. I also love James C. Christensen's stuff. I'd like to do one like The Responsible Woman for my kids, with them holding onto things that are part of their life. Ok, anyway... there's my art tangent. I bought a new art ornament for our wood thing this year, and I still am going to try and do some art this year. If we get to December and I still haven't, I should be able to whip out something like this no problem. And sell it for $450 bucks! I like Jorge Cocco's stuff and think I could do this too - I think a big part of art is finding a style that you like to do, and I his geometric stuff is fun. 

Hyrum was able to call last night and wish me a happy birthday too, so that was great. 

The kids had a fun primary activity today - they had four activities for each area of the children and youth initiative (5th pic) - Spiritual, Social, Physical & Intellectual. I'm going to try and focus on those four areas too. Daniel, Natalie, Peter (behind Owen) and Owen in the orange hat. 

This activity was at 10. Daniel was dressed for his soccer game, which was at 2pm. Owen  had a bye today. And this evening the girls had a violin spring group concert at Westminster College. We made it to the campus on time but then were lost for a bit trying to find which building it was in. We wandered around following other people that didn't know where they were going, ha, but we all finally found it. The performances were lovely. They are both starting to sway to the music, getting into it like all the pro violists do. Little video of them here (sorry Sophi that your head is usually behind Natalie's scroll) :) 

Museum, Monuments, & Memorials

Today we had tickets to go to the Holocaust Museum. I was regretting that I didn't help Corey plan things, cause it would have been nice to tune in for General Conference, but we did catch President Nelson's message as we drove into DC (and his message was wonderful!). I was also kinda hoping to go see Nicole again, but we were at the mall all day. It was a bit crazy finding parking cause of the Cherry Blossom festival. Parking was $40 for each car, yikes. Before we went, I took a few kids for a walk in our old Centreville neighborhood. I was hoping to go on the little trail through the trees that we did in 2006, but it was possibly overgrown or it's not there any more, or I just couldn't find it cause it is early spring and the trees don't have any leaves. But I did wander around with the kids. 

I was glad that Abi came with me to help. We went on a walk, and walked to a park, and then Peter had to go to the bathroom, so I left Abi in charge while Peter and I walked to hopefully find the port a potty I saw. 

We found one, which was a bit of a brisk hike away for me to take him to, and then Peter took one look inside and let me know he actually didn't need to go. I think he did, but not bad enough to go to the bathroom in that full to the brim toilet. So then I took him back to the park. Corey texted that he was ready to leave and that we were kinda late, so he was heading in and would meet us at the mall. At that news, I admit I was a bit irritated, cause I had taken the kids out of the hotel to give him a little bit of peace, and I was also just killing time cause I was wait for him to join us so we could drive together, and now we were late, and I was at the park, and the car was parked over far away, so (grrr) I left Abi with the kids and I ran as fast as I could back to the car, picked up the kids and then we left. 

Traffic in DC was nuts, I was a bit stressed in it, we took a few wrong turns, then Corey texted me that he had parked, knew where we could park, and told me where to meet him. We found him and the kids, we got out, he went and parked my car, and we waited for him to catch up as we started to walk to the Holocaust Museum. It was a good experience, but it was crazy busy with a bunch of high school looking kids who came together on buses. So it was busy. 

I was able to read a little bit of all the info, but Katharine wasn't being very nice, so I tried to discreetly nurse her as I stood and walked... I don't know if it actually was discreet but I tried. I found it so interesting the way that Hitler came into power. I took photos of this so I could review it after I got home - I'll put in caps the titles of each essay displayed:

TAKEOVER OF POWER, 1933: Hitler rose to Power in January 1933.
THE TERROR BEGINS: The Nazi's relied on terror - violence and brutality were used to prevent opposition. The Nazi SA group grew to be 450,000 and then dwarfed the German army. When he became Chancellor, he inaugurated his regime with a ras of SA violence against his political opponents. Street battles on "Bloody Sunday" February 12, 1933, left one communist dead and hundreds wounded. Two weeks later was the Reichstag fire, where 4000 communists ans social democrats were arrested. And in June, during the "week of blood", Nazi thugs killed 91 communists in Berlin alone. They were making concentration camps in April 1933 as political prisons for anyone who opposed them.
BOYCOTT: On April 1, 1933, the Nazis staged a massive nationwide boycott against Jewish businesses and professional offices. The decision to boycott was Hitlers.
THE BURNING OF BOOKS: Spring of 1933, members of Nazi student organizations raided libraries and bookstores in 30 cities and towns across Germany. They removed truckloads of books and cast them onto bonfires. On May 10, more than 25,000 books were burned in Berlin alone. The book burning were not spontaneous: they were a calculated, coordinated effort to "purify" German culture.

NAZI PROPAGANDA: Nazis used propaganda, along with terror, to manipulate the German population. Among these was the "Leader Principle" which promoted Hitler as the ultimate source of power and Justice. Slogans such as "One people, one Reich, one Leader" helped catalyze the publics perception of Hitler as a National Savior.

THE "SCIENCE" OF RACE: All human beings were grouped into a hierarchy of "superior" and "inferior" races

FROM CITIZENS TO OUTCASTS

JEWISH RESPONSES - German Jews struggled to preserve their rights. Because of th Nazi persecution, Zionism became the dominant political trend among German Jews. By 1939, emigration to Palestine had become a major objective of the Jewish community. 

EXPANSION WITHOUT WAR: Hitler was determined to increase the territory of Germany. Until 1939 he was able to do this without a fight. His first aggressive act was sending German troops west of teh Rhine on March 7, 1936. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. In a conference on Sept 29, 1938, leaders of Great Brigain, France and Italy allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland.

NO HELP, NO HAVEN 1938: There was a refugee crisis, but the US did not intend to increase it's immigration quotas. "A Useless Conference: From Julv 6 to 15, 1938, delegations from 32 nations met at Évian-les-Bains, France, to identify refugee havens for German and Austrian Jews. Country after country acknowledged the refugees plight, yet offered little more than excuses. Great Britain would admit few Jews, and kept Palestine closed to large-scale Jewish immigration. Canada was willing to accept farmers, but this did not help the urban Jews of Austria and Germany. Australia declined to assist because it "does not have a racial problem, and (is] not desirous of importing one." The Venezuelan delegate was reluctant to disturb the *demographic equilibrium" of his country: no Jewish merchants, peddlers, or intellectuals were wanted there. The Netherlands and Denmark offered only temporary asylum. The United States finally agreed to admit-for the first time-the full legal quota for immigrants from Germany and Austria. The Dominican Republic alone offered to receive a substantial number, 100,000 Jews."

"NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS"
"ENEMIES OF THE STATE" Jews were the main target, but Communists, Social Democrats, trade unions, liberals, and pacifists were all arrested for their political views or activities. Dissenting clergy faced imprisonment if they spoke out against he regime. Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted for their refusal to sweat allegiance to the state. Homosexuals, Freemasons, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, and Slavic people were all stigmatized as racially inferior and persecuted. The Nazis also regarded mentally and physically disabled persons and "lives unworthy of life"

NAZI SOCIETY 

POLICE STATE

SEARCH FOR REFUGE

THE BOYAGE OF THE ST. LOUIS

TO SAFETY

THE WAR BEGINS

THERROR AGAINST THE POLES, 1939-1940

HEALERES AND PROTECTORS BECOME MASS MURDERERS (This one made me cry) 

"At five-and-a-half, I was sent to a children's home that cooperated with the Nazis. The children there were declared mentally ill Behind our dormitory were the babies. And one day I was surprised that I didn't hear the babies crying anymore. That was in 1940. I had been in the institution for two years.Then I looked in, and all the beds were empty. I ran down the long hallway to the other room where the older disabled patients were. All of those beds were empty too."

-Elvira Manthey, Eyewitness to 'euthanasia" facility

The Nazis targeted people with disabilities for systematic mass murder. The regime considered them to be a genetic threat and an economic burden. Resources, the Nazis believed, were better allocated to healthy Germans. In spring 1939, they planned a secret operation to kill children with disabilities. That fall, Hitler authorized "Operation T4, which extended the program to adults. Victims of the program were patients living in care facilities in Germany and German-annexed lands. They had conditions such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, and intellectual and physical disabilities.

Cooperation from doctors, nurses, and hospital directors was critical to the program. Medical personnel took part in nearly all aspects of it. Their roles ranged from planning and victim selection to outright murder. Staff killed patients by gassing, lethal overdose, or starvation. The Nazis referred to the deaths as "euthanasia," or mercy killing.

In 1941, public discovery of the killings led to protests by a number of church leaders, judges, and citizens. Hitler issued a halt order to the adult program in late August. The killings secretly resumed in 1942 and continued until the war ended in 1945.An estimated 250,000 people died in the "euthanasia" program.

A SHTETL - THE EJSZYSZKI SHTETL COLLECTION

THE "FINAL SOLUTION"

ANNE FRANK

GHETTOS, 1939-1944

DOCUMENTING LIFE AND DEWATH IN THE WARSAW GHETTO

THERESIENSTADT

THE WARSAW GHETTO

THE LODZ GHETTO

THE KOVNO GHETTO

FOUR HUNDRED GHETTOS

INVASION OF THE SOVIET UNION 1941

MOBILE KILLING SQUADS

Babi

The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar. 

The trees look ominous, like judges.

Here all things scream silently,

And, caring my head,

Slowly I feel myself

Turning gray.

And I myself.

Am one massive, soundless scream

Above the thousand thousand buried here.

- Yevgeny Yevtushenki (b. 1955, Russian poet

BABI YAR

  A few days after the Germans captured Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, in September 1941, Soviet saboteurs blew up several buildings occupied by German authorities. The Nazis decided that in retaliation, the Jews of Kiev would be killed, On September 28, signs were posted in Kiev ordering all Jews in the city and its surroundings to appear the next morning, September 29, at the Jewish cemetery. They were to be resettled," the posters stated; failure to appear was punishable by death.

  Thousands of Jews came to the designated place the next morning. They were taken to Babi Yar, a ravine two miles from the city center, and were forced to hand over their valuables and remove their clothes. Groups were then herded into the ravine, where members of a German killing unit shot them.

  More than 33,000 Jews were killed at Babi Yar in two days.

  During the following months, thousands more Jews, as well as partisans, Roma (Gypsies), and Soviet prisoners of war, were executed there. Soviet reports after the war estimated the number of victims at 100,000; the true number may never be known.

  In August 1943, as the Red Army advanced, the Nazis returned to Babi Yar to remove the evidence of mass murder.

  Bulldozers unearthed the thousands of corpses, which were then incinerated.

HOLOCAUST IN ROMANIA

THE WANNSEE CONFERENCE, 1942

THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, PASSOVER 1943

DEPORTATIONS

WHO SHALL LIVE AND WHO SHALL DIE

PRISONERS OF THE CAMPS

THE CONCENTRATION CAMP UNIVERSE

IN THE CAMPS

WHY AUSCHWITZ WAS NOT BOMBED

SHOES

These are shoes found at the Majdanek camp in Lublin, Poland, at its liberation by Soviet troops in July 1944

We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses. 

We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers from Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam. 

And because we are only made of fabric and leather - and not of blood and flesh - each one of us

Avoided the hellfire.

- Moses Schulstein (1911-1981) 

Yiddish poet

So, I'll need to go back sometime and write more under each of those topics, but you can google them too. It was a sober visit. 

Deuteronomy 30:19 - I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. 

So after that we walked past the Washington Monument...

Kids were tired, but they were troopers.

We walked down to the Lincoln Memorial.

Daniel was tired and didn't want to walk anymore after that. We went to the Vietnam Memorial, Owen started walking on the grass and then up on the memorial which horrified me when I saw it. I called him down and got a disappointed look by a lady who passed by. My apologies to her and any of the brave deceased who might be offended by that. We passed by the Washington Monument again on our way back to the cars. Time to do a photo - I did Natalie's perfectly!

I didn't do as good on the other girls' photo illusions.

Cool to have the moon in it though. 

And Lily got a kite too. 

Lily had everyone touch the monument.

Even you, Katharine!

Ok, it's been a long day, let's head back to the hotel.

One more day of sight seeing tomorrow, and then we travel home on Tuesday. Corey, Wes and I all felt exhausted by keeping track of little kids at the museum and dragging them along at the mall. I also felt a little sad that we went to a restaurant afterwards (cause it's a Sunday, so that's why I was sad about that, not keeping the Sabbath day holy, but maybe going to the Mall in the first place wasn't keeping it holy either...) But we went by Subway for dinner after the mall. We didn't have food in the room, and no one wanted to fast with me, so we fed them. I texted Nicole saying that if I could redo today I would. And I would have taken the family up to visit her instead so we could have watched conference. I know we can listen to it later, but it would have been good to make it a priority and to have watched second day of General conference. Hopefully the kids learned good moral lessons today from the Holocaust Museum. I caught a little bit of the morning session but missed all of the second. But this is a lesson for me, like Pres Nelson's experience with the bad tempered surgeon was a life lesson for him. I am determined to not miss listening to General Conference on General Conference weekend again. Especially when we can listen with friends!!! I think tomorrow is a full day but I'm hoping we might be able to see Nicole again before we head back to Utah. 

Laughing Baby

I have such a pretty baby.... 

That's my BeReal from yesterday with her lovely face. Here's her little face as I tickled her!

Natalie took a video of her laughing as I tickled her neck. It's a "short" so I can't embed it, but there's the link.

It was right after I changed her diaper and she had already been pretty smiley and laughing, but we tried to not use up all her laughs and save one for after she was clean, and so I gave Natalie my phone and she took it.

SO CUTE! Oh I love it. Babies are magic and pure heaven. 

Yestrday and today have been good. I felt pretty sick yesterday but feel better today. I picked up carpool (I do Tuesday and Wed pick ups), cleaned, took S to the library both days after I picked her up from safety patrol to get her another Sisters Grimm book that we put on hold. I had a plumber scheduled to come fix the tub Tues, and when I left for carpool they still hadn't come, so I left the door unlocked and was going to tell them just to go in, if they came while I was gone, but they called as I was leaving to reschedule for today. So then today they said that the faucet I got from Standard Plumbing won't work - I need "square handles" plus the two cartridges for hot and cold water are different from each other, so I went back to Standard Plumbing after they left to get the right faucet, turns out the square handle faucets, called Monticello, and gone, so we're going to prob get the cartridges replace, which is going to require accessing under the tub and prob breaking the tile around the tub, so we still don't have a working tub and this just turned into a bigger project, so I let our friends/landlords know and she wants a second opinion and someone is coming on Friday for that. Hopefully we'll have a working but within a week? 

Corey and Abi went to Provo tonight for a flute recital for Mel, I stayed home and held down the fort. It will be a later bedtime tonight but that's ok, it happens. But it's been really great for us ever since we all started to go to bed early (10 PM). Corey said going to bed early is his super power, and he's right! It's been a game changer for us all as a family. 

Basketball and Henna

It's been a good and busy weekend. Sophi had a basket ball game today - here she is with her team. 

She was excited that they won 16-6! Melodie came up today and went to the game with me and Katharine. Taking a pic of Katharine for her BeReal. 

I took a pic too - 

Sophi is a good little player. Last night Corey and I went to Jordan Commons to see the last two episodes of Season 3 of the Chosen. Very good, although... (reader discretion if this is possibly spoiler info...) I don't love the whole miscarriage side story. But I get it - they're making a tv show, not a completely accurate biblical movie. But some of the drama is dumb. A little bit the same as when I saw the movie Let It Go, where they were trying to be all dramatic, but in the book, Chris Williams is really solid and his family wasn't there being mad or vengeful on his behalf. Same way - I get it that the apostles had their weaknesses, but the miscommunication between Eve and Peter is a bit stupid, as is Peter's anger over the miscarriage. I've had two miscarriages, and Corey's calmness was a strength at that time. Maybe it's just cause it's not my reality with Corey, but I'm sure they are portraying a reality that some people experience, but that whole side story has been a bit of a disconnect for me. Anyway, I still love the Chosen and I'm excited for my kids to see it. Oh, and Corey pointed out something in the Chosen that made me laugh. He was like "Where are all the kids? It's just not realistic! As if they were just all these "free adults" with no spouses and no children?!?!" But then we agreed that it would be a logisital nightmare to get a bunch of babies and children actors to be extras in the show. So we get it, but just note to self when you're watching it - insert lots of children that are making messes and slowing down whatever it is that all those adults are trying to accomplish! THAT would make it more realistic! haha. 

Wes had his last hockey practice yesterday. He's going to miss it. It was a very happy two seasons for him. What will he do for an outlet now? Yesterday he did some henna on his little brothers. 

The little boys hold sooo still when Wes does henna on them. 

Wes said it makes his thumb sore to push on the henna slowly.

But it was therapeutic for Wes to draw, and Peter was so relaxed. I'm sure it felt nice getting his back rubbed/tickled. Almost done...

And.... Peter wasn't able to hold on and took a little nap.

Cute little kid. When he woke up, he was excited to show it off. Too bad he can't see it himself. So I took a photo to show him how awesome it looked. 

That's really cool, Pete! I had him take a bath to get the hard stuff off and then we were able to see how the dye held. Today Wes was doing a little more henna on his siblings - giving Sophi freckles - 

He had already done some design on her hand - 

And given himself a Maori-like tatoo on his arm.

One other thing from today - Corey got some Frontier flight pass things for him, Mel, Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Natalie. $400 bucks for an all you can fly pass for this summer. His thinking is that it will save Mel and Abi money if they do this flute trip to Vienna in July. He made a spreadsheet with all of our summer plans and it's going to be busy "It's almost over already!" I spent today doing some prepping for our anniversary feast, which will be in three weeks. Should be fun. Life is good. 

Cold Showers

Last night, Lily was taking a shower before bed and was freaking out. She was yelling through the door that it was broken and wouldn't get warm. Abi was sitting by waiting for her turn to shower, and just rolled her eyes and told Lily to stop turning off the water and just hurry and finish. I thought maybe the shower handle was stuck or something. We didn't really pay attention to her wailing. But then Peter misfired in the bathroom and got himself wet, and when I went to draw a bath for him, behold - there was no warm water! Hm, interesting. I went to check the basement and it looked like the water heaters did not have their pilot lights on. So Peter had a baby wipes bath and we learned that Lily wasn't being dramatic. Her shower wasn't tepid or room temperature, it was legit COLD. I laughed and said lucky for me and Wes, we've spent over a week getting used to cold showers! Wes told me about Wim Hof on Saturday Jan 14, on our way to Momentum, and after watching this video with Yes Theory (and several other people on youtube saying all the amazing benefits of cold showers for your brain and body...) I've taken several cold showers, done some snow exposure, like sitting in it, laying it in, taken out the trash barefoot (to the street) and yeah, it's kinda fun to shake things up with a little cold exposure. I tried to increase my time last Thurs and spent 6 minutes laying in the snow, before we went to St. George, and then on the drive down I noticed that the tips of my thumbs were still numb. The tips felt kinda numb/asleep for a few days, and my left one still does a little bit, so maybe I did some nerve damage. Sorry, thumbs. No more 6 minutes in the snow. I'll keep it quick. Maybe I got a bit of frostnip? So I'm not doing it that long again. Just 11 min a week. I know, I know - the disclaimer in the Yes Theory said to not attempt, and I didn't do a 4 hour hike, I was just feeling ambitious/crazy by choice. Looks like everyone else gets to be forced into it now for a day. Abi took a shower after, and she was washing her hair (I told her that's a bad idea) but she did it, cleanliness must prevail, and Abi afterwards let us know that it was a horrible experience, and that she "was screaming like an opera singer the whole time!" 

"I don't think opera singers would say that they 'scream'..." "I was like the bad lady on Phantom of the Opera" and I was laughing again thinking of Abi in the shower singing like Carlotta. We didn't hear her case we were downstairs playing around with the pilot lights. 

Corey got it lit on one tank briefly (Dec 2013 tank on left), but then it didn't seem to be on again, and the other tank looked like it was having problems (water at the bottom, Feb 2018 tank on right). Good news: we didn't cause an explosion. Bad news: we didn't fix anything. Water was still cold. So this morning it was a VERY cold shower for Wes, Corey showered at the gym, and I haven't showered today. I could have done cold, but I didn't feel like it today. Hmm, maybe that's why I've been in a kinda bad mood today. Note to self, go take a cold shower in the morning, don't skip it. 

I texted our landlord and she gave me the plumbers that we used last time (Neerings) and they were able to come out within an hour and had a new tank in by noon. It was under warranty, only a $49 service fee and yay, I thought we were back up and running. They said to give it 30 minutes, so I started laundry and then I had carpool and was busy until 4. Back at home, I went to wash dishes and hmm, it still felt kinda cold. I checked another sink, then went to the basement again. Seemed like it still wasn't working. I called Neerings again, they sent out another technician, I actually wasn't sure which tank was the 2013 or 2018, but he said the 2018 was the one that was under warranty and was replaced, and that the 2013 one on the left wasn't working either. It was an old brand that they don't use anymore. The pilot lighter needs to be replaced, but he said it's such an old tank, and would be $700 to fix, but he didn't think it was worth it to fix on an old tank, we should replace that one too. Doh. That one's warranty is expired. Sooo. we'll still be having cold showers tonight and tomorrow morning, and they will be back here at 9 to take a look again and then we'll see if we will be having warm baths tomorrow.

But I like the Yes Theory's idea of "Seek Discomfort". Maybe all these warm baths and comfortable homes have turned us all into pansies. A little bit of cold discomfort might make my body toughen up a bit. It's been making Katharine all the more lovely though. We discovered how soft she really is after we got calloused hands from bouldering, and now I'm really seeing how warm she is from getting myself a little cold. We'd never give her a cold bath, that would be so sad, she'd cry like a baby. She's  everything we want to be if we're just hanging out in our comfort zones, but we need to seek discomfort. It's good for us. We're not babies anymore, time to grow up and enjoy the dignity in calloused hands. 

Wes' Weekend

We had a really great visit with the kids tonight. The kids at home - not the college kids. After dinner, we just stayed around visiting and talking and it continued the rest of the night. The highlight for me was Wesley talking about how he's been putting the gospel to the test a little bit more - he's tried to go to the temple, he's been reading his scriptures and praying more consistently, and today he was up and about doing lots of church stuff: after preparing and serving the sacrament in our ward's sacrament meeting, he went on to go be in a discussion panel for two other wards in their ward conference (he's on the Stake Youth Commitee) and they talked about the new For The Strength of Youth pamphlet and answered questions, some of which would have never been brought up back when I used to be in YW (one example that one of the youth in our stake asked: If I'm a girl and I kiss a girl, am I going to hell? Wesley helped answer that one (No, but you should go talk to your bishop)). He also got back late last night from being a 11th wheel to a school dance (There were 5 couples and Wes) and he said he had so much fun and danced with more girls than the guys, cause at the dance, the guys all get together in a circle and dance and the girls did the same, and Wes was like "forget that" and went to the girls group and was just being super brave and putting himself out there. As Debbie W. said today in Relief Society as we discussed the Doctrine of Belonging: "Sometimes all it takes in 20 seconds of courage."

Anyway, so Wes had so much fun there, and he got home sometime after 2 am (we went to bed but he told us in the morning) cause they were watching Cars 2. "That movie is hilarious! It was so funny! But it was 1 am..." and then he was depressed around 2, true to sleep deprivation form. (See one of the quotes here) So Wes had come back early from St. George with his aunt and cousins so that he could get to hockey practice at 10:15. He said that he did an amazing shot and scored on a 3 players vs. 2 coaches drill, and his coach was amazed "WES! Have you been practicing?!?!" He said yeah even though he really hasn't been practicing hockey much, but he has been putting the gospel to the test and he said that is the only thing he's really been doing differently. His coach also said "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!" and Wesley sent Corey this pic to share how he felt:

Anyway, it was so great talking to him tonight and he shared some of the things he's been feeling and learning with his younger siblings during scriptures. It was really fun. My heart was full of gratitude. We also talked about dating with Wes and Abi, and some of the things their older siblings have learned so far from their dating experiences. Abi said "I'm so glad that we have older siblings so that we don't mess up like they did". Ha. I'm sure you'll mess up in whole new ways. We all mess up and that's how we learn.

After we got home, I put my hand in ice water as I looked at a cold photo and a warm photo for Sophi's science fair project. Gotta love science. I could have gone all night, but I stopped after 2 and a half minutes and easily won the family endurance challenge.

I did a good on Sophi's hair for church! The youtube algorithm gives me a lot of hair videos, I usually share them with Mel, this is one I tried on Mel that didn't work great, but today on Sophi I did good and it was so pretty. 

Owen had a baptism preview. He's going to be baptized in August. Pretty exciting. These kids keep growing up. Nice bow tie, Owen! He's a sweet and innocent little kid. He tries hard to be good and is doing a great job following Jesus.

Owen accidentally broke an ornament on my wood board thingy (2nd to last pic). It was a new one I just got this past Christmas to represent Peter and his love for dinosaurs, especially brachiosaurus's. This is an ornament like "Tiny". It had a fragile glass body and resin feet and head. Well, lately Owen's been playing with a ball throwing it up the stairs. I told him not to, cause might hit the glass ornaments. He did after church today, and I tried to glue it back together. It didn't all line up perfectly, but pretty good. There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

The kids haven't been keeping up Katharine's Instagram - they're following my example of being behind. I did a little post with these pics I took - It's never too early to begin dental hygiene! 

(But if it could be too early, "before teeth" might qualify.) Katharine is flossing her gums. And with the wrong side of the floss pick.

Such a silly baby. She's soft and warm and smooth and squishy and little and fun, babies are perfectly made to be irresistible.

Melodie is 22!

Happy Birthday to Melodie! It was fun having her here to celebrate her special day. We toyed around a bit with the idea of going swimming, but when it was 11 and we still hadn't decided, we figured it was a bit late to get in a full day, so we're saving it for another time. So we decided to go out to lunch. Corey stayed home with the boys, Katharine joined us. Her sweet little baby face!

We went to Bandits. I like Bandits. I got my usual Farmer's Harvest Salad with shrimp. Mel got that too. Good stuff. 

They brought Katharine a high chair - Katharine killed time by tasting the chair. 

She also tried slapping the table to call the waiter to serve us. That didn't work, so then she played with the little black papers from around our napkins. She found that to be pretty entertaining.

Mel and I were both just adoring her the whole time. Babies are so beautiful. It's so fun. Mel adoring Katharine again this evening after she got her to sleep in a chair in the front room.

Mel was painting her fingernails! Haha, Katharine holding the little nail file - so fun. She's our favorite!

So, my mom didn't come by today, and that was ok - she thought Mel was down at school. But I didn't get a cake, cause I kinda don't like cake, and Mel didn't mind cause we had already had a nice meal together. But the little kids said we needed cake. Daniel took matters into his own hands with some playdoh. Presenting Mel's birthday cake!

We sang Melodie a song - 

And she posed with the cake - 

Daniel was so pleased with himself and that his cake offering was so graciously received. 

And Melodie was getting a big kick out of  it. Such a sad little cake!

Sorry Mel, I guess I could have/should have gotten you a birthday dessert. 

Happy Birthday Mel! I think taking college kids out to eat for their birthday might be a good "gift". Corey already got Joseph something for his birthday (a bike rack) so we'll let him have that as a gift but then it might just be dinner date gifts. Corey also wants Joseph to forgive us/never mention again that we gave him our old piano as a birthday present. ...that was my fault. We were ready to get rid of it, he said he'd like it, then I said "hey, can that count as your b-day present?" so that was tacky, and he's never let us forget it. But honestly, we do and have done so much for them anyway, do we really "owe" them a gift every year? We don't expect or demand anything from them, we're still raising 8 more kids at home... go easy on us. We're hoping to have enough money to retire someday! Ok, we'll Mel, thanks for being so chill and mellow for us, we appreciate it! You're the best.