Sleeping with Daniel

I've got a lot of pictures of the kids sleeping with Daniel.

We all agree that snuggling with him is as good as taking a sleeping pill.

I've also got lots o pics of them holding Daniel while he sleeps ~

I dare say there's nothing better than the dead weight of a sleeping infant on your chest.

After Lily did that pictures Sophi wanted a turn. I was impressed he kept sleeping after the transition. He seems to really like laying on his tummy.

We are all so glad he is here, we love Daniel!! 

It's a lot of work, but so worth it. And babies come with the bonus that they're still pretty fun when they get to be teenagers. Not as cute as babies, but still fun ;)

Beanie Boos

So, Beanie Boos became a favorite toy of the kids during our time in Brazil. They kept the little kids entertained over a whole weekend when Corey took the older kids to Iguacu. And then of course there's Natalie and her baby. When Joseph and Ethan came down, I had plans of ordering some on Amazon or asking someone to go by the toy store and get some more, so they could bring them as gifts for the kids. But then time got away from me. But now we're back, and I know the store that sells them! I can go buy some anytime I want! On my way home from a prenatal visit yesterday, I went and got some. I got a pink cheetah baby for Natalie's blue leophard baby, and I got another unicorn for Sophi...

I got a pink giraffe for Abi (she lost her pink giraffe in Brazil) and I got a fox for Lily cause I thought the fox was cute. And an elephant for Wes for when he feels like playing down to his little sisters' level (such a nice brother). The little girls never have their babies far. At breakfast this morning, Natalie's babies were flying.

Hyrum calls it a "gravity problem." He plays with his little sisters a lot too. They toys will be talking, saying hi, and then all of a sudden they have a gravity problem and woah! ~they start to float up!

What happened to the gravity! What's happening! Wee! We're flying!

And then they do it over and over again. Today at breakfast the pink unicorn also died. But then she came back alive cause of the powers in her horn.

I love seeing the big brothers play with their little sisters. It's cute, they see the fun and innocence in their little sisters' games and like telling me about it (Like in the Rapunzel game at the end of this post). Here's a few pictures of the Beanie Boo game in Brazil. There the game usually consisted of all the animals greeting each other... "hi!" "Hi!"...

then standing on each other's heads, which is what everyone does after saying hello, right?

then having an anti-gravity problem, then gravity would suddenly return and they'd all fall down

then they'd do it again. "Hi!"

 "Let's stand on each other's heads!"

Woah ~ Anti Gravity problem! and we all fly away!

It's fun. I've got good kids.

New Desk

Since Corey came home last night, I had a van this morning, so I hurried over to my sisters house to get the desk and toy kitchen. We barely were able to get it in the van. We tied the back hood down with a rope and I drove slowly on the way home.

On my way back, Iveth texted to see if I could help her - she wanted to attend a Latino summit today. She resigned herself last night to not being able to attend - it was too long for her to get a sitter. But then she woke up this morning with a "there is a way" attitude. I had mentioned last night that Lily had babysat for a neighbor so she asked if Lily could watch them from 2pm - 10pm. I said yes, and said she could watch them at our house. Lily is 10 but she seems about as big as Iveth's oldest, so I couldn't really see her being in charge of them over there. So they were going to come here, but when I mentioned it to Lily, Lily reminded me that she was going to an art festival with her friend from 3-9. So yeah, scratch that, I would just watch them. So I was with a houseful of even more little kids again today!

One exciting thing - before Iveth's kids came, I went outside and could smell MAJOR SKUNK. Turns out our next door neighbor had a mother skunk in her front window well, and a baby in her back window well!! She had a friend (who she said was a bit crazy and was willing to risk getting sprayed) come and get them out. Here's the momma skunk.

And the mother did spray him. I wonder how many babies she started out with. I was sorry we were the ones responsible for one of her babies being permanently gone. I hope that she only had the two and only one died, rather than having like 5 and maybe 4 of them have died so far! Animals have it kinda rough. Our baby birds a year ago had a 50% mortality. I saw a dead baby deer on the side of the road close to our house, sad. I've since told the deer in my heart that it's okay if they eat my roses, cause I'm lucky to not be dealing with the loss of my child.

And that's about it. Kids are here until 10, and when Diego comes to pick them up I'm going to ask him real quick if he can help me bring the desk inside - Corey needed the van again so we had to get it out, but he was in a hurry working and to leave, and the desk was so heavy, I said we could work on it getting it inside later. So it's still outside but I think with Diego's help we'll be able to atleast get it inside. Then I'm going to move it into Melodie's room and I'll take their small table/desk for my room!

Not Forgotten

Remembering and thinking of Shannon today. She was awesome, miss her, she passed away 4 years ago.

Today was a good day. Hyrum was playing really cute with Natalie this evening. He got her to play with her "baby"! I was very excited, I guess her baby has a hold on my heart too, cause it reminds me of her. But with our real baby Owen, and with all the toys here at home, this little leopard has been kinda forgotten since we got back from Brazil. So I was really happy to see her playing with it -

Hyrum got her to play a game with all her leopard family and their babies. The toy shopping cart was their family car.

And she doesn't like us to call the blue leopard "baby" anymore - the blue one is the daddy, the pink the mommy, I don't know about the grey one - I think Hyrum's called it the big sister, and then 3 babies.

Riding in Hello Kitty's van - I love cross play!

Hyrum also brought up a toy house that is now for the Beanie Boos. He is such a good brother to all his little sisters and Owen too. He's great. If you want a good babysitter, you got one in Hyrum.  

Birthday Love

Today is my happy birthday. 🎂 The first thing I did for my birthday was have Wes babysit while I went to lift weights for an hour at the Cottonwood Heights Rec Center. There were beautiful flowers in bloom by the north entrance to the Rec Center. Those were one of the thousand of gifts that God gave me (along with breath, another day of life, etc)

Lovely! I'll limit my pics here to two, but to see one more of this and many other glorious flowers, go to my nature blog.

I enjoy this annual opportunity to impose upon my kids as I play the "birthday card". So it was nice to have a guilt free hour to myself to exercise (except that he wasn't getting homework done, so it was almost guilt free) and then I took Corey up on us going out to lunch too (Wes was my sitter for that one, too, thanks Wes!). We went to Blue Lemon and I got the Mediterranean salad and the something with pecan salad, they were both good. On my way back after lunch, this mama duck and her babies were crossing a busy 5 lane road close to Corey's work. I'm glad that they were safe! Although I did still feel sad remembering the mama duck and ducklings crossing the freeway years ago. A car in front of me slowed down and had their lights on and then we all stopped behind them as we waited for the ducks to cross. Then I turned around to go get a picture of them. So cute.

She didn't like it when I came up to the wall that she was by, so then she left across the grass to get away and keep her babies safe from me. Cute little ducklings. 

Something super fun that I'll count as a birthday present, is that Joseph and Hyrum were able to see both Ethan and Melodie today on their drive across the country. It was a several hour detour for them, but they went to Litchfield, Illinois and had a late breakfast with Ethan...

My little boys all grown up!

Then up to Michigan to see Melodie!

So fun!!! That was a treat for me to observe from a distance - my kids all growing up and being friends and enjoying each other's company (which civility obviously wasn't always the case). Ethan continued his missionary p-day, Joseph and Hyrum continued their drive, and we talked over video messenger.  

(Peter is cute). My mom brought by a cake and some cookies and we sang happy birthday to me - 

Making a wish - 

Kids enjoying cake - 

I didn't get any ice cream, cause I don't want ice cream in the house. 

They did clean the house a little bit today. It was not as much as I got last year, when I had everyone here at my mercy in covid quarantine lockdown, but that's ok.

My siblings had a nice birthday treat for me that I think we are going to turn into a tradition... (Can you tell which one is me?)

We are so cute: Camilla, Tiff, & Neil. On Marco Polo they all shared some of their favorite Tiff memories and it was really fun. Then I looked through old scrapbooks and shared some stuff with them too. Neil, Jersh with the curly hair, and baby Patrice.

Melodie sent me a letter for my birthday, with lovely floral artwork on the outside, and a nice letter, a fall leaf, and a cute little painting inside of Corey and I on our wedding day. I put the painting on my window shelf of love and marriage memorabilia - 

And her Indiana leaf if the big one there in front of Jesus. 

Mel and I both love all things red and in nature! So it was a nice day and a good birthday. 

Pigs on the Farm

Yesterday when we took Shirley home, there were lots of little pigs running around. Ethan wanted to see them, but they are too quick and ran away. But over in the covered garage was a pen of 5 brand spanking new little squealers. Ethan petted them, and wanted to go back today. He told the other kids about it too, so this morning we had one over the seat belt capacity level in the car and Mel, Ethan, Hyrum, and Lily came with me to pick up Shirley. There were 7 more pigs in the litter, total of 12 piglets. Ethan and Mel each held the pigs.

Hyrum didn't want to, that's okay. He was calm. Photographed with the piglets from a distance.

I think the big pig and her grunting sounds freaked him out the most, it freaked me out too...

Lily was making her own new sounds as she talked to the piglets, it made us all laugh. Lily petting a pig.



Twelve baby pigs - that's a big litter. They also have chickens, cows, a horse and foal, a dog with 3 puppies (I thought they looked super skinny, :( poor little things)


Wes and Abi did very well waiting for their turn to see the pigs when we took Shirley home at 2:00. Here they are:




Joe didn't want to hold one, but consented to pet one so I could have a complete set of kid Pig pictures.


I'm glad I'm not a big pig. She was huge, big fat head and chin with little itty bitty eyes. Not attractive at all, just like a big living hot dog. Seems like they were created to provide meat. The babies were cute, but not cuddly at all. Mostly I thought they were funny to look at, silly little things.



So these babies are all born yesterday, but there are a bunch of other little squealing litters running around their farm, (some hiding under a truck) and another pig twice as big as this mother that is going to deliver soon. They grow them and sell some for money and keep some for meat. "Son tontos" Shirley said as we drove down her street and they just kept walking right toward us, not worried to get out of the way of the car. Silly piggies. She said her daughter Michelle doesn't have toys or time to play with toys cause there is so much to do with the animals. All my kids wish they lived there. Would you ever like to live on a farm? Part of it seem charming to me, I'm sure reality would teach me there's a lot more to it than charm, if we ever did live on a farm.