Henna and Cute K

Wesley brought back some Henna stuff from India. He's been making art on his siblings. Little boys like little boy designs - 

It's a great way to get them to all hold still and be quiet - they are still during the procedure so Wes can draw, and we tell them to stay still after so it can dry. Peter with spiderman on his chest and a dinosaur on his arm.

Daniel wanted a dinosaur too. Wes is a good artist.

Corey said that this trip to India that Wes just had was all fun and some work, but not the work that the adults put in who are helping out the kids. So in that way this was good but was different than what an LDS mission experience would be. Wes was enjoying free oj that someone else did most of the work for - someone else did the work planning and organizing and even paying for - Wes trip was mostly paid for by the money Hyrum earned before his trip got cancelled in 2020 with covid. So, Corey wanted Wes to learn that "In life, you want to make sure that the juice is worth the squeeze" by having Wes make some fresh orange juice.

It took 4 oranges to get Corey an 8 oz cup of juice. Usually it's us parents that do all the squeeze in life, so this was a nice way to have Wes do a little bit of the work. It's nice having him back home! He said he doesn't need anything for Christmas! "We already have so much..." "The girls there didn't have anything, yet they were so sweet and so happy, you don't need stuff to be happy" Yay, mission accomplished. I agree. Happiness doesn't come from things. It comes from gratitude for what we do have - for our relationships and for the beautiful things in this world, like cute babies! 

Haha, lately, Katharine has been cracking us up with her overactive tongue. Little video of her here. This morning she got a little taste of Wesley's oranges, she likes it!

Silly baby.

Natalie and Sophi were watching Katharine this morning while I was climbing at Momentum. I went yesterday by myself and got my first flapper (ripped off callous). I went with Lily this morning before school and I was able to climb carefully with a bandaid, and I super glued it back on. When I came in, I saw her up on Natalie's head with Sophi keeping the Cocomelon video in front of Katharine's face. "Natalie, don't carry her like that!" "It's ok mom! I've never dropped her!" 

They make me nervous! Katharine also always make me laugh when she puts her binky in upside down. 

Well find her in her supersaucer like this - 

So silly! 

Katharine practicing piano - She's our favorite.

And a cute little smile. 

She's our favorite. A few other things from today - I made a "Oh What Fun It Is To Wride" banner that I put in the kitchen - one piece of our party prep (before the cookie exchange on Saturday). And Lily had her Christmas concert at school. 

Autumn Activities

We're all doing well here. It's been the usual busy life with kids having music lessons, practicing, homework, etc. Other activites too - yesterday Sophi and Natalie went to a Trunk or Treat with a friend.  Dressed as Candy Corn and Cleaopatra. 

And P as a dinosaur. Corey and Wes are having fun in Boston, and as for us, I've actually gone and cleaned up in the basement a little bit, so that's been good. AND I cleaned the kids shower, which was super bad. So I've done cleaning, but also playing with the kids too - Peter and I colored dinosaurs and sharks - 

Here are the kids walking to the kindergarten bus yesterday - Daniel rollerblading and Peter riding his "dinosaur bike ride"

And no blog post would be complete without cute pictures of Katharine... 

That was from yesterday morning, Natalie should have been getting dressed and ready for school, but instead she was getting Katharine dressed. She just can't help playing with her doll! Katharine in a little snow jumper thing that also I got for her yesterday, in addition to the three Halloween costumes... And today they dressed her in another winter outfit I got (like I said, I might already be spoiling her like a grandma!) 

Look at you sitting up!!

I sent that pic above to Corey, and he texted back asking "Is she always that happy and smiley?" I replied "Almost always!" followed by this pic of her that I just took of her being impatient for food. 

So I guess she's not perfect all the time, but even when she's crying, we all just think it's adorable and we laugh at her. (and jokingly quote Lotso Bear "Don't be such a BABY!!!") Another pic of her adorable face! 

We love how she sucks on her lower lip. That is so cute when babies do that. And we also laughed at her when she fell asleep sticking out her tongue - haha!

Yeah, we pretty much love everything about this little girl.

Last Caterpillar

Well, we're down to our last caterpillar...

(cause all the rest are already in their chrysalides) I took that pic above an hour ago - now I'm ready to head to bed, but this guy will be changing any minute now. I've been in here collecting milkweed seeds from the pods I've collected as I listened to this Hello Saints guy be interviewed. I found his channel thanks to the YouTube algorithm. I like it. As I listened, I called and let the kids know "It's your last chance to see a caterpillar molt!" but no one came. I didn't push it. 

We've all seen it before, but I still find it amazing though! ...and a little stressful... I haven't had any of them fall, but it seems, to me, like hanging upside down by your toes and shedding off your skin is a bit of a risky position to be in... I'm amazed that they just happen to have a little velcro peg (cremaster) that had grown inside their body and comes out of their abdomen to grab onto the silk pad to catch them from falling to certain death in their soft and vulnerable state. Pretty amazing programming code that went into these little creatures. Just the luck of evolution? That would be pretty amazing luck indeed, but I don't buy it. There is a Creator and Grand Designer behind all the amazing things in this world - from snowflakes to rainbows, fall colors to caterpillars, not to mention the amazing human body that comes in the package of beautiful babies! 

I spent part of the evening reclaiming the laundry room desk. I moved the caterpillars inside on Wednesday cause the wind was crazy. It was blowing over empty garbage bins in the street, so these guys would have been goners. So I put them back in the laundry room on Wednesday and they've been in there... I have kept the window open. It's not too cold outside, but hopefully they're still getting cues from mother nature that it's time to migrate, even though I have them inside. I recently ordered some official monarch supplies - floral tubes for the milkweed and a peg rack to hold them, and a large cage. 

It's been working very well. I have a plastic thing to catch the frass, but the cake lid from Natalie's birthday is still in there too and I'll be keeping that in storage for next year. I've been putting things away...

What will I do with my time now that monarch season is almost over? Haha, I'll start to catch up on the house that I've been neglecting since July. We'll have a few days of releasing butterflies over the next 2 weeks, but now all the hard work is done. We will enjoy a few more weeks of biking in the lovely fall weather. The elementary kids didn't have school today, cause of PTCs yesterday, so it was a teacher work day. So after I took Lily to jazz band, I came home and Corey and I went out for a ride up the canyon. When we came around a corner and I saw the mountain, I about fell off my bike - 

I yelled "WOW!!! Look at that!" and anyone seeing me might have though I was seeing a comet or UFO. No, it was just the AMAZING fall colors on the mountain. HOLY COW it was amazing. 

It invigorated my soul and put wind in my sails - I was ready for the last few hills and their tricky rocks. Corey was ahead of me. I was thinking that if I followed his line, I might make it over any tricky spots. Psyching myself up I said "Show me where to go!" His simple reply - "UP." "Noooo..." Up up and up the mountain. Up the hill, over the obstacles. Work work work. It's a bumpy ride, but we can do it. “The road ahead will always be bumpy, but the destination will be serene and secure. So, fasten your seat belt, hang on through the bumps, and do what’s right, and your rewards will be eternal.” - President Nelson. I'm sure there will also be beautiful picturesque moments along the way - 

I passed some rock obstacles that I hadn't gotten over before. Yay, I'm improving! I made it all the way up to the top of Lisa Falls. Can you see the ruins behind us?

It's a beautiful world. It was a great way to start the day. Carpool, a bit of cleaning, K had a 4 month well visit and I also finally went to get a few copies of her birth certificate. Date night tonight at Blue Lemon, I got my usual (Mediterranean salad with shrimp and dressing on the side). We are so excited for this weekend - it's General Conference! Time to nourish our souls with hours of hearing the uplifting messages and the word of God, so excited, goodnight!

Precious Life

These three girls decided to go to church as Guatemala girls yesterday. Katharine didn't match in her pastel pink, but that's ok.

Natalie and Lily are wearing shirts that Joseph gifted them from one of his trips to Guate, but Abi, you can't fool me! Your shirt is Burmese! Ler and December (last pic) gave that to us, or Ler's brother did. Ok, we'll let is slide, Abi was wearing her Guatemala backpack. 

I take my bag with tipica to church every Sunday, it's one that I ordered from Titia's bags- the lady who makes these was in Joseph's ward or something when he was a missionary. Katharine being cute at church - pretty bow on my pretty 3 month old.

She was freaking out last night in a very uncharacteristic way and I took her on a walk to try and calm her down, and her face was all blotchy. She seriously cried from 3:30 - 4:30 yesterday! I'm wondering if she ate something that made her uncomfortable or itchy? 

If she did I don't know what it was. She might just be red cause she was crying so much. But she recovered and today she's been find, so I don't know what that was all about. My poor baby. She was just trying out what it is like to throw a fit. I'm guessing she thinks it's over rated. It's better to just be an angel baby. 

I'm really behind on the blog, and yesterday I finally finished July, yikes I'm always playing catch up. I do want to record memories for my kids though, so I'll keep at it. (And actually, truth be told, today is actually November 21st!! But I wrote on my notes for September 11 that I finished blogging July, so yeah, I'm still way behind! I think I'll blame my now almost 6 month old baby. Now, pretending I'm in the past again...) Let's talk about butterflies! "Yesterday" I didn't release any, but today we had one male emerge. 

They're just so cool and beautiful. 

I've got 2 chrysalides, three big cats, 4 medium, 5 small, and my 17 babies (I hope... they're too small to count). These four were so cute! I loved seeing them all munching away, so I made a short video. Cuties.

I love my caterpillars and butterflies!

I love my kids too. Peter being cute at violin today, playing with puzzles. 

There is so much beauty to enjoy in this world, even when there are hard and horrible trials and events too. I did think about 9/11 yesterday. We didn't watch anything, but my heart is with those who were so greatly affected by the events of that day. I am grateful that we were able to go to the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum last year. All things will be made right through Christ. I'm grateful for my one precious life. 

Kids Taking Pics

The kids often take my camera, and they take pictures, since the camera app is one of the two apps on the lock screen that you can use without a password (the other is the flashlight app). I usually just delete the hundreds of pointless photos and videos they take, but sometimes they do get a precious photo...

Abi took these of Katharine. Maybe it's easy to get a good photo if you have a perfect subject matter. Perfect = Katharine.

The kids thought of VeggieTales when they saw her - she looks like a giant pickle! Or the Bunny idol from the VeggieTales "Bunny Song" 

Here are a few of the other pics, that are like the ones that I usually delete...

I can gather evidence from these photos though - like now I know that some kids got into the Nutella without permission. And I also know that I need to go to the store for bread, since the kids are using hot dog buns.

I did go on a ride at Corner Canyon this morning. Took a quick pic of the sunflowers there - The fall weather and colors should be coming soon! Other than that, we did a lot of cleaning today, Abi had her Saturday GMS classes from 7 am (catch the bus time) until she got home at 3, then Corey took her to her friends house - they were going as a group of friends to the homecoming dance. Corey took Sophi, Natalie, and Peter with him and he took them out to eat for a late birthday date. I've been listening to podcasts while I clean - I'm teaching the lesson on the 18th on some Isaiah chapters, and I've gotten over half way through Unshaken today as I cleaned! I like the Line Upon Line videos - they do a nice summary and are creative, they're good. I thought it was fun how they portrayed Isaiah as some Marvel character with super powers. I helped the kids a lot, so now the bedrooms are all clean, except for mine. 

Butterfly update - I've got 3 chrysalides (one was j-hooked and changed today) 4 large, 4 medium (gave two to Stacey for her sister) 5 small, but one of them I euthanized today - he didn't molt properly and the back half of him was stuck in a small skin. The front of him was trying to eat, but he wasn't able to move things through out his back end and I asked my other monarch friends, and Lisa said he might have OE so it would be best to euthanize, cause it's contagious and we don't want a sick guy making the migrator colony at risk. So that was sad, but we/I put him out of his discomfort and now he's eating milkweed in a heavenly garden. 

I think I still have 17 babies - I haven't found any of them crawling where they're not supposed to, so fingers crossed they're all still there. 

Stuffed Animals

We've had sore throats and goopy eyes going around the house. Peter is currently sick with it, and he was crying for help this morning to help get his eye open. After I helped him, he climbed in the chair with Tiny and fell back asleep. 

I bought him that dinosaur on an impulse near the end of date night in March. Peter has since named him Tiny, after the dinosaur named Tiny on this episode of Dino Ranch. Natalie thinks it's high time for Katharine to have a stuffed animal too, so yesterday Natalie was trying different stuffed animals out on her. Do you want a pretty puppy?

Natalie tried to offer her precious "baby" cause she doesn't use it anymore. 

Do you like Natalie's baby?

Sorry, Natalie, but she actually can't have that. I need it for my "toddler's favorite stuffed toy memorial" shelf. Katharine is looking at me thinking "Can I just have some milk, please?"

Natalie came in this morning and tucked a pink cheetah stuffed animal by Katharine.

That way they will both have baby cheetah's that can be friends and play together. Sounds like a good plan. A few other pics from today - I picked up Sophi from Safety Patrol this week. She was excited last spring when she was chosen to be a team captain. 

And Daniel was very excited that he got his kindergarten shirt today!

There is his self portrait - cute!

And his 4th grade buddy Parker is on the back. 

Daniel came to show me his shirt while I was in the laundry room checking on my caterpillar babies. I have 17 that just hatched yesterday and today. I don't have any eggs, so I think this will be the last of the monarchs for us this year. Can you see them all? 

There are 15 here and then there were two more on the underneath side of the leaf. Yay for caterpillar babies! They're so small, it's hard to keep track of them. I hope they don't die. My current monarch count is: 17 new babies, 5 large caterpillars, 7 medium (going to donate two tomorrow to a neighbor for their sister who is a science teacher) 5 small, and 2 chrysalides.