Slipping Away

I know that autumn has really only just started a month ago, but I feel like it's already over. I went on a quick ride today after Lily was home from school and able to watch Katharine for me. There were still colorful leaves to enjoy ~

And the trail wasn't too bad at first...

...but each of the three bridges on the trail were covered in snow, and after this last bridge, I knew my ride was almost over. 

Snow was melting off of the trees and getting my helmet wet. I had mud all up the back of my pants and shirt when I was back. We're in a drought, so I'll pray for more snow, but I'm still sad the fall is ending. I'm always left wishing for more. 

The kids are super excited for Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mostly Halloween, since it is one of the two days of the year where you get candy. Here is the other costume I got for Katharine. 

This one seems to big, so we'll save it for next year. Lily had changed her into the lady bug one while I was on my ride. 

She's super cute!!

When we sat down for dinner tonight, most of the kids were dressed in costumes. 

Just another night around the Wride household - Daniel as Mr. Incredible (I'd say he was Dash, but his costume is padded with big muscles, so I think he's supposed to be Mr. Incredible. And we've got a dinosaur and is that a ghost? Or a kid in a dunce hat? No, you can't tell from this pic, but Natalie is a candy corn.

Peter the dinosaur, of course!

The kids were wearing costumes that they borrowed from a neighbor. Lily got a Christmas tree costume that she's going to wear to school on Monday, and she picked up a big dinosaur onesie for Wesley, so Peter and Wes are going to be twinners when Wes takes him around the neighborhood, aww. They took off Katharine's ladybug costume and she was just in the black shirt, and we got this treasure of a photo of her - 

ISN'T SHE JUST THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER!?!?!?!

Oh my goodness, she is sooo cute. She made a big mess of herself right after that photo, so then she went and took a bath. Another cute pic of our little angel, with a pink bow on her head~

All clean and ready for bed in new cupcake pajamies. 

Things are going pretty good even though I'm on my own this week. We even had a sit down dinner, so that is impressive of me, let me pat myself on the back. Good job, self. Abi was gone at her flute lesson. I'm glad that Corey taught Abi and Lily how to use the UTA bus system so that I don't have to take them to their lessons or chamber class or anything. Good job Corey, and Abi and Lily too. Way to take another step towards learning how to survive on your own. 

Melodie's Mission Birthday

I thought I'd share today some of Mel's pictures of her birthday on Saturday, that she shared in her weekly email yesterday. Here's our beautiful missionary and birthday girl! 

Corey's mom sent her a Christmas tree, and we were glad to see that she got our package of party accessories!

Her companions take good care of her and it seems like they all get along great -

Sister Steele on the left, Sister Junot on the right. She said that a family in their ward out there, the Stumpff family, stopped by and gave me a present! 

We miss Mel of course, but it makes it easier knowing that she is in such good hands. Mel also said that they can't burn candles, so Mel fixed that with some computer graphics. She also said "ignore the fact that there are only 18 candles on there because apparently I don't know how to count".

I keep the weekly emails that she sends posted on her mission blog. Her p-day is usually Mondays, so I that is when she writes and when I try to update it. Two more cute pictures she shared this week - this is how she likes to decorate her scriptures. 

Nephi and the broken bow...

I like it! I'll try to doodle a few drawings in mine. 

Other updates from around here: Today I finally finished blogging Hawaii, yay. Sunday Songs was the last post I had to finish. I need to go shopping.  I picked up Natalie from school, she said stomach hurts. As I've been home with her, I noticed her eyes crossing as she talked to me. I set up an eye exam for her on Friday. We might have another kiddo in glasses. And the side room is not put back together yet from our water mess. Our master bedroom carpet still wet by the bathroom door too. It is a great mystery that I would like to solve - who was it that clogged the toilet. I might have to wait until the next life to learn the truth. "Who was it that clogged the toilet on December 14th?" Wesley laughed as I shared my thoughts with him: "I'm sure that will be the first thing you want to learn about after you die." Ha, I could start to learn answers to the mysteries of the universe and cosmos, but I'll be stuck trying to check off unanswered questions from my mortal life - like the great toilet overflow of 2020.

First Snow

It snowed yesterday, not much, but the kids are excited. Abi helped Owen get dressed today and they went outside to play "snowman".

(She's such a good big sister)

Owen has been calling snow "snowman" since he's recently discovered the movie "Elsa" aka Frozen.

He hasn't been singing Let it Go, but his version of "Do you want to build a snowman" is pretty adorable. I'll try to get a video of it.

We had a nice Sunday. It's good to have some snow, makes it feel like it's okay for us to have the tree up. I'm hoping this month goes by quickly, the faster it passes the faster this pregnancy will be over and baby will be here. We're also really looking forward to talking to Joseph on Christmas! I'm sending him a package tomorrow, the last one he'll get before Christmas.

Christkindlmrkt

Last year a neighbor mentioned going to Christkindlmrkt as part of their Christmas tradition. I put it on my calendar so I could go this year and check it out. It is Wed-Saturday of this week. Abi went last night with some of my family. I wanted to go, but it just didn't work out with flute lessons and dinner and stuff. But my sister Beka and her husband came and picked up Abi to go with them. My brother and his family came down from Layton so they were there too. I was glad she was able to go with them and spend some time with my family. My SIL texted me this picture of Abi and her cousins meeting the Krampus - the keeper of naughtiness

Good make up, huh! So I still wanted to go, so Corey and I went tonight as part of date night. I thought it would be good to see it and then if I wanted to I'd still have a chance to take the kids tomorrow. We left a little late, and we went to dinner at Costa Vida first, where there was a slow line. We ate, then finally got to the market at 7:30, 30 min before it was supposed to end for the day.I was worried it wasn't going to be enough time to get a feel for it, but it worked out great - there was a long line of cars going in and we were able to get a pretty close parking spot since there were plenty of people leaving too. But we still had to walk quite a bit. It was foggy and cold. I felt like a dark and dreary wilderness as we pressed forward with the throng of people in the mist of darkness. It was like Lehi's dream, only there wasn't a shining tree anywhere. Just black shadowy trees. Eventually we saw light in the little makeshift German Village. It was cute, and I'm glad we were able to go. Corey got a chocolate and whipped cream waffle something dessert that hit the spot for him, and I was able to look around. I was trying to find the glass shop where Abi bought her new prized possession last night:

It is her glass hummingbird and she LOVES it. She made it a birth certificate and gave it a name. I thought I'd get her another one for Christmas but I never saw a shop with glass stuff like this, so no luck. Instead we just walked around and saw other things. It was cute, I don't know that we'll go again. I was glad to check it out without kids. It was cold and crowded and that would have been painful to have kids with us. So I would be willing to go again for a date night, but we'll see. A few more pics - yesterday, here is Owen walking around with a heavy duty machine gun.

Aka the tablet music stand that Ethan and Wes use for the soundhouse.

He feels pretty cool with it. Unfortunately he often leaves it wherever and who knows where and E and W are sometimes unable to find it when they need it for band. I like the little kids imaginations, we just need to figure out a way to teach them to put things where they go.

And here is sweet Peter after we got home from our date tonight. He was so snuggly and curled up and cute, kinda like a newborn.

I love it. I think he's been my snugly-est baby. I love Peter

Dolls and Drawings

The girls have been busy making clothes for their DC Superhero girl dolls. They got into my sewing stuff and have used it all and made a mess. 

They've done it before... Here's a link to when Abi made barbie dresses two years ago, and another time in 2019. This time it was mostly Lily and Sophi. I'm glad they are being creative and when they do things of their own initiative.

Natalie wrote letters today to Melodie and Ethan and wanted me to mail them. She wrote these on her own, and I thought they were really cute - 

Dear Mel, I hope U had a Great Christmas & I Love like love the earings U gave me. There so prety. UR very nice & I'm excited for us to get ice cream when U get home. Love Natalie to: Mel Look on the Back

And this one to Ethan made me lol - HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear Ethan hope U had a great (look on back) Christmas & Your The Best & UR very very nice & Hyrum got Drugs & AWESOME. Hope we can hang out more! Love Natalie To: Ethan

The little comment about Hyrum that was then rescinded made me smile, I'm sure it will give Ethan a good laugh too! Two other drawings - this one that Lily did on her tithing envelope two months ago -

And this one from October too, from a book that Sophi was working on, looks like it's about  a popular guy that all the girls are going crazy for, and he is trying to impress the main character but she is not impressed, cause "looks is not love"

The kids use a lot of paper and make lots of drawings and books and messes, but it's all good, I'm a little less up tight about it than I have been in the past, (I think/hope!)

Oh, one other thing - on New Years Eve, when the clock struck 12 (we go by New York time so it was 10 here in Utah) we welcomed the new year and the kids ran around the house barefoot to participate in the Socially Distanced Polar Bear Challenge that we usually do at the cabin with our neighbors. So for the record, Wes, Abi, Lily, Sophi, and Natalie all participated. Natalie was the only one I got a picture of:

Also, after a full day of skiing, Corey was done and so he tag teamed me and headed to bed. After he turned in, the kids noticed there were a lot of fire trucks across the tree farm. Wesley investigated, and told us that the neighbors house was on fire. 

I couldn't see it at first from inside the house, but then I did. I went outside and across the street to see better and see if there was anyone I could talk to or help. I did end up texting quite a few people and learned what was happening and that everyone got out ok. The house was left in ruins. It didn't totally burn to the ground, but it's destroyed. We all got out of the way when the fire truck came in front of our house to try and get the fire hydrant. 

There was a hydrant by the house that was on fire, but it was dried out so there was a problem there but finally they were able to get water up to fight the flames. Not how they ever thought they'd be starting off their year, right? I told Corey about it this morning and he and I walked over to take a look. You could see the sky through the window where the roof was gone. It was pretty bad. I'm glad that their beautiful yard looks ok and that the fire didn't spread to the other homes. Everyone was out last night and they didn't know what would happen, so they are all counting their blessings. 

Melodie is 19!

Today is Melodie's Happy Birthday!! It was a bit of a crazy evening... She had a concert that we wanted to go down to, but Corey and the young men (Corey is YM President) were in charge of doing the activity today with the Stake's Special Needs group. Corey was behind in hours, so I told him I'd help get the activity ready - they were making gift baskets, and Corey was in charge of getting supplies for cards for them to make with each gift basket. They needed to be big cards and there needed to be 30. So I presented some ideas and he decided that half of a poster board was a good size, then with it folded in half it would be a good card. And so, while I waited for Abi during her flute lesson, I went by Dollar Tree for 15 poster boards and I got some green to make trees, and I got some stickers, markers, and glue to decorate the trees. When we got home, Lily helped me cut out 30 of them. This was our example for the special need adults to follow - grab stickers and markers, decorate your tree, put the presents under the tree, and voilà - you got yourself a christmas card.

We worked fast cause Corey was leaving around 6. I mostly worked on the trees, Lily did a great job helping and she also cut out squares for the presents. Daniel playing with the extra trees.

So since I was so busy doing that, I didn't get ready to leave the house to go to Mel's concert. Plus it was tricky juggling ourselves and the kids - Wes was at a LBB recording at 6 (Corey's parents dropped him off on the way to Mel's concert) We didn't know how it would work with Corey coming back for me and who would be able to come along for the concert... anyway, I helped out a lot with making the cards a success. Corey left early with Owen and Natalie so he could pick up Wesley and then go to the concert. Wes was late getting out of the recording so they barely missed Mel's concert but they still went out after to celebrate Mel's birthday.

Good job Mel! We didn't hear you play but we know you were wonderful!!!

Wes, Natalie, Owen, Corey and his parents and Mel all went out for a late dinner at Olive Garden. Happy birthday Mel! We love you! 

Sorry that in our craziness here I forgot to give Dad your birthday presents. I'll try to bring them down to you. Actually, she'll be home next week so we'll probably just wait til then, Christmas is almost here!

ps - here's a picture of Daniel this morning doing his spiderman reach and stretch after watching me do my flow stretches, I thought it was super cute. They are always watching.

Countdown

I think I'm going to take down the tree today. I've taken down some of the Christmas decor and just kept up "winter" things. One of the Christmas things that I shall be storing soon is this countdown board that we had kept by the kids' rooms this month. Christmas 2015 is over, is it too late to start thinking of next year?

Yeah! Only 361 days! Walmart's "53 days" countdown that I shook my head at ain't got nothin' on these kids!

Door to Door

The kids were out in full force last night - our huge group was like a school of piranhas consuming everything in their path, I know of atleast one house where we emptied the bowl of goodies.  Like a pack of wolves!  Here they are devouring the sugar at a certain neighbors house, so fun~

(The kids know that all their Twix and KitKats are up for grabs if I feel the need to tax their loot - but Hyrum has informed me I can't have any of his Twix's "cause one of them is from Elder Christofferson" and since he doesn't know which one, I can't have any of them.  It's just too special to share.  Cute.)

We had fed them a festive meal before the candy looting began - pizzas, bone breadsticks, witch fingers, worms in the caramel for the apples - or you can dip your apples in Manjar from Chile (it is major yummy good with the tart and tangy apples from my parent's apple tree - mmm!)

Joseph was a Basketball Player, Melodie was a bag of Jelly Beans...

 

Ethan was a pirate, Hyrum was Mitt Romney going door to door asking for candy donations

(~ note the distinguished gray temples)

Wesley was an elf, Abi and Lily were both fairies.

I decorated their faces with dots of sparkly fingernail polish. 

And Sophia as herself.  

Sophia had us push and carry her around, she was saving up her energy for a big show later ~

So we had lots of fun trick or treating last night.  The weather outside was amazing, couldn't have asked for a better evening for the kids.  Glad they're having some perfect childhood memories.  Alas, now it is just a memory and Abi's ready for the next party... She just asked me "Mom? When it is Christmas?"  No, not yet!  Give me atleast a week, please!

Political sidenote:

Romney is what America needs: "doubling tax rates will not double government revenues because people won't work as hard for half the money."  5 days! Hope Dems aren't loosing too much sleep, although I totally do not understand their world view if they are - I don't understand what is terrifying them about Romney that also let's them turn a blind eye to Obama.