Christmas 2017

Natalie! You made it! Today is CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Merry Christmas little girl! She's been waiting and counting down the days on the calendar on the fridge for a whole month. Now it's finally here, time to cash in! She was probably the funnest one to watch. We went for the shock and awe with a big present first - one from Costco that earned a lot of bragging rights last year when Sophi got one (Dori last year) - a big coloring set with crayons and markers - Disney princess this time. Natalie and Sophi both got one. They were the "biggest" presents, so they were quite pleased. This should keep them busy for a week or so.

So, Corey and I didn't head to bed until 5:30 this morning, so we slept in and kept ignoring requests to get up until 10:45. When we came out, they gave us their presents from under the family tree in the front room, where they slept. That room was trashed - wrapping paper, MnM's, you name it all over the floor. Then we headed into the side room where the gifts from Corey and I were. Since we didn't get around to putting names on them last night/this morning, the kids picked up presents one by one and formed a line by Corey and his laptop, where he informed kids who the numbered gift was for.

Me on my 8th trip out to the garbage can. Daniel wants me to hold him. 

Another highlight of my Christmas was watching these two play with their wood cars and floor mat.

Cute cute little guys, you can hear them zooming and vrooming their cars - too cute.

Lots of art kits for kids, papers and pens and markers. A few electronic things. A Forks Over Knives cook book for me from and a subscription to Purple Carrot, which I'd never heard of before, but he said it's like Blue Apron, but plant based. Cool! I'm excited

After all the opening was over, Daniel was just laying on the ottoman in an almost drunk-like stupor

It was like he was just basking in the overdose of it all, made me laugh.

The kids did their best to find an open space on the floor where they could park and spread out their loot.

Front room and side room are trashed, but the girls found an open spot in the kitchen. It's getting hard to walk around here...

Daniel found someone's chocolate from their stocking - I held him at arms length until he was safely in the tub to be properly un-chocolated. Sorry, don't mean to make you sad, but don't touch me!

So it's just been a big messy Christmas explosion all day, which I guess is how it should be. Kids are happy, no one feels slighted that I'm aware of. I think a great Christmas memory was delivered to our family with help from lots of Christmas angels, you know who you are, thank you. I think the kids would all say it was a good day.

Christmas Eve

Well, it's late. The kids are all still awake and getting ready to have their sleep over under the tree. But I'm a little worried. Corey is feeling a little sick and he's already in bed, so that means this is up to me. It's usually been up to me to set presents out, but this year it was also up to me to wrap things up, and I am the only one aware right now of the poor job I did. Well, Mel knows too cause she helped. It was mostly because we waited until today to wrap, and Corey took the kids skiing, so I did it. And I didn't know where he put the wrapping paper he wanted "Santa" to use... I assumed he had left it at the North Pole (aka his parent's house) but it wasn't there. I called him on the bunny hill. It was at home in his office closet. I was already at his parents  and I didn't want to go back home to get it, cause I was under a time crunch cause we were having the Wride family gathering at our house at 3. So, we made do with some that his mom had on hand, that she warned us was not pretty. I figured it was good enough to get it home without kids seeing the gifts. And if Corey was particular, then he could redo it. Well yah, he's in bed so that's not gonna happen. I didn't put bows on anything. I've got an alarm set for 2:10 to set it out - trusting the kids will be asleep by then. But I have a feeling it's gonna be missing some of the "magical"-ness that the presents under the tree usually bring. Mostly because we only did 3 gifts each kid. (Well, Owen and Daniel just get 1 and Peter doesn't get any) So yeah, we'll see how this goes tomorrow morning.

A few pics of today - Mel came to wrap with me, and we brought Peter and Daniel. Corey and I had come over by ourselves to his parent's house on Sunday, to bring the gifts and to go through them and decide if we had enough and what to give to who. So it was all decided and all I had to do today was wrap. I left Ethan, Hyrum, and Abi home to clean, and said they could play the Wii when they finished. Corey took Wes, Lily, Sophi, Natalie, and Owen skiing.

Corey said the skiing was magical. And he felt bad that I couldn't see it, cause it's just wonderful. He loves seeing the little girls ski, fall, and then to get up on their own cause he's too far away to help, or cause he's helping this little guy.

Owen likes skiing! And we love it cause it's such an awesome way for them to learn that they can figure things out on their own!!  

Today was also Victor's first time on the hill.

Corey said the highlight for him was seeing Wes and Victor skiing holding hands as they came down. Wes said that Victor fell, and Wes went to help him up, and Victor wouldn't let go of his hand. Skiing is also a great chance for the big kids to learn more service as they help their younger siblings and occasional guest.

Good job Wes!

So they got home from skiing and I got back from wrapping. I left all the presents sitting in the fiesta, not even trying to hid it. Thankfully the house was clean and ready for the family gathering. We started with food, and then something new this year was a game of Geneopardy (Jeopardy with personalized questions about one's own ancestors. We used Corey's pedigree tonight)

So that was fun.

Owen on the ottoman there, he walked around in his ski boots all night! ...and he had all day too. I think him and Daniel feel cool in them. After that we had the family talent show - I played some violin songs with Sophi, and then I did one with my nephew Seth who is a great violin player and I told him I'm gonna catch up with him when he's gone on his mission in another year and a half. Then we played the saran wrap ball game.

The kids look forward to that.

Wes letting me know that as soon as he has his turn to unwrap, Hyrum rolls doubles right away and Wes basically just keeps passing it along. Everytime!

They were small rolls of the dice, making for a quick paced game.

Ethan and Abi won the coveted $5 bills in the center.

So it was great, that was fun, and I still see lights on out in the hallway. I'm gonna take a quick snooze and then get up at 2 am, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Father and Elders

Tonight Father David came over for dinner. The missionaries from our stake reached out to us on Monday last week, after Ethan sent them several referrals of our neighbors and people they might be able to teach. So we told them what is going on with neighbors and who might be interested. Ethan also told them about Iveth and Diego and Father David. We told them that Iveth and Diego really are not interested at all. We had a good friendship with them, and still mostly do, but it changed after we invited them to Sophi's baptism. After that invitation, they've kinda closed up. I googled some stuff about baptism in the Catholic church, and I think for their baptisms, people who attend are like endorsing it, so maybe they just didn't want to endorse Sophia being baptized into a religious they think is false? I don't know, but things haven't been the same since then. But Father David was cool talking about religion. So they asked if they could come over today when he was here. Corey was a little hesitant, since we're still gauging if he has any interest (we've extended a few invitations and Corey gave him the book Saints for Christmas). Corey sent Father David a well worded text and Father D said it would be fine with him if the missionaries joined us, so yay! It made for a very fun and interesting evening. The missionaries can't eat with any members though, so we had dinner at 5 with just him, and then the missionaries joined us at 6 after we were finished eating. We had a little visit in the front room - Elders on the left, Father David...

then Wes, Corey and me

After a short visit, Wesley brought out his portable ping pong set and Wes and Father David had a game while the missionaries kept score. Father David won. Then it was Elder Sibbett's turn -

Elder Sibbett won that match. They told us on Monday that sometimes they do a think "We beat you, we teach you" but they didn't have that deal tonight. After a game of ping pong, they helped Father David get set up with FamilySearch on his phone. As Elder Sibbett was doing that, Natalie brought out her Book of Mormon and was asking questions to the other Elder (can't remember his name) about the restoration and God and she was sharing what she is doing to get ready for her baptism in the summer. 

Then she got out the Friend magazine which gave her more topics to discuss. It was really cute to hear her. 

She inserted herself right in the middle of the three of them and was bringing up some good doctrinal questions which was cute. Pretty smart 7 year old. Father David got all set up and found some of his family tree.

Then he used the bathroom right when the Elders had to leave so he came out and they were gone without saying goodbye, which was too bad, because Father David stayed for over two more hours. That would have been fun for him and the missionaries to talk more. Last time Father David had to leave right at 7, and we told the missionaries that, so maybe that's why they took off or maybe they had an appointment. But Father David's appointment cancelled, so he and Corey talked until past 9:30. It was fun and they got into some good stuff, like the Arian controversy and some ideas about the current pope. From what we can tell, Father D and Iveth and Diego are all a bit conspiratorial about covid and the vaccine and other world events. We plan to pry into their thinking during future gatherings. 

(Sunday Update:) I shared about this visit with Father David and the Elders on facebook, mostly since it's in such contrast to the relationships we see around political differences in the news: "We enjoyed having our friend Father David over for dinner last night and are grateful that he was willing to let us invite our local missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ join us. They played ping pong, Father David got set up to do family history via FamilySearch app, and we had a lovely visit. I’m thankful for examples like this that I see everyday - people of different beliefs and opinions being civil, kind, and friendly!"

There are two comments that made me smile from friends that grew up in my neighborhood with me: Melanie: "THIS! Love it!" and Kiley: "Oh my goodness, this is the most uplifting post I’ve seen in weeks!!! I completely agree, we don’t all have to think and be the same in order to be kind to each other. The world would be so different right now if everyone lived this way. Thank you for posting!"

(Back to Saturday...) So that was fun. A few more pictures from this weekend: On most nights, we put Peter to bed in his room. Sometime during the night, usually between midnight and 2, he wakes up, cries, and comes into our room on his own if I remember to leave it unlocked, or he'll cry at the door until I open it. And then we lay down on the floor together. I slept on the floor with him for a long time when I nursed him, cause the floor wouldn't move when I tried to sneak away. The floor still works well now for that same reason. Plus I like the plush rug. On most mornings, he's tucked over on some corner of the shag carpet and I'm able to leave to make oatmeal, take carpool, and get kids off to school. And then some mornings, like yesterday morning, he is very comfortably asleep right on top of me. Good thing it was online Friday.

He was nestled right up between my legs. Pretty cute little guy. I'm glad he is still my baby sometimes. 

Wesley made this cool house for his 3D design class. Wesley is going to become an architect and make me a beautiful home someday, and he's gonna give us a great deal on it too!

One productive (maybe) thing I did this weekend, was I went through my unread emails and was able to get it from 4100 to 2870. I'm almost as behind on emails as I am on the blog! (Confession: the day that I'm finally finishing this draft is March 15) But with this post completed,  I am now officially finished with January, yay! Goodnight

Quarantine School and All Negative

So, we're all home and in quarantine. It might last a 10 or 14 days, I've gotten different messages from the school districts. But no need to fear: Teacher Natalie is here!!

Joseph is isolated in the messy basement, which is where the kids usually set up "school" - so for yesterday Natalie set up her class room in the kitchen.

They all have boxes set on upside down on a barstool for their desks. These are the boxes/bins that were holding the Christmas decorations until I gave permission to decorate yesterday. Last night they were storage boxes. Today: school desks. Natalie's students Daniel and Owen. 

And class continued today - different day, but same "desks" and same clothes on these two boys.

It's ok though, cause we're not going anywhere. The kids have also been playing a Santa game where Owen is the reindeer and pulls them around the house, using a red santa scarf as the reins. Pics of them playing sleigh yesterday:

I don't think they deliver presents to anyone, they just go on a Christmas Eve test drive / joy ride around the house. 

They take turns being the reindeer and Santa.

So, we felt a little bad for Joseph being stuck in the basement. I was the chosen person to deliver food and pick up his dirty dishes. I thought he might be happier down at BYU, and if 3 of his roommates were positive for covid too, maybe they could all isolate down there together? I called BYU to check it out, the person I talked to said he should probably just stay here. Joseph was calling and asking too, and I told him he could do whatever he wanted to do - he was welcome to stay, or if he wanted to go, I was happy to take him down. Last night he decided he would prefer to be back on campus, and that they had a room for him in some apartments that they had dedicated to covid students, he just had to be there by 10 pm. So he packed up, we loaded up, did not give anyone hugs goodbye, I gathered some food to last him for 2 weeks if necessary, since he couldn't go to his room down there to get his food. He's set up with oatmeal, pasta, tuna and tortillas, he should survive. Then he sat in the back seat of the van and we drove down with the windows cracked. Have fun in the leper colony, Joseph! 

That's Corey's little joke, he calls it a leper colony. Joseph calls is "the island" like he's on survivor. The door was locked so Joseph walked around and I watched his 72 hour kit until he came and opened the door to get his stuff. It has been a little easier and less stressful with him gone, and I think it was the right decision because we all got our results back today that we are negative. 

That surprised me, I thought for sure a few of us would have it, and that I had it for sure since I've been around Joseph the most, but hey I'm not complaining. We are going to watch ourselves for symptoms and if any of us do show any signs of illness they will go get tested again. But as for now, we're all negative, and with the leper out of the house, we're going to wipe things down again and then we'll be clean and hopefully stay clean and the kids will be able to go back to school soon. I went to get disinfectant wipes at Walmart and didn't notice the 1 item limit they had. The lady at the self checkout was nice and let me take 4 even though I had 9 in my cart. I wonder when this pandemic will end. 

Of all the kids, Abi was the most sad to not be able to go to school. She loves her friends and dance classes. We were gone in Hawaii for 2 weeks, then gone for Thanksgiving break, the get to go back for 2 days and now we're locked up at home again! So sad. This is a pretty good trial to have, if you take a broad view of the history of the world and the variety of trials others have faced. This isn't Valley Forge, nor Martin's Cove. This is ok, we can handle this. A few other pictures and quote of the day - I heard laughing from the tree and Owen was over there but it was Daniel laughing, and I looked and didn't see him, but then got down on my knees and saw a little elf hiding in our tree, so cute!

And Owen's teacher asked for a picture of him sitting with legs crossed for a photo gift they are doing at school. So here's Owen's picture for that - cute boy.

The girls practiced violin today, hallelujah. We had practicing music be the thing they had to do before Corey and I would leave on a date, and thankfully the kids value their parent free time on date night enough that they practiced so that we'd leave. I have been struggling with getting them to practice or with having anything to motivate them and I don't feel like using threats right now. But today, after Corey got Lily to practice her saxophone for an hour, Sophi wondered if she could practice violin for an hour, and it was easy - 20 minutes of scales to my piano guys playlist, then 20 minutes of review, followed by 20 minutes working on her new piece, and voilà - you did an hour! That was easy! I practiced for 30 minutes with Natalie too, and did more on my own, so it was a really good violin day for me, yay. 

We went and got take out at Beaumont Bistro for our date - but first we went by and picked up a backpack kid carrier for Peter for when we go skiing. Corey found this on his own! A $200 carrier, used, but still in good condition, for $35! Way to go sweetie! Corey is excited for all of us to go skiing! Now that we have a carrier for Peter even he and I can go. I comment how if I carried Peter, I'd fall down with him on my back. Corey's reply made me laugh: "Well, you're better than nothing." haha. We had a nice dinner in the car. I had the beet salad. Corey's comment about giving tips: "Would you like to pay more? Allright." We also reminisced on our trip to Hawaii - Corey comments on why Hawaii was good "You can swim in the ocean for the 'this is legit' then come back and swim in the pool 'and this is nice.'" That was a great trip, we should have stayed there and away from all the spiking cases here in Utah! Oh well. It's still good to be back, covid and quarantine and all.

Tree Is Up

Abi wanted to put up the trees today. I said it was fine if all their jobs were done first, and she dutifully got the rooms cleaned. So, they did all the work and the trees are up.

I'm okay with them putting the trees up the day after Thanksgiving, cause I tell myself that that means it's okay for me to take them down the day after Christmas. 

I don't mean to be a scrooge, but the toddlers pull off all the ornaments and there's just a mess of Christmas clutter everywhere all December, and I'm always ready to put the ornaments back in their boxes.

I am going to try and embroider their names on the stocking this year, or alteast a big initial. We'll see. Daniel and Natalie were excited to play with the Little People toys.

Cute little guy -  Daniel playing with the manger scene.

Natalie's got Santa and the North Pole toys.

It's November 23rd and they're all ready for Christmas! And tonight Abi was complaining about how far away it is. Yes, this is good for you to learn patience.

Early Christmas Surprise

Tonight we are headed up to Layton to hang out with Corey's side of the family for our annual Wride Christmas Eve party. We've hosted the party once, and it's been at his parents house, but usually we go to Corey's brother's house in Layton. That was the case for this year. But yesterday I told Corey that I did not want to go if I had to try to hid my tummy and the fact that we are expecting again. I think I was able to hide it ok enough over Thanksgiving and at Park City, and then again at the Curtis Family gathering, and after that I figured I was home free, since I was not planning on seeing anyone until Christmas. Which would work out since Corey wanted to wait until Christmas to tell the kids and his family. But then we were invited over for Wayne's birthday on the 5th... I wore a big sweatshirt and sighed "Ok... I can probably maybe hide it one more time..." but now here we are a few weeks later again and I am definitely showing enough that I can't hide the truth anymore. So I told Corey I would not be going to the festive gathering tonight with his family unless we acknowledged what I felt would be obvious to the adults present. He said it was ok, so we decided to tell the kids first and then they'd share the news with everyone tonight. JW&A already knew, as do all our missionaries, but it was time to clue LSNODP in. We were waiting until the gender check ultrasound, which was this past Monday, and if it was a girl that would be extra fun, since Lily, Sophi, and Natalie have ALL been telling us separately for the past few months that they want a little sister. Lucky for them, we just found out on Monday that it is a girl. Here she is doing a little "put your hands in the air" celebration waving at them. 

After the ultrasound on Monday, I went by Zurchers and got present for Peter, and a pack of gender reveal pencils, then by Kid to Kid for a little outfit. We called the kids together today before we left for the party for Peter to open his present. It was a hat that says "Coolest Big Brother Ever!"

We thought that would be enough to share the news, but the girls didn't get the hint. Video below ~

So they didn't know until Corey whispered in their ears that Peter's hat might mean that I am pregnant... And then we got the surprised expressions we were going for and a lot of excited gasps!

Lily - "If this is a joke I am going to be so mad!" It's not a joke, and when they asked if it was a boy or girl, I had them look at the bag of something behind my back. Yes, it's a girl! 

They are all excited. The girls have been waiting for another girl for a few years. They were a little upset when they found out Peter was a boy, (Lily's sad expression at 1:55) but he has not been a disappointment at all, so if it was a boy, we would be totally happy with another cutie like Peter...

Even if he does have the creative bad habit of snipping ornaments off of the tree!

My little Charlie Brown ornament, that I bought cause it looked like my little toe head Owen ,has had his string clipped at the roots... not sure how I'm going to fix that yet, it made me laugh. Peter makes a mess but he can do no wrong. So, yeah, the kids are excited for a girl though. There was jumping up and down and cheering. We are happy too and feeling humbled at our abundant blessings. It will be fun to share our joy with others. Joseph it out doing some last minute shopping, the kids are killing time playing the Wii again, and we'll go up to Layton after he gets back. Exciting news. 

And now it's 10 pm and we're back from the party. I liked these lights that they had up - "Oh what fun it is to WRIDE!" haha, funny! We had a taco bar dinner, and there was a hot cocoa bar and lots of desserts.

After dinner we held the family talent show. 

Then we played some reindeer games - how many candy canes can you grap - 

...and throw the ring over the reindeer antlers - 

Peter wearing a Rudolph nose that Lily won - in pinned down his cute ears, haha.

Then we had one ball for the saran wrap game. It seemed to help it be less crazy than years past. 

One thing that was really funny there was watching the little boys play. Owen and Daniel both were very dutifully rolling the dice over and over again - not knowing that they were supposed to be watching the dice for if they got doubles. They didn't know the object of the game, but they were trying hard. It was also funny to watch Joseph - several times it was taken from him as soon as he got it. 

It was especially funny in that clip above, cause it had taken him so long to roll doubles (starting at :48) - like over 25 rolls! and then Isaac got doubles and took it right away (1:20). His resigned expression was great. That's life sometimes, huh! After the games, we watched a video presentation that Wayne had, while he read the scriptures from the Bible and then we sang along with carols and hymns for each one. Snuggling with Peter as we listened. 

Christ is the reason for the season. I didn't do the Light the World stuff this year, as I've just been trying to survive from some lingering morning sickness, but I do feel the peace of Christ when I hold my kids. I'm grateful to be a mother. My family is His greatest gift to me.