Christmas Tree

The kids put up the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  They asked me if we could put it up, I said not yet and then went to take a nap. When I was awake it was up and lights were on it.

I didn't mind that they didn't obey me.  I just didn't want to have to do it, so I was rather pleased that it was up and I didn't have to do anything.  I like the kids owning stuff - like over the summer they wanted to put up the tent, I said go for it, but you guys have to take it down too.  They're getting pretty good.  Mel is the good leader of the pack when it comes to traditions and decorating.  I need to try not to slow her down.  The kids like decorating for Halloween and Christmas and that is totally fine by me, go for it, and then I usually get in the mood as I see them working.  (Same goes for cleaning the house, I have to make lists for then and once they start it helps me kick it in gear.)  So I did get into the Christmas spirit a little bit once they got the ball rolling and I helped put on more lights on the tree in in their bedroom windows and I took down the Fall decor and put up Christmas pinecones and such.  Plus I put on the Mannheim Steamroller and they all paused and sighed and with nostalgia said "Oohh!  This reminds me of Chile...." Great memories.

Reading Christmas books.  (Love that man.)

Cheerfully and With Patience

On Sunday night, Daniel poured a whole bottle of Olive garden dressing onto his small salad. And I confess that I pulled out the leafs of lettuce and I poured it back into the bottle, cause we are not going to just waste a whole bottle of that stuff. Then somehow it was left out again, and he did it again, and so I did it again. Shhh don't tell the kids. And the hairspray mess that they made on Saturday was still on the walls and dresser still needs to be cleaned up. So, I'm doing my best to cope with the mess that toddler and Christmas decorations bring. I'm also a little frazzled cause apparently we are having a guest from Guatemala join us next week. Joseph threw it out to him that he could come here, he called Corey, and now he's coming. I'm not thrilled, he's going to be here for 10 days and it will be over Christmas. I that got me a little stressed out and in effort to not lose my cool, I turned to the scriptures. Cue Mosiah 24:15.

And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I shall now liken it unto me:

And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Tiffanie were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen her that she could bear up her burdens with ease, and she did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I think I do okay at submitting with patience, but I know I need to work on the "cheerfully" part. (I tend to murmur and vent...) So I come out after my scriptural coping session Sunday night, and I come downstairs to find Natalie and Owen took off all the ornaments off of the white Christmas tree and put them all in a white garbage sack for whatever game they were playing and then I felt like I needed to go back up and hide with my scriptures. I get it doctrinally, but putting this into practice is hard.

They've continued their un-decorating of the Christmas trees the past few days. Owen found these pretty gold bags (that Lily got after a fun Christmas brunch at Grand America with her friend Isa) and he filled them up like he was shopping for ornaments.

Got his purse... got all the ornaments he wants to purchase...

Ready to take his goods to the check out line -

I had to breath and try to not get too upset about this undoing of the decorations. I might be letting lots of thing bother me. I might just need to calm down? I'll try to breath. One thing that I hope will help is something we started today: Beat the Parent. I've heard about "Beat the Teacher" through many years of 2nd graders. And if teachers still use it and have been using it for years there, this might work for us. I learned about this when I took Peter there for show and tell in October. When I went there for that, school was almost out, so the kids were understandably restless, and they weren't as quiet/respectful as the teacher would have liked so she gave herself some points. Today I asked Sophi how that worked. We started today with just two things that are the same as what her class does - a "Wow List" for kids that save the day (like Abi when she wakes up early on Saturday mornings and cleans the main floor while we're all still sleeping) and a cleaning Beat the Parent tally mark paper. We're just using paper for now. And tonight I added three more Beat the Parent contests: Scripture Study, Clean Bedroom, and Music Practice (I'm gonna win that one easy! ...even if it is just me against 6 kids - E sax, Wes on trumpet, Abi on flute (she's my only real competition) Lily on Sax, Sophi and Natalie on violin) For our rough draft trial this week, it's just pieces of paper taped to the wall by the stairs

We'll see if having the different categories makes it more fun or more complicated. I'm trying to earn lots of points. Or I'm avoiding it all and just playing with Peter to hide from all my other responsibilities. He's getting big. He's showing me how big he is by trying to stand up while he is precariously holding on the post of our bed.

Near the corner... don't fall Peter!

One of his other favorite things is chewing on tooth brushes.

I had some spares in my purse that I picked up from the orthodontist. I think it helps his teething. His top teeth are almost in. Maybe chewing tooth brushes is good for coping with stress or something, maybe I'll pick some up for myself to chew.

Christmas Eve

Hello, it's just past 4:30 am, I'm about to head to bed and will update this more tomorrow hopefully. Notes I took for myself: 

3:17 am, I was finally able to get away from Katharine. I didn't set an alarm to wake up and set out the gifts, I just knew that, since she just sucks the lifeblood out of me all night, I would be woken up before morning

3:18 - going to officially label the presents with code like Corey does

3:35 - on 8B, Katharine is fussing 

3:41 - K awake, playing on the floor

4:05-  box 1 done, I'm not doing codes anymore, I'm tired and it's stupid

4:20 - stockings done

4:30 - box 2 of stuff out, I'm heading back to bed. Joseph sleeping by the side room tree. He probably heard me but that's ok.

Kids having their annual sleepover under the Christmas tree.

Hello. Merry Christmas. Kids have had a good time but I'll finish writing about yesterday. At 11 o'clock I went to my parents house where we did a zoom call and gave my parents a gift - 

My older sis in Indiana put it all together, shipped it to Beka, and Beka and I were there for the unwrapping. 

It was a blanket with photos of all of us.

My siblings all sending love to each other before we sign off - Giving hearts to each other. It took us a second to have it arranged so that the hearts were all correct on someone's phone - they took a screen shot for the group. For most of us the hearts were messed up, cause the videos were in different orders on each phone. Funny.

During my growing up years, my parents would put us to work at Christmas decorating the trees. There were like 20 trees of different sizes and all sorts of themes. Now things are more simple at the Hibbert household -

We enjoyed time with Corey's family at the annual Wride get together. Grandma had fun new glasses this year!

Family talent show - 

Ethan playing his Synthesis number.

Wes did his ukulele Elvis song (minus the sherwani outfit).

Good stuff. 

Then the saran wrap ball game. Some people had all the luck, and others had no luck at all. 

Peter was one of the no luck rollers. 

Most of the prizes were little toys that only little boys would like anyway, so Peter made out with a lot of loot anyway.

So it was good. Then we all headed home early to try and get kids to bed early and finish the last touch ups for Christmas morning. I still had work, but didn't finish it before bed. Hence my early early morning. My room was clean a few days ago until I started to get Christmas stuff ready and wrapped. Now it's a mess. Katharine was by one of the bins of presents pulling herself up, it looked like she was bouldering!

She pulled herself all the way up!!! 

Katharine, you are a natural climber! You sent it! Woo-hoo! She was so pleased with herself, but then she lost her grip and rolled over onto the floor. Gotta work on her ankle strength. It's so fun seeing them learn new things.

Merry Christmas!

I'm pleased to report that we had a very merry Christmas. First thing was was magically wonderful was that it finally snowed. 

We've had a brown December so far and the kids have been slightly depressed that they can't dig caves or make forts. They were hoping and probably praying that it would snow, and we checked the forecast regularly, and it was supposed to start snowing during the night and it did. We had about a foot by morning and the kids were very happy. 

As for presents, overall we did pretty good - only one child was visibly/verbally disappointed about not getting everything they wanted, so we were 10/11 - 91%, that's a percentage I can live with. (Poor Ethan texted us his large and costly wish list. One of the things he wanted a BYU sweatshirt, but his follow up requested specifications to Corey were such that he decided he didn't want to mess up and thus didn't get him one, but did get one for Joseph and Hyrum. We told Eth it's okay that he was sad. Mel was sad last year, so we've got a tradition of upsetting the 7th grader. Your turn next year Hyrum.

So Christmas morning; the kids woke up early at 3 a.m. Ethan's alarm didn't wake him up, but he woke up on his own as I creeped about the house, so he was awake and pretending to sleep when I took a picture of him on the couch. He couldn't fall back asleep, but stayed lying down until 3 and then woke up his siblings (except Joseph told him not to) to go see what was in their stockings. And then they went back to bed. We heard them being excited and happy kids around 6, but we didn't have anyone come knock on our door until 8. I told them to give me another half hour and make me some eggs. They did. Then Corey and I got up and had breakfast and then it was time for the party to begin. We began with the family tree in the front room - the kids had put their presents to each other under this tree.

Corey and I got coupon books and lego creations and the kids got presents that they had made or bought at the dollar store.

Then we went into the side room where the white tree is to see what Santa brought them.

Joseph and Ethan got a new saxophone mouthpiece to share. That was Joseph's favorite present.

Lily's favorite gift was Zig Zag the Zebra.

Abi spent the evening arranging all her new things on the shelf by her bed.

Mel likes her playing cards and earrings. The teenagers have been playing a game called Egyptian Rescue or something and having fun. 

Hyrum and Wesley got the Ewok village to share. Hyrum's done most of the work on it.

Wesley's been practicing his archery skills and flying his helicopter that Grandma Wride gave him. All the boys got one, they love it.

Ethan got a skateboard that he can't practice on now, but is excited to give a whirl in Spring.

Sophi got a few Elsa things that she loves, but the Elsa dress was not a hit, which surprised us. Natalie didn't know what was going on but loved Uncle Marks candy cane fudge. And we gave the kids one present on Christmas Eve - we told them that they have a new sibling coming at the end of July. :) And I'm glad that I don't have to try and pretend that I don't feel like death, but hopefully the morning sickness is half over? That might be wishful thinking. Anyway, I'll share more about that news later. The new baby will be my favorite gift, once the torture to ship it is over.

First Day Skiing and Other Fun

Katharine had her first day skiing today at Alta. She didn't ski, she was just in the backpack. We were all laughing, she is so cute with her little eyes peeking out!! And her binky strap hanging out of her neck warmer. Taking a break for lunch - 

Everyone wanted a picture with her!

Joseph with his baby sister.

I'm the luckiest though, cause I'm her mom and I get to feed her and take care of her and be with her all day and night everyday!!

Here she is when we were unloading at the beginning of the day. She wasn't excited about the backpack. 

Actually feeling a little worried perhaps. But we just laughed at how cute she is.

I headed straight into the lodge and nursed her and warmed her up. We chilled in there while everyone else skied.

When everyone came in for lunch, I went out for a bit. Then Corey took her on the baby lift with Peter. 

He said she did great. She didn't like it at first, and didn't "warm up" to it, but she was awake and quiet, so maybe the cold did sober her up as to the vastness of the world and how vulnerable her existence is. Then I took another break inside with her. 

Taking a few pics from the balcony - Mel with Owen and Daniel.

Corey in line with Peter, Mel and a little boy in front of them.

I was able to do like 4 runs on Sunnyside with the kids. Me with Abi and Sophi - 

So I personally didn't get in a ton of time tearing it up, but the kids did great and had a lot of fun. It was good to get out, and not bad for our first attempt with Katharine. 

Skiing with 12 kids is no easy feat.

There's JMEWALSNOD. P&K were down at the base with Corey. We did a run with everyone, and then some of us did just one more run.

Cause I hadn't gotten in a lot, so I wanted to go one more time.

So that was fun. And then after we got home from skiing, I had one more activity for us to do, even though everyone was tired. I had tickets to Christmas in Color yesterday, but I totally forgot, and I didn't know how big of sticklers they'd be for following the date and time so I didn't know if they'd work for today, but I was prepared with my argument if they told us no. But we were able to get in no problem. 

We got K out of her carseat cause he hates it. 

She was mesmerized by the lights. 

The girls stood out the sunroof in my car. 

Corey's car has the cargo thing on top, so the boys were stuck inside. 

We sang Christmas songs and it was fun. Poor Peter fell asleep and they tried to wake him up, but he slept through the whole thing. And after going, I think it was fine, but a bit of a rip off, and I don't know that we'll do it again, but we tried it and it was fine. Maybe I'd do it again if we just do one car and will all pile in just one car together. :)

So, yeah, the past few days have been a whirlwind of activity, especially yesterday. Wednesday I mostly worked on getting gifts ready. Melodie helped me. I took it over the job of Santa from Corey, which has been fine, except that he uses a system that I don't like or find helpful, so we've had to unwrap presents in order to see what in inside them since I don't get his codes or spreadsheet. I was slightly annoyed with children who sent lists of their requests. It feels stupid and selfish, like they are demanding things, when it's not our job to give them anything at Christmas at all. Gift giving at Christmas has gotten out of hand, cause we don't need anything. What we really need is to get rid of stuff, not bring in more! Of the stuff that Corey and I both both, I made a bin of things to take back to the stores. I returned a few things and went by Barnes and Noble Wed evening to get a last minute book for Lily, since she needed a little more in price to even things up. I got a few Keepers of the lost Cities book, and then I went climbing for a few moments. It will be a more simple Christmas with me in charge, but with the older kids being more mature now, I trust that they will be able to lead out and it will be ok. Each kid will have like $100 total, which already makes Christmas expensive for us with the numbers that we're dealing with. For JME, their main gift is their mission blog books, Abi and Lily have a few random clothing items and books, Lego sets for SNO, random toys for DP, nothing for K.

Thursday - I went climbing and did my first V2! I was surprised that I did it and very excited. I returned some things to Walmart and Red Balloon. I am hopeful that Corey got work done. He is often frustrated with all the interruptions he gets, so I'm trying to help - he answers the phone every time they call with whatever silly thought or question they have at the moment. So I forbade him from answering the phone, I'm taking care of Christmas, and hopefully he got some stuff done. Corey also had an important demo yesterday. He was nervous and worried about it going well and about the project continuing. I have pretty much tried to keep my "worrying about Corey's work" button turned to off for the past few years. Yesterday I did my best to keep the worry part out of the equation as I prayed in earnest for his happiness and success in his career and I fasted for him and asked my parents and siblings to keep him in their prayers. The demo was at 4:00. I thought it would help if I went to the temple. I haven't done a endowment session since May the week before Katharine was born. I've been to do initiatories but not a session. But right now with Mel home, I felt I could go, so Ethan and I went to the Jordan River Temple to the 4:00 session. We were asked to be the witness couple which was really cool! (And it never hurts that being the witness couple allows you to stand up and kinda wake up during the session!) so this ended up being one of the best experiences I've ever had at the temple because I stayed awake during almost all of it (had a few fading out moments) and I was thinking about the word "endowment" - I just looked up some of the synonyms and the one I thought of is there - GIFT. More searching - here's an even better description of it: LARGE gift! Legacy! Inheritance! Or some of the nouns there - Power, strength, capacity... It is our gift from God - Our life here on earth helps us learn to be like him. So it was a great session, and afterwards in the celestial room I was looking for a triple combination but only saw the Bible, so I picked it up, opened it randomly and read the book of Joel. It brought me to tears - going back to thinking of Corey, his work, his efforts to provide for our large family (which always feels a bit more heavy at Christmas time with 13 kids to try to get gifts for) and I know Corey worries about not just the day to day expenses but of retirement and the future - and I loved loved Joel, especially chapter 2 - 

21 ¶ Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, ye ^abeasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, ye children of ^aZion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the ^brain, the former rain, and the ^clatter rain in the first month.

24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the ^afats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will ^arestore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ^aashamed.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the ^amidst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

I trust that the Lord will provide for us, and that he will send forth much rain, that he will restore to us the years that the caterpillars ate (MM years). And even considering our past lean years of famine, God has dealt WONDROUSLY with us. Fear not! Be glad and rejoice! I know that the Lord will do great things.