Skiing at Snowbird

Corey took kids skiing today - I stayed home with Peter and JHWALSNOD all went. 

Here's one video - I'll see if I can get more photos and videos from Corey and Joseph, who were the main historians of this event.

They were at Snowbird for the whole ski day, and Corey said it was magical. I would have gone, but Snowbird doesn't allow babies in back packs, so Peter wouldn't have been able to be in the carrier. We'll try another day at Alta for you, Peter. So he and I stayed home. He had donuts for lunch. And I made a big pot of chili for my skiers to eat after they returned home. 

One fun thing - Joseph drove the van, and in the process discovered that our van might indeed have 4 wheel drive! He discovered a button on the gear selector stick. So that's good to know, we'll give it a try, although we won't get to for New Years this year cause there isn't a new years Party this year cause of covid. So sad. We're finally prepared with Corey's 4 wheel drive and now possibly a van with 4wd, but no need to use them for the cabin. Here are a few photos that Joseph took - Corey and D

Abi made a note to self: wear waterproof mascara next time.

Sophi, Wes, and Joseph, taking the aerial tram to the top of Hidden Peak - 

Quite a view!

They told me that there was this one hill and somehow Sophi fell but kept sliding down backwards, like she was lying down backwards but her skis were down and she just kept going down - Joseph got this photo of her when she finally stopped - Wes on his way to assess the damage.

She had some snow down her hood but other than that, she was in good spirits and excited to tell everyone of her backwards downhill adventure.

When they walked in from skiing, the first thing I noticed was Abi's eyes. Her mascara ran, funny. Joseph teased her that she looked like the matchmaker from Mulan the whole time. "You will never bring your family honor!!!"

They all unloaded, Corey put away all the skiing gear, he's been very organized. I washed everyone's long underwear. They ate potatoes and chili. Most Christmas Eve's are my chance to put the kid's "IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!" energy to good use and have them clean the house. I was going to try that today, but they had already put in so much work skiing, so we just lazed. We watched A Christmas Story...

..and then we watched Elf...and it was fun. 

We had a zoom with Corey's family for the Wride Christmas Eve gathering, which wasn't the same for the kids as the usual party, but what ya gonna do. It's Rona's fault. It was still good. The kids played musical numbers, Daniel sang for us which was super funny (Corey got a video, I'll try to upload it later), we played Christmas Bingo, and the kids gathered to sleep under the tree. Corey is tuckered out, so I'm going to go put Peter to bed and will set an alarm for 2:30 to put out the gifts. 

Update: At 3:10 am I finished and we were ready for Christmas morning. As for how the rest of Christmas Eve went, Peter would NOT go to sleep, I don't know when he gave up, but I left his room at 1 am and went to bed in my bed... then my 2:30 alarm woke me up... 

Corey did a great job wrapping this year. We were talking with the kids earlier this week about the Christmas last year, with hardly any presents and ugly wrapping paper, it was funny to relive it. I guess it's good that Corey went over the top this year. He usually goes to wrap at his parents house where the kids won't see, but he wrapped all the gifts here at home in his office this year, cause we bought lots of bins at Costco and sealed them up with little cable ties to keep nosy kids out. The ties were loud when I cut them... I didn't go looking for scissors, I used a kitchen knife. 

They snapped pretty loud, but I didn't really care, I'm not pretending that I'm Santa. They know it's their mom. I finished at 3 - I heard the kids a few times, as they had alarms set for 3, crazy kids... 

Yeah Corey did a good job, this looks alot better than last year

Then it was time for me to go back to bed, trusting it will be a good Christmas tomorrow. 

Helpers & Pet Jerry

It's nice having Mel and Ethan around for a few more days before they take off to BYU this week (on Wed). Mel with Katharine yesterday - 

Since she's still here to help, this morning I asked her to get the kids out the door to school and I tried to catch up to Corey and join him on his ride. I was following him on life 360, he left like 10 min before me and was just a little bit ahead of me the whole time. Eventually I gave up trying to catch him and headed back home. He rides ALL THE WAY up the canyon to Lisa Falls. I went until I felt done, then texted him that I had almost caught up (probably not really) and then I went down to the quarry and stretched as I listened to the creek. 

We really live in such a lovely place!

When I got home we watched a few butterflies emerge - two to be exact. And then as I went about the day's tasks, I was up in the laundry room and found a butterfly flapping around on the floor. It had really messed up wings, all of them bent to one side at like 90 degrees. It was a male. It must have wandered off the milkweed and made it's chrysalis in a place where there wasn't room for it's wings to hang and straighten out! I was so sad for him! He kept trying to fly but couldn't. I decided to clip it's wings at the bend, thinking that maybe we could get it some replacement wings? 

This video gave me that idea. And true... that butterfly had one bad wing, whereas ours had 4, but I still thought it looked easy enough and we'd give it a go. Unfortunately, we don't have any spare monarch wings lying around. Mel and I tried to size up the wings from a printed pic of a monarch that looked about the right size. 

I found some thin plastic, that was the stiff, yet thin and light (from some wrapping around vellum stationary thing), thinking that that would work best, cause it wouldn't get ruined if it rains. With the plastic wings sized up the best we could, we were ready to operate. 

He did not cooperate but we did all 4 wings and they are each free and not stuck together, so we felt we had done pretty good! They even almost lined up perfectly when he closed his wings... Well, they're a little off I guess... Hm, darn.

We took him outside to see how he did. I was actually super impressed, he was able to hold himself up, but didn't get enough lift to get up in a tree or anything and soon he was on the grass again. It made a good noise though, which will be helpful for us being able to find him when he is inside. I ran upstairs into the laundry room for more supplies, and there was ANOTHER butterfly on the chair!! This one looked absolutely perfect. It surprised me so much though - I came in, saw it, and I imagined it sitting there waiting... ready to surprise me, and I walked in it shouted "TA-DA!!!! Look at ME!! I did it!!!" So I laughed and we took that one outside along with our messed up one. The good one did like 5 little victory laps over the trampoline and around the yard, it was so cute! It was like it was saying to the other "SEE! This is how you do it! It's easy!!!" And our poor guy was sad, not feeling understood or really encouraged by their showing off. So... it looks like we might have a pet butterfly. 

I called thanksgiving point to see if they have any monarch wings we could have, but I wasn't able to talk to anyone to ask... I thought maybe we'll go down there. We googled how to feed a butterfly and found two helpful videos, so we fed out pet, we've named him Jerry...

...and then I got ready to run errands and maybe go to the butterfly biosphere. I go out to the car, and noticed I had a flat tire. Blah, another thing that I wasn't planning on that it going to steal my time today - first a busted butterfly, now a flat tire. I was glad to have kids at home to help. Melodie watched Katharine while Ethan and I changed the tire. I was trying to get the bolts loose, then Ethan gave it a go, and I told him he should step on it to use his body weight instead of trying to turn it with his arms. He said "I bowl with 14 lbs, Mom..." Haha, letting me know he's got plenty of upper arm strength. And he got them all off

And then I went to Burt Bros to get the tire fixed. I left K home with Mel, but Peter saw me leave and he came long and they gave him a toy car, so that was nice. Peter was happy. They were able to patch it, we had run over a nail. And then it was time to take Owen to his trumpet lesson. I'm glad that we discovered the flat tire when I went to try and run errands rather than when I went out to go to trumpet, or else we would have missed his lesson. So, yeah, busy day with things that I wasn't planning on, but we handled it well, I think starting off the morning right with some sunshine and fresh air helped. We have a pet now, Jerry the Butterfly, and since this is one of the "super" monarchs that is larger and lives longer (like up to 6 months) we might have this guy through Christmas! It old the kids that they need to take him on walks to the neighbors flowers. He's a sweet butterfly, and it's so cool when he turns his head. He kinda looks like/reminds me of Larry the Lobster from Spongebob. He just looks really strong and cool, it's fun, so yeah, we have a pet! 

Gender Check Ultrasound

Hello Hello. I am waaay behind on the blog. Maybe cause it's Christmas-time (not that I've done a ton of Christmas preparation... I haven't sent any of my missionaries their Christmas packages yet!!! I think I need deadlines)... maybe it's cause I have a large family and it's getting harder to do the things I want to do. Last week I did prepare a lot for gospel doctrine yesterday - a discussion on the Family Proclamation. I haven't practiced violin as much as I want. I haven't been exercising. Maybe I'm anemic. I did lab work today, so we'll find out about that soon enough. 

Ok, so I did actually write that above on Dec 20. Now it is Feb 3rd, and it is still true that I am way behind on the blog. Only a few more entries until I'm done with December... When it was Dec 20th, though, we had not told most our children that we were expecting. I did go in that day to a doctor appointment, where I had a gender check ultrasound. We were excited to be able to deliver to Lily one of her Christmas wishes - a baby sister. Yes, it's a girl. I went by Zurchers on the way home and picked up some "It's a girl" pencils and I also got this hat for Peter, and we gave it to him on Christmas Eve as a reveal present to him and an early Christmas surprise for all the kids. 

We are all excited and looking forward to welcoming this little girl into our eternal family. Two more pictures for "today" (aka Dec 20th) - a cute little boy named Owen who is excited for Christmas - 

And a letter he wrote to Santa. He was getting it ready to give to him with the milk and cookies on Christmas Eve - 

"To Santa From Owen. Santa you are nice. Thanks for the presents. Thanks for the treats. To Santa: We gave you cookies. Star cookies too and Christmas Tree cookies too. You are sweet. I love you and you love me too."

Christmas Concert

Happy Birthday Melodie!! God gave us a beautiful winter sunrise in your honor. I took a picture of it, but it didn't do it justice. I hope Brazil gave her a lovely day! Today we had church which was wonderful as always, and then tonight Sophi and Natalie had a Christmas concert. 

It was held at my parent's ward chapel and was super crowded already when we got there. My parents came and Corey's parents. They couldn't tell where Natalie and Sophi were, so I took a pic even though I was pretty far away too, zoomed in, and tried to point them out- 

The concert was out here because Miss Amy did the concert with another violin school and their teacher lady is in my parent's Stake and this is like something she does every year. But I think she's going to stop teaching soon so Miss Amy is going to maybe take on the tradition? It was fun to be in my old ward house. It was a good place to grow up and have those developing years of my childhood. Their cultural hall/gym was so fancily decorated! My mom said that some group in the church does it (maybe take turns each year?) and they leave it up all month for all the different wards to use as needed and some families even hold family parties there. It was cool and very pretty and fun. Pretty good idea to get it all fancied up and then leave it and share it. After the performance with Wayne and JeNeal - 

They were late coming in, cause after they got here tonight, they were closing up their car, and the sliding door on their Honda Odyssey wouldn't close!!! It was stuck open! Just like happened to us! Only we were lucky cause ours happened at home in our garage. They had to trust that no one would steal anything from their car while they were in watching the performance, and then they hurried out to go home and had to drive in the cold winter air for 20 minutes with the door open (cause they didn't take the freeway) Brr!! I was glad it was all fresh on my mind from October, so I told Wayne that from what I just learned, the part is on back order and that our mechanic just cut the wire for us. But darn, such a pain. Not as bad as life at Valley Forge, but still, I felt sorry for them to have to drive home in the cold wind. Quick pic with my parent's too - 

Daniel was the only sibling that came to show support. All the kids at home asked me if there would be refreshments "I doubt it" but Daniel still came, and there were cookies, so he went to town and let everyone at home know they had missed out. The Christmas tree cookies were his favorite. A picture with Miss Amy - 

The girls did a great job. They have a few more performances this week - like all day on Tuesday and then some Orchestra performances on Friday before school lets out for the winter break. 

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas 

at Eleven o-Three

My kids were not sleeping yet.

Too bad for me.

They were much to excited 

To fall fast asleep

So I put their energy to work

and the kitchen they did sweep

Then up to the bedrooms

to vacuum the floor

I was glad for this chance 

to have them do chores

They worked hard and quickly

So Santa could see

That they've been tidy children

since January

Then they still were not tired,

so they played cards and had fun

Around 11:30 I said

"Ok, time to be done"

 

They hushed up and layed still

While I bided my time

By laying in bed

and making up this rhyme

Now it's 1:49

and the stockings are ready

Time to unload Corey's car

of the spoils it does carry.

 I turned off Ethan's alarm

that was set to sound at 3

(He'll probably be a little bit

upset with me...)

But I can live with that

if it means I'll get some sleep

But now around the house

and sleeping children I must quietly creep

They started this tradition
of sleepovers under the tree
I like them making memories
I love my family!

 I hope not to wake them

And that in the morning they'll see

Lots of love for them

Under the Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas! :)

Melodie is 17!

We had a really fancy party for Melodie's birthday tonight. We sent out invitations and everything. The dress was formal.

Just kidding. That wasn't for a birthday party. The kids had a concert at the school tonight. They are a good looking bunch, don't ya think? For the real party, most of the kids were gone, but Mel was home. My mom came over with gifts, so we sang and she enjoyed her cake with the little kids before Mel had to leave for rehearsal. Her younger siblings were glad it was finally cake time, cause they had already been waiting ALL day. 

Natalie his very - pink cake! 17 candles Mel... you're getting up there! Happy birthday to you! Natalie wanted a better view and even helped blow out the candles.

I love Owen's little head. I had given Mel her birthday present from me 10 days early - an academic planner.

Yes, those are technically for mothers, but Mel is a mother at heart. And she is smarter than me, cause she just puts white out over the pages of things she doesn't need and makes them into something that is helpful to her. She received money and crafty things and I think was a good birthday. Lucky Mel is finally going to get her drivers license! Her driving test is scheduled for next week. She's almost ready to launch. Hope you had a good day Mel.

My day was good cause I took care of some tasks that had been bugging me. I took Natalie with me to Home Depot and got a tree stand and a toilet handle for the two current things that made me feel like our life is falling apart. Bugging me item #1 - our tree that won't stand up. One of the legs of the stand broke last week. I tried to fix it with hot glue. It worked for about 24 hours. When we came home from church on Sunday (after I was already feeling a little miffed at our not together life) we walked into the house to see the tree crashed over again. Joseph was behind me and saw it - "Mom, the tree is broken..." and I replied "Just like our life..." I had noticed it myself, but as each kid entered the house from the garage door, they each saw it and then made it a point to seek me out and make me aware. "Yes, thank you, I know." "Yes, thank you." So, I left it leaning again the wall on Sunday, then that night took it apart in half and attempted to gather the scattered ornaments.

There already were/are ornaments scattered everywhere in our house. May I introduce culprit #1 -

And the rest of his posse -

I'm sure one of these little kiddos is the reason the tree fell apart anyway. So today I got a stand for a real tree at Home Depot. Sophi helped me get it ready, while Owen pretended to help do something on the tree.

I broke off the rest of the legs of the tree to before my first try at fitting it in the new base. Unfortunately, the thin trunk of the artificial tree did not fit in this base made for a real tree. So I had to get creative. A few sports balls from the dollar store and I sawed some small blocks of wood, and voilà, we have an upright tree, yay.

The second thing that had been bugging me for a few months was our broken toilet handle. It didn't to back down to plug the tank, so for a few months we've had to remind the kids to fix the handle. This past week, it totally broke and we couldn't move it, so I had to take off the tank lid and any user of the bathroom had to pull the chain. The little kids found the inside of the tank very interesting. But they didn't want to touch it. So I've been walking in to find a bunch of unflushed stuff. I'm glad I got that checked off now, I finally fixed that today, thank you YouTube. Good bye old handle.

I also looked around Home Depot at the dishwashers. We've needed a new one since we moved here and it's really gotten pathetic the past few months. I think it's gonna happen soon. 

I'm excited to have buttons on top where our button and dial happy baby Daniel can't reach it. He likes to turn on the dishwasher. Also, if we cook something at the stove top, we have to put on the handle and take it off after turning on the gas, cause Daniel has a radar antennae or something and always goes straight for it. He's turned the gas on a few times, isn't that right Daniel?

Yeah, you messy sticky freeze dried strawberry boy. One last thing, it's been fun to get cards and surprise treats from neighbors, like this one tonight. We have many blessings.

We haven't done it for a few years but I hope to make Christmas popcorn or to get something to give out this year to share our love.