Grumpy Faces

Hi. Here is what Peter looked like this morning....

This is also what he looks like most every morning....

...and practically every time he wakes up from a nap.

I don't know if he has bad dreams, or if he wishes he could keep sleeping or what his deal is? I tell him he's free to go back to bed, but he just throws a little fit and curses me for a few minutes. He continues being mad as I change his diaper and he kicks my hands away from him. Oh, that little pouty lip, Peter! You're just a little sad guy. And with his tired puffy little eyes, it looked like a total newborn face when they are just delivered and wondering what happened to them and what all the bright ligths are for.

Mommy's monster... that's an appropriate shirt you're wearing Peter. He wasn't the only grumpy face. His older brother gets grumpy and pouty too - Those are pretty good sad eyes you have there Daniel.

He wants his bottle. He still drinks from a bottle. We're kinda trying to move on from it, and Daniel does know how to use a cup, but I keep the bottles around for Peter, but if Daniel sees one he claims it and cries for it and I usually give in to his pleas. They're not grumpy that much, but when they are, I'm glad that I usually find it cute and funny.

New Year's Eve 2019

We had a great night up at our friend's cabin again this year.

It's been great to have Mel home over for the break!

We "adults" spent the night eating and visiting, and the kids spent it drinking and spilling hot chocolate, and playing...

Plus there was all the usual fun: Swinging in the swing (pics 3-6)

...Playing with friends and new faces -

Daniel and Owen spent most of the night hogging attention from these two cute twin girls -

I don't now their names, but they were so cute to play with Owen and Daniel and let them basically harass them for hours.

...Foosball - Natalie's ready to score a goal

...Ping pong (Ethan turned it into a game of sting pong with the elementary boys in the neighborhood. Wes got stung a few times too)

Around 9:40, people started to prepare for the ball drop. We do it early at New York time, so we welcomed 2020 at 10pm. Then the traditional Polar Bear Challenge at the stroke of midnight -

This is Ethan's last year since he'll be on his mission next new years! He ran around the cabin barefoot -

Wes and Abi joined in with the rest of the kids. We coached them all through recovery and comforted them until they had feeling back in their feet. Then we hung around and visited more. Daniel was dancing for us, it was SO cute and funny. I wish I got all of his dances and strike-a-poses on video, he is cute cute.

Then Corey headed home to spend the night with Hyrum and get some skis that were left. They are all going skiing tomorrow. I went to bed shortly after midnight with Peter, cause he had had enough fun for the day. I told MelWesAbi to be sure the little boys got to bed! Goodbye 2019! We'll meet you tomorrow 2020

Funny Filters

It was a wonderful Sabbath day. Church was great, we talked about family history and family records. It made me want to continue to blog and do better on my spiritual blog. I am almost finished reading a book about President Nelson, it's great. I'll insert the blog post link here of my favorite parts after I finish reading it. And so yeah, it was a good day. And it was fun tonight - the kids were on Corey's phone for a while, making funny faces with videos and making themselves laugh. Here are a few snapshots of the moment:

Here's Ethan speaking Ferb-Latin. I'll explain that again later.

That still shot for the video above is for when they all laughed at Daniel. And Peter got a good laugh too....

So they were on my bed for a long time, laughing and recording again and again. Ok guys, I'm glad you're having fun, but we need to go to bed.... So then they'd get up like they were wrapping it up...

But then they'd just change locations.... onto the couch we go!

Plus Mel just joined, and she wants to see what you guys were all laughing at. So it was fun. Then we did go out to the landing for family scriptures and prayer, and then they started showing the videos again - cause Wes and Hyrum didn't see!!

It was fun. I'm glad that Christmas break gives us time for fun moments of sibling bonding like this.

Trust In God Fireside

Tonight we went to a fireside with Michelle and Jon Schmidt - Jon of the Piano Guys and his wife Michelle, author of Carried. It was wonderful - It was me, Mel, Abi, Hyrum, Wesley and Peter. Mel and Abi and I stuck around afterward to get a picture with the Michelle and Jon.

I read her book two weeks ago, loved it. And then 10 days ago I was listening to Piano guys all the time as I blogged - catching up on Joseph's blog and other computer work. I thought I'd do all that in preparation for the fireside tonight, and it does just leave me in awe of them and of the good fruit of Latter Day Saints around the world. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ are doing such awesome things, I'm thankful to claim them as my brothers and sisters in the gospel. I love the Piano Guys! (Two others of my gospel peeps - Timothy Ballard and Nathan Pacheco).

I didn't take notes, I just enjoyed the fireside. But here are a few thoughts from what I can remember -

Michelle started the meeting, showing a picture of herself when she was like 10 or so - a cute girl with big front teeth, frizzy hair, and a look that, Michelle said, was probably wondering "Am I going to be okay? What does the future hold for me? Will anyone ever love me? Does God love me?" She showed a picture of Jon too. Then told of how they met and a few stories from their family's history. A lot of what the shared is in her book, like what Jon's mission president told him. Things that have happened to help them learn to know of God's love and to know they can trust Him to help them.

So a few things Jon said - he talked about how he and Michelle, and then he and the Piano Guys, often use "Prayer Lists". Like sometimes they just have so many things they need help with, that they can't remember it all, so they write it down. Then they pray and go over each thing. Jon shared that God is our Personal Assistant!! He loves us! He wants to help us! He is aware of what we need more than we are! He can help us! I had thought before that that was a bad thing, to treat God like he was my secretary - I got that idea from a talk that I loved, called "Return of the King" by Larry Wilson - here's the quote:

Each of us faces a choice. We can choose to see ourselves as the Lord’s servants and humbly seek to know what He wants us to be doing with the talents and time He has given us. As such, we can seek to enlarge His kingdom and prepare it for His return. Or we may imagine that the story is all about us. Too many fall into this trap. They forget that they are His servants and begin to imagine that He is theirs. They think erroneously that Christ came to make all their dreams come true. For those in such a trap, prayer becomes like dropping memos on a desk in a heavenly office: “Could you please take care of this as soon as possible?”

So maybe there is a difference between those two things: We can't treat God like a servant, but we can counsel with him and tell him what we think, then ask him for his assistance if that will work or if there is something more we should think of or be aware of. Anyway, I loved that thought that God is our Personal Assistant and to make Prayer Lists. It will give me a little more courage to come to him with my useless cares. I know there are such bigger problems in the world, but he still loves me, is aware of my struggles, and he will help me goo. So Jon said that when they were filming Fight Song, there were so many things that needed to happen. They had originally tried to film in Utah, but it wasn't great, and then an opportunity came to film at their dream location - the Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie, Scotland!! But - they were so many conflicts on their calendar, they didn't know how could they get over there to film it? They figured out that they could do it on a certain Monday and Tuesday in October. Then they found out that the weather there in Scotland in October was horrible - like horizontal rain all the time. Should they buy the airfare? Should they go forward with it? They wrote down all the things they would need, like good weather on that Monday and Tuesday. They would need to find a few other locations to film in a forest that would have proper lighting, etc etc. Oh, and they would need to be able to find a bagpipe band shortly after they landed. And they would need the people in that bagpipe band to all be available on that Monday and Tuesday for shooting. And they would all need to be able to learn the music in like an hour. Jon said it was kinda ridiculous all the things they needed. And for them to now ever to deny the miracles that happened would just be ingratitude on their part. But at the time, they didn't know if it would work out? Still, they felt okay about going forward, even with all the unknowns and uncertain details not figured out. So they bought tickets to fly and out. When they got there, they thought "It will be okay with God if we just go to the first hour of church and then leave to go find locations to film." So they decided that, said a prayer for confirmation, they all got up and then looked at each other with the same impression... "Nope, we're going to all three hours of church...." So off they went to church. In the 3rd hour, a sister came up and said "Do you guys need a bagpipe band? I am the president of a band. I could have them all there tomorrow...." (Miracle!) The weather was a little rainy on and off the first day, but was perfect on the Tuesday. Some people that helped them move the piano said told them about a place to film that would be perfect, a little place that only the locals knew about. It all came together bit by bit as they went forward with Trust in God. Then we watched this video at the fireside.

It was so funny, cause after it was over, Michelle stood and said "Doesn't that all look wonderful and beautiful!? But even after all the miracles that got us there, then the drone's battery died and people were jumping off the bridge into the water to save the footage!" So moral of the story - even an amazing song and video like that has a big messy story behind it! Life is messy, but we can still do beautiful and amazing things with God's help. Here is a little behind the scenes write up of Fight Song on the Piano Guys blog.

It was so great, and I was just so full of admiration of love for him and his wife. At the end he played "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by Elvis Presley. We were sitting on the 2nd row in the front by the piano, so we had a good seat. At the end Peter got a little fussy, so I was going to take him out but stood by the back door so I wouldn't miss the final song. I loved it.

Before he began to play that final number, he said that was just how he felt about all of us. And that is what the gospel and the spirit of Christ does for us, it turns our hearts to one another and we're full of love, we can't help falling in love with each other! Wherever you find the Church of Jesus Christ, you will find a little corner of heaven, ZION!

It was great. And just a few more Piano Guys things - Beethoven's 5 Secrets is one of my favorites to listen to, especially when walking in nature or in the mornings.

When Stars and Salt Collide is beautiful! Their videos are as amazing as their music!! I wonder if each of these videos has a messy story behind it? Here is one more that was on their channel - a song Jon's son Spencer wrote, with Annie singing it in. They really didn't share that much about the hard trial they faced when Annie went missing, so go read MIchelle's book for that. One thing Jon said though, was that as they were praying to find her, and getting a little frustrated with what seemed like silence from heaven, they had to help each other trust God. Jon said a prayer, "God, we know that you know exactly where Annie is and that you could take us to her within 3 hours. But even if you don't answer our prayer right away today, please help us remember all the times that you have." And it still took several weeks, but he said that that prayer felt good, felt connected. And they went forward in faith. Now looking back, Michelle said, it was probably merciful that it took so long to find her and that there was so much rain calling off the search so many times, cause it helped Annie's body decompose. They said it would have been hard to find her body and have it look like her, but when they found it, it was really just bones, and that made it easier. They had impressions she had passed away early on, so they felt they were just looking for her body. Again, for more on that part of the story, read Michelle's book "Carried"

They will see her again. We will all see and be with our loved ones again, thanks to Jesus Christ. O Come, O Come Emmanuel  (I hope Piano Guys get played on loud speaker during the second coming!)

Christmas Eve Report

Hi. I'm going back in time to give the full report of Christmas Eve. If I actually wrote this all on Christmas Eve, it would have been written after 3:30 am on Christmas Day, cause that's when the day officially ended with this final photo -

So, this is how our Christmas Eve went. Corey told me the night before that he wanted to take the kids out to lunch and then to a movie. He told the children of his plans also, because it would require just a bit of planning/effort on their part. aka- they would need to get up earlier than usual for a "winter break" morning because of my one pre-condition to their outing - that the house be clean. So they started to wake up at 9 and most were alive and moving by 9:30 and they went to work tidying things up. They were done shortly after 11:30. The movie tickets were for 12:30, so they hurried out the door. They didn't have a lot of time at Chuck a Rama, but they still went and hurried and stuffed their faces for 30 minutes.

Then over to the theater where they were a little late to the movie "Wreck It Ralph Breaks the Internet". They said it was weird. They didn't get back until like 2:30, and we were supposed to be up in Layton at 3, so I thought they'd want to hurry out the door for that, but Hyrum had to do his shopping for his sibling secret Santa, so he and Corey left and were gone for another hour. So we were late to the Wride family Christmas Eve party, but got there around 5:20. Everyone was waiting for us and was ready to eat.

Taco bar.

Natalie went straight for the hot cocoa.

She stirred it with the peppermint candy cane and was delighted to see it get skinnier and pokey-er

After dinner we had the annual Talent Show.

I took videos of their performances but won't put them all here except for the link - First Abi played her piano numbers - same from her piano recital a week ago.

Lily played the sax.

Our kids weren't all in order, the cousins did numbers in between our kids. Melodie on flute.

Wes sang some bad karaoke

Natalie sang Jingle Bells

Oh, and of course Daniel wanted a turn with the microphone!! His back up singers were going crazy with energy, egging him on, and he finally caught the vibe 4 minutes into his performance and gave them the dancing moves they were hoping for.

Sophia on violin

Corey put a saxophone neck strap on Owen and everyone was pressuring him to go sing, at which time his body went limp and he layed on Corey's lap unable to function. Going limp was something Mel used to do when she was a toddler. Looks like Owen won't be performing after all. He stayed limp until Corey took off the neck strap, funny kid.

The kids signed up Corey, so he did a number, and Ethan joined him for a few measures.

Then Ethan did his own number

And then next in the program was a nativity narration of Luke 2. Lily started off dressed to be a shepherd, but jumped in to the Mary role when the opportunity presented itself. Cousin Isaac is Joseph. A stuffed bear was Baby Jesus

Abi as a wise man.

After the nativity, the kids were quiet so Corey's parents shared a few words as well as him and his siblings, then a family prayer, and then the kids were ready to get crazy with the Saran Wrap game.

Uncle Mark had prepared two balls and we divided the kids into two groups.

Group 1 finished unwrapping their ball first, and Wesley won the coveted center of the ball  - a $5 bill

Lily won the $5 of the second group

Pretty exciting! Money!! They all scored some pretty sweet holiday gear and treats. 

Hyrum modeling his new scarf.

Ethan had Owen hold all the things he unwrapped, and then Owen wouldn't share with him. So sad, but Eth took the injustice like a champ.

Group pic!

We had a good time and were headed home around 8:30. Got home around 9:30. Corey went to pick up presents from the North Pole, the kids stayed up late watching Home Alone, Corey and I put Owen and Daniel to bed and then we went to bed around 12:30. Everyone else was still up. I set my alarm to wake up at 2:25 to get the gifts out of the car.

I peeked out down the stairs. Lights were out except for the tree, no one was stirring. Kids were all asleep around the tree, their tradition.

My first action was to take phones away and unplug Hyrum's alarm clock. I didn't know what time his alarm was set for, I only knew that it was set. And I didn't want it to go off at 3 or anything while I was at work, so yeah, that had to go. Then I got rid of the carrots, cookies and ricemilk (didn't eat them, just put stuff back in the fridge). 2:45 am and I started to bring in the presents. I had them all in the house by 3, all under the tree at 3:10, and then I did the stockings. Those were done at 3:30. Then took pictures. That means I'm able to to to back to bed at 3:40. Yay. I let Corey sleep, cause he had done almost all the shopping this year and did all the wrapping too. So I was glad to do a little bit to pull my share.

The lights at the top of the tree burned out this year. Time for a new tree? I is pre-strung, so I might try to fix it on top, but will do that next year.