Baby Hoodies

Hello on a lovely winter Sunday. There is snow falling out side again. We are grateful for all the "moisture" as it is often called in prayers around Utah, ha. Coming home from church today - Katharine wore her cute Carter's hooded bodysuit. She fell asleep in Wesley's arms as he kissed her cheeks. She was seriously snoring!

She has two of these hooded jumpsuits / rompers / whatever they're called. I bought them at kid to kid a few weeks ago, and since I got them, she's almost always wearing one and I'm washing the other. I love these little outfits because: they are warm, they just have one easy zipper, it's easy to change her diaper when she's wearing these (no snaps!), her toes are out so she can crawl, and the hood doubles as a pocket for her pacifier. Snuggling with Abi at home.

Ahh, Abi was tricking! She wasn't sleeping!

Here's her other jumpsuit. She wore this one yesterday to Sophi's basketball game at Alta, hence why it's this one that is in the wash right now. 

Yesterday at the game, I let Katharine crawl around and drop her cheerio halves on the bleacher floor, and then eat them. She's working on building up her immune system. Her pacifier was also dragging along the floor. I put it up in her hood for clean/safekeeping, and then she proceeded to eat her toes. 

Cleanliness just can't win. It's ok, I think it's good for her in the long run.

The rest of the time yesterday was spent cleaning, cause Wesley was having some FSY friends come over for a visit. They were the friends from his Weber FSY where they got to shake Elder Uchtdorf's hand (Wesley was quoted in a church news article!). So they (6 girls) came up from Provo, went to watch his hockey game against East (the Bengals lost 2-1 but Wes played hard knowing there were girls in the crowd watching him!) We cleaned bedrooms and the main floor and it looked great tonight before his friend came over. He was at his game so Abi, Lily, and I did the finishing touches, and put out treats and some games. They played Apples to Apples, ate Krispy Kremes and popcorn, and watched La La Land. 

A few more things from last night - Owen and Daniel had a playdate/pizza party from 6-8 and after they got home, Corey took SNODP to his parents house from like 8-10. Corey spent most of the day working on his HollowLense Spine stuff. He was stuck on one problem most of the day, but prayed for help before he went to work on it a little more at his parents house. He felt a small prompting to get his power cord, so his computer wouldn't die, so he did, and he was able to work on it some more, and the thing he was trying to get working today finally worked! He felt like it was a miracle. It was a full day of things NOT working, but it finally worked in the end. When he got home for scriptures, we talked about the Fight Song by Piano guys and the fireside we went to where Jon Schmidt talked about all the obstacles and uncertainties they faced when making that video. The quote at the beginning of the video is so beautiful and appropriate, especially after what we learned that they shared with us. "Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." God is watching over us. He is helping us, even when the process is stressful, messy, and we wonder if it's even going to work at all. It is working, the mess is part of the journey. That's how the light gets in! It's the same situation as in The Chosen and the three miracles they had there, I really loved miracle #2 (the opening of episode 3 of season 2). Also, last night I bought tickets for Corey and I to go watch the Season 3 finale in theaters next Friday! Yay, it's going to be good, we've loved watching season 3. 

Owen had an online trumpet recital today. He played Lightly Row and did a good job. There were a few students who we couldn't hear - the audio cut out once they started playing. I tried to test ours that it worked but wasn't sure, so hopefully it did!

One last thought - today after church we had the older kids watch Schindler's List with us. Corey tried to be prepared to skip some parts, but we wanted them to see others that were hard to watch. It's important that they see what evil looks like when it is fully ripe. And also for them to know that GOOD and EVIL do exist. There is right and wrong. It's not just all about "your truth" or what is right for you. There are some things that are right all the time and other things that are wrong all the time. How unfortunate that increasingly in our world, there seems to be denial that morality exists at all. But we want our kids to know that it does. Hopefully we can learn a lot of things from history and don't have to learn by personal experience. But just imagining how terrible it would have been to be in some of those situations, especially with children that you love with you, I can't imagine. The little girl in the pink coat had eyes and a sweet expression that reminded me of Peter. I brought up a few times what it would be like to be there with Peter or Daniel. I am grateful for the glory that awaits those who innocently died. I feel sorry for those who will suffer for the horrible crimes they committed against others. Also, remember that people are what matters. "One more..." In one of the last scenes in the film, as Schindler prepares to flee from the Allies, he is given a gold ring engraved with a quote from the Talmud (the book of Jewish law) “anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world”. In Hebrew:

כל המציל נפש אחת כאילו הציל עולם ומלואו”

People are what matters. When we leave this earth, we will take our experiences, our knowledge, and our relationships. I'm grateful that we've been allowed to have "one more" child join our family so many times, and for the wonderful experiences we've been able to share with each of them. “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire”.

Irish Twins

Today was a full day with a lot of different things going on. One of those things was a little birthday celebration for Joseph and Melodie. Since they were down at school for Mel's bday, it was a cake for both of them to share. An early b-day for Joseph, a little late for Mel. They are my year 2000 Irish twins - Joseph in January and Melodie in December of the same year. 

It's their little claim to fame/"interesting thing about me" fact that they can use when the occasion permits. So that was a fun addition to the day. 

These two pics are Melodie's BeReal capturing the moment - 

We gave Joseph his present early, since they'll be back at school on Monday. Corey got Joseph a bike rack, and we're hoping to not hear about how cheap and unthoughful we are anymore (one year Joseph asked for our old keyboard piano, and I said sure, then asked if that could count as his b-day gift. I recognized there is a lot of room for improvement on my part.). I've been thinking of some other ideas of what we can do for our college kids or missionaries when as they have birthdays. So far I've come up with taking college kids out to eat. Maybe I'll be a new birthday lady and will show up with cake and ice cream like my mom does. I'm not sure I could keep up with doing as many presents as she does. I need simple, just cause I'm dealing with a large number of birthday every year. I shall ponder more. 

So this morning, Natalie and Sophi had a violin workshop with Michael McLean. And I admit that I've been confusing him with the Forgotten Carols Michael McLean, but I'm pretty sure now that it's a different Michael McLean. The guy at the workshop looked much younger than 71, so... I didn't know there would be two that are both musical and composers, but they're not the same guy. When our violin teacher told us that it was Michael McLean that was at the Willow Lake concert playing with the kids, I was confused with myself that I didn't recognize him. So, glad I finally figured that out - two different guys. 

I went over to my parents house for a bit while they were at the workshop, because it was close to my parents house, and I wanted to take some time to help my dad set up an online journal. So that was fun. Took this photo of a photo they had on the wall - my cute family from years ago.

Corey took the kids away today to climb at the Lehi Momentum while I had Abi and Mel here to help me clean, but instead we mostly wasted time. Here's a video Mel made. There were recordings of each of us looking sad, but we chose Abi's cause it was best. Someday, prob after the resurrection, I will be like a Shen Yun dancer and I will be able to flip and bend like all the beautiful dancers in the SharkCookie shorts. I could watch those all day. So we were SUPPOSED to be cleaning up before a small social gathering with some of our high school friends came over at 5, and we started making progress around 4:30. We had a fun visit with our friends and it was fun for our kids to join in the conversation. 

We are NOT the only ones among our friends who has a one year old child! Benji and Suzette have a baby too! ...but today was the baby's birthday, so they actually didn't end up coming. Maybe Katharine  made it happen cause she didn't want to risk sharing her "cutest baby in the house" position with anyone. 

After our friends went home, we went climbing at 9pm - Corey, Ethan, Wes and I. Good stuff. I should go back and look at how many I sent this week. Climbing is fun. This week was a good start to 2023. It's going to be a good year. 

Lisa Falls & Baptism

Grant and Steph have been staying with us since last Saturday, but their schedule has been booked and today was the first time they had a little bit of down time (90 minutes) and we could all do something together! Grant was hoping for time in the mountains, and we did do Bridal Veil Falls yesterday and decided to do another mountain walk today at Lisa Falls. 

I'm impressed that, almost every time that Corey's gone on a ride, he bikes all the way up here! Wow

The kids found a nice dirt hill to climb and roll down and get dirty in, yay

Peter found a stick! And was killing bad guys. 

Grant going up to rescue some kids that were stuck up the dirt hill - 

Lisa Falls is beautiful.

Peter and Caleb hiked up over some rocks, and then when they came back, Peter proudly told me he found a rock!! I would have said that we were surrounded by rocks, I perhaps Peter was looking for a particular kind of rock. 

We just stayed for a little bit up in the mountains, and then the Hibberts came back home to prepare for Edmund's baptism. The kids all wanted to go in my car (I've got the kid magnet Katharine), but Grant told his kids that they were going over early to practice a song that they were going to sing. At home, Ethan didn't have work this morning, so he was able to come to the baptism with us. He was also doing laundry or something in the laundry room and saw a paper where Mel had been doing some pencil sketches... and thought he'd give it a go. 

Hilarious!!!

Katharine looks like a little Frankenstein, and Natalie doesn't look right either. 

I laughed at Ethan being silly, but he said "I was honestly trying my best!" Well that is good! Your best is good enough! We all left to go to Edmunds baptism at 5. Cute group of little boys!

Ok, girls can join too... and big boys...

It was a picture taken in a small hallway, hence the wide angle from the phone camera. My brother Neil is a bishop up in Layton and Grant had asked him to come conduct, so it was a really special service, small and intimate. Stephanie and Taden gave the talks. Grant baptized Edmund, my mom played the piano and led the music, and there was a sweet testimony meeting after. It was a lovely service. They all went out to eat after, but we didn't join them for that cause Ethan had to work at 5. They are heading back to Texas tomorrow morning. It's been really great having them here and getting to spend time with them and getting to know their boys better. I only wish that Corey and the girls would have been around too, but that's ok. They are hopefully coming home tomorrow too. Life is good.

Bridal Veil & Creamery

Grant and I got to hang out today with all of our little boys (and Natalie) (...and Katharine, but mostly little boys...) One of his "to-do's" while he was in Utah was to go by the BYU Creamery for some Graham Canyon ice cream. Since we were going down to Provo, we thought it would be fun to go on a little hike, so we went to Bridal Veil Falls - 

Everyone hiking up - 

Grant was on "active kids" duty (hiking back down with a toddler in each hand)

and I watched the kids as they decided to stay put in the wagon, the pool, or on the side walk. Peter enjoyed picking up rocks and throwing them in the bushes - 

Caleb joined us. Soon there were more of them gathering at the street - Owen and Daniel throwing rocks down into the river - 

O and D left for a moment to conquer greater mountains, and Peter kept on his little shelf throwing rocks into the river - 

His brothers and cousins soon joined him again - I thought this photo was precious - 

Life doesn't get much better than that for little boys - just sitting by a river and throwing rocks. Grant and the older kids were trying to build a dam/fortress - 

I thought it was very hot. I hugged the shade, Peter stayed close to me most of the time. Peter showing me a rock - 

Peter and Caleb squabbled with each other as if they were family. Baby Katharine slept through the whole thing. 

I knew she's be hungry before we'd be able to get back home, so we went by the creamery and I fed her there. Guess who else was at the creamery - two of our favorite big kids! Joseph and Ethan!

Ethan had to hurry back to the MTC for work, but we enjoyed saying hi.

We tried to look for shade, it was hot, we went inside for ice cream. The little boys wanted more cold ice cream relief and attacked Joseph - 

So I fed Katharine a little bit, but after we were back in the car, she was crying for more. Most of the kids wanted to go in my car with me, since I had Katharine. Daniel and Caleb went in Grant's car, and I had the rest, It was a bit crazy cause now I had a few more kids "calling" who go to sit by K and making each other mad over who already had a turn or who sat by her last time. I can't keep track of it all. Kids are arguing, K is crying, so I came up with a quick plan - let's go by the Roots of Knowledge exhibit! Hallelujah it was open. I sat on the floor and fed Katharine, the kids looked at the windows. 

I was very proud of myself for knowing about this gem of a place. 

It was perfect. 

I told them of a few of the "easter eggs' that I knew about, like the Millenium Falcon star, and the Piano guys in a Mozart duet.

They stayed busy and relatively quiet and under control while I nursed Katharine.

Then bathroom break and back to the car. Grant picked up Stephanie and they got home before I did. They had dinner ready by the time we were back, and the kids ate and I ran upstairs to feed Katharine again. We watched a few videos of the day's activities and I was ready for bed. 

It's been a fun day, but I'm spent. I don't get a break with all the big kids gone. Joseph is on his way back from Puerto Rico. They were flying towards the sun, so he got to enjoy 3 hours of sunset light, pretty fun. All of his sunset photos here. Even though J is coming back to Utah, he'll be headed to Provo. I miss having all of my older helpers! I have been leaving K with Natalie to babysit almost every day this week when I leave to take Ethan to frontrunner. She's been a lifesaver. I'm glad I've had one daughter here while the others abandoned me to go rafting. It's ok, N, K and I will go next time. Normally E could take a car to work or to frontrunner, but the fiesta was being weird on him last week. He just left the car there in the frontrunner parking lot, but on Tues took it to a shop in Provo. Found out yesterday that the clutch needs to be replaced. $1800, yay.

Hibbert Reunion 2022

It has been a busy day. The hightlight was fun at the park tonight with all the Hibberts that are in town! - 

Here's a link to the Hibbert gathering last year - 2021 And the day started, of course, with my morning pic of Katharine sleeping...

Cause she's an angel and I want to capture these moments. As her shirt says, she is my whole world!

Just lovely. 

I called Mel to come in and see her, cause K is so beautiful...

...and cause K was holding her hand in a little "I got your nose" fist!! SO ADORABLE!

She is just our favorite. Everything she does, we love it. So it was a busy morning with kids leaving for camps. Wes left to a neighbors house at 7 am for High Adventure. They are rafting Desolation Canyon. 

He wouldn't pose for me, he didn't want his picture taken. And then I left Mel in charge of K while I took Lily and Abi to Murray at 7:30 to meet up with the buses for Oakcrest!

I was comparing this drop off with our experience last week with Abi's FSY in Ephraim. There were a bunch of old ladies in charge of this and they were OR-GAN-IZED! Wow. It was very clear where to go and what to do. Abi and Lily with green circle stickers on their hands to let them and everyone else know which bus they are supposed to go on. 

Very organized. I appreciated it. I gave them a hug, and wished them a fun week, but even if they don't think it's fun, I won't hear about it until Friday, cause they can't take their phones! So no texting checking in on these girls. I hope they have fun. 

I was a counselor up there and I like Oakcrest. OK! Next on the docket was going to This is the Place Heritage park to help our friend Laird Dummer campaign for president of the Sons of Utah Pioneers (aka SUP). The SUP and DUP (Daughters) were having a special morning devotional with the Piano Guys! It was a great devotional. 

One thing that Steve shared was that on tours, he was never able to sleep well on the tour bus, and felt a prompting that he could do something better with his time than watch movies, so he started to do family history! He took family history stories and wrote them up in the first person, and with those stories compiled, he printed a bedtime book to read to his children, that has real true stories about their own real ancestors!!! ISN'T THAT THE BEST IDEA EVER!?! I am going to do that for my kids. SUPER COOL idea. Jon just spoke briefly at beginning, and Steven spoke for most of the time. That's my second time meeting both of them (Steve at Chuck a Rama in 2018, and Jon at a fireside in 2019, haha) Our friend Laird Dummer treated all of us to tickets into the park in exchange for the favor of wearing his campaign shirts at the park and handing out his fliers. Thus our matching shirts. "Be Smarter! Vote Dummer!" Camilla and her kids were able to come with us!

The devotional was great, and then we stayed after for a minute while I fed K and Natalie wanted a picture with them, so we left to stand in line. When Steve asked our names, he really liked Natalie's confidence as she responsed "I'm Natalie!" He imitated her enthusiasm!

"Hello to you NATALIE!" A quick photo with Steven - 

And with Jon - 

And then I spent my time nursing K as I listened to an exhibit about Mahonri M. Young. Corey took the kids to hand out campaign water bottles for our friend, then they went around the park for a bit. I caught up to them as they were finishing a ride on the train. We walked to the Children's Memorial, and then we decided we were done. It was really hot. Sophi and Natalie had to go to violin lessons, we took P&K with us. We were able to change the lessons to 1:00, and then had the evening free for the Hibbert gathering at Antczak. When we got there, everyone was playing or watching a game of Kubb, which I've never heard of, but it's on my list of games to check out. After Neil & Camilla's team won, we enjoyed a potluck dinner.

And then everyone was off for more fun and games. Little ones headed to the playground and tire swing - 

The big kids were excited to play spike ball, ultimate frisbee and soccer. 

But before we got into a big game, Grant wanted us to recreate a family photo. Neil testing out the strength of the tire swing chains and of his own stamina - 

 

This is what we were going for - This 1996 photo before Camilla left for her mission - 

How did we do? Ha!! Funny!

Same park, same location, newer play set and tire swing. Pretty fun! We also took the group family photo at the beginning of this post. We're only missing JT, Xela & Trevor, and my 4 kids (H on his mission, and WAL gone at camps this week). My parents had also brought some scrapbooks of their engagement and early married years, with love letters they had sent each other and cute notes and stuff like that. Mel and Ethan looking at the scrapbooks with my dad.

Everyone enjoyed kissing and holding Katharine - 

Neil had brought some bows and arrows and the little boys loved playing with those. They had their own imagination game doing on while everyone else was playing ultimate frisbee.

The clouds were a bit luminous and we thought the weather might cancel our game, but it was great

I watched them play ultimate, and I joined in the soccer game after. 

We played until it was too dark to see the ball, and then gathered kids and headed home. Tomorrow the siblings and my parents are going to go out to eat. It's fun having everyone together!