This Past Week

Just a few pictures from this past week - Wesley made some lego swords on Wednesday. Pretty cool, if only they wouldn't break apart when they started their battles.

I woke up Thursday morning to find some kinda mess in the kitchen - little splatters of something sprayed on the floor, walls, ceiling... I wasn't sure what it was, but it was oily/greasy. I then found this pan by the kitchen sink -

"...we didn't feel like cleaning it..." nice. What the heck happened last night? We went to bed, we thought the kids went to bed, but we wake up and there's a mess in the kitchen and this note. Annoying. Also obviously from the boys (That's Ethan's handwriting). Also true to form. Sigh. When they finally woke up I asked them what happened. Apparently they stayed up and were being weird and wanted to destroy a liquid paperweight thing that Wesley bought at SeaWorld during his band tour last month. It was not Wesley's idea to break it, but what does a young boy do when his older sibling is pressuring him? He usually gives in to avoid getting picked on. I made them wipe off the walls, I did the floor, and Corey had them wash off the lighting fixture.

Here's Daniel and Owen taking a nap Thursday afternoon. Zonked out.

As for today, it was our turn to participate cleaning the chapel this morning. Corey got up at  7:55, we hurried and woke up the kids, and they left. I stayed home with Daniel. To reward them for their hard work (they didn't really have much to do or have to work that hard, oh well) Corey brought them back home to do jobs for me with a promise to reward their hard labor by taking them out to eat. Hyrum wanted to go to Ihop/Ihob cause they had a few vegan-ish options he could eat, but Corey and people voted for the Black Bear Diner. I think Corey voted for it cause it was closer and would be faster and then he could get back on the clock and catch up on hours. I told Hyrum it was okay, we'd make it up to him tonight for his birthday date with us. Since we got all caught up on the June birthdays, we were on top of it for Hyrum, so lucky you, you get to go the day before your birthday! Go team. We went to California Pizza Kitchen -

Hyrum tried the delicious Shanghai Bowl that I enjoyed when we went with Lily. I wished I'd gotten it again, but he let me have a few bites. I tried the Santa Fe Bowl this time, which was still good and filling, but couldn't compete with the Shanghai bowl. That thing is so good. I was glad that we were able to go out with Hyrum, cause I needed a re-do of our Friday night date. We tried out a new restaurant (always risky) and I think I'm too ignorant to appreciate how "amazing" and refined it was I guess, cause I was left disappointed and not impressed. Why does fine dining have to mean pathetic portions? Not that I'm a fan of things like the Grizz that Ethan ordered this morning, I'm not. I will not go there, I think that's obscene, but this "fine dining" takes it to the other extreme and it was pretty lame. I thought I was ordering a green salad, but I guess I wasn't paying attention cause it had gross cheese which I couldn't stand to eat. I tried a little bit but had to borrow a disposable napkin to hide the rest in my purse (I didn't want to have to explain to our server or the chef, who both kept walking by, how disappointed I was with the dish by having the main portion of it still on the plate). Our waiter was a little too attentive, which made me laugh a little as I thought of the Dude Perfect stereotypes video and the "ambitious refiller" lol. So, again, about the overpriced "salad" I got... I wasn't paying attention, but I guess I assumed it would have lots of vegetables and greens like salads usually do. But I got the special - all I heard was peaches, so a salad with peaches sounded interesting. But I now know... it was a caprese salad, which doesn't have lots of vegetables or greens but did have several huge slabs of bocconcini mozzarella, which I did not want to eat. It had the peaches instead of the tomatoes, and mint leaves instead of basil. And I usually just order a salad for dinner, so this was basically my meal, my "salad"....

A sliced up peach, a few mint leaves, and big slices of gross cheese. Is that an accurate pic, Corey, to get the idea across? Yeah, I was disappointed. Totally lame. "Um, I'm still hungry, can I have a free second, hold the cheese, add some butter lettuce? Or do you have pictures on your menu so I know what I'm ordering?" But instead of making my ignorance known, we ordered dessert, which was a one generously portioned slice of German chocolate cake, couldn't/didn't want to finish the frosting. After we ordered dessert, Corey whispered "Their plan worked!" Don't give them enough food for their entrees and they'll have to order dessert! haha! If we were paying per calorie, the cake was the best deal and my 6 mint leaf salad was a major rip off (maybe it was 8 leaves). I don't think we'll be going back. On the way home I was trying to decide if I should try and eat the purple lei flower - Corey said it could be poisonous. I googled a bit... looks like they're edible - edible Karma Orchids! Yay, I get a little more nourishment for that overpriced meal. We won't be going back though. That place was way too expensive to experiment there with taking another risk ordering something that will be disappointing. Good learning experience though? :)

Owen is 3!

Today is Owen's Happy Birthday! Usually, when it is a kids' birthday, there is the sign in the window and a birthday banner and presents on the table when they wake up in the morning. But Owen is my early riser. And he watched "McQueen Mater" while I exercised. So that's what we did this morning, like we do every morning. And he could care less. So I didn't have anything ready. I hadn't even bought his presents yet when he was awake. Hyurm came to me around 10 as I was finishing up exercising... "Is today Owen's birthday?" "Yeah." "Where are his presents?!?!" "I didn't get them yet." "What the freak, Mom!" as if he feels I've violated Owen's constitutional rights of childhood. "Hey, he's 3 years old! He doesn't care! I'm taking advantage of it! I'll go get him a present after I shower!" And I did. Stocked up on diapers, wipes, and got a sweet toy for $20 bucks that has 6 cars in it! A big toy semi pulling two cars, and a truck pulling another car. When I pulled up to the house, there were 3 cars in the driveway - my mom, Corey's parents, and Owen's church teachers. The church teachers brought by a book and fruit snacks. He took the gift but didn't smile for them. He loves them at church, but maybe seeing them at our house might have been too much for his brain to handle - they are supposed to be in the nursery room at church, not at our house! After the teachers left, I talked to my mom, she'd left a pile of birthday goodies in the kitchen. So she said goodbye and we went into Corey's parent's car for Owen to sit and open presents there - Some new Micky Mouse clothes!

Owen was still working on his fruit snacks though - so his siblings helped open his other presents - a little car with Micky Mouse, a saxophone to play! Ethan showing Owen how it's done

Owen was done with his fruit snacks and was looking at the car now. So they showed the sax to Daniel.

Ok, Owen's ready for the saxophone.

Owen just likes to take things at his own pace. Like at the bounce house on Wednesday - he eventually went into the balloon room, he just needs space to do things at his own speed. He'll get to it when he's ready. So we said thank you, Daniel said "Bye, See ya!" four times, then inside to see the loot from Grandma Hibbert. Daniel was happy to eat the bunny crackers.

My mom asked me a week or so ago what Owen would like. "Any kind of car or truck toys. He esp loves McQueen and Mater". Owen's got cars galore now. Daniel was feeling pretty sad when Owen wouldn't share the McQueen that my mom got. That's when I went and got my vehicle 5 pack, which took Owen's attention straight away from McQueen and let Daniel have some McQueen time for a few moments. My present was hit, yay! I like it when Owen loves my presents. It makes me feel pretty special. He wouldn't even come over for cake. Like I just said, he likes to do things at his own pace. We had cake twice today, but the first time we didn't have candles. So we put candles in the second cake, and Owen wouldn't come away from his cars for us to sing. So we sang the birthday song a few times from a distance and we let the candles keep burning. 

I recorded a video cause it was funny, and on that last one he finally came over.

Yay! A picture for posterity. Trying to blow out the candles...

Try again, Owen! You got this!

Success! And he didn't even need help from his siblings

Happy Birthday Owen! I don't know if Owen knows it's his birthday, but he does know he got a lot of cars, and he's good with that. 

After an afternoon of playing, Owen decided it was time for a late nap - he snuggled up with his soft cars. ?

Whatever floats your boat, you're the birthday kid, we love you Owen

We are not taking Owen out for a birthday dinner date. That starts at 5 years old. So since Owen didn't need one, we took Wes out with us for date night to finish catching up on our belated birthday dinner dates. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. Good stuff. I got the Vegan Cobb Salad with 4 grilled shrimp, Wes got Orange chicken, and Corey got a Thai Chicken coconut curry dish

Now we're all caught up and we won't get behind again, cause Hyrum's birthday is next, and is close enough (2 weeks) that we shouldn't forget this tradition. School is just around the corner, less than a month away, crazy. It's good that time seems to go fast sometimes, cause that means the faster the baby will come and  the faster Joseph gets home. :)

Family Outing

Well, it's summer, and the lazy days are getting the better of us. Not entirely, but I'm having a hard time enforcing rules, like no TV until all chores are done. Wesley, have you practiced? 

He had. Well ok, but then the problem is that if he watches a movie, people that haven't finished their tasks start creeping in and soon everyone is sitting around watching movies they've already seen too many times. But I do admit, Wes, that it is cute to see Daniel having you sit on his lap.

I wasn't enforcing things much yesterday cause after I got off the computer I was busy figuring out outfits and doing hair. Everyone was ready just about on time, Mel was the slowpoke, she had a flute practice for a musical number on Sunday - she left for that at 4 and she still didn't know what she was going to wear. But she got home at 5, figured it out, and we were heading to the car at 5:30, on our way at 5:45. We got there a little late, like 7 minutes. But it was good and I hope it was a successful photo shoot. We took about half of the pics near the BYU Museum of Art, then headed across the parking lot to a fun little park where the kids got a little distracted by the ducks at he pond. Cute little baby ducks! They were super cute. After picture, the kids rolled down the hill and got their white tights dirty. Owen was chewing out Hyrum over something.

Well, what should we do now? They kids were troopers. We did the pictures at BYU so that we could wisk Ethan away from his Music camp and then let him return with as little time away as possible. 

So Eth missed out on the family dinner at Brick Oven, but he was able to make it back for the dance. Daniel's got his teddy bear. We waited for a table for 12.

We placed a big order. I can't remember the last time we all went out to eat at any restaurant besides the Chuck A Rama Buffet place. The kids struggled a little bit waiting to be served. We told them this is a step up from Chuck a Rama, this is more like a real restaurant. We just always go to Chuck a Rama cause it's easy. This was harder for us, this was the game "Dining out with kids -Level 2". I'm not sure we passed the level, but it was a good first go. When the lady delivered our 16 in pizza, it wasn't set right on the iron thing holding it up and the whole thing slid off of the pizza pan. We told them no worries, it was fine. Two pieces got the cheese messed up but it was still fine, but they said they'd go make us a new pizza. Corey again told them we're easy to please, don't worry about it, then instead they offered cookies for our table.

So that turned out to be a nice win cause those are some seriously good cookies (I make an exception from vegan morals now and then for chocolate or desserts, I'm a choco-vegan) Daniel enjoying pizza and garlic bread. Sophi ordered macaroni too

Hyrum got the pasta bar. Mel and I had soup and salad. The Tuscan Bean soup was very good! Everyone eating. Some of the kids were disappointed we weren't doing Chuck a Rama, but after eating they decided it was good, almost better. Sometimes it's better just to do something new or different for a change.

Some fun family conversation during the meal. Corey's comments always make me laugh.

We were there near the end of the work day, and one of the last groups to leave. Mel watched Natalie and Sophi walk on top of the parking curb stops. They're cute. When they were walking out I knew they wouldn't be able to resist.

Cute kids. That was a fun and memorable family outing, and just in time. We have a few days for a few more. Let's go have fun.

Mother's Day Moments

A funny moment from this morning - I had just gotten Owen and Daniel out of the tub. As I was trying to get Owen dressed, Daniel came over and got on top of him to give him a big hug.

It was cute, so I took a picture. They were jibber-jabbering something that I didn't understand, but they kept giggling and hugging. I thought it was an appropriate mother's day gift to me from these little boys - "Look Mom! Your children love each other!"

It was super cute so I started a quick video and then I got a pretty funny moment on camera.

In case you couldn't tell, the funny moment is around 33 seconds. They are pretty cute and funny little guys. At church Daniel and his little girl friend were holding hands again, he's just being affectionate to everyone today!

They're so cute!

After church, we went to Corey's brother's house for a Mother's Day bbq. I made some of this Purple Carrot Egg-less Salad (super delish!) and also brought some of these vegan sausages - Field Roast and Tofurky Italian sausage, both of which are very good and Hyrum and I quite enjoyed them. The kids played in their cousins' dress up clothes.

We have no idea what Natalie was, but she wore it with confidence.

Lily taught and then led the kids in singing "Mother Tell Me The Story" We had a good time visiting until reality brought us back - Wes heard from his cousin that he wasn't allowed to use non-Churchill people in his SBO skit for his campaign for Governor that is due tomorrow.... the video we recorded yesterday thus had 2 neighborhood kids who would/could disqualify him. Looks like he's gonna have to get up early and come up with a plan B!

Post Op

Joseph timed his wisdom tooth appointment really well. He was wiser than Mel by scheduling it after the term was over. It's also spring break for him now, so he has a few days without school to mend. With the bonus that he won't get behind on homework and doesn't have to be around friends with a swollen face. He went in for the extraction yesterday morning. Today at 10:45 he was done with the 24 hour evaluation or whatever and I picked him up. Poor guy, he looked a lot like Mel did a week ago.

But he seemed to be taking the unflattering look better than Mel did and came into the store with me and even went to the temple today. That pic is Joseph smiling by the way. It doesn't look like it cause his cheeks aren't working at the moment. And this is him smiling and blinking.

So we went to the store on the way home to get his prescriptions filled and while we waited for that we bought pudding, jello, and lots of ice cream. So this was really good timing on Joseph's part because the night before his appointment (Wednesday night) he was singing with the Skyline Madrigals for some famous people - it was a party celebrating Orrin Hatch's years of service - so Joseph and his friends got a pic with Orrin - 

And some other people that were at the party, like the Utah Governor and MITT ROMNEY! Isn't that fun! Joseph just hanging out at a party with his BFFs -

Mitt really would have been such a great President for this country. My worries and lamentation over his loss to Obama and Trumps election are not out of control right now. I don't worry about it. But I also haven't followed most of the new for over a year, except for a few things that might go viral on facebook or things that Corey tells me. And life goes on. After 8 years of Obama and a year of Trump and we are still united under the US flag, so that's good. 

Anyway, back to Joseph's teeth. He's doing good. My mother brought over pizza tonight for us and my sister and her kids that were hanging out at our house. Joseph decided to put a slice of pizza in the blender so he could partake of it's goodness, even with his inability to open his mouth wide or chew.

 

 It blended very well. Will it blend? Yes, pizza blends.

 Joseph was pretty excited and gets a bowl. His siblings are laughing and gagging at it. Hyrum, our vegan "Gross! Little Ceasars is already disgusting enough, but blending it?!?!" He opened the blender lid and shrugs off their comments as he matter of factly states - "Smells like pizza...." Mel laughed at Joseph's excitement.

Even Ethan was repulsed. That's just not right Joseph!

Getting the last of it out of the pitcher -

Moment of truth...

And he proclaimed it totally satisfactory, it was just what he was going for - pizza that he wouldn't have to chew. Day 1 of wisdom tooth post surgery done! Good job Joseph, looks like you're gonna make it through.

Anniversary Eve

We walked to church today cause the van is making bad sounds and I don't want to drive it anymore. The air was cool on the way there, but I just figured that would help me not break a sweat in my Sunday clothes. These were all the little people that were ready in time to walk, with time to spare.

The teenagers, as usual, were running late. Church was great, I subbed in the nursery. After church the kids took me into the Primary room so I could see the cute drawing that Natalie did.

Those are cute little people, Natalie! You're becoming quite the artist! That is really good for a 4 year old! Natalie was also excited to show us the snowman she made.

We started to walk home, but it was blowing crazy cold wind and the kids were freezing, luckily a neighbor offered to take them and I ran home with Daniel and Owen in the stroller. There's a storm blowing in! Time to hunker down for the night, it's nice that we have a holiday tomorrow. Tonight Corey and a few of the older kids got out Go For It - it's a family favorite.

I got this game in 6th grade for my birthday from Shannan Jackson. I didn't take it with me when on my mission or to college, nor did I take it or pack it away after we were married or through our various international moves... so I can only guess that it stayed at my parents house and they passed it on sometime in the past 5 years as they decluttered. The kids love it, it's been a fun game for them to play together. It was a special treat tonight for them to have Corey join in.

The game can get pretty intense.

While they played, I got some strawberry short cake ready for Sunday dessert, with a non-dairy vegan option for Hyrum and myself. I had a few thoughts of doing a fancy dinner or party for our anniversary (tomorrow) but the plans were mostly in my head and kinda vague. So we didn't do anything big tonight except for a strawberry shortcake dessert.

The little kids sat down and helped themselves to it without waiting for the older kids to finish their game.

We don't have anything planned tomorrow, and with the storm coming in maybe we won't get out at all. We need to get 4 wheel drive one of these years. I thought it would be fun to go up to the Blue Boar Inn for breakfast or lunch, we went there for our 1st anniversary. But the van is not working, the Fiesta is worthless in the snow, and Corey's car has been given to a friend to use for a while, so, we most likely don't have a way to get up there. It might just be a simple day at home. We'll see. We need Corey's business' ship to come in, we're struggling, he's spent, and I'm tired of it too. Just keep taking one day at a time.