Katharine is 4!

Today is Katharine's birthday!! 

She has been looking forward to this for a long time! She's been patiently waiting and asking for weeks "How come birthdays take sooo long?!?!" It's finally here! Abi was gone in Brazil last year on Katharine's birthday, so she wanted to make this one extra special. Abi stayed up last night making cupcakes and decorating the hotel room. We had to get up early to make it down to church on time, so we woke Katharine up by singing to her (little video here). 

She came out of her room and saw the pink streamers that Abi had set up - 

And gifts on the table. I brought up the gift bags and tissue paper. I got her a few dresses ~

Corey took this pic of her opening gifts while we looked on.

It was mostly dresses from us and one Little People toy of Moana and Maui

Abi got her a princess crown and jewelry and a Rapunzel doll. 

Time to choose the dress of the day - So many choices!

And Elsa is the winner!

Happy birthday Princess Katharine! Yes, I let her wear the crown to church. We sang to her again - 

And the kids all ate pink cupcakes for breakfast. 

Katharine played for a minute while the rest of us got ready to head home.

Everyone else's Sunday clothes were back at home. We went home (oh, I broke Corey's drivers side rear view mirror as I pulled out his car from the parking garage. I didn't see the cement pole and it bent the mirror the wrong way and it shattered, doh! Corey said his car is begging for repairs - new AC, cracked windshield, broken window wipers, now this...)

I'm kicking myself that I wasn't paying attention and didn't check my left side. I might have been distracted making sure I didn't touch the car on my right, but it was a dumb mistake. We left at 8, got home by 9, and everyone got dressed for church. At church her friends in the Primary sang to her again. After church, my mom and dad came over to bring Katharine some presents. 

Happy Birthday to Grandma Hibbert too!

Back up at Park City - we went for a family stroll. It's fun being at the Summit Watch and having the city walkways and the Poison creek 50 feet from our hotel door.

Corey and I went on a walk and I loved looking in the Mountain Trails art gallery - love love loved it. Melodie and Christian and Ethan Bella and Alvie came up for the night to celebrate Katharine's birthday with us. 

Natalie made some brownies so we had brownies and ice cream for dessert tonight. Lots of sugary treats for this SWEET little girl!! 

Katharine we love you so much! 

We've had four wonderful years with this angel. A few Katharine memories: 

• Her birth day
• Blowing raspberries
• Starting to walk 2023
• Learning to ski 2024
• She likes roller coasters

She's just adorable. Love her so much, happy birthday to our beautiful princess Katharine!

Graduation!

Happy Graduation day to Abi!! 

She got some graduation photos taken yesterday with all her girlfriends. 

And this morning she got a few more taken before the graduation ceremony. Here with cousin Alix -

Wearing their cash leis from Grandpa Wayne, which actually came in handy and made Abi easier to spot on the floor. 

Another pic with her friends before walking in to the Huntsman Center.

And as they were walking in...

And after they were in.

So the ceremony was about what they always are. Wesley kept me laughing during the 3 minute speeches. At first he tried to be the last one to finish clapping each time the audience clapped for something, thus he'd just have to do one random clap at the very very end to be sure he got the last. He and Lily tried clapping sharing hands (his right hand clapping with her left) And also clapping as fast as he could. He was making Lily and I laugh - 

One of the administration said "Go Eags" and maybe he was trying for a "Go Cougs" thing, but it sounded weird. Corey said "it’s not that hard to say eagles..." Finally, time for the presentation of the diplomas.  Corey "The presentation of the diplomas is literally NOT the presentation of the diplomas" they did have it down to what seemed like a very efficient and quick system. The kids all moved along quickly and smoothly. Abi with the white triangles on her back shoulders.

People had a ton of cords and leis. When we were in high school, there were two cords - white and yellow, one was for citizenship and I can't remember what the other one was for, but there are cords of every color now for any little thing. Abi had maybe a dozen around her neck. Plus candy necklaces, flowers, money - people were all literally wearing whatever they want around their necks. So as we sat and listened to 600 names of graduates, we started to think and decided that we are going to make a family wreath or necklace that all the future graduates have to wear at graduation. It will be part of our culture. Some ideas of what to have on it: Wesley wants glow sticks, I want granite rocks, maybe a photo of each sibling? Something big and obnoxious haha. Well, after the ceremony, they moved their tassels from the right to the left, and we were done. As part of the efficient system, Jostens has people turn in their robes right away. So photos afterwards were just cords and leis and candy.

Getting a photo with Wayne. Mel and Wes came to support their sister.

Lily was there to pass out the programs as part of her SBO duties.

Our other graduates from years past: Joseph, Melodie, Ethan, Hyrum, and Wesley

Then, per Abi's request, we went out to eat at Chuck a Rama. 

I did not eat, as I was on day 4 of my water fast and was feeling good and wanted to keep going. I promised them I was not going to eat and they were nice and let me sit down with the family. Sophi and Natalie stayed home with Katharine today. I got the boys off to school this morning after a short walk for exercise, and I didn't get any pictures of the fire truck or the 5th grade clap out, but that's ok. You do what you can. Thankfully we've got awesome neighbors and they captured Owen and Daniel at the bus stop this morning...

(Peter in the spider man jacket) and after getting sprayed by the fire truck.  

Corey worked late tonight and then worked more after we got home. We went out on a date but since I was still fasting we didn't go to eat. Corey wanted to go out to a virtual golf place but it was closed (says it's open 24 hours but I think that's for members that have the code) so then we came back home. I felt great this morning but am feeling pretty weak now, I might end it tomorrow morning with some sardines (to stay in ketosis?) but I think if I eat I'll start to eat, so we'll see. But I'm heading to bed now with Corey's blessing. He's going to stay up and wait for the girls who are out with friends. Abi has lots of graduation parties and then is sleeping over at Tara's. 

Little Twins

After the boys left for school, Scarlett came over to play - look at these cute little twins!

They played so sweetly and I got lots of stuff done. 

I have stayed up muy late to make a kinder bueno necklace for Abi for graduation tomorrow. I just gave it to her. She's still awake, curling her hair. She's taking carpool for me in the morning for one last time and then she heads up to the Huntsman center for graduation. I don't think that I'll see her until after she walks, so yeah I decided to give it to her now. This is the first time I've done something thoughtful for any of my graduates. (Sorry Joseph Mel Ethan Hyrum and Wesley!) Without JeNeal here, I have to be the thoughtful one! I'm trying to do better, thus this attempt. Eventhough it's so late, I want to do a quick outline of today - 

Today is day 3 of my first annual summer reset water fast. I enjoy not taking time to eat cause I am very productive in other areas. Today I worked hard in the basement and garage. I moved the skis from the basement to the garage, moved art/photo frames, donated stuff Kid 2 Kid and the DI, and ran to Walmart to get stuff for Katharine‘s birthday and Abi‘s graduation. Katharine came with me. On the way home I stopped by Macey's to get ice cream and I didn't ask for a bite this time. She ate it while I was at Home Depot, looking at rosebushes. They had some that I liked, like Canyon Rose, but not the pink and yellow ones I love, which I think are called the Peace Rose (and National Peace Rose Day is April 29, the day after my birthday! Yep, these are my roses. I shall keep looking at nurseries or I'll order some online. I'm going to plant lots of these roses on the east side of our house, yay. 

So Day 3 of a water fast is done and I'm feeling really good and in the zone. For exercise I just went on a walk this morning. Had a meeting at 7pm tonight at my parent's house. We Utah siblings are going to go out to breakfast on Saturday morning with my folks for Mom's birthday (on Sunday, but we'll be in Park City). I'm going to let Katharine come too. 

Wes and Owen came back from Idaho today. I picked them up from the frontrunner train. Owen had fun. At scriptures tonight they shared with us more photos of their big event last night ~

They assured us that it was sick (aka super cool). The teenage girls aren't so sure they know what cool is, haha. Tonight Wes shared the time lapse video with us that they showed last night. Kinda nerdy, but kinda fun. Ok, goodnight, graduation at 10am tomorrow and last day of school for the boys. Summer vacation is almost here, we made it! 

Owen in Idaho

Owen is having fun in Idaho. Hyrum took him around the Rexburg campus today. 

Owen might be a future BYU Cougar.

They went to Yellowstone on Monday, and have been having fun since then doing other college things, like making a lego set. They had some big "event" tonight that we joined in over zoom. The event was to unveil their ship and to have a ceremony for the final piece placement on the Lego Venator Class Republic Attack Cruiser. 

They were handing out this invitations to everyone and anyone, like even the person at the copy place that printed the flyer for them. They said they had 40 people there. 

I joined by zoom (I was a little late), along with Abi and her friends, we couldn't hear well and didn't really get what was going on...

They said there was at time laps video but that's about when we left - we had to get kids to bed. But Hyrum filled us in on Wride Nation saying that Owen placed the final piece to a round of applause. Now it is proudly displayed in the front room of Apartment 109. They really like how cool it looks with the lights on the ship!

Natalie on her jr high instagram page - they had a petting zoo.

Bulk clean up was hauled away this morning. We got 5 more bags out before they came. Total was 33! Wow. Grant and Stephanie called today and shared an idea that I liked - Grant is coming out for Neil's son's wedding next week (June 6) and Edmund is coming with him, and Edmund is going to stay with us for a month until they come back out July 4th for some family reunions. That will be fun! The boys are excited to have cousin Edmund here. 

And last pics for today are when I went on a wander hike along the creek this afternoon. I brought a pen and paper and wrote down ideas for my summer chore system. And I dug up and brought back 3 baby trees and planted them in the back yard, hehe. I loved being in the mountains. I was on the south side of the creek.

Heaven. 

then to the gym for sauna and swim. Thanks to Abi for watching Katharine for me. 

Ready for Bulk Clean Up

The bulk clean up was supposed to come today, but it didn't, so we worked this evening bagging more needles and getting up as much as we could. 

Sadly I did not have Wes here to help. Corey, Sophi and Natalie came through for me. We got a lot put out there! Tonight we worked more. 

The little boys weren't much help - they kept getting distracted by the sports balls and/or the snails and rollie pollies

(Daniel's was BLUE!)

So I was chopping down Chinese elms this evening with my new axe that I got yesterday yay... 

Corey snapped that pic of me in my new happy place as he took the kids swimming. It's a lot of work! (They said the pool was very crowded.) I got a few cleared out from the playground area in the back yard and started to haul them into the front yard. I started grabbing other loose branches from here and there, and that is when I discovered my "would have been blooming so beautifully so soon" rose bushes that Wesley cut out on May 12th, exactly two weeks ago. 

All dried up, dead, their beautiful potential - gone. Such strong branches but there's no life in them. I was mourning them all over again as I drug them out one by one to the street. SOO SAD and pointless!!! Ahhh, I wish I could go back in time. 

When Katharine woke up this morning she straight away asked me if she could go to Bella's house, cause last night at Alvie's party she asked if she could, and I said something to the effect of "not today, but later you can" and this morning was "later" so she wanted to go to Bella's. I said I didn't have a car. She was sad and started to whine that she really wants to go to Bella's! I send her a text asking if we could do a facetime today and that appeased Katharine to do a call. Then I thought I'd text the same thing to Eliza. She and Joseph were on our mind because today Joseph took his big deal Step 1 test. I was at the temple in the celestial room praying for him when he was just beginning it (5:30 am Utah time, 7:30 Ohio). Yesterday we chatted with Joseph, he said his test started at 7 and was like a 7 hour test, woo! So today it was time for us to really try and consecrate our prayers. So I texted Eliza to see if Mary was available, and she had just woken up from a nap, yay so Katharine was able to talk to Mary. "Awww! Mary is so cute!" 

I haven't been very happy with my sourdough lately - it's been too flat. I "researched" on youtube for a bit. This one lady said to get like 2 Tbsp of starter and then do a 1:5:5 ratio of flour and water, wait for that to activate, and then make your bread from that. Lily and I usually feed our starter after we make bread, so this would be a new approach. Hmmm, I think I'll try it. I'm still figuring it out.

I did have a ok loaf that I gave to a lady that Kathy and I went to visit for Relief Society today. We stayed there for 2 hours yaking it up! It was fun. We talked about everything under the sun, including fasting. The lady we visited, Kim, gave me some LMNT Electrolytes and said she takes them when she fasts, and that a 7 day fast every year will guarantee you don't die from cancer (according to one guy she listens to). I hadn't eaten yet that day, and so with the electrolytes she gave me in hand, I decided I'd start now. So I did a water fast all day today and it's been a good day!

Owen is playing legos up in Idaho and having fun

They are building a big lego set and watching star wars and playing star wars battlefront.

Last sad news: Natalie's phone is broken again. She got it repaired on May 8th after months of not having it, and it lived for a little over 2 weeks. Somehow she needs to learn to be more careful with it. It had cracks all over the screen again. We paid half last time, I don't know if we're giving her that deal again.