Dentist

Today I took 4 kids to the dentist. They have not been to the dentist since 2020/covid, but I am diligent about their oral hygiene at home, and thus I am very pleased to report that we came out without having to get any cavities fixed. Owen had no cavities and got sealant put on his permanent teeth. He also has all 4 wisdom teeth! Daniel actually did have three cavities on three different molars, but the dentist said were small and they are all on baby molar teeth that Daniel should be loosing this next year. Owen has lost the same teeth that Daniel had cavities in, and Owen is just a year older than Daniel, so yeah those cavities will be taken care of that way. Daniel got sealant on his permanent teeth. This was the first time to the dentist for Peter and Katharine, and no cavities for them, yay yay. 

At first Katharine wasn't too excited about going, not that she knew what it was, so I don't know why she was hesitant. But she did great once we were there. The kids each took turns laying on the dentist table, and the boys went first and set a good example for Katharine, and she went last and hopped up  onto the table very willingly. 

Open wide little girl.

Daniel's seeing how the cleaning goes.

Watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on a tv on the ceiling. "Mom, I'm kinda cool!" she said when she saw this photo.

After all the cleaning and x-rays, the boys got sealant put on their teeth. Now it's Katharine's turn to watch.

Making sure I get a photo of everyone with their mouth open.

Cleaning was all done on the right chair there where Owen is, when they did the sealants they doubled up to be quicker.

Peter's the last one, almost done. 

Good job little kids, you made me proud.

Time to get a prize.

They gave each of the kids two coins and they got two little toys. Something funny - tonight at home, Abi was talking about how she needed to go work for my mom to earn some money for prom this weekend, and Katharine suggested she go to the dentist "They have gold money." The kids were also excited about new toothbrushes, toothpaste. and floss picks. Victory smiles as we went down the mirrored stairs back to the car.

I'd like to thank the diligent people at the kids current dental insurance for pestering me to get that done. I was going to do it, but they sure followed up a lot and put the pressure on, so it did happen sooner than it would have because of their help/pressure. Go team.

After the dentist appointments, Corey and I were planning to go for a ride, but then he said he wasn't  feeling great, so I went and he took a nap. I made sure the kids were all good and let the older kids know they were in charge. Cute Katharine was playing with her friend Becca, and they were both in their Elena of Avalor dresses. 

Two princesses. And Katharine drew this picture of both of their moms! That's me on the left and Becca's mom on the right. SO CUTE! Katharine, these are the first drawings you've done that I've seen! So good!!!

She was proud. Kids all taken care of, Corey laid down for a nap, and I went up the canyon at 5. I took a few photos so I can draw/paint our lovely granite canyon. 

I made bread for dinner. For FHE we were going to go play racquetball, but since Corey was sick I decided we'd just watch a comedy thing and play Flip 7, which I learned again how to play over the weekend with my sisters. But then Lily and Sophi went on a walk - Corey told them to be back at 8:10, they weren't back until after 9, so we read scriptures and now we're going to bed. I said we did enough last week that that can count for two FHE activities. Buenas noches.

Last Week

This past week was crazy busy and great. We went camping out in the middle of nowhere for Spring break with some friends. They did most of the work, we brought the party. I'll give the detailed recap later, I need to catch up for the past two weeks! But we drove down Monday, left around 2, picked up pizza for dinner in Green River, set up camp before dark and went to bed. Tuesday morning we hiked Three Canyon with the Gygis and Morgans. We were all going to go, but K threw up that morning, so Corey stayed back at camp with her. We were gone from noon until dark. It was really cool. I am going to do some art work someday of this spot where we did the rappel into the canyon. 

That was the first outdoor rappel I've done since I was a young tweenager at Brighton Girls camp. We were slow going cause we were a big crowd. 

Some parts were pretty sketchy and we all commented how we were glad that Katharine wasn't with us. We were scared enough for Peter and Daniel's safety. 

Wednesday we went to Moonshine Canyon. Very cool there. It was a bit more technical. We were all going to do that too, and as we went along we decided it was too much for the little kids, esp Katharine and their dog Chewy, so Corey and Abi stayed back with ODPK and I went ahead with Jill and her daughter Esti, and MLSN.

Cool slot canyon!

The last long hot walk in the sun at the end where we had to get back to the beginning of the wash was a bit brutal.

Good experience. Then Thursday we packed up and headed home, and I was going to go straight to a Hibbert Sister Retreat but instead I went to a dinner at BYU with Corey and Ethan and Bella, following a capstone presentation thing. We left the kids to unpack and got back at 9pm. I decided to wait until the next morning to go to the Hibbert thing after Corey and I were able to exercise. I came back from that late last night. Corey picked me up at 11, we ended up staying awake until 1. I woke up early to do the RS board and then get my hair ready and print up a few things for cause I was teaching the lesson in Relief Society (Elder Christofferson's talk "Look to God and Live"). I think the lesson went well, we had a good discussion on trial and chaos (Hebrew symbolism of water) and how we look to God for peace and refuge in our storms. I printed up little pictures of Jesus and had those passed around.

They also did a spotlight on me before the lesson, something that our ward does to help us all learn a little more about each other since our wards combined. So I stayed up late, got up early, and thus I after I got home, I crashed for several hours. Busy busy week, but great and memorable experiences! I'll give the details later, going to go back and blog it all day by day. Mel and Christian came by for a bit, but I was sleeping through most of their visit. Made sourdough. Took a loaf by to the Noble family who invited kids over to swim last night (tried two other families but they were gone (Kofoeds and Weavers) - Sophi was practicing driving while we tried to find someone who was home to receive a fresh out of the oven loaf of bread.) So it was bread for dinner, I'll go to the store tomorrow. K we stayed up late again - 11:20, Wes is in here talking. Hyrum is considering a last minute trip to Guatemala that Corey's friend Jeff threw out a few hours ago. K I'm going to try and go to bed.

DMV & Bluey

I've had a bit of a run around the past two days. Yesterday, Corey had told Lily he'd take her to the DMV. He was going to pick her up at 2, but then he really needed to get work done, so I headed out to do it cause I had a car. I left K at home with Abi. Turned out she was already there with Corey, but I was on my way, so we met half way at Cotton Bottom and I took Lily and he headed back to his dads. I was preparing a lecture about how I hate unexpected things... about I can do stuff like this but I like to have atleast 24 hours notice, so I was feeling a bit put out. She was crying though when she came in my car, she already got a slight lecture from Corey and felt bad, so I didn't say much. We got to the DMV and there we found out that she actually didn't have an appointment scheduled. We texted Corey to see if it was in his email, it wasn't, wasn't in mine or hers, so turns out she had no confirmation number, no appointment number, aaaand no appointment. So there went an hour of my day and after the lecture from Corey and a kinda bad attitude from me, we went back home. I gave myself a C- grade on my parenting and attitude. 

Lily rescheduled her DMV road test for today. I had a much better attitude (cause I had 24 hour notice). Corey stayed home so I was able to use his car (Abi had the van for Lyceum). I took her after he was done with a meeting. I took Lily to that one with K in tow. I was a bit tired and might have fallen asleep in the waiting room while she did her road test and K colored on my phone. Lily didn't pass her road test, so we get to come again AGAIN. The instructor said she needs to do more head checks. She also didn't do parallel parking well enough. They also said to take off the bike rack to make it easier for her. We aren't going to do that, so she'll just take the van next time. I think she rescheulded it for tomorrow morning. I'm going to let Corey do that one.

I did not take any photos yesterday or today! I did watch Bluey with Katharine for a bit. She likes the easter episode, I like Sleepytime. It made me cry yesterday and again today. 

It is visually beautiful, it is so cute and funny and relatable: the kids scaring you from your sleep, kids kicking you, the way Bluey asks "Dad will you sing to me?" Bandit sleeping with underwear as a blanket, haha, and I love the music on it - Jupiter Bringer of Jollity, esp the music at 2:54. Yeah, the music definitely is what gets me. I'll sit with Katharine and snuggle her, my little baby chick, and have thoughts of how I don't want to let go of having my own little ones here in my home. I'm glad I already have grandkids and hopefully we'll be able to spend more time with them. But yeah, I already miss my babies. K is still little, I'll soak it up while I can. My sister shared this video today on longevity. "The Longevity Lie No One talks about" - really good. I plan to live past 100 and I want to stay young for Katharine, I'll be 64 when she graduates high school! I don't want to just say alive, I want to stay healthy. I'll do it for myself and for my kids and grandkids.

Palm Sunday

Mel and Christian came up for church today. Melodie and Abi did a flute duet with one of the musical numbers at church - My Shephard Will Supply My Need (one of my favorites!) the flute really added a special touch. It was a special Easter service today for Palm Sunday, and cause we will not be meeting with our congregations next Sunday because it will be General Conference. 

Corey and I went to visit with some neighbors, Jill and Craig, who invited us to join them on a spring break adventure. We're going to go down to Green River area and camp and hike Three Canyon and Moonshine Canyon! It is going to be really great. At first we were thinking we'd just take ALSN and maybe Owen with us, when they were thinking Three Canyon or Dark Canyon (Dark canyon is harder and further away) but we decided on Three Canyon for this first adventure together, and they said they think little kids could do it to so we're going to take all the kids! Should be fun!

Hyrum and Wes and Lauren were on their way back up to Idaho, after spending the weekend in St. George, and they came by for dinner around 4pm. Katharine helped Corey make tapioca pudding, which is one of Corey's favorites to feed a crowd with. 

Such a big helper, Katharine! Corey made a boatload of potatoes yesterday in preparation for his starving college kids coming over for dinner today. That was nice of him. I made a big Greek salad, and sourdough of course, and Corey also got some beef yesterday. We got it all ready...

Unfortunately, Corey put his soy milk yogurt in the potatoes, which he's done before and it's usually ok. But this time, he heated it up on the stove and it must have cooked the soy or something cause it made the potatoes taste very sour with a hint of cheesy taste to it. It was too much for the kids and no one took second helpings, and most couldn't/wouldn't finish their first, so basically this whole silver Ikea bowl of 12 pounds of potatoes was wasted and thrown out. Kinda sad.

But there was plenty of bread! So good news is that no one went hungry. Ethan and Bella came up and we saved some meat, salad, and roasted veggies for them. After dinner, we all went to JeNeal's graveside. Today is her birthday. It was also very appropriate for the Easter season, because we all firmly believe in the resurrection of Christ. Christ overcame death and hell, and because he did, we all will as well! That is his gift to us - life and salvation. 

Life and death. Little ones born into our families, like our little Alvie...

...and older generations going on ahead. But they will be ready to meet us and welcome us when it is our turn to pass on. 

Racquetball

Ahh, we're at the end of another busy day! We had soccer all morning, and didn't get out to exercise until around 4:30 Corey left for a ride, and I wanted to go for a ride, but I also wanted to swim, cause I think it is really helping my left shoulder! But swimming closed at 6... so Corey left but I went swimming, and I figured if I still wanted to go on a ride after that, that I would still have time before it got dark. Well, then I decided not to go on a ride, and instead I took ODPK to play racquetball! They loved it.

That was also a win-win cause I got the kids out of Corey's hair for a little bit so he could work. I taught Owen the basics of the game and he likes it! So he and I tried to play a game. 

With the interruptions every few minutes by the littles - coming over telling us they wanted to show us something they did with the ball, or telling us so and so hit me in the head, etc etc.

But ya can hardly go wrong with kids with balls in a big room!

It's just the racquet part that is dangerous! So that was fun. The boys got all their sports in today - I took all three of them to their soccer games earlier this morning while Corey had the girls get to work with house chores. How did I do that with one car when kids had games at the same time at two different fields, you might wonder? Well, I dropped off D and O at 10, D's game was at 10:15. Then I drove Peter to Flat iron for his game. I stayed with Peter. The Real Salt Lake mascot, some lion, came and interrupted the end of the game... He just walked on and started playing for the other team, who was already beating us. Kinda funny, kinda weird. Kids were ok with it since they were already losing.

Then after Peter's game, we went straight back to Lone Peak Park to catch the last half plus of Owen's game. And then I was feeling like a softy afterwards and I went and got them ice cream (and myself sushi) at Macey's afterwards. I shared most of the sushi, and they each gave me a tax of ice cream. 

When we got home, I cooked up some of the dough I made last night. I almost figured out the oven. This one was a little over toasted, but it was presentable. I'm back in business.

Yaaayyy. I was pleased to see the girls had done a ton of stuff on the list I left. They cleaned the fridge out and the pantry, filled up the garbage can with pine needles (a little too full unfortunately, I'm not sure I'll be able to take any more to it until it's emptied on Wednesday...) Oh, before that, first thing this morning actually, Katharine came downstairs and asked to go to the store. At the Easter Egg Hunt yesterday, some of the eggs were filled with $2 bills! Katharine got one of those and this morning she asked if she could go to the store to buy a treat with her money. I needed to go get treats for Owen's soccer game, so that worked. We hurried down to Smiths, she got these macaroon looking sucker cookie pops and was very pleased with her purchase.

Good job Kat. You are a smart shopper. It is pink, it's pretty, and it had a $2 in the price ($2.49) so you win.

New Oven & Easter Egg Hunt

The New oven is here!

And a final goodbye to the old oven that served us so well for these many years. I took a pic to remember it by. 

I'll be honest, that is not an accurate pic (as you probably guessed). This is more what it usually looked like, lol. With a big ol' mess all around it. Yes, I took this pic first - 

Then I cleaned it up and then took that second pic, pretending it lived a respectable life like that. I tried to take care of it, but it did get worked to death. The new oven was scheduled to be delivered between 9-11. I was trying to clean up under the oven drawer when they arrived. He said "Let me get that one out of the way, then it will be easier to clean up under it." He pulled it out, and I guess I never knew that was an option. I have cleaned under the fridge, but never the oven. It was naaaasty. Look at the side of the oven there - yeah. 

Gunk like that all caked on the sides and edges, lots of dust and legos and small toys, dice, mancala pieces, marbles, a baby spoon, beads, dirt, crumbs, etc etc yech. I did a very quick and good sweep, then I scrubbed it down real fast while they were hauling that one out and I had it cleaned before they brought the new one in. We still need to get ride of and replace the non-working vent above it. We haven't used the vent so what if we just don't have one? I can put a magnetic knife thing above it instead? Corey said he and his dad will get that changed out. I'll give them until the end of the school year. If it's still here come summer, I might take a crack at it. Wesley came home last night - he and Hyrum are on their way to St. George with Ethan and Bella & Alvie and Mel and Christian for some fun college kids activity. Wes headed out this afternoon. He drove Hyrum's car and left today after Lauren got to Provo, so he gave her a ride in Hyrum's car, Hyrum went with Mel and Christian. It was fun to have him around for a bit this morning. He rode a bike to school with Peter ~

And then also went to see Daniel's School House Rock performance for the school at 9:30 today. So nice of him to go. Abi had a B day again, so she was around. For her mission, she still needs to get her wisdom teeth out, and since she has all 4 she can get paid to do it via a study (like Joseph and Mel did) and she got a call today to participate in a study with a few conditions: it would involve her staying at their facility to be monitored for 3 days, they would compensate her $2500 freaking dollars, BUT, she'd have to have her blood drawn like 15-20 times in that process, which made Abi be like, uhhhh, no....

$2500 dollars??? That's not worth it? You can't face for fears for over two thousand dollars? I know that when you come home from your mission, you'll really be wishing you had that! But she's leaning towards a hard no. But she said she'll call them back on Monday. We'll see if Corey's able to convince her otherwise. 

After the littles were home, the kids went over to the usual yards for the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Owen is ready for this party to start.

Group pic!

And then they took off. They found their 12 eggs, and smiled for the camera.

Peter had gathered two orange glittery eggs and Katharine thought they were so pretty, but Peter wouldn't trade. That was a little sad. But K had opened her 12 and was ok with it. Then she saw her friend Becca who had two very pretty pink glittery eggs. Katharine told her she liked her pretty egg, and then she grabbed one and gave it to Katharine without a second thought. 

She is a true friend, and I guess Peter is a true sibling! That was at 3, and then at 4 I took K to the school park to play with a girl named Sunny that Abi and Katharine had met on another occasion when Abi took the kids to the park. And then I got a text that there was another Easter Egg Hunt at the community park - Owen's friend invited him to go. So that was at 5 - I hurried home with the car at 4:50 so Abi could take the kids to that. The kids were playing with neighbors, so the neighbors all got in the car to go too. I hadn't heard about a community thing going on with that, but they had my blessing to go, and if there wasn't anything happening, they could just play at the park for a bit or whatever. Abi said there was a hunt, and it actually looked like it was a ward party for some other ward - she saw some neighbors from our ward before the split, so she thinks it was their ward. But they had people there to mingle with, so they stayed and had cupcakes and had fun. 

It was a good candy day for the little people. Corey and I went on a date to Bandits, then played 18 min of racquetball, and that was all I did for exercise today. It was a full and busy day, the end of a full week and a lot of fun. 

Daniel's School House Rock

Today was Daniel's "School House Rock" program. Mel, Abi, Katharine and I get points for going to see it. 

Sophi and Natalie should get points too, cause they wanted to be there. They wanted me to check them out of school to come see it, but I didn't want to go through that effort. So that's on me. (I'm guessing they just wanted to get out of school). Daniel was a great little singer and performer! We got a good view of him when he performed on stage. 

We sat on the opposite side of the room from where he was sitting with his class, but that's ok. He saw us and smiled at us a few times from the across the gym. Cute kid!

Katharine was on a screen but we'll still give her points for coming! Mel gets the most points cause she drove up from Lehi.

Yesterday, when I let the college kids know about Daniel's program in case they wanted to attend, Hyrum brought it to our attention that no one went to his play in 3rd grade. I had to look at the blog for verification. It took me a minute to figure out what year that was. Thankfully I documented his 3rd grade wax museum, which gave us the year 2012. Looks like the record is sparce, aka I didn't blog every detail of every day at that time. I clicked around Mar - May 2012 but found no mention of his School House Rock play. Hmm. Wesley's was mentioned here but no pics - and here are the other kids after that: Abi 2017, Lily 2018, no Sophi (covid), Natalie 2022, Owen 2024, and now Daniel. Joseph and Mel didn't do it. If they did it when Ethan was in 3rd, I was unaware cause we were in Chile. Perhaps Hyrum was the first year that Granite did it? or it was atleast the first time my kids participated in that. So in my defense, if I did miss it, maybe it was our first School House Rock and I didn't know that it was a big deal. I swear I've always gone to those things. If I know about them, I'm there. Maybe I missed the memo. I'm sorry Hyrum, I failed you. Then he jokingly said no one should go to Daniel's, cause it's good for character development, followed with the comment: "Elementary school in general had me like this"

I thought that was hilarious, he's so funny. 

So Daniel's performance was at 2:30 this afternoon. This morning, before all that, Corey and I took advantage of Abi's B day schedule (seminary at 9)went to the gym. I did upper body, then did laps for 30 min, then sauna for 20. We got home to say by to the boys, Corey got ready for work, and then he dropped K and I off at the rec center to swim. It's open 10:30 - 12 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She basically had the whole place to herself. I got in the water with her, cause kids under 5 years old have to "be within arms reach of an adult at all times"

So I just followed her around and around. I didn't mind her getting my hair wet cause it was still wet from my doing laps this morning. So Corey dropped us off on his way out, and Abi picked us up on her way back and took that pic of K. Then we went to Walmart to get Easter eggs for the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt tomorrow. We have to drop those off today - 12 eggs for each elementary kid and younger, so Owen Daniel Peter and Katharine. Kat and Abi got those ready, and helped themselves to a few of the extra treats in the process. 

Then soccer practices tonight and helping Daniel and Peter finish their homework that is due on Fridays. Went to see a neighbor open his mission call tonight, going to El Salvador! His sister just got back from Argentina yesterday, so lots of mission stuff going on for them. I took over a loaf of sourdough when we went over. Trying to figure it out with the new oven, the loaf look presentable enough that I was ok to gift it.