New Bop

I haven't had to take the kids to band in American Fork very much the past year, thank you mostly to Joseph being able to drive himself down there 3 times a week, which are also the days Hyrum and Ethan have band. I take Ethan down for his lesson with Ray on Thursdays and the past few Mondays I have been helping out with taking Wes to New Bop too. It's nice cause it gives me a good chance to go to Costco. I take Owen and Daniel so Corey can get work done and it's great cause the Lehi Costco isn't as crazy busy as the ones here in the valley close to us.

So, Wesley is playing the trumpet in New Bop. Can you tell which one is him?

(hint - he's not really visible in the picture above!) Yes, that's right, Wes is the little kid in a purple shirt hidden behind his music stand. Cute little 6th grader. Not sure what grade those other kids are, but New Bop is for kids in 6th - 9th. That picture is another one from Corey's phone that I thought I posted a few months ago. :)

Corey's Phone

So, I just found this post I started in November but never published. Life is like that sometimes... So, I had asked Corey to send me some photos he had on his phone documenting moments of life that he had caught. Such as Sophi the Unicorn...

And Sophi the Spider-girl

This was from a day when Corey left at the same time the kids were going to school. Lily was a little behind the kids walking to the bus, so Corey offered to give her a ride. But she didn't want a ride to the bus stop, she wanted a ride all the way to school. Well, kids who had to walk to school were probably just getting ready to leave their homes, we can gather since kids were still waiting at bus stops, so no kids were at the school yet, but Lily knew where to do and what to do. Go stand in line.

She waited dutifully. Pretty exciting to be first in line!! Oh, and here's the picture of when we went to the Lyceum concert the weekend before Daniel was born. (Nathan Pacheco was amazing.)

But that's not Nathan Pacheco in the pic - it's the Lyceum conductor Kayson Brown. And, two days after the concert, we were in the hospital where this little guy was born. Oh little Daniel, you're growing so fast.

He's almost 5 months now. I'm trying to savor every moment of his chubbiness and smells as I can, but I can feel the time flying away from me. Corey took the kids to a play place, I'm guessing?

Owen you're a cutie. Joseph at a Voodoo concert?

Soloing...

And a concert for Melodie too. Don't know what concert, it's getting to be too much for me to keep track of! I hope they are writing in their journals. Perhaps I shall help them each begin a blog.

Someday when I have time on my hands (ha) I'm thinking I'll scan in my scrapbook pages that I ceased working on 10 years ago and upload those somewhere, will also take pictures of their kid artwork and stuff and put it all on a blog or in a book. I plan on starting a mission blog for Joseph next year (will be here before we know it!) - where I can put his letters and our letters maybe. Someday I'm also going to digitize all the letters and photos from our missions. Lots to do, it's fun. I just need to set some goals and get started doing a little bit at a time. 

King John

Wesley spent a few hours working in homework today over at Corey's parent's house. He had to go over there to use Grandma's ipad app iMovies. The kids love making movies on it. So Wesley decided to make a movie as his enrichment project for social studies. He told made a video about King John of England, you know, of Robin Hood fame. Here is Wesley as King John.

They had a good time. I called the evening quits before they were done editing the movie. Cause "5 minutes" kept turning into 15 minutes and it was time to get back home. But a big thank you to Corey's parents for always being there for us and the kids. I told Wes we'll go over to give him time to edit it before it's due.

Update: Wesley went over and finished editing it yesterday/Tues, but we couldn't figure out how to upload it from the ipad, so I took a video of it on my phone and then we uploaded that. Good enough, good job Wes,

Blankie Man

This is Owen. He loves his binky and his blankets.

Muslin blankets to be precise. He likes to gather them up in his arms - so he doesn't trip over them and because they are just o-so swaddly and comfy.

Owen is just our little snuggle bug. Last night I took Ethan to his saxophone lesson with Ray Smith down in Utah County. I did what I usually do while I wait for band or lessons to be done - I went to Costco. With our family, everyday is a good day to stock up on food and toilet paper. Owen and his blanket and Daniel went with me.

I see Daniel's little eyes! And Owen, you're just a cutie. He's toddler level 2 at home, but out in public he's shy and quiet, so that is good. He doesn't make a fuss for me to buy anything so Owen, you are still invited to come shopping with me. He's blankie man.

I also love his little snow boots!

Fun fact - Ray doesn't live too far from the basement apartment that Corey and I lived in after we got married - We were just there for a few months, but that is where we lived when our life together began, so it's fun. I snapped this picture of it.

The basement apartment had an entrance on the right side here with the light, that was our home sweet home.

Good times. The house looked a little run down from what I remember, and then I realized that it has been 18 years... so I guess some wear and tear should be evident. 18 years! We're coming up on our 18 year anniversary in a few more weeks, crazy!

Electrician

When we moved into this home almost 6 years ago, there have been some wires poking out of the ceiling above the kitchen sink, and a black circle around them - making it appear there was a little poof of smoke from a fire that broke the light and blew the fuse or whatever might have happened there. Well, after calling for an electrician last week for our "we can't survive without a microwave and toaster" emergency, I scheduled for him to come to fix that light and the outlets by it which also haven't been working and to also fix the light in Hyrum and Wesley's room, which has been out for atleast 2 months. So Mr. Paulsen texted me last night that he'd come around 10.

He arrived, took a look, ran to Home Depot and bought stuff, came back, and around 11:30 he's all done and everything is fixed and we have a cute little light above the sink and I'm just pleased as punch. I'm actually looking forward to doing dishes at night, and giving kids the impression that it's time to go to bed by having the bright kitchen lights off and just my little sink light on.

Plus I'm excited cause I'll never need to save any of those mail flyers coupons for electricians again. Mr. Paulsen gave us a screamin' deal, He first said $75 which was basically just for what he had spent on the supplies. I laughed cause mentally I had already prepped myself for plumber charges - aka $400 bucks for an easy job. I insisted we pay him more "What about labor?" We settled on $120 which was a great deal. So, I wish he was a plumber. Perhaps I'll throw out a search for recommendations on facebook for that next time. I shall be calling him again next time we have electrical needs, I am feeling very grateful! If you're in the valley and want his number, send me a message.

I spent a bit of the rest of the day changing light bulbs. But we don't have a ladder to reach the burned out bulbs on the chandelier. Thus we again did our dangerous let's put a tall barstool on top of a bench move and Ethan said he would do it cause he's "so much taller" than me. As he was taking out one bulb, the whole glass fixture around the light came loose - the glass was off the metal base. Ethan gave up after exhausting his arms and then Corey gave it a go per my request. He couldn't see it and couldn't figure it out just by feeling it, so I texted a neighbor to see if we could borrow their ladder. Different neighbor from last time. (February's household goal: buy a ladder). With the ladder I spent a good 15 mintues and finally go it on well enough that it is now balanced and as long as no one bumps or touches it, it should stay on. So no more chandelier decorations. While I was up there, I got the hose vacuum and cleaned out the dead bugs and dusted the lights. Then I wiped the wall up there, then washed the window, and just kept cleaning all night tonight. When you're on a ladder, a whole new world of things that need to be cleaned just opens up to you! So, looks good now! I'm going to do a bit more tomorrow before I return the ladder. The kids loved the ladder and climbed up a few times as we waited for everyone to gather for scriptures. It's just so exciting to get up so high! They can't resist climbing on it. Owen is climbing, but he's not ready for that level of skill yet.

Toddler Level Two

We've all been pretty excited to see Owen holding a pencil. He's so careful as he tries to draw on paper... Let me put this crayon in my hand just right... almost got it...

 You can see that he's been getting some practice using his legs as his canvas.

Yes, it's so cute! But... then I remember - I shouldn't be excited about this. He's figured out how to DRAW! As in "You better hurry and hide all those markers the girls got for Christmas OR you better stock up on Magic Erasers, cause the 18 month old is about to step it up a notch.

This little man has been saving up his energy the past year, being all sweet and "Oh, all I want is my blanket and my binki and for you to hold me!" No more - Owen is in the markers. So those are downstairs now. Crayons aren't downstairs yet, I'm working on finding all of those. Pencils we will leave on the main floor, those are easy enough to clean up, but hope the volume of drawn on surfaces doesn't overtake me.

But yes, I do believe toddler level II is upon me.

Level II also includes 1) turning the gas on the stove top (we've had to remove all the notches and keep them up behind the stove, only to be placed on during cooking) 2) getting into the previously unnoticed bottles and containers of stuff under the kitchen and bathroom sinks and making a mess with them. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to open the Listerine, but he did enjoy some bubble gum toothpaste yesterday and also poured out soft scrub onto the kitchen floor. It's all right, I needed to mop anyway. and 3) climbing. Owen's been climbing the past week - climbing up to the computers and keyboards and onto the table - I've got to start to remember to push in chairs and benches. The other day he had almost pushed the monitor onto the floor as he made room for himself to sit by the computer. Crayons and Markers - pick them up and hide them. Chairs and benches - push them all the way in under the table! We'll see if we can keep up with this little guy.

Wesley's Drone

A few weeks ago, Wesley spent 2 days being our personal slave and earned a buck an hour (I think?) and earned enough to order a little drone on ebay. He's been anxiously watching the mailbox since. It FINALLY came in mail yesterday.

 Wes wanted to show you how it fits so cutely into it's hand control, isn't that cute?

He's really excited. Just a matter of time before this one is busted too. We've bought so many remote controlled things over the years, kinda sad that they don't last. What have we learned about this little drone so far? The main things is don't let it near your hair! They keep getting hair twisted around the propellers, probably just by it falling on the carpet for a sec, since we have a few heads of girls' hair that is always falling out. One time Abi was chasing it and it got in her hair, I had to cut some of her hair out it was so twisted. It's a very tiny little drone. You can't catch it like we do the Millenium Falcon - this little one will knick your fingers hard, it stings! Today I think Mel was flying it when it landed in a bowl of water in the sink. They put it under the blow dryer so hopefully it's okay. Here's hoping it lasts more than a week! And I'm sure Wes will be getting another one when his birthday comes 'round in June. :)

Silly Sophi

Sophi has said some pretty cute things lately. First one - last week I was rocking Daniel and he was looking over my shoulder to her doting sister Sophi. She was talking to him in baby talk, saying how cute he is and such. Then Sophi continued "And you came to da Earth! And Jesus do all the hard stuff! And we do the easy stuff!!!" I was laughing, and wondering what she was thinking, I said "Sophi, what is the hard stuff?" She quickly replied "Make the earth... make the bodies..." Later when I was telling the kids about it, we asked her more questions: "What is the easy stuff?" "Make Top Ramen, make a cake." Who make the trees? "Jesus" Who made the cars? "Jesus" No, people made cars, but I bet Jesus gave them the idea. Who made the snow? "Elsa." Lol

Funny story #2 - On Saturday evening, after the kids finished cleaning their rooms and picking up the house a bit, I took them to the playplace at Carl's Junior. We ordered some fries, and I told them we'd pick up ice cream on the way home, so that we could bring it back for kids that weren't able to come with us. "Can I have 8 soft serve cones? Two of them in a cup..." Yes, please pull up to the window. The car was quiet as my children anticipated quickly receiving their desserts. Except for Sophi, who protested this sudden change of plans... "Aw! How come you didn't say ice cream?!" as she gave me a surprised and disapproving frown. "Soft serve cones ARE ice cream cones..." I said. We all laughed at her, but I defended her confusion. I'm sure she's never heard me say soft serve before. She still confuses "her" and "she" all the time, like when she complains about Natalie "Her is being mean to me! Her always teases me!" Life can be tough for cute little 5 year olds. They're just trying to make sense of it all. So, Sophi was happy when she got her ice cream.

Funny Sophi story 3 - at church yesterday, Corey left sacrament meeting with Owen and Natalie. I was out with Daniel, so I'm not sure what Sophi was doing that she didn't leave with them, cause she usually does. (You know, just like every other nice relaxing day for Corey at church as he's being overloved by little people). So Joseph told me that when Sophi saw they were gone, she asked him to take her out to Corey. He didn't want to, so replied, "No, I don't know where they are." "Aw!" (that is Sophi's reply whenever she's disappointed about anything). Lily then asked if she could go get a drink. Sure. She goes. She returns. She leans over and whispers something in Sophi's ear. Sophi then turns to Jospeh. "Can I go get a drink?" Joseph had an inkling as to what was going on. She continued "And it's gonna be a long drink, cause I'm a hundred thirsty." Sophi, it's okay if you want to go out and find your dad, but you shouldn't fib and tell Joseph you're just going out for a really long drink, silly girl. Adults always find out!

Ok, this is really the last one. Two videos - these are both from last Tuesday. Lily, Sophi, and Natalie had been playing in costumes since Lily got home from school. Last that night, I returned from taking Abi to dance and picking up kids late at school to find that my house had been turned into a zoo! Natalie was the hungry tiger trying to eat the other animals.

30 minutes later for scriptures, costumes had been switched around, Natalie was a frog now, but still in predator mode. Aka running around being crazy trying to eat everyone. This is a little more nuts than how family scripture time usually goes, but not by much, ha. So the funny Sophi part here is at 1:45 where Lily slaps her wrist after Sophi pulled the butterfly costume cause she wanted a turn wearing it. Lily's slap so offended or injured Sophi that she collapses on the floor near death. She's a sensitive little person. I don't condone hitting, but Sophi sweetie you gotta toughen up a little bit or you might not survive in the real world.

Inauguration

Daniel had his 4 month check up today at 10, which was the time that President Trump was taking the oath of office. So I was grateful to be able to watch it on youtube. It was cool to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I love them. My favorite album by them is America's Choir. I listened to that a lot when we lived in Virginia, so that is kind of my go to album for all things Patriotic. Trying to be patriotic right now. I was more depressed when Obama won in 2012 than I have been this time. But this is bringing back the old feelings and I'm wishing for what might have been - it could be Mitt taking his second term right now... Yeah, I should get over it. I have moved on, but am using the same coping mechanism this time. I feel a bit more detached from the whole situation this time. More like I'm just a spectator and it doesn't really affect me. That was the kind of attitude I tried to have with Obama - that I just need to focus on my family and my life and the things that I do have control over. I feel the same with this - I think Trumps election is just a manifestation of the decaying morals of our country. Last time with Obama it was for different morals, but I feel like it's basically the same deal, which is why I find it so interesting that liberals are so upset. One of the reasons I don't like Trump is cause he is liberal (and a total wild card). Liberals. you guys have a Republican pres who said good things about Planned Parenthood! Abortion is the main deal killer for me with Democratic Party. I'm currently party-less, and that's okay.

So Inaguration, that was the big news thing of today and there is my 2 cents. I love this country and feel like I live in Zion here in our absolutely wonderful neighborhood and with all of our wonderful friends here, so I'm going to keep loving and serving my family and neighbors, and praying for our country and it's leaders. It's in God's hands, Thy will be done. From a friend's facebook post that made me chuckle - "Our country has survived 44 presidents. I know that our country can make it through 4 to 8 years of Donald. Embrace The Suck"

In other news - Corey's burdens are at an all time high again. We've been here before and have faith that things will yet again workout, but it's never fun. Poor guy. I'm doing okay, but that's cause about 5 years ago I gave up worrying about it. I can't do anything about it other than pray, so I just pray. Worry is the facade of taking action, Prayer actually is. I also suggested that tonight for our date, to help his mind escape for a little bit, we did something we usually don't do and go to the movies! We grabbed some sandwhiches at Jimmy Johns (my first time there - they make fast sandwiches, wow) and saw the movie La La Land. I really liked it - visually the colors and the shots and the camera work was awesome. I loved it all ...except for the end - that having your career is what you have to do. Listen, if you don't end up with the person that you're supposed to end up with, then what else matters? Call me old school, but when they got together and then knew it was love, they should have made a commitment, or covenant perhaps, to be together and then come what may, they'll get through it TOGETHER. Corey and I are in this together, and as long as we stay together, nothing else matters. If he never makes it big or if we have to move or I don't know whatever - it does not matter. It's just a test for us to prove what is really important to us. What is important - money, wealth, fame? Nope. Family, your spouse, children? That would be a yes. Don't sell out on love and family for a career or anything else, boo!! Not sure if they message of the movie was "don't do this is you can avoid it" or "it's nice to pretend you can have it all, but you can't, this is reality folks, make your choice - love or fame". Yeah, so, other than the ending (and possibly the whole overall message of the entire movie), I loved it. :)

(Update a week later)
This did make me laugh about our predicament, "Help, I'm gonna barf!"

Good job BLR.

4 Months Old

(Sung to the Farmer in the Dell....)

Oh guess who's 4 months old! 

Oh guess who's 4 months old!

Yes, that is right, it's YOU! 

Oh Daniel's 4 months old! 

He is the cutest thing

That I have ever seen!

Oh my gosh I'm gonna die!

He is the cutest thing!

(The cutest thing EVER!!)

I love this little baby in his fuzzy footie pajamies. Sigh, I'm in heaven. Love love love

Playing House

As Sophi and Lily were playing in their room the other day, they both excitedly began calling for me to hurry and "Come see Daniel!" So I did. They were playing house. But playing house is even more fun when you have a real baby as your doll.

Well, I gotta say that is super cute. "Time to go to bed, baby!"

Look at that chubby little arm holding the stuffed animal, cuteness!

He is totes adorbs!

Natalie got in on the fun too - using Daniel as her patient as she played doctor.

I love these kids, they make my heart happy.

Not Real Hardships

Today was a good day. This morning did a quick pick up of all the rooms and I was done by the time the kids all left for school. So the clean house is still here after 24 hours, wow! That's mostly what I've been doing today. I've also spent a bit of time at the computer. I was looking for tips on where to go for some home repairs. I really like using facebook when I'm looking for recommendations. Like when our basement flooded a few years ago, turns out a friend from high school's husband does disaster clean up! Sweet! It was quick getting a recommendation and quick coming out. Plus I had the added blessing of feeling like I could trust them cause I knew them. Same thing happened today. On Sunday evening, the microwave stopped working as Mel was warming up some food. It was dead. Poor Joseph wanted to reheat some mashed potatoes later that night and, poor guy, he had to do it on the stovetop of all primitive things! This was his plan B. Plan A was text his friend and see if he could bring his bowl of cold potatoes over there. But then he'd have to walk, so he asked if he could take the car to drive 5 houses down the street, I gave him a look of "'First World Problems' going on right here...." He replied with a "fine!" as he turned on the stove top, funny.

So I bought a new microwave yesterday but when I plugged it in, it didn't work! What?! Maybe it wasn't the microwave, haha, silly us ~ We just assumed it was cause it's been on it's last leg after Abi heated up a hand warmer in there, thinking she was supposed to warm in up in there like a rice bag. Started to send sparks and made a bad smell, but luckily no fire... so yeah, we needed a new microwave anyway, good thing we thought it was broken to help make it happen. So I went to the breaker box and it was switched off in the middle, but not all the way off. But it wouldn't let me switch it back on. And when something electric won't let me do something, I figure there's a good reason, and not wanting to start a fire or anything, I left it alone. So it might not have just been the microwave, maybe the outlets too? So I threw out an "I need an electrician" facebook request, and hooray less than 30 minutes later a high school friend said her husband is an electrician, he called me later that night, asked what I did when I tried to trip the switch in the breaker box, I told him and then I learned something new: You need to unplug all the appliances first before you trip it after blowing a fuse. Now documented here for future reference. I went up and saw that I still had the toaster plugged in. So I unplug the toaster, go to the breaker box, it resets, and what do you know, it tripped and the toatser and microwave are back on! I called him back and thanked him for being a genius! He jokingly said "That'll be $75 dollars!" The kids were excited to know they won't starve. So the repair emergency was taken care of. There are still 4 more things that need to be fixed - two lights and two outlets that haven't been working since we moved in. He's going to be out next week, go us!

So, sometimes I think I totally would have made it across the plains. The microwave wasn't a big deal to me, but when I freak out about a flooded toilet like I did on this past Friday night, it makes me think maybe I'm not as tough as I thought. Then today as I was on facebook looking for recommedations, I saw this video (heartbreaking) that helps me again remember that our broken microwave and flooded toilets are not big problems.

We are so blessed and should be so grateful each day. I want to help the people of Aleppo. This little kid just makes me think of Natalie and my heart breaks, what desperate circumstances. I haven't done much yet but pray for them. Wesley has been fasting for the people in Syria every Sunday since I showed him this video 3 weeks ago. I still don't know much about what is going on, but have started to watch the videos here and they make me cry. I think I'll donate to the White Helmets. Two videos for my future reference - video 1 who is fighting who and why it's a big mess - and video 2 of how it started.

Dear Father, please bless little Ayah (pictured above) and all the other children in Syria, please be with the, help them, comfort them, we pray for the return of they Son, that he may come and wipe away all tears.

Facebook Worthy

Mel and Daniel were enjoying a Sunday nap together yesterday. It was so precious, look at that little guy and his cheeks!

When the kids do something cute, it makes it on the blog. When it's precious and adorable or really funny, I'll share it on my facebook wall. I try not to post there too much, but that picture above made it, as did this video ~ Mel was practicing her flute and I came in for a minute to talk and we got a kick out of Daniel's expressions... so we quick and got out the phone to get a recording - He apparently was moved to tears and filled with joy at the same time, he couldn't decide which way to go!

We just love him so much. Also I got this picture of Mel tonight - it's a perfect match to the picture of me when I was in the chair rocking two kids watching Studio C. Some day I'm going to make a Memory game using family pictures, cause I have lots of matches. (...I need to get a matching picture of Owen and Daniel in their diapers!)

There's our sweet Owen, we love you, he's our little Linus from Peanuts, always carrying around his blanket.

Daniel has discovered his fists. So tasty!

I just love these little people. We had a great day today, I love it when they don't have school! And especially when it's on a Monday rather than on Fridays. We use our time more wisely on Mondays, Friday's just kinda turn into a longer Saturday, and Saturdays are kinda wasted. On Fridays and Saturdays, they are thinking "Oh, it's not due until Monday..." so they'll put off finish homework and then Saturday's over and they try not to do it on Sundays, so Ethan likes to have me wake him up at 3 or 4 am on Monday morning to finish things... Yeah, they don't use Friday and Saturday's well. But Mondays - we were all over it on Monday. Today the kids were up and working and had to be done by noon if they wanted to go to Wendy's with Corey for the Baconator challenge. And they did it! If it was a Saturday some of them would still be sleeping at noon. So, yeah, loved having the kids home today, the house looks great, we can all breath a sigh of "so this is what it feels like to have a house of order" and we'll see how long it lasts. 

Birthday Date Night Dinner

We took Joseph out with us on our date night last night. Bandits Grill. Good food, not a very good group selfie ~

So far, we've never had to wait when we choose to eat at Bandits spur of the moment, and we almost always decide where to eat spur of the moment - we just start driving "So, where do you want to go?"

Happy Birthday Joseph. One more year and this boy will be putting in his mission papers! That is crazy, especially considering how fast this past year flew by, he's gonna be heading out before we know it. So excited for him!

Damage

Brain Damage.

It's the only explanation.

Exactly one week ago, (I know it was one week cause it happened when Ethan had friends over last Friday night...) the toilet in the kids bathroom was clogged by a kid who used too much toilet paper. Normally the event ends with a different kid discovering it and then coming to tell me it's clogged, I fix it, and we all go on our merry way. Last week though, kids were quarantined in my bedroom so they wouldn't disturb Ethan's social gathering. And thus no one discovered it and no one came to tell me. But luckily I ventured out briefly to change a light bulb in Corey's office, and there, as I stood high on a stool... I heard an unusual drip drip drip sound coming from somewhere in ceiling... "That is a new sound... and that is a water sound, which is not a good sound..." I came upstairs to the room above his office, the kid bathroom, and saw the clogged and over flowing toilet. Clogged by use of too much tp, eventhough I, as principal homemaking committee chairperson, have tried for years to explain and enforce the proper amount of tp to use... so yes, despite my constant efforts, too much was used and clogged the toilet bowl, causing the water level to overflow - because I haven't called the plumber for that toilet yet and thus it's always running which is why we must take extra care children...  So I got the plunger and plunged and got the towels and soaked up and gritted my teeth with irritation and shortly thereafter I called the children in to show them how to properly flush a toilet and how to hear for the successful gurgling sound of the air going through meaning it all went down, and then you can take your hand off the toilet handle and wash your hands. They all nodded, they understood...

So here I am one week later, woken up at 12:30 in the morning by Joseph, who was still up from working on the ice rink - and he just went in to brush his teeth and stepped onto a cold soaked bathmat by the door, the third bathmat in that room, all 3 drenched, cause the toilet was clogged, and over flowing... again, and cold water was all over the bathroom floor... and I'm quoting Bill Cosby in my head "Didn't I JUST TELL YOU?!?!? Uh huh! Then why didn't you do it?!?! I don't know! Brain Damage!!"

Brain damage that is trying to cause water damage around here. ugh, I'm tired of parenthood right now. I love them, I just need each of my kids to have a pause button that I can click when I need to catch up or when I need them to stop. Stop running, stop fighting, stop talking, stop teasing, stop tickling, stop making a mess, stop...

But, as I let out big sighs and shook my head in frustration and said freak and "stupid kids!", I did recognize and try to be thankful for the brightside - that Joseph was still awake and caught the watery mess before it continued to run and soak for the next few hours, which is what would have happened had he not still been up.  Boy, it probably would have been running down the stairs. It would have been BAD...

We had another leak this week too - up high in the front room... see the big bump by the beam at the top there?

That was a bubble of water that I carefully popped with a seam ripper, reaching it by placing a tall stool up on the side table... totally safe! Ok, it's on my list this week - "buy a ladder". So this leak was caused by our cursed north facing house draining area on the roof, which I'd say is more accurately described as an un-draining area cause it's a north facing house. So instead of draining it's just a big ice dam area on our roof and I've been cursing whatever idiot designed this house this way when it was going to be FACING NORTH. So the ice trapped it all in and it started to soak and melt down through into the house yesterday... Ugh. House, toilet, all things on this mortal planet... can you all just not get broken or need fixing anymore?

1:20 am Saturday morning... I'm calmed down enough that I might be able to go back to sleep now. Signing off.

Winter Night in Park City

Corey took advantage of our room in Park City again and took all the kids up tonight for a sleep over. They had fun swimming outside!

Kinda fun to be in your bathing suit in a warm tub with snow on the ground all around you!

The only glitch is that you have to walk from your hotel room across the cold side walk to the hotel. Wasn't so bad on the way over when you're dry, but gets pretty chilly when you're wet!

Run Sophi!! Hurry before you freeze

Back at the hotel lobby to play some chess. They had a good time. Thanks Corey for making these memories for the kids.

Ice Skating

The youth group for our church went skating tonight. Corey and Joseph had a little hope that it would have been cold enough for their ice rink to host the party, but it's been so warm lately that the ice wouldn't have worked. I hope they get another night to skate at all! So, no homemade ice rink - they all went to the Gallivan Center instead.

Abi and Wes aren't old enough to be in the youth group, but Corey likes to milk each opportunity for as much kid time as possible, so they both went along. 

There were other young kids too, the teenagers don't mind. 

Corey spent most of the day in Park City with Natalie and Sophi but got home in time for skating. He and his two little girls stayed there over night last night.

He booked a week up there for a friend and MM investor from Brazil who was in town. His friend left on Sunday and so we had the rest of the week to use it if we wanted. Corey and I and the 4 little ones went up yesterday and spent the afternoon, I left a little after 3 with Owen and Daniel to try and get home for Owen to take a nap and to get home for the kids.

They beat me home, but I was glad to see that Abi and Lily were not locked out like poor Hyrum. The keyless garage opener we just got installed last week worked - they remembered the code, success! Thanks for taking the licking for us all, Hyrum, now we're prepared.

So today Corey came back down. He and Natalie and Sophi had a fun time, doing the usual Park City stuff, like trashing the hotel room... (Natalie, stop sprinkling salt on the table!!)

 

...watching tv...

...playing in tub...

Corey kinda got snowed in up there, mostly cause the car he was driving was wussy. So his Brazil investor friend... we're buying his daughter's car. She was up here for school at BYU Idaho, but it heading back to Brazil now. We've been storing her car for her for a few months, it fits in the garage, is a clutch, good little car. So one reason we went up there yesterday was so that we could have an extra driver to get the car. Yesterday I headed back in the van, Corey brought the new little sedan tonight. There was a tiny bit of snow starting to fall when he left the hotel, so they stopped for lunch and waited out the storm at McD's.
 
After the flurries had passed, and they were ready to head home, they got stuck in the McDonald's parking lot. He said it was pretty lame. We had gotten a ton of snow on the day Corey delivered the car to them when they got in town - they used it while they were here - but Corey got stuck 4 times trying to get it down the street - it's just such a lite car, it couldn't get any grip. A neighbor who was snow blowing that day came and cleared the road for him 3 times. Then it got stuck today in one dinky little layer of snow. He said two burley men who both were driving trucks came over to help rescue him and get his pathetic car out of their way - all they had to do was gently push it with their fingertips. Funny.