Climbing Little Everest

Today Owen and Daniel came with me to take Natalie to the bus stop. After Natalie left and we waved goodbye to the bus, we came back home where these two little boys enjoyed a good 30 minutes of stomping in the little bit of remaining snow in the driveway. Then they discovered some even bigger mounds of snow on the grass!

They hiked up the snow on the grass over and over again and were being so cute -

Most of the snow that fell on Sunday has now melted, as you can see in this picture of Natalie. Oh, to live on the north side of the street! They have sun and spring like weather over there. But not for us here on the south. Here, it is always winter but never Christmas.

Most days, when Natalie leaves for afternoon kindergarten, I sneak out to the bus stop with just her and try to do so without the boys noticing us leaving, distracting them with food or sometimes I'll put them down for their naps if they woke up early that morning. If it looks like I'm not going to be able to distract them, I need to watch the clock and give myself an extra 10 minutes to get them dressed in shoes and coats too so they can come. Today we had time, so I got them ready. I was glad I did, cause they were so cute playing. Daniel would call to Owen to "Help me!" and Owen would run to his aide.

Owen was just adorable - "Come on Daniel!"

"Come on Daniel, come on! I got ya!"

"We did it!"

Here is just one of their great expeditions on video

At the end of that one, I loved "Come on, you can do it! We did it!" It was really cute to watch them. It was a good day. I went to the temple to do intiatories this afternoon, my weekly Friday outing. We had a miracle in that our van tires finally arrived. I called early this morning and it was a miracle that they answered the phone and I talked to someone. We dropped off the van this afternoon, cause the snow is coming later tonight and our tires are so bald, we were worried we wouldn't make it out if we waited. There should be lots of snow this weekend, a good storm coming in. We are very grateful the snow waited for our tires, they will be installed at 7 tomorrow morning. Hooray for Christmas miracles.

Lily on the Sax

Corey began this month to teach his next musician. Lily is going to learn to play the saxophone. He started her on the soprano.

I'm not sure if this was the first day of her lessons, but these are the first pictures of it - 5 November - She had pretty good lungs and made a good solid sound during her first lessons, Corey told her she's a natural!

And getting a little more into the jazz character with the black hat and sunglasses! These are from two weeks ago on November 13th.

Looking good Lil! But, how do you sound?

Here's 12 seconds of her practicing today -

You're doing awesome Lil. Her brothers would disagree however and are giving her a hard time. But, being teenage boys, they usually give her a hard time with most things. Ah the joys of family life (we miss you Joseph! He was never like that to any of his siblings.) Don't you listen to any nay-sayers, Lil! Believe your dad, he's got your best interests at heart. So this week Corey began to each Lily and Sophi a Christmas number they could do together - "We Wish You A Merry Christmas".

Their instruments play in different keys, so Corey was writing out the different notes for each one, but they wanted to get at it and so they played off of the same music, and they were in tune! But they shouldn't have been, so Corey laughed cause that was funny, he thinks it was Lily that was a step flat. It was a little bit harder work than Lily's had this month, so she got a bit frustrated, but Corey was by her side to encourage her. They might not have it ready for the ward party next week, but maybe they'll be ready for our extended family get together on Christmas Eve.

Ornaments Mess

So, in my opinion, there is an annoying down side to having the Christmas tree up for a whole month. The reason is that, here at our house, it's hard to keep the ornaments on the tree with the toddlers around. Today, for example, Daniel was hitting the tree with his teddy bear...

And after he's knocked off a sufficient amount of the sparkly decorations, he took a turn whacking Wes.

I bet it kinda felt like a soft back massage. Thanks Daniel!

So, there have been ornaments all over the floor. During past Christmases, I have been vigilant at quickly restoring them to their place on the tree. This year I'm taking a new approach - I'm putting them back in a box and putting it back downstairs with the holiday storage. I might bring them back out, but I might not. Maybe on Christmas Eve to restore the decorations one last time before the big day. But to do it now, what's the point!? They'll just knock them off again. Owen's taken it to a new level, and all the blue plastic icicles that have been within his reach are now in the garbage, cause he's taken them and put them on the floor and then stomped on them to snap them in half. Then he's proudly come to get me and show me his work - "Look mom! I break it!" I glued back together two of them earlier yesterday when I thought it might have been a one time thing and telling him "No, don't do that" might cease the destruction, but not so. So all the ones on the bottom half of the tree are gone and in the garbage. There are still like 3 on top. But ugh, all this Christmas mess and clutter! Well, it shouldn't be clutter, but it is when the festive things are not kept in their proper place - then it's just becomes a mess all over the floor of things for me to sort again and organize. Mostly ornaments, then the regular clutter of garbage and socks, and the Little People Christmas people are on the floor too -

Right now Owen's moved them into the kitchen, but the camels and shepherds have already had their fair share of time on the floor, and we're just four days into this! So into the box they are going too. I just don't want to pick it up 100 times this year, so we'll see if I put the ornaments back up and on and set up the toy nativity again, or if I just pretend that Daniel and Owen helped me pack things up early this year.

Missionary Christmas Package

Good morning. With the fresh snow outside, the kids enjoyed getting all bundled up before they headed to school today.

Lily liked her Minion hat.

Owen thought it was pretty fun too - I want a turn!

I ran a few errands today to get some things to send in a package to Joseph tonight. The MayanXpress was doing a pick up at Ikea at 7pm. I went by Scheels and got Joseph a BYU sweater, by request. Then to Costco for some solid socks. I got some groceries too, and maybe I just say that the blueberries right now are AMAZING, they were so good - like the whole clamshell!

Don't tell Wes, but I ate them all on the drive home. I bought two packages of them, and probably am not going to tell anyone about the other one, cause I want to eat all of that one too. They were tart and sweet and plump so they popped when I bit them, just perfect. Maybe I'll get more this week. So I delivered the package tonight. There was a line, I tried to keep warm in the car while I waited for the line to get smaller.

It was a slow moving line. It was the last drop off before Christmas, so there were lots of people sending packages to their missionaries. I had the kids write some letters, Mel drew a picture of the infant Lord "A Savior is Born". I send him the new Saints book, the socks, chocolate bars and Lindor chocolates, some white Christmas lights, and tape to put up the lights in his apartment window if he wanted. I didn't wrap anything, so he probably won't be able to save anything until Christmas cause he'll already see what it is. Well, I guess he can save the chocolates. Corey's parents sent a package too. I hope he has a good Christmas. We're excited cause we get to talk to him on Christmas day, so that will be fun! Looking forward to it.

First Snow

It snowed yesterday, not much, but the kids are excited. Abi helped Owen get dressed today and they went outside to play "snowman".

(She's such a good big sister)

Owen has been calling snow "snowman" since he's recently discovered the movie "Elsa" aka Frozen.

He hasn't been singing Let it Go, but his version of "Do you want to build a snowman" is pretty adorable. I'll try to get a video of it.

We had a nice Sunday. It's good to have some snow, makes it feel like it's okay for us to have the tree up. I'm hoping this month goes by quickly, the faster it passes the faster this pregnancy will be over and baby will be here. We're also really looking forward to talking to Joseph on Christmas! I'm sending him a package tomorrow, the last one he'll get before Christmas.

Game Night

I actually played a board game with the kids tonight, go me. They asked me to join them, I said no thanks, but then Hyrum needed to go somewhere with Corey for like 10-15 min, so I told Hyrum I'd play for him until he got back. They were playing "Go For It" - a game I got from a friend in 6th grade for my birthday (kinda amazing the things that end up still kicking around after 30+ years... I think this game was actually stored safely at my parents house for many years - during college, my mission, and the first early years of our marriage. Then when my parents were clearing out stuff, I got it back.)

This is a game the kids play quite a bit. I've taken pictures before of some pretty intense games they had going on, but I don't think I've recorded it here. But the kids like it. It is a fun game - hard to get a more "80s" game than this, so it's kinda like teaching them about history too, ha. Abi's turn to roll the dice...

I kept Hyrum in a good spot and got his salary up by the time he got back. It was fun. So when the game ended, I told them that if they started a new game, I'd join in. They did, and I did, and we had fun with a mess of ornament boxes around us.

I was doing pretty great during that game. I was able to sell one of my houses for double the price, so I got $600K pretty early into the game and was rich! Right after I sold that house, I inherited a house from a deceased rich uncle (what a lucky niece I am!) haha, we also landed on my birthday twice - if the timepiece lands on your birthday, everyone has to give you $5000 dollars (pretty generous friends people had in the 80s!) It's also funny what we each go for - Wesley liked the seaside mansion, I remember really liking the Tudor house, we all like the corvette, we all think the Feeling Good cards are way overpriced - like $6000 for a health club membership?!? It also made the game more interesting when Daniel woke up from his nap, cause he wanted our two dice. I went and got some more from downstairs, but it didn't matter now many I had, Daniel wanted them all. So we each kept one hidden from him, which kinda worked for a bit. We down to one dice for a bit, and D saw it and wanted it and was sad, so we each hurried and rolled it so we could know how many to move the game piece when it was our turn, and then we gave it to Daniel and that let us keep playing without a dice and gave me time to go get some more dice again. So it was fun and silly, and I was winning but ended up losing right at the end cause Hyrum stole one of my cars (you had to have 3 cars to "go for it") so I lost, everyone else kinda won, but it was a tie, so for the tie breaker you see who has the most status cards - so Abi won the game. But I felt I should be pleased, I had lots of temporal success - I ended with over a million dollars, 5 homes, was the chief of staff at my medial practice...

But as Hyrum pointed out, it was sad that I just hoarded all this wealth instead of helping the poor. True, Hyurm, true. I'll strive to make more of my real life.

Abi wanted to play some more, but we took a break for dinner and told her we'd play later. She wanted to play 5000. (The rules are a bit different there than how we play, but also similar. Still, we should probably do a review of the actual rules over what Corey or I remember the rules as being). So, Abi smoked us all on the first game, and Wes won the second round easily with rolling two straights with his dice, which they said were worth 2000 points each (that website link says just 1500 tho).

I was loosing big time, and Hyrum rolled after me, and I think my bad luck wore off on him, cause he did lousy too.

It got a little tricky again when Daniel saw those dice. Silly toddlers, always making simple games more complicated. But we kept 5 and he just had to deal with it. And now there are dice all over the kitchen floor.

Wes set up the Hot Wheels race track and that kept Owen happy and also entertained Daniel for a while - whatever we could do to distract him for a few minutes. It was fun to play games. I have a lot of games stored downstairs. I think I keep them in hopes of recreating memories of playing games with my siblings when I was a kid, but I don't play much. But the kids play. They like Risk and Go For it. We'll try to make a game night a more regular thing. It'd be fun to make myself join them atleast once a month. Hard with the little kids, which is usually why Corey and I don't play, but if one of us takes the toddlers the other one should be able to get in the game... Ok, that's the goal - once a month alteast for Corey or I to play with the kids, and we'll call it a success. November is taken care of, we'll do it one more time before the end of the year - that's doable, and it's fun to make memories with these kids.

Tree Is Up

Abi wanted to put up the trees today. I said it was fine if all their jobs were done first, and she dutifully got the rooms cleaned. So, they did all the work and the trees are up.

I'm okay with them putting the trees up the day after Thanksgiving, cause I tell myself that that means it's okay for me to take them down the day after Christmas. 

I don't mean to be a scrooge, but the toddlers pull off all the ornaments and there's just a mess of Christmas clutter everywhere all December, and I'm always ready to put the ornaments back in their boxes.

I am going to try and embroider their names on the stocking this year, or alteast a big initial. We'll see. Daniel and Natalie were excited to play with the Little People toys.

Cute little guy -  Daniel playing with the manger scene.

Natalie's got Santa and the North Pole toys.

It's November 23rd and they're all ready for Christmas! And tonight Abi was complaining about how far away it is. Yes, this is good for you to learn patience.

A Thanksgiving Ski Day

Last night, Corey and Ethan drove up with to Park City with two cars full of kids and two trunks full of snowpants, skis, poles, and boots. Corey's family is all up there for the Thanksgiving break and we joined them this year. Corey got on the ball early this year and rented skis for Hyrum and under. He was ready to make the most of the choice location right by the Park City Mountain Resort, since this time we're there while there's snow on the mountain!

I opted to not sleep over last night (or tonight) and thus I was at home with Mel, who wanted to use the time to practice and catch up on homework, and with my two little boys so that 1) they would sleep in their beds and we can all get a good nights rest and 2) so that I could prep my contribution to the thanksgiving meal in my own kitchen. I got up early today and started making vegan stuffing for Hyrum and I, getting a vegan sweet potato casserole ready, baked potatoes, and I also brought up a vegan broccoli salad. I've been mostly vegan this past year but also allowed some flexibility during this pregnancy, so I would have been okay, but Hyrum is a man of principle and so I had to make sure he had some food options that wouldn't make him compromise his standards. Corey spent the morning on the slopes - a few pictures of their fun - Sophi ready to tear up the mountain

Natalie looking cute in pink.

Go have fun you cute girls!

They headed out, down the stairs.

Corey said it was a rip off, but totally worth the price. It made the day for him. On their way back in after a few hours in the snow, brr!

Corey got tickets for himself, Sophi, and Natalie. Abi had the 5th grader ski pass. Wes said he didn't want to go but then changed his mind, and Corey wanted him to go so he got him a half day pass.

The thanksgiving meal was set to begin at 1, and we were a bit late leaving but were on our way at 12:30. I was in the kitchen all morning and didn't think to look at the weather until we were in the car, doh! It was raining and the further we went, the more it turned to snow. 15 minutes into our drive and the car slid, and I became more and more concerned my bald tires were going to leave us stuck somewhere in the snow  I was glad the crew in Park City had all the ski stuff they needed and that they also had enough food to survive if I chose to retreat from the weather and head for home.

But I kept going forward, venting my stress I drove (thanks for the listening ear, Mel). We made it up the canyon without incident, and didn't have to stop at all for lights or anything when we got off the freeway, yay. We made it all the way to the resort and then had to stop for a truck to turn out before we could head in and up the hill. And that was where we finally got stuck with no traction. Corey must have been watching me on life 360, cause before I even got my phone to call him, there he was coming out to my rescue. He told me to back up into a neighboring hotel parking garage and then gun it. He watched for cars coming, gave me the all clear, and then I hit the gas. We slipped and slid but a cleared part of the road gave me enough momentum to make it all the way up. Phew! We made it! The weather said it would be clear between 5-9 so my plan was to be on the road around 5 and get down the canyon before it was dark. But we hunkered down for a few hours, enjoyed a nice meal together, and I went in the hot tub with Daniel, my one goal for the day. A few pictures before we ate - we went around the room and shared what we were Thankful for.

Then time to enjoy the Thanksgiving feast! Everyone tried to find a place to sit... we're starting to be a big group! enjoying good food an company -

Once the kids were all fed, Corey took them out to ski again, Owen, you excited?

Hm, that looks like a no.

Just kidding, he was just complaining cause the boots felt too tight. Corey had him and Natalie switch... all better. It's such a process getting little kids ready to ski.

I didn't see any of the action on the slopes, but I was still impressed with Corey. Such a good father.

So he headed out with Sophi, Natalie, and Owen, and I did my one to-do - I went swimming in the hot tub with little Daniel.

He's been a bit under the weather this past week, with swollen gums, stinky breath, and difficulty eating. I didn't take him in to the pediatrician, but my consultation with Dr. Google left me with the unprofessional opinion that it's gingovostomatitis. He took his bottle fine, so there was no concern about dehydration, cause he's had a lot of ricemilk. I've just kept an eye on him and he's almost all better. Aren't you, little guy?

He's such a cutie.

Cute smile with big sister Mel.

So we spent an hour+ in the hot tub. Lily tried out the gym.

And Corey headed out with Owen!

Natalie ready to go have more fun.

Looks like she's having a good time. (Once again, Corey, I think you're pretty amazing to take them all out!)

Some of the same from Owen. This is a reason why Corey loves skiing though, cause he can't help them all, they have to push through the hard and figure it out.

It's a good learning experience.

And Owen likes the bonus that there's free food all around!

Enjoying a little snack.

So, I headed home a little after 5 with Owen, Daniel, and Melodie again. Owen and Daniel didn't have naps today, so they crashed once they were put in their carseats. The drive home was great and there were no concerns. I put the kids in their beds, hoping they'd be down for the night. I blogged, exercised, and was almost ready for bed myself around 8 when Owen came into the basement to greet me, with wide awake eyes and full of energy. So that plan didn't work. Hopefully the last nap won't mean that they will be up until midnight. The weather says it should start snowing again at 1:00 am. The hotel reservations were just for two nights, so check out is tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about the Fiesta making it down if there is snow, but Corey was tired after a full day and didn't want to drive down tonight. So he's up there another night with the kids. We'll pray they're able to make it back home safely tomorrow. It was a good and memorable Thanksgiving day. We have very much to be thankful for. 11:00 now, got Owen and Daniel to bed at 10:30, small miracle, I'm going to bed now too.