2 Hour Church

So, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we used to spend 3 hours at church on Sundays. That was changed this new year. They announced it in October at the General Conference of the church, and now it's being implemented. So we only go for two hours now instead of three. This allows more time for us to be at home together as a family and to study the gospel at home.

I'm not sure what I think of it so far. And it might be cause I'm in newborn mode with Peter and haven't really been able to get into the swing of things. But so far I am missing time at church. It seems that, so far, it is just more goof off time for us instead of gospel instruction time. Like yesterday we seemed to spend most of our time having nerf wars. This is what our Sundays have been like the past 3 weeks.

It's cute to see everyone playing and having fun, but sometimes I feel like all we do is have fun around here. All play and no work. Here's Daniel ready to take on the world.

Another picture from Church yesterday... Nursery time is shortened to just an hour, so they don't have much time to play. Well, the rest of Daniel's classmates don't have a lot of time to play, but we've been taking this noisy boy in to the nursery soon after he starts being roudy, so he's getting more time

Setting up all his cars.

He's a cute kid. I guess I won't judge the new 2 hour block change yet, since I'm not in a typical/normal season of life with our new baby. I'll roll with it for now the best I can, and I know that soon enough I won't have this little guy nursing or needing my attention, and I'll re-evaluate my feelings about it then.

Book Fair Money Mystery

I have a story to share, but first I want to show off the absolutely most perfect and beautiful little baby face you could ever see -

Isn't he just so ADORABLE?!?!? He is so freaking cute!!! And while I'm here, I will now show you the saddest little face you've ever seen -

That is what a heartbroken kindergartener looks like when she misses the bus home after school. She took toys to school today and was busy trying to put them all in her backpack, and it took too long, and she missed the bus. Abi saw standing outside from the bus and got off but then she couldn't find her, she was worried Natalie had gotten on a different bus and was going to be lost. Abi was close to tears and the principal was helping her look for Natalie, meanwhile Natalie was in the school office with one of the clerks and they had called me and I was on my way. It all ended well and I was able to pick them both up from school, but I'm hoping Natalie won't be scarred. I think that was as traumatic as little Natalie's life has gotten so far. She said she's never taking her dolls to school again.

Ok, so after all that drama, Abi told me an accusation she had against Lilian... "Mom, Lily has been at the book fair every recess!" and "She bought Kate a ton of stuff!" (a school friend) - "Like I saw Kate and she said 'Look at all this stuff Lily got me!'" Hmm, we both wondered where she was getting money to keep buying things. I checked a little metal bucket/tin thing in my room where I thought I had put some cash (the money the boys had gotten from the Peaks Tickets they sold) and it was gone. But maybe I gave the cash to Corey already? Lily came in the door, and I asked her about the book fair and where she got the money. She was being elusive... "Just sec, I need to go to my room..." "Lily, come here now. Where did you get the money?" She came over and had a guilty I'm-hiding-something look on her face said she and Kate had sold hot chocolate a few weeks ago and were doing other "service" and people gave them money. Ok. So I let her go, and sent Kate's mom a text to call me later so I could ask her (I didn't call cause I knew she taught piano lessons on Thursdays). Lily goes over to play at Kate's house, and then my little detective Abi took initiative and went to work. She got up on Lily's bed (the top bunk) and found a pretty big stash of items secretly tucked away under her big stuffed animal dog Bunky Bunky. I started to look at the prices of each thing... Ok, this is more than $30-$60 I was thinking... This little girl has been enjoying a full on 4th grader shopping spree the past few days...

I asked Corey what we should do. "Itemize the things, add it up, and let's see where we're at" Sounds good. Abi helps me tally the things. The two unicorn books on the right are what Corey and I bought for Sophi and Natalie - $13 each. the rolled up poster there in between is the beginning of Lily's things, and I used it to separate the items. Lily had bought: Dog poster, 3 Etch books, Glitter journal,

donut pen, 9 mystery writer pens, 1 metallic pen, 1 Star Wars pen, 3 color highlighter, Octicorn, Dragons book, 4 pack gel pens, chocolate bar calculator... with each thing we added my blood started to boil. It was over $130 bucks! No way this girl sold that much hot chocolate. "I'm going to go get her at Kate's..." I was able to calm down as I took that brisk walk. "Lily, come home, get the things you gave to Kate..." Kate's mom hadn't texted me but she had set the books aside and texted me later that Kate couldn't accept Lily's generous gift. Those books added another $45 to the tally. Lily started to cry right away as we walked home. I asked "You took that money from the little silver tin in my room, didn't you?" She nodded and cried "I don't know what's wrong with me!!" I told her we could fix it. I had everything in a box and she was going to come with me to the book fair to see if we could return some of the things. She asked if she could stay home. No. She asked if she could go straight to the car while I got the box. Yes. We drove to the school.

Lily took a little video of herself with my phone, here's some screenshots of her little repentant face

We walk into the school. I'm holding the box, she was still red faced and wiping away tears.

The lady working at the book fair register said it was no problem to return things, even things that had had their wrappers taken off (like each of the nine $4.99 mystery writer pens she got, yay!)

So, good news is that, eventhough school is out for the week, the school was still open cause of Parent teacher conferences. The book fair was still open too, and we were able to go in and return all of it except for the three etch books that Lily had already drawn in. When we got back home, I thought we were done, but after a few minutes Lily came down with a water bottle that she had also bought. It said "Books and Coffee" and was $25 freaking dollars. It was filled with water, but we washed it off, dried it, and hurried over to the school again. The cashier lady said "Wow, $25, that is a rip off!" Yay, she let us return that too. In all it was about $205 worth of stuff and we were able to return all of it but about $33 bucks. Lily had $9 cash, so she still owes us $24. I thought we should make her work it off through chores, but Corey thinks it would be better to close this case as soon as possible. So Corey is working with her to gather toys that she can sell to make up the difference, like some shirts and stuffed animals. I'm sure we're not really going to sell them, maybe give them to the DI, but I don't think she's really gathered prized possessions to atone for her thievery, they are more "I don't want this" items.

Anyway, so their is our little story of Lily's shopping spree. I remember lying to my parents in 6th grade (about dating/"going" with a boy named Gavin) and I still remember when I got caught in my deception. This will be a good learning experience/memory for Lily. I didn't have my mom blogging my lies to preserve it for me, but Lily's got pictures and her parent's perspective now forever typed into the family chronicles. We'll see if this "honest is the best policy" course is over or if there are more practice lessons to come.

Obstacle Warrior Kids

I've been catching up a bit on February's pictures and activities - one more and I'm caught up - so we went to Obstacle Warrior Kids on Monday night (Feb 25th) with our Get Out Pass. The kids loved it. They had nice chairs for the adults to sit in, and I was able to sit and nurse Peter. There was a big area for toddleres to run around in - you can see Daniel and Owen there in the distance...

Hyrum being a great brother was there to help them. Owen, you might want to lose the binky if you want to be taken seriously...

I loved seeing Daniel bounce across this long trampoline as he went around the course. Around and around they went, and little D went bounce bounce on his way...

The bad thing is that we got there like 40 minutes before it closed, and the get out pass for here is just one time per year, so we didn't get our money's/pass's worth, but that's okay.

So when we first got here, Lily and Sophi zipped up the roped wall and went from obstacle to obstacle, while Abi was stuck at the first one, unable to get up over the obstacle just using the rope, but she was determined. Corey came and gave her moral support while I went to watch the toddlers. She finally made it, but she was in tears. She went on to the next obstacle.

This one was more doable

Still hard though. She slowly gained more confidence and was having fun.

When I came over, she and Wes showed me their jumping and speed ability

Next, demonstrating how they easily get up the warped wall.

I had to laugh though, they are not as graceful as the ninja warriors I've seen on tv.

Natalie doing her balancing act -

We give Obstacle Warriors two thumbs up. It was a great place for the kids and adults, we all liked it. As we walked out to the car, Abi said "Yeah Mom, could we come here again? This is fun. ....Eventhough I was crying at first." She overcame the hard, that's what we like to see.

The Peaks Jazz Festival 2019

The Peaks Jazz Festival was this past weekend, February 22nd and 23rd. Corey went both nights to support our boys.

Wesley was in the Little Big Band and Ethan in Crescent. They both performed with their bands on Friday night, and then Crescent performed again in the Saturday night show. It's hard to get good pictures during these concerts, but here are a few anyway. Sorry we didn't get any of your band, Wes! Here is Ethan after finishing a solo on Friday night...

Eth doing a solo on Saturday night. 

The Crescent Super band!

They are going to China next month for a 10 day tour, which we trust will be a great experience and opportunity for Ethan. Now with Melodie accepted to college and ready to go, Corey has turned his sights to getting Ethan ready to make it out on his own soon.

Babies Don't Keep

Most mornings, I find myself lying on the couch with Peter. This morning as the first of my alarms began to go off, he woke up. He was looking so cute.

Its easy to feel happy in the morning (or middle of the night) when I get to wake up to such a cute little face. Peter!! We love you!

Most times it just feels tragic though, cause the alarm doesn't wake him, and he's snuggled up next to me, peacefully sleeping. And I just regret that I have to move. If only I didn't have to get kids up and out the door! But even if we do get to sleep in, like on Sundays, I guess he is still going to sleep until I move him. If only I could just stay home on the couch with just him in a quiet house all day and not have any reasons to have to get up. I didn't get to do it when Joseph was a baby, cause we were in school. And I've had kids ever since, so time keeps marching on and I never get to push pause on the newborn days. Maybe no one does get to pause this time, we just have to be present and enjoy the pockets of peace we do find with them.

I guess even if I could, I'm sure the days would still fly by.

I'm going to try and enjoy my pockets of peace with Peter. I'll try to let the mess slide a little bit and hope my family is patient with me. This is just a short season we are in, so let's soak it up as best we can. Soon enough he will be running around making messes, or catching the bus for kindergarten, or getting ready to serve a mission. I just realized the way I learned this poem isn't right, but I might keep saying it this way, cause I made up a little tune I sing along with it -

Cleaning and dusting can wait til tomorrow

For children grow up, we've learned to our sorrow,

So fly away cobwebs and dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

(Also, something fun I did today was figure out my parenting age - add up the ages of all your children, and that is your parenting age. Corey and I are 118!!! No wonder we feel old!)

Our Family's Birthday

So, in 2014 I made a goal to have a family party each month. And I did it. I didn't do it the next year though, but I did still have a special dinner party for our anniversary. Having a big dinner party each month was a bit too much for me to handle long term, but I can do it once a year in February. Since it's our anniversary, it's like our family's birthday. At first I thought that this year's party was probably the most pathetic of them if we measure them by my contribution. But as I was just reviewing the past few years of February dinners ( 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) I come to find out I didn't even do it last year or in 2017 (but I did make each of the kids Valentines in 2017, so there ya go). This year I have a good reason though for being a slacker - I'm playing the "I have a newborn" card. But I am going to really try to do better next year - atleast as good as it was in 2015. Like I said, this year I didn't have much energy to give to it, so I put Abi in charge. I did buy the food on Saturday and cook all of it. The kids did the rest. Abi made these lovely heart decorations for the window -

She set the table. Wesley made the name cards for the place settings.

Some of the kids dressed up, like we have in years past. Most of us didn't though. Natalie was one of the people that did.

We had a little table for her and her toddling brothers to sit at, which is a good thing to have when we are all trying to sit down to eat at the same time. Cause we can't all fit at our kitchen table...

Owen and Daniel didn't join us, cause they were taking their afternoon naps.

After I got the dinner on the table, I went to nurse my little valentine. He is beautiful.

I didn't provide an over the top selection of sugary desserts like I did in years past, now that I'm all health conscious and know that most of those things are bad for us. Well, I already knew junk food was bad in general, but I didn't know the extent of how bad all the animal products were back then. So, for our cancer causing/blood vessel clogging food (aren't I fun to be around?), I got a red velvet cake from Costco and some cranberry orange cookies. One reason why it's not good to have such tempting desserts is because then the little ones will not eat anything healthy. Daniel woke up from his nap and was left unsupervised in the kitchen. Everyone else was off doing whatever as they waited for the dinner to digest and so we hadn't served the cake yet. But it was out on a cake stand and ready to be eaten. Daniel discovered it waiting, so he helped himself.

He was very sweetly fingering off the frosting over and over again. He turned and saw me and said "Mmm! Dat yummy!"

Cute Daniel. There was still room for some un-toddler-contaminated slices on the far side of the cake, so Ethan will be able to have some. As for the rest of us, we got to share our frosting with Daniel. It was a nice dinner, I'll try to keep my promise to do better next year. (Abi doesn't mean to, but she really puts the expectations pressure on sometimes! It's all recorded here how great I did with these parties in years before and I can't live up to that anymore!)

Super Baby

For Halloween when Owen was a baby, I bought this little Superman costume. Lily wanted to put it on Peter today. Awww, so cute!

He looks like he feels important.

Lily likes dressing up her baby doll. 

Everyone saw it and said "Peter! You're so cute!" Ethan and Mel adoring our little guy.

We love Peter. 

You're cute even without a super hero cape. But let's see your plank!

Hmm, it looks like Owen's was better - Ethan tried to recreate this pic of O and Joseph from October 2015

Yeah Peter, you work on that, we'll come test you out again in a few weeks.

Dr. Phil

So we have added a new tradition to our evening routine. Before we go to bed, we read the scriptures, have a family prayer, and the new thing is that, if everyone is quiet and cooperates during those two proceedings, we can watch a little bit of Dr. Phil. It's their new favorite show!

So last week on Tues, Feb 12th, Mel and Ethan came from from school with a sibling battle in their wake. On the outward appearance it appeared to be a squabble over the temperature inside the car. Ethan wanted the heat on high to keep his feet warm vs. Mel's feet were burning hot and she wanted it off. Didn't seem like something they shouldn't have been able to resolve... but a little more detail comes out - Ethan wanted the heat on high but he also wanted the window down letting the cold winter air blow in. This was while they were on the freeway (I personally never like or allow the window open on the freeway) But Ethan wanted his face cold and his feet warm. Well, that seems like he was being a bit difficult to want it both ways... I started to take Mel's side (of course Ethan would accuse me of always taking her side or anyone's side except his.) He texted Corey, I sent a message to Corey too - poor guy trying to get work done and we're always dragging him in to this teenage drama. Corey was at his parent's house. Dr. Phil was on. He was listening to the Dr. give advice to lots of dysfunctional people. Corey felt there was something our kids could learn. So we watched Dr. Phil that night as a teaser before scriptures that night. And we have everyday since. The kids find it fascinating. Corey thought it was a good way to show them the different paths people take. I quote - "We need to watch more Dr. Phil, so that while they are young and impressionable they will learn a correct sense of wrong paths..." A few favorites from last Wednesday night - Batman and Beverly Hills Brat. They laughed at Batman doing a roundhouse kick with a tummy that looks like mine more than a super hero's six pack -  "He doesn't look like Batman..." Corey commented.

Here are a few pics from last Friday, the older kids didn't have school. Not wanting them to waste the whole morning sleeping, Corey was able to entice them out of bed with Dr. Phil. They watched 2 hours of it.

It's kinda funny. But it is also a strategy that I think is working in giving them a correct sense of how ridiculous they sound sometimes. It's given Corey and I some good things to ask and point out too. We'll try to take some clues and lessons from Dr. Phil on how we can relate to these adolescent kids.

Super Hero Battle

Hyrum had an epic battle with his little brothers today. Little brothers turned Super Heros! - Spiderman and Batman! It was pretty cute watching them fight. Owen using the power of his hands (aka the force, aka TK Fire? which I think is some super smash brothers character or move or something...)

Daniel was ready with a weapon - shooting at Hyrum.

His gun was a Cristo Redentor statue from Brazil with one arm missing...

The other arm is the handle of the gun, obviously...

These little masks are just so cute and funny on them. Corey's mom got them for Owen and Daniel at Christmas. They feel pretty invincible wearing them.

Here is Owen fighting bravely, that is until Wesley accidentally takes off Spiderman's cape, then Spiderman cried.

And I love hearing Daniel's gun firing sound - "Pew! Pew!" Watch out, he'll shoot you even if you thought you were on his side.

Princess Natalie coming to get in on the action -

It's fun to watch them play.