Joseph's MTC teacher in Guatemala was a fellow named Junior.
Junior was also the ward mission leader in Joseph's first area of Lo De Coy. When Joseph's companions went home, Junior did splits with him a lot. We are grateful for him! We were in touch with him on facebook when Joseph was in his ward and we got a few extra pics of Joseph on days other than p-day which was fun. Junior is up in Utah right now, I think he's been here for like a month? He started off doing some touristy stuff in southern Utah where they give you a place to sleep if you help work or something like that. This month he's up in the Salt Lake Valley and is staying with us. I knew Corey had offered for him to stay with us, but I didn't know when he was coming and I'm not sure how long he's going to be here. But he got here on Friday and I went to pick him up. Corey texted me a pic so I knew who I was looking for.
That night he went with Corey and the young men in our ward out to Lone Rock to camp and do some climbing and gun shooting.
Wes is up high on the wall there, pretty cool photo!
So, them being gone for a night gave me a little bit of time to figure out a sleeping place for Junior. I did mention to Corey it would be nice to have guests if we actually had a guest room. Oh well. So I had Sophi donate her mattress since we gave away all our spare furniture to Iveth and Diego. We gotta make do with what we have. I told the little girls to share the full mattress on their bottom bunk - there is plenty of room there. They did the first few nights, but this morning I woke up to find Sophi was up on the top bunk bed again and that she slept on a hard wood board!
That didn't look comfortable to me. I showed Corey. When Sophi got up for school, Corey asked her how she slept. "Fine. Why?" she replied as she looked at him like he was weird for asking. "Well you were sleeping on a piece of wood..." "It was fine."
Ok, more power to ya. While I was at it, I took pictures of other sleeping children. Looks like Louie kicked Owen out of the chair.
Owen is still sleeping with a blanket and pacifier, although we try to remember to take the binky away from him after he falls asleep. I don't dare wash Owen's blanket, it's getting so thin and ragged. Can you tell which is his favorite corner to fidget with?
This blanket is hanging by a thread. I wonder what will happen if the tag part falls off? Hang on little blanket! Blankie Man needs you. Here is Peter asleep in our bed, all nice and snug, Corey in the heap of blankets behind him
And a cute picture of Peter tonight, he is so adorable.
He's starting to grasp his hands and grab at the toys, it's so cute!
Yesterday was my Happy Birthday. My parents and Corey's parents both gave me cards with cash yesterday. This was the card from my mom. She said it just reminder her of me.
It reminds me of me too. Atleast it reminds me of things I like. I like color. So other thoughtful gifts: Corey gave me a dozen roses.
Wes slipped some earrings under the door. Sophi have me earrings too, with a bracelet.
I think Corey's dad helped them make those. The girls sang a Mother's Day song to me that they are learning at church.
I got a little cute goodie bag at church.
And then tonight an unexpected surprise - Iveth and Diego came by with a cake and present for me.
They are such good friends! Daniel's happy there is cake!
We all sang Happy Birthday.
The kids shared the cake and the cupcakes my mom brought yesterday.
You are a happy looking kid, Daniel. I opened a present from Iveth and Diego, but they had us play a game where you have to do it with oven mits on. The girls wanted a turn...
They had wrapped it up over and over again, so I needed help!
They gave me a fitbit! Which was so nice and very unexpected, they are great friends. Yesterday for my birthday, I wanted to catch up on the blog. I got all caught up in January and the months started slipping by again. I didn't make a lot of progress, I need to try to catch up this week. Even without a lot of time to blog, it was a good day and a good weekend. But now it's Monday and we need to get back at it. Just four more weeks of school left, we can do this!
Tonight Mel had a "scholarship Gala" tonight with GMS. Here is Mel with her teacher April Clayton next to her, and other students of April that performed tonight.
The Gala was at "The Garden Place" at This is the Place Heritage Park.
It's one of her last hurrahs - this girl is graduating in less than a month, crazy. Corey arranged for me and Iveth to go, but Iveth ended up with a conflict so I took Peter and Abi and Sophi. A silent auction began at 5, then dinner at 6, and the concert at 7. Tickets were pretty expensive, but we knew it was basically a donation to the school anyway.
I didn't know what to expect and was worried we shouldn't be late, but it wouldn't have been a big deal at all. We were there with plenty of time to kill. Abi took Peter outside.
We kissed him inside.
We ate. I wasn't impressed with the dinner. There was no salad! There were no vegetables at all! Come on people, calling a bunch of little appetizers a "dinner" was a bit of a stretch. It would have been nicer if they had kept expectations low and just said "light refreshments". Also it's pretty silly to serve salmon on potato chips and think you can make it fancy by calling them "potato crisps"
The shrimp was good enough...
We kept thinking that there had better be desserts to make up for this lousy dinner. (Sorry, I'm being ungrateful) We sat by Corey's parents. We waited. Sophi asked how much longer we had to be there and wasn't happy with the reply.
The concert was nice. Mel did a few numbers.
And she loved on Peter and showed him off to her friends when she wasn't performing.
I spent a good portion of the evening nursing Peter outside.
Which is why I usually don't want to go to these performances anyway, I kinda feel like what's the point, but I'm glad I was able to try and support Mel. It wasn't that bad being outside, and I was able to catch Mel's number even though I was standing and rocking Peter in the back of the room. After it was over we were able to catch this photo of Mel with her two flute teachers who Mel has been so fortunate to be instructed by: Susan Goodfellow and April Clayton.
And, thankfully for our empty tummies they did have lots of decent sized desserts, and in my uncontrolled hunger I ate too many coconut cookies.
In case you didn't know, we all think Peter is super cute.
He's started to grasp his hands, these are a few pictures from yesterday -
Good job Peter! You got your hands! You are so smart!!
Here's a video of the action -
Here's one of him practicing with the hanging gym thing today.
And him asleep this morning.
He's such a pretty baby. Love those cheeks!
So there's our dose of Peter for the day. Ready for the weekend. Things are busy. Yesterday was particularly crazy after school. Thursdays were already hard with Sophi's violin lesson, Mel's flute, and Ethan's sax, so we decided to step it up a notch and have Abi take flute lessons today too. Those just started this month. So it was already busy, and we made it harder on ourselves by standing firm with making Mel and Ethan pay for their own gas. Mel had already put in her $15 bucks, so she got to use a car. Ethan hasn't been working the past few months - he has fallen through the cracks at Costa Vida but only texts the new manager and won't go in to talk to them in person. He said last week that he got a job at Subway and so that just started this week. But since the car needed gas money, and he hasn't been paid yet, he couldn't put in his half for gas. so he couldn't take then car, so I drove him to his lesson in Orem. (Gas for the Fiesta averages about $30 a week right now, so I suggested they each budget about $15 a week.) Driving him made things a big more complicated for us, but being firm on this is more important. I'm excited for the school year to be over next month.
So. Last night before scriptures, Corey thought he'd share one of his videos from his youtube and internet findings. It was an Unreported World episode called "The Vietnam Dog Snatchers". He only got 20 seconds into sharing it with us though, cause after the 3 clips in those first 20 seconds, the kids were screaming. Especially Lily. Well thanks for that sweetie! I added a few comments: why do we care about dogs and our pets but we eat other animals? You know pigs are just as smart at dogs. If we humans say we care about animals, well hey, maybe we shouldn't eat them? I'm glad Corey showed them the start of that video. They didn't like it, but I do believe it has helped push them another step in the hopefully plant-based eating direction. This morning, I found this note on Lily's shelf with a little reminder she made for herself:
I watched the whole video today. It is sad to watch, so you've been warned.
Here's one more vegan-ish article I've been meaning to share - a cow now named Brianna that escaped the slaughter house truck and delivered a baby calf 2 days later. I read that in January, after I was driving Wes home after picking him up from a LBB Tour, and on the drive home we passed like 5 semi trucks full of cows. It made me sad. I'm glad to plant based.
What else. Abi had an orthodontist appointment today, and right after that I had planned to go to the Tulip Festival with my dad. My mom came too, and we drove down together - Mom, Dad, me and a few kids. We got rained out though. Like downpour. We headed home rather than wait it out to see if it stopped. Kinda bummed, I don't know why I didn't check the weather this morning. Hopefully we have another chance to go before the festival ends.
Today was a good day. Iveth came over and helped me clean for the first time. She is going to come twice a week on Monday and Wednesday, but we did it on Tuesday this week cause we went to the Tulip Festival yesterday. She was here for 3 and a half hours and we did the main floor, it looks great and it is nice of her to come help me! I'm grateful to have her help. We are going to pay her, but I also think and hope this will work for what Corey wants (a maid and a clean house) and what I want (a friend who I feel comfortable with if I'm going to be letting someone in our home frequently). I feel like our meeting Iveth and their family coming into our life is a total perfect answer to prayer.
So, even with a clean house, it gets crazy. Today, like most school days, our home got a little busy and crazy as the day wore on ~ busy with kids playing and music practicing going on. Today after school, Corey went over Mel's college planning and expenses with her. She got another scholarship, and with that has her entire first year of college at BYU paid for! Go Mel!
Time to get these other kids ready to launch. Having them involved in music is part of Corey's master plan to get his kids self sufficient and prepared to leave the nest. He started teaching Lily the saxophone last year. He often helps her with it as she practices. He is her teacher and her lessons blend into her practicing time. Sophia takes violin. Her lessons are on Thursdays. Her teacher is Mrs. Amy. Today, as Lily and Sophi both practiced, Sophi got a little jealous. She did not like Corey giving Lily so much attention and not helping her at all. Mel goes to Sophi's lessons with her and helps her practice (pic 3). But tonight Sophi wanted her dad's attention. She told him she was upset at his unfair treatment of her (Hyrum can tell you to watch out when you get our little Princess Sophia ticked at you!) Corey tried to apolgize and reassure Sophia of his love through song -
He sang to her as she colored and scowled.
After he was done singing, I asked her if she liked the song. With a frown, she let me know that it wasn't a real song. "He just made it up"
He did all the woo-ing he could, but he work to finish and other kids who wanted attention, so he had to move on. He swooped her up in her chair, gave her a kiss, told her he loved her, and to not be sad.
So there was music practicing and kid drama, and then we've also got all these noise makers having fun.
Hyrum is good at playing with them. He is good at letting Owen choke him with the force or use other super powers to over come him. We are very grateful for him keeping them happy and occupied in their fun games of strong toddlers and a princess that needs to be revived.
Today I went down to Thanksgiving Point with my friend Iveth and a van full of our kids in tow. I've gone to the festival before, it is a lovely experience. The Gardens are always beautiful, and it's not just in the springtime. But the tulip festival is special cause it's such a short window. So I renewed our family membership today. I join every other year or so, so my plan is that when the tulip festival is on next year, we'll be able to catch it before our membership expires. And if I don't get burnt out, who knows, maybe we'll renew it in 2020.
Corey and I agreed we should pay for Iveth and her kids to come with me, cause we insisted she see it.
It's like a stroll through heaven! (put on your walking shoe, Daniel! On second thought, those look a little big for you...)
I didn't take my nice camera or take a ton of pictures, cause I have several hundred pics of tulips from years before and still haven't done anything with those. (2018, 2016 before the hail storm and after, and 2013) So I decided to hold off on increasing my tulip photo collection for now.
Iveth loved it.
What do you think Natalie? Aren't all the flowers so pretty!?
I didn't over exaggerate or exceed her expectations by going on about how amazing it was.
The Tulip Festival delivered!
We stopped for a snack and I fed Peter. He was a perfect angel almost the whole time.
Iveth's favorite was the Secret Garden.
One of my favorites too
Cute Owen.
Maria and Natalie. We enjoyed the Light of the World Garden too. That was the last place we walked through, only we did the Savior's life in reverse on accident. Not a big deal, but hopefully I'll remember next time (start at the left/north side, not south)
Italian Garden -
We stayed and enjoyed it and that made Natalie a little late for kindergarten, not a big deal. It was a great and appropriate way to spend Earth day! Here again are a few links of the other times we've gone - 2018 for Joseph and Mel's concert, then in 2016 before the hail storm and after, and our first year as members in 2013. We love Thanksgiving Point, what a blessing for our community!
This blanket is hanging by a thread. I wonder what will happen if the tag part falls off? Hang on little blanket! Blankie Man needs you. Here is Peter asleep in our bed, all nice and snug, Corey in the heap of blankets behind him
