Trumpet Lesson

Today I'm leaving for Colorado for the weekend for my nieces' wedding. I'm going with my parents and brother and sister and sister's hubby. We're representing the Hibbert Sibling clan, Matt's representing the in-laws, and Peter is reppin' the cousins. I haven't packed yet, and I need to, but if you're like me, you start to not think clearly right before a trip... and I just start wanting to grab everything thinking I might use it. And I'm being weird and thinking I should take my violin, as if I'll be able to skype a lesson to Sophi ad Natalie after school? Yeah, probably won't happen. Ok fine I'll leave it. It will probably be a tight fit in the van anyway. I prob just want to bring it cause I had a good lesson with myself this morning. And Owen heard me practicing and he went to get his trumpet so he could practice, what a good boy.

Owen! You're so good at trumpet!

Then Daniel was interested....

So Owen showed him how it was done and gave him a lesson on the couch.

"Ok, you're turn!" It is so funny how they're so little that they can hold the end of trumpet with their.

It was really cute to watch. Also after the 1 minute mark where Daniel shows such embarrassment/disappointment with himself as he puts his head in his hand and shakes his head, haha, so cute. He does it two more times before and after the 2 minute mark

And now I better go pack! I need to be at my mom's at 1.

Big and Little Brothers

Today I just thought I'd post some very similar but still slightly different photos of everyone's favorite - PETER!

I couldn't decide which one was the best, so you get to see all of them.

And I know his hand is moving and thus blurry in that one above, but he was laughing! So it was an adorable smile, so I still had to post it. So cute, huh.

It was a good day. I arranged for a maid to come today, and I arranged it all by myself. Iveth isn't able to help us anymore, and that is a bummer for me cause I was comfortable with her and we love her and I love the help, but I can't blame her. She said she's just really busy, and I bet she is cause she's really good at getting involved with things. Anyway, even if she wasn't busy, I wouldn't blame her if she just didn't want to come. I wouldn't want to be away from my kids, even if it was just one at home. Still, I have missed having someone here helping me clean. So, there is another neighbor who works sometimes that was recommended. She was here from 10-noon. It was fine, not sure if I'll have her again though. I tried to tell her several times I'd like someone every week but she didn't seem eager to have a regular schedule set up, so whatever, I guess I'll text her when I'm really desperate. Right after she left I put the boys down for a nap, and so it was clean when kids got home. Here is a funny picture of Daniel with Wesley after school. Daniel wanted Wes to lay on his lap, and then he checked if his eye were closed by poking them shut.

and Wesley tried not to laugh...

Poke... poke.  

Are you asleep?

Good. And then Daniel would rub Wes' tummy.

Here's a picture of E snuggling Peter, Eth got him to sleep.

Too bad I had to move him and bring him into my room. Ethan offered to keep him, but babies need their mommies during the night. Atleast this one does cause I feed on demand, and cause I don't trust how conscious Ethan would be if he were woken up at 2am, just based on what I know it's like trying to get him up in the morning after a full nights rest.

Backyard is Clear

At the beginning of the summer, our lawn mower broke. I'm guessing it was probably the old gasoline that was in it, as I only semi-recently learned that gasoline gets old. Needless to say, we are new to maintenance of home and small machinery. So, I kinda looked at new lawnmowers at Costco, but then I thought ugh, we'll just end up breaking that one... cause we don't know how to take care of them!! Did I tell you our freaking new snowblower broke and we weren't able to use it at all last winter?!?! (Note to self, we should take that to the shop before it snows this year!) Well, instead of buying a new lawnmower, we've hired out the yard this year. One morning as Corey left for work, he saw a guy doing yard work and turned around and ask him if he was available for work and brought him to our house to ask for a quote. Marcos has been our lawn guy since. He's great!! He mows, he edges! He leaf blows and he hauls away. And he's dependable! I recognize that most hired help is, but the kids aren't, and since they've been doing the yard up until now, this is a welcome thing to know that it will be trimmed on Thursday mornings. The kids were telling me that the would have showed up too if we paid them like we're paying Marcos. I said we would have if they had done as good as a job as Marcos! Anyway, so it's not Thursday, but Marcos came today and the worked and cleared out the back yard, and it's like a new place. He was careful with the milkweed. I've thought before that in our life, we don't have time to plant flowers, but I would just like to be able to get the weeds gone and see the dirt. Thank you Marcos for helping us see the dirt again!!

He worked for over 7 hours, and then he hauled it all away...

We like Marcos. This morning I was giving him a check and he was like "I'd like to make a nice place for your family, you have 3 or 4 kids?" and then he paused, waiting for an answer... "We have... 12..." and his jaw dropped. That's the usual reaction, so my immediate response to get the conversation moving again is "Here's a picture" (I keep it handy on my phone). So I told him Joseph is in Guatemala, he's 19, the baby is 7 months. And that reminds me, we need family pictures again soon! I think we'll do it in October after I get my braces off, yay. But I don't know what to do for Joseph... I don't think I'll do a cutout, but I'm wondering if we have a picture of him in a frame, or is he just not there? I guess we can do one picture of each and we'll see how it looks with both? What else has been going on today. Daniel went down for his nap today like a good resistant toddler he is (aka said "NO!" until he collapsed.

Our two caterpillars are in their last phase and are being very good caterpillars.

We've had no drama at all this year. Two caterpillars is probably the right amount for a stress free experience. But I'd still like to have a great monarch year like we did in 2017.

So the caterpillars are resilient enough to hold now, but they mostly just played dead when we picked them up. They curl up as tight as they can in a little ball...

"I'm not a caterpillar! I'm a little rock! Just put me back in the bushes please!!!" Daniel was and is a very careful toddler, but I still get nervous. I trusted Lily with him a little more, cause she's been doing this for years!

And two more things... I was in the basement for a while today with the little boys. They like to go down there so Owen can destroy the things the girls are working on (sorry girls.) I found this little lego robot and got a kick out of it. I want to keep it on my shelf, I think it's so funny and cute.

I'm guessing this is a Wesley creation. And, with the start of the school year, I'm happy that I've got my morning routine back in place. I've been going outside on walks, and I thought this morning that I'll try to get one picture for my lovely world blog every morning that I go out, if I can. That's the goal anyway.

I chose the mosaic layout for that blog cause I just like seeing all the photos of flowers together, so pretty. And I also started that blog so that I could have a place for my aspiring photographer photos without overloading the family blog like I have a tendency to do! (Here's a few links to a few... more... examples.

A Toddler's Life

On Saturday, Owen was acting out the latest Disney movie that he's started to memorize. Should be pretty easy to guess what the movie is...

If you need a hint, Owen is a grasshopper and Lily is the Princess Ant. Sorry the title of the youtube video gives it away. Oh well, and yes, that's right, it's A Bugs Life. Here is Owen as Hopper frustrated with his brother Molt and about to pound him in the face.

Lily was a very helpful supporting actor, playing the parts of the Princess, the Queen, Molt, and the crazy grasshopper too. Daniel tried to be Flick and did a pretty good job being a submissive ant showing deference to the big grasshopper.

In other news, I'm using my blue planner again, only this week I made it pretty. Yesterday I got our my highlighters, markers, and post its - fun fun!

I'm going to make time for the things that are important to me. Holly told us to make sure we prioritize things that are important but not urgent. Like blogging here is not urgent, but it is very important to me. And it's probably also one of the few things that I do right now in my life that will make a difference and will be remembered in 5 or 10 years. Recording our family's history is important. It's not urgent, and so often our life and goals get swept away by the urgent fires that need to be put out each day, but I'm going to make sure I still get my priorities in. That's the goal and I'll track it to make sure I'm reaching my goals.

I'm ready to go and make it a good week!

Off To BYU!!!

Today was a great day at church. We talked about unity and stuff, and one thing I'll just mention here was from a sacrament talk - a new member of our ward and a lovely lady named Stephani, shared a short story of how the parents of a family of 3 kids, to help their children get along, gave them each a chopstick to break. They broke it easily. Then they took 3 chopsticks together and tried to break that and they couldn't. So, it shows the strength of unity. When the kids needed a reminder to help each other out and be united, they'd shout out "Chopsticks!". Well I thought, heck... if that was our family, we'd be a freaking fistful of 12 chopsticks!!! If we are united and help each other out, we are going to be a mighty force to be reckoned with!! That was just one of the awesome things, there were more (Relief Society we talked about Sister Craven's Talk Careful vs. Casual) I'll try to blog that on my spiritual ramblings blog later. I've been neglecting that one, but I have lots of thoughts, just need to make time to record them. I won't be able to catch up on that blog, but will try to post more there going forward. Anyway... in other news...

Today Melodie headed off to her new life at BYU!!! School starts next week, but she went down early to participate in some conference up at Aspen Grove. At our late lunch/early dinner, we all went around the table and said something we love about Mel. She has been a pleasure to have around. We are excited for this next chapter in her life!!! Her check it was between 5-6. Corey took her down there tonight with Hyrum, Wesley, and Abi, and Valentina (a friend from Chile) who came up and spent the night up here with us. (She's here studying English, going to take the Tofel soon and will apply to BYU soon I think?) So, Corey just texted me these pictures (Ethan had my phone so I didn't take any) The van was full with all the loot Mel has collected over the past several weeks in preparation for this exciting moment. But there was room for some kids, but not me and my obligatory side kick (Peter) so I stayed home with them. But I'm sure we'll be able to go down and see Mel's new place soon. We "staying at home" people gave Mel hugs before she left.

I got the last hug, but we'll post that one first, cause I was wearing BYU blue, so it's an appropriate first picture for this post. Hugs all around! Well, a half hug from Ethan...

Silly teenager. Peter got sandwiched in the middle - he needs his own hug though, cause I'm sure Peter is who Melodie is going to miss the most!!!

A hug from Sophi...

A hug from Natalie...

Hug for Daniel...

I think Mel got a hug from Owen before Corey was around to snap the picture. But after sufficient goodbyes, they headed out. Just a short 40 min drive later, they were on campus!

This will be easy, she's not far away at all. Corey teased that we'll probably see her on Labor Day weekend (like in 5 days, ha) Aww, look, little "welcome" balloons!

The big kids were good helpers carrying her stuff to Mel's room.

I think they were a bit jealous of the fun Mel's going to have. Oh, at dinner we also each gave Mel a wish for the upcoming year. Abi's wish for Mel is that she doesn't get fat.

Mel helped out so much with dinner this past week, I'm gonna have to get on top of that. Well, that's about it... one last group hug?

Hyrum showed everyone which window was his room from EFY. He misses EFY. :(

Bye Mel!!! Good luck!! Miss you already!!! (See you Friday?) haha :D

Lost Bunny Rabbit

We have had all sorts of new animal visitors this summer! The usual deer and squirrel friends, snails, spiders and bugs. Then there was the skunk last month. Today we had another animal in our window well - a little bunny rabbit!

On our first attempt to help him, he jumped away and pretty high in an attempt to escape. But not high enough. He was stuck. Unlike with the skunk, however, I wasn't afraid to get in the well with this guy. I got in, put a bin next to him... put a bin lid over him, and slowly closed them together until he jumped inside the bin. Piece of cake!!

The kids were behind me in the basement and outside above me. They took off the well grid above me so I could hand them the bin and get out. Everyone rushed outside to see the bunny run free.

Of course, as soon as they had seen it, they were all asking over and over again "Can we keep him?!?!?!" No, this little bunny wants to go home. And he ran away showing us that he does not want to be our pet!

And that's great, (cause I don't want a pet!) But you were super cute! Bye little bunny!!!

One more picture of a cute thing from tonight - Natalie hurt her toe, and Ethan needed to soak his toe from after his ingrown toenail surgery, so he made a little soak bath that Natalie could share with him. He brought the epsom salts, Natalie brought the confetti. It was cute to see the sibling bonding.

 

And Peter's company always makes things more fun. We have confetti all over the bathroom sink now, kinda hard to get it to not stick. Worth it for the quality bonding time

Outing Experiment

Today I did a little trial run experiment. I decided to see how I'd do taking the little boys out on my own, without Abi or any big kids to help me out. I thought I'd see if it is something I want to try and do during this school year. If it went good, then I'd know I can plant little activities like this throughout my month. If it went badly, then when I got home, I could spend a little recovery "no toddler time" by letting Mel watch them. I gotta take advantage of her while she's still home for three more days. So, since the kids have been playing with the Little People, Owen and Daniel took their respective dinosaurs and we went to the Dinosaur Museum. First we go stand by the great ancestor of Owen's orange T-rex -

Then over to the wall by a brontosaurus for Daniel - get excited!

They were super cute and good the whole time, pointing out the different animals to each other.

And since it was during the school day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

"Wook at dis!! Wook Owen! Wook, DINOSAUR!"

At the water table. That seems to always be the destiny to reach.

And where the kids all congregate. Daniel found another brontosaurus.

It was good, we were in and out pretty quick. I did take Peter, but I held him most of the time. It was 2 hours total time including driving. A little bit of ice cream was enough to bribe them to finish up. If our outings are short and sweet like this, then I shouldn't get burnt out. So we'll see. Back at home, they played Little People some more. 

Peter is Godzilla, about to terrorize the city.

And then I went to the temple for initiatories, yay!

That is something else that I'd like to do every Friday. I love being in the temple, and seeing the lovely flowers on the temple grounds is good food for the soul as well. It was a good day.