Third Toe Operation

While Ethan was out selling pest control in California, his ingrown toe nail returned. ...for the third time! We naively thought his toe trials were over in Apr 2018, but it came back in Aug 2019 (last pic). So for him to have it come back again is just sad for him. He thinks his toe has a death wish... "Just amputate me!" He was pretty sad to have his toenail look so thin after that second surgery, so it's even thinner now and won't quite match his other foot, but hopefully his future wife will not have high standards regarding toenail shape. Ethan took a video of the surgery, in case any of our future family historians want to go look for that in Ethan's files. He drove himself there to his appointment and back, and was fine most of the day. He started to feel the pain tonight. "Why me?!"

We've all got our trials, Eth. This is just your toe's cross to bear. And here's hoping that it won't come back during the two years of his mission! That might be pushing our luck since he's had it ingrown 3x in the past two years, but hopefully the next two years will be more kind than the past two.

Here's our daily documentary of Peter. The babies get the most documentation here. This morning he was grumpy, as usual. I did get a recording of his sound though! When we all talk to him, this is usually his answer to any of our questions, demonstrated here: "Mn Hm". I wasn't sure if that typing of it would make it clear for future posterity or historians what this sound was, so yay for this recording of our little Peter and his trademark sound. Now we can always remember it.

He get's less grumpy as the morning passes. Here he is playing with his toys, little smile.

Then he made this new facial expression that I hadn't seen him make before -

Peter! What is that face? Are you surprised?

Or perhaps he just had a stroke of genius? That must be what Lily took it for, cause she made this on my phone:

Cute. In other news, Corey's had an interesting day. He came home from work early so he could take Father David up to Park City. Corey booked it for him and offered it so he'd have a place to stay for the week besides the 2 bedroom basement apartment with a Latino family of 5. Corey thought he was giving him a ride up and that they'd have a chance to visit about religion, but when he went to pick him up, Father D said "So I'll follow you?" Turns out he has a car. We didn't know that, I guess we don't know a lot about Catholic priests. But since Iveth and Diego have given him a ride up to SL when he's come, we thought he didn't have one. so anyway, that was kinda a waste of time for Corey, but he was glad he had invited Mel, so they had a nice visit. Corey dropped Mel so she could change the sheets and clean up the room (cause Corey and kids had stayed up there Sunday night). Corey was going to give Father David a little tour of Park City, but like 15 minutes into the drive Father D kinda cut it short by saying he had to hurry back, he still had a lot of prayers to get through tonight. So they went back to the Westgate, luckily Mel finished just in time (the sheets in the dryer hadn't been started, but the hotel brought up a new set for her to put on) Corey and Father D were able to talk a little on that drive around Park City and Corey learned that our neighborhood friend Brian, who likes to take out people's trash and ask for free buttom up shirts (to put on his bike trailer, he likes how they blow in the wind) probably took Father D's coat when Father D was doing laps around the LDS church as he recited some of his prayers. Brian stopped by on his bike ride was taking a bathroom stop by the pavilion and saw the coat and most likely took it. Corey tried to find out if Brian did, but he and his dad say he didn't and that Brian always gets accused of taking things. Father D is absolutely positive it was him and seemed upset. So, that was too bad. And then Corey and Mel started to drive back from Park City after going to eat and laugh at how the evenign didn't go as planned. Then after they got home, Corey checked in with Father D is the room was ok, and Father D was back with Iveth and Diego. He couldn't stay in the Westgate room cause of mold. So, that was a lot of work for nothing. But Corey and the kids can go up there again now, I guess? Kinda funny. It's our version of sitcom television drama.

Another cute moment from tonight - Natalie helping Daniel take a solemn oath, and Daniel played along not knowing what was going on... "I Daniel..." "I Daniel..." "Will not play with Lily's lego dragons" "Will not play with lego dragons" "or Natalie's barbies...." "Or Natalie's barbies" Yeah, he definitely didn't know what he was committing to or else he would not have agreed, since I know he's gonna break that oath pronto, so it was funny.

They administered several oaths to him, He also tried to take the oath as he held his hand at his head in a salute, cute kids. Goodnight.

Park City and Anzack Park

Corey and ALSN spent the night up in Park City at the Westgate Resort. Corey booked a week up there for Father David, our Catholic priest friend. He arrived here in SL today and Corey will take him up there tomorrow. So since Sunday night was open, Corey decided to go with the girls. It was a smaller room that only sleeps 4, hence the small group of them that slept over. Corey took the fiesta up yesterday, and then today Mel took the van to drive up herself and EHW. I don't have any pictures of their fun up there, but I hear they had fun swimming. I was glad that MEHW were able to sneak off without ODP noticing...

Thankfully they were engrossed in play downstairs, busy with all of Lily's stuff. She's worked hard finding lots of legos and remaking all of her dragons for like the 3rd time. I thought ODP were being pretty careful and didn't destroy or lose anything that I'm aware of. Peter was being such a stinker this morning. He woke up way too early, and I tried to nurse him back to sleep but he woke up when I tried to get away. I did't have anything left to give, so I said no more, and he didn't like that. So then he got as far away from me as he could and cursed me.

I know he just was tired, but he's got to teach himself to go to sleep. Peter, I can't nurse you to bed all the time! He just raged at me from across the room and I laughed.

Then I remembered that I had another trick of my sleeve. This one used to be my trick that worked on 3 year old Ethan. Ethan, like Peter, would fall asleep if he'd just hold still long enough. And cleaning their ears makes them hold still for long enough, so yay, P took a nap and I got away undetected.

I spent lots of time cleaning today as I listened to scriptures and General Conference talks, it was great. I cranked up the speed of my cleaning a notch around 4, cause we had company coming at 5pm. Ethan was scheduled to be ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood at that time, so my parents and Corey's parents and a leader from our Stake leadership were coming over. That was a very nice event, which I will try to document later. Then we hurried out to Anzack Park, close to my childhood home, for a fun picnic and activity with the Hibberts. (I just googled that, and it's actually spelled "Antczak" - how weird!)

My little brother and his family are in town from Texas for a reunion that they had up in Idaho, and they are heading back up there, but they came down for a few days here. So we all met up and it was so good and fun to be together! We had a few games of Spikeball.

Cousin Aurora was so nice and kept he toddlers happy on the swing.

More spikeball - the games getting intense! (none of us are very good yet)...

Spikeball spectators -

We had some snacks for dinner - mostly fingerfoods, like chips, cracker, fruit and cookies. Then we went up for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. I went to see the game, and it was Wrides vs. Hibberts!

And with that division of people the teams were even! Peter watching the game. He never got ran over, yay.

I think the Hibberts won. I did make one pretty sweet catch for a point though! ...and missed the rest of the catches and made lots of bad throws for the rest of the time. And then we went to the lower field for an epic soccer game. The teams for that were mixed and we had a few walk on's of kids that were at the park, so that was fun. There was a picture of me playing while holding Peter, Corey did that too. It was a fun game, Abi scored like 5 goals! It was good to run around. After that it was getting dark so we started to wind things up. It was a good to be together!

Saturday Outing

This morning was the usual morning routine: Peter woke up crying, nursed him, then got his diaper changed, got dressed, and then he shook things up by walking into MOD's room and started flipping through books.

Cute little guy.

He is sweet and he won't be little for long, so I keep telling myself to not think I'm a victim to him and his nursing, I can set some boundaries or figure this out. So what did we do today - we still don't have a good schedule, but the kids did work a little bit today. And then my niece Aurora "Ro" came over (who is staying with my parent's for a few months) and we let Daniel and Natalie attack her, and then Corey took her and some kids out for some fun. First to the Quarry Trail for a little bike ride, then back home for a bit, then to play some Frisbee Golf in Murray I think. Again, no pictures of their outing. I tried to send them to myself, but they are all stupid HEIC images instead of JPEG or PNG, so I can't open any of them. We'll see if I try again. If I don't, I would like to wish my children and posterity good luck finding them among Corey's millions of picture files.

While Corey and the older kids were gone at their frisbee outing, I was here with the littles. Daniel was trying to climb in my room to reach a toy unicorn (my Moonbeam and Firefly My little Pony babies from my childhood.) He made a tower with a bin, yoga blocks and a pot....

And the pot fell and broke. He said sorry, it was an accident. I started to sing that familiar song as I threw the broken pot pieces in the garbage and started to vacuum...\

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in.

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

but I changed the last line to "and some things get totally destroyed"

I liked this pot, too bad for me. I guess I haven't planted any flowers for a while, so no biggie. For the past year I was using it to hold some of Peter's toys. One other thing from today - I was asking Joseph, my pest control selling kid, to help me identify this pest, cause it is out of control around here.

He thinks it's a "squash bug". We don't have any squash anywhere, so I don't know what the freak these guys are doing here but they are EVERYWHERE and I broke out the Raid for a DIY pest control job today. They are kinda like Box Elder bugs, but I don't see any of the red ones, just these little gray ones with kinda orange abdomens. They almost look like these kissing bugs, but they don't have the stick-like mouth. We might need to get pest control, cause these guys are driving me nuts. Joseph and Ethan, too bad you didn't knock on my door, I would be a quick and easy sell. But Dewey isn't in Utah, so Ethan recommended Orkin, I'll look into it. Or we'll see if someone knocks on my door. These bugs have been around for a few summers, and maybe we've waited too long and the damage is done and they have a colony somewhere. Or they might all be flying over here from the dead cottonwood tree at the end of the street in front of us. I don't know but ugh I am so sick of these guys.

Ethan is Home!

Ethan came home on Wednesday after spending seven weeks in California selling pest control. Welcome home Ethan! He looks the same, just with nice pest control tan lines on his legs and arms now. Ethan missed Peter the most. When Ethan hugged him, Peter acted like he was seeing a ghost or something. He didn't quite know how to act.  "Peter! It's me!!" followed by "What did you guys do to him?!?!"

Peter was acting like he was thinking "This guy looks familiar... but he also seems like a stranger... no, I've seen him on the phone, but now he's here... how did that happen? I guess it's safe to pretend to hug him..."

We'll give it a few days, the memories will come back.

And then just like that, Ethan will vanish again off to the world of home MTC. His mission start date is still July 14th and he got notice this week that he will not be trained in Mexico. We saw that coming though. We're not sure how he's going to do that - whether he'll do it here in the basement (I think it's not ideal, I'm sure there will be too many distractions and interruptions for him. Maybe in Corey's at home office it might work...) or he's throwing out feelers to see if he can go to his grandparents' house, or maybe I'll reach out to some neighbors who are empty nesters to see if they want to host him. We'll see. As for now, he's been gone every night since he got back, hanging out with his friends before they go their different ways for their missions. Ethan has been sending us great Marco Polo and What's app videos while he's been in California. He's not into much writing or texting... he likes to vlog his life. I don't think that makes them very easy to search when you're trying to find a memory, hence why I blog. Here is one last video that he sent us this morning.

He arrived home at 7:30-ish on Wednesday night. He came home, showered and changed his clothes,

Then he left to go bowling with "da boiz". Then it made us laugh that three hours later, he texted Corey: "I don't belong here. I'm having a seizure. I could be making bank right now. I'm actually feeling really sad. I miss Lancaster." Thursday morning he continued is sadness: "I miss Lancaster so much! I feel like I just got back from a tour, but I literally didn't have any fun (on the tour). I don't know why I'm missing Lancaster. I want to make bank and buy a Range Rover!"

Also, when he got back that first night from hanging out, he went to bed and didn't enjoy sleeping in the middle of the triple bunk bed. He let me know the next morning that he'd like to move into the basement. "It was literally so hot last night. And it took 20 min to get out of that bed. Joseph and Talmage are my best friends and I literally miss them. George and Truman are stupid. I'm having a mini panic attack. Why do I love it so much now that I'm home?!" It's been very entertaining to watch his withdrawl. (And Truman, George, I don't think he really thinks you guys are stupid, he was just seeking a verbal outlet.) Corey said that the thing that makes Ethan so fun (and also difficult sometimes) to live with is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. Joseph has polo'd him some comforting words. Joseph said that he and Talmage miss Ethan too. It's a lot more quiet and boring without him, but they've also been a bit more productive in some ways, so they're trying to look at the bright side.

So it's been fun. Today is "date night" (which is one of the only things on our weekly schedule that let's us know what day it is...) Corey worked at his parents house today, so I picked him up, then we went to Beaumont Bistro again, and then we went on a hike up Millcreek Canyon. We didn't know where we were, and didn't have reception so we couldn't figure it out while we were on our walk/hike. But after we got home I figured out that we were up Porter Fork, I think I found the rock that we finally found to sit on so we could eat our picnic. There was like no place to sit in that little canyon. Next time we'll probably go up Little Cottonwood, but it was kinda fun to explore and not know where we were going. As we turned a corner, it looked like there was an open space and Corey thought perhaps we had found a meadow.

...but it was a dumpster. And it was really full, well past the max. Someone should come haul it away and empty it. We ate by a little stream (Porter fork, right?)

I think I found the rock we sat on, but I couldn't totally tell cause there was no street view.

Back at home, I read a great article by Tad Callister in the Church news. Go read the whole article, it's not long but it's great, and timely with all the protests going on. So we'll end with my favorite part of his message, the "beautiful babies" part by F.W. Boreham, a Baptist minister:

“(In 1809) men were following, with bated breath, the march of Napoleon, and waiting with feverish impatience for latest news of the wars. And all the while in their own homes, babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles. … In one year, lying midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes! During that one year, 1809, Mr. (William) Gladstone was born in Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson at the Somersby rectory; and … Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg. … But nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles. Yet … which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? …

“We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies at home. When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it.”

I am so grateful to have one of the beautiful babies of 2019 in my home. Is there a wrong that needs righting, or a truth that needs preaching, that this beautiful boy will share? I wonder what work God has sent my/His little Peter to do

As for today, my heart has been full to just behold him playing with his duplo blocks. ...and taking selfies

Mel and I enjoyed being present and beholding him. Peter will be grown up and going on a mission like Ethan before we know it, cherish these small moments, they pass quickly.

Wesley is 15!

Another quarantine birthday! Happy birthday Wes! "This guy is FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! Do you know how wise and experienced he is?!?!?"

I got up early to decorate but it was already done. Wes woke up early too. Owen was awake cause he's our other early riser. I'm not sure what got Sophi out of bed, but she and O joined Wes and I as we sang happy birthday and let him open his two presents: headphones from me and a boomerang and metal earth ship from Sophi (Corey). Everyone else was still asleep, until we started to sing Happy Birthday and broke out the donuts, safe from Corona style, aka still wrapped. Blow out the lighter and make a wish!

Working on Blackbeard's ship. I like the Metal Earth things, they're pretty cool. Wes worked on it for about 3 hours. He's already making a list of the next models he wants - on the list is the Salt Lake Temple. The Metal Earth doesn't have a Mayflower ship, maybe I'll get a model kit for him (or for myself, here's another choice). I like models that have some significance, and a Mayflower one would because of the pilgrims (have you read the Pilgrim Hypothesis yet? Go get it)

Corey's parent's came over for a birthday visit outside.

Wes is always asking for Febreeze for his skates and I never remember to get it on my grocery errands. Well Happy Birthday Wes, Grandma came through for you! And deodorant and some shirts too.

My mom brought over his card and gift earlier around noon, and a mint chocolate cake. We saved that cake until dinner so that Corey could have some (we didn't save any of Lily's cakes for him). (Not sure he cared. He didn't have any of Wesley's tonight)... After dinner Wes had a hockey game, cause Thursday night is street hockey night! He tried inviting friends, but only one ended up being able to come, and Corey nailed her in the face with the ball and that is when the game ended I think. They came back home and Corey took the car to go buy ice cream for Anna. So that was fun. Iveth and Diego's kids came to play hockey last week and again this week. Afterwards the kids were all here playing and had ice cream and cake with us. Make another corona birthday wish, Wes!

Diego came to pick up his kids and he and Corey talked for over 90 minutes about religion and what's the latest, from their point of view, with Catholocism. I'm going to go on a little tangent here.... so their priest who we met a few weeks ago, Father David from Las Vegas, is moving up here this weekend. Corey has been very nice trying to help them find a place for him to live and a place for them all to hold mass. We come from a church with a lay ministry, so this all seems a bit over the top from what we are used to doing in our ward, but it's been a good and interesting experience. Corey arranged (and paid) for him to stay in Park City at the Wyndham for a week while they try to help him find a place. We have a lot of questions about Catholicism and we've done a lot of research ourselves. ...and it would be great if they had some for us about the Church of Jesus Christ, but if they don't, that's ok. We'll continue to set forth good example (like we've been learning about this week with Ammon!) and will wait upon the Lord to do his work. We've known them for over a year and I was a little frustrated a few months ago when they seemed to be avoiding us (after we invited them to Sophi's baptism there were a few weird exchanged over text with Iveth and then basically ghosted us. They were always too busy to do anything, so we were like ok, whatever) ...sorry, where was I... So I was frustrated and thinking "They could know the truth if they'd just read the Book of Mormon!!!" but they won't read it and I was talking to Nicole about it and she said something that has since guided my thinking... "They aren't interested 'cause they aren't looking for the truth." Hmm, well when I think of it that way, my frustration leaves. When they are looking for the truth, we'll be ready. And also, if I really believe that Christ is doing his own work, then I don't need to force anything on anyone. He is doing the work. D&C 101:16 - "Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God."

We can and should continue to be ready to share a reason for the hope that is in us (Peter 3:15). We've taken them to temple square twice, they've come to church once, we've all gone to modern mass with them and Corey and MEW went to Latin mass (that is a funny story), we've shared lots of stories of the miracles of America and of the pioneers. They know a lot of the wonderful members of the ward in our neighborhood, they've gone to see the Tabernacle Choir with Corey, a BYU ballroom perforamance with us, etc etc and as far as we can tell: not interested.... no questions. As far as we know, they believe the Catholic doctrine that our whole family will be in purgatory cause the Catholic church doesn't recognize LDS baptism. But they don't even think the pope is legitimate right now - so then where is their authority via Saint Peter if they don't recognize the pope and his authority!? There's a lot of drama, and Corey knows most of it and I'm busy with kids but catch a little here and there, so it's interesting to watch and be a part of a little bit. Corey and I aren't into any tv dramas, we like "real life" dramas, ha. So yeah, we'll see where it leads. They do say we'd be great Catholics though, and that we are better Catholics than they are (that's probably just cause of the 12 kids thing).

One more story of people looking for truth - so we've taken them to so many thing and exposed them to a lot of the fruit of the gospel, but there's no interest. Compare that to the Banza family in Elder Renlund's October 2019 General Conference talk - all Brother Banza had to do was SEE THE NAME of the church on a chapel as he passed by it on the bus, and that was enough to start his faith conversion! Just seeing the name! it made him curious: "Does Jesus Christ have Saints now, in the latter days?" He decided to go and see.

"Brother and Sister Banza were greeted warmly at the branch. They asked some of the persistent questions they had about the nature of God, such as, “If God is a spirit, like the wind, how could we be created in His likeness? How could He sit on a throne?” They had never received a satisfactory answer until the missionaries explained restored doctrine in a brief lesson. When the missionaries left, the Banzas looked at each other and said, “Isn’t this the truth that we have heard?” They continued coming to church and meeting with the missionaries. They knew that baptism in the restored Church of Jesus Christ would have consequences. They would be stripped of their scholarships, their visas would be revoked, and they and their two young children would be required to leave Switzerland. They chose to be baptized and confirmed in October 1979."

People that are looking for the truth will receive answers to their prayers that will be lead step by step to Christ and His restored church.  I love Jesus Christ and want try to serve him with all my heart. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is His church on the earth to help us prepare for His second coming. I know President Nelson is a prophet of God, I came to know that after reading the book Insights about his life. Joseph Smith was a true prophet. The Book of Mormon is the fruit that we can take, read, and test to know for ourselves if these things are true. Ok, that's my religion tangent for the day.

Lily is 11!

It's another quarantine birthday! First was Ethan, then me, Corey and now Lily. Happy ding-dong Birthday Lily! (that's a penguins of madagascar quote)

And this year is a double digit birthday! Corey just had one of those. Lil, your next one will be at 22! Opening presents from her siblings and from Corey and I.

And I was the one that set an alarm and got up early to decorate! Go me.

Lots of our birthday box letters are ripped, I cut some new letters up this morning for Lily. I should probably make new ones. The laminated paper I used to make these letters are blue and yellow papers that, if my memory serves me correctly, I got from the discard bin at the elementary school when Hyrum was in 1st grade and I was over there volunteering.

So probably almost 10 years ago. Hmm. I should cut my own cardstock and go laminate my own letters, probably. We have a summer of birthdays coming up, so we'll see if I can get it done before September, which is when the birthday's hit pause again until spring.

Also, as I looked at this box this morning, I think we use it often enough that I should go through the effort to make this box official. No need to use a Costco box from bell peppers... I should get something legit and nice. My mom brought over an ice cream cake. We didn't want Lily's corona all over it, so we sang to her and then let her pretend to blow out the lighter.

No breathing on the cake!

Lily's friend Isa was over here to play today - They are good friends. 

 Happy Birthday to you!

So today we had ice cream for breakfast, ice cream cake for lunch, and eggs for dinner. After dinner, everyone wanted to watch a movie for Lily's birthday. They really really really wanted to watch Sharknado. Corey showed them the trailer for that last week as a joke, and now they can't stop thinking about how awesome it would be to see. "It looks so amazing! I want to watch it!" - Wes, to which Corey replied "You won't be able to get that hour of your life back..." They're ok with wasting hours on end watching pointless shows, so that argument didn't help our cause. Tonight, though, instead of Sharknado, we watched Alice in Wonderland, the one with Johnny Depp, which I think was probably equally terrifying, if not more so. Wesley might play the birthday card on Thurs to watch Sharknado. We watched a bad movie last night too - The Pirate Fairy.

Corey's plan was to keep the little kids happy and distracted with a kid movie, so we and the older kids could play a game. Peter joined us at the table, so I had to leave with him cause we didn't want to play AP Pandemic. Pandemic was a new game Corey just got, timely and relates to current events, so it sounded good, but they never got past the instructions.... so they gave up and played 5000. I came back to take a few pictures, and Corey headed to bed and I joined the game with Peter. AP 5000 isn't too hard. But the older kids were distracted by the pirate movie (made it easy for me to cheat)

Mel watched the movie via the window reflection...

The kids were amazed at the pirate fairy's strength fighting against the young Captain Hook. "Man! What kind of metal is her sword made of?!?!? It's like sword fighting against a humming bird! They've got serious skills!" They were curious at the logisitcs and had deep though provoking questions like that about how realistic and accurate the show was. It's like when Hyrum watched Leap Frog and he's amazed the Professor Quigly. (Deep thoughts there by Hyrum as Ethan set up for the Red Carpet event back in April). Quigly had so much he could offer to the world, yet he settled for working in an alphabet factory. Hyrum thinks there's a conspiracy going on there... they're secretly going to raise an alphabet army to take over the world or something.

I practiced lots of violin yesterday and today, things are going pretty good. I took lots of notes yesterday at the girl's violin lessons. I was amazed at their teacher's ability to remain calm as she teaches.

I get pretty frustrated with us practicing cause they don't care. I know it's normal, but I'm lacking on being patient as I do my best to insist on practicing and they insist on resisting.

Ethan is coming home tomorrow. Thankfully we have his bed ready. Triple bunk in Wes and Hyrum's room in the middle. We'll see if we can find a place for him to keep his clothes and stuff. He has two weeks before he starts home MTC. He did forward me an email about that, so it's official that he's not going to the Mexico MTC. We might see if an empty nester neighbor will take him when that MTC starts, cause I think there will be too many distractions in our home. Corey's dad was over here making a ramp yesterday - so that we'll be set for everyone to be able to get into the house when Ethan gets set apart.

The kids had fun helping him, watching him work, and going to Home Depot with him for supplies. Ok, going to bed and hopefully get a good start on the day tomorrow.

Peter napping yesterday, cute little guy.