Abi Studied!

Abi came home today super excited and happy. "Guess WHAT!" "What?" "I got a 3.8 on my math test!!!!" "That's great!! How does it feel to study and do well?" "It is amazing!" 

In the past, Abi has been a bit of a reluctant student, especially when it comes to math... (see second half of this post). This might be the first time that she really studied and asked for help and tried, and tried again, and guess what that means when you keep at it? You increase your chance of doing great! And Abi did do great this time, way to go. Other times, she just thinks "I don't get it..." and doesn't ask for help and gives up on herself, but she's been working hard the past week and luckily it's pretty simple variable stuff that I understand, so I've been able to help her. We did this one homework question over and over and I didn't want to move on until it clicked. I have it memorized now "You have a rectangle. The perimeter is 95 feet. The length is 4x and 15 feet longer than the width. Find the length and the width" and we'd go step by step and I thought it was clear but most of the time her eyes had this glazed over "I'm lost" look ( see this Bored Shorts Math Snippet at :43, so funny), but we persevered and on day 3 she finally got it. There was a question like it on the test, and she got it right! So yay, good job sweetie! Way to not give up. 

Sometimes I think our kids don't know how to work or study. I hardly ever see them doing homework. Maybe having it so much online is what makes it feel so much different than when I was in junior high. I don't see them with worksheets to do and turn in. Corey and I can't sit with all of them at their computers everyday, so there's a lot of reminding to go and do it and then trusting that they are doing their homework, but their grades aren't great. We've been telling Abi that she has to figure this out before 9th grade when her GPA starts mattering for college applications. I think we made a small step in the right direction today. I'm glad she felt the joy of a job well done.

Peter was doing his own homework today, working on his fine motor skills. He's been wearing this Spider-Man jacket that is too big for him, but he loves it, and then to play the character correctly, he was trying intently to figure out how to shoot his spiderman web. He can do the gun shape with his pointer finger and thumb,  but then has to pick up his pinky to make it straighten out and hold it up. 

Hold it... you got it! 

That's it buddy! He's mastered a new toddler skill. Peter had mini apple pizzas for dinner - a recent creation of mine. "You want apple pizza?" It's one of his new go-to meals.

Then I left with SNOD and they got their 2nd covid shots. Peter stayed home with Wes, and after we were done at Walgreens, I told the kids they could all get one treat. Owen got two since his were small, and that worked out great, cause after we got home, Peter was asking where his treat was, and I didn't have one for him - a lapse in clear thinking on my part. Owen was so nice and shared his sucker with Peter (after he had started to eat it, but Peter didn't care). Thanks Owen, that is so nice of you!

 Then he went upstairs and bugged Wes while Wes tried to do his homework. 

Still working on that big blue sucker. Peter has liked getting on Wesley's bed lately. Wes has been taking the hit for me recently when Peter wakes up in the night - P has climbed up on Wesley's bed rather than coming into our room. It's nice for me to get a few full nights of sleep. 

Day of Rest

Corey has taught the little boys a new game: crocodile. It's where they jump back and forth from a couch or something and the adult gets on the floor and tries to catch them. It's a good game since the adult gets to lay down and mostly rest with the added bonus that the kids are trying to stay away from them. Corey playing with Peter yesterday morning.

It's been a busy holiday weekend. It was nice to have a break from school though. Now we get to push through a few weeks until Christmas break. Having a break from school has interrupted the good bedtime schedule we were on. We were up late last night after the Curtis gathering. We gathered for scriptures and Peter snuggled up and slept on my lap.

Cutie.

Then Corey stayed up late helping Abi get ready for a sacrament talk that she gave today. She wrote most of it on her own, she just needed some ideas. She did a good job. And Wes gave the lesson in the Young Men's class too. Joseph and Amber came up and joined us at church. That was nice. Amber sat by me in the Relief Society lesson which was on Elder Soares' talk - the Savior's Abiding Compassion. Joseph and Amber are already talking marriage, so I did ask a friend Jill her thoughts cause they haven't known each other for long. We're still trying to get to know her but J says she's great. We didn't talk that much in class but she did go up and thank the teacher, which I thought was very classy. Corey prepared a Thanksgiving-ish lunch fast after we got home - turkey and potatoes, and my left over sweet potato dish, a salad, and rolls. We were stuffed after that, so the desserts turned into dinner: pumpkin pie and choc pudding pie. Joseph wanted to share the movie "Gifted Hands" with us, about Ben Carson, and it really good! J and Amber left around 7:30. It was a good Sunday. We didn't play games like we did when Joseph was dating Emily, which is fine - no need to compare girlfriends, but that would have been fun to do something to get to know her better. I guess there is time though. Instead I took a nap and they both read books in the side room. Corey cleaned up by himself (sorry I didn't help sweetie) and I shall reveal reasons for my laziness next month. As for now, it's time to get back to our early to bed early to rise schedule, that has been thrown off this past week. Wes has hockey early tomorrow morning (arrive at 5am), so we're heading to bed. 3 weeks until Winter break, go team.

Curtis Gathering

Tonight we had our first holiday family party. It was a little early in the holiday season, but it was the best day for everyone, so we all put in on our calendars. We went down to Benjamin Utah to have dinner with Corey's cousins at Sharon's old house, which as been remodeled and updated. Corey used to come down here every Thanksgiving when he was a kid. All the cousins had not seen each other for a few years. There are 4 kids from Sharon, who is JeNeal's sister, and then JeNeal's three children, then all the in-laws and grandkids too. It was just the two Curtis sisters, and Sharon passed away in 2003. It was a gathering that was long over due. We had a nice taco bar dinner at Karalee's house at 5pm. 

If we had gotten there earlier, the kids could have had some atv rides, but they did get there in time to go pet the cows and see some other farm animals. Corey had just come from late lunch with Ryan Rehart, so he didn't eat much. 

Karalee is a school teacher and had some fun cute activities for us to do, like making sleighs and then putting them to the test via a pinewood derby style race down the folding table. 

Sophi and Natalie racing their sleighs. 

Everyone's sleigh kits were two metal paper clips, two Andes mints, a Cinnamon Santa, a hershey's kiss, and as much tape as you wanted. Joseph ready to race.

Wesley used the shape of his ice hockey skates as his inspiration as he made his paperclips slightly curved. Sophi relied on the things she has learned from Mark Rober's Pinewood derby winner instruction video. She and Wes went head to head and Wesley kept wanting another rematch.

And what do you know - Sophi was the grand prize winner! She was so excited, it was really cute. She thanked Mark Rober for her win and we were all laughing. 

Then there was a white elephant gift exchange game that was fun as we passed and switched around gifts over and over again. Peter didn't know what was going on but he kept holding the presents and then handing them over. 

When the game was called, Abi had the coveted "biggest" gift - an Office Christmas sweater with a twinkling hat, and a jar of peanut butter - under $10!

I got the best gift possible for Peter and was very happy to pass it to him - a Mr. Potato Head toy.

And then Wes exchanged his Sleigh derby prize for the Mrs. Potato Head, and Peter played with those for the next 30+ minutes while adults visited and we listened to a few music numbers. After we put away the chairs, the kids did a leg wrestle. Jordyn, who is a ballet dancer, easily beat Abi. Grandpa wanted to play too.

I think he lost, but that was nice of him to give us a laugh and we were impressed with his bravery!

Christmas-ing

We got home from Park City around noon today. The kids were eager to set up the tree. I said "Not until the house gets cleaned up!" (which I had said we had to do before Park City but didn't quite finish...) So those that wanted to Christmas up the house had to unpack, clean their rooms, practice, and such. Abi worked hard since she was the one who wanted the trees up the most. As she vacuumed up the front room, she thought she saw an earring that looked like my gold and diamond earrings that I had let Natalie borrow for a few days (since her ears were infected). Someone one of the earrings was on the floor in the front room. Abi realized what it was after she had already vacuumed it up. She called Natalie over to see if she was wearing both earrings... nope. It must have fallen out when Natalie was wrestling with Joseph in the front room. Ok, so we start to try and pick out the dust and dirt from the bag and set it out on paper towels along the floor, and we shake and poke through it looking for the earring.

No luck. Finally we cut open the bag. Still nothing. Natalie kinda looks through those again and I go to the vacuum to see if it is stuck in the brush or the hose somewhere.

After having no luck during our previous 20 minutes of searching, Natalie said a prayer for God's hlep, and shortly after than, there we gratefully found it in the hose. Whew! Then we finished vacuuming, and THEN we were ready to bring up the trees. Two lights on the white tree were out, and have been burned out for the past 2 years I think, so this year we finally decided to get it all the way off. Abi and I cut the wires with scissors. 

It took a while, but we did it. The lights on the bottom of the tree still work, but they are a soft white and the white strands of lights I have for the top are bright LED lights... so next year we might cut those off of the bottom so that all the lights will be uniform, but we called it good for today and finished putting up the tree. The boys helped decorate. Everyone was in their Santa Hats. 

And done - we've got our two trees up and once again I didn't have to do very much of it, so yay.

Thanksgiving Day

I came down from Park City early this morning with Wes. We were both up at 5:45 and getting things ready. I went to get the car from the far overflow parking garage with two car keys, then I came to get Wes - he met me in the lobby and took the van key back for Corey and grabbed Peter. I needed the van key to get his carseat. We left at 6:20 am, right on time! Wes got to the CHRC at 7am for the 5K turkey trot. The 5K was at 9, so he got paid to play Apples to Apples for 90 minutes, then they went out to their post "To point the way to take, that the signs were already showing..." You know, just for back up. He said it was cold and his toes were freezing and he's not going to sign up for that next year, even though he got paid overtime for working on a holiday. I picked Wes up around 10:30. The low winter sun was shining in Peter's face. Wes gave him a hat - we must protect Prince Peter from the sun!!

I got some sweet potato dish ready and a Mediterranean salad. Corey and kids on their way down at 2

Corey and J were talking about girls and dating (J is getting kinda serious with his girlfriend). Kids waited in the car and I sent my food out. Joseph played a little bit with Peter as he and Corey talked - but his kid skills are a little rusty and as he played with P in the air doing some swing dancing moves, he accidentally kinda dropped him on his head. 

It was not a total free fall drop, but enough to get a bonk and make him cry. 

Will Peter be able to trust Joseph again?

Ok, lets go. We headed out and arrived for dinner a little after 3 at our old chapel. It is the ward house where MEH were all blessed as babies. Jared and Amy had been working hard to prepare this feast for all of us!

A big banquet table all set up

Enjoying a meal -

Video of the feast - 

It was delicious. The turkey tasted AMAZING and was my favorite part of the meal.

Jared apparently marinated it for like 3 days or something. Wow.

It was delicious. Mel, Ethan, and Hyrum all coordinated when to call, so yay - we were able to talk to them, and they were able to talk to each other, yay!

After the meal, we played a few games of lightening (bball), some table games, and had a nerf gun war. We kept passing around the phone to anyone who wanted to say hi to our missionaries. Owen and Joseph playing Klask - Owen was sooo excited when he scored on Joseph, twice!

Then everyone played hockey and it was super fun. 

It got pretty competitive 

Abi was going head to head with Joseph and fell and got a hole in her ONLY pair of comgy sweat pants and she was sad.

The little girls were as patient as they could be for the game to finish, so that they could do a stage play for us. And the curtains got a lot of use opening and closing for each act, which were each about 2 mintues long.

We had no idea what it was about, but we gave an enthusiastic applause

So the party went a lot longer than planned, and then we cleaned up and we got to take some leftovers home, yay, and Corey headed straight back up to Park City, I went by home first to put back food. Peter fell asleep as soon as we were in the car. He slept through the transfer into the bedroom. Kids went swimming. P went to bed, and now I am going to go join him. It was a fun day, goodnight.

Hangin' at the Hotel

We had a fun day at Park City. Peter taking a nap after his lunch. 

Talking to Mel for her p-day. She will be able to call again tomorrow too, yay! 

We did a lot of sitting in the hot tub. I was usually with Daniel and Peter, and they didn't like the super hot ones, which was all of them except for one which felt freezing to me, so I did a lot of watching from a distance and the kids and cousins helped too. Owen brought a turkey from school as a festive decoration and taped it up on the wall. He is thankful for family, food, love, me, Corey, and... ducks. Alright, that is ok Owen! You can be thankful for ducks.

Joseph and his girl friend Amber came up for dinner and that was nice. We had a pasta dinner together with the Wrides tonight and we are going to have Thanksgiving with Hibberts tomorrow. After dinner we played hotel tag which was really fun. Abi and I scared Wesley and a friend Trinity really bad right at the end of the game, and that was best part of hotel tag for me. We tell the kids over and over again that there is NO RUNNING down the halls or we are going to get in trouble, but they can't help themselves when the team that was "it" was coming at them. We all like hotel tag. It's my own creation, good job me. Peter was a bit addicted to the telephone today, watching dinosaur videos on youtube. 

He's just waiting for dinner to be ready.

So we've just been chillin' out. It's nice to be up here. It's cold outside, Corey and Wes went home today to pick up Hockey sticks and ice skates cause there is an outdoor rink that they are hoping to try out. It's too bad that there is not enough snow to go skiing... Corey really was hoping this would be a ski weekend. Oh well, maybe next year.

Before the Holiday

I slept very well last night and didn't have any interruptions from Peter. In the morning, I discovered why. Peter climbed up on Wesley's bed and was bugging him instead of me! Thanks for taking the hit for me, Wes. (Sorry you still have school today!)

It is a short week for school. I took carpool, but I'm glad that we have Thanksgiving Break before us. We are going up to Park City tonight, but I didn't look at the calendar until this morning and that was when I realized we had a concert tonight! Nathan Pacheco performing with Lyceum Philharmonic at Abravanel Hall! I felt bad that we were going to be late for Park City, and the kids were a little sad too, but we're not wasting these tickets! I got these a few months ago when a neighbor, who has a son playing cello with Lyrceum this year, said she could share her discount code with friends and family! So I got 6 tickets and was originally planning for Corey and I to take the girls, with the hopes of inspiring them to want to play with Lyceum like Joseph and Melodie did. We had a few logistical things that made tonight tricky for both Corey and I to go to with the girls, but when no in-laws could go with the girls, we figured it out. Corey headed down with ALSN and I stayed home with the kids until I picked up Wes from hockey  practice. I picked him up with the little boys in the car, and then took them home and turned right around to head downtown to catch up with Corey and the girls. I was late but didn't miss much of the show. The disappointment of being late for Park City might back fire on me though... Lily and Sophi were kinda laying back in their chairs and sleeping the whole time and asking when we could leave. But it was so good. Nathan Pacheco is amazing. I loved it. Abi liked "To Make You Feel My Love" and "One Heart" from West Side Story.

I took a few videos.... I justified that it was ok since I saw other people taking videos. Here is his lovely version of Forever, one of my favorites! I've never blogged of that song, but I have shared it at Easter time on facebook and in texts to family and friends. It is so lovely. The girls did perk up for Home Again from the Greatest Showman, but right before the last number, I agreed that it was getting late, and so I gave my blessing for Corey and the girls to head home. Since I had come separately, I said I was going to stay for one more, But then I stayed for two more, and the encore of "Time To Say Goodbye" LOVE LOVE LOVE. 

I got home and we all finished packing up. But then Corey shared with us all that the presentation in Korea for his Narx project was about to happen. Soon his friend Peter was up! 

Watching the video presentation.

Ok, it's done, we can go. 

We were late to Park City, but that's ok, we have all day tomorrow. Oh, one last funny thing - we were almost on our way, I just had to get gas. As I was filling up, Peter looked out the window at the billboard and was sad that Lightening McQueen was broken. But he was happy to see a dinosaur in the distance - a little black outline of a porcupine for the porcupine grill - but hey, it does look like an allosaur! Peter is so cute.