Soccer, Conference & Night Games

It was fun having some of the college kids here this weekend. Hyrum and Mel were here today, and we think Joseph and Ethan will be coming tomorrow. Today Hyrum took Owen and Daniel to their soccer game. After hearing of Owen's FOUR goals last week, Hyrum wanted to see his little brothers in action. Owen scored 3 goals today! (final game score was 3-4, purple dragons were 3) Lost the game, but they're still smiling!

Hyrum took a few videos that were really cute, like of Daniel taking a goal kick, with determination to really kick it far by throwing his hands in the air like a karate kid, ha! (It didn't work, but it was cute!)

We enjoyed listening to Conference. I went back and forth between our bedroom upstairs and downstairs in the side room. Upstairs - Katharine being cute!

In the side room, we set out sheets and blankets and then we brought up legos and Wes and I sorted as we listened, and the rest of the kids were building. 

We didn't make a ton of progress with the sorting part. Plus we still have a lot of bins to go. But that's ok. It kept the kids mostly occupied, aside from the sounds of legos churning. I hope the kids heard something useful. My favorite talk was from tonight - Sister Tamara W. Runia. It was so good, I loved it. At dinner tonight, kids were being their usual funny and clever selves, and it was making Wes laugh, which hurt him because of his swollen jaw from his wisdom teeth removal yesterday. 

They were mostly laughing at his blended up taco, which looked like vomit. Corey said he couldn't eat at the same table with someone who was eating that visual mess.

Poor Wes! He just wanted to have dinner like the rest of us! I told him he can eat throw up next to me. I don't mind. After dinner, and after the evening session of conference was over, the kids decided to go back to their childhood. Out in the dark, they played some night games (childhood memories from 2011, 2013, 2015, good times) Everyone dressed in black to be able to hide better.

Everyone show your best ninja pose! 

Katharine standing there, not sure what everyone is doing, cute.

Lego Castle and Wisdom Teeth

On Wednesday, Wesley was working on his mission papers. He needs to get a physical check up and get dental work taken care of. I scheduled a visit with our pediatrician at their earliest opening, which is October 13. Sweet. The dentist had earlier openings, as in the next day at 10 am, so Wes went in for a cleaning and x-rays yesterday. He didn't have any cavities, yay, but we learned that he has 3 wisdom teeth that should be removed. I didn't apply for JBR, cause I learned with Ethan that only 3 teeth means it's not as likely to happen. So I just called to schedule with the wisdom teeth guys for Wes. Like the dentist, they also had a "next day" opening and we booked it. Wes was not allowed to eat or drink for 8 hours before. His appointment was for 1:30 this afternoon. He did not get up at 5:30 to take one last drink, so he was hungry and thirsty all morning. He kept himself busy by working on his mini lego castle...

He was inspired to create this after recently seeing the Hogwarts mini castle. Wishing he could have it, then seeing the price and knowing that he won't be able to get it any time soon, there was a desire born. I picked up this book at the library on Saturday, not knowing of Wesley's lego wish.

This book taught him the basic principles of mini lego castle building, which he quickly mastered, and then he went to work to create his own little kingdom. He started this castle yesterday - I must say I am impressed with his work. 

He took a break to go get his teeth ripped out at 1:30. He was a little nervous to be put under the influence of their good feeling and liberating drugs. 

Scared, and nervously laughing... I took a quick pic and then I went to the waiting room. 

When I saw him again, a mere 10-15 minutes later, he was sitting in a wheel chair at the back door, having an imaginary battle with his invisible light saber. He was good, but acting very silly. He asked the nurse for her phone number. She said he was a bit too young for her. Undeterred, he offered to set her up with Joseph. I got a video of the first 5 minutes of our drive home, then I decided to do a family video call, and that was pretty funny, but no one screen recorded it, so it will just have to live in our memories. Let it be known that he loves us all SOOO MUCH. He loves Corey SOOO MUCH. He loves Grandpa SOOO MUCH. He loves Mel SOOO MUCH, etc. We got home, and his youngest siblings were a bit scared of how he was acting. Katharine and Peter gave him a hug after he kinda freaked out when they hesitated and withdrew. "Ok, fine, I'll give you a hug" they both seemed to say. That made Wes happy. He was happy for an hour, for several reasons, the primary reason probably being the drugs he was on. 

He went back to work on his lego castle. 

And a few hours later, he was emotionally and mentally back to normal, but was being a good patient and wearing his packs. 

His final work - 

Isn't that amazing?!?!

Wow! Wes is a master builder!

I hope he does have architecture in his future, cause he has a gift for detail and building things (pics 11 & 12). I'd like him to build us a home someday. 

A few other pics from today - Corey and I went for a ride this morning. The fall colors are beautiful ~Do you see Corey there on the trail? He's a bit camouflaged but he's there. 

After we finished the techy section, I took one more picture of the fall colors in the morning sun - so gorgeous.

 

The younger kids didn't have school today because it was a work day after parent teacher conferences. When we got back from our ride, Natalie was taking care of Katharine. Katharine was sitting in the chair next to Natalie, who was practicing typing. The steady rhythm of Natalie's secretarial typing skills had a hyptotic effect on Katharine, who was put to sleep by the tapping of the keyboard.

Owen was able to enjoy the mountains this afternoon too. He went with an "activity day" group of friends on a hike up to the Bell Canyon Reservoir. 

Katharine reading a book to help her have a bright future. 

Fall To Do's

Hello. I went on a morning ride with Corey yesterday. I am soaking up the fall colors, I love it. 

Went on a walk today and visited with Nicole as I walked. Things are good. The elementary kids had parent teacher conferences today. They are all doing well. Then Owen and I headed to his trumpet lesson. Wes has been working on his mission papers and we're making progress there. I called yesterday to get him a dentist appointment and a dr. check up. The doctor visit isn't until next month, but I was able to get him in for a dentist appointment today. They told him he needs his wisdom teeth out, so I was able to call and schedule that for tomorrow, yay. Gettin' it done. Corey went with the youth today to the Draper temple to plant flower on the temple grounds. He was busy and kinda didn't have time for it, but he said it was really nice to be there and was good for his soul to garden. 

In the last of my monarch news, I will admit that I was not very diligent in my stats this year, but I think and will estimate that I found around 80 eggs, I gave away 30 caterpillars and chrysalides, and I released about 50 butterflies. I will go look through what I did record sometime, and I'll update those numbers if I was off. I didn't hunt for eggs as much as I would have, had I been here everyday, but not bad considering I have a large family and was busy with all their stuff and reunions and such.  

So that's about it for today, cause I didn't take many pics yesterday or today. Peter took a few selfies though. 

He likes Spiderman. 

Oh, and today is Dennis' birthday. He is my dad's cousin who I have never met in person but did connect with in 2020 when I was on a family history kick. I need to do better and emailing and calling him. I did talk with him today, I try to make it happen atleast on his birthday. I used to be better at emailing, but I feel like I hardly have time to sit down at the computer these days. Still, Happy Birthday Dennis! It is also my sister's ex's birthday. I sent him a birthday card too. I hope he is doing well. We see a little bit of what's going on with his life via facebook. We were pretty close with them when we were all at BYU together back in our newlywed days, but now that they've separated I'm not sure what to do, but seems like a b-day card should be ok. Life is good. See ya tomorrow.

Little Books

Katharine was so freaking cute again today at violin! She was cute and happy the whole 75 minutes by reading her tiny books on the little fireplace ledge. 

Oh she is adorable. 

I loved watching her and took that 3 min video of her, Sophi and I just smiling at her cuteness. 

So that was delightful. I love being a mom. I love my babies and toddlers. I'm going to miss Peter when he starts FULL DAY kindergarten next year! <sniff> I wonder if I'll be content to just chill at home with Katharine or if she will want a playmate besides mom, or if I will be itching for some noise? Maybe we'll go on bike rides all day. I had an attachment for my bike, but it got taken off at the bike repair shop a while ago - Joseph took the bikes in and they said that wasn't part of the bike and he said he didn't know what it was, so they took it off and threw it away. I just ordered another one though and put it on my silver bike. Maybe I'll take Peter and K on a ride, since the fall colors are here and starting to enchant our mountains. On our ride this morning, I looked up, and there are those lovely fall reds and orange trees!

Beautiful. Yes, I think we'll go out for a ride. I'll give them a few books in the trailer and they should be ok for an hour I hope! 

Fourth Sunday

We went up to Corey's brother's house tonight for a fire pit bbq. Since JeNeal passed, his sister arranged for us to all keep Wayne company on Sundays. Wayne eats Nancy on the first Sunday, Mark the 2nd, us the 3rd, and then on the 4th Sunday (today) we all get together at his house. But we did it at Mark's today cause Mark planned for a fire pit dinner. Mark did all the food prep. We cooked hotdogs and had cake for the September birthdays. 

Natalie looked cute roasting her hotdog. She borrowed those dress up glasses from Owen. She had a Harry Potter look in the black and holding up her stick like a wizard's wand. ...with a hot dog on it.

Natalie and Daniel playing chess. I like Mark's library. We might need more bookshelves at our house.

Enjoying dinner outside on their deck.

Joseph, Mel, Ethan and Bella all came up to join us for dinner. Mel with her favorite little person.

Singing happy birthday to Sophi. 

Ever since Covid, we've become aware of the germs spread by having people breathe on the birthday cake, so since 2020 we have them use a plate to wave out the candles.

Abi waved out the candles...

Hyrum joined in via fb messenger again... sorry Hyrum!

And Bella's has a September birthday too! She and Ethan waved out the candles together, since Ethan had a half bday two days ago. They had a party for him down at BYU - sent out invitations cut in half, had half a b-day cake, sang every other word in the song, funny. 

So it was good. It seems like we see the Wrides a lot, and we do, and it's good, but I would like to get together more with Hibberts. It's a larger crowd and a bit harder to get everyone together, even just the 4 of us Utah siblings. I'll try to put forth a more vigilant effort with that.

Last Butterfly

Highlight of my day was seeing our last butterfly come out perfectly ~ and as I was taking it outside, I had ONE fall rose that was starting to bloom, so I was able to get my first picture ever of one of my lovely lady monarchs on one of my beautiful Rosa roses!

A perfect moment that I was grateful for on this busy day. It was a full Saturday. Corey went to the temple this morning, I stayed to get Abi and Lily to the bus for GMS. I was a little sad thinking that I hardly have time to get to the temple, so I did something else... I noticed an email from Family Search saying you could choose an ordinance and then they'd find an ancestor that needed that work done, so I clicked it, it went to my family tree, and a few moments later, I had 5 names to take to the temple for initiatories! So now I needed to go too! I scheduled an appointment at 1:30, thinking I could go on my way back from taking D to a birthday party in Lehi at 12:30. Corey was back at 9:30, and then it was time to go to soccer games at two different fields. I took the boys to Lone Peak, Corey took Natalie to Flat Iron. Owen and Daniel played great. Owen especially was really in the zone - he scored 4 goals! It was so fun to watch him! He really was having fun and was playing so well! I was impressed! 

We've got a kid that loves soccer! I got his last goals on video. He's a good little player. Owen is #1!

Corey seemed frazzled after I got home from soccer. He prob just got home too, so that wasn't a good sign to me that he was restless/needing to get out of the house? He was getting kids' weight and height for their ski rentals and boots. It didn't seem like a good time for me to leave him for the three hours (to take to the b-day party and go to the temple), so I decided it would be good for him to take Daniel to the birthday party and I'd stay at home and reschedule my temple appt. It worked out well, cause my mom came over shortly after that to give Daniel his birthday presents today. She had a lot of work preparing for an audit that was scheduled for yesterday, so she wasn't able to get away until today. Daniel was at the birthday party, but came got back in time to give her a hug and say thank you. It was glad to keep her around a bit chit chatting cause she was able to see our butterfly come out, which is always fascinating. Corey was back and we were still visiting. We went to the table, watched that and talked more about butterflies! It was around 2:30 and I had expected it to come out when we were at the soccer games earlier, so I was a little worried that maybe it had tried to get out, cracked open the chrysalis, and then it got dried out a little bit? But she got herself out and her wings expanded... she looked perfect. This was out last butterfly, and we hadn't had any issues thus far - I was hoping for a 100% score and it looked like we were gonna get it, yay! As it was hanging, I moved it to a branch, and that was when we noticed she only had 3 legs! You can see a little stump leg there - poor thing! 

But her wings expanded perfectly, so I'm hoping that she will be ok. I went to the Draper temple at 3:30 for initiatories, and then since I was there in Corner Canyon, I went on a quick ride too, up Canyon hollow, Brocks, and then down Rush. When I got home, the butterfly was still around. The kids had also waited for me to get back before they had cake, so I could take a picture. They were waiting inside, I was taking pics of the butterfly outside while they called for me. I think it's harder to land on 3 legs than on 4, but hopefully she'll figure it out. I put her on the rose in our front yard - so pretty. 

And then I gave the butterfly to a little neighbor girl who was walking by with her dad and told her to go find a nice flower for it. The kids were still calling, they had an Ant Boy movie marathon they had to get to... Ok, fine! I'm coming! Pictures of Daniel with his cake - 

Make a wish - 

Then the kids went outside and jumped on the trampoline with their cake. Daniel played with his presents, some neighbor kids were here to share cake with, and with that, birthdays are done until December, and our monarch summer is over. Now we can go work on other worthy projects, like organizing legos, ha. 

Wesley did a great job on this today when he needed a break from Frankenstein. Wesley finished the bin we started on Thursday! Wow.

I hope we make good progress over conference next weekend.