Katharine is 2!

Happy Birthday to Katharine! My favorite photo of her from the day was as she was blowing out her candles. 

Oh she's so pretty! It's been a perfect toddler b-day. I love that two year olds have no expectations. She came downstairs this morning all dolled up and ready for her special day (thanks to Natalie for dressing her up).

Natalie gave her fresh pigtails. They were a little droopy, but K didn't seem to mind. She'll just be a little lop rabbit.  

She also looks like Shirley Temple wearing this short dress. It's short on her because it's for a 6 month old, and K is two, so makes sense. Grandpa Wride came by and brought her cupcakes and some presents! Hey, this is fun!

She got a fun lady bug from Wayne that she loves. Owen teaching her to open gifts and eat treats - yeah! This is what we do on birthdays!

Today is my mom's birthday too, so Corey and I took my mom and out to Aubergine for lunch and that was also our date night.

The kids thought my mom was coming with cake so they frowned when we left with them to go out for lunch. After we were done, my mom and dad went back home to wrap things for K. We had a visit from Eliza's parents and her little brother Thomas right when we got home. It was so nice to meet them! We talked a little bit about wedding stuff. They are down here for the Utah Valley Marathon tomorrow so it was nice of them stop by. We were super impressed by them, they are so great. It made us feel even better about Joseph and Eliza! Then my mom go the ok to come back over. The kids had been itching for sugar for a few hours by now so I dished up ice cream I had bought while we waited for the birthday lady's arrival. K had done a pretty good job keeping her dress mostly clean, until the ice cream... little chocolate face about to drip on her dress... 

 I had spruced up her pigtails by then. Cute little cheesy grin.

Soon my mom came by and K knew the routine by then. She was happy to receive new play food, lots of cute clothes, an Elsa doll and a Bingo stuffed toy. 

Katharine was very tender with the Elsa and rubbed her back as we clipped her out of the packaging. Katharine will be having fun soon feeding all her dolls at the table in her room. The kids did great this past week doing their chores and stuff - Lily reading to Daniel earlier this morning~

So I had to go on a date tonight, but Corey and I had already gone to eat, and he had to get work done, so Hyrum went out with me and we went climbing. Tonight I did this hard/stupid green boulder route. Hyrum attempting it - 

Then I tried it repeating what he had done hooking his heel and I was able to bit by bit get it for my first time! This has been the only V2 I haven't been able to do, so I was really proud to get that checked off. I also did this hot pink V3 and didn't mind showing my young and strong college boy how it was done. He said he's not ashamed to be beat by his mom, haha!

Good stuff. It was a good day, felt like a Saturday, but I'm glad we have a Saturday tomorrow. Corey and I are going to go on a ride in the morning. We're already enjoying the first weekend of summer. 

Last Day of Elementary

It's the last day of school for the elementary kids. I stayed home from morning exercise yesterday to get them all covered in sunblock for field day, but today I left Hyrum and Abi in charge for one last time and Corey and I went on a ride up the canyon. We drove to the trailhead, had a great ride and my greatest feeling of accomplishment came from doing the two last obstacles before the ruins - the rock step and the last pipe! I don't think I've ever done either of them but today I did BOTH! And Techy is so fun. I'm excited for summer rides in the morning without the school alarms going off or dumping on Hyrum. Now kids can just sleep in, although I'm sure Owen will still get up early, cause he's got this internal clock that is set and will keep him on a tight schedule. School got out early and the kids came home soaked because the school had a fire truck there to spray them. So fun. Natalie turned right around to go to a "Bye to 5th grade" pool party with her whole class at someone's house. So fun. 

We are totally spoiled to live in such an awesome area with so many generous and fun neighbors. Natalie carpooled off to that with 5th grade friends from the neighborhood, and Owen and Daniel went to the circle for the traditional celebratory ice cream party and to throw colored chalk in the air. Daniel was all blue after that. We sure love where we live! Hooray that summer vacation is here!

Teddy Bear

I got a big smile from seeing Natalie and Katharine this morning when I went to wake up N for school - haha...

Natalie took my licking for me! She is such a good big sister. I don't mind K kicking my back, but I don't do feet in my face or legs around my neck. Katharine, Natalie really loves you!

On Monday morning up at Park City, Corey was in the sauna and I was snuggling with Katharine and not really feeling like getting out of bed. I enjoy snuggling with her. She has been sleeping well, so I slept fine, and I was a little worried she'd wake up if I moved, so I had to be careful... She likes to be tucked under my arm kinda in my armpit... I took a quick picture.

She's my little teddy bear. Then I was able to put a rice bag behind her in place of my arm, and then I rolled over and put a pillow on her head... I made my escape and she kept sleeping, so we went on our ride on Mother Urban. Repeated that yesterday and she was asleep until 9:30 am yesterday and was jus waking up as we got back from our ride! Quick note about our ride yesterday - I thought we could do that again but Corey said let's try something new, but we couldn't decide and then I just said let's do Armstrong, cause the Park City Trails Map said it was open. So we did that - went up Armstrong and then did HAM - there was some snow blocking the trail on both of those, but it was good, and THEN we took a new trail - instead of turning left for Spiro, we went up a little bit to Seldom Seen, and we didn't know what to expect but figured it was just more of the normal Park City trails, but THIS TRAIL was so fun! It was like Rush! So so fun, wow!  It is a new trail as of last year. I don't think I even noticed the sign last year, I'm surprised we hadn't heard anything about it from anyone. It was awesome. I'm excited to do it again when we come to Park City, we'll have to make sure Joseph comes on it. We loved it. Only bad news was that Corey's air pod case fell out of his pocket somewhere on the trail, I'm guessing on Seldom Seen cause there were lots of hills and rolls and someday we'll be able to do the jumps, ha, but for now, we were just going fast and yeah, he lost his case. Doh. He was glad the car keys didn't fall out. I posted on a mountain biking facebook group and maybe someone will spot them. So after we got back, some kids were playing foosball, others were watching Sponge Bob, then we hurried and packed and came home. Kids were all lazy most of the day here but we all eventually kicked it in gearI took NOD to school late (around lunch time) and by evening LSNODP all got Blue's, Abi didn't finish her stuff, we need to not allow her to not do it. Little kids had a water fun field day today and then school is out on tomorrow, then we'll make our plan of attack for summer. We'll have to change some things on the list, but I think we'll keep it at 12 things (probably up reading from 20 min to 45 or an hour, have them do extra chores, like 10 min in basement, in place of homework. 

Park City - Memorial Day

We had a nice Memorial Day up in Park City. I've never visited graves on Memorial Day. Corey's sister and dad went by JeNeal's grave and drank V8s and ate Kit Kats. Corey said that he has lots of memories with JeNeal up here at Park City, so he felt this was an appropriate way to remember her. If I had thought of it, I would have brought Lorna Doone cookies for today. Those shortbread cookies remind me of JeNeal, she always had them around (and I was happy to munch on them). I don't have any recollection of going by cemetery's with my parents when I was growing up, or any Memorial Day activities. We should probably start doing better at that though, cause that is the purpose of Memorial Day, right? Not just a day off from school or a time to have bbq's. But, since we did have a day off from school, Corey and I took advantage of it by going on a morning ride. Two moose were at the gate of the path Corey wanted to take. 

Can you see them? We only had to wait for a minute and then they moved down the hill. Corey had eyed this trail on our way back to the hotel after our ride on Saturday - Mother Urban. It was a new trail for us and it was really nice! Had a few snow patches to drag our bikes through and a few fallen avalanche trees to climb over, but it was really good! I'm excited to do it again in July. Took us a little over an hour and a half, 7.82 miles, and then we were back at the room. The kids were all swimming (thanks Abi and Hyrum!) I joined them, Corey went to the lobby to work, and then at noon they had a free Memorial day cookout! Yay, the whole hotel came out for hot dogs, chips, lemonade and a cookie. Yay, processed food. I had three apples, and gave my hot dog to Katharine. She liked that - doing her cheesy grin real hard in this picture, silly girl.

We decided to come eat in the lobby rather than in the sun outside or on the pool deck. 

Then we played some Shuffle board. Katharine wanted a turn. She's cute.

Ethan and Bella came up today. They were ready to chill at the hotel, but we'd done a lot of chilling already, so we gave them a heads up that we actually all wanted to go on a ride after they got here - to leverage their arrival by forcing a group outing. We loaded the bikes and drove over to Deer Valley and just did a few loops on the paved path there around Deer Pond. 

Good job us, we got the kids out of the hotel - ✓ . I rode around with K riding shotgun on my bike. She likes bike riding, it was cute. We bribed the kids with smores if there was no complaining on the outing, and they all did good, so Ethan went and picked up that on the way back to the hotel affter the forced outing. Then we said they could be lazy in the pool for the rest of the day if they wanted. We all went out - even Corey and I.

And even LILY, who has been working on writing an epic story or something. 

When she become a famous published author, I hope she'll forgive us for any grief we gave her. We're just trying to make sure her passion is bridled and balanced with some sunshine and physical activity! She has been using my orange lobster neck thing cause she's been developing a bit of a tech neck from all her drawing and writing. I feel like I hunch over too - we all could improve our posture. I just sat up straighter as I type this. Maybe I'll get a posture corrector, hmm. After hot tubbing, the kids roasted smore, then back to the room for one more family bonding activity. We looked through trailers for a while. We wanted something new, but shows kept getting vetoed. Finally we settled on a recommendation from Bella and we all watched "Hunt for the Wilderpeople"

Well, they are still watching it. Corey and I are tapping out - it's 11pm. We had to ditch the fun cause we are going to go on one more ride in the morning before we check out. Corey asked for a late check out, so we have until 11. That's plenty of time for a ride! Yay. 

Engagement Photos

I got a text from Joseph's fiance's mom today. Eliza's mom Amanda is a photographer and took the engagement photos for them last week, and just look at these!! 

Wow o wow! This one above is my overall vote for best of show. Many of the pictures are so lovely - Look at Eliza's hair blowing in this one with the sun shining behind it!

So pretty! And they both have such big beautiful smiles!

They are cute and darling together!

Yeah, we're super excited for them.

As Eliza's mom said: "Stunning couple!"

So that's exciting. Their announcements should be ready soon. For us here at home, I had a bit of a slow day trying to recover from our late night last night for The Wride House premier. Ethan did such good work with that, we were glad to support him, but Corey and I are too old to stay up until midnight! Well, it was also cloudy and raining, so that might have also contributed to the sleepiness of my mood. We didn't make it out on a ride cause of the rain, but that's ok. I did a few climb and cardio days last week, so we'll count one of those.

We did FHE again tonight. The games weren't my favorite. I thought we'd do Phase 10 or SkipBo, but those were a little too complex for the toddlers, so we just did Uno, and it was a bit boring imo. Then we tried Charades, and the teams were TLNP vs. ASOD but Lily didn't participate much (too busy drawing) and Natalie was sad cause we lost big time - partly cause we rarely guessed the word, and cause we kept rolling small numbers with our dice. THEN with two fails of a fun games, the kids tried one more and we played "Cap" - where you hold a bottle cap of water and have to guess a number. Corey got wet twice, I'm glad I didn't get wet. Today when we talked with Wes, I asked him what are some games he likes, and he said two that they've played out there are Codenames and Monopoly Deal, so I put those in my amazon cart and might get them. Wesley also got Peter's package today! He opened over the phone. It was fun to see Wesley's reaction. 

At the stake activity two weeks ago, Peter made a bracelet that said Peter ♥ Wes and so Wes found himself some beads and made a bracelet that says Wes ♥ Peter. 

They are BFF's. It will be fun to see how their relationship grows as Peter gets older. 

Patriotic Program & Blue Ribbons

Another year, another Patriotic Program and State Parade. Natalie was the performer today. But first, Corey and I took our morning ride to the Ruins. We started at trailhead cause we didn't leave until 7 (C slept in and I had to get back the program) but I enjoyed my quiet morning time. I got in 20 minutes of stretching while I read my scriptures and waited for him. On the ride today, I got up the hill after the 3rd bridge, yay. Haven't gotten that one yet this season. It was a shorter ride but totally hit the spot, it was good. Then to the school for the program. It was great. I left Peter and Katharine home with Hyrum, so I actually heard it all. This is one program that I do enjoy going to. The part where the kids sing the Armed Forces medley is always my favorite part. Seeing the audience members who served in the armed forces stand up when their song is sung gets me choked up everytime. 

After the program, they gave awards for the Granite Grizzley and the Young American, and Natalie got both! The Young American is one that is especially challenging, but she did it! 

She was proud to be the first Wride GIRL to earn this award (Ethan and Wesley got it too). She hopes that she set a good example for Katharine. Good job Natalie! 

So on a date night a few weeks ago, all of the kids minus Natalie were downstairs watching Space Jam, this totally stupid and pointless cartoon movie, and while they were wasting away their lives, Natalie was upstairs going above and beyond. Yes, on a free time Friday night, SHE was upstairs memorizing the Gettysburg Address! After Corey and I got home, and we turned off the tv and gathered kids for scriptures, we pointed out the contrast. Not to give the kids a lecture, it was just funny, and we wanted to give Natalie a shoutout for having a goal and working so hard to achieve it, even if it interfered with her date night relaxation. Go go Natalie! She is going to achieve great things. Then it was outside for the state float pararde. Natalie did everything for her float too. She used our overhead projector thing to trace a picture of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. 

So that was awesome. Natalie, good job! We're very proud of you! I remember memorizing the Gettysburg address with Ethan, and reviewing it again with Wesley. This time Natalie wanted to memorize it with the help of a youtube song version of it on "I Memorized That". After a few listens through, it grew on me and I really liked it! I listened to it over and over again on an errand to Costco and man, it got me choked up too, especially the link "shall not have died in vain..." It was fun to re-memorize that with her though that song. These were all the requirements for the Young American Award:

• Write the Pledge of Allegiance and define the important terms
• Sing or say the National Anthem
• Recite the preamble to the Constitution
• Recite the Gettysburg Address
• Recite the US Presidents in order
• Label a map with all states and capitals
• Recite/explain the main points of each ammendment in the Bill of Rights
• Complete and essay or project about "Why I'm proud ot be an American" (one page essay or project approved by teacher, Wes did an essay)
• Make a poster on Respect

So in addition to Natalie being an achiever, we did good today at not allowing our kids to be slackers.  The boys have a clean room, they made their beds, Owen is here reading to Peter - 

And actually they ALL have clean rooms and the whole main floor is amazingly clean. The kids all did great! Just look at the level of achievement they attained unto tonight! Everyone got ALL their tasks done - 100%! All BLUES!

Hyrum wanted to do purple for 100%, but I said blue, cause it's like a blue ribbon! Hyrum also did some magic functions to the spreadsheet so it will made the different colors based on what number it is at. He learned how to do that spreadsheet magic at school. Very cool. Hyrum was a good enforrcer today. Go team. We did follow through with Corey's threat from last night and we didn't go on a date (but we did go to Aubergine for lunch, it was great, and I like eating earlier anyway!) and instead we stayed home and felt like we had some down time to catch up on life a bit. Corey helped Daniel finish practicing his music from yesterday. 

It was a good productive start to a good weekend. Tomorrow is the last day of soccer games for the boys. I feel like we're headed into the weekend on top of our game, and NOT trying to catch up on anything, so should be good!

Not Allowed

It's been a good productive and instructive day. It started off great cause I woke up on my own at 5:15, yay! Maybe my internal clock is finally back in sync after the trip to Texas? I stretched for 45 minutes as I read my scriptures. Then bouldering by myself after taking skyline carpool - did 20, one of which was a really hard orange V2. I should take a picture of the route for myself to remember. Then back home for a day of trying to clean up messes and thinking how to be a better homemaker. I had a little bit of free time and during that I finally did some high school reunion stuff that I've been procrastinating- I set up paypal to the new bank account I made for the reunion. After the kids got home from school they went off to play and I got a text from a neighbor that Daniel has been gifting her daughter Millie some jewelry. She sent a pic and it's jewelry that belongs to Abi Lily and Sophi, so yeah, gotta keep an eye on that kid. I took O to soccer practice at 5:30, and as I was dropping him off I noticed his team wasn't there and looked at my texts to see that practice was at 6. There was another kid there who got it wrong like us, so O and him just played. But planning the rest of the evening - now I would need to be there at 7 to get him not 6:30... hmmm - with that extra 30 minutes, I decided to drive up the canyon and I did 3 quick loops on techy. I biked down the stairs there by Lisa Falls parking lot too (I did not bike UP them!) I didn't make it up the hill or hit everything on techy but it was good practice. 2.3 miles, 30 minutes. Then home for dinner, kids, finishing up tasks as we are almost at the end of the school year.

A few things came into alignment tonight regarding housekeeping, chores and music practice, and parenting. So... first was us starting to implement a bit of Lisa's rule about "not allowing" her children to fight, and applying that to the kids and their chores and music practice. I have been allowing them to go play with friends first, without having done their tasks, so I'm trying to get some resolve to "NOT ALLOW" them to blow things off anymore. They have time, they can do it, we need them to do it, they've been having a pretty weak showing of completing their tasks. Last week I made a list of 10 things they have to do, we've since added more and combined some (combined socks & shoes and backpack all into one) so tasks are:

• Socks, Shoes & Backpack
• Chore Area
• Kitchen Area
• Music Practice
• Bedroom Clean
• Made Bed
• Clothes Away
• Read
• Homework
• Check Gradebook/show their folder
• Help Peter do a Task
• Personal Scripture Study

And so far over this past week, either I haven't recorded their scores, OR they've done lousy on the days I did record (Mon Tues and Wed of this week)

So this has got to change, but it's been this way just cause I've allowed it!! I need to NOT allow it. 

Thing #2 - Tonight Daniel did not want to finish practicing music with Corey, cause he was trying to learn these three notes that were really challenging and he wanted to quit. Corey told him he could do it and to not quit, but D started to quit. "If you quit, we're not having date night tomorrow and we're going to stay home and practice!" and Corey said he thought that threat would give Daniel pause, but D didn't care and he slunk away and hid beneath a wagon in the kitchen (a wagon Natalie is using for her Nevada float for the State Parade tomorrow...) So looks like we're not going out tomorrow night.

Thing #3 - So after Daily Dose of Internet and Scriptures and prayer tonight, after we were done reviewing the kids scores and also giving them a little lecture about how they can and need to do better, After that Lily offers her opinion to Corey about how lectures don't work, cause she knows what she needs to do, but when he lectures her she just doesn't feel like doing anything at all. I wasn't really paying attention but all of a sudden Corey seemed fed up and I heard him say to Lily "Allright, give me your phone..." I was like "What were you guys talking about? What just happened?" Lily was a little surprised too. Corey took Lily's and Sophi's phones and they don't get them tomorrow cause they didn't practice, Abi did so she keeps her phone. Pretty weak performance overall by all this past week by the kids and by us as parents for not holding them to their responsibilities. So yeah, that feedback from Lily that our words as parent's are cheap was helpful to hear I guess. Summary of what we've learned is

1. We need to NOT ALLOW the kids to blow off chores anymore.
2. Threats don't work but if we make them, we need to follow through, and
3. Lectures don't work. We just need set consequences. 

We also talked about how kids should be able to get all greens - doing 10 tasks, and Corey and Hyrum said they should all get all 12 done, no exceptions. So there's a new color level now, BLUE. Kids have to get all 12 chores done - 100%! We want BLUE RIBBON performances. NODP cannot play until they are done with all 12 tasks, and we're allowing a little more freedom timewise for the teen girls, but if they don't get their 12, ALS lose their phones. I gotta follow through. We're 25 years into this and it's always a challenge to keep learning what works in our house. Speaking of our "House"... Ethan sent out a text earlier this week letting us know that the follow up to "The House" is ready for it's debut! A red carpet even once again is set up for this Sunday.

That will be fun. In preparation for it, Ethan has been pulling some almost all nighters and Bella might be feeling what it's like having a husband who is in medical school? He was texting me tonight a few times about getting him everyone's signature - black sharpie on white paper. More instructions: First and middle name. Scratch that - I need first middle and last. All written out in a straight line, not two lines. That was hard for Peter with his middle name of Benjamin...

We did a few practices on half sheets to get the size nice and small and then I got him letter sized paper and I coached him through it

Katharine providing her signature, aww!

I love love love how she holds pencils, pens, crayons, and markers. She holds them perfectly! Owen and Peter could take lessons from her.

Double Header

I was going to do a double header yesterday. Sometimes I'll climb and bike, or ski and climb, but today I did my favorite type of double header - Temple & Bike! First temple for initiatories

Then bike! 

Took a ride in Corner Canyon and I did Clarks, which I haven't done for a while. It's been closed after the houses fell over the edge early in Apr 2023 and it felt pretty brutal. Looks like in Aug 2021 I was proud when I didn't have to stop on the hill at all, and I didn't stop today, so good job me. Then I took Rush down, and rush the trees, then did rush the end a extra time. Total ride was just under an hour, and THEN I went and did a dozen+ laps on the beginner and intermediate jump line. Got some air a few times, only lost my footing once but I didn't fall, yay. I so appreciate having Hyrum home right now! He is a great help watching the kids. I went to 11am initiatories, and I spent some time reading Doctrine and Covenants 109 as I waited, per President Nelson's invitation, and as I read I inserted "family" each time it said "house" and that made me tear up, esp verse 5: 

For thou knowest that we have done this work through great tribulation; and out of our poverty we have given of our substance to build a house (family) to thy name... 

We've tried to build up a family to God, and have been doing it in our kinda poverty, but I know we are not in poverty like so many experience in the world. As Elder Holland has said "I have had to worry about finances on occasion, but I have never been poor..." We are still paying for things like Katharine's hospital bills from her birth two years ago. There are lots of expenses that comes from striving to raise 13 kids. It is a joyful burden (talk by Elder Rasband) that comes with many costs, but even greater blessings (Elder Holland talk - interesting that his and Elder Rasband's were one right after the other!) Children and family, similar to education and work experience, are refining tribulations that push us and are SO good for us. I know that Corey and I have been so blessed as we try to give them experiences and take care of them. 

So there are some thoughts and three BeReals to sum up my day. 

Two Temple Trips

Melodie and I just got back from working on the grounds at the Draper Temple. I left Abi in charge, Corey asked for a kid status as I left: TM temple 4:30-6, AS coming to temple at 6:40 for baptisms with TM (I was thinking I might go bike while they were in baptisms, but I didn't get my biking stuff in the car and also figured I should do temple first, since I already exercised today (top rope with Corey this morning), L babysitting 5-9:30, NK at activity days 4-5, ODP at friends' houses, H leaving to hang out with friends at 6:30. It was helpful that Natalie took K to activity days. They were supposed to bring one of their favorite things, and Natalie wanted to take Katharine! They have a special bond like Wes and Peter. So N took K to Activity days, Abi and Sophi were home to be in charge, and Mel and I left to go plant flowers! We were there with other people from our Stake, young and old. The temple groundskeeper had everything set out where it was supposed to go, and so we all grabbed hand shovels and went to work. It was good to be out in the sun and with my hands in the dirt.

I'm trying to stretch everyday, and today I'm counting some of the one leg squats I did while the other stretched out and balanced me in between the plots. It was good and some of the older than me people mentioned how they were impressed with my youth and flexibility, one guy asked if I do yoga. I am trying to stay mobile and nimble as long as I can. We got a ride out there with my friend Lisa, whose husband passed away last March. It was nice to have time to visit in the car with her, she shared some things about raising kid and how her kids were not allowed to fight. I asked for more details, like how do you do that, cause kids fight, right? Well, hers didn't, cause they were not allowed. She shared two stories - one of her mom, who when she was younger was reading, a younger sibling wanted to play and pestered her for like an hour, and finally frustrated, she gave her younger sibling a punch on the arm, and THAT was when her mom walked by and SHE (Lisa's mom) got in trouble. So she decided then that she would never take sides when her kids quarreled - both would be held responsible. Parents often don't know who is telling the truth in a situation, and it's no fun to play policeman anyway, so both kids get a chore. I like it. And Lisa also shared that when she was growing up, she did something that made her brother get in trouble and she knew it was her fault and she felt bad, and went and helped him do his chore. So Lisa's rule has been: No fighting, if there is any, both kids get a chore. She did say that sometimes her mom would call out a warning if she heard any squabbling starting: "There are socks to fold!" So I'm hopeful about trying to apply this. OH! And that went for tattling too! If one kid came and told on another kid, both would be given a chore. Lisa said "You learn real quick to resolve your differences without getting mom involved!" So wow, I'm liking this. She also mentioned how a neighbor commented on seeing Eric stand for her when he was in the bishopric upon the stand, so he'd already be there at church and when she walked in with the kids he would stand. Eric was doing that before President Nelson ever made a comment on it! I mentioned that to Corey tonight, teasing, and he said as he looked up sheepishly "...seems a bit much??" Ha, I hardly let him open the car door for me, and I am doing better at that, but I don't expect to see Corey stand for me. Eric was great though, really a true gentleman, and he taught his sons how to be gentlemen, and their daughters learned how to be ladies from Lisa. I think her kids should compile a book called "Ladies and Gentlemen" of all the ways that their parents taught them civility. So that's been on my mind, want to figure some things out for how to apply those ideas in our home. 

Mel and I got a ride back home with Lisa, and after we walked in the door, Mel and Corey, Abi and Sophi turned around to go back to the temple to do baptisms. The plan originally was for Abi and Sophi to drive out there for the 7pm appointment, and Mel and I brought our Sunday clothes to change into, but we ended up getting our hands more than a little dirty...

Should have brought gloves! We were working from 5-6:30, but we finished a little early, so we left at 6:25 and were able to get home to wash up, and then I decided for Corey to go with them instead of me, so that he could perform the baptisms. They enjoyed going together, and I was glad to stay home. It  been a busy day, always is, so I was grateful for some home time. 

One of the tasks we did today was mail a package to Wesley. Peter was very excited about this. He's been wanting to mail Wes a "lego set" for over a week. I've been putting him off, but today we got it ready. Peter had his lego set - it's two figures: Wesley and Peter. 

Wes is holding the Book of Mormon. I had a little white box set aside to mail his package in, but Peter ended up writing all over it and it was cute, I thought Wes would like it...

so I cut up a white folder to make a box for the box. Peter and I went to the post office to mail it, and I sent this picture to Wes to let him know a package from Peter was on the way. It also had some drawings Peter did in it, and I wrote down on each picture what it was - like a picture of Wes and Peter eating dinner, a picture of our house, a drawing of the temple and our house, etc. I think Wes will like it, but I told him to not get too excited cause "it's about what you'd expect from a 5 year old..." 

So that was cute. While Peter was waiting for me to make the box, he was riding his bike around the kitchen. Mel was in the kitchen cleaning and mopping (she's an angel). The kitchen needed a good mopping because last night, after I made toast for Peter, and I didn't put the garlic salt away, and K got on the table and found it and emptied out almost the whole thing, and this was a big Costco container of garlic salt, so yay. I wasn't as heartbroken over this as I was about the maple syrup on Saturday. But apparently Katharine is taking it up a level. So Mel was mopping the floor and Peter was doing laps on his bike, and on one of his laps, he paused to tell Mel: "We are working together! I made it dirty, and you clean it up!" He said it so proudly and also like he had just discovered a great hidden treasure of knowledge, and it was also SO TRUE - it made me laugh so hard. I had him pause so I could take a photo to capture the moment. 

And Mel helped me share the moment on facebook - my SECOND story ever! Wow go me, I'm so millenial.

Different pics of K sleeping this morning. Sometime during the night she rolled off her bed onto the floor (not a scary thing to roll from the bottom of a triple bunk bed). Picture of her when I went in to wake up Abi - I told Abi to be careful not to step on her. - 6:21 in the bug pose:

She must have stirred a little as Abi put on makeup and stuff, Abi gave her a stuffed animal so that was cute to see her snuggle with that in her sleep - 7:14 am.

And after climbing at 9:36 am, she's still asleep and back in the bed now, ha, cute. It is a rare treat but it was nice to have her sleep in - made for a little bit more of a slow morning, even with how busy the rest of the afternoon went.