Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Wesley is 20!!

Happy birthday to Elder Wride in Texas!

His comps and the members there took good care of him. He texted me this pic yesterday -
"My comp Elder Cannon bought me some birthday sushi. Reminded me of you :)" awww... yes, getting Wesley sushi for his bday was a tradition for a few years. Sushi reminds me of Wesley too. We'll have some ready for his lunch when he gets home from his mission in January. (Just 6 months away!!) A member in Texas sent me a video of them singing happy birthday to Wes. 
And they made him a cake with a pringles mustache on Wes, and on the cake. Some inside joke I guess?
Wesley called on Monday cause it was pday and he was able to call again today. We sure love that kid! Although I guess he's not a kid anymore??? He's TWENTY YEARS OLD!!! Childhood has fled, he's been an adult for two years, and it's getting more permanent each year. Soon he'll be sporting a 'stache like Hyrum!
So that was about it for excitement today. Just been a chill day at home with kid's playing. They've all been into the Discovery Toys game of Rush Hour this week. Katharine likes Otrio. 
Peter posed for the pic - 
K saw him, then she posed, trying to see me as she turned herself around, silly.
Lily had a "Zero Fatalities" class tonight. I was a little tired for the first 15 min, and I was looking at the clock like I was in Owen's trumpet lesson, trying to stay awake. I had to watch the online call with her for an hour. After the first 15 min I woke up a bit - they shared some hard stories. It made me not want to ever use my phone while I'm driving. The hour of time kinda messed up my tentative plans though, cause the girls had YW. Corey came home at 7:30 and he was on the phone with Joseph, so I was able to sneak off for a quick ride, I drove to the trailhead, started ride at 8:12, just up to techy, did that two times, and then it was too dark, had to go slow on the ride home. We didn't go this morning cause we went to the temple. It's been good to be able to go to the temple together without the rush of school mornings taking over the schedule. We've still been trying to get to bed at a decent time, but it's getting later each night. Gotta shoot for 9:30 so we can be in bed at 10:30. When we shoot for 10, bedtime turns to 11pm, which is what it is now. 

Monday, June 23, 2025

Lily is 16!

Happy Birthday to Lily! This young lady is sweet sixteen years old. She just finished Driver's Ed last week (yay) and has her permit. She's looking forward to getting her license in November (Nov 12 to be exact). School has been out, except not for us for the past three weeks - we've still had to get her to Skyline every day at 9, but not today. We stayed up a little too late last night, thus when Wesley called at 7am it felt waaay too early, but he wanted to be the first to wish Lily a happy birthday. His comp clapping, Wesley shouting over and over again "Happy Birthday Lily!!! HaPPY BiRTHDaY!!!!" 

I was actually awake downstairs attempting to read. Mel was in Abi and Lily's bedroom, so she put the phone up on Lily's bed so they could wake her up, which they did.
After that, Corey went on a ride, then I caught up to him and went on a hike/jog alongside him (sorry to slow you down sweetie). We came home to find that Owen made Lily and everyone a pancake and bacon breakfast. 
Then Lily opened her one present from us - a custom book embosser. 
It says "From the Library of Lilian Wride" and has her initials in the middle. Then Corey went to work, then Lily and I went climbing, and Mel came along too. Me belaying Mel. 
We did that from like 12:30 - 2:30. Kids were trying to be patient as they waited for grandma to come by. Natalie made a cake. When my mom came, the kids were ready!
A card from my mom, a book that Lily requested (The Grandest Game) and some lego roses. 
Natalie started to cut and serve up the cake as soon as my mom came, and without waiting for Lily's bday pic, so we had her put candles in her slice, then we sang to her. 

And her bday ended with hanging out with a neighbor and then being kidnapped by some friends. We let her stay out late, Abi is going to go pick her up so that Corey and I can go to bed. I told Lily that Abi would leave here at 11:30. The girls have been waiting by watching more of "Business Proposal" - some 2022 Korean romance netflix series that they got into over the weekend when the girls went to Park City with Corey, which they found after they looked up more stuff with Ahn Hyo-seop, who is Jinu in KPop Demon Hunters, who DIES at the end of that show which made Lily Sophi Natalie and Daniel all cry as they watched that with Lily's friends who were here Friday night as a little bday party for her. So now they are all into Korean shows. So they are downstairs watching another episode of Business Proposal, then they'll go get Lily. I hope it's been a good birthday for her. 

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Training K or Bust!

It is time. Corey has wanted Katharine potty trained for a while. I haven't really cared. I know she's smart enough, she's just lazy, and I have been lazy too. Before our weekend trip to St. George, I told Corey that I will train her, but only if we get the carpets cleaned this year. He agreed. I haven't scheduled it yet, but I plan to have them cleaned during Park City when everyone is gone. That used to be an annual tradition, but sadly has not happened the past 3 years. Let me see... they were done in 20182019, 2020, and ugh that's all I can find! Have we not done it since 2020!?!? Not sure why I've been thinking it's only 3 years that we've missed, maybe it's been 4... so not in 2021, 22, 23, 24, but it will be done in 2025. Maybe I stopped washing carpet during the Park City week in 2021 cause that was the first year I fully embraced biking in Park City? Haha and I didn't want to miss out. Our First experiment with bike rides was in 2020, then we've been getting more hardcore each year since then. But I will take a day off this year if it means getting clean carpets while the kids are all gone. It will be good. I'm impressed the carpets look decent at all considering all they've been put through these past few years. Ok. So we are in agreement: time to train K and get the carpets clean.

So we were gone in St. George over Sunday and Monday night. I told Mel I would not leave K in underwear for her, cause that just wouldn't be nice when she was doing us a favor to babysit. K, you get diapers for a few more days, but we're starting when I get back! True to my word, we got back Tuesday afternoon and so yesterday morning, I sat her on the potty after she woke up. She was dry, and she's dry most every morning, so let's get this first one out of the way to know how it's supposed to happen. Kathairne sat for an hour, but nothing. I let her get off from sitting and put her in a thick training pants and some pink Bluey underwear. Katharine was not thrilled about it. She wanted a diaper. She went and got a diaper and followed me around wanting me to put it on. Nope, I'm sorry sweetie! It's time for you to face your first great trial of growing up. No more peeing wherever you want whenever you want. She was sad. We sat on the stairs and cried about it for a bit. 
I sent a video to her siblings, asking for their prayers for K as she faces this first great step in overcoming the natural man. You can do this K! (and I can do it too!) She wouldn't wear the underwear at first but eventually relented and put it on, since I wouldn't do the diaper. Yesterday I ended up cleaning up four #1 messes and one #2, none of it was very bad. Did three loads of laundry. I did it willingly and with a cheerful attitude. She'll figure this out. 

I was just looking back at the blog - potty training for this girl started when I first introduced the idea in August 2024, gosh has it been a year?? That was when we got the potty cleaned up and set out in our bathroom and I had her try sitting in September. She welcomed it as an excuse to get free candy and an hour of screen time. But now it's getting real. Accidents all day yesterday and no success, but guess what happened this morning!! Katharine, show us what happened!
And there she is pointing at a very full toddler toilet! If you zoom in you'll see a very high water line. I think she probably didn't fully release all her #1 yesterday (prob a little stressed and unable to fully relax) but this morning she sat and sat and I made oatmeal and lunch for Corey and right after they left (Corey taking Lily to Drivers ed, her last day of class, yay) I heard Katharine call from upstairs that she did it! And SHE DID!!! I think she relaxed enough that she peed all the pee from yesterday. I am SO glad that that wasn't all let go on the carpet somewhere, cause that would have been a lot. We are so proud of you Katharine! Let's keep it up! Go team. 

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Still Gone

So Abi is back home, yay, but now she's still gone all the time like she used to be. Yesterday we arrived home around 1, she hung with us while she unpacked and did laundry and stuff, then she took her sisters to the store, and then went to her friends house to hang with them before her bff twin leaves for a trip. Last night, Ethan asked for her to come down to Provo to help him with something, so she was gone all day again. I took her to frontrunner cause I needed the van to pick up Lily from Driver's Ed (this is the last week, yay). I took her to the train at 10 and picked her up around 4:30. She said that she got a picture with Kalani Sitake! Fun!

She said they were directing traffic or something. It was for some entreprenuer thing that Ethan is involved with. The thing she was helping with was from 11 - 3. 
I guess I should ask her or Ethan for more details, rather than just calling it "the thing". 

Lily had drivers ed this morning, then two drives with her instructor, from 11:30-12:30, then again from 1-2. It's crunch time for her, to try and get everything in. Tonight we were going to go on a bike ride and hike with a neighbor family that is new in the neighborhood and Owen is friends with the son in school. We just found out they live close by. Owen's been going over there almost everyday to play. So it was going to be the guys biking and us moms and the little kids exploring the rocks and stuff, but then a slight change of plans made it so it was just Corey and their dad, and Owen and his friend. They are new in the neighborhood, so we took them up to show them the Quarry trail so they could ride down it and see where to park, and yea just get familiar with a few local areas. They are a really nice family. I dropped them off at the top and they rode down, they parked their car at the trailhead, and Corey and Owen biked home. I dropped them off at Lisa, and usually they just go down from there, but today they went up a bit to the ruins! Owen said it was beautiful, and that was one of his first times doing a climb at all, and he did great! Good job Owen. We have hopes that he will join us in our love for biking. 

The girls had YW but since I was late getting back from taking the guys biking, the girls didn't end up going. Lily was making dinner (using recipes that she gathered over the weekend to make dinner every night). Corey gave them his bday money from my mom to buy the groceries. We're in a real pinch still, or "at the moment". Taking a day at a time with that. I hope we survive.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Drive Home

Abi is back from Brazil. Here's a pic we took this morning before we headed back home. 

She's sporting a futbol uniform from her "favorite team" S.C. Corinthians Paulista. We thought SC stood for Santa Catarina, but looks like it's actually Sport Club. So Corey went and picked her up last night in Las Vegas, while I stayed back in the hotel room and blogged (still working on finishing December! I'm closer...) Abi took pictures of her trip via a little digital canon camera (SD 750 Powershot) so I'll have to find a way to get those from her later, cause she can't text them to me. Corey and I were going to go on a ride this morning, but we visited a little bit so he didn't get to bed until 11pm, and I blogged for a little more after that until I saw that he had gone to bed, then I went to bed, but we didn't formulate our plan of attack, and then we both slept in until 7:30, and that was when breakfast started being served at the Townehome Suites, so then we figured we'd just have breakfast and head home. So we missed riding Zen, but we got to have breakfast with Abi. 
(Sorry Corey, I took two pics but that was your smile in both of them, haha it's ok!) We were on our way home at 8:40. Abi drove. Corey continued reading "Endurance" (he's almost done). I read "Simple Abundance". I got through April yesterday, and now I am in May, yay I'm catching up. 
I was ok sitting in the back. I liked looking out the window and reading, even if it was a little scary sometimes (I struggle when someone else is driving, I think I'm a bit of a control freak). Corey teased Abi that she drove like an aggressive driver from São Paulo! She defended Brazil drivers and said Utah drivers are worse. Abi that might mean you're in trouble cause you might be a dangerous combination of both of those!

It's good to have her home. She had like 48 hours of travel, to get back from Brazil, leaving there Sunday evening, flight to Miami, a layover in Dallas (was able to visit Grant), then Las Vegas, drive from there to St. George, and now our drive today. Probably more like 56 hours. We arrived home at 12:40. I did a ride up the canyon at 3:20 and a little bit in the neighborhoods: 13.05 miles, 1 hour 42 minutes. I got up to the top in 1:05:49. I was pushing at the end to try and get it under 1:05, just missed it. But I got a PR for 3rd bridge to top: 13:05! I did great on Techy too - I got it all AND with that I also got a PR - 2:32! Been chillin' with the kids this evening, it's good to take a little break and enjoy some quiet, and it's good to be back. I love Katharine's little voice, she's so cute. 

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Crop Garden

Today we went to the crop garden like we did in April last year. Corey is the Elder's Quorum president, and when they didn't get people from the ward to volunteer, we were an easy choice to fill in for the job. Cause we have a lot of helping hands. They put Sophi and Lily to work punching holes in a drip line...

The little kids were told to each grab gloves and a hand shovel, and we (NODPK and I) worked in a bed planting green bell peppers first - taking the cups with the starters  in them and putting one plant at each emitter...
Katharine did great at that! Natalie Owen and Daniel did a good job digging, and Peter collected the cups after. 
After we did the green bell peppers, we moved on to planting a bed of cantaloupe starters, and then Anaheim peppers. Lily was working hard punching holes in the drip line. It was her nemesis...
Sophi waiting patiently for Lil to finish the hole so she can put in the emitter. 
Lily was working hard and her hands were getting sore from punching the line. She had to yell to finish the last 10 or so holes on the line. "This is SO HARD!!! BUT I WILL WIN!! I WILL NOT GIVE UP!!!"
I took the kids down alone while Corey finished work, and then he joined us and we picked weeds for a while in the tomatillo beds. 
It was fun working in a garden. I'd like a garden someday if our home ever allows for it. I tried here at this house, but it just didn't work with the deer that pass through our yard. They ate all my plants, so I tried one year and then didn't try again. Maybe I could plant stuff in my dad's garden if I really want to do it again, but I'm ok with Costco for now. After working tonight, Sophi said as she talked about her instagram cottage life in the future: "I wanted a garden at my house so I could cook with fresh natural ingredients, but after tonight, I don't think I want to work this hard..." haha, that kinda made me laugh. Corey said "You don't like the law of the harvest!?!?" I'm glad she sees that there's a lot of hard work and prep that goes into organic meals or cute flower and vegetable gardens. 

So that was good. Thankfully it wasn't too hot. I think I got a mosquito bite low on the back of my neck, between my shoulders. Boo to mosquitos. I blogged today, got a few posts done from May, yay. I went on a morning ride at 5:45am. We have our bikes in the garage right now (not in the basement) so I have to open the garage anyway (which I don't like to do cause I feel like it's noisy and wakes up kids) but since I had to do to get my bike out, I decided I'd just take Corey's car to the trailhead, cause there's nothing special about the ride on the road. So I started at the trailhead and rode up to the ruins, techy on the way down. Biking is fun. As for the kids, the summer books aren't going as well as I'd like. I won't throw in the towel yet. I haven't been paying them, so I guess it works out fair - they don't clean, I don't pay. They don't write stuff down, I don't pay. Sophi earned some money by helping Corey's brother last weekend. They worked for 7 hours helping him in his yard. She blew like $45 of it via an online store called Comfrt, which had things so low priced that it didn't look legit... but she was super anxious about doing it TODAY, but she didn't have money in her account to pay via her debit card. I couldn't take her cash and transfer money in cause we only had $5 bucks. Lily volunteered to help her and let her use her debit card, but to do that she needed me to take her to the ATM, which I reluctantly did - I let them deal with that while I returned books to the library. I got back and she was still working on trying to deposit it - the ATM wasn't working, I guess it's cause Lily's card is for a minor so it doesn't work at the ATM, so then since we were there I deposited her cash in our account and then Corey moved it to Lily's account. I was being kinda in a bad mood about it. I'm blaming pms. Getting outside into the garden helped my mood improve. Maybe I should garden. Hopefully monarchs will be here soon. That usually helps me get outside and into the plants. 

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Nik & Emma

We celebrated with the Hibbert family today another wedding. This time it was Jerusha's daughter Emma. Jerusha's family after the ceremony - 

First Hibbert wedding was Kelsey & Jared, then Xela & Trevor, then our two boys Ethan & Bella and Joseph & Eliza. Nik and Emma are high school sweethearts and have been together for 10+ years, so their families were excited that this day finally came, as evidenced by this sign as we came into the parking lot, haha. 

Our kids were excited because this was the first wedding where they would actually see the ceremony. Waiting at the Heritage Garden's grounds - 

Ethan, Bella and Alvin came. Mel and Lily sitting by them - 
As we waited, Beka and Matt joined with the other attendants giving Alvin the royal treatment he deserves. Haha, I loved this pic! That's just how it should be.
He's a cutie!! I got a chance to hold him after we were inside and Corey got this pic of me showing him off to Ashton, who is the cousin closest in age to Ethan. "This is Ethan's baby!" 
They were good cousin buddies when they were growing up. The Heritage Gardens were lovely! The girls were all excited thinking about this being a place where they could have their reception...
The greenery and lights made for very aesthetic photos. And cause no family outing is complete without kids taking my phone for selfies. 
The ceremony was at 2, and the wedding celebration was from 4-9. After the ceremony, we hung out and had a grab and go lunch, and tried to keep the kids kind of away from the candy bar. Didn't have too much luck with that. They got their fill of sour patch candies, swedish fish, air heads, nerds gummy clusters, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, hershey's kisses, and Utah truffles (toffee, mint, and dark chocolate, mmm). We played some cornhole with Neil, who we found out was the ship corn hole champ on a cruise they went on recently! Wow, go Neil!
Katharine was sad when we told her not to touch the bean bags. This photo doesn't capture it, but from my angle across the grass from her, the little frown she was making looked just like Beaker
We chuckled a bit at her, which she didn't like. We finished that round and then let her have the bean bags. A taco truck came to serve everyone dinner. There was a bit of a line waiting for tacos, so Lily took a dessert plate and served herself up rice and beans, which you didn't have to wait for in the line outside. Corey followed her lead, and learned that the red sauce was VERY hot. 
Corey gave Christian the Monkey and coconut problem to try and solve as they waited for tacos. Writing out the numbers on a white paper fan.
Corey let Mel know that he's struggling to find any faults in Christian. I avoided going out until Peter was feeling left out, so when we went to place our order. We stood by Natalie, who was #42. We were #60. There was a table of desserts that kept people fed, no one starved. Chocolate chip cookies, grapefruit mint cake, chocolate cakes and dutch apple pies. Tasty. Then dancing started. Most of the songs were ones we don't know, but we did request Dynamite and That's What Makes You Beautiful, so we got those two in. Other than that, we were just goofing off. Mel and I danced with Katharine by trying to follow her actions. That was fun. Outside people were playing spikeball 

and visiting.
We stayed until the 9pm send off of Nik and Emma. I think Corey found out that they are taking a honeymoon off in the mountains of Montana. Fun. They make a handsome couple and we wish them the best on this new beginning of married life!

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Store

I told Sophi and Natalie I would take them to the store ONE TIME this week. They acknowledged this provision, and decided to have their one time be today. Sophi needed a birthday present for a friend (so many bday parties...) and Natalie wanted to buy a 4th of July tank top "for only $5 bucks, which is cheaper than it would be at Uptown Cheapskate cause shirts there are $6 dollars..." Well since it's a deal. And they bought candy, some for the bday gift, and some that they ate in the car. I dropped them off at Target to do their stuff while I went in for my 4th blood draw, just to make sure my numbers are down all the way. They were supposed to be back out when I got back, but they were not finished yet. I took away their phones last night when I woke up to use the bathroom at 3 am and at that time I found them awake and texting friends. Corey took their phones with him today so I wouldn't be tempted to give them back. I went into Target to find them rather than wait out in the car with them not able to text me with their excuses of why they weren't ready. These kids!

My results from my blood draw should be back tomorrow. I think everything will be shown to be in order. 

Last night for FHE we just did some dancing and had ice cream. Corey said their might be a wedding sometime this next year (we're hoping Mel and Christian tie the knot) so in preparation (no pressure you two, haha) we decided to brush up on our Napoleon Dynamite dance (tutorial here if you want to learn it!) and did our Just Dance favorites: DynamiteThat's What Makes You BeautifulRasputin, and Waka Waka. We're ready to have fun. I'd really like to learn the dance that the CDK does during the chorus of "Somebody That I Used to Know" - it would be so awesome if we broke out doing that! haha

This morning I didn't go on a ride. Instead I started today by reading. I read Simple Abundance . I'm still in March and want to catch up, I did finish March today so yay now I'm in April. I read the March 28 devotional which talks about getting rid of fashion mistakes and cleaning up your wardrobe. So I spent a couple of hours going through our clothes and I now our closet looks very nice and freshened up. She also talks about having a "hope chest" (Mar 5), a "toy box" (Mar 6) and a "comfort drawer" (Mar 7) and so I went by Hobby Lobby to see what I could find to do those, cause I do want to do the homework she gives. I was ok to just wander and let my creativity get some juices. I almost wanted to buy this neon light for Peter...
I didn't, but maybe I'll go back and get it. He'd like it. I let myself splurge on some flowers - 

And then I made a summer arrangement for the kitchen table!

I used the basket that Joseph and Eliza gave us after Grandma Foreman's funeral. I really like how it turned out. 

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Switching Rooms

So we've been switching around bedrooms the past few days. We started this project on Monday, when we probably should have been enjoying the last few moments we had with Joseph and Eliza. But I guess they were busy organizing stuff and loading the car up, so maybe it is ok. Sophi and Natalie saying goodbye to the small room with it's small closet.

Peter saying goodbye to the big room where there was room for all his toys and project. 
We're on our third day in and Sophi and Natalie's room looks good and is basically done. The boys' room is a bit messy still. We need to reduce their possessions to make them fit in the smaller quarters. Daniel doesn't want to help us. 
This is his "ugghhh I'm tired..." pose. He doesn't want to practice music either. He doesn't want to do anything except try to not do the stuff we want him to do.

Corey and I went on a ride yesterday morning, and just so happened to be going up to Ann's at the same time as our high school friend Mike! He and Corey were in the same church ward growing up too, so they had fun catching up. 
We rode with them up to Potato Hill then across Ann's to Rush, then he went down Rush with his Alta High biking team and we were behind their group. We said bye at the bottom of Rush. It was fun to see him! When we got home, Owen and Natalie were both awake and working in the backyard raking. Wow!
Natalie want to plant grass under the pine trees. She's got a backyard vision that she wants to have happen for her birthday party in July. I'm not being very helpful in supporting her dream, but I guess she can try to make it happen. (I don't think grass will grow back there. We can't even get grass to keep growing where it is supposed to be.) But our summer roses are looking beautiful!!
I wish rose season lasted longer. Roses are in bloom everywhere though, they are beautiful. And other things going on the past two days - Katharine was working on her cup stacking skills...
Kids were playing with costumes in the basement, and left them ALL over. This was Daniel. 
I told him to go pick them up, and he did. Good job Daniel. Peter was in the basement today working on a Duplo Lego zoo/amusement park. He was very proud of it and gave me a full tour. This is the view from the entrance. 
We talked to Abi tonight! She's doing well in Brazil. She is treated like a celebrity at the school she is going to. It sounded fun, and familiar to her brothers, who had that same "Justin Beiber" status when they went to school in Chile. They told her to enjoy it while it lasts, cause when she comes back she'll be just a regular person again. Ethan took this pic of Abi being weird before she said bye to us.
Ethan is doing well and adjusting to being a new father. Hyrum's 'stache looks pretty sweet. We call him Mario, cause he looks like super Mario. Ethan's jealous of H's facial hair. And that's about it for what's going on here. 
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