Children Updates

This morning, as I heard Peter upstairs calling out to let us know that he was awake, I called to him "Peter!!" And then he first two sentences out of his mouth to me were "MOM! Just stop talking to me!" I didn't reply. It was followed by "Mom, you're my best friend." That kinda sums up Peter's mood these days. Another exchange between us at lunch. P - "Mom, you're mean" Me - "I probably am sometimes..." P - "I love you!" followed by pause and then "Just be quiet!" Wesley jokes that Peter is bipolar. I think Peter is just exploring the power of words. He will tell Wes "Wes! I don't like you!" and Wes will pretend to cry, and then Peter says "I like you!" and goes to give him a hug. Peter also has been waking up in a confused rage a lot during the middle of the night. Last night he woke up crying and mad and told me to stop changing his diaper, and any reply I gave was just met with screaming and "Stop talking to me!" so I opted to stay quiet. It's a lose lose situation. He eventually agreed to come into our bed, which is our last resort for peace and quiet. I lay down next to him, he asked for water a few times, kicked off his blanket over and over again, and I guess eventually fell asleep. I'm having flash backs to Lily's nightly sleep walking episodes.  

Let me see what other kid updates I have... 

Peter's also been climbing the walls! Corey helped the kids film these two shorts today - one with Sophi playing the supporting role, and two with Owen being amazed at his little brother's abilities.

Daniel is a little intense, which occurred to me yesterday when he was gone for several hours skiing with Corey. Daniel went skiing with Corey, Father David, and Sophi. I checked her out of school and they went up to Brighton for a few hours. After our dinner with Father D on Saturday, Corey invited him to come ski, and they planned that for Wednesday. So with Daniel gone, I noticed I wasn't fielding constant requests and demands. He's doing better at requesting instead of demanding, as that is something we've been working on. He'll say "Mom, get me water/oatmeal/some other food item" and I'll remind him "Remember you need to ask me, you don't command..." "Mom, can you get me water?" Better. 

Owen has been the VIP this week at school, which is very exciting for him. He got a paper crown that he got to wear. Pretty cool! He also made a poster, which he was so anxious to take back that he did so before I got a photo of it. He has been the "line leader" this week which I guess is also a big deal. He had his first trial trumpet lesson last Wednesday and will probably start regularly, which he's excited about. We got him a pocket trumpet and he's very good at practicing.

Natalie has made a little secret reading spot for herself up high on the top of the closet. She is able to climb up there by herself, which I only mind a little bit since I'm worried she might break the banister that goes up the stairs, which she uses to hoist herself up. I also don't love it cause Daniel and Peter want to get up there too. Corey put them up tonight. 

Pretty fun! Today I told D that I can't lift him up that high cause I'm pregnant, which worked. Abi put him up a few times last night and Wes put him up there a few times today too.

It has been warmer the past week and I got bikes down for the kids a few days ago. They've been riding outside a lot. Sophi has a good friend Kelsy, and on Tuesday they decided to ride bikes to school. Which I wouldn't have minded EXCEPT then Natalie and Owen wanted to go too and that makes me more nervous to have them cross the busy street without adult eyes watching. So more hassle for us, yay. We scrambled around trying to find summer stuff to get a bike lock for them to use. Corey found it and then followed them to school. I set an alarm to go follow them home after school. I didn't get a picture of this cause Lily was using my phone for her clarinet lesson. Abi was in the car with me, cause right after making sure they crossed the street safely, I was going to take her to my mom's house to work. So we get to school, they are already on their bikes and on their way on the sidewalk around the school. I call out and tell them that we will follow them. Natalie sees me and is about to ride into carpool traffic toward me to follow me. "NO! Stay there - go on the sidewalk! I'll follow you guys!" I pull over while they cross the cross walk so that they are riding in the same direction of traffic, and there are cars waiting for them to walk their bikes across. and right after they cross the crosswalk, Natalie gets on her bikes and goes right in the road and back across the street that they had just used the crosswalk to cross over. I kinda yell at her, I don't know if she heard, but I think she realized her mistake of going in the street in front of the cars, so then she rides her bike in front of the cars AGAIN to come back to where Sophi, Kelsy, and Owen were. The safety patrol and one of the school office workers were there at the cross walk and saw it, plus all the parents in their cars behind them and in front of me. I wait for the cars to slowly drive past these crazy kids, and then we go past Natalie "NATALIE! You can't do that! You can't drive in the road in front of the cars!" "Sorry!" and we go to the church at the corner, Abi jumps out, helps them stop and get off their bikes and make sure it's safe to cross the busy street, they cross safely and phew, no one died, yay. Then I took Abi to my mom's house. To Sophi - we don't mean to be party poopers so much of the time, it's just that when you want to do something fun, it often involves work for me, which is ok, but sometimes I also resent it. But we're glad they made it home safe. They rode their bikes around a bit more, and then we put bikes up on the rack cause there was snow in the forecast.

Lily - as with Sophi and her bike ride to school, Lily is also enjoying the nice "fool's spring" we've been having - 

I saw that shared on facebook on Tuesday and it made me laugh. Sure enough, yesterday the second winter hit (atleast here on the north facing side of the street) and I shoveled twice and snow blowed once. I don't think our across the street neighbors had to shovel at all. Which is why I tell my kids, that when they buy a house, they might want to put "south facing driveway" as a very strong want to have in their home. Anyway, over the past few days, Lily has enjoyed spending her immediate after school hours climbing the pine trees in the back yard. Wes climbed a bit with her. Their tips for climbing pine trees is to wear pants you don't care about cause those will get sap on them. Also they recommend wearing a pair of gloves to help you not get tree sap all over your hands. We have a whole bin of mismatched dollar store gloves, so I'm find with that. I didn't get a picture of her up there, but here's a pic she took of our roof - 

and the view - 

Abi had a her fun ballroom activity last Friday. 

This past weekend a boy from her grade at school died in a skiing accident at Alta. When Corey and I were in 8th grade, one of our classmates died in a skiing accident too. We got an email from the principal on Sunday night, but Abi had already heard about it from her friends over text. Kids at her school wore yellow today in his honor because it was his favorite color. I found his obituary yesterday and Abi cried as she read it. She doesn't feel like she knew him well enough to go but she'll probably watch it over zoom. She said that his parents were gone in California when it happened. I can only imagine that long trip home after receiving such surprising and heartbreaking news. It's been an experience that has helped make the principle of trusting God like Abraham (from the Come Follow Me lesson this week) even more real as we see real life examples of it.

And last but not least, atleast for the 8 kids living at home - Wes. He's liking BYU online, he works a lot at the Rec Center, and he loves Peter. He has some pictures of all the ice skates that they have to put away each Wednesday night, and it's insane. That seems to be the big youth activity night, so when ice  skating closes at 9, and everyone turns in their ice skates at the same time, there are a LOT of skates to put away. 

Things are good. The house is still clean and today it's been 4 weeks, GO ME. I'm not as surprised and amazed about it as I was the first two weeks, cause I guess it's normal now! I have figured out how to keep a clean house! And I trust it will last until life maybe turns on it's head after the baby comes in 3+ months. But Mel and Abi might be able to take over the role when/if I'm not doing as much as I do now. Things are good. 

Bikes, Dolls, and BYU

The little boys were being their cute little kid selves today and riding their bikes around the kitchen and side room. 

With ring pops in their mouths too, which upped it a level of silly cute kid-ness. It probably doesn't get much better than this for a toddler.

They are fun little boys. I don't mind them riding in the house cause it's wood and tile. I just have to put the side room ottoman up on the couch a bit and then fold the rug up and out of the way. I also sometimes have to put a chair by the fridge if Peter tries to ride his "dinosaur bike ride" onto the carpet in the front room. I tell them they can't do that lap but they don't always listen. 

Sophi was playing "salon" with her dolls tonight. She gave them facemasks with lotion and wrapped their hair-dos up with towels (aka tp and tiny hair elastics). She and Natalie had fun playing. 

I cleaned it up yesterday when they had it all set out, and tonight I had her clean it up, cause we're still on a clean house streak. 

We have been working to help Mel and Ethan get housing set up at BYU in the fall. They might rent at Campus Plaza where Joseph is, and that would be fun if the three of them were close to each other there. We'll see. Tonight Corey took Lily down for a "Jazz Up Your Evening with Music From Wynton Marsalis With Jazz at Lincoln Center" show. 

Corey likes to take advantage of any opportunity he has to turn their blood a little more BYU blue. And BYU is such a great school and has so many programs and performances and camps and amazing things to offer, so it's easy to love it.

After the show, they met up with Joseph!

...and went out for dessert.

We'll have 3 BYU Cougars in the fall, plus Corey and I are alumni. We're happy to be a "blessed by BYU" family.

Valentine Slacker

Sophi let me know a few times over the weekend that she needed help with her valentine box and needed me to give her time on the computer so she could look up ideas. I kept pushing it back - "Practice violin first. And you need to fold your clothes. And finish your other homework before you worry about that..." and of course I was just busy with requests from other kids and the daily demands of life. So, last night she came again asking if I could get her the hot glue gun. "Ok, yes, I can help you now" - I got the glue gun and some glue sticks so she could work on it. Her room was messy so she set up shop in my clean room. She said it was cause she likes having more space and her room is too small. Ok. She still didn't seem to know what she was doing. She had four cardboard boxes and asked Corey for his phone to look up ideas. She went to work, and 4 hot glue sticks later she didn't anything to show for it. I asked Lily to help her, but that didn't work. The rest of the kids were watching Pride and Prejudice and weren't interested in helping her. She gave up and went to bed and I cleaned up the mess. Hence, she woke up this morning without a box. We also did not have our valentine's ready, which I was aware of. My plan was to take Lily to jazz band and then have Corey take carpool while I ran to the store for treats. The seasonal isles at Macy's and Walmart were pretty bear of the valentine merchandise, and Easter treats were taking their place. Luckily I did fine six 12-packs of Kit Kats. That'll do - I hurried home and woke up the kids. I grabbed some old scrapbook cardstocks, scissors, markers, and the hot glue gun, and we cranked out valentines for Sophi, Natalie and Owen in 45 minutes. Peter had one kit kat and wanted more, but I told him he had to wait for until we counted and made sure we had enough for their classmates. He only understood that I was telling him "no" and he didn't like that very much. Sad boy - 

We just cut up rectangles and squares from the papers with pink in the design. Natalie and Sophi did theirs on their own. I helped Owen and wrote "from" and passed it over to him to sign. We didn't worry about personalizing it with their classmates names. Soon he had 19 cardstock cards with his name and candy on it - we hot glued the kit kats on and bang, done. I helped Sophi glue hers. Natalie taped hers, fine. It was time to go to the bus but Sophi still didn't have a box. We looked in the basement to see if Wesley's old elephant box was still around - I thought it might be, we kept it for a while, but I guess not 7 years. It must have gone to the landfill. Too bad, that would have been good to keep for future elementary valentine days. Maybe we'll still find it, if I ever get to cleaning up the basement. 

Corey was in the Valentine spirit. He went to Costco Thursday night to get stuff for our dinner with Father David on Saturday, and while he was there, he picked up flowers and pink chocolate covered pretzels for all the girls and gifted it to them on Friday morning before he left for work. 

Good job making the girls feel loved. Waking up Abi - 

Happy Valentine's Day in 3 days.

Gifting Sophi and Lily - 

Sorry, boys, that I didn't get anything for all of you. Yesterday Abi did find some Madelines that I had forgotten that I had bought - yay! I have a valentine treat for you guys, go me! I let Wes have a few extra of those. Owen, Daniel, and Peter didn't mind my neglect. O took an extra madeline to school today for his snack and I let D and P both have extra kit kats, so I think we're all good and have survived another Valentine's day. And sorry to Corey that I didn't do a facebook shout out like so many other couples. But I'll post something on our anniversary. I picked up Sophi and Natalie after school for violin lesson and some of the boxes I saw coming out of the school were pretty pintrest impressive. I'm not that mom, but sometimes Corey is able to deliver on being that kind of dad, so good job sweetheart. Happy Valentine's Day. It's not my thing. I am excited for our fancy February Family dinner. That fills my bucket, so that will be fun. We're planning that for next Sunday or maybe Monday so Joseph can join us. Happy Valentine's Day

Fort

The kids made a fort in the front room yesterday and slept in it last night. They did ask first, and they did promise to clean it up, but I was a little hesitant... By morning time, most of the blankets and their anchoring books had fallen down. I was still counting on Lily's promise that they'd clean it up. Owen in the middle of the forts, and I think that's Sophi's arm waving at me from below the ottoman - 

But as I should have expected, Abi and I did most of the cleaning up by ourselves. So I am documenting it here so hopefully I remember to not let them build any more forts under vain promises of cleaning it up. They won't. I can still let them do it just to be nice, but I won't do it anymore because they are promising to clean it up. It just doesn't happen. I wasn't sure if the 3+ week cleaning streak we've had going on here could survive a day of kid fort making, so we were lucky that we had company coming for dinner. We haven't had Father David over for a while... not since before they all got sick with covid last fall. Corey had a nice visit with him and they discussed in person some of what they've been sharing over text over the past month. I listened in to a lot as I cleaned up dinner and joined in a little with a few comments. It was fun to hear them discuss. I love the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and am so grateful to have Jesus and his teachings as the guiding light in my life. I love everything the restored gospel helps me know, it gives us so much light and truth. I'm forever grateful. I know our Catholic friends love the Lord, and we love Him just as much, only we know a little more about him thanks to the restored gospel. We know about his American ministry in the Book of Mormon! And his latter day teachings in the Doctrine and Covenants! We have more insights into his premortal life in the Joseph Smith Translation and the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. I look forward to learning more as he yet reveals many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God! 

Books and Ballroom

Peter is a good little reader. His favorite books are dinosaur books. I'm sure that was hard to guess. We have some old 1989 Time Life children encyclopedia books... let's see, they are "Childs First Library Learning" and the one about dinosaurs is his favorite. 

He'll point to the title and pretend to read it to me "Scary... Dinosaurs..."

Peter also likes the "Insect World" book. Peter is teaching Wes about spiders - 

So that's cute, we love Peter. Abi had an activity today with her ballroom team. She is the co-president of ballroom and they planned an ice skating activity at CHRC - 

And then went to Will's house (he's the president) where they had fun hanging out for a few hours. Teenagers are good at documenting their lives, so thanks Abi for sharing your pics so I had something to post today. Corey and I went to the temple tonight and did sealings. The endowment sessions and initiatories have all been full every time I check, but there are always openings for sealings, so it was good. And then we went to Blue Lemon on the way home. We like Blue Lemon. It's always quick to sit down, and the food is delicious and reasonably priced. My favorite is the Mediterranean salad with some shrimp added and Corey's most often ordered dish is the fish tacos. The sweet potato fries are also delicious. Not much else to report, other than life is still good! 

3 Weeks

Our first sister missionary Melodie is coming home from her mission in just 3 weeks! This morning, Corey got an email from our Stake President with her return flight itinerary. It is exciting and crazy that she is coming home so soon! 18 months sure seems a lot quicker than 2 years. Although I guess everything seems quick once you're near the end of it. (I'm right in the middle of this pregnancy and from this perspective of 23 weeks, it feels like it is going to last forever...😭) She will leave Brazil on March 1st and arrive here at 10:30 am on March 2nd. So exciting! Sad for her that this unique experience and chapter of her life is coming to an end, but I guess that's how everything is in life. Soon it all becomes like it was just a dream - Jacob 7:26. 

Corey bought Owen a pocket trumpet today. Owen had a trial lesson yesterday and we're probably doing to sign him up for every other week lessons. Owen is excited. Wesley went to the lesson with him and we might have Wes do lessons too. He's been on Soundhouse tours and in school bands, but has never had official lessons. He's not thrilled but we're thinking about it, we'll see. Wes playing tickle torture with Peter yesterday. 

It's also been 3 weeks since the house was clean and decluttered, and it is still looking pretty good. 

It's kinda exciting that we've been able to keep this up as a new lifestyle of being tidy and going to bed early. I think it is helping all of us feel more calm and less stress. Wes and Abi and Lily in our room last night (9:30) talking with Corey.

We were able to chit chat for a while, but were still in bed at 10 (Corey and I anyway, kids were still up and doing whatever). Go team.

At Home

Things are still going well. The house is still really clean and we're hoping and I'm working so that it will keep staying that way! 🤞 Parent and toddler laundry is 100% done, the rest of the kids do their own and it usually stays in the "clean clothes in a basket" stage for a few days. We usually get to bed by 10:30, "we" being Corey and I, the kids all seem to take forever to finish everything and finally quiet down, but that's ok, they are still going to bed at a better time than we were just 6 months ago. The dishes are 100% done. I load the dishwasher and wash big pots and pans every night after dinner, put them away in the morning while I make oatmeal, and then I wash morning dishes by hand so the sink it clean and clear. I do think a big part of why things are clean is that I stay home all day almost everyday. I feel like I'm already full term preg and thus don't have a lot of gung-ho to leave the house or do stuff with the little boys. So we've been staying home. Daniel likes to "color" on the computer. He's in training to be a graphic artist. Peter and I reading a cars book yesterday - 

And a dinosaur book today. 

He pointed to the title of the book which said "Dinosaurs" and as he ran his finger across the word, he said "Scary... Dinosaurs." He likes dinosaurs, cars, Spiderman, and Batman. Yes, from the pictures above, you can see that he wore his Spider-man shirt for a full 48 hours. I did get him to take it off and I washed it and then he put it right back on after it was dry. What can we say? His name is Peter and he likes Spider-man. 

Kids are doing well at practicing their music. Sophi and Natalie are on a 15 day streak for practicing their violin. On Sunday's we sight read a few simplified hymns and all three of us are doing better and getting quicker at reading the notes. Peter joined us for violin on Saturday night - holding the violin upside down. That's a screen shot from a video Corey took and sent to our missionaries.

We thought it was super cute and funny. That is the violin that is missing a peg and string because of when the scroll broke off after P threw it down the stairs a year ago (oops).

We ask Abi's flute teacher for letter grade after each lesson, and it only took a few Bs for Abi to learn what the teacher wanted and now she consistently gets As. Her teacher is on maternity leave for 2 months and Abi has a new teacher for a bit. We only recently asked Lily's clarinet teacher, and after two B-'s, Lily got her first A today, so Corey gave her back her "Wings of Fire" books, which we had to take away to help her focus on music a little more. They are doing well. So that's all been fun and yeah, things are good all around. Last week we studied Noah and the Flood for Come Follow Me, and I do feel like the gospel is our modern day ark and it keeps us safe and above the flood of chaos in the world around us. I'm grateful for the Lord's blessings and protection. 

Teen Bonding

I asked Wes to help me this morning by doing Peter's hair. Should be simple enough - you just have to comb it over. But Wes gave him a extreme teen look and Peter came back to me with a hair glue mohawk. No - he cannot go to church like that. So Wes went to do it again. 

Cute brotherly bonding... I hurried and did Owen and Daniel while Peter still sculpted Peter.

I thought we'd take a picture so we could all vote on it. Peter definitely looked more hip, but they are kids - no one cares. Plus O&D were already wrestling and will mess it up in a few minutes... they started running around and Peter hit a door cause Daniel closed it on him, and then my photo op was ruined cause P was in tears. Wes told D to go hug Peter and say he was sorry, and P refused him, and then Daniel was crying too!

Peter calmed down enough but didn't want to be close to them. Daniel was able to turn off his tears - so there's our vote on the hair pic - O and D looking like Father Knows Best boys from the 50s.

Peter's got some volume and style and he's still trying to milk his injury for more sympathy. 

We watched some of The Chosen after church, we love it. I loved these three miracles that Dallas shared, and I totally know the "Red Sea moments" feeling. Good stuff.

I made some coconut lime soup and quinoa for dinner. Abi was inspired by an instagram post and recruited her brothers to play "suck the air out of the garbage bag with a vacuum" game. 

It worked really well on Peter cause he's so little. It was harder for Owen, but he still liked it. 

Thanks for the fun Abi!

Brighton

Joseph is applying to be a counselor for a Humanitarian EFY, and as part of it he needs to submit a video. He talked with Corey about ideas of what to do, and they thought it would be a good idea to show what a good worker he is by sharing a video of him helping get his siblings ready for a day of skiing. Peter was sad and crying and throwing a fit right when we were trying to go on the bunny hill and I was ready to wave the white flag and give up and told Corey I would go to the lodge with him. But Corey swooped in and saved my defeated soul and he stayed with Peter most of the time on the magic carpet. The highlight of their day was when they saw a big porcupine coming - Corey picked up Peter and it crossed over Corey's skiis and sat there for a moment before continuing past them. Pretty exciting! Peter told us all about it on the ride home. 

Joseph had helped get lunches ready and so we had plenty of sandwiches and chips, plus Corey bought some fries too.

Peter was sad cause someone took a bite of his cookie. A toddlers' life can be hard sometimes!

I haven't been skiing to Brighton much, so when Joseph told us to meet him at Crest, I didn't know at first where that was. We eventually found him. It was pretty busy, which is to be expected for a Saturday. We did Crescent and Majestic most of the day and took some videos for Joseph to use for his video. It was fun. I was with Daniel most of the day and he's a good little skier. After a fun day of skiing, I dropped Joseph off at Frontrunner. Good luck back at school and good luck on your video, Joseph! It was great to spend the day together.

Starting Trumpet

Owen is starting trumpet lessons and has been practicing with Natalie when she does her Suzuki book 1 review. He just plays the rhythm along with her and it's pretty cute. 

I would prefer the kids stand up while they practice, but I haven't been pushing it lately. Cute Peter asleep on our floor this morning. 

The house clean and I feel really good. I worked on the laundry room desk today, which is a high clutter area that always seems to be a problem, but now it's clear. I love having a clean house. Today I dusted and polished my bedroom furniture, vacuumed everything, all laundry is done, and went to Costco for groceries. I bought two boxes of these cute little colorful bowls cause they were just so cute. We also took the Fiesta in for an oil change, and to ask them to look at what's going on with the stereo, cause it's broken somehow - the music won't turn off OR turn down when Wesley turns off the car! And when it's on and he's driving, he can't turn it down or change the station or change it to bluetooth. He's been trapped listening to songs he doesn't like for two days, and when he drove it to work, he just left it on during his shift, cause it wouldn't turn it off. And it's been blasting super loud too, it's kinda funny but also annoying. So at the service shop, they said that the only thing that they could do to turn it off was disconnect it entirely, but now it is working, so there's definitely something screwy, cause they disconnected and it should be off, but instead now it works fine like normal, so that's strange and we thought it was pretty funny. We went out to eat for date night at Blue Lemon downtown. Things are still going well all around right now in our life and I am very grateful.

Good Habits

Our house has been pretty darn clean for 2 weeks today! There are all the main things that I have been keeping clean each day, like the main floor, the sink, laundry, bathrooms, my bedroom, and then I've been doing little side projects like organizing the desks or cleaning out drawers each day too. Corey stayed home today and I made him a healthy vegan lunch - a hummus bagel, dried apricots, and some juice. He likes juice.

We're doing well at reading scriptures. I think it is fully establish as a family habit. It took a few years to get in the grove of the new Come Follow Me program (we didn't do as well with the New Testament, did better with the Book of Mormon last year, and now we've got it down. I've been doing great at making dinner, and then right after dinner we go read for a little bit and say our family prayer. We have lots of good discussion as we share current events and cultural trends. We enjoy talking with and teaching our chidlren. 

It is rewarding and we're so thankful to have all these wonderful kids in our life.

Dinosaur Toy

I took Peter with me to run an errand today while Daniel was at a friends' house. I was looking for Orbeez cause Daniel likes them at the moment. I found them. They were by some dinosaur toys, which caught Peter's eye. So I ended up buying in a dinosaur toy too, cause I usually can't say no to him.  

I can, I just don't like to. Plus he loves dinosaurs, so this will be a good and well loved toy I'm sure. 

The dinosaur helped Peter eat a snack of chips. It had 5 tiny dinosaurs that can go in it's mouth and that it stores in it's tummy. Then you open a latch in the tummy to get them out. Pretty fun.

The dinosaur kept Peter company and they are good friends. 

It might be because cause Peter is our 12th child, or maybe it's cause he's the baby... maybe it's cause we're getting old enough to be grandparents, but we spoil him a little and we don't mind. He's adorable and it's fun to dote on him.