New Music Room

It's been a great week. I've been very productive cleaning and I'm pleased with how the house looks and how things are organized. There is still more to do, but I'm happy. The kids are happy too. Daniel told me he likes it when we rearrange stuff "cause then it feels like a hotel." I'm not sure what that means, but it does feel like a fresh new space to us. The kids new favorite room is the music room. I rearranged things in here yesterday (I say "here" cause I'm currently sitting at the table in here blogging) and I think the space is more functional now. 

I should have taken a before pic. The L shaped desk used to be in the corner, and now it's turned right 90 degrees and pushed out more to the right toward the window. On Thursday Corey helped me move the hutch onto the floor, and that almost killed us, joking/not joking. This desk is a beast. I moved the hutch below the violins now, and that will still hold the sheet music and I'm glad that we can also fit a lot of their instrument cases below it. Yesterday I was doing leg presses under the desk to rotate that 90 degrees. It was an ordeal with the hutch, piano, and small couch in the way... I should have moved the couch out first, but since the first thing I did was take down the hutch, then it was too late, cause I couldn't slide that, I could only turn one top corner and waddle it places, and there wasn't enough room to waddle it out the door. I did what I could before the girls got home, and then they helped me finish. 

After we were done, I joked that I thought I was making a new desk area for us to use, but turns out I was actually making a new jungle gym area for the kids. They are enjoying hopping on the couch and then onto the desk and walking along it like it's a fashion show stage. It's also fun being so tall and touching the ceiling or looking out the arch window.

Between the desk and the window is Daniel's new "secret hiding place". I discovered that he had one previously when we moved the desk away from the wall and that revealed lots of marker writing on the wall. Thankfully a magic eraser got it all of without too much difficulty. Since he wrote his name, I knew Daniel was the owner. He said it was his secret place for him and his cousin Eli from two months ago. I told him that's fine for now for him to make a new hideout, but it probably won't be his area for very long, cause I'm on a quest to make a place for everything and everything in it's place. And Daniel's stuffs place is in his bedroom. The couch now fits snug in the corner so it's against the wall and against the desk, which creates a fun little nook that is Sophi's new favorite reading spot. I told her a few days ago that I'll pay them $25 for each of the Saints books that they read. There are 4, so that's $100 bucks. Sophi's been reading a lot, hoping to get $ to order a new phone asap. Her last one got broken when it was in her coat pocket and she accidentally shut the car door on it. So sad. So she's reading away. I agree this couch is a nice hidden spot, which is why I wanted the couch there. I plan to hide out and nap there now and then myself. So rearranging that was what I did yesterday, and I also started to organize the shoe cupboards. This is what that looks like when it's in process of happening...

And yesterday I also did a little winter hike with the kids that filled my heart. As for today, Corey and I started the day with climbing at the Millcreek Momentum.

While we were gone there, Wayne came to our house and picked up Peter to go take him to the dinosaur museum for Peter's birthday present. I think having one on one time is a great gift, especially cause it gives them personal memories with him. That's something that I want to do more now as a parent and that I hope to do when we're grandparents. Wayne gave Peter a real Megaladon shark tooth that someone at the senior care center gave him. The lady got it snorkeling years ago, wow! 

Peter is pretty excited and has used it to hit some furniture to test how strong it is. Luckily he hasn't tried it on the walls. Wayne took a few photos of Peter, but none with Wayne in them, haha. 

So for the record, Wayne took Peter to the dinosaur museum and took these pictures. 

After we got home from climbing, I hurried over to a viewing for a former neighbor. I didn't stay for the funeral, but was there with my mom for the viewing until my dad came to join her for the funeral, then I left. One other thing they had on the table was a book at the kids made for the family for their parent's 50th wedding anniversary, with quotes from their parents about how they first met, what their first impressions of each other were, how their first kiss happened, etc. It was a cute book and I was thinking that might be fun to make for my siblings and I about our parents. We have a reunion at Bear Lake this summer, could I do it by then? Hmm... It's an idea, I'd like to see what I can do. 6 months, I could pull it off. Anyway, it was nice to be in the old Butler West building and to see familiar faces from and visit with friends from my childhood (Stanclifts). And fun to look at photos of the Hall family from the 80s. I also liked a picture they had of him in a shirt that said "It's weird being the same age as old people." haha. Lily took some book earrings and a few book pendants that she made to a neighbor. This was Lily's first order! It was for our neighbor Jami, who Lily babysat for a few weeks ago, and after they got home they were talking about books and Jami is in a book club and so she commissioned these for her friends as a late Christmas gift. 

And last pic - Katharine like to eat pomegranates with me. It's cute to see her go after the arils. 

I don't think I've ever bought pomegranates before, so this is a Wride toddler first. 

Winter Hike

We went on a winter hike this afternoon, yay!! 

The younger boys didn't have school today, and I wanted to go, but I wasn't sure how I'd survive on my own. Once the girls got home from school, I went and asked them about coming on a hike. They played their cards well cause they were willing but also reluctant, and they hesitated just long enough for me to offer to throw in some Little Ceasars pizza tonight. "Deal!" and then we hurried and got the kids ready for a 30 min walk in the mountains. It was so pretty yesterday, I was thrilled to bring them up and to be able to share it with them. Starting the hike. 

Katharine is all smiles!

Abi was a trooper and carried Katharine most of the time. 

Sophi and I helped a little bit too, but that was when she was a somewhat willing toddler. Soon this little girl was going to be cold, tired, and sad. But we kept going on our walk. The boys and Natalie were throwing each other into the snow right away. I warned them that they were going to be cold if they didn't slow it down... we still had atleast 20 more minutes out in this temperature. Almost to the top where we turn off on techy...

Peter was having fun, even though his gloves were thin.

The kids were writing "BYU" everywhere, which was funny. We were kinda destroying the trail, but I'm hoping bikers will be ok and will appreciate that it's been widened a little bit and not be bothered by it having lots of boot steps in it. And this was where K stopped having fun. Abi took off her extra coat and put it on K. 

Selfie by the river. Sophi behind me is ready to go...

...and the rest of the kids were playing at the river. I would have let them all stay longer, except Peter stepped into the water, and if he has a cold wet foot, he's not going to be able to handle that very long out here in these freezing temperatures. He didn't complain, but I told the kids it was time to be done. 

They had fulfilled my wishes: We got out side, I took some pics of it, and Corey will be pleased about it. So we can be done now. Heading back to the car. Abi still carrying Katharine. 

We took a picture of the kids on the biking trail, with me down inside the end of the techy section. 

I thought it was cool to see the undisturbed snow all in front of them, so pretty!

One more pic a little closer....

Ok, you can destroy each other now. 

I had told them at the beginning on the trail that they had to stop pushing each other into the snow or it would make them too cold, and we had 20 minutes still to go. Now that we were ready to go back up the hill to the car, I was ok if they got freezing, cause we'd be getting warm in a moment. 

I'm impressed Natalie did this all without complaining since she didn't bring a coat!

Abi was such a trooper. K was sitting up there on her shoulders, but she was tired and cold, and by the time they got to the top of the hill, Katharine was a dead weight sleeping sack of potatoes up on Abi's shoulders - video here. Thank you Abi, this wouldn't have happened without you! She's earned her pizza. I think it was just too much stimulation for K's little brain to take in, and so she had to shut down. And it was a full shutdown, allowing her to sleep while sitting up, out in the cold, in what has to be an incredibly uncomfortable position, so funny. I dropped the kids off at home, then I went out to the Little Ceasars drive thru, (after going by TJ Maxx for six more Sweet Floral Melody soaps, they are only $7 there) and got pizza for the kids. Corey and Lily were stuck in traffic, so date night was a bit late, but we made it out - we went to Bandits and yeah, it was a good day and it's been a good week. I did lots of cleaning and we rearranged the music room, but I'll report on that tomorrow. 

Playing House

I'm having a fun time playing house right now. I recall being surprised at the cleaning success I was having in Jan of 2022. Maybe January is just a good time to clean the house? I've been doing a lot and enjoying it. K dancing in my clean room. It's been clean for 1 week, yay!

Hoping to keep going. Yesterday I just cleaned and cleaned as I listened to General Conference and talked with Nicole. This morning the kitchen was clean as I set out my books for some study time.

And my socks are on the table there too to keep my toes warm. I didn't clean as much today, cause I ran errands: 

1. To Mom's to help her with her computer draft font size but prob was the zoom
2. Deseret Book for conference magazines and new Saints book (going to pay the girls $25 for each book they read)
3. TJ Maxx since I was in the area! I got some amazing smelling hand soap that I'm in love with - Michel Design Works Sweet Floral Melody, wow!
4. Walmart for rice milk and to see if they have a small fan for Abi, but nope, only heaters
5. Costco in case there's trouble at the Inauguration. I got 3 packs of TP. I usually try to have 8 in storage, and it had dwindled down to 4. I got 3 and made a throne for Katharine

She is holding Scout from Leap Frog, which was an impulse buy for her since she was with me at TJ Maxx. I was walking up to a display of toys and saw some big barbies that I thought she's want, so I tried to hurry by, she looked at the display, but only saw Scout. I hadn't noticed him, but she does love watching the Leap Frog videos with the "green puppy" in them (Numbers Ahoy and Alphabet Amuzement Park). I pushed her around like she was the town royalty on a float in a parade. She got lots of smiles from fellow customers. "Ooh! Look! A Princess!" 

I also liked how I used boxes of raisins for her armrests.

So that was fun. Then since I'd put in such a good day of work yesterday and today, I rewarded myself with a bike ride up the canyon. The temp was 40 when I started so I was hoping it would be nice, and it was! I made it all the way to the ruins.

I did techy too. It was so pretty. I had a full heart moment on Techy - I was going slow and just looking around me as I listened to the Piano Guys "Someone You Loved" and I got choked up. As I soaked up the beauty of the untouched snow around me Isaiah 1:18 came into my mind "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..."

And I also thought of how Christ covers us. The word for Atonement in Hebrew is Kaphar. "The Hebrew word kāp̄ar (כָּפַר) is a verb that means 'to make an atonement' or 'to cover'" - like all the snow covering the ground all around me. Christ sends snow and lets it fall for hours and hours until all my sins are covered deep under his perfect whiteness. He covers me! He is my rock and my salvation. I love being in nature, I love these mountains and this beautiful world God has made for us!

As I was riding down the trail back home, the sun was starting to set. <3 I should have brought hand warmers, it got super cold on the descent. It was appropriate that I was listening to Human by the Killers "my hands are cold..." haha. so other than freezing hands, I was and am still feeling so happy and grateful. I'm back home in our nice warm house.

Thank you Lord! Then climbing at 8:00 pm, top rope with Corey in Millcreek. We just did 3 climbs cause Corey wasn't feeling it. That is ok cause my arms were super tired too! I'm grateful we're climbing again, it's fun. 

Peter is 6!

It's time to celebrate, because Peter's Happy Birthday is finally here!

This little boy has been waiting long and hard for January 14th to arrive. I know how you feel Peter, I've been there. I remember after he was born, and then it was January 15th, and my brain had a little short circuit cause I'd never thought of life past the 14th! I just needed to survive until January 14th. I'm glad I did and that we've enjoyed 6 years of Peter since that blessed day when he joined our family. Peter has been an absolute joy, just like Katharine, and ever other baby and toddler I've given birth to.

He is a sweet and sensitive little soul. Happy 6th birthday Peter!

He came home from school and I wasn't here, I was bouldering, so he waited patiently, and Natalie bagged his presents, and then my mom came and then I came and he got to open presents from me, then we sang and sliced up the cake, and then he opened the gifts from my mom. She stayed and we visited for a bit while the kids all helped Peter make his lego sets. He is excited cause he has so many lego robots now: He got iron man on Saturday from Evan, and today he got Darth Vader from me, a Storm Trooper, and Spiderman from my mom. Pretty cool Pete! She came to the temple with me this morning at 5 am, woot! It was good. I took a short power nap from 8:30-9 am before I had a RS meeting, and then K watched Snow White (kind of a weird movie, there is no plot or character development. Is that giving us a peek into the culture of the 1930s?) And then we watched the BYU Devotional at 11am, and Melodie was part of the musical number! Neat! Katharine was excited to see Mel on the tv.

And then I gave K some green fingernails out of play-doh. She felt so fancy.

I bought some ice cream for Peter's b-day, and Katharine and I ate too much of it. I did a good deep clean of the side room tonight and have been thinking of how to rearrange music room, to make it a more useful space for our family. Last thing I did tonight was make the anniversary invitation for our family dinner party next month! Not bad. 

Should be fun. It's 8:30 and Melodie is here, she came up to say hi to Peter. Kids have had cake and ice cream for dinner tonight, and I think Natalie is down there making a protein shake now. Corey is still working but I'm gonna post this and go get kids ready for bed. :) 

FHE - Geneopardy

We played a game called Geneopardy for family home evening tonight. "What is a game that tests your knowledge of your family tree? If you think you know your family tree, try out our newest game." We did pretty good for it being our second time playing it since December 2019. I got one right because I knew that Mary Williamson birthday is the same as Daniel's. It inspired me to want to get to know more of my ancestors and my family tree. 

I was also inspired last Thursday at a New Year Relief Society activity and soup night. I made a tuscan potato soup tonight and I made soup yesterday too, a white bean and chicken rice soup. Yesterday my parents came over for dinner and enjoyed soup with us, and then we watched Monuments Men together. I'd never seen that and don't remember ever hearing about it, but it was pretty good. 

Yesterday and today I've been feeling a little off my drive, but I'm trying to give myself grace and be kind to myself (like we were told to do at the RS Activity). My lazy self is a little stronger at the moment, and that's ok. I've been kinda lazy and slow to get things going. Yesterday we had early  church again. Our new time is 9:30 and we did better at getting there this time. Then it was a lazy day at home. I did a good job making meals. We had hot dogs for lunch and the soup for dinner. One bad thing about me being interested in the meal I'm making is that I overeat. I overate Saturday (Irish roast potato and carrot soup) and yesterday and today. Need to sit down and coach myself and/or fast. I think I'm trying to avoid/escape something. Katharine and I have been taking it easy today. Abi took Sophi and Natalie to violin. Katharine has been dressed up as Snow White all day. 

She was still dressed in it tonight as she and Abi went to bed. Giving Abi a big hug.

Katharine loves her big sister and loves to go to bed with her "Abi". "I want my Abi". 

I'm glad that they have such a cute relationship!

Peter's Friend Party

Peter has been waiting patiently for January to get here so it could be his birthday. Then a week ago, he told me that he had never had a birthday party and he wanted one. Natalie helped him plan it and wrote out friends to invite, and Natalie planned activities like a pinata, a water balloon fight, etc, and I nixed most of her ideas. I still don't love doing stuff like this. I reminded Peter that he gets two friend parties, so here was party #1. I took over planning for it from Natalie earlier this week. I didn't sent out invites, but just texted some neighborhood friends earlier this week to see if this Saturday worked for them. We were going to do today or his birthday next Tuesday. I thought Saturday would be better/less stressful for me, so that's what we went with. I ran to the Dollar Store this morning and pick up some toys for a "pass the parcel" game, and prizes for a few carnival things, and Peter's request for mint chocolate chip ice cream. We had a fishing game, a "pin the tail on the donkey" game (put the spiderman on the building), and a basketball game. I also got red, black, and white frosting so I could make him a Spiderman cake. I got a chocolate Costco cake and then used this image as my inspiration, and have to say I nailed it.

Friends came at 1, and we had coloring pages for them to do while we waited for everyone to arrive. Natalie did a good job being the hostess.

Katharine was excited for a party! I think she thought it was for her. 

Pretty girl, cheesy grin.

Abi, Lily, and Sophi all came and helped out too. After everyone was here, Peter wanted to do cake. So that's what we did. 

Happy Birthday to you!

Cake and ice cream for everyone. My children enjoyed this part, since I've sworn off buying desserts during 2025, with birthdays being the exception. So they lived it up. Then Peter wanted to open presents. Into the front room we went. I gave Peter a few things I got thrifting - some dinosaur pjs, a spiderman jacket, and a remote control Lightening McQueen car. 

Then it was time for pass the parcel. 

We were about an hour in at this point, so I excused myself and the girls took over from here. Party went until 3, it was good, I survived, and then O&D had their soccer friend's come over for a playdate. After that, the day was over, the birthday battle was won, and so I rewarded myself with Climbing with Corey tonight from 8:10 - 9:35 at the new Ft. Union Momentum. I did 9 top rope. We both attempted a red 5.11a, woo! and did mostly 5.10s - two a, one b, and three c's. At the very end we did an orange 5.9 and it felt really hard, hopefully just cause we were both spent. My palms were done. Glad it's time to call it a weekend and head to bed. 

Oh, I guess I'll report on yesterday real quickly... I did a good job cleaning. Katharine entertained herself with a bucket of barley while I worked. It was cute. I wonder if seemed like a bucket of sand to her? She was quite mesmerized. 

I got the chore board modified, as we were struggling with it. I figured we don't need to track a whole week right now. We'll just take it one day at a time. 

Then at 2:20 I went on a ride to the ruins. It took me a while, over 2 hours, cause the trail was pretty narrow and if you move off of it at all, the bike tire slides into the snow. 

Thus I did a bit of hiking, and I'm thinking it might be time to get a fat bike if I think I'm going to keep this up, but I made it, yay, and it was beautiful.

We went to India House for date night last night, and even though we still don't have Corey's car back, life is good. (Corey's car has been at Tanner's Transmission for SIX WEEKS today! I think they might be incompetent.)