February Party

We had our family February party tonight, in celebration of Love, Valentine's Day, our anniversary, and all things red and pink. The kids helped with much of the preparations, I did most of the room decorating. They helped set the table and prepare food. We were all set to go around the time the sun was setting, which helped with the ambiance ~

Here's a few pictures of the dinner party preparations

I put our wedding video on to help them contain their excitement and all sit in one place while I went and put on a red dress.

Corey and I have a pretty fun and great courtship story, if I do say so myself.

After the movie was over we sat down at the table. 

You kids ready to dig in?

I made a perfect amount of dinner food and it all got served up and eaten, and after dinner was done we opened up the dessert buffet ~ we had extras there by the evening end, which they were glad to eat for breakfast, cake for breakfast!

Natalie's glass was plastic, but she still made me nervous cause she's grab it with such eagerness, she seemed to be about to topple her seating companion's drinks on a few goes. She did pretty good for her first time sitting at the table for a fancy dinner. I still kept my eye on her most of the time. I think we need a bigger table!

Then the mess to clean up after, it looked like we'd just had a party

After we cleaned up most of the kitchen, Corey took the kids dancing in the front room, it was fun. Got a few videos of it. There wasn't enough of dad to go around and Sophi and Abi did quite a bit of weeping and wailing when it was someone else's turn.

"We are a happy family!" 

Valentines for School

The kids started making their valentines for their school class friends last night. Today they were all ready for their school parties. I like it when the kids make their Valentines themselves. Look at Lily's cute handwriting ~

After working on them for a while, it became apparent that it would take Lily several hours to make hers if she did all of them herself, so helped out a bit and wrote the cards and she signed her name. Wesley was able to whip his out pretty quickly

And Abi's valentines, she worked pretty quickly too.

Then we glued a treat on each card. Little toddlers were close by to help eat candies before they made them on the cards. And Melodie helped Wesley make a Valentine box - she didn't have school today so she stayed up helping him until midnight last night. We spray painted it gray and then she got up early to help Wesley finish the eyes and put on a tail. She is so creative.

Wesley is too - they worked on it together, they are a good pair.

At the Bus Stop and Other Messes

Lily goes to afternoon kindergarten. She catches the bus at the corner two houses away. Today as we were waiting, Natalie threw up. It took her quite by surprise. 

She hadn't been acting sick or uncomfortable today, so I wasn't expecting it either. She looked so sadly pathetic and sweet with a worried and surprised expression on her face, throw up down the front of her cute sweater and covering the black bow of her little Sunday shoes. 

After the initial "ah!" by me, I just laughed. She's so cute. She didn't have socks on, I bet the throw up felt yucky on her foot. It made me laugh. Walking back home...

squish squish... squish squish squish...

She threw up on the side walk and then on the grass. Should I tell our neighbors so they can get their hose, or do I go back down the street with a bucket of water to wash it off? Well, first things first... Get out my phone to try and capture the moment :) then wave to Lily as she gets on the bus. Back at home, a few more pictures before I carry you straight up to the tub. 

Oh Natalie, you make me smile. Love your little face, even with your throw up beard. But lets go wash that off and get you smelling nice.

She's such a swetie. So she took a bath and I haven't gone to clean it up outside, sorry neighbor. Maybe it will give the kids a strange mystery to solve when they come home from school and notice a peculiar substance on their path.

Thus is life of a mom. And some more of the like ~ last night I was washing dirty spots off of the carpet on the stairs at 9:30 pm ~ kids are all up doing homework or practicing music or just being noisy, the house was loud and alive with activity. And then Sophi comes out of her room and looks to me from the top of the stairs and informs me: "Mommy, I wet." I've kinda given up on potty training her for the time being, she's just not interested and I'm sick of cleaning up pee. But I took Joseph and Ethan to band, so Corey was home with the kids, and put her in underwear cause she said she wanted underwear. So I got to clean up pee after I got home, then again as I cleaned the stairs. But before I went to clean up the pee I thought I'd finish the stairs. Working my way down, and just a few moments later another child comes from the bottom of the stairs behind me... "The downstairs toilet is clogged...." I just kinda laughed and shook my head with frustrated exhaustion. Thus is the life of a mom. 

And I was thinking, one thing that makes traveling hard is all the daily messes and emergencies. I better start to prepare myself mentally. Cause here at home, I know how to handle it and I've got all the tools I need at my disposal. When we get in a new environment, I have to relearn how to handle the situation in our current situation and often spend a few weeks stocking up on all the supplies I am used to just having around. Situations and supplies that help in such situations as cut lips and allergic reactions and clogged toilets in Costa Rica, or busted fingernail in Chile. Always an adventure. But I'm looking forward to it, I need a break from school and our busy life here in the USA. I know I will miss Costco and time will slow down in some ways, but it will be fun and I know I'll be glad we went. And glad to have my little mess makers and friends along for the fun.

Moments

Just a few precious moments from last night ~ Sophi very intently coloring

As Sophi colored on the floor, Lily was reading on her bed...

...with all her special stuffed animals listening to the story. And here's one from a few days ago of Natalie doing her paperwork too. Reading or writing, I love seeing them and their sweet little hands hard "at work"

More Orthodontics

Last Thursday, Hyrum went in for his orthodontic consultation. He'll need braces, but gets to wait until his canine teeth come in.

We had fun taking pictures of their funny faces again.

Then today Joseph went in. He had a few teeth on bottom that were not straight that bothered him - mostly the looks of it. I didn't think he'd need a lot of work. Not so...

He's got lower crowding, but they'd have to expand the top to keep the bite of the top teeth in line with the bottom teeth, so Mr. Joseph was told he needs to have braces on top and bottom for 18-24 months.

Yikes. Looks like you get $5000 worth of braces instead of a car, sorry big guy. As they took Joseph to get the x-rays, I was looking at the before and after of teeth. I haven't had braces, but maybe I should get a consultation too. And maybe Corey should get braces too - he's got lower crowding like Joseph. Heck, lets just all get braces! Joseph said he'd prefer to get invisalign. I told him he's welcome to, but he'd have to pay the difference in cost ($900 more). I am slightly amazed by the cost of braces and the like... These orthodontists, they got a pretty good racket going on here. You should be an orthodontist Joseph. It's all fun and pretty, no life threatening emergencies like ER or medial doctors, no ugly cavities or root canals like regular dentists, just making teeth straight and being able to provide employment for all your dental assistants, nice and cushy job just making people feel happy about their smile!

Joseph did a really good job making faces I thought.

I told him he should use this one below to send to girls who are interested in him and want a picture. Haha

Or this one...

Or this. Yes, my name is Joseph and I'm1 quite the looker, just look at my selfie!

Well, so since Joseph's cost more than Wesley's (Wes' are only $2K) we haven't pushed go yet. Might need to see where the funds will come from first. Thus is life with kids.

Brazil Plans

So we are going to Brazil. And we're going next month, six weeks from today. I, personally, am excited to have an adventure to help pass the long months of expecting, which always go by way too slowly. We'll come back in July before I'm due, my OB is good with it. And for the kid's braces, the orthodontist says it's no problem either. So yay! Those are the first people we wanted to check with. School we're assuming is okay, as is their band group.

When we first started toying with the idea, we told Joseph and Ethan, who had concerns about missing school and band, that they were free to stay if they wanted. Mel also would have been given permission to choose, but she was already packing her bags. Joseph and Ethan, after careful pondering and consideration, have both chosen to stay and have our blessing. So they'll be staying with Corey's parents and having their own new and memorable experience from March to June and then will join us in Brazil for a few weeks after school is done. So that's what we have planned so far. And, another great thing, our awesome landlords are ok with us coming back here, so we don't even have to pack up the house. So things are just awesome and all the details are being worked out. Over the top blessings from the Lord yet again. Feeling grateful.

Cabin Fun

We're headed up to spend the night with friends again up at their cabin. Corey is going skiing tomorrow with some of the kids, should be fun. Only bad news, I can't find my camera, and I can't use my phone camera cause that is locked at the moment... Corey switched carriers today, says Verizon will work better for us in Brazil, they have international service without the fees AT&T has. Anyway, hopefully someone will take pictures that I can steal.

Ten Visas

Every now and then for the past few months, Corey and I will talk about what the chances are, percentage wise, that we'll be going to Brazil. It's been below 40% for most of the time since he began toying with the idea in October. Today it jumped up to 90%. Last week Corey bought plane tickets for him and Melodie to go down in April for when Movie Mouth has a few hotel events. They were going to have a lot of fun together. But now all of Mel's fun has been squashed cause we might be joining them. He cancelled their tickets today and is trying to get up the guts to "strike the bell" again as he fights the typical jitters that come before every big decision like this. So, he's been trying to keep busy doing other stuff in possible preparation. Yesterday morning all the kids signed their visa papers, he printed up 10 copies of itineraries, 10 copies of letters stating why we want visas, with 10 birth certificates and 10 passports in the respective piles for each person (me and 9 kids, Corey's already got his visa)

So that's what Corey spent the better part of yesterday working on. It's quite a process, cause as he noticed once again "We got a lot of kids..."

And so I guess we'll see what happens! Corey did say (and this was part of our thinking when we went to Costa Rica) that it seems like when you have the choice between doing something or not doing something, you should do something! So I'll keep you posted, cause it looks like it might happen.

----- BREAKING NEWS!! -----

This just in! (via a quick Skype chat at 6:03) 

Corey's bought airfare for us to go to Brazil. 

Plans are to go to Florida first, where they have a direct flight to Campinas.
So to Florida on March 23, Campinas on the 27th. 

We're gonna do something! Fun!

Wes' Braces

Here we go! Are you ready Wes? He's all smiles.

Actually he's had butterflies in his stomach for the past 24+ hours. He was excited to get out of class, and everyone knew when he was going and wished him luck. He'll be back soon with a new look!

I was going back and forth checking on Wes and checking on the girls watching a movie in the lobby. When I returned he was standing at the sink rinsing out his mouth - brackets are on! Time for the wire.

And an hour later he's all done. He got a coupon for a cheeseburger and fries so we picked that up for him to take back to school for lunch. He got blue and green braces, you look great buddy!

You know your siblings are going to be totally jealous, atleast I know Ethan already is, that silly boy. Try not to rub it in his face too much.

Author Abi

Abi's been writing up a storm lately (goes through a ton of paper, I have to hide it from her now cause we're on our last ream and she could breeze through that like it was nothing). The following three creations are all from last night. First she cleaned the house while I took Hyrum to band. I told her that if it was clean, I'd bring back a treat. When I got back, I found a clean house and this note - 

"Her is a klen hase. love Abi and Jules and Lily. we will klen sumor kus I love klen! cus I wont a tret to nite."

Proper English translation ~ "Here is a clean house. Love Abi and Jules (Abi's friend and our neighbor) and Lily. We will clean some more cause I love clean! Cause I want a treat tonight."

She also made this one - she was just being creative and made a little temple thing on a paper and said "The templ is holy i have den to the templ wons i liket it decus i gon a cucy it tas god her is the templ.

Translation ~ "The temple is holy. I have been to the temple once. I liked it because I got a cookie. (It was at the Bountiful Temple Open House, I told her they don't always give out cookies) It taste good. Here is the temple.

 I love it Abi. Keep it going. And she wrote in her journal this morning too, unfortunately Lily cut it up before I could save it for her scrapbook.

Translation is "Last night I had a doughnut. It taste good. I fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up I saw my brothers and sisters. Went to school and it was dark. My mom and Dad was there too. And last night I went to school. On Sunday I went to my Grandmas house. I got a new bracelet. And today I am going to school

Abi, you're a good little writer. Keep up the good work! The spelling will come with time :)

Out to Dinner with Family

We had a rare treat last Saturday night - we got together with my family! And it was a very rare and special treat because we got together without the kids and so we all had lots of time to visit and laugh, it was so fun! We tried to get together over Christmas but didn't get all the Utah siblings together cause they had other family in town and orthodontist appointments. It gets harder and harder each year cause we're such a big and busy group. But we decided to try for an "adults go out to eat" on a weekend in January, and after 20 emails of "what days work for you" we finally found one date without soccer tournaments or traveling taking one of us away. So Jan. 31st was the day and we all went out to Mimi's Cafe in Sandy. Mom and Dad treated us, so nice. Jared and Jerusha's kids babysat Grant's and Neil's kids. We were in a side room and weren't totally by ourselves, but it was private enough that we all could all see each other and hear each other and it was just great. Someday it will be nice to have the Indiana and Texas siblings here. The last time we were all together was when Beka got married in 2011, and that was still missing one in-law. Ya do what you can. 

Anyway, great visit. Lots of laughing as Neil and Amy remembered the 3 and a half years they lived with my mom's parents. Neil's perfected his Louie Jean impression. And he broke his collar bone and so he rubs it just like she always rubbed hers, so funny. What else did we laugh about? We started dinner at 6 and were there until 8:45. This was the only picture I got that turned out at all. Stephanie took one though, I'll try to get a copy of it.

Good times, I love my family!