Ethan T-shirts

Ethan was excited today that he got a package delivered. In the box was a pile of t-shirts that he and his friends made for their group. They call themselves the "T-rex Gang". As he was pooling money to order these and design them, I shared with him my opinion that having t-shirts for their group might make it seem a bit, shall we say... exclusive? He assured me that anyone that wants to hang out with them can. 

Still seemed a bit clique-ish to me. So, here's hoping they don't seem like snobs.

I just think that if I was a kid that was friends with them and hadn't gotten a shirt, I'd feel like I was officially an outsider. Or even if I wasn't really in their friend group anyway, but I saw everyone wearing matching t-shirts with their names on the side, like you'd feel kinda like I couldn't be one of their gang, right? Or, hey! Can I have a shirt? Who do I ask to get one? Anyway, he was excited about the shirts. Wanted me to take his picture so he could share it on their GroupMe. Here's hoping it opens more doors for more friends instead of closing them.

Eth, if you feel this little post is a bit too negative, feel free to come tell me and we'll edit it and give a positive twist. :)

Happy B-day Joseph

Happy Birthday Joseph - 17 years old. How does it feel?

Taking a birthday picture last year was an easy enough tradition... should I keep it up again for another year? Maybe do another tradition? I guess I could do more than one. But I didn't take a nice picture yet, it was a regular busy school day. But here he is eating dinner. I let him choose what we had. That can be an easy enough new tradition - birthday kid gets to make a dinner request. Joseph asked for french toast or puffy pancakes. I was a little behind when dinner time came around, so we did the french toast. It's faster. We topped it with whipped cream and blueberries.

Nothing like a healthy dinner before having cake and ice cream for dessert.

He's getting older, birthdays have lost a bit of the magic, which I kinda feel is my fault. So he didn't get any presents yet from me and Corey. Sorry Joseph. But I did pay his latest school parking ticket, does that count for something? I had told him over the weekend that he needed to pay this one, then I decided to pay it today sent a text saying "happy birthday!" Yay!

I do have plans to take him shopping to get something - shoes or some tech gadget, whatever he'd like. Also, this year we'll take kids out to eat with us on Date night the week of their birthday... so that will be on Friday, we're making his birthday last longer! You're welcome Joseph. Love this young man, he's a good leader of the pack.

Stomach Flu

So... we're all taking turns being sick this week. Except Owen has had more than his fair share...

Sophi threw up twice on Monday, BOTH times in the toilet! Yes, I love her. Natalie had a fever this morning. When I got the Tylenol to give her, she sweetly said "No thank you!" and then said no thank you with greater urgency as she could tell I was still apparently making preparations to administer the disgusting "grape" stuff to her. She's got a bit of a cough too. Can you tell she doesn't feel well?

Pretty little girl.

I woke up yesterday morning with a nasty sour stomach, burping rotten eggs all day. I don't know why, but that sour stomach smell always reminds me of my older sister. Sorry Moo, again I don't know why... must have been a poignant yet repressed childhood memory. So, After sleeping the better part of the evening I'm feeling better today.

Hyrum went to a full day of school and then threw up after he got home. He had a bowl that caught most of it, then I pushed him to the bathroom where he finished off. "I hate throwing up SOOOO MUCH!!! It is SOOO DISGUSTING!!" He felt better after that. It's just been a 24 hour thing for most of us. Still, I gave him permission to stay home tomorrow. Abi is staying home tomorrow too, she's got a cough. Ethan stayed home today, sour stomach, we bonded with each other over how horrible it smells/tastes. 

Good idea to let the sick kid hold the baby, no? Yeah, probably not, but I figured Daniel's getting plenty of antibodies from my milk since I'm constantly been contaminated by everyone, so Danny Boy will be okay. Plus he just wants to be held, so Eth really helped me out, cause I was able to get all caught up on the blog here! I finished blogging December and thus finished the year 2016 and then order my blog book before the great 30% off discount expired tonight! So yay, another year logged and ordered and ready to file away in the annals of our family history. Now all I have to do is blog each day and not get behind again! Yeah, good luck with that.

Fun Family Games

We got some fun games this Christmas. Two of them I bought during the week~ when we were hanging with the Hibberts, Jerusha had brought a fun game they got called Klask - it's like a mini air hockey board but with magnets. It's a fun simple game. The other one was one I saw at Target when I couldn't find Klask, and it looked so pretty that I looked it up - Otrio - it's like advanced Tic Tac Toe. Great thing about both of these games is that they are quick to play, so Corey and I can actually play with the kids without either being committed to a long game that we don't have time for (Risk) or without being pulled away by some kid emergency (hungry baby, poopy diaper). Both games are quick enough that we can finish a game in a few minutes and then the kids can keep playing with each other if they want. Only cons with both games, as with almost all games, is that there are small pieces. There are currently 4 Otrio circles missing and the black magnets from Klask too. I'm sure we'll find them once we have a chance to pick up tomorrow, which Saturday cleaning is the reality again now that school is back in session. That really was too short of a break!

Then another game we got that just keeps giving and giving fun and laughter was this from my little sister Patrice, who had me for the sibling gift this year - Watch Ya Mouth! - the Original Mouthguard Party Game! Oh, the kids were just dying to play this one!

We actually haven't had a chance to sit down and officially play a game yet, but the each immediatley put in the mouth guards. Natalie won't do it yet, but I bet her cute chubby cheeks wouldn't work with them anyway? Family picture!!

The kids opened the cards and have tried to read them with little success. Practically every word has lots of B, P, and M words which are pretty much impossible. (Wes pronounced Bowtie wrong - he says it like Bow-tee) Fun~

We might try and do song lyrics, rather than the random words on the cards which are pretty random.

We all voted that Wesley's lips were the most tough and flexible... He could cover up his nostrils...

All that trumpet playing, his lips are in good shape.

So the kids spent their last hours of vacation time making faces in the mirror and doing videos - pretending they were rabid wild animals and stuff like that.

Funny stuff! Thank you Aunt Patrice!

Ice Rink 3

Well, the ice rink is ready. Before we had to get back to the grind of life and work that started today, Corey and the kids were able to spend a few hours playing hockey.

These pictures are from Sunday. After I got home from church and was able to take over sick kid duty, Corey went out to see how the ice was doing. It seemed hard. So then he got some of the skates out to test it. Of course his little shadows followed him over. Soon everyone was out there except for Owen who I abandoned for only a few minutes while I went to take pictures. (Daniel and I didn't skate)

Our neighbors, who have been so kind to let Corey and his minion play in the dirt on their property again, were heading out and they joined the kids on the ice for a bit too before they loaded in. Corey getting the goals ready while people test the ice...

They spent most of Sunday afternoon over there. They got the lights out before it got too dark and were set up to have some night hockey too. They played and played. It was good family time. I think they've voted it the best rink yet. Here are some of the pics from the 2013-14 and 2014-15 versions. Good memories

Out with a Barf, In with a Blowout

So.... Last week I woke up to find I had a big stinky mess to clean up, courtesy of Owen. Little did I know it was just the beginning of my laundry explosion for the next few days.

So, Wednesday morning (Dec 28th) the night before, I returned home from visiting with my siblings around midnight. A few kids were still up, including the 7 year old. I asked her if they had said prayer and read scriptures before people headed to bed. "I don't think so... or maybe I was in my room?" was Lily's reply. Oh well, I figured as much. If there was no prayer or official "going to bed" routine, I bet people just collapsed, which means little kids who wear diapers were most likely not changed. So I went in to my room, Owen and Natalie were both asleep. I checked Natalie and changed her diaper, she's a pretty good sleeper and rolled back over to bed when I was finished. I didn't want to touch Owen though - one peep around him or from him and it's all over. So I went to Corey and whispered my question, asking if Owen was changed before he went to bed. "I don't know" he replied. I was pretty sure none of the kids would have changed Owen on their own volition, so I rephrased my query: "Did YOU change him at all this evening?" "No." Ok. So now I was pretty sure he wasn't changed and knew the situation I faced since it was now past midnight and he was asleep. I had a choice to make: 1) Change his diaper and wake him up in the process, but not have to wash his bedding and blankets in the morning. Or 2) let him sleep in a possibly already full diaper and be prepared to face a mess in the morning. I chose #2. And this morning I was ready for the consequences of my decision. It was a little worse than I envisioned, but it made me laugh as I shook my head. He must have pooped while he was still sleeping or right as he was starting to wake, cause I got him as soon as he started making noise, and that little guy had already poop spread all over his clothes, his bed, his blankets, his pillow, his cheeks, his binki, and also had time to grab the sides of his crib and the blinds and the little cord to pull up the blinds... poop everywhere. I've seen worse. He had good coverage but not a lot of density, so it was just small wipes and tracings of poop everywhere. It was glad it wasn't too thick, I was able to clean it up pretty quickly. And thus is what happens when Mom isn't around to enforce all the routines that she's trying to establish!

Little did I know it was just the beginning. So we went up to our friends cabin on Friday evening and spent the night there. Around 3 am, little Owen thew up in the bed we were in. He threw up on Corey, who was holding him, himself, the bed, a few pillows and some stuffed animal toys. Great. Luckily as we had gone to bed, we all just collapsed on top of the bedspread. And luckily that was a thick blanket, cause it absorbed most of the puke. Corey took Owen down to give him a bath and I tried to figure out what to do, hoping not to wake people up. So Owen was crying as Corey attempted to bathe him and I started surveying the damage and washing things off. Corey changed his clothes, I brought down a change of clothes for Owen, and put in items for a load of laundry (luckily the cabin is kinda like a second home to everyone and I knew where everything was that I needed - washing machine, detergent, etc.) The machine was louder than I would have liked, and was right by the bedrooms where two other couples with their kids were sleeping, but what can you do.

Corey decided it would be best if he took Owen home to attempt to not spread the sickness. One glitch - we don't have 4 wheel drive to get up to the cabin, so our car was a quarter of a mile away at the Nordic Center parking lot. How to get the toddler to the car at 4 am? Corey decided to sled down the hill to get it and then took a gamble and drove it up the snowy road. He thought it would be the fastest option. He heard coyotes howling as he went, and was glad he had the Red Ryder sled to defend himself from the wild animals if need be. He made it to the car. Thankfully it has new tires, so he decided, instead of backing up the road and parking before the hill, that he'd take the loop around so he could park by the cabin and then would take his chances going down the hill. The snow wasn't icy and kinda had a grip to it and he made it up, hooray. I held Owen while we waited for Corey to return. Owen wouldn't let me put him down. There was more mess to clean up upstairs. I was also worried Natalie would roll over or kick Daniel in the bed and wake him up, which would make my situation more difficult. So I went up to watch Daniel, Natalie was a little close, but they were both still asleep, so I just watched as I waited and held Owen. I knelt down with him on my lap, thinking to pick up some pieces to a game as we waited. Then Owen threw up again, this time all over me. OoooKay! This is great! I don't have a change of pants! I did bring an extra shirt and underwear, so... la de dah, what to do. I decided to just sit in it until Corey came back. I prayed for Daniel to not wake up and left him at the mercy of his sleeping sisters and went down stairs, thinking it was about time for Corey to be returning. Owen and I took a 4 am selfie. 

Then I took a puke on me selfie...

My poor baby boy, Owen I'm sorry you're sick!

He was holding one of his blankets when he threw up on us. My motherly instincts made me grab it to try and catch the throw up. Then he wanted his blankie back... No sweetie, you can't have it any more. He started to cry for it, so I hid it out of sight and went to the bed where I ever so gently pulled Daniel's blanket off of him, again hoping not to wake him. Phew! So Owen here has Daniel's hot air balloon muslin blanket that Daniel got for Christmas. Good thing I had another change of clothes for Owen, yay. It was pj shorts though. Not going to help keep you warm outside. Hopefully Dad's got the car warm. Owen looks so sad here, like "What is happening to me?!?!"

Corey came and saw what had transpired. Yes, these are my only pants, but I'll be okay, "What are you going to do?" I'll hurry and throw my clothes in the laundry too, and hopefully my pants will be washed and dried before anyone wakes up. We were handling it all very well and I was smiling as I shook my head at this moment in parenthood. Actually, I think I most enjoyed having someone to share it with. Usually at home in the wee hours of the morning, it's just me and the sick kid, so I was grateful Corey was there to share in the joys and pukes of life with me. I was also glad Owen threw up on me instead of Corey. Corey took him out to the car, then realized he left his computer bag. He didn't want Owen to be sad as he left him alone in the car, so he got me on the bluetooth to be a voice keeping Owen company and I kept saying "Hi Owen! I love you!" as Corey ran back into the house and I went back up stairs... Thank you Lord that Daniel is still asleep. Thankfully Natalie's most recent tossing and turning rolled her the other way. Corey made it out, Owen was okay and they were on their way. They made it safely down the canyon and were home at 5:15.

Six people in the bed minus three (Corey, Owen and me) leaves 3 little humans still in the bed. Daniel, Natalie, and Lily, Yes, it was a great night of sleep, ha! It's like human tetris...

So, that was the end of 2016. And the new year is off to a great start too - yesterday was laundry day! I did a ton of laundry because little Owen had a diarrhea explosion last night. I woke up during the night, smelled something bad, figured it was a poopy diaper... I went over and touched his tummy to see if he had wet through his clothes. It was wet. Oh well, we'll clean it up when he wakes up. At 7 am he was awake. I went over to find it was not just pee all over his onesie, that was diarrhea juice. He had it all the way up his front practically to his neck. Crap was hard crusted onto his tummy - OooKay! Holy cow! I was talking to Owen and myself "Wow! Owen! You are sick! This is such a mess!! You made a BIG mess!!" It seriously was the worst poopy diaper mess of an explosion I've ever seen, and for a mother with 11 kids that might be saying something. He hates baths, but I put him in and got in with him and rinsed him off as best I could before plugging the drain, then we bathed in bits of his poo as I tried to scrape his tummy clean. He finally relaxed and seemed to enjoy his bath as I rubbed and rubbed his tummy. But no time to let him bask in the tub, I had to get kids ready for 9 am church! So out we went, I put him in OUR BED (mistake) with Corey and I went to start a load of laundry to wash his bedding and then woke up the kids to get them ready. An hour later we left for church, and Owen stayed home with Corey.

When I came back, Corey and Owen were no longer sick in bed... they were sick in the tub... and our room smelled really bad... What happened here? Oh my, poop all over our bed - he got the comforter, duvet cover, it soaked into the mattress in three spots on MY SIDE of the bed, ha! Thanks guys!! Shaking my head again... So, off comes all the bedding, how do you wipe up a mess out of a mattress? We've had this one since we got married... I haven't been sleeping well lately, might be time to get a purple mattress. I had to take the comforter out of the duvet, a big pain that I try to only have to do once a year, oh well. After the first load of laundry was started, I came and got Owen, put a diaper on him, and the poor little guy just fell asleep right there on the floor on the towel. I put a blanket on him, poor little guy.

So, that was our new years day!! Happy new year, 2017 is coming in with fury! Wonder what other fun times are in store! #KeepingItReal

New Years Eve

New Years Eve this year consisted of our usual tradition of hanging out at a Brighton cabin with a bunch of neighborhood friends. Since New Years day falls on a Sunday, we came up to sleep over on Friday night and spent all day Saturday hanging out, sledding, watching movies and playing games. We didn't do any skiing this year. We had plans to, but Owen threw up during the night. Since he was sick, Corey took him home, and with Corey gone with his hands tied up, that made it hard to ski, since Corey is the one that makes that happen. We got all the kids measurements on Friday, and our plan for him to go down to the valley and rent skis and then come back up changed. They were disappointed, sorry kids. But there was still plenty to do and they had fun sledding. Here is a picture of Melodie playing with Daniel in the upstairs playroom, which is also the room where we slept. Cute little chair for Daniel to sit in~ oh we love him so much!

Daniel is all ready to tell us a story "When I was a little boy..."

Joseph, Ethan, and Hyrum all headed down for home around 4 to get ready for a New Years Eve concert that they had to perform in for their Soundhouse group. Call time was 6. Hyrum and Ethan's Little big Band group was first around 7, then Ethan and Joseph performed with their Voodoo band at 9:15-10. Corey came back up with Owen at 7. I thought he was going to wait for Hyrum and bring him back up. One thing about that... Hyrum got a ride home with a friend after his performance was done, he got home around 8:45. His phone was dead but he called us with his friends phone before they dropped him off. He was sure he knew where the key was. But he didn't call after getting inside the house, and the house phone didn't answer when we called. Most all the neighbors were up at the cabin with us. We were trying to make sure he got inside okay. Our friend that he got a ride with said they invited him to hang out with them at their house, but he wanted to go to bed and so said no. She said she waited and saw a light come on, so we thought he was okay. I got in touch with one neighbor and asked her to go knock. She did but no one answered, but their were lights on, so we figured he went inside and had gone to bed. So, at 10:00 at the cabin, we live streamed the ball drop in New York - great idea!

That way we were able to celebrate, but also able to head home and get to bed a little earlier. Brilliant. So here we are at 10:00 Utah time with the countdown... I spy four Wrides...

It was a big party house! At the new year, the kids can go run a lap around the cabin in the snow barefoot to become members of the Polar Bear Club. Wes joined the club this year, good job buddy! It was a lot colder than he expected. and he also didn't enjoy how his feet would break the top layer of snow and he'd sink in with each step. Yeah, that part is no fun. So, the hour before "midnight" we gathered our things and loaded them in the van. After cheering in the new year, we got our coats on and headed out. Ethan and Joseph had beat us home and they were the first ones to discover a sad little Hyrum that had been locked out in the cold for 2+ hours...

Such abandonment would have scarred other children for life, but not our humble Hyrum, He took it well. We gave him lots of hugs and apologies, told him how we called and how we had tried to make sure he made it in... sorry! Then we also gave all the kids a lecture about keeping their stinkin' phones charged, how the only reason they have phones is so that we can get a hold of them! Maybe their phones are not serving their primary purpose cause you guys waste your batteries taking advantage of all the smart phone properties it offers, but we might dumb your phones down if you can't keep them charged, this is ridiculous!

And then we all went to bed, we have church bright at early in the morning, new time schedule at 9 am!

Falcon Drone Rescue

Yesterday Hyrum got his Christmas toy stuck on the roof. He took his Air Hogs Millenium Falcon outside to see how high it could go. And then an o-so slight breeze caught it and pushed it south, a little more south... I was watching from the window. As I saw it move closer and closer to the house, I said "They're gonna get it stuck on the roof..." but Hyrum was still looking up at it with a big "isn't this fun?!" smile. Then, the smile disappeared and a look of "uh oh" came on his face as his jaw dropped and then he put his hand over his mouth. Kinda funny, kinda sad. It looked like it had been abandoned on Hoth... (photo reenactment)

We could see where it was from the window in my bedroom (I didn't get a picture of it before it's rescue, thus the photoshopped version below)

It doesn't matter how much parents try to warn their children to prevent situations like this... some things you just have to learn from personal experience.

So, today I went over and asked our neighbors across the street if we could borrow their ladder. They dug it out of their garage and then Joseph brought it over. He leaned it against the house in two different locations. He put it in the yellow spot, but I thought no, that will take longer, if we put it in the red position as seen below, we'll be able to quickly climb up and climb back down! Yeah, bad idea... the ladder was at it's highest setting and it seemed very unstable. Plus there would be no extra roof to break a fall in case of an accident, we'd just fall straight off the cliff of the roof. Joseph told me "No" before I told him I had second thoughts. I'm okay with that - that roof is high and scary!!!

So we chose location one and then I sent Joseph up on the roof through our ice dam area (stupid north facing house, very poor design right there... There hasn't been an ice dam there the past 3 years thanks to heating cables which I asked him to be careful not to disturb the cables if at all possible...) Boy this is a great idea... let's risk Joseph's life by putting him up on a snowy roof to retrieve a $70 toy. I did not take any pictures of the rescue, cause you can't take pictures when you're stressed and in a dangerous predicament. But just imagine us doing this in the snow and ice. I got up on part of it with him, but he went all the way up to get the toy. That's Joseph on the top of our house with a broom trying to get the toy, me on the roof at the top of the ladder coaching him, Mel holding the ladder for us, and 3+ other kids whining for a turn, to which my stressed out self said "Shut up!!"

Not sure why we did it really, would probably have been better to just let it be lost or go buy another one. Wesley really wanted to be the one to go up on the roof, like it was some fun game. Joseph was sober enough to attempt it though - "This is not a game, this is serious and scary and we gotta be careful." By some miracle he was able to grab it with the broom we tossed up to him. Then I very slowly got myself down (I was pretty freaked out - it was so nice to finally get a firm foothold on the ladder again!) and then coached him down. It was a high stress situation, and probably not the smartest thing to do. But we got it down, yay, Hyrum will think we're heroes (he was gone at a band rehearsal) We're just trying to help him out with his favorite toy. Though not sure if it was worth the risk.

Now we are ready to head up to our friends' cabin. I've tried to use our early departure to the cabin as a bribe/incentive to get the kids to clean the house. "Back to reality is starting soon! Please organize your things so you are ready! Let's get the house clean, life will be more calm if we do!!" But instead they're playing Klask and Otrio and I might as well just be nagging the walls to get movin'. Abi did help me finally finish clearing out the laundry room. Now it is officially a "clothes and cloth only" room - no more crafts or paper or glue for the kids to get in to! The desk is cleared off! I'm excited about that. Maybe I'll finally be able to sew and do mending! Off to the cabin, it is always nice for Corey and I to have time to visit with friends and the kids love it too. Happy New Years Eve tomorrow!

Ice Rink Builder

So Corey put Joseph to work again this winter. He had Joseph working on ice rink stuff while he was gone in Chile and Brazil. Joseph worked hard and now it's all ready for the ice. Thus the hose has been on for the past 3 days. My apologies to anyone worried about water conservation.

This year they found out that some guys in our neighborhood are really good at working a skidster and leveling ground. We asked them a little late in the season and the ground was wet, thus leaving big tire tracks. But it still looks the best it has among the ice rinks so far. They helped Joseph with the boards too and had a trailer to haul them over to the lot. They turned the garage into a messy workshop and also trashed the van (Joe, you still need to go get that vacuumed out, what a mess)

Joseph did say that having a functional ice rink would be the most memorable thing about this winter/Christmas season for him. Now all we need is cold.

Family Christmas Concert

Here are some pictures from the family Christmas concert we had with Corey's side of the family on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed a ballet performance, guitar and violin from Seth and Isaac, and our kids did their musical instruments - Wes played "Merry Christmas and All that Jazz" on the trumpet...

Melodie did a piece from her flute recital ~

The little girls did a silly version of Jingle Bells, called "911" -

Sophi with the interpretive dance in the video below, Owen joined her for a second, he was feelin' the music!

Ethan did "Forget You"

Daniel entertained us all with his mere presence. A baby in fuzzy jammies!!! I'm gonna die

Joseph - sorry buddy, I can't remember what song you did and I can't see it on the karoke screen behind you. I'll text you. I think it was Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas? Trying to remember the songs I've been hearing the past month.

Then Hyrum and Ethan sang the politically incorrect "Baby It's Cold Outside"

We all enjoyed good food and games. The biggest hit of a game was the saran wrap game that Uncle Mark brought. Seth and Isaac got the game together and had cut the saran wrap into pieces. And they wrapped it TIGHT. Wes and Hyrum got Christmas ties from the ball, Sophi and Mel won the big $5 bills in the middle of each ball, and there was candy, gloves, scarves, erasers... we were impressed with how much they fit into those balls. I think that was the most memorable part of the evening for the kids and we adults thought it was fun to watch too. That might be a new family tradition for Wride get togethers... I'm planning on making one for Park City next year. We were able to head home before the storm came in and will be back for more fun tomorrow. It's good to be with family.

Hangin' with Hibberts

We had our Christmas get together with my family yesterday evening. We all met over at Jerusha's ward building to play games and visit. My mom brought pizza for dinner and we all had lots of left over goodies that we brought to share. We did a MJ dance off that was fun, I'll have to see who got pictures of that. Jersh brought a little magnetic hockey game called Klask that everyone had fun playing. There was also lots of Speed basketball - I got second once, then I got first, then I was the first one out. Daniel was held by Amy and Jersh when I played, so that was fun to be an active participant in the sports for a change. Corey wasn't - he was on Owen duty most of the time. Although he did get in on a round of Nerf tag. The kids used the pizza boxes as shields

Also, Neil's family got a hover board that was a big hit, everyone wanted to try. The kids caught on super fast. Corey and I not as fast, but we argued that if we had a few minutes uninterrupted and without any toddler or baby interfering, we would be able to figure it out too.

Then tonight the Siblings and spouses met up at my parents house at 7:30 pm. My sister Patrice was in town from Texas, so we had to seize the opportunity to get together again. Corey stayed home with the kids hoping to get some work done. Neil brought a card game called Rage to play that I do think was fun, even though during the game as I struggled to grasp the rules, I took over my dad's role of reluctant participant "So how long does this game go?" I think I got it by the last round. And then we stayed and talked until it was almost midnight. What time is it? Oh! 11:40! We should probably wrap this up..." It was fun to forget all our responsibilities for a while and visit.

Day After

So not much going on here. The kids are playing with their toys. I'm taking down Christmas decorations. I woke up this morning and did a treadmill run, then I stretched out my hips as I squatted by the tree and started taking off ornaments. I figured since I put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving, I had the right to take it down the day after Christmas.

I got all the ornaments off, stuggled with the lights for a while but finally got them off too, then it was time to take down the tree piece by piece. It's nothing personal, Mr. Tree, it's just that we already have more than our share of clutter, and you've fulfilled your purpose this year. I was really excited to see you gone, but we look forward with pleasure to seeing you next year. So I'm trying to clean and put away and hide things, the kids have been putting together lego sets and coloring. Here is the favorite received gift of each child ...well, except the first three. They didn't get any one particularly amazing gift, and the Christmas magic is a little bit gone for these older kids, so we're gonna skip Joseph Mel and Ethan, but I'm sure they liked their new headphones and socks and ACT book etc, right kids? As for the younger kids:

Hyrum - Millenium Falcon drone
Wesley - Neon Street Rollers. He would say his x-wing fighter, but it doesn't fly so well, drat.
Abi - Friends Lego Hotel ...which I ordered online and we picked up at Toys R Us today... Corey and I had a mixup and I thought he bought her gift, and he thought I got it... so she didn't get a toy on Christmas and quietly mourned in the corner that all she got for Christmas was a book and some shoes, so sad.
Lily - Elves Lego Set with the Baby Queen Dragon
Sophi - Lego Queen Dragon
Natalie - I'll just guess the Belle Lego. But yesterday she seemed most excited and pleased with all the Hi-Chew candies in her stoking.
Owen - Hit the 4 balls toy
Daniel - I'll speak for him too and say his new muslin blankets. :)

So yeah, the house is a wreck. It's nice to have a whole week to try and clean it up. :) Any chance they'll actually do any homework? I find it highly unlikely. We're all going to enjoy the break from school and responsiblity.