Little Animals

The latest movie the kids have watched is Zootopia. Thus, they toddlers have created a new game where go from a civilized and evolved animal to a savage one. Here Owen and Daniel have both become wild savages -

Then they attack each other...

They do a quick little wrestle...

And repeat.

It's kinda funny. Owen's been prowling around on his hands and knees quite often the past few days, growling at us and then pouncing. Daniel is usually the one that gets pounced on by Owen if we're not there to intervene. We're glad when Hyrum is home to give Owen a run for his money -

He roughs them up and has been willing to take the beatings that Corey used to take as a young father. We're too old for that now, atleast not as often as the toddlers want to dish it out. Here's Daniel doing a dark side of the Force choke hold on Hyrum. He's a good actor and most days the toddlers feel like they are an equal match to him.

We're glad to have Hyrum around to be a surrogate father. Abi is a good helper with the kids too. She was playing this stick pulling game with Daniel tonight - bringing back church history stories of Joseph Smith and his strength....

Pull Daniel!! Pull!!! You can do it!

I thought his little cheesy grin was so cute.

but it looks like Abi won

In other news, we talked to Joseph today - better camera quality than last week, about the same audio though.

And one last bit of news from today - I was catching up on paying bills, and called to pay a hospital bill and the amount that the lady said was due was putting us up over our deductible which confused me, so I called our insurance... turns out Peters bill wasn't covered by the deductible, cause he wasn't covered... cause we forgot to add Peter to our coverage. Doh. We had 30 days to do it. So I was kinda freaking, being as he just had his 2 month doctor appointment, aka that would mean we have missed the window of opportunity, which would mean he is not covered, which would mean we would be responsible for the bills from his RSV stay, which I'm guessing are gonna be over $15k... just a guess. So, I filled out the form for Corey to send in to add Peter (has to go through his "employer" which is himself) so we'll be sending that tomorrow and an appeal to ask them to cover Peters birth bills, check up bills, and soon to be RSV bills. I'm praying it will all be covered by the insurance even though it was our fault for not adding him. Fingers crossed.

Unreported World

Corey has discovered more treasures of knowledge on youtube - instead of just watching Dr. Phil after scriptures, Corey has found a few new videos to share with the kids - most from the channel "Unreported World". Stories from parts of the world that usually don't make it into the news. A few of the episodes we've watched this month: The World's Dirtiest River, Forced to be Fat, Skin Bleaching, Disabled and Dating in India, Obesity in Paradise, Siberia's Next Supermodels to name a few. I asked him how he comes across these but he didn't say. Then I found him last Saturday morning watching a new video on youtube - another new channel he came across? Real Stories - he still had his bedhead as he looked at me with wide eyes and an approving nod of his head... "Iranian Divorce Court! It's interesting!"

He's so funny/weird! A few more pictures from last weekend - Mel helping me out by practicing her mom multi-tasking skills - playing the flute while holding Peter. She's an angel with how she helps, I just wish she wasn't so busy!

I took a clue from her and am carrying Peter while I walk on the treadmill - keeping the treadmill at an incline and keeping the pace in the "fat burn" zone. But this weight is coming off sloooowly, blah.

I'm hoping Peter will get a growth spurt soon and suck it all off of me.

My Happy Place

I have alarms that go off all morning - On Mondays the older kids have late start, so it begins with waking up Wes, then to make sure Mel, Eth, and Hyrum are awake - they all get up, or should be getting up, the same time as the little girls do for elementary school. But today they had a morning side though, so I woke them up earlier and it saved me a trip cause they were able to take Wesley early (he goes early on Mon, Wed, and Friday for SBO stuff before school). The morning side with Jon Schmidt from the Piano guys! Cool! Although Ethan got mad at me for waking him up "Dad would like you to go...." and he yelled at me saying "I don't care! Don't make us do crap like this!" I'll give him a "he's still a sleeping zombie" pass, but he is pretty mean when he's tired (and he's tired all the time). So he did get up, but Mel and Hyrum didn't want to be late waiting for him, so they texted a neighbor and got a ride with her, and Ethan took Wes - Wes was on time to school but E was a bit late for the morningside. Most of our mornings don't go smoothly with E. It's like a battle to make him wake up and live. Anyway, I wish I could avoid it all and just lay on the couch with Peter all morning. So I guess I fight waking up and living too. I just want to hit the pause button.

Atleast when he is in the heavenly peace zone - it is so nice to hold him, he's so warm and he looks so content. I love it, it's my happy place. Hard to capture with a picture, but I hope it's captured in my mind, I know I'm going to miss it.

He is usually sweetly sleeping when my alarms go off, and when it is time to sleep, like at 2 am - that is when he's wiggly. But I love it when he's still and slumbering. It is heaven.

Here is a picture of Owen this morning, in his heavenly peace slumber. We maybe should take that binky away soon?

And Owen, I think you're getting too big for that chair. We have a bed set up for him, but he likes the chair. And if he will lay down and be quiet, we usually let him stay there. But we might need to get rid of the chair if we want him to move to the toddler bed.

It might be good to get rid of the tv in our room too - turn our room into our place and not a toddler place. I don't want to take apart the crib though... Daniel asleep this morning ~

The crib won't fit out the door if it's put together, so we'd hae to take it apart if we want to move the boys out of here, unless we just keep Peter in our room? Hmm, decisions decisions. We do need to keep Peter safe from the overflow of affection from his siblings. He was on my bed earlier when the toddlers got my phone and took a few selfies with him.

"Mom!! Save me!!" So we've been discussing how we'll rearrange things after Mel leaves - I think we'll have all the girls in a room together again and maybe move Owen and Daniel in to the little room where all the girls are now? We'll see. Mel's got a few more months until we kick her out she heads off to BYU.

Tonight Corey took the kids out to an Escape room with our Get Out Pass -

I haven't done one before. They did one earlier this year in St. George.

He said this one was harder to solve because when Natalie entered the room she went straight to the cards/clues and messed them up. Kids turn it into AP Escape room, similar to AP Pictionary.

Ok kids, haha, try to figure it out now! Take that!

Luckily Wesley had a hunch who the killer was and with that they were able to figure it out just in time. Good thing too, cause if you guess wrong, the whole facility blows up! Let's get a group photo of those good detectives!

Minus the little mess-it-up culprit.

Corey took the kids to Leatherby's afterward, but it was busy, and then a big group of Tongans came in, and then Corey aborted the ice cream mission and they came back home. Sorry kids. But Corey's been doing a great job taking them out for fun activities on Monday nights, good job sweetie. I'll step it up and start to help with stuff like that again in a few months when Peter isn't exclusively nursing. Until then, you guys go have fun, and I'll be content staying home in my happy place.

Peter's Blessing

Peter was given his blessing at church today.

He was blessed and officially given his name to have put on the records of the Church of Jesus Christ. Peter was fussy while Corey held him, I was impressed Corey was able to keep his train of thought.

Our little Peter Benjamin 

Just like all of our boys, Peter was blessed in the same little outfit that Corey wore when he was blessed. Here's Owen in 2015 and Daniel in 2016. It has been a fun tradition to keep.

We don't have the same tradition for the girls. Melodie was blessed in a little pink dress, I'm not sure about Abi, but the other three girls were in the same white dress and bow, although it's not one that I wore as a baby. Wait, I take that back... just looking things up here on the blog (I really wouldn't be able to remember anything without this blog helping me) It looks like Sophi was in a pink dress. Natalie was a white dress (last pic). I'll have to try old digital photos to know about Abi and Lily.

I do know that all of the kids have been wrapped in this white blanket though. It is one that Corey's grandmother Helen made for us when Joseph was born.

Anyway, that's all for now, I'm not going to type more, because I'm blogging this from my phone. I'm quite behind on the blog here, once again. I haven't been able to figure out yet how to make time to sit at a computer to blog since Peter arrived. Doing on my phone is hard for writing things out, but it's easy to upload photos, so maybe I'll just be doing photos for a while until I figure things out.

- Oh, wanted to add one more thing. Tonight we had a nice family from Mexico come over for dinner. They are from Leon, Guanajuato, and have been here in the US for two months. The mom and three kids were at McDonald's waiting for the husband Diego to get of work. Corey and the girls were there and Abi broke Lily's Orbeez toy thing, and their kids helped our kids pick up all the orbeez that had scattered across the floor. After that, the mom and Corey started to visit. They talked about how it was going for them to figure out life in the US, and Corey told her we'd like to adopt them. He gave them his WhatsApp info and invited them to come for dinner tonight. They don't have a car yet, so Ethan went to pick them up. It was fun, Ethan played his sax for them and Mel played the flute. Iveth has a choir that she was in charge of in Leon and she's still involved. She loves music, she asked Mel what she hopes to do with her flute talent. Mel said she's like to be in the Orchestra at Temple Square, so that led us to sharing a Tabernacle choir video (Come Thou Fount) and we told them a little bit about Utah and the Church. They want to move to Australia, but you have to pass and English test to go there, so they came here to learn English and hope to be able to move to Australia in a year or 2. So that's a little about our new friends, we hope to see them again soon!

Saturday Activities

So, we're starting a new thing (again). Corey has upped his game and is planning activities for our Monday night FHEs. All are invited to the FHE activity. We're also trying to do a Saturday activity, but those aren't free. To get to participate in the Saturday activity, you have to do your chores (or be a toddler). So, the older kids had a poor showing with their chores and music practice this week, so it was just the little girls. The people who earn the activity get to choose what the activity is. Lily was at a birthday party, so it was just Abi, Sophi, and Natalie, and they chose Classic Skating. And surprise surprise, it was Disney day again. The girls met Rapunzel -

Cinderella -

And Belle -

Pretty cool. Corey treated them to Slurpees and a fun afternoon.

They even got Papa Johns pizza on the way home.

And after all that fun, Natalie started pouting cause she didn't have any fun. And cause she wanted to go to McDonalds. Corey decided he would take them to McDonald's after they cleaned up a bit. The girls hustled to do chores, except Natalie. Abi helped stall the departing van and came back in to help Natalie do a job. Natalie finally decided to work and cleared off the table and earned her passage. Off they went to McDonalds. Seems like a lot of activities to me, but that's cause Dad is the fun one. Owen was too scared to go up the slide...

A few videos Corey took - of Owen being a yellow belly chicken -

Of Lily ticked after Abi broke her Orbeez squishy ball thing

And of Natalie pouting when the fun was over because Corey wouldn't buy her ice cream.

A long day of fun, meeting Disney Princess and slurpees and skating and they still want more... There is another video of her wailing in the car. Man, parents just can't win. You give and give and its still never enough.

I think we have a little too much fun around here for not enough work. But we'll try to keep this Saturday reward system going to motivate the little ones, since they are the main mess makers around here.

Mommy War Story

Ok, so yesterday was a little crazier-than-usual day. And I have a funny story to share. Day started off like this - Owen drawing all over his hands... I should have taken it as an omen....

You look pretty cool, Owen. Lily taught the boys how to draw on themselves yesterday for some game they were all playing (or maybe they were trying to get Owen distracted so he wouldn't mess up their game?) saying that the markers on their hands gave them "power". When he found her markers again today, he was ready to restore his great powers...

SO - usually Wes has Little Big Band rehearsals on Wednesdays, but this week it was yesterday/Thursday. They have a "20th anniversary" concert with the Soundhouse this weekend. So Mel wasn't going down (she usually takes Wes on Wednesdays when she has Lyceum) and Ethan was, but he had a lesson at 4:30, thus leaving at 3:30, and Wesley's rehearsal wasn't until 7:30, and it didn't seem nice to me for us to make him go with Eth and have to wait around for 4 hours. So I said I'd take him and then he and Ethan would come home together. Sounded simple enough. Corey usually likes me to take little kids if I can rather than leave them at home, so I loaded my toddlers into the car - Natalie, Owen, Daniel, and Peter. And Wes. Off we went. As soon as we got on the freeway, Natalie started to panic saying she had to go to the bathroom. Wes would not make it to rehearsal in time if I exited and found a bathroom somewhere. I told her to try to hold it, she screamed saying she was going to poop her pants, and I just kept driving. I figured I'd let her poop her pants - it if wasn't pee, the car would be okay, and I was fine to wash her and her clothes after we got home. So we just kept driving. She stopped panicking and it seemed the crisis had passed. They watched a movie as we drove. We drop off Wes and turn back around to head back home. Then she started to panic again. This time, with us not yet on the freeway and Wes not in a time crunch to get to rehearsal, I was free to find a bathroom for her. I pull into the Fresh Market parking lot. She is ready to go, but I have 3 other kids I need to bring in with us. And since I stopped the car, Peter is awake and crying. And neither Owen or Daniel had shoes on.... I figured we were just going to be in the car the whole time and they didn't need shoes. Umm, so I try to find a cart to put the kids in - the carts are all at the front of the store and I'm parked rather far away. I see a man with a few things in his cart unloading them into his car. I figure I'll use his cart. He took waaaay too long for just having two sacks of purchases. I look around for another cart - no cart... He's done... Instead of waiting for him to push the cart to the cart return, I walk over and tell him I'll use his cart. He gives it to me, yay. I'm in mommy fast mode and get the kids - into the cart, and we hurry to the store. Natalie is holding herself. I ask the first store employee looking person I see "Where's the bathroom?" Down there, door on the left, go up the stairs, then take two lefts. Ugh. Ok, so we hurry over, get the kids out of the cart, in the door, then up the stairs... one left, second left, there it is, hurry in Natalie! Phew, we made it without a potty accident. Now we wait for Princess Elsa to take care of business. Peter is still crying. Owen and Daniel are walking around the gross bathroom. 3 toilets, two of which are clogged, it looks dirty. Owen and Daniel are putting their hands on the floor as they peek under the stall to see what Natalie is doing. Then they try to go over and pat Peter's head to comfort him... NO. Get your dirty little hands away from Peter! Owen's hands still looked dirty from his markers this morning, which didn't wash off well earlier this afternoon.

Daniel is dressed in his coat (from being outside with the kids shoveling snow) and he had topped it off with a Spiderman mask and cape after he came inside.

Elsa didn't mean to take her time, but she took a long time in the opinion of her frazzled mother. I Marco Polo'd it to my family, a short video from the front lines. Finally she's done. There wasn't a sink in this bathroom/breakroom. Outside there was a drinking fountain, but I just figured let's get out of here and back in the car - you're all getting straight in the tub when we get back home anyway. Down the stairs...

I have Owen hold onto the cart this time. Natalie had plastic Elsa slippers and with the bathroom emergency over she was able to walk calmly out back to the car. Peter is still sad.

I didn't feed him though, we just headed home. 30 minutes later the 3 kids were in the tub and I was nursing Peter in our room, the crisis was over, I was home from the war. But this is all a reason why I generally try to avoid leaving the house with a newborn, and especially why I try to avoid taking the little kids without an older kid to help me. Like if or Lily had come, I could have had them wait in the car while I ran Natalie in. Lesson learned. But it makes a good story. When my kids have their hands full with toddlers, I'll share this story and let them know that I get it, I've been there, and they'll make it through those hard funny frazzle moments. Motherhood is worth it. These cute kids are worth it. And someday I hear that I'll miss these days. I probably will.

Snow in the Driveway

Usually I'm pretty strict about not driving on the snow in the driveway. I will not drive on it, I have Corey call me on his way home so I can get it shoveled, and I wake up early to shovel it before the kids go to school. My big reason for that is because we are a north facing house and I don't want to have ice built up on it all winter. BUT, since winter is almost over, I let it slide this Wednesday when we got a ton of snow over night and then it snowed all day. I was supposed to take carpool Wednesday morning, but when I went out to shovel, it was so thick and so heavy that it was very slow going to clear it off and I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish anytime soon. Our snowblower is still not working, so stupid since we just bought it last year... we haven't been able to use it at all this winter! The snow was so thick and deep that I doubted that any of our cars would be able to make it up the un-plowed street anyway. I texted to see if any mom with 4-wheel drive wanted to trade me. Katie took me up on it, and I continued trying to clear the driveway cause I didn't know how the high schooler's were going to get to school. Corey woke up to take them. His car make it out of the garage and into the street, but that was it. Luckily I had shoveled that side of the driveway enough that they were able to make it back into the garage. Corey was feeling more brave than I was and he has different strategies for making up a snowy sloped hill. He has miraculously driven the van to the cabin a few times, but I'm too chicken. So he took the older kids to school in the van and made it out of the neighborhood. Then he spent the day at his parent's house - which was good cause they were able to say hi to Joseph when he called. Anyway, so that was Wednesday. And after the snow was driven on, I figured who cares - the forecast says it will be in the high 50s by next week anyway, so it will all be melted soon enough. So we've been driving on it and the driveway is a big snow hazard of a mess. Wednesday night when Ethan came home, he couldn't get the Fiesta up into the garage so he left it parked outside in the driveway. It snowed all Wednesday night and so there was a nice ice and snow coating on it, and we don't have any snow scrapers for the windshield. He's never had to deal with that before and didn't know what to do and was trying to get it off with the wipers. I scraped it off with a plastic shovel

It warmed up later in the day and I had the kids get it off the Fiesta's side of the driveway after school. Wesley likes wearing this fuzzy hooded coat of Abi's cause it makes him feel like Han Solo on Hoth.

Funny kid.

There was so much snow yesterday that the garbage pick up got pushed back a day. Which was good, cause we hadn't shoveled the side of the house either. I barely got the recycling bin back up the driveway and out of the way of the van. Hyrum rescued that part of the driveway so we could bring the garbage bins in.

Hyrum, Wes, and Abi are my good workers and have done more than their fair share of shoveling. Mel's done it a few times but is usually busy. Ethan is usually asleep. Daniel wanted to go out in the snow, although he wasn't any help with the chore. I was nursing Peter. Daniel came inside and proudly said "I Back!!"

Cute little pink nose.

I was glad that Daniel was already dressed, cause we had to leave to take Wes to a rehearsal last night, which I will tell you about tomorrow, cause I found myself in a mommy crisis that was kinda funny. Will share that tomorrow.