Chile Care Package

We got a care package from Chile yesterday from our good friend Angela. Angela and her family took care of us during our stay in Chile and saved us when we had difficulties during our departure, And the kids all know and love her because she came and spent a month with us in 2012. She sent some treats and cute headbands for the girls.

They love them Angela! Thank you!!!

The kids sat out on the trampoline to enjoy their sugar high and have food memories of our time in Chile - The "super ocho" candy bar was the biggest memory trigger. Fun stuff.

Natalie and Sophi - you two little girls don't remember Chile, do you? Well, that's not fair! You girls need an international trip! But maybe when you're a bit older and will remember it? We'll have to see what we do to make it up to you...

Hyrum was being a dork and kept photo bombing my pictures. I deleted all of those, but here's what he looked like before I punched him for being a pest.

(just kidding! I don't punch my kids!)

Tickle Peter

Well, Peter is pretty adorable and it's so fun to watch him grow. He is starting to laugh! Mel got a few good smiles and chuckles out of him today.

Isn't he so pretty?!?

Here's the video of his delightfulness

So, we're all still obsessing over this little man, and that's about it.

 

There are less than 3 weeks of school left for the older kids. Our friend Junior is going to stay with other neighbors for a few weeks, which is very helpful, cause we've got another Latin American guest coming tomorrow, Gabriel from Chile, Angela's husband. Corey knew Angela on his mission and they became good friends and have kept in touch. They helped us have a place to sleep when we couldn't get out of their country back in 2011 when we lived in Chile for a few months. And we have since been able to have them visit us here a few times and make some great memories. I love them, but I do think all the hosting we're doing is taking a slight toll on me. My morning routine is off and haven't been exercising as well. I brought up my weights from the basement but haven't been using them in my room. So I feel a little off balance. But I am still eating or drinking Kale everyday, so that's a win. With it being May with all of the crazy end of the year make a dash for the finish line chaos it brings, I'm not going to beat myself up, just going to try and keep going slow and steady. It's been nice having Iveth come help. 

Si Vas Para Chile...

Sophi, your future has been decided and it is out of your control.  Yet you seem so calm... can you share some of that peace and trust with me, please?

I shall begin this post with my last political sidenote of this year and perhaps forever (since the pessimistic part of me thinks America as we know it will cease to exist during the next 4 years, Obama 2016 has left me pretty persuaded of that possibility.  If any Obama supporter out there has seen that documentary and wants to tell me why the concerns it brings up are wrong, I'm all ears)...

ok - obviously unhappy about the results from the election.  I feel sorry for America who could have had Romney as our leader, it would have been so great.  Really nervous about the economy now, I feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel.  I compare it to being pregnant 9 months, thinking I'm going in to deliver, then being told I am actually going to be pregnant for another 2 years.  DEPRESSING.  Ugh.  The pessimist in me thinks this election will stand as a testimony against us and our wickeness, much like Abinadi's death.  The optimist in me, and I'm really going to have to consciously decide to tend that garden (thus going to have to take a major break from news for a few months) is taking the challenge to live my life fully right here and right now, I believe that Jesus Christ is the God of this land and know he will bless us if we do not forsake him, He has not forsaken me and my family.  I'm in charge of myself and my happiness no matter who the president is.  I'm a God-fearing woman, I believe the prophecies about the last days, we know what's going to happen regarding Zion, and now I think I can see a little more how it might happen.  I was hoping we had a little more time.  Sigh.

So we'll see what we are impressed to do.  Heading to Santiago is on the table, which we said with a joking laugh to Angela today as she headed home to Chile. Angela has spent the past month here in the once blessed US of A. (there I go being a pessimist again...)

She's headed out today.  Corey's with her at the airport, her plane takes off in about an hour.

She loves us and we love her. After the Presidential Election results yesterday, we said "Don't worry, we'll see you really soon!  Like maybe in January! (since we'll be fleeing the country).  But then Corey reminded me that America is the last stand, there's no where else to go.  Sigh.  While I'm totally letting "worry-itis" make me sick thinking his company will be killed by the terrible economy now, he thinks there's a glimmer of hope because it's an international business, so who knows.  sigh.

The kids are going to miss her, Corey and I will too and we pray she has a safe flight.  She was able to go to New York to see the Sacred Grove a week before Hurricane Sandy, pretty lucky, and what a blessing for her and for us too.  Vaya con Dios!

Forty Four Stories

Happy Birthday to my #1.

Last night, I couldn't sleep (no more pandemic news after 9 pm!) and as I lay there trying to relax my brain, I decided to focus on what I could do for Corey's birthday. I started thinking of fun Corey stories, of many of the times he's made us laugh, and I thought I could share FORTY FOUR posts here (...since he's 44 today!) And I am not sure if that is too high of a number, and thought maybe I should just do FOUR and FOUR, but we're gonna try the 44 and see how it goes. And with over 3000 blog posts, I should have enough material to draw from, so we'll see how this birthday tribute goes... (I think it will help me if I break them into different Corey categories...)

COREY IS FUNNY
1) The first one I thought of last night this Family Classic from 2010 of Corey and Hyrum spitting in each others' faces. (Fill in Blank) vs. Hyrum
2) Disney On Ice - also very funny, it's a favorite of mine that still makes me laugh out loud!
3) Saving Us from the heat of Death Valley with his Swamp Cooler skills

COREY IS COMPETITIVE
4) Sauerkraut Battle
5) Birthday Water Fight
6) Another Waterfight!

COREY IS ADVENTUROUS
7) Rio in 2007
8) Waterfall in Costa Rica "A drive in the car and a bathroom break and we're already maxed out..."
9) Maresais Beach
10) Solo in St. George with the Kids
11) Midway when I was at the hospital with Peter

COREY IS PATIENT
12) Swimming with 7 kids choking him
13) Planning a Ski trip for a family of 8
14) Family Classic - 3 year old Abi in "The Hold" (and says she hates Corey)
15) Part 1 - Detained by the Chilean PDI and Part 2 - Jumping Through Hoops to get back to the US
16) The Hold with Lily
17) The Hold with Natalie
18) Teaching A Toddler to Ski
19) Owen in the Hold = cute naptime
20) Skiing with Kids in Park City

COREY IS A GREAT DAD
21) Boating at Jordanelle
22) Homemade Ice Rink
23) Ultimate House Tag in Brazil 2015
24) Classic Fun Center
25) Escape Room
26) Funtopia
27) Camping and Hiking

Picture of us from 2012

COREY IS ROMANTIC
28) Picture of our First date
29) Three and a Half Years Apart
30) And Together Again!
31) Begin Date Night Tradition
32) Early Anniversary Trip to Hawaii "Will this do?"

COREY'S FRIENDS
33) 20 Year High School Reunion
34) Telling Porter Rockwell stories to all the neighborhood kids
35) Us Visiting Angela
36) Angela Visiting Us - he worked harder  ...but I won the "highlight of their trip" award!
37) Jeff and Casey
38) Rafael and Natalia
39) Kiran from India
40) Diego and Iveth
41) Burmese Friends
42) With Brian in Peru
43) Junior
44) Victor

Phew! With all the usual interruptions that only took a couple of hours, not too bad. And Corey has more friends than that, those are just the ones that made the blog, my apologies to anyone if they feel bad that they didn't make the list. I do my best. I do think we'd probably have better stories if Corey blogged life from his point of view, but he's got his hands full trying to provide for our small army. Of course I could have included more, cause he's spiritual, he surfs, he BBQ's, he's got musical talent, soccer moves, and more! But we'll finish there with those 44 and call it good enough! It was a kinda normal work day for him and busy family day here, I'll talk about it tomorrow, but we hope it was still a Happy Birthday for our favorite guy!

Too Much

I read this article today about Simplifying Childhood. The book that that article is commenting on is titled Simplicity Parenting which "encourages parents to keep fewer toys so children can engage more deeply with the ones they have. Payne describes the four pillars of excess as having too much stuff, too many choices, too much information and too much speed. When children are overwhelmed they lose the precious down time they need to explore, play and release tension. Too many choices erodes happiness, robbing kids of the gift of boredom which encourages creativity and self-directed learning. And most importantly “too much” steals precious time." (All the time I spend cleaning! Or more like the time I spend dreading cleaning)

Melodie just mentioned a film she watched that talked about how of two stores that sold ice cream, the one with less choices was more successful. People feel overwhelmed/stressed by too many choices! Again, the four pillars of excess:

1. Too much stuff
2. Too many choices
3. Too much information
4. Too much speed

This article is right in line with what I need to hear right now (again). I haven't done much more to clean out the basement since Angela and her girls have arrived, but I haven't needed to go down there to that mess to still be drowning in too much stuff on the main floors and up in the bedrooms. The clothes problem here at our house is my current kryptonite. I get it all washed, but it does not get folded. I put the clean clothes in laundry baskets in the kids rooms and my room and there it remains. Well, the boys toss everything out all over the floor as they look for the item they want so the rooms are just a mess of clothing on the floor. I get most of ours folded, but then hit a roadblock or get interrupted before I finish sorting through the kids clothes and socks that make it into our hamper. Maybe we need to have just one winter jumper too.

Too much is totally true. I was thinking back on our simple life in Brazil in 2007. We packed light, and the kids each brought a cape, a stuffed animal, and then we also brought some Knex toys and a mega blocks train. The toys fit in a small bin. The kids went deep with those toys, they "engaged deeply", and now I love those toys cause my kids loved those. The stuffed animals are currently are on a shelf in my bedroom closet cause they capture that simple time and those memories.

When we had to simplify again when we went to Costa Rica and Chile for 9 months, the kids went deep again with their one stuffed animal, even making furnished apartments for their toys out of paper. Joseph didn't take one that time, but the rest of them each had a Webkinz toy they liked. We went through stuffed animals and threw out quite a few two weeks ago. We kept more than I thought we should, so we might need to try again with this new article fresh in mind. We have a lot of Webkinz, but the kids remember their Costa Rica ones and their names: Mel had Kacey the bunny, Ethan had Lucas the Lion, Hyrum had the Gecko Ben, Wesley's dog's name was Matthew, and Abi's cat was Scarlet. Lily's bear was one she stole from the church nursery room in Chile there.

Our visitors, Angela and her girls, have been angels in how much they've been cleaning  this house, which gives me a grateful/guilty feeling... grateful for the help, Lord knows I need it, but guilty/embarrassed that we Wrides can't keep on top of it and I'm going to feel like a loser tomorrow when they clean it all again. Our current goal is not to live like pigs. So yeah, going to try to thin out the thick of all our toys and clothes and stuff around here again.

Playing and Cleaning with Guests

Our guest from Chile have been with other US friends for the past two weeks, but on Tuesday night (after many days of the little girls asking "When is Angela coming back?!?!") they have returned. The kids were excited and they played out in the back yard too late, so late that we got a text from our sweet neighbor saying they were having a hard time falling asleep with the noise from all their fun. Doh! Kids, back inside! I know it's warm outside, but it's not summer yet!

So, it feels like they cleaned the whole house again. It's so nice to have help, wow. Angela helps with the daily stuff - picking up toys, sweeping, vacuuming. Her daughters picked up the girls' room. The boys' rooms didn't get helped this time (they might be beyond help....) Yesterday I spent most of the day doing a big day project that I hadn't planned on: it was time to clean out the fridge again. We got a refurbished fridge delivered on the day Abi was baptized over a year ago. 3 months after that was when it first began to make the noise, our 90 day warranty covered it being repaired that first time, but a few months later it did it again. Warranty now gone, so I've tried to do my best to fix it. It comes from ice building up around the fan and then the fan hitting the ice. So it still makes the noise every couple of months. When it does I usually just go hit the power switch off and leave it off overnight. I use the breaker box cause I don't want to roll it out and unplug it, cause that's a pain. So defrosting it that way helps and it usually works after one night off. So, it started making it again last night but I didn't turn it off cause it wasn't that bad, but this morning it was full on LOUD, so off the power goes, time to defrost the fan! It's some kind of design flaw since there are lots of people out there experiencing the same irritating noise. Ironically, I had just noticed and eve mentioned to Melodie how nice it was that the the noise hasn't been here for a while. I googled it more this time and did find these troubleshooting instructions here on their customer support page.  I have now properly leveled the fridge, and I know the ice was all gone off the fridge cause I left it off all day (moved all the food to the garage fridges and freezers - I guess it's good I haven't sold our 2nd extra on the classifieds yet), so we'll see how it works. It's a pain, but a good way to make me clean out the fridge every few months.

Tonight they've been dancing to 80s music and some Chilean hits in the front room. It's fun, they are all laughing and having fun and making memories.

The kids have shoved pillows up their shirts and are body slamming each other. Hyrum is "The Red Apple" Wesley is "Purple Plum", Lily was "Cotton Candy"... then Gabriella brought down Owen with a blanket shoved in his pajamas, we named him "Blue Berry Boy".

Sophi, not to miss out on the fun, ran upstairs to plump up her clothes, Her name is "Cherry" - just to keep with the whole food theme.

Body slammin' in the front room to entertain their Chilean audience.

We're going to try to do something short and fun this weekend with them and have plans to take them to Las Vegas for a quick trip spring break in 10 days. :)

Heading Out

Last night as I packed bins, Corey told me his plan of attack - Let's clear out of here as soon as we can, then we'll go hang out at Felipe's house for lunch, and then go to a churrascuria with all the kids and get a nice big dinner meal before the airport. 

We came pretty close to executing his plan. We did it all except go out to eat. (That sounded pretty painful to me anyway - taking all the kids out to a restaurant? I don't know that we've ever done that!) So, I packed and cleaned and a wonderful friend from church came and helped cook eggs for the kids and then cleaned the dishes for me so we could pack those. She was a life saver. Then I sent her off with a hug and a kiss on the cheek with her car loaded with pillows and sheets and cooking pans and plates and other stuff. Corey had guys from his work come and they took away all the crates. He thought it was poetic justice, that the crate furniture is going to return to become crates again.

We joked how the crates have been in denial - "I'm not a crate! I'm a couch!" You can't change what you are - and you make a lousy couch, we're gonna help you become a crate again. We think they might feel a little snobby around all the regular crates that don't have a coat of paint. 

As the bins and boxes got packed up, Corey put them on the front porch. Eventually we had enough done that we could head out. But we had to wait for the moving van with crates to leave first, since our cars were stuck inside the gate.

But good news - Nathy's car was parked on the outside! She offered to take them over to Felipe and Angela's house. Sounds good - then we can finish the final touches without kids trying to help.

She had 7 Wrides and 2 of her kids in the car, plus her driving. Before Hyrum got in, he looked at me and said there was no room. Nathy assured us "There is room!" He asked me "Is this okay?" (with Lily on his lap)

Nathy said "Not in the US, but here it is ok"

So off they went - 3 Zancas + 7 Wrides. I left shortly after them. My car was loaded with bins and one Natalie and her baby.

At Felipe's house the kids watched movies for several hours. Mel played with their baby boy as Natalie put a pink bow on him. Mel had fun holding the baby, she's excited for our baby to come. I wonder how much pink and girly stuff his 4 little older sisters will subject him to?

The kids watched movies and had plenty to eat - Angela is an angel and made us hamburgers, fries, and we brought a cake that Renata brought us for Wesley's birthday. So that was lunch... (do you like the chocolate on Sophi's face?)

(And her poor crossed eyes, I hope I can change to get an appointment sooner than the one I have for October...) And then they watched a few more movies while I took a quick hour power nap, Corey took Zeb to the airport cause his flight left 3 hours before ours. Zeb will be back in Utah tomorrow around noon. We don't get in until 8:20. But he has two layovers, and we didn't want that. We'd rather do 10 hours in Orlando than have to take another flight. So after taking Zeb to the airport, Corey came back for the rest of us. We ate some pizza and loaded into our Fiats for the last time. And it was off to the airport - to be continued tomorrow!

Llegaron

Angela and her girls are here!

And we found each other at the airport through our husbands communicating between Brazil and Chile, funny. And what a pleasure to have them, but not just because they've spent the whole day cleaning up my wreck of a home. We cleaned and then we rearranged things and they are settled in now and I got a space heater for the basement and this will be fun! Owen even seems to have lost some of his shyness and has smiled at them and looked them in the eyes a few times. I'm running around a bit and things are busy, so I'll try to catch up here when I can. Parent Teacher Conferences this week and then on Thursday I fly to San Diego and meet up with Corey there on his way back from Brazil. We're going to be there through Sunday. Fun times, and busy, I feel like I'm kinda running around like a chicken with it's head cut off

Walkabout

We were one of the host houses for the neighborhood walkabout today. 

It's a fun summer tradition that our neighborhood has been doing for over 5 years. We hosted it in 2018, too, before Joseph left on his mission. I thought we went a bit overboard that time, although the kids in the neighborhood loved the open buffet of desserts. I did all the food prep for today and it turned out alright - still had plenty but I tried to keep the kids' 3rd and 4th helpings under control. We did root beer floats and orange fanta freezes, and also had a healthier option of berries with whipped cream and granola. Gabriel and Angela and their daughters came over for dinner today - 

and kept the kids entertained - 

and then when it was time to get ready for hosting the neighborhood, they helped us get everything set up. I think it went alright. It felt like a busy day though, not much of a day of rest, but that's ok. Sometimes we can worship God through a day of service. A few more pic - months ago I bought some of the Disney princess lego story books for myself to keep when I'm a grandpa, and I recently caved in and let Daniel build them and then let the kids play with them. I tried to say they couldn't mix them up and they also had to keep them in my closet, so that none of the pieces would get lost, but today that all got messed up cause Wes started building space ships and stuff - 

Boys are happy and having fun playing together - 

But my princess castles have been turned into space ships. 

They also took them downstairs to show off their handy work, and I hope that pieces aren't missing. I'll try to get Lily to fix and build them for me again, and then maybe I can hide them away. Although it was cute to see them playing together. I like it when the big siblings play down to their little brother's level.

Cerro San Cristobal

Another month has gone by. Last night the kids were telling me how Costa Rica went by slowly, but Chile is going by super fast. I had to correct them, that it was just the first month that went by slowly in Costa Rica, then once we got into the routine of our adventure it started to zip by, and since Chile is just a continuation of the adventure, time is still booking. I admit though, February seemed to go particularly fast. That's a good thing, cause we're all excited to go back home.

Corey was on the local Utah news this morning on KSL. Go Start Up Chile!

Last Saturday we went with our friends Angela and Gabriel and their daughters to the Cerro San Cristobal.



It is pretty awesome - a the top there is a statue of the Virgin Mary donated by France in the 1920s - called la Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción. You can ask Mary for a blessing or leave her a thank you note, and you can see the entire huge city of Santiago - amazing how big this city is, it just goes on and on... some good pictures on this website.

The kids were curious about what all the candles were for...



Just happened to run into the Mission President and his wife from the Vina Del Mar Mission. Pretty cool, love missionaries. On our way down the stairs Abi wasn't satisfied with just walking - being an adorable little girl she had to jump down the stairs. She was checking out her new exercise shoes - (thanks Mom!)



For fun with kids in Santiago, I would like to highly endorse the Parque Infantil at the Cerro San Cristobal park - too bad my camera was broken. We did get a few videos, but we're definitely going to go back when I have a camera so I can document it a little more, cause this park was seriously sooooo cool, I wished I was a kid again and that all my siblings were here with me to play - we would have had so much fun! My kids were in heaven, Wesley said "This is a dream come true!" then he expounded - "This park can be Indiana Jones, Ben 10, Star Wars, hot wheels... it can be all the games!" They ran around lost in their imagination for the next two hours.



Luckily for us the bathroom was locked and we had to finally call it quits so Abi could use the bathroom, otherwise we never would have been able to get them to leave.

When we go again I'll get some footage or pictures of the stone castles and wood bridges - totally out of an Indiana Jones movie set.

Merry March to you all! May this month be busy and productive and may time continue to march on so we can return triumphant from Narnia.

Valentines

Today was Valentine's Day. My #1 Valentine is far away in Brazil, but I shall see him shortly. He did call to wish us all a happy love day. Keeping me company while Corey is gone is my funny Valentine Daniel. He was super cute sucking his thumb two days ago ~

My next Valentine Natalie is a sweet little roommate too. Still sleeping on our floor most every night.

The past few nights she's been sleeping with an old toy that Abi got when we were in Chile 5 years ago. I had it on display on my shelf to remind me of little Abi, now it will remind me of Natalie too. I made Valentine's for the older kids. Some Candy grams - I was inspired by the "Super8" candy bars that Angela gifted us. And this was also an effort to get rid of the chocolate before I ate it all.

Joseph likes Mr. Goodbars. Mel likes KitKats, but they aren't good for candy grams...

Neither are Reeses. So I tried to get creative, but it mostly got lame.

Then I got lazy with Wes and Lily. They didn't seem to mind. I didn't keep track of how many treats each kid got, but since I hid the Valentines on their beds they weren't able to compare to each other.

Abi was excited by the surprise, she loves stuff like this. She used some of her treats from school to make a Valentine for me, cause she is also a major note writer. I've got a whole stack of love notes from my sweet Abi, and now have this one to add to the collection.