Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Visiting with The Dahls

Peter didn't want to sleep on his bed last night, and Corey didn't want him in our room... Daniel was nice enough to share his bed with his little brother. Thanks Daniel <3

I thought they looked sweet. Of course, I tend to always think sleeping kids are sweet and cute. 

This was when I went in to wake up Daniel for school. I had gone in there at 5:20 to do my tooth fairy duty this morning - go me! I didn't forget and got it on the first night! I'm getting better yay. 

So... I took my car in for a tune up before my eclipse road trip next Tuesday. One week away! got an oil change, tires rotated and air pressure and everything. Abi drove it to her lesson after and now it sounds a bit more loud when I'm accelerating for some reason? But they said it looks good to go, so I'll take Burt's word for it. I dropped it off and when Corey left for work, he took Abi to Burt Bros to wait for the car, then she took it to her lesson. They didn't have school today cause the juniors are taking the ACT. I was nice having them home - since Abi was there, I was able to take the car in and then walked home, and felt free to take a longer route through Quail Hollow. It was nice to be outside. I was thirsty so I ate some of the fresh snow. This week is colder than last week, and since it snowed it's not getting warm enough to dry out any trails, so no bike riding this week. I'm sure it will be ready to go once we're back from Texas. 

Tonight some of our good friends, the Dahls, came by for a visit. We had dinner and a talent show and it was great, similar to visits from years past (2014 & 2017). They were down from Oregon for a ballroom competition and to see their college kids during spring break. Let's see if I can get the names - L to R: Camille holding baby Hava, next to husband Dallin, Micah, Lucy, Lydia, SANDOPCK and then Jeff with his back to us. 

Lydia, Lucy, Lily, Ester and Peter on the stairs, Jeff and Amber, Abi, Sophi, Corey - Corey and Daniel performing "Play that Funky Music"
Then Lucy played some amazing piano! 
And Micah was really good too doing lots of improve and playing a song he wrote called "Little C" that he wrote to capture feelings he had after a spiritual experience, which I think is such an amazing thing to do, wow! He said he kinda taught himself piano during covid. Impressive. Made me want to get a baby grand piano and start playing around or taking lessons. Micah and Abi playing Heart and Soul
So it was great to see them. They shared their ballroom competition videos, we shared our Dance party 5 video to show we got some moves too, ha. J/K - We weren't trying to show each other up or anything, just sharing the joy of raising kids and our rejoicing in all the great things they are doing. We read scriptures together and then they headed back to Orem and we got an early start on the bedtime routine - getting to bed at 10pm tonight, yay! I credit Jesus Christ and his gospel 100% for all the wonderful fruits of life that we are enjoying. I can see it in the Dahls' lives too. I'm so grateful we have Christ and his gospel pointing us on the path of greatest happiness! 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Family Time and Tokens

Happy Palm Sunday. We had a great lesson at church. I want to incorporate more Easter celebrations into our family. I haven't prepared anything though - not sure if we'll be doing anything this year as I don't have anything planned yet... I need to think - I'd like to find something doable and appropriate. 
We went over to Wayne's house for dinner. Spaghetti and salad ~ Katharine doing the best she can under the circumstances.
Joseph and his girlfriend Eliza, and Mel, and Ethan & Bella all came up for the meal. 
It is fun having all the kids together.
As is one of his talents and gifts, Ethan had everyone laughing with some filters, especially photos of Katharine.
This one above is prob our favorite, because of the freaky contribution Natalie gives in the background. 
What do you think Katharine? You look concerned... Everyone's laughing at the baby until the filter's on them!
Ethan took videos, he'll have to upload them. Funny stuff. 
She did not know what was going on. 
This is not the face I remember...
So after visiting, goofing off, playing piano, playing with magnet toys and puzzles, we cleaned up and before we headed home, Corey shared a few thoughts. He asked Wayne if he could get JeNeal's leg braces out. They are physical reminders and tokens of the life she lived. She didn't want to be remembered for her polio, but how that shaped her life and Wayne's and Corey's and all of ours. Her hardships, the way she faced them with grit and resilience, and the way it taught Corey to serve as he saw his father serve JeNeal, it's just been such a blessing. I'm grateful for what JeNeal endured so all of us could learn and grow from seeing her example.

Much like Christ - tokens of Easter remind us of his life and hopefully inspire us to be resolved to follow in his footsteps. 

Friday, March 22, 2024

Ethan is 22 & Easter Egg Hunt

Happy Birthday to Ethan!! Today is his Golden Birthday (22 years old on the 22nd!) hooray for Eth! Wesley called twice from Texas to wish E a happy birthday. The first time Eth was at work and didn't answer, so the rest of us enjoyed chatting with Wes for a second. Peter eating top ramen for lunch, H at school, Mel at work at the Sky Room.

Then Wes called back when Eth was available, and Ethan, Bella, and Wes had fun talking mission stuff for a bit. BeReal went off while they were having lunch - so here is Ethan enjoying a nice soup bread bowl.

Bella is taking good care of him. 
We had the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt today. Yesterday, after I dropped Owen off at his soccer practice, I went to Walmart and got candy and eggs and some baskets. Then I went back to the soccer practice field and stuffed eggs while I waited for practice to be over.

Katharine looked so cute walking over today with her little bucket. 

Holding her baby, aww. She's a little mother.
Peter had a dinosaur bucket. And since K had her baby, P had to bring his Spider-man doll too, that Wes brought back from Guate in 2021.
The sun was out and the weather was perfect as we walked over - 
But then the clouds and wind rolled in. Daniel got the bunny bucket.
Somehow I forgot I had FIVE children involved... and while I correctly made 60 eggs for them (a dozen each), I only got 4 buckets, so Natalie used a purse. Wride group pic, nice hat Owen.
And neighborhood group pic.
The kids were divided into three groups as usual. 1-3 year olds (K), 4-7 year olds (D&P), and 8-11 (Natalie). When they gave the word, NOD took off and I went with Katharine. She picked up one egg, opened it, and was ready to sit and eat her Milky Way and Twix. I gave them to her and had her follow me to go get more eggs. The wind was blowing and a few raindrops, but we soon had her 12 eggs. Wind blowing her hair. 
I guess during spring in Utah, you should always bring a jacket with you! The kids all came back after they got 12 eggs, and then they got the ok to go gather whatever extra eggs they could find. Natalie stayed with Katharine while I checked in on how Peter was doing. He was sad cause he didn't find any extra eggs, just his 12, but I told him it was ok - there really weren't many extras anyway. We walked toward where K was and a neighbor was passing out cookies. Katharine's eggs had play doh, bubbles, two stamps, tatoos, and she was excited when one of them had actual candy!
"Hey! I like this game!" I'm glad I put candy in all of our eggs. I prob did the best stuffing them with treats. I had a dozen very large eggs with four treats in each of them. K got one of those. It was a good activity, and I hurried home with Peter and Katharine after they were done, cause it seemed like a storm was building up. Nothing actually happened, but was enough that it killed my bike ride plans this afternoon. Corey still went - he took his bike to his dad's today, so when his brain was done, he went up Millcreek Canyon for a ride. When he got back, we went out to eat at Aubergine in Draper for date night. I'm glad I was able to catch up on the blog while I waited for him to come get me (Abi and Lily  had my car at GMS). See ya.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Owen's School House Rock

Peter drew a picture for Wes today, and we licked the envelope, put a stamp on it, and put it in our mailbox and put up the flag. Pretty exciting. Peter checked on the flag today until he saw it down, so now it's on it's way! Katharine had a drawing from church that she added a few scribbles onto and I put that in the envelope too. She kept holding it up to proudly show me her work. 
When I took it she felt betrayed "hey!" so then I gave it back and was able to sneak it when she wasn't looking. So just a putter around morning, and then at 1:45 we went to the school to watch Owen's school house rock performance. 
He did a great job from what I could tell. I didn't see all of it... but I did catch about as much of it as I usually do... 
Cause of these two cuties running around.
Peter would have sat and listened I think, but K would not, and Peter was following her to make sure she didn't escape. She was having too much fun and found a playmate her age, and Daniel walked by and gave them a quick hug.
With the other little girl's dad keeping an eye on all 3 of them, I snuck over in time to hear Owen on his main speaking part as "Tom" before Conjunction Junction what's your function number. 
Owen has been singing a lot. 
The 3rd graders are all really excited about their part in this production. 
Owen got to be an Arab in the Melting Pot song.
And a post - production photo with his two younger siblings who did not pay much attention to the show. 
Peter, you did good. Katharine, I don't want to bring you again. But I'll be here again with her next year anyway.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Donation

I did a super great job clearing out stuff today. Yesterday I took a load of things to the DI that I had collected over the past month. And then TODAY I was in the basement with Peter and Katharine - they played legos while I gathered stuff and listened to my coaching call (Laura Dixon NTL) and I should have counted but I think I boxed up 40+ pairs of boy and girl shoes to donate, plus a bag of clothes, a box of random items, and a box of picture frames. After the kids were home I left to donate it, and then I went to register Daniel for soccer. Games start this Saturday. 

Nicole and I had a good talk yesterday. She's talked before about having a clothes library, a book library, a shoe library, a toy library, etc for her kids and grandkids as they grow up. And I think that sounds fun -  if (and it's a big IF...) "IF" I could keep it organized and had enough space to have a library for everything. But I don't think I'm going to have that, unless I buy a huge barn. I shared with her about the book I've been reading "The Minimalist Home" and I think, for me, that trying to store and save stuff for all these kids in the future is kinda draining on me. Like, I had a black Costco bin of nice shoes that I've been holding onto for a few years... it had some Vans that were brand stinkin' new, and I think they are nice, but Wesley didn't like the style, cause white Reebok was the style when he was a senior, so I've got a few pair of brand new Vans that I've been holding on to "cause they're new" and what - I'm going to hold on to them for 10 years until Owen is 18 or until Peter and Daniel are big enough to fit in them?!?!? NO. I asked Nicole if I should keep them, she said yes, but then I protested strongly. That let me know that I actually did have an opinion on this! So even though I've been holding on to them, I don't need to hold on to them anymore by default. And off they went. 

I'm going to load up on boxes every time I got to Costco, so that I can fill them up with stuff to donate. I still have some shoes for the boys that will fit them in the next year or so, and some summer sandals, and for the girls too - but the girls are getting picky. I'm fine to just take them to the DI or to Kid to Kid and let them find something they like rather than hold onto much here. The DI and Kid to Kid will be my shoe and toy library. Cause, if I had any friend that needed some shoes, I'd happily give the shoes to them without a worry. So why don't I just do that anyway?! I feel happy when I think of whoever is in need that is going to find those on the shelf at the DI and feel super excited about "A brand new pair of Vans!! Wow!" They will be grateful to me, like I am grateful to all the people who have donated the awesome things that I have found! So yay, I'm paying it forward and will hope and pray that God will provide for us as we try to give freely to others. 

So, while I think that having stuff on hand could be good, I also think that the upcoming kids are going to have their own tastes and styles that they're looking for, and they are not going to want old hand me downs. And if they DO want hand me downs, they could just go to the DI where they already have it all organized and you can pick and choose and get something that you sort of want. So good for me, I donated more stuff today - three boxes of shoes, and I took stuff yesterday too, and my goal is to get a bag of stuff ready every day this next week as I start to minimize. It feels good, and I feel lighter already. As I shed this stuff, I'll hopefully find more space and time to do things that I really want to do! To read, blog, bike, be with my kids, maybe even draw or paint! It will be good.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Swing in Spring!

Yay, it's the first day of spring! We survived the winter, I'm grateful. It was another beautiful day, highs in the 60s. Katharine played outside from about 2pm until it was dark. I was out there with her from 2-4, raking pine needles some of the time (we have A LOT of pine needles...) or pushing her on the swing. 


She was all smiles.

"You wanna go inside?" "No! Swing!"

When Natalie came home from school she relieved me. 
I'm glad that Katharine likes being outside!
      

Her brothers were impressed that she can walk barefoot across the pine needle covered grass and it didn't seem to bother or hurt her at all! It was nice that the kids were outside playing after school - jumping on the trampoline with friends and playing badminton and soccer. It was ok to have the door just left open, cause the heater and the AC are both not needed when it's this nice outside. After Natalie was here to play with Katharine, I left and finally finished returning wedding stuff - flameless candles, lanterns, and drink dispensers to a neighbor. Then I took a load of stuff to the DI. I really want to get rid of all the clutter. It's sapping my energy. I read a little more in Minimalist Home. He said to start with easy areas, so I did started with kitchen food containers and got rid of extra lids or bottoms that didn't match to a lid. I also had a pile of clothes and a box of random items. Glad to start getting it gone. I have a goal to take a load every Tuesday. I had wanted and planned to go on a ride, but I was getting stuff done (on the blog mostly, yay), and then Corey was on his way home, so I made him dinner and didn't get out. Lily had made a bean dip, but I thought he might like something nicer, so I served up a curry and potato dish (Thai coconut curry, which is a Costco prepared meal). Then we were helping kids practice music or do chores. Owen has been working on Miles Davis with Corey. O has earned his 2nd reward for doing all of his checklist. So far  he and Natalie are the only kids that earned it for Jan-Feb, and now Owen is the only kid who did it for Feb-Mar. Even if they don't keep track of all their daily tasks (chores and homework) we're usually aware if they've practiced or not. It had been a few days for Daniel. Corey was helping Daniel practice - playing "Play that Funky Music White Boy..." 

Daniel stood up and was bouncing and tapping his toe - 
He was totally jamming! And that's not sweat on his head, haha. He had just taken a bath. 

But he looks really into it, right? Fun. Well, so yeah, it was a good first day of spring. Looking forward to warmer weather and hopefully getting out to ride our bikes in the mountains soon. I'll try to make it on a ride tomorrow. And I could have left earlier for a ride, but I was in the zone blogging. Guess what - I finally finished November, yay! I did like 5 for Nov and then did Dec 2nd, and now I hope to keep being productive finish December soon. I have 11 to do for Dec (I try to do 5 posts for each week.) When I'm this far behind, it takes a bit of detective work to remember what happened - I start with the pictures and calendar events, and then I usually need help so I'll go through old text messages in Whatapp and our family facebook chat group. I usually get it mostly figured out, and if I miss anything, I can just go back and add/update it later. :) So no ride or stretching, but yay that I finished November. I hope it is a productive spring time for all of us.

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