Ringing in 2021

January 2, 2020

Hard to believe we are moving into 2021! Time to ring out the old and ring in the new.

This week was filled primarily with three things. First, fun daily activities such as sledding in the little snow that we got, going to Thanksgiving Point museums with a new pass we got for Christmas, playing at parks, and more. Second, home projects. I built out some desks in the "office" (previously Greyson's room), added hooks and a small bench to the downstairs entryway closet, and did battle with the internal toilet mechanisms (I'm currently losing). The final thing was a visit from Kassie's parents for New Years. We had some fun games, watched Wallace and Gromit Close Shave, Wrong Trousers, and A Day Out, and ate some dip, root beer floats, and tamales, and such. It's been a great holiday for the most part!

Greyson at the water table in the Museum of Natural Curiosity

Happy New Year!

Greyson has really internalized the language Kassie and I are working to use when we encounter troubles with the kids. For example, when Kassie was putting him to sleep the other night he wanted to crawl up to Hinckley's top bunk and Kassie wanted him to stay down so they could finish his story. After these terms were established he said, "So how do we solve this problem Mom?" hahaha. He's done that a few times now and it is really cute.

Addie and Hinckley have had a great break playing with friends one tie this week and keeping us on our toes. We've had a few later nights and I'm excited to get back into a routine where everyone is getting the sleep they need.

Exercise with YouTube time

Museum of Ancient Life visit

Addie bundled up with Elsa doll

Ice Skating on New Years day

December 27, 2020

We had a great Christmas week! Kassie had a lot of activities planned to keep the kids moving on things and we really enjoyed our time together. Earlier in the week, Hinckley went with me to deliver a Santa-sized load of stuff to DI which has been accumulating the last few months, and then he chose to use his own money to buy a computer to take apart. He has enjoyed exploring all the different parts of it out in the garage!

Hinckley dissecting a computer

Christmas Eve we enjoyed bowling together as a family and then I went with Hinckley to IKEA to get some materials to make the office room a little more official which is really exciting. He was pretty impressed with the store but more interested in chattering to me about Minecraft. Addie went with me to pick up some Indian food (for Kassie and I) and McDonald's for everyone else. We usually do some kind of takeout on Christmas Eve. She was clearly very excited and chattered to me about her abilities: "I've got a great witch laugh and Santa laugh, HEEE HEEE HEE....Ho Ho Ho Ho". and "I'm the best singer in the whole world I think."

After eating we did our best to read/act out the Nativity story. There were two babies... One was a plastic doll that Addie mothered as Mary, and the other was Hinckley's blobfish slipper. Greyson eventually came around to being a Wiseman after wanting to be a train or a digger and decided to bring a basketball as a gift to Jesus, but Joseph (Hinckley) insisted on taking the gift rather than merely receiving it so there was a bit of a brawl over the humble mangers. Regardless, we were able to sing some songs and bear testimony. 

Bowling on Christmas Eve at Jack and Jill's

Nativity Brawl between Joseph and Wiseman, Mary looks on

Joseph and Mary and Baby Blobfish

Arcades on Christmas Eve at Jack and Jill's

Christmas Day was magical and there was little fighting due to fact that there were so many stimulating gifts and candy there simply wasn't much space to argue. We (Kas and Greg) had french toast casserole for breakfast and some amazing autumn loaf with roasted veggies and mashed potatoes for dinner...the kids picked at food but basically ate candy call day. Maybe someday they will see what they are missing out on? Greyson was mesmerized by his gigantic Crane truck most of the day and was quite taken with that. Hinckley red his whole "Dogman" book he got and built his entire Minecraft lego set...hope there is something for him to do the rest of the break! Addie loved playing with her dolls and was very excited about everything.

We have much to be grateful for this season!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Breakfast

Game: "Unwrap the Coal"

Christmas Sweater

Mealtime

Amazing Christmas Feast! 

Christmas 2020

December 20, 2020

The kids have finished school this week and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We embarked on two evening drives to look at some of the extra enthusiastic Utah residents' Christmas displays, shoveled some snow, and delivered some salsa and soap to a few of our neighbors. I admit it was pretty awesome to have kids at an age to be "runners" while I sat in a heated seat watching them go up and back from the porch delivering goods. There are some great perks to being an adult. 

Daddy Movie time - Rudolph and Charlie Brown Christmas

At the frozen Utah Lake

Gingerbread houses with Nana and Grandpa

Stories with Nana

Stories with Grandpa

Greyson has moved fully into the imagination phase, taking on multiple identities at a time that even he gets quite confused (and emotional) about who he is at any given moment. He goes from being Milo or Mighty (from a show about trains called Mighty), to Thomas, to Dirty (a digger), and sometimes to other festive characters such as Rudolph. He has discovered a delightful and at times terrifying little evil chuckle which usually accompanies some kind of unwanted behavior like banging the table with things, running away with scissors, and more. He may have inadvertently picked it up from Addie who makes a very similar sound as she pounds Greyson or pokes him incessantly.

Addie had her last dance practice which she enjoyed very much. She had a ton of fun at school this week with all the holiday activities and parties, including a visit from Santa and more. She continues to draw lots and lots of pictures, sometimes as a way to process her emotions and usually as a gift for someone else. Her spelling and word recognition are improving a lot and she gets a lot of joy seeing these developments. Hinckley is often quick to put her in her place, but luckily she doesn't listen too carefully to his critiques.

Hinckley's skepticism of everything, including Santa is a growing defining trait. He said all the kids at school didn't believe him when he said he didn't think the visiting Santa at school was real. "But when I pointed out his brown hair sticking out the back of his hat they all believed me." He finished music class for the season this week and using some of his points his teacher gave him he cashed in on a small MP3 player. After discovering it didn't work well, we explored options of what to do. He finally decided that instead of returning it to get a new one or his points back, he'd prefer to smash this one to "see its insides". This decision came at a time and place where much else was going on. As Hinckley went out to the garage to begin hammering at the device, Greyson had discarded his Mexican food on the table and was busy trying to throw a rug on top of Honey Bee. Addie was upstairs watching Kassie sign in to start a virtual activity for the 8 and 9-year-old boys (her calling). At this point, a lot of things happened in close succession. First I tried to get the rug that Greyson was throwing, and Honey Bee took this opportunity to make a hail mary dive for his burrito. I got the rug back in place just in time to see the burrito go into her mouth. Around that time, Hinckley had nearly finished pulverizing his MP3 player when he missed and hit his thumb. There was a good amount of blood and a slightly cracked thumbnail, but I didn't see it as he ran up to tell Kassie with quiet courage and whimpers while I had Honey Bee in a headlock at the moment, successfully extracting 1/4th of the burrito. Once that was done and Greyson had stopped running around throwing things I turned my focus on Hinckley and we got things cleaned up, all while Kassie did her best to carry on the virtual activity. It was quite an evening. 

December 13, 2020

Our big event this week was going to the Thanksgiving Point Luminaria event for the Weave Christmas Party. It was the perfect COVID friendly activity as we simply walked around the gardens and admired the thousands of lights and ate treats provided. The kids really enjoyed it and we all had a good time. It was very spectacular despite the cold! Hinckley and Greyson are still getting along pretty well so far in their shared room. Hinckley prayed a few times this week, “Thank you for my roommate” which was pretty cute. Greyson loves playing with Hinckley’s legos which at the moment is ok. He also loves climbing up the ladder onto Hinckley’s bed and gets a huge kick out of that - usually giggling like mad.

Gingerbread houses at Luminaria

The "Light of the World" exhibit at Luminaria

Treat break at Luminaria

The other big event this week was Addie's dance performance. There was some high drama earlier in the week when attempting to take her to her final practice session. Her dance clothes were still wet in the dryer. All the other clothes she had available were too “scratchy” to wear, including the costume she needed to wear on Saturday for her performance. She dug in her heels and announced she was not going to the last dance practice, and that she was not going to the performance. After trying every possible strategy Kassie and I could think of to convince her to go, I took her downstairs to call the studio so she could tell them all this herself. This was after I failed to put her in the car and take her so she could do it in person. Remarkably the lead instructor answered the phone and said to come on in and she could see if there was a better fit for the costume. This convinced Addie to go. When we got there she didn’t have a different costume, but she convinced Addie that she could change right after the performance AND she had a special prize for her. Addie agreed. She changed into her regular day clothes for the last practice, and all went smoothly. On Saturday she didn't have any problems getting into the very same costume that had been so painful before. The miracle of it all to me is that the instructor answered the phone, and it turns out she had a mild cough/cold or something and so she wasn’t teaching that day (like she has literally every other time). This allowed her to answer the phone and save the day for us. I’m so grateful for how things worked out! 

Resistance 

Saturday performance postshow smiles

I've been listening to The Secret Garden and have found it to be so delightful and wonderful and wish there were more works out in the world like this one. It is very uplifting and beautiful and I'm grateful to have access to things like that. It is a reminder of the special moments we have regularly at our home that if noticed are beautiful in their own right. 

Homework help with mom

Coloring Thomas the Train with real intent

December 6, 2020

After coming home from Thanksgiving I decided to shave my beard as it was a bit unruly. The next day Greyson came down for breakfast and wouldn't look at me or speak to me. He sat quietly at the table for a minute and then got down and ran to his room saying, "I don't like Daddy's hair!" Addie and Hinckley thought it was pretty funny. 

The next day the Ward put on a "walking Ward Christmas party" where they had a float of sorts parade through the neighborhood with a live nativity on it complete with a donkey and some ponies. Next came a brother sitting on the back of a truck singing songs with Christmas lights accompanied by a Bishopric member who handed us a pizza. And finally, there was a golf cart with Santa in it to take Christmas letters. Pretty well-timed and executed and the kids loved it! We enjoyed our neighbors' epic lights (timed to music) while we waited for it all to start. 

Ward Walking Christmas Party

Counting Blessings from our Grateful Tree at the end of November

The kids enjoyed getting back into their routine after being away for nearly a week. Addie has been singing "The Greatest Showman" a lot, roaming the house in fits of imagination and music. I got to attend music with Hinckley this week and it was fun to see him learning so much. I enjoy the brief but sometimes insightful conversations in the car to and from such activities. 

This weekend I rebuilt the bunk bed, built Addie's new bed, and ... moved my desk out of the closet into Greyson's room (now "the office"). Yay! I'm so excited. And fortunately, the boys are pretty excited about sharing a room right now as well. Hinckley has been very sweet with Greyson, playing Legos and letting him crawl up the ladder onto the top bunk. I hope it lasts for a few days! Addie was quite jealous at seeing them be so happy together, but she took some comfort in her new bed being the only bed with a real headboard in the house (a true princess bed) and Hinckley was very kind with her too which helped. She and I had a fun date Christmas shopping for her brothers and splitting a gigantic cookie from Chip Cookie (current Utah treat fad). It's beginning to feel like Christmas season! 

Bunking Boys

Chip cookie in the car (too cold outside and no seating due to COVID)

November 30, 2020

We got back from Colorado yesterday and had a great Thanksgiving visit to the Burnsides. We went to parks, did a hike out on the plains to see the Paint Mines, watched movies (at home), played with toys, got overly tired, ate lots of pie, and more. Honey Bee was drugged up (prescription from the vet) so she didn't barf in the car so that worked out. Greyson is really into the Netflix show "Stinky and Dirty" (about a garbage truck - Stinky, and a digger - Dirty) and insists on being called dirty at all times. He is not a "cute boy" or even "adorable". He is only "dirty". Kassie is often assigned the title "Stinky", including in public places. Greyson will yell out "Stinky!" and she will have to respond. Hahaha. He has also really taken to a baby toy he found that plays Robo classical music, and he walks around the house with it like it is his personal iPod. He even took it to the store to hold to his ear as he walked around, and only the ball section in the toy aisle could separate him from it. 

Mini golf with Grandma and Grandad

Thanksgiving Feast

Playing with cars

Greyson - Paint Mines

Addie - Paint Mines

Hinckley - Paint Mines

The favorite rock spot at the park near Grandma's

Hinckley and Addie had fun in Colorado despite frequent moments of "boredom" and yearning to tease. We went mini-golfing our last day there and despite their reservations going, they had a really great time! All in all it was a lot of fun. 

November 22, 2020

Greyson and honeybee are engaged in a parasitic relationship revolving around tissues. Greyson constantly has these moments in which with terror he registers a dash of moisture on his upper lip and shrikes, “I think I have a runny nose!” It reminds me of that moment you realize some unalterable doom has been fixed to your fate, a dreadful event that you are powerless to resolve. So, often he gets a tissue with the help of whichever adult butler is attending him at the moment. That is when Honeybee emerges from her resting place. You see, tissues for her are like donuts to the rest of us. No matter how much she knows she’ll regret the results, she can’t help grabbing it from Greyson and igniting the resulting cacophony and chaos. She’ll often bowl him over and nips the tissue from his terrorized clutches. As she chews tissues across the floor he sobs uncontrollably, as if he’s just lost his right arm to militant inquisitors. The attending butler will then generally lose any sense of propriety and break into a chorus of “Uh-uh Honeybee! NO” (if not in the service of another little noble). And so it goes!

That said, the dog is doing quite well. Kassie took her to Cabella’s for another training session (they need to go to places they will be super distracted in order to hone their abilities) and has just a couple of training sessions left in this current round. So despite episodes like the one described above, Honeybee has been a fun addition to the family and the kids enjoy playing with her and admiring her antics. 

Hinckley was overjoyed that I prepared a potato for his lunch (his zealous pleading wore me down), and as we drove back from music class he talked to me about how he ate it all and it was so good. I’m really not sure what drives his eating preferences...maybe someday I’ll understand? He is starting to play with his legos again which is fun. He and Addie were playing a bunch a couple of evenings this week while Kas and I cleaned up dinner. He saved up his money and with the last-minute charitable donation from Addie was able to buy a new Minecraft game and start that this weekend. He struggled a few times this week with "being bored" which is an answer to my prayer for more patience. Hopefully, we can make a chain today for him to be able to count down to Christmas without losing his sanity. 

Hinckle-bug in a box

Dad/Hinckley date to Momentum climbing gym

Addie had fun at dance and school this week. One of her great struggles right now is she loves to "show love" by teasing mercilessly. She discovered Hinckley's triggers with hurtful words and Greysons's vulnerability to sharp angry outbursts of pinching and hitting. There is a lot going on in that little body but she is overall extremely sweet and loving. It has been helpful to turn her loose to play with Honeybee and a few times she took up the offer to go up to her room and have some time to relax in her bed while listening to a story. After President Nelson's remarks on Friday she drew a picture of him and some other prophets from the Book of Mormon in her journal. The kids usually refer to President Nelson as "an angry grandpa"...but I think we are making progress there. I do admit that his disposition with those strong eyebrows can look stern despite his extreme kindness. 

Addie on her Frozen bike

We took the trampoline down and finished raking all but a few leaves. We head off to Colorado this week pending no barriers and hope it all goes smoothly. Many neighbors have come down with COVID recently so we are watching things closely here as the disease spreads all around us.