October 2024

October 27, 2024

We drove home from AZ on Monday and got back into our regular routine at home. Des did a good job on the trip! Better than I expected, especially when we were there. And now we are trying to sleep train him which has been rough. He’ll get there. He is so darn cute! He loves eating everything and anything he can get into his mouth and has a second tooth sprouting out that is likely part of the input to his extended crying sessions at night.

Greyson and I had a fun date on Friday night going to the BYU HBLL Film Archive showing of the 1951 "The Thing". He seemed to like it ok and it wasn't too scary. He's still very much into "scary" things and continues to make books about haunted houses and such. He also is still obsessed with "I survived" stories and is often asking how long ago these events were (e.g. the 1900 Galveston Hurricane). He had another basketball game and was overjoyed to get three baskets in. He continues to be very particular about his hair each morning, though Saturdays are "hat days" and he dons his Scooby Doo cap.

The Thing

Hoop dreams

Addie continues to learn how to manage being the only girl among brothers and there are some hard moments. She has taken to listening to moody music and scowling/crying in her room as one way of coping...signs of pending teenage years to come I imagine. She and I are preparing to sing "My Own Sacred Grove" in sacrament meeting next month and that has already been a fun thing.

Hinckley and I have started swimming together again and this week I discovered a place in Lehi that has a small practice swim team (they don't have any meets, just focus on technique and building strength). So he is pretty excited to join that group starting in November, which seems promising! He created a big haunted house for a school project that is pretty neat, and continues to read Brandon Sanderson novels. He organized another round of night games with neighborhood kids which seemed to go pretty well...though there are reports of some of the kids leaving in distressed/sad conditions. Hard to know how much to step in as parents to monitor and how much to let them figure things out without adults solving all the problems...

This weekend we had a really nice time going to Family Park (a new GIANT park in Lehi) and later watching Kiki's Delivery Service for Dad Movie. On Sunday the kids had their primary program and did an amazing job. Our primary is huge (close to 100 kids based on my ward clerk attendance counting) and they really belted out those songs. We went to some friends in the evening to carve pumpkins, eat spudnuts (donuts made with potato dough), and such. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the late night past bedtime. Selma joined us on Sunday and will be staying here for a week or so. The kids had a very mixed reaction but now they see how great of a dog she is they are warming up fast. Addie is overjoyed to have Selma staying in her room :)

Pinners conference

Selma visitor

October 20, 2024
We started the week with a few days of school, and on Wednesday, Desmond had to get four shots (two in each thigh), which made him feel a little under the weather that afternoon. Thankfully, he recovered well by the next day.

We drove down to Phoenix for fall break. The kids have been having a blast spending time in the pool with Kate Francis.

Rest stop for lunch in Kanab

Filling the tank in Flagstaff

Beka and JD's pool

Visiting Granny

IHOP lunch to celebrate Hinckley's soccer season

More time in the pool

Hot tub with Kate

Hole in the rock with random guy

Hole in the rock climbing

Quick visit to Tucson temple

Quick visit to "blue park" in Sahuarita

Time with Aunt Bekah

Riding in the self-driving taxi

Soda and treats

Ready to ride in the self driving taxi

Short talk at North Mountain with Kate

Francis time with Des

Granny visit

JD's Des fix

On Friday, we went on a quick hike at Hole in the Rock in Phoenix, which was beautiful and not too strenuous for the kids. They had a great time exploring and being outside. We visited Granny briefly and this was before she started to have hallucinations.

On Saturday, we made a day trip to Tucson and Sahuarita to visit some old familiar places. We stopped by our old house and visited the temple grounds. While we were there, I also had the chance to reconnect with an old friend from my workdays, which was such a nice trip down memory lane. When we got back the kids did more swimming and then we all tried out riding in a self-driving car taxi, pretty wild!

October 13, 2024

Addie had her last cross-country meet in Provo on Thursday and did a great job pushing hard at the end. She had a wonderful season, and Abi came along to cheer her on. Earlier this week, Addie came downstairs looking for me, tears in her eyes. She had been listening to the song “My Own Sacred Grove” after a fight with Greyson and said she felt an overwhelming sense of love from Heavenly Father and Jesus. She gave me a big hug and said, “I’ve never felt this so much before!” I told her to write it down, and it was such a sweet, tender moment. She’s also been struggling with math lately, not doing well on quizzes and tests. We had a conversation about Ron, Harry, and Hermione and how they all had different strengths, just like families and teams. That seemed to help her feel a little better. It’s hard to watch her go through challenges, but we’re working through it together.

Running!

Exhaustion post finish line blitz

Clear Creek Field Trip

On the ropes course

With Jane and Tillie

I also got to go with Addie’s class to Clear Creek - a day camp field trip about 1.5 hour bus ride away. Some of the kids are so tall, while others are still really small—there’s such a big range at this age. One of my favorite moments was holding Addie’s hand as we walked between stations. She told me, “I don’t care where we sit on the bus as long as I sit by you, Dad.”

Hinckley had a fun time on a field trip to space camp this week, but he’s been in a bad mood about things with his friends and won’t open up about it. It’s tough not knowing how to help when he keeps things to himself. He has been interested in making electronic music lately and we found a really great open source (free) program he can use to do that. We started swimming laps together this week and will aim to do that about 2-3 times. He and I had a really fun date going on a short hike on the Traverse mountain foothills in the fall leaves and getting pretzel bites at Auntie Annes (his all time favorite right now). That was special.

Auntie Annes - spicey queso

Fall leaves hike

The nook

Greyson and Kelli reading

Cousin meal after conference

Desmond has had some really great nights lately, but also some tough ones. He seems to gain at least 3 lbs a night, it's unbelievable! He's doing well with solids and rolling over, and also discovered his feet this week which he was very curious about. The kids adore him SO much.

Greyson had a fun time staying with the Burnsides in Salt Lake City on Friday night. He loved swimming in their pool and getting spoiled. He’s still really into the “I Survived” books and has been making his own versions of them. This week, he’s also been very interested in the hurricane news. He had his first basketball game of the fall season, which he really enjoyed.

Kassie gave a great talk in church today on aligning our will with God through prayer. She shared several stories and made some really thoughtful points. It was a wonderful talk!

October 6, 2024

We are having a great conference weekend! This week our new room was officially completed, and to make it end with a bang the roofers showed up and replaced our roof as well (from hail damage back in August). It was a loud week, but we are overjoyed the work is finished.

Roof + removal of Honey Pot + room final touches

Desmond has been playing around with rolling over and this week he committed to it as a full time activity. The kids are very curious and excited about every development and are eager to move Des along his developmental pathway at a rate he isn't quite ready for. He loves bananas and was very upset when I tried to give him pureed carrots instead. Can't say I blame him.

Chinny chin chin

Mealtime

Greyson had a sick day this week. We always know when he is sick because he is still and quiet. Once it passed though he was back to his regular antics of riding around on his back, tormenting his sister, and creating new books. He made a "library" in his room where you can come check out one of his books - either one he has made or one of his that he owns. He was also very excited to put one of his books he made in the community 'little library" box in the park. He even read a few verses of the Book of Mormon earlier today without prompting from us

Journal boy

Adelaide got her cast off and is now in a brace, she was so excited about that! She cut 4 minutes off her 4K time compared to last year and was very tired. She hasn't really enjoyed cross country as much this year, maybe due to her friend Brooke not being on the team this year? She and Brooke put on a lemonade sale between conference sessions on Saturday. Greyson rode around on his bike to "find customers" and was given some lemonade in exchange. She went up with Kassie to see Grandma Burnside sing in the missionary choir in the Saturday Evening session of General Conference. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling great though and they left after the second talk.

General Conference

Lemonade stand with Brooke

Conference fun

Hinckley finished his soccer season this week and it was a great game to end on. The boys did really well and had a lot of fun. He has grown a lot this season and hopefully someday he can appreciate and see that! I enjoyed coaching the team more than I realized I would. It was really fun to see the boys grow and learn how to pass and play in positions better.

All three kids at parent-teacher-conferences this week and we got to see the progress they are making. On Friday there was no school so we hiked Bridal Veil Falls as a family and then I took the three older kids camping up near Deer Creek. We had lunch at Granny's in Heber (classic and still amazing!), played at a park there, took a scenic drive to Wallsburg to look at the leaves and old town, and then set up camp. Greyson wrote out a bunch of jokes to perform in a literal standup routine which we watched. Then we proceeded to lay down and try to sleep for the next 8 hours. Only Greyson was successful! Haha. Overall we had a great time.