November 2024

December 1, 2024

We had a packed fun Thanksgiving week! Early in the week we went to a service project to help make meal kits and the kids really got into it. Kassie's sisters Liana and Rochelle came and stayed with us for much of the week. We had Kassie's parents, grandma, uncle, along with Lucy's family, Abi and Ryrie here for Thanksgiving. It was a full house and we had a TON of leftovers. Greyson had a blast running around with James and Henry, and Des loved all the attention from doting admirers. He and Kattie exchanged glances once or twice while crossing paths to and from naps.

Service time

Addie measures oats

Kassie, Greyson, and Hinckley

Hinckley in his sleeping nook

Happy guy ready for a walk

Addie's white board - pre Thanksgiving

We enjoyed more cousin time in Provo the day after thanksgiving and also went up to SLC to play in the pool/hot tub at Elder and Sister Burnside's apartment. After dinner at the City Creek Mall and some hot chocolate at the apartment everyone was exhausted when we got home. Our last full day with visiting family we went and saw Wicked (and Abi joined us!) and we all loved it a lot. In the evening some of us walked in the frigid twilight to the Saratoga Springs hot springs and enjoyed that quite a bit! There was more pie/treats/and games afterwards.

Turkey platter

Gaming with Aunties

Cousin table

Women's table

Men's table

Feast

Pie time

Des and Abi

Des and Grandma Dally

Game night

Cherry bomb

City Creek

Sleeping guy

We have much to be thankful for and that includes returning back to a regular routine tomorrow!

November 24, 2024

This week was a quiet blur. Without any workers here it was amazing how still it was once everyone was at school and the baby was asleep. Desmond does pretty great naps, but this week he started waking up at night more than before. He lights up whenever anyone new walks into the room and loves to be tickled under his chin and his armpits.

Greyson plays with his army guys during breakfast

Happy guy

Math tutoring with the Maestra

Feeding time

Addie and Des happy time

Peace in the leaves

We went with the two oldest to see our friends in The Savior of the World in Salt Lake, and met Kassie's parents there. We all enjoyed it! I got the Christmas lights up on Saturday and the kids were eager to get on the roof and view the neighborhood from a new vantage point. Greyson was especially excited about making leaf piles to jump in afterwards.


Kassie went ice skating with Hinckley for a date and they got his favorite treat afterwards (Auntie Anne pretzel bites in nacho sauce). She also had a fun taco night book group with some friends.

November 17, 2024

This was a very full week, dominated by getting new flooring for the entire house. It was a little stressful managing meals and kids and work at home throughout the week, but it is all behind us. Yay! Addie and I had a fun date going to a dad/daughter dance at an incredible venue in Draper overlooking the valley. We had so much fun dancing and sharing treats. Addie requested "Fireflies" by Owl City to the DJ, it was so much fun. She and I sang "In my own sacred grove" in church today and it went really well! Kassie's mom accompanied us on the piano.

Dad/Addie date dance

Another picture from further away

They had a soda bar!

Taking a break from the heat of the dance

Greyson is still into "I survived" books. He has been dictating his own story to Addie as she types it up. They had a few photo shoots for the cover which they had me take for them. He's a very busy and loud boy with too many crushes to keep track of anymore. At school he is a model student. He and Kassie had a fun date to Fat Cats arcade and he got some plastic "War guys" (army men) in which he has been simulating World War 2. He is very interested in World War 2, Jews, and Nazis...not the most casual topic for him to be shouting about in public places, but that doesn't stop him.

I survived

I survived - again

I survived again - with sister

I survived yet again - final with sister

Captain underpants

Enjoying the new room bean bag

Go cougs!

Happy food time

Underwater robotics with Hinckley and his team

 

Hinckley had a BYU week - going to a women's basketball game on Wednesday for a school field trip, and then he and I went with Abi to the football tragedy on Saturday night. He had a blast and achieved one of his great goals of eating (some of) a 15 inch maple bar cougar tail. He's been really excited about making music in this digital composing tool we downloaded and it's fun to see him enjoying that so much. He and Addie are really into "Epic" - a concept musical album based on The Odyssey.


Desmond has two solid teeth and continues to explore the world through all 5 senses. He eats a ton and is very cute. He was remarkably adaptable at napping (or not) as workers descended on our house. The biggest miracle is that he slept through the night without waking a single time once this week! That was amazing.

November 12, 2024 

This past week Hinckley started a new practice swim team that meets twice a week in the evenings. It is about 8 kids with 3 coaches and they do drills for about 45 minutes. I think it is just the right thing to keep him swimming and get some more specific coaching! He and I continue to swim on Monday and Wednesday mornings together which is a fun bonding time. We had "Temple and Priesthood Preparation" fireside on Sunday. I can't believe he is going to be 12 next year and able to go to the temple! He is pretty excited about it, and a little nervous about passing the sacrament. Addie fell on black ice this week, and for a minute we thought she had broke or torn something. Luckily it was all in the skin layer and some medicine brought down the swelling and she is doing much better now (she was hobbling around for a few days...). Greyson helped prepare an FHE lesson about how we shouldn't fight. He has so much energy that is often directed at Addie in the form of screaming and hitting - seemingly out of nowhere. I took him to a basketball tryout for a more competitive team and neither of us liked it much. He may do that in January but for now he is going to finish up his Jr Jazz season. Desmond has two little teeth now and loves chewing everything he can. He eats a ton of food - got to keep that figure!

Des helps Hinckley wake up

Hinckley's famous cheesy bread

Wake up time!

The boys and their toys

Addie back at the Orthopedic doctor getting X rays

Trying out eating a chair

Floor project

Loving that swing!

Giant shark with Grandad 

The Burnsides took Addie and Greyson to the Thanksgiving Point Dino museum on Saturday while Hinckley and I played some board games with a neighbor. Everyone is excited and a little stressed out about our flooring project this week. We are replacing all of our flooring in the whole house and they've started in removing everything on the first floor. Hopefully all goes well and it is done by the end of the week!

November 3, 2024

This week we went to our ward fall festival. Overall it was a fun event. Kassie made a very delicious chocolate pecan pie. It is increasingly apparent that as the kids get older their interests and needs are much more varied and nuanced. Greyson went from room to room to do activities, but Addie was grumpy and sat at the table with her head down and Hinckley wanted to participate in our adult conversation. Des was so cute in his lion hat, and he loved grabbing it and trying to eat it. I remembered our first ward halloween party with a child when we brought Hinckley to the church in Tulsa dressed like Yoda. That was 11 years ago! Wow.

We got a GIANT bean bag from some people on Facebook Marketplace for our new room. The thing is massive. Greyson has never really forgiven me for selling our previous bean bag and replacing it with a desk in his room (which he said he wanted). So he was overjoyed with the new addition as were the others.

Giant bean bag livin

Hinckley's haunted house

Ward fall festival

Halloween was the highlight this week of course. The kids had their costume parades at school were bursting with excitement for the evening. Des was a lion and had a cute hat Kassie made. Greyson was Scooby-Doo and wore his PJs he’s been wearing for nearly a year which was nice and convenient. Addie was Hermoine and Hinckley was a stickman. There was some last-minute drama but all worked out well. Kassie’s parents came for dinner and some of the trick-or-treating. Greyson and Addie sacrificed to the Great Pumpkin and were overjoyed the next morning with Harry Potter potions (Addie) and a King Kong action figure (Greyson). Greyson even made a bed and pillow out of tissues for King Kong to sleep in each evening.

Hinckley's last Halloween parade

Ready for treats

Lion cub

The lion cub roars

Scooby-doo

Lighted pumpkins

Green stick man

Hermione puts on a hex

 

On Saturday I took down the Ninja Line and the Trampoline. We also ripped out the zucchini plant that just wouldn't quit producing. Things are really feeling like fall. Kassie and I had a fun date going to see "Men In Boats" - a play put on by BYU and staged in the old Provo High Commons area. Pretty surreal going back to PHS but it's filled with BYU Theater and Media Arts stuff (my major at BYU). It's like the HFAC was transplanted into PHS. We had Stake Conference this week and I've come to realize we have cleared the woods on the hardest years of stake conferences. No one had to go out into the foyer except Hinckley took Des out once for both their sakes. What a milestone!! I sang with some men from my ward "O Divine Redeemer" for the conference and it went pretty well.