In the morning I made borscht in preparation for Clark’s family’s arrival.
Then I took Basil on a walk. I found this loose piece of concrete that almost flipped up when I stepped on it, so I called the city about it and they fixed it the next day. That made me feel so proud of Orem. They were so responsive!
After dinner we took the kids to Menchie’s. Again.We put Clarissa in the day bed for the visit and she loved it.
Ammon has enjoyed acting like a ninja:
Ammon meditating before bed.
After everyone arrived at the house the kids stayed up late playing while the grown-ups chatted. My favorite part was watching Swathi literally light up while talking about her passion for hematology!
Ammon sometimes likes to eat breakfast under the table. I think it’s mostly or at least partially to avoid being irritated by siblings.Abe and Clarissa cuddling while I was about to go walk Basil. After ballroom we all went to Menchie’s for the first time in a long time. It was so yummy.Clarissa’s Valentine’s Day box
Abe got me these pretty flowers. That was pretty much the extent of our Valentine’s Day, which I enjoyed so much. It was a very low-key, easy day.Abe was enamored with how cute these two are and took a picture on the way to school.After school Abe went up and skied with the girls until after 9pm. They had the greatest time, which makes me so happy. I love seeing all the pictures of the three of them loving this sport together!
We arrived at Big Springs by 9am, which was a big accomplishment for us on a Sunday! It was totally iced over but still fun. I went ahead with Basil while Abe and the kids played behind in some trees. By the time I crossed a big meadow into the aspen forest, it was so beautiful. I wanted to keep going but realized I had the car keys and that if Abe or the kids got cold, they would be shivering.
After we hiked and did some errands, I went out to Death on the Nile with my friend Courtney. It was so fun I wondered why I don’t go to the movies more often. And then I remembered that I live in a gun-heavy part of a gun-heavy state, and I am scared of mass shootings. But we survived and had fun!
After the movie we had home church. Our pastor, Tyler, came, along with a local BYU student. She blew me away with her thoughtfulness, insight and loving-kindness. Abe and I adore providing safe shelter for people going through the difficult experience of faith transition, and it was an honor to hear her story.
After she left we hung out with Tyler and ate fondue and snacks until 8pm. Then Abe and I put down the kids and watched our new favorite show, Chef’s Table. It is so spectacular!
Lily and I were both unbelievably tired today. I was grateful when Nick called and wanted to go get food together because I knew I would enjoy getting out of the house and seeing him. He’s still going through a really rough time and I think the outing did us both good.
While I was on my outing, Lily was chatting with our neighbor, Charity, and helping Lydia get ready for her dance performance (Lydia wore an Olaf costume), and she drove her to the performance. Lily and I are both overwhelmed by how many performances Lydia has. We had no idea of how big of a commitment it was when we signed up. She had 7 or 8 performances this week and would needed to miss school to attend all of them. We only got her to one performance and we think her teacher isn’t too happy about that.
When I got home, I worked for about an hour on figuring out a place from which to purchase the trees we want planted this year. The lady at Cook’s was so nice and also recommended a landscaper who could plant for less money than what they charge. I wanted to go through Highland Gardens since they originally were the ones that had someone come out and recommend trees (hence the map), but they don’t open until March 1 and I wanted to get the ball rolling and they are farther away. I was so impressed with Cook’s that we are going to go through them.
Then I picked up Lydia for her dance performance and came home. Later, I dropped Lydia off at a Valentines party with her friends. Then I bought Valentines with the kids for their classmates. Mary was unsatisfied with the Cheerio valentines I got everyone else, and she got candies that she could put in red saran wrap individually for each kid in her class. Below is her working on her valentines. While I ran those errands Lily swam for an hour. We were both so tired all day, and had to push ourselves to do any type of activity. We took it slow, but still did some things.
In the evening, I tidied the house for a couple of hours while Lily picked up Lydia from her party and did some grocery shopping. We all had delicious lasagna for dinner and Lydia beamed about how fun her party was.
At night, Clarissa was using her heater/AC remote like it was a phone and she had a lot of fun pretending to talk to someone. I took a video:
At work today Royce Lovett (who launched his career from the Voice) spoke to our company, and played songs as well. His message was very powerful, I I downloaded a lot of his music because I loved it and I had never heard it before.
Today I ended work early so Lily could take Lydia and Mary to an art museum with her mom and Amy and her kids. Lily said they all had a wonderful time.
I did homework with Ammon at home while Lily was gone, and when she got back I took Basil to repeat one of his beginner obedience training classes. I’ve been a little frustrated with his behavior at times, so I’m trying to work on it. Next to me was the most beautiful Doberman Pinscher. I was stunned.
Tonight I chatted with my brother Jere. I was so tired that I felt like I wasn’t much good for conversation, but it was still super nice to hear Jere’s voice and catch up a bit. Also, he told me that he recently put up the pictures that Lydia and Mary painted of him a year ago for Christmas (when he had a beard). He sent pictures!
Today Lily spent a lot of time with her mom in the morning. She had an awesome time and was so happy to see that her mom seems to be doing so much better on her new medication plan. When she got home, she talked to our friend, Nick, for almost two hours. Nick is going through an extremely difficult time, and I was so touched Lily took so much time to talk with him. I chimed in a few times (when I wasn’t working) and I noticed that by the end of the call, he was feeling much, much better.
After work, I worked on homework with Ammon. We are still super behind, which is such a strange and semi-frustrating concept to me given he is in kindergarten, but I we are trying to keep up with all the demands of his tiger-teacher and tiger-school. His handwriting is getting really good, as is his reading, so we are definitely happy with the progress. I’m proud of him for how hard he is working!
While I did homework with Ammon, Lily learned knitting with our friend Christian. Christian is amazing at knitting (he knitted the sweater he is wearing). It was also fun to watch him wind a ball of yarn with his yarn-winding device.
I took this picture because I was amused at what an expert job Basil did at disemboweling this stuffed animal.
I took these pictures because I’m also amused at Mary’s obsession with pigs.
Lily and I are really enjoying Clarissa at age 4. She is so adorable and fun to be with. Today, I had a 30 minute break at work and I played with her Polly Pocket and Blues Clues sets, and read her the book about not letting the pigeon ride the bus. Lily joined us too, and it was a heavenly moment. I realized that my work meeting I had next didn’t require me, so I bowed out of it to have more time with Clarissa. We built magnetiles together and then had a dance party with our Polly Pocket and Blues Clues Figurines (see below). We love that little girl!
I took this picture because I wanted to capture how much progress Lydia has made on doing the splits (she’s been practicing a lot) and I also wanted to show the amazing fort the kids made.
Tonight, Lily as at dinner and the float spa with her friend, Amy. I’m so glad she’s getting out, it feels like I’ve been having all the fun lately!
Lily and I both had crazy days, but Lily for sure had the craziest. Lily volunteered to help teach art for Lydia and Mary, but we both forgot that would make her late for picking up Ammon and Clarissa. So she picked them up late, went home, couldn’t find Lydia’s snow pants (I had put them in the wash), allowed kids to go to the bathroom and stuff food in their mouth and then rushed to the ski shop to get helmets and goggles, and arrived 25 minutes late to ski lessons for Lydia and Mary, and dealt with multiple children either protesting about something, complaining about something or saying they have to pee so urgently that everything needed to stop for him (Ammon). Lily’s cortisol was super high when she called and I felt bad for her stress.
I had the easy part of finishing my workday, getting my glasses adjusted (and buying more fish oil for my dry-eye condition), renting skis, and heading up the mountain to ski with my kids after their lesson.
It was honestly a complete highlight of my year so far. I can’t believe how the girls are progressing. They don’t need edgie wedgies anymore, they are fine getting on and off the ski lift (we still ask them to slow it down when we get on), and they weren’t even cold or tired at all! After an hour and a half of lessons, we skied another hour and a half, and they just wanted to keep going. I was the one who got cold (especially my hands) and asked if we could call it a night. But all of it loved it so much. I can’t express what a magical time it was for me.
Mary lost a ski while trying to load on the ski lift, so she ended up on the lift behind us. It created a wonderful video opportunity!
At home, I gave Lily a massage given the super stressful morning she had and the fact that she watched the little ones while I got to ski. We watched Chef’s table, and just had an awesome time being together.
