Sledding!

Ollie, Del, Rue, Cal, Ivan, Krystal, Oslo, Lincoln

The weather has been forecasting tons and tons of snow all week, but they were wrong. When we woke up Saturday morning, Elk Ridge barely had two inches of snow. But Aaron's sister Lisa said that Springville had about 8 inches, so we loaded up the car and the snow gear and the sleds and headed to Springville Jr. High to do some sledding. Lisa's family joined us too. 

Last year, Cal was really hard to have sledding. He needed help getting up the hill. He needed help sitting on the sled. And he kept taking his gloves off and getting cold. This year though, he was a champ! He could do all of it all by himself. And he had a blast. He would go down the hill feet first laying on his tummy. And he didn't complain about walking back up hill. Yay!

We pulled Oslo up the hill in the sled. He smiled, so I think he liked it. And we lowered him down the hill in the sled too, when it was time to go. But don't worry, he was never free sledding, someone always had a hold of him.

Cal, Aaron, Oslo, Ruby, Del, Spencer, Aneya, Lincoln, Ivan, Ollie

Ivan

 Aaron built a giant snowball and tried rolling it down the hill, but it crashed and broke into pieces. Then Ivan decided to build a jump out of it. He and Ollie were the only two who used it, but they got some really great air.

 It's been 15 years and 7 babies since I've done anything even remotely resembling snowboarding. And I know, this isn't really snowboarding, and the hill is tiny. And yes, it took me 4 tries to get to the bottom without falling on my bum. But still. Victory.

Thanksgiving 2019

We headed up to Hooper on Thanksgiving morning. There was supposed to be a huge snow storm, and we were worried the roads would be terrible, but they were decent and we arrived about 10:30am. We cooked up the flautas we'd brought for lunch. Then my mom let Ruby open her birthday presents since she and Kerry wont be able to make it down on Sunday. They gave Rue a tea set and a cute headband making kit. So of course the kids wanted to put them to good use right away. 

Kerry's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Sparks were there and they got to meet Oslo for the first time. They live up in Idaho and only come down a few times a year. 

 Even though there wasnt snow on the roads, Hooper had about 14 inches. My kids made the most of it. They were hoping Papa Kerry would pull them on the sleds with the four wheeler, but that didn't work out. They opted to build a snow fort instead. When the cousins got there they went out and helped too, but i didn't get a picture of that.

Granny Jan, my mom's mom, was there too. I had printed out a few pictures for her of Oslo and our family, and the four generation picture we took with her and my mom and my girls and I on Father's Day earlier this year. In return she showed me this picture of her and my Grandpa Jack. It was taken at his birthday party when they were dating in high school. Aaron is amazed at how much i look like Gran. People tell me all the time that I do.

As always, dinner was fantastic. This year there was a little kids table, a bigger kids table, and an adult table. Jack sonand Melissa were there with their three kids (Emree, Sophia, Stratton), Tanner was there, Stephanie and Kirk and their girlsw (Brighton and Lily), and Tanya and her three boys (Graham, Burke, Nolan) Nelson had to work. We went around the table saying something we each were grateful for, which I  don't think we've actually ever done before.

After dinner the kids went downstairs and watched a movie while the adults chatted. Then we ate pie. Lots of pie. Then we decided it was time to head back to Elk Ridge because it was supposed to be bad weather. We didn't see a single flake though, and the roads were dry. I'm super thankful for that.

Ivan's Art

The Hopeless Elephant, oil on canvas

Knight, inktense and watercolor 

Ivan has completed a couple of really cool art projects this semester. He's taking art at a new studio this year called All Things Art, his teacher is Mary Reeder. The studio is in Springville, and Mary is a very well know professional local artist, whose son is also a well-know professional artist in California. Anyways, the studio is AMAZING, just walking inside is enough to get your creative juices flowing. There is artwork everywhere, of all kinds. Mary encourages the kids to be self led, to try lots of different styles and techniques, whatever they are interested in, and then she gives tips and feedback but she never touches the students' papers. So their artwork is 100% there own. Ivan gets to go and spend 2 hours a week on Mondays at the studio, and I would best it's his very favorite two hours of the week. I love to hear about what he's been working on. And I love to see the pieces he brings home. I want him to find a happy place in his art. Somewhere he can go to express his emotion and complex thoughts, something to do with his hands that makes his soul sing and come alive. Everyone needs something like that.

UVYSO Fall Concert

In the fall, Lincoln tried out for and made the Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra. I'm pretty excited about it because it gives him the opportunity to play with a group, something that a homeschooled student only taking private lessons doesn't come by naturally. A friend of mine recommended UVYSO, she and her kids had played with them previously. I contacted the person in charge of tryouts, and he never got back to me. Then I had Oslo and things sort of got crazy, the try outs were that week and he hadn't prepared anything. Also it was $400 to play with the symphony and money is always tight. And Aaron had just made it very clear to me that he wanted to keep Saturdays open, he was tired of being busy. So I figured maybe we'd just have to figure things out next year. But I kept feeling like it would be such a good opportunity for Lincoln. And I kept thinking that the point of playing an instrument like the trombone was not to be a soloist. So I prayed about it. I told Heavenly Father how things had gotten crazy trying to juggle everything and a new baby, I told him how we'd been trying to simplify and save money, and I also told him my concerns that if Linc didn't get to play with a group he might not be able to get all the benefits out of playing the trombone and that it would be time and talent and money wasted. And I asked Him to make it really obvious if having Lincoln try out was the right thing to do, if it was important for Lincoln. Over the course of the next few days, UVYSO was everywhere. Suddenly the director was texting me and emailing me to remind me of tryouts. It would pop up on my facebook feed. I kept seeing how the tryout days stood out empty on our calendar, and knowing that nothing was coming up to stand in the way of trying out. So I finally sat down and talked to Aaron about it. I told him about my prayer. And I asked what he thought we should do. Aaron agreed to let him try out. He said we could probably come up with the money if we ended up needing to, and that he wouldn't complain about rehearsals on Saturdays. So Lincoln tried out, and he made it! I was so proud of him. And it's been such a great experience for him every since. He's made some good friends. He's grown a lot as a musician. The orchestra has gone on retreats, and they have service projects and fund raisers planned for the future. Tonight was their first concert of the season. Linc had to wear a bowtie and a cummerbund. He looked so handsome and grown up. They played at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo and charged $11 a ticket. I hope he's making memories that will be positive for him for the rest of his life. I hope he plays in many many more concerts, and I hope I get to be there to see every one of them. I think being a part of something bigger than yourself is such an important experience for kids to have.

36

Runny noses are red,
And baby poop is yellow
I can't imagine parenting
With a more handsome fellow.

His 36th year will be one for the books.
Between our family and work, there won't be much rest.
But we can slow down for a minute today
To celebrate Aaron because he's the best!

Bday plans include: fixing his truck
Grilling up burger, and with any luck
A fresh apple crisp is what he would like,
Then to ride a few miles on his new exercise bike.

So we'll sing and we'll eat
And it will be rad
To blow out the candles
For our most favorite dad! <3 p="">

Aaron building a dog house for Nike.

Aaron in his handsome new suit.

Aaron winning a contract for his company while at an army base in Ohio.

Things have been whirlwind crazy around here. I've been sick. Kids have been sick. Ozzy still gets up multiple times at night wanting to eat. We are scraping the bottom of the tank of survival mode around here for sure. Trying to gear up for Thanksgiving, trying to gear up for the holidays and all the hustle and bustle that comes with them. Trying to get our house organized, trying to make sure all the kids have sufficient winter clothing. Etc, etc, etc. Aaron was in Ohio for a few days last week on a business trip. I was out of town with my mom the weekend before that. Time is zipping past us as smacking us int he face as it goes. And it feels like we can't catch our breath. I forget how hard the first year is after having a baby. How it really does take an ENTIRE year to regroup.

BUT

Today is Aaron's birthday. And we had to fit it in, because Aaron is the tracks to our crazy train. He's keeping this whole thing from derailing. He is steady, and constant, and even. And if it weren't for him, this circus would have fallen apart a long time ago. So celebrate we did. Sort of.

All Aaron wanted for his birthday was to go to his dad's house and work on getting the 4-wheel drive shaft fixed in his truck. So he was gone for probably 2/3rds of the day. The rest of us cleaned the house to surprise him when he got home. We didn't have any other presents for him because we had already given him the exercise bike he wanted off of KSL. We found it last week, and it was too heavy for me to pick up without him and his truck, so I stayed with the kids and Aaron and Kelly went to get it instead. I didn't wrap it either, probably should have.

Anyways, Aaron wanted hamburgers for dinner and apple crisp for dessert. We got a pretty late start on both, and dessert almost ended up not happening, because it was late, everyone was tired, and I kept being interrupted in preparations because Ozzy wanted to eat. But we did it. I hope Aaron knows how much we love him. And how much we appreciate him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!!!