Cornelius Chronicles

Diana LOVES her Daddy.  I agree.  He's Great! Diana is 2 years old and says the most adorable things! "What happened?" - whenever she wants to know what's going on or why someone looks sad "In the car. Go Beep Beep!" - lyrics to an original song written and performed by Diana when we went for a family drive to Thanksgiving Point "NO!" Waggling her little finger back and forth - said forcefully every time her big brothers Xavier and Loyd tease her...which is way too often "Daddy" and "Mommy" - what Diana calls us know "Go Nursery!" - She says this when we don't leave the Chapel at Church fast enough to go to Nursey class.  Then she will pretend to cry if we are still too slow. "Help!" - said with great emotion whenever she needs something and can't do it herself Waves her hand towards her body to get the big kids to follow her Calls our bunny CiCi a "hop" "Play with me!  Play with me!...

Is it mountain bike season yet?  Are the trails dry??  Everyone has a bike this year and we're all excited to get out into nature and explore.  Here's to a fun bike season for 2025!

A few fun moments of Owen's boundless creativity!  He's the best blanket fort builder ever and I'm always amazed with what he can make out of the quiet bag toys during Sacrament meetings.  This creation reminds me of a Kachina Doll.

That's right, folks!  We went and saw our favorite band, Guster, live in concert at the Eccles theater in downtown Salt Lake City!!!!!  We sang along to all of our favorite songs, watch the audience do crazy things, learned all about Guster history, and had the best time ever!  Guster's "We Have Eras Too" concert was the best ever!  It was also lots of fun to take these two crazy teens to their first ever concert experience with us!  Super fun night for all of us!  A big shout-out to Maeve for staying home to babysit the little siblings.  She's amazing and did an awesome job!  Thanks Guster!  Thanks Maeve!  It's them!!  It's really them!!!! LOOK!!!!

Ahhh, look at how adorable these two little guys are! Grand and Jayberino must be the best gerbil buddies ever.  They are so much fun to watch and play with.  Very gently and sweet and adorable.  Gerbils are lots of fun!  

Dustin found a fun hat in the dress up box and modeled for us just how good he can make it look.  I'm super lucky to be married to such a handsome man with a fun personality to go with all those rugged good looks! We also had fun listening to Maeve, Xavier, and Loyd at the winter Morgan Band Concert.  They all did a great job and Loyd even rocked a solo!  Yea for musical talents and experiences!!  

Happiest of Birthdays to my favorite Loyd!  Loyd brings us joy and pride everyday.  He is kind and loving.  He looks for ways to bring joy into the lives of others every day, including his siblings.  He works hard to better himself and achieve big goals and dreams at school and at work.  He's the best curtesy clerk the grocery store Ridley's has ever had!  He has a personal and powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and the Atonement.  Loyd is fun and intelligent.  He's funny and tender.  He has the biggest heart and loves the tiniest of God's creatures immensely.  I love that he is developing his love of nature, had great kindness towards little helpless creatures, and isn't afraid to try a new adventure.  The past 17 years have flown by in a whirlwind and I am a better person for being given the privilege of being Loyd's mother!  Happy Birthday, Loyd!  I love you more than you can know! Loyd had a couple of friends over for ...

We broke down and make some cloud dough.  It's 4 cups flour and 1/2 cup baby oil and tons and tons of fun!  We squished and squeezed, we made a huge mess in the kitchen 3 or 4 times in a single afternoon, and we had the best time together.  What a fun thing to do inside on a cold February day.   Diana and Maeve are both all about drawing and creating art.  Diana thought the only way to make this even better was to share the same seat!  They two sisters are the cutest and I just love watching them build these precious sibling memories together.  :D And of course, we can't forget about Valentine's Day!  Dustin and I helped Owen and John make Valentine cards for all of their classmates and John even made a special one for Rebekah.  Sadly Rebekah was far away at college and unable to collect her special card in person so we sent her a picture and then we ate her candy for her.  Happy Valentine's Day! 

 Dustin and I had a super fun and unusual date night for us.  We went to the live performance of the One Man Star Wars Trilogy at Peery's Egyptian Theater.  We had a great evening of having fun nerding out and laughing at some of our favorite Science Fiction story telling.  I'd go to space and back any day with Dustin.  He makes every night out together out of this world!

Diana gathered her favorite snuggle bunny for her nap.  Turns out it was CiCi Bunny.  She patiently obliged our sleepy little girl to be a snuggle bunny for nap time.  Maeve couldn't resist either and made sure CiCi got plenty of love for her sleepy time service.   We got a fun new-to-us love sack that the kids have had too much fun with.  What a great treat! Here's a couple of the little angle blankets I've made for the hospital.  I really liked the variegated yarn I found for this pair.  

I asked Diana if she wanted to go on a walk with the stroller.  I guess I should have been more specific about which stroller.  :D  Diana had the best time pushing her own stroller down the street.  She's quite the little mama.  It took us about 30 minutes to get ourselves to the end of the street.  There were lots of pinecones and rocks that needed to be investigated and noticed next to the sidewalk.  It was a fun little walk with our strollers and babies.  :D

Neptune Skate hosted an elementary family skate night and we had the best time.  Everyone donned skates and pulled out their best moves (ok and we all fell...a lot!)  What a fun evening with family, friends, and roller skates. Thanks Neptune Skate!  

Just a few fun shots of random moments of joy during Christmas break. 

Last Christmas we were gifted a Thanksgiving Point family membership and we weren't really sure how often we were going to use it. Once, maybe twice?  Well, at the end of this fun year of Thanksgiving Point fun we have gone 19 times!   We celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and extended family time here this year.  We had fun visiting all of the different museums, playing on the many kid adventure sites, riding ponies - real and carrousel ones-, watching outdoor movies, roaming the beautiful gardens, learning all about dinosaurs, discovering the tulip festival, holding butterflies in our own hands, having our testimonies touched by the sculpture gardens, and being wowed by the Christmas lights of Luminaria.     It's been an awesome year!  Thanks Thanksgiving Point! Luminaria Jurassic Jungle Butterfly Biome Children's Museum of Natural Curiosity and Carrousel