Dynamic Duo

I’ve been ignoring a rotten board on our back deck for nearly 6 months. A few weeks ago, it started to break through, so we picked up a piece of replacement decking and set it over the top as a temporary fix. 

On Monday, I resolved to do something productive and get myself out of my little end of summer mother pity party. I went outside with a drill and a crowbar and began the process of removing the rotting board. Just then, Kasey texted me this photo. She had coincidentally stepped through a rotten deck board at HER house! 

I told her what I was up to and she showed up with her makita oscillating tool and we cut through the framing nails, removed rotten wood, cut the new board and dropped it in place. Kasey left and I screwed the new board in place (even recycled the old deck screws). The whole thing only took 1 hour and 10 minutes (and 6 months of procrastination). 

The following day, I stopped at Kasey’s on my way home from the gym and we decided to just knock hers out too. We did the same project at her place. Hers was a little more tricky, because the support joists were also rotting. To buy a few more years of use, we installed two sister joists on either side of the rotting ones. 

So listen. I’ve done a lot of home improvement projects with Kasey. Floors, tile, framing, wallpaper, demolition, sub floor, concrete, landscaping, plumbing, electrical, carpentry galore, you name it. 

There is something about a work partner you vibe with so effortlessly that words are not even needed. One would get on the ladder the other would stabilize it and pass the sledgehammer or framing gun. If something needed to be supported or torqued, the other was just doing it. It’s a lovely little dance we do, and her deck boards were supported and replaced during lunch hour. 

Who needs a repairman? Not us. 

It’s been a long time since I did a major home DIY project. Pretty sure I haven’t done any major remodel or carpentry in the last several years. I almost forgot that I have a whole skill set and wealth of handy knowledge stored away in my brain. As soon as I picked up a crowbar though, something clicked in my brain. I used to do stuff like this every day. with babies under foot. These quick fix it’s felt good to do. 

Kasey and I have been nap-time/lunch hour warriors getting stuff done quickly (and correctly) for almost 20 years.

We are efficient, encouraging, and best of all, we clean up after oh selves and when we finish a job. We. Put. Our. Dang. Tools. Away. 🎤 ⬇️

Don’t mind our sweaty workout clothes. We exercise, too. Just a couple of baddies. 

She made the cutest reel about this. Our DIY is so much better when we DIT (do it together). Love you so much Kasey! 

Look at my awesome friend. 

What a baddie. What a queen. 

Give us a tv show. 

Happy Halfway, Sister Willardson!

 Quincy hit her halfway milestone yesterday. 

Her 10 weeks in the MTC lasted like 5 years, I think. But the rest of the time has just flown by. Here are some faves from her world lately. 

She is doing incredibly difficult and important work by inviting everyone she meets to come closer to Jesus Christ. Keep it up, sister! I love everything about you! 

Life Confetti

Good morning from Arkansas. It is beautiful here. 

We are boat people now. Aaron brought home this Hog on Saturday and we took her maiden voyage on lake Ann at sunset last night. Core Memories coming soon to a Willardson near you! 

It was so nice outside yesterday, the kids set up a picnic while we waited for Soren to get out of school. They moved deep into imaginative play and Esme’s blanket became a cape because she was nacho libre. Triplets are so busy and also so fun. Childhood is the best. 

Good luck in Florida, sweet Madi! 

Thanks for serving the Lord! 

Melvin Stewart has been turned into an meme that is Corbin’s screen saver right now. Davey would be so proud. My nagging face was on his lock screen for a month last year during BYU application season. Lock in, Corbin! 

I went to Jocelyn’s for a dinner party on Saturday night with the “Lifting Ladies.” It’s our what’s app group that meets at Emily Sasines to lift weights, but I join the occasionally for group runs during half marathon training season. This group of ladies really do lift. It was the most positive and encouraging dinner ever! I brought Kasey and she’s been added to the group too. It’s so fun to get together with my Bella vista ward friends from 15-20 years ago, and their adult daughters! Lots of new faces, too. 

3 cheers for sisterhood.

Mary Ann is going to serve with her husband in Seoul South on the base next month! 

Sloane and I had a date Saturday and she wanted to go to the gym. I reserved a badminton court for the two of us. She is very exited about fitness right now. 

Brock and Kate posted their wedding video and of all the guests, Ryan was featured in the dancing sequence because of course he was. 😂 He is quite proud to have made the cut. “Give em a contract extension. 50 more seasons of Brock and Kate!” 

Grammie is back and Sloane has happily returned to roost on her perch. 

Corbin’s pockets always working overtime. That kid always has so much stuff crammed in there, it’s a game for the family. It’s like a Mary Poppins carpet bag. 

Happy Halfway Day to my Quincybee! She’s doing amazing work. I am so proud of her growth and sacrifices and her continued efforts to find the one.

A new song on my Meg Take it Easy Spotify playlist has been on repeat lately. 

This post gave me pause this week. There is so much love and intention out into the little things I do as a mom. I often reach the end of the day and can’t put a finger on “what I did” all day to warrant being so exhausted, but there is a lot of very real energy, physical and mental, dedicated to setting the tone in my world. The late late calls and meals and pickups are all under an umbrella of nurturing. It is Herculean work and often invisible, but is witnessed by the fruits of emotional regulation of everyone within reach. 

Wet Shoes On Mantle, 2026

-Corbin Willardson

Truly a work of art. This one took a couple of days.

Pretty flowers and monarchs in Valerie’s yard. I think everything she touches just sparkles and I am grateful for any opportunity to be within the wake of her wisdom and goodness. 

I taught the priest quorum how to use clippers for their activity this week. Corbin and I even invited his buddy Rhett from orchestra and he came! He left with a sick mullet. The boys practiced on Bear and lined him up alright for their first try.  

A fall mantle to bring some hygge. I was having a really tough time yesterday so I burned a fall candle for the first time in the season and it warmed my life right up. I love cozy, pretty, seasonal things and a house that smells good has to be one of my top five favorite things of all things.  

An update on the boys! Cute Ammon was not-coincidentally assigned to welcome new elders to the MTC and got to be the one who took Hyrum to his room. Heavenly Father loves these boys and understands friendship so perfectly. Another wild thing: Ammon’s visa didn’t arrive yet so he has been reassigned to serve one transfer in (drumroll please…) the Los Angeles, Ca mission! Reese and Logan are such proud parents!  

A very popular influencer posted her daughter’s HOCO dress. It has like 2m views and 10k likes. It is the same dress Quincy wore 2 years ago, but in pink. This is the 4th time this has happened to a formal Quincy wore that seemed less conventional at the time. 

She is such a trendsetter! 

It’s that time of year! Corbin will need to sell 120 pans of cinnamon rolls this year to pay for his trip to New York in entirety. That’s more than double last year. I told him I will front the cost of ingredients. Neither of us have a surplus of time, but I can’t stand the fundraising campaign where the students just send out 200 emails just asking for money. I know band and choir do this as well, but honestly it feels icky to me to just ask the community to pay for elective activities. So we are doing cinnamon rolls again…and will prob need to sell them in the spring (or over the holidays is there’s an interest?) as well. Conference is THE weekend to make it happen, so he decided last night we going for it. He got 25 orders so far in the first few hours. 

Aaron surprised me with last minute tickets to Pitbull and Lil Jon (literally bought them 10 minutes before the concert started, we slipped in late). It was WILD. 

Hilariously fun fact, people DRESS UP LIKE PUTBULL for pitbull concerts. I did not know this was a thing! Everywhere we looked there were groups and groups of “baldies”. Old and young. Guys and girls. Bald caps and white shirts with black ties. Goatees scribbled onto faces. It. Was. So. Funny. The crowd energy at this concert was insane. Everyone was so friendly and hyped out of their minds. Not a soul was sitting—everyone was jumping on their feet the entire show. 

Another HOCO invite! Corbin is going to hoco at west this weekend with a friend. He asked for help making a poster for the pun he came up with.

It’s been a hard week for me, mentally. I miss my older kids and even though there were still 4 kids at the dinner table most nights this week, Aaron and I are in mourning that the oldest 5 have lives to live. It is a strange thing to be needed SO badly and also very lonely. Raising adult children feels like being an on call trauma surgeon. At any given moment, you must be available to be ALL in. Take the call, have all your wits and wise clarity about you. There has been SO much fun in between. They really are my favorite people to be around. I love them AND I genuinely LIKE them. So as everyone has settled into full time life back at school at jobs in Rexburg, Denver, and Korea, it’s a little lonely to still be here. When they call I drop everything. And that’s also kind of sad.  Usually there is kind of a steady rotation between who needs mom, but this week and last, with the calls all came from 12-3 or 4am for me. I love any chance to talk, laugh, or counsel and problem solve with my kids. Especially Quincy. We just have to work with whatever hour she has. It is exhilarating (and also tiring) by night, and kind of lonely by day. I miss my lunch time and errand and adventure sidekicks. 

This pic is from a couple weeks ago, Ryan was giving a dry land swimming instruction to Corbin. I don’t know what specifically made it so funny, but it sent me. All of us were in stitches. I could bottle up the moments when the big boys are home and just being silly hanging out with Aaron and I, I’d never set the bottle down and become a fast drunk. These nights are sporadic and fleeting but they are definitely the best times. 

 

Senior HOCO 2026 for Corbin

Corbin had a great time at BHS HOCO last night with his friends and super cute date, Gabriella. It started raining right before pictures, which was unfortunate, but a memory made. Corbin was very grateful for the clear umbrella I put on the back seat of his car as he backed out of our driveway. :) 

He and I had a lot of fun putting his fit together. It started with this pink tweed suit I found online, thinking Corbin would wear just the pants, but when it arrived, he decided to go full send and wear the jacket, too. We had a silk green tie, but realized that with just pink and green together, they were giving Wicked 😂 so we found a floral tie and switched to a shirt with tiny navy flowers on it. I did their flowers and added some blue eryngium to pink and green lisianthus, double stock, hydrangea, and eucalyptus. It looked so pretty, and cost about $30…small change compared to the $80 several moms payed for pretty basic bouquets at Bloom while I was there selecting individual stems. 

Levi Solis, Aubrey Bush, Preston Gubler, ?, Roman Miller, Avery Pendleton, Annalise Fuhriman, Tanner Wirthlin, Chloe Knecht, Logan Buttle, Eden McNeal, Richard Austin, Sydney Grover, Brody Saumweber, Gabriella Petersen, Corbin, Georgia Spears, Kai Poyfair, ?, ? 

The boys were fun. I guess some of the girls had some big drama that blew up over the course of the night, but Corbin and Gabriella weren’t involved, and the guys were there to have fun, so Corbin and his date still had a fabulous night. 

Brody, Levi, ?, Richard, Caleb, Logan, Preston, Kai, Gabe,  Tanner, Roman, Riggs, Landon, Corbin

Ariana 

Kai Poyfair, Georgia Spears, Gabriella Petersen, Corbin 

Gosh they looked smart! So fun!