Stir Crazy

 Michael:
busy at work, and started being busy at church this week. We both had lots of weekday and Sunday zoom meetings this week and we're out of practice with that stuff. It's fun that he's the Temple & Family History leader and I'm the counselor in Relief Society on that committee though, so we're overlapping just a bit. He pointed out my Grandpa Miner doesn't have any photos of him on Family Search so today my dad emailed me some that he has and I updated his profile on there. I miss my grandparents. I want Westin and Bennett to know about them more. Also this is totally random, but I was obsessed with My Best Friend's Wedding growing up and still love the movie, and Michael totally looks like Michael in that movie and just more and more as years go by. He's a good-looking guy and I'm lucky :) This random bit of information is inspired by Michael wearing a different pair of glasses today because Bennett lost his others and he just looks good. Whoever finds the glasses gets our last gingerbread cookie, so, Westin's motivated. And Bennett's clueless.

Maddie:
I feel like I'm feeling a lot of Covid effects late in the game. Camden used to be a content baby, but now he's not. My kids used to be young enough that home was what we knew, but now they crave school. I used to be a homebody as I geared up for then experienced  a move, but now we're ready to have people over and reach out more and it's just still a funny time. So I'm feeling Covid pains that people have been feeling for months and months but somehow it just feels like it's catching up to us extra this month. I cross-stitched for the first time in Colorado today because I'm DONE painting everywhere except my laundry room. And I'll just take my time there because, #laundryroom. I'm so happy to be done with so much painting.

Westin:
loves school but loves complaining about online school. Oh how he misses going. He talks about it all the time. "I just love school so much -- being there. I just love going." He gets into Bingo and their "Holidays around the World" projects, but getting on is always moody and he has just been significantly grumpier ever since we went back to remote learning. He's getting older, and more complicated to parent, and more wonderful all the time. But admittedly all my post-bedtime nights are full of guilt about all the moments I wish I was more patient with Westin. He's so great, and sometimes so hard. 

Bennett:
Bennett missed one of his two days of school this week because of a runny nose. He's fine, but we just wanted to be extra careful. Then Thursday he was able to go. On Wednesday we met with his school teacher and speech therapist over Zoom to discuss his IEP, and it was fun to hear more about how he is at school. Bennett is so sweet and hard-working, and they see that too. He's making a lot of progress and we have goals to work on together. I also started the 100 Lessons book to teach him to read and he liked the first three lessons a lot.

Camden:
is so giggly at times and so WHINY most of the other times. On Thursday he whined or cried almost constantly from wake up to nap time. I'd like to say I handled it gracefully and put my projects aside and managed to help Westin with school while also consoling Camden, but really I just cried in the bathroom for a bit and struggled through putting blinds up while helping Westin while trying to comfort Camden and questioned all of those choices at the same time. He's a great sleeper though, and we're still spinning around at bedtime to distract him from crying, and then he leans in for some eskimo kisses and giggles and goes to sleep easy. He crawls a little more these days but still booty scoots forcefully. We love this cutie Cam Cam.

Kitty:
Just living her best Colorado life still.

Kitty is so cozy in the morning. But she was instantly ready for a good time
when these two woke her up with a shoelace to catch.

Camden is starting to play with Duplos and it's a game changer!
These two are playing together a little more when Westin does his online school.

The stool! I love it so much.
Michael did a great job and I love the way the layered stains turned out against
the white paint I had on hand.

Ordered the boys' yearbooks for their stockings. This is a labor of love.

Westin's been talking and talking about making gingerbread men, so we finally did!
This made us a little lonely. We always made these with his whole crew in Fresno and it was one of our favorite traditions there. We miss having people over.

Eyes are always a favorite.

Hanging these blinds during Westin's school while Camden was whiny was one of the most defeated days of my life. It just was. Every little thing went wrong and I did a horrible job, but it's up and I really love them.

Kindergarten chaos. We're grateful Grandpa Daetwyler made us a huge table,
because apparently you need all that space for remote kindergarten :)
Reallyl though, this table is my favorite thing in my house, and someday we'll eat here more often when kindergarten is more in school and less at home.

Christmas toast. One of those lazy dinners that kids are thrilled about.

When I bundled Westin up he said, "I was made for the snow!"

Both blinds up!
Squint and pretend the kindergarten chaos isn't there.
This is my favorite room right now.
Last thing it needs is a new light, and I think I've decided on one.
So the next step is to leave it in my cart for a couple weeks and just keep looking at it.
You know the drill.

Bennett made all sorts of snow sculptures with a cup.
He stayed busy doing that for so long.

Dentist visit!
No cavities, but SOMEone is getting dangerously close to a couple...
We won't name names. ;)

We were going a little crazy Saturday.
Our boys are getting louder, and crazier, and just MORE in every way,
and we needed out of the house.
So we explored McMurray Natural Area and it was magical with its fresh snowfall.

Camden whined the last half of the walk -- he's never too prepared for the cold because he always yanks everything off. That's the explanation for mom's socks on his hands that go halfway up his arms, instead of little gloves.

Home is feeling Homey

This week we started putting our Christmas decorations up, and I was instantly overcome with how much different it felt around here when I stopped with the big projects and worked on the details for a bit. So, after the Christmas stuff, I hung things on our walls for the first time (except Camden's room -- lucky guy had a finished room pretty quick here!). Now there are some familiar scenes around here and I have been surprised at how much more homey it feels. Christmas time will do that to you, too. On top of that homey feeling, I was set apart for my new calling in Relief Society today and I was blessed that I will "develop many meaningful and lasting friendships" with women here. That blessing instantly made me feel more at home too -- or at least, the promise of feeling at home. Covid has slowed our transition into Fort Collins but it's been ok. But I didn't know how much I was craving that sense of belonging until I was promised it would come. I really know it will. I feel like we are where we're supposed to be, and that has taken away so much of the transition stress as we slowly (oh so slowly) get to know people in our neighborhood and church.

Michael:
was busier at work this week. He'll always have busy Decembers and this proved to be true this year. He really likes his job and his coworkers and his routine and schedule. He built a stool this week, and now I'm painting/staining it before he'll build the final steps. It's beautiful! I am impressed at how quickly he learned how to make a pocket hole joint. Then on Saturday we went to an Amish Furniture Store so we could drool over some well-made pieces, and we saw a little infographic about how pocket hole screws are cheap and fast and dowel joints are the true builders way. Thanks Amish, for stealing that thunder. Jk, we're still really happy with our stool. And now Bennett won't have to scale the vanity doors in their bathroom and hang on the edge of the counter to brush his teeth, which, we did not know he was doing until we witnessed it recently. And he's only been shorter those other months in this house, so. Bennett is not one to complain.

Maddie:
felt consumed by my friend Kindal's pain this week. She experienced unimaginable loss and my heart has just been aching for her. She was 17 weeks along with a little boy when she lost that sweet baby and I haven't been able to think of much else. So much in life doesn't make any sense. I used to think everything happened for a reason but I'm years away from that belief and now I just think there are some coping mechanisms that are vital for us to learn so we can keep faith and peace through the hardships of this world. I think God is there to love us, not punish us, and that so much of our heartache in this life is just our necessary walk through a lone and dreary world. But it doesn't mean all of the dreary comes from God or is here for a reason or is reflective of anything about us. It's sometimes more depressing to see a lack of fate that way but there's just no explaining most of life's heartache. Anyways, I felt like I was drowning extra this week in making food, cleaning up food, laundry, and answering "mom" a million times, but all of it was just a blur because my heart was with Kindal.

Westin:
I felt a little defeated by virtual learning this week -- Westin just always needed help finding something every time I would try to get into a project, which is never too successful anyway because #Camden, and he's also having an even harder time with it this time around since we still walk Bennett to school two days a week but he never gets to go. I love hearing him do the pledge, and their school motto, and participate in class. On Friday they had their weekly STEM meeting and heard from a neuroscientist this time. I was only half paying attention to the call when Westin came in the kitchen and asked me for a carrot to eat. Apparently he had just learned that they are good for his brain and eyes, so I gave him a big carrot and he chomped on it all through the rest of the call. (On mute... we're not amateurs.) (Sometimes though, we are.) Westin loved cleaning the church on Saturday. He went with Michael and Bennett went with me, and Camden stayed strapped to my back, and we sanitized every handle in that building like they've never seen. Well, they see that every day now.

Bennett:
is almost a pro now at counting to ten, except he always replaces Seven with Eleven. We'll take it! I mean, we correct him and he'll get it, but we'll take it. We've been working on that so long, so hard. I haven't quite figured out how Bennett learns or what he is interested in learning -- he is soo easygoing that we are now entering a phase where he needs to learn about advocating for himself and applying himself. He's so pure hearted. Figuring the ins and outs of each child's personality is the parenting that keeps me awake at night. They need such different things from me, and there's always someone I'm failing around here. It's a horrible way to look at things, but from 11:30pm on it just really is the way I look at things. Bennett is so sweet to Camden and such a helper to me. I took him on a date on Saturday to pick out a present for Westin, and well, since I'm 100% sure Westin doesn't read my blog we'll just put this Christmas spoiler in here... he saw a racetrack that does a loop before taking off into the mouth of a great white shark and if you know Bennett you know he basically couldn't function once he'd seen that. He wanted a little trampoline, then a big green race car, but then when he saw that jump the shark deal he just couldn't take his fingers off of it. He only semi-understood the purpose of the entire outing too, because he keeps asking to play with it. I told him to keep it a surprise for Westin and not tell, and he did kind of get that part, except he came right in and said, "You can't know what it is but IT EATS FISHIES!" So, I mean... there's that. Once my brother and sister asked me what I was getting for them for Christmas and I yelled "Cookies!" And they told me I wasn't supposed to tell and I burst into tears. Bennett had a much different reaction (nonreaction) to learning he wasn't supposed to say anything.

Camden:
Putting Camden to bed is hilarious. He HATES getting his clothes and diaper changed so there's always big tears and crying, and he hates being taken out of his brothers' room when stories and prayers are done, so there's another layer of emotional feelings. So by the time it's time to lay him down, he's crying pretty good and if you put him down like that he never really calms himself down. BUT if you can just get him laughing before laying him down, you're set. So right now that typically means lots of mom playing peek-a-boo over daddy's shoulders, but one night this week Michael was on a call with a patient and I was solo. He kept crying and crying and finally I just started spinning around as fast as I could because I figured you can only be so emotional before dizzy is going to become the primary feeling. And that was true and he instantly stopped crying, laid on my shoulder for a while, said "bye-bye" and I laid him down for bed. It was so funny to me. Oh he's sweet. He still wears his little zipadee zip to bed which makes him look like a flying squirrel, and if I pretend to take him out of daddy's arms when he's about to go down he slaps at me, and it basically feels like being slapped in the face by a penguin wing. And I love penguins so it only adds to the cuteness.

Also I just realized typing that out that the one night I put Camden to bed by myself was an anomaly, which is just another one of those moments where it hits me how much my life has changed. I have eaten so many dinners and done so many bedtimes alone with my kids. Those are not the norm anymore and sometimes I could still just cry about it.

We made cinnamon rolls for the Christmas devotional. I decided that's a perfectly timed tradition because then it's easy to make them during the day and eat them hot all together while we watch the devotional. Then while we were eating them Westin said, "What's that word... for things we always do?" I said, "Tradition?" He said, "Yeah, I want this to be one of those." Bless him for that one.

Michael made Tom Ka Gai soup and it was SO GOOD and I think we're also adding that to our devotional tradition. Eating this then eating a cinnamon roll just felt like having a hug for a meal. So good.

Devotional while we ate.

This was my view during church -- Camden about to go down for a nap, boys in and out of listening or playing with legos, making cinnamon rolls while listening to speakers...
it went MUCH better than our in person experience last week when I kept trying to mouth "SIT DOWN!" to Bennett and Westin from the foyer while Michael spoke, since I had to take Camden out. Mouthing "SIT DOWN!" means nothing when you're wearing a mask.

I ordered a rug for this area months ago and hated it the second I rolled it out,
so then I've been putting off replacing it. Finally decided on this one and I've loved it all week.

This scooter CRAWLED this week for the first time,
but he still prefers that booty scoot when he's on a mission.

Little elf helping with the school gift drive.
His personality just cracks me up. 

Eating a carrot after the neuroscientist told him it would help his brain and eyes.
I hope he noticed Westin's immediate application of that lesson.

I have no idea what these two are talking about under there but I love them.

Sometimes I send Becca pictures that look like this just so I can complain about this stage a little.
She's the best.

Sweet Kindal. On my mind so much this week.

Kitty usually avoids the boys but Westin must be growing up enough for her to consider his show-watching self a potential lap to sleep on.

This encounter... did not last nearly as long.

We still have our baby tree this year.
I am so, so tired of trying to figure out what to put where in our house,
what to buy now and wait on, what to save on or splurge on, what to commit to or keep waiting to decide on, etc etc etc. I know that is so extremely a first world problem and I feel so blessed to have a warm safe home for my kids. But putting up this tiny tree and not even thinking about getting a different one this year was super relieving to me. We will probably always have our tree in our piano room, but I love being by a tree at night, so I was happy this one is small enough to be in here with us this year. Maybe it will always live in this spot at Christmas time, I don't know.
No more decisions.

We used all our lights from Fresno but we DID have to buy two little strands for the tree by the door, plus  a taller ladder to get them up.
And I bought it alone with Camden and drove home with my van trunk open and that entire process from beginning to end was one of my least favorite epsiodes of my life.
Again, first world problems. But it was ridiculous carrying a 24-foot (expands to that size) ladder while pushing a baby in a cart and then loading it in as best as I could and driving home like that.
But it's done. 

Westin did a ton of the tree decorating Because Camden was in a "hold me and do nothing else but I'm still going to cry, just not as much as if you weren't holding me AT ALL" moods. After he was almost done he looked at me and said, "Well, did I basically do all this?" And I think he felt the way I feel every time we eat dinner.

Such a happy bonus when daddy comes home for lunch!

Thanksgiving and Westin is SIX!

We had so much fun getting ready for the Cannons to come early this week. We love them, and they're the thing we miss most about California! Their kids are so sweet to our kids and I love when any of the little boy crew gets together. So many close cousins. 

I am sad we couldn't show them more of Fort Collins -- we drove up to a fun property Shelley had found but the gate was closed and the drive wasn't super thrilling, so I wish I fit in a fun walk around water or some other pretty spot from around Fort Collins! Hopefully they'll be back soon so we can give them a better tour :) But we still had fun Monday and Tuesday with them.

Wednesday was Westin's birthday breakfast (French toast, sausage, and raspberries), then Cannons headed to Katie's to get going on pie baking! We made stuffing, jam, salad, and a snake cake for Westin's birthday, and went down on Wednesday when Michael got home from work. Westin, Bennett, Jack, Oliver,  and Clay play so so so much together. Finn and Camden will join in soon enough. It's just adorable!

Ed and Sally came that night too, and we had so much fun being all together for Thanksgiving. Obviously we all went back and forth about how the day should play out, but with all of us isolating as much as we have we decided we'd get together, and I'm so glad. we did. So far we're all feeling great still, fingers crossed.

We came home on Saturday and got unpacked, caught up, and Michael prepared his talk for that weekend all about family history since he's the new Temple and Family History leader. 

Weeks with family just feed my soul. I married into the best in laws ever, and kids with cousins is one of the most joyful things to watch! Also it was the most delicious Thanksgiving dinner ever, Katie made the best turkey. And I'm usually an apple pie person but the chocolate silk won me over this year. Bennett too. He had chocolate pie for breakfast :) Pictures for the rest, it was just a family-filled week!

Gotta have strawberry jam on Thanksgiving rolls!

Daytime shot of the board and batten -- one layer of paint on, another to go.

Halloween candy lives on.

Westin had big dreams of a snake cake!

Anthon helped Westin rebuild his restaurant in our basement, complete with a new sign and menu and ribbon cutting ceremony.
Westin's Tacos, open for business. 

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony haha, these sweet cousins are so nice to my kids

Birthday boy!

These cute cousins just play and play and play.

Sweet bundled boy alllllmost fell asleep.

Best part of Thanksgiving!
Cannons make beautiful and delicious pies!

Sally has to reteach me how to tie these rolls every time we make them,
but hopefully this time it'll stick! I think they're so pretty!

I want these guys to recreate this picture in 10 years :)

Quite a few Daetwylers in one room!

The Party Table

Katie and Ryan were so nice to host us all!

Westin has the best grandpas! He was SO happy when he found out his grandparents were coming to Katie's.