That December Rush

December moves so fast! We're already feeling it. But it's all good things.

Michael:

is enjoying chief year. He's on his second of three rotations this year -- four months with each of his three attendings. He's been gone for a review course and some job searching during this second rotation so he feels like it's been busy. We're anxious to know what his next step is! He is so helpful whenever he's home. I love him for that so much. I love all sorts of things about Michael, but I just really love that we both know we're both working hard. If one of us slows down, we know it's because they need it, and the other helps pick up whatever needs to happen. Like on Saturday after I worked on things through half of Camden and Bennett's nap and then just couldn't keep my eyes open, he played and rode bikes with Westin while I took my first nap in ages. Then Sunday night I had all sorts of productive plans for us and he fell asleep approximately 8 minutes after the boys went to bed, so I've been shuffling around getting everything done while all my boys are asleep. Life is busy. But I loved the Christmas devotional that reminded us to spend time on what matters and simplify what doesn't. 

Maddie:

I keep feeling super productive and wondering why I wasn't as on top of things this last December, and then I remember that I was sooooooooo sick all through the holidays. Oh it is so much fun to have a cute 4-month-old baby rather than pregnancy nausea during the holidays. Best trade! Tonight I've been cooking and wrapping and cleaning and planning and random to-do listing for the past few hours. Moms make the world run. But I loved being a mom so much this week. Westin and I are in a good place and Bennett and Westin are also just having so much fun together. I love my people. On Thursday I went to a girls night for a couple hours and had fun catching up with some ward friends. We also had a ward Relief Society Christmas dinner on Tuesday and Michael got home right when that started so I was able to go. All the rest of my week was full of the typical stuff that keeps us running plus all the Christmas prep I can fit in so that I can enjoy Christmas time as much as possible!

Westin:

Westin responds so well to being recognized for the good he does and just ignoring the rough stuff he's figuring out. We had such a wonderful week together. I look back at how hard some times were when he was 2.5-4.5 and I just feel so grateful for the relationship we have right now. He's making traditions so fun. We are loving our 25 Days of Christ ornaments and stories each night. He also got to go to Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday to another birthday party and he and Bennett were pretty thrilled about that. Bennett rode a little train about 15 times and it just cracked me up. Tonight we put Christmas jammies in the boys' stockings before the Christmas devotional. I decided I'm going to do that each year to make the devotional a little extra cozy and special and get some more use out of our Christmas pajamas. I love that lots of people are opening them on December 1st but I had to wait to order those doorbuster deals on black Friday! So they weren't here in time for that and then I ended up liking the idea of combining them with the devotional and hot chocolate.

A favorite moment with Westin this week was during dinner, when they'd eaten SO much. He and Bennett are in growth spurts or something because they are once again eating a staggering amount. Michael didn't get our same dinner one night this week because the boys just ate up every bit of what I made with no leftovers to be had. So after they had eaten 100% of the shrimp and vegetable lo mein I made, PLUS a big bowl of cottage cheese after, plus a bowl of cantaloupe, plus a piece of toast, Westin then asked me if he could have some cereal. I sighed because, oh my goodness I make so much food, and he immediately picked up on my demeanor and said, "Being a mom is hard, huh."

I laughed and said, "Oh, it's so much fun, but it does make you really tired sometimes!"

He said, "Does it make you feel better if I give you a hug?"

I said, "It makes me feel SO much better, I love that!"

So he got off his chair at the table and came toward me, but then he turned around and started backing up with his bum out and said, "Ok, but it's a booty hug!"

Then he and Bennett and I just started laughing so hard and I realized, the hard moments of motherhood are less and less lonely. He's growing up and he's picking up what goes on around him and we're doing this together. I remember our early residency days of just 20-month-old Westin and 7-months-pregnant mom, and oh man there were some long and lonely and hard days. Life is just moving so much faster now and is such a different kind of hard.

Bennett:

is so cute when we work on our speech words together, but he's also getting more and more aware that he's saying things differently and it makes him not want to focus on sounds together. Instead he tries to joke around, or do something else, or act sad/grumpy. So I'm just fitting practice in when I can and immediately backing off when he's not into it so that he never feels like it's a fight. He's improving and I know he'll get it. One sad mix up right now is that "Stop, mama" and "Sorry, mama" sound very much the same. So when I correct him about some behavior or something he's doing, I sometimes get mad that he tells me to stop when in reality he's trying to already apologize for what he was doing. He says, "Stop, brother" a lot when they're having dumb little arguments so I thought he was saying that to me too. I've just started to assume it's always "sorry" and if he's actually saying "stop" he'll soon learn that he likes the response to sorry way better. My favorite sentence he says right now is, "I need to go potty... so bad." The way he over annunciates most of those words is just so funny and cute, and it's one of the longest strings of words that he has, and he says it even when he doesn't seem to need the "so bad" part, so his relaxed little way of saying that sentence is just so funny to me. He loves reading books with me right now and loves to cuddle while we read. It's the best.

Camden:

I'm obsessed with him. I feel so happy to have this cute little baby in our family. I am way more tired than when I just let him sleep in my bed with me, but he's getting better sleep now that he's in his own space. But I'm more tired now than I have been since he was born... I hope he gets some longer stretches happening soon! He is just doing his long stretch so early, so I never get to sleep my long stretch at the same time. I get SO much done between the hours of 7:30 and 10:30 so I just can't sleep the first 3 hours of his only 5-6 hour stretch. But it's catching up with me so much that I might just have to start doing that a couple times a week. But I don't see that happening during the holiday craziness. Camden is looking more and more like Westin I think, and I can't believe how big he's feeling lately. We only have one more month before we need to start trying out some foods with him and that makes me so sad! I love the stage of happy, content, exclusively nursing, non-mobile babies. Just easy and cute and so fun. The boys love that he sits in a bumbo now and seem to think he's practically ready to wrestle now that he can sit in that thing. It's so funny. Brothers!! I love raising these brothers.

First time....

Rolling...

Over!

My Christmas card assistant

But really he's just in it for the tacos.

The face you make when you learn you won't be getting a taco.

Hands will do just fine instead.

Palmer came by for a night this week and was hand fed his food piece by piece by Bennett, as always.

"Send this to daddy! Tell him I built an animal and two trees. And here, let's put Buzz in the picture."

Book time with Bennett! When Westin goes to school we get some good reading time in before Bennett does a nap and/or quiet time.

This scene... Halloween candy and stockings. When will the candy be gone!

So big in the Bumbo!

Nightly ornaments! I love the simple stories and talks about Christ.
We did one on the Woman and the Well this week and a little ways into it Westin said,
"I have NEVER heard this before!"
And his face and the way he said it was so sweet to me. He soaks up so much.

Still true! I like when this memory pops up in my feed.

This memory popped up too and I realized that we're already on the brink of the next step.

Bennett needed nothing more than this "choo-choo" while Westin ran to allll the games with his friends.

Happy birthday Ethan!

Sweet, sweet boy. I love when he falls asleep nursing lately because most of the time he's just going to sleep awake.
I know that soon this won't happen much at all so I just loved holding him for a little bit before putting him down.

I read my boys Paddington all the time and honestly just thought it was a little random.
But then I saw this this week and couldn't believe I didn't know that? And it makes so much more sense
and I love the book so much more now.  "Darkest Peru." Heartbreaking.

New jammies and a daddy home to climb on!

These cute boys. Michael couldn't make it to church today because he's on call, but they were SO good and church felt so easy today. Grateful for those Sundays. 

This one cracks me up because they are trying to make my same face.