Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!

Our kids are at a really fun age for holidays. They get really into the magic, and the food, and they've just been super excited. 

On Monday we took toffee around to our neighbors. This was a three-day thing that we finished that day, because we're surrounded by so many kind people! The boys had so much fun playing with our neighbor Golden Retrievers for a little while on one of the drop offs. Then that night, we had an Eliason Family zoom program about Christ. My Aunt Maria organized it and it brought me to tears so many times during the short program just because I have so much love for all of my extended family. Such good, good people. There were so many faces on that Zoom call and after being the only grandkid who lives out of state for years and years, I couldn't help but recognize the joy of this particular side effect from this year -- we're better at connecting with each other from far away now. We love our weekly Daetwyler zoom call, and this virtual Eliason Christmas party that I normally would have just missed really made me happy.

On Tuesday my Grandma's piano was delivered! It felt like our own little Christmas miracle. Moving a piano is a thing... but it wasn't too bad and it's here and safe. My boys have been playing it a lot ever since and I'm excited to start giving them the very beginnings of piano lessons.

On Christmas Eve Eve our sweet neighbors had Westin and Bennett over for dinner with their two granddaughters and their other friend. They had so much fun having dinner over there and watching a movie, and they gave them the sweetest gift of an adopted elephant, with a stuffed elephant. They'll get monthly updates about Bondeni, an orphaned elephant in Kenya that they get to feel tied to now. Michael and Camden and I got Thai takeout that night and Camden was the happiest camper, and we remembered how Westin used to get that much attention every single day of his life. Sweet Cam Cam.

On Christmas Even Michael worked half of a day while the boys and I made huge cinnamon rolls and a batch of rolls to take to Katie's house. We used 13.5 cups of flour in one go which is my new record. Then we went on a hike by the reservoir before coming home and watching The Grinch (the new animated one) while I made pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and salad. Then we baked our cinnamon rolls and had one for dessert plus leftovers for breakfast with our sausage and hashbrown bake. We finished our ornaments and put the boys to bed around 7:30. Then Michael fell asleep and I put out Christmas and even burned my arm in the oven the next day, true story -- here's the reference if you don't know what I'm talking about. Really that video just made us laugh so much and I do see how much more fun it is to make magic for your kids than to receive. 

Christmas morning was fun for the boys! They were so excited about sleds from grandma, and soccer goals from Aunt Katie, plus a crystal growing kit, and they loved opening the gifts they picked out for each other (space puzzle & snowball maker for Bennett from Westin, a racetrack looping into a shark mouth for Westin from Bennett). My Christmas was cozy-themed now that we're in Colorado, with boots from Ed and Sally and slippers from Michael, and Michael got... a bidet. Haha. Figured the best 2020 gift for Michael is something that promotes sustainability and less need for toilet paper. We Facetimed family here and there and felt really loved by all the people we wish we could have been in person with!

After lunch we drove down to Katie's and she makes the best turkey I've ever had. We brought rolls and salad, and she made green beans and rice too, and it was so delicious and so fun to be with family on Christmas day. We stayed there for the weekend and the boys went on walks, played at the playground, made a gingerbread house, looked for bugs in their new bug catchers, stayed up way too late talking, and watched Soul. It's so good. We also watched the new Mulan one night after they were in bed and it was so, so good too.

We came home Sunday and this week it'll be time to put Christmas away and get straightened up and ready for the new year! 

Hazel and Ollie are the sweetest neighbor dogs

I LOVED our Eliason Christmas party over Zoom

"I'm a dangerous animal with horns... charging you!"

The piano is here!

Camden loved playing around on the piano.

Christmas cards are the thing that I'm always saddest to take down after Christmas.
Camden loves to be lifted up to my parents card so he can say, "Dada!" when he points to Michael.

Christmas Eve Eve dinner with their friends

Watching a video of their elephant

Movie night! Of course Bennett is sitting by Bacon.
He actually got bit by a dog this week on the nose (not this dog) and it shocked me because he's been all over dogs his entire life and he's never been bit. It could have been MUCH worse -- didn't even bleed. But it's quite the mark still and he cried and cried for about 7 minutes, then wiped his tears on my shoulder and looked at me and laughed and told us later he "just loves that puppy dog" and gave her some pets. That's Bennett's heart. For the record she was a good dog and was really patient with him but we should have noticed sooner that she wanted a break from his attention.

Camden's stuffed elephant from our sweet neighbor

When 13 cups of flour doubles in size...

I always make a small-batch cinnamon roll recipe in a 9x13 but decided to go bigger this year so we could share with Katie. These turned out yummy! We'll probably stick with this recipe now and freeze them.

Our other neighbor brought the boys some legos and a stuffed version of their Hazel and Ollie that the boys love to play with. Such kind people!

Doubled again!

A little hike over Horsetooth Reservoir

Camden is over the Ergo and hates being carried, so he was a pain on our little hike.
But we'll bust out our hiking backpack next time and see if that helps.

This is just 10 minutes from our house.

Grinch time!

Cinnamon Rolls are definitely the most photographed item in my kitchen efforts...
They're just so fun to see take shape!

These books are a labor of love but Bennett loved looking through his.
They're mostly a gift for me right now but I think someday they'll be glad to have 18 yearbooks from growing up.

Christmas Night!
I stayed up and finished a show while wrapping, then when it was all done I sat on the couch by our tree and finished my book. I love being by the tree at night.

Bennett started crying when he saw this picture because "I just miss grandpa so much."

Ali sent me a screenshot from when we were facetiming Christmas morning and Camden had a toothbrushing break. No holidays from oral hygiene around here.

Cute Elise on her first Christmas!
Ali gave me rubber spatulas since I own none and have been meaning to pick some up for, oh, six years now. Haha thanks sister.

Made it to Katie's! So many little boys :)

Bennett stayed right there until ever single piece of candy from that kit was somewhere on that house.
Dedication.

They wanted to get their crystals started as soon as we got home!

Turning Point

Michael:
was VACCINATED for COVID on Saturday! That feels like such a turning point in this year. I think it's so miraculous to learn about all that has gone into making vaccines using mRNA, and to see the vaccine efforts come together this year to make a Covid vaccine so quickly using years and years of a foundation. Michael was randomly selected among the second group of healthcare workers to get the vaccine in Colorado, so he received it much earlier than we were expecting. I'm so grateful. In 3 weeks he gets his booster, and it just feels like a great way to head into the new year. Oh 2020, you taught us a lot in a lot of unexpected ways. I feel like 2021 is gearing up to be a big year of change, all good things. Michael got some lumber this weekend to build a grape trellis, we are having fun with our tools and making plans. He had to answer a couple calls and go in to work a bit this weekend, but mostly we caught up on taking treats to neighbors and ward friends and just had some good time at home.

Maddie:
is feeling like I had a fun Christmas miracle this week -- I've been looking into how long it would be before we bought a nice piano, as well as looking into some used pianos in the area, and just feeling like all I really wanted was to play on the piano that I played on growing up that was my grandma's. She had two pianos, and both are at my parents house, and my sister has dreamt of having the other one for years and years. So finally I just asked my parents if they'd be up for letting me use the other piano at some point, and they so kindly said I could have it anytime. I expected it to be a little while before they'd want to part with it, but they were just so giving and kind. And then, I did just some light research into getting it moved here and posted it on uShip as well, and that very day a guy gave me a bid that was half the price of other movers I'd looked into because he was already driving from Southern Utah to Denver with some other people's items. So I feel like my life abruptly went from no piano plans, to happy piano plans, to a piano on its way to Colorado. I'm shocked it'll be here before Christmas and I'm so happy every time I think about it. Fingers crossed it's smooth sailing on the drive! Also the whole experience was just a reminder of how much I LOVE my friends from Cedar. I had to figure out one other person to be there to help move it since this guy is solo, and I was just reminded how many wonderful people I know in that wonderful little town. I loved growing up there. This week I made 8 batches of toffee and 8 loaves of artisan bread for our neighbors and ward people. Do you know how many cubes of butter are in 8 batches of toffee? It's so much. Toffee is magic. I used to always say that my favorite food, when we get right down to it, is cheese. But maybe it's butter. 

Also. I didn't paint a single thing this week for the first time since moving into this house, apart from that one week where I rested my wrist after my steroid shot. Add that to the list of little Christmas miracles we're feeling around here. Nights are way more fun when you don't paint.

AND I went to the bank this week and opened a small business checking account and got our credit card for our little book business. I know that to anyone that knows me there's just been this book for three years that I seemingly never really had an update on, but for three years Kindal and I have always, always been working behind the scenes on things for this book. And this business side of stuff is making it feel so real! It's also really intimidating. But I told Michael that I really feel like men more easily do things before they're totally prepared than women do. I just feel like they more easily run for office or start businesses or shoot for promotions without worrying as much as a woman would about if they're qualified first to do that. They do it and then figure it out. I'm tired of being an extreme version of not that -- I like to plan and prepare as much as possible before I do a lot of things, but this little business and book venture is just a bigger risk than that and a bigger step into unknown than I've done since having kids. It is getting me out of my comfort zone and I'm grateful to be doing it with Kindal!

Westin:
had some great days this week and one day from you know where. I'm trying hard to figure out where his hardest times are coming from and what I can do to prevent them from coming out, but I haven't figured it out. We had a struggle day Friday. But this weekend was really good and I think the more time I give him the better our relationship is. Cue the mom guilt, and also the fulfilling mom moments. Motherhood is so full of conflicting feelings. He finished up kindergarten for 2020 and this calendar year of school was just... a lot. For so many. I know we're heading back to remote school in the new year but they've given us a date for when we'll go back to school FULL time, not even A and B groups like before, and that just also sounds miraculous to me -- he'll love it. He talks about how much he loves going to school so much. Vaccines and school days... next year has good things in store!

Bennett:
is tall! When we moved into this house he couldn't get a drink of water out of the fridge like he could from our fridge in Fresno. He just couldn't reach it. So he's been taking cups into the downstairs half bath that's off our kitchen and filling up a cup when he wants a drink. This week I was looking at him and thinking about how much he seems to just be growing and growing, and I saw him getting a cup out. I told him to go try the fridge, and he filled up his cup no problem. He's already grown so much just since moving in. He loves his lessons from Teach Your Kid to Read in 100 Lessons and it's so cute to me. Especially when he does the writing practice and loves to show me his work and Westin his work and he jumps up and down over and over with excitement when we tell him good job. So. Cute. He'll be happy to go back to school four days a week next year too. He has only said such positive things about school and is always so happy to go. I'm so grateful we live by the school that we do, and that we get to walk to it. That feels like such a blessing.

Camden:
was evaluated this week by the early intervention physical therapy services through the school district. I self-referred him just because I was pretty sure his doctor would refer him at his 18-month appointment anyway, so I figured let's just get this train moving. I just want to know if there's something I should really really be doing that I'm not doing for him, but I still am not worried much at all about him. I don't know if that makes sense. I just know he's got some personality-based slow-moving tendencies and it'll come when it comes, but I'd like to learn how to best help it come. So there you go. They placed his gross-motor movement at a 9-month level. I have to say that I will forever, in all my life, laugh out loud when I think back on his evaluation. It was the complete opposite of my nephew's speech eval -- Katie said Oliver realized that day that he was being "tested" and immediately wanted to please everyone, and spoke better than he ever had in his life. They told her he performed better than 98% of kids on his evaluation and gave her a total side eye for trying to qualify for services, when really he was just a shining star that day and other days could've totally qualified. SO I was wondering if Camden would do something similar... he did not. He did the exact opposite. He was so weirded out by the four women (speech therapist, services coordinator, occ therapist, and PT therapist) on the iPad that he acted like they were trying to take him out of my arms. He did nothing and whined the whole time. At one point they asked me to lay him on his stomach so they could see how he got up and played. In a normal day, Camden scooches his arms back until he moves back into a sitting position, then booty scoots where he needs to go. Which would still be classified as a delay. On this day he just laid there, on his belly, and made the most pitiful whine, not cry, for minutes. Minutes. We just chatted and waited for him to move, and I honestly couldn't stop giggling even in the moment. I was like, "don't worry guys, it's really not this bad," but you could tell they were like, "uh, yeah, he qualifies." So I don't personally think he's at a 9-month level, but he's most definitely delayed, and tomorrow is our first "Zoom" physical therapy appointment. #2020. Camden has really started to love books lately and soaks up looking at them with us and trying to repeat words. It's adorable. He's also started the "pull all books off all shelves" phase. Gotta love that.

We're excited for Christmas!! Michael is busy this week but it's still going to be fun. Christmas has really made this new house feel like home and I'm super grateful for it.

Just missing my grandmas extra lately. I'm so looking forward to having my Grandma Miner's piano here, and I feel really sure that Grandma Eliason is also pleased with that happening. She was always so happy to sit on the couch by me in Deseret and listen to me play, and I loved when she started taking lessons again when she was in her 80s. These women are the best.

Westin's been having fun experimenting with my old camera.
One day the first thing Michael saw of Westin was him coming around the corner and taking a picture of Michael while he was shaving, haha. Wasted no time that day with documenting life.

Working so hard on his letters! It's so cute!

Sometimes he just wears socks since they cover more of his arm than his baby mittens.
It works.

One of those constantly whiny days for who knows why.

This is the cutest to me -- all the letters in his name, just next to each other.
NNBTTEE
It's all there. Just need to shuffle it around a little.

Our neighbors brought us some goodies and little toys for Christmas,
and Westin is liking checkers. He loves to learn new games.

So cute, but looking way too big.

Gingerbread houses with their buddies "over the fence"

Westin has been on a reading strike for months.
Just suddenly only wanted to be read to, and didn't want to read himself.
I asked his teacher about it and she said it really was the same benefit to him to read or be read to up to age 8, and after that it's very beneficial for them to be reading more on their own in addition to being read to. So I've tried to just not make a big deal of it.
Then this week he opened a book and said, "Well, it's time I start learning some big words."
And then he read like 5 books in a row to Bennett.
I don't know what influence we even have around here, I think we're just supposed to keep our kids alive while they figure everything out on their own time :)

I've eaten the same smoothie for lunch about 5 days a week, for about 16 months.
I figured it's time I stop making it every single day and get some cups that freeze the ingredients ready to go. Probably should have done that 15 months ago, but hey.
15 months ago my mornings weren't full of virtual kindergarten and bundling kids for freezing weather and walking Bennett to school. So maybe these came at just the right time.

We cranked out lots of these loaves of bread this week, but...

Posted this to my Instagram stories because it keeps baffling me.

Cozy moment. I love reading at night with Kitty instead of painting.
Oh my goodness life is so much better post-painting.

Project day, get these boys to work.
This marks the second time we've driven home from Home Depot with our van trunk wide open.
We should probably invest in a truck.
We're tired of spending money.

Westin and Bennett built quite the house today during the zoom meeting Michael and I both have on Sundays for Temple & Family History. 

I find lots of surprise cars and dinosaurs when I cook lately.
This is Camden finding his own surprise from a few hours ago.