Brrrr

 This week saw some realllllly cold temps in Fort Collins, and we were so sad to watch how much the cold is hurting in Texas. We've been checking in on some Texas friends and just feeling some PTSD from seeing their grocery store lines and empty shelves. None of us have recovered from 2020 and 2021 has already had some of its own curveballs. I loved our Relief Society lesson today about prayer. It gave me a renewed commitment to making my prayers more sincere and specific.

Michael:

Finished up his first week of call, which only ended up needing him to come in one time. He's loving work, missing outside projects (snow and cold), and is Camden's #1 guy.

Maddie:

Is working on Kickstarter stuff each night and during random breaks in the day, and I spent Michael's day off on Wednesday driving to our packaging store to pick up all our custom boxes and packing envelopes. We placed a big order for all our inventory and I was so bummed to see how much it cost to ship shipping supplies (the irony just hurt), then I looked at the address and realized it was just about 50 min from me. So Michael helped me empty the van of all car seats and seats so I could fit it all in one trip. We put the van back together pretty quickly and it was one of those moments were I felt like we are now seasoned parents. Car seats are the worst, and when you're proficient there... you're just skilled parents. I took my time coming home after that and went shopping by myself in person for the first time in months and months. Kindal and I are going to be on Good Things Utah early next month with our book, and I decided that called for some new shoes :) I had fun with my boys this week. Westin especially is just older and so fun to observe. Bennett's heart. Camden's little personality. They're just all so lovable.

Westin:

was so thrilled all week when he'd talk about getting on an airplane soon to see grandma and grandpa in Kentucky. He doesn't remember much of any of his plane rides in life, and he was stoked. We got the nicest note from Westin's teacher this week all about how he's a hard working, kind leader in the classroom with just the right amount of spice. I thought that was such a fun way to describe him and I'm grateful he has such a great teacher that he likes so much. 

Bennett:

ALSO couldn't stop talking about getting on an airplane this week. He even told his speech therapist all about it and about Kentucky. That may sound so small but it just made me so happy that something really out of context was both shared by Bennett and understood by someone he loves. I know that he doesn't share all he'd like to because of his speech delay, and that not having context makes him extra hard to understand. But when I picked him up his teacher told me how excited Bennett was to go on a trip, and Bennett just seemed like he had had a really good time at school. He's getting more comfortable there and talking more, and I want to do all we can to help him be understood more. 

Camden:

is so cute to watch when he takes steps! He'll take zero every time you try to stand him up and send him off walking somewhere. But if he stands on his own, and is in the mood, he can get 4 or 5 steps in. He loves Michael SO much and is so cute and cuddly when we put him to bed. He still booty scoots around more than anything else, but he's also made it up 5 or 6 stairs, goes backwards off our couch and bed, and crawls more often when it makes sense to. He's making progress all the time, always on his timeline.

President's Day felt like a mini vacation -- not having to make our typical three trips to the school just makes the day feel wide open. We celebrated with an extra long and extra splashy bath.

This shipping label printer was not cooperating with me...
and I need to print 500+ labels next month very very quickly, so I'm antsy to get it figured out.

This table constantly looks like a kindergarten bomb went off.
Valentines style, this month.

Watching our bunny friend, who didn't even care about the carrot we strategically threw by him.

Ready for boxes!

Books are going out in the world in less than a month!

Bennett loved listening to one of Michael's headphones when Michael was vacuuming.

The boys thought the empty van was super cool.

Bird Feeder: Squirrel Feeder.

Even the train to your gate is an adventure for cute little boys.

Camden was so weirded out by our security and airport experience.

The fun thing of having a total daddy's boy right now means my flight was suuuper easy.
I tried to take my turns, I did. Camden wouldn't have it.
He just wanted to be with Michael, and play peek-a-boo/dance with the nice family behind us.
They were so sweet to indulge him during a ton of the flight.
Camden stayed up until 10pm our time on this travel experience, and slept 8 hours and then took a 4.5 hour nap the next day. I was grateful he caught up on what he needed so fast and has been happy happy.

Looking for fossils!

Westin's snowman dreams finally came true.
Our snow has been too wet or too fluffy every time in Colorado,
and he's just been dying to make a snowman "the real way."

Grandma let Bennett crack eggs and help her with some homemade noodles.

He loved cranking the noodle machine.
"I've got lots of power to do this!"

Just so happy and laying there awake when I went to wake him up 4.5 hours into his nap.

Love Day, Love Week.

 This week! This week. Soo much love in this week.

Monday I was so nervous all day, doing last minute things with our Kickstarter plan and just feeling honestly nauseous as we prepped to send our hearts out into the world. We've been wrapped up in this project for 3 years and then to just send it out there and see how people responded to it felt so intimidating. But last week Kindal worked and worked and worked on making our video, and she did SUCH a good job. She had a vision of what she wanted the end result to be and just figured out every step of the way, teaching herself how to make it. That video really captures so much of our Why and our How and I just love her for making it! We posted that Monday night, and went to bed at 3am after figuring out some last minute things before going live the next day.

Tuesday, I walked the boys to school, came home, made a last minute change to our Kickstarter plan, and then Facetimed Kindal so we could launch it together. 3...2...1... we were live! That feeling. Oh man, so much love started pouring in. Messages. Shares. Texts. Calls, I felt so much love for all the people in our circles and so much love for this project of ours. The moment during our photo shoot when all the kids were just genuinely showing each other pictures and looking at the book with so much attention, I felt so happy to be figuring out how to get more of these books in more little hands. It's been a huge time and money dump and I just have always felt like it just needs to be that right now and it's all going to be ok.

I couldn't even check our Kickstarter because I was responding to so many messages, both nice thoughts and questions and lots of Kickstarter explaining and this and that, all day. Sweet Camden watched a lot of Baby Einstein and ate a lot of graham crackers but let's not pretend those two things keep him content for long at all -- mostly he just followed me around and tried to take my phone because I'm sure I was looking at it basically the whole day. He won't remember that one day, right?? So all day Ali and Becca would just text me numbers and I loved them for it, because I hardly was able to check our total. Almost $1000 an hour until we were fully funded in just under 8. Kindal and I wanted to set a conservative goal to make sure the first people who wanted Savior would for sure get their copies ASAP, but we were blown away at how fast that came together.

Now, we've spent the week answer questions, moving forward with our marketing plans, and gearing up for some other ways to keep our Kickstarter going. Our shipment is still on track to arrive to me mid-March, and we're building up our inventory of shipping supplies. One tender mercy was when I placed our HUGE order for custom boxes and packing envelopes for the books, I realized the company we decided to go with is located in Louisville, Colorado. I looked it up just to see if it was close, and it's less than an hour away from me. So I'll be picking all our supplies up myself which will save us both time and money and it just felt like such a happy bonus.

Every friend and family member that supported us that day or sent us some love, just seriously means the world to me. Tuesday was really unforgettable.

Michael spent this week on call for the first time, and it was very quiet. He answered a couple calls, and did have to go in tonight to see someone, but that was the only time. He's on call until Tuesday morning.

The boys can't wait to get on an airplane to go to visit Grandma and Grandpa Daetwyler. They also LOVED Valentine's day, especially the sweet gifts from four of our neighbors. Our neighborhood continues to blow me away. Westin made me a graphing game with some Valentine stamps, Bennett is on a dinosaur kick, and Camden loves working out with me each morning when the boys are at school. He also had a great well check this week -- he's small but healthy! He weighs 20 pounds, which is what Bennett weighed at his 4 month appointment, hehe. These kids just come different in every way. We ate dinner with another oral surgeon that just moved here that Michael knew in Indiana on Saturday night, and with some friends in the ward on Sunday night. Both those families have all boys -- I just feel surrounded by boys lately even more than normal. They're so much fun. Michael took the older boys to the Museum of Discovery on Saturday while I stayed home to give Camden a nap. They had a great time and it's surreal to me that we used to just hit up places like that 3x a week. Covid changed life so much.

Oh this week. Just so much love.

All dressed up for his well check appointment!

Helping me workout by handing me my bands.
With his mouth, haha.

Gearing up for some serious shipping.

Camden's happy place right now is bouncing all around on the boys' beds at bedtime.

This moment.

Choosing our tape size!
So many tiny decisions that have been and will be made.

Camden loves to go through my cupboards and relocate all these items.
I needed dijon mustard for a salad dressing. I knew we were out in the fridge but that I had an unopened bottle in my pantry. That's when I remembered I had seen Camden playing with it earlier... so we all went on a hunt. Michael ended up spotting it -- can you? Oh Cam Cam.

Happy Valentine's Day!
The boys went with Michael to shovel snow at the church in cooooool 0-degree weather while I made a Valentines brunch for them.

Home again Home again

 Last Sunday we had ANOTHER tender mercy when we were able to drive just 45 minutes north of Ali's and pick up our van. The other counselor I serve with in Relief Society was driving to Utah for a quick trip to go to her granddaughter's dance recital. My Relief Society president had texted me asking if I made it to Utah safely, so I told her we were safe but not super efficient :) She knew the other counselor was making a quick trip out, so she had her call me and on their way our her husband drove my van out to Utah. That was so so kind and so so helpful. Breaking down with kids has always been a fear of mine on my many a solo road trip, and even though we had a lot to figure out with this drive, I am so grateful we were always safe and always had such kindness and helpfulness around us. And my boys are rock stars.

We got a few more things done with Kindal on Monday, and made our drive back to Fort Collins on Tuesday. Other great parts of our Utah time were more days playing with the Miner cousins, seeing my Aunt Tanya, working out with Ali while our kids crawled all around us, and feeling so grateful for her when on my busy days in Utah the only food I'd eat were all the healthy things she'd put right in my hands. She was just beyond kind in taking care of me during a trip that I know was pretty inconvenient for my family since I just had so much going on. Our drive back was super super smooth -- we only stopped once the whole drive. We went back to the car shop in Rawlins and paid for our car and thanked them again. I knew he wasn't going to send me a bill so we just stopped on our way back, and he admitted he was never going to. People are so nice.

This week back in Fort Collins felt good to get back on top of things at home (to the extent that we ever are... always so much to do still around here but house projects are on hold). The boys loved going back to school, Michael was much happier to have a house full of craziness, and my favorite part of the week was getting my first dose of the Covid vaccine. Woohoo! It made me so emotional -- people really do amazing things.

We have a pond near our house that was drained this week and it was full of some easy picking fish that attracted a ton of bald eagles. We went by with Camden the day after we got back while the older boys were at school and we saw 13 bald eagles in just one tree, plus some others in distant trees. They were picking up fish and fighting with each other here and there and they are just so fun to see. It reminded me of Alaska. I love how they sound like Dolphins. We took the older boys back later in the week and they liked looking through binoculars and getting a good view of the bald eagles. We took our van in to get in tip top shape and also had the missionaries over for the first time in months and months -- they still have to take dinner to go, but they at least are now able to come inside and share a message with us. We found out one of them knows Michael's sister Pam and her family really well back from their time in Houston. Such a small world.

On Saturday Katie and Ryan brought their boys up and it was so fun to watch those cousins go go go! So many boys, and Camden and Finn are going to be keeping up in no time.

They LOVE stories from grandpa.

We gave the kiddos at our photo shoot some fun temporary tattoos and Westin loved having me put them all over his belly and arm haha.

Pizza Monday! This has been going down for years, Michael and I used to eat pizza with this cute family on Mondays when we were dating and engaged. They're so cute.

Miner party! Both babies are into practicing taking steps right now and it was so fun to watch them try.

So many eagles!

The squirrels here are aggressive..

First dose!

Ok, this kid right now... we can't even handle his sweetness.
We're obsessed.

He loves to empty the contents of my baking drawer and put them all throughout my kitchen.
The vanilla is his particular favorite to relocate.

This memory. Love the Woolfs.

Go Westin!! This kid. He's so great.

Eagle eyes

Cousins came up on Saturday! Soo fun.

He kept reminding me of the caterpillar on A Bug's Life when he was scooting around in this snowsuit.

And Bennett looked exactly like the kid on Home Alone when he runs home to set the traps.

Making valentines all day on Sunday. Such sweeties.

Camden always wants in on Zoom church meetings.