Fourth & Firetrucks

 Michael:
had some good time off early this week with an extra long Fourth of July weekend. We went to our ward pancake breakfast and then met Katie's family for paddle boarding at Union Reservoir. The boys loved the kids kayak all day. We got pizza that night and finished more episodes of Something Bit Me. That show is wild. My boys love it.

Maddie:
I have 9 writing assignments at my new copywriting job this month so I'm figuring our where that fits into our routine but I really like having them. Right now I'm redoing websites for clients and I just really enjoy turning meh writing into efficient, tight writing. I'm way more into it than remodeling houses but I think of them in somewhat the same way. Just make things a little better here and there where and how you can. I am trying hard lately to look at what I really do enjoy doing with my boys and doing more of that with them, rather than what I feel like we're all supposed to do. Kids have so much pressure, parents have so much pressure. I love reading Harry Potter with Westin, I love listening to Bennett's imagination, I love finding roly polies with Camden. I love spending time with Asher in all the ways he spends time right now. Sweet boys, quick summer.

Westin:
I want to remember how much he asks questions right now, and hears everything we say. He is learning so much all the time, and he loves, loves, loves learning. He has picked up on the piano really quickly. He started flag football this week and I really felt so happy watching the way he started a new sport right now compared to the way he started basketball. He was so anxious and nervous and the emotional management of starting basketball was a lot of working together. This week he asked a couple questions about flag football and I told him, "You know what, I don't even know the answer to that -- I know very little about football. But you'll be able to ask all that there and learn as you go!" And he was good with that, and excited to go, and had a good time. And in that moment I paused and thought, whoa this kid has worked hard.

Bennett:
Lions lick lollipops and ladybugs like little leaves. We worked on L's a lot this week and I always want to remember sweet Bennett saying those phrases with me. He works so, so hard repeating and repeating and I can just see in his eyes how much his brain and tongue are trying to work together and I just feel so much love for him. Bennett can count to 100. He needs a little help every time he almost skips X6 to X8 but if you just Sssss a little then he slips the X7 in there. And he can almost count to 100 by 10s. That doesn't sound like a lot. But I want to always remember how hard Bennett and I have worked together on counting. We have spent hours and hours together. Just a little every day. But it truly does not feel long ago that Bennett couldn't count 10 pumpkins every time we read his Halloween books together, and he's doing so well right now because of his hard work. He is totally in a Why phase, asking so many questions that you forget you ever had to learn at one point. He could self-entertain for hours and hours. For example, he was so content at the lake just playing in the dirt and water and would have been ALL day. Michael asked him if he wanted to go out and ride the kayak, and he said, "Oh yeah!" And jumped up, sunglasses and baseball hat on, and paddled off confidently by himself and loved it for 30 minutes. He wouldn't never gone in the kayak if Michael didn't ask him, and he LOVED it. And he would've loved playing on the shore all day too. We will need to teach Bennett to advocate for himself and look around for opportunities, because he is a self-entertained, content personality, which is so admirable. We sure love that boy.

Camden:
"Stop singing daddy, that's not good... it's making me sick." These are the words that had us all laughing so hard on our way to church. If you could just hear his cute little voice saying it and the way he so dramatically tells us things. He's such a crack up right now. The cutest little voice that gets so thrilled about ALL the cars and trucks and really anything we see on the road. He screamed "Look at that motorcycle daddy, GET THAT MOTORCYCLE!" in such a purely overexcited, thrilled way this week that had us laughing so much. Turning his car seat around changed that kid's life :) He goes into nursery with just a little hesitation now and is fine within a minute or two of drop off. He has worked hard to be brave. I love his questions. "Why that ambulance say weeee weee?" Such cute descriptive ways to communicate words he doesn't know. He exhausts us at bedtime but we are obsessed with him.

Asher:
is such a sweet angel along for our ride. We took the boys to eat dinner with fire fighters this week and tour the fire station which was something we bid on at a fundraiser for our realtor's nonprofit, ChildSafe. They connect children who have been abused with therapy and she is really amazing. The boys have been looking forward to this night for a while and Asher was a sweetie just happy to be in my Wild Bird wrap while these boys toured the station and turned the lights on in the truck and even shot some hoops and played PIG with the firefighters. We ate Chipotle with them and then as we were about to leave they got called out and the boys thought watching the truck leave the station was the coolest thing ever. Then they were double amazed when we found out that Annie, the woman who set this night up for us, was the wife of the man who met a mountain lion while running by Horsetooth near our house. He is on the show Something Bit Me and it was just so funny to watch that recently and then meet her this week. I hope we never, ever, ever have a story remotely as cool as his.

We had dinner with the Baileys and Schmidts tonight and we made Tony's delicious salsa. I pray every single day that we can somehow live really close to family someday, but I am grateful for the friends we are making.

These boys. I love summer with them.

Lego creator.
I love when they make their own creations and play with them so much.
Summer is the best.

These cousins were loving being on their own voyage.

So fun on the water with the boys.
Bennett really took to the kids kayak this time.

Asher hates food as much as Camden did at this age.
No bottles, no food, just nursing still.
Brooklyn loves to feed him when she comes over. Applesauce is the only think he kinda sorta eats,
so she is always happy to give him some!

Loving on Asher during slow summer mornings.

They speed through our walks and wait for me at corners.
Camden keeps his little feed up on his bike on all the downhills.
They're so fun.

FaceTiming Ali and just loving her full arms.
Such sweet kids.

A little screenshot during my studying.
I'm loving my calling so much right now.

The boys have been really looking forward to this fire station night!
It was the best.

I love when Asher wakes up first.
Just a few sweet moments with just him. I love him with all my heart.

Sold my cloth diapers this week.
It's funny how every time I get to an end I feel a different thing.
Sometimes it's sadness, like when Asher outgrew my fleece swaddle that I've held so many sweet newborns in. With these, I just felt accomplished. I used these for 30 months total between all my babies, during times when I was alone a lot and stretching pennies a lot.
I guess it's not surprising that I'm not as sad to say goodbye to cloth diapers as I am to other things.
But still. I just have enjoyed reflecting on lots of different parts of tiny kid life these days.

Always with his cute tongue out.
Always so sweetly bouncing and sitting up. Angel.