Growing Boys, Growing Dog

 This week was a bunch of routine so I'll just write about our Friday afternoon.

We hopped in the car after school and drove to a new park. Westin threw the football with Michael. Camden and Bennett chased each other around the playground. Luna ran free off leash in the field with Michael and Westin and ignored all the other kids and dogs there, and came every time I beeped her electric collar. She let all the little kids who wanted to love on her give her pets and hugs without reacting poorly. Life is so much easier with a good dog than with a puppy. Asher chased after Michael and then played on the playground with him some. We talked to a family wearing Purdue gear who will be moving back to Indiana soon to be near their parents since they just had their first baby a year ago. I thought about how different life would be to live by family, and then just didn't really think much about it anymore because it really hasn't ever been or will be our life, and we get blessings from that and some sad stuff too. It just is.

These boys are at a sweet stage. I can't believe how old my baby is. I need to potty train him but I don't want to do it before our February and April trips. He's not the oldest Daetwyler boy to still be wearing diapers all day, and since we still call him Baby Asher on the regular, it's fitting.

This sunny and mild winter feels like such a huge life bonus. Friday afternoons at the park in February. We'll take it.

Dress Up Day at preschool, no theme just anything you want, and of course this cute guy reaches for our firefighter costume. I love how much he wears it.

Asher totally loves shoes. I love his love for them.
He was really into these and I could tell taking a picture of them for him made him happy haha.

My mom sent me this and it's a little trippy for me to read.
This sounds like little Camden chatting with me.
We really all were just little kids once, and someone did everything for us.

Madeline, 5 years old, typical morning:
"Mom, I'm hungry. Mom, how come this arrow points to this. Mom, I wanted My Little Mermaid Bubble Bath. Mom, my bouncy ball got stuck in this house. Can i put my stuffed animals in the bathtub with me? Why no? How about my Barbie? Well then how about Skipper?"

Maybe my favorite moment of the day lately. 
Some afternoons we walk to get the boys at school and sometimes we stay close to home and watch them walk up the hill.
Asher always runs to them for the biggest hugs either way and it melts everyone's hearts.

Just pulling up to a table at "CBR" -- Colorado's Best Restaurant, ready to be served by four super cute waiters. They used Camden's cactus from preschool as the table centerpiece :) And our secret basement play spot as their restaurant kitchen. 

Here's my order! Pizza, even with fish, strawberry smoothie, and a six-layer cake.
Colorado's best restaurant for sure.

Luna gets big love when she goes to get shots.
These guys love her so much.

The whole family was watching Bluey because they got ready for bed fast enough for two episodes,
but Asher was upstairs in Camden's room. I went in and told him, "Don't you want to come watch Bluey?"
He immediately said, "No! Play cars me!" And so I sat and watched him line them all up so carefully.
It was just so cute to me that he knew this needed to be done before any Bluey should happen.

He wanted to pour his own cereal and Michael helped it happen.
We love this little workout buddy of ours who usually drops out halfway through to start eating breakfast and watch us instead haha.

My first walk to school pick up with no stroller.
This felt a little mind-blowing.
Asher is still very much learning, but he's faster than any of our two-year-olds have been thanks to wanting to keep up with Camden.

Just a typical doodle from Westin.
I can't make this up.

Birthday parties! Camden got to celebrate Teddy at the trampoline park.

And Bennett got to celebrate Ellis at the bowling alley.
Bennett so often says, "This is the most fun day of my life!" and it just so sweetly shows this kid's contentment and gratitude.

Two valentines crafts, a 100-days-of-school shirt, and Asher playing Sleeping Queens with daddy which is not very rule-abiding at all. While I make dinner and breathe through the noise while also just love the sights.

We have had a rock climbing gift card for almost a full year,
and when all of our date nights come up we say,
"We could go rock climbing?"
And then we don't. Until finally we did.

These auto-belays were honestly super scary for me. 
It feels weird to just jump back knowing the machinery is going to slow you down,
rather than the person at the bottom being able to actually completely stop you. 
The jumps off were psyching me out!
But over time we both got more used to it and made it up a few climbs. 

I told multiple people who asked what we were doing that night that Michael and I hadn't gone rock climbing together since we were dating.
Then when I mentioned that to him, he told me we had never done this together.
Haha.
I truly only see his face at the quarry in Provo and I have NO idea who I went there with during my college dating days, so I guess I'm just replacing my memories with Michael :)

My sick fever boy.
This little guy is our fever guy.
If there's something to catch, he'll catch it,
and it'll hit him harder than anyone else. Sweetie.