First Sledding Days of Winter

We're finally in winter mode! Two Decembers in a row with zero snow was weird, but this week had some pretty white days and fun sledding. 

We spent MLK day making forts and going sledding and not watching the inauguration. I felt sad that day how I've loved sharing the olympics and other world events with them lately, but the election and inauguration was not for them this year. How do you explain a man like that becoming president to little boys who are learning right and wrong? There's no explaining it. So I answer their questions as they come but we stayed tuned out that day. They can learn all about the ugliness of right now when they're older.

Asher loved sledding and it was so fun to go with him. The hill by our house is just small but he still wasn't up for solo rides initially. And my favorite part was that he couldn't walk back up the hill without help so he kept asking me for a "booty boost" and I'd just walk behind him pushing him up the hill a little bit :) Such a cute guy.

Michael has been feeling sick basically the whole week but the rest of us have managed to stay healthy. Knock on all the wood. Those sick seasons from a couple years ago are still so fresh on my mind... so grateful we've had smooth health days this winter. 

Michael took Westin to a CSU basketball game with a generous neighbor's season tickets. I cleaned out the Young Women closet with my friend Lindsey and I was just really happy about that. It's nice to finally. know what's in there :) I went to the temple with the young women one snowy night this week and so many youth came. I really love our ward and I really really love our youth. 

We fed the missionaries pozole on Friday and that was fun and cozy. On Saturday night Michael and I went on a date to a cute basement restaurant downtown and then to Dear Evan Hansen at the Lincoln Center here in Fort Collins. That is such a heavy play but the music is beautiful. I really loved it. I really love feeling things at the theater and just feeling in awe of the talent and beauty of humans. I needed that boost this week. That was one of my favorite dates we've been on.

Tonight Westin conducted a primary meeting about the Children and Youth program and Bennett talked about his goal of wanting to learn karate and starting something new even when he didn't know much about it. They're growing up and they're so cute.

I finished Mitt Romney's biography this week, written by my editor from the newspaper at BYU. It was really interesting to learn his story straight from his journals and interviews. My biggest takeaway is that we need term limits, and people who care more about integrity and growth rather than party alliance. We'll just never get people like that in our current system.

January is flying by, which is not something I'm used to January doing. And it just seems to fit in with the way it feels like life with big kids is speeding, speeding up. 

Thank goodness for basement forts in the winter.

Very into the Junior Great British Bake Off right now

When do I have to recycle all my friends on the wall?
They're holding on strong past all the Christmas decorations.

CSU Basketball Date!

What would winter be without libraries?

Young Women's Closet before...

Young Women's closet after.

Circus day at school for C!
Little magician/ringmaster man.

He loves when it's dress up days at school.

The ultimate magnet roller coaster!

Sledding with a three-year-old is so cute.

He loved it.

I'm jealous of Kitty's coziness all throughout my day when I walk by her,
doing uncozy chores.

The Junior Bake Off did a "poop emoji biscuits" for their technical and the entire episode was full of poop jokes and I never want to forget the sound of all four of my boys just giggling giggling giggling all through the poop episode.

One more round of sledding. We're about ready to find a bigger hill!

Winter is Here

 Michael: busy week at work, those college kids are still home and ready for their wisdom teeth to come out. He had a meeting Thursday night and agreed to go dancing with me on Saturday night which was just the happiest development of the week.

Maddie: liked going to the Food Bank with the youth on Saturday. I brought Westin along and it was fun to have him there. In just one year he'll be in Young Mens and that's pretty wild to me. I was heartbroken when the spot we were going dancing on Saturday night with 4 other couples was closed because of the snow... I was looking forward to dancing so much! Even if it was a kind of dance I've never done in my life ha. But we still went to Chipotle with the Schmidts and played games at the Gregorys and I loved laughing so much with friends that night. I also got a babysitter for book club this week and loved talking with friends about The Island of Sea Women.

Westin: Back to book club, and coding club, and heavily invested in the NFL and college football playoffs. I love listening to him practice the piano. There's still so much I'm learning how to navigate with Westin. I hope he always knows we love him and we try our best.

Bennett: Psyched about the science fair, 99th percentile in growth for reading (he's working SO hard and I love seeing that pay off for him), and he memorized his scripture for Sunday School and was excited to go show Brother Johnson. He has been wanting to start Karate so he had his first class this week and we'll skip soccer this spring. We'll see how he likes it!

Camden: Lost his first tooth! In a heartbreaking way, honestly... poor little guy! He was SO AFRAID of losing it and ended up swallowing it while eating lunch at a playgroup lunch thing at our friend's house, so he was so scared that he didn't even tell anyone and was just crying. He never would tell me why he was crying so I just held him there and eventually took him to preschool and he was happy by the time we got there. Then when he came home he was chatting to us and we noticed his tooth was gone. What! Poor guy, he'll probably still be just as scared for the next loose tooth because he never conquered the fears with this one. He looks so much bigger with his little tooth gone!

Asher: Obsessed with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and calls it Chicken Chicken Boom Boom. He loves racing us at the end when we sing the ABCs and it's so funny when he gets tripped up over the letters :) He likes watching Camden play indoor soccer on Mondays with me. 

Here we go into a 3-day weekend with REALLY low temperatures! I love being cozy at home but that sure does come with some chaos at this stage :)

Lunchtime and story time!
You guys are liking some story podcasts lately.

Michael and I watched a show on Netflix about longevity and the Blue Zones and it was really fascinating.

Finished a few books this month.
January is my reading month because I always hit December realizing how much I didn't read on my to-read list this year. And really there's no better way to spend winter than with a book.
This one was poignant and funny and rough.

Cover Your Assets addicts.

We got a good few inches of snow Friday night!
There's something so magical about waking up to that.
We can check our weather anytime we want, but I wonder how it felt to wake up to this with zero prior knowledge. We had fun shoveling with the boys that morning.

M&Ms but first, collect the data.

Boring January Days :)

Um, January is cold and slow! Not a lot of pictures this week and not a lot of eventful days!

We had our first snow. Just 2-3 inches, and shoveling with Asher and Camden was fun.

We've stopped our walks, which I miss so much. I dream of a treadmill but I also don't want to store a treadmill. I just really love walking every day. 

We're playing a lot of Cover Your Assets and Spot It. I finished reading the Wednesday Wars to Westin and Bennett and we all loved it so much. My Christmas tree is up the latest it's ever been because I haven't caught up on family yearbooks yet. We had a grumpy Saturday together and a happy Sunday. Bennett did an intro class to Taekwando. I finished The Island of Sea Women and that book had me hugging my boys so much closer this week. We went in three of our neighbors' houses this week to figure out what we do and don't want to do to our kitchen and bathroom in the next few years. Westin started Coding Club. Michael made Thai red curry soup for dinner this weekend. We sat by our fire a lot and I am wearing really big socks all the time.

I loved a moment this week when Westin was feeling really down and he just looked at me and said, "What am I even good at?" And literally one hour before that, I had decided to sit down and just write out a paper full of what I think Westin is good at. When he asked me that I just handed it to him and gave him a hug and left him with it. And his spirits were so much higher after that and it was a sweet moment for both of us.

Camden has an incredibly loose tooth and he doesn't think anyone around here is qualified to pull it out :) I'm sad for when it goes. Losing teeth is such a hugely outward symbol of being a bigger kid. 

I handed Bennett a talk I wrote for him for primary and asked him to read it to me to practice. He only needed help with one word in the whole talk. He has made so much progress in reading and we're loving reading The Wild Robot together right now.

My favorite moment with Asher is at the bottom of this post under the last picture. I'm still laughing about it. Three-year-olds are SO CUTE. I can't get enough of him right now. We have a trip planned in February for some little boy fun and I'm just so excited to follow Asher around the whole time and watch him. I sound like a stalker but I'm just his mom.

I have been loving my no social media before scriptures habit, and I'm making progress on my life documentation catch up because not letting myself put down my Christmas tree has proven to be extremely effective... but also a little cruel.

Guitar and Spot It
Happy guys.

Always thinking about Kindal and Rosie

Watching Camden's first day of indoor soccer, 
while the big boys have one more day off of school.
Westin was so cute cheering him on.

This guy is a soccer stud, it's so fun.

The first snow in Fort Collins in 260 days!
I counted.
No, but that's what the news said, and I believe it -- feels like it's been a long while and I'm ok with it.

Luna is an absolute maniac when you shovel snow. She chases every shovelful.

Cold temps = basement forts.

Watching Camden and Bennett as swim.
"Take a picture of me for daddy!"

I told him that it would be his turn soon to swim and he was not enthusiastic about that.

Duets with Westy boy.
We have a new rule -- no football if piano hasn't been practiced yet.
Westin has made much piano progress :)

This final nursery time and first primary days is just such a sweet but sad transition.
He has moments he's fine and moments he's not still. What a cute little guy.

This moment will forever make me laugh...
On Sunday, all the Daetwyler bros did primary opening exercises.
Westin conducted, Camden said a prayer, Bennett gave a talk, and Asher was set to do the scripture but when it was time, he was too nervous and just cried instead while I read it for him (sweetie).
Then on the way home, I said, "Bennett, great job with your talk today! And Camden, that was such a nice prayer!" And Asher said, "Did I do a good job?" And we started giggling and I said, "Well you didn't do the scripture, Asher! But maybe next time!" And he threw his head back and closed his eyes like he was thinking, "Dang it..." Haha his expression was just so funny. Michael and I keep laughing about it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I love a fresh start. I can't believe it's 2025. I still feel like we just moved here sometimes.

We said goodbye to my parents on Monday. It's hard for me to even recall what else happened this week... so many games of Cover Your Assets and Spot It, Westin went to Wendy's a few times to work on the movie they're making (apparently it's a horror film and I'm anxiously awaiting the premier), we spent New Year's Eve at the Baileys house but only Westin and I stayed until midnight, we went on a cold winter walk, we started 10:30 church, and we watched some football. This week felt like a nice kind of empty. I was thinking about how over the last few years I've often felt anxious when we had no plans because I felt like we always had to get the boys out every day or people melted down or went crazy. But they're just able to go with the flow more now, whether that's days of outings or days of chilling at home. I love that.

My only goals for 2025 are one new habit (no social media until I've studied my scriptures that day) and a project (catch up on our yearbooks and home videos). There is probably a long list of other things I should be focusing on, but that's where I'm at right now.

Here's to a brand new year!

I have really decluttered our Christmas decorations, and when I put them all together like this I feel like we don't have that many. But then it fills up almost a whole closet! I guess because the outdoor lights and the Christmas tree isn't here (it's still up until I catch up on yearbooks)... but still. It doesn't make sense to me. 

After gloomily putting away Christmas right after we sent my parents off,
I felt like I just related to Luna's Rudolph toy that I found like this.
Poor Rudolph. Didn't even last a day.

Operation teach Westin to KonMari.
I have cleaned out his desk every few months while he's at school,
but it slowly has become more and more out of control and I'm done doing this without him.
So we pulled everything out. Everything into like piles. Thought about what should be stored somewhere else, and what should be kept in the desk area. Rearranged the books. Went through all papers.
It feels SO MUCH BETTER and I feel like that's the BEST feeling,
so I keep asking him if he just loves it so much.
He does... but I don't know that everyone gets a high from a KonMari'd space in the same way.
I just can't believe how much I actively battle clutter coming into our house and keeping spaces in somewhat organized with these four little guys.

Speaking of KonMari...
Getting rid of Asher's too-small clothes always leaves me sad!
I just had so many cute little boys wear these shirts at such a cute stage!

Asher and I watched our German Pancakes puff up together for the entirety of the 20 minutes they cooked.
This is Christmas break.

New Year's at the Baileys.

I just love these ladies.

Westin has been so excited to stay up until midnight with Quinn.

Spot It addict. Westin is sweet to play with him.

Camden is such a goofball.
His prayers are my favorite thing to listen to right now.
He thinks about people so much.

Road Magnets have been a Christmas gift hit.
They build with magnets so much.

Poor Asher... a fine of 9 million and 2 years in prison, for crashing cars.
It's brutal in the backyard.

Look at that frost!
Technically called hoar frost. Michael really enjoyed telling me that throughout our hike.

The fences looked like barbed wire but it was just frost!

Happy little winter guy.
I feel like I haven't seen this coat since this hike...
oh my goodness, managing gear. It's a thing!