Happy Early Thanksgiving!

We had some happy events this week!

First was Bennett's third grade folk dancing performance, which was so cute. He asked if he could put gel in his hair and he looked very handsome :) He was all smiles while dancing around and he's just such a happy kid. After each dance they had family members come up and do the dance with them and Camden totally loved that. I ran from there to the end of one of my young women's plays and she was so cute.

Friday we loved pie night. Such a fun tradition where a bunch of friends get together and bring pies before everyone takes off for Thanksgiving. I had a baklava pie that was absolutely delicious, and a lemon pie came in a close second place. It's so fun to try so many.

Saturday we made fajitas for the Baileys and Allemans and Hutchins and watched the BYU game. SO fun. I love fall so much, weekends full of friends and football. I think it makes for such fun weekends, especially as our boys get into football. Westin had a fun basketball game that day too -- still undefeated!

Sunday we came home from church to a house full of cousins and a delicious turkey in our oven, not bad! Katie and her family were so nice to come up and celebrate Thanksgiving early with us before they had to work later that week. We're a good Thanksgiving team, she makes the best turkey I've ever had and I'm always down to make those delicious carb-filled sides. We totally feasted and they stayed over on Sunday night with us, which was so fun.

Our prettiest sourdough yet.
Usually Michael mixes it up, stretches and folds, and then I bake it during the day.

First wall of wallpaper done!

My arms were surprisingly sore with this project.

We're excited about this...
I thought it was time to get a gym membership or invest in our home gym,
because we've been working out together consistently for years now and stalling out on our weights.
I'm so glad we went this route -- I love mornings working out with Michael and being around when our boys wake up one by one.

He showed me right where he wanted me to put this cute magnet from school.

Such a sweet guy.

Bennett's Third Grade folk dancing night. 
He did a great job and he was so cute --
he asked if he could put gel in his hair for it.
He's such a sweetheart.

My week of installing curtain rods!
I bought a laser level so I could conquer these by myself,
and watch shows with Michael.
That sounds better than waiting to do these with Michael and then
watching no shows with Michael.

I sent this to my sweet friend Ami in Indiana because she gave me this 3T fleece when Westin was 18 months old. She told me to always leave a fleece in the car just in case you forget a jacket sometime. All four of my boys have worn this fleece from the time it was too big to the time it's too small,
and it's now officially much too small for all of them. It made sad to pass it on!
 I miss Ami, and I miss tiny boys.

The love I have for these passport photos.

Once I got in the curtain rod groove I raised all the curtain rods in my house
(except that darn piano room -- I'll get to it.)
This felt so good to do. It has bothered me since I moved in,
but who wants to spend a day moving curtain rods?
But once it's done, it's done!

That's better :)

This one too. Black instead of brown.

Moved our gym stuff back over,
and we're ready to roll in here!

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast.
He loved this.

Cousin day!

Cute little cousins ready for an early Thanksiving.

We were so glad Katie's family could come up for an early Thanksgiving! 
Michael was on call this weekend so we couldn't go far, and Katie works later in the week,
but we found a way to make it happen!

Bennett is 9!

We had the best time celebrating Bennett this week.

The boys were home on his birthday because it was a teacher work day, and Michael was home because of some his annual meeting in Dallas the next day, so it just felt like the stars aligned for us to have a Bennett day! He always has cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and we had tacos at Torchy's for lunch. Michael made him sourdough bread bowls for dinner to go with some clam chowder. We really don't know why clams are so involved with our birthdays around here.

Conference weekend was great. The trim in Westin and Bennett's room is done and their furniture is all moved back in -- such a milestone! It felt so good to put at least one room back together upstairs. Michael left for Dallas on Saturday and will be home on Monday night. We had a really nice conference weekend at home together.

Ran out of sticky notes, so my planning had to happen with painters tape.
Doesn't feel as professional.

Battens up!

Furniture back in and at this point I just wanted to throw all their stuff away and keep it this clean forever...

Preschool pumpkin patch field trip with Asher.
I love watching kids pick a pumpkin. So sweet.

He loved the hay ride.

The animals at the patch were a big hit,
especially the pigs.

This pumpkin blew Asher's mind.

Birthday cinnamon rolls!
Bennett is pretty consistent with this birthday breakfast order :)

We love this guy so much.

Torchy's for birthday lunch.
Felt so lucky to have a teacher work-day and dad off on Bennett's birthday!
Just felt like a Bennett-day holiday.

Blankets and word bowl snacks ready for conference.

Daily stops for dandelion gifts.

I love when all 5 of us come on the walk.

Conference playdough

Westin could have any seat in the house and he picks right in front of me haha.
I love that he loves us.

Such cute guys!

Tucking in a Halloween guy for bed :)

BYU Game & Elk Bugling

 This week was FULL. 

List view: Painting boys' room, moving furniture, jury duty for Michael on Wednesday (which took a surprising amount of hours), Boulder for BYU fireside with Westin Friday night, Boulder for all of us for the BYU GAME Saturday night, Estes Park for elk bugling Sunday night, two rooms carpet replaced on Wednesday, next two replaced tomorrow. 

Lots of painting, and audio books, and moving things around, and going through things. 

I loved this weekend so much. Our big things were my date with Westin Friday to go to the football fireside where we loved hearing Jimmer speak. Then we went out for Mexican food after and I just love being Westin's mom. Saturday was a lot of squeezing in paint layers and walks and workouts so that we were ready to leave for the big game that night! We're so happy when we see BYU is coming close to us. Westin lives for going to football games and really we all love it so much. Then Sunday we packed dinner and went to Estes Park to hear the elk bugling. It's honestly magical to see herds of elk and hear them calling to each other in the fall. I always think back to our first visit to Estes Park for Michael's reunion in 2017 and how I was blown away by how beautiful it was but never even expected we'd permanently live close by.

I'm feeling antsy to just have everyone sleeping in their own beds again and put everything away -- right now we have four boys sharing the one room in our basement and furniture and stuff everywhere while we reorganize and redo rooms. It makes me so tired but I also love getting permanent things done -- walls stay painted. Dishes never stay clean :)

The last view of our basement room before I convert that corner of it to be my gym. 
I didn't want to do this when we first finished our basement because it's our main room down there,
but the more I consistently workout at home the more I'm ready to dedicate a space to it, even if I don't have a room for that. 

Goodbye old carpet...

Hello new!
Finally the step that initiated all these projects :)

Picking a blue for part of the big boys' room.

I LOVE walking with Asher so much.

Sticky notes are my professional planning tool for placing battens :)

Bathroom is done! Closet doorway is gone.

Cabinet in across from vanity.

Shower and tub view is my favorite view.

The light above the tub makes me really happy. I just love that view!

Storage around the corner.

Hidden toilet :)

My project book this week that I did not expect to love as much as I did.
This was beautifully, beautifully written.

We're so tiiiiiiired.
But I am going to paint this room this weekend before carpet happens (we did two rooms at once with a few days between so that we would have places to put furniture).

I woke up early to get a layer down so that I'd have time to do the second layer before we leave for the BYU game.

Blue and white layers up, switching the colored/white part.

Feeling so free leaving project world behind and heading the BYU GAME!

Everyone was so nice on the shuttle, 
lots of nice CU fans.

Oh it's just so fun to go to a game in person.

Scenes from cute preschool. He loves his teacher.

On Sunday we were tired but we really wanted to get to Estes Park and hear the elk bugling in Rocky Mountain National Park. We loved it last year so much and late September is just the time to do it. I'm so glad we went! We packed roasted turkey pesto sandwiches and cookies and milk and we ate with the Baileys. This is one of my favorite traditions.

Fulllll room, ready for carpet in the other rooms tomorrow.