Denver Stock Show and Broncos Heartbreak

 On Monday I hosted neighborhood book club, and I was kind of dying last week because I put off reading the book and when I did -- I realized I recommended a different book than I thought I had. I thought I chose this one but instead sent out THIS one, and they are not the same. Ha. I told everyone we'd have a funny read for Christmas break and as I was reading it I was like, um when does this get funny??

So even though it wasn't the comedy I was expecting, we had a good chat about neurodivergence and judging. Whoops. I love book club nights.

The boys had to choose their science fair projects this week and fill out proposals. Three kids in elementary school is different than two! Luckily they chose some pretty straightforward experiments so hopefully it's ok :) 

Michael and I both had book club on Thursday, and Westin had a field trip Friday.

Saturday we did a day trip down to Denver for the Western Stock Show, which sounds random and it was. But those cows! So fluffy and perfectly groomed, down to the last little poky hair at the top of their tail. We watched a pig talent show and some animal races, plus saw tons of bulls and cows and different animals being perfectly groomed for the show. My favorite was seeing a mother pig and 10 little piglets, they were just so sweet. Then we went almost straight to the Behunins to watch the Broncos game. Such a stressful game with a HAPPY ending, but then minutes later we found out the Bo Nix broke his ankle. Westin was absolutely devastated. Those big feelings still get big sometimes and I felt really bad for him, especially after his love for the Pacers last year and Haliburton's achilles injury just minutes into game 7. The life of a sports fan is rarely great, but maybe Indiana will deliver for us Monday.

Sourdough forever!
Michael mixes it up, stretches and folds, I bake. 
I think this with butter is my all time favorite food these days.

Ready to host neighborhood book club!
This is pretty new and our third month of doing it,
and I LOVE getting to know my neighbors more.

I keep thinking our house feels like a breath of fresh air without Christmas up.

New blank wall coming together.

I love these pictures.
I see these from my bed so I needed to pick two pictures I'll never get sick of.

Fluffy cows at the stock show!
So funny how multiple grown men just get every hair in place on these cows.

Such a big dude.
Getting hairsprayed.

Spanky the pig new lots of tricks and I think this was the boys' favorite part.

Asher the Ram is worn out.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Only resolution: Drink water.

I'm not making any other goals, picking any other words, or thinking about much else this year -- I just know I need to be drinking a lot more water! Ha. Here we go.

I made a big cleaning list for the boys and we worked, worked, worked Monday and I told them we'd get tickets to Zootopia 2 for Tuesday if we could knock it all out. It felt so good to get Christmas put away and things cleaned up.

This week we finished The Great British Bake Off, went to Zootopia, Michael took the boys on a little outdoor adventure while I fed all the Young Women a waffle brunch and played a slideshow of our activities this year. Katie and her boys came over later that day and Michael did a frenectomy for Oliver. The boys had fun playing together and we did a gingerbread house and played outside. Then the Baileys and Behunins came over to watch the Indiana game and Katie and Ryan stayed for most of it. I am so haaaappy when my house is full of people we love. I was looking at Katie's sweater all day thinking how cute it was and then I opened her Christmas present to me and it was her sweater :) Haha she's the best, I think I'll wear it all the rest of Christmas break!

Monday was WORK day. Michael went back to work and I had the boys tackle a big to-do list for me to get our house recovered from Christmas, with Zootopia 2 tickets promised if we could conquer it. We got so much done in one day, it made me grateful I didn't leave it for when they were back to school because these boys can really do so much with me!

On New Years Eve we did fondue and games over at the Behunins, and then we went to the Baileys for, well, more games and more fondue. Michael and Camden and Asher made it until 11:00, which we were shocked by but everyone was just having too much fun! Bennett and Westin and I stayed for the countdown. We've entered our midnight era again.

On Saturday the boys played football at Warren Park with some other dads and boys, and Camden especially loved it. He's catching Westin's football bug. He even wore his cleats and I thought that was the cutest thing. That night we went to get Thai food with the Baileys, Behunins, and Allemans for Matthew's birthday. We had a good talk and I just think it's so lucky to have friends that really relate to you in life. I feel like our ward is this pocket of people that I would just go crazy without during all that's happening in the world right now.

On Sunday after church, Westin was ordained a deacon. What a special blessing and happy milestone for him. He's going to be the Deacon's quorum secretary and he's just really looking forward to this year. He's so great.

Sunday we had a lowkey day full of football, and I made fajitas for the missionaries. Asher cuddled up to Michael and they took the cutest nap -- life is busy and moves fast and I forget that Asher is moving at a speed our other four-year-olds never did, but bless his happy little self for doing such a good job hanging with it all. Man, we love that little dude.

This is the mystery of Christmas to me -- this is all my Christmas decor apart from our trees and outdoor lights, 
and it doesn't look like much. BUT it takes up a whole closet! How do people deck the halls for all the holidays? I'll never understand. I'm always so impressed when I see people decorate for anything.

All my Christmas returns. Not bad, not bad at all.

Puzzling and finishing the Great British Bake Off (kids edition).

Someone got Puka Nacua and was STOKED.

Michael loves Samoas and I'm not into them.
He got this granola at Costco so I assumed he'd love it and I'd pass on it.
He didn't really like it and I was OBSESSED with it. It's gone now and I can't stop thinking about it.
My favorite treat I've had in so long.

Have to make these once a year!
Didn't get to them for Christmas but we brought them to the Baileys for New Years.

About to countdown!

The midnight crew!
Heading home from the Baileys.

Made a little gingerbread house with Camden while cousins were here.
We didn't get to everything we wanted to over Christmas, but after works just as well :)

Riding home from a football Saturday with dads and boys.
Camden wore cleats and had some super moves.

Making plans for my new blank wall after filling in our closet doorway.

Table came! Picture a big arched mirror... 

Look at these cuties...
I was late getting dinner on the table for the missionaries because who could wake up this Sunday nap?

Such sweet little buddies.

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.