Here are some randomness from our dreary winter. I say "dreary" I guess with a little tongue-n'-cheek. Colorado does not have dreary winters. In fact I didn't know I had "winter blues" until I moved here and didn't have them. Utah gets the inversion every January-March and it is cold - like freezing for a few weeks in a row. But Colorado has blue skies and sun everyday and rarely cold. Although this year was uncharacteristically cold. And we were often sick. And it seemed that this winter was my most "Utah" winter I had ever had (emotionally speaking). The babies and I didn't do much. I didn't feel up to it I guess.
Anyways here is a a random picture after church with Jason carrying Dane and Eve sitting on the floor.
I made chicken and dumplings and sent a picture to my mom thanking her for my new "big pot" and I was able to make all the dumplings at one time. In fact I did that a lot. For my birthday/christmas my mom got me all new "big family" cook wear and it has changed my life. It is so much easier to make all my meals (including breakfasts) at one time, in one pan, instead of having to do batches or multiple pans. So wonderful!
We all got covid (maybe - we only tested Noah so we just assumed) in January so we had one more go around of at home church. This was the cutest thing. We hadn't said anything about at home church and Eve never had at home church so she really had no idea what was going on. Before we were starting everyone was still all over the house getting ready and doing their own thing. Jason started setting up and he put a picture of Jesus in front of the TV and got out the piano bench and put his scriptures on it. Eve recognized the spirit of it I guess and climbed up onto the bench and just sat there folding her arms. She sat there for like 5 minutes. It was adorable.
I cleaned out my closet (because Eve was moving into Dane's room) and went through all the older kids school papers I have saved over the years and found this gem from Brock about Noah being his best friend.
Brock and I spent some time together at the Thunderridge's basketball games. We had a really good team this year but none of Brock's friends were interested in going to the games. I was lucky enough to have Brock invite me to go with him!! I love watching basketball and I love that Brock still wants to spend time with me. It was a win-win.
These 2 share a room. That sentence should have about a million posts. It is no secret I am behind in my blogging and that I haven't been sharing the things of my heart the way I used to. There are a lot of reasons for that, not the least of which is time. But these 2 have/are giving me a run for my money. They are so much harder than the first 4. I try so hard not to compare them because they are different people and the family is different. But it is hard not too. Dane has a curiosity/rebellious side to him that the other 4 frankly just didn't have. I don't know if I will ever publicly disclose (or even privately) all the trials we have been through over the last 7 months trying to get Dane to learn to be potty trained, go to sleep, stay in his bed, stay in his room, etc. But after months of fighting it I finally had the mental and emotional strength to just jump in and give it my all. It was a combination of me being 100% consistent for about 3 weeks straight (no small task for a mother of 6) and Dane being emotionally and physically ready. When I tried the first time to put him in a toddler bed in August I was 100% consistent for about 2 weeks and I just couldn't see any progression, so I decided he wasn't ready. I do think that was the right call. But boy, were these months long and frustrating. But I am happy to report that as of May he is now in a toddler bed where he sleeps through the night, doesn't get out after we put him in (most of the time) and doesn't come out in the morning until "the ball turns green" (an alarm clock we got him) and he naps (actually falls asleep) for about 2 hours every day and he is back to being fully potty trained.
Despite my triels with Dane having them share a room is as cute as can be and has really met my goals of having them be great friends. They really love each other and enjoy each other. They rather had each other around than not. Dane crawls into her bed almost every night. He doesn't fall asleep in there (like Brock would) but they play and cuddle. He sings to her, he puts in baskets so she can use them as stools so they can look out the window and bird watch, he gets her binkeys and stuffed animals that she throws, they rip out our blinds and curtains, and you know, are just 2 and 3 year olds.
But they play together really cute and talk to each other a lot. They have picnics outside and are just basically adorable.
ok - another long story just to justify my awesome parent-ness. We have "special time" (one on one dates with mom and dad) and we have been trying to encourage the older kids to do stuff together (with out mom/dad). So back in January I saw that the BYU ballroom dance team was coming to highlands ranch and was holding a free class Saturday morning and then putting on a performance Saturday afternoon and evening. I told the kids that I thought they would love it and that some of us (if not all of us) should go. They totally poo-pooed me. They openly mocked me! They told me it was stupid and boring. I even showed them some YouTube videos and they weren't convinced, so I dropped it. Well as life with teenagers would go the morning of the free dance class one of Brock's friends was going so he wanted to go. Megan decided to go with him because she also had a friend that was going. They came home so thrilled and excited about their experience that they said they HAD to go to the performance that afternoon it was "so cool". I knew it was very popular but we looked online, the afternoon show was sold out and Brock had work that evening (he started texting to try and get it off - but he never was able) anyways there were just about 3 tickets left (none of them by each other) and they were 50 dollars each. I tried with ALL MY MOTHERING STRENGTH not to say "I told you you would love and I would have gotten these tickets weeks ago for 10 dollars and we could have all gone" again I said, "I tried" I totally said that, like 4 times. But alas they didn't get the tickets and I felt so sad for them and wondered if I should have just bought them weeks ago. About an hour later I actually felt compelled to look at Facebook. I was just scrolling and at the very minute she posted it a woman's post comes on from our stake saying she has 2 tickets to the afternoon show that starts in 20 minutes (it was 15 minutes away" and saying she would give them away for free. I IMMIDATLY called her, and we rushed Brock and Megan out the door to the performance. I reminded them that God is merciful and cares about things they care about and asked them to take a selfie. To which they begrudgingly agreed. They had fun together and really enjoyed the show and I, again, tried really hard to not be smug. But apparently not too hard because I am blogging about it.
The kids have also enjoyed going to Thunderridge's drama performances together. This is from "clue" that these three went to. Then another time they went to "greese" together.
I took this picture but I now can't remember what it was about. But this is a common occurrence, especially in the evenings. All the kids gathered around Jason at the computer and he is teaching them something (I actually I think this was about our taxes) or he is showing them something they have asked a question about, or playing them a song on Youtube.
Now that Noah is a Teacher he gets to go to Stake dances. We have them about once a month and he loves them. This was his first one. When he left he told me he wasn't going to dance with anyone. When he came home he told me he danced every slow dance (7) and was beaming.
Eve's hair has grown long enough for proper pigtails.
Dane's favorite thing to do is get our all of Jason's tools and "fix" things. This is NOT Jason's favorite game.
We had a ward potluck and Megan just whipped out this 2 layer cholate chip cake, I wasn't even around to help. She is becoming very competent in the kitchen.
Madison has a great group of friends that she is hanging our with a lot. She stays after school every day and hangs out with them and they often have plans on the weekend. It is so fun. I love that she can manage her own social life and they plan fun things to do. It is such an important skill and something the other 3 have struggled to do without parental help. These are a great group of kids and Madison is a great example to them.
We also had our annual Pi Day - but we like to have Pi week. Unfortunately we were leaving on a family vacation mid week - so I said we would finish Pi week when we got home, unfortunately Jason had to leave during our vacation to go to Mapleton to help his dad while he was in the hospital and he stayed there for 2 weeks, so unfortunately Pi week never continued. But it was good while it lasted. I made a chocolate cream pie and a pumpkin pie.
