2.04.2023

January

 Man, January was busy! Besides our two birthday boys, we still had lots of fun this month! We had Chase’s first robotics tournament. Ben and Chase have spent hours and hours building this robot and they did so well at the competition! And somehow, the only pictures I took were of Lila and Megan.

January was so cold, we couldn’t play outside hardly at all. And although we felt a little stir crazy at times, we found a lot of ways to be creative inside.


I argued with Davis every single day about if he could wear shorts. He had to wear long pants to school, but promptly came home and changed into shorts every day. One day he even snuck shorts to school and changed in the bathroom! It was actively snowing that day and my kindergartener came home in shorts- super proud of himself for finding a loophole!
We babysat Buddy one weekend and then Buddy started coming back regularly during the day. The kids all love him so much!
Poor Davis got super sick- high fever and he was just miserable. He loved having Buddy sit next to him. Every time we’d take Buddy outside Davis was respond “hey! Bring my buddy back!” Even when he was his sickest, he’d keep one hand stretched out to pet Buddy.
Hudson is just so handsome and so stylish! Nate and Halie gave him this jacket for Christmas and he looks so cute sporting it to church each Sunday. 
Chase got to go on his first Young Men’s camp out! It was a winter camp out in cabins with lots of sledding and he had the time of his life! He has been so excited to join this program and loved bonding with all the older boys!

We had the Smith girls sleepover! We did a babysitting swap and took their girls one night earlier in the month and then they took ours later. Putting Lila and Rose to sleep in the same room felt like a huge accomplishment! I didn’t take any other pictures all weekend- it was busy and crazy and the kids all had so much fun! 

Davis’s little kindergarten class made snowmen in a directed drawing art project. The wall was full of big, white snowmen with blue sky backgrounds. Then here was Davis’s drawing. It was so cute and he was SO SO proud of it! I wrote down his commentary explaining his project because it was just the cutest!
Early in the month we embarked on a little refresh for the office/gym. We painted the whole thing, moved furniture around, fixed some drywall from the flood last year and hung up the new paintings Halie made for Ben for Christmas. I love the feel in here now! 
Just our cute, spunky girl all ready for church!
We hosted a dinner for our BYU friends. We usually get together at Christmas time, but December was so busy we moved it to January which was actually an awesome move. Between the Bennetts and the Virgins we have 13 kids between us and we love seeing these friends so much! The only picture I took was this one of Lila and Lucy. They look so much alike! 

“G major scale is the worst!”



The Birthday Boys!

January means birthday season at our house! It’s such a fun way to start a new year, celebrating the best boys! Chase’s birthday is January 4th- he turned 12! It was such a big milestone. He’s been so excited to be ordained a deacon and get to enter the Young Men’s program at church. Right at the first of the year Ben ordained him a deacon. Both sets of grandparents were able to come and both grandpas stood in the circle to be part of having their first grandson ordained to the Priesthood. He got to pass the sacrament that day and took it very seriously. He bore his testimony that day about how he really felt the spirit when he was ordained. The kids has a heart of gold- we love him so much!
He has requested since last April that I make this specific coconut cream cake for his birthday. It’s a very time intensive cake between the cakes, filling and frosting, so I did it over three days and he loved it so it was all worth it! 
I make it a tradition to take my kids out to lunch for their birthdays. I also took Chase to Barnes and Noble  and let him pick any book he wanted (he knew which one he wanted right away!). As we were packing up to go, Lila started to beg to come along. She had been sick the 5 days before and was so sick of being stuck at home. Sweet Chase immediately suggested we bring her along and she was delighted to come. He’s the sweetest big brother. He even switched his lunch choice because he thought Zupas would be something Lila liked more than his original idea. It was a fun afternoon with my biggest and littlest. 
We did a family birthday at our Smith family Sunday dinner. Mom had a Sacher Torte flown in from Vienna (her friend Elli in Vienna sends her one- or this year three- every Christmas). The boys were thrilled to use it for their birthday celebration- fancy Austrian cake! 


 To celebrate Hudson’s big 10th birthday we took his two best buddies- Hyrum and Richie- plus his younger sibs to the trampoline park and then out to dinner. His friends are the absolute cutest. Richie ended up taking Lila down the slides at the park over and over and over on his lap! They were all so cute to include Davis in their fun. These boys are the sweetest and Hudson is so lucky to have them!


Somehow Lila got to tag along on Hudson’s birthday lunch too! He chooses Old Grist Mill every year. I truly love hanging out with Hudson so much! 

Hudson had very specific ideas for his birthday cake. He wanted brownies- double thick- with whipped cream- cream cheese frosting with Oreos mixed in. It was delicious and he loved it! 
He really wanted this bungee chair for months and months and was so excited to get it!