January

We welcomed in 2024 with another cinnamon roll snowflake, so I think we all started out on a good foot!

Chase turned 13! We love this kid so much! Jr. High has been a big transition and he's handled it like a champ. He's made a bunch of new friends, taken some challenging classes and learned a lot, and is volunteering to run the lights for the spring musical. He wanted steak for his birthday, as a true teenage boy would, so that's what we did. It was fun to celebrate him, because he's just so great!

 

 

Lila and Rosie biweekly playdates are just the highlight of Lila's life.

The kids loved playing on the rock wall a lot this winter. Lila will only climb if someone is helping her. Ben put together a route of pink and purple holds for her to follow.

"Magic potions" became a favorite game in January. She learned a lot about mixing colors and primary and secondary colors! 

Chase really wanted this hat, so his grandparents took him out one night to get it. End of January Chase decided he was a 49ers fan and has worn this hat pretty much every day since.

Hudson's robotics team competed this winter! For a team full of rookie 5th graders they did awesome! They took 3rd in this tournament!

Davis loves this trapeze- he got these special gloves because he kept getting blisters he's spent so much time on it.

Lila was complaining about monsters in her room- so her brothers (of their own accord) retrieved their weapons from the basement and went to slay the monsters. Problem solved.

Cutest little workout crew! I can't remember what started this, but it was pretty darn cute!

Lila decided she likes to do pickups as long as I let her out of her carseat while we wait and she can play. She loves trying to sit in the front seat.

I got a little lunch date in with Chase- gosh he's so funny and cute! He chose Old Grist Mill, which is one of his favorites.

We did a swap with Will and Kate so we took the girls one night and they had our kids the next weekend. It was pretty smooth sailing and the kids all loved having their cousins sleepover!

She is absolutely as sassy as this picture would lead you to believe.

A little cousin art time

Hudson turned 11! He had a terrific birthday! He wanted his special brownies- double thick milk chocolate/dark chocolate brownie mixes with whipped cream oreo frosting and andes mints on top. Hudson is creative and just has the best ideas. For his birthday he really wanted white crocs and a vented hairbrush, which Aunt Heidi happily provided. Both boys big birthday present from us was tickets to see Hamilton....in August when it comes to SLC. And Nana and Papa took them both to see Potted Potter- a play that parodies Harry Potter, which they absolutely loved and laughed the whole way through.

We had one gloriously warm day and I took the littles to the park. These two just love a great park!

Hudson also got a little birthday date- and he also chose Old Grist Mill. I love hearing him chat away- most of the time about yoyos, shoes or his hair.

Davis really hates to read- but tolerates it a little more when he can do it with daddy. I walked upstairs to see them reading like this one day and I just had to laugh. 

My aunt Karen bought a table at the Egyptian Theater 100 years gala and invited us all to attend with her. We got to meet Marie Osmond before the fancy dinner and then watched her in concert later in the evening. It was such a fun night! We also ran into the Brownings, which is kind of hilarious because we run into them all the time! Weird how some people just enter your life over and over!

Wrapping up 2023

 On New Years Eve, we filled our fancy goblets with punch and went around the table reminiscing on the highlights of the year. 2023 was SUCH a good year for us. So many blessings came and so many fun memories were made. Our top moments of the year were:

A beautiful Utah Fall! This hike during fall break really took the cake for me (and Davis- who chose this as the highlight of his year). Fall this year was just spectacularly beautiful!

Ben and I got away for 8 wonderful days in Spain! 

Our Bear Lake trip with the Smiths family

Hudson got to go to Arizona to compete in the National YoYo competition

Chase graduated from 6th grade and started Jr. High- he's doing awesome there!

Our little getaway to St. George- several kids brought up that this day in Snow Canyon was their favorite part!

Ben landed his incredible job with Axon!

The main lesson I learned from this last year was to appreciate even more all the beautiful ups and downs of life! While this year was filled with so many wonderful things, it also brought a fair amount of hard stuff too.  It was amazing to appreciate the dichotomy of both things- and how even during the hard stuff, great blessings were there. We have an incredible village supporting our family, we all got closer to each other, and found a lot of happiness along the way. 2023 was incredible!

Christmas

 

Right before we left for our Christmas Eve festivities, Christmas Eve Steve (which is really our neighbors, the Hickmans) brought Lila and I matching necklaces to wear. She was delighted!

Aunt Heidi is the best and had the idea to take all the kids an hour before we started our normal Christmas Eve stuff and worked on a little Christmas service project with them. They made hearts to tuck into the Christmas gifts Heidi and my parents delivered the next day at a nursing home nearby. The kids loved the project and Ben and I appreciated getting a little headstart on our big Christmas project/gift for the boys! Right as they were finishing up though, Davis fell asleep right in my mom's lap! He rallied and was pretty energetic the rest of the evening!

We did games and our traditional talent show- I love both of these traditions. The kids loved playing telestrations and they were so funny! For the talent show Chase played his amazing piano piece of Greensleeves/Carol of the Bells. Hudson did a yoyo routine to Christmas music (also carols of the bells). Davis sang a song from his first grade program, "Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts". Lila folded a baby blanket. Nora and Anna sang the most beautiful Christmas song. It was all just really sweet and so fun! We had our beautiful candlelight dinner and then our crazy gift exchange. 

After gifts, my mom gave the kids sleeping potion, This was our tradition growing up and was always so sweet to drink this yummy, hot sleeping potion every Christmas Eve. I've sadly neglected to carry on the tradition, so we did it at Nana's house. Davis is demonstrating it's effectiveness (he's faking).

We sang to Nana and had cake and ice cream. Heidi and I made this cake the night before (mostly Heidi did it) and laughed so hard I was crying at how difficult it was. 

Lila couldn't even be bothered to come over for cake- she was too excited about playing with her new barbies. I love the look of Christmas overstimulation in her eyes!

We came home and tucked the littles into bed and Ben and I got to work! His grand idea was to create a whole experience for them in the basement playroom- a rock wall with monkey bars and a trapeze! We finally got it all finished around midnight and got to bed at 1:00. I was so tired, but honestly it's a fun little memory now!

The kids were up so early, but were perfectly obedient about staying in their rooms until 7:00 (I started hearing doors opening around 5:00!) They were all so delighted with their gifts! Somehow I took no pictures of Lila, but Santa delivered the Barbie Dreamhouse she'd been wanting and we couldn't really separate her from it the rest of the day!

The last gift we gave them was a puzzle, telling them to go check out the playroom. They were all ecstatic when they saw it. A LOT of Christmas break was spent conquering the rockwall and monkey bars! 

I had to laugh that Davis thought this spot on the stairs was the best place to put together a complicated lego set. 

We hosted Christmas dinner at our house. Ray, Diane, Nathan, Jens (Ray and Diane's elderly friend), my mom, dad, and Heidi all came! Ray and Diane brought their gifts for the kids- we all laughed when they got Davis a real hippopotamus for Christmas, just like the song from his program. He was immediately named Harry and is much loved. 

Davis goes hard on holidays- and then crashes. This was a few mintues before dinner started. 

Wow- it was such a good Christmas! Of course, I was exhausted by the end, but we made so many happy memories with our people and I was so thankful for another wonderful holiday!