Just McKenzie

McKenzie seems to be living the perfect life:  she goes to gymnastics four times a week and it isn't enough.  She asks to go early every day.  She literally has more friends than she can play with and is constantly with one of them.  She has discovered a love of reading and I find her reading whenever she stops moving.  

She still loves her little brothers and plays with them whenever she isn't playing with her friends.  I love watching her walk out the door to school with Kelton.  It just seems so right.

Just Cambrie

Cambrie is just thriving as a tween.  I've been so impressed by the choices she's making and the friends she's choosing.  This was the second year she's participated in her school's math counts team.  Last year she just made it to the district battle.  This year she qualified to the regional battle.  (For the life of me I can't remember the name of it now).  She was so proud to be chosen and that she did well enough to qualify.  

Here's just one example of what she does with her friends when they come over...  This is the kind of photo that I'm not sure if I should share with their mothers or not.  She, Halle, and Celeste had a picnic on the roof she accesses from her window.  They spent a long time out there just enjoy the outdoors.  Later that afternoon she and Celeste walked Halle home.  Well, one thing led to another and when Jessica came by I had to tell her, "I have no idea where your daughter is.  She and Cambrie are walking around the neighborhood dressed like a witch wearing a poodle skirt and some type of ghostly figure."  Let's just add this to the list of phrases I never thought I'd say as a parent.  

Cambrie's rubber duck collection has grown quite a bit lately.  Every day while she's at school I walk by her door and see them arranged in a different way.  I guess she's been documenting most of them, but I just caught this one as a small example, they're playing poker.  But they dance, hold celebrations, go to school, and play games.  

We've also been trying to solve the problem of Cambrie's hair.  She doesn't want to brush it or learn how to do it at all.  This is becoming more of a problem the older she's getting.  Well, we decided to just cut it off because then it would be easier to manage.  It has been nothing short of a miracle!  Mandy cut it in an adorable cut and showed her how to curl it.  Cambrie has taken to it with no complaints at all.  She's able to curl it all by herself and she looks absolutely adorable.  I think it fits her personality perfectly.  

I just wanted one picture but she won't smile for the camera!   

Ella moved to Texas about two years ago.  She came up to visit some friends and while she was here all the girls got together for a party.  These girls have been friends for...well, even since each one of them moved into the ward.  We've known these girls for ten years!  

Thunder Vista has had a middle school dance on the calendar all school year.  Unfortunately they've had to cancel it twice for various reasons.  Well, Cambrie and her school friends decided that it just wouldn't do.  They held their own dance at Nadia's house.  Her mom made them all corsages, and they danced like crazy with disco lights shining.  

I wanted to get one picture before she took off, and at least she's looking at the camera!  She came home super sweaty and kept saying what a blast they had.

Just Dax

This kid is a goof-ball and adorable.  Combine that with the fact that we spend a lot of time together while the kids are at their activities and school, I end up taking a lot of pictures of him.  Here we are in Boulder getting some much needed outside exploratory time.  It was warmish, and that was good enough.  We walked up and down Pearl Street kicking ice chunks.  

Daxton managed to keep his ice chunk in tact all the way up and back down.  I think I needed five different chunks.  

Playing on the (very cold) play statues.  

 He gave his first talk in Primary and my sweet friend took this picture for me since I was teaching another class.  Jeremy said he did amazing and wasn't even shy.  Not bad for a Sunbeam who's only been in Primary a month!

 When he brings home his creations from preschool I am always impressed.  Not just with the execution skills, but also with his naming abilities.  "Animal Bread" the alien.  Now that's just impressive.

 We were starving and I didn't really feel like making lunch...so we went to Costco for free samples!

 These magnatiles have been played with a lot lately!  Daxton creates some things that he's just super proud of.  This was when he built a ramp for his cars.  But honestly, the reason I took this picture was because I just love this kid in ball caps!

Cambrie helped him make his ramp even bigger.  They came up with a whole game and competition to see how the cars made it through their ramp.

 Out of all my babies, Daxton slept with me the most and I really loved it.  Whenever he crawls into bed with me I get all cuddly and sentimental.  Loving this kid.

This is what play looks like

Winter has been a little wild this month.  It has snowed every other day for almost three weeks.  In between the storms we've tried to play outside as much as possible.  This day Kelton was lucky enough to have two friends over, Matteo and Max.  It's still weird for me to see Kelton outside with boys his age.  

Kelton and Daxton went to town drawing chalk bubbles on the sidewalk.  They were so disappointed when it snowed enough to cover them.  I'm pretty sure they were out there for two or three hours working on that.  

When it's cold, they're inside.  They made...weapons...out of coffee filters.  At least I don't have to worry about them injuring themselves.  

When they're stuck inside for too long however, the games just get weird.  Notice the chair completely turned on its side in the background?  Save me from the chaos!  

The kids also had student-led conferences this week.  One of Kelton's stations was to see how fast they could build a tower out of 100 cups.  It was a very fun station.  I'm just grateful that my kids know how to use their imagination and enjoy playing.

Little Sunbeam

On the way to church in January, I suddenly realized that Daxton was going to Sunbeams!  I completely forgot that he wasn't going to nursery anymore and that he was now a "big kid."  He didn't have any warning at all and was just thrown into class.  He is the only Sunbeam-aged kid in our ward, which is a little sad.  They put him with the CTR 4 class, which in some ways is nice because those are the kids he will be going to kindergarten with anyway.  At least knows Coleson, and kind of remembers Evie...so it's not horrible.  Anyway, he's been doing great.  I think he really loves singing time.  This kid loves music.  

Last week he was asked to give the talk in Junior Primary.  I don't remember Sunbeams giving talks just a couple weeks after being thrust into the system, but oh well.  He gave a talk on how Jesus wants us to be happy.  He got up there with no fear, ate the microphone, and faithfully repeated everything Jeremy whispered in his ear.  I was so proud of the little guy.

  

V-day up at Keystone

We had one more weekend trip up to Keystone planned for this season, and as a bonus the Werners were going to join us for our final day.  The first day was cloudy and kind of cold.  The kids did well, it was just so cold!  I can't complain too much though because we had the mountain to ourselves, and Daxton was skiing well enough that we could all ski together which was awesome!  

The next day was Valentine's Day and it was a much more pleasant experience.  We had a delicious pink breakfast of strawberries and crepes up at the hotel.  The sun was shining, and it promised to be a perfect ski day. 

 

Making our way to the mountain.  Have I said before how ingenious these wagons are?

We found the Werners pretty quickly and the kids loved it.  The kids are all roughly the same level so they can just go without worrying about leaving anyone behind.  Greg and Jeremy stayed up top with the little boys for the first part of the day while Ashley and I took the rest of the kids around the mountain.  

When we met up for lunch, poor Kelton decided that he was just too exhausted to continue.  He fell asleep at the table and slept there for almost two hours.  When he woke up he was doing much better and we were able to squeeze in a few more runs together as a family.  

Daxton was comfortable enough by then that he enjoyed going on the bumps with the other kids.  The kid adventure zones were a huge hit for everyone, and I was really happy that Daxton had enough control to make it through without too much trouble.  However, teaching a kid how to ski is exhausting!  My obliques were killing me by the end of the weekend simply from hauling him up and around.  

I insisted on one family picture before we left for the day.  The view from the top of School Marm is one of my absolute favorites.  Maybe we'll be able to find a way to find more passes before the season is over, because I know the kids are not ready to be done. 

38 only comes once

Jeremy's birthday this year was pretty low-key.  The most exciting part about the whole celebration was probably the wrapping of his presents.  Apparently we were completely out of tape, so Cambrie wrapped his presents in the crock pot, the insta-pot, the paper towel roll, and a tissue box.   

He received a random assortment of gifts this year.  He got some new mugs, a bendy drill bit, training fuel, new work pants, and some tickets to...Celine Dion!  He has said that he would love to see Celine Dion in concert, but I do not want to go to Las Vegas to make that happen.  Back in November I saw that she is going to be in Denver over spring break for one show.  Yea!  Now we can see her perform and not have to go anywhere.  Happy 38th birthday hun!