1st week of March

The first week of March was PACKED.  In all good ways, some of which are not pictured (a swim meet, going to see Mary Poppins, regularly scheduled school, days off of school, let alone Brian or my jobs).

Jochi really wanted to go to the zoo while she was with us, so B and I took her and her friend.

LT went to a military ball with his girlfriend.

Jochi turned 16, so we went to Casa Bonita naturally (and threw her a surprise party, see below)

B and I went to Vail with some friends for a night to ski.

LT and his girlfriend went to Montana for a long weekend to look at MSU.

Friday night was the surprise party!  LT was in Montana and Ads was at a swim dinner (but joined later with a friend).

Saturday B went to our nephew's birthday party (while Bri and I went to Ads swim meet), and then Sunday we had a big family celebration for our nephew after going to see Mary Poppins (LT was still in Montana).

 

February

Somehow our life is very full, I have taken few photos and definitely not had a moment to write about our life.  But, above LT getting his first suit for a ball he has tomorrow night.

A lot of cooking and baking happens at our home almost daily. 

We made candles one cold day for fun.

Lots of VR and other video games.

Brian took these 3 to see Dogman.

Ads went to cheer on his old robotics team at a competition.

These two had a sleepover (apparently invited ALL the stuffies to it as well).

B's friends dad invited B and Brian to a Nuggets game.

We ran out of space in our mountain place with all the kids that came, but luckily have a pull out bed in the hall for B.

I took these 3 skiing (Jochi was sick and Brian took Ads to meet a friend to ski at Breck.)

Annual Valentines day fondue with some extra kids.

These two must have taken a selfie.

I snuck away on a girls trip.  Brian (no photos by me) was able to travel to England for a week and then currently is in Iceland for the week).

Jochi went to Casa Bonita with some friends (no picture) and then B was randomly invited this week by a friend.  Our family all goes next week, so lots of fun times at the pink house.

 

Little Baker

As a naturally clean person who doesn't like messes, it takes all my strength to see the good in this chaos.  BUT, I am trying.  After work each day and before the kids come home, I try and wipe the counters and clean the floors and generally pick up.  This particular day, I had done that and extra deep cleaning.  B had other plans (as did Ads, see mess near sink that was done by the middle child making smoothies and ribs as an after school snack).  Not only did I do some extra cleaning, B did some extra mess making (spilled half a bag of flower on the floor, opened sprinkles that left the counter covered in small balls of sugar , put the powdered sugar into the mix rather than the granulated sugar etc).  It took a lot of patience (and a lot of cleaning), but I did my best to embrace his excitement to bake muffins.  And in the end, the muffins were good, he was happy and the kitchen was once again clean.

 

LT

LTs girlfriend sent me these photos she took of him in the mountains a few weeks ago.

 

Some good things during some dark times

We've had some tough times in the past few weeks, tragedy and loss to name a few, but in the midst of hard times is always some light.  Here are a few highlights.  Our incredible exchange student moved in with us and we put her to the test on the first night with one of the most hilarious games we know.

We watched the Taylor Swift movie together and braided hair.

Got pedicures.

We went to the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the art museum (Ads was up skiing with some friends for the weekend).

Went to an old time favorite restaurant for dinner.

Brian and I took these 5 kids to watch my nephew and his girlfriend swim at the Air Force Academy (my parents and brother also were there).  After the meet Friday night we all went out to dinner before watching them Saturday as well.

They played Monopoly.

B spent the night with my parents and built NYC.

And today when things in our country feel especially scary and out of our control, I took the kids to Costco and we spent the afternoon making bags to hand out to people experiencing homelessness on the streets.  

 

XMas-New Years

We spent the week between Christmas through New Years (plus a few days) in the mountains.  We did some sledding, swimming and lots of skiing with big powder days.

The first powder day was 8 new inches, and was really fun for the most part, until it wasn't.  B wanted to go on a black, which was fun, but didn't end well with him needing to be dug out by his brother and Bri crashing (waiting on MRI results for a knee injury).  

Of course there was a lot of cooking (in our TINY kitchen with many people there).  Ads taught B lots of knife skills.

Annual NYE fondue (LT was in Denver with his girlfriend at a party).

On New Years day, B, Ads and I headed to Vail so Ads could meet a friend and so could B.  The only picture I got was of these two in the candy store post skiing.

The next day Copper got 10 inches.  Everyone was tired (and Bri was hurt), but I wanted to go.  I woke the kids up and everyone said they were too tired.  As I was about to leave, I nudged LT a bit more and he agreed.  It was one of the best days I've skied (albeit a bit cold and windy).