Wolfcreek/Pagosa Springs

February 13-18th

Wolfcreek Ski Trip

Pagosa Springs, CO

We took advantage of the 4 day weekend the kids had and went up to one of our favorite places ever: Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  We each got to ski 2 days, with Arthur, Dallin and I each taking a day watching the little ones.  On my day to watch the kids, I actually had everyone home but Dallin.  (The kids were tired from their skiing on Friday, so took a break on Saturday.)  Dallin and Arthur took the car and went skiing, so we were trying to find stuff to do at the condo or in walk-able distance from the condo.  We played outside on the ice for awhile and after lunch walked to McDonald's to get ice cream cones.  I was hoping they'd have a play structure there, but they didn't so our excursion was a little shorter than I'd hoped.  Still fun though.  

We celebrated Valentine's Day up there with heart-shaped cranberry juice cubes in sparkling cider served in plastic goblets.  Sydney kept wanting to "Clink" with everybody.  

Anyway, we basically just had a wonderful time being together up in the mountains watching the Olympics in the evenings and skiing in the day.  Sunday we went to church and played games and watched a movie. On Monday night, several other families from our ward were up there as well, so we had them over for dessert and games which was super fun.  Then Tuesday we packed up and headed home.  Hurray for another fun family ski trip!  That'll be it for this year, unless Arthur squeezes one more in with just the older kids.

A year in the life of Bennett

First time he met his siblings

First bath

First photo shoot with Erin

first book--look how fat it is!  He's such a genius.

Arthur and Bennett on his blessing day

First Easter

Not necessarily firsts, but as I was going through the pictures there were so many of the kids just loving on their little brother, and I figured that should be part of the documentation of his first year.

First 4th of July

First trip to the beach

First date with Lucy  

Judging by their first meeting, I don't know if their future has much promise.

Figuring out to sit up

First time being the leader in "Do as I'm doing" during FHE

Family pictures

First Halloween

First walk--(He took his first series of steps on Hayden's Birthday!)

First Christmas

First Birthday!!!

Our littlest boy turned 1 year old on February 12th.  

We love him to pieces, and are so happy he came to our family one year ago.

Happy Birthday, sweet, sweet Bennett!

A Few February Tidbits

Making Valentines

Remember that pile of wood from last month?  Well this is what I've been making:

cute picture frames

Also, I made this little travel toothbrush thingy since I got tired of shoving our wet germy toothbrushes into a ziplock bag when we were traveling.  gross.  This thing is so much better.  These toothbrushes stay in our travel bag so I'm not frantically collecting everybody's toothbrushes each time we take a trip, (inevitably forgetting a few).   I love it!  And it was super easy to make.

Dallin had a big month.  He got a cell phone.  

 oh boy.

He's also been busy with show choir and orchestra concerts. Below is a picture of him in his show choir costume.  They do a really fun arrangement of "Hip to be Square" in their suspenders and nerd glasses.  love it.

Also, he got braces.  

 Here is his last smile before they went on.

And here is his brace-face smile that he gets to enjoy for the next 2 years.

Not sure if I mentioned, but for Christmas, I got Arthur 12 dates.  12 envelopes with a date idea in it, one for each month of the year.  That doesn't sound like a lot of dates to those of you who get out every week, but let me tell you that once a month is a huge step forward for us in comparison with last year.  And dang it, I missed hanging out with my husband!  And it's been great so far.  We can definitely squeeze one date per month in, and I look forward to it every month!!!  This month our date was "Go to dinner at a place we've never eaten before."  We had a gift certificate to a place called Vernon's Hidden Valley Steak House.  Had we known a little bit more about it, we probably would have saved it for a special occasion like an anniversary or something.  

Actually, it was a gift certificate from the realtor we used when we sold the Tasco home, so we WERE celebrating something special!  We were celebrating the sale of our first home.  (Good thing too, because when Arthur recently figured out how much we owe in capital gains taxes on that house because we kept it as a rental for a few years, we weren't celebrating anymore.)

Anyway, it was a super delicious, super fun place to eat.  It's based on a prohibition-era theme, so the door is only marked by a red light.  You have to knock on the door, and give the password to gain admittance.  The guy answering the door had a raspy voice and asked if I was a cop.  It was great!   The foyer was disguised as a library, and the raspy-voice-mobster-guy gave us instructions like "no asking celebrities for their autograph or else" (as he let us admire his nice baseball bat.)  When we agreed not to harass Johnny Depp or whoeever else might be back there, they opened the disguised door and let us in.  At which point it was just a regular restaurant with mobster decor and live jazz music. The food was heavenly, and it was just expensive enough that we probably won't go back until we DO have a very special occasion.  :)  We sure enjoyed this surprising night out at a place we'd never eaten before.   Long-live date night!

scroll down

I do have new updates, they are just dated before my super long theater post, so scroll down to see some other new ones.  Just playin' the catch-up game, as usual.  :)

January Quotes

Daphne: Let's make a New Year's revolution to get pedicures.

Daphne: Oh, I thought a phony was a bald person.

(This makes more sense if you've seen Despicable Me 2)

Sydney:  I fink I should bring my milk to preschool because it's too dangerous to leave it at home.

Sydney:  I fink my preschool friends won't like this hair.  I need a ponytail.

One Sunday in primary, they were talking about talents.  The children were asked what talents they had, and all their hands shot up to share what talents they have.  Sydney raised her hand too, but when they called on her, instead of saying one of her talents, she just stood up and did a somersault. Glad she was wearing leggings under her dress that day.

Dallin:  I hate being late, Mom.  We are always late.  I wish you were more like Gabe's mom.  She freaks out if they are 1 minute late.

Sydney: I don't want to go to church.  I don't.

Me: I know.  But we are still going.  And remember you get to go to Sunbeams because you are so big!

Sydney:  I don't want to go to sunbeams. I want to go to nursery. 

Me: But you are too old to go to nursery now.  You are a sunbeam now.

Sydney: I don't want to be a sunbeam. I want to be a nursery.  I'm really, really little, Mom.

So Sydney is terrified of the missionaries.  I'm not sure why, because they are the nicest people you'll ever meet, but when we have the missionaries for dinner it is painful for her.  The first time they came over, she wouldn't even eat dinner at the same table.  The next time, she sat with her back to them the entire time and wouldn't face her plate because they would "see" her.  Well one night, we were setting the table to eat in the dining room, and while the kids were working on it, Sydney started freaking out.  I found out that Dallin had jokingly told her that we were eating at the dining room table because the missionaries were coming to dinner. 

After church, the kids were wanting to go home, but I was talking to someone in the hall until Sydney wailed, "All this talking is making me crying!"

During our recent ski trip, we were riding up the lift and Sean said, "Dare me to drop my poles?" Before I could say "NO!" he had let go of his poles, thinking they were strapped on his wrists.  One was strapped on his wrist.  The other one fell down onto Pandemonium just before post # 4.  Dallin whipped out his map and told me that Pandemonium was a double black!  (a touch outside of my skill level.) I was pretty sure it was just one black, and we devised a plan where the kids would go down the easy way and meet me at the bottom while I took Pandemonium to retrieve Sean's pole.  When we split off, Daphne said cheerfully, "See ya mom!  Hope ya don't die!"

During my turn with the littles  back at the condo, Sydney and I were waiting for the skiers to return.  When Hayden rang doorbell, I said, "Sydney, who's that?!?  

Syd:  It's our friends!!

I love that she refers to them as her friends.

During a discussion about signs preceding the Second Coming of Christ, Dallin had a question and Arthur suggested he look it up in the scriptures.  Dallin responded, "How am I supposed to find it?  The scriptures are giant!  I don't have an iPhone!"

Sydney:  Mom can I go visit Harley? (the next door neighbor's dog)

Mom:  Uh, let me think about it.

Sydney: No, Mom!  Don't think about it!!

Sydney:  Mom, can I ... (Fill in the blank)

Me:  um, maybe...

Sydney:  (disappointed) Maybe means no.

Sydney:  Mom can I keep my undies on?

Me:  of course!

Sydney:  Of course means yes.  Maybe means no.

Daphne: Where are you going, mom?

Me: Nowhere, why?

Daph: Well, you just look nicer than usual.  No offense, but usually you wear comfy pants and a sweater.

As is tradition, on Arthur's bday, we all went around and said things we love about Arthur.  Well, Sean is the worst at this tradition.  He can never think of anything to say which ends up being a little awkward when it gets to him.  As always, when it got to Sean's turn there was a long, long silence which was interrupted by an exasperated Daphne who said,  "Ugh! Sean! You make this way harder than it is!"

Some projects

I don't know what it is about January that makes me want to redo everything in my house.  Maybe it's finally having some time to breathe after the rush of the holidays.  Maybe it's the new year and new goals and new-found energy.  But whatever it is, we have been doing our fair share of projects over here.

Finally got the older boys room painted, and the beadboard finished.

Made a wreath that I pinned on Pinterest.  

Doesn't happen often so I have to document when it does.

Here's a big one:  We painted nearly the entire downstairs in a weekend.  Entry hall, family room, laundry room and kitchen nook.

everything pulled away from the walls

before

after:
I know this picture doesn't look much different, but trust me, it is!

Nice to be done with that red color--it was a mistake! :)

Arthur and I got this for our birthdays.  

It's a dual beveled compound miter saw!  Can't wait to make some cool stuff with it.

Arthur used the miter saw to fix a bunch of drawers that the kids had broken.

Here I am learning to use it.  Yeah, it felt pretty amazing.  

A pile of wood that I cut.  :)  I know it doesn't look very impressive, but hey! gotta start somewhere.  I'm turning these into some cute picture frames that I also saw on--where else?--Pinterest. :)