Hello 2024

Well January 2024 is officially off and running. We are not in the phase of really getting our house ready to sell and to move into our forever home! January started off busy but fun. Lots of things going on with getting our house ready, the new house, school and sports. Just a lot going on. So we were off and running. 

Our first boxes packed for our move and for decluttering. 

Drywall has been delivered. 

Brandon stuffing insulation back up into the ceiling. haha

Oh ya, we also had our first casualty! Poor bunny! Looked super weird just having that head there. It looked like he had been buried by his bunny friends. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of planet earth like stuff when we live here. 

The ornament Kayden made at preschool! 

I told Emmett I would take a picture of these clay ornaments he made. We had kept them for a year or so and I was ready to get rid of them So I let him keep his favorite one or two and got rid of the others. 

As we were getting things cleaned up and prepped for getting our house on the market I took down he foil and curtains on our bathroom window. Look what I found!!! MOLD!!! YUCK!!! So then we had to kill the mold and repair the windowsill. Thankfully Brandon is good with wood work and so we decided to case in the window.

It is a good thing we are always going over to the house to check on things. I had to make sure to tell our builder about the broken steps. We also caught the dry wall guys before as they were working and told the main guy that we were supposed to have rounded edges. Which he said, "Well that would be a good thing to know. I was never told that!"
Communication has been an issue with this home build.

Painting our room. We have been off and on painting for months. We finally decided it was time to get it finished. It was a lot of work!! 

Emmett and Kayden wanted to be in charge of making dinner. So Emmett made the Mac and Cheese with a little help from me and Kayden watched the peas. 

Ethan took no time to finish his lego car. He loves building these and will just work for hours. 

Then of course we had to start the year off with going to the movies. Always a good time! Kayden is so funny at movies these days. He gets very in to it and will laugh out loud with an evil laugh when the good guys are beating the bad guys. Its pretty funny! 

Tile choices for bathrooms. Thank goodness for Floor and Decor opening up near Costco. It made it way easier to find tile for our bathrooms. 

The house getting prepped for stone and then stucco!!

Time for the expander!

Emmett pallet started to split super quick! It is crazy how fast he was getting expansion. It has taken him quite a bit of time to get used to his expander. Eating with it and talking are really hard for him. We keep telling him he will get used to it and then he will talk normal and swallow normal. Not fun at all though. Yet necessary to give him the space he needs for this adult teeth to come in. 

Dry wall goes up really quick. Then it's tape and texture. However, they missed a cut out for a light. I thought it looked like it was missing a light but no one would listen to me.

Sad to take this down. We will have to put it up in our next house too! With new pictures. The boys have gotten so much older than these pictures. Although, I do love these pictures! 

Ok, so at Brandon's office they did a "Wheel Unfortunate" like they do on Dude Perfect. The thing Brandon got was take a card board cut out to dinner. So Brandon ordered this cardboard cut out from the show "Parks and Rec" and we went to Long Horn Steakhouse. 

I recorded Branded walking in and telling the host he needed a table for 2. Then he sat down and I sat across from them just while the server came over and asked what they wanted to drink. Brandon looked at his "date" and then told her a Diet Coke and water. Then I joined them for dinner. We got a lot of funny looks and some people finally asked what was going on. They all thought it was funny and I got to enjoy being a third wheel and eat yummy food! haha

Kayden also got to go bowling for a preschool field trip. 

He had a great time being there with all his preschool friends. 

Time for the talent show. Wyatt was so excited and a little bit nervous for his talent show. 

He did a great job. He had one trick that didn't want to work but he pulled it off like a champ and tried it again and then went into a different trick when it didn't work. He even had it Knott up on him at one point. He didn't spaz out he just got it fixed and kept going with some great showmanship. It was fun to watch. Although, I do have to say that my mommy heart was nervous for him especially when things were not going as smoothly as he had planned or wanted. He did a great job though and didn't let it bring him down. 

January 24th we got to take Wyatt to the temple for his first time!!

I love our new tradition of taking our boys to the temple the year they turn 12 just them and us. It was fun being able to just go with Ethan and now it was Wyatt's turn. It just makes it feel more special and a bigger deal I think when we take just the one who is going through for the first time. Then after we go get lunch or a treat. With Wyatt he wanted to get IN N OUT since it was lunch time. So we drove down and got IN N OUT for lunch. It is a fun and special day when they get to go to Baptisms for the Dead in the Temple for the first time. Wyatt said he loved going to the temple. That it felt peaceful and happy. What a fun afternoon! 

 

With the start of January brings the chaos of 3 kids in basketball at the same time. We had Ethan (his last year of rec ball), Wyatt and Emmett all in the same season. Thankfully, we were able to carpool with 2 of the boys friends. Just makes it for a really busy 6 weeks. The boys love it though and it's fun to watch them improve in their basketball skills. 

All the December Fun, Christmas and Ringing in the New Year

December was a busy month. I ended up being super sick for the first week and a half. Sicker than I have been in a really long time. I am actually not sure if I have ever been that sick. I had the worst cough I have ever had in my life and couldn't get much sleep at night for a week. I even had Brandon and my Dad give me a blessing because I was struggling so bad. So the first couple of weeks of December I was out of the picture. I missed a couple of Christmas parties and by the time I was feeling better it was game on time to make Caramel popcorn to give to our friends and finish getting ready for Christmas. It made the month disappear really quickly. Anyways, Emmett started the process of orthodontist work. He had to get an expander. So we had to go in and get everything ready for that. I was still sick when I took him but I was at least functioning. Wyatt got his top braces off and was scheduled to get his bottoms off shortly. Then Ashley and her family came out to visit. Which was super fun. Kayden loves being able to see and play with Harvey. It was a good but busy month like usual. haha

Wyatt was so excited to start getting his braces off. 

Since I was sick I let Kayden watch the Paw Patrol movie that we were going to give him for Christmas early. I needed him to sit and watch something so I could rest next to him. He was so excited to watch the new Paw Patrol movie and I was glad to not have him need my attention. 

The house still coming along!! 

Finishing up Basketball season at Timnath Middle High. 

We have insulation!!! YAY!! We ended up spending double for our insulation because we wanted to have the house really insulated. Our builder Rob Davis told us it would be a couple grand more to insulate all the walls. Well he was wrong. When we finally got the bill it was double what the original cost was. YUCK! It better be worth it! 

That tung and groove looks so good on our back porch!!

It just looks so good!!! I love that beam on the front porch!! 

The weather was nice enough to take the kids to the park. So we went and let Kayden and Harvey play for a bit. 

Gigi gave Kayden and Harvey these dinosaur transforming trucks. Both the boys wanted to bring them everywhere together! 

Kayden also had his Christmas music program for preschool. This time we bribed him with a candy bar if he would bravely stand up with his class and sing the whole time. In fact we showed him in the beginning his candy bar that he was about to get. So he did. He stayed the whole time and sang the whole time. 

He was so excited to get his own king size kit Kat for being brave! haha 

What cute kids!!!! 

Then of course we had to go do our annual Christmas lights drive thru at the Youth Outdoors. The boys enjoy it. We packed up hot chocolate and got in the car and saw some fun Christmas lights. 

I think the kids enjoy it mostly because they can get out of their seats and stand up while we drive thru. 

We also went to the church to let the kids play some basketball with the Ortiz's. While we did that the younger boys just played around with some of the basketballs and ran around. 


Now for some Christmas time fun! 
The Annual Ornament gift!

Kayden got a Chase ornament from Paw Patrol. He has been loving Paw Patrol! Wants to watch it any chance he gets and plays pretend with his Paw Patrol cars. 

Emmett got a snowman playing the piano. He has really enjoyed playing on our piano. In fact he is really good at hearing the notes he needs to play in order to play songs. He either uses the tablet to learn a song or just messes around with the keys to find the notes and then starts to put the sounds from a song together on the piano. We need to get him into piano lessons. 

Wyatt of course got a soccer ornament since he played soccer this year. He was actually really good at it. Although he doesn't think he will play it again. haha 

Ethan got a lawn mower. This was his first year of mowing Papa's lawn every Saturday for money. It was his first little job!

Time to make Santa's cookies! 

I look forward to Santa's cookies too. They are so tasty!! I think the boys enjoy helping make them. They are a pretty dry cookie recipe so you kind of have to use your hands to mix it. Plus the elves brings the jar with the cookie recipe and that is always an exciting time. Every Christmas Eve the boys look forward to our door bell ringing and the jar being on the front porch. They have yet to catch the elf in the act! 

Ethan and Wyatt decided to work together this year on their gingerbread houses. They wanted to make a massive house. 

It took them a long time. They were still working on parts of it that night. haha

The boys finished product. Ethan and Wyatt did a great job. Even made a Santa and his sleigh on the roof. 

Plus Wyatt left Santa a note! 

Christmas Morning!
I love Christmas morning with the boys. Its so fun watching them look through their stockings and all the magic of the morning. Stockings, presents from Santa, presents from each other and lots of hugs. The hugs and the boys being excited to give each other their presents they worked hard to earn for each other are 2 of my favorite parts of Christmas. I love seeing my boys hug each other and want to give each other presents. Between that and Stockings it is always a good morning! 

It was a great morning. Oh and don't forget our precious baby Jesus in his manger by the Christmas tree. 

I can't remember if it was Wyatt or Ethan who did the sleigh. Turned out pretty good!! What a cute sleigh and reindeer. 

Then Ashley planned a game for us to play. It was a funny game where you have your hands in cups and you have to get as many big marshmallows on your plate as possible before everyone else. 

What is a family game night without some tears. 

Since Harvey's birthday is on Christmas Matt decided to take the boys to the movies. Kayden was so excited to go to the movie theatre with Harvey and Matt and eat popcorn. 

Then the next day Ashley through a party for Harvey at the bowling Allie. So we all went and they got some pizza and other foods and brought a cake. Harvey opened lots and lots of presents. Which Kayden was jealous of and ended up asking if he could have one. Matt gave in and let Kayden open a puzzle present that he was able to keep. That kid just keeps getting things he isn't supposed to. It needs to stop. Not sure if I mentioned when we went to Killwins and the owner who just reopened the ice cream shop came out to see how everything was tasting. Well Kayden was not happy with his ice cream and wanted the one that Emmett had picked. So she told Kayden that she would get him the other one. We told her that was very nice but that she didn't have to do that. Then Brandon and I looked at each other like, "She is teaching him the wrong lesson." So naturally he then thought he could get anything switched if he changed his mind after getting it. That is not how things work. So then when Matt said he could have a present we tried to nicely tell him not to give in to Kayden. It didn't work. Trying to keep our baby from getting spoiled rotten can be very hard sometimes. Especially when others give in! 

After some arcade time we went home. 

The boys watching a movie together the last night of being together. We were taking off to Colorado Springs to go visit the Murri family and Ashley and their crew were taking off the next day as well. It was so fun seeing them. Kayden loved playing with Harvey and was sad that they were going to be leaving. 

Then while in Colorado Springs we went and played pickle ball at the church and played some games at the house and just tried to enjoy being together for a couple of days. 

Grandpa took the 3 oldest kiddos to practice driving in the parking lot of the church. I think Ethan LOVED it! haha 

It was a quick trip but that is what makes it so nice having 2 of Brandon's siblings only 2 hours away. We can visit but don't have to feel like we have to stay for a long time. 

We got home and then went to a CSU basketball game with both my parents and Brandon's parents. 

It was a fun night and the kids had a good time watching the game. Sadly, there was an older guy behind me that was chatting with his buddy next to him the whole time and saying swear words all the time. I almost looked back behind me to ask him if he could clean up his language a bit since I have an 8 year old sitting next to me. It was really annoying. Still a fun time with this crew! 

Kayden likes to stand on the counter by the microwave. I don't love that he does it but he sure feels confident about it. I think he was helping make popcorn. 

Pickleball at the park. 

Wyatt got selected for the talent show. He was so stoked!!! He was going to do a yo-yo act. 

Lastly, the end the year off right we had our annual minute to win it game night. 

This ended up being a hilarious game because the party blowers I got were super cheap and most of them were not shooting straight. We had lots of laughs during this game. 

Gigi was the ultimate winner.

I do love our New Years Eve tradition. Its so fun playing these minute to win it games together. We end up having lots of laughs and just a good time together. Of course we end the night banging pots and pans after a tv count down and then the kids are off to bed by 8 or 8:30. haha Good Bye 2023, sure hope 2024 brings many amazing things!!!