Teacher and Teenager

Happy 13th birthday Asher!  First of all...just how in the world did this happen so fast. Watch out world, there's a newly minted teenager rearing to go.  For Asher's  big day, we celebrated with dinner at Fuddrucker's followed by pizookies at home.  He's recently decided that burgers are awesome, and has left chicken nuggets behind.  Part of growing up, I guess, but it sure took him a while to come around!  He received some fun gifts, and per Dawson's request, we had some balloons.  The first thing he said to me that morning was, "Mommy, we need to get balloons for Asher's birthday!"  And so we did. He picked them out.  Sadly, the little guy fell asleep at the table before dessert and missed the party, although as I tucked him in that night he asked me about it. Asher is a great big brother to Dawson and they can be such buddies.  I love that.

We had a friend party for him a few weeks later too.  For the celebration, we did an Escape Room at home, pizza, cookie cake and games.  I think everyone had a great time and it's always fun to see a bunch of good kids getting together.

Turning 13 was just one part of his birthday this year.  Last year, at age 12, he was ordained a Deacon and has been passing the sacrament each week at church.  Watching him serve the ward in this way has been amazing as a mother.  With the shifting of youth organization at the new year, and because he'll be 14 before 2020, he was also ordained a teacher in January!  My parents came out for the weekend, and Aaron was part of the circle as well.  What a special day for our family.  We're especially proud of his dedication and worthiness to serve as he continues on his priesthood journey.

It was a great birthday for a great kid.  Some of my favorite things about Asher is that he doesn't judge others or care much about what other's think (I look up to him for that...such a great trait), he's spiritual, kind, tries to do what's right, loves music, sports radio (!), video games, chess, soccer, basketball and baseball (all sports really).  So proud of the guy he's becoming.

Learning to Ski

Boy, oh boy, did we do something exciting this past weekend?  At the end of the summer we had talked a bit about getting the boys skiing this winter, so we bought a few passes and finally did it.  We headed up to Sipapu, a resort a couple of hours away.  One thing I need to remember with experiences like this is to keep expectations low, otherwise frustration ensues!!  

Day 1:  To start with, our expectations weren't low enough.  Once you pull up to the resort, you expect to get out, hit the slopes and let the fun and learning begin!  Except for that important detail of gear.  All the gear.  Skis and boots never seemed so daunting before, but after trying to just get everyone standing upright in skis and boots we were ready to throw in the towel.  We finally succeeded, although it wasn't always pretty, and after enrolling the older two boys in an hour long ski school class the day officially began.  The boys learned basics, sort of.  Dawson hung out with Corey and I on the little bunny hill and basically pushed ourselves down the very slight decline with him in tow.  He thought the magic carpet was great.  After the boys' quick lesson, we realized they still both had no clue how to ski.  So, Corey tried working with them a bit more on the beginner hill (which, for the record was pretty steep for newbies).  After a few hours, some blizzard-y cold weather and a few very defeated kids, day one came to a close.  Asher was frustrated, Beckett wanted to give up, and the rest of us were cold and tired.  We stayed in a little cabin at the resort and had some much needed fun playing card games, eating, drinking cocoa and watching a movie.  Oh, and sleep, also some much needed sleep.

Day 2:  What a difference a day makes.  First thing in the morning I took Asher and Beckett  to the steep beginner hill, worked with them separately for a few minutes (with my extremely limited skiing expertise, yikes), and low and behold, they both picked it up in no time.  It was a miracle.  They wanted the real hills right away, and by days end they were going down blues and greens no problem, and having fun while doing it.  Beckett likes using poles, Asher does not.  Beckett wanted to do black diamond runs but I didn't let him.  The Passey's came up and skied also, so the boys skied with Noah for part of the day and loved that too.  Corey and I did eventually get in some runs ourselves and had some fun. We found that after 20 years of not skiing (and only having been 3 or so times ever anyway) that we weren't any better or worse off, except that we might need to be more careful with our knees! Dawson ended up being pretty good at doing the 'pizza' while coasting down a little hill, and feels comfortable with all the gear, but we'll be doing some more learning with him.  Some funny skiing terminology my boys came up with:  sticks= poles, squad (Dawson)= quad, forklift = chairlift, mobiles= moguls.  

All in all, the weekend was a success!  Thank goodness.  We had lots of snow, red cheeks, hot chocolate and games (I Spy, Snap and Memory with D).  The boys made a snow fort before we headed out, begged for season passes, and nobody wanted to go home. Yay for our little skiers!

Christmas 2018

This Christmas was fun, busy, wonderful, exciting and memorable.  It was our first Christmas in the new house.  There were questions like, "where do we put the tree?" and all of the other things that get strung about during Christmas.  The month was busy with school projects, and wrapping up the semester but the kids finished up ready to go to a nice, long break.

One weekend we went sledding in the Jemez mountains with some friends and had a great time laughing, trying not to get hurt, drinking cocoa and staying warm.  There were also lots of movie nights, endless treats, games, our yearly puzzle, playing with friends, decorating gingerbread cookies and houses.  Phew!  And after the super dry winter we had last year, the nice snowstorm we had was a welcome change.  The boys made an awesome snowman before they clobbered each other with snowballs.  Just being home, cozying up to the fire and enjoying the nice stretch of down time with the whole family was wonderful.




On Christmas Eve, we gathered together to read Luke 2, sing some songs and the boys put luminarias out front while I cooked dinner.

Christmas morning was wonderful, relaxing and cozy, full of fun and surprises. The boys woke up to fun gifts from Santa, followed by gift giving and receiving from loved ones.  We even managed to convince the boys to stay upstairs (and away from gifts) til about 7 a.m. That has to be a record!

It was a Merry Christmas indeed, and we are all so thankful for the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ so long ago. We love this little family of ours and hope they always understand and remember why we celebrate this special time of year.


New Year's was a nice and mellow night at home.  We watched Nacho Libre with the boys, and they all loved it and are constantly repeating punchlines from the movie.  Oy.  While ringing in 2019 we also ate too much fun food!  2018 was a year with ups and downs but mostly ups.  We are looking forward to the new adventures that 2019 may bring!