Dawson turns 4

My baby turned 4!  This boy loves life and loves his family.  He has been looking forward to his 'drum birthday' for months now.  Once, a while back when the subject of his birthday came up, he started his big plans for what cake he wanted...shape, color, frosting, all of it.  The specifics were so funny, and I can't say I've ever seen a drum cake before, so kudos to him for originality!

Mac and cheese was the dish of the night, followed by cake and presents.  He was so excited about every single gift, and the whole night was just fun.  Little kid birthdays are the best!!

A few things about Dawson this year:

*When asked what he dreamed about at night, he still says, "Elephant song."  He's been dreaming that since he was 2.  I still have no idea what this means.  It's a secret!
*When saying prayers, he likes to smoosh the family into one word..."Modashabeck."
*He tells me he loves me.  Lots.  Anywhere, anytime.  Sometimes it's in the middle of the night.  He stands at the side of the bed til I wake up (I usually hear him walk in), tells me he loves me, then goes back to bed.
*He loves his puppy stuffed animals, and when he was 2, he named his little bulldog Walrus Puppy, and the other fluffy-ish one 'Hynena Puppy' and to be honest they both look a little like their namesakes.  Funny.
*When I sing to him at night, usually Silent Night, he likes to sing the last line an octave higher, and he's actually on key.
*He LOVES to draw and color.  He'll spend a while just coloring and will then ask me, "Isn't it beautiful, mom?" He also wants them hung up all over the fridge for all to see.
*He uses words like "terrifying" and "torturing" and "frustrating" ….the words that he uses continue to surprise us all.
*He likes to sit on Corey's back for prayers sometimes.
*He loves it when the family is ALL together doing things.  He'll say things like, "Mommy, I love it that we all went to the store together." He'll thank Heavenly Father for it at night too.
*He prefers naps on the couch to naps in his bed and has for over a year.  He just wants to be in the middle of it all and the noise doesn't phase him a bit.  If he's tired, he'll just lay down and sleep.

We sure do love this little boy.  Happy birthday Dawson!!

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!

Halloween 2018

Our zoo crew sans Asher...where was he anyway?

We did a fun and fitting theme this year.  Simply put, we were the 'Reitz Family Zoo,' because let's face it, most days that's what we are.  Or maybe a traveling circus.  That would've worked too.  Corey and I were the zookeepers of course, and the boys chose an animal.  Beckett begged for me to make him a hoodie costume, so I did my best. We kept the big boy's costumes simple and not too cutesy for obvious reasons, and Dawson was adorable as a tiger complete with a well practiced roar.

We hit the ward Trunk or Treat first on the Friday before Halloween.  There was a chili cookoff and games for the kids.  While we were eating dinner, Beckett plopped himself down at the table and excitedly let us know that he had voted for our chili (#16) about ten times so we had a good chance, BUT, he added, we wouldn't need to worry because he had changed his handwriting each time.  Oh dear.  So when it came time to announce the winning chili (which Corey made this year), I sat and listened as they announced our name. Now, it's not that I don't think our chili was the best because, well, it really was, but I highly doubted that 10 other people happened to vote for ours too.  Um, thanks Beckett!  (And he was so proud of his deceptive handwriting skills)

The kids had a great time running around the church parking lot collecting candy, and Dawson thought it was a pretty great deal.  Being three means that he's remembering a lot more this year and Halloween is starting to seem like a fantastic holiday with all the free candy.

 Halloween day, Dawson and I watched Beckett's costume parade at school in the morning, then that night the Christisons invited a bunch of people over for soup, etc.  It was a nice way to kick off the night before we all headed out for trick or treating mayhem.  Our boys met up with Jake and Noah on scooters and they zoomed from house to house, bags in hand.  Truthfully, I think Dawson hit more houses on foot than they did, but I don't think we could've convinced them to hoof it when wheels were so much more appealing. Corey and I stayed with Dawson and he was thrilled with it all.  He announced proudly that he liked the spooky houses and wasn't afraid, and by the last few houses, he didn't want me to go to the door with him.  "Stay back there mommy."  My instructions were clear, but I still headed to the doors when he needed help reaching the doorbells.  Funny, independent little boy. He announced to us that trick or treating was great, and was so disappointed when he realized the next day that we wouldn't be going again that night.  At home, all the boys organized their loot and had fun comparing treats.  Noah and Jake had cocoa and watched 'It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown' at our place (somewhat of a tradition at this point).

Daddy, 'helping' Dawson with his candy (wink, wink).

Happy Halloween from our zoo to yours!  Can't wait til next year!

Beckett turns 9

Woohoo!  Beckett turned nine!  He's growing up so fast, and getting taller by the second. This boy is full of passion and excitement.  He loves his birthday too.  We celebrated back to back birthdays after moving the same week, and amidst the craziness, we had a great time celebrating our B.  He requested pho for dinner and a Minecraft chocolate cake (kind of a fun one to make actually). Yum!

He loves baseball, Minecraft (obviously), pho, seafood, Legos, star wars, playing on the Wii, science anything, and exploring outside.  We love him so much and love his excitement for life.  He likes playing with his brothers too.  Happiest 9th birthday to you, buddy!  

Dawson turns 3

Oh goodness.  Three already?!  It just kills me.  Dawson's birthday was the first birthday in our new house!  And in the same week that we moved!  This little boy wanted a construction birthday, so we did our best to oblige.  His cake was so fun, and he loved blowing out the candles.  Such a cutie.  I think he was excited about every little thing he opened and loved being celebrated.  Balloons are always a huge hit too.

At three, Dawson:

•  Says sirsty = thirsty, sit be-next to me, the clouds are clapping = thunder, tell it to me = read it to me, pupcakes = cupcakes, who's this = what is this
• Loves to play 'ball hoops' aka basketball.
• Can recite the 13th article of faith.  No joke.
• Loves to walk like a T-Rex.
• Loves dozer trucks (bulldozers).
• Loves to sing songs and seems to pick them up really quick.  Also, he is a bit of a Beatles fan and sings Blackbird and Let it Be.
• When Dawson is saying prayers, all will be well.  He says, "healthy and safe" and "healthy and strong" over and over for everyone he can think of.  We are all pretty healthy, strong and safe.  Thanks D!
• Oddly, when singing at bedtime (usually Silent Night), he likes to sing the last note of a song an octave higher.  Just mixin' things up!
• If you ask him what he dreamed about, it's "Elephant Song."  Every single time!

Happy Birthday Dawson Boy!!  We sure love you.