November 2017

Look who's five!

...which makes her old enough to know that she wants a birthday party with all her friends.

By the time you're a third kid, it's hard to have a party that hasn't been done before, but Sarah came up with a Candyland theme. Because what you need four days after Halloween is more candy. The kids started by coloring in their own Candyland board on the driveway.

And then patiently worked their way through the game.

That afternoon I realized I hadn't seen Sarah in a while. This kid, who never takes naps, was asleep on her floor. It's exhausting being five.

More celebrating that evening with the whole family.

Five years of joy and laughter and frustration and prayer and hope and yelling and noise and love.

All ready to go at the Longmont Turkey Trot.

We ran the entire two miles together. Not sure Naomi even broke a sweat.

Naomi did NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year with the encouragement of her teacher. She set weekly goals for word count and got rewards for hitting her goals. So this day for her reward we went out for hot cocoa. Because nothing gets the juices going like chocolate.

We saw RENT in Denver this month. This is an important show to me. We first saw it together in NYC shortly after Clifton had been given a transfer to Boulder. It was only a few months into our relationship and the idea of distance for young love was hard for both of us.  Calling it quits, or pulling back a bit, may have been safer. But the message of the show, "forget regrets, or life is yours to miss," spoke so deeply to me that night. That I had to give it everything if I was going give this love a chance to work. And here we are, 12 years later, still measuring life in love.

We've had some gorgeous sunsets. Take your breath away sunsets over the mountains.

Clifton's still rehabbing his hamstring injury. He is the most consistent person in the world with his stretches. And Sarah does them with him while they read together. I asked Sarah what we should get him for Christmas. Sarah: "Something for stretching. Daddy loves stretching. He stretches All. The. Time." It's true.

Thanksgiving week fun: ice skating with Daddy.

Sarah didn't need a hand to hold for very long.

Annika got to do her birthday Build a Bear with Aunt Val.

Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot in Louisville.

We ran the whole 5K! Naomi still didn't break a sweat. Me on the other hand...

Meanwhile Sarah walked it. With her hand in her back pocket the whole time. To make sure the penny didn't fall out.

Kid table at Thanksgiving dinner.

My favorite ornament ever. Sweet Little Goatee Baby Jesus, made by 2 year old Naomi.

Out for pizza to celebrate the completion of her novel! I haven't read a word of it, and know only that the protagonist is someone named Callie (the name Naomi almost had).

Small group Christmas party!

Complete with gingerbread house making contest.

Even the adults got into the competition.

We love doing life with these friends.