Ben too!

Last but certainly not least of my three, I'm so grateful for my Benjamin. He is growing up so fast, he just amazes me with the things he learns and remembers from day to day.  He can be so sweet, but also so sassy when he's not happy with you, the little booger.  

A little Ben story... Ben is a Bill Cosby fan. Dave showed him old Cosby show episodes and taught him that Bill Cosby was the one who made the "Little Bill" show and books that he likes. So Bill Cosby is cool. Ben points him out every time we watch Little Bill (he's in the opening segment).  We recently got this Bill Cosby movie, Fat Albert, which I love because I liked the show as a kid (MY dad was a big Cosby fan). Ben LOVES it, he has a lot of it memorized, it's crazy. We've had to start saying no when he wants to watch it sometimes because it was getting out of hand. But it's cute- Ben and Chris will play Fat Albert by pretending to come out of the TV (using a pretend tv, thank goodness). You should hear him sing the theme song. He loves it.   Early on, he'd sing the song and sing "Fat Albert" but when he'd ask for the movie, he'd say "Fat Wilbur" instead. I kept telling him it was Fat Albert, but he'd always mix it up (he knows the name Wilbur from a Noggin show, but never has known an Albert!). One day, I said, Ben- it's Fat ALBERT, not Wilbur, and he told me-- "You know Mommy,  you CAN call him different names"... guess he was tired of me telling him.

More things I love about Ben right now...

I love when he acts all grownup. He always surprises me with the things that come out of his mouth.

When he decides to be agreeable and is all smiles. Like at bedtime. Then he gets everyone else cooperating: "Come on Chris, let's go to bed! Come on Mommy, Come on Daddy!"

The way he is always singing something. He knows so many songs and has such great pitch. He also will sit at the piano or keyboard trying to pick out song melodies.

His love for Jonathan and how he can always make him smile and can usually help him to stop fussing if I'm trying to get a bottle or something. He's such a great big brother.

He could eat peanut butter sandwiches every day for lunch (which we pretty much do) and be happy as a clam.

He has the cutest little sense of humor.

Lately he has been really into sounds and learning to spell words, and it's so awesome to watch him grasping that concept. He wants to be able to read his books. 

This one.

I wrotethis  yesterday, but didn't have access to my photos and I couldn't post it without one!

I'm grateful for all of my boys, but today I'm going to write about my Christopher. This afternoon after nap, he got his first bandaid that he can remember (besides shots). He was so scared about the bandaid, like it was something that would hurt, but then he just kept looking at his bandaid clad toe after that. He had come to me after naptime limping, and I asked him what was wrong. He showed me his foot and there was a bloody scratch on his little toe. I kept asking him how it happened in a million different ways, trying to get info from this little 2 year old guy. He kept saying "Dora game" and pointing to the game up in their little game cupboard. I kept saying, did a game hurt you? That game didn't hurt you... How did you get hurt? He kind of had this sheepish look like he didn't want to get in trouble... FINALLY, I got it, as I put on the bandaid. Did you hurt your toe climbing on the shelf to get the Dora game? Bingo. He didn't get in trouble, I just hugged him and told him I was sorry he got hurt and that if he needed a game he needed to come ask Mommy so he wouldn't hurt his toes. He is such a little rascal but so cute.

Some things I love about this one at this age:

If he has pj or sweat pants on, one leg is invariably pulled up just below the knee, LLCoolJ style.

He is obsessed with Apple TV, and anything that has the Apple logo on it. When we see/hear/sing anything he has seen or heard on the Apple TV, he tells us "Dats Appow TV!"

On a related note, he calls his Aunt Jeanne "Apple Jeanne"-- we don't know why, and it was before the Apple (Mac) fixation, so I don't think that's it....

He loves to fix things or figure things out, especially things with batteries or buttons. He loves to take the batteries out of the xbox controllers and put them back in. His new obsession is playing various Christmas CD's in our little portable CD player.

He has gotten so much better at communicating complete thoughts. Also, singing most of the words to songs, he's awesome.

His two favorite movies lately seem to be Alvin and the Chipmunks, especially the "Bad Day" song at the beginning of the movie; and Fat Albert. And he can totally sing the FA theme song. 

At Halloween, everything he saw Halloween related (especially pumpkins) was "Haoween!!!!!" At the pumpkin patch, he walked around touching each pumpking going, "Haoween, Haoween, Haoween...."

He has to get both sippy cups from me so he can take Ben his. The he says "Hee go Ben, hee yo maowk" (milk) 

I love his little prayers, how he tries to say the stuff that we say when he's really intent on the prayer (sometimes) and especially how he says Amen "Ah-neh"

There are probably a million more, this is all I can think of for now...

A new look for the blog...

New header for Thanksgiving

+ a cute sidebar w/ new pics of the littles :)

Free photo book!

Got photos?

I wanted to pass this along to any possible readers of my blog. My homegirl Oprah (okay, she is a little weird, but in all I think she's cool and would totally go to her show given the chance) had a show about organization and one of the tips was about organizing all the kids' art (scanning it and making a book). So, Snapfish is giving away a free bound photo book --20 pages, 8x11, custom cover. I've never printed with them before, so I don't know about the quality, but it's FREE ($29.99 value), so there's bound to be something cute everyone can do with it. Pass it along to your friends too, but hurry -- it's a quick deal. You have to put the deal into your account by Friday night and order the book by Sunday night. That's the catch. But hey, if you can finagle it, it could be one gift down for Christmas! Last year, I made (free) Shutterfly books for my boys telling them about when they were born. They love them.

Just go to Snapfish and login or create a new account. If that link doesn't take you right to the Oprah offer, go to the homepage and click on the circle for Oprah viewers. 

If you want the tips from the Oprah show, you can read them here.

Also, on the same subject, have you heard of Artscow.com? I guess it's a new photo site. Again, no clue about the quality, but they have some free and cheap stuff too, totally worth trying. If you sign up, you get 1200 free prints (600 4x6 and 600 5x7's) and also you can get a 20 page photo book (8x8) for only $6.99 w/ free shipping.

Hopefully the quality is good, or at least good enough! As far as mail order photo stuff, I've only tried Shutterfly and Winkflash. Shutterfly is pretty good, Winkflash, not so much. I guess it's hit and miss.

My Sissy

I tried to find a picture of my sister and I together, and this was the best one. I love how we are just cracking up.  Such a good memory- a time when we weren't super close doing stuff together much, but we went to this concert together and met the band earlier in the day and it was so so so much fun. She's the one next to me who looks Hawaiian, there are no blondes in our family- the top girl we met that day and we all got a picture together. The guys on the bottom are the (former) Utah band, Colors.

I feel bad because I told my sister Emmy that I'd call her back earlier and then I forgot. Now I'm going to post about how grateful I am for her. She is the best sister. Growing up, we had a pretty good relationship, but after becoming moms we became closer. We had our first babies within a few months of each other, and have been able to help each other through all the mom stuff. The only problem is that she's back home and I don't get to see her enough. We always say how we wish we could live close and hang out all the time. At least we have the phone, and we're on the same cell plan so we have unlimited talk time! She's such a great person. She has an awesome sense of humor and a fun laugh. She is an awesome singer (especially picking out harmonies, she has an awesome ear). She has a funny memory--I always remember how she would memorize stuff like movies and repeat parts- I watch Ben do that now, and I figure that's where he gets it from! She also has way cute kids, I especially love that Keaka looks just like her as a baby. She is a great listener, even when I feel like I'm being selfish, she still cares about my problems and gives good advice. She's just a cool girl, and I'm so glad she's my sister and my BFF. Right now she's going through some rough stuff, but she is such a strong woman, she will make it through and will be better for it. I only wish I could be closer to help.

I love you Emmy!

Best buddies

I am so grateful that Ben and Chris are such good friends, and I sincerely hope that this is something that will last them through their lives. They are so flippin' cute together and they have so much fun playing. It helps me a lot, especially since the baby came, that they are able to entertain each other so much. They play well together, and feed off of each other which is hilarious at times. They sing and dance together, often creating their own little band and performing for us. They love to help each other. In the mornings, when I'm getting their breakfast, Chris LOVES to give Ben his milk cup and/or food (we do a lot of "on the go" breakfasts that they can take in front of the tv or into the playroom). Actually, the only way we can do it is for Chris to take Ben his milk, otherwise I'm in big trouble! It's great when one of them is being cooperative, they can usually help the other one cooperate or we can use the other one cooperating as leverage ("okay, I'll just take Ben" or "I'll give yours to Chris"). I love to watch them play together and to see their excitement when they are proud of the other person or when they haven't seen them for a little while. Chris was Ben's biggest cheerleader when he was getting the hang of pooping in the potty- oh boy did we cheer! This is such a fun age to have two boys that are only 14 months apart! When we found out that we were pregnant when Ben was so small still, I was nervous about having two so close in age, but it has been so great (for the most part!!)

Yesterday I found the little tent of theirs that I had been looking for pretty much since we moved, and tonight they wanted to camp out in it. They were so excited to sleep in the tent together. 

Camping out in their tent (in their room) with friends Wishbear and Curious George :)

Unfortunately, it didn't last. I had to run to the store tonight and while I was gone, Dave (poor sick Dave!) had to go up and put them in their beds and take the tent out because Chris kept waking up over and over.

On a side note, just when I was being grateful for our good health last night, Dave comes home this afternoon as sick as I think I've ever seen him. Poor guy. It has just been one thing after another around here! It's just now getting into cold and flu season, right? Oh boy.

Good health

It seems to me that it's the times when I'm not feeling so great that I'm grateful for relative good health, both mine and my family's. Ben was sick this weekend and I've been feeling pretty yuck all day. But tomorrow I'm sure I'll feel fine, and I'll probably forget how grateful I should be for that. I really am grateful that our family is, for the most part, healthy and that we have no major issues.  I probably should show that gratitude more, by taking care of our health better.  

Opportunities for growth

This morning's post was meant for last night, so I'm posting again. I'm grateful for opportunities to grow and change and become a better person. Since none of us are perfect, there are always things that we can do to try harder and be a little better. As hard as it can be sometimes, it always feels good to be moving forward. I love President Hinckley's "Be's":

Be Grateful

Be Smart

Be Clean

Be True

Be Positive

Be Humble 

Be Involved 

Be Still

Be Prayerful

Mommy Super-Powers

(aka timely blessings) 

Today I am grateful for the little boosts that come at times when I feel like I just can't do it, but I have to, because I'm Mommy. There's that saying that the Lord can't be everywhere, that's why he gave us moms? Well, He has to be with moms quite a bit, I think. He's there with me a lot!

Earlier this week, I took the boys outside while the baby was napping, and they were playing on the swings. After a little while, Ben came over to the patio by me and was bringing me tiny purple flowers from the lawn. While talking to Ben and looking at the flowers, Chris slipped off towards the back end of the yard. I looked up and didn't see him, and got up to look around the side of the house. When I didn't see him, I started to run around to the front and was frantically looking around everywhere for him. Chris doesn't respond. You call his name and since he's 2, he sees no reason to respond or come back towards you, he just keeps doing what he does. In that first moment of not knowing where he was, I was beginning to panic. I am a freak about keeping an eye on my kids. I hear too many stories about bad things happening because no one was actually within earshot of little kids. My mind was racing with all the things that could happen before I found him. I kept checking back at the front of the house because of the road, and Ben and I were screaming his name. After the third or so pass of the front yard, the two men in the neighbor's driveway asked if I was looking for a kid, and I told them yes, he's two. They started to run with me and one of them headed toward the back of our yard. Oh yeah, I should mention that we have over an acre, with a line of trees on one side and a bunch of thick foliage along the back end. I couldn't see him anywhere. Anyway, it was only a few minutes from the start to when one of the men found Chris heading around the back of the neighbors fence at the back end of our yard. I ran all the way back there and scooped him up. Here's the super-power: I am so NOT in shape, and I'm not a runner, but I hauled my booty all over our property until my little Christopher was in my arms.  My heart was pounding, but I was able to keep going- total Mommy blessing. It really was a small incident. Scary, but he wasn't far and I knew that despite my panic. But the blessings were there nonetheless.

I've also had a few lovely experiences this week with really gross things. We're still working on potty training, and Pull-ups = diapers lately, so I had him back in big boy underpants. I got to clean them out a couple of times. Then last night, Ben woke up sick, and I had the joy of cleaning that up, three times in a row. But here's the super-power: I have always had the worst gag reflex. It used to be that so many things made me gag, but since I was a teenager, I was pretty good at not giving into the gag, because I really really hate to puke. Since I've been a mom and had to wash out various things from clothes, big-boy underpants, blankets, carpet, etc.... I can totally handle things so much more than before. I get a little queasy, but that extra boost comes, and I can do it.

'Cause I'm Super Mommy ;)

My Sweetheart

I know this is an old picture, but it's way cute!

I'm sitting here tonight all alone, because my Honeybunch is with the Scouts on a campout. Since I'm missing his company, I'm going to post about how grateful I am for this guy. He's a great husband and best friend to me. He tries so hard to be understanding, even when I'm ridiculous. He's very patient with me and all of my.. um, shortcomings. He's an amazing daddy to our little ones. They love him so much. Christopher prefers Daddy when he has the choice. He teaches them so much, and has slightly more patience than I do when they are being little pills. And he loves every minute of being their dad. He is always so excited to introduce them to new things, and he is always so concerned with their development and what the future holds for them. He's a wonderful example to me, he helps me want to be better. He is such a hard worker, when he does work (haha). He spoils me by providing so well for our family so I can stay home with the kids and buy them toys. =) He is amazingly talented and so incredibly smart. I mean, like genius. And I'm not just saying that because I married him. I love to watch him get into his new ideas or get excited about something new that he's learned. I learn so much from him, he's even gotten me interested in history and politics, two things that I never had much interest in. He's such a fun guy, always up for an adventure. And, he's way cute. Not to mention how he still thinks I'm cute, even unshowered and covered in baby puke. I sure love him. I'm so grateful that he's mine forever.

This little baby...

The monthly sock monkey shot to show his growth!

Today I'm grateful for this beautiful baby boy who is four months old today. He is so sweet and happy, just smiling and laughing all the time, always keeping my spirits up. Every time he looks at me, it's like he couldn't be more happy to see me. It's nice to feel that adored. He is snuggly and soft- I just love having a little one again. I enjoy him so much. My friend wrote in my blog comments that babies are magic, and that is so true! I love to watch the boys interact with him, and see his responses. He gets so excited, for Ben especially. I love being a mom.

A Grateful Heart

We had a great lesson on gratitude at church on Sunday that I wish I would have been able to hear more of, but for some reason my little non-fussy baby likes to fuss at church... With Thanksgiving approaching, it's always a good time to take stock and recommit to having more gratitude in your heart. Some other blogger girls have been blogging each day about what they are grateful for, and even though I'm late to jump on the idea, I figure I have three weeks up until Thanksgiving, and I'm going to *try* to post each day about one thing. So that should be 21 up until the night before Thanksgiving. I might have a couple of catchup days, but we'll see how I do.

.....

Today I feel grateful for our country and the freedoms we have. I'm grateful that we are a democracy where each one of us can cast our vote for who will lead us, and as imperfect as the system may be, we are blessed to have that privilege. I've never been one who really follows politics, because it all just frustrates me to no end. However, I was inspired by the energizing of the population to get out and make their votes count this year. I am optimistic, and so grateful for a Heavenly Father who is always looking out for us. We are so blessed.

Watch out, cuz here we come...

...it's been a while but

we're back in style...

My boys LOVE love the Chipmunks. They love the old Chipmunk Adventure with the hot air balloons and the Chipmunk movie from last year. They sing the songs and ask to watch them all the time. So, I thought that would be the perfect choice for Halloween this year, now that we have three! And the costumes were easy enough to make. I took t-shirts (2/$5 at the craft store) and kind of traced the boys onto them and cut them out, sewed them up... the sewing was bad because I didn't want to spend days on it, but they worked! I drew the A on that fusible iron on stuff and cut it out of yellow flannel and ironed that sucker on. Chris' shirt was too long for him, so his hem was done with duct tape, since I didn't have green thread (everything was sewn with white) and I didn't want to have to go somewhere just for that! haha. Good times.

On Halloween during the day, we had to go to the Pediatrician and then we went to Target.Ben wanted to "be Simon" since it was now Halloween, after all- so I had to put them all in their costumes since they were a set. People just kept oohing and ahhhing over the cuteness of these three, and Ben kept saying to me- "Mommy, people SURE love my costume!" 

Backing up- on Tuesday night, we carved the pumpkins we got at the farm. Daddy and Ben did one and Chris and I did the other one. Ben drew the face on his, it was so cute. He was really into the whole thing. 

Chris, on the other hand... not so much. He got as far as telling me triangles for the eyes and a circle for the nose, and then he was tired of the whole thing. He was back and forth wanting to mess with everything, color on the pumpkin with the crayon, etc. But he didn't want to touch the inside. Only wanted to stir the seeds and guts in the bowl with the big spoon I gave him.

You can't see it, but this is Ben after drawing his first face on the pumpkin. It's kind of small, so then Dave helped him draw it bigger. He was so proud of himself.

Daddy and Ben with their finished pumpkin

Mommy and Chris with ours

Then came Halloween night, hooray! We had the family over for dinner, then we all went trick-or-treating. That was pretty short-lived. The kids loved it though. They didn't want the night to end. They were way into the candy, since they hardly ever get it, but the next day they were so over it.

Daddy took them to the door, while I hung back with Jonathan in the stroller. I anticipated that people wouldn't know who they were because the baby wasn't walking around with them as Alvin, but I didn't think that people would be silly enough to look at Ben and think we were trying to be Harry Potter (the glasses). I mean, I'd try a bit harder- Harry never wore a long blue turtleneck, did he? We got it OVER and OVER, and poor Chris- no one had a guess for him. BUT as much as possible, they would tell people who they were, and some of the time I carried the baby. I don't care. Chris was a perfect Theodore and Ben wanted to wear the glasse (plus he's the tall one) so I had to make the baby Alvin.  We sort of had a red hat, but it didn't really fit, and he was cuter without it. 

They were so cute at the doors, saying Trick or Treat and Happy Halloween. I love this picture- you can see cousins Caleb (left) and cute little Oliver who is just over a year old- cute little cowboys!

The next morning, we finished off Halloween, since we were a little late getting going. We had never gotten around to our Mr. Potatohead pumpkins. We made a little trip to a small church pumpkin patch nearby and got some small decoration pumpkins, and two for these babies. The witch I got last year for Ben to do, and this year we found the Pirate too. They loved it. 

It's funny because Ben was content just to stick all the parts in the right holes and leave it. Chris, true to form, had to take all the peices out and put them back in his own way.

And littlest dude wore his "First Halloween" shirt the next day since I kept thinking he'd wear it on Halloween, then he wore his costume most of the day. oops.

One of these days I'll get organized and all of my great plans will be accomplished early and done completely rather than half-way due to lack of time. This year, the Halloween decorations were out of the garage sitting in the hallway for about a week or so, but didn't actually go up until the night before. Oh well, at least they got up. The boys loved it. We're enjoying them for this week too before I put them back. =)

It was fun to see both Chris and Ben really "into it" this year. It was a fun Halloween.

Blessing day at last!

On October 26th, Jonathan finally had his "baby blessing" as we do in our church, where the father or another priesthood holder formally gives the baby his/her name to be recorded onto the records of church membership, and a personal blessing for their life. Usually it is done within the first month or two, but because of my various sickies- it was postponed a couple of times. Earlier last month, Jeanne and Steve and family (Dave's sister) decided to move back to AL from WY, so at that point, we thought we'd go ahead and wait a bit longer so they could be there too. Dave's grandparents came as well, and we were able to have the whole family together, which was really neat. I don't know that we've had that since the boys (Ben and Caleb) were blessed. The men were all able to join in the circle for the blessing. 

Little dude wore the same blessing suit as the other boys, only it BARELY fit since he was a little older. Same thing happened with Chris, actually. Only Ben had to have it taken in temporarily so that he wouldn't be swimming in it!

Dave gave a beautiful blessing, as usual. It's such a neat thing to watch him bless our boys. I love him, he's such a great daddy!

Kisses from Caleb- this kid LOVES kisses.

Wow! All of us in ONE picture? Now this is an event.

All the men who were in the blessing circle. I'm so thankful for all of these wonderful priesthood examples for our boys.

All the grandkids! And they keep on coming!

We are so happy and grateful to have Jonathan in our lives. He is such a little joy! Seriously, his little smile and laugh are contagious. He makes everyone feel happy. He's so easy going, rarely fussy. I love this baby!

Punkin pickin'

Everyone around here goes to Tate Farms for the annual trek out to the pumpkin patch. We went the last two years, and I liked it- but this year we thought we'd try somewhere new, so we headed to Lyon Family Farms just over the TN line. It was such a great little farm. Most everything you find at Tate farms, only on a bit smaller scale (it's not a small place, but everything isn't so packed into the space- it's more spread out). There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't packed. Dave wasn't a fan of Tate's, only because of the crowds, he gets cranky. So this year, we had a much happier Daddy and that made for one great day.

Corn-

Corn maze-

"Hi, I'm a scarecrow"

Pickin' punkins-

Helping Daddy carry the  pumpkins-

Click here for more pictures of our day!

Pumpkin Farm 2008