Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas. We had the girls which was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time at my parents' house over the break hanging out with family.


Cassidy was woken up by her baby brother. I'm sure it won't be the last time.

McKenna very excited about a gift from Santa.

Cassidy helping Ben with his gift.

This was Ben's one and only wrapped gift. Even with other gifts under the tree he always wen't for this one. You can see how one corner has been chewed.

McKenna was very excited about making such a haul!

Cassidy got her own baby that came with a stroller, pak n play, and changing table. She was very excited. We're just hoping that this will keep her destracted so she will leave Ben alone. She is such a little mother-er.

Gracie, Matthew, and Benjamin

My sister Lisa made this adorable scrapbook page. I stole it fair and square. Thanks Lisa!

Happy Thanksgiving

What a great Thanksgiving we had! I could seriously handle having a 5 day weekend every week. I have learned that I have no self-control. I didn't go to bed before 2:00 AM the entire break. It was so nice to stay up and visit with family. I loved the games and puzzles into the wee hours of the morning. However, I do have a baby who went to bed SEVERAL hours before I did and woke up at his normal time which meant his normal early morning giggles and smiles while I fought for just a "couple more minutes". We went to my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving. Scott's, Laura's, and Lisa's families all came. We sure missed Steve's and Eric's families. Steve and Catherine will be coming for Christmas though. I can't wait to get their little Matthew with Ben. I'm sure they will have a great time. Ben and Graycie had a lot of fun (well Ben did). Every time we put them together on the floor, Ben thought Graycie was his personal squishy toy. He would scooch over to her and grab and paw at her. He had a fabulous time! Graycie was like "Get this little beast away from me."This is my niece Kimberly and her fiance Brian holding the sweet baby cousins. Just a cute picture of Ben and his baby blues.Ben decided in the last couple days that just lying on the floor wouldn't cut it for him anymore. He is on the verge of crawling. On Thanksgiving he would scoot around a bit with his arms, the next day he was getting his little legs under him, and by Saturday he was up on all fours rocking back and forth. We figure we've got about one more week before complete destruction of our house begins. So on our list of things to do this week is complete baby proofing the house. That includes outlet covers, screwing our bookshelves to the wall, putting all our DVD's in a safe spot, putting child locks on the cabinets, and praying for patience. Make no mistake when you see those sweet baby blues....this little guy is out to conquer the world and nothing will hold him back.

I can feed myself...well maybe not.

Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Benjamin Franklin are all fabulous, well known inventors. But tonight I'd like to give props to the guy (or girl) who invented the bib. This guy is under rated. Tonight I introduced Ben to green beans. It was an instant hit! Contrary to what it looks like, I even got some in his mouth. After dinner I hosed the bib out, cleaned up his face, and was good to go. I thank you bib-inventor man. I'm sure mothers everywhere can agree.

Christmas Disco

Here's a fun little video we made. Hope you enjoy. The girls sure do. We have to play it over and over for them. Enjoy

Cookie Monster

The missionaries came over for dinner last night. For dessert Cal made cookies. As I was eating one of the tasty treats, Ben kept trying to grab it. So I thought, what the heck...I'll give him a little taste. He LOVED it, to say the least. Obviously he'd have a tough time sneaking them due to the evidence on his face.

Trunk or Treat

Our ward had their annual Halloween trunk or treat. This year was so great because it was beautifully warm outside. My friend Kate came with me this year. She brought her two daughters, Emma and Ava and her little boy Sawyer.

Here's Ava and Emma in the back of Kate's suburban after they got their loot. Ava decorated the back of the trunk. I needed an Ava because mine lacked any Halloween festivities.

Sawyer loved it. He would eat grab a sucker, lick it a few times, hand it to me, grab a new one, and start the whole process over again.

Cal isn't dressed up. He actually went with the youth to do baptisms for the dead and then he came over right after that. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of the girls, but Cassidy was a kitty, McKenna was a cheerleader, and here's my little octopus.

Mmmm....sweet potatoes

Ben is an official baby food eater now. Okay, so maybe he hasn't perfected the art of the spoon, but I'm sure he'll pick it up quickly.

6 month check-up

Baby Ben is getting so big. He weighed 14 pounds at his 6 month check up. The girls came to the doctor with us and felt so bad that he had to get his shots. Then the nurse gave them each a sticker and they quickly recovered. His sisters do love him.

Happy baby

My sweet little baby Ben is just so darn happy. I took this video with my cell phone so it's not very good quality, but the sound is great. There's nothing better than the sweet sound of a child's laughter.

Bouncin' baby...

Ben is at the point where he is a little "less than enchanted" with his swing because it's just not very exciting. If I put him in his bouncy seat he is the happiest kid ever (even with hiccups). If you've ever had the chance to hold my little guy, you totally know what I'm talking about. He is so incredibly active, and definitely not a snuggler. So if any of you moms out there have a snuggley baby you want to loan out so I can get my fix, I wouldn't mind. Ben's idea of snuggling is jumping on your lap and flailing his arms about. It's like cuddling with a pogo stick. Picture what he is doing in this video, but just on my lap. It's actually difficult to get good pictures of him because he's so wiggly. No wonder he's so strong!

Preparing for the circus

We figured if our economy collapses we better have a back-up plan. So Cal has been working on some circus skills with Ben. You should see Cal juggle Ben and a couple of the neighbor kids. :) Okay so maybe I was a titch sarcastic, but I did want to showcase Ben's sweet skills!

McKenna was sad she wasn't in the video so she had Cal take this picture. Then while I was making dinner, she made this this little arrangement of books and a teddy bear on our bed for Ben. Ben has some very sweet sisters and is a bit spoiled.

What a babe!

I found this website from our friend Geoff and Miranda's blog. I tried it out with a picture of Cal (didn't want to embarrass myself). This is picture of Cal in 1976. So freakin' funny. The ladies would have been all over him. Try it out and please share!

Ben loves the shower

We learned early on the Ben is not a big fan of bath time. So one day we decided to put him in the shower with one of us, and he LOVES it. He's a slippery little bugger, so we have to be really careful, but he talks and laughs the whole time in there. Cal showered with him tonight, and I took some "careful" shower shots. Yep, those are Cal's hairy arms in the shower, not mine!

After his shower we put him in his cozy little jammies and took another picture. He's getting so big!

Just one of those days....

Gourmet chef!?! How about some nachos? I thought we'd have a little football snack and was going to make some nachos. Apparently microwaving the cheese was a bit to much to ask for. I hate it when you can't blame anyone else for the mess but yourself! I thought I'd post the picture for everyone's enjoyment.

Any similarities?

Future prophet or Jedi Master???

Family Pictures

We went to Sears today to get our family pictures. They turned out so adorable. So I've decided to post a little sampling. Please act surprised when you see the same picture on your Christmas card. Cassidy fell yesterday and hit her lip on the corner of the stool. You can tell that it's swollen and black and blue. Poor girl.

Finally...

I'm sure everyone gave up on my blog, but I've finally got caught up. 7 posts in one day! Wow.

4 month check up

We took Ben to the doctor last Monday for his 4 month shots. Poor guy. He also got weighed and measured. He weighed 11 lbs 11 oz and was 23.5 inches long. The doctor was so impressed with how strong he is. The good news is that he's finally on the chart. He is in the 10th percentile for his height and the 5th for his weight. He's still in the 25th for his head circumference. He's healthy and happy we couldn't love him more.

McCall Idaho

Melissa and Craig invited us to go to McCall, Idaho with them for the weekend. We stayed in his mom's timeshare. McCall is a beautiful town, and I can't believe I had never been before. We swam in the pool, watched Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal in the Olympics, and played at the beach at the lake. Thanks Melissa and Craig. We had a blast!

Poor Ben fell asleep before he even got into the pool. When he woke up, we put him in the pool, which he didn't love because it was too cold. He loved the hot tub. It wasn't too hot so I let him splash his little feet all around.

The girls spent a lot of time in the hot tub. We were in the hot tub with several other people when McKenna proudly announces that she thinks the hot tub is really good for her ring worm. Yeah, that was a little awkward. She has a cat at her mom's house that gave them both ring worm.
Here's a view from the beach. The girls had a lot of fun playing. They built sand castles and played in the water.

We stopped at Maverik and got some frozen yogurt after we drove around the lake.

Ben's name sake

Cal's best friend, Ben Love, is who we actually named baby Ben after. He is an old mission companion of Cal's and has been a really good friend. He and his wife moved to Tennessee, where Ben is actually from, about a year ago. (We're very sad!) He and his wife Natalie came to Idaho to visit family and go to the Twin Falls temple dedication. (Natalie is from Twin) While they were here we got a couple of pictures of big Ben and baby Ben. We truly hope our little guy turns out to be as great as his name sake.

Nat and the Bens

Baby Ben had so much fun with them while they were here, that he crashed on the couch after they left. He was pooped out.

Reed's Dairy ice cream

One of our favorite summer treats is the delicious ice-cream from Reed's dairy. We went one evening with our the girls and our neighbor Yancy and his son Kaden.

Ben even got in on the action. Chocolate wasn't his favorite though. He loves grasshopper which is mint with oreos and caramel. Mmmm...yummy! Ben is getting very talkative. I love it when he talks to me. Now he is laughing all the time, but we don't have video of it yet.

Mmmmm....daddy shared his ice cream.

Time with G'ma Lynne

Cal's mom spent the week with us after the blessing. We headed up to Island Park to the cabin. Cal and the girls spent time doing the "iron beads" making fun shapes. Grandma Lynne also did a few of them, but we didn't get a picture of her.

Grandma Lynne spent a lot of time at the cabin taking care of little Ben for us. It was so nice to have her around. Ben got pretty spoiled and had a hard time going back to not being held all of the time.Here is a picture of the girls all tucked in bed for the night.We drove through Yellowstone National Park. It was a lot of fun. We had a picnic and saw lots of animals.

Here is a picture of our sweet and maybe a bit grumpy girls at Old Faithful.

We were so excited to see Buffalo. Cal's mom had never seen any before.The girls spent a lot of time in the truck that day. That night during prayers Cal was helping McKenna say her prayers. He would say "we're thankful we could go the Yellowstone" and McKenna would say under her breath "we're thankful we could be so bored in the long car ride". She failed to see the enjoyment in the beautiful road trip.Gas prices made the trip a little less fun.

The girls played on the four wheelers after we put them back in the shop.Grandpa asked us to bring his pontoon boat home from the cabin, so the girls couldn't resist playing on it before we loaded it into the pickup.On the way home we stopped at Mesa Falls. Here is Grandma Lynne and her sweet babies.