Progressive

This is probably just evidence that Benjamin watches too much TV, but it's so cute I couldn't resist posting it. He gets so excited every time the commercial comes on and talks along with it.

Benjamin Turns TWO

Benjamin had a great 2nd birthday! First thing in the morning we opened presents. It took a long time to open just a few presents because he would tear off a tiny piece of wrapping paper, look at it, hand it to mom or dad, get distracted with a book or a different toy, then go back to the present and tear off another little piece of wrapping paper and start the whole process over again.









Benjamin got lots of train things including a Thomas the Tank Engine video, plate, bowl, and bath toys and an alphabet train that sings songs and teaches letters, numbers, and colors. It's designed so Benjamin can even ride it! He also got a bowling set, some blocks, a bubble blower, Sesame Street and Bob the Builder videos, some money, a personal DVD player so he can watch shows in the car, and last but not least a new bed! He got Cars sheets to go on it too. He loves having new toys to play with and is really enjoying his big boy bed. He should be used to it by the time the new baby gets here.








After we opened presents, Benjamin helped mom make his birthday cake. In this picture he has the beater in one hand and the spatula in the other hand. The cake was Funfetti so all the batter he got all over the place doesn't really show up, but he was very messy by the time the cakes made it in the oven.






I made five train cars out of mini bread pans and decorated them just free-hand. I think it turned out very cute. I made the wheels out of mini Oreos.







Conductor's Car - the smoke stack is Gummy Lifesavers and mini marshmellows, the conductor is an M&M with blue frosting for his hat.



Coal Car - the Coal is Oreo crumbs and chocolate chips




Passenger Car - the people are made of orange M&Ms and their features are done in frosting.




Circus Car - Animals are made of mini animal crackers (Animalitos) and the bars are just piped frosting




Train Car - Just piped on words




Benjamin loved his cake and enjoyed eating it almost as much as he enjoyed destroying it!

If you look closely you'll see Benjamin has RED frosting all over his face, hands, and hair even though the piece he got was part of the GREEN car. He even ate all the mini marshmellows before we sang Happy Birthday to him!

Uncle Samuel and Aunt Kami came over for birthday fun and cake and ice cream. It was great to be together for Benjamin's big day!

2 Year-Old Fun Facts about Benjamin

-Weight: 30 pounds

-Height: 75th percentile for his age

-Favorite Words: No, Woohoo, Dad, Go

-Favorite Cartoons: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins

-Favorite Food: Spaghetti

-Favorite Fast Food: Taco Time Mexi Fries

-Favorite Game: Racing down the hall with Dad

-Favorite Song: BYU fight song

-Favorite Passtime: Playing at the park

-Favorite Animal: Bird

-Favorite Toys: Balls, Blocks, Cars, Books

Easter Vacation

For Easter this year we went up to Idaho Falls to be with Rachel's family (like we do every year). We stayed an extra week to spend time with family and friends. We had a great time!

EASTER

This is the best picture I got of Benjamin with his Easter basket. He ran around the whole time so excited. I took his shirt off as soon as he started opening his chocolates.

A sweet picture of Taydom during our Easter celebration.

VISIT TO REXBURG

We went to Rexburg to visit Matt and Korissa and Conner before they move to Washington State in May. Benjamin and Conner had fun together, especially since Conner's house was being packed up to move. Here they are on a mattress.

We tried to take a nice picture of the two boys sitting on the couch. I took about 20 pictures. This was the best one we got.

On the mattress again!

Helping Aunt Korissa vacuum with Conner's two toy vacuums.

FEEDING THE DUCKS

Benjamin got SO excited to see the ducks. I pulled him out of his carseat while he was shouting "A duck!" over and over.

Benjamin has a pretty good throwing arm when he focuses on letting go of the bread at just the right time. He also had several throws behind his head...at this point he will throw from whatever hand has something in it.

The ducks and geese got really close to people with bread. I was afraid they'd try to eat my toes or my kid, but Benjamin was not scared at all to have large birds so close to him.

Feeding the ducks was probably Benjamin's favorite part of the whole vacation. It was freezing cold outside and Benjamin's face and hands were so red and even Dennis and Rachel were getting really cold but Benjamin still screamed when we carried him back to the car.

SLEEPY BOY

I'm such a mean mom; I make my son eat his lunch even when he's ready for a nap...Ben tried so hard to stay awake and eat his lunch. He didn't quite make it and eventually I just let him nap and he ate lunch later.

Just to show how tired Benjamin was, it's not water in his sippy; it's orange soda. Normally Benjamin will go through just about anything to get a drink of pop but he was so tired that keeping his eyes open was too much to ask.

We had a great time in Idaho and these pictures aren't even everything we did. We visited Rachel's Grandma Ostler and Benjamin loved her cat, Cici. Benjamin liked to grab her tail and pet her with sticky fingers and the kitty didn't mind. At one point Benjamin even tried to sit on her, but she ran away in the nick of time. Benjamin loved to spend time with Rachel's Grandma Thompson and Aunt Ginny as well. Grandma liked to give him treats and Ginny brought him toys to play with and liked to have conversations with Benjamin. We got together with two of Rachel's old college roommates for dinner and Benjamin had fun playing with other kids and really loved the homemade french fries we had! It was a great trip and we can't wait to get back to Idaho again.

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

I had a New Year's Resolution this year that I was going to blog the last day of the month every month about everything that had happened during that month. This plan lasted until the middle of January when I found out I was pregnant and immediately succumbed to intense nausea that lasted all day. All of you who have been pregnant know that during the morning sickness phase everything is basically a nauseous blur and nothing else seems to matter except that you get lots of time on the couch in your sweats. It's been since Christmas since my last blog post and I don't even have very much material to catch up on, but here are a few videos and pictures of how fun life is with Benjamin.

We went to watch Uncle Sam wrestle at UVU and for Benjamin's nap he just slept on the bleachers; he seemed comfy and it was very cute!

Benjamin likes to stack things. He stacks food storage cans, cans from the kitchen cupboards, toys, and anything else he can find. He is pretty good at balancing things and he enjoys playing with his blocks, which are uniform in shape and therefore easier to stack. Whenever his tower falls down he exclaims, "Oh man!"

Benjamin got a tricycle for Christmas and now that the weather is finally nice enough he likes to ride up and down the block, with a little help from Mom and Dad.

We went to our first BYU baseball game of the season and Cosmo was there! Benjamin was SO excited to meet Cosmo and he really enjoyed watching baseball, even though the weather was a little chilly.

We went to the BYU/UNLV game in Provo and the fight song was played enough that Benjamin learned it! We sang it a lot during March Madness and I just had to get it on video.

Temple Square Adventure

We scored some tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert featuring David Archuletta. We left Benjamin with a sitter and met up with Dennis' sister Kami. Our 4th ticket went to Emily Velasquez, a youth in our stake who is a very good sport and who was a lot of fun to have along. The concert was full before we even got to Salt Lake City, as we found out later, but that didn't stop us from having a good time! Our parking pass was for the Church Office Building, which had some interesting things in it...


That's right - there's a CAR WASH in the Church Office Building parking garage.

complete with vacuum and garbage area.


Classic shot of the Salt Lake Temple


Nativity in the middle of the fountain - it was beautiful and there were a lot of (more) professional photographers there taking pictures of it. I felt the sudden urge to purchase a tripod.


Cute Kami at Temple Square


Kami at the Family History section of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. While we were there we saw a few geneology charts that started with just a poor couple in England. One family ended up with 5 Presidents of the US in their lineage and another couple had Shirley Temple, Steve Young, Joseph Smith, Emma Smith, Philo Farnsworth (he invented television), and Lucille Ball.



Rachel and Dennis in front of a really pretty Christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We walked downtown in Salt Lake and saw an historical landmark - the building of the Salt Lake Tribune. According to the plaque we read, the Tribune actually started out as a very anti-mormon newspaper, but it has obviously changed its ways since the beginning. The building was pretty boring so I didn't bother to take a picture. :-)

After we left SLC we went to Burger King for dinner and still made it home by 11. We had a great time with Kami and Emily!

Cute Boy

It seems like Benjamin is getting cuter by the day. His most recent accomplishments:



He learned to shake his head NO. Now every question he's asked he shakes his head no. It is much easier for him to resist bedtime now that he can say he's not ready for bed yet.

Benjamin climbed up on his "dresser" so he could snuggle his snowsuit. He stayed up there for about 1/2 hour and insisted I stay there the whole time. I snuck away just long enough to grab my camera!

Benjamin is learning so quickly! As you can see from this video he loves singing songs and picks up on the motions to songs almost as fast as I sing them. After hearing "Monkeys on the Bed" about 3 times and seeing the motions, he all ready knew how to do the motions.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

TRIMMING THE TREE

Helping Daddy untangle the Christmas tree lights

Benjamin's tree trimming technique was to basically create a pile of ornaments on one section of the tree. Once all the ornaments were on Benjamin wanted to clean them off. As a result there is a very large bare spot on our tree the covers the entire front of the tree within Benjamin's reach.

CHRISTMAS CRUISE

There's a family in west Provo that has the Provo River on their property. They decorate all their land with lots of Christmas lights and boat people up and down their section of the river to look at their lights. We went with Kami and Samuel and it was lots of fun!

Waiting for the cruise to board!

Only in Utah...

BAKING DAY

Kami came to our house and she and Rachel baked ALL DAY. Benjamin helped here and there, mostly with tasting and distractions. However, when it came time to frost cookies Benjamin was right there the whole time with a spoonful of frosting and a very messy face.

Helping Kami make frosting

Frosting cookies

A very messy boy after frosting cookies

The fruits of our labors: Sugar cookies, peanut butter cups, peanut brittle, Kisses pretzels, chocolate dipped pretzels, and chocolate dipped wheat-thin peanut butter sandwiches. Kami and Rachel agree that this display is Martha Stewart-worthy.

After such a long day of baking Rachel was done with cooking so Benjamin had to fend for himself for dinner. Just kidding. In the commotion of dinner Benjamin climbed up on the table and grabbed a frosting knife and a tortilla chip. So cute.

VISITING SANTA AT THE MALL

Basically it was a disaster. Benjamin cried before Santa even touched him. Ben was so upset he did not want ANY pictures with the scenery. This was the best picture we got of him that day.