Choo choo!

We did one of the coolest things today... Rode the Train! Stephen was so excited - trains are the best thing ever! We got there a little early and tried to get a few pictures, but I had the big camera and a child in my arms, this is the best I could do...

He did look at me for a quick second. At least we got his picture by a Diesel Engine!

Here is Stephen sneaking on before anyone said "All aboard!"

We are in the open air car here. He loved this. This was on the way back, after they moved the engine to the other end. We went over to watch the Engine move. I didn't realize that when it passed us on the siding that we were going to make a mad dash through all the train cars to find the engine on the other side. That was funny, but I also found out how many parents (this was a storytime train for children under 6 only) will not get out of your way when your child is an entire car ahead of you.

It was a fun trip. We left later than I thought we would and we were gone longer than I thought we would be, but all in all, it was fun. Stephen was so excited to actually get out at the train station rather than drive by and look at them. He actually threw a little fit this morning after Scott left for work. I had just told him that we were going to go ride on a train and I think Stephen thought that Scott was going without him. Once I told him that dad wouldn't be joining us on the train he calmed right down.

Teething

Bennett has gotten two bottom teeth, but it seems that more are on the way, and they are coming soon. I have been told that, when teething, babies mess with their ears because the nerve there is bothered by the teeth. I remember Stephen always messing with his ear, but Bennett is obviously in a lot of pain, and, of course, we did our best to get a picture!

This is actually a very cute picture, he just looks like his hands happen to be on his ears, but...

...this is what it usually looks like. He holds his head very tightly and cries. Bless his heart, I hope those pesky teeth come in, soon.

(Really, I'm not sure how much more cranky, crying all the time baby I can take!)

some pictures

Here are just a few pictures of the boys! Scott was gone for a few days this week, so I was sure to take lots of pictures so he wouldn't fee like he missed anything!

"Hey Stephen, whatcha doin'?"

Stephen: "I helping!"

My nephew told me yesterday that he has "the best mom ever!" because of the chocolate chip cookies she made. I was inspired. Here is the cookie monster enjoying a monster cookie that I made!

These two were wresting. I sat Bennett up on Stephen's lap and he loved it! "B sit!" is what I kept hearing. How fun!

Tulips!

Yesterday evening, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point with Scott's family. It was pretty fun to see all the flowers. Tulips are my favorite, so I particularly enjoyed it. Most were out, the flowers in the shade have not yet bloomed, but it was still fun to see. My mother-in-law loves to take pictures of her grandchildren, so we have a few to share...

We actually got a family shot! Wa-hoo!

This was at the beginning of the evening, so he was still smiling..

Bennett and I were attached at the hip (well, close enough...) the whole time!

Here is the best part of the excursion for Stephen. All the grassy areas! "Run, run!" he kept saying.

"Yes?"

The grass was starting to get a chilly, but he was a good sport for this photo shoot (yes, there are that many pictures of him in this area). In this one he is doing some sort of hand jive.

Here is Stephen with his most favorite person in the world, "Ga-ma!" His great-grandmother.

Vegas!

We don't really celebrate Spring Break, seeing as how no one in our home is in school yet, but last week, we went on a little Spring Break trip. We decided last week, after finding a good deal, to go to Las Vegas for a few days! It was so fun! We went with another family and the highlight of the trip, for Scott and I, was a night out!

We went to dinner at MESA Grill (Bobby Flay's restaurant) Sooo yummy! Then we went to Cirque De Solel's Ka. Amazing (said in a high sing-songy voice)

We played in the room some

We drove out to Hoover Dam and saw the new bridge. This was right before they walked to the dam. On they way back, they saw a lizard, that was a highlight for Stephen.

Bennett and I had to stay at the car. Oh well. The people watching in the parking lot was fun, at least for me!

Then we went to the Forum shops to see the fish. Stephen was in awe! He just moved from window to window.

But he did sit still long enough to get a picture with mom!

This face of exhaustion (he did not move until morning) was what we all felt like by the end of the trip. We had a great time and actually spent a lot of time in the pool, but didn't get pictures of that. It was too hard to get the camera since we both needed to be in the pool and the boys got mad when we had to get them out. Oh well. Bennett was the cutest thing in the pool, though, so I'm bummed that we didn't get that memory.

Ferrari Races!

We are back! We have been doing a few fun things the last few weeks. One thing we did last week was go to a Ferrari Race! It was actually pretty cool. They were moving around the track like streaks of color. We actually got a few good pictures, I know this looks like this yellow FXX (the racing version of the Ferrari Enzo. Or, as Scott would say, the Ferrari Enzo is the street version of the FXX.) is standing still, but it was MOVING! I had a lot more fun than I thought I would, y'know, not being a car gal.

This one is the new Italia. There were a lot of men standing around drooling. Stephen was finding all the cars and doing his best to dump rocks on them. Notice how Scott is holding his hands down. One guy heard us say that we were trying to keep the rocks off the car and I thought he was going to faint at the thought of it. Ha!

Salty!

if any of you are familiar with Thomas and his Friends, you might recognize the cake we made for the family birthday party yesterday. We celebrated Stephen's birthday along with my brother-in-law's and mine. The cake was really for Stephen, although Brad and I did get our name on the board. Scott really thinks this cake would qualify for the cake wreck blog, but we aren't pros. And this was really the first cake I have ever done like this, so I'm proud of us! This first picture is the demonic face, he is a happy engine, and this isn't Devious Diesel, but it is the best we could do. Then you will see the whole thing. I think it is great. Enjoy! (sorry for the mess around the cake. I took these pictures as we finished it thinking that I wouldn't get any when we surprised Stephen with it - I was right...)

New do

Something other than the birthday party that happened this weekend was my New 'Do! Now, if you know me, most likely when you met me, as you knew me, last time you saw me, etc, etc. My hair looked like this:

If you knew me in high school, it looked like this but with bangs. It has varied in length, but just about always looked like this. Well, when this picture was taken I had had it with my hair. I was actually thinking about growing it out to donate it. I thought that would be a nice thing to do. So, I made an appointment (a new stylist in Park City that my sister-in-law recommended and had a free coupon for...) and asked her what she thought. She got out a ruler and really wanted to come up with a hair style that made it so I could donate my hair, but it just didn't work out so she did what she wanted and we ended up with this...

So there it is. My new 'do. I have bangs now. I hope that I can make it look like she made it look, but most likely I won't. I got a lot of double takes at church on Sunday and I was totally stressed about doing something with bangs! It may look a little like a 'mom haircut' but I'm proud that I'm a mom, so there ya have it...

I'm 2!

Stephen had a birthday last week and I think we have gotten him to say "I'm 2" or something close to it. My sister and her family came up to play on Saturday and we had cake. We went out to lunch and the cousins played in the snow. It was a fairly (as much as it can be with 4 kids under 3) relaxed day and we just hung out and played. Here's the cake...

We also got Stephen a ballon on his actual birthday. Do you think he enjoyed it?

He is still carrying it around like that! Ahh, it really is the simple things that make a 2 year old happy...

cooking

This is the big Valentine's Day post. I'm sure you can't wait. So, my big plan for dinner was to make pizza. Yes, pizza for Valentine's day. A stuffed crust meat lovers pizza that I knew Scott would enjoy. Well, we have 1:00 church. It is terrible. I really don't like it. That is nap time for both of my kids. Stephen is usually too tired or actually asleep and doesn't make it to nursery or, at least, not on time. By the time we get home, Stephen is starving and Bennett is pretty cranky because he just doesn't go to sleep in our arms anymore... This Sunday, Scott ended up needing to stay a little late and our home teachers came over. I was trying to get dinner together, or at least started right when I got home, but my arms were literally shaking from carrying Bennett around (our little 20 pound chunk!) for 2 hours. Anyway - as I was making the pizza dough, Stephen moved the stool over to the counter to make his own dinner because I was obviously not moving fast enough...

He seemed to enjoy his 'cooked' crackers. I had to keep putting the pan in the microwave, then he would put the pan on the stove and move it around. I guess that made them better. He did end up eating a good amount of those crackers and emphatically said "mmm!" after every bite.

The pizza was yummy, but it wasn't ready until almost 7:00! looks like next week we need to go back to a good ole crock pot meal...

5 months

In honor of Little B being somewhere around 5 months, I thought I would post a few pictures. Here is my smiley little boy...

still working on sitting. Can't quite do it alone yet...

He will happily jump or bounce in just about anything that will let him

He is happy, but nap time still is a great time for me..

walk!

WE ACTUALLY LEFT THE HOUSE TODAY! ok - sorry for the screaming. We haven't been leaving much and Mom needed to get out today. The weather was nice (don't let all the snow in the picture fool you) so we packed up on our *brand new* (to us) double stroller and went to The Store and the post office. It was very sunny and oh so nice to be out and about. The boys enjoyed it - unless we weren't moving (Little B). The sidewalks along the way were mostly cleared, but we did hit a few icy/slushy spots that made the ride bumpy. Stephen let me know when that part was happening with a lot of bouncing in his seats accompanied by many "whoaaaa!"s Funny kid.

Counting to 10

I'm proud to announce that my almost 2 year old can count to 10! Let me tell you how it works:

Oooonnnee, twwwwooooo, (them mom or dad has to say three, four, five or he will say one or two for all the numbers), siiick, sey-ey, eighT, niiiine (think of it with a southern twang), tey!

Well, he is working on counting to 10 anyway... This morning I actually got an ey-ah (eleven) after 10! It is funny how excited I am.

Stephen got a Brainy Baby counting DVD from his grandpa for Christmas, he loves it and it is obviously doing a good job!

In other news, Bennett is working on rolling over and he is getting the hang of it. He is such a happy baby most of the time, it is wonderful!

Run away

Well, there really hasn't been that much to blog about. We had a great Christmas and Stephen and Bennett (being the only grandchildren on Scott's side) made out like bandits because of their generous Aunts, Uncles, and grandparents.

I had an exciting parenting moment yesterday... We went to the grocery store as our big morning out. It has been snowing here all week, so we have been inside. We are actually usually inside because of the cold and the baby, but this week there was a real reason. :)

Anyway - once we got to the carts inside the store, I was digging out a cart that will take more than one child - of course it was buried behind all the regular carts. While working on getting us a cart, Stephen went inside the store, y'know, those automatic doors are just too convenient. I saw where he was and knew that he was probably getting little chip bags at the deli (that is what he usually does if I'm not quick enough to get him strapped into the cart right off). I hurried and got Bennett into the cart, or semi since it is so big, and got it into the store. I caught up with Stephen only to see that he was no longer there. "He has to be close" I thought. So I looked up and down a few aisles. I did not see him.

Then I noticed something. All of a sudden, I had 'that look.' You know that look? I've seen it many times before as I have reconnected lost kids with their parents. It was always easy because the parents had 'that look.' I actually wasn't even all that worried. I knew he was in the store. I hadn't gone far enough away from the doors to the snowy parking lot for him to slip by me there. I heard, "Did you lose one? I can see it on your face" (yes, he actually said that, I told you that I had 'the look'). This nice man asked what we were looking for, boy, girl, description, etc. A lady walking by heard the conversation and said, "I'll look this way" and off she went. I thought for sure Stephen would have been in the produce section, he loves to find "appos" (apples) and pull them off the displays. (although potatoes, oranges and onions will do). He wasn't there. The nice lady came back and said she didn't see him. She offered to stay with Bennett while I looked around. The gentleman said he would look down the aisles from the back of the store to see from there. With Bennett being watched, I went outside just to make sure he didn't go that way since "noooooo!" (snow) is so exciting. I didn't see him. I walked in and looked left. There, all the way to the end of the store, in the Pharmacy, I saw him. Stephen was taking things off the shelf. I ran down to get him (mostly because I knew I was holding up some poor lady who was standing there with Bennett and if I didn't hurry, I would have to start the search all over again). I did find it funny that he was taking chap stick off the little pegs. (if you know me, you will find the humor in that).

The nice man and I got to Stephen at about the the same time. I picked him up - listened to two stories from the man on when that happened to him - not even his own kids - and wrangled Stephen into the cart to him saying "walk! walk!" the whole time. It was reported to me that Bennett was happy as a clam and smiled at the lady the whole time I was gone. At least one was happy!

So there you have it - my parenthood initiation to a wanderer. yahoo!

torture

We went to a little Christmas party last night. The real reason we went, well, I brought the guest of honor, aka, Santa. Stephen was even more upset about him being there then he was in the last post. He could be found cowering in the corner as far away from Santa as he could be. It both broke my heart that it bothered him that much, and made me laugh. So, at the end of the evening, as is tradition, someone (this time, my mother-in-law) asked me to go sit in Santa's lap so she could get a picture. This is what we ended up with:

Poor poor thing. I wish we could have gotten it all in one picture, but I think this gets the point across. He did not want me to be near that scary, scary man in red. This is, by far, the closest that Stephen got to Santa on his own free will. And it was to save me. I'm proud of my little boy to overcome his fears to save his momma.

too soon

This is what we thought might happen. Maybe it will be better next year.

Better lights!

Last night we tried something better for lights. We went to Temple Square. It was very busy! And fun. And not fun... :) Taking an almost 2 year old into a large crowd is exhausting. Good thing my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and his wife were all there to watch Bennett so I didn't have to worry about that. Poor souls, I doubt it was any fun for them. My sister and her family also joined us. Add two more kids - an almost 3 year old and a 9 month old. I'm not sure I actually looked up at the lights much. Anyway - we have pictures from this evening, too.

Isn't that lovely?

Stephen was done, we just wanted to be sure to remember this moment...

Bennett was bundled in the stroller and fairly content. At least I think he was. I didn't actually see him all night!

My sister and her family.

We are building memories!

lights up!

Our little town had "A Small Town Christmas" celebration and part of that was "Midway Lights up!" It was the lighting ceremony of main street. I thought it might be fun, so we bundled up and walked to Main Street. It was going to happen at 6:30. I didn't realized that was when the program was going to start. I thought someone would say something like - "Let the Christmas season begin!" Then a switch would be flipped and all the lights would come on. Boy was I wrong. The program consisted of a few people saying a few words. I don't know what was said - I was either chasing Stephen or trying to keep Bennett from crying - Scott was doing the same. Then there were people dressed up like the carolers that Scrooge would have yelled at - they sang a few songs. Then we all sang songs... then we were informed that because of the electrical system - there is no big switch to flip. So, all the families and businesses that 'adopted' a tree were suppose to go to their tree and, on the count of 5, plug it in. So those that were a few trees away could no longer hear the countdown and not everyone who adopted a tree was there. So a few came on at random times and some not at all. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't expect much, but I did expect a little more than that. Anyway, by the time the lights came on, Stephen was no longer interested in what was going on. But we did get pictures!

This was the first annual, maybe next year will be better.

Off the charts!

Bennett had his 2 month appointment today. We have been joking about how much he has grown. He is such a chunk! Well - it is true. He was off the charts for weight. Above the 95th percentile. Wow. We are going to have to start doing exercises now, I guess, maybe all we need is more tummy time. Other facts: Height - 50th percentile, Head - 50-75th percentile. The head is to be expected - there are some large heads in this family, seriously. Everything else looks great. That is the update as of now. I just wanted everyone to know that if you see Bennett, he is huge, it is ok to notice...

Halloween

here are our pictures from Halloween:

Stephen and his cousin sitting by the pumpkins we all carved (they didn't help much - they just played and not even with the pumpkins!)

Stephen was Tigger. Someone at this party thought he was Tony the Tiger, though. This picture was only made possible because of the cookie, notice there is one in each hand...

I think he knows how cute he was, even though he slept through the majority of the trick or treaters that came by.

Here are my boys! They are ready to go out for trick or treating. Bennett stayed with me and handed out candy. Stephen came home tired, but satisfied with what he had accomplished. (Free candy!)