Little Ben Tidbits

I started this post thinking it would a short and sweet little 5 minute post with a sweet story. The End.

Nope. I kept finding so many cute pictures of our little Benjamin, that I know will bring smiles...so I had to share. :) I am completely obsessed with this kid. If you don't see why then why are you even reading our blog?! ;)

Our little Benjamin is so obsessed with Temples. He gets so excited to see any temple, and is especially in love with the Manti Temple.

We have taken him a handful of times, so he talks about going and touching it, and climbing the steps, and all the other things he remembers about it. He found a little puddle by it once and talks about splashing in the puddle. He also climbed the steps to the big door on the east side. He tells us how that door is locked and when he gets big he can go in. Such a sweetheart!

We took them to the Provo temple after General Conference.

Telling Daddy something terribly important.

Smelling flowers.

We just received the October edition of the Ensign, which was the new Temple edition. Ben is in love with it and wants to look through it before nap and bedtime. He always has to point out Angel Moroni in every picture.

While looking through it yesterday, Ben and I saw the picture of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I asked him the standard question: "Who is that?"

Ben: "Jesus Christ."

Me: "What's he doing?"

Ben (with really big eyes and looking excited): "He holding a spider!!"

I love this cute little guy! He is such a fun little boy who talks so well and is always so happy. He definitely has the same big smile as big brother Ian. He is totally a daddy's boy, which makes me crazy. He likes to say things and then he will say, "Serious." As if he really really does mean it!

He stepped on Dad's feet tonight and it was pulling the hairs on Joel's legs. So Joel goes, "Ben, that's hurting Daddy." So then Ben puts his hands on Daddy's cheeks and says, "It's ok. It's ok." Joel didn't have the heart to say, "No it's not ok! It hurts!"

Ben's current favorites

Favorite book: The Tooth Book by Dr. Suess.

Favorite cartoon: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Favorite automobile: Jeep
He gets very excited now every time we see one.

Favorite animal: Horse


Favorite place to visit: Uncle Alan's house

Best Buddy: Luke

(stuffing their shirts with blocks)

Ok, story behind picture: Ben had taken off his clothes and put on Ian's underwear over his diaper. They were both terribly amused by this and I didn't bother to fix it. Then I was upstairs and they were being really good downstairs! "Really good" is code for "really quiet". I finally went down to see what they were up to. They had taken every container of Playdoh we own - which is a lot - and smashed all the colors together. If you know me and my Playdoh OCDness, you would know that I had to take many calming breaths. Then I had to get a picture of them. They were very pleased with their work, however, I think Luke might have been uncomfortable with the wardrobe choice of his buddy. :)

Favorite place to go: "The new park"


Getting shaggy!

Before

After

Trying to say "Ta dah!"

There we go!

And here's a few more of that cute smile.

He did this one all on his own.

I seriously want to go wake him up and squeeze him after doing this blog post!!

Ian's Favorite Things

It is Friday afternoon. Baby just went to sleep. We've had a very busy week, and now Ian and I just want to kickback and hang out. But we are running out of things to do that are lazy. So, we have decided that Ian is going to add a fun post to our blog. He is 5 now and is the perfect age to share his thoughts on life.

Take it away Ian!!

Ian: "Hot dogs are the best! I wish we did sandwiches instead because I like sandwiches!"

Ian: "The Wii is fun! I like to play Mario and I like to be Toad on it. I like to play with my brothers on the Wii." (mom loves it to because we fight a lot!)

Ian: "I like to jump on the tramp. I can do a bunch of somersaults! Nothing else. Type that Mommy. Nothing else."

Ian: "I like to watch Tom and Jerry."
Mom: "Why?"
Ian: "Because! I just like to!"
Mom: "What makes them funny?"
Ian: "Because Tom always looses. He does!"

Ian: "I like to watch the Pink Panther!"
Mom: "Why?"
Ian: "BECAUSE!!"

Mom: "Bud, I'm just trying to get some cute answers! I'm not trying to bug you!"
Ian: "You are bugging me Mom!"

Ian: "Mom, is Pink Panther the end?"

Ian: "I caught a bunch of Rolly Pollies yesterday and put them in my new bug catcher thing-a-ma-bob."

Ian: "Is that it? Because I don't want to do anything else."

Ian: "I like to see butterflies and I like to see them fly."
Me: "Why do you like butterflies?"
Ian: "BECAUSE!"
Me: "Do you like what colors they are? And do you like to see caterpillars?"
Ian: "Yes!"

(Really in-depth stuff huh? At least Grandma will eat it up.) :)

Ian: "I like all the Characters at Disneyland! Now there's no more!"

"That's hilarious what I said, that there's no more! I like Disneyland. Hehe! How come you're putting everything on that I am saying?"

He is now just leaning on my arm giggling, amazed that I just keep typing everything.

"Mom, now can we put it on the blog? Can you say, 'Now there is no more.'?"
"No, now can you say, 'Super there is no more!'"

"Now go put them on the blog!"

Almost forgot!

I thought I got all of October. What the heck is the point of a blog if you don't put pictures of your kids in their Halloween costumes! Especially since I KILLED myself this year making them.
Literally, I stayed up the entire night. They woke up to find me just finishing up. I made them breakfast, got them off to school, and wanted to crash.

Did I get to? No way.

For some reason Halloween is this never-ending day that is filled with way too much stuff. Not to mention that the day they get to wear their costumes isn't even Halloween yet! Costume day at school kicked off this whole Halloween weekend!

One of the only 2 pictures I have of the costume parade at school
(I am dang sure we never had one of those when we were kids!)

The next day was Joel's work party. Omniture goes CRAZY at Halloween. This past year they were purchased by Adobe, so I think this was Omniture's way of showing Adobe who they are.

The Simpson's couch

Tweety Bird's cage

Neverland

The Flinstones

The Smurfs

Too funny! The CEO flies in a bunch of midgets every year to come dress up and be part of the party! They had wheelbarrows full of Hostess products and they just kept giving more and more to the kids! I think little Luke (the friend that was with us) ended up with like 5 or 6 Twinkies and HO HOS!!

(Politically correct disclaimer: You are SO not suppose to stare at midgets....but COME ON!!! They painted themselves BLUE and then I have to try and not stare?!?! So I awkwardly took a few quick pictures, not knowing if that was nice or not. They are a bunch of professional actors though and they do come for this reason...so I guess they are fine with it.) :)

There was a Ward Trunk or Treat that weekend too...but come on. After all that...BORING!! Cold, dark, and the kids got like a billion pixie sticks. Yep, that sums up that part.

Oh, Dallin was Aramis, Nathan was Athos, and Ian was Porthos. Costumes and makeup by Mom.

Very sleep deprived Mom.

Eventful October

Let's pretend for a moment shall we?

Close your eyes..... it is October. Picture the leaves outside.... feel the cool breeze.... think of the pumpkins on your porch.... wasn't General Conference last week really good? I LOVED Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. He is such an incredible man! I loved that talk.

Have you convinced yourself that it is last October? Good. Now let me tell you about our crazy week this past week!!

Dallin turned 8! I can't believe he is that old! He is so tall and skinny and cute. I love his beautiful blue eyes and that adorable dimple he has when he smiles. (he is going to be SO annoyed that I wrote that on our blog!) So what did Dallin want for his birthday?

Um, no. No flipping way will he be getting a tarantula for his birthday!

He did get an ant farm and some bug stuff, which you can see he loved.

I've told my kids they can have a birthday party when they turn 5 and 8. I really despise doing birthday parties! I hate spending tons of money to entertain other people's kids and then having the stress of pulling it off! Ugh. Maybe I'm a bad, mean mom. Somehow I am sure they will live. So we had his party and invited a crud-load of kids from the neighborhood. It was pure chaos, but it ended up being pretty fun! I let them decorate their own cupcakes and I forgot to get candles. So here is the end result:


Sick sick sick!! Notice the fake teeth that are stuck in the side! And then the 8 "candles". Poor kid...I guess I am just giving him things to tell a shrink someday. :)

(fun photo fact: I had commented on how many people were holding up bunny ears in the previous picture. So note smiley little Ian holding bunny ears on himself. Cute little monkey!)

Next was General Conference. Amazing as always. I love listening to all our leaders speak to us. Unfortunately I swear I have adult attention span problems sometimes! I just seem to listen better if I am doing something with my hands. So I learned how to make balloon animals! :)

Scorpion

Spider
You try putting 2 more legs in there. Doesn't work.

Dallin was then baptized on October 10th. It was such a neat thing to see him take that step and make that choice. I am so proud of him and I hope he remembers how special that day was to him. He got to sing with the 3 girls who were baptized on the same day. They sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and it was so cute. He acts so cool sometimes, it was nice to see him want to sing and be a part of that. Uncle Matt gave a talk.

He was all nervous for his bishop's interview. He survived it, and I heard him telling his little buddy, "Don't worry about your interview. It was a piece of cake." :) It was so amazing seeing how grown up he was that day, but at the same time, I loved seeing that he is still my sweet little Dallin. The pictures make him look so young and sweet!



So, we have been sitting here watching TV while I have been doing this. Joel finally asked what I was doing. I told him blogging. He was just staring at me, "Huh? Blogging? What?" :) Ok! I know honey! I will try to do better! There is more to catch up, but alas, I must sleep at some point. More tomorrow. :)