The Big Day

On Monday we decided to start potty training Ben. I put him in his underwear for the first time when he got up from his nap at 3:00. At approximately 3:20 I was scrubbing poop out of them.

This is going to be
SO AWESOME!!!!

Thankful Thursday

All right here is another random thing I want to do on my blog when I think about it. You know along with Movie Monday, Wordless Wednesday, and Flashback Friday. It would be great if it happened every week but who am I kidding I have two kids and a lot of other things going on in life that I'll tell you about some other day.

Thankful Thursday is going to be a post where I let you know about something I am thankful for. It may have a story with it or it may just be a picture. Who knows. Our current missionaries encouraged us to study about gratitude and through my studies I realized I have a lot to be thankful for. Some really big things and some that may seem a lot smaller.

Today I am thankful for my friend Emily. She invited us over so Ben could torture her cat. No really, that is what she wanted him to do. She is expecting her first baby and wants the cat to be used to the abuse it will some day get. So what better kid to come over than my Ben. He did his job perfectly! As soon as we could get the cat out from hiding under the couch Ben began to hug the kitty as if it where his own. The kitten was very patient for a long time. Eventually he scratched and bit Ben and we knew our playdate was over. :0) Yep, that is the cat's tail in Ben's hand.
Thanks Emily for being a good friend and letting Ben have the time of his life with your poor little kitty. We can't wait to come back!

Mr. B

Sam I Am

Christmas Eve and Day

Me and the boys took off to my parents house on Tuesday so we could spend time with them and my brother Brad who came home all the way from Hawaii. We always feel so blessed when he comes to visit. It was so awesome to have the whole family there for Christmas. Tom couldn't come until Christmas Eve after work. We had a lot of fun that week. Brad and I took a trip to visit my grandparents which are Ben and Sam's great grandparents. Ben loved playing with their new dog Pooky and driving great grandpa's golf cart.Grandma had a great time loving on little baby Sam. And her other baby.
Ben had so much fun playing with his uncles. They would get him so wound up. He still talks about both of them a lot. Brad is so amazing with babies. He helped me out so much while Tom wasn't there. He is going to make a great dad someday.
This was our first year doing the nativity with all of the great grandchildren. We had to throw their costumes together at the last minute. For our first year and trying to do it with four 2 year olds I think the kids did pretty good. Leah wouldn't put on a costume and Ben didn't want to sit and wouldn't give up his pretzels (He gave one of them to Baby Jesus as a gift from the wise men). Sam slept through half of it. I think it is things like this that make it such a great family memory. I have already started working on costumes for next year.
Ben had a lot of fun unwrapping all of his gifts. Each time he would start to open one he would say "Is it a car?" He was right about 3/4 of the time.

Santa didn't come to my parents house he left the boys' presents at our house. So the next morning when Ben got up it was like Christmas all over again. Ben loves his new bike! Thanks Santa.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit!!!!

I really wish I had done more to get in the Christmas spirit. I feel like I spent all month getting ready for the ward Christmas party I hardly had time to do anything else. Here are a few things we did.
Visit to Corona
At the beginning of the month the boys and I went to my parents' house and went to their ward Christmas party. The theme was "A night in Bethlehem" we had to come dressed up in Bethlehem attire. We didn't have any so my mom worked hard to get us ready. Sam and I where the hit of the party. He looked so cute in his swaddling clothes.Lights
We also got together with some friends to see the lights in town. Thanks Denise for getting us together. The boys LOVED it. Ward Christmas Party
Our theme for the Ward Christmas party this year was "Believe" with a tiny bit of the Polar Express along with a Whimsical Christmas. If that makes any sense at all. Basically it was a breakfast with the decorations being whimsical colors and the program being about the book "The Polar Express." It went really well. I was really glad when it was all over. We shared decorations with 4 other wards. Which is the best idea ever, because then you don't have to spend as much money and you don't have to do all the work. It was awesome. Our ward painted all of the big trees. We had 6 Styrofoam and 4 canvas ones that were 8 feet tall. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. I didn't get very good pictures of them sorry.

The Food
Activities committee made eggnog-french toast and the ward members brought cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, and other yummy goodies.

The Program

The Decorations

I made this sign about 30 minutes before I had to go. I love having a Cricut! Gift from Santa My Family and FriendsSam got passed around from person to person as Tom chased Ben around and I ran around making sure everything was going smoothly. This is my neighbor Valerie and her family. She helped us paint all the trees.
She is such a good friend!The only way we got Ben to sit on Santa's lap was bribing him with a candy cane. (he will do just about anything for a candy cane) It was a big improvement from last year. Don't you love Ben's matted down hair from all of his sweat. He had a great time running around the church!Ben's picture last year.Isn't my little man so cute!!!!