It's a sad sad day :o(

A few days ago while I was working on that last post, out of nowhere the computer shut off and then made some odd noises, like it was trying to turn back on. I ran as fast as I could to get Tom to take a look at it and by the time the two of us came back in the room it smelled like something was burning. We were lucky nothing was actually on fire, but the computer didn't survive. :0( I feel so blessed that we have Carbonite so everything was backed up. I would have been devastated if we had lost everything, especially my pictures.

So needless to say we ordered a new computer. We should be getting it some time at the beginning of January. So for now you probably won't be getting very many posts from me. We still have the laptop but it isn't quite as easy or as fast as a desktop. I was so far behind to begin with. Will I ever catch up?

Family Pictures

My friend Kim took our pictures this year. She is so talented (she is the one who took Sammy's pictures)

I absolutely love how they turned out. I am still having a hard time picking my favorite. So on my blog I guess I will just put all the ones I like :o)

There are more but I am tired of uploading them right now. I'll try to do more later. She got some really amazing shots of Sammy and I.

The Boys

Ben is finally starting to notice that Sam is here. It is hard to keep him from tackling Sam with hugs when he is on the floor. He loves his brother. But don't ask him about it. He will just stare at you or possibly even glare. He gets this question at least once, every time we leave the house!

If you touch Sam, Ben will run over and push your hand away saying "No touching". He is going to be a great big brother someday.

My 2 year old's teeth

Ben has almost all of his 2 year old molars. It was a rough road getting them. I'm glad they are here. I wish the picture was a little clearer because then you could see his chipped front tooth. Don't ask how he did it. I honestly have no idea :0)

Almost 4 months old

Sam had his 4 month checkup a few weeks early. Dr. said he is doing great!

Here are his stats:
Weight: 13.7 lbs (25%)
Height: 24.5 inches (50%)

Here are some things he is doing:

• Rolling from his front to his back- going to the right
• blowing bubbles~spitting
• cooing
• laughing
• smiling- a lot!
• not sleeping through the night yet. we almost got him to and then I took a trip to Corona and had to start over from scratch.
• grabbing for things
• sucking on hands

Ben's Birthday Party

I know I am about a month behind on this one. Life is my only real excuse on this one.

It was a firefighter theme. I didn't do much with it. I made these cute dalmatian hats for his little friends.

I also made little toppers for the cupcakes. I ran out of red food coloring so my little BOY got pink cupcakes for his birthday :0) The kids didn't seem to mind. Chase and KimberlyTalon and Denise We got him a set of Hot-wheel cars. His face says it all!

He found his hands

Sam has found his hands and loves sucking on them. He will even spit out his pacifier sometimes just so he can have a little nibble.

Movie Monday- Bedtime

Every night when Ben is getting ready for bed he does the "Fireman dance" that he made up. Then he does a couple of big jumps to his dad before we all say goodnight.

My Baby is 2!!!!!!!

How did we get here so fast?
Stats:
Height: 37 1/2 in - He is still off the charts
Weight: 32 lbs - 90%
He is the average size of a 3 year old.
Favorite Food: BBQ chicken
Favorite Drink: Strawberry milkshake from BK
Favorite color: Green (any time you ask him what color something is, this is what he will say)
He can count to 12 but just started skipping #5
He can sing most of the ABC's but only recognizes "S" (any time he sees an S he says "S, for Sammy.")
Favorite movies: Cars, Bolt, Pinocchio, Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Mary Poppins, Finding Nemo, Baby Einstein. (It changes every day)Things Ben loves: run, jump, climb, chase people, look at dogs, steal people's bikes, eat chocolate, do the fireman dance, be thrown in the air, kiss Sammy, be tickled, pizza, wear his boots, get the mail with his dad, visit with his grandparents, put on people's shoes, pick flowers, go for walks, go to the park, go to Costco, play with cars, play with balls, taking a bath, playing in water (tub, pool, gutter, sensory table, sink), oranges, corn on the cob, sing, count, turn on lights, switch movies after 20 minutes, jump in the Lovesac,

Funny sayings: Hi mom, hows it going? What grandpa doing? That's right, that's what happened! I want more chocolate, pleeeeas. (followed by a hand gesture that is a mix of the sign for please and the sign for giraffe.) That's ok, the birds will eat it (anytime he drops food on the floor even if we aren't outside.) I don't think it is. Remember mom? Sammy sleeping (when he says this his voice goes way up at the end).

Ben you are a lot of fun! Our family wouldn't be the same without you.
We love you big guy!

Grandparents 60th

My Grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary earlier this month. Everyone living in California came. We were only missing 3 of the grandkids. I wish we had gotten a big group shot, but we only did individual families. This was the first time my grandparents were able to see Sammy.Ben spent the entire time sprinting laps around all of the tables. I probably should have tried to stop him but everyone needs to be a bad mom once in a while, right :0) I'm glad no one got hurt! We tried to get a picture of the 4 two year olds but they didn't turn out very well. We couldn't get them all to stop moving at the same time. Maybe we will get one at Christmas.

Happy Halloween!!!

Because Halloween was on Sunday this year, we decided to combine several wards together to make a really big Trunk-or-Treat activity. It was a lot of fun! There were a lot of people there. Ben caught on real quick how to say "tic o teet" so that he could get some candy. He always went for the suckers when given the choice.
I have been so busy the last few weeks I didn't have time to blog about my 30th Birthday present. A sewing machine!!!!! It is just a simple, inexpensive one that does everything I need it to. I absolutely love it!!!! So I decided to give my new machine a test spin by making Halloween costumes for Ben and Tom. I already had the pizza and the hot-dog costumes so I thought a "junk food family" would be perfect for us. I made all of the costumes from scratch I even came up with my own patterns for them.

I had a lot of fun making the hamburger. The best part about it is that I made the straps really long so even an adult can wear it. It is entirely made out of felt. The Mtn. Boo can was also a lot of fun to make because I got to try and do some applique. I'm not very good at it yet, but for being a novice I think it turned out well. Tom is such a trooper for wearing it for me. I couldn't ask for a more supportive honey. Ben's little friend Talon came to the party. We weren't able to find them until after they had both finished trick or treating, but I think they had fun any ways. He was a chef. They looked so cute together! Too bad neither one of them is smiling in the picture. They both have huge dimples.
And this is what I looked like the next night. It was only about 7:45 and I was out cold holding my little man's hand!

Carving Punkims

This is such a fun age. Ben loves exploring and trying new things. Carving a pumpkin was the perfect treat for him. His favorite part was playing with all of the tools. Tom cut an ear hole so Ben could pretend to cut while he worked on the face.

By the time Tom was finished, Ben had put everything back in the "punkim" including all of the tools.

While the boys finished carving I roasted up the seeds. This year I tried garlic salt on half of them and Season All on the other half. I really couldn't tell the difference between the two but they turned out really good. Ben loves snacking on them.
Great job boys!!!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch this year. Ben loved running around. I think he would have stayed there all day. I was a little frustrated because he wouldn't stop long enough for me to get a good picture of him with a pumpkin. The only ones he would touch were the ones that were squishy rotting piles of goo. I got a lot of pictures of the back of him as he ran away. That boy LOVES to run. He is a really busy little guy. One of Ben's favorite phrases is:

"What Ben doing?"

I think that is the perfect caption for these pictures!!!!!

Sam had a great time too. He got to sit snuggled up to his mommy and have everyone ooo and aaahhh over his little hat and how cute he is. As you can see we got ourselves a good one!