Hiking with Friends

The boys and I went on a little hike at our friend Alex's house. She lives on a ranch with horses, cows,2 huge dogs, and several acres of land to explore. All the other moms had little babies about Sam's age. Ben didn't seem to mind being the oldest. We were just a little slower than the rest. Ben was so busy looking at bugs and poking things with his stick to be in a big hurry.Sam just enjoyed the ride in his backpack.

Alex and her dogsWe stopped to have a little picnic before heading back. Sam had a nice little nap on the way back along with most of the other babies.Ben got to name one of the calves. He named it Huh. That is his response to most questions so after asking him 5 different ways of what he wanted to name it the answer was always the same "Huh" so that is its new name. Sorry Huh, I hope you will someday like your new name!

At the end of our hike Ben got to sit on a horse for the 1st time. He didn't want to leave after that. He still talks about getting to see the cows and the horses.Thanks for the invite Valarie and Noah!!!! We had a blast!!!!

Butterflies

Last month we went to Elwood Butterfly Reserve. It is a really amazing place that monarch butterflies migrate to each year. The boys had a great time. They both love being out in nature.After looking at all of the butterflies we met up with Valerie, Micheal, and baby Noah for lunch!

Under God

Several months ago I started teaching Ben the Pledge of Allegiance. He was getting pretty good at it with a few little funny slip-ups. He would say "one dalmatian dog" instead of "One nation, under God."

Well, we stopped practicing and I haven't said anything about it for a few months. Then one day Ben came up to me saying,

"It's under God! It's under God!"

To which I quickly responded "huh?" He then led me to the couch and started looking under it. It turns out that he put some of his cars under the couch and he remembered the word "under" from the Pledge of Allegiance so naturally the word that comes after "under" would have to be "God."

Since that day, any time he says"under" it is always followed by "God."

At any given time this is what it looks like under our couch.
Today's count

• 13 cars
• 2 people
• 5 marshmallows
• and a lens from a pair of sunglasses

Hugging Sammy

Ben is just now starting to ask to hold Sam. I guess he finally realized that Sam was actually living here. It is actually really cute, he says "hugging Sammy" and that means he wants to hold him. For some reason he mixes the words hug and hold. One day I was in the bathroom and heard Sam start screaming. I ran into the kitchen to find him laying on the tile floor next to his bassinet. Apparently Ben wanted to hug Sammy when I wasn't in the room. Yikes!! Other than that he is really good with him. I love my boys!

Picnic in the Forest

In our neighborhood we have a little nature trail. We call it the forest. A few weeks ago Ben's friend Talon came for a playdate. We decided to have a picnic in the forest. The boys loved eating on the blanket under the trees and then playing with balls,rocks, sticks, and any other boy thing we could possibly find on the path. I love our little forest!

A Little Visit

Yep we had a little visit from the Fire Department. This was actually back in December. But it is too funny not to blog about.

I was in the middle of painting Christmas trees for our ward party. I had my friend over with her two kids and my two kids. Needless to say the house was a little crazy. As soon as everyone left I finally sat down on the couch for a little break but to my surprise I could smell GAS, and a lot of it. I realized that in all the commotion at the house somehow the gas burner had been bumped and left open spilling gas into the house. We turned it off, opened the windows and got the kids out of the house. We weren't sure how long we needed to stay out of the house so we tried to find the # for the gas company. When we couldn't find that we decided to just call the fire department. They were so great to come and rescue us. By the time they finally got to our house the fumes had pretty much cleared out. I hope we don't have to call them back to the house for a very long time!!!!

Jump Jump

A few friends got trampolines for Christmas.
We found out that Ben loves to jump.

Not surprising at all.

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.