11 Months Old

Tonight I read a sad story and most of the time sad stories, especially about children, really bring me down and make me just paranoid about every tiny little thing that could happen.  But tonight was different.  Reading this story made me feel like I just wanted to take advantage of every little moment, every single day with my son.  What a privilege and a blessing to be his mom.  I wish there were some way to savor and record every single little thing he does, every single smile that crosses his face, every laugh, every sound, everything minute of every day.  Obviously, that is not possible, but I am going to do better and be better at just being there and enjoying the moments I can.  Working makes that a bit hard, but at least I am at home working, so I am very blessed in that way.  Anyway, enough of my rant.  I just wanted to write down the way I felt tonight.

Benson is growing up and things change so fast.  He is 11 months old.  Where does the time go?  I was just watching a video from this month, November 9th to be exact, where Benson started going down the stairs.  The best part is, he was going down head first and it was hilarious.  Then, just 9 days later, there is a video of him going down the stairs correctly (on his stomach, feet first, backing down the stairs).  I just found that amazing.  Babies learn so quickly.  He learns so quickly.  They change right in front of our eyes. This month we have seen tons of that.

Here go the pictures!

 Exactly one year apart....12/5/2011 to 12/5/2012.  Pretty amazing!

 Love this man!  Look at that smile and laugh.

 Benson loves his little ride on car.  We make "vroom" sounds and he laughs and laughs.

 This face is truly perfect!

 He is starting to take steps and enjoy "walking" with mommy and daddy, but still isnt ready to do it on his own

 

 We have started dressing for the cold.

 Benson is obsessed with toilet paper.  I know this is typical at this age, but wow does he love this stuff. 

 

 Benson LOVES his daddy's guitar.  He figured out that he can play it himself and was ecstatic! 

Look at that smile!

 

 Thanksgiving Day!

 His first time seeing the Christmas tree.  He was completely enthralled.

 Baby Boy's first Christmas is coming up.  We can't wait!

Brrr!

His first time eating a banana on his own

 Benson's first self portait

Benson met Santa for the first time.  We figured he would not be a fan since he doesn't like men, glasses, facial hair or hats.  We were right!

Benson's got at least six teeth now.  He is loving cheerios and other snack foods.  He tried spaghetti, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and other fun foods this month.  When he decides he doesn't like something he is eating he spits it right out.  He eats best when we follow him around with food.  I think he just is too busy to eat.  

He is a great sleeper.  He goes to bed at 6pm and sometimes sleeps til 8am.  He naps well, but only at home.  He has spent a few days at Grandmas house while mommy was working and he barely sleeps there.  Poor kid!  He does love playing with Grandma and Grandpa though.  Benson is extra lucky to have so much family around to love and help take care of him.  

Benson has also become completely attached to his mommy and his daddy.  We are the people he wants to be with all the time. When I go pick him up at Grandmas house, even though he has had so much fun, he clings to me and whines if I leave the room. If we are being honest, I quite like it.

We celebrated Benson's first Thanksgiving.  We decorated for his first Christmas and he LOVES all of it.  Every time he sees the Christmas tree light up his face lights up.  He looks at all the decorations with complete fascination. Too bad he is not a Santa fan.  But, I am sure that will come.  We are looking forward to starting our own family traditions as Benson grows up.

This month has been so much fun, as is every month spent with Benson. We cannot believe how lucky we are to have such a sweet, cute, fun, good baby.  We just cannot believe he is almost a year old.  WOW!  Where did the time go?  We are loving this little boy each and every second of every day.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun, how could it not be when it's all about family, friends and food!?  We changed it up a bit this year and didn't do dinner until about 4:30 PM so we had some time to relax.  I got the crazy idea to do a food "craft".  (Yes, anyone who knows me knows this does not happen.)I saw this cute idea on my friends facebook and thought, "why not?".  So, DJ and I ran to the store and grabbed the supplies and came home to attempt making these adorable candy turkeys.

Although they were much harder than expected and didn't turn out nearly as cute as the ones on pinterest, we still had a lot of fun and they were a hit with the little kids AND my family was pretty impressed (like I said, I don't do this kind of thing EVER)

After making the turkeys and before heading over to my parents, we got to SKYPE with all of the Crisantos while they were enjoying Thanksgiving in Washington with Tita Beth.  Although the connection wasn't great and kept hanging up on us it was still so much fun to see them all and let them see Benson.  They could not believe how grown up he's getting.  (I can't believe it most of the time).  Also, Benson's uncle Cowdery was there with his new fiance, Annaliesse, so this was our first time meeting her as well.  It was very exciting.

Then we headed off to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house for the festivities.  There were 28 people in all and it was so much fun.  Benson had a great time at his first Thanksgiving.  He ate yummy food, played with his cousins and just was loved on by everyone.  He was a little scared of some of the men (even his cousin Spencer) but he got over that pretty quickly and we all just had a great time.

Benson and daddy.  Don't ya love the sweater?

Since DJ is at BYU and didn't go home for Thanksgiving, we were lucky to have her join us for the whole weekend.  Ben asked her on the drive home what she thought of her first "white" Thanksgiving and she said, "it was exactly what I was expecting".  I had to ask her to explain, since I wasn't sure whether I should be offended, haha.  She said, "well, we sat at formal tables with all the very traditional thanksgiving foods, your dad had us share what we were thankful for, we had pies and dessert and then played games.  It was just what you would expect, and that's a good thing".  I had to laugh.  It is definitely different than Thanksgiving at the Crisanto house, and I am just glad I get to experience both!  We are so lucky.

Some of the group

First Thanksgiving as a family

There are just no words

The girls showing off their turkeys

The food!

It would not be a Johnson get together if we didn't play games!  CELEBRITY!  Looks like DJ is enjoying it:)

 We did miss those of the family that could not be here with us (Adam, Tonna, Kristen, Nolan, Aiden, Regan and Monika) but it was a great Thanksgiving!

We actually had some of the young uns (18-21 year olds) come over to our house to play video games and I do have to say, I like the fact that I can still hang out with them and not feel like an old fogy!

10 Months Old

 These pictures are a pretty good indication of how much Benson does not like to sit still anymore.  He had no desire to sit on the chair and hold a teddy bear.  He wanted to stand up and jump around.  He is all over the place nowadays and he is keeping us extra busy.

These shots let you know how fast he can go from happy to mad when it comes to his toys.  He was holding a brush and I wanted to not have it in the picture so I took it.  As you can see from the middle picture, he was not happy about it.  As soon as I gave it back, he was his happy self.

This month was full of fun. We took a drive up the canyon to see the pretty leaves the first weekend of October.  We were planning to go to Granny's in Heber, but didn't realize it was closed for the season until we got all the way there.  We made a quick stop at the Dairy King and took a few cute pics with the little man and then drove back down. 

We watch General Conference got to spend time with the family and enjoy the tradition of waffles with ice cream and strawberries.  (we left out the ice cream)

He is really starting to love playing with his cousins

He loves Grandpa

We did a fun little FHE at the Lehi Trafalga.  We did some miniature golfing, which is a definite different experience with a baby.

The most fun we had this month was taking a trip to Los Angeles to visit my sister, Kristen, and her family.  We drove, which was not something I would want to do again anytime soon (although I did a few weeks later, but that was without Benson).  Benson does not love his carseat.  He did great, but it just took a long time and was a lot of driving for such a short visit.  

We stopped on our way at Jessica and Justins place.  Benson had his first experience with ballooons (it was Avery's birthday the week before)

Benson loved crawling around the kitchen with Regan

We took a little trip to the LA Temple visitors center and the to 3rd street.  It was fun to be back in our old stomping grounds

You cannot go to LA without making a stop at Diddy Reese.  It's so tasty.  Benson was loving the cookies.

I realized we didn't get any pictures with Kristen, Nolan or Aiden.  That's pretty bad.  We had such a good time visiting them.  Benson was FREAKED out by Nolan at the beginning of the trip, but by the end of the trip he was at least ok to be in the same room with him.  We would love to be able to go and spend more time with them, just hoping next time we can fly.

This was on the drive back.  We stopped in Baker to give Benson a short break.  He loved crawling around the Taco Bell floor.  (:))

Another stop.  He LOVES eating the keys lately.

Obviously, this month also included Halloween, but you have already seen pictures of that.  This month was also the first time I have spent a night away from Benson.  I drove back to LA on November 2nd to attend a funeral.  It was one of my best friend's mom and a few of my friends were driving out so I felt like I really needed to be there. I was so glad to go, but it was such a strange feeling to be away from Benson.  It was good that it was a short trip though.

My friend took this picture right before we left for our drive and I just had to look at it every few minutes to keep me from missing him too much :)

I am so grateful for SKYPE.   I got to talk to Benson and Ben before coming home.  Benson was so adorable, waving and clapping for us. 

Benson visiting his Tita DJ at BYU on his 10 month birthday

Benson is growing up and changing so much.  I was just watching a video of him taken at the beginning of this month and the differences are huge.  He still won't stand up on his own, but he is so comfortable pulling himself up, walking along furniture, crawling and climbing everywhere, bouncing up and down, dancing and just being so much fun. 

I know I have mentioned this before, but it has become more and more obvious how much he loves music.  He started "dancing" this month, first just bobbing his head up and down, and now bouncing and swinging and trying to sing himself.  He LOVES his daddy's guitar and loves music in general.  He hears everything and tries to mimic the noises he hears.  I took him for a walk on a very windy day and he kept saying "woooo" to mimic the sound of the wind.  He tries to copy Archie's barking and make the sound of the vacuum or the hair dryer.  Its pretty adorable. 

Bensons personality is coming out so much more.  He is so funny and loves to laugh and especially loves to make us laugh.  

Happy 10 Months Little Man.  We LOVE you!