October 14, 2013

Two years ago today was the day we got THE CALL!  We were told Sierra had picked us and our lives changed forever.  I remember vividly that excitement and feeling of unbelief that we were going to get a baby.  And now, here we are, two years later with a toddler.  WOW!  It is flying by.  I am sure I will be saying that every single year for the rest of my life.  It is just amazing how fast it is going.

Benson and I went to PetSmart this morning.  He LOVES seeing all the fish, lizards, snakes, frogs and birds.  I really think he could be there for hours if I let him.  Afterwards we went over to the mall to play on the playground and just hang out.  Benson wasn't a huge fan of the playground.  He doesn't do well with too many kids, pushing, not taking turns, just being aggressive.  He is already pretty timid but put him in that type of situation and he just shuts down.  So, he went down the slide once and then was done.  We just ended up walking the mall and he loved the opportunity to just run up and down long hallways.  He also loved watching the RC Helicopter at the toys kiosk.  He sat and watched it fly for probably 5 straight minutes, without even moving.  This kid is ALL boy.  He loves helicopters, airplanes, trains, trucks, buses and all other things that move and make loud noises. He also loves to punch and bite...both boy things in my mind.

Lately he loves to help me clean.  He has his own broom and then he holds the dustpan for me as well.  This is him dumping it into the garbage.  Such a big helper.

October 13, 2013

Sundays have been hard for us lately for multiple reasons.  We have 1 PM church, which means church literally starts right as Benson normally goes down for a 3 hour nap.  Then, Benson has not been a fan of nursery, so one of us either stays with him or he comes to Primary with us because Ben and I were called as Primary teachers.  We have dinner with family, which is fun, but since Benson is exhausted by that time of the day we normally end up leaving early with a pretty unhappy boy.  It's been rough.  But, today was different.  First, Ben did not work!  He let me sleep which was so nice.  Then, Benson took a nap (yes, we skipped the first 2 hours of church to let him do so, sorry).   When Ben dropped him off at nursery.....he stayed, he played, he colored, he snacked....woohoo!!!!  After church we had Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.  Um, one of the many blessings of being both American and Canadian.  Two Thanksgivings!  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes,  yes please!  Plus, with a well rested child, it was just lots of fun.  Then, the past 2 weeks we have skyped with our Oregon family.  It's been so fun for us, but especially for Benson to see his Lolo and Lola and Tita Elisha and show off for them.  He still doesn't talk to them much, but he runs around and acts crazy.  He loves it and I think they do too.  Gotta love technology.  So, today was a great Sunday, hopefully it's the first of many.

Thanksgiving Decor

Benson LOVE his cousins (and the computer)

The past few weeks Monika has been around.  He loves this cousin too!

He loves the toys at Grandma's, especially being able to crawl into the wagon and play with blocks at the same time.

October 12, 2013

Today we got to spend a bunch of time as a family!  Woohoo!  This semester has been so crazy busy that this is the first weekend in two months that we have gone out as a family.  It was fun.  We spent the morning at Cornbelly's. I always thought it was just a corn maze, but it was so much more.  There was so much for Benson to do and we all really had a good time (even though it ended with us taking the "emergency exit" out of the maze and Ben with a twisted ankle)

We had to dress him up for the day. The glasses were daddy's touch.

 He has never seen or heard of a pumpkin, but he was SO excited about them. 

 Family

 This kid loves tractors.  He has a toy size replica of this exact tractor so he was extra excited to see the real thing.

 Duck races

 Cow train ride, daddy is a dork, but Benson loved it.

 I could not get him to look at the camera for the life of me.  Story of my life lately :)

 Singing animals

 Sliding with daddy

 This kid LOVES rocks, so a huge trough full of colorful, clean rocks was like heaven for him.

 Cow swings, he wasn't sure he was a fan.

 He still loves balloons

 There was an area with all these garden games, chess, checkers, huge legos.  He loved it!

He has a definite swagger. Glad I caught it on camera.

Corn maze

Benson got to spend the afternoon with daddy as well.  Since he twisted his ankle in the corn maze, I got to spend the afternoon at the Lehi house cleaning and mowing the lawn to get it ready for our renters while my two boys played together.  Benson loves his daddy so much and misses him when he isn't around, so it was a good day for all of us. 

October 11, 2013

Benson loves having visitors.  There is definitely a lot less frustration happening when we have lots of friends to entertain us.  Today was full of visitors.  This morning my friend, Marisa, brought over her 3 kids to come see our new place and play for a while.  We also invited Kelsey and Ella from upstairs to come visit.  It was awesome to just relax and have many other entertainers for Benson.  He has not always done well with people, especially having 4 other kids over, but he is getting so much better and definitely had tons of fun.  He even finally did a full somersault.  He has been trying for about a month now, but he always falls over to the side.  Today, with friends to show off for :), he got all the way over.  It was pretty awesome. Only bad thing about having visitors was the teeth marks he left on poor Ella's arms.  We are still working on that.

 These are the stairs leading to and from our new basement apartment.  I do not love them, mostly for safety reasons, but Benson does.

Me holding the phone while Benson "talks" to daddy.  This is pretty typical as he is just too busy to take the time to hold the phone himself.

The weather has been turning into fall and we are loving the fallen leaves.  He also loves splashing in puddles.  Tonight he got to hang out with his Tita DJ while mommy and daddy got to go on a date. He had lots of fun.

 "Airplane"

He has found his pockets

He LOVES jumping on the bed until it turns into him smashing into the wall.  This was tonight before we went out.  These pictures reminded me of this post from two years ago.  If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the post and check out the last 2 pictures on the post, you will see why.  I remember vividly watching Beau jumping on that bed and how much fun it was and just thinking "this is why we are going home." and here we are with our own little boy, jumping on the bed.  

Life is good

October 10, 2013

Ben is on Fall Break from student teaching, so he was here when Benson and I got up this morning.  Benson ran into the room yelling "Daddy".  The way he says daddy is the cutest thing in the entire world. He says it ALL the time lately.  So adorable.  They got to play together before bedtime tonight too.  Fall break is the best!

Benson's favorite thing lately seems to be hiding in small, dark places.  He runs into the closet and makes me close the door and he will stay in there forever.  He isn't even scared that it's dark.

Then today he crawled into the corner cupboard in the kitchen and just played in there for a while.  At first I was worried he would get stuck, but he got in and out about 10x today no problem

It's so fun to watch Benson develop new skills every day.  He has been trying to build with his duplo blocks for a while, but mostly just gets frustrated.  Well, today he built and built and built and was so extremely proud of himself.  When he looked up at me with this proud face and huge grin and said "mom" expecting to show off his new skill it just melted my heart.  I am the first person he looks for when he does something new and it is the best part of my day.

October 9, 2013

Every Wednesday morning Benson and I go to the Orem Library for laptime.  Although Benson seems totally oblivious or at least uninterested in why we are there, it's a lot of fun and I love that it's something we do consistently.  These are the types of things I could not do when I was working, even though I was working from home.  It's just so nice to be able to go and spend an hour at the library or wherever else we decide.  We usually meet friends there and it gets us out of the house. Benson HAS to get out of the house.  He must get that from me, cause we both get stir crazy if we are inside all day long.  I am not looking forward to the winter.

Today was much better than yesterday.  He was happy and funny all day.  Plus, daddy came home from work early (he had a headache) and Benson just loves when his daddy is home. 

October 8, 2013

Some days are harder than others with a toddler.  Today was one of those days.  I think Benson is getting molars which explains a lot.  But, he is also just getting to this age where he wants to be independent and gets frustrated when he can't do something on his own.  Today there seemed to be a lot of that.  It turns into a lot of yelling and screaming.  But, no matter how hard things are some days, he is my favorite little person in the entire world and being his mommy is my greatest joy.