Snow

It's officially winter time. It has been snowing! No chance of a brown Christmas this year I think. Unfortunately, George and Ella have been sick so the kids haven't had much time to play outside. Yesterday I finally gave in and let them play for a few minutes on our way home from the post office. They loved it! Well, everyone except Ella. As she's still not walking she spent most of the time sitting in the stroller watching the boys.

We've officially packed our first suitcase for our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Only one week to go! I think I'm more excited than the kids.

Thankful Day

Everyone is so quick about getting their posts up. I'm lagging a little behind here. We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of pie! B spent the first part of the day helping a family in our Branch cut wood to heat their house this winter while the kids and I started on dinner. The boys were fascinated by the idea of the turkey. We don't usually see our food in "animal form" if you know what I mean. Frozen chicken breasts don't really scream "cluck cluck" to the casual observer. So, after turkey anatomy 101 we got things rolling. For dinner we had some good friends from church and one of B's old mission companions over. The boys hit it off well with the mission companion. They both call him by his last name, like their dad (I hope he doesn't mind!), and gave him a run for his money in an all out wrestling match. The weather played us a couple of tricks throughout the day. It started out in the 60's, then it rained cats and dogs for a short while, and by evening it was freezing!!! But, B managed to get the outdoor Christmas lights up before it got too cold. Yeah! Ah winter. Kinda makes me miss CA where we ate Thanksgiving in B's uncle's back yard!

Sorry, no pictures this time. It's late and I don't have the patience to wait for them to upload with our slow connection.

Christmas here we come!!!

The Knight, the Dragon, and the Pretty Princess

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about Halloween. Sorry to all you who have asked me about a picture! The Halloween costumes really came down to the wire this year. George broke some of his armor and I had to re-do the elastic around Isaac's wrists because I made it too tight the first time. So, with all the repair work I didn't get the zipper put in Ella's dress. I ended up just tacking on a couple of hook and eyes and calling it good. But they got done and they were cute! We had fun at the Branch Halloween Party on Tuesday. The kids played games and went trunk-or-treating and then on Halloween we met Benji at the Hall and trick-or-treated up and down main street. At dusk we marched in the Halloween Parade up main street-a great tradition in my opinion. It was fun to see the different personalities of my children when it came to this holiday. George loved dressing up and imagining all kinds of knightly adventures. He didn't care so much for the candy, and was in fact the first to suggest we be done trick-or-treating. Isaac, on the other hand, is all about the candy. The only reason he got dressed up was to get the candy. He insisted on carrying his own candy bucket the entire night (George ditched his in the stroller in order to better carry his sword) and was very good at encouraging his brother on to the next doorstep. Ella just wanted to do whatever her brothers did. She was not content to sit in the stroller and held out her hand for her share of the candy at many of the stops. I don't think she quite understood that what she was getting was candy. She was quite content just to hold the brightly colored packages. All in all it was a fun night! George is already planning his costume for next year. He's fluctuating between a bat and Buzz Lightyear-specifically a plastic Buzz costume with wings that pop out when he pushes a button on his chest. Please let him choose the bat!!!

Ray of Sun

I've had a very gloomy week this week, with the exception of one day. On Monday we took a day trip to Palmyra. It was my first time seeing the church history sites and it was beautiful! We had our own small miracle in that it rained the whole drive there, cleared up and was super nice while we were there, and then rained the whole drive home. The sacred grove was amazing with the leaves just starting to change and the kids really enjoyed the visitors center at Cumorah's Hill. Unfortunately, the Temple was closed and we couldn't see it very well through the trees and such from the gate. But, there's always next time! Little shining days like these are what give me the strength to keep going.

Back To School

George is officially back in school. He is excited because this year he gets to ride the bus home! He's getting so big. It's fun to meet the bus every day and see him climb down the big stairs. I can't believe he's going to be in Kindergarten next year and tha Isaac is going to be old enough to start Preschool!

So, funny/embarrassing experience today. I had a dentist appointment to fix a filling that I just had done about 2 years ago! Anyway, I raced home because the piano tuner was coming and when I got here I couln't even hardly talk to the guy because my mouth was still so numb. I swear I was slobbering and sluring my speach and there was nothing I could do about it. He probably thought I was intoxicated or something. But he fixed my piano! Yeah!

On Tuesday we took the kids to The Great Escape amusement park. The boys had a blast! It was one of those rare days that everything goes smoothly. We had no complaints, no behavior problems, no kids running off- and Ella was a gem the whole day too! The kids are getting old enough to really be fun on family outings. They get excited about things and just really enjoy being together.

Isaac's favorite ride was the motorcycles. I think it was a dream come true for him to be able to ride one, and it was okay with mom and dad too because they weren't real! George really liked the rollercoaster (the small one in kid land). He was scared to death but wanted to go on it again as soon as it was over. Way to be brave George!

School is starting again soon. I can't believe the summer is ending already. I don't think I'm ready for the cold weather yet. I think George is excited to go back to preschool though. And we finally took away Isaac's "Uh Oh" (pacifier). It's been a rough 2 weeks, but we're making progress...maybe. Next, potty training! Can we do it by Christmas?

Happy First Birthday!

This past year has really snuck by me. It's REALLY hard to believe that it's been an entire year since we brought our beautiful girl home to a half packed apartment-getting ready to move to NY! She has grown so fast and is truly the sweetest person I know. We are so lucky to have been blessed with such a happy, content little soul. Heavenly Father knew that we needed her and exactly when to send her to our family.

We had a great birthday day on Saturday. We started the day opening presents because the brothers couldn't wait a second longer. In the afternoon we had some friends over for cake and ice cream. Ella wouldn't get messy at all! After dinner we sat out on the driveway and watched the parade for Hartwick Field Days and ended the evening with fireworks. My favorite thing about parades here is the fact that there are no floats (sp?). The "royalty" ride on top of the fire trucks. Super cool! My other favorite was watching all the old cars in the parade "burn rubber." We have tire tracks all over the road in front of our house. Gotta love small towns.

Anniversary

Benji and I celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday! We couldn't find a babysitter (they're rather scarce) so we took the family to the Farmer's Museum where the kids got to see some animals and ride the carousel. After the kids went to bed, Benji and I had dinner and watched a video that my sister put together for us. We never had one of those cheesy wedding videos with pictures of us growing up and dating and all that, and she figured we missed out, so she used her video making software to make one for us. We really enjoyed it! Thanks Jess!

I am so grateful for Benji. He really is just the most wonderful person ever! I'm pretty lucky that I get to be with him forever. I couldn't have chosen a better husband or father (just ask Isaac).

For those of you who can't tell, the person in the picture with Benji is ME! Apparently I have not aged gracefully and have perhaps gotten a little bit chubby, because I've had a couple of different people ask who was in the picture with Ben. Like I would keep a picture of Benj and another girl hanging around my house! :)

Summer Days

The kids are loving summer. The warm weather, playing outside, riding bikes, kicking balls, going for walks, and in Ella's case-picking lots of grass. George's absolute favorite summer pass-time is having water fights.

So, I was telling my mom the other day that I have gone about at low as you can go in the eyes of my son. The other day he got in trouble for something and as I was putting him in time-out he said, "Mom, you're as mean as Darth Vader!" I'll I have to say is, "Mmwaa, ha, ha, ha!" :)

Grandpa

We said goodbye yesterday to Grandpa Harry. We are really going to miss him. The kids don't understand why people always have to leave. Grandpa was really nice to help us with some home-improvement projects while he was here. We now have a new basement window and bathroom cupboard, and I no longer have to bend down to turn on my diningroom light. Yeah!

We've had some good storms the past few days. Sunday night we had a huge thunder storm. My kids have never been scared of thunder, but this time they were. It woke them up and I ended up sleeping at the foot of Isaac's bed until it passed. Last night at about 6:30 we lost power during another storm. By 10:00 Benji and I were trying to decide if we should try and eat the 3 bricks of ice cream grandpa left in our freezer before it melted. My oil lamp was a complete failure, giving off almost no light, so we brushed our teeth by candlelight. Quite romantic.

All Done!

George had his certificate day at preschool on Thursday. He did a really good job. I can't believe how big and confidant he is getting! I'm so glad we were able to finally find him a preschool. They sang some songs and we had a nice lunch. Isaac is getting excited to be old enough to go to school too.

Yesterday Ella got a hold of the raisins that Isaac was having for a snack and went to town. She was so proud of herself and I’m waiting to see how many whole raisins we get in her diapers.

Happy Dreams

Isaac is my snuggly bear. He loves his stuffed animals and is always giving them hugs and kisses. His bed is full of little friends that he calls "beebees". (A weird extension of kitty, I think?) Lately, however, he has taken to adding other things into the sleepy mix- like lawn mowers and trucks. We caught him last night snuggling his dump truck full of lizards, bugs and other kritters just as content as can be. :) All I can say is...boys!

Visit

Well, it's been a long time since I posted. Life seems to get busy sometimes and the days fly by. I can't believe it's June already! It really is nice to have Spring finally here. Benji's mom was out for a visit last week. It was really good to see her again and the kids loved it, of course! We had really good weather while she was here and she helped us get the garden going. Yeah! Now the challenge will be to see whether I can keep the plants alive. They say that everything grows here. When I asked how often you have to water your garden, peopled just looked at me like "Water your garden? Who waters their garden?" We'll see.

So, I had a proud mamma moment this week. When I picked up George from preschool on
Monday he came running up to me so excited. He told me he drew a really big picture of me. I'm posting it so you can all see how pretty I am. :) School is almost done and summer is stretching before us and I'm wondering what we are going to fill all our days with. If anyone has any fun suggestions please e-mail or call me!

Seven Year Itch

Now that we are in our seventh year of marriage, Jenn has become very itchy. To Benji’s relief it’s not for another man. It’s attack of the killer fleas!!!

So, we’ve been in our new home a little over a month when all of the sudden mysterious things start happening. It started with one little bite and progressed to 33 bites below my knees alone. It never occurred to us that we might have fleas hibernating in our carpet. Imagine that. We tried vacuuming and flea powder and, finally, the flea fogger. Hopefully we prevailed. I’m sick to death of little ugly bugs!

On Saturday while our house was being de-fleaed we attended a Chinese auction to raise money for George’s preschool. George put his tickets into the raffle for a new bike helmet that he really, really wanted and Isaac put his tickets into the raffle for a really ugly red plastic Mickey Mouse chair that he already thought was his. Well, George won the helmet and I have never seen him so excited. When he heard the number called out he jumped off his chair and ran to the front of the gym, performing a Toyota jump (you remember the commercials) into a slide into home base, all the while yelling, “I did it!!” People were just laughing. He then proceeded to don the helmet and race around the gym in a few victory laps. And just to show you the difference in our sons’ personalities. Isaac was gone getting his pants changed when his winning number was picked. Upon returning and being informed of his good fortune he looked at me like, “Of course it’s my chair, I put my ticket in the bag didn’t I?” All in all it was a good experience and both the “brothers” came away happy. The only down side was that Mom and Dad didn’t win any free pizza or the lawn mower.

Cookie Monster

Isaac loves (very passionately) treats of any shape and size. Today he woke up from his nap just as I was finishing a cake for a BBQ tonight. I gave him a spoon to lick and he went to work. I couldn't help but take a picture. He obviously enjoyed the treat, even though he still had his tired face on!

Good Morning

It's been awhile since I last posted. Ella turned 8 months yesterday. I can't believe how fast time has gone with her. All of the sudden she's big! Benji and I were commenting on how the first year with George seemed like the longest year EVER! Now time is just flying along. Good thing, too. I think I'd be dead if I had to endure any more 2003's. :)

George woke up extra early and in a great mood today. So other than having to get out of bed sooner than usual things were going great. Until time to put his shoes on. All of the sudden he refused to go to preschool, put his shoes on, and get his backpack. I tried bribing, threatening, etc. and nothing worked. I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was wondering if he was just trying out some new control method, or maybe something happened yesterday to make him not want to go back. He's never not wanted to go to school before. Usually he's way excited. When I asked him why he didn't want to go he said he didn't feel like walking all the way to the car (about 10 feet) and all the way to preschool from the car (across a parking lot). Hmm! So, in the end he won out and Benji left for work. I was mad because it meant Isaac didn't get to go to play hour at the gym. Of course, 5 minutes after Benji drove off George announces he wants to go to school now. I told him he decided it 5 minutes too late and WOW! It was quite a tantrum! I wish I would have video taped it. I could have posted it on YouTube or something. Ah, 4 year olds!

Teeth

We were delighted to discover this week that Ella cut her first tooth! We weren't even watching for it and then all of the sudden...there it was! I'm glad to finally understand why she's been congested and not sleeping well.

Ella is getting so cute. She has started teasing-especially George. She grabs at him whenever he gets close and then laughs and laughs. She has also started to interact with Isaac more. He has really enjoyed being her fun big brother. However, she is absolutely refusing to eat solid food. She loves to sit in her chair by the table at meal time and she'll eat crackers, but baby food? I might as well go jump in a lake as far as she's concerned.

We are excited for General Conference this weekend and hope you all get a chance to watch or listen!

Ouch!

So, I had the terrible experience on Sunday of having one of my children get hurt-and it was my fault! Poor little Ella was sick on Sunday, but I dragged her to church anyway because I had to teach. After the meetings I was trying to find one of my little Sunbeams for her grandma and Ella stuck her hand in the door as I was closing it and I smashed her finger! We spent the afternoon in the ER. She has an open fracture on the tip of her tall finger on her left hand. The doc said it should heal fine, but I was just sick. You love your kids so much and when you cause them pain-especially the little ones that don't understand-it just hurts the heart. By the way, I'm NOT including a picture for those of you that like the gory details.

Our New House!

Well, we finally did it! We bought a house. And it's green for St. Patrick's Day! Our beautiful house was originally built in 1850 and, surprisingly, has survived to the present day. It also has a cute little porch with a swing, which we love, and an old barn for a garage out back! We are all moved in and trying to unpack boxes while continuing on with real life. You all know how that goes. :) The kids are pretty excited, but ready to have all their toys in order. We've had a few little tantrums because mom couldn't find something they were looking for. I didn't label any boxes because we only moved 2 blocks. I just threw everything in the nearest box and loaded it in the truck. You'd think I'd know better after 6 moves!

Num Nums

Ella has officially entered the world of solid food. She's been begging for weeks now and we've finally given in. I wish I could have captured her delight upon first being set in the high chair. I've never seen her so proud of herself. She's been pulling things off the table for weeks now in an attempt to join in all the fun and now she has her chance! You can't tell in these pictures, but instead of biting or gumming the cracker, she licks it to death. Ella and her famouse tongue! I can't believe how fast time has passed with her. I'm afraid I'm going to wake up one morning and be looking at her with make-up on or something. Anyway, she's our princess! We love you Ellie!

Warmie

Warmie is 100 months old! For those of you who don’t know who Warmie is -he’s George’s security blanket. Yesterday George informed me that Warmie is “bigger” than Ella, he is 100 months old. He also related the following history…
He (George) is Warmie’s daddy. Warmie came out of his tummy and George had to exercise to make his tummy little again. Warmie has no mommy because his mommy went to the army and had to fight a big omnidroid that was too strong and gave her a big chop with his strong arm, that killed her forever. Not even Heavenly Father and Jesus with their power could wake her up. And I quote, “But that’s okay because he still has his daddy. I’m his daddy.”
I’m listening to this story, looking at my son thinking, “who are you and where did you come from?” Is this narrative the product of an over-active imagination, or as my husband says, is there something in the water? And I bet you can’t guess who the favorite parent is.

Birthday!

Happy birthday to Isaac! He's two! Well, almost. We celebrated a few days early. It was a great day. We went down to the frozen lake shore where there was a snow sculpting contest in progress. George just stood there with his mouth open watching the sculptors in action. Then we went out for pizza afterwards and finished the day at home with cake and ice cream. Isaac loved being the center of attention and did a good job of blowing out the trick candles dad bought.

Valentine's Day

There's no better way to spend a romantice Valentine's Day than being snowed-in with your three crazy kids! It was quite the site to wake up this morning to two feet of newly fallen snow. We spent the first couple of hours trying to dig ourselves out, but soon gave in to the overwhelming forces of mother nature. We ended the day calling around to try and find someone to plow us out, to no avail. I guess Benji gets another day off tomorrow! Lucky him.