J.J. Strikes Again

Delinda watched Ben and we went with the newly engaged Ashley and Jacob to the Jack Johnson concert last week. It was sold out and we even had lawn seats. Talk about jam packed and not a lot of personal space! It seemed no matter where we sat or stood, people would have to walk over us or our stuff or between us on our blankets... it was crazy to me. The last few pictures are of us doing shake face... don't worry, there was no alcohol involved. Just good ol' fun. And then Ben in his souvenir concert "t-shirt"... PRICEY concert t-shirt. But of course, all of our kids WILL wear it at some point. :) It was fun. I LOVE going to concerts! I'm glad we have people willing to hang with the kid so we can still do that and go out and have grown up fun.

This blog entry is not meant to complain. I've just been contemplating a lot of things. There are things in life that happen that just don't seem to be "fair". I think you know what I mean. For example, my parents are good and righteous people. They have a lot of faith in the Lord and have worked their hinneys (sp?) off for so long that I feel they deserve a break. They are trying to sell their house and move on to better things, and also to be closer to family by moving closer to one of my brothers in St. George, UT. They moved in to an older home about 8-9 years ago so that they could take care of my dad's mom who had Alzheimer's she passed about 5-6 years ago. But because it's an older home- it's been difficult to sell. They've had 2 offers fall through and are really getting a little down and out. As well as the rest of us. You start to question things like are they meant to move? Is there someone out there better suited for the home then the last 2 people were? Things like that. It doesn't seem like a big deal and maybe one or many of your have been through the same experience of not being able to sell your home. This is just the tip of the iceberg for my parents though- they really have been through A LOT the last few years. It seems to that they just deserve a break from it all.
Another example: my best friend's mom is going through some health issues. It just happened too. She's been healthy otherwise and now all of a sudden things have switched into high gear and surgeries are happening and MRI's and all sorts of not fun things. She is terrified of losing her mom. I am too. But because it's happening to her, it's all of a sudden VERY real. But why now? Why at all? Is this trial for her mom? Or for her dad, or for their kids?
The thing is, I know all of this is "for our good". To "test our faith"... or something. I know all of that. I believe all of that. I really do. BUT I do think it's okay to feel that it sucks in the meantime. I don't know why my parents have to constantly struggle and it makes me sad. I wish I seriously had a magic wand that could make it all go away for them. They've been through enough. Anyway- I guess my point is that I'm not afraid to say that it sucks to go through trials anymore. It's okay to have a poopy attitude about it, not to the point where it drags you down but it's okay to be sad or even mad for that matter. We truly cannot know happiness until we know sorrow. I know through it all too that Heavenly Father loves us. He knows what the reason is, and I guess in the long run it's all that matters. Hopefully someday we'll either realize why or He'll get to tell us. I do know that he will never give us more than He knows we can handle- even if it feels like we want to give up during it all and can't move we're crying so much, etc. Keep praying. PRAY HARD. I know I will be.

Want Something Good To Eat?

I found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com and we tried it last night and it was DELICIOUS (as Jacob would say)! It was super easy too. The only thing is, I added a 1/2 cup sour cream to the chicken/taco seasoning/cream cheese mixture. I also used Jalapeno Stuffed Olives instead of putting a whole pepper in, and killed two birds with one... olive. HA! Anyway- it was GREAT! Oh and good as left overs too!

Chicken Chimichangas with Green Sauce
Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 40 Minutes Yields: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:
2 (10.5 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 (4 ounce) cans diced green chilies
5 pitted green olives (I used Jalapeno Stuffed Green Olives and ignored the next ingredient)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning
1 pound shredded cooked chicken meat (I used a rotisserie chicken)
8 (10 inch) flour tortillas
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 (8 ounce) package shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped green onion
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream

DIRECTIONS:
1. Pour the cream of chicken soup into a blender along with the green chilies, olives, jalapeno, and lime juice. Puree until smooth, then pour into a saucepan, and warm over medium-low heat while proceeding with the recipe.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the cream cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, and taco seasoning until well blended (this is where I added the sour cream). Fold in the chicken. Evenly divide mixture among the 8 tortillas. Fold each tortilla into a rectangular packet around the filling.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry 4 chimichangas at a time until golden brown, then drain on a plate lined with paper towels.
4. To serve, place a chimichanga on a plate, and ladle the warm sauce over top. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese and green onions. Finish with a dollop of sour cream.

Toes

He found them. And just like everything else he can get his hands on, they go in his mouth!

Nola

My mom is from South Africa. And has a lot of little sayings that I've grown up hearing. These are sayings that other people might not understand and think are weird, but I didn't know any better hearing them my whole life. Here are as many examples as I can think of, siblings feel free to add!

1. A Monkey's Wedding- when it's sunny but raining at the same time (a "sun shower"), it's a South African thing but apparently there are a lot of other countries that use the same kind of phrase but with a different type of animal. The Monkey's Wedding supposedly comes from a Zulu saying, but they don't know why an animal or wedding have anything to do with the rain and it being sunny at the same time! Interesting eh?
2. Sometimes when we'd ask what was for dinner she'd say "fried frogs on toast!". To this day I have yet to taste a fried frog on toast!
3. We'd ask "where's dad?" or "where's John?" (or anyone) to which she'd reply "He/She went crazy, so I shot him". Of course she didn't...
4. Another question, "where did you go?" Her response "There and back to see how far it is".
5. When someone would say something in a different language or would say their name and it was a complicated name or one she didn't understand, she would quickly jab in "You do and you wipe it up!".
6. She always calls the boys (men) that she loves (her favorite students, young marrieds in the ward, cousins, my hubby, etc.) "you ugly thing you". It's a term of endearment. If you've been called that before, that means she approves. :)
7. We'd always hear random things in Afrikaans even though it wasn't her first language. Some I'd better not put in here, because now they are inappropriate phrases and most of them I'm not even sure how to spell anyway! One that you'll hear even ME say is "sis!" used as in response to someone saying something inappropriate or dirty- something along those lines. When we asked where something was we were looking for, we'd get the equivalent of the scripture "seek and ye shall find, knock and it will be opened..." in Afrikaans, or shortened down to "Soek" (pronounced: sook) which means "seek". Ryan and I say that to each other all the time now!
8. Whenever I didn't get something I wanted or just to be funny I'd say "you don't love me any more..." and she'd always come back with "I don't love you any less!".
9. Another saying "You lie like your feet stink!"
10. When I'd ask too many questions out of kid curiosity she'd say "Why do you need to know the ins and outs of a nanny-goats tail?!".
11. One of us kid's favorite songs she always sang to us (and we all sing to our kids now) is Go To Sleep My Baby. I will always love that song.
12. "is statue?" said for "is that you?"
13. I left my heart in Sam Clam's Disco.
14. She is also queen of finding songs to sing along with something you're talking about.
15. She's a voice teacher, and whenever she heard someone singing that maybe wasn't so good she'd comment that they must have a tummy ache!
16. One of my favorites "That must be jelly, cuz jam don't shake like that!"

I'm sure there are many, many more. I just can't think of all of them right now. But I love that quirkiness that my mommy has. I hope that I keep a lot of these sayings up with my kids!!!

This could be VERY interesting!

Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog (or e-mail if you don't leave comments) leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew/know me a little or a lot - just anything you remember.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Pictures Of...

A picture of something you DON'T want to find in your salad bag.

A picture of something funny to read in the break room. (Apparently someone stole 1/2 of someones sandwich right out of their lunch bag- not the brown paper bag kind. So they posted a nasty note on the fridge, and this note below was in response to it! I guess they also spelled "potato" wrong on the other note too. Man I wish I had a picture of it.)


A picture of two of my favorite people who got engaged last night! YIPPEE!!!! Congrats you two!

A picture of Ben with his Nana. He loves her lots.


A picture of my two favorite guys, IN THE WORLD!

Let's Play Ketchup

Ha, ha... nice play on words huh? You thought I was serious didn't you?

Okay, well lets see. Last week was pretty good I guess. Tuesday night I got a call from one of my old friends Melissa Lindsey whom I used to work with in UT, and she and her friend were basically stuck in the Atlanta airport and after a series of delayed and then cancelled flights and needed a place to stay that night until their flight left first thing in the morning. Of course we obliged because we love visitors and also, if it was me I would hope and pray that someone would take me or us in as well! Luckily the MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) is about 10 mins from our house and comes and goes directly from and to the airport. They finally got to our house around 10:30pm and then first thing in the AM (around 6:30) I took them back to the MARTA station. It was a short and sweet little visit, luckily we had a bed for them to sleep in and the house was fairly clean! (All of us at 6:30am)

That started my day off. I took the day off for two doc's appts that I needed to take care of. So Ben and I headed to my first one and afterwards went home and both ate and then took a nap. It was GREAT, I love napping with my little buddy. And I think he secretly LOVES to sleep on our bed. But seriously- who wouldn't? It's like the most comfy bed EVER. I was fighting a headache and hoped it would go away, but it didn't. Anyway- since my other doc's appt was all the way downtown and a pain to get to, I decided to leave Ben at the daycare for a few hours so he could eat and not have to be toted around everywhere. It also gave me a little break too. I will admit though, I did feel guilty. I knew he was in good hands though. I am paying them anyway after all! After my doc's appt, which confirmed I STILL have an ear infection after a good month or more, I went and got my feet done. I TOTALLY needed that. I haven't had a pedicure since I was pregnant which was really almost a year ago! After I did that I went and got some stuff for Ben and got myself a Oreo Milkshake from Chick-fil-a which if you haven't had one, you haven't lived, and then went and picked Ben up. I only had him there for a total of 3 hours, so it wasn't too bad. We went home after that and my friend Jenean, who is a massage therapist, came over and gave me a delicious little massage which has decreased my headache-factory output quite a bit. So basically, it was a "I deserve it" day, and it felt good.

The weekend was filled with more bathroom stuff. Mostly Ryan doing it. He's a champ and my hero. He is so dang handy and smart with that kind of stuff. He grouted the floors during the week and so he was able to start to tackle the tile on the wall. And wow... what a mess. This is what was discovered beneath those (probably) 28 year old tiles. It's a DANG good thing we're redoing our bathroom!!! It was basically tiled on top of drywall on top of more drywall. So, over time the grout had come out and water had seeped in and destroyed the walls. Ryan had to tear the lower half of the walls out and luckily the studs weren't ruined. The insulation on the outside wall had to be replaced as well, but other than that it was an easy fix. Ryan already put up the green drywall last night, which I guess is water permeable, and is almost ready to get the backer board up and start tiling. Have I mentioned my husband ROCKS? Because he does. I love him lots. SO... Stage 1 was the floor which I will have to do some before and afters later. Stage 2 was the demo of the shower tile which is done. Stage 3 will be to put up the new shower tile. Stage 4 is sealing all the tiles since they're tumblestone. Stage 5 will be putting in the new vanity and toilet and other needed items; mirror, cupboard, toilet paper holder, etc. I'M EXCITED TO HAVE A NEW BATHROOM! It'll look awesome when we're all done.

Well, Ben will be 5 months the end of this week! I can't believe how fast time has gone. And I have loved EVERY minute of it, hard and easy. Overall, we again are tremendously blessed with such an amazing little guy. He is such a good baby and I thank God every day for not only the opportunity to be a mother, but to have such a wonderful little spirit in our family! We are feeding him cereal mixed with jar food (fruit so far) here and there. Last night he tried Peaches in with his cereal last night and he liked that a lot better than when he tried bananas. I think the naners also made his tummy hurt, so I probably wont do those again for a while. He is doing well with tummy time, he laughs so much and talks up a storm, he's starting to try and roll over completely, and I think he could be teething soon. He's growing out of a lot of his clothes, although he's almost 5 months and still fits in some of his 3 month clothes! He's a little guy as my sister Shauna says! But really, are we surprised with how short his mommy is?! He even let us go out on a double date with our friends the Bundersons the other night while Ashley and Jacob babysat. We think the routine we've got him in really helped in being able to leave him that night. It was kind of sad not to put him to bed for the first time though, but we had fun- we went and saw Dark Knight and it was good. Here are some picts from lately.

This is his "I just woke up" look. I think it's so cute! Here he is with his Auntie DJ, both napping together! SO CUTE!Uh... so, Ben's mom is a dork and forgot to put the RIGHT leg in the RIGHT pant leg hole. I'm special, I know.

It's amazing to me also how much he's changed, and yet the different things that have stayed the same.

Here is he is at about 3 weeks old and now.

That's all for now I guess. We'll probably have more to update on as the week goes by. Especially on the bathroom. I will post some before and after pictures.

Busy Weekend

Wow. What a weekend. Friday night we got home and Ryan started pulling things out of the bathroom. He tore down the sink/cabinet, took out the mirror and some other things. I don't remember what I did... probably just cleaned up a little around the house and took care of Ben.
SATURDAY... whoa doggy. What a day. Ben woke us up at 6:45am hungry, so we just decided to start the day. By the time 10:45am rolled around we had woken up, fed Ben, started on the bathroom, I washed the dishes, made breakfast, started laundry, took Ally to the doctor and then to the groomer, gone to the store for diapers and formula, fed Ben again and was on the way to the tile store. We were at the tile store for about an hour and a 1/2, then on the way home we stopped to see Ryan's dad at his work. After we left there, the groomers called to say that Ally was ready to pick up. So rather than go home we decided to get her, but since we were in that area why don't we stop and get Ryan's hair cut? OKAY! So, I stayed in the car with Ben while Ryan got his hair cut and then we picked Ally up and went home... finally. But it didn't stop there, no sir... we had a toilet to take out, the door to the bathroom, more laundry (oh my- our house was SO full of laundry... my sister offered to help fold while I ironed), I cooked homemade spaghetti, had to feed Ben of course, there's probably more that I can't remember- but it was CRAZY I tell ya! Needless to say, we were EXHAUSTED by the end of the day. Then Ben woke up a few times in the middle of the night. And Ryan couldn't help because his back was so tweaked out from carrying a million pounds of tile and mortar and toilets and this and that. So, my sleep tally wasn't great, but church was! It was just the spiritual upliftment that I needed. And Ben was great for all of church. I only had to take him out twice- once to feed him during Sunday School and the other for playing too noisily in R.S.!!! We got home and did some more cleaning up and then I plum ran out of energy and had to lay down while Ben was napping. So I slept for about a half hour. Then started dinner. Our usual group of friends came over dinner at around 6:30 and we had them over until close to 10pm. It was a nice day. We're just both super tired now! The house is clean though. The laundry is mostly put away, but there's STILL MORE TO DO! IT NEVER ENDS! The bathroom is getting done... all is well.

P.S.- He rolls over!!!! YAY! This was the highlight to my visit with him on my lunch hour today! I was so excited to see him do this! It was the first time I've seen him roll over and I got it on video! Thank goodness for totally radical cell phones.

POST 225

• I STILL hate the sound of fingernails being clipped at work.
• I have a photography website... suggestions welcome. http://www.hyphotography.ifp3.com/
• My beautiful sister in-law is famous! And rocks the Casbah!
  http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3775214
• We're going to start to remodel our bathroom this weekend.
• I got a new phone and it's GREEN! YAY! My favorite color!
• This week has tricked us several times into thinking it was Friday WAY before it really was.
• Ally has stopped being weird about her surgery and is going to get her check up tomorrow. I think she will be grateful to have the blasted cone off her head, and we'll be grateful to give her a bath! SHE STINKS!
• I love my family. Not just my little me, Ryan and Ben family- but my parents, siblings and their spouses and the grandkids. They're all such wonderful people.
• I bought high heels for the first time in my life. This is kind of scary to me. I needed some "grown up" shoes though. And if you're wondering why this is monumental for me, I am 29 years old and wear a size 2 in LITTLE girls. So high heels before finding this website were not an option.
• We woke up at 7am this morning when we normally wake up at like 6:20 and I was still able to take a shower and somewhat do my hair, feed Ben and get him dressed, get bottles made for the daycare and get out the door and to work on time. I don't even think I forgot anything either! Wait... did I lock the dog up? Yes... phew!
• The bamboo plant at my desk is GINORMOUS. I'm so proud of it. It's growing up so quickly... kinda brings a tear to my eye.
• It's slow at work today, and we're all bored and we just want to go home. Yeah, that's not going to happen.
• I AM A CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE ADDICT.
• I love our new iMac.
• I love, love, love when Ben sleeps 9 hours. The last three nights he's slept from like 9:30 or 10 until we wake up in the morning. (Although last weekend he woke up every hour two nights in a row... cuz he was a little under the weather.)
• We were talking about sushi just now at work, and some girl was saying she wasn't okay with them making it with their bare hands and the other girl said "They all do! You just have to pray over it and move on!". Too funny.
• Did you know there's a "national underwear day"? Yup, it's August 5th... Freshpair.com told me so. And they're the founders of it.
• Ben can put his binky in his mouth all by himself now. Not ALL the time, but he's done it a good handful of times. I think he's about ready to roll over too. He LOVES to sit up too. And he's such a happy, good little baby. We have been tremendously blessed to have this little guy in our lives.
• That's it. That's all I got for ya. Peace out Napoleon.

okay! okay! an update already!

Well, I guess it's time to update. And yes, I'm still working on getting a slide show of pictures done from our trip to UT. Life has been quite hectic lately. Our house is a mess. A long holiday weekend. Friends over to visit. Photoshopping wedding photos I took. Getting together a website for the photography. Getting the dog spade... just a lot going on.

First things first, Ben went swimming for his first time two weekends ago. I was hoping to have taken him when we went to Utah but we never had time or were near a pool long enough. Anyway, we went to Ashley's house and took him in the pool there. He seemed to like it... he was kind of neutral I guess. He didn't fuss unless we had him facing the other direction away from us. We just need to keep taking him and getting him more and more used to it.

I got an ear infection last Monday and decided to stay home. Taking the baby to the doctor with me was kind of an ordeal- but it was nice to be with him all day long.

Ben is getting SO big! We had his 4 month check up yesterday and shots. That was the first time I've had to witness the shots happen, and I felt horrible for the little guy. I got a little misty eyed, he was not happy. But he only cried for a minute and was pretty tough. He's in the 25th percentile and as the doctor says "perfect"... but I already knew that! He's eating more and more and I swear he grew a ton over the weekend. He slept a lot and ate a lot. He does that when he has a growth spurt. We tried a little bit of cereal. But since I didn't know how to make it, it was a little too thick. He didn't seem to hate it once he got passed gagging on it! We'll start giving him little bits here and there before bed.

He's been trying to sit up for a week or so. He'll sit on my lap and make his way in to a sitting up position somehow. I told Ryan I wanted to get him a Bumbo seat to help with strengthening his back, so last night we went to Babies R Us and had him sit in one they had out for display and he LOVED it! He was just giggling away! So we got him a LIME green one. And we put him in it when we got home. OH MY GOSH that kid is so stinking cute!!! I'm not biased or anything! Ha, ha! He just makes my little heart pump love blood.

We had an enjoyable 4th of July. It was pretty darn laid back and just what the doctor ordered. We had a little BBQ with Jacob and Ashley and then went and watched fireworks a few minutes from our house. Ben was not particularly interested in them, and just wanted to eat and then fell asleep right away... all while the fireworks were going off! Us grownups had an enjoyable time though. It was nice to keep it low key. Next year we'll probably have a good party though!

And yes, we got Ally spade. Wow. She's kind of a wimp. And right now SHE STINKS. The cone isn't really working very well, she still manages to reach her wound... but not as good as she hoped she could. I get very impatient with her and I'm trying to learn to deal with her better. I love her to death, but... yeah. Anyway, I took this picture of her Sunday night. NO this is NOT an action shot. She was seriously laying like this for a good amount of time. Clint was over with Ash and Jacob for dinner and noticed it! Too funny!

June 17, 2008

A couple of you asked for some details on our special day at the temple while we were in Utah. We decided that while we were out west, we'd go ahead and get sealed as a family. Last time we were in town Ryan and I decided we wanted to be sealed in the Mt Timpanogos Temple. When I lived in UT it was the temple in my district and I grew very fond of it, and for Ryan the outside of the temple attracted him. So we prepared. Ryan was ordained with the Melchizedek priesthood, then on the 7th of June went through the Atlanta temple and received his own endowment. His best friend Michael was his escort. We had friends from the ward there as well and it was a neat and different experience for Ryan. Then on the 17th of June, the day the temple re-opened, we were sealed. We had to push the time back because my brother John and his family were driving up all the way from St. George and their car overheated and they had to turn around to get a different car and then start all over again. Also, my best friend Andrea had a temple recommend debacle that you can read about here, and so it all worked out perfectly. Little did we know though that we needed Escorts when we got to the temple- luckily my family all walked in about the same time we were needing someone to come, and we quickly snatched John for Ryan and my mom for me. It was special to have my mommy there, she helped dress me and got to hold Ben during the ceremony and had a special experience there. Ben was wonderful during the ceremony- and didn't start crying until after it all ended. Having him there, on the alter with his hand on ours made the whole ordinance so tangible and real to me. Our precious boy was sealed to us and everything made sense. The cute sisters that watched him brought him in dressed in white and they looked so proud. They took him out as well, and we met them down at the nursery so we could all go out and take pictures in our white clothing. They were wonderful, and he was spoiled because he was the only child in the nursery!

My WONDERFUL sister in-law Samantha hosted an open house before hand for us and went to so much trouble to get tables and chairs and table cloths and lots of food. Our family took a good portion of the room, and I appreciate all the trouble she went to for us. She even bought a cake for Ryan's birthday the next day that we were all able to dig in to when we got home.

Shauna made it special for the kids and lit fireworks with them and they had a blast. The sparklers were a hit. I hope its a good memory for them.

It was a beautiful, wonderful day- and one we will never forget. We had such great love and support from our family and friends that were there to attend. And we are grateful to John & Claudia and the kids for travelling so far to be there with us. And I'm relieved we have sealed our little family together finally. It was as if we had put together a puzzle and waited for a while to put in that last piece. Our little puzzle is complete and it's so reassuring and comforting to know we will ALWAYS be together, FOREVER!

Funny Boy

So, if spit up grosses you out- then don't watch. Otherwise, this is quite entertaining! Ben finds particular things funny at different times. Last night we were with my sister and friends and an ambulance drove by and it was pretty loud. In order to distract him from the loudness and the possibility of him getting scared- I was saying the word and he thought it was HILARIOUS! It was out in the car so it was dark and I didn't get him laughing really good on camera like he was at first, but this captures enough! Enjoy!

Ann & Mike

These are some of the pictures I took of my lovely cuz and her now hubby! Congrats you two!

I Will Possess Your Heart

I LOVE the new DCFC song in the subject line. It wasn't until recently when I REALLY listened to the lyrics and put it all together that it's a freakishly stalkerish song! But I still love it...

How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me

It's like a book elegantly bound, but in a language that you can't read - just yet

You gotta spend some time--love, you gotta spend some time with me

And I know that you'll find--love, I will possess your heart

There are days when outside your window, I see my reflection as I slowly pass

And I long for this mirrored perspective, when we'll be lovers, lovers at last

You gotta spend some time--love, you gotta spend some time with me

And I know that you'll find--love, I will possess your heart

I will possess your heart

You reject my advances and desperate pleas

I won't let you, let me down so easily, so easily You gotta spend some time--love, you gotta spend some time with me

And I know that you'll find--love, I will possess your heart

I will possess your heart

Our Trip

Oh my... I am SO tired. I'm falling asleep. I am lacking sleep... and need a lot, and I'm pretty sure I wont get "a lot" anytime soon. We got home from our vacation Sunday and I went to bed much later than I should've especially since we got to our house at 6pm. We should have been home earlier than that but there was a LOVELY traffic jam we were stuck in for about 2 hours because of a fatal accident on I-285. Anyway, the point is I should've had plenty of time to go to sleep early both that night and last night. But... I took pictures at my cousin Ann's wedding and was just to anxious to get working on them. It's hard to stop when you've started. ANYWAY, we're home and we had an awesome time with our family and friends.

To answer you Christina (and everyone else who is curious), here is what we did get to do:

• Ben met his Auntie Shauna and Randi, cousins and Uncle Greg and Aunt Samantha for the first time.
• Drove the Alpine Loop, stopped at Cascade Springs and walked around a little. Saw a motorcyclists that had driven his bike off the rode on one of the switch-backs! Oops!
• Had a Father's Day BBQ and celebrated Ryan's first Father's Day
• Went to the bank and the mall and saw a lady in our stake here at the distribution center when I got a new temple dress.
• Ate at Tucano's with Andrea Green, Ryan and Kate
• Got sealed as an eternal family in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. It was the most beautiful thing ever to be there with my man and then to have our little one brought in dressed in white! I will never forget it!
• Ben met his Uncle John and Aunt Clau and other cousins from St. George.
• Wednesday we celebrated Ryan's 27th birthday and went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point and then to the Mayan with the Webb's and Andrea. We had a lot of fun! We even got to play some Wii and XBox at the Webb's house.
• Ate at the Happy Sumo and rode the moonlight lift at Sundance with Andrea and Ryan Andersen. We even took Ben. Read here about it.
• Took Ben to Grandma's and Grandpa's house for the first time.
• Shopped some, got some good deals and cute things... Ryan was a little bummed though, we couldn't ever find anything for him. Pooooooorrrrr Ryan....
• We got to attend the sealing of my cousin Ann and her husband Mike at the Idaho Falls Temple.
• Took pictures of them until all of us couldn't stand it anymore. (I was their photographer.)


• Got too hot and went to Chili's and then to Wal-Mart and saw a lady (only in Idaho...sorry if you live there) with a GINORMOUS sunflower pin on her shirt! I think she must have just hot glued a safety pin to a flower she got out of the flower bins at Michael's craft store and decided it was PERFECT to make as a pin for that navy blue shirt. It was seriously the size of her head.
• Basically pigged out all week. We ate at a lot of yummy places. Cafe Rio was a must and I got to go. YUM!
• Drove a lot. A LOT. Ben was a champ and quite the little traveler. In his short little 3 1/2 month life he's been to TN, UT and ID! Go Ben! He only fussed when the plane was landing but other than that slept most of the flight. In fact, we had him sleeping on the tray tables. He was too squirmy and uncomfortable on our laps. It worked out perfectly!

Here is one of the pictures of Ann's wedding... I need to post more and fix more and do all sorts of things with them... any of you photographers- got any suggestions on where I could post the pictures for her and her friends and family to see with out going to Kodak, Snapfish, or any of those other sites? Something easy? Don't they look so happy? What a beautiful bride!

Vacation pictures to come. I smell another photo montage!!!!

picture survey

The rules are you CANNOT clean before hand, just go take the pictures and post them. (Thanks Sarah!)
1. Favorite place:

in the mountains and with my boys
2. Self-Portrait:

looking rough

3. What are your kids doing RIGHT NOW?

sleeping

4. Favorite Shoes:

Couldn't decide which one.

5. What does the inside of your fridge look like?

6. Show us the favorite room in your house:

our room OK, this was taken on another night... when it was clean.
7. Show us your kitchen sink!

not too bad... just too small in my opinion
8. Show us your second bathroom:

9. Show us your master bedroom closet!

well, my side anyway. Ryan has one just like it.
10. Show us your laundry room!

more like our garage with a cubby area for the laundry. we're going to put curtains up or something... someday

I need a vaca...

Well, I suck huh? I haven't been all too great about updating the blog lately. My life has been a little crazy the last few days. I had to go to Knoxville, TN for work to our "main hub". We're here in Atlanta in the Corporate Headquarters, but all of our support teams like Customer Service and where the paperwork is processed, etc is all there. We left Sunday night and got back to Atlanta on Tuesday night. This meant me leaving my boys... which was not a happy thing for me. Overall though we survived, and I have to give HUGE kudos to my man for being such a good daddy and husband taking care of Ben while I was gone with OUT anyone helping him! Just call him Mr. Mom! After Tuesday afternoon he said he didn't want to be Mr. Mom anymore! He didn't complain once though and I appreciated all of his help. He was worn out when I got home! He's the best though and it made it that much easier knowing that even though I had to leave my boys, they'd have each other.

Having to go on that trip left me with some pretty lame nights of "sleep". I REALLY didn't want to go...I was pretty stressed about it and I was grinding my teeth at night. I'm glad that's over, but I'm starting to stress a little about our trip to UT this weekend. Not to go... but to see what Ben will be like on the plane. He's had an ear infection since Friday (he's on antibiotics so it should be gone by now-crossing my fingers) and I'm hoping the pressure on the plane wont hurt or do any damage to itty bitty ears. Also, Ryan HATES flying too and so this should be interesting. I told him to just keep his focus on Ben and making sure he's okay. Hopefully that will help. So what I'm trying to say in a round about way is that I haven't really had a good nights sleep in a LONG time and I'm just tired! Ben sleeps through the night about 90% of the time... so that's not it... just haven't had a good sound sleep. I wonder if I ever will again... there's still so much to do, we have to get so much ready now with a third little person involved! The kid is only 3 months old and he's got a whole suitcase dedicated to himself! Ha ha!!!

Things I would like to do in UT:

• See my family & friends (of course)
• Eat at Tucanos, Italian Place, Los Hermanos (I long for GOOD Mexican food, there just isn't such a thing here in Atlanta), Kneaders, Cafe Rio, Rubios...
• Go to the High Uintas
• Drive The Loop
• go shopping
• make sure Ryan has a splendid 27th birth on the 18th
• relax and not stress too much
• do something I haven't ever done in UT before, like the Alpine Slide or something.

I just got off the phone with a sales rep, and he ended the call by saying "okay thanks, love you baby". Hmmm. Then he fumbled and I think realized what he'd just said and was like "uh...sorry, yeah okay have a good one heather, uh bye!!" Too funny...mostly because he and I don't really get along too well.

There's a girl here that says exactly like "ExacT-ly". She emphasizes the T. It's kind of annoying.

Benjamin Breakthroughs... and other stuff

1. He laughed-laughed for the first time last week. He's kind of cooed before with a big smile, but he actually LAUGHED out loud. SO cute! And now every time he laughs he gets the hiccups!
2. He started "talking" a lot this past weekend. Like a real jibber-jabber mouth. Here's a little video from my cell phone so the quality SUCKS. Hearing him is what really matters... but seeing him is pretty fun too!
   
3. He's starting to need me to hold him more, which can be good and bad... I keep him pretty independent because I don't want him to need to cling... but I do have to admit it makes me feel pretty darn special that he feels better when he has his mommy holding him. But only for a few minutes until I need to go potty or do something that requires both my hands!
4. I have to leave my boys for the first time this weekend. This is really hard on me and I'm not happy about it. I have to go out of town for work on Sunday and wont be home until Tuesday night. It'll actually be the first time Ryan and I have been apart for more than 24 hours since we started dating... so that will be hard enough let alone away from my baby. My little, only 3 month old baby. ARG.
5. Ben is pretty much sleeping through the night. The night before last I put him down to bed around 10:30 and went to bed and woke up and decided not to go to work. Now we've been basically having to wake him up to feed him before we leave for work. I decided to just let him sleep yesterday morning and he slept until 8am!!! He's a good little sleeper. Occasionally he'll wake up in the night or early morning and I'll just give him his binky or turn him on his side and he goes right back to sleep.
6. He's loving the bath. I think we've got a swimmer on our hands which both of us are TOTALLY okay with!!! I held him up in the water yesterday on his belly and he was kicking and talking and having a ball! So cute.
7. We are going to UT a week from tomorrow and will be sealed while we are out there! We are SO excited to be united as a family forever! I am constantly overwhelmed with the blessing we have in our life, me especially. I have a loving husband with enormous amounts of faith and trust in me, a son who is a precious little soul straight from Heaven, a beautiful house, the Gospel... I could go on. I am just one lucky chick!!!

I will post more video/pictures when I get home tonight.

The joys of motherhood... being peed on while changing a diaper is one thing. But actually getting peed on and some how it getting in your MOUTH is quite another. EW.

I'm going to bed.