Benjamin's First prayer

Benjamin said his first prayer all by himself the other day. It went something like this.

"Heavenly Father, bless to feel good, bless cars, name of Jesus Christ Amen".

I thought it was so cute that he blessed his cars.

I guess I just realized I've been posting a lot about the two older kids lately, and I haven't posted as much about Benjamin. I always swore I'd try to keep the photo, attention ect.. even between all of my kids. The trouble seems to be that I now have three almost four kids, with the same 24 hours in a day. Now instead of one or two kids getting my day, I have three that I have to divide my time with. I guess that is why it seems like time is going faster now. I have less time because we are just plain busier. But I wanted to devote a post to our little sweet Benjamin. He is the most hilarious toddler. Sunday at church we walked in to sit down by Dan's parents. Benjamin goes "Hi grandpa," then does this fake laugh really loud. Some people behind us laughed to. I guess that's the way I'd describe Benjamin, funny. He always has a smile on his face, and playing some kind of joke. He is also very picky about being clean. He hates to have his hands messy, and he recently went through this phase of taking off his diaper when ever he was wet at all. It seemed like some days I was dressing him three of four times a day. He has had a hard time the last couple of weeks since the older kids have gone to school. He cries every time the leave to go to the bus stop. He says I go to kindergarten, I go to kindergarten too. He also loves his daddy, and wants to go to work with him. Here are a few pictures of our little guy!

Did I say he likes to be clean? I guess here is an exception, he found a marker and colored all over himself. And of course he is naked. This was when he was going through his no clothes phase.

Denver weekend getaway!

Kate and I were so lucky go to Denver to visit my sister and my niece for the weekend. This trip was to celebrate Kate's birthday and mine as well (our birthday's are exactly one week apart). We stayed at a hotel for three nights and did a lot of shopping, swimming, and going out to eat. It was nice to just relax, and visit with my sister. We also made the ever infamous visit to the American girl doll store. I have to admit that around our house we are a little obsessed with these darling dolls. When we arrived in Denver Kristen came and picked us up at the airport, and we found a place to eat. Then we headed back to the hotel and let the girls swim. The following day was Sunday. We found a sacrament meeting close to the Denver temple, then grabbed some lunch, and headed for the temple grounds. It was so peaceful there. I could have totally stayed there all afternoon just visiting with my sister. The next day we visited the AG store. It was a neat experience to actually visit the store. Everything is on display behind glass. I can understand why they have to keep the displays protected, but it makes the store feel more like a doll museum. I think that is part of the marketing, in my mind I felt like we were purchasing something very valuable, and important, (it's protected behind glass it must be special). I swear who ever is head of marketing at AG is a genius. Visiting the store turned out to be a total blast and thanks to Kate's grandma; Kate was able to go an a real shopping spree for her birthday and get some really fun things. I planned ahead of time and made matching doll skirts for Kate, Caroline and their dolls. I also sewed a handy little bag for Kate to carry her doll in while we were traveling at the airport. The girls looked very cute in their matching doll clothes. After we went shopping at the store we headed to the cheese cake factory for lunch. It's a tradition with my sister and I to always eat at a cheese cake factory when ever we meet up. A couple of years ago we went in Hawaii, and then of course the place that started the tradition Boston. We went to the Boston cheesecake factory for the first time when I was 15 while visiting her there. It was fun to share this tradition with our daughters. At the restaurant they have doll chairs that the dolls can sit up to the table in. Kate was in heaven and having such a fun time. They brought her out a birthday Sunday, and sang to her. She loved the attention. Then we headed back to the AG store were the girls got to do a free craft. Then we went and got Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and headed back for more swimming at the hotel. Here is a picture of the girls being goofy, and hyper the last night we were there. It was fun to just let the girls be girly, they jumped on the beds, and giggled a lot. I think this will be a trip Kate will remember for a long time.

Pioneer Birthday Party!

The plan was that this would be a "off" year for friend birthday parties. Pathetically I was weak, and gave into the pleading of a sweet seven year old little girl. After making eleven bonnets, aprons, and doll bonnets this is the result. A real authentic pioneer party, complete with candle dipping, strawberry jam making, butter shaking, and country dancing party. I hope Kate enjoyed it all. It seemed like the girls were really engaged in the activities. I couldn't believe how simple the party seemed. Originally I thought candle dipping would be a chaotic mess, it wasn't though. And thanks to my Mom, who helped the girls make the jam, it all went well without a hitch. Here are the pictures. I think this was by far my favorite party to plan. Who can resist those adorable bonnets? Most importantly I think Kate had a wonderful time! We decided to celebrate her birthday early. Her real birthday isn't until Friday. But I have a special weekend planned to Kate and I to enjoy together for both of our birthday's. Of course I'll be publishing more about all of that soon!

First day of school 2011!

Wow, where has the time flown? It's already the first day of school! The first day is always so exciting. New clothes, new shoe's, a new teacher and new friends and classroom. Kate and Kirk were both super excited. The evening before Kirk was literally bouncing all over the room, and jumping on the furniture exclaiming how excited he was to start Kindergarten. I think Kate was excited too, first grade is a big jump. She's going all day now, and eating lunch at school. She was excited to get an extra recess. It seems like the kids are going to have fabulous teachers this year. Kirk's teacher already new him from when I'd occasionally bring him along when volunteering in Kate's class last year. She was a wonderful teacher, and I know Kirk will love her class. Kate has two teachers, and two classrooms. Morning's she goes to French immersion. They study math, and science completely in French. The idea is that they naturally pick up the language from hearing it day in and day out. Then the second half of the day they go to their English teacher where they learn their reading and writing. Kirk is also in the French program. They start out just doing small amounts of french. After a year of french kindergarten Kate can count in french, understands shapes, colors, commands such as add, subtract, or point too etc.... One thing I've noticed is that the Kate understands much more than she can verbalize. It was amazing to watch her french teacher ask her do point to a certain shape, or number in french and she understood. I guess if you think about it babies are the same way. The understand what we are saying to them, much sooner than they can actually speak fluently. It will be fun and exciting to watch the kids learn french this year. Kirk came home a said that they played duck, duck, goose in french. I asked him how to say it in French and he said he couldn't remember. It takes alot of practice. Well now that the first day is done and out of the way it's time for me to tackle on my new projects. I've got to start getting into a routine, and organized before this baby comes. So it's off the the laundry room, the goal to day is to see the floor by the time I'm through.

Fresh strawberries from the garden, summer bliss!

One last swim before school starts in a week!

School is starting in just a few days. I have to admit that I definitely have mixed emotions about the kids going back. On the one hand, it will be wonderful to have more structure, and routine in our days. The kids are getting tired of being home, and I think they will enjoy starting school and meeting new friends. But there is a small (very small) part of me that feels sad. We had a busy summer, with lots of projects, road trips, and naps (hey I'm pregnant I need to rest during the day). I think the hardest part is that I won't be seeing Kate as much. Now that she's in school all day long. I'm really going to miss eating lunch with her. Here are a few highlights of some of our adventures this summer.

-We went on an extended family vacation with Dan's side of the family. We drove to Sandiego, and visited Lego land, sea world, and Sandiego zoo. This trip was amazingly fun. The kids loved sea world. I did visit the Killer Whale show in spite of a major prejudice against the killer whale species they are a very mean animal. We also went to the sandiego temple with the kids. Kate was very excited since this is where she wants to get married (ouch, I'm seeing dollar signs). And of course we went to the beach. Here are just of few pictures of the trip.

-We also did another road trip to Colorado Springs. We visited my sister who lives there over the fourth of July. The drive honestly seemed like a cake walk compared to the Sandiego drive. Colorado springs is gorgeous, the kids loved it. We went to a chuck wagon dinner western style. Complete with tin plates, and tin mugs. We also went to a parade on the fourth of July, and saw a fire works show. It was a super fun weekend. I regret that I forgot my camera, so sorry no fun pictures.

-We also did a short trip to Bear lake over raspberry days. Unfortunately Dan came down with the stomach flu, but the kids had a blast riding on the boat. Kate and Kirk did the tube. They loved being dragged by the boat. Kirk actually went pretty fast. He kept doing the thumbs up which means faster.