Christmas Fun!

Well, now that Christmas is over, here is our Christmas post. We had a fun Christmas season this year. Ben is finally big enough to be excited about Santa, snow, presents, Christmas lights, and more Christmas lights...

...so we took him to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.

He loved it!!!!


He loved the lights so much, he even came up with his own "Christmas Lights Dance", which was pretty awesome!!!

We had fun too, even though it was FREEZING!!!


We caught the end of the nativity program they had by the Tabernacle, and McLain got this awesome picture with the Christus in the background.


Christmas morning was fun too. Brooklyn is just cute as ever.


And Ben was super excited to get out of bed and open presents.


At least we thought he would be!

Getting Festive!!

Well, we don't seem to take many pictures around here, but now that finals are finally over for McLain, we can fully invest ourselves in the Christmas season.

Decorations are in the process of going up...

Lights are being untangled...


Lights are burning out...

And Sheri learned how to make these yummy treats which McLain has since dubbed:
"Moose Poo Delights"

We are super excited for the 4 week long Christmas break (compared with the usual 3 weeks). Aside from McLain being able to work and save us from an untimely financial death, we don't know what to do with ourselves. With the cold, we might just stay inside and, well . . .










ya know . . .












SLEEP!

Happy Late Halloween!!

We had a fun Halloween season this year! Here are some of the fun things that we did...

One of the ladies in my ward taught us how to make these super cool bug cupcakes. So, when my sister Emily came to hang out with us one weekend, we attempted making them.

We had centipedes and ticks, and many other things.


But my favorite had to be Emily's creature. Can you guess what it is supposed to be?


If this is what you guessed, you were right...a scorpion!


We sure had fun!!!

We also went to the pumpkin walk with my sister, Julie and her husband, Doug, and their cute little boy Zach. Good times!

Like father, like son...


And now for the cute costumes.

At the ward party, we went as Peanut Butter and Jelly.
Ben was a Pea
Sheri was a Nut
Brooklyn was Butter
McLain was Jelly
We were Pea, Nut, Butter, and Jelly.
Sorry, no pics of that one.

But here are the cute kids on Halloween night.

Ben was a rugby player, and he loved going Trick or Treating.


And Brooklyn was a cute little bumblebee!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Ben's newest trick

Every day, Ben does something new that just makes me laugh.

For example, when I looked over and saw him eating his "raisin patty", I couldn't help but laugh ... and almost gag.


But I think this newest trick of his tops them all.

And of course, here are a couple pictures of Brooklyn, just because she's so dang cute!!!

Burning Cakes, Hikes, and Parmesan Cheese

So Ben turned 2 last week!!! CRAZY!
Here are the before and after pictures of the airplane cake that I made for him.

BEFORE we ate it

AFTER we ate it and McLain got to it

He sure had lots of fun with the fire!


So, this last weekend, we went to Moab to see our beautiful niece be blessed. It was so fun!!!
We took Ben on a little hike while we were there.

Good times!


And yesterday, Ben was eating his breakfast. We kept hearing him say "Parmesan cheese." What??? Did he want parmesan cheese on his Tootie Fruities? That's gross!!!

So I went in to see what in the world he was talking about. There he was looking out the window and repeating "Parmesan cheese on car!" Huh? So, I took a peek out the window and this is what I saw.

That's right, it was snow. You've gotta give it to him though...it does look like parmesan cheese.

I just want to let everyone know

that...

MCLAIN IS THE BEST!!!!

and I love him so much!

Good times!!

Here are some pics of some of the things that we've been up to lately.


Here we are.

Here's McLain's beautiful car at the Preston car show.


Ben loves airplanes, and he was so excited to ride on one at the park!


Brooklyn is so so cute!!




So, in hopes of getting Ben more excited about sitting on his potty, we put his hand prints on it with paint so it was not just any potty, but Ben's potty. He loved painting it.


But the question is...did it work? Absolutely not. Now the only thing he gets excited about is giving his potty high five!!!


And of course, last but not least, here is a video of Ben's sweet dance while listening to music through the headphones.

With One Accord

Here is a video of the hottest new band in town...

With One Accord

The star accordionist is the one and only, my hot husband, McLain!!!!
The guitarist is his coworker BJ, and the drummer is our good friend Jeremy.
They are playing "The Final Countdown" by Europe.
This is at a work party.

Pretty good, eh?

Brooklyn's Blessing

Brooklyn's blessing day was this last Sunday. It was really nice. Thanks to everyone who came and who helped us out with everything! It was good to see everyone. Here are some pics from the day.


Here are some of Brooklyn in her dress, which happens to be the dress I was blessed in many years ago. Isn't she so beautiful? And she's so smiley!!!

1 month old

Well, we made it through our first month with two kids! Brooklyn is a really good baby and Ben just loves her!!! Here are a couple pics of the kids on Brooklyn's one month birthday.



Pretty cute, eh?

Afraid of Fireworks

So this Fourth of July, we were excited that Benjamin is finally big enough to be excited about fireworks. The last fourth of July, he watched the first minute or so of the fireworks and then was more excited about the cars driving past. And on the 24th of July, he lied on the blanket and pretty much slept the whole time. We were hoping that this year he would be super excited about them and love them.

Well, that's not exactly how it happened...

The fireworks in Logan are shot off about half a mile away from where we live, so we sit by the road just outside the trailer court that we live in. It's very convenient. Ben was so excited about fireworks. He couldn't stop saying it. He saw some of our neighbors doing little fireworks and was enthralled. Then the real fireworks show began.

He wasn't sure about the loud bangs at the beginning, but he was watching and pointing, so that was a good sign. After a few minutes of this, he started to fuss a little and kept saying "Hug" over and over. He was trying to turn around to give me a hug and cuddle. That is what he does when he's not happy. We thought it was because of the bangs, so I just covered his ears in hopes that he would still want to watch them if it wasn't so loud. It didn't work.

He still wanted a hug. I turned him sideways on my lap with one ear against me and I covered the other ear with my hand. I thought that this way, he would be getting his hug, and he would still be watching the fireworks without really hearing the fireworks.

He stayed this way for a little while, until McLain looked over at him and started chuckling. Ben's little eyes were shut just as tightly as he could possibly shut them.

He wasn't afraid of the loud bangs, he was afraid of the big, beautiful, amazing fireworks!!!

Poor kid! So he ended up giving me a hug, repeating "Fireworks!" many times (although he wasn't even watching them), and then just falling asleep on my shoulder. Oh well.

We tried...

We failed...

Maybe next year...

Benjamin and Brooklyn

So, Brooklyn is home and still cute as can be. Benjamin loves to give her kisses and hugs. Sometimes he just won't stop. We have to remind him that she is sleeping and not to wake her up. When she is in her crib and I lift him up to see her, he just wants her awake and loves to say "Brook'n, wake up, Brook'n!!!"
So, I thought I would put some pictures up of our two little ones.

These two pictures are Ben and Brooklyn when they were born in the hospital.
Can you tell who is who?

Here are some more pictures of big brother and little sister. Don't we have the cutest kids!?

And there they are. We love our little family!
Oh, and by the way, if you guessed that Brooklyn was the first picture and Ben was the second, you were absolutely right!!!