Cute pics

Here are some random, but super cute pics of the kids. We sure have good times around here!

At the park...

...climbing up the slide...


..climbing up the climbing wall...


With Dad... (love these pictures!)

...raking leaves...


...watching Mythbusters...


Hanging out...


Posing by the Christmas tree...


Talking on the cell phone...already...


Sleeping...(not 5 minutes after Ben asked me over and over if he could "play something fun", we found him dead asleep on our camping pads...cute!...)


And I think this one's funny just because Brooklyn's whacking Ben on the head!!...


...my kids are cute, what can I say?...

Ben and Brooklyn's Thanksgiving Feast

BENJAMIN

Roll
Corn
Jello
One bite of mashed potatoes
Chocolate cream pie


BROOKLYN

Turkey (no gravy)
Ham
Cool whip from the top of her jello
Banana cream pie
Pumpkin cheesecake

YUM!

Dressing Up

Well, Halloween this year was loads of fun. Ben loved trick or treating. He said "Trick or Treat ... Thank you!!" perfectly every time.

Ben was convinced he wanted to be a tree, until he had to actually BE a tree. But he was a good sport. And so cute.


We knew that dressing Brooklyn up was not going to be easy, so we opted for a simple kitty, with simple face paint. Bad idea. Who knew this girl could get so mad?


She wouldn't even let us take a picture of her and Ben together.


But she ended up looking so cute anyway, even with pretty much no nose left, and smeared whiskers.


Halloween is getting more and more fun each year!!

Cheesy Kids

Our kids are so funny. Ben has had this cheeser smile since he was 14-15 months old...


Every time he smiles for the camera, we get his cheeser, no matter the occasion.


And now Brooklyn (who is 15 months) has the same cheesy smile!


What goofballs!!!!


So, this will probably be the smile you see in most of the following pictures (for years to come).

Here are just some cute pictures of the kids. They are such good friends and love playing together. Brooklyn is always following Ben around and copying everything he is doing. If he goes and stands by a wall, so does she...


If he decides to go sit on a chair while brushing his teeth, so does she...


If he decides to go get Dad in in the middle of Bear Lake, so does she...


For now he doesn't mind...we'll see how much he likes his little sister following him around in ten years or so.

And I just had to post this awesome video of Ben singing his latest song. Things like this just make a parent proud!

The tricky-ness continues...

Some of you may remember a time when I posted about how tricky Ben was...if you don't, go here to watch the video of his tricky-ness.

Now that you remember what he did almost a year ago, let me tell you what he did tonight at dinner.

We were eating hamburgers. He actually tried his, thank goodness. He told me, "Mom, if I eat all of my hamburger, then I can have some ice cream!!!" I was fine with that, as long as he ate his food. We continued eating and talking, and a couple of minutes later, Ben came up to me, so excited, with his empty plate in hand. "Mom, look!!! I ate all my food!!"

I couldn't believe it...had Ben really just eaten all of his burger that quickly? Amazing!

Not.

His burger was sitting on the table, hiding behind McLain where I couldn't see it.

Nice try Ben. But I'm on to your tricks!


And by the way, he never did finish his burger.

Look what I did...

I made this dress for Brooklyn!


I think it's pretty good considering I've never made a dress before. It's not perfect, but you can't tell unless you look really close.

And Brooklyn looks so cute in it!!!


And I made the bow to match too. I really am pretty excited about it, and can't wait for her to wear it to church!

Yogurt!!!

A couple of weeks ago, our friends and almost relatives, Steve and Emily, posted about their little boy Sam eating yogurt. We had the same experience tonight with Brooklyn (who is just a couple of months younger than Sam) and thought we'd share and let Steve and Emily know that they're not alone when it comes to kids eating yogurt and making major messes!




Even though she's a mess, she's still cute!

~~~

Brooklyn's birthday was fun! I still can't believe she's 1...CRAZY!!
She loved her cake!


And I got this cute picture...


...which reminded me of this picture of Ben from his first birthday...


Cute, huh? They are definitely related...look at those noses!

~~~

And last week, there was this crazy big windstorm that went straight down Main Street in Richmond. And yes, we live on Main Street. It was blowing so hard! Some people saw a little funnel cloud...yikes! We watched from the kitchen as Jaicee (my sister-in-law) barely made it into the shed before she was blown away with Daphne (her baby). There was debris and branches everywhere...

up the street...


next door...


our tree... (I know, not as impressive, but we really are grateful that it wasn't worse.)


and here's a picture of a huge pine tree that snapped in half down the street...sad...


And then, not two hours later, almost every branch was cleaned up. That's how the amazing people of Richmond are. We live in a great place!

~~~

And of course, I can't have a blog post without some cute pics of the kids...

wrestling...


They're so funny.

And Ben said to me one day, "Look Mom, I got all of my stickers on me!!!!" He was so proud!


What a funny kid.

Accomplishments!!!!

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted, and there have been many accomplishments in our house!!! Here we go...

MCLAIN...

He GRADUATED!!!!!!! (I am so proud of him!) He is now the proud owner of a Computer Science degree from Utah State University!!! Yea McLain! This is when he got home from his very last day of school...look how happy (and cute) he is!


SHERI...

I don't actually remember what I was going to put as my accomplishment.... so.... uh.... well.... I, with MUCH help from McLain, have gotten most of the house organized. That's pretty good.


BENJAMIN...

Ben has a few accomplishments.

We went to Black and White Days this year. They had some of those sweet big blow up toys. Ben kept saying that he wanted to go on the big slide...we totally didn't believe him, thinking he would be too scared. But he was the first one up and wanted to go and go and go some more. We were pretty amazed and so proud.


He sure loved the blow up toys!

He also, with help from his cute cousins, Naivie and Norah, has actually tried new foods!!! Now, unless you know how picky he is and how hard it is to get him to eat something new, this may not mean as much. But to us, it's incredible! Thanks girls!

Some of the foods he has tried and liked are:

Ranch chicken
Nachos
Quesadillas
Hot dogs
Honeydew melon
Corn
Rice with different sauces on it, not just cheesy chicken sauce
Meatballs
Ketchup
Honey on his peanut butter sandwich
Muffins

And that's just the stuff I can remember!

He's such a stud.



BROOKLYN...

She's WALKING!!! So cute, and just in time for her first birthday, which is tomorrow!!!!

Isn't she beautiful? Look at those big gorgeous eyes.


We've also gotten a big garden in (and everything we have planted, except the potatoes, have sprouted, even though you can't tell from the picture!! It's a miracle.) And we have done a bunch of work around the house.



Life is good!!!

How much longer?

Yeah for McLain, who is going to graduate in

3 weeks!!!!!!!!


We can't wait.

"Peace Dude"

Easter Cookie Party!

For as long as I can remember, we have gone to my Grandma Stephens's (I've grown up all my life with the last name Stephens, and I still don't know if it's Stephens' or Stephens's or what. So if it's wrong, sorry.) house and had a cookie party at Christmas time. Now we are all grown and that tradition has sadly ended.
But this year my mom decided to follow in Grandma's footsteps and start another cookie party tradition. An Easter cookie party!!! And boy was it fun! The parents of the little ones, (aka my brother and sisters and I) were more excited about it than the little kids. But the kids had a blast too!

We started out by rolling out dough and cutting out cookie shapes.
Ben did a really good job!

Brooklyn wanted to help too!


Next we colored Easter eggs. Ben and Bridger sure had fun doing this!





And amazingly, there wasn't any stained clothes or big spills, just colored fingers!!!


After that was the Easter Egg Hunt!!!



Victorious!!


Brooklyn was content to stay in Grandpa's arms the whole time...and why not? She still got her Easter basket full of goodness!


And Jayanne wasn't afraid to see what she got in her basket.


Of course you can't have an Easter cookie party without frosting the cookies.


Ben somehow got it in his head that those plastic things to put around the eggs were arm warmers. Funny.


Zach just wanted to eat the cookies...who can blame him?


Yum...


We had such a good time and hope that this is a tradition that continues.