Ben's Preschool Christmas Concert

Tonight was Ben's preschool Christmas Concert. So cute!!! They learned a bunch of Christmas songs at preschool and then performed them tonight. I love watching little kids sing.

We were afraid Ben wouldn't sing, since we have had experiences in the past (namely, Primary Sacrament Meeting Program) where he wouldn't sing and it was pretty traumatic, but he did awesome tonight!

Here is a video of one of their songs. Ben is sitting in the front in the white shirt. And for those interested, Mikaela (the girl he wants for Christmas) is two people to his left, with the dark hair.
The funniest part is at the end when they are supposed to take a bow. Watch Ben. Funny!

Sorry for the awful picture quality, hopefully you can see it. We totally need a new camera!

It was so fun and I'm glad he loves preschool so much! Don't you love how everyone else bowed, but Ben hugged himself!! We thought it was hilarious!

And we had to get a picture with him and Mikaela! They're so cute and such good friends!


Good times!! And it was even worth giving up the free tickets to the Aggie basketball game tonight that we were offered!

"With One Accord" is awesome!!!

I just have to brag. McLain is in this band called "With One Accord." He plays the accordion while his friend BJ plays the guitar. Usually they just play about once a year at their work party.

But this last Saturday, they played a few songs at Open Mike Night in Brigham City. This happens once a month at the Fine Arts Center in Brigham. They usually feature a local band or singer for an hour and then start into the open mic part where anyone can sign up and perform. So "With One Accord" signed up! They were AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that this picture isn't amazing...I had to capture it from the video, but our camera is not very good. Bad video = bad picture!

I would put a video of the performance up, but our camera really is so bad that it sounds no good. It messes it all up. Plus, it goes in and out of focus so often, it would give you a headache to watch. But trust me, they did good!

And here are the highlights of the night...

~Out of all of the performances that night, they were the only ones that got encored!!!

~They were asked to come back and be the feature performers for that hour before the open mic part of the night starts in a few months! Totally awesome!!

~And my proudest moment was when one of the audience members came up to McLain and told him he would pay money to see McLain perform!!!!! That's my McLain!

It was such a fun night and they did such a good job! And McLain looked so good up there performing. Be waiting for news on when they perform again and you can come hear them!

Kids

Well things here have been pretty good considering there are three kids now. Adilyn is such a good baby that most of the time it doesn't even seem like there is another kid here! Thank you Adilyn!!

But I thought I would just post some cute pics of the kids and what they've been up to lately.

BENJAMIN

Ben started preschool this fall and LOVES it! He loves doing his homework and especially loves that he doesn't always have to have a nap on his preschool days!


He had his 4th birthday! He wanted a green and red triangle cake. Happy Birthday Ben!


He pretty much wants to do anything and everything that Dad does...

...mow the lawn...


...play the harmonica (so cute!!!)...


...even dress like him at church...

I love these pics. McLain of course has had this 3 piece suit for years and wears it to church on occasion. Then when Gramma Merrie found this little one, we just knew Ben had to wear it to church too. They were so stylin' and I love how cute they both are!

And of course Brooklyn wouldn't let us go without her being in the picture too!


He loves his sisters and is a great big brother!

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BROOKLYN

I don't even know what to say about Brooklyn. She is quite the character. One second she'll have you laughing your guts out and the next second she'll have you wanting to pull your hair out!

She's beautiful,


hilarious, and sometimes quite grumpy and dramatic,


a great big sister,


super disgusting, as she licks everything and leaves drool everywhere,


and so helpful, as she reads to Adilyn.


She is just plain "Bwookwyn" as she would say!

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ADILYN

Adilyn is so sweet and getting so big. She sleeps great during the night most of the time and has slept completely through the night a few times. If only she were more consistent with that!

1 month...


ready for church...


a great little sister...


who puts up with so much from her older siblings...


and so happy! I finally got a smile on camera for you all to enjoy!


And there you have it. I love my kids!

Baby Adilyn is here!

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for!!!

INTRODUCING...

Adilyn Knutson

Born August 25, 2011 at 3:19 pm

6 lbs 14 oz (same as Ben was)

19.5 inches long (same as Brooklyn was)

The labor and delivery and recovery were all super awesome! No pain, nothing. It was amazing. I don't think I could have asked for an easier birth. Yay Adilyn!

Ben and Brooklyn love her to pieces. I have to constantly remind them to "Get out of her face." and "Leave her alone while she's sleeping!" They are always saying "Baby Adilyn's so cute!" and "Baby Adilyn loves you!"

Here she is a little more dressed up. Cute as a button!

And here she is a week old.

I'm pretty sure this next picture is a picture of the face she was making in the ultrasound picture from the last post.

She is a great baby! Very happy and content all the time. We love her and are so blessed to have her in our family!

A Little Bit of Everything

I thought I'd start with the new baby. So far, things look good. I just got this ultrasound last week, and thought it was so funny. You can see the baby's little fist up against her face. Her nose is cute, and her little lips are pursed. Either she's giving us a little attitude, or she's pouting. I'm hoping it's not a sign of things to come! It's cute, either way!


And now, here are a few things that we've been up to this summer.

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We planted a garden. Ben loved helping put the seeds in the holes.


Now his most frequent request is to "work in the garden." (Which, as you can tell by the pictures, and the weeds, needs to be done!!) He always wants to weed the garden. It's so cute. He'll pick one weed...


...and then walk over to the wheelbarrow to put it in.


We tried to tell him it would be easier to make a pile and bring them all over at once, but he would have nothing to do with it. What a good helper! Brooklyn usually helps by just walking all over the plants and getting dirty. And she sure loves getting dirty!!!

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Brooklyn had her 2nd birthday in Moab this year! She had a blast!

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These are just some cute pics of the kids hanging out outside with their swimming suits on. Brooklyn loves wearing hats backwards...this one is Ben's, which explains why it's so big.



She is trying to make the same silly face as Ben.

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We went camping last weekend as part of our family reunion. The kids had so much fun! They loved hanging out with their cousins and doing all the activities that were available for them.

Ben, Brooklyn, and Bridger ate every meal up on this stage area.


Brooklyn didn't let go of my dad pretty much the whole time we were there. Here she is just after she fell, with "Grandpa Merrie," as she calls him!


This is during a game of "goofball." I know Ben looks like he's about to pee, but he's really just excited that he made it to the base!


They were so excited to sleep in the tent. Don't they look so comfortable?!


Ben ended up on our bed. Isn't this such a cute picture?


McLain and our brother-in-law Brian competed at the 2 man saw. They did really well, even though they didn't end up with the fastest time.


My sister Kailynn was pretty disappointed that I couldn't do it with her. I didn't think it would be the best idea, considering my current condition.

And the favorite part of the whole trip for the kids were the pony rides!!!! They were so happy the whole time!



And then, this nice man came down to our campsite and let the kids ride a real horse! Ben wasn't there at the time, and doesn't really know what he missed...that's okay.

Bridger was a good helper holding Avery on.


And I literally don't think Brooklyn stopped smiling the whole time! She absolutely loved it!!!!!!!


And that's that. We have had a fun summer and are looking forward to this new baby. Wish us luck...I hear 3 kids is pretty tough!!

Easter Cookie Party 2011

The second annual Stephens Family Easter Cookie party was a success! The kids had so much fun.

~~We started by rolling out and cutting Easter cookies~~





~~Then we all made our way outside for the Easter Egg Hunt~~

The kids are waiting anxiously to start!



Ben and Brooklyn had a blast!





And look at how full those baskets are.



~~Dyeing Easter eggs was next~~

Ben was so excited, he was the first one ready, and was not extremely excited about waiting for the rest of us to get in there.





~~And then we frosted the cookies that we made earlier~~



This is Ben's little chick that he was frosting, but I think it looks more like a dinosaur.



And here's the finished dino-chick...with another layer of frosting. You can't even see all of the sprinkles that he put on there...there is so much frosting on this thing.



Ben's finished cookies. (Brooklyn wasn't really into the decorating the cookies part of the party, so I don't have any pics of her at this point.)



And I just had to put this picture of Zach. It's pretty much identical to the one I have of him on last year's post...eating a frosting-less cookie. So funny!



~~And last but not least, a picture of all the grandkids, loving the fun times at Grandma's house!~~



Thanks Grandma, it was loads of fun!!!