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.