I know...I can hardly believe it myself.  I've blogged. 

We had a great summer of 2010.

These are pictures of the gardens at the Bellagio. 

We stopped for a rest in Vegas on our way to.............

 DISNEYLAND!!!

It made it so much better that it was FREE!  Jeff's brother had a day they didn't use on their hopper passes.  Thanks David & April.  We had an amazing time.  Jeff's mom met us there and then came back to Utah with us.  We always love it when Grandma comes to visit. 

There...that wasn't so hard.  I can do this!



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Benson's Birthday, Butterflies, and Bad Boy

Playing a little catch-up...

Benson's Birthday

May 3rd - 4 years old

Butterflies

At school we got bought some caterpillars and observed them in class.  The 2nd graders loved it.  We got way too many, so I brought some home.  The boys loved them as well. 

They were very sad when we released them.

Bad Boy

Benson loves guns...just like his daddy.  Worries me a little.  When Jeff asks Benson what he wants to do, Benson will often say, "go shooting."

No More Monkies Jumpin' On The Bed!

Benson and Owen enjoy jumping on their beds.  They will usually end up pulling their matresses off and making a "bridge" with them.  It's quite annoying.  A couple Sundays ago, I was getting ready for church and I could hear them jumping.  I don't remember what Jeff was doing---probably preparing his primary lesson.  I yelled to the boys to stop, but do they listen? No!  I was running behind & I thought "well at least they're not buggin' me while I'm getting ready".  I know, I'm a great mom.  A few minutes later I hear Owen crying pretty bad, and then Benson starts crying his scared/I'm in trouble cry.  I tell Jeff to go see what's wrong. Jeff came quickly down the stairs holding Owen and told me to look at his head.

  When I saw the massive bump, I kicked it into gear and got an icepack.  My mom has a great story about how icepacks saved her from looking awful after a nasty trip she took.  It's a great story.  Anyways, back to Owen.  He didn't like the icepack, but he let us put it on there for a little while.  He stopped crying after a few minutes and seemed fine. 

I checked his eyes to see if he had any signs of a concusion.  Benson kept wanting to get in the pictures like we were all having a fun photoshoot. 

I felt awful.  You can still feel a little of the bump today.  It happened 2 weeks ago.  I wonder if there will be any permanent damage.  A small bump forever?

My Mother's Day note...from Benson

In Benson's Preschool they asked him some questions about me. 

What's your mom's name?

mommy

(that's right)

What does she do?

She works in the house and does the laundry.

(um...yep!)

How old is she?

4 fingers

(At least he knows how old he is.)

What is her favorite color?

Orange

(He must've been thinkin' of Daddy...)

What is her favorite food?

popcake

(I don't know what that is, but I like the sound of it.  I love pop & cake, so let's just make a compound word out of it.)

What is her favorite movie?

Lightening McQueen One

(as opposed to Lightening McQueen 2 or 3?)

How many brothers and sisters does she have?

7

(nope, but at least he said a number)

Where does she like to take you for fun?

Preschool

(I've never-not even once-taken him to preschool.  But he loves it.)

What message do you want to send her for mother's day?

Mommy I love you and can I play my star wars game?

(Benson lives for his star wars game.  It's pathetic.)

Thanks Benson...I love you too!

{Picture taken by himself} 

photo contest

My neighbor is an awesome photographer.  She is having a contest to win a free fun booth session.  Check out her website.  http://www.lindsayrossphotography.com/

Owen's 2!!!

Owen turned 2 on March 18th (I know, I'm slow). 

I let him eat the cake batter for his birthday cake.  He loved it. 

Owen is a great kid.  We love him to bits.  Some of his favorite things are; building blocks, drawing, having dad change his diapers, bugging & playing with his brother, and giving hugs & kisses (I ask for them every chance I get).  He doesn't like mommy changing his diaper or being told he can't do something. 

He's very sensitive and super loveable.

Love you Owen! 

LOVE you!

I L-O-V-E when my boys are getting along and show affection towards one another. 

Once in a great while one of them will just give the other a hug or a kiss.  They have even held hands while we're in the car.  It melts my heart. 

We had a lovely Valentine's Day.  We do a babysitting swap with a few families in our neighborhood.  It was our turn to watch kids, so we did that Friday night.  On Saturday, my little brother Dallin called to see if he could watch the kids so Jeff and I could go out.  So sweet!  Thanks Dallin. We just did the typical dinner & a movie.  Unfortunately, I woke up sick Sunday morning, but was fine by that evening.  No, I'm not pregnant.  It was either food poisoning or a 12-hour stomache bug.  Whatever it was...I'm just glad it didn't last long. 

Warning:  Crack kills! 

This kills me.

This kills me even more. 

Check out Jeff's face.  Benson was pulling on his hoodie and Jeff didn't like it very much.  I cry from laughing so hard every time I see it.

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas...

Decorating the tree...

 Owen's favorite thing all month long was taking all the ornaments off one side of the tree and squishing them all together on a couple branches.  It was quite the site.  I think he only broke 3 ornaments...not too bad.

Making Sour Cream Christmas Cookies (daddy's favorite)...

Christmas morning...

One of the very favorite things was the Diego couch/sleeper.  I got a great deal on Black Friday for it.  Yay! Success!  

Yum....Chocolate!

Huge thanks to everyone who helped make our Christmas extra special.  We love you all.

I'm back...

Ok, so I know that I have been a total slacker on the blogging.  Here are some things we've done since the last time I did a post. 

~Halloween~

We absolutely looooove Halloween.  My sister, Jena, has a really fun party every year.  This year we had a hoedown.  We ate some good country food and did some line dancing.  I learned the Hannah Montana Hoedown dance to teach everyone.  It was a blast.  I'll teach you sometime if you'd like.  It's actually a lot of fun.  

Benson with his vampire teeth he got in preschool.  He loooooves preschool. 

We spent Halloween up at Alison's (Jeff's sister) in Idaho Falls.  Her baby Aimee was getting blessed and her daughter Christina was getting baptized that weekend.  We also got to see Grandma Bean while we were there. 

While we were there we went to their ward Trunk-or-Treat.  Benson was Buzz and Owen was a biker dude.

I tried to get a picture of the boys lying in the leaves...didn't really work out.  Benson's face makes me laugh every time I look at this pic.

We decided to paint our pumpkins instead of carve them.  Benson and Owen had a lot of fun.  Jeff didn't originally like the idea...then he decided to do this...

...I think he had the most fun of all.

Benson likes to rinse his own dishes. 

He learned this from Daddy.

Owen has the sweetest smile.  This was taken back in September, but I just love it.  He is now 21 months old and finally getting some more teeth.  He only had these 4 for a long time.  The next one he got was one of his back molars.  Is that weird?   I kinda thought so.  He is finally getting more though...another molar and the other top ones next to his 2 front teeth. 

On Thanksgiving we did some family pictures with all of my family.  Here is the one of just our little family.

There you have it...I hope that fills your cup for a little while.  

I love you and miss you...I have so much blogging to catch up on...I need to check up on all of you.

P.S.--well, a question.  I tried to post some videos to this, but it kept failing.  Is there some new way to do it?  Help me out people.  I'm out of the loop.

Summer is over...School has begun

The Summer was great while it lasted.

Swimmin' in the backyard with friends.


Eatin' yummy watermelon...

and lovin' it!

Eatin' veggies straight from the garden.

Shootin' the breeze...

Visiting family in California...and going to Six Flags.

Went to Jackson Hole for our Anniversary.

Ain't we the darndest cute cow couple ever!

We brought along our great friends...Jeff and Lisa.

We had a good time gettin' dressed up.

We went on one last trip the week before I went back to work. We stayed with the Cheney's at their family cabin in Island Park. We also visited Yellowstone and Virginia City.

This is me in Virginia City. The only picture taken of me all day...and I took it myself.

Emma looooooooves Owen (or My Nowen...as she calls him).



Pannin' for gold!

Yellowstone







We aslo got to go horseback riding. Jeff Cheney's parents have horses. It's great to have friends with connections. This was Benson and Owen's first time riding...they loved it.

And now school has begun. I'll admit I wasn't at all excited or ready to go back to work. But it really has turned out better than I thought it would. I have a great class with way cute kids. The 2nd grade team I'm on is AWE.SOME!!! They help me sooo much. Jeff's niece watches the boys MWF, and my brother, Dallin, watches them T&TH (at our house). But a definite downfall to not being home is missing out on some of the little and big things. Benson had his first day of Preschool today. I told Dallin he had to take pictures for me. He said I am "such a mom." And I'm proud of it.

Benson loves Preschool.