December

I feel like I haven’t taken many pictures lately – we’ve done some fun stuff (like going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir / David Archuleta Christmas concert) but not much that makes for great pictures. I did want to post a few random ones of Bennett enjoying Christmas preparations:

Bennett spotted this little mini nativity set as soon as it was out (Nate and I put out some of the Christmas decorations after he was in bed one night). He loved carrying the pieces around in the basket, and lined them all up on my index cards one day. Fortunately, my mom sent him a Little People Nativity set shortly after that I don’t have to worry about him breaking :)

Opening the box with the little people nativity (he was excited to pull out each piece and set it up - we hope that means that this year he’ll be more excited about the presents than he was last year – last year it was mostly the wrapping he liked :) The second picture is a little blurry but I love how excited he is.

Watching football with dad. And a video (taken on my phone, so lame quality) of him saying “touchdown!” On Saturday, we were listening to the BYU bowl game on the radio and he seemed to be playing with something else and not paying attention, then the announcer said touchdown and Bennett yelled out “da-down”. I taught him how to make the appropriate arm formation later :)

and a little shirt I couldn’t pass up at Target – I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to go out and buy some cute girl clothes, so I settled for a little brother shirt instead.

Meeting Santa at the Gingerbread showcase / party in our neighborhood. Bennett didn’t want to sit on his lap, and we didn’t make him – although I kind of regretted later not getting a good one of him screaming on Santa’s lap :) He did at least talk to Santa a little bit.

That’s all for now…hopefully I can be better at photographically documenting the rest of the Christmas celebrations!

Dribble, Dribble, Dribble, Shoot!

I think we have a future basketball player on our hands - sorry, the video's kind of long, you have to wait until towards the end to see the good dribbling skills.

Thanksgiving

We seemed to have an extended Thanksgiving celebration since Nate’s brother Spencer got home from his mission to Carlsbad, California – Mandarin Chinese speaking – about a week before Thanksgiving, and got to spend time with the family that night and on Sunday when he gave his mission report in church. A couple pics of his arrival: (I love Bennett’s little hands in that first picture – he does that a lot if he’s around a lot of people or unsure quite what to do)

 

Spencer got to meet two new nephews (including Bennett) and one niece who were all born while he was gone. On Sunday, Bennett was pretty disappointed he couldn’t go out in his Grandpa and Grandma’s backyard and play with the dog (there were a few inches of snow) so Grandpa helped him get up and watch the dog out the window.

We had planned on having a big Thanksgiving dinner Tuesday night with Nate’s family (his married siblings were spending Thanksgiving day with their in-laws) but because of the blizzard, we had to cancel that night but still had Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of the family on Thanksgiving. It was delicious! Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures :(

I got up early Friday and went shopping with my sister (who was in town from Portland) and brother. We actually had a pretty good experience – we got some great deals, didn’t get run over by crazy shoppers, waited in a few ridiculously long lines, and got most of what we wanted. We started at 4 and Jess & I finished up around 11 – Dave left around 7:30 but he was a great shopping buddy until then – he would go find stuff for us, or wait in line while we finished up our shopping.

On Saturday night, we went to Temple Square to see the lights (after watching the very disappointing BYU game!). It actually wasn’t as crowded as I thought it might be – and as it has been sometimes when we’ve gone in the past. It was so pretty, and Bennett loved pointing out all the “wights”. We got a couple pictures thanks to my trusty tripod and self-timer (although the last one’s blurry :(

It was a great Thanksgiving, and Bennett and I were pretty sad when Nate had to go back to work on Monday (although really the vacation ended on Sunday since we don’t see Nate much on Sundays either).

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Thankful For…

ultrasounds

10 fingers & 10 toes (Nate made sure to count during the ultrasound)

2 arms & 2 legs

2 little feet

a four-chambered heart

all the essential organs

a cute little face

a healthy and growing baby BROTHER for Bennett!!

Bring on the cars and balls, we’re ready for boy #2!

Little Cowboy

I kept meaning to go outside and get some really cute pictures of Bennett in his Halloween costume like I did last year (they were mostly really cute because of my willing subject), but I just haven’t done it, and I’m ready to get rid of the Halloween stuff in my living room. The Sunday before Halloween, Bennett got to pick out a pumpkin from his grandparents’ pumpkin patch with all his cousins. We went trick-or-treating on Saturday night and he actually picked up on it pretty quickly – he knew to reach right for the candy, then quickly turned around to head to the next house. When we got home (we didn’t go to very many houses) he loved running to the door for the trick-or-treaters and sat for about 15 minutes taking candy from our candy bucket (meant for the trick-or-treaters) and putting it in his trick-or-treat bag. He’s been pretty good about not eating it – mostly because he usually can’t open it himself :)

Farm Country, Part II

Bennett and I met our friends Laura and Grace at farm country at Thanksgiving Point a few weeks ago. This time, Bennett was less confident on the pony ride (he held onto me tightly the whole time) but was a lot more interested in the animals. They had fun playing in the little jailhouse too – here are some pictures from the farm.

 

Birthday Celebrations

I think I’m getting to the point where turning a year older on my birthday is a little sad rather than exciting. Fortunately, Nate spoiled me by getting a babysitter and taking me to dinner up in Park City a couple days before, and spoiling me with presents, breakfast, and lunch on my actual birthday. Bennett and I went up American Fork Canyon to explore and look at the leaves the morning of my birthday, and several friends and family members came over for cake & ice cream that night. It was a fun weekend of celebrations – here are a few random pictures.

Sitting on a bench with the bear after dinner in Park City:

Some pictures from the canyon- it was a perfect day to go up there. The weather turned out great and the trees were so colorful. Nate gave me a camera remote for my birthday, so Bennett and I had fun trying it out – he especially loved pushing the button so we ended up with lots of random pictures.

 

Bennett playing with rocks and leaves:

 

Good News or Bad News?

Nate appears to have mixed feelings.

Bennett: his feelings are pretty obvious. Apparently he doesn’t want a younger sibling. Unfortunately for him, at this point it’s inevitable. Hopefully he’ll change his mind before April 8th :)

Less than six months left to enjoy being the only child!

Gardner Village

Last Thursday, I met some friends from the neighborhood up at Gardner Village. Unfortunately, it was UEA (basically all the kids in Utah are out of school for…something. Not sure what :) and there were TONS of people there. We ate lunch and walked around a little bit looking at all the witches and decorations. By the time we left, Bennett had learned the word for pumpkin (although people other than me probably wouldn’t recognize that’s what he’s saying – something like butta). The last few weeks when we’ve seen them they were balls, but he finally figured out they’re not. He pointed them all out and wanted to go hug them all. It was pretty cute. I attempted to get a picture with a witch but there was a line and apparently the witch was more interesting than I was :)

And some pictures with the hay bales and pumpkins: