Sledding

We haven’t had much snow at all this year, especially at our house, and Bennett keeps talking about wanting to go sledding (mostly due to Nate’s prompting – he keeps talking about wanting to go sledding too). We got some snow on Sunday and although it was all melted by mid-day Monday, we had decided we would take advantage of Nate having the day off (sort of – he was on campus until mid-day) and go sledding. We thought we might have to go up in the mountains to find enough snow, but there was enough at Rock Canyon park and it worked out great. Bennett had a ton of fun and Ryan endured the cold (he seemed pretty neutral about the sledding experience – didn’t complain, but didn’t seem excited either. He mostly sat there just taking it all in). We were glad we finally got to go – big thanks to Nate’s parents for letting us borrow their sleds!

Ryan's ride back up the hill. He only fell out once :)

 

 

I found this video when I was uploading the others...a couple weeks ago I was making dinner and Bennett "helped" me put flour in something. He spilled some on the counter and I decided to just let him play in it while I finished getting dinner ready. He thought it was pretty funny, and my favorite part was seeing him entertain Ryan - they would both get laughing pretty hard. By the time I got the video camera, I had missed the "perfect moment" but still captured a little of it.

Bennett’s Birthday Celebrations

Bennett turned 3 last week – I know everyone says this, but I can’t believe he’s that old! I’ll do a separate post just about him at 3, but I figured I’d start with the easier one :)

Part I of the celebrations was on Monday when Nate’s mom had come down to help her sister with something and stopped by to bring Bennett a few presents. He loved his Thomas the Train bat & ball, wooden shape train, and play-doh set. I especially loved the play-doh set because he sat at the counter and played with it for probably 1.5 hours with little need for my help (we were having my sister & her husband, her in-laws, and her friends over for a little bday party for her that night, so I was grateful for the chance to get the house clean and cake made).

  

On his actual birthday, my friend Laura brought her daughters down and Bennett and Grace had a fun little playdate. Despite a few shed tears (what 3-year-old likes to share his toys?) they had a lot of fun together and put together the puzzle Grace gave Bennett multiple times. We went and picked up Little Caesar’s pizza and took it to eat on campus with Nate for lunch. The rest of the day wasn’t too exciting, but we did open a few presents that night before bed.

I told Bennett to hold up 3 fingers for me…and that’s what I got. Maybe by the time he’s 4 he’ll have it figured out?

Duplo blocks from Gpa & Gma Morris and and orange soccer ball from mom & dad

We had a little family party on Saturday – we went miniature golfing (indoors), then came back to our house for an “orange cars” party, per Bennett’s request.

 

         

          

Race track cake…although it looks more like a dirt track, especially with the orange truck

        

Sadly, he got too shy / embarrassed and wouldn’t even blow out the candles himself. Fortunately there were several cousins who were happy to help! Thanks for coming everyone!

 

 

Valentine’s Day

Nate and I celebrated Valentine’s Day early by having a little date night the Saturday before. It wouldn’t be considered exciting for most people, but going out to dinner and a movie with just the 2 of us is a pretty rare occasion, so we enjoyed the chance to have a date, especially since Nate had been out of town almost all week with internship interviews. Not that we haven’t done anything together, but most of the time when we have babysitters it’s for MBA events or temple nights or something where it’s not just us doing something fun together. Anyway – it was a nice break. We continued the celebration on Valentine’s Day – I had Bennett make cards for his dad (for those of you on pinterest, I’m sure you saw this idea, but Bennett loved it and I don’t give him nearly enough opportunities to paint so he thought it was great). He had fun expanding the craft to not just the cards, but also to the paper I covered the table with. (unfortunately, all the pictures I took with him in them turned out really blurry, but here is his masterpiece)

    

Nate and I went to a potluck dinner in December where somebody brought ribs, and Nate has been talking about them ever since – he even emailed the guy and asked for the recipe – so I figured I would make them for him for our Valentine’s Day dinner. Other than the massive BBQ-sauce-burned-to-the-bottom-of-the-oven mess and several smoke alarm beeps, they turned out pretty well, and the mashed potatoes and asparagus completed the meal. Nate was in charge of dessert and made us eclairs – pretty impressive! They were really good, but I forgot to take a picture so you’ll just have to picture them :)