Happy Birthday Bennett!

I can’t believe Bennett is 4! It seems so old to me. Nate had been out of town for a case competition and flew in at about 4:00, but I did manage to take the boys miniature golfing in the morning so Bennett had something fun to do.

 

After picking Nate up from the airport, Camille & Bryce joined us at Cafe Rio for dinner, then the BYU Basketball game. It was a fun day!

We further celebrated on Sunday with a family dinner with Nate’s family, then a cousin sleepover (per Bennett’s request) at Nate’s parents’ house with a few of Bennett’s cousins. We had a little party for the kids in the morning – they mostly just played, but we did a fun treasure hunt around the house with some prizes at the end. Happy Birthday Bennett!!

Bennett was pretty excited about the marbles his grandparents gave him; and all the kids loved the little basketball hoop set from Connor, Mabel & Elsie

 

Finding – and checking out – the treasure hunt prize box

 

and finally, the birthday boy with his presents. Ryan keeps saying “my cooter” so I think we have a pretty good idea what to get him for his birthday :)

Making Valentines

Bennett took some valentines to his little preschool (we do a co-op with 4 other kids once a week) and was pretty excited to pick out the little cars that would go in their bags (the valentine said “I’m wheel-ie glad we’re friends”) and to write his name on the back.

When he brought home his valentines after preschool, one of them had a decorated sugar cookie in a bag. We got home and I was making lunch and looked over and Ryan had pink frosting all over his face. “Ryan, did you eat Bennett’s cookie?” at least he didn’t deny it, just said “yeah”.

Here’s Bennett hard at work (the line for his name wasn’t quite big enough for his handwriting :)

Sleeping

I went in during Ryan’s nap a couple weeks ago and he had fallen asleep with his Clifford book covering his head. He must have fallen asleep mid-book. Or he was trying to hide from Bennett :)

 

Date Night and Tennis

A couple weeks ago, the MBA program had a formal / semi-formal “ball” with dinner, entertainment, & dancing. Camille was nice enough to watch the kids for us, and we had fun dressing up and hanging out with friends for the evening.

Nate and I signed up to play intramural tennis mixed doubles. We won’t talk much about our success (or lack thereof) in the tournament, but it was fun to play together. Thanks again to Cam for watching the boys while we played. Maybe we would have done better if it was double elimination instead of single :) Some lovely pictures of us playing through the net – and our fan section:

 

Ryan

Last Sunday night, the boys were getting out some energy after being at home and at church all day, and running around the living room playing hot lava. Ryan fell as he was running and hit his head on the corner of our fireplace hearth (it’s about a foot high and a foot deep, made of tile). I picked him up and he laid his head on my shoulder, then Nate looked at Ryan’s forehead and realized there was a big gash that would need stitches :( We hurried and grabbed coats and shoes and headed to the ER (we tried urgent care first but they said he would need to be sedated, which they couldn’t do there). A couple hours in the ER, a little conscious sedation, and 11 stitches later (on the outside, plus more on the inside) he was looking much better. Fortunately, it didn’t bleed for very long (it had basically stopped by the time we got loaded in the car) and Ryan was really calm the whole time (except when they gave him the shot to sedate him). I won’t post the before picture in case it makes some of you queasy (these were all on our phones…not the best quality, but we at least have some record).

(okay, maybe a little before picture – they gave him some stickers but he was just lying really still and didn’t even hold them)

He got his stitches out on Friday and they said it seems to be healing well. He hasn’t been as bothered by it as I thought he would be – he has said a few times that “head hurt eal bad” but only tried to touch it a couple times. Hopefully it doesn’t leave too bad of a scar!
A couple other random things about Ryan: Last week Nate had to go somewhere and I was getting the kids ready for bed, and Ryan was really upset that Nate left – so he sat like this crying for about 10 minutes (this is the offending hearth that he’s sitting on – pic is again with my phone):

And finally – a little bit of happy Ryan. Apparently we’ve been going to a lot of sporting events lately.

Sunny St. George

Nate had a few days off of school for recruiting (which he doesn’t have to do anymore – hooray!) so we took a trip down to St. George with a few other MBA families. The timing worked out great – the temperature was in the teens here with a nasty inversion, and we loved getting out of the smog and cold to enjoy some sun in St. George.

We got there Wednesday night and went to dinner with a big group, then I went to a little girls’ night out with some friends – dessert and a fun game. On Thursday, Nate got to go golfing with the guys – they got a great rate at a really nice golf course – while some friends and I took our kids to a bounce house place. Bennett & Ryan loved all the inflated bounce houses and slides, and I loved that they got all their energy out. That night, we went to a fun BBQ with a huge group of MBA families, then played some more games while eating Nielsen’s Frozen Custard with the couples we stayed with (one of our friends was nice enough to share her parents’ home with us – it worked out great!!).

Friday, we went on a little hike in the Snow Canyon area, then had yet another BBQ with friends. We enjoyed watching the kids run around outside while we basked in the warm (50 degrees…warm for us!) sunshine. It was so refreshing to be outside (and not literally frozen!).

  

After the BBQ, we headed to Nate’s grandparents’ house to spend some time with them. Bennett was so excited to see Oma and Opa! They took us to a yummy dinner that night, and the next morning we went to a fun park where the kids played on the playground and I went for a nice sunny run along the nearby trail. We managed to get in a little tennis before we left that afternoon – Bennett loves tennis and wanted to stay there forever! He loved his Oma and wanted her to help him get dressed and play tennis with him. It was fun to spend some time with them before we made the sad trip back to the cold and the smog.

 

Above: Ryan insisted on having his own racket the whole time – although this is what he did with it – walked around dragging it behind him, or just sat on it. Below: Nate and Bennett demonstrating their “ready position”, which Bennett reminded us about often