Like Pinocchio

I love what he brings home from Pre-school!

in the House cont. This is for you Poppy

Will and baby Ryan. Mal and Ryelle.
I thought it was so cute that baby Ryan reach out to pet the llama ish guy, ( I dont remember what this guy was called but it seemed to be in the llama family)

Casey and Amanda's Baby Bennett kicking it in the jeep.

This was a massive accomplishment to have Benjamin ride the horse...as much as he loves animals he is an extremely cautious boy. We have enjoyed Farm Country many times over the last 2 years and he would talk about ridding the horses in excited anticipation, and we would wait in line, and we would watch his friends ride with out him...and then at the last moment he would freak out and opt for the carriage or tractor ride instead. One time we went I held him while he screamed and cried while the horse-or pony really-circle only 2x's before I had to take him off. Out of the numerous times we have attended farm country this is the first ever he has happily rode the pony.---Yes with Dan walking along side him. Maya was the real cow girl living her dream she would even hop off the pony like a pro. Porter was also just as talented. After watching the kids with the animals Amanda-Maya and Porters mom said, I think we would do well to live on a farm.

Maya The horse whisper.

Benji the Cow whisper
These calves and Benji became pals. He stayed to pet and feed them for quite a while, and when we finally pulled him away the 2 calves m00ed at him 3 times to come back. It was so cute.


Porter milking the cow...Every one had a turn to milk the cow, every one participated except Benji and I... OK so maybe he gets it from me but...I have had the opportunity milking the goats my mom kept growing up and I didnt ever really enjoy that. Just something about the whole procedure...Milk is great in ice cream and hot chocolate but I dont need to...go there with my hands.

So this is what we are eating tomorrow?

One of the many wonders a Grandmother can perform...She sent all the adult kids out for a date night, Will and Nicole, Casey and Amanda, Robbie and Brisa, Mal and Chelsie, Dan and I, While she entertained the kids with decorating a ginger bread house. When we came home the house was spotless, ginger bread house on display-how did she convince them not to eat it?-Porter, Maia, Benjamin, were sleeping under a fort in the living room ( i love how they all have their heads together in the center of the fort) and 2 out of the 3 babies Ryelle, Bennett, Ryan were sleeping in their cribs...Grammy was also asleep.

in the House

A Big thanks out there to Robbie and Brisa. They had their wedding the weekend after thanksgiving... So we had as many relatives as possible in our house for Thanksgiving week. Even Jeff aka President was able to join us via the web cam for some of the celebrations. How were we able to contain so much fun in a little over a week we'll never really know.

Benji brought his cousins Porter and Maya (seated to the right of him) to his preschool thanksgiving party. Can you believe she had so many kids there!!! I think she said there were 34 kids.
When his teacher pulled out the whipped cream can to top off their pumpkin pie she demonstrated her fav thing to do with canned whipped cream by decorating once childs face with a Santa's beard...She then proceeded to decorate each childs face (who desired) with whipped cream as Santa's beard. It was a huge hit.

Benji had the time of his life playing with his cousins and being loved by his grandma aunts and uncles.

Grand kids pile up on Grammy for bed time stories. How many Mission presidents get the week off to spend with family... its too bad they only let one half of the presidency off though we missed Poppy Jeff .

Maya was born one day ofter Benji...They haven't seen each other for 2 1/2 years but they hit it off like they were sewn at the hip.

Benji was in bedtime heaven, it was one constant sleep over. And it was also heaven for mom and Dad too!!!

More blogs of our Thanksgiving week's activities to follow.

Sweet Boys

Did I mention that my sweet hubby and son made dinner for me. A Venezuelans tradition, arerpas- Dans style. Ie real cheddar cheese, ranch, cilantro, garden fresh tomatoes and other veggies on hand. Oh and don't forget the BBQ chicken! So Yummy Thanks Boys!

Park Halloween Party

Not too often are you able to rewarded with gorgeous Autumn weather for Halloween but we were this year. I called a few friends and they called a few friends and walla we had a Halloween Park Party. I was so glad to get the kids & my mom friends together from our old neighborhood and enjoy each others company & costumes. The leaves were beautiful, although we couldn't get the kids to slow down long enough for a good picture in the leaves. It was play, play, play...they were not even that interested in all the yummy Halloween treats. That is when you can really tell the kids are having a blast together, when play is more enticing then sugar.

This was a cool shot because it showed the sun shinning off of Bens costume... Night in Shinning Armor

I love this shot because it shows the pure joy in action as the kids raced around the slide.

Fairy Ryelle in the autumn leaves.

Sammy & Benji were checking out there matching gold belts.

Autumn activities

These were really fun, cute and easy treats we made for the Halloween park party we had with friends from our old neighborhood. Nutter Butter cookies dipped in white chocolate or almond bark, with chocolate chip eyes, we used Minni chips-not pictured here.

Sir Benjamin

2 weeks before Halloween, I decided I needed a project. Previously Benji had thought he would like to be a dragon...again. He has been an alligator & or dragon the last 2 years. Hoping to explore our options a bit more we browsed the pattern catalog at the fabric store. He landed a step up from dragon to dragon Slayer. So Sir Benjamin was knighted for Halloween. and he promptly declared I would be his Princess and Dad another Knight, & Ryelle the princess fairy. Note last year, I was a princes and Dan was a knight, while Benji & Nelly were dragons. Apparently this really left an impression on Benji and he was eager to recreate the memory.The picture below shows Benji stunned to see Dad in his work costume. Benji was so shaken he refused to let Dan come near him for a good 10 minutes. His office has themed costumes and Dans team was the only scary section of the whole office, the mad doctors. It was slightly traumatic.

The night before Halloween Benji woke us with the horrid barking seal cough. Dang it!!! I thought why do kids get sick right before a major celebration. I still remember when I was 5 years old and caught the flue the night before Halloween. What a serious bummer to not be able to go out in your costume on Halloween night!!! And we had just spent the previous day with a lot of friends from our old neighborhood...I was dreading we had unknowingly passed it on while together at the park party...Sorry Guys...

So at 2 am checked on line & read all the info I could on croup. The good thing was cold air actually aids in clearing the airways of the croup attacks. So trick or treating was in. Dan was insistent Benji would be at his work party and Benji was too for that matter. His Pre-school party was out also that day, but I was able to pick up a bag full of tricks-prizes his teacher so nicely put together for him. I was determined to let him participate in what ever would be possible so as long as he didnt have a fever and felt ok we went for it. Is that terrible? I think I was trying to make up for that one time I missed Trick or Treating. But I am always nervous of sharing illness so when it came time for the dinner party at the cousins we had to stay home because he had another Fever and was seriously tired out from Dads work party/trick or treating and the 3 blocks trick or treating in our neighborhood. We were bummed to miss out on the family gathering-next time, but all in all it was a fun filled Halloween Day.

Some times you just have to laugh

Dang it...Benji has a melt down prior to every primary... but this was the best so far...so when your sweet child throws a crying fit in the chapel at church while practicing for the childrens primary program...the best bet would not be to kneel next to him and reason...for other parents are walking the isles preping and might not notice you kneeling on the floor.

Yep the poor guy did not see me and tumbled over me painfuly in slow motion and apparently tore my new skirt. The best part is I didnt notice the rips until after walking though the halls and thinking, hmm I do like this skirt Im glad I bought it...Sometimes you just have to laugh

More Summer Memories

Who's this cutie you ask...This little bright eyes is one of the latest additions to our family...My sister Chelsie and her baby Ryelle moved in with us the Aug 19th. We are thrilled to have some of my family here in Utah. Yes WE even Dan, he is the one who suggested Chelsie come live with us. And we have had many fun times together sense.

SO this is Benjis favorite chair...the first two weeks here Ryelle was really interested in it and would come up to Benji while he was sitting in it and make her way in it, Benji would just sort of get out of her way...Very polite like...Chelsie & Dan would affectionaly call her a bully. (not the best choise of words in hind site and we have sence stopped saying that) Then he fought back and we are trying to teach him to share and how babies really dont understand sharing. Its been fun to say the least for 2 first born kids to come together and struggle to share.
As you can tell they really do love eachother and do share well at times too!! We spent as much time as we could in the pool. Both Benji and Ryelle are little water babies-well I guess benji is a water big boy and Ryelle is the water baby. He would swim pulling her in the water behind him. Great times.

We went on a carriage ride at farm country together and visited all the animals.
We tried to get Benji to ride the pony-he said he wanted to but the ride ended early in tears.Received a package from Grammie and Poppy a small Peruvian bag perfect for holding chalk for his chalk board. And as always the candy nestled inside was a huge hit.

Im usually surprised when I upload our pics to find that Benji stole the camera a few times, actually every chance he gets he takes pictures...some of them are not that bad, heres one of his favorite subject, his best friend Nelly. Recently he discovered the zoom feature.

Two first born only child's lives collid- Benji is learning the wonders of having a sibling-sort of

They have some great moments together. Here they are playing the classic laundry

basket-boats. I love this memory, pirates, row row your boat or watch out for the crocodiles (mommy), the options are endless and the giggles are many.

We had a great day at the Dino museum. Our friends from our old neighborhood came up for 2 dollar Tuesday at to play at the park. What a blast. So nice to see our great friends, above Elizabeth and kari playing with Benji in the Dinosaur museum below Benji lines up all the Dino's and Ryelle soon makes a king Kong swipe (Im sure her attempt to play with Her friend) and knocks them all down greatly upsetting the Dino master Benji.
Ryelle loves other children and latches on to Baby Mathew my good friend Diana's second baby, Sammy's brother.

Amazingly huge!

Benji and Sammy pairing off discovering together. Zoi and Benji posing under the monstrous Dinosaur Skeleton.

After the Great Thanksgiving Point Adventure all the friends met over at our house for a BBQ. Even the Spouses came. It was so nice to have so many of our friends up to visit in our new home. I was really frustrated with this move because we had made such nice friends and we really had a good group to get the kids together with. I was worried the move would be to great a distance, as it had been with some other recent great friends moving. Sarah, Omel,Ethen, Asher, Oliver and Jessica,Laurence, Neal and Paul. This had been very hard on Benji and Me and note those great friends who moved were also about his only friends that were boys. That brings me to the object of the childrens play by the end of the night they each collected some toy of Benjis and morphed them into hair styling products.

But hey

if Dans Manly enough to have his hair and nails done by cute little girls then Benjamin is too.

Dan and I got out for a night of laughs with brian regan at the outdoor theater.

Benji became better friends with my mission comps son Benji. Yep same name two cute little guys.
Story time with Daddy Dan aka uncle Dan.

Two supper heros. Two good friends. Sammy and Benji
The Best Daddy Ever!!! I love my two boys.