It's Autumn Time, The Leaves Are Falling Down

Life at our house is pretty much the same as always.  Jon is super busy, definitely busier than he was with school.  I didn't believe the stuudents a year ahead of Jon that this was possible.  But turns out it's true.  At least we get him on the weekends.  That's where the real party happens :)  We have been enjoying the beautiful fall weather, visiting new parks, and of course taking advantage of the FREE zoo.  Yes, it's free.  Pure awesomeness.

Vanessa playing in the leaves.  Yep, she is wearing her nightgown and yes, we are at the park.  Clothes doesn't make it on the list of "biggies" for me.  If it's that important to her to wear her "horsey nightgown," I could really care less.  You will see it is a frequent favorite. 

 Both kids love when Jon throws them in the air.  Vanessa will ask over and over and over for Jon to throw her in the air.  She loves to go really high.  Benson on the other hand, doesn't seem to like the height quite as much.  He is getting to more and more, but he holds his breath while in the air.  Ha ha.

 So this house we are currently renting was NOT baby proofed before we arrived.  I have removed most everything out of the main floor living room and put it all in storage.  This one is a little trickier to do something with though.  The crazy thing about this incident was I was in the kitchen cooking.  I could see them and hear them, but I couldn't see the dirt.  There are tons of leaves in there so I figured they were playing with those.  I'm sure it started that way, but the dirt is way to enticing I suppose.  I was so worried the carpet would never come clean.  That dirt is black.  But, three cleaners later, I don't think you can tell it was there.

Getting ready to head out somewhere.  I put Vanessa's shoes on her and she was pretty sure Benson needed shoes today too.  He thought they were kind of interesting, and heavy.  Poor kid could hardly move.

Vanessa will get down and crawl with Benson probably a couple times a day.  It's the cutest thing.  I love watching them become friends.  Vanessa definitely takes care of him.

Vanessa's newest obsession.  There are two actually.  One is watching Wonder Pets on Netflix, either on the computer or on the iPod.  The other is playing games on the iPod.  I try to limit Wonder Pets.  But I'm still feeling conflicted on the games.  All the games are educational, counting, puzzles, etc.  But it's still so much like a video game to me.  What do you do?

This little man now has 8 teeth.  Glad they are all in and we are done with endless crying nights!

Another nightgown day at the park.  I bet she wears this at least once a week for a full day and three times a week 1/2 day.  She literally loves this thing.  I think it's the silk.

She loves to jump.  We also tried the tape train/car track.  It didn't interest them yet.  Except Benson just wanted to rip it all up.

Benson loves to read books and hands or throws them at me all the time.  Animal books are his favorite and he is already learning his animal sounds.  He stares at me in pure delight (or is it mocking?) while I make all the sounds.  It's really cute.

He also randomly loves these sunglasses.

Vanessa and Benson really are becoming good friends and I love it.  The other day at the park Benson needed to hold a rock.  I gave him and Vanessa a rock and then Benson tried to take Vanessa's.  So I gave them both two.  Benson kept trying to eat his and grind them on his teeth.  Makes me shudder.  I took his away about three times before I took them away for good and he burst into turns.  Vanessa, who was sitting behind him in the stroller, wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big kiss.  Said "it's okay Benson.  You have one of mine."  And she really did give him one of her rocks.  It was so cute.
Vanessa always makes sure Benson is coming places with us.  Whether we are going to the store or going downstairs, she will always tell me we should bring him too.
I mentioned that Vanessa love playing games on the iPod.  Well she can fully operate it as well.  She turns it on, slides the lock off, scrolls through the pages to find her games, picks her game, plays her game, etc.  The only way to keep her off would be to use a lock key.  But, I'm still undecided.
Vanessa says the cutest things all the time and I wish I were better about writing them down.  The other day she was trying to convince Jon to do something for her.  She always does this.  So Jon suggested they do it together.  Vanessa started singing the song from Wonder Pets, "what's gonna work?  Team work.  What's gonna work, team work."  Jon and I both busted up laughing.
Her imagination has taken off so much lately.  I think we played mama horsey and baby horsey for a full two hour nap of Benson's the other day.  I love imaginery play and hearing all the random, wild, crazy things they come up with.
Benson is an absolute charmer.  This boy has that little sparkle that melts my heart over and over again.  He loves books, balls, and cars.  He also loves anything Vanessa has and loves to do whatever she is doing.  He loves to make all kinds of funny noises, his favorites are growling and snorting.  He likes to throw his food, whether he is done or not, he just likes to throw it.  Then he stares at it on the ground, almost like he's contemplating gravity or something.  As I mentioned before, he loves animal books and animal sounds.  He can do a gorilla, elephant, tiger, and dog.  Though he will never do them on command.  I feel he is very smart and learns very quickly as well as being a good observer.  He's very tender and if he knows we are teasing him, he puts his head down and pouts!  He is still having trouble with his poor little legs, but I won't really post on that for a few more months.  It'll be a long one, hopefully filled with happy news!

Family Pic

Here is our family pic that I mentioned.  It was kind of spur of the moment, hey that would be a good picture spot, so our clothes aren't exactly coordinated.  And let's just not really talk about my hair.  Or the fact that Benson had this exact expression in every single picture (remember how we took fifteen!)  We might be able to sneak another in before Christmas since we just might do Christmas cards.  So, if you would like one, please send me your address.  And yes, I would definitely like one from you.  I am totally planning on making a Christmas card book, like the one I am sure everyone has seen on pinterest.  And I can send you our permanent address since no one really knows where we will be at that time.  Ha ha. 

The Chaos Of Life

It has been a crazy sort of calm the last few weeks.  We decided, on a whim sort of, to join Jon in KC two weeks earlier than planned.  Lesson learned.  We don't like being apart so it probably won't work out in future rotations.  We found an apartment just outside Kansas City on Craigslist and went with it.  Partly because it was the only furnished, short term rental we could find and partly because it was cheaper than a hotel with more than one room. 

Here is a random picture before we left Utah.  Vanessa actually wore this for a few hours.  I had to take a picture.

 While in Kansas City (we were on the Missouri side) we went to the Arts Festival, which was pretty cool.  We also went to Adam-Ondi-Ahman and Liberty Jail.  We even took a family pic, which will be posted once I figure out my favorite.  We took fifteen, of the same pose.  Five in a row on a timer.  Ha ha.

I decided to heat up some chili one non-cooking night.  Benson LOVED it.  His stomach however, did not.  He was up for at least an hour, wailing, until I finally realized the poor kid had a tummy ache and pulled out the blessed gas drops.

This was hilarious.  Vanessa wanted a pony tail in her hair.  I pulled it up and then told her I wanted to take a picture.  I wanted to take a profile shot so I told her to look at the sink.  She walked over and put her nose right on the cupboard.  Not exactly what I had in mind, but I had to take the shot anyway.

I walked into the room to find Vanessa dressed like this one morning.  I laugh, "ha, did Vanessa pick her clothes today?"  Jon looks at her sheepishly and then back at me.  "What's wrong with it?"  HAHAHAHA!

Love this face.  "Don't mess!"

 Trying to find something new to do, we went to a lake one Saturday.  It was closed, bummer.  But it still had pretty walking trails and Vanessa loved the flowers.

I had to include this one because of how blue his eyes are.  And yes, he does look miserable.  Probably because he was.  He had a cold and cute four teeth in two weeks.  Who wouldn't be?!

 I heard the Independence Visitors Center was actually really fun for kids so I decided to take the kids one day.  It was not as exciting to Vanessa as I had hoped.  But I cried like a baby in the family movie and Vanessa was BFF almost instantly with the sister missionary that gave us the tour.  And yes, this is the best picture I got.  I could have walked back up to the front to get a picture by the sign, but I was WAY too lazy for that.  Memory noted, as good as it gets.

 And here is my shot of the Community of Christ temple across the street.  Kind of an interesting structure.  I've seen it before, but I think it would be neat to go inside.  I heard that you can, but I didn't try with the kids.

Vanessa just being her cute self.  Notice our awesome furnishings.  It was kind of like renting your Grandma's apartment with a bad smoky/cat smell.

 Jon finished up St Lukes on a Friday and had to be at his new rotation in St Louis on Monday.  So, Saturday morning we loaded up the kids and headed out.  The drive was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I fed Benson lots of Goldfish and Vanessa watched movies.  It went pretty quick actually.  When we got to St Louis, we had a serious headache getting our hotel situation sorted out.  A long story I don't even want to type up.  But, we ended up choosing a Days Inn because it had a continental breakfast (with waffles) and a heated pool and the heater did work.  So we got there and the heater was going but the pool was still freezing.  Vanessa only lasted about fifteen minutes before she was literally purple.  And the waffles were a step down from Eggos.  Bummer.  But, it did have an indoor play are that Vanessa loved and we spent lots of time there.  We had to stay at a hotel for three nights because our apartment wasn't ready yet.  I am so glad we decided not to try the hotel route.  Shoot me if we had.  I was sick most of those days from just general crappy eating.  But there aren't many options with just a microwave and a mini fridge that doesn't work.  So glad to have a kitchen.  I even made rolls today.  They're delish.  We got into our new place on Tuesday.  It is fabulous.  I really like this place.  It is a three story townhome, with lots of space.  My only complaint is that it is nicely furnished and I'm kind of afraid the kids are going to damage things.  I don't want to have to pay for damages!  The bed is awesome.  So far, I haven't woken up with anything aching.  I love that.  The bed has a memory foam pad, which I have always wanted to try, and now I know that they are pretty much wonderful.
So on Wednesday, the kids and I met up with some friends that I haven't seen in YEARS.  Kim and Travis Seyboldt were in town on business.  Coincidence?!  We went to the zoo and then up to "The Hill" for some fab Italian sandwiches.  The kids fell asleep in the car so Kim got her laptop and we talked photoshop and photography and general mommy chat in the car.  Because that is what you do when your kids are actually asleep!

This orangutan was HUGE and just stared at everyone. 

Benson loved seeing everything, though he was defintely happy to keep his distance and just point at them.

Today, Jon and I hauled the kids out to the Science Museum and drove by the arch.  We wanted to get out and walk around but parking was $5 and the kids just weren't having it.  So went home and we'll have to save the arch for another day.  Just add it to the list I suppose.  There are a lot of things I want to see here.