Playing with Water

I have wanted to try mixing water with food coloring for a while.  I thought maybe I could teach Vanessa how to make different colors.  She did really like it when I made purple.  But when I asked her later how to make purple, she didn't have a clue.  Oh well.  It was still a fun experiment.

 Benson was happy to play with Vanessa shoes for a good ten minutes.  He even offered them to me every time I tried to get him to look at the camera.

 I had to take his shirt off to keep it from getting stained since he was crawling right through all the dye.  He is showing off his huge muscles here.

And this is Vanessa showing off her skills on the tramp.  This picture just makes me laugh.  Eyes closed, tongue out and all.  She loves loves loves to jump on the tramp and I am fairly sure she would do it all day if someone would jump with her that long.

Faster Is A Girl, Right?!

We all know old wives' tales have a 50/50 of being right.  So I guess we'll see how it turns out for this little one, but we are all waiting until March!  Heartbeat was 174 and going strong (phew!). 

On a random note, do the 3D ultrasounds look a little weird to anyone else?  Maybe when the baby is a little older and more developed it won't look quite so weird.  But how cool is it to see their little "womb home"?  That part is pretty sweet.  Can you tell I have never had a 3D ultrasound before?  Lol

Halloween Costumes

Benson and Vanessa are going to be matching skeletons for Halloween.  I realize I am planning this a bit early but I saw them at Marshalls for $8.  They are pjs, so they will get more wear out of them and we'll just layer them down with thermals and other pjs for the big night of trick or treating.  Hopefully St Louis ward does a trunk or treat.  Here's to hopin right?  Cause we've got the outfits!
When I told Vanessa she was a skeleton and they were bones, she told me that she was scary!  I told her she wasn't scary, she's cute.  So then she told grandma "I'm a mountain, I'm no scary.  I'm cute!"  I guess mountain and skeleton sound kind of similar and could be confused.  They are both new things to her.

Things We've Been Up To

 Vanessa discovered this hammock and she loves it.  She wants to get in and spin all the time.  This morning we had this conversation as she was spinning.

Vanessa:  "I miss my daddy."

Me:  "I miss daddy too."

Vanessa:  "I no want go to church."

Me:  "You don't?"

Vanessa:  "No.  I want to go to the store."

Me: "The store?"

Vanessa: "No.  I want to go to Target."

Me:  "Target? What's at Target?"

Vanessa: "Grass."

Me: "oh."

 They both love their otter pops.  They melt slower here, which actually works in our favor.

 Benson makes a ginormous mess and I had to dump water all over the deck.  You can see his legs are all red from crawling through the red sugar water.

 I was totally excited to make goo.  I saw the idea on pinterest (my new love) and couldn't wait to try it.  The picture above is right after I poured the borax/water into the glue/water.  It immediately starts forming into a giant glob.  You pull it out and this is what you get.

 I think it's pretty sweet.

 We also helped grandma pick tomatoes out of the garden.  Vanessa helped pick a few and then decided she just wanted to have us hand them to her and she put them in the bucket.  Probably better, she grabbed a couple orange ones.  Benson sampled the tomatoes as well as the dirt.

 He only thought they were cool until his teeth popped them open and he got a taste.  He would spit it out pretty quick at that point.  But they must have looked really enticing because he tried like three or four.

Vanessa cracks me up all day long.  She is at the age where she just has funny, random things to say.  Lately, the monsters and the dinosaurs have been after her.  She also likes to growl at us and then tell us we are scared.  She LOVES all the attention she is getting from grandma and grandpa and cousins.  My mom has to put her to bed every night now, which isn't the worst thing in the world, until grandma isn't around..... But I guess we'll just deal with that later. 

Vanessa has started to look after her brother.  She still does get a little jealous occasionally but she definitely loves and cares about him.  Whenever we go anywhere, she always says "Benson come too."  There are certain toys that are Benson's and no one but her is allowed to take that toy from him.  And when he cries, if I don't get to him right away, she will walk over and rub his fuzzy little head and say "it's okay buddy."  If that doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what would.

Today she would run up to us, yelling "I'm gonna get you."  Then do a little tickle thing and we would scream "aaaahhh."  After doing this a dozen times, Benson started screaming with us and rubbing his hands down his temples.  Kind of like an oh-no motion.  Funny boy.

Vanessa went to a new nursery today with no problems, though she was definitely ready to go when I picked her up.  And Benson slept through 1 1/2 hours of church.  Needless to say, it was the most church I have listened to in a LONG time.

Benson still refuses to stand.  Not really sure what to do about that one.  He just doesn't use his legs in general but his arms are like freakin macho man.  Or michelin man, one of the two.  He has the funnest personality.  He loves to dance, clap, entertain, flirt, and just generally be happy.  Though he will always let us know when he is ticked.  I have also noticed lately that he prefers men (except I am still the favorite, ha ha).  He warms up to the guys way before he warms up to the ladies.  Benson loves to play in the sink and usually cries when I pull him away after being washed.  He is also starting to learn his animal sounds.  I don't think he knows any except dog, thanks to the neighbor's dog, but he will repeat them after us.  He is also saying "do" (as in dog, without the g) followed by "ru" (as in ruff without the ff).

I feel pretty lucky to have these kiddos.  Someone asked me their ages the other day and when I replied 2 and 1, they said I was brave.  I think what they really meant was crazy, but honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I think they will totally love and look after each other as they grow up together.

Twinners

 My mom bought these twinner dresses for Vanessa and her cousin, Micah.  Micah was so excited to wear these and of course I left them in the room Benson was napping in.  So they had to wait a whole two hours to try them on.  And then, she really didn't want her pictures taken after all.  Typical five year old I guess.  Vanessa is just always hard to take pictures of, but we did get one or two I thought turned out okay.  This second one is not a good one of Micah but I am ranking it up there as one of the best smiles of Vanessa caught on camera.  She is a tough model, she does not like the camera.  It may or may not have something to do with the fact that we are ALWAYS taking her picture.

Climbing Trees and Penguin Hats

 Vanessa has been obsessed with climbing trees ever since I attempted to climb one in Florida.  It was pathetic.  But this one had a low branch that she actually could climb with some help.  Hope the neighbors didn't mind her in their apple tree.

We have been doing a lot of shopping.  Trying to find this little guy a new car seat.  It is killing me making this decision.  Why?  I have no idea.  You would think it was life altering or something.  I think I walked into a Target and picked on in a matter of ten minutes when we got Vanessa's.  And I have love/hate issues with the thing so maybe that's why this is so rough.  I want the perfect seat and I'm having a hard time deciding what features are the most important.  I'll let you know when I finally decide.  I also have pictures on my camera I need to download.  There are some super cute ones.  These were just what was on my Ipod.

For Jon

We miss him already. He flew out this morning, super early, headed for Florida to drive our cars to Kansas City. His dad is helping out, thanks Matt! He also gets a fun detour on the road, meeting up with his brothers Tommy and Steven in Little Rock. Then they will drive somewhere to go to the Ole Miss v BYU game. It's late and I honestly can't remember where the Ole Miss campus is. It's not Little Rock and it's not Memphis, but it's around there. My brain these days! Anyway, I probably won't be seeing Jon for a whole month. The kids and I are staying with my parents for a month and then we'll go to St Louis for three months with Jon. It's going to be a long month. I kinda like the guy. But, I promised Jon I would keep the blog up to date with lots of pictures of the kids. So here is what we did today. Amidst getting all our stuff into storage and a little unpacking.

We played in the sand

And ate popsicles.  This was the first time Benson got to hold his own.  The cold surprised him a little, when he got a big chunk.  But he went crazy for that sugary water.  He ate/spilled all of his and half of Vanessa's.

We also jumped on the tramp, looked at the clouds, made a huge mess at dinner, took a bath and Vanessa crashed reading books at 7:00.  Benson followed soon after around 7:30.  Yes, that is a record.  Neither kid took naps (well Benson skipped his afternoon nap) and we spent ample time outside running out energy.  I don't remember Utah summers being this pleasant.  Have they always been this way or am I really that used to Florida heat?  I could sit outside in the shade here at the hottest time of the day and feel great.  In Florida, my under layer would have been sticking to my body and sweat all over my hairline.  It's a nice change.  Though I do have a sudden need for chapstick and lotion that is not so nice.  I guess I have a love/hate with humidity. 

We miss you already Jon.  Hope you have a fun road trip and rock your cardiac rotation.  We'll keep the pictures coming!

I'll Miss you Florida

We are leaving in just one short week.  We actually have to have our house completely packed by Sunday because they give us a three day windown of when the truck will come.  Nuts, I know.  They are supposed to let us know by Friday a definite time.  It has been kinda crazy and kinda chill around here at the same time.  I've been trying to take the kids out for half the day and pack for half the day.  It's exhausting.  I feel tired all the time.  And on top of that, all the thinking and planning and anxiety and excitement has left me NOT sleeping very well.  Sheesh.  But, before we leave I felt I MUST write some of my favorite things about Florida.
I love the winters.  Summer is okay.  Ironically, I felt I enjoyed it more last summer, when I was pregnant.  Weird, I know.  But it's just so darn hot and honestly, with two babies, I get bored going to the beach and sitting on the sand and building a gazillion sand castles that are destroyed in five seconds.  Yep, that was pretty positive.  So, back to winter.  Winter is amazing.  Parks all the time. Walks all the time.  The weather is just perfect.  Plus, it's Christmas and there are some people that really get into the spirit and do awesome decorations.  We went and looked at least once a week before we went out to Utah.
There is awesome shopping here.  I really am not much of a shopper and buying things on loans definitely looses it's appeal, but there are some awesome stores here.  I will definitely miss the year round green and palm trees. 
I love how chill the ward is.  I don't feel that pressure to let a calling be your life.  People get their stuff done, but they also don't expect hours and hours and hours. 
I love that no one really does their hair.  Honestly, it gets ruined in about five minutes after stepping outside anyway.  Why bother?  And because everyone is always at the pool or the beach, I don't feel like everyone is all judgey about swimsuits and cellulite.  It's pretty awesome.
The thing I will definitely miss the VERY most and possibly an unbelievable amount is my friends.  Of course, all of them are from our ward.  I honestly don't know how people move across the country, not know anyone and then just magically make friends.  Jon's classmates have eachother, but we aren't quite like them.  I mean, we did take our kids clubbing once, but that was totally by accident and a traumatizing experience.  So really, I don't know what we would have done without the ward.  And I LOVE the ladies in our ward.  They are some of the most amazing women here, who have seriously impacted my life.  I just can't imagine what I would have done here without them.  I don't know that I ever would have made friends if it hadn't been for the church.  What an amazing organization, in so many ways.  I will miss you Plantation and Davie ward ladies.  I love you all and I seriously hope to see you all again someday!

Pics and Update

Benson is a total mama's boy. But then again what boy doesn't love his mother more than anything?

Benson recently discovered what makes him a boy... and every time he finds it, this is his face.Vanessa is becoming quite the artist. She loves to color in books, on the walls, and on herself.

Sadly, we sold the motorcycle. Benson enjoyed it while he could.
Sleeping Beauties (which is now Vanessa's favorite movie)

We were probably watching a very manly movie, like Care Bears or Curious George.

Vanessa is becoming quite a good swimmer, though she still doesn't like going under water.

We'll be leaving Florida in just a few weeks after living here for the past 14 months. It'll be interesting to see how the kids adjust to a new place. They're used to going to the beach, pool, splash park... pretty much swimming everywhere they go. We've become accustomed to all the lizards, snakes, frogs, and ducks everywhere. The reptiles love to hang out at our front door and even get inside every once in a while. We now have two alligators living in the pond 30 yards away from us.

Lynette is an amazing mother that takes such good care of the kids 24/7. She also takes care of me, which is no easy task. She has become a wonderful chef and frequently surprises me with incredible meals. In addition to being a mother, wife and chef, she is studying to become a childbirth instructor, continues to do photography, and is a young woman's advisor, teaching every Sunday. I'm impressed with how much she does and how well she does it... she's a lot busier than I am.

Other than school I'm serving as the exec secretary in the bishopric and I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. I'm currently rotating at University Hospital in Tamarac. Most patients are older and very sick so it's been a good experience. There are plenty of opportunities for me to practice general, MAC and regional anesthesia as we do cases ranging from hip replacements to spinal fusions to colonoscopies. Classes will end in a few weeks and then we begin a year of clinical rotations around the country. Our schedule is as follows:

Sept: Kansas City, MO

Oct-Dec: St. Louis, MO

Jan - Feb: Denver, CO

Mar: Logan, UT

April: Salt Lake City, UT

May: Panama City, FL

June: Albany, GA

July: Albuquerque, NM

Lynette and the kids will joining me from Oct to April. The rest of the time I'll be on my own while they stay in Utah with family. Really, I don't know how I'm going to survive without them.

We Will Survive

The past two weeks our family's immune systems have taken a hiatus.  First, Jon got some weird stomach bug that we thought was some odd kind of food poisoning.  Until I got it.  Then we realized it was some kind of bug, since food poisoning isn't contagious.  And let me just say this was not a oh-I'm-so-nauseated-I-could-just-puke kind of bug.  This was the most awkward stomach PAIN I have ever had.  It was seriously weird.  Anyway, just as we are on the mends, Benson comes down with a cold.  This boy doesn't do sick well.  His cold spread to Vanessa who ended up getting croup two nights in a row.  We loaded both kids up with Night Time Triaminic, okay we didn't load them up, but gave them a reasonable dose, and they are sleeping soundly, hopefully getting better.  No, we will NOT be taking them to church tomorrow.  Not only do we not want to get all the kids in nursery sick, but I don't want them catching anything!  We have been avoiding the public like the plague!  I thought one sick kid was rough, but two.  Two is enough to kill a person.  And being sick and still having to take care of kids isn't much fun either.  But, now that I have whined enough to make you all sick yourselves, I will say that last night I got a beautiful 8 hours of sleep, only slightly interupted.  It. Was. Glorious.


I just gave Benson a buzz.  I know you can't really tell, because poor guy didn't have much hair anyway.  But ironically, more people have been telling me since the haircut how much his hair is coming in.  Go figure.  Doesn't he look so cute in this pic?  I love it because it is a classic Benson look.  He puts a lot of effort into his scouting around and he will always lay his head on his hands like this to take a break.

  So, the day after the fourth, we went to the Miami Seaquarium and the beach right next to it.  It was nice to have free parking, but the beach was kinda gross (I think I dug up some dog poop, yuck!).  It was still funn and we just stopped digging in the sand after that.


Vanessa is obsessed with jumping and climbing.  Can you tell she is jumping in the pic?  You might have to enlarge it to see, but she's got a small vertical there.  I'm stoked to actually have an income and put her in gymnastics.  I think she would be so good.  I also secretly think she would be a great flyer (as in cheerleader) but I really don't want her to be a cheerleader so we'll keep that thought a secret.  She has also mastered dragging chairs and stools over to get things off of tall shelves.  Nothing is safe anymore, namely chocolate.  Ha ha.



Jon is seriously the most amazing husband and dad.  He is so patient with me and I love him to death.  He does give me funny looks sometimes though.  Understandable, I am losing my mind.  I can't believe we've only been married 3 1/2 years.  I told him so today as we was describing to me exactly what I would do in a certain situation and he was  dead on.  He just knows me that well, and still loves me, crazy isn't?! 

 

This is another classic Benson.  He always has to see what is going on.  And if you put your head in his face to get his attention, ya, he'll just swat it away.  And growl.  Nursing him has become a serious challenge because there can be NOTHING going on in the room.  Also getting him to sleep is a little tricky, especially because Vanessa wants to follow and her little jabber keeps him quite enthralled.  Though we do love her chatter (most the time, ha ha!)



Our nail biter.  I am not allowed to touch her nails with clippers.  She absolutely freaks out.  I've tried to do it in her sleep.  She's a deep sleeper, and it ain't happenin.  So the biting continues.  Why is biting your nails a bad habit anyway?

Other things of note, Benson started pointing at the aquarium AND said his first word, "WOW."  He also says "whoa."  And I am pretty sure he knows ball, but it comes out more like "ba."  He gives open-mouth kisses, claps, has a wounded soldier scoot, plays with his toes, loves the water, eats sand, loves balls and anything Vanessa is holding.  He hasn't been a great eater due to his recent sickness and has made me rather nervous.  But I think his appetite is slowly coming back.  He LOVES milk.  He seems to always know which sippy cup has milk in it and he can scoot over to it surprisingly fast.  Sadly though, it still makes him really sick.  Trust me a baby with a cold, and a gurgly, sick tummy is NOT fun.
Vanessa's favorite color is purple.  Her favorite toys are her animals.  Her favorite song is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  She loves to color and put stickers all over things.  She still hates strollers, but likes shopping carts.  She has started copying phrases we say a lot, such as "how 'bout..."  "that's so funny!"  "That's so pretty!"  "My hair so pretty!"  She loves her silky nightgown but her first choice is always being naked.  She has learned though that she has to wear clothes to go outside.  If we start talking about leaving and she's naked, she will point to her naked belly while running into her room saying "I need clothes."

We still haven't heard where Jon will be in September.  It is frustrating to no-end.  We would really love to know how to plan things, but we are just waiting on that bit of news.  There is a chance that Jon could be here, in South Florida.  But regardless, we have decided the kids and I will head to Utah for September.  We are excited to see family, so it'll be nice.  But it will be sad to be without Jon.  I won't pretend for a second that I like being without him.  I want him around, why else did I marry him?!
I've written a million posts in my head the past week while trying to calm crying babies in the middle of the night.  As interesting as they are, I'm always too lazy to write them.  Or, at least they are interesting to me.  I get rather, uh, passionate about certain topics.  And usually, they are just my opinion on random things.  Maybe I should start my own opinion blog.  I know EVERYONE would be dying to read it, lol.  I love talking about topics with people who are equally passionate about them as I am, as long as we have the same philosophy.  I am not into debate, ha ha.  I don't really enjoy on-line forums though.  I feel like people get really catty and immature.  And, don't laugh at me, but I can't handle poor grammar.  Seriously, can't stand it. 
So what else have I been doing with my abundant free time?  Well, today I made sugar cookies that Vanessa dumped a bunch of extra baking soda into.  Ever wonder what that will do?  It makes them dense, hard, crunchy, something like that.  They still taste okay though.  I am also reading a childbirth book and have at least 8 others waiting.  When I was pregnant with Vanessa, I read two books a week.  No kidding.  I read the Twilight Series in a weekend.  I have been working on this current book for something ridiculous like a month and a half.  I like to read random articles on-line.  I like that I can start and finish one, haha.  I also throw in a YW lesson couple times a month.  I suck up all the extra time Jon has right now for everything it is worth.  We watch the Office, even though I don't really like Steve Carell.  I've been wanting to make some cute fabric flower headbands.  I have all the materials, I just need to do it.  I think I'm waiting till I can use my mom's sewing machine in September.  And obviously, blogging.  And I probably spend more time than I should on facebook.  Blogging is at least a journal.  Facebook is just, well, facebook.  And that sums up my life.  Sometimes it feels really monotinous, because it is.  But being home with my kids is yet another one of those things I am so passionate about.  So, it's kids, cooking, cleaning, and a few random hobbies I enjoy sporadically.  As for now, I think I will choose to read myself to sleep.

4th of July

To celebrate the 4th we began the day at the Plantation City 4th of July Parade with our friends, the Spilkers and the Smiths...

Benson loved the free candy

Our baby girl has turned into a little lady. When did this happen?! Vanessa with the Spilker boys (Michael and Jack)

She's trying to figure this one out

After the morning parade and an afternoon swim/barbecue (Lynette found a good deal on ribs and they were delicious ) we ended the day watching fireworks at Central Park...

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!