Jon's Birthday

On Sunday, there was a crazy storm.  Church was canceled for -26 wind chill, along with tons and tons of snow.  I think around 8 inches.  It was hard to tell because of all the snow drifts.  The plan originally was to drive up to KC on Sunday night so Jon and I could go to the temple on Monday.  Well that storm pretty much obliterated that plan.  We still had a special dinner on Sunday night with our all time favorite bacon wrapped shrimp.  It sounds good, but when you add pepperjack cheese it just about knocks your socks off.  My parents both loved it as much as Jon and I do.  On Jon's Birthday we decided to brave the cold since it had stopped snowing.  The plows had come through our neighborhood so we figured things would be decent.  Haha wrong.  I slid off the rode into one of the giant steel cables and mangled our new van.  Yes, shed a tear.  It was sad.  The damage was all cosmetic and not too bad really.  But it still hurts.  We took on the elements to go bowling.  Another first for the kids.  I rocked the house with my bowling skills.  The kids had a serious advvantage with their bumpers and a ramp, but seriously?  I'm ridiculous.  After bowling, my parents took the kids to McDonalds.  Jon and I went to the dollar theater and saw Ender's Game.  Another good show.  Kind of funny that we had never been to the theaters here in Springfield and then went twice in a week. 

For the birthday dinner, we made a mock-off of Applebees salad.  It was pretty fabulous if I do say so myself.  I also made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  I had saved like 12 egg yolks from an angel food cake I made so I wanted to use them up.  This was a perfect opportunity.  I thought it was a really good cake.  Cake isn't usually Jon's first choice but he's a good sport with my culinary experiments.  And I make him his fav chocolate chip cookies quite often.

I wanted to get him a new grill for his birthday.  My dad and I went and shopped around a bit but we decided to see if we could get Jon's grill working.  We did!  Yay!  But now I was idea-less for Jon's birthday.  Boo.  I still haven't fulfilled that birthday gift but we are leaning towards a router table.

Vanessa's OMG meet

It's Ozark Mountain Gymnastics, not the other acronym you were thinking.  Here is our gymnast pre-meet.  She is growing up so fast.  She's pretty adorable too.

 

Vanessa took second over-all.  They score each event individually and then give an average, or overall, score.  They did vault first and she did great.  Although it was pretty funny after each jump, she would turn and look to Tiffany (her coach) to see what she was supposed to do next.  I'm sure she knows what she should do.  Maybe she was trying to gauge how well she did on the jump, I'm not sure.  She did great on the bars.  She got all the way around by herself one time but did need a little bit of a spot.  I was thrilled to see her rock her dismount on the beam.  She has done a great dismount before, but never in a meet.  I was so proud of her.  Her floor routine was not her best but she still did great.  She seemed to remember the end better than she has in the past.  As Vanessa was looking over these pictures with me she said, "Mom!  I look like a champion!"  She definitely is to me!

 

Parents Come To Town

Jon had New Years Day off so we took the kids to their very first movie at the Theaters.  They honestly didn't even know what a theater was.  Because at first they didn't want to go and we had to tell them what it would be like.  I forgot to get a picture at the Theater with everyone but here is our embarrassingly large portions of left over snacks.  We absolutely loved the movie.  Brig stayed awake and silent through the entire thing!  He sat on Grandpa's lap and ate popcorn and drank Pepsi.  He's an addict.  It's seriously a problem.  Benson got really scared during the snowman fighting scene and said he wanted to go home.  Vanessa kept covering her eyes and asking my mom what was happening.  And Benson almost started crying at the sad part at the end (I'm not saying specifically in case anyone hasn't seen it).  His lips were quivering and his eyes were brimming a bit.
Dinner on New Years Day we had Mongolian Beef.  It's Jon's favorite and most requested dinner.

 

There were two days that Jon still had to work so one of those days we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese.  I know a lot of parents hate this place but I think it's worth the $10.  I don't have to argue with my kids about getting a ride on the rip off toys placed around shopping malls, etc.  Now I can simply say, we'll go to Chuck E Cheese sometime.  Vanessa's favorite this time was the tunnel and Benson loved whizzing around in his chair collecting tickets people left behind.

New Years Eve

My parents got in around noon which means they had to leave Utah around 5am.  Ugh, that's early.  We tried to make the kids let them rest for a bit once we got back to the house but that didn't really happen.  As soon as Jon got home, we opened presents.  My parents absolutely love to spoil these kids.  They got Vanessa a huge Barbie doll house.  It came with tons of furniture and it is huge.  Benson got Marble Works and a Disney Cars geotrax.  Brigham got a balance bike and the Dusty airplane.  They all got lots of books as well. 

 

 For dinner that night we had pot stickers and shrimp scampi.  We had Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake for dessert.

To Remember the Little Moments

Benson took a late nap so the plan is to let him watch a movie while I do some photog reading.  We have to get everything all settled in.

Me: " should we put your tubie in while we watch the movie?"

Benson: "No. Mom, I'll be fine."

I laughed out loud while reading.

Benson: "why are you laughing?"

Me: "I just read something funny."

Benson: "oh. Can you read it to me?"

Benson: "how do we Pause the movie?"

I show him. And then put my arms by him.

Benson: "mom! Move your arms! I need to lay down." As he lays where my arms had been. 

Me: "are you getting tired?"

Benson: "no. I'm just taking a rest."

Benson is now laying down pausing the movie over and over.

Vanessa walked into the bathroom, and I hadn't closed the door. 
Vanessa: "Mom, I'm going to close the door for you so Daddy doesn't see you naked."

Me: "Benson, Amy and Julie (PTs) are coming to play with you this afternoon."
Benson: "Hm.  Well, uh, hm.  Ok."

Benson was having a rough day this day. By 10am he called out from the playroom that he needed the bumbo. He hasn't been able to sit up more than a few minutes at a time. Here's his routine for getting his head up in the Bumbo.

Vanessa being a big helper!

This is one of those conversations Vanessa will one day hate me for document sting but I was laughing so hard.

Vanessa: "Mom, I need help wiping. I need a wipe. Not toilet paper. I used a lot and it's not working."

Me: "ok. Here."

Vanessa: "Mom. I had the biggest poop ever. It was this big!" Shows me with her hands

Me: "haha. Really?! That's good. Did you poop yesterday?" (Thinking maybe she hadn't pooped for a day, hence the size)

Vanessa: " ya. I'm just a pooping machine!"

Me: laughing really hard "that's awesome!" Vanessa totally got embarrased that I laughed tho :)

Vanessa: "what can water be?"

Jon: "steam, liquid or ice."

Vanessa: "that's it? Liquid? Really?"

Benson: "I wan to be Red. And Vanessa can be Princess Peace. And Brigham can be Super Y."

Me: "ok. I'll be Pig."

Benson: "no. He's a boy. Daddy can be Pig."

Me: "what's Red?"

Benson: "she's kind of a boy. But kind of a girl."

Family Fun

Jon did have Christmas day off but he still had to work the rest of the week.  So the week felt pretty ordinary.  We tried to spruce things up with some fun activities but it was mostly just regular life at the house.  The Friday after Christmas, we decided to head down to Silver Dollar City.  My issues with this place are vast, but we wanted a fun activity and we do have season passes after all.  Might as well get one more use out of them.  We took Benson's print out of his well-child check showing he is 36" tall.  And left it in the car.  Awesome.  But, the measurement station was closed anyway, since it was evening.  So we would have had to discuss his height with every ride operator and it would have been a case by case basis.  Oh well, the season is over and I don't have to feel guilty for not taking the kids every month.  We at least got full use out of the passes by going enough that they paid for themselves.  My issues aside, it was still fun.  It was downright crazy getting around.  We didn't think it would be so packed but we were dead wrong.  They have all kinds of Christmas shows and a light parade.  So that's what draws the crowds.  Every person that walked by in the light parade tried to shake Benson's hand and he wasn't having it.  He wouldn't even look at them.  He tends be a bit shy sometimes.  Benson did awesome in his chair.  It was so crowded and I think he only ran into one person.  He took both me and Jon out pretty good but we're used to it ;)  Towards the end of the evening the poor kid was exhausted and we had to have Vanessa drive it out of the park.  He literally couldn't even keep his head up.  He was driving blind.

 

A few shots of the random chaos that goes down around here.  We have been watching an embarrassingly large amount of movies.  But this weather is killing me.  My patient and creativity only go so far.  We play lots of tag and hide and seek.  Rocky loves to get in on the action, but the kids aren't such a fan of him playing.  He tends to knock them over.  Except Benson.  Benson dominates everyone with his chair ;)

 

On New Year's Eve we were so excited to go meet my parents at the airport!  We were absolutely thrilled to have them come visit.  We kept all the Christmas décor up and made the kids wait to open their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. It made Christmas last that much longer, which is always a good thing.

Christmas

It was a fabulous Christmas. It's our second Christmas away from siblings, parents, grandparents and cousins but we feel blessed to have been able to be with them for Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun doing all kinds of Christmas activities. On Monday, we had a party with friends. We decorated cookies and acted out the nativity. It wasn't the most successful but it was cute. Benson was Joseph and Brigham and Vanessa were shepards. All the girls wanted to be angels. I told Vanessa I thought she would be a perfect Shepard because she was so good with animals and she was sold. She's too sweet. Brig totally didn't get it and was his crazy self . He really took to Phat and Dahlia tho.

On Tuesday, we had a curry dish for dinner then used the gospel art kit to tell the Nativity story. We also watched it in bible videos. Those are so amazing! Love how beautiful and full of light and hope the church has made them. We were able to convince the kids to go to bed a tiny but early but we were both so tired we just did the Santa thing then headed to bed ourselves.

On Christmas morning we opened presents at 6. Vanessa woke us all up. We went out to the family room and Vanessa immediately saw the big tool bench. She gazed over it then moved on to the wrapped gifts. 

Benson kept saying, "Santa DID bring us presents." "Wow! He did!" I guess he was incredulous all along.

Brigham first walked to the tree and looked at all the gifts. Then he saw the tool bench. It was love at first sight. We opened all Vanessa's and half of Benson's gifts before he wandered back over to see what we were doing. But he brought his drill. And tried to open every gift with it.

Benson did amazingly well opening his own gifts. I was surprised how much he could do himself. Is this strength from his gtube and subsequent added nutrition? I'm inclined to say yes. So what a blessing! Such a hard decision that I can finally say was worth it (despite the granulation tissue and hefty bill).

 

Rocky had to be in his room for all the festivities. He was getting a little crazy. But he got a new rope toy, two balls , and dog treats. Brig picked those. He is ALWAYS feeding that dog. Rocky also lost two teeth chewing his rope. Bringing his total to 3.

For breakfast we had a breakfast casserole, cronuts, pudding , and pineapple whip. What's a cronut? It's a croissant donut because neither one is singularly fattening enough on its own. They're were pretty fab though :) and did I mention I made the pineapple whip in my new Blendtec?! We set a money limit for each other every year. Jon always breaks it. I know he will. And I kinda thought he would get the Blendtec. He knew I wanted one but I just kept saying they're too expensive. I decided we would have to take it back. I felt kinda guilty for mentioning it. When I saw the Blendtec, I contemplated saying we should send it back... For about 5 seconds. I'm just too excited about it. I'll have to make it up to Jon on his bday.

After breakfast we played with toys, watched our new movie (Sofia the First), and set up a race track. 

Jon said I should go for a run because he got me new jogging clothes.  Why not, right?! I took Rocky and he did way better than he has been doing on walks lately. I think the faster pace helped him not be so distracted. We had our share of power struggles but I'm basically mean and still stronger so I always win. I hope he shapes up on the leash before he's stronger though. :/ I decided three miles was a good distance for my completely out of shape self. I was ok during, but thought I would die when I stopped. It was that nausea, shaky feeling. Ugh.

Anyway, after that we played some, FaceTime with the fam, and had dinner. I made fried rice and pot stickers. We got the kids to try them by telling them they were pizza gioza (a food on Ninja Turtles). It worked perfect. And no, that dinner was not very traditional. 

Favorite quotes of the day:

Benson: "Mom. I need a flashlight. Your room is dark. But I need it dark because I need a flashlight."

Brigham: showing grampa and grandma his tools held up the pliers and said, "bla bla blush blah (baby babble) nose gah pha goo nose." We still weren't getting it so he showed us you grab your nose with them.

Vanessa: "Mom. When we die, our bodies turn into bones. I told Benson that just so he knows."

Vanessa: "Mom. Have you seen Jesus?"

Me:"Nope."

Vanessa: "How do you know he's real?"

Me: "it's something we believe and feel with our heart. It's called faith. Kind of like believing in Santa but not seeing him."

Vanessa: "I believe in Jesus, and Santa, our elf, and reindeer."

Merry Christmas!!!