Little Buddy Turns 2!

 Our little man is two years old!  I know every mom says it and it's a total cliche, but where did the time go?!  I am getting teared up just thinking about what this last year has meant for Benson.  At his last birthday, we still didn't know what Spinal Muscular Atrophy was.  At one year, Benson was at the peak of his strength.  We have been through a lot of ups and downs with this little guy through the last year.  There are a lot of things we still don't understand about this disease and a lot of unknowns.  But everyone that meets him will tell you there is just something magnetic about him.  There is something amazing inside of him.  I feel so proud to me his mom and so incredibly inadequate. 

 

Sorry for the crazy picture arrangment.  We started the day off with opening presents from Grandmas and Grandpas.  It worked out rather well since they sent birthday gifts with our moving truck.  Bradys got him a super cute sandbox (it's the gray box).  It's small and perfect for our little apartment.  Purdys got him that cute little guitar and the train with the numbers.  They are both touch screens so Benson can easily push them.  These toys are actually pretty awesome for all three of our kids.  Brig even gets into it.  We chilled most of the day and made his cake.  We had friends over for cake and ice cream that evening.  We ran out of time so we opened a few more gifts the next day. 

Benson loves cars and trains.  You can tell he has an older sister because he talks with them and has little conversations rather than the typical boy crashes and noises.  One car will drive up to another and say hi, the other says hi, they do a little mumbling and then drive off together.  It's pretty cute.  I know I say it 1000 times that he talks incredibly well.  But I tell people he talks really well and then when he starts talking, they are still blown away.  He literally talks better than several of the boys in nursery who are 3.  Full sentences.  Good structure.  I'm not lying or exagerating.  He's amazing. 

Funnies

The other day, I bent over and my whitey tideys were showing.  Vanessa came running over and pulled my shirt down.  "Hide your garments, mom!"

Vanessa was painting a paper plate pink to make a pig.  She still had a bunch of white so I said, "cover the whole paint with pink.  Cover all the white spots."  Vanessa:  "It's not a problem mom.  I see white pigs all the time."

In Florida we learned that a starfish has been re-named a seastar.  This morning we were watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates and they were talking about a starfish.  Benson yelled, "Not a starfish.  A seastar!  A seastar!"

I was getting after Vanessa for exploding into whines whenever she gets an answer she doesn't like.  Her response, "I'm just learning mom."

Whenever Benson sees something purple he says, "That's Anessa's."  The other night the pool light was on and it's green.  Benson pointed at it and said "Thats mine, mom."  Guess his favorite color is green.

Missouri

With school and graduation behind us, we are excited to be settled into Missouri.  We are in an apartment on a six month lease.  We are hoping to find a house.  Or possibly build one, but that is all a post in and of itself.  My mom flew out to help us unpack.  What a life saver!  I don't think we could have done it without her.  She was literally a sanity saver.  I probably would have lost my mind without her help.  The kids definitely loved having her here.

And thanks to my mom, I am now the proud owner of this box, clubhouse, washer!  It's really quite excited to own my own washing machine.  It's our first one.  And my mother-in-law has been saving us her old dryer for like two years!  Bless her.  We love it!

The unpacking was insane.  We had so much stuff.  I seriously didn't remember having so much.  And honestly, it's the first time in our married life that we have had ALL our boxes together in one place.  I guess there was no way we could have known how much there was.  We had to get a storage unit.  There was no way it was all fitting.  You can see at least the corners of this group of boxes.  there are several.  Two really large ones, a couple small ones, an mid-size and basket.  Any guesses what those are FULL of?  Yup, toys.  Ridiculous I tell you.  Just ridiculous. 

Of other note, Benson got this little beauty on the truck.  It's his stander.  The benefits of a stander are plentiful.  Now we just have to convince him of that.  He liked it for about five minutes the first time.  Now it's straight to tears :*(

Another rite of passage in the life of every person.  The tasting of real food!  We started Brigham on solids the past couple weeks.  So far he likes sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes and a bit of squash.  I made sweet potatoes and then we tried Gerber peaches and pears.  The Gerber stuff has yet to go in.  In an ideal world I would love to make all his baby food.  But honestly, not exactly realistic right now.  I made squash just a couple days ago so he now has two baby foods he will eat.  We'll keep trying with the processed-probably-not-as-good-for-him-stuff.

Everything that has been going on has wiped us out.  Jon and I have been staying up way too late trying to get things done while the kids sleep and then getting up way too early with the kids.  And way too many times each night.  We have actually figured out how to fit five in a queen size bed and still get sleep.  It looks like this in the morning....

GRADUATION

I saved these pics for their own post because, let's be honest, this is a culmination of our time and effort for the last two years.  They deserve their own post!  This past year has been HARD.  Like really hard.  The program is 27 months but the first part felt like it was a breeze compared to the last part.  But, I know it is completely worth it.  It's all going to work out and we are finally going to have an income again.  Money we don't have to pay back, woot woot!  I am so proud of Jon.  He has worked so hard and done so much for our family to get here.  We debated whether or not to fly the whole family or just have Jon go.  But I am SO glad we went.  This is a BIG deal.  I think it was important we were there.  And it was a lot of fun.

Siesta Key Day 3 to the end

We love going to aquariums.  The kids love it and we love it.  It's a win-win.  We have been to aquariums in Utah, Miami, Denver, Seattle, and now Sarasota.  We love them all.  There are some pretty crazy things that live in the ocean.

 After the aquarium and naps, we went to the beach for our last night in Siesta Key.  We found a spot of beautiful fluffy sand that I love and just sat there and played for hours.  We watched the sunset and Jon took some amazing shots. 

Aren't they beautfiul?!

Jon does amazing photography.  I am always amazed at what he can capture.  I am not very good at landscapes.  Trust me, my shots come out looking really lame and uninteresting.  I'm just always really impressed with Jon's though. 

The next morning we packed up and drove to Fort Lauderdale.  On the drive out, we took a detour out to Snake Road.  A place we used to go to see the gators.  There were none there!  We were so baffled.  We couldn't figure out where they all went.  Weird.

We don't really have many pictures of the rest of our trip.  But we were able to spend one evening with some old friends from the ward.  It was so fun to see them and talk with them.  I felt like I actually had friends again.  It's been awhile.  The following day was graduation.  Our friends had offered to watch the kids but I decided to take them because I wanted to get pictures and I knew Benson would throw a fit and I still can't leave Brig.  So graduation was LONG.  But I knew it would be and it honestly went better than I expected.  The funny part was that we never took any family pics.  Okay, it's not that funny, but after all that we didn't even take the darn pictures.  After graduation we went to one of Jon's classmates for a class party.  That was fun to see some of his classmates.  We took two of the couples engagement pictures (who are now married).  So it was fun to see them.  And the kids got TONS of attention and loved it. 

The next day was Sunday, so we went to church at our old ward.  It was sacrament meeting only due to tropical storm Isaac brewing in the Keys, threatening to become Hurricane Issac.  Benson fell asleep mid-meeting.  I REALLY wanted the kids to nap during the drive so we bailed on the rest of sacrament and started driving to Orlando.  I know how lame that sounds, but our kids were seriously done.  They were so ornery and sick of being in the car.  I was just praying they would sleep most of the way.  So what happened?  Benson woke up getting in the car and never went back to sleep.  Neither one slept.  Vanessa finally fell asleep about ten minutes from the hotel.  Haha.  Oh, the ironies.  Also ironic that there was never once a threat of a hurricane while we were in school there.  But when we visit for the week, there is.  Isn't it ironic.  We spent the night in Orlando and flew out early the next morning.  It was a really fun vacation and nice to see some old friends.  But we are sure glad to be home, even if we are sleeping on the floor and eating on the ground :)

Siesta Key Day 1 and 2

We flew into St Petersburg/ Clearwater airport.  I guess we brought the lightning storm too.  We had to sit on the tarmac for an hour while we waited for the lightning to clear.  Unfortunately for us, the airport was an outdoor ramp, so that's why we couldn't deplane amidst lightning.  The rampers also had to wait for the lightning to get our bags.  After that excitement, we headed to our hotel.  We stayed within walking distance of the beach in Siesta Key.  This was our all time favorite beach in Florida.  We stayed here for three days.  Surprisingly though, after two days we were pretty beached out.  Even the kids were pretty sun saturated.  Poor Brig's eyes were blood shot at the end of those two days.  We spent two mornings at the beach and then the afternoons were rainy and stormy.  We mostly stayed in the room and watched movies and ate junk food.  A couple of storms had trashed the beach, which was kind of a bummer.  One of the workers said that they aren't allowed to clean the beach during turtle nesting season, so they don't disturb the nests.  Good to know for future reference.  Don't go to Florida beaches May-Oct (hurricane season and turtle nesting).  I like clean beaches.  It was lots of fun to see the kids play in the sand/shells and the water.  Vanessa loved the waves and was so much more adventurous than she has ever been.  It was lots of fun to play with her.  Benson of course loved the sea shells and throwing the shells.  Brig didn't try out the sand for the first two days.  But the third day, we found a patch of real, beautiful Siesta Key sand.  The fluffy white stuff that is like Florida snow.  He was in heaven with that stuff.  So, our third day in Florida we spent the morning at the aquarium and we lucky enough to get a clear afternoon for a beautiful sunset at the beach.  Those pics are to come though.....

Viva La Quinta

We moved!  Or, at least we left Little Rock.  I was so ready to leave.  Being in a hotel that long wears on ya.  We drove up to Springfield on Saturday, August 18th.  We went to our new ward in Springfield on Sunday.  Monday we flew out to Florida for Jon's graduation.  Crazy travels this past month.  The kids and I have been in every time zone in the continental US.  From Seattle to Florida.  Man oh man are we ready to stay in one place for a while.  Our family keeps asking when we are going to come out for Christmas.  As much as I want to see everyone, I am thinking we might stay in our own home, in our own bed, this year.  Stay put for longer than three months.  It's a dream I have.