Happy Halloween!

Benjamin had a Halloween Party at preschool last Wednesday. So each of the three boys' whole family came to preschool and we played games and did crafts together. It was really fun. The best part of the afternoon was playing "Ghost, Ghost, Boo!" which was a twist on "Duck, Duck, Goose." Everyone sat in the circle, and the kids had SO MUCH FUN chasing each other and being chased. Having the Daddys in the circle added a whole additional level of excitement! I was laughing the whole time. It was really fun.

Below is a picture of Benjamin concentrating as he painted his pumpkin. Anona planned some really fun crafts and activities for their preschool party. Thanks, Anona!

Yesterday we carved pumpkins as a family. It was fun, as always. Jed let Benny draw the eyes and mouth on their pumpkin and then Jed carved it out. :) They are being displayed with pride on our front porch at the moment, awaiting Halloween night tonight! We're getting excited for the festivities shortly to come! Happy Halloween everyone!

Trunk-or-Treat Party

We went to our church 'Trunk-or-Treat' party on Friday night. (Without Jed of course. My, I feel like he isn't in any pictures I've been posting lately. He's been here, there, and everywhere, but not home! He is very busy these days, doing lots of shifts and flying different places for different reasons. In fact, he's out of town now and as soon as he gets home he'll be going to Pittsburg for national examinations. Luckily, he has next Wed through Sat off and so we get to have him to ourselves for all the Halloween festivities! He doesn't know yet, but his time is booked with carving pumpkins as a family, getting our friend to snap some family pictures of us with the Michigan autumn colors, watching a movie with me after the kids are in bed... I can't wait for my husband to be available again!)

Well, that was a tangent. Anyway, the Trunk-or-Treat was really fun. Our friends, Dian and Troy, planned the event and it was a blast! There was a chili cookoff for dinner - I had about 10 taste-testing mini-cups on my plate. :) I brought Brittany's wonderful Jalepeno Cheddar Cornbread. Oh my, I loved it!

We had a bunch of fun stations for the primary children, which the youth were in charge of. I would have been able to enjoy them more if I hadn't been in charge of them! :) My sweet friends took care of my children while I was running around trying to get stations up and running. When everyone was going outside to do the trunk-or-treating, I was still running around- this time cleaning up the activities. Benjamin said, "Mom, I'm going trick-or-treating!" I asked him to wait for me, but nope. He disappeared in the crowd. I found him later walking around with my friend, Anona, and her boys. I was thankful that my friend took him with her so that he could enjoy his favorite part of the night. :)

On the way home he had his bag of candy on his lap and chowed down on his loot until we pulled into the driveway. He was wasting no time. The aromas of chocolate, watermelon suckers, and tootsie rolls filled the car all the way home. :)

"You don't shove it."

Some of the funny things Benjamin has said to me lately... They get funnier as you go... The last two are my favorite.

10-9-08
Erin: Do you need help?
Ben: NO. ....I need somebody to help me.
Erin: Who do you need to help you?
Ben: YOU. ...because you’re the Big Winner.

10/10/08
Ben: I’m squishing bad people! Bam! Bam! This is my sword. (It was a square wooden block with a little handle)
Erin: Why don’t you squish mosquitos? (in an effort to curb the violence...)
Ben: No, I’m squishing people. …I’m killing people. Bad people. Who don’t believe in Jesus Christ. Like the Lamanites. Bam! I just squished a Lamanite.

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Lest you think he’s all rough and tough, he’s got a very sweet soft side to him. I was cutting up a head of broccoli or something like that and he came up and said, “Oh Mom, that’s beautiful!"And he'll often tell me, " 'Job doing that, Mom. You're really good doing that.” Too funny.
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Whenever he asks a question and really wants an answer, he ends it with, "Yeah? Yeah?" It's a great way to make someone answer you, really. Since he asks about 25 million questions a day, I imagine a lot of his questions aren't answered. I guess it's his way of letting you know this question is a priority. “Are we going home? Yeah? Yeah?”

10/14/08
Background – Benjamin and I have a little joke that there is a party going on in his tummy, and his bites all get to go to the party. I think it started a long time ago when we were talking to his green beans and they wanted to jump in his mouth because there was a party going on down in his tummy. Anyway, tonight when Benjamin was finishing his dinner, Jed was holding a piece of chocolate licorice and pretending that it was talking to Benjamin. He was talking with a Southern African American drawl, and Benjamin was watching and responding directly to the licorice. This conversation went on for a long time, and I was busting up laughing. Jed’s accent was hilarious and their conversation was just so funny! Here’s a condensed version, and try to imagine Jed’s accent…
Jed: “Hey Benjamin, can Ah go to the pah-dy too?”
Benjamin enthusiastically nodded ‘yes.’
Jed: “Oh good, ‘cause Ah’d really like to go to the pah-dy.”
Ben: “No, it’s a party!”
Jed: “That’s right. A pah-dy.”
Ben: “Not a potty. A party!”
Jed: “Is there a potty at the pah-dy?”
Ben sort of shook his head ‘no...’
Jed: “You mean Ah gotta go in my pants? Oh, wahll, Ah don’t know about that… Mah mahmmy doesn’t like it when Ah go potty in mah pants.”
Ben: “No, it’s not a potty. It’s a PARTY. Can you say ‘Party?’ (in a helpful voice)
Jed: “Pah-dy.”
Ben: “Say, P- P- P- PAR-TEE.”
Jed: “Pah-dee”
Ben: “You keep saying toilet!”
**Jed and I laughing**
Jed, eventually: “Just eat me ah-ready!”
Ben, talking directly to the licorice: “Okay. (with a smile) I love you!”

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A few minutes later, Benjamin said something that had me laughing again. For background, Jed came home from work a few days ago quoting part of a Weezer song that went, “If you don’t like it, you can shove it. But you don’t like it, you love it.” Jed thought it was a pretty funny line and quoted it a few times for my enjoyment. :) Well, earlier today Benjamin was eating lunch and started talking to himself, “If you like it, you shove it…” We laughed in surprise, and I said, “Um, I don’t think we should teach him that… he’ll repeat it some time.” Jed agreed and we told Benjamin that it’s not polite to say the words “shove it.” So anyway, after this conversation with the licorice, Benjamin said to Jed, “You love it. You don’t shove it.” (Saying it with a little shake of his head and this funny ‘sweet’ intonation that I can’t reproduce in type.) Jed responded, “Oh, we don’t say-” and Benjamin said, “But I said, ‘you don’t shove it.’ I didn’t say ‘You love it. You shove it.’ I didn’t say that.” Then he turned to me and said, “Mom, I said, ‘You love it. You don’t shove it.’ That’s nice. That’s really nice, Mom.”
Oh, boy, I’m laughing right now. It was hilarious.

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Home video clip for my family's viewing pleasure.

Hayride and Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch with a big group of friends. It was very fun! When we got there we played in a child-size train, sat in an old fashioned tractor, went down slides, and Benjamin even got to drive around a tractor-bike. :)

Then we all gathered for amazing apple cider and donuts. (I don't like donuts, unless we're talking cider mill donuts - made at apple orchards and such. Those are incredible!)

After our donut break we went on a HAY RIDE to a PUMPKIN PATCH! It was fun to walk around the pumpkins. Benjamin thought it was especially fun to stomp on the rotten ones and get "pumpkin juice" on his shoes. Very gross!

Here's Benjamin showing how strong he is and trying to lift the big fat pumpkin. Arrgh!

And here he is giving me the look saying, "This is the last smile you're gonna get, Mom."

Jed's got the day off. This calls for a celebration!

Last weekend we went to 'Fun Acres', a family farm nearby, for the medical student program Fall family activity. Jed was working that night at an ER an hour away, so I went to the party with the two kiddos. It was really fun. First we enjoyed a pizza dinner and visiting with our friends. Ben didn't eat; he was having so much fun running around with the other kids - getting in and out of the hayride trailer, sitting on the tractor, running up and down the grassy hill, walking along the bales of hay... He loved it. After dinner, when it was dark outside, we went on a hayride. A big blue tractor pulled us in a flat trailer lined with squares of hay. Eliza, Benjamin and I sat in the corner, and Eliza was all snuggled up and cozy with two little blankets wrapped all around her. I was in heaven with getting to snuggle with her on my lap and Benjamin sitting next to me. It was wonderful! And the hayride was cool too. :)

Jed had today and yesterday off work. We had SO MUCH FUN having him around. (The past two months have been very busy - it feels like he works every single day, and the commutes have been long.) We all felt very spoiled getting to hang out with him all day. When Eliza got her bath she had me, Jed, and Benjamin all hanging out in the bathroom with her, talking and playing with her. Jed wanted to play with her while she was in the tub, and of course where ever Jed is, the rest of the family can be found. We can't help but follow him around all over the house. :) So Eliza had a fun bath! I kept telling Benjamin he should just get in the tub too, so he can reach the toys and play with them easier. Finally he agreed and we popped him in there too. He was very good about sharing with Eliza and being sweet to her. (whew! :) Afterward, I got Ben out and we snuggled on the rocking glider in Eliza's room. He loves being wrapped up in his towel. Then Jed brought Eliza in and plopped her down on the other side of me. So I got to snuggle my two kids in their towels at the same time. That was fun. :)

The weather has been beautiful and warm, so we went on a family bike ride on Monday. Then, around 3:45pm, Jed suddenly burst into the kitchen, with Eliza all strapped up into her carseat and said, "We're leaving! Come on!" We loaded up in the car with me being totally out-of-the-loop about what this surprise outing was all about. :) Our first stop was to our friends home where Jed dropped off both kids to be babysat! And we embarked on a surprise DATE! We pulled into the movie theater and Jed treated me to a movie - Eagle Eye. It was really good, I thought. And so INTENSE! Then, on the way home, Jed surprised me by saying we were going to pick up some dinner too. We went to a really yummy grinder shop and ordered Reuben Grinders. (a grinder is a delicious toasted sandwich - I never heard of it when we were living out west; it must be a midwest/eastern thing.) We both love Reuben sandwiches, and this place makes yummy ones. Anyway, our date was so exciting and fun! Jed is the best at being spontaneous while also having his surprises well planned out - and he loves to surprise me. It's so exciting! I just loved spending one-on-one time with him, and going to a movie and dinner is so special to us - a night out! Yay! After our dinner we went and picked up the kids. Then I fed and put Eliza to bed while Jed got Ben ready for bed. We'd promised him all day that for Family Home Evening we would do that cute haunted treehouse craft that my mom sent him for Halloween. So, even though it was 8:30pm - one hour past his bedtime - we started on a major family craft! We had so much fun hot-glue gunning that haunted treehouse together. Benjamin just loved it! And Jed was totally into it too - he was the hot glue-gun man, and he was actually in charge of it all. I was a sidekick helper. My two boys were totally having a blast with it! I need to get a picture of the end product. It’s really cute. We ended at 9:30pm, read scriptures and popped Ben into bed. Very late night for him!

Preschool update

Last Wednesday I hosted Benjamin's little preschool. It was a fun day. Our lesson was on nests and eggs. I happen to own a really cute book about how it came to be that all birds build different nests, and the book also goes into some detail about the materials the birds use to build them. After reading our book, we made a 'nest' on our living room floor out of a bunch of blankets. Then we all sat in our nest and read a book about an egg hatching. (I own a cute book that worked for that too - that Aunt Mindy gave to Eliza when she was born, called, "Ruby, in her own time.") Then we all pretended to be eggs in our nest and we all hatched out and became baby birds, and then I pretended to be the mommy bird and brought them all pretend worms and seeds to eat. It was fun to see them play acting. (The picture is of them sitting in their nest at the end of preschool, once Eliza was awake. They were all sitting in a row listening to me read them another book about eggs, and it was so cute how even Eliza looked like an attentive little student. Benjamin is helping her look at the camera...)
After that we went outside and filled up our birdfeeder with birdseed so the birds could have lots of food. The boys are showing the camera the birdseed in their hands. Anyway, we also did a little craft, and we ate hardboiled eggs for a snack. The boys got to break and peel the shell off their egg, which didn't end up being a mess; however, I should have confiscated the egg yolks before they started to try to nibble on them.... THAT was definitely a mess - pieces of crumbly yellow yolk all over! :)

I jotted down some funny things that they boys said during our preschool.... At the very beginning we say a prayer while the kids are sitting around the table. Abram volunteered to give the prayer, and it went like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for chairs, thank you for tables, thank you for school, thank you for sharpeners, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I thought it was pretty cute, especially since Abram just adores his pencil sharpener and shows it to us every preschool day. :)

At the end of reading them the book about the eggs hatching, I pointed to the nest and said, "And look! Now there are lots of little baby birds inside the nest!" Garret looked up at me excitedly and said, "I wish I had a gun, and then I could shoot them!" He had the biggest grin on his face, like that would be the nicest thing to do. It was so funny, and surprising! I think he was imagining going hunting like Nephi and bringing the bounty back for dinner, or something like that. It still makes me chuckle remembering... you never know what kinds of things are running around in their heads!

Ever since Benjamin went to Christina's house (Garret's mom) for preschool, he's been asking me if I'm strong. The first time he asked me it was because he wanted a ride on my shoulders and I said I wasn't strong enough and only Daddy can give him rides. He said, "Are you strong?" and I said, "No, Mommy's not strong." Then he said, "Oh, well, Christina is strong!" That made me feel pretty puny! Mommy is such a weakling. :) I think gets that from when Christina was showing them how to squeeze orange juice out of a cut orange, and probably said something like, "You have to be strong, like this." Since then he's asked me lots of times if I'm strong. I've been telling him lately that I am strong, and then he'll say, "Like Christina?! You're strong like Christina!" I keep thinking I need to tell her how she has become the hallmark of strength to Benjamin. :)

And now for a little Eliza update -

She is getting to be a pretty good little army crawler now. It's fun to watch her. She'll see something interesting and you can just see the determination in her as she embarks on a mission to reach that piece of paper or that ball across the room. Sadly, Benjamin will often recognize that little "I'm on a mission" army crawl she has, and will quickly run and snatch up what she was going for, and put it somewhere safe where she can't "suck on it." It's actually makes my heart go out to her - poor little thing can't play with anything interesting when Benjamin is around! Just this morning while I was exercising, Benny kept taking things that she was crawling to, and then he would throw them in his room, close the door, lock it, and then come back looking like he had just saved the world. When I asked him to find her some toys, he came back with a few tame-looking toys that he didn't mind sharing with her (toys that were completely uninteresting to him). Luckily Eliza has a mommy that will stick up for her sometimes; I insisted that Benjamin let her play with a blown-up balloon this morning, although he was very much against it!

She's been teething lately, but for the most part she's pretty happy during the day. But on some nights she may get up two or three times! Once I give her some tylenol, though, she'll sleep through the night. She's getting into a stage where she wants to be held by Mommy, and she sometimes will cry if I leave the room or even turn my back to her. I've never felt such devotion! :)

I love going into her room in the morning and lifting her out of the crib. She is such a sweetie, and loves to see me. It's so cute!

Eliza is 9 months old this week

Eliza turns 9 months old this week. She is starting to be adventurous and moving some good distances with her nearly perfected army crawl. I'm glad that for the most part she's content to stay in the vicinity that I put her... I'm not quite ready for a full-blown mobile baby yet! I think it's because I worry about our hard, cold and uneven slate floors... And did I mention cold? Whenever I pick her up after she's crawled onto the slate floor her little arms and legs are like ice cubes. With winter coming, the floor is not going to be a pleasant place to be! Granted, she'll be wearing long sleeves etc. We'll see how it goes.

Last night she didn't want to go to bed, so she got to stay up later with me. I gave her a magazine and she ripped it up and ate it all while I was putting clean sheets on the bed. Okay, she didn't really eat it all, but she sure did try! I had to fish a few bits of it out of her mouth- Even though I was good about catching her before she sucked on a page for long. Boy, those magazine pages disintegrate in about .2 seconds! She really enjoyed it, though. "Ah, there's nothing like the printed word."

Later that night she discovered how fascinating a mirror can be. :) It was fun to hang out with her one-on-one, even though it was past bedtime! She was so smiley and cute!