Eliza's Smile, and Benny's Monster

Jed is a pro at getting Eliza to smile. He was holding her the other day and she was smiling a ton for him, but by the time I got the camera, her quota of smiles were almost used up. She will smile a lot right at first, and then it's like she gets used to our high-pitched voices and doesn't get so excited over us saying, "Hi Eliza! Can you smile? Smile, Eliza!"

When I tell Eliza to smile (with or without the camera), Benny always gives me a BIG cheesy grin. :) This was early in the morning after I had dressed Eliza. She is actually frowning, and Ben is smiling so hard he can't even open his eyes! If I could transfer some of Benjamin's smile to Eliza, then they would both be smiling just perfect. :)

Benjamin is showing off his beloved "Monster" that he sleeps with every night. His Aunt Mindy gave it to him when he was a baby, and he loves Monster. :)

Marshmallow DROP!

On Friday morning we went to a "Marshmallow Drop" at the park. Crazy number of people and kids there. But we had a BLAST. A real-live helicopter flew overhead and dropped a load of marshmallows, whereupon hordes of children ran to collect them. This didn't happen once, but THREE times. Granted, each 'marshmallow drop' was for a different age group, so Benny only participated once, but nevertheless, he was in HEAVEN. He has been talking about how the "blue helicopter dropped marshmallows on the grass" all weekend.

Look at that wary look on his face. He's suspiciously thinking, "Hey - what're you lookin' at? This is my marshmallow."


After collecting their marshmallows, and before redeeming the marshmallows for a 'prize' (Easter coloring book & crayons), the children got to meet the Easter Bunny. Benjamin was enthralled with the Easter Bunny, and couldn't wait to get a turn to go up and meet him. He wasn't the least bit shy and ran right up to this oversized goofy-looking rabbit and sat on its knee. Just look at that grin on his face!

Look - Gangster meets the Easter Bunny! Haha! His lowriding pants, puffy coat, pulled up collar, and small beenie make him look like he's saying, "yo, what up Bunny?"

And here's the little girl - slept through it all. I couldn't believe it. We were pushing her in the stroller across fields of frozen grass and mud - you wouldn't believe the jostling going on. And she slept like a champ the entire time.

Easter Egg Dying Party

We hosted a big Easter Egg Dying party yesterday morning. We had 5 adults and 8 kids (not including the 3 babies) all around our kitchen table going-at-it. What a blast! We had 12 colors ready to use, and 4 of them were in tall goblets because I ran out of glasses. They looked like mouth-watering goblets of punch, and we had to warn the kids that they wouldn't taste so good if they took a swig. In fact, I watched Benjamin take a wire egg dipper out of one of the colors and then lick it; his little mouth puckered up and his eyes widened with surprise. Vinegar! Yuck! :)

The kids had so much fun experimenting with the colors. They had no qualms about putting an egg in the purple for awhile, and then the green, and then the orange.... Yikes! (At least I noticed Benjamin doing that; I'm sure the other kids did too!) There was also one point when Benny was trying to fit three eggs in one glass. Anona helped him select a different color. :) haha! I was busy at the moment using a hot glue gun to apply a swirly design on one of the white eggs. That's my favorite trick with Easter egg dying. I made a few for some of the kids. We also had stickers and crayons and Melody was using her cloth&rubberband technique to make a mottled look on some of her eggs. We had one crazy fun-packed hour of Easter Egg dying, and once the eggs were all used up I brought out some apples and grapes for us to snack on, the kids left to play in Benjamin's room with his toys, and the moms tidied up and separated the eggs.

What fun - I loved it! But all-in-all I wasn't able to satisfy my creative Easter egg dying needs, since we were helping the kids. So I bought another egg dying kit for 72¢ today and I'm going to make Jed dye eggs with us tomorrow. :) Then we'll have enough to make a good Easter egg hunt in the house for Benjamin on Saturday morning. :)

And here's a picture of our green pancake breakfast on Saint Patricks Day. We invited Melody & Eirik over to enjoy it with us since both our husbands had already gone to work. The boys enjoyed them even though they looked like malformed and discolored blobs. I was going for a shamrock shape, but pouring batter out of a measuring cup doesn't exactly spell 'precision'. :)

Easter Egg Hunt

We went to an Easter Egg hunt at the Library last week. Benjamin liked finding the Easter Eggs, but he was a bit too slow compared to all the kids who were running around and grabbing the eggs. Good thing he had two parents who had great eyes for those eggs that were passed over. :) He also got sidetracked with a book about trains that he noticed. Hmmmm, where's that competitive spirit? Ah well. :)

And here's a picture of Benjamin eating a 'stolen' apple. As I was making dinner the other night, Benjamin was hanging around me in the kitchen telling me he was hungry and wanted food. Being the good mom that I am, I told him to wait until dinner because it was almost ready. Well, he disappeared into his room and when I went to go call him to dinner some time afterward, I found him busily munching on this apple. He must have opened the fridge and snuck it out of the crisper without me noticing as I was busily preparing dinner. Then he took his stolen goods into his room and happily snacked on it (and spit out the pieces of rind on the carpet as he ate) until I announced dinnertime. Yes, I felt mean that I hadn't just cut up the apple and given it to him on a plate at the table when he said he was hungry. My child is so desperate for food that he actually has to sneak it out of the kitchen all by himself. So sad.

Grandpa's Here!

Dad (Jed's Dad, but I call him Dad too) came to visit over the weekend so that he could be in the circle when we blessed Eliza on Sunday. We had SO MUCH FUN with him. It was sad to see him go. I always hate saying goodbye to family when they come visit. Benjamin absolutely adored Grandpa Walker. He had a blast with him. During the days leading up to his visit, I kept reminding Ben that Grandpa Walker was coming on Friday. There were many times when Benjamin ran up to me last week saying excitedly, "Grandpa's here! Grandpa's at the door!!" :) I wish he could come out more often; Benjamin sure loved playing with him.
On Saturday we went to the Henry Ford Rouge Factory Tour. It’s a truck plant that is designed to allow visitors to see the process of how a Ford F150 is built. It was really cool, especially since the factory was actually in operation at the time. So we got to see the assembly line in full force. The tour took us along a walkway above the assembly line, and at one point some men looked up and saw Benjamin peering at them from above. They waved and smiled at him a few times and he waved back at them. He thought that was neat, and he's been telling me about it ever since. :) Anyway, the whole experience was pretty fun, especially with Dad there.
On Friday and Saturday nights the three of us played Canasta. It’s a really fun card game that Dad taught us. But the most enjoyable night was Sunday, when we all just talked around the kitchen table. It’s so rare to be able to just sit down and talk for hours with Dad, and I really enjoyed it.

Every morning Benjamin would wake Dad up so they could read books or play with toys… and we’re talking 6:30 in the morning! Dad was such a good sport. And he actually seemed to enjoy it, which says that he is one super grandpa!

Dad kept teasing me that I wasn’t letting him hold Eliza. He loved holding her, so he had dibs on Eliza during those periods of awake-time between feedings and naps. I wish I had more pictures of her with her sweet grandpa.

Here’s a funny picture of Benjamin sleeping underneath his bed. When Dad went to tuck him in before we all went to bed, he found Benjamin like this and thought it was pretty funny that Ben would actually crawl under his bed and fall asleep. That kid falls asleep on the ground a lot… and we often find him curled up in a fetal position on the carpet because it is cold in his room! Apparently, staying on a comfortable bed, underneath nice warm blankets, is a novel idea around here. What a funny boy. :)
On Monday morning Dad took Benny to Walmart and Petsmart to look at toys and animals, and then we all played outside with sidewalk chalk and a rocket that Dad gave him (that he is totally obsessed with now – what a great toy!). We had so much fun with Dad, and we already miss him!

Eliza's Blessing - 9 weeks old

Eliza's Baby Blessing

Today was Eliza's baby blessing at church. Jed gave her a beautiful blessing; it made me a little teary. She wore the blessing dress that I wore when I was blessed as a baby. My Grandma Rice bought it for her granddaughters to be blessed in, and now her very first great-granddaughter has been blessed in it. Eliza looked so pretty in that beautiful white dress!
Jed's dad, Ryan, came in town for the weekend so he could join the circle in her blessing. (We have had so much fun with him. I'll post some pictures later.) It was really neat to have him there for the blessing today. The guys said Eliza was really alert the whole time, just looking up at them all. They also told me that they almost dropped her during the blessing. She was slipping, slipping, and finally Ryan took his hand off the bishop's shoulder so he could grab her. Yikes! That would have been a downer on her blessing day... :)

She is wearing a tiny crystal baby bracelet that Michel (Jed's mom) made for her. It is so dainty and lovely. Michel made me one that matches, and I was wearing it although you can't see it in the pictures.

Her pretty pink blanket is from my friend, Teri. It has roses imprinted in the fabric, and it's really soft and feminine. Thanks Teri!

That was definitely a SMILE!

Eliza can smile! She has smiled even bigger than this for us, but I just couldn't capture it on camera. It's cute how she opens her mouth up really wide and smiles, and her little eyes are upturned into a smile too. Cute!
Another momentous thing occurred this week. Benjamin actually ASKED to hold Eliza! [I had to grab the camera, which probably discouraged him from ever asking again... :) ] And today he gave her a kiss on her head when I suggested it. He is becoming more concientious of her. "Where's baby Eliza, Mama?" "Baby Eliza is crying! She wants Mama." "Did she spit up a little bit?" Sometimes he will say in a sympathetic tone, "Baby Eliza is sad. Poor baby." That's my personal favorite. :)
Funny thing is, he still accidentally leaves her out of the 'family' at times- for instance, when we say family prayers he says, "Very thankful for Daddy, and Mama, and Ben-joe-men" but he forgets baby Eliza. Oh well, we're taking baby-steps.... :)

Meet Frosty the Snowman.

We finally got some good snow around here! It's been dumping on us the past few days. We went out on Thursday to shovel the walks and it was the BEST packing snow I have ever experienced. Right when Benjamin and I went outside Jed got home from work, so we all three had a great time together. Jed and I had a snowball fight... I was dodging all of his speedy and well-aimed snowballs, while fruitlessly trying to get my snowballs to fall within the vicinity of where he was standing. Very sad. I'd like to blame it on the fact that I was wearing his enormous gloves that resembled baseball mitts on my hands, but I know that is just an excuse. Fact is, I've lost every bit of aiming skill I ever had; you'd never know I was on the high school softball team.
At least Jed promised me that he wouldn't dodge a snowball if it DID come near him. I should have been offended, but I was just grateful. :)
At one point, Benjamin ran up to Jed, got 'in his face', and yelled, "Don't throw Mama!" He didn't think Jed was being very nice by throwing snowballs at me. I thought that was so funny! Unfortunately, Benny didn't stick up for me long... Jed got him to join his team and sent him after me with a snowball. :)
We also built a good-lookin' snowman. I have a picture of Benjamin with a snowman for every winter of his life so far, this being the third. It's officially tradition!

Miracle of miracles, I got Benjamin to look at the camera for a picture. (The picture on the left was actually from today, when we went out again to shovel the walks.)

I liked this picture because it shows our little house in the background. What a cute little family I've got. (Of course Eliza was happily sleeping in a warm cozy bed at the time.)

saying "my kids" still seems trippy

Here are some recent pictures of our cute kids. We are starting to get into the groove of having two little ones around.

So fun....

Not so fun.... :)

My sweet friend from Kirksville, Pattie, made Eliza and Ben little hooded towels. Don't they look all snuggly in their new towels? Ben loves his. If he ever balks at taking a bath I remind him that after his bath he will get to snuggle inside his new warm soft towel, and then he always gets into the tub happily. :) Thank you, Pattie!

"Sorry, Benny, we are all out of milk.... That's not milk; that's buttermilk.... No, Benny, I don't think you would like buttermilk."

I've been out of milk for a few days now.... A "quick trip" to the store around the corner is no longer a quick trip.... There's much more that goes into getting out of the house these days.

Anyway, this morning Benjamin wanted waffles, so I looked through my recipes to see what I could make without milk. I decided on Applesauce Pancakes, and I replaced the milk with buttermilk. They turned out yummy! As you can tell, Benny was happy with the results. :)

Sisters' Cafe

Introducing my new cooking blog - The Sisters' Cafe! That's right - my sisters and I have created it together, and with five of us contributing (come on, Mindy!) there's something new on there nearly every day. Yum yum delicious. The link is on my blog list on my right sidebar: sisterscafe.blogspot.com. I hope you guys visit and check out our mouthwatering creations!

Happy Valentines Day!

valentines activities

Last night we all went to a "Fun with Food" activity at the Library together. Benjamin loved the smoothie he got to make. And here is a photo of me last night with Eliza. When I looked at her in the mirror she just looked so tiny snuggled up on my shoulder, so I asked Jed to take a picture of her. (The picture didn't do it justice - in real life she looks so itsy-bitsy.)
She is just such a little newborn still. I love it!




Here is Benny this morning with Eirik, snarfing down chocolate Valentines cupcakes. Melody hosted a fun Valentines playgroup this morning. I had to coerce Benjamin to take this picture with me, showing the Valentine he made for Jed. Notice it has "BYU" written on it. When I asked him "Do you want to write Happy Valentines on the card?", he said he wanted to write, "BYU! Go Cougars!"