Hats off to you!!!

I bought Ben this winter hat and it's pretty funny to tease him with it.

Ben and Grandpa

Ben and my dad do this every day and he loves it! If any one else tries to do it with Ben it's just not the same. He knows it's a guy thing.

And the first word is.....

I always said his first word would be kitty because I say "Here kitty kitty kitty," to Ben every time the cats come around. He loves those kittys. I think sometimes he even thinks he's a cat cause he imitates a lot of the things they do.

Bowling!!!

We took Ben Bowling for his first time ever!!!

Ben and Molly

Just thought this was cute. Ben and Molly love to play together. They play peek-a-boo, chase each other around, and give hugs, well sorta. Bens hug is more of a painful head butt, so Molly doesn't really appreciate that. I think he learned that from the cats.

Anxious for the snow?

We wanted to go sledding, so we made it happen. We attached ice to the bottom of our sleds and took it to the hills! The amazing part was that it actually worked. It got pretty scary at times, but we all survived and had a really fun time.

Hanging around

Chef Ben
This was Ben's hat before I made it into the stay puft hat. He loves to do the dishes, so after I put it on he went right to work.

















Bubbles!!!
Ben loves the bubbles. This picture was fun cause I got a bubble in the photo.

Stay Puft!

Happy Halloween!
This year we did the ghostbusters theme. Josh and I were ghostbusters and Ben was the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. Shane and Kim threw a Halloween party and Ben stayed up until 10pm which he never does happily, and it was a really fun night. Ben has been a lot happier now that he's getting older. I have been enjoying him so much. I will miss this part of his life big time!

Happy Birthday to Ben!

So a couple girls in my neighborhood made Ben a way cute clown cake for his Birthday. He loved the toy clown heads on top.

Proof of the crawler

This is Ben's new outfit from his Grandma and Grandpa Smith. He never gets new clothes, and this outfit is dang cute on him!

Crawling

Oh, by the way, Ben is crawling all over the place and practically walking now. He finally did it and was a pro. He's turning 1 on the 25th!

Nothing but a diaper

So you've probably noticed Ben hasn't been wearing clothes lately. That's kind of our new thing around here. For one thing, I run out of clean clothes before my weekly laundry day, and for another, I just don't see the point. In this photo I took him outside to play with the hose. I noticed how much he loved it when I tried to take him away to go inside one day and he screamed his head off. So this time I just let him hang out for awhile until he figured out his new trick, drinking out of it. So now he probably looks like a neglected naked boy that pretty much takes care of his own needs.

Crawling yet?

Not crawling yet, but he's getting closer every day. Maybe one of these days the big day will come.

One minute to the next!

I thought these photos were funny partly because of the do, but also because they were taken within a few seconds of each other and his emotions are so different

Fish Fish Fish

Lately i've sorta picked up a part time job working on our web site. It's been really motivating, I can actually say I really enjoy it! At first I thought there'd be no way, I can barely handle the accounting and finances as it is with Ben around, but it's actually been a really sweet deal cause Josh has no time for anything so by helping him I free up some of his time to help me. I say Deal! Anyway if you wanna check it out or you're actually interested in getting some fish for a tank or whatever here it is
http://www.livefishdirect.com

Park City

Ben loved the pool. We took him down every day and left long after he was pruned.

We went Tubing down the Provo River, took a run down the alpine slides, went to a ski jump show, played baseball and pool, slept, ate, swam, and relaxed.


My nieces were such a help as well as everyone else. Ben loved having a lot of people around. Ever since i've been home he's just not the same. He's back to being the Ben I'm used to. Thanks mom and dad this trip was greatley needed.

Living in the moment

So i'm not big on posting on my blog without pictures cause Pictures make things interesting, but i unfortunately can't capture every moment on film. I had the best time last night with Josh. I love how he makes me laugh. We were up for hours last night cracking our own personally made up knock knock jokes. They were so terrible but we couldn't stop laughing. What a perfect way to end a long day. Especially cause i've been feeling so crummy lately, so forgetting it all feels so good. The other day we were driving in the car and we were eating sugar snap peas. I made a joke about a pea shooter and started shooting peas out of the pod at Josh. Then he retaliated by putting peas in his mouth and shooting them back at me. After awhile Josh started to choke on a pea and with a big cough it came shooting out. We were laughing so hard. I guess I love these moments cause with the little time we seem to get to spend together sometimes we really do make the best of it.

Fathers Day

I realize I didn't get any pics of Josh in these, but it was my duty to give Josh a break on his big day so it just so happened he missed out. Molly and Ben ate watermelon, Molly seemed to like it and Ben seemed to eat it regardless.

So big

Look how big he's getting. When he stands up like this he looks like he's a year old!

Musically talented

Ben is learning the piano!! He takes his finger and will press the same key over and over, like he's actually playing. Then he gets crazy and just starts banging.

Josh and I are learning to play the guitar. Josh is really good but very self-conscious about his singing. I keep telling him he sounds good, but of all the things he isn't afraid to do around me, he's totally embarrassed to sing. I've put a lot of effort in helping to build his self esteem in this area, but when Josh was playing the guitar and singing for Ben the other day Ben started to cry. I think he thought Josh was yelling at him or something. Anyway, this was not good for Josh. I think it's pretty funny!

Ben loves to brush his teeth. I gave him Josh's toothbrush and Josh didn't even notice until a few days later so he obviously didn't learn to brush from his daddy. Guess he learned that one from me.




We decided to try and teach Ben how to crawl since he hasn't figured it out on his own. I don't think he really gets it still. Oh well, we'll just keep waiting. I guess I should be grateful he's not all over the place, but I just get excited for him to learn new things.
During this event Spud came up to Ben and started to cuddle with him and Ben started to cuddle back. It was pretty cute. Then after Ben tried to roll on top of Spud cause he only knows how to go one direction.

Baby Bum

Just another photo of Ben. This had to be quick cause when the diaper comes off, well we all know what could happen, and this one was on my bed.

Oh so cute!

So I realize i'm camera obsessive, but I love photography and I have such a good subject around for photos that it's so tempting just to take them all day long. which is pretty much what I did all day yesterday. So here you have it. My excuse is that my mother-in-law is out of town so she needs to see every detail and needs updates often.

He's got the look

So I just had to post this photo cause it's what Ben looks like most of the time. He's just got such a cute little face. I love his little expressions.

Lets go fly a kite

So we went to St. George and this kite here was the highlight of our trip. We even had to buy two cause we lost a peice to our first one. We spent $20 on kites. We went to the park and played frisbee and swung on the swings like we were 5 again. We even did all the tricks likes back flips and jumping off the swings while swinging. It's been a long time since i've done any of this kid stuff. It was lots of fun!!!

Yumm Yumm!

The day has come!!! Ben is now eating , or at least trying to eat, rice cereal. He still makes grossed out faces sometimes, but as long as I let him practically feed himself he'll do it. He thinks it's more fun that way. He can even almost take a bottle all by himself. Today he kept rolling over and every time he'd get to his stomache he'd cry, so i'd roll him back and he'd roll back over and cry, so i'd roll him back and it kept going on like this for like 10 minutes. Funny stuff.




On another note. Josh can't watch me feed him or he'll get sick. He said, "Once it's been in his mouth and comes out it's throw up." Just thought that was funny. He wouldn't last one second on fear factor.

A Tribute to our Geese

We just were just thinking back about what we were doing at this time last year. Here it is....




We found 7 abandoned goose eggs on our Lake about 1 week before they were going to hatch, so we took them home, incubated them, and hatched them. We built them a chicken run for them to grow up in and set them free when they were old enough to be on their own. We'd go swimming with them and they'd peck at our hair thinking it was grass or something, so it got a little crazy. When Josh would dive under they'd dive under with him. They were so cute. It was a fun 3 months. Maybe one day they'll come back to the lake to visit.

Motherhood

Those stroller rides save my days!!! I can't believe how fussy babies are! Thank goodness he's so cute cause it's moments like this when i'm about to lose it and I take him out and look at him and all the sudden he's smiling up at me all cute and bundled. Suddenly he's a bundle of joy. How can I stay mad at that??? I really look up to all you moms out there, what are we doing??? It gets easier right, ha.

What life used to be like

I was looking through some old videos and this one really made me laugh. Yep, this was our life. Oh how i miss those days.

love that camera!!

Ben loves the camera, so it's really easy to get these cute pictures of him. He just stares at it and follows it everywhere it goes. He is such a Gerber baby!

Tagged?

Who do you love? I have to say Josh the most, and anybody who likes to babysit my boy Ben, ha ha. And of course I love Ben too.
How long have you been married? 3 Years
Who said I love you first? Josh after about 2 months. But he's wanted to since the 7th grade. Whenever I used to walk by him in school he would always say to his friends "She will be mine. "After our first date he went home and told Debra (his mom) that he found the girl he was going to marry.
How long did you date? 3 years
Where did he propose? Besides the fact that we talked about it all the time...In a raft on his lake, but while he was going to put it on my finger he tripped and the ring fell into the lake. He dove in after it, and didn't come back up for a really long time. I think he was considering not coming back up. After all that I later found out it was a total scam and that the real ring was in the car the whole time. So I guess that's where he officially sealed the deal.
Who is taller? Josh, but he wishes I was
Who is smarter? Josh is smarter but i'm less scatterbrained
Who does the laundry? Me always, it's the only thing i don't even want help with.
Who pays the bills? I do, but mostly they pay themselves online
Who mows the lawn? Me, and an occasional Josh
Who cooks dinner? I do unless it's a grilled cheese, or eggs and toast. Josh is killer at those.
Who drives? Me, definitely, Josh hates it and I get sick otherwise. Not because Josh is a bad driver, I get sick with anybody.

So i guess i'm supposed to tag someone now, so that'll be Kim Mcdougal!!! Have Fun

Little Hands Little Feet

Yeah for the bouncer!!!

I have to thank Brooke for this one. I've been having a really hard time lately getting Ben to be happy on his own for even one second. Brooke came over and dropped off this jumper yesterday and I was able to successfully cook a delicious meal while Ben was happily entertained. Mostly it was great because I really used to enjoy cooking and I finally was able to enjoy it again. Here is what we had.
Strawberry Spinach Salad with homemade poppyseed dressing and homemade candied pecans.
Chicken salad with pineapple over biscuits (also homemade and cut into heart shapes.)
Needless to say not a 30 minute meal. I was so proud I should have taken a picture.
So for Brooke and Adam if you ever want to come over for dinner you are invited. I owe you big time. Love ya

Love of my Life!!!

I thought I'd pay a tribute To my True Love.
Josh and I have been through a lot together. Our love has been forged in a fire of adversity.
I think I sometimes give Josh a hard time for a lot of things, but truthfully he is so great.
Sure he hates changing poopy diapers, and constantly puts ice cream in the cupboard, but it's those things I love most. If I couldn't make fun of him, i'd be bored. Recently i've learned that I love to go places and make fun of people. Not because I think i'm better than others, but because I like people who are different. They make me laugh and if I ever make fun of others it's just because I could really be their best friends.
Josh has so many good qualities. I respect him for so many things. He is very loyal to everyone. And he is very honest and can't hide his feelings. I think we've all seen all of Josh's sides by now. He's always trying to be better. He's always trying crazy things to be different like not having a TV cause he got sick of it one day. Yes I know everyone thinks we're insane!
Most of all we have a passion for the things we love. We could be stuck in a room for a year all alone and we'd still build great times and laugh ourselves silly. In fact I think sometimes that's what he'd prefer. Our best memories were when I was sick at home and he'd come visit me. He's always been there for me.
So now that i've once again made you all jealous of our love, Ha ha, I will end my tribute.