Soccer

Jason joined an intramural soccer team at school this year. He has games about once a week. A few nights ago I decided to take the boys to watch daddy play. It was kind of hard to keep them corralled but it was worth it. Tab really enjoyed watching dad play. He kept wanting to go out and play with him. The funniest part about the whole night was that he kept pointing at Jason and telling everyone that his dad was the one in the sweaty red shorts.

For Curious Minds

I have had inquiries into the size of my growing belly and so I will appease those living far away. This was taken at 22 weeks 3 days.

Independent Play

Benton isn't usually all that great at independent play. He has always had Tab in his face playing with him so he never really did the independent play stage. With Tab starting preschool, Benton has been left to figure out how to play by himself. Jason caught a great moment the other day. He was in the playroom playing quietly.

I'm a Big Boy!

Benton is trying to hard to be just like his brother. He has on many occasions lately insisted on sitting at the table and in a regular chair to eat his meals. The only problem with this is that he is always falling off and hurting himself. I have tried putting him in his highchair and pushing him up to the table but he just won't have it. Special times at our house right now. There is either screaming because we are forcing him to sit in his highchair or screaming because he just fell off of the chair AGAIN.

A break from the Winter Blues

A little while ago we had a two day break from the winter blahness that is Missouri right now. IT warmed up into the low 50's and we were in absolute heaven. I was frustrated the first day because Tab had preschool during the day and I was too busy after he got home with making dinner and such to play outside with them before it got cold for the evening. So on day two of the warm weather I wised up and threw dinner in the crockpot in the morning so that we were all ready to play when Tab got home from school.

And play we did. We got out the bikes and sidewalk chalk. Tab was kind of possessive of the sidewalk chalk container and held it as he rode his bike around the entire time.Benton has finally decided that it is ok to ride the bike instead of just pushing it around. Well... sometimes.
Benton just being cute and running around.The boys coloring with their sidewalk chalk. (It was kind of fun to see it under the powdering we got shortly thereafter.)

Visiting the Fire Department

About a week ago we went to the Fire Department for an SAA Children's Social. The boys loved it. For some reason I was having a really hard time getting a decent picture. Everything was blurry with lights streaking. I tried with my flash on and off and neither worked very well, so please excuse the lousy pictures.

They started out by talking to the kids about stop drop and roll and such.
Then one of the firefighters put all of his gear on so that the kids could see and hear what they sound like with their ventilators on. They talked to the kids about not being scared of them if they ever have to come in our house and not to run away from them. Tab was terrified of the guy. Benton was a little nervous but went up and gave him a high 5. After that they took all of the kids in to see the firetrucks. They let them climb all over and through them. The boys thought that it was pretty special. This is the closest we could get to a group shot. Benton loved climbing around on their seats in the firetruck.Right before we left Benton discovered the big tires and was completely fascinated. I had a hard time getting him to leave at that point.And of course the firemen all slid down the pole for the kids.And then the boys wanted to also.

Happy Late Birthday Hubby!

I'm a few days late in blogging this as usual. The 26th was Jason (and my mom's) birthday. I think the day was pretty much the usual for Jason, he woke up at 5 to study and went to school. He got to celebrate by taking a surgery test in the morning. Sorry hun.

My family never really made a huge deal out of birthdays, so I'm not a make it a big deal type of person either. For us it was all about getting to pick what we had for dinner. Now I HATE, loathe, despise, am disgusted by (well, you get the picture) fish. The smell of it literally makes me gag. So once a year, for Jason's birthday I harness my gag reflex and make fish. This year I made a Pam Seared Salmon with a Sweet and Spicy Asian Glaze. (recipe to come on my food blog). Here is the birthday boy with his meal.And because he thought that I was completely hilarious, he had to take a picture of me with my dinner. (I look retarded because I wasn't expecting to have my picture taken and my glasses were falling down.)And this is the desert that I made for him. It is called peach surpise. It was one of his favorite deserts that his mom made him. We both love it. This was a hard task to pull off this time of year. First of all, it was dang near impossible to find peaches and then the ones that I did find weren't all that great. But what else would you expect in January. It still turned out great. Hope you had a good one hubby!

Snuggle Up

I think that Jason felt bad for not spending Martin Luther King day with the boys so he rented Tab a movie to watch while he was at school studying. Benton decided that he wanted to snuggle up and watch with Tab too. It was cute. Of course Benton doesn't actually really like watching TV (thank goodness) so it didn't last too long. But It was cute while it did last. (And yes, we spent much of the day in our "jammas")

Daddy, will you come tease me on the floor?

Almost every day Tab comes to Jason with this mischievous grin on his face and asks him if he will come tease him on the floor. (AKA wrestle). Jason rarely can resist the invitation. Benton is never far behind. This is my favorite part of the day.

A bracelet for the little miss

I have had way too much fun thinking about all of the little girl "stuff" to come. My head has been swimming in thought of pinks and purples, etc. I just had to outlet some of it so I made my first little bracelet for the little miss. It is just so tiny, it is killing me that I have to wait another 4 months for her to get here.

Just Being Benton

I just love when I can catch Benton just being his sweet self. He really plays well with Tab and by himself. I caught him the other day in the playroom. He and Tab had been playing with the dress up clothes and Benton was just sitting quietly playing by himself when I took this.

Time for Prayer

We have been working with Benton, trying to get him to fold his arms when we say bedtime prayers with the boys. He has started to catch on. He has started to fold his hands when we start to say prayers at dinner time.

Nathan's Wedding

Jason's brother, Nathan got married on January 10th. We were lucky enough to be able to attend. Here they are coming out of the Denver Temple.Awww..Benny went over to give Uncle Bate Bate kisses.
Tab with our good friend's son Tyler.
Jason's parents, Kristine, Jason and I.

Flying

A week after we got back from Christmas break we flew to Colorado for Jason's brother's wedding. The boys are becoming pros at flying. And can I just say that flying Southwest with kids is much better than any other airline. They doted on the boys. At the check in counter they gave the boys each a stuffed airplane. When we got on the plane, they asked Tab to come check out the cockpit. Tab thought that was the coolest thing in the world.Then they brought both of the boys an activity book, colored pencil and wings. It is too bad that they don't use the pins on the back anymore because both of the boys lost theirs. Tab was quite distraught about it.

I think what the boys enjoyed the most was looking out the window during take off and landing.

Wicked Ice Storm

A few days before we left for Christmas break, we received a wicked Ice Storm as we tend to get a few times a winter. Ice scares me. It is dangerous to drive on, knocks out the power and can cause all sorts of other problems. It definitely had me double checking our 72 hour kit.

Problem #1: This is our street. That is 1 1/2 inches of solid ice. Sorry, but no snow plow is going to help this problem.Problem #2: This is the Tree whose branches reside over our driveway, causing us not to be able to park in our driveway lest we desire to have our windshield bashed in by the falling branches and icicles.
Problem #3: This is our driveway. It had about 6" of snow on it before the ice started. Yes the snow still being their is our own problem. But it is kind of hard to shovel when your shovel is in the shed which is held shut by a frozen lock. We did finally have a genius friend tell us that we could boil a pot of water and put the lock in that. So after doing that, I had the joy of spending 2 hours shoveling it. Actually, I secretly enjoy shoveling. Don't tell Jason, or he will always make me do it. And also, having the snow under the ice actually made it A LOT easier to shovel.
Although the ice can cause many problems, it can be quite beautiful too.

Hangover Classic 5K

On January 1st, Jason, Jason's Dad and I ran the Wrentham Hangover Classic 5K. It was a lot of fun and miserable all at the same time. It was a freezing 11 degrees out. The first half of the race wasn't so bad. It was cold but not bad. Then we took a turn and came around an open field. Open field and wind equals drifting snow. This road had about 3" of snow leftover from the previous day's dump. So not only did we have snow blowing on us but each step forward was about 3/4 of a step back. It was very frustrating and honestly, downright pissed me off. But what can you do. It was more about the experience than doing good in the race anyway.

Our Christmas!

For Christmas this year we spent time in Massachusetts with Jason's family. It was so fun to be with all of them. The boys played a lot and I finally got to do some holiday baking. (Keep your eyes open on my Recipe Blog) With a plethora of pictures, I will show you the highlights.

We had an extended layover in Cleveland due to weather issues so the boys kept themselves busy by watching the planes. They had a few nice people that were working on the ground outside who looked up and waved to them. They thought that was pretty cool.Of course, Christmas morning was awesome. I, like Jason's mom get more excited than the kids. I woke up at 4:30 AM and fell back asleep a few times in an effort to make the time fly faster until I could reasonably wake the boys up at 6:00 AM. Usually at 6:00 AM it is hard to coax Tab out of bed, but all I said when I went in his room was Tab, I think Santa came, and he was out of bed and running. This was him first coming into the room and seeing the presents under the tree. I think it looks like Jason was in as much awe as Tab was. lol... Tab ran right over to the tree to check out the goods.The Stockings were first.
Tab got right to work dumping his out.
Benton wanted to pull everything out one by one.He thought the Barrel O' Dinos was pretty cool. Tab helped Uncle Bate Bate hand out the presents.Benton really enjoyed getting to rip the paper off.
He was very happy that Santa bought him some new noise making toys.Here is Tab opening one of his and Benton's Santa presents. Santa must have heard how much the boys loved the other Shel Silverstein book they have.Tab with all of his goods.
Benton with all of his goods.Grandma bought Tab, Benton and Carter (Kristine-Jason's sister's son) matching PJ's.
The boys had a ton of fun just being at grandma and grandpa's house. They got to take bath's in their huge bathtub which Tab called the pool. Grandma had found some Thomas "shaving cream" and "Razor" and couldn't resist. So every time they took a bath, they had to shave. Tab showing off his mad shaving cream skills.
And boy did he get a close shave.Benton just has to do everything that his big brother does.I swear Benton grew up big time on this trip. I did not come home with the little boy I left with. Look at him taking a stroll with his hands in his pockets. I just couldn't resist snapping a picture. Doesn't he look so old?
Tab of course enjoyed being able to watch "shows" as grandma has cable.Tab got a kick out of boxing on the Wii with Uncle Bate Bate. We surely got a kick out of watching him play. It is too bad a didn't get a picture of Benton kicking his dad's butt playing Wii. I think he somehow managed to knock Jason out with Jason not even being able to get one punch in.Grandma and Grandpa took us all to the Aquarium in Boston while we were there. The boys just loved it. I think they could have stayed all day and have been happy. They had a HUGE tank that went up several stories with stairs surrounding it all of the way to the top. The boys were glued to that thing. Watching all of the different fish. The coolest part I didn't get a good picture of. A diver was in the tank and put his hand up on the window and Tab put his hand on top of his on the other side of the glass. Benton loved it too.And would you check out the size of those fish.Shark anyone?Looking down from the top of the tank.Both Tab and Benton have this unexplainable draw to the Penguins. Lucky for them they had a huge display of penguins. (I think this is my favorite picture from the whole trip. It wasn't posed at all).Tab checking out the Penguins some more.Tab insisted that I take a picture of this particular penguin. He repeated told me that it was the "mommy mommy mommy mommy penguin!". He was hilarious as he was yelling "mommy mommy mommy mommy penguin!" trying to get it's attention.They also had this really cool hands on display as well. Tab had fun reaching in the water an pulling up various hermit crabs and such.A few days after Christmas Nathan's fiance (now wife!) came to visit. She was an instant hit with the boys. Tab was particularly fond of her, likely because played with and tickled him a lot. This was a particularly fun game. She had them laying in this massive bowl and was spinning it around on the carpet. Look how happy Benton looks.Now after a few trip around he doesn't look like his stomach is too happy with his ride.He was still laughing though. Witness.

Benton spent a lot of time in this chair in front of the window. He has always loved just looking out the window. It was perfect that grandma had a low window and a chair just his size. I don't even know how many times we found him just staring out the window at the snow and such.Benton also enjoyed playing with all of grandma's fun toys in the kitchen while mommy cooked.Tab and I made this awesome candy train. Growing up I used to make these almost every Christmas...or at least that's how I remember it. They are so fun.Grandma and Grandpa took the boys several times for us while we simply escaped. They took them out to this Toddler Craft time thing near their house. The boys had so much fun making their penguins. Thanks guys!Don't think for one second they got spoiled without paying the price.Tab absolutely loved getting to use grandma's vacuum to help clean up the mess from taking the Christmas tree out.And finally, back home in Missouri.