Benjamin's "Business"

by "business" I mean:  BUSY-NESS

Benjamin is by far my busiest child.  He loves to get into everything that he isn't supposed to.

I even keep rotating his toys, so that there are new ones out, but he is rarely interested in them ☺

And so when the gate between the kitchen & back hall is left opened, he has "gate radar" & escapes quickly!!

He got into all the Easter eggs I put in the girls' room (for "safe keeping")

And Emmalee is notorious for leaving the gate opened--so one afternoon I hear a big crash--and this is what I found in the back hall where I store my plastic containers, lids & water bottles

Coloring on the fridge

A close-up of the masterpiece (I forgot to take a picture of the coloring on the girls' door)

Getting to the roll of garbage bags

"Here, Mom"

"Do you need one......or 10?"

"I'm just helping!!!"

I walked around the corner to do a load of laundry

And found this mess ☺

climbed up on the table

and got mad when I tried to get him down

Benjamin got into a big, full container of oat/granola mix I just made & was getting ready to add the peanut butter & honey to it. (do you see him back in the corner by the fridge--he knows he did something "really" big this time)

he's running to me to give me a hug. (how can you resist that??)

look at this mess, mom!!

and here he is helping me clean up--at least he usually helps clean up the messes he makes

I used to laugh at all stories my friend Jennifer (Parry) Lewis tells of her little boy, but now I have a lot of sympathy for her!!!

Benjamin is sick again this weekend.  I really hoped we were over all the sickness!! 

He hasn't eaten much, has a fever of 102.4, and has thrown up a few times.

Rusty stayed home with him today while the rest of us went to church.

here are some pictures of him when he wasn't sick--his happy, go-lucky, get-into-everything self.

eating chocolate from Easter

This is his great-grandma bowhay.  she lives in IF

The weather has turned so nice, and we played outside a lot.  We found this "Gilligan's" hat so he wouldn't get sunburned.

I combed his hair after we played outside for a while--it has a lot of sunblock in it.

I decided to give him a hair cut.  Maybe it was the haircut that got him sick.

or the gates & fence we put up in the back yard.  I told Rusty we absolutely had to get something up so I could hang up my laundry & have a gated area for Ben to play.  So we got a temporary fence & gate up for now. 

so now I can go outside & hang the clothes up tomorrow :D

Still to come.......the mighty adventures of Benjamin.

Spring

This is what we woke up to this morning--and yesterday it was in the 60's!

Yesterday I even went on a nice walk--without a jacket ☺

Hopefully it will melt quickly.  I am thankful for the moisture, but really wish we were getting rain & it was at least in the 40's or 50's!!!

Prom--April 10, 2010

Ethan went to Prom with Samantha Farr.  He asked her by dumping a bag of Hersey Kisses on her floor & posting a sign that said "Now that I have kissed the ground you walk on, will you go to Prom with me?"

She answered back with a creative poster that had words to find & decipher.

A group of about 8 couples got together earlier in the day & went target shooting & 4-wheeling.

Then they changed into their clothes (& the girls did their hair/make-up)

And they all met at the church for a nice dinner.

Ethan was in charge of bringing the baked potatoes for everyone.

Since I was at a Stake Baptism all morning, he scrubbed & wrapped all the potatoes & put them in our roaster.

By eating a meal at the church, it not only saved about 2 hours of driving time, but it was a lot easier on the wallet! ☺

A couple of the other moms decorated the tables & set everthing up. (thanks--it was wonderful!)

This is Ethan & Samantha arriving at the church.

Getting ready to eat (I'm not the only mom taking pictures--that is Sam's mom in the background)

Yes, Ethan--you HAVE to get a zillion pictures taken!!!

Samantha looked so beautiful!!!

And Ethan cleaned up pretty good too.

We found his tie at Ross--and it matches perfectly!  We only had a close-up picture of the dress on my cell-phone to try & match his tie to.

I really like this picture because you can see how gorgeous Samantha's hair is.

A yummy-looking chocolate fountain at Prom.

I love how their eye's "sparkle" (okay--it's really just the flash in a darkened gym)

All the girls were beautiful, the guys handsome & the decorations were amazing.  I love how they can transform the gym!

Ethan had a great time.

Springtime

It  finally got warm enough to play outside a couple of weeks ago.

Ben & Emmalee had fun riding the bike.

And they like to say hello to our neighbor's goats.

I think Emmalee was trying to be a bunny rabbit.

Emmalee likes to pet the goats.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring!!

Easter Weekend--Part 2

After we watched "He is Risen", the kids looked for the hidden eggs.

High & Low

And then they all looked through their Easter baskets to see what they received.

Benjamin really L♥ved the chocolate!!

Callum's new game!

Emmalee on Easter morning.

We had a fun Easter egg hunt between General Conference sessions. 

We hid about 100 eggs outside (yes--we got about 3-4 inches of new snow)

Some of the eggs had candy in them.

Other eggs had stickers.  The kids could trade the eggs with stickers for a quarter ☺

Emmalee & her cousin Emmy

 And Benjamin loved the snow--but didn't care for it as much when he fell down & couldn't get up