Fantasy Football

This year was Matt's first year playing Fantasy Football. He played on our church team and played on a friends church team. He put quite a bit more time into this than I had anticipated. But guess what? He won! And he won in both of the teams he was on. Way to go Matt! Last night he said "I am now the alpha male of the Plainfield Ward". So there you have it, Matt won by 4 points. Okay I had to rub it in. I stayed up and watched the game with him and am now quite tired, as I am sure he is. Matt has to get up at 4:30am to get ready and leave for work. I'll let you take a nap when you get home today.

4 Christmas' down, 1 more to go

If you start at the bottom and work your way up, then they are in order.

The were playing a game, I think. I just like the look on Ben's face.

Sibling love!

Matt went out and split some wood for our fire. Thanks babe!

So I was horrible at getting pictures at our house. I think this is the only one I got. Ben got a ball in his stocking and Ally got a microphone.

She loves puzzles. Benson loves/d the wall of duplos around the Christmas tree. He ended up pushing it over when we were almost done with presents. He had fun batting at the branches and watching the tree shake.

Christmas at my moms house. Notice Ally is the only one not looking.

Ben was trying out Ally's big Christmas present. Right after this picture he dove out of the car and smashed his face into the carpet. He was fine, just a bit shook up.

Phil was playing the organ and Ally was playing her harmonica.

Ally got a harmonica and a real guitar for Christmas, she loves them both.

Learning to share with his sister.

He loves his baseball toy.

Benson and daddy on Christmas morning.

Ben and Great Grandpa Horn

Kim and I both got stock pots. The kids were trying them out.

Kim and Phil both got chef hats.

Chef Benson

He's in the middle of all the excitement.

Ben was just interested in being in the middle of everything.

I love how even, from this view, you can see how excited she is. Inside the box (that she's showing so much excitement about) is elastic and beads to make necklaces and bracelets.

Ally used the Fisher Price Nativity set and told everyone the story. She did a great job.

Our boy full of fun!

So he pulls himself up to EVERYTHING and ANYONE. From there he walks along things to get himself around. He may look little next to some of his friends, but he knows how to get what he wants. He is just like his sisters.

He got his first tooth on Dec 23. He was 8 months and 1 day old. Cosette got her first at the same age. Ally was 4 months when she got her first tooth. Ben's had a rough time with his tooth (just like Cosette). I think he's working on more now. He really doesn't like it when you try to look in his mouth.

Busy Busy

Wow a whole week without updating the blog! I will have to get right on this today. Watch for an update a little later, I have to get kids fed and down for naps first.

It's snowing, its snowing!

Actually it's only lightly snowing right now, but I am getting excited about the snow. It's suppose to snow just about every day this week, woohoo! We'll have a white Christmas for sure.
Oh I love this time of year, somewhat. I love the spirit that comes with the Christmas season, as long as you go shopping early in the day, you'll get to experience it there as well. I love figuring out what gifts to buy everyone and seeing their reactions on Christmas Day. I am really looking forward to watching Ally and Ben this year. I can just hear Ally saying "oh this is what I've always wanted" to every gift opened. So fun! We have 2 gifts coming in the mail and I am HOPING they get here by Christmas. Matt and I are having a tough time on one gift and it's making me crazy. I just want to be done. I have everything except for those 3 peoples gifts, wrapped, ribboned, bowed, and ready to be received! Come on Christmas! Please Mr. Delivery guy deliver the gifts soon!!

Santa

Ally was SO excited about seeing Santa Claus. She drew pictures of what she wants for Christmas and I wrote down next to each picture, what it was, so he would know. On the way to go see Santa, she said that she was going to ask Santa for a strawberry for Grandpa Horn. I asked her why a strawberry for Grandpa Horn and her reply was, he wants one. So grandpa if you get a strawberry for Christmas, it's from Santa. I explained to her before going inside, that she needed to only ask him for things for herself, not for everyone else. Whenever she is asked what she wants for Christmas she'll tell you what Benson, daddy, grandmas, mommy all want for Christmas. So I told her today she had to focus on herself.

Santa was going over the list with her. It was quite the list of random things.
Ally and Benson with Santa.

The last few years, we've gone to see Santa, he's had a real beard, but it's all stained yellow because he smokes. I was kinda glad to see that this year he had a fake beard and didn't smell of smoke.

Why is only 1 person looking at the camera? At least you see 6 eyes, right?

Ho Ho Ho!

Determined

is the one word that describes Benson as of late.

Determined to figure out the stairs.

Determined to stay awake.

Determined to make mommy crazy.

Determined to bug Ally whenever possible.

Determined to find a crayon and eat it.

Determined to find crumbs on the kitchen floor and eat them.

Determined to figure out how to get the outlet covers, off (you know the plastic things you stick in the outlet to keep kids from sticking their fingers in the holes)

Determined to figure out the floor vents. He'll crawl from one room to the next for an hour, not kidding, and check out each vent. What's so interesting about a vent? He is fascinated.

Determined to get outside. He'll lay by the back door and stare outside and then he'll sit up and stare at the handle on the door, as if trying to figure out how it works.

If he doesn't have pants on, he can get his leg up on the step. When he doesn't have pants or socks on, watch out. He can crawl super fast, pull himself up to a stand, and get into everything, without socks and pants on.

My little monster in the making

He eats everything, yet there are NO teeth in site. One morning he's going to wake up with a mouthful.

See he's still munching away.
Still munching.

Last night Ally and I were playing and I realized he had pulled himself to a stand at the stairs. He figured out how to pull himself up about a week ago and I was wondering how long it'd take him to figure it out on the stairs. Last night was the night and thank goodness we have gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. Now the stairs to the basement, well we have a door at the top and at the bottom we'll have to figure something out. He's moving quick and quite smart. Yesterday he went shopping with me while Ally went to see the Princess and the Frog with Tiffney. (She got scared in it, if you were wondering and didn't like the previews) As I was shopping and putting things in the cart, he'd scream at me and throw his arms/hands towards whatever I was putting in the cart. I was buying stocking stuffer items for the kids and he wanted them. Hopefully he'll still want them at Christmas. I am half way done Christmas shopping and have everything wrapped and ready to go. So far Benson hasn't shown much interest at all in the presents, luckily. He has shown significant interest in the bathrooms and kitchen floors!

A few months over due

So we got Ally and Ben each a pumpkin a week before Halloween, with the best of intentions of decorating them before Halloween. I finally got around to having her do hers 2 days ago. She was SO excited. It kept her busy for almost an hour and a half. I am glad she is so into coloring and painting.

Our first snow!!!

Ally was super excited to be able to play in the snow.

I'm trying to see you mom.
She was thrilled to say the least to be outside. We haven't been outside much because it's been so cold and since it snowed, I figured why not play in the snow.

This is what Ben got to do while Ally played in the snow. He blew bubbles and snotted all over the sliding door. Thanks buddy!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Benson is into everything and is all about learning new tricks as to how to drive his mommy crazy. Two days ago he figured out how to stand up in his crib. I went into his room to get him up from his nap, to find him standing up laughing. Surely he was laughing at me and the look he knew I'd have on my face.

He pulls himself up to chairs.
And crawls around EVERYWHERE. We have to make sure we keep the basement door and bathroom door shut at all times. For some reason he loves the bathroom. Whether we are on the main floor or upstairs, he loves crawling into the bathroom, YUCK!

Our Angel

Saturday we went out to the cemetary. I would like to thank those of you that might have prayed for a sunny day on Saturday. I really appreciate it. I knew it would make the day a little rougher if it was gloomy. Sunshine helps EVERYTHING. Ally fell asleep on the way there and was super grump. She had wanted to bring her camera to take pictures, which is why Matt is holding it. We all picked out a flower for Cosette. My mom does a great job keeping the flowers looking nice for us. We just added a few to what she had done.

Ally colored a picture for Cosette, which Heavenly Father is going to come down and take it to her.

A favorite..not sure why.

The kids, mainly Benson, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to play on the kitchen floor. I'm not sure if it is because he can pull himself around easily or the fact that I am horrible at remembering to sweep the floor, so he likes to find the crumbs. Don't worry I have been getting better, but he is just SO good at finding those little things to stick in his mouth.

Ally was posing.
Pulling himself up to the chair.

Udder Covers

If you go to this website and at check out type in the promo code: Christmas, you will get a $32 udder cover for just the price of shipping, which is $8.95. They also have little gift sets that are on sale for $37 and you can get $32 off that and then pay shipping. Great deal! I did this a few weeks ago and they sent me an email saying they were doing it again.

Missing Cosette

I felt that over the last year that I had started to get over our loss. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. At the start of the week ,I just couldn't focus at work, so I decided to take the rest of the week off. Spending time at home with family is the best way, for me, to cope. The kids do so much for me, it's quite the blessing.

Cosette loved to wrestle with me when I came home from work, but Ally didn't. A few months after Cosette passed away, Ally began wanting to wrestle. Recently, she started telling us "I love you!" a lot more and for no particular reason. Benson, since day one, has been a great blessing. He is always pleasant with a smile on his face. He loves to snuggle in close when you hold him. I'm so glad that families are forever.

Tashina and I were married on November 27th, 2004 in the Nauvoo Temple. We went to the temple to be married "for all time and eternity" not "until death do you part". Because we were married in the temple we will be with Cosette again. I am so thankful for this blessing, to be apart of an eternal family. I miss Cosette so much, especially this time of the year, and I think I'll always miss her. I know she is in good hands. I love my family, always and forever.

Angel Day #1

Hopefully we don't have to get too far with our counting of Angel Days. I'm going to write this about me and let Matt do his own post, if he wants. My emotions have been on the rise for the last 2 weeks. It probably didn't help that for 4 days in a row I had things with primary going on, but next year that won't happen. Matt took Wednesday afternoon and Thursday off and has just been hanging out with us. We got some things done- Christmas tree put up, dining room table put up, garage cleaned out (Matt did it all by himself), put lights on our tree in the front yard (Matt also did this by himself), got some things picked up around the house, did errands and ate out a bunch. Yesterday we got flowers from our friends the Edwards, thanks guys!Today we woke up to cinnamon rolls, a crown for Ally and flowers (thanks Dabney and Kathy). I hadn't really done much laundry this week, so I worked on laundry this morning, while Matt cleaned out the garage and put lights on our lonely tree in the yard. Then we headed to pick out some flowers for Cosette. Then we went to Sams Club to pick up some hot drinks (2 different boxes of hot chocolate and a box of apple cider), formula, and a few other things. Since it was Saturday we hit up all the samples and then headed back towards home to take the flowers to Cosette. I was SO excited that it was sunny outside. I think it would have really changed my day had it been gloomy. Now we are home and we're planning on ending the day driving around to look at Christmas lights and drink hot chocolate while looking at them, then come home and make brownies and then put ice cream on them. It's been a great day thus far, with the exception of the title that this day now holds for us. I miss Cosette oh so much. My heart aches to think how much I miss her and how much she would've grown over the last year. She would have loved having Benson around. The 3 kids would have gotten along great. I am so lucky and grateful for the knowledge that I KNOW I will see her again. She is my bug and I am her mommy. When the day comes for us to see her again, it will truly be a special one. I look forward to that day, but also know I have a lot to do on my end to ensure my place in Heaven. There's definitely a piece missing from our family, but some day soon she will fill it. Until then we have the imprint she's left on our hearts, family and home. I miss you tons bug!
I love you,
Mommy