Croup

The little guy has croup for the 3rd time this winter, so we are heading to the ENT in the next week or so. The Dr. isn't sure why he keeps getting it and would really like to find out, so off we go to the ENT to hopefully get some answers.

Sorry no pictures

Just another post with words and no pictures. This morning I asked my mom if she could come watch the kids for me so I could go to the grocery store. I normally don't have a problem taking them with me, but since they are sick I thought it'd be better for them to stay home. So she came over and played with the kids and I got a lot of shopping done in a short amount of time. When I got home I was holding Ben and he was sounding quite croupy so I called the Dr and made an appt. Ally then asked what we are doing today and I went through the day with her. The part she caught was "after nap we are eating lunch and going to the Dr." She proceeded to get herself a drink, go the bathroom and put herself down for a nap at 9:45am. Umm sweetie I planned on you taking a nap around 11/12ish, but whatever. She's just going to need to go to bed early tonight. Ben went right down for his AM nap. Ally LOVES going to the Dr. and I am never really sure why. Sure she gets a sticker and a sucker at the end of the appt, whether she was the one being seen or not. I love that my kids are AWESOME nap takers. I joke sometimes about the requirements to join our family: you have to love ice cream first and foremost, you have to love chocolate, and you will either take a nap or give mom an hour of quiet everyday. So far all of the kids have abided by this and I couldn't be more pleased!!! At the grocery today I picked up a bunch of fresh fruit and when I got home Ally and Ben were SO excited to see that I had gotten them more mandarin oranges, bananas and grapes. I also got strawberries, but Ben can't have those yet. Ally immediately helped herself to a banana, which Ben was quite upset about not being able to do. He then went over to Ally and tried to attack her hand that held the banana. I got him one and he gobbled the whole thing quite fast. I picked up some cucumbers and carrots as well and Ally can't wait for me to cut them up for her. Yeah for fresh produce!

First 2 steps

Today Ben took his first 2 steps. Normally if he is standing up to something and wants to go to something else and can't hold onto anything to get there, he crawls over to it and stands up. Today he was standing up to me and took 2 steps to our bed. If it's not within arms reach normally he won't even try to walk to it, not today. I'm excited for him, but at the same time know that he can find more trouble walking on 2 legs vs. crawling on all 4's.

So I say...umm...go Ben!

Sick...again

Yes, my kids are sick, again. I'm starting to wonder if we'll all be healthy at the same time and for longer than a week. The kids both have awful sounding coughs. Ally's cough sounds worse when she's sleeping and she coughs a lot more when she's sleeping as well. Ben sounds like he might have croup. They both of yucky green noses. I am hoping this leaves their little bodies soon, I'm tired of having them in the pediatricians office, going to the pharmacy, and remembering antibiotics. I am HORRIBLE at remembering to take medicine myself, let alone for the kids. I'm hoping next year is our year to be healthy. These last two years have definitely not been our healthy years.

Ally

We were driving in the van today and Ally said "Mom, its not snowing in Florida". Thanks for rubbing it in Ally. You KNOW I'd much rather be in Florida than here where it's all gloomy.

Elder Christofferson

This Sunday Elder Christofferson will come and speak at a special Stake Conference.

We're really excited to have the opportunity to listen to an apostle. I had the opportunity as a missionary in Honduras to visit with Elder Christofferson when he was in the Quorum of the Seventy.

Ally has been confused about Prophets and Apostles. This is easy to do and hard to understand at the age of 3.

To those friends and family of ours that aren't members of the church here are a few links if you have any questions.

www.lds.org

www.mormon.org

www.mormonwiki.com

Home Improvements

Matt got A LOT done this weekend. It started with hanging up pictures in a few rooms. Ally got to help.

She doesn't quite understand why her tool set won't work for daddy's jobs.
Matt started here by taking the phone down that was on the wall and then putting the coat rack up. Then we went to Lowes to look at our options for a shoe rack. It started off looking like it was going to be $80-$90 and ended up costing $14 after we found a cheaper way to do it and it was going to be more of what we wanted. We are very satisfied with how it turned out.

Then Matt moved the TV we had in the family room, to our bedroom and put it up on the wall. Then he put the TV we just got from his parents, in the family room and hooked the DVD player up to it.

Okay I will start by saying, YES I know the pictures on the wall are crooked. The only time I seem to notice it is when I take a picture in this room. I think just from the movement and the hardwood floors, they move around more than they normally would. The first picture is the after picture. We were at Lowes and trying to figure out what to do with lighting for this room and Matt's dad made a suggestion and we went with it.

I definitely think it did wonders for the room. These were both taken in the evening and without the flash. HUGE difference. We are loving that the room is more kid friendly now. We did have a little lamp on the floor and Ben enjoyed playing with it when it was on. Now we have no lamp on the floor and have LOTS of light to enjoy the room.

Oh and we bought a deep freezer that we are quite excited about. I can't wait to start filling it up. Right now it is in the garage waiting for me to stock it full of food. I can't wait to find great deals on food to put in it!!

Childrens Museum

A few weeks ago, I realized I had neglected to take Ben to the Childrens Museum. So on Friday we were suppose to go and Matt would be able to come along. Well Friday finally got here and Ally had been in a horrible little mood for the previous 2 days, her bad mood was still hanging around Friday morning, so we informed her that it would be postponed until Tuesday, IF she changed her behavior. She did, so I took the kids this morning.

She's been asking to see "Barbie at the Childrens Museum" for quite some time. Here she is at the receptionist desk, answering the phone.
Dressing barbies...check out the boys face!!! Seriously mom???
Doing Barbie's hair.

Really I was SO good the entire time in the Barbie exhibit. Mom promised me something fun if I was good.

Ally owns 2 Barbies, both of which my sister handed down to her. She loves playing with the Barbies at both Grandma's houses.

Checking out all the different times of Barbie.

So mom followed through with her promise. Ben had SO much fun playing in the water.

He was so intrigued he never looked up at me.

Playing on the slide and fort. For this picture he was trying to hit on a lady walking by. She thought it was quite cute.

Ally was helping him go down the slide.

Playing in the I'm not such a baby area.

He really wan't quite sure about this area.

The Carousel...we rode it 2 times in a row and would have stayed on longer, but mommy thought we should move on to other things.

The first time we stood next to Ally while she rode a jumper, the second time we stood in front of Ally's horse and let Ben ride his own horse. He obviously had fun. And Ally felt like a real big kid with mom not standing right next to her.

Everytime we come to the museum Ally asks to ride this horse, but I never seem to have a nickel on me, today I did. She thought it was okay and hopefully won't ask to ride it again.

Playing dinosaurs

Silly girl

Ben enjoyed playing dinosaurs

Our sweet boy

Is always ready with a smile.

And some sort of face to make you laugh.
Wants so bad to be the funny guy!

And the sweet guy.

He entertained himself for over 20 minutes the other night pushing the dishwasher rack back and forth. He was so intrigued with how it worked. He'd push and pull it, then walk around it to investigate each side, then go back to pushing and pulling it.

A fun day to play in the snow

Matt has been wanting to get out to our backyard to make sure there are footprints/bootprints present. Today was the perfect day because it wasn't too cold and there wasn't any wind. I thought while Matt was out playing with Ally we'd let Benson see how he likes the snow. He WAS enjoying himself on the sled.

Then Ally insisted she get a try at pulling him, he was still fine.
Then Daddy thought he might like to go fast.

And he was SOOO wrong!

Look closely and you can see a little tear on his right cheek.

I had put 2 red mittens on him, but in the process of going fast on the sled, he had put his hand in the snow and got a mitten full of snow, so I put it inside his snowsuit.

I'm thinking, if I need to get some things done, all I need to do is dress him up nice and warm and sit him outside in the snow. He didn't move! Before taking him outside, he was all over the house with all his clothes on, so I KNOW he can move around.

Matt was trying to talk him into crawling, didn't work.

Daddy and Ben.

Ally, Daddy and Ben.

He had a great time eating the snow.

Always cute and ready to give a smile.

Ally making a snow angel.

Daddy helping Ben make a snow angel.

Benson's first snow angel! Ben just to let you know, I haven't gotten pictures of your sisters making their first snow angels. Sometimes it pays off to be the third child!

Benson was helping daddy make a snow angel.

Daddy pulled Ally around the yard in the sled.

Fantasy Football 2009 Champ

This was my rookie season in fantasy football. I was invited to play in 2 leagues. The Plainfield Ward (church) and with a friend from work.

The season was full of ups and downs in the Plainfield Ward. There was lots of controversy and word play which led to a highly competitive season. In the other league I was #1 from week 4 till the end.
In the end I came out on top in both leagues. The Plainfield Ward was a real surprise, I came out of no where and won. In the other league I could have sat out all of my players the last 2 weeks and still have won.

I now consider myself the alpha male of the Plainfield Ward. So to all you chumps in the Plainfield Ward, good luck next year!!!!

Reasons why I like fantasy football:

1. trash talk

2. Remali's trades

3. competitive nature of all my friends