We're bad bloggers!

What can I say? I guess I should say that it isn't really a "we" issue with the blogging.... it's a "me" issue. I don't particularly know where all of my time goes, but between laundry and trying to tame the kiddos and keep the house somewhat clean and keep up with my new calling and help with preschool, there isn't much time left over for even changing my facebook status, so the blog goes by the wayside.

Life is good, but always busy. Ben and Sofia are growing like weeds. Ben alone has grown three inches in the past 7 months - we only know because we all cheered the day he hit 40 inches and could go on Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland. Sofia is talking more and more and some days that's a bad thing. She has a tendency to punish Ben and that leads to more arguements between the two. When they get along they are as cute as can be - it just doesn't usually last too long.

Charles is busy with work and trying to do some side jobs since there is so much uncertainty in the job market lately. I am the new Relief Society President in my ward, so I think that pretty much sums up what my life is about lately.

We are tring hard to keep our perspective and enjoy life as we live it. We hope you're all well too!

It's Like Cooking a Frog...

I hear that when you're trying to cook a frog the key is to put them in a pot of cold water, then turn on the heat. The frogs aclimate to the water as it warms and before they know it, they're dead from the heat. My question is, who tries to intentionally cook a frog? Yuk. But the purpose of this lovely metaphor is to illustrate the weather in Menifee. It has been surprisingly cool for Summer apart from the scorching 106 we had one day in July, but the temps get to about the low 90s by late afternoon and so lately I feel like a frog. It gets NICE at night - high 60s, low 70s, so we keep the windows open and the fans on and we actually have to sleep with blankets because it gets chilly, but by about 3:00 I feel like I was put in a cold pot and the water is slowly heating up around me. The breeze we get is nice, but sometimes I wonder if I should just go outside and come back in so the house feels cool again. It's like an Arizona swimming pool that has a Jacuzzi I think for that purpose alone.

The reason for talking about the heat is because it is the reason for a disastrous day at the ER last week. Everyone, but me, had diarrhea. Gross, I know. Thank goodness Ben can make it to the potty like a champ. We have no idea where it came from, possibly something in the water at swim lessons... no idea, really. So Sofia, had it all day Wednesday last week and started puking that night. I know, I know, but there is a point. So she woke up Thursday puking too and because of the heat I am concerned she might become dehydrated. The doctor's office isn't open and she's already puked three or four times and she retches every time she drinks anything, even water. So I call the 24-hour nurse line and they tell me I need to take her to the ER. Good news, a little pill made the vomitting stop and she was STARVING and thirsty. The bad news, it took 5 hours to get the pill. We got to the ER at 10 and made it home just before 5. Thank goodness Grandma and Papa came up to entertain Ben and thank goodness Fia was so mellow at the hospital because it was horrible. I am so glad our little girl is healthy and the sickness seems to have passed for everyone and glad I avoided it.

Swimming lessons were great. Sofia and I missed the last class because she was sick, so I missed the day I had determined would be picture day. We're going to the pool next weekend though, so I'll get some pictures of the awesome pool we go to. Benjamin starts preschool in just over a week with our first meeting next week. He is so excited, he wants to be on the varsity football team.

Life is great and we're having lots of fun. We're off to Chuck E. Cheese tonight and then we leave first thing tomorrow for a camping adventure! Yippee!

Updates long overdue...

First and foremost, here is a current picture of all of us, since it has been ages since we've updated pictures...



Life has been busy, it always is, and I always say that, but it's the truth, so there it is. The kiddos both start swimming lessons tonight and they run for 2 weeks, every Mon-Thur from 5:30-6, so our evenings will be a bit of a mess. The kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pool and the water though, so it should be fun and I know I'll rest a little easier when I know they both have learned some pool safety and swimming skills.

We've also been busy at the house painting and cleaning and furnishing. Craigslist has become our number one furniture shopping resource and so far it has paid off. We FINALLY have seating downstairs, which means yes, we finally have furniture downstairs. Don't laugh, we've learned another couple we used to know in Cardiff just moved up here and they have the same problem we do - too much house and not enough furniture. :) I'll work on taking some pictures so you can see our furni finds.

We also survived our first Sofia haircut. Ben and I were playing hockey in the loft when she comes out of the bathroom with scissors in hand complete with hair in-between the blades. We fixed it and it all went surprisingly well. She talks about it all of the time, so she still isn't over it, but we lived through it.

Benjamin is officially potty-trained and we rejoice that when we finally put our minds to it it was easier than we thought it would be. He makes us laugh every day with the silly things he says and does. He constantly turns his simple stories into songs that he cracks up singing and his laughter is contagious. He dreams that one day he will wake up to find that it has snowed ice cream and in a perfect world he would get to live at a sports park and play baseball, soccer, basketball and hockey everyday. He also likes to skateboard and he is a daredevil.

Sofia is still a girly-girl but also a bit of a tomboy. She tells us every morning that she dreamed about soccer but she loves play Ariel and sing - which is the most incredible thing ever. I had no idea that a child could be so out of tune, but she is. She also loves Dora the Explorer and wearing chapstick. She'll walk around the house with her hands on her hips and when she isn't the sweetest thing ever she is a ball of complete attitude. She is the sweet cuddly one and I wonder what I would ever have done without her.



Life is good, as you can see, busy and good. We love all of family and friends, especially the old friends we still get to see and the new friends that make our new home more comfortable.

** A BIG thank you to Carrie Elton for taking our pictures! If you ever need family pics for anything and you live in Utah, get in touch with Carrie!**

Sportacus Saving the Day!

Most of you have probably never heard of Lazy Town. I had never heard of Lazy Town and thought it was strictly BBC, but lo and behold, it was on Nick Jr. for a while and it has given Ben an answer to the perfect superhero - one who plays sports and owns every piece of sporting equipment there is and uses it to save kids who are in trouble. Here is our little sportacus.



It's acutally really cute when Sofia climbs somewhere and yells, "Sportacus, Help!" and Ben sometimes comes to her rescue. (Mostly he runs the other way)

Why, Why and Why?

You know how most kids hear something like, "pick up that toy," and ask, "Why?" then you answer and you hear, "Why?" and you keep hearing "Why?" as the response to everything that you've said and you start to question the intelligence of the little beast asking you. I have one of those kids now. In true toddler fashion, Benjamin's favorite question has become "Why?" - but like the smarty-pants that he is, his ABSOLUTE favorite question is, "Why, Why and Why?" It's like deep down he knows where the conversation is headed and just to make it more aggravating he asks why up front. It flusters me, honestly. Like my first repsonse would never fully answer his burning need to KNOW why his toys have to be put away, why he can't sleep with 3 or 4 baseball bats in his bed, why ice cream is not a good breakfast food and why it is unsafe to climb the banisters. However I will also say that besides policing his sister, this is really the only bad thing Benjamin does lately. He still doesn't understand that he doesn't NEED a hockey stick in every color, but for now he is willing to simply add things to his Christmas list and for that I am grateful.

Sofia is at the streaking stage that Ben was at last Summer. I guess I should have known that it was coming, but no one else had even heard of a kid ripping his own diaper off whenever he pooped, so I thought Ben was going to be the lone exception. I was wrong. So Sofia drops trow whenever she poops and it's gotten us thinking that we may have found another use for duct tape cuz really it's gross and we just had the carpets cleaned. She is a fighter and won't let Ben push her around which is a good thing, I guess, but it leads to LOTS of arguments where Sofia is yelling, "No Ben!" and pointing at him and Ben is shrieking and telling me that Sofia is saying a bad word. Yes, he thinks "no" is a bad word. It's frustrating, but then funny, so I guess every cloud really does have a silver lining.

Charles is working from home and thanks to a donated desk, he is no longer operating off of two saw horses and a sheet of MDF. I have almost finished unpacking the kids' stuff, Sofia's room is painted, her curtains are up and we are starting to hang things on the wall. I still have two boxes full of clothes in our bedroom that don't have anywhere to go because I can't figure out where my dresser will fit. Charles is helping to draw up plans to put some storage in the closet which will solve that problem. I am LOVING the upstairs laundry room because I used to not like taking the laundry downstairs and the kids ask to take a bath everyday because they say, "there is a pool in here!" (They are referring to the tub in the master bathroom.) I will post a picture of the outside of the house and will not bother you with the inside since there isn't any furniture downstairs and the pictures I have of the kids' rooms are stricly "before" pictures.

There isn't much else going on. We've spent the last two weekends back down in San Diego sharing with our friends some amazing times in their lives with a birthday, a baby blessing and a wedding. We're gearing up for what people up here call "the hot part of the year." Which we are told starts around Memorial Day and lasts until Thanksgiving. A Dad at the park told Charles the hottest he's seen it get is 113 in the summer - he claimed it "wasn't that bad." I will be breaking out the kiddie pool again and soaking, I think. Here are some pics to keep you entertained...


You've gotta love Yo Gabba Gabba for teaching kids to make a funny face!



It wouldn't be Easter without a bucket on your head!




Out new home. We LOVE guests!

Praises to Chuck E. Cheese!

A huge thank you to Chuck E. Cheese!!! I was a little nervous that Ben wanted his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, but it ended up being perfect. Since we're in the process of moving we needed a location away from home and this was AWESOME! The food was better than I remembered - not great, but better than I was expecting. The kids had a BLAST playing and we didn't have to set up or clean up a thing. We are so glad that there is CEC not too far from the new house!

Happy Happy Birthday Sofia Dear

Sofia is oficially 2!!! Can you believe it? We can't! Everyday she is saying more and more, including the announcement to Ben, "This is MY room!" She is sassy sometimes and sweet other times and we love her dearly. Here is a list of the things we love most about Sofia (and by "we", I mean me.)

1) The lady-like way she belches mid meal to make room for more food.
2) The way she runs at you full-speed to give you a hug.
3) When she pets my hair and snuggles with me.
4) That she's not afraid to poop in the potty.
5) That MEAT is her favorite food group.
6) That she can kick a soccer ball - hard!
7) Her sweet smile with spaced out teeth and all.
8) That she doesn't cry when she gets her shots.
9) That her belly-button can be an inny or an outie.
10) Her awesome dance moves.
11) That she balances like a gymnast or a dancer.
12) That she can climb as well as a 4-year old boy at the park.
13) That all dogs are named Bolt or Marley.
14) That she uses her stuffed piglet as a teether and a pillow.
15) That she sings "Yo Gabba Gabba" and primary songs all of the time.
16) When she says, "aw, cute" everytime she sees an animal.
17) Her soft curls.
18) The way she bounces and moves around when she runs.
19) That she holds her fork in one hand and eats with the other.
20) That she is the perfect combination of tomboy and girly girl.

Sofia has blessed our lives so much. She is so sweet and caring and loves making friends. She has been the best friend Ben could ever have asked for and she makes everyday a little more exciting. Happy Birthday fia. We love you!

Chicken Nuggets

I noticed that most posts tend to be more focused on Ben and I apologize, but Sofia is at more of the "silent movie" stage of her existence where as Ben has something to say to everything and he has a hard time not talking. Well, to make all of the Fia fans in the world happy, we have another Sofia story...

Lunch time on Friday was like any other lunch time. Ben wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because that's what Ben likes, and Sofia, the carnivore, wanted meat. The easy cure for a meat craving in our house is the Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets from Costco which I plug because they are cheap, and they make me feel like a good mom because they have whole grain breading. (I know, who am I kidding, right?) So I make Sofia a sensible portion of nuggets, 3, which she eats with ketchup for dip and a giant scoop of cottage cheese. I will also add that she ate a banana about an hour before this. Three nuggets down and Ben asks for nuggets. When I get the bag out of the freezer Sofia points and says, "more plate." Which means she wants more nuggets on her plate. (I think it's obvious what she means, but I don't want you to be confused dear reader.) 2 more nuggets on a paper towel and she seems happy. I got to put the nuggets away and I hear, "more plate." Where the heck did the last 2 go. I scan the floor for the dog and utter something to myself, it probably does not bear repeating. 2 more nuggets in the microwave and I leave the bag out. I go and tell Charles that his daughter is eating nuggets number 6 and 7. I come back and the next two go in the microwave. I am seriously questioning her ability to eat all of this food. So after nugget number 8 is down and number 9 is missing an ear, I put the nuggets away and tell her I am cutting her off. I think she could have eaten 11, maybe 13, but I REALLY don't want to see what nugget puke looks like. All in all, Sofia amazes us with her ladylike appetite and the way she burps during a meal to make more room for meat!

Washable Markers

So most of you know we are gearing up for another move. Hooray, really, but I HATE to pack. I also hate to unpack and I know that this time around is going to be messy since we have had things in boxes for the last 10 months and we've managed to survive. BUT, that is not the point of this entry. Since we're moving, I've been trying to pack a box or two a day on the days that I am not super busy. Thankfully, today was one of those days. I figured, since I was at the kitchen table I could pack a box and let Ben and Sofia draw on the windows with the AWESOME window markers their Grandma and Papa Jackson gave them. I could hear the gentle squeak of marker on glass and wasn't worried when I hear Ben shriek, "Mom, Fia's coloring herself!" And indeed she was. She had eaten half the tip of the marker, so her lips were a vibrant purple color, and she had managed to get a good coat of crayola purple on her belly and both arms. Me, being the picture of motherhood, took her out to the car to get the camera rather than washing it off. We did eventually make it into the bath where all of the evidence easily soaked away, but it made for an interesting morning. I promise to post the evidence this weekend. For now, I'm off to bed.



'Night.

Happy Birthday Dear Benjamin!

Can I just tell you how much I love my little boy?!?! I see so much of what I like about people bundled up in one little person. Don't get me wrong, Ben has more than his share of "moments" when he would rather die than share, can absolutely not be reasoned with that ice cream or gum are not breakfast items, REFUSAL to even think about going poop in the same room as a potty, but then I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Ben:

1) Dresses up his sister in jerseys and uniforms so she can look like a real athlete.
2) Calls Sofia, "my fia."
3) ONLY gives kisses on your lips, not cheeks.
4) Would eat peanut butter and jelly every day if he could.
5) Watches "yo, gabba gabba" and jumps around saying, "my name is Benjamin, I like to dance."
6) Can make a game to play with any ball.
7) wears jerseys to play in and to sleep in.
8) Knows most of the NHL teams by their logos.
9) answers, "sure, sure, sure," when I ask for help with anything.
10) Cuddles in bed with me every morning.
11) Rubs my back when I hug him.
12) Calls his Daddy "Charles" when he wants to get his attention.
13) Could sit and read every minute that he isn't playing sports.
14) Gets excited about going to the mall. (it does have a carousel after all)
15) Sings songs even if it is just the chorus over and over and over again.
16) Grows and grows and grows everyday and I get to watch.
17) Likes going to the ball store almost as much as going to Disneyland.
18) Gives his stuffed animals voices and they talk to him and to each other.
19) cares so much about animals - especially dogs.
20) Cherishes his friends and family so much, even at his young age.

Benjamin was worth the wait. We love you so much sweet boy. Thank you for all that you do to bring fun and love into our lives.

xo

A perfect Disneyland day!

Saturday was designated a Disney day way back in January when we realized our annual passes would soon be expiring. We splurged for Ben's second birthday and decided to take advantage of the fact that neither kid would need a pass or a ticket for a whole year, so $500 later we had two little pieces of plastic in my wallet. Another $59 on top of that and we would get "free" parking. Awesome.

Our last Disney day of the year started out looking a little depressing. It was POURING rain here, so we wore warm clothes and figured we'd do what we could. The drive was miserable, can't see in front of you, speeding down the freeway kinda scary and we arrived at Disneyland with hardly a sprinkle in the sky and so few cars we thought the place must have been closed. The kids were great in the car, we ran through "Mickey and Friends," and Ben announced the first ride he wanted to go on was a bus. Wahoo! So we rode the tram to the front gates, towed our umbrellas, stayed dry amidst the drizzle and packed them away before we left Main Street. We rode on Buzz, Dumbo, the Carousel, the Storybook Land train, Autopia, Pirate's of the Caribbean, the Winnie the Pooh ride and saw Tiana, Mickey and the Tiki Room before heading to dinner and returning for the Pixar Play Parade and a trip on Toy Story Mania and the under sea carousel. Charles and I both got to ride Screamin' before we picked out a treat and headed for home. We pulled out of the parking structure to POURING rain. We stopped in San Juan for AWESOME burritos, got home, put the kids in bed and then collapsed.

Seriously. Almost no lines, no rain, no tantrums... a PERFECT Disney day.

I'll post pictures as soon as I find the adapter for the camera. It might take awhile. I have a feeling a golden-haired girl might have put it in a "purse" and tucked it away for safe keeping.

Can Ben read????

Many of you know that Ben has an aversion to clothing in general, but for some reason in particular he HATES wearing underpants. So a trip to our recent Target resulted in the purchase of MANY different styles and sizes of underpants. We got the "Go, Diego, Go" briefs that he picked out, some plaid cotton boxers, some knit boxers with guitars on them and some spiderman boxer briefs. He only paid attention to the Diego ones and that was ok. But then the other day he grabs the spiderman undies, still in the package, and says, "Mom, these Spiderman ones glow in the dark!"

My question to you is this?? How does he know????

No one fessed up to telling him this awesome detail, he didn't see them in the package in the dark... there is a sticker on the front proclaiming "Glow-in-the-Dark," so.... can Ben read?

Another one bites the dust

Ha ha, well, we're already 20% done with 2010 and this is post number two. Officially the kids have conceeded and decided that it is really time for a family blog, so you'll get plenty of Ben and Fia updates here, but this time from Mom's perspective which is usually a lot less innocent.

Our adventures in the last year have primarily been house-sitting and house-hunting. After LOTS of prayer, and I mean LOTS, we decided to stop hunting in North County and start hunting in South Riverside county - specifically Temecula and Murrieta. I spoke to some friends who bought up there in September and she had a lot of the same concerns and hesitations that I did, and they love it, so I at least felt like we were finally on the right track. Then, in true socal fashion, we learned that the further away from San Diego you went, the cheaper the houses got. We went so far as looking in Romoland - Charles came up with a really embarassing and classy and not too creative name for it and it was soon off our list. We began looking in Menifee and learned that the smell of a dairy travels further than you'd think and that it isn't a smell either of us care to smell. SO... after months and months of being picky, then not picky (we saw some of the most disgusting homes EVER), to being picky again.... Finally, we are in escrow. Things are moving along on a great house in Menifee on the west side just below Canyon Lake and North of Quail Valley. This means absolutely nothing to most of you, I know, but to us it means we are close to shopping and an elementary school and far enough away they we don't smell the dairy. Oh, and we are only an hour away from family.

The kids are big and drive us crazy and make us laugh and make us love like we never have before. Look for a few posts soon about their more crazy antics. Ben is constantly updating his birthday wish list. You won't believe it, but everything he wants is hockey related: he wants a hockey helmet, a penguins jersey, a REAL penguins puck - as opposed to all of the fake ones he comes across, and of course, a Stanley Cup. He has LOVED hearing about and watching hockey during the Winter Olympics. He cheers for Canada and the USA, mostly his favorite players. He is baffled that there is a Jack Johnson who sings and a Jack Johnson who plays hockey, but he knows that the Jack Johnson who plays hockey is an LA King who is on team USA and that Jack Johnson sings the songs in the Curious George movie. So all in all, he is a happy boy. Lately we struggle with listening and with being the Sofia police. It's all just a phase though, right?

Sofia, our darling girl and Ben's Fia is growing up so fast! Her last molars are coming in and she says "nooooo," when we ask if they hurt. She was born with more hair on the back of her head and she has gone from a full-blown mullet to being in that awkward "my bangs are too short to do anything with and too long to let me see" phase. Her vocabulary is increasing daily and LOVES Dora the Explorer, whom she calls Dory. She can count to 5 and instead of saying yes, she says "Si." Both kids do an awesome version of the "we did it" dance from the Dora show. It cracks me up. Both of the kiddos love to play outside and go for walks to find all kinds of treasures like pine cones and the spikey things from the trees, I don't know what they are called but Ben calls them specks because they are the things that knocked the speck off of the flower at the beginning of the Horton movie. Can you tell the kids watch way too much tv? Peter Pan is a new favorite movie and we like to play following the leader.

Otherwise life is really kind of boring. We hang out with ourselves most of the time and try to get out to see little bits of the world and to play tourist in San Diego because we know how much we are going to miss it when we move away. Our Disneyland passes expire next week so we are taking one last trip there on Saturday and then we'll go later in the year when we get our "Give a Day, Get a Day" passes. So life is always busy to us and I think other people look at us and wonder what it is we do exactly. Oh well.

I'm going to try and get better at this so my posts can be shorter and you can find out more about our lives rather than just yearly updates. Both kids are in bed, it is 8:20 and I am about to experience parental bliss - you know, when it's quiet and you know there isn't anything mischevious going on.

xo
H