Catch up

Christmas was a wonderful time. I t was nice to be surrounded by family. Ben enjoyed it much more than last year. He was so excited to open his presents and loved the new plane he got from us. Here are a few pictures from Christmas eve and Christmas. I will post more photos later (I can't get my camera to load).

Opening presents

He was so excited

Eating oreo balls

Uncle Dallan pulled him around in the hamper for a long time, then Storm got in on the fun!

Ben and his cousin Nathan

Making cookies for Santa

mmm, yummy

Finished project

Playing with uncle Michael

Tucker

My brother came home on my birthday from his mission to Iowa. It was the best birthday present EVER!

Benjamins buttons

So my sister-in-law inspired me to write down all the special little treasures that Ben does each day. I created a new blog just for him where I will post something he has done everyday. One day I will print it and he will have a journal of growing up! It is a link on the right hand side by my photography page.

Arizona

chick-fil-a cow

Riding the carousel I did when I was little

He is hugging his animals

Temple lights

one sock on and one sock off

shooting hoops with grandpa

Horses

Ben's first gum ball, don't worry it wasn't in there long

he wanted the lemon, love/hate relationship

my child wanted to eat toilet paper, there are bite marks

strainer on his head

cousin Kate

Grandpa and Ben

going strollin

my cousin had twin girls, Grace and Holland

My cousins Erin's little girl Charlotte

Kate

Well, so I just got back from a great trip to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and family. I left Friday the 20th at 9pm. Yes it was late and I had ben in a sling and pj's so I thought he would fall asleep and be perfect on the flight....not quite what happened. He was fussy, not screaming, just fussy for the first hour. I had to take him out of the sling during take off because it wasn't approved airline saftey. I bounced and patted his back and he finally fell asleep in the sling. It was for about an hour and we started to descend. Ben was still asleep so everytime a stuerdess wen tby I would act asleep, so I wouldn't have to take Ben out of the sling. He woke just as we landed and was just vacant. Grandma and Grandpa Tayrien met us. We went home strait away and went to bed. When we got up in the morning my sister Amanda and her daughter kate were already awake and ready to meet us. ben was so sweet to Kate. He would always give her hugs and pet her head softly. My other sister was there too, she is about 8 months pregnant. I had two cousins come down from Idaho and Utah to spend the week with us too. It was a full house. THe first day was the baby shower for my preggo sister. Lots of friends adnd family came for that. The next day was Sunday and church. Monday we stayed home and only visited Grandma Tayrien's work so show off the babies. Tuesday We went to thrift stores and played with all the toys the grandparents bought for the kids. Wednesday was my sister Amanda's birthday so we all went to the salon and got our nails done...Thanks Sambo! Then we went to New moon. It was so good and worth seeing multiple times if you have read the books. Then thursday we went shopping at old navy and of course had lots of good food. Then some of us slept for a few hours, but some stayed up the whole night for...black Friday! We left the house at 11:30pm for the mall. We shopped there for a few hours and then moved on to walmart. we got all the things we wanted and had to wait till 4:30 when they opened up some things and then ran to the check out. We were out of there before 4:45 and on our way to Target. I really wanted the cute bag they were giving away to the first 500 people. When we were walking throught the doors, it looked like we would just miss them, so I was pushing my cousin Vanessa to run ahead and get one, then when we got there she said there were boxes left! lol! We were there for about an hour, because the lines were so long. We got home at 6, just as Ben woke up:( my dad is such a great guy that he took Ben and sent me to bed. Kathy took Kate so Amanda could sleep too.

Ok, the next day we went to the Tayrien family thanksgiving Mexican food lunch. We got to see lots of family. It is nice to see some I haven't seen for 10-15 years. My sister Sam went home Saturday and my cousins left on Friday. The rest of the trip was just a lazy week. Ben got a little sick and would wake up in the middle of the night throwing up and have liquid BM's. It was scary so I called Daniel and went to buy medicine at walmart. he fell back to sleep, but he woke up like that for about 4 days. He got a blessing from my dad. One day he woke at 5am and my dad put him in a pushing car and took him and Koda (dog) for a walk around the neighbourhood for an hour. He is now doing better and sleeping through the night. I don't know what it was, but I am glad it is over.

It is nice to be home again in our routines and our space. We had so much fun!

B-E-N-N-N-Y

WOW! my child is funny!

everyone has to have a ridiculous black mail photo!

Helping mommy sweep, I think I see the beginnings of dimples!

After the Veterans parade. He fell in love with suckers. Notice the blue mouth.

Christmas Traditions

Once a month I go to this meeting of Christian ladies called MOPS (moms as preschoolers). They have speakers and food and usually a craft. Last night was our one in November and You could put a booth up and sell things. so I prepared like crazy for two weeks and turned out a good assortment of things I can make. I did ok and that is all I was expecting, so I came away happy with that. Before I had to go sell we were supposed to discuss in our groups Christmas traditions.

I grew up in a divided home, not just divorced but DIVIDED) and so every other Christmas I trucked to my dads house. Now there is nothing wrong with that aspect, but because I had to spend most of my holiday vacation in the car traveling, Holiday traditions were kind of non-existent. I mean there were a few and all I could think about was at my moms we do the advent calendar, and dad has pizza and egg nog on Christmas eve.

As everyone started to tell all their favorite Christmas traditions, I ust sat there blankly so desperatly wanting to join in and tell a wonderful story, but instead I felt this rising panic and the tears starting to build up. Thank goodness the time ran out and I didn't really have to say anything, but I realized that one of my favorite holiday's is leaving me empty and sad.

Because of the way I grew up I have a distorted view of the world in my way of thinking, (A + B (has to) = C) and I had convinced myself that I was normal, just like everyone else with grand holidays with lots of traditions and happyness...this is all a lie.

So now that my Christmas is teetering on the ledge of reality, I would like to enlist the help of all of you! Please tell me your Christmas traditions.

Candy, hay, and a little Parrot

Halloween was a very eventful day for our family this year. We had a birthday party to go to first off in the morning. I babysit Solomon and we are really good friends with his parents Garret and Jeanie Anderson. It was a swimming party so Daniel and Ben went in the water and had a blast. We were there for a few hours and then we headed out to Silver Dollar city. We have season passes so we wanted to get the last day of Fall Harvest. It was such a beautiful day and Ben's favorite part of the park is this ball area. He figured out how to make the balls get sucked up these tubes. Then we came home and got dressed for the trick or treating. We wen to our trunk-or-treat at the church before it got dark and too cold. There were a lot of great costumes. Then we headed over to the RecPlex where the city had a kind of carnival. You buy a punch card for $2.00 and then you can do up to five things per card. We went through a blow up maze, on a haunted hay ride, we got lots of candy, caramel pop corn and hot chocolate, and went through a maze to get candy from buisnesse. Then we entered Ben into a costume contest and he was selected to be one of nine finialists. He didn't win, but he did get a candy bar for getting into the finals! Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hamman's house to trick or treat. They watched Ben for us while we went to a Halloween party at a members house who is part of a show. It is called "SIX". You all should look them up on youtube. They are awesome! We were very tired out and went to bed at midnight. We used up every part of our day!