Halloween

I finally did it!! By that I mean updated the blog, well its not exactly updated, but at least you have something to look at other than Tate's orange cast. After numerous requests, here they are at last... Pics of my two adorable little vampires!! Bentli was originally going to be a princess, big surprise right? I decided that I would have Tate be her knight. Well, Bentli did surprise me when she informed me that she changed her mind and wanted to be a vampire. Since I was having a hard time finding an affordable knight costume, I decided that would be a great idea. So I picked up the fabic from Joann's and made the capes and sashes without too much headache.

Bentli got the phrase, "I vant ta suck your blood" down pat and loved chasing Tate around the house in her cape. Tate was less enthusiastic about the cape and resisted wearing it... until he figured out that he could get candy with it. Amazing what candy can do right?

We attended the ward Halloween party at the church with the customary trunk-or-treat (except it was inside the church because our church house has next to no parking lot). It was a lot of fun and the kids were on cloud nine with all the candy. I swear the candy turned them into real life Gremlins. The next day Tate would angrily yell at me "I want CANDY!!" So much fun dealing with the aftershock of Halloween.

Tate's cheese ball smile, believe it or not it is a smile not a grimace.

The week before Halloween I took the kids to a pumpkin patch out in New Jersey with all our Jersey friends. They had a blast on the hayride and picking out their pumpkin. Followed of course with apple cider and apple cider donuts, an East coast staple in the fall.


We carved pumpkins, or should I say, Jared and I carved pumpkins. Bentli was too grossed out by the pumpkins guts to touch it and Tate follows Bentli so he wouldn't touch it either.

Here is the finished product. The "T" is the logo for Temple University and their mascot is an owl. Bentli's pumpkin is the ghost and Tate's was the owl. They were pretty proud of their pumpkins that they watched mom carve.

We had a great time this Halloween. Bentli told me she wanted everyday to be Halloween. I have a feeling that she will be saying something along the same line this December.

My orange cast

Tate sure knows how to start the summer off! We have had a lot of fun the past two weeks of our vacation, but this week Tate and Bentli were holding hands jumping on the trampoline (of course), and they fell on each other. Bentli fared a lot better than Tate.

The poor guy has a partial spiral fracture on his tibia. It is close to his growth plate so they are being careful with it and casting it for a month. He loves orange and calls his cast "my orange". We will take him in for an other x-ray in a couple weeks to make sure it is healing properly.

He has been a real trooper and is learning to get around pretty well now, he slides around on his butt (he is going to wear a hole in all his pants). He even can make it down the stairs. At first he would just sit in one place and when he was ready to move he would shout, "Mom... MOM!! I need you". If anything I will get a work out packing this kid around!

Disappointment

There is nothing like the satisfaction of a newly cleaned bathroom, freshly bathed kids, and knowing you are moments away from sleeping kids and your hidden stash of chocolate mint cookies. And nothing can describe the heartbreaking disappointment of seeing your clean child poop in your spotless tub. Mint chocolate cookies... you're going to have to wait, I have to start over.

Penny for your thoughts?

Bentli has always been a thinker. Many times she is thinking of ways to get around the rules or ways to trick us into saying what she wants to hear. Her thoughts took a different route the other day.
I was driving to a consignment shop with Tate and Bentli in the back seat, both of them staring out the window, me up front hoping that I make it to our destination without any screaming or yelling. Bentli then decided to let me in on her thoughts saying, "Mom, what will happen to you and Dad when me and Tate grow up?"
I was wondering what directions she was going with that- where are we going to live, what are we going to be doing, etc. So I asked, "What do you mean?"
And I get, "Are you and Dad going to die when we're grown up?"
Not the direction I was expecting, I'm not sure how to handle my four year old anticipating my death. I explained that even though everyone dies someday, that hopefully we won't die RIGHT when they grow up and I will be the grandma for her kids. Curiosity satisfied Bentli continued staring out the window.
A couple days later while eating breakfast Bentli asked me, "Mom, if you are going to be a grandma when I grow up, who will be my mom?"
I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled knowing that my four year old still does love me.

Anyone have a sledge hammer?

I decided to brave the shops with the kids today, well just one shop really. I found a cute little consignment shop about half an hour away from our home. I found it online and saw they had a window frame that I was going to use to make a headboard for our bedroom. It was going to be too big to put in our car, so I took the Pathfinder. I got two kids bathed and dressed, moved car seats, and headed out. I made it there, checkout the store and bought my window frame thing. On the way home is when the fun started.

Just a brief history on our Pathfinder. We replaced the clutch about 6 weeks ago. It cost a pretty penny too, a lot of pennies! Anyways, me and the kids are driving home on this nice, hot sunny day. There is construction on the side of the freeway so of course it is stop and go traffic. Our Pathfinder, that I love oh so much, decided to make this a day to remember and the clutch went out. So, here I was in stop and go traffic in the construction zone with a broken car. One thing did go right and I was able to coast it to a spot where I could pull over. We got towed off the interstate and a friend came and picked me and the kids up.

Things did work out and we were able to make it home so we do have that to be thankful for. Lucky Jared gets to deal with this #%$*& car tomorrow. If I see it again I just may put a sledge hammer through the window, that is if I can find a sledge hammer!

Costa Rica!!

So much has happened since the last post. There isn't a good excuse except for being busy, and aren't we all? Well, here is what we have been up to:
mid December- got a killer deal on tickets to Costa Rica ($250 ea. round trip)
end Dec.-beginning Jan.- went home for Christmas
mid Jan.- found a house for a good deal, decided to buy it
Feb.- mortgage paperwork and packing
Feb. 20th- moved into new house
Feb. 26th- flew down to Costa Rica
Mar. 5th- returned home
Mar. 13th- Jared torn down half a wall in house

Things have been a little crazier than normal. But things are starting to settle down. I thought I would start with pics from our vacation since the house isn't quite put together. We went down with another couple, Landon and Amee. Jared goes to school with Landon and when he told Jared about the great deal on tickets, we decided to just go for it. We didn't realize that we would be buying a house, otherwise we probably wouldn't have gone. I can't regret it though, it was fantastic. It was the first trip we have taken without the kids. My mom and grandma came to stay with the kids while we were gone, they are awesome and the kids had a blast with them. It helped me to know they were being so well taken care of.


We tried to surf... Jared did better than I did, but it was a blast anyway. We spent a lot of time on the beach just hanging out and playing in the ocean. Our hotel was conveniently right next to the beach.


We went a horseback ride up to some waterfalls one day. They fed us breakfast and lunch at their home and they had a bunch of different pets. I got to hold Tommy the Toucan.

The ride up was gorgeous and the horses loved to race each other and didn't like getting passed by each other. It was really fun!Once we got up to the waterfalls we swam for an hour or two to cool off. The guide climbed up the waterfall and attached a rope so we could climb up and jump off. It was a blast.

Jared eating fresh pineapple at the fruit stand. I loved all the fresh fruit.

And of course the beautiful sunset. It was truly gorgeous there. I am not sure what I enjoyed the most, the hot weather, not wearing makeup or doing my hair, not cooking, or not having to pack two crazy kids around. It was a great trip, but I was ready to go home by the end of the week, it is amazing how much you miss all the little things your kids do to make you smile. Even though I missed the kids a ton, it was great to have Jared all to myself.

Washington DC

During our Thanksgiving break this year we decide to go on a little mini-vacation to Washington DC. We drove down on Monday and came home on Wednesday. We went down there with Derek and Talane Harper and their little girl, Derek goes to school with Jared. On Monday we stopped at the temple and explored the visitors center. The DC Temple is really amazing and we were able to see all the holiday decorations they have up. Bentli loved looking at the statue of Christ and talking about why there are holes in his hands. When asked by a missionary what her favorite story of Jesus is she replied, "when Jesus blesses the children". It fills me with joy that even so young she is able to understand that Jesus loves her, unconditionally. If only more people knew that simple truth.

Tuesday is when all the walking started! I wish that I would have worn one of those mile tracker things that tell you how far you walk. When you look at the map of the National Mall (all the museums and monuments) you don't realize how big the place is. The Lincoln Memorial was awesome, I had always wanted to see the statue of 'Abe'. We also saw the Washington Monument and WWII Monument. The National Archives was really neat, you can't use flash photography in there so the pics were too dark to really see. It was amazing to see the actual documents that founded this country, and of course to see John Hancock's signature on the Declaration of Independence.

In the afternoon we hit up the museums. There are a bunch of Smithsonian Museums and you could spend forever exploring all of them. We went to the Natural History Museum and I felt like we were only able to a tiny portion of it. They have a butterfly exhibit where you can walk in a dome that is filled with butterflies. Needless to say Bentli was in heaven and took a LOT of pics of all the butterflies and flowers and, of course, the ground. We also check out the Hope Diamond along with other jewelry worn by historical figures like Josephine Bonaparte. And of course you have to see the dinosaur bones.

Our last stop of the day was at the Air and Space Museum. Bentli has always had a fascination with airplanes, in part because her 'awesome Uncle Jake' is a fighter pilot in the Air Force. They had an exhibit of the cockpit that Bentli loved and she talked about all the controls for a few days. After that the kids were spent! We took the Metro (the kids loved riding on the train) back to the hotel and grabbed some dinner before the kids crashed. They did awesome and were happy the whole day.

We headed home earlier than we were originally planning on Wednesday when we realized that there would be a ton of holiday traffic. I wasn't really thinking when I planned this trip! So we made a quick stop to see the White House. There was a big tent/pavilion thing set up in front of it so we couldn't get a good pic, so hopefully next time, right? We left DC by 11:00 and still hit hard traffic. It took five hours instead of the two and a half to get home! I was just glad that Jared was driving. We had a great time and can't wait to go back. There is so much more there that I want to see and didn't have time for. It is so much fun to have these fun trips with our little family and have these memories together.