Who's Smarter?

11/16/2012

Benjamin is obsessed with our smart phones. Most fits being thrown at our house is due to a smart phone either being taken from him or not given to him. I'm so amazed at how my 2 1/2 year old can navigate our smart phones and figure things out. He enjoys playing angry birds and can actually beat a level or two. He has figured out how to go out to youtube.com and watch various angry bird videos. I finally know how he does it. I sure do love my Nokia Lumia 920 and love that the windows phone has a 'Kids Corner' to limit what he can do on my phone. But seriously my son is better at working my 'smart' phone than I am some days.

A Photo Shoot for Two

I had fun doing a photo shoot (11/14/2012). Different outfits! And tons of photos! I look 108 pictures of Elizabeth and then once done with Benjamin a total of 124. If you want to see the write up from Elizabeth's 5 months go here.

 After I was done doing Elizabeth's pictures and she fell asleep Benjamin jumped up onto the couch. I had to grab the camera. He is such a handsome boy and does the cutest things. But of course if mommy grabs the camera it means time to run. I had to put him back on the couch a few times to get these pictures.

More Than a Week

Going to run through a little more than a week's worth of pictures.

 

Benjamin enjoys lining cars up. Here he has his monster truck and monster tractor. I love this boy!

 

11/05/2012

I enjoy letting Benjamin "help" me with the dishes. I wind up cleaning the floors but we have a good time doing a chore together so you can't go wrong.

 

11/07/2012

Elizabeth keeps us company from her jumper. 

After the chores were done Benjamin crashed hard on the floor.

11/07/2012

Working from home is a huge blessing but with it comes some challenges. Kids who want mommy and only mommy, kids playing upstairs and not downstairs, kids yelling during a conference call, kids wanting to be held, kids climbing and jumping on me. Some days I feel like I don't get anything done but then I would be missing out on moments like this of Benjamin jumping for joy while watching a show on the computer.

11/09/2012

I do have to get creative though and so I can be found working from home all over my home.

 

 

Elizabeth in a beautiful dress with her daddy trying to hide behind her.

11/11/2012

You just have to have fun with your children! Yes, yes that is Elizabeth's jeggings' on top of her head. After the jegging's Jared put his beanie hat on her head. It was pretty funny.

 

 

11/14/2012

 

A Family That Plays Together

November 4th, 2012



Another lazy Sunday afternoon. We love them! A little lunch time and then adjorn to the living room to relax, hang out and watch our kids. Elizabeth played on her tummy some. Benjamin ran around and played with his daddy. These moments of Benjamin and Daddy tickling and laughing is wonderful. And trying to get both kids to look at the camera is pretty much impossible. Elizabeth is so in love with her brother. She gets the biggest smile when he gets near her. I love how Benjamin will lay on his stomach and rest his head on one hand. They are seriously some of my favorite poses from him that are completely natural (I just have to be quick with the camera).

Making Time to Can

Well I am not as far behind as I thought I was on Saturday when talking to a friend. I am only 3 1/2 months behind. Which is fine...it doesn't stress me out too much. I have several of my blogs written out already so I didn't forget the memories which is the whole point of posting a 'few' pictures and writing the memories so when I get around to finally scrapbooking I have something to look at to spark my memory and have journal entries to add to my scrapbook. I realized though that I am spending a ton of time on pictures which is a good thing as I am working on a new talent but at the same time it's delaying me from getting my blogs done. Plus I am also trying to post more than a 'few' pictures so that adds to the time as well. So I am going to limit the number of pictures for the most part so that maybe I can close the gap and stay closer to being up to date with my blog. If I don't oh well, I still enjoying writing and sharing things and keeping my memories and thoughts documented.

 

So back in October I bought 4 boxes of apples (a bit hasty as 1.5 were still in my garage in January). I feel it's a bit unfair as my busy season at work picks up as the harvesting season picks up. Which makes it hard for me to get all the cannning done as I wish but I keep trying.

I laid out a bunch of apples (11/03/12) and went to town making my first batch of applesauce. Benjamin enjoying handing out with me in the kitchen like normal. I don't remember why he is crying in this picture but I am sure it was tragic.

 

The applesauce turned out great and smelled amazing. The texture is really smooth like baby food my husband told me. I enjoyed it immensly. And I like being able to control the sugar contect and texture. I know others like it really chunky but I prefer the smoothness of it and now I know how to make some baby food.

Speaking of babies here is mine fast asleep.

Briefly! The blender helped to wake her right up. I had her in on the dinning table so I should have known it would wake her up. But sometimes she sleeps through everything.

 

Elizabeth is not a fan of tummy time. She will tolerate it for short bits but really wants to be upright seeing everything going on around her. At this point in these pictures you can tell she is learning how to keep her balance (at 4 1/2 months) on her own. Daddy is very close by as we watch her sit up and wobble over. Sometimes she would fall over and land on her tummy.

I love this photo of Elizabeth with her daddy's big hands. I back in December that my husband gets his large hands from his Opa (his mother's dad). There's just something about it that touches my heart.

The Fashion Guru

Daddy is the fashion guru in our house. Since having Elizabeth I've really come to know this. He will tie everything together...the pacifier, the bow, the socks...I mean everything. Now we don't have pacifiers in every color but he picks the best one that compliments the outfit. I'm not too proud to admit I frequently ask my husband to dress me, though my closet doesn't give him much to work with.

 (Need to do some shopping! Shopping done! Thanks to my mother in law!)

 

11/01/2012

Elizabeth doesn't like to get dressed. You would think by now she would be used to it but alas no. It's mostly onseies going over her head and putting something long sleeved on. Her daddy tells her frequently though that when she looks back at her baby pictures she will say it was worth it.

A Little Chicken

There's a family in our ward at church that has 2 boys and once they are through with their clothes (as they are a little older than Benjamin) they bag them up and bring them over. I've probably mentioned this before but it is such a huge blessing! In one of the bags we even got Halloween costumes! Which was fantastic as I had been working crazy hours and while I wanted to do something fun I just didn't have the time or energy. I put Benjamin in a Chicken or Rooster costume.

Halloween 10/31/2012

 It was a bit snug but Benjamin seemed to enjoy it. We went to our churches Halloween activity and he lost patience for the outfit so it came off. So he was kind of a lame trick or treater but he totally got into the idea of going from vehicle to vehicle getting candy from everyone. I had forgotten a bag or bucket so we wound up collecting it into mommy's pockets.

Remaking Angels

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Depending on what's being imitated I would agree. In the following instance I was flattered!

10/30/2012

Benjamin had watched me make some angels in my craft room. The next day he was up on my crafting table imitating what I had done (don't worry the glue gun is cold...I do try to be very careful with my different crafting tools and keep them out of his reach or make sure they are safe). He had so much fun playing that I just let him keep going. Elizabeth was in the room with us too playing on the floor. I do enjoy hanging out in my craft room with my kids! I wish I had more time to do it!

Sleeping like a doll

Elizabeth was taking almost all of her naps in her car seat. She had gotten a cold and couldn't handle sleeping while lying down, so we started having her sleep in her car set so the phlegm would drain. She seemed to like it after that so we just kept her in her car seat. We would fold up one blanket to pad her bottom and then we added our nice soft and fluffy Winnie the Pooh blanket. We had bought it with our crib set when we had Benjamin. It was neutral for boy or girl.

10/29/2012

Anyways so here is Elizabeth taking a nap next to me at the desk. Napping next to me at the desk could be risky though because of her older brother. Sometimes she sleeps through his energy explosions but other times she can't.

I did edit these with my new skills from my friend Nichole.

I do love these pictures of her sleeping....so angelic.

Puzzles and Johnny Jump Up

From time to time we will go hang out in Benjamin's room. Jared had told me Benjamin was finally putting puzzles together instead of just tearing them apart. I grabbed some and put them on the bed. I was able to see Benjamin first hand take them apart and put them back together. It was awesome to see him progress. While hanging out and playing Jared helped Elizabeth play with toys as well.

Then while I was folding that endless laundry pile we put Elizabeth in the Johnny Jump Up for her 1st time (we haven't used it too much...requires hanging out near a door frame). She enjoyed it for a bit but then was done. I do love days like these (10/27/2012) where we just hang out at home and enjoy each other's company.

Pumpkins, Soups & Family

So back in October (10/26/2012) my husband's dad arranged for us to carve pumpkins together for halloween! It was fun. Benjamin had no interest whatsoever.

 So I carved the pumpkin for our family. I don't mind carving pumpkins but I'm just not creative when it comes to faces. I carved 3 tears to make it look like it got scared.

Jared's mom made dinner which was fabulous! We had two soup choices and the best spinach salad ever! I still can't get enough of her salads. I try to re-produce them and I am getting better.

A Day Working From Home

I try to get Benjamin to color but he's just not that into it yet. He will scribble some and we bought him bigger triangle crayons (in hopes he can't snap them in half). I decided to try and get him to color with chalk. He showed some interest but he was more interested in erasing when I showed him how to do that.

 When I am working and Daddy isn't home Elizabeth tends to stay in her PJ's until I decide to finally dress her (hopefully not this new year as I am working on some new goals).

 While working I cracked up as I found Benjamin in Elizabeth's jumper yet again but I finally saw how he was getting himself out of it. He would literally fall out of it. It caught my attention because of the extra noise and his little grunts of frustration as he wasn't falling out quite when he wanted to.

 

As with most baby's they require a few outfit changes some days. Elizabeth was no exception today (October 25, 2012) but while I was changing her I grabbed my camera and decided to do a quick photo session. I started with her naked but tried to keep her modest and then put a diaper on because no one wants to deal with an accident. I used a few different hair bows and then eventually I got her dressed. It was fun watching her play and she doesn't shy away from the camera yet.

 While doing the photo shoot and getting Elizabeth dressed Benjamin had gone upstairs and grabbed the foil out of the bottom kitchen drawer (thankfully Jared has fixed it since then). The foil was almost out so I didn't stress when he was unrolling it and playing with it. I just watched him and snapped a few pictures. I could tell he was enjoying playing with the foil.

  Elizabeth fell asleep on me while I was working. I've learned to work one handed a lot or I will prop Elizabeth on the desk some and work that way.

After work I decided we needed to do something fun. Benjamin and I made chocolate peanut butter cookies together. He enjoys helping some but is not very patient once the batter is made. He threw the biggest fit because of having to wait for them to bake and then to cool. He stole quite a few cookies eventually while I was busy with Elizabeth. Oh well we enjoyed ourselves.