Trying Again

You know those charts illustrating evolution you would see in Science class growing up? Like where it starts with a little amoeba in some water, and then it grows into a weird crawly thing, and then into a bug, to a small animal, to a monkey, to a human? Well, I feel like I have experienced that first hand during this pregnancy. And I have finally made it out of weird crawly stage and back into a human being.

As Bennett would say, "Hooray Mommy!" (I have no idea why he uses this word, because nobody actually says this word in real life. But he picked it up from somewhere.)

So what has been going on?

-Lots of laying in the floor and throwing up. But like I said, that is all behind us now. Mostly. I still throw up at least once a day, but it's just sort of a part of my routine now. I'll take it!

- Bennett is potty trained. How did I do it? I waited until he was almost three, put some underwear on him, and told him to use the potty. Done. Actually, there was more to it than that, but mostly he just figured it out on his own, which was good because I have been MIA as a mom lately. Poor guy.

- Matt's new job is going really well. I think he is the Brigade Medical Something Something Officer. It's really important and he is in with all the big wigs now, which has its ups and downs. Mostly ups though, so we are happy. He is awesome at what he does and I am lucky to be his "Officer Wife." We get to go to lots of fancy parties and use the words "Sir" and "Maam" a lot.

- I am Primary President. Yes. After four years in primary, they have finally promoted me to the top. It's not bad so far, since I feel like I could do primary in my sleep (which I think I do do on some Sundays) but it is definitely keeping me busier. I also just spoke in church a few Sundays ago, and then got asked to do a musical number in a few more Sundays, with a lot of other church-related meetings and responsibilities along the way. I tell you what, church keeps us going around here. On a related happy note, I am no longer over Cub Scouts (HOORAY again!) so at least I can ditch the sixty-something men in knee-high socks and short shorts at Round Table each month. Whew!

- This baby in me is a gymnast. He/She moves and rolls and kicks and I love it. Matt can feel it move too, and we lay in bed at night and just watch the performance. I think it's a girl. Matt thinks it's a boy. I guess we'll know in about three weeks for sure, but you won't because we aren't telling. :)

- Our good, good friends the Askerlunds just moved to Afghanistan (Erik) and Utah (Joelle and Brielle). We are sad sad sad here. But we are lucky to have lots of other friends to keep us busy. That is definitely one of the down sides of military life. Thank goodness for cell phones and Facebook though. We'll see them again.

- There's more. A lot more. But honestly I can't think of anything else that is pertinent enough to go on here right now. So that's about where we are. I am going to try to take this blog back now that I am back to myself again. We'll see how it goes. Wish us luck!!

Just Being Us!

So nothing massively to report just a few pics from us from the last few weeks. We have been really busy with Matt starting his new job and I'm entering the second trimester. So exciting! Life is just busy and wonderful.

Bennett and his Daddy hanging out in his new office.

Bennett thinks he is so big! He is always saying, "Mommie, I go to work like Daddy!"

Matt loves his new lathe. He is always out in the garage tinkering with something. This is a little something he is making for Wayne. I think its for his leather working stuff.

So Matt decided he was going to cut a bunch of trees down and make some planks for building furniture or something. Bennett absolutely love climbing all over the trees. If only for a few days!

(This post was written by Matt, as if he were Haley. We think he did a pretty good job.)

Pictures

So we are going to try and update some pic's from the last few months. There is a lot so enjoy!

Visiting Ashland & Griffin, stopped off at the mall for a ride on the carousel.

Zoey & Bennett just hangin out!

Bennett is a pretty good kid. Just couldn't resist taking this picture of him before church. He is pretty good for a 2yr old at church!

Christmas Eve at Mamie & Pops house. Bennett wanted to be painted like Santa

Pop made a sled for all the grandkids to ride around in.

Story time at the local library. Bennett was not to interested with the whole sitting on the lap thing.

This is one of our favorite things to do with boxes. We like fire!

During Christmas break we went down to the Children s Museum in Austin. Bennett of course loves the large train set.

Bennett the chef!

And of course he was absolutely mesmerized by the train set!

Dont poke the Dino in the eye...they don't like that!

BLORA puts on this massive light show every year. It is a pretty cool drive. Bennett got a kick out of all the moving lights.

You of course have to start off at the North Pole!

This is a little deer mount I did for a friend. It turned out pretty good I think.

Another little project I did for a buddy. If you look close it looks like a deer walked all over his rifle.

We were invited to attend a pretty exclusive wedding of a close friend of ours. It was quite nice.

Just visiting Mamie & Pop and doing what we love...reading books

My buddy Erik's parents came down from Utah and of course it snows up North and you cant play golf, but not in Texas! We can golf year round!

Haley & I at the 2-7 CAV Military Ball...wouldnt know that pretty thing is 3 months preganant.

Bennett on Christmas Day. He pretty much ate candy and played with his train set...pretty hard life.

Finally was able to help my buddy Erik get himself a nice whitetail before he heads over to Afghanistan.

Lunchtime Interaction

I am pregnant. Therefore, I will be spending the next nine months on the floor and near the toilet. That is all the back story you need for the following conversation.

Me (attempting to eat some sort of lunch): Whew, Bennett. I'm having a hard time eating this.
Bennett: You can do it Mommy! It's not too hard. You need to eat it all. (He got that last phrase from Matt.)
Me: OK. I'm trying.
Bennett: Mommy. If you eat all of your food I will give you a big, BIG hoho!! It will be so good.
Me (after chocking down all of my food): Look Bennett! I ate it all!
Bennett: Yay Mommy! You did it! I is so proud of you! Now I can give you a hoho and a big kiss! Happy birthday, Mommy!

This Baby is getting one heck of a good big brother.

Christmas Pajamas...

...for the FOUR of us :)

Creative Discipline

Lately Bennett has found great entertainment in being incredibly bipolar. One moment he is gushing adorable cuteness, and the next he is throwing the remote across the room while simultaneously breaking the camera and biting the couch. What the heck?! Who is this kid?! So we have gotten tired of the typical disciplinary actions--you know, the yelling, the time outs, and the spankings. What do they teach anyway?--And have found a much better way to show our son the importance of being soft.

Look for our latest parenting book, coming soon to a Barnes and Nobel near you.

My Birthday

My Birthday is November 28th, which means it is almost always around Thanksgiving. Sharing a birthday with a holiday really bugs some people, but I found that I tend to benefit from the fact that my birthday falls on a day when there are lots of people gathered who are all in a very thankful, giving mood. Plus, I would usually milk the whole "I'm never home on my birthday" point to my mom growing up, so I usually had several different parties that would drag my birthday out for weeks at a time as I celebrated once with my extended family at Thanksgiving, once with just my family when we got home, and once with my friends later during the week. My birthday rocks.

Now that I am all grown up (and yes, 25 in my mind has always been the official, "all grown up" mark) my birthday still rocks. I married a man who loves to celebrate and does an amazing job at surprising me with things I never even knew I wanted, and our son has had a fascination with birthdays (more particularly candles and cake) since he turned two almost a year ago. So I was not let down this year.

We celebrated my birthday on the same Saturday as our Thanksgiving, even though my real birthday wasn't until the following Monday. We just have a thing about never doing things on the day you are actually supposed to do them.

The morning started with Matt and Bennett singing me "Happy Birthday" which got Bennett really excited about the cake and candles. I'm pretty sure he sung that song to me about thirty times throughout the day, which he would then end by having me "blow out" the candles (which were a variety of things from a plastic french fry to an actual candle he found in our bathroom and tried to light with a lighter. Scary.) and then he would ask me where the cake was.

After my birthday song (the first one) Matt gave me my first present of the day...A CAMERA!! Not the point and shoot kind, the record kind. Where you can take videos that are longer than thirty seconds and then have actual family videos to watch when your kids are all grown up and you want to remember how cute they were at their Kindergarten graduation. I was so SO happy! Especially after Matt told me he stood in a crazy Black Friday line outside of Best Buy for three hours to get it for me at a great price.

Funny side story: When Matt came home from his Black Friday shopping, he told me he had a few things he didn't want me to see. So I closed my eyes when he came in the house with everything and I didn't peek (I am good at not ruining my own surprises.) However, Matt never said anything to Bennett, since it's never made a difference before. But while Matt was wrapping my present, Bennett walked over and literally shouted, "OH MOMMY! LOOK! A CAMERA! A CAMERA!" Poor Matt, he had tried so hard. I pretended to be surprised anyway.

The rest of the morning was full of Thanksgiving-y things like turkey making and table setting-up. But then around 11:00am the doorbell rang and in came this beautiful Edible Arrangement with chocolate-dipped fruit and a pineapple "25" in the center. It was so cute and so yummy.

Funny side story: While Matt and I were driving in the car a few days before this day, Matt decided to check his voice mail using the Bluetooth in our car. So over the entire surround sound system comes this lady's voice telling Matt that his Edible Arrangement had been confirmed for 11:00am on November 26th, 2011. Poor Matt, he had tried so hard. I pretended to be surprised anyway.

So pretty soon people started showing up at our house for Thanksgiving and the party got underway. When all the food was spread on the table, and we were just about to start eating, Matt stopped everyone and told them all that it is my birthday on Monday. Everybody cheered and clapped and said "Happy Birthday!" and then from around the entry hall Mary came in carrying in a beautiful chocolate pie with real whipped cream from from favorite pie place in a town an hour away from here. It was all lit up with candles and everybody sang to me and then Bennett sat on my lap and helped me blow out the candles.

Funny side story: I had wanted a chocolate pie at Thanksgiving since we started making food arrangements back in the beginning of November. I assigned myself the project...and then procrastinated it as everything else that goes along with hosting a Thanksgiving with 17 people in attendance took precedence. So only moments before we were supposed to be sitting down and eating my delicious homemade chocolate pie, I found myself scouring the freezer section of every grocery store in town, and coming up empty handed. That's the downside to having Thanksgiving after everybody else. Fortunately, all of our guests were bringing pie, so I just resigned myself to eating something else instead of chocolate this year. Little did I know that Matt had secretly arranged for Mary and Wayne to pick up this pie at a VERY busy pie store and transport it an hour up to our house where everybody could sing "Happy Birthday" to me and I could blow it out with pure joy. Matt had tried so hard. And I really was surprised. What a great guy.

So that was my birthday. Along with several other presents, including a new purse from Mary and Wayne, new family picture frames from my mom and dad (well, the money they sent was spent on that) a little extra moolah from some of Matt's grandparents, and many many birthday cards, phone calls, and texts from countless others. It was one heck of a good day.

Well, that was the celebration part of my birthday, since my real birthday was on the next Monday when Bennett decided he was going to be a monster and throw fits every few seconds. But Matt more than made up for it when he came home from work early, told me Bennett was going down the street for a few hours, and then made me a delicious dinner while we talked in the kitchen and I painted my toes. After that we watched a few episodes of my favorite show, I took a long hot bath, and then when we were good and ready, we walked down to pick up Bennett, who had been busy helping Miss Joelle make me lemon cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I have to say, 25 is shaping up to be a pretty great year. I am one lucky girl.