Snow

This is our front porch. To think I thought the snow was all done for now.

A Reading Perch

Benny likes to be comfortable when he's reading a good book.

Soccer continues

I tried to take a picture of Benny on my lap watching Max play soccer. Two things about the picture:

1) My bangs really need a trim

2) Benny is having a tiny clandestine snack (food isn't allowed inside the fieldhouse but a mom has to do something to keep her toddler off the field).

Max and and his cousin Emily love being on the same soccer team. I didn't catch them on the field together, but here they are enjoying the snack outside after the game.

They are both blinking. It was my third attempt at the picture and the camera was full. Only a few more games and then their season is over, which will be sad.

Spring

Now that it has decided to finally be spring and stop snowing, we have loved our outside time. JB took pictures of the boys playing at the park recently. This new lens really does a good job, and so does he.

JB's note:
Spring is finally here again after a few days of snow. The best part about
Max and Ben is that they know how to have a great time whether it's
Disneyland or a park down the street. Anyone know how I could bottle a
little of their energy?

Beans and Boards

JB made feijoada for us recently (Brazilian black beans and rice). It also has all sorts of yummy meat in it like chorizo and kielbasa sausage and bacon. The boys cleaned their plates. No vegetarians here. Of course, I should probably sneak in a few more vegetables every once and a while.....

The boys had a rare happy moment of sharing the skateboard outside. No screaming, biting, hitting or yelling "my turn!"

Actually they can be pretty cute together. Max likes to try and give Benny rides on the front of his bike, and tries to push him on the trike.

A running man

JB did the Salt Lake half-marathon on Saturday. Stud. Crazy though. Here he is with our neighbor and friend, Roger.

We were able to walk a block from our front door and watch the thousands of marathoners and half-marathoners go by. We were about 5 miles into the race. Max and Benny loved watching everybody, including it seemed like a third of our church ward.

We even spotted Aunt Suzanne, but she was too fast for a picture. She blogged about it here. Aunt Collette also ran, even with an old injury -- she's incredible. Read her version of the day here. We missed seeing Autumn at the finish line, mainly because we were boxed in by the race route and couldn't drive anywhere. JB says he wasn't too sore the next day. He's quite tough, and he got ice and a massage right away near the finish line.

Play

Recently we went again to the Discovery Children's Museum with 2-for-1 coupons from the paper.


The boys liked the helicopter, but didn't like waiting for their turn to drive it.







All those episodes of Bob the Builder were fun to act out in the construction area.



We spent a LONG time at the ball area.

And Max tried rock climbing.

They want to go again. Who wouldn't?

Embarrassing

My co-workers created a Facebook Fan Page for me. Jeez.

Here's the picture they put on (taken without my knowledge).



I emphasize that this is an unauthoritized Facebook page, much like Kitty Kelley's unauthorized biography of Oprah Winfrey.

As of today I have 118 fans, including my 10-year-old sister and several members of my extended family. Again I say, Jeez.


This was my older sister Rebekah's response:

"Ah hee hee hee! Wooo ha ha ha!"


Her laughter is probably because I still haven't joined Facebook. I may be the last person in the world to do so (besides JB). I'm either too lazy, too busy, too sleepy, or too annoyed by its popularity to join up. After all, I've never had a Coke or Pepsi in my life so why begin now?

Easter Eggs

We dyed eggs the Saturday before Easter. The boys got it all over their hands.

It tuckered them out and Max took one of his rare naps. Benny also gave JB some good cuddles after his nap when he still wasn't ready to wake up.

By the way I was the only one who ate the hard boiled eggs. Max and Benny nibbled one and made funny faces. I'm not sure why JB didn't want eggs that had been cracked by enthusiastic toddler hands, then dipped and submerged in so many different colors that the egg itself underneath the shell was quite rainbow-esque.

A dark and stormy night

Actually I can't remember if it was stormy, but it sure was dark last night. The power went out in the middle of the night to the whole street (maybe the whole neighborhood but we weren't going outside to check). I would have kept sleeping and never would have noticed but Benny sure did.

The boys have a fish light in their room that shines a colored light and makes good white noise (it's fish bubbling in water). I sometimes even take it with us if we are sleeping somewhere else. But no power=no fish light. Benny woke up screaming.

"Turn on daddy! Turn on!"

His diaper was also very wet, making me wonder if he drank the water in the fish light. Anyway that woke up Max who also started hollering for light.

JB changed Benny's diaper while I stumbled around looking for a flashlight. JB knew right were one was (my hero). Then I rocked Benny in the chair and soothed Max while JB found another flashlight to prop up in the boys' room. They were so confused about the power being out, and I don't think they believed that daddy couldn't turn any lights on. I had to tell them that our neighbors, Mallory, Haylie, Morgan, etc (they love them) also could not turn on their lights.

Thankfully when my alarm went off this morning (cell phone alarm. No plug, phew!) our power was back on. This was a good reminder that:

a) we should be better prepared for power outages
b) no more drinks for Benny too close to bedtime
c) I may need to wean them off their dependence on that fish light.

A reunion

Friday night before LDS General Conference, JB and I went to his mission reunion. I think it was one of their first officially organized reunions, because their mission president has been trotting the globe on various work and church assignments.

These are some of the guys who served with JB in Recife Brazil.

Two of the guys in the above picture came from out of state for the reunion and for conference. They stayed with us for the weekend. Benny and Max loved showing them all their tricks (jumping, rolling, laughing, tumbling, throwing, etc).

Here's JB with his mission president:

Here's me with the president's daughter. We are close to the same age and had a nice time visiting.

She was 15 when her family lived in Brazil for the mission assignment. I like to tease JB that when he was ages 19-21 on his mission, I was still in high school but dreaming of the day when we would meet!

Still working on it

Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) I scrunch up my eyes or blink or flinch or something when the camera flash goes off. I often look like this:

So JB told me to try to keep my eyes open. I may have done it too well: