World's worst blogger?

So I think that I should officially be dubbed "World's Worst Blogger"!  For me, the purpose of having a blog has been to stalk everyone else's blogs and to keep them all organized.  Well thats what it has been in the past, but I am going to try to be a little better about it.  At LEAST once a month... haha (keeping my fingers crossed!) Not that you all CARE that much about our lives... :D  But we are LEAVING to live across the country, and I think this will be the best way to stay in touch with everyone.  Bear with me here... 

Well I have a one year old!   He is actually on his way to being 14 months, but we'll look over the procrastination on my part... This year has flown by, and we have had so much fun getting to know our little one and being parents! 

We had a very fun birthday party for Bennett with some friends and family... I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone who came! It was quite the party!

Bennett's Birthday cake and cupcakes... I'm an amateur ok? 

Yum!!!

Probably one of his favorite birthday presents... this CUTE little puppy.  He sleeps with him and we can hear him barking in the mornings :D

Easter Sunday: wearing the cute outfit from Grandma Mimi

My mom and I flew out to Philadelphia with me to look for places to live.  We had a really fun trip together!  We rented a car and drove all over the place.  It was SUCH a beautiful time of year to be there... everything is green and growing and the weather wasn't too hot just yet.  

At Reading Terminal (a very fun open market with fun things for sell...) getting my first ever Philly Cheese Steak!  It was ok... they told me that the original way it was made was with Wiz cheese, so I got it that way, wanting to be authentic and everything.  I didn't love it though. I think I'll do provolone or something like that next time... Notice the man making my cheesesteak smiling in the background!

Aunt Glenda was there for a convention for her husbands work so she met up with us at Reading Terminal.  We tasted sooooo many delicious little treats :D

Independence Hall.  We got there too late to do the tour, but I'll be living there for the next 3-4 years so I figure I'll get there sometime.  Visitors, anyone? 

We went exploring and found Bryan's school, right in the heart of the city!  I'm so excited and proud of him!

The next day we decided to do a little exploring.  We went out to Amish country (Intercourse, PA... I know, weird...).  It really was so beautiful! We saw so many little buggies and cute little children running around. We even saw a man plowing his field with 4 HUGE horses! That was really amazing.  There is this touristy place called Kitchen Kettle Village that was really fun to explore.  They have little shops and good things to eat.  My favorite place was this jam and relish shop.  You can taste EVERYTHING in the store, and all of it is SO good! Oh my, it was like having lunch.  I will bring you here when you come to visit me :D

Kitchen Kettle Village!

Then we drove down to Delaware to this beautiful estate called Winterthur Gardens.  It was owned by the Du Pont family, who made millions by selling gun powder during the revolutionary war.  The grounds are extensive with beautiful gardens, and it was (as I've said...) the PERFECT time to be there.  All of the Azaleas were in bloom and it was gorgeous.  The house, a 9 story, 175 room HOUSE, has been turned into a museum for American style furniture, all of which Henry Francis du Pont loved to collect.  All of the pieces are original from the time period, and it was seriously amazing.  I did, however, study much interior design at BYU, so that is kind of a passion of mine :D

The beautiful azaleas!

A side view of the huge mansion.  

And there you have it! A quick update on our busy lives.  Since Philadelphia, we have been down to California to surprise Bryan's dad for his 50th birthday.  When we got back, I came down with Appendicitis and had surgery for that (yay!).  Bryan is working spraying for pest control, and we are just biding our time until we move to PA.  Hopefully I can keep my self together when that time comes...

(OH ok... one more of Bennett :D)

Sew-vivor: A sewing competition!

Mr Bennett

When I came across this competition not long ago, I KNEW it was for me.  Those of you who know me well know that I am a bit of a sewing fanatic.  Needless to say, I am so excited about this project.  When I found out I was pregnant, I had a million girly ideas floating through my mind.  But when we found out that we were having a boy, I was at a loss for ideas.  Sew-vivor gave me the perfect excuse to really delve into making a cute project for a boy.  This time, I really wanted to make something adorable and fun, something that would stand out. 

Coat: Made by Your's Truly, Shirt: Macy's, Pants: Ralph Lauren, Shoes: Target, PHOTOGRAPHY: Amy Clark Photography

This is how excited he was when we started taking pictures!!

I used a lightweight %100 wool in a gray and black herringbone pattern.  I used Simplicity 2526.  I thought this coat would be the perfect touch for winter.  Also, now that Bennett is walking, it is much easier to keep nice.  This was a great fabric to work with, as it has some ease of movement for the little one.  

This was such a fun, easy, adorable pattern! I think I'll make one in each size...

English Pronunciation

I saw this on a friends blog and HAD to repost.  See how far you get!

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

Alaska, here we come!

Well friends, we are off on our long awaited trip to Alaska! This will be Bennett's first plane ride, so we are a little nervous about that, but we are very excited to see that beautiful state.  I have never been, so this will be a first for me.  I will be sure to share lots of pictures with you when I get back! (especially since Mandy showed me how to switch to the updated version of blogging... MUCH faster pictures uploading and blogging... thank you mandy!)

See you all in about two weeks!

4 Months

I can't believe how time has flown by! My little boy is sooo grown up. I wanted to document a little about what Bennett has been doing in the past little while.

At the Preston Rodeo

Pretty much 4 months to the day he decided to roll over. He is getting very good at it, although he can only roll back to stomach (meaning he can't roll back, so he gets kinda frustrated!). This also means he like to try to roll in the tub (uhhh not good!) and on the changing table... and in the bouncer. So pretty much whenever he is laying on his back we have to watch him really closely!

He smiles a LOT now, although sometimes he just likes to poke out that bottom lip and look around. For those of you who haven't seen that face, it's not a sad one... its just more like hes chunkin' out and enjoying his surroundings haha.

Getting out of the tub

He has started to giggle more and more, but it takes a lot for him to giggle. Some things he finds amusing one day will bore him the next.

He can hold and grab things with his hands so well. He also has these monkey toes and can grab things with them!

He loves to stand up. He's got very strong legs and could stand up for hours, although we recently got a little toy saucer/jumper/thingy that he likes, so now he likes to jump.

He has recently discovered his feet. He likes to grab and hold onto them. Oh and pretty much everything goes into his mouth.

He can hold his own bottle! He loves his food, and he totally knows when its coming. He starts kicking super hard or jumping up and down, then he grabs the bottle and brings it to his mouth. Let me tell you, this definitely makes getting ready for church MUCH easier. We have 8:30 church and it is NOT easy when you have to feed a baby for a long period of time... especially if you like to sleep in... :D

He likes to have his eyes on me at all times. If I walk out of his line of sight he kinda freaks out. In a way, I love that he misses me, but I know that it won't be so cute in a little while!

He sleeps SOOO well at night. Most nights he sleeps about 10-12 hours. He's always been a really good sleeper though, I guess I just got lucky!

Size wise, hes still pretty little, but I think he gets bigger everyday! He is 33% for weight and 46% for height. I thought he would be super tall, just because I am 5' 11" and Bry is 6' 1", but I asked the doctor and he said sometimes with tall parents, they have a delayed growth. Once the hit 2 or so, they will all of a sudden grow a ton.

Needless to say, I LOVE this little angel. He is so sweet, so cuddly and so adorable! Oh and did I mention he has blue eyes? :D

...Bennett...

I have so much to say about this little darling! I enjoy being a mom so so much but it definitely makes it easier with Bennett. He is two months old and so cute! Where has the time gone???? Lately he has been smiling much more and gurgling and cooing a lot. He also eats his hand when his passifier falls out, and tries to fit the whole hand in there! He has definitely been more content to play by himself and sit in his swing or lay on the floor. It will be nice when he can reach out and grab his toys by himself (I'll probably be kicking myself for saying that soon!) He has curly hair and light eyes (for now). Bry and I are both brown so I think his will go brown eventually but for now they sure look BLUE!! He is kinda small for his age (18th percentile for weight and 54th for height... tall and skinny!) but I think he will chunk out soon. He loves going outside so I can't wait for the weather to turn nice so we can go outside and play more. I feel so lucky to be a mother! I love you Bennett :D

Playin' in the tub!

...Deer in the headlights...

...Eating his hand...

... check out those nostrils!...

Bennett's Birth Story

I have procrastinated this WAY too long. It has already been a month, and I can’t believe how the time has flown by. I feel like I’ve had this little man in my life forever. He is just the sweetest thing and I can’t get enough of his cuteness! This a lot of reading, I know, so if you want, you can skip down to the end for pictures :D

I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for several weeks, although they weren’t anything to alarm me. However, in the few days preceding they had increased in intensity. On Friday (the day before), I went to Hobby Lobby with Grandma Duffin and we got some cute ABC blocks for your room as well as fabric for your curtains. I was having a hard time walking around because about every ten minutes or so I would get a contraction and would have to stop walking for a minute. Later in the afternoon, I went up to a lunch with all of the Bangerter aunts and uncles at Aunt Glenda’s house. On the way home, the contractions were still coming on strong. When I got home, Daddy wanted to go to the hospital, but I didn’t want to go unless they kept coming hard. We decided to go walk around the mall and if they continued, then we would go to the hospital. Lo and behold, my contractions stayed pretty steady (about 5 minutes apart) and so we decided to head to the hospital.

When we got there, they checked me to see how dilated I was in order to see if I progressed within an hour. I was at a two and so they wanted to see if that would change. Well, I didn’t change within the hour, but my contractions had started increasing. I didn’t want to go home because they were getting worse, but they wouldn’t let me stay because of my non-progression. So we went home heavy hearted, sad that nothing had come of the several hours we were there. I called Grandma Porter and she seemed sure that I was going to have you tonight, and so I shouldn’t eat anything. We stopped by the grocery store and got some popsicles so I could suck on something. Grandma Porter and Megan decided that they would come down then and stay with us until we went to the hospital. They came and we watched a movie until it got pretty late. Daddy and I went and laid down, but my contractions were extremely painful and becoming very frequent. For about an hour they were 1-2 minutes apart and super painful so we got up and went to the hospital!

I did NOT want to be sent home again because I was in so much pain. When they tried to check my dilation, the nurse wasn’t able to because my cervix was so posterior. She brought in another nurse and she wasn’t able to tell either! I was in so much pain, but they couldn’t admit me or give me my epidural because they couldn’t check me. After TWO HOURS of waiting, a doctor finally came up for a delivery and was able to check me, and I was at a three so they admitted me at 2:00 a.m. At 3:00 I got my epidural and they broke my water at about 5:00. After that we just waited for me to progress. At around 11:00 we started getting ready to push, and I only pushed for about 30-45 minutes, and you were born at 12:00 noon on the dot! It was such an incredible experience and I was so amazed that I actually had a beautiful son. They took you off to the side and cleared your mouth and dried you off. I was so excited when they finally brought you over to me so I could hold you. They put you right on my chest and you calmed right down. Daddy and I were a little emotional at the amazing miracle that had just occurred. We had lots of visitors and had a great hospital stay.

This first month has been so wonderful. You are such a great baby! You caught right on about how to nurse and have been eating so well. You also are THE BEST sleeper. For your age, you sleep so well at night (sometimes 6 hours) and I feel so lucky. You have been smiling a ton lately and are generally very happy. I think you’ve had a little tummy trouble or trapped gas lately because at times you are just a little fussy even with a full tummy and changed diaper, but you calm down quickly.

You love bath time. I’ve started giving you a bath every night, because you calm right down as soon as you go in the water. You just look around with wide eyes and love when we drizzle warm water all over you. Sometimes you pee and even poop right in the bath! Daddy and I just have to laugh when that happens because we knew it was coming.

You have started being more aware of your surroundings. You notice me and daddy walking around the room, and can really fixate on some objects now. I like feeling like you know me and notice me in your life.

Bennett, we love you so much and are so happy you are here. I am looking forward to the many exciting developmental traits we will begin to see emerge in you. I hope to be better about writing and recording my sweet memories of you! I love you sweetie pea!