California May 2012

**Disclaimer! I need a tutorial on how to make those cute picture collages, because it is much easier to view pictures that way!**


I realize its a little late for this! But June is not over yet, people! I really wanted to document our trip that we had recently... even though we will be going back in just 4 short weeks!  

Sunday walk through the Orange Groves

Poppy with her fly cover on

We had such a fun relaxing trip with Braden and Mandy... they have already left for Oklahoma and we are already missing them terribly! This was a very fun last hoorah with them before we don't get to see them for pretty much 4 years.  

Maybe in their wedding video someday? :D

They did lots of this too... playing in this little makeshift kiddie pool!

At the Shamu show... Bennett liked the spraying water more than the whales, I think!

We went to Sea World! Originally we were planning on going to Disneyland, but with the age of our kids, we thought this would be a better plan.  Brightyn and Bennett absolutely LOVED the animals and so it was definitely a good choice.  They even have a few rollercoasters for the elders... aside from Mandy! She is cute and pregnant so no rollers for her! 

Bennett had a lovely explosion right as we were pulling up to Sea World... no extra clothes... I know, I'm a great mom.

Cutest little penguins :D

He was so little, you couldn't see him when he was sitting down!!

All six of us! The lady who took it didn't focus well so it's a little far away and I had to crop it majorly :D But at least we got one!

I love my two boys :D

It was Mandy's birthday that day, so I made sure to make her a birthday cake (the day before...) I hope it was a good day Mandy!

The next day we did lots of this: 

Bennett LOVED exploring the world of swimming.  He kicks his legs and just loves to float around.  He does NOT like to get splashed, however!  Such a cutie. 

Then we went to the beach!

Cute Brightyn! She loved the ocean water.  Bennett, however, did NOT!

Bennett and Grandma Mimi walking in the wet sand.  Bennett liked to throw the rocks in the water, but thats about it!

A little boogie boarding action!

Bryan and Ron attempting to fly this giant kite.  I thought it was going to hurt someone!

Good job boys!

Cuddling with Bennett... he got a big diaper rash and was really tired and sad :( All that sand in their diapers does not do well on sensitive bottoms!

Cute Mandy and Brightyn

The Boyers.  We miss you guys!

The Duffin clan! 

Then we got to see this lovely lady (Sarah) graduate from Hemet High.  Go Sarah! We are so proud of you and your accomplishments and ambitions.  We are so excited to see where life takes you and we wish you the best! 

Sarah, Anna, Ron and Mimi

Beautiful! Congratulations graduate :D

 We really had the best time spending time with family and with the Boyers.  Thanks for the wonderful trip! We'll miss you Mandy, Braden and Brightyn! (oh and baby boy to come :D)

Bennett these days...

Doesn't he have the sweetest blue eye's you've ever seen?  

This is my 14 month old.  He is so energetic and busy!  But I love him for that.  He definitely keeps me on my toes!  Probably one of his favorite activities is to go into the bathroom, open the drawers and pull everything out as fast as he can and throw it on the tile.  Then he moves under the sink and pulls everything out of that and throws it on the tile.  We like to call him the "tile tester" around here! Don't ever leave your phone laying around or... you guessed it! He'll throw it on the tile. 

He loves hats.  Bryan always wears a hat to work, so when he comes home, Bennett just says "Hat! Hat!"... cute little thing :D

He says so many words.  I am always amazed at how much he knows! It seems like everyday there is a new word he learns.  Lets see if I can list them all here: 

Ooosh (shoes)

Hat

Hot (he usually says this when he sees steam, when his food is hot or when we put him in the carseat... that can definitely be hot!)

Bankie (blanky)

Beekie (binky)

Ummmm (whenever he eats ANYTHING)

Baba (bottle)

Wawa (water)

Bah (ball.  He also says this when he wants to go outside.  Because we are at my aunt and uncles house, he always sees the basketball court right outside when we go, so he just says "bah, bah, bah!" when he wants to go out!)

Duggee (Doggie)

De-ee(Kittie)

Mama

Dada

Dough (throw)

Kicki (kick it)

New, New (no, no... of course haha)

Choo-Choo (for trains, cars, trucks, etc)

Eeee! (wee, when he goes down the slide)

OOOO!(he says this for anything he sees that he wants to play with!)

His favorite word: Hiiiii! He is so friendly and says this to everyone, especially the girls.  Oh dear, I've got a little ladies man on my hands!

He also knows baby sign language, and loves learning new words! With baby sign, he knows: 

more

cracker

food

all done

dog

baby

signing time(he does this when he wants to watch the movie)

milk

He blows kisses, waves bye-bye and hi, and is just a pretty good communicator! He jabbers a lot, and I can tell he has a few words that are just on the tip of his tounge!

Splashing in the watering can

He says lots of animal noises! Probably his favorite is Dog... he can hear those from a mile away and just starts barking until I acknowledge him. :D He says sounds for:

Dog

Cat

Horse

Cow

Duck

Chicken

Snake

Bear

Monkey (for this he just breathes in and out of his nose really fast... I'm not sure where he got that!)

Riding the Vaccum!

He loves to "read" stories.  He will bring me a book, mainly just wanting to flip through and see all the animals.  He is just too impatient still to hear the story :D 

Although he is mostly sweet, he has been starting to throw little tantrums and will scream like a little girl... so joyful I know.  We're working on using our "quiet voice". :D

When he wakes up in the morning or from his naps, he throws everything out of his crib (except one blanket) and onto the floor. If he keeps a blanket, he will hand it to me to put on my shoulder.  He likes to lay his head down on my shoulder :D

Nice... :D

He is SUCH a daddy's boy.  He wakes up in the morning asking for "dada!" and starts to cry when I tell him he is at work.  When Bryan gets home from work, he jumps right in the shower before holding Bennett, because he's been spraying pest control.  Bennett thinks this is the WORST thing in the world! He cries and screams until Bryan gets out and there is nothing I can do about it! Needless to say, he loves his Daddy!

I love seeing Bennett learn and grow.  He changes so much everyday! I can't wait to see what he will do next :D 

I love you Bennett boy!

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