Guilty

I admit it I am guilty, guilty, guilty. I've listened to Christmas music every day this week. I love it. Especially Bing Crosby and Elvis. Yesterday I found out there is a radio station (FM 100.3) that already is playing it 24/7. Just in case you are a freak like me. Hi my name is Dolly and I love Christmas.

My Little Ryder-man

Ryder is two and he isn't terrible.
Sure he is more prone to tantrums, but all in all he's been great--especially when compared to his sister when she was two or maybe that's why he seems so great.

He eats all day. I think that's because he's a boy.
He "gives" me all of his boogers. I think that's because he's a boy.
He thinks toots are ridiculously funny. I think that's because he's a boy.

He is really starting to communicate with us. I love hearing how kids try and figure out how to express themselves.
He says things like "open the door" when he wants help with a lid.
If he wants candy he says "trick or treat" (although he says with a German accent).
He asks to "hold you" when he wants to be held.
He has gummy vitamins (were are a genius invention) and he asks for his yummy bears.

I love that he hugs me and makes a little mmmmm sound while doing so.
I love that he reminds me so much of Jon.
I love that he can rock a mustache.

Love you Ryder-man.

The Worst Way to Relieve an Itch

The kids and I were playing downstairs I went upstairs to check on my sweet sleeping baby. When I came back our toilet scrubber was just lying in the middle of the floor (directly on my carpet--gross!). I asked Lola why was it out. "I needed to scratch my back."

Gross.

Update
This was taken Halloween night. Jon was a punk rocker so the earrings, spiked hair, and eyeliner are are fake.

Witches, A Bee, And Giraffe Oh My!

One of our Halloween traditions is to go to Gardner Village and check out their incredible witches while the kids are all dressed up.

This year when we went it happened to be Witch's Night Out. It was crazy, crazy awesome! I can't believe this many women have awesome costumes. Definitely worth doing again.

By the way Jon is wearing his Halloween costume so ignore the eyeliner, spiked hair, and earrings.

Dr. Jon Benson

Must haves for family movie night.
1. Movie (duh) preferably without princesses and plenty of action--The Incredibles.
2. Soda.
3. Popcorn, lots and lots of popcorn.

Ryder is a big fan of popcorn and by the end of the movie and two popcorn bags later he was still holding the empty popcorn bowl. He clearly was chewing on some Kernels so Jon asked him to spit them out. Ryder than proceeded to spit out a ridiculous amount of kernels.

Ryder than looked up at Jon and said "Daddy nose."
Jon "Do you have popcorn up your nose?"
Ryder "Yes."

Jon was able to successfully remove a rather large kernel from his nostril despite the fact his assistant to the surgery had a major case of the giggles.

How Jon Won the Husband of the Year Award

Yesterday was my birthday. Usually on my birthday I plan it, completely and totally, and then I let Jon execute my plans. This year I finally realized that I am super lame for planning my birthday so I asked Jon to surprise me.

He planned 5 surprises. First he came home at lunch time with my favorite flowers and second he then took me and the kids to Cafe Rio. That evening we were going on a big hot date (I even wore heels) and I was looking forward to the the next 3 surprises. We drove out to Herriman, which is where our house we are buying is at. We were going to a Sushi restaurant,  but we got their super early for our reservation and we decided to go drive past our house.

We show up at the house and we were just talking about how excited we were to finally close on our first house. All of a sudden Jon pulled out the keys to the house and opened the garage door. He had closed on the house early (early as in LAST WEEK) and was just waiting to surprise me. I am not on the loan just the title so I didn't need to be there. I was so floored in the most happy and wonderful way. I CAN'T BELIEVE HE COULD KEEP THAT SECRET THAT LONG! We then went into our new house and he made me dinner and a cake and the last surprise was a lap top (like the house wasn't enough, but my laptop is currently in the process of slowly and painfully dying) so that was also a much appreciated gift.

Just want to say, I love that man. I really feel like the luckiest girl in the world to share my life with him. And might I add that I am no longer planning my own birthday because my plans are so much more lame than Jon's!

So here is a few pictures of my new house! The bad lighting is due to the fact this was taken with a camera phone.

Here's some out side shots.

 Here's Jon signing everything without me

A few interior pictures I took while Jon cooked for me!

By the way I am moving...TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Men Who Dress Like Pirates

Last weekend we were in Park City and we stopped at McDonald's to get the kids Happy Meals (further evidence that I love my kids I now eat at McDonald's). Anyway we happen to be sitting across from some leather clad bikers and their ladies. Lola upon noticing them stood up and pointed at them laughing and said "look Mommy they're dressed like pirates!"

It was her first public siting of pirates ever so she was excited, fortunately for us it was super noisy and the "pirates" didn't hear us.

Every Tool is a Weapon if you Hold it Right (Ani DiFranco)

I pulled Ryder out of the tub and I was sitting on the floor Indian style drying him off when all of sudden he peed. He peed directly on the crotch of my pants. So yes, I had a urine spot on the crotch of my jeans at the exact moment someone knocked on my door, but I swear it wasn't mine.

 But seriously who could be mad at this happy little guy? Not me.

D is for Diva

Okay so its a wee bit hard to pretend that my daughter is not a diva. I know it and accept it. Here are my top 5 reasons.

5. On a girl's outing to Walgreens (I know its an exciting life) she insisted on bringing her cell phone (not a real one) inside the store.
4. She decided to rename Ryder "Bob" and referred to him as Bob all morning.
3. Refers to herself in the 3rd person.
2. Her favorite bedtime story is "How to be a Princess" (In my defense I didn't buy her that it was a gift).
1. This photo

Life in the FAST Lane

Here is a snip it of life with 3, 3 and under. 

My last blog post (pre-baby) I wrote about my 2 rules of motherhood: listen and be quick. That was once again reaffirmed this week. Jon and I were upstairs in the kitchen with Blake and Lola and Ryder were downstairs playing (more like destroying the basement). Lola came upstairs and said "Ryder is lost." Well that definitely got my Mommy senses tingling. I told Lola I was going to go find him, to which she replied, "He's just fine." Anyway after I hurried downstairs I found Ryder locked in our bedroom (nice try Lola).

Our home teachers came over last week and as they were visiting a look of horror crossed the face of our home teacher. I look to see what he was looking at and there was Ryder standing on the dining table swinging the chandelier.

Blake is exceptionally tolerate of his hooligan siblings and they really love him too. Lola is very protective of him. Jon was holding Blake the other day and Blake was crying. Lola told Jon "The baby doesn't like you, he wants his Mommy." Another sign that he is a good baby is that he has only peed on me once

.

To All 3 People Who Read My Blog

Alright I actually have a great reason for not posting. The GREATEST reason.

That's right Mr Sweet Cheeks is here. Blake Thomas Benson or as Lola calls him Blank Thomas was born February 25th. Seriously I am so in love.

And for those interested in the nitty gritty details of the birth story...

Lola I did a natural birth. It was 2 days of labor and 3 1/2 hours of pushing. Crazy right? No crazy is doing natural birth again (that's right on purpose) for Ryder. Almost 2 days of labor and 3 pushes (much better than Lola). Blake induction and an epidural. I HEART EPIDURALS.  7 hours 3 pushes. Chances of me doing a natural birth again... zero. Seriously after doing both I feel like a fool for doing natural twice. 

How to Avoid Plugging Your Toilet and Other Kid Made Disasters

Mmmkay, the good news is that to be a Mom you don't have to be a genius or clever or benevolent (although I'm sure those things help). Really there are 2 things that really help prevent kid-made-house-disasters. Ready?

LISTEN and be QUICK

For example, after your daughter goes to the bathroom if she informs you that she used "many wet wipes" that is a code. You will only hear this code if you are listening. This code phrase means "I filled up the toilet with the entire roll of toilet paper." (Listening also entails being aware of silence, silence and evil are often combined and you will find a kid dusting your front window butt-naked or sitting in your bathroom sink eating a tube of toothpaste, hypothetically of course.)

Now when you find this hypothetical toilet filled with urine and 10lbs of toilet paper this is the time to be quick. Why? Because while you decide how to fish out the paper without putting your hand in the toilet (man a few more minutes and our noodle spoon would've sacred its life), your other child will throw in one of his wood puzzle pieces while the original offender proceeds to flush the toilet. Then both hands will be submerged into the toilet to retrieve both items.

Mmmkay you've been properly warned
LISTEN and be QUICK.

Mother of the Year and Belly Butts

Lola has picked up a new phrase lately--as a disclaimer let me just say I have no idea where she learned it. Yesterday before dinner she told me, "Your two poor children are hungry." Being the good mother that I am I fed them.

Lola likes to shorten words, her newest chopped word of choice is belly button. That's right she now refers to them as belly butts. I assured her I was the only one in the family with a belly butt.

(Ha! Just for the record I didn't realize how short my sweater was till I saw this picture.)

Belly Butt for sure.

Lola's Prayer

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Morning, Grammy, and Ryder.
And for Lola too.
And for toothbrushes.

Row 2 Seats 13 and 14

We love going to Jazz games,
but we can't really afford to go to Jazz games...
but a perk of Jon's job is we keep getting free fifty free tickets.
Our latest (and greatest ever!) tickets were these.

Yep, $579 dollars for these tickets
I'm not going to lie we considered hawking these
but went anyway and it was SO FUN!
Best free date ever (minus the $8 bucks for soda, seriously $8 bucks for 2 sodas!)

Here is what I learned in the expensive seats.
Cavaliers seriously are the worst team in the NBA.
The expensive seats smells much better than the upper bowl
(not that the upper bowl stinks,
but down at the expensive seats it smelled like expensive cologne).
Basketball players are BIG dudes,
I mean really big, like they could crush-me-with-one-hand-big.
And lastly Jerry Sloan (Head coach of the Jazz)
looks like my father-in-law.

Seriously don't they look like brothers, cousins, something?

Matchy-Matchy

Mother and daughter matching dresses

There is just something so horrible about. I think its due to the fact I get flashbacks from the 80s and me being forced to wear matchy-matchy outfits with my little sister.

But Mother/daughter aprons that is classy right?

Right?
Maybe?
LOL
Well truth be told I don't actual care.
Lola on the other might care--
as a teenager,
but currently as a 3 year old she thinks its cool
It could be worse...

I HEART Jon

January 5th again.

Best decision ever.
No regrets...
Not even the $90 dollar breakfast (especially the $90 breakfast).
You are my best friend ever
even when you attack me in your sleep,
or rile the kids up before their bedtime,
or eat 6 sausages and only leave me one.
I love you
even though I put horrible pictures of you on our blog.

Less than 2 months to go!

I basically have been pregnant or nursing for the last 4 years. We started buying diapers in 2007 and the very soonest we will be done is 2013. I really love being a Mom (even though I'm pretty sure I'm D-O-N-E having babies)I don't necessarily love being pregnant.

I've had lots of women tell me they love being pregnant. I think time has made their brain foggy. Parts are nice--feeling the baby move, but then they start kicking you right in the ribs--HARD. I even like the baby bump, but not the end where I sort of resemble a beached whale and my pants and my shirts start having to make real effort to meet.

I also don't like sympathetic strangers who while shopping during the holiday season ask if I'm having a Christmas baby and I get to tell them I still have 2 more months left...

And accidentally peeing a little bit when I double sneezed. Oh yeah and that part where I have to push him out.

But I do look forward to holding this baby in my arms and cuddling and kissing him. I love how excited Jon is. I'm excited for him to meet his sweet brother and sister. The end is worth the journey.

The Cave

You know your kids are good friends when they play in the cupboard that holds the garbage. We call it the "cave" to make it seem less gross, but its straight up kitchen garbage.