FHE.....SoCal style!

So, can I just say that I love living where we live. Yes, at least twice a week I get homesick and wish we lived closer to fam. But, I have to say, I would prefer they move here with us.

We are having fabulous weather, so on Monday evening, we decided to change our Family Home Evening to Family Beach Evening. The beach is less than 2 miles from our house. (I'm throwing that info. in there so you'll come visit!)

Ben-O didn't hesitate. He was crawling into all the waves and havin' the time of his life. He wasn't afraid at all. It's nice that his appetite for sand has died off. Although, we did catch him sucking on a rock every now and then. Graham looks like quite the beach bum lately with his long hair.

Lucy dug a big hole and we decided to stick Benny in it. It didn't last too long. He weaseled his way out pretty quick.

I even fit in a cute little lesson about the organization of our church. The three big seashells are the First Presidency, our Prophet, Pres. Monson and his counselors. The smaller twelve seashells are the apostles. We discussed how Christ had apostles when he was on the earth, and we have them now. It was fun helping the kids learn their names and help them recognize how blessed we are to have a prophet on the earth. I put in a plug for General Conference that we'll be tuning into this next weekend and expressed my gratitude for being able to hear what the Lord wants us to know through our prophet and the apostles.

All in all it was a fabulous, fun, and successful FHE. Maybe next week we'll go to Disneyland and have a lesson on modesty.

Ben-O

I cannot believe this kid is 11 months old already! He's growing WAY too fast. Corn on the cob is one of his new favorites. He actually gets nearly all of the corn off. We're having a really hard time knowing what to feed this guy. He's not liking baby food too much anymore, but he's also quite picky about the other food I try. My other kids would eat a slice of bread as part of every meal. I used it as a filler, but this kid isn't taking to it.

He's getting so quick and agile now. I spend a lot of my day pulling him off the stairs at our house. When we're at the park, he heads straight for the stairs. He loves to sit in the kids' little rocking chair and is so proud of himself when he gets up into it.

Look at that adorable smile! I still have to keep a bib on him or we go through too many shirts in one day. He's always super quick with a smile. The kids can get him laughing really hard just by yelling, "Boo!" Even when he's ticked off, that usually works.


The trampoline is my new baby pen. Don't judge...it works and he likes it....most of the time. He'll crawl around in there for a little while as I finish up the dishes or try to finish a quick project. (I zip up the net, don't worry.)

See, I told you he likes it.

More fun things about Benny at this age:

-He loves his pacifier. About a month ago, we bought one of those binky leash things to clip on his shirt. It works great, especially at night.

-He has a hilarious laugh. It sounds kind of like a machine gun.

-I love it when he does his "scrunch up" face. I've tried to capture it for a picture, but not much luck.

-Church has been pretty good. Our other kids at this age wrestled with us almost the entire 3 hours. He's too big to carry around the whole time, so we take the stroller in and he sleeps for about an hour of it.

-Everywhere we go, people comment on his ginormous smile and bright blue eyes. I can sense they want to say something about his head, too, but most refrain. I love going to get him out of his crib after nap. He is so happy to see me and I get to see his smile in full force after being away from it for a while.

The poor guy has had ear infections for the last 3-4 weeks, so he's been a little needy and crabby. Hopefully they'll clear up soon and we'll have a happier Ben-O. For the last 2 weeks he's been waking up between 5-6 am. It's gotta stop...........soon.

Can't believe he'll be one year old in a few short weeks. I love my sweet, big baby Ben-O.

Yep...I Bake Bread Now.

I made bread today! Call me Holly Homemaker, Suzie Supermom. People everywhere make bread, but I don't want to hear about them. This was a big undertaking for me and I've been proud of myself all day! My family loved it and it made my house smell fabulous. I've put off trying to bake bread because of my ridiculous first attempt a couple months ago. Here's the story:

It all started when I got on a, "I'm a bad mom because my kids eat a lot of processed food" kick. I got a great recipe from a good friend of mine. I started my, "You can do this" and "You are gonna rock that kitchen with your bread bakin' skills" thoughts a couple days before.

The day arrived, I guess I should say, the evening arrived. Yes, folks, I didn't start my new adventure until 7 pm at night. Not sure why my wonderful mother didn't say, "That's a little late to start your new life as a bread bakin' mama, Maggie." It wasn't like she didn't have the chance to clue me in during one of the 42 calls I made to get her reassurance and guidance. Who knew you had to let the dough rise 3 different times for nearly an hour each time. My great recipe only said, "till it doubles in size".

I suspected that I would be up late, but wasn't planning on missing the buzzer on my oven going off at 1:30 am because I fell asleep on the couch. Needless to say, when I woke up at 2:45 am, the bread was black, my heart was crushed, and my will to bake bread was dead.

But, alas, the call to bake bread for a Relief Society function next month brought it back from extinction. I was not going to be defeated by a lump of flour and water (don't worry, I added a few other things, too). Now I can say with pride, "I baked bread.....and it was good, real good".

Buttercup

No, we most definitely did not get a cat. As many of you may or may not know, I have never really been much of an animal fan. Hate or even dislike are too strong of words. Although, I definitely "hate" the idea of having one in my home for any length of time or having to care for one. The rest of my little family would love to have a dog. Lucy wants one with all of her young-girl heart. I've spent the last four years telling Jason, Lucy and Graham that we will revisit the dog-getting conversation when Lucy turns 12.

This cat does not belong to us. We actually don't know who owns it, but it has spent a very large portion of the last 4 months in our back yard. We do not feed it, water it, or allow it in the house. Although, he has snuck in on a few occasions and I have had to let my "Cat, I Don't Hate You, But I Most Definitely Don't Like You" self out. I was changing Ben's diaper in the living room a couple months ago and the cat came moseying down the stairs. Jason had left the door open earlier that day while he was mowing the lawn and the cat took it as an invitation to come on in and make himself at home.

Lucy had him named Buttercup from about day 2 of his arrival. We didn't know it was a boy until about 2 weeks ago when my friend, who actually loves animals, took a peek. I could tell she thought I was a little heartless for not feeding him, but I reassured her that he gets plenty to eat next door. They have a couple cats and we've seen a little food and water dish outside that Buttercup helps himself to.

For a long time, Graham would come downstairs in the morning and almost immediately go outside to hang out with Buttercup. The words "hang out" could mean a number of things: Repetitively pushing his ears down (as seen in the above picture), pull on his tail, pet gently and not so gently, carry from one end of the yard to the other, etc., etc. We've had numerous conversations on how we are supposed to treat animals. We've had some success getting our point across. Regardless, Buttercup keeps coming back for more.

This is what we usually see when we come downstairs in the morning.

Just For Fun

July 2010
When these two aren't fighting, they have so much fun together. But only if Lucy decides Graham is cool enough to play with him that day. Lucy likes to fashion him a dress-up outfit out of Jason's clothes.

Side story: Like most days, Lucy wasn't thrilled about going to school. As we were making our way there, Lucy was waiting for a truck to go by before she joined us on the other side of the street. When she pulled up to me on her scooter she matter-of-factly said, "If you got hit by a car, I wouldn't be going to school today." Wow.....feelin' the love.

The Little Boy I Adore, Finally Turns 4!!

Last week our Graham-Bo turned four years old. We had a great day celebrating. At least once every couple hours, Graham would ask, "Is it still my birthday?" When we told him that it was, he'd say, "This is a loooong birthday!"

When I brushed his hair in the morning, I told him he looked awesome. For the rest of the day he kept saying, "Am I awesome?" or "Am I cool?" To which I would reply, "Yep. You're SUPER awesome." He'd give me a smile and move on to the next thing.
That morning we got ready for our play date at the park. We didn't have a big party planned for the day. We decided to have a little family celebration this year. I wanted to do something during the day that would be fun for the birthday boy. So, we called up our friends the day before and planned to meet at the park to play. I made these rice crispy treats and displayed the Spidermen that Jason let Graham pick out at Party City the night before.

Side note: I love rice crispy treats. Seriously....who doesn't, but I REALLY love them. So easy, so good. I prefer them to cookies, cake, brownies. I love them.

We made our way to the Pirate Park and played our hearts out. Ben-O had a fabulous time. Now that he's more mobile, life is even more enjoyable.

His friends were nice enough to bring him gifts, even though it was a last minute get together. Doesn't he look excited?Here he is with his pals: Joseph, Graham, Austin, Grant, Audrey, and Gwen

That afternoon, Jason got off work a little early so we could start partyin'. We made our way over to Golf 'n Stuff and did some go-carting. It was a little pricier than we anticipated, so we just did it once and moved on.

Had to include this one.

Cute Graham waiting for Mom and Lucy's go-cart turn to be over.

Since we cheaped out and only had one turn each, we decided to head inside to the arcade.

I schooled Lucy in some air hockey. Graham mostly played the driving games.

We went to Wendy's for dinner and then made our way home for dessert.

Here's the fabulous cake that Jason made. Graham requested purple frosting and Toy Story. Well, Mom and Dad dropped the ball and put off the cake situation until the night before. Jason went to the store and got the figurines and then whipped this baby up. The frosting really was purple, not gray. In the morning, when Graham saw the cake, he said, "I wish I was on that show!" So, Lucy made a little paper Graham and stuck him on there.

All day long Graham wanted to eat the cake. He'd ask, "Can we eat the cake now?" I'd say, "Not until after dinner." He'd yell, "Well, let's eat dinner then!"

Isn't this boy adorable! Here he is waiting to blow out his candles. Jason bought the trick candles that don't blow out. He and Lucy were thoroughly amused.
I love this kid!

After cake and ice cream, we did our traditional gift game. We play the "Hot and Cold" game until the gifts are found. He didn't get anything too spectacular. He got a Buzz Lightyear pez dispenser, a Bakugon (because we gifted one to a friend the week before and he really wanted one, too), and a Toy Story scooter.

This little guy is such a joy to have in our family. He makes me smile just watching him do every day things. He is so passionate about everything he does. He's been that way since he was tiny. Graham is either the happiest kid in the world or the grumpiest. No middle ground. Luckily, he's happy 90 percent of the time.

Some facts about 4 year-old Graham:

-He LOVES playing games on the computer or Jason's iPhone. He became a gamer this summer when he was allowed to play way too much Wii at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He asks many, many times during the day to play. pbskids.org is his current favorite.

-He still has to sleep with his blanket. This blanket is NASTY! He chews on it as he's laying in bed. I can't wash this thing enough. He has added a bigger fleece blanket to the mix, too.

-His favorite color was green for almost 2 years, but he decided about a month ago that it was going to change every day. So, he tells us his new favorite each day and sticks with it. Although, he asked us what color his skin is and we told him peach, so now that's been his color of choice for about a week. Hope we're not raising a racist.

-Graham knows all his letters and the sounds they make. We even started doing a teeny bit of reading today. Thank you, Letter and Word Factory DVDs!

-Graham does not remember names. He will play with someone all day and not know what their name is at the end. He calls everyone, "That Guy".

-I love when he wakes up in the morning and says, "It's day!" He humors me and climbs into bed for a few minutes, even though I know he's ready for his waffle.

He's growing up too fast! I love this age and can't get enough of him.

Labor Day Festivities

We had a low-key, relaxed, but very fun Labor Day this year. It was just us Rays, but we made the most of Jason's day off work and Lucy's holiday from school.

We packed a lunch and went to one of our favorite parks in the area. There's lots of grassy areas to play on and a few little playground areas. We played soccer, a little volleyball, and a little frisbee. Graham mostly played at the playground. We went for a short hike up the mountain.

Here's the view from the top. The park itself is up on the mountainside of Ventura, so it looks like we hiked farther than we did. Can you see the ocean in the distance? I love where we live.

After the park, we went home and gave the little guy a nap. Lucy and Dad headed to the pool down the street and Graham and I came later with Ben after he woke up. I didn't get any pool pictures this time around.

We finished the day off with Jason's homemade pizza and homemade ice cream cones. What a way to end a fabulous family day.

Here's some of the pictures I got when I asked the kids to smile for me. Be sure to check out Graham's expressions.

Hope you had a great Labor Day, too!