Teriffic Twos: Part 2

Our friends Pete and Amanda came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. They brought their little girl Izzy (who is super cute and Luke's age). They played really well together and it was fun to catch up and visit with Pete & Amanda.
They were packing up to leave and continue on their trip when Amanda asked me if I had seen a ring anywhere. I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. She explained that she had taken off her wedding ring to shower and put it on the night stand by their bed. When she went to put it on it was gone. We weren't sure which kid took it or if it just fell off the stand or what. So I casually checked Luke's favorite "safe places". No luck. I went back into their room to help search the carpet etc. sure that it had just been knocked off, that is until Amanda said she had come in and the heater vent was pulled up. That's when I knew that my little rascal had been there. That is one of his telltale signs. Pulled up heater vents. We searched the heater vent... nothing. Now I was starting to panic.
Luke had been all over the house that morning and the ring could literally be anywhere! (He once took our renter's cash rent payment and it was lost for like 6 weeks. I searched the house up and down. Couldn't find it and then one day I got out of the shower and it was in the middle of my bedroom floor. No joke!) I re-checked his dump truck, backpack and rocket seat. Then I remembered him bringing me something out of Ryan's office that morning.
I went into search the office. It has like 15 drawers and 6 possible cupboards where the ring could be. I searched the office - no luck. I was feeling a little frantic not knowing where to search next. All the time praying that we would find the ring. I just kept feeling like I should continue looking in the office. The third time I searched this one drawer I found it. A little gold ring. Relief flooded through me as I took Amanda her ring.
They were really nice about the whole stealing their valuables thing. My little pirate. We have trained him well. He only goes for cash or gold. Leaves all the other possible things to take.


You are all welcome to come and visit us we just can't promise that you will leave with everything you came with!

Teriffic Twos

Luke is turning two years old this week. How does a baby go from this...


to this...


so quickly?

Yesterday Luke was particularly mischievous. While I was putting Noah down for a nap he pulled a whole container of wipes out one by one. I was babysitting Livy and so I had her down for a nap and all was quiet. I should have known. If you have a toddler and it is quiet for too long, then someone is into something they shouldn't be. I started looking for said quiet toddler and this is what I found.


Yes that is a whole container of rice dumped all over the couch not to mention what went into the carpet. I spent 30 minutes vacuuming the same spot and could still hear the vacuum picking up rice. We might have rice in our carpet for a couple years.... food storage right?

Anyhow I was vacuuming I turned around and found this...


If you can't tell he is trying to open a box of fly paper with needle-nose pliers! Who knew we had fly-paper and why is is you can only find pliers when you don't need them? (must be related to scissors)

After uprooting several house plants and "sprinkling" dirt everywhere while I was cooking dinner, it was time for a little TV time out, so mom could catch up to the mess.

I just can't believe my baby could grow up so fast.

Sunday Best

I pulled out one of Luke's old church outfits and put it on Noah last week. He just looked so handsome that we had to put on matching ties and get some pictures. Here is the end result.


Noah has been teething and wouldn't smile ... just suck on his lower lip.


We are not all suits and ties around here... as these photos prove...



Things have been pretty quiet around here. We have been recovering from California and preparing for GERMANY!

That's right, after 10 years I am going back to Deutschland. My sister has been living there for the past 3 almost 4 years. We have been trying to make it back to visit them and Europe but one thing or another has come up. We found out this spring that they are moving to London in September. Ryan and I talked and decided to make it work while we still can. So we are heading out before they leave Germany.

We are leaving the boys with my Mom & Dad for the trip. We are attempting to see a lot in a short amount of time and figured that was best done without kids. So big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Benson. It is going to be hard to leave them. I might be a wreck by the time we get back. Last year after 5 days away from Luke I couldn't think about him or I would get teary. I am sure we will all survive just fine.

So, Germany here we come!

California Dreamin'

During the long Rexburg winter we tend to dream of warm get-aways, sunny, warm days, beaches... you know the drill. Well this last week we turned our dreaming into a reality. We went to California to visit Ryan's parents for the week. This was the last time Luke gets to fly for free so we each had a child during the flight and couldn't sit in the same row (Only 4 passengers per row). Luke was SO excited to fly in the airplane. He couldn't stop talking about the airplane in the sky with Daddy. He was so excited he might have told a couple of the flight attendants "I yove you" (his way of saying love). He was really good during the flight thanks to the Ipad, cars stickers and snacks. Once we got to California, we stayed busy running around and having fun.


Our first outing was to the San Diego Zoo. Luke loves animals and this is an awesome zoo so we were excited to go with him.


Noah wasn't too into things but was a good sport (as usual). Luke's favorites were the giant turtles, elephants and giraffes. I think most of all he enjoyed the time with Dad and Grandpa.


Ryan is teaching Luke how to make "silly" face. This is one of his best attempts.

That night Lee got us tickets to the Angels/Yankees game. He got an email telling the section and then it said "(last section left)". We assumed it was the nose bleeds in the far left field. We consoled ourselves that any free tickets were good tickets. Boy were we surprised when we located our seats! I think they meant it was the last section left with open tickets... the game was sold out. As you can see they were awesome seats.

Good seats, great game and good babysitters. Grandma and Casey watched our kids so I could go to the game. I think they regretted that when Noah wouldn't stop crying but we were so grateful.

We did a lot of hanging out in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard.


Noah was teething at the expense of Kevin's toys.


Luke took over the Mac truck and couldn't get enough of the outside.

A trip to California is not complete without a trip to Laguna Beach. The water was pretty cold so we didn't venture in just enjoyed the atmosphere and sun.


On Monday we decided to check out the Long Beach Aquarium. It was so fun too. It was perfect for Luke. It wasn't real crowded and so we could let him run around and he could go right up to the glass and say "Dori, where are you" as many times as he wanted. (This is a sea lion).


This is the whole gang at the petting starfish exhibit.


On our last night there we went down to Dana Point for some fish and chips at The Jolly Roger. We were nervous because the boys were low on sleep and taking them into public like that can be a recipe for disaster. But they were surprisingly good. Thanks to movies on my phone, crayons & soda crackers.


We made it home safely and with out incident. Luke however didn't want to put away his hat. You can take the boy out of California but you can take California out of the boy...


This post is dedicated to Auntie Em, thanks for the nudge! We love you.

Boys will be Boys

I love having boys.
Even if it means constant messes EVERYWHERE!
Here are a couple caught in the act...




I am sure that there will be many more giggles like these...

One of "Those" Weeks

This is how we started the week...

A little coughing, a little puke and a little t.l.c. What more could a boy need? Stuffed animal, juice, three blankets and Cars to watch? As the week wore on Luke's croupy cough turned into RSV. After 3 trips to the doctor & one to the hospital this is how we ended the week...

Too sick to care that his belly is showing, holding the graham cracker just in case he felt like eating, laboring to breathe and watching whatever was flickering in front of him.

I am happy to say that Luke is on the mend. He can breathe easier and has a cough that lets us know he is trying to clear out all the junk that was in his lungs. The days are so long with kids when they are sick and the nights were even longer. I think Ryan and I spent 3 straight nights walking around the house juggling crying kids and trying to find some way to get some sleep. I am happy to report that Noah's sick spell has just remained a head cold. It hasn't stopped him from crawling everywhere and trying to pull himself up on things. All we have had to contend with is running noses and possibly the cutest smiles ever!

Bank Visits

This morning I found myself going through the bank drive-thru window (best invention ever by the way... drive-thru windows... must have been a mom). As usual they sent out a nice little treat for the "little one" in the back seat. I must confess the "little one" doesn't usually get the treats. For one thing they are not usually kid friendly treats, at least little kid friendly, and for another I happen to LOVE tutti fruitty tootsie rolls. Sorry Luke, those are Mommy treats! Anyhow Luke and I had had a rough morning, he was not happy about being dragged to the bank so I decided to make it up to him by actually sharing the treats. This time it was a miniature Hersey's bar. I ate half and gave him the other half, instructing him to put it all in his mouth. (He tends to nibble on his treats). When I went to get him out of the car this is what I found!

I am pleased to announce that after quite a bit of color safe bleach, a good soak, and super wash cycle the shirt is still wear-able!

Things around here are going well. Ryan hired someone to take over most of my responsibilities at work. That has been really nice not stressing over work stuff on top of normal life. I really appreciate him for doing this. I have been able to explore some new hobbies and activities. Lyndi introduced me to the wonderful world of couponing. I have seen the testimonials but was too intimidated to jump in. With her help I am now an addict. I love the challenge of finding the best deal and am satisfying my need to make spreadsheets with couponing/price matching spreadsheets.

Ryan is getting itchy to get out on his motorcycle with a recent warming trend in the weather. I must admit I got a little excited when I went to bring in the garbage can and couldn't see my breath. Luke was tripping over himself to get out the door. I guess we are all getting a little spring fever. Except for maybe Noah... he hasn't ever experienced a spring! He is just trying to master the art of eating semi-solids. We have daily adventures trying to see if we can get more food in the mouth and less on the face, clothes, high chair, Mom, and whatever is in a 5 foot radius.

The boys are both getting so big so fast. Here they are ready for church.

Luke will hold still for about half a second to say "cheese" and then he is onto the next thing. Noah on the other hand will sit and smile at the camera all day. Thus I have several pictures of blurry Luke and glowing Noah.

Last of all we have this picture of Luke that my Grandma loved. She had us print off a copy and put it in a frame in her room. She kept asking for a picture of Noah to go next to it. Unfortunately she passed away before I got her the picture in a frame. We miss her dearly but are happy she is finally with Grandpa. So these pictures are for Grandma Benson.

Luke about 7 mo.

Noah about 6 mo.