Clean Up!

The other day I was cleaning and trying to get ready for the party but that can be difficult with kids hanging around.  Benson kept asking to help me with dishes and mopping.  Finally I stuck him out in the backyard with rubber gloves and a garbage bag.  Kimber was chomping at the bit to get out there too.  Why would I say no?  They looked adorable!

Shortly after this Kimber had taken off her gumboots and was walking around in her pretty white socks.  Resolve Spray'n'Wash did wonders with them!

Oh, keep reading as this is my third post today.  I know blog overload!

McKay Boy

I realize that I haven't been putting very many pictures on the blog of McKay.  Well really I don't take as many pictures as I used to.  Here are some pictures of my McKay Boy.  These pictures are about a month old but they are better than nothing!

Oh I love the tongue!

Benson loving his brother.  I am having a hard time keeping Benson away from McKay these days.  He loves him so much and wants to show him everything that he does.  Hopefully in a couple of years he will feel the same when McKay will be following him around relentlessly!

McKay looks so cool in this picture!  He is growing up way too fast.  He has started to really use his hands and loves holding rings now.  Also his new found love is eating his toes while he is naked.  Seriously, I put his diaper on and he stopped eating his toes and got really angry at me.

Birthday

We celebrated Benson's birthday this past weekend in good old Pirate Style!  I let Benson decide what he wanted to have for a cake this year and he said he wanted a treasure chest.

I now know what I would do different next time...have a solid base instead of piecing it together.  I know that sounds so obvious!

The party was in the morning so we served fruit and punch... I also wasn't into making tons of stuff this year!

Sterling decided he wanted to chill with Benson for a while.

This a clip of a few of the presents that Benson got.  He got treated really well this year.  Some of the big presents not shown are his new big boy bike with training wheels (he also now has a helmet to go with it) Weeble Wobble slide that is also a present for Kimber's birthday and last night he got an mp3 player.  It is great, he thinks it is an iPod and loves that he can listen to it whenever he wants.  Yes Bethany, I am borrowing you page as those are really cute pictures of Benson and Kimber.  Scroll down Bethany's post and you will see the pictures I am talking about!

This might seem weird but Bens was super excited for this present and the next one!

We ended the party by doing a treasure hunt for the favor bags.  I think the kids enjoyed that a lot and it was a good excuse to get some of the bodies out of the house... it was a tad bit full!  Ok, I have tried to upload a video of the hunt but can't seem to make it work so just take my word for it that it was beautiful outside and the kids had fun!

Pictures

Here are the pictures from my trip back home.  Thanks for sending the pictures Mom!

Kimber came into the living room sporting my Mom's special socks.  You can see one of the peppermint candy tassles.  She was in pretty good spirits considering she had gotten her shots that morning.  I have been having a hard time keeping clothes on this girl lately.  She thinks it is pretty funny too.  She has gotten a sassy streak in her lately.  Shades of things to come!

We are in the midst of growing Kimbers bangs out.  She is growing up so much!

Brooke's "Bir-day" party.  We both got presents... rubber gloves that say 'Queen of Clean' on them.

Special birthday hug.  Benson really was so excited about this and worked on it all day long!

Blowing out the candles.  Naomi looks scared here but she thought it was pretty exciting!

Cousins.  Like I said in the last post Naomi is a month older than Benson (did I just do that? I meant McKay) but they are already very close in size!  Since they got weighed together McKay was weighed again.  April 5 he weighed 17 lbs and 7.5 oz.

Naomi and McKay with Nana.

Nana with half of her Grandkids.  About a week later two more of the grandkids came for a visit so we only missed out on seeing 2 of the cousins while we were home!

Kimber all ready for church.  The week before Naomi's dress was more of a shirt so we leant this dress to her.   Got to love clothes that cover a lot of ages!!

About a month ago Bens and I were watching Oprah and Gayle's big Camping Adventure.  It was their first time camping... ever and the they tried S'mores for the first time.  Since then Benson had been asking to go camping and to have s'mores.  While we were a Nana's we planned to do a fire in the fire pit but with all the snow we had to settle for s'mores from the microwave.  I think the kids enjoyed them!

Kimber didn't actually eat to much of it but she enjoyed getting messy!

Here we all are enjoying the yummy s'mores.

Since coming home we have been working on a new schedule for ourselves.  It is a work in progress but we are getting better at it.  Benson has started having quiet time in our hallway upstairs.  That has been sanity for me.

McKay update... we started rice cereal this past week.  I decided on our way home he really was ready to eat solids.  I was eating a cheese burger while feeding McKay and he stopped eating and refused to eat anymore and stared at my burger.  Hmmm, he is growing up too fast.  Yesterday he turned 5 months old.

We are in the midst of planning Benson's birthday party.  I am in denial that my baby is turning 4 in just over a week.  Where did all that time go?  We decided yesterday that we are going to do a Pirate cake.  Benson is super excited to help me make it.  We'll see how that goes!

Happy Bir-day!!

We are in Magrath right now enjoying the snow (well most of it has melted now but it is still chilly out there) for a couple of weeks.  My Mom came down on the train last week and drove back with me and the kids so we could visit for a couple of weeks.  They just got their mission call on Tuesday to the Apia, Samoa mission and will be reporting May 30 so this was our last chance to come and visit with them.  Daniel will be coming up on the train next Thursday and then we will all drive back to Portland on the following Saturday.

Benson has been having the best of times here.  He has spent time out in the shop helping Papa build a bed (every time there was a loud noise he would run and hide in the mesanine (nor sure on the spelling for that one!) until it was quiet again).  He went swimming with his Auntie Brooke after patiently enduring car troubles for a couple of hours.  He kept trying to comfort my sister's 5 month old daughter by saying "It's ok Naomi, the car just won't start.  They're trying to fix it."

Today was probably the most fun for Benson though.  Pictures will have to come at a later date.  He informed my sister that it was her 'happy bir-day'.  We made a cake for her complete with candles to blow out.  He made a 'Christmas tree' (a rocking horse and collapsible tunnel with blankets and an exercise ball on top... with an oragami star on top) to put all her presents under.  After dinner we played animal charades, sang songs, opened presents and ate cake.  He was most insistent that it was Brooke's birthday... it was really funny!

We have more fun to come so I will have to post more about our vacation in the next couple of days.  Most of Daniel's family is coming down to visit this weekend so there are bound to be more stories!

Kimber has been having a great time here as well.  She has taken on her Houdini skills again, though that is a story for another post!  She got caught up on her immunizations today and has been pretty good considering she got poked 4 times today.  I wanted to cry though as I was holding her still with tears just streaming down her chubby little cheeks.  She has officially only gained 3 and a bit pounds in the past year and 3 months.  She is now in the 90 % for weight and 75 % for height so I am just fine with this news!

I keep thinking of more to write, maybe for my own purposes of keeping records.  McKay and his cousin Naomi were weighed the other day.  They are the same length, heads are the same size and Naomi weighs 10 oz more than McKay.  Naomi is 1 month and 3 days older than McKay.  They are so cute!!

I must be off to bed.  Everybody here is trying to get me to go to bed early and it never seems to be as early as we planned on!  I got sick the day after we got here, naturally, which is why everybody is trying to herd me off to bed!  I am sure another post will be coming soon.  Hopefully there will be pictures!

Bells Palsy

So for the past couple of weeks Daniel has been dealing with Bells Palsy.  The left side of his face has been paralyzed.  I had him take these pictures/video on Sunday to share with all of you.  Sunday was a turning point for him though.  He moved his lips a tiny bit to start to smile.  Well it was more of a twitch.

Daniel has been doing really well dealing with all of this.  He has had to manually blink his left eye and was adding artificial tears to help keep his eye from drying out.  He also has taken my jokes fairly well.  I am glad he has a sense of humor!  The kids didn't seem to notice how he looked.

Something Happened Today!

 The "February Blast" made it to Portland via the "Polar Express"!

Daniel went to class as there was a late start to the day instead of the cancellations we have experienced during some past exam weeks!  We really are hoping class is canceled tomorrow.  Let me rephrase, I am hoping but Daniel is not as he has 2 patients tomorrow.

I took the kids out to play in the snow.  I know back home this is nothing but for our kids it is the best thing!

 

 Kimber bundled and ready to go.  She wasn't so sure about walking on the grass with boots and the snow!

She fell down and sat there worrying about the snow stuck on her boots and gloves.

This is how excited Benson was for the snow!  I asked him to show me how excited he was and he gave me this cheese of a smile!

Here is to hoping that we survive this "crazy" weather.  Really was it worth canceling Oprah on Tuesday for a breaking news broadcast on how to stock up and prepare for the "February Blast"?