Stuffing a Turkey Through the Beak

Okay.....that is my ALL time favorite line from a general conference EVER.... "That's like trying to stuff a turkey through his beak." --Elder Holland So great. His talk was my fav.....ooooh, and President Uchtdorf's! I love hearing the apostles and our wonderful prophet speak. It inpires me to do better, be better, and try harder every time I hear them. And on a totally different note, Ben LOVES the stairs, so I thought I would share with you his awesomeness! Here you go!

Make 'Em Laugh

One of my ALL time favorite movies is Singing in the Rain. And one of the best songs on that movie is "Make 'Em Laugh". Short people have long faces and Long people have short faces. Big people have little humor And little people have no humor at all. Can't you just see Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly dancing it up and being hams! Perfection I tell you, PERFECTION! After Luke passed, I NEVER thought I would laugh again. We have had some experiences the last few weeks that reminded me of those first few months when it seemed that happiness, joy, and laughter would not be in my life anymore.... But, then as the old addage says, "time heals all wounds" and you throw in A LOT of the spirit guiding and healing, and you have happiness, joy and laughter again! Well, that seems to be our life's mission around here....making Ben laugh. And sometimes I am lucky enough to catch it on camera..... This is what life's about! Enjoy.....

Quality Family Time

Last week was our annual family snowmobiling trip to Island Park......and aside from Ben and I getting sick, it was FANTASTIC! Good times I tell ya! There was good snow, good food and good friends to enjoy it with. My brother and his family even came up one night to go swimming with us! We only had one "wreck"......Mike was going a little too fast out in the meadow and didn't notice a dip. When he hit it, he flew off his snowmobile. It scared him to death but recovered nicely and was back at it the next day! This was the first year Josh and Mike rode their own sleds on a longer ride, which was great! I was so proud of them! Here are some photo highlights:

Yes....He Is That Cute!!!

Only one of my sons would think that something like this is so funny..... I could listen to that laugh ALL day and never be sick of it!

Benjamania

We all have a little bit of Benjamania in this house. We think Ben is better than sliced bread with butter and jam! So when he got his first two teeth this last week, we jumped for joy! No more toothless grins!!! And then, the smarty pants, learned to crawl......well, we were ecstatic! He is a moving cutie! Here is a shot of Ben in action, but watch cautiously, or you may get Benjamania too!

6 month (+ 1 month) pictures

I am a horrible mother......how could I forget to get Ben's 6 month pictures done.  I got them done just last week (hence, the title of this blog) so he was actually 7 months old!

Josh, Mike, Luke.....all had 6 months pictures done.  But not Ben.  Poor kid.  This may scar him for life.  He may have to go to counseling about this someday.  Oh, the inhumanity of it all.......

But, they did turn out FANTASTIC.....

He is FREAKING adorable........

Maybe he will survive my oversight.

What do you think?

Time Flies

I never thought too much about the saying "time flies" until I had children.... and it seemed like in the blink of an eye Josh went from being a loud, stubborn 1 year old to a loud, stubborn almost 12 year old.

And then, after Luke passed, the saying "time stands still" came into play, or maybe I just wanted it to stand still.  I didn't want anything to change.  I wanted to hold onto what we had.......

This past month, I think I have had time standing still while flying by (yea, figure that one out).

We got to celebrate Ben's first Christmas.  We enjoyed playing Creationary (the boys got it for Christmas) and sipping hot chocolate.  We watched movies and ate popcorn.  And the time really flew.

And then by week two of Christmas vacation, time slowed down, trickling ever so slowly, until it eventually came to a screeching halt, and I didn't think I would make it until they went back to school (isn't sending them to school heavenly?  I think we should go year round.....who's with me?!?!). 

Here are some of our most memorable times:

Okay, now let's talk about this cuteness:

Ben is over 22 lbs. and is in 9-12 month clothes already.  He is sitting up wonderfully well.  He is almost crawling......he can go scoot backwards as far as the room will allow, so we are working on his forward motion.  He is LOUD and proud.  If you don't pay enough attention to him, he will yell until you do.  He has found his toes and loves to try to suck on them!!!  He still wakes up 2-3 times a night, but we are going to start curbing that!  His favorite foods are sweet potatoes and peach cobbler, but he is starting to want our food more than his own.  He loves his brothers, something I hope will last a lifetime.  He finds them just hilarious.  And he is stinkin' adorable!!!