Talk about a roller coaster of a trip. Two days before we left I got sick with fevers, cold sores and an ear infection. I went to the urgent care and the doctor told me not to fly on the airplane the next day because my ear drum could burst. After praying and discussing the pros and cons of me not going to Utah we decided at 4 am to just go for it. (We left at 4:30 am) My ear drum did indeed burst and the only pain that this gets close to is labor. (Labor winning of course.) Anyway, our trip was off to a good start. lol

Once we got to Utah both kids got sick. Kyle especially. He had been sleeping through the night since 4 months-old but once he got sick he woke up several times needing his nose sucked out. Then once he got used to waking up several times a night I couldn’t just let him cry it out because we were staying with family. So I said goodbye to full nights rest and didn’t really sleep the whole 3 1/2 weeks we were in Utah. (With that said I do need to thank Ben’s parents for getting up with Kyle during the night so I could sleep longer that 2 hours at a time and also my parents for letting Hallie sleep in their room when we were at their house. Thank you!!) After Kyle started getting better my mom and I got strep throat. WHOA! Once again we were confined to the house and had to cancel all our plans. Don’t worry there is light at the end of the tunnel. We ended up getting better just in time to drive down to St. George for a long weekend. (future post) It was a very long trip full of lots of family time (since we were stuck inside) and good memories. I’m so grateful we were able to go.

Enjoy all the pictures:

Lots more posts to come!

This past weekend we went with our friends the Wendorff’s to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. We had been planning on leaving Saturday morning and coming home Sunday morning but on Thursday I got a surprise text from Ben saying he wanted to leave ASAP. haha (This is coming from the man who hates even leaving the house on the weekends.) He had been working on his final  all week and once he finished he said he wanted to get out of town. So….after rearranging some plans and stressing about cleaning and packing we left Friday morning. We stayed at the Historic Powhatan Inn again. It was a wonderful weekend full of family time!

Saturday afternoon/evening we headed over to Busch Gardens Christmas Town celebration. It was pouring rain but we had already bought the tickets so we decided to go anyway and pray that it would stop raining while we were there. No luck!

We had a lot of fun. The cold never even phased Hallie. I on the otherhand complained the whole time. Ben explained to Hallie that He and Hallie were strong when it came to the cold but Mommy was a wuss. I agreed! I have no tolerance for the cold!!!  Thanks Wendorff’s for inviting us! We can’t wait to go back in the spring and try out all the roller coasters.

I’m so grateful for church each Sunday. It really renews my spirits and gives me the strength and focus to face the coming week. I also love all the people I get to see at church. They really are my family away from home.

Plus, I get to dress my kids really cute! haha

Funny story:

At church Ben told Hallie that the song we were about to sing was a Christmas song about when Jesus was born. Hallie opened up her book and followed along with her finger then belted out, “Jesus being born. Jesus being born.” Over and over again at the top of her lungs. (Of course in her best singing voice.) I didn’t care if anyone else thought it was disruptive we thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Two of my friends came over last night and we canned our hearts out. We made salsa and raspberry jam. I had so much fun hanging out with them. I laughed so hard that I cried at one point. Good friends make the world go round.

Thanks Kami and Rebecca you two are the best! I can’t wait to do it again.

I’ve decided that Hallie would win a personality contest. Sure she is in her terrible 2’s and I could pull my hair out most days because she is so stubborn and emotional (especially now that she has given up naps). And really she thinks she is 15! But with that said, she gives meaning and lots of laughter to my life. Here are some recent conversations:

“Mom look! Look Mom a pull-up!”

She pulls her regular diaper down and looks at me with a huge smile.

“Did you know that Mom?”

____________________________________

Me: Hallie what are you doing?

H: Probably………nothing

____________________________________

Me: Hallie look at all the cars here at the store. (I was trying to distract her)

H: Wow! Jesus made them.

____________________________________

Some of my favorite things she says are:

Probably

Actually

That’s my favorite

I love that!

Sure are, sure is

Doing good

I good at making messes

Diego (her imaginary friend) come here right now!

Hey chubby boy

Delicious

Gracias

Real quick

Be right back

See you later

Peace out

______ time! (church,breakfast,lunch, dinner, sleep, etc.)

With Ben’s cousin Jeff and his wife, Anniele, in town over the holiday weekend we got a babysitter and went for a night out on the town. Where did we go you ask? Wegman’s, the local grocery store! haha It really is a cool place because it has so many different foods to choose from. The three of them chose sushi, which I hate, and I ate a salad.

We love when people come visit us!

I LOVE Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful holiday full of food, family, and friends. Combine those three sitting around a table while talking about all of the things that you are grateful for, it doesn’t get better than that! This year Ben cousin Jeff and his wife Anniele flew out from Utah to spend the holiday weekend with us. We love them!

The past two years we have gone over to the Stoker’s house (Ben’s 2nd cousins) for Thanksgiving. Carol makes EVERYTHING from scratch and we have never eaten better food. This year with Jeff and Anniele coming we decided to invite the Stoker’s to our house for dinner. Let me just tell you that I will never think of Thanksgiving the same again. All of these years I’ve always thought of things that I am grateful for but sadly I think I have taken the actual dinner itself for granted. Cooking this year was so much work. I love cooking so it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it because I really did. It’s just that it was exhausting and I never realized the effort that went into it. So thank you to everyone who has ever made anything that I have eaten on Thanksgiving. 🙂 Namely Mom, Chenie, LaRae and Carol. Wow you are angels!

Hallie only ate rolls. haha All that good food and the only thing she likes are the rolls. She is funny with textures and she never eats meat. She didn’t even like any pie!

What was on our table:

Turkey

Homemade rolls

Fruit salad

Homemade Cranberry sauce

Mash potatoes (15 pounds to be exact. Yes we have a lot left over!)

Sweet potato surprises (Aunt Tammy’s recipe)

Homemade Stuffing

Green beans

Homemade pies: Pecan, Lemon Meringue, Apple

Pumpkin bars

Thank you Carol for once again blessing us with your Turkey, rolls and fruit salad. We sure love you!

This daughter of mine better end up in the olympics for the amount of coordination she has. Here are some of her latest feats.

I can’t believe my little guy is 4 months old. He is our chunker for sure! He is starting to show his personality more and more and I love it! He is a smily little guy and we all get a kick out of his laugh. He is getting really good with his hands and he loves playing with toys. Ben was really anxious to try him on oatmeal cereal. We have fed him three times (well I should say Hallie fed him) and he did really good with it. However, I don’t think I’m going to be consistent with it because he is obviously getting enough food. 🙂 He is sleeping good at night. He usually does 4-5 hour intervals which I am grateful for. He even slept one whole night through. My body is used to waking up during the night so when I did and knew he hadn’t gotten up yet I panicked, said a prayer, and went to check on him. Now that I know he can go the whole night I think I’m ready to sleep train him. Here’s to hoping it goes fast and easy.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy of my fat little guy!

Oh how I love him!

This years Halloween was celebrated on two different occasions. Both of which were not actually on Halloween. I decided that every eight years when Halloween is on a Sunday we will not go trick or treating. I’m sure on those years there will always be lots of parties prior to Sunday so the kids shouldn’t feel too bad. Plus I think it’s a good way to teach them about not compromising the Lord’s standards to fit into the world.

The first party we celebrated halloween at was full of kids, kids, and more kids! Hallie was so excited to finally wear her Cinderella dress that Nanna made for her. Thanks mom!! I decided not to put Kyle in his full on costume because it was so warm and we were going to be inside. So he got to wear a halloween inspired outfit instead.

The next party we attended was thrown by our church. It didn’t start until 7 pm which is Hallie’s bed time so we only stayed for a few minutes and I didn’t take any pictures. Ben decided not to go with us (he hates Halloween!) so it was impossible to hold Kyle, help Hallie play the games and take pictures.

Here are some pictures I took tonight since Kyle never got the real chance to be a lion.


After the third halloween with kids I have learned that I will always be alone on halloween. Ben refuses to celebrate or attend parties. He did say however that when Halloween falls on a Monday (family night) he will go trick or treating with us. Yay for every eight years! lol

I guess I never put “likes to celebrate halloween” on my list of what I wanted in my husband. 🙂