Ant Moosh Dada

Benjamin has enjoyed relating this story lately:

Translation: The other day Dad and Benjamin were playing basketball. Dad dropped the basketball on an ant and smooshed it.

Just before we took this video we caught Benjamin "talking" on Paul's phone and repeating the words, "Ant. Moosh. Dada. Dada. Beeball. Moosh. Ant." The things that make an impression on a two-year-old...

Family Home Evening

Can you guess who came to our Family Home Evening last week?

Noah, of course!

We invited our animal friends (of all shapes, sizes, and species, including the Glo-Worms) to help tell the story of Noah and the Ark! It seems that our Noah liked certain animals enough to bring three of each.

We've really just begun having Family Home Evenings centered around Benjamin. We'd love to hear any suggestions for good lessons and activities for 2-year olds. Particularly, we are having a struggle with Benjamin when it comes to saying prayers! We know that he knows how to do it, but he won't. Can anyone suggest a good way to encourage him to want to say prayers with us? Any other fun ideas would be great, too!

Fair-Going

Yesterday we headed north to Lynden, WA to visit the Northwest Washington Fair. Typical of the fair, we saw...

COWS

HORSES

PIGS

And even a KARATE TIGER.

Benjamin had a great time feeling the wool on sheep and lambs, and touching goats' tails and pigs' noses. There were tiny little ponies and big huge Clydesdale horses. We saw some fantastic quilting and photography. All pretty typical things to see at the fair.

Except...

MONSTER TRUCKS!

When was the last time you saw monster trucks at your local fair?

A company closely affiliated with the one Paul works for was a sponsor of the fair, and particularly the monster truck derby, so we got free tickets to both. We looked forward to some pretty exciting entertainment, but for some reason we didn't at all anticipate the NOISE! They were louder than anything I've ever heard in my life, I think. I feared for my children's hearing, but neither of them seemed really bothered. Still, I covered Rhett's ears the whole time and Paul tried, rather unsuccessfully, to shield Benjamin's from the roaring of the trucks. That was actually our first stop at the fair, and we left halfway through to go see the animals and everything else. An interesting experience, to say the least!

Chunk

Here's our hunky chunky baby at almost 7 weeks old.

He has a check-up in a couple of weeks and we'll post an update on both kids then.

Whatever works...

Benjamin has been a picky eater lately. A few weeks ago we were having lunch and this is how we got him to take a few bites of his pb&j:

(That's salsa, by the way.)

I guess you do what you have to do, right?

How does your garden grow?

Some of you may remember our rooftop garden at Deseret Towers:

Well this year we finally have a real garden, however small. Paul created this plot and we planted on July 12.

We have a few different tomatoes, some bell peppers, jalapenos, pumpkins and zucchini.

A week after we planted, we had these pretty little tomatoes!

This is on July 24...

...and again on July 29!

Now, a month after planting, we have these huge plants!

And here's our helpful little gardener, exploring the backyard.

Day One

Here are a few small glimpses of my first day as a stay-at-home mom. We were lucky enough to have Paul home with us for several days before he started work at Ebenal. He went to work on July 7, and this is some of what my day looked like.

We did a little sunbathing...

Rhett had some billiruben issues when he was born and were were trying to get the levels down for his next check-up.

We had a drive-thru breakfast: clothes (and make-up) optional.

Notice how neither of my children are clothed. I did manage to change out of my pajamas before lunch, but I'm not sure if I ever did my hair...

Several weeks later things are improved. Benjamin usually has clothes on within an hour or two of waking up, and every once in a while I get to take a shower before Paul comes home for lunch.

I tried to make our home a picture of domestic bliss when Paul came home from his first day at work (or at least make the house smell good) by baking homemade, kneaded-by-hand bread.

Just as Paul walked in the door, and before the timer had even gone off, I pulled these out of the oven:

They were fluffy and delicious on the inside!

This attempt at baking and a couple of other trials have since proved that our oven, which appears to be an original fixture in our 1950's house, does not work. Thankfully it has a mini-oven on the side that fits a few small pans so we've been able to do some cooking without the stovetop while we wait for a replacement.

In other early-July news...

At the end of Paul's first week at work I attempted to surprise him with a "Way-to-Go!" cake (baked in the mini-oven). With no time to squeeze out icing letters, I quickly substitued some yummy cherries.

And who had better July weather than us? It barely touched 80 degrees the first week in August.

Look at this handsome baby!

The blonde hair on his head is getting thicker and his eyes have stayed blue! I never would have thought I'd have a child with such features.

Finally, Benjamin just loves his brother! I think they're getting off to a great start!