More Soccer

 The thing I liked best about watching Benjamin play soccer was his constant smile.

 

Rain or shine, win or no win, he smiled nearly the entire time. Sure, when he took a ball in the face he cried. But otherwise he was always smiling as he ran back and forth across the little field. I hope he's always like that.

Kindergarten Field Trip!

 Benjamin and I were both really excited for his first field trip.

I got to hang out with Benjamin and two other boys from his class.

 

Even with one of my charges making a run for it as the class was getting on the bus to go back to school, it was a fun day!

Benjamin is 6!

 Excited to share a birthday treat with his Kindergarten class

 Turning 6 definitely calls for Boomer's and lunch at the park with Dada!

 For some reason we didn't take more birthday pictures, but here are the presents and cake. Benjamin wanted all his Cars cars on top.

 Happy Birthday, Benjamin! We love you more than ever!

I might deserve this

My boys have never really been wall artists until now. Rhett dabbled in a little bit of crayon-on-wall expression a year or two ago, but Benjamin never did that sort of thing... until now! While I love to see my kids' artwork, especially their cute depiction of our family members, I'm not loving the medium of choice here (pen on living room wall). But perhaps I deserve it since I was a bit of a wall artist myself as a kid.

Building a Bookshelf

 Due to my habit of acquiring children's books, our shelf has become inadequate to contain the collection.  So Paul kindly agreed to make another one this weekend, and the boys were happy to help.

Safety (or sunglasses) first.

Benjamin's New Hobby

Benjamin has recently been really interested in playing chess.  Neither Paul nor I play the game, but he has an older cousin who is a chess whiz (among other notable talents).  At this point he really doesn't care about how the game turns out.  He just wants someone to play it with him.

Just like Dada

Benjamin watched Paul shining his shoes for church and really wanted his own shoes shined, too.  I wish I had been able to capture the pure delight on his face as Paul polished them up.

Christmas Art (to brighten the blog)

Our house is a whirlwind of Christmas preparations these days.  So much to do, and not enough time.  I'm trying to focus on what really counts and not do too much stuff.  This year is fun because Benjamin is more into Santa than before.  Last night after our ward Christmas party, he confidently affirmed that the real Santa had been there.  Rhett is getting into it, too, but not as much.  Benjamin keeps reminding Rhett that "Santa can hear you."

Something really fun (to me) about Benjamin recently is his artwork.  Up until now, he would never draw pictures, or even color in a coloring book much.  This past summer for Grandpa Duersch's birthday, Benjamin drew him a picture of some balloons and it was the first picture of his that was really recognizable as what he said it was.  Now he seems to be coloring up a storm.  It's so fun to see the things in his brain going onto paper.

For the ward Christmas party the primary kids were asked to color these ornament outlines which were then hung as decorations on the walls.  Maybe at some point I'll post pictures of our family at the party (we took pictures!) but with my track record this year I wouldn't count on it.  For now (or forever) this will have to do.

Rhett is really into yellow lately.  Really.  He loves anything yellow.  He cried at Thanksgiving when he learned that I had not, despite his request, made a lemon pie.  (I had in fact told him I would not be making a lemon pie, but his little 3-year-old heart was still counting on it.)  It really is so funny, his yellow obsession, until we can't find his yellow spoon/plate/cup at dinner and a tantrum ensues.  Rhett has been alternating between very sweet and very sassy.  Sometimes he'll respond to one of my instructions with a cheerful "Um, sure!" and others he responds with a surly "No, mommy-poopy!"  (The latter "endearment" has been going on for months in different variations.  He hasn't tired of it, but I have.)  I am amazed every day at how much he is growing up.  Sunbeams in 3 weeks!

Since this "short" post has now turned into an update post, I guess I have to mention Lucy.  She's pretty much the same as last time, though.  A third tooth has come through.  She's delightful as ever.  She'll be nine months old at the end of this week.  This has been the fastest (and most blurry) nine months of my life.

Back to the purpose of this post, I'll finish off with another piece from Benjamin.  He drew this in his primary class today.  This may be the last post we get till next year, so maybe I should have titled it "Merry Christmas!"  The subject of this picture is what it's all about, after all.

(If you can't tell, it's Baby Jesus in the manger.  And maybe that's a star up above?)

E-mailed to Paul 25 minutes ago:

Apparently it's sunny enough to pee outside again.  The boys are out there playing, Benjamin opens the door to put his apple inside on the ground, and goes back out to pee in the trees.  Comes back in a minute later to get the apple.  Rhett watches with interest.  I'm glad his diaper is still on at least.

xo




(What can I say?) 

I love it when this happens

Cookies

Can you tell I'm playing February catch-up and changing the date on most of these new posts?


I normally have a hard time when the boys want to help in the kitchen.  This time, while Rhett was napping, I tried to be more patient and let Benjamin help me scoop cookie dough.

He turned out to be quite the cookie dough pro.

Scoop...

 and Scrape

 

Perfect.

 

  
Drop...

 

and bake!

 

Yum.

Making Valentines

A few days before Valentine's we got out our paper and scissors and went to work on Valentines to send off to grandmas and grandpas and other people we love.  Benjamin practiced writing his letters, copying words I wrote on a separate paper.

To Grandma and Grandpa Duersch we sent this brown heart (mostly) cut out by Benjamin and stamped all over with little green alligators.

He wrote all of the letters of his name... never mind that they're out of order.

Grandma Key got a little pop-up heart number.

He added a tic-tac-toe game as well.

Grandpa Key got a simple cut-out heart (again by Benjamin) and a vertical "I love you."  (Benjamin was getting bored by this point and wanted to change things up.)

He wanted to make his name more interesting as well, writing first the E, then the B, then the N.

When we came to the end and needed to make one for Great Grandma Sanders (who always sends us fun decor to brighten up the Valentine holiday) Benjamin suggested that we just go outside and find some flowers and send them to her in the mail.  But a lack of flowers in February led us to make a flowered paper heart instead.

I was impressed with Benjamin's willingness and his patience for writing those letters over and over.  By the end he was done, but it was fun while it lasted.

Benjamin's Birthday

Benjamin turned four years old at the very end of September!  He was anticipating the day for months, and it was really fun to watch him get excited for and then appreciate his birthday this year.

Paul took Benjamin with him on a boy scout camp-out the night before his birthday.  I think Benjamin really liked that father-son time all to himself and he thought that sleeping with Dada in the "fun-runner" (our Toyota 4Runner) was really cool.

We celebrated that afternoon with a construction-themed birthday cake.  Just before lighting the candles and getting the party started, Paul and I debated whether we should take a video of the birthday song, blowing out the candles, etc.  We ultimately decided that, no, we did not need another video of singing "Happy Birthday."  After all, we do it several times a year, and are we really going to go back years from now and watch all of those "Happy Birthday" videos?  We thought not.

Mistake!

Perhaps it was karma working against him.  At the end of the birthday song, as Benjamin took a breath to blow out his four candles, Rhett beat him to it!  He blew out the candles like a pro and poor Benjamin cried tears of disappointment.  It was actually quite funny, which is why we wish we had taken a video.  At least candles can be re-lit, and Benjamin was consoled, as well as extra cautious of his sneaky little brother the second time around.

(Take 2)

Somehow Rhett hasn't caught onto the idea that you're supposed to lick the bottom of the candle, not the flame end when you take it out of the icing.

Licking the wheels clean

Why does Benjamin, the 4-year-old, use his fingers to eat while Rhett, the 2-year old, uses his fork?

 The most highly anticipated present was this Buzz Lightyear toy from Grandma Key.  I'm not sure which boy was more excited.  Coming in at a close second was the big Lightning McQueen toy that I found at a thrift store.  Benjamin was with me at the time so he knew it was coming even though I wouldn't let him play with it until his birthday.

But the most exciting gift, and something we had wanted to get for Benjamin for a while, was his first bike!  He has ridden it pretty much every day since, rain or shine.
 

 Checking himself out

 Of course, as soon as an opportunity presented itself, Rhett had to have a go on the bike too.  I'm not sure who rides it more often now.  We think we might have to get a second bike sooner than later because there have been more that a few screaming matches over who gets to ride the bike vs. who is left riding the tricycle.

 Benjamin is already anticipating his next birthday.  And the next and the next.  He is growing up too fast, and I wish we could capture and preserve every single moment with him (except for the tantrums).  He constantly amazes us with the things he remembers and understands.  Right now he is loving learning about letters and their sounds and the things they spell.  He loves reading scripture stories at bedtime and having Family Home Evening.  (Side note: He even requested a mid-week FHE with me this week while Paul was in Alaska for work.  He wanted to "watch a movie about Jesus" so on his own he picked out "Finding Faith in Christ" and we watched the whole thing together while Rhett slept.  He paid attention and asked questions and really enjoyed it more than I would expect a 4-year-old to do.)  

He brings so much joy to our family!