And then there were two...

Benjamin would like to introduce his little brother.

July 17, 2008

Chatterbox

Benjamin's vocabulary has exploded lately. Here are a few of the things he says:

E-I-E-I-E=E-I-E-I-O (this was the first thing he really said)

baba=ball, balloon, basketball
nana=banana, yellow, Viana
yeeHA! (when he rides his rocking horse or sees a picture of a horse)
mo=more (He also says this when he wants a treat)
Mama
Dada
wow
uh-oh
eeup=clean up
choo choo=train
baby
beebah=bellybutton
shh=shoe
eish=ice

He also chatters non-stop about this and that, and often seems to be telling us very important things.

Love Letters

Dear Lovey,

Thank you for making my Valentine's Day special with all of those love-you hearts and even a cuddly little Valentine friend. Your Valentine pancakes were wonderful, and worth the trek to the Creamery for eggs and juice! You are the best lovey ever, and I am most definitely still in love with you no matter what! No one can make my heart pitter-patter like you can!

Love,

Vicky

Dear Viana, Brooke, and Lucy,

You are the prettiest little Valentine friends a boy could want! This is my cheezer face to show you how much I like you! Thank you for playing with me and being my friends. Viana, thanks for sharing your toys with me (especially that wicked awesome Buzz Lightyear car). Brooke, thank you for smiling at me really big! Lucy, thank you for sharing the Ponies and GloWorms with me today, and for taking the Crayons out of my mouth when I tried to eat them. I have great Valentine friends!

Love,

Benjamin

Dear Blaine, Taylor, and Anne,

Thanks for letting me play today. It was fun to be at your house so my mom didn't have to have an extra-stressful day. Blaine, thanks for sharing your graham crackers and for teaching me how to make truck noises. You can come over and play with my tractors any time!

Your friend,

Benjamin

Dear CJ,

Thank you for coming over to my house today and staying for a long time so my mom could do interviews that she didn't know about because she didn't think to check the schedule until the last minute. You sure are nice to babysit me so much! I'll make sure my mom and dad pay it back to somebody.

Love,

Benjamin

Dear Tomassito's,

We sure thought this Valentine pizza box was extra funny! Thanks for spreading some BYU-style Valentine cheer! We'll call you soon.

Your faithful friends,

The Duersches

Our newest addition

Here is the lastest rocking horse that my father has made. Vicky and I finally received our rocking horse. It is one of a kind, and we love it. Dad has a tradition of making these rocking horses for each family a year or so after the birth of their first child. The first horse was made about ten or so years ago. Each is very similar: dark stained, solid, and rocks perfectly. But Dad's latest rocking horse turned into a pinto. He was very excited about it, as are we. Best of all, Benjamin loves it. Thanks Dad/Grandpa!

So I think it' s about time for another post. It gets really boring looking at the same thing every day, as I'm sure most of you know. I know that I always love to see something new on my friends' blogs, so I should be better about keeping our blog fresh as well. So here are a few snapshots of life for us.

Benjamin reading books. He loves to look at books, which I love! I'll be taking a children's literature course this semester so I hope to learn a lot about adding great books to our kids' library.

Benjamin at the computer. We did a little rearranging of our apartment over the break, moving my office desk and computer into the living room to free up space in the kitchen. We love the change, and so does Benajmin! Before he started walking he started climbing on everything. His favorites are the chair at the desk so he can play with the computer (which we don't love), and the bathroom sink (as seen below).

This kid can hoist himself onto the toilet and into the sink faster than you can blink. There's just something about small spaces that kids love. (Yesterday he pulled all his books off of a shelf and climbed on/in. The shelf is smaller than a cubic foot. We were amazed.) Until recently he just laughed at himself in the mirror and spun the faucet handle around, but the other day he turned on the cold water and freaked out. Did that put an end to his sitting in the sink? Not a chance.

We had a crazy snow storm last week. Paul got some cute pictures of Benjamin in the snow in front of our building.


And this is us with my freshman year roommate, Kerrie. She came to visit us while she was in town from Oregon. Kerrie and I lived together in S Hall, and then again our Sophomore year at Stadium Terrace. I don't get to see her much anymore, but I still feel blessed to know her. How thankful I am that she didn't turn out to be the "Frankenstein" roommate that I was scared about. Instead, she is a wonderful person who has been a great example to me and taught me a ton about life. I am a better person for knowing her. She just got her mission call, and wherever she goes she'll be a great teacher of the Gospel!

So those are some recent happenings at our house. Not terribly exciting. Mostly about our baby. But that's our life. The semester is going well so far. We've been given a lot to think about and big decisions to make. All is well.

And just to conclude, here' s a video of Benjamin walking. He took his first "real" steps around Christmas, and is becoming a real pro. The video is sideways, but for those of you who are interested it's a fun clip of his new mobility.

2007 in Review

The year 2007 was very eventful for our family. We've had a fun time reminiscing about it, and here is a brief sampling of 2007 highlights for the Duersch family.

• Benjamin starts the year off 3 months old

• Buying (and completely paying off the loan for) a new car: 2003 Honda Accord EX

• School, work, Benjamin, church
• Seeing Paul's little sister married in the Mt. Timpanogoes Temple

• Getting together with Paul's seven siblings and all their kids
  
• Our 2nd anniversary

• Seeing Harry Potter 5 in a nice movie theater
  
• Growing a rooftop garden at DT

• Albuquerque summer visit
• Summer softball games
• Camping, fishing, and hiking at Ledgefork

• Fishing trip up at Granddaddy Lake in the High Uinta Wilderness (and the pouring rain)
• School, work, Benjamin, church some more
• Paul making an ottoman

• Leaving Deseret Towers and moving to our third apartment because DT is being demolished

• Benjamin being babysat by almost everyone we know, for which we will be forever grateful
• Benjamin turning 1

• Visiting Mesa Verde National Park, CO

• Seeing our nephew, Lane, baptized in Albuquerque
• Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

• BYU football games

• Benjamin's first haircut

• Thanksgiving in Albuquerque
• BYU beating U of U in football
• Paul begins job searching
• Temple Square and Ikea visit

• Watching a friend be sealed in the Manti temple
  
• Christmas with Paul's parents

• Sledding and snowshoeing

• Benjamin going from squirming on the floor to commando crawling to crawling for real to climbing up onto (and into) everything to finally walking in late December

• Benjamin is now 15 months old
• Paul and Vicky excitedly anticipating finishing school at BYU summer 2008 and moving somewhere
• Experiencing many, many blessings from the Lord!

Benjamin's Development Slideshow

During Benjamin's first year of life we took a picture of him almost every week so we could see how he grew. Here is the fruit of those labors! We know that only those who are closest to our family will come close to appreciating these pictures as much as we, Benjamin's parents, do. But hopefully you can at least appreciate the wonder of a growing baby!


Click on the picture to view the slideshow.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Paul, Vicky & Benjamin

Spreading some holiday cheer

This is the best dancing I've ever done!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break Fun

I know, I know. So late to post this! I'm a lazy blogger, what can I say? Anyway, here's a rundown of our Thanksgiving holiday.


For Thanksgiving this year we traveled to Albuquerque to be with my family. Here are some highlights from our trip:

For starters, we took a lovely detour through Colorado that we've never done before. Rather than going down to Moab, we took I-70 to Grand Junction and headed to Durango. On the way we passed through a little town called Montrose and found a great park to stretch our legs in. Benjamin loved the slides and the swing!

We opted to take a drive through the Rocky Mountains, which turned out to be a GREAT idea! It was so beautiful! Here are just a few snapshots of the scenery:

We're glad we took that scenic drive and look forward to trying it in the summer sometime.

Wednesday was a perfect day to play in the park with Grandma! We went to one that was recommended to us, and Benjamin had a ball, despite the wind and slight chill.

Later that day we visited with my Dad in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. He gave me a box full of family history info that I'm excited to dive into. He also showed us my great-grandfather's Army uniform, which I didn't know he had! At some point it will be donated to a museaum in Oklahoma, so we decided to snap some pictures before then.

Thursday we had fun watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, and I made (and slightly burned) some pumpkin pies. We took ourselves and the pies over to my sister Sarah's house and had a fantastic Thanksgiving meal put together by Sarah, Melissa (my other sister) and my mom. So good!

And would you believe that it snowed? It did!

It was a good visit in Albuquerque, although short. We headed back to Provo on Friday so we could be in attendance at the BYU vs. Utah game on Saturday, at which Paul got to go down on the field during halftime--but that's a post for another time since this one took over 2 weeks to get up!

Happy December!