Our Christmas

This year Justin was so excited for Santa to come. All he wanted was a toy gun and a flashlight. Justin woke up at 4:30 Christmas morning and he wouldn't go back to sleep. So after an hour we decided to open up gifts. Justin was so excited Santa brought what he wanted and a couple of extra things!



This year we spent the night at Grandma and Grandpas house....the kids definitely had a ball!!! We love grandmas fudge, candies, and her great decorations in her house! We are grateful to live so close to them. We feel bad grandma and grandpa had to wake up so early!

Fun to Compare

I think it is cute how much Brookie looks like her dad! EVEN THE CUTE HAIR STYLE!

Swim Lessons

I decided that Justin needed something to do instead of being cooped up in our house all winter. So I decided to sign him up for swim lessons. Even though he dreaded going, it was good for me to get a little break.



He only had fun at his last class and didn't cry the whole time because he knew he was going to get a treat from his teacher.

My 9 monther!

9 MONTHS
We love our sweetheart!

She loves mash potatoes
She is starting to stand up
She waves bye bye
Says mom and dada
She has 6 teeth!
She hates when Justin takes her toys away!

Santa Clause

Justin's first experience with Santa Clause:

Justin was so excited to see Santa Clause at the mall.
As we stood in line, he would continue to wave to him and say. "Hi Santa"
When we finally got up to him, Justin was so excited that he ran to give him a hug and a little pad on the back.
Santa Clause thought he was trying run up to tear off his beard and jerked back got a little mad at him.
Side note: Before we saw Santa, Justin got into a water pond in the mall and his pants were a little damp. I forgot he was a little wet and when he sat on Santa, again he got a little mad at me and said "Your kid is wet, why is he wet." I felt embarrassed and apologized.
After that, I got the impression he was ready for us to go so we left.
Justin thought it was the greatest thing to see Santa..I guess because he got a sucker at the end.
Hopefully Santa will still bring us presents:-)

So excited!!

Hooray for our first real Christmas tree!

Our New Pet!

Meet Bubbles!

Happy Bday Justin!!!! The Big 3

Ben and I were excited to throw Justin a Birthday party this year. It turned out to be a blast. Ben planned for us to go to Pirate Island. (It was basically a Chuck E Cheese but pirate style and better PIZZA) Justin had a ball. He especially loved having his cousins, aunt, uncles, and Grandma and Grandpa around. We are proud of our little boy! Happy B-day Justin!

Justin opening his gifts

Grandma and grandpa with the 2 new grand babies

The great cousins

Dad and brookie

Our cute Pirate

Here is the train table we surprised him with!

Ben's Surprise

This is nasty!!!

Ben ran over something and it ended up on his bumper!!! He wants to keep it there just to get a rise out of people who ride his bumper.

Another lessoned learned!

Never forget the ladies in your life :-)

1.Justin and I waited for Ben in the car while he paid for the restaurant bill. He comes out the door and forgets to take his daughter with him. I motion to him where is Brookie. He turns around and books it back inside. He said when he got to her, the people sitting at the table across from him just gave him the worst glare like he was the worst father ever! Ben and I just laughed about it when he got back in the car!


2. Yesterday I forgot Brookie's blanket for church so I had to run back inside our house. Ben forgot i went back inside and drove away to church. I guess it took him a little bit to realize I wasn't in the back seat. When he did finally realize I wasn't there, he turned around just in time to pick me back up. Good thing he did!!!

Happy Halloween!

The weather was nice outside after a couple days of light snow so we decided to take the kids out to get Ben and I some candy:-)

Justin cried and threw the biggest fit while I tried getting his Buzz costume on. For some reason, he was scared of it. After an hour of fighting him, I decided to bribe him with a sucker... then he loved wearing it!

(His costume was only $2.50 at Kohls after coupons and discounts)

Carving time!!! Ben's is a little more excited this year!

Justin and Brookie next to Ben's pumpkin. (Ben all tuckered out in the chair behind them)

Bead Head

Good morning! Here is a picture of me when I wake up! Ain't I cute?

Here I am again after mommy does my hair!

Mommy is so excited she finally got my hair to look like pebbles!

My new hobby!

I decided to take a spinning class to get in shape and loose more of my baby weight. Today was my first day. It was a little hard and your bottom hurts really bad but I am excited to continue and see the end results!

For those that don't know:
Spinning is an aerobic exercise that takes place on a specially designed stationary bicycle called a spinning bike. As you pedal, motivating music plays and the instructor talks you through a visualization of an outdoor cycling workout: "You're going up a long hill now, you can't see the top yet.…" During the class you vary your pace -- sometimes pedaling as fast as you can, other times cranking up the tension and pedaling slowly from a standing position. This helps you to focus inwardly and work on your mind as well as your body.

Spinning burns serious calories (about 450 in 45 minutes) and offers an awesome aerobic workout that makes your heart pump fast.

Easy Good recipe!

I have been trying new recipes this week and I really liked this one!

Breaded Ranch Chicken

This is really easy to make and super good! It is one of those recipes that I have to be careful not to wear out, because I use it so often. You won't be disappointed by it!

3/4 C. crushed cornflakes
3/4 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix

1/2 C. butter or margarine, melted

Boneless Skinless chicken breast halves

In a shallow bowl, combine the cornflakes, Parmesan cheese and salad dressing mix. Dip chicken in butter, then roll in cornflake mixture to coat. Place in a greased 9/13 baking dish. Bake, uncovered, 350 for 45 minutes or until juices run clear.

Please send me any easy good recipes in my comment box

Fall Fun!

We youngins had fun yeastrday at Carnbelly's. I recommend all to go!

Here are them pictures of Us:

Justin and Dad on the Hayride

Justin on the slide

Justin and dad on the kido train!

Any left for me?

My 2 year old is going to eat me out of the house! This is what he had today!
(I am not looking forward to when he becomes a teenager!)

7:00am
bowl of oatmeal
2 slice of jelly toast
Bowel of cereal
10:00am
2 bagels with cream cheese
12:00
bowel of Pasta with white sauce
2:00
Slices of cheese
3:00
Corn dog with Tater tots
5:00
A bowel of pasta with white sauce with cooked okra on the side

Curious George #2

Brookie found one of dad's wires! (7 months)

Of course our Justin wins the title "Curious George."
Now that his sister can crawl, she is definitely following in his footsteps; I guess we can call her "Curious George the second".

Weekend Get- Away... Far away!

Hey ya'll, Ben here. I wanted to post this one due to my excitement over the trip we took. Everyone had a blast and thank goodness we were safe. Here's the details:


Earlier in the month I was at one of my vendors shops and saw that they were in the process of making posters and fliers for this event. It was the Wings and Wheels at Wendover air show. I scrambled to find as much info as I could. My thoughts were, "I have never been to an Air Show before" and neither had Steph. So I surprised her with this weekend getaway.

We left Friday after I got off work. Once we got through all the bonehead drivers on I-15, we were out of here! However, excitement on the road faded a little. It was the most boring drive! Being from Virginia, when you say "Roadtrip" scenery goes with it. Well, I am certainly not out to offend the Utahn's but... there is no scenery west of Salt Lake!!! Anyway, we got in to Wendover at a very decent time, about 8:00 p.m. and everyone but Justin was ready to hit the sack. He was so excited!

Saturday morning was an interesting start to the day. Let me provide an intro with informing everyone that I am a man with a plan... for everything. When that plan (no matter the direction) is held up I get a little frustrated. I don't believe in being to the movie theaters 5 minutes before a movie starts and I don't believe in being to work 5 minutes before IT starts. So I certainly am not going to be 5 minutes early to the Air Show. The festivities started at 9 am so we were there at 7:30. Do you think I got an ear full about it when we showed up and no one was in the parking lot... you betcha!!! But I reasoned it with the fact that we would be parked very close to the gate.

We were allowed in even though it was against policy. I being a very charming man am able to make friends very quickly. I am not bragging; this is a trait I have learned that the good Lord has blessed me with. I quickly made friends with the man who is responsible for this air show starting some years ago. It looks as though we might be involved with future air shows as part of planning or volunteering, not sure which but we are excited to go again in the future.

As the festivities began to wind up, the gates were opened and we took to checking out all the planes. Justin wanted so bad to go in the planes but only a few could you actually touch.

It was a little frustrating. The smell of Brat's filled the air and I wanted one so bad. But believe it or not, no one accepted VISA. Everyone only accepted cash! Come on man, it's 2009 get with the program. So I settled for a Subway sandwich instead; I am sure somewhere I made Jared happy.

This is the plane from the movie Con Air. Really cool!

My favorite plane was the Avenger. This is the fighter jet quite commonly used during World War 2. It also just happens to be the plane that George H. W. Bush was flying when he was shot down. The F-16's were an awesome sight too, and boy are they loud.

The Avenger

F-16's

Justin loved the big refueling plane mostly because he could run around in it. Check out the size of this thing.

We got to go see the car show they had going on there too. It was stellar! For those who don't know I am a muscle car fanatic. I am always telling Steph about how we're going to have one someday. I wish I had gotten some pictures, but I was carrying Justin on my shoulders.

Speaking of Justin, we surprised him with a helicopter ride. It was fun and nerve-racking all rolled into one ride. He was thrilled but I was just praying that we landed safely. It does feel good to be back on the ground.


We finished off the day with an extremely amazing dinner at the Over the Rainbow Restaurant. The atmosphere was amazing and they brought us the biggest ice cream Sunday we had ever seen. We couldn't even finish it!

In conclusion, I want to say how fun it was to be with my little family. Brooklyn was an angel and Justin a goofball as usual. I wouldn't have traded the trip for anything (I would have appreciated the dork who parked beside us in their Durango, being a little more cautious and not dinging my car, but perhaps that is too much to ask). All in all it was good. A little tip though: in 1903 the Wright Brothers learned how to fly... because in 1902 they drove cross-country with their families. I guess don't expect kids not to be kids and just know and be prepared to always say "We'll get there when we get there".

Smarty pants!

Our smart boy has learned to use the mouse on Ben's laptop. He is not even three and he will sit down and play games on the pbskids website by himself. I don't think I learned how to use a computer until I was six or seven. I really think kids these days are born smarter!

Sticky Traps

Because our condo is in the basement we get a lot of bugs. So we decided to put sticky traps under our furniture to catch our little pests. Here is a picture of what we caught in the last 5 months. Gross eh??





We got bugs mostly because I left the door open when Justin played outside. Now that I keep it shut, we don't get as many!

A Year of Babies!

Here are my new nephews and neice this year. I love them all very much!!!! I am excited one more niece is on the way in Oct!!!

Hunter

Bryson


Adrianne

Masen