Tagged...

Okay, sorry this is so long in coming Courtney, but I was tagged weeks ago and now I'm finally responding. Six things people probably don't know about me was kind of hard because I'm a pretty open person but here goes...

1) I did an all important study in college and determined that Burger King has the best french fry. That's strictly from a fast food stand point, steak fries are hard to beat. Needless to say I do like my fried potatoe but I usually do a good job of maintaining my distance.

2) I can't stand to sleep with my socks on. A good night sleep requires a little chill in the air, a big warm blanket, a big warm Joe and no socks. It's the only way I sleep.

3) I am almost 20 weeks pregnant and we are having a girl. We don't normally keep big secrets but due to our miscarriage earlier this year we have been a little close mouthed about it and then with all our house projects time has flown. My favorite part about the whole thing is when Carter rubs my tummy and talks about his baby sister- hope he still feels so compassionate towards her come April. Oh yea, she's due on Carters birthday- April 28th.

4) I find therapy in cleaning, and I am a compulsive cleaner. I vacuum out the couch, dust the fans, and move all furniture to vacuum on a regular basis. If I'm mad or upset I clean and somehow it puts things in perspective. But I hate to mop, that always leaves me worse than when I started.

5) Okay, here's one even Joe doesn't know the extent of. I keep Subway in business. I LOVE turkey and ham on honey oat and I've even gotten Carter on the wagon. It's also my pregnancy craving and since being able to eat again (yea for second trimesters!) I make it to Subway 3-4 times a week. Here's to hoping Joe never reads this...

6) I love horses, most of that probably stems from an infatuation with Tom Burlinson (anyone seen Man From Snowy River?). I love living in our area, right out of our neigorhood there are lots of horses- Joe, Carter and I are all fans. It would be great to take riding lessons again, maybe it's in my future.


I think I'm supposed to tag someone at this point but EVERYONE on my list of bloggers has been tagged before. But it's been fun to be one of you- have a great weekend! And I'll add pictures from the last 2 holidays soon:).

Carter, Sleep and Waffle House..

Carter is trying so very hard to give up his naps but I refuse to give up without a fight. So I have started waking him up earlier in the morning (breaking my own cardinal rule- never wake a sleeping child) and it's working! Yes, of the 2 of us I'm the one with the college education:)! Ironically, here are some pictures of him snoozing with his best friends, our friends dog Jenny and his Daddy- he's actually only truly asleep in the daddy picture. And on a different subject, the state of Georgia is overrun with restaurants called Waffle House. They are like a Denny's and they had Joe at hello- he is hooked. I have mixed feelings but that could be because nothing tastes good right now. Here are Carter and I in our official hats enjoying a little Southern living.

New York in the summer...

I had every intention of posting some super cute new pictures of Carter but that will have to wait because Carter is at this moment watching videos of himself on the camera and will not relinquish it. So I thought I'd post some forgotten goodies from our trip to New York in July. All of Joe's siblings and their fams got together to celebrate his Dad's 60th birthday and Carter was in heaven with three older cousins who included him in all their fun. Joe is in New York for work and McKenna and I were all prepared to have a girls party but 36 hours into it- I miss you Joe! Just 24 hours to go...

The rain...

I don't have any great pictures to share (and I won't until I find the right cable) but Carter is napping, it's raining and I am feeling so peaceful. I love the rain, it's good for the soul. Thank you for all of your thoughts in your blogs everyday. With all the chaos in our lives it's fun to stop and smile. And it has been so fun as Carter (who needs to be involved in anything I'm doing:) recognizes people and wants to see their pictures (right now he's all about Molly and Macy). So thanks for enriching our lives and helping us to see the positives in life. Hope that you all have great weekends, and that you get some rain.

Our house...

We thought it about time to update everyone on our new living arrangements. You would think that after 6 weeks of home ownership we would be unpacked and living large. I am attaching pictures to dispel any of these rumors. Some of the pictures are dated last month but some of the house looks pretty much the same (like my master bathroom for instance). Dawnelle's Dad came out last weekend and thanks to a hard long weekend of work (thank you Dad!!) he rewired a bunch of the electrical outlets in our kitchen and moved our gas line and hooked up our appliances and hung our kitchen cupboards and we got a lot of our wood floor down. On Wednesday when my countertops and sink come in I should have a whole working kitchen. If we get the wood floors in by then. We have high hopes. We also are indebted to Dawnelle's sister McKenna who is staying with us, she is the daredevil 20 feet up on the ladder painting our living room. She is helping us keep whatever of our sanity is left:). Joe and I are still on speaking terms, usually, and looking forward to living like normal people. Please keep updating your blogs, reading about what's going on in your lives is the highlight of ours. Carter is still being as cute as can be- and cuter. He likes the concept of "hiding" and he'll even stick his hand behind his back and tell me it's "hiding". He has been a trooper with all this construction going on, he can sleep through hammering and deafening air compressor noise. We are so blessed that he still loves us after all we're putting him through. We hope to have "after" pictures to share soon!

Hanging out with the fam...

Here are a few more pictures of the fam. One is of Carter and I at our "Mommy and me" gymnastics class (he's walking the balance beam way up high!). He loved the class, so much fun. His favorite part was the 30 foot long trampoline he got to bounce down over and over and over...:). Carter has finally (about 2 months ago) discovered television. Only elmo and not for very long at a stretch (about 3 minutes, then trucks, then another 3 minutes, then more truck time). Also Carter INSISTS after each bath on sitting on the counter and making eyes at himself. He loves his new alligator (pronounced aw-i-ga-to). They have these great indoor blow up toy play places (because it is TOO HOT to be outside) and Carter thinks the place is one big trampoline. He is sometimes over 2 feet in the air! Joe and I have recently had some moral struggles with house-sitting. We are taking care of the families 2 snakes and yesterday we had to feed them live mice. It was TERRIBLE! The little one at 2 little baby mice and the big one at 4 big mice. By the end we couldn't handle it anymore and we spared one of the big mice. We fed him cheese and strawberries and set him free in a field. At least now he has a fighting chance!

Our home...

When we took pictures of our house we didn't take any great shots of the exterior, this is the only one I've got. The house has great bones, but we are putting in new floors throughout, painting every wall, gutting the kitchen and bathrooms and we hope to have it done in three weeks. Did I mention we are doing most of it ourselves. You can stop laughing now. But we have been somewhat realistic- we are saving the yard work for next year:). Demolition starts next week and will culminate with my Dad (Mr. Fix-anything) coming out to help with the hard stuff. We are so blessed to be in a ward with wonderful people who are letting us house sit during all this chaos. Atlanta is humid, but other than that we can't complain. The people are so kind, it's beautiful and green and there are things to do and see. We'll keep you posted on the chaos, we're hoping for some great before and after photos. My sister McKenna is coming out on Monday to stay for MONTHS and MONTHS. Without her none of this would be possible- thank you McKenna! I love checking everyones blogs- I hope someday ours will get a facelift and regular updates too. And music, how do you do that...?

Moving Day!!

Yesterday we closed on our house, and today we moved all of our worldly posessions into it! Doesn't seem quite real because we aren't living there yet, we are house sitting for some great friends while we do some projects on our new home (you know Joe- he's all excited with big plans to knock down walls,etc.). I don't have pictures to share because we are STILL (4 months now) living out of boxes with no idea where the camera cable is. But we should be up and running smoothly again soon. Carter has been a trooper- all day as we moved he would say "me help too" and then he'd pick something up and carry it around for a while. We'll keep you a little better updated on the Bensons from here on out!

Alive and Adjusting in Georgia...

Hello friends and family! I've gotten a lot of flack for being a slacker so I am updating our blog. Carter and I went on a 3 week trip to visit family in Kansas and go to my sister, Bonnie's, wedding in Utah. We are now back and my sister McKenna is staying with us for most of the summer (yea!!). We are going to become civil war buffs so feel free to come to us with any questions you may have:). Also, on monday we made an offer on a house and are just waiting to hear back but we are optimistic it will go through. We'll keep you updated. Smarty pants Carter is really growing up- he can count to ten and sing the birthday song (I turned 27 yesterday!). We are FINALLY taking way the bottle and starting really parenting because he turned 2 last month and has started acting like it. But he is a sweet boy at heart. Joe is loving his new job, he has great co-workers but a long commute. Our new house would fix that problem. We are still living out of boxes until we get a house but I'll try to keep in touch better. Here are some recent Benson snapshots. Hope you are all well!

The good, the sad, the new...

A lot has changed with our family in the last few weeks. Mid-March Joe accepted a job offer in Atlanta Georgia and at the end of March we packed our stuff and hit the road. On the day we left California we found out that the baby Dawnelle was carrying (about 10 weeks along) no longer has a heartbeat. And since things aren't progressing along with the miscarriage as they are suppossed to Dawnelle will have to go in for a procedure that will clean everything out. It hasn't been easy with all the chaos in our lives right now but we are coming to terms and we have faith that everything happens for a reason. We are so grateful to so many of you for your love and prayers for us- we are so blessed to have you as friends and family. We spent a week in Arizona with Joe's sister and her family. With three cousins to play with we have never seen Carter happier (Brandon, Matthew and Andrew- CARTER MISSES YOU)! We arrived in Georgia earlier this week and have been busy finding a temporary apartment, house hunting, getting to know our area and driving each other crazy. Joe starts work Monday and a normal routine should ensue. We will keep you all updated and we will send you pictures of our sweet Carter and his buzzed haircut as soon as our stuff arrives (we're hoping for Monday...). Thank you again for your love- Happy Easter.

The guys...

So Joe left yesterday for a business trip and Carter insisted on bringing his luggage to the car too- SO CUTE!! Carter loves to pull and push things around, every night we play "follow-the-leader" which basically involves Carter with his lawn mower, Joe with the vacuum and Dawnelle with the popper. We go up and down the hall until Joe and I can't take it anymore!!

Even though Carter has a cold we took him to the Steinhart Aquarium on Monday (we LOVE three day weekends when Joe's home!!) and he was enthralled with all the fish! All he wanted to do was stand in front of the big fish tanks and wait for the fish to come to him. Today is day 8 of our little germ magnet being sick (first the flu and now a cold)- he isn't sleeping well at night but he does sleep in my arms which I do love. Be well everybody!!

Our little man...

Just some of my favorite recent pictures of our little man. He is feeling much better today, we even got really ambitious and went to see a movie together (just me and Carter). We saw "Music & Lyrics" and just a tip- it's a little too risque for children (and possibly adults for that matter). I don't think Carter even knew we were at a movie though, he was just happy to have popcorn and soda (and I'm just glad he's finally eating again)!

Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day one and all! We are having a quiet day at home because sweet Carter is a little sickie. He woke up four times last night, threw up, has a fever but seems to be doing okay. He is the kind of sick that makes him really snuggly, he fell asleep in my arms this morning- I love that! Don't worry, we have tylenol so he feels no pain:). And as a side note- we are now Sprint cell phone customers SO if you are too we can talk for free! And our numbers are the same.

Hanging with friends in San Francisco...

We just had a fabulous weekend with our college buddies and we wanted to share some pictures of the crew from our day spent in San Francisco! Things are back to normal this evening and not anywhere near as fun...

Welcome to our blog!

We'll start this blog off with some pictures of our weekend in Tahoe with our good friends Adam and Amber!