By jove, I think he's got it!

So after almost 6 years of marriage I do believe that Joe is beginning to "get" me! Thursday night I put the kiddos to bed and ran to see a movie with the ladies in my ward and when I came home I found an almost completely clean AND vacuumed house AND he had put all my dirt into my raised garden bed (something I have been procrastinating because there were 10 bags and each was 40 pounds). I noticed the second I walked in the door and my jaw literally dropped. It's not that Joe doesn't help around the house much (well, even he would admit he doesn't) but only a few times in our marriage has he ever done something all on his own like this. He said he did it because the next day was my birthday. It was the perfect gift! EXACTLY what I would want- he finally gets me!

Hilton Head

Over a month ago we took what we believe to be our very first family vacation. What I mean by this is that we were not going to visit anyone, no one was getting married and there was no holiday involved. We just packed up the car (not very well as it turned out, a lot of shopping was required once we arrived) and drove to Hilton Head Island South Carolina! We met up with our friends the Bettes (whose vacation we actually invited ourselves along for- thank you!) and hit the beach, ate yummy food, scootered, swam in the pool and enjoyed a long weekend. We even stopped off in Savannah on the way home. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, sunburns and all, and though we do love visiting family and friends we will definitely hit the road as a family again very soon. And by soon I mean when the humidity goes away and being outside is bearable again!

Elise Marie Benson

Our Ellie-bellie turned one today. It makes me happy and sad all at the same time. We didn't do much for Carter's first birthday and I have always felt bad about that (my mentality then was that he would never remember, I still feel that way but I will remember :) so I stayed up super late last night putting streamers up and blowing up balloons to put all over her floor and the house for when she woke up. Carter was more excited than she was but she does love those balloons, she can't quite figure them out. Elise is SO different from Carter! She loves to hold things, especially soda bottles or cups with lids and straws, and will turn into a crazy person when I try to take it away. She is a very opinionated eater and refuses to eat anything slimy (bananas, pears, baby food, most healthy things) so I have had to get really creative to keep her alive. Since she weighs 22 1/2 pounds I think we're okay though:). She didn't crawl until she was 10 1/2 months old, probably because she knows exactly how to manipulate her mother (who can do almost anything now with only one hand). Joe taught her how to throw a ball back and forth and now she LOVES to play with balls and if we walk by one in the store she must hold it, or else. And "else" isn't pretty, she can throw quite the convincing tantrum. Carter was not a tantrum kind of guy. I knew having a girl was going to be quite the roller coaster ride. We've never called her "princess" or overly pinked her up, she's more of a tomboy in our eyes- probably because we only have boy toys at our house. She loves her paci and blankie and when she is REALLY tired she will lay her head on my shoulder and snuggle to sleep. She loves the beach and swimming- she has only done each activity once but she was SO adorably happy. She loves her big brother and although he has discovered the joy of antagonizing her she always wants to be near him. She loves the bathtub and thinks she can crawl, stand up and lay down in the there so I have to bathe with her for her safety. She sticks EVERYTHING smaller than a tennis ball in her mouth, Carter did not do this!! It's probably for the best though as my house gets swept and vacuumed a lot more these days. The last year has been wonderful, though my right arm still gets a little sore on days when Ellie really needed the up-close view of me cooking dinner or changing the laundry or grocery shopping (which I almost refuse to do with kiddos right now). I know these days aren't going to last forever but for now I will relish every moment of being her whole world. We love you Elise. We waited a little while for you, with the miscarriage and everything that happened before and after, you were worth the wait. We're sorry we wanted a boy so very badly- really we just wanted an Ellie-bear.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Look what I did!

I made the baby AND the dress- pretty cute work if I do say so myself. I'm in charge of a Relief Society craft night (for the record, I am terrible at being in charge of things) and for March we made pillowcase dresses. It was a lot of fun and once we got the hang of it, it wasn't hard either! It's now one of my favorite Ellie dresses and I want to make her another one for Easter. If only I could make something for Carter to match...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And yes, I know they both still have pacifiers. But look how cute they are, and they both sleep well so I'm not going to rock the boat. I'm a pretty casual Mom who knows when to pick her battles. Or a wimp, whatever...

Memory Lane

What a wonderful morning I've had! Ellie and Carter woke up at 7:15 this morning but Ellie went back down at 8:45, Carter has been playing independently or watching a show and I have been looking through old pictures for over 2 hours! My parents sent me two huge boxes that have giant folders filled with pictures and souvineers of each year of my life. I've only looked through 3 years worth and I can't stop smiling :). I love remembering the crazy things we siblings would do- shaving cream fights, playing in the rain, and the mud. And remembering people from my past whom I love and miss- The DeShazers for instance, and the Pattersons. I've also found some wonderful blackmail photos, my favorite being the picture of my brother Bryon after we had painted his face to look like a clown- complete with mascara. Mostly it was important for me to remember how much I loved growing up in my family. I love that I know they loved me, I was practically a mother to Breckon, McKenna and Briley and they made me feel important. I love that we did fun things- we bummed around Disneyworld and Florida for almost a month, we scuba certified and went camping! My parents provided us opportunities to live, serve, and laugh and documented it all with a plethera of photos. Thank you for that. And thank you for loving me even though I wore a variety of deplorable outfits throughout my life and my hair was disgustingly long (you guys kind of dropped the ball there)...

C is for Carter, and concussion

So on Saturday Carter received a giant bear hug from a friend that knocked him down hard onto the concrete. He cried quite a bit but we really didn't think anything of it. Sunday he seemed fine but then monday he was acting a little odd- he would fall asleep on the floor or his chair and he had no energy, he wouldn't eat much and he cried a lot. All VERY off behaviors for my child and yet I thought maybe he was just getting sick. When the behaviors continued on Tuesday I got worried. We figured, better safe then sorry and so Joe took Carter to the ER last night where he was such a trooper. He let them take his temperature, his pulse, touch his ouchie bump on his head and stayed very still through an entire catscan! Joe said he was so quiet and brave but often there would be little silent tears running down his cheeks. The catscan tech was very impressed that they didn't have to sedate our little munchkin. Apparently he had a little concussion and they call all of these symptoms part of post concussion syndrome. He's gonna be fine- but if he's anything like his Dad we are in for quite a few more trips to the ER in our future...

Celebrating Valentines in March

I got a tip from a gentleman at church to check out the Valentines candy clearance at CVS. So I checked it out today and was not disappointed. Do we need all this chocolatey sugary yumminess? No, but I got it all for $4!! I've got to hide it all from Carter and myself because we cannot be trusted to control ourselves...