9 Years of Wedded.....Bliss?

Well, I wouldn't say BLISS, exactly. Way better than bliss, it's been nine years of fun! Not all fun of course. Anyone who's well, ALIVE, knows that life is not all fun. But when it's not fun, at least it's still funny. And when it's not fun OR funny, at least you're learning to appreciate when it is good. So for our nine year anniversary, we spent the weekend in SLC at a really nice place called Crystal Inn. In the picture above, Ben was sleeping and it was about 11 am. But don't be mistaken...he had been up already that morning because he couldn't miss the breakfast buffet. In fact he woke me up at 8am to let me know what time it was, despite the fact that I was sick and that I NEVER like to get up at 8am especially when on vacation. I was so mad! He later confessed he wanted to get me up to go eat with him because he was afraid the food would be all gone at the complimentary breakfast. The breakfast was from 7 to 10. I thought 9:45 would have been a great time to go down. But we went down nice and early and there was PLENTY of food! In the picture below, I am NOT trying to look sexy. Ben was supposed to be surprised that I was licking him, but he looks perfectly okay with it. I thought it would make a funny picture, but instead it looks like I'm trying to be sexy and Ben is enjoying it. Blah!

Check out this baby girls hair! I think it's time I start having fun with her hair, now that her helmet is off. Also check out the belly overhang!

We got Riley and Malia some new clothes while on our weekend gettaway. I was surprised at how much Riley loved his new shirts and shorts. He slept in them and wore one shirt to preschool the next day with the other one in his backpack to show his teacher. Well, Malia is all over the place now. And she pulls herself up on everything. Coming up next is standing and then walking. Oh no!

Belated Valentine's and Another Great Visit from Mom!

A cheesecake and card all in one! I got a great recipe from a friend and made the little chocolate hearts by melting chocolate chips in a ziploc baggie and cutting the tip off. This cheesecake was the first I've ever made and it rocked!!!

Riley came home from preschool with all this! He brought me the cookie you see on the plastic bag and was SO sweet when he gave it to me. He gave me a hug and KISS (kisses from him seem to be rationed the days) and said "Happy Valentines Day." My heart absolutely melted! I have already made him promise that when he grows up and is married and a daddy that he will NEVER move far away and that he always has to stay close by to mommy :) There is some four year old little girl out there somewhere that will probably hate me some day :)

Thought I'd throw in a Spring fever picture. This was a couple days ago, before all the depressing storminess. It felt SO good to be outside and play in the yard and dream about the things I want to do with our yard. Last night I went and walked around the soon to be gardening section of Walmart. There are some things already set up for the coming season, and I had to call Ben because I was so excited. I said "Guess where I am?!.......I'm in the gardening section and they are getting it ready for me and it smells like dirt!!!!!!"

My Mom came for a visit, and this time she flew instead of driving. One hour of flying to get here versus six hours of driving. Well worth it! We took the kids to McDonald's, and Riley sat in Ronald's lap for a while to be comforted after the traumatizing experience of his ears being "hurt" by another little boy yelling too loud. I gently reminded Riley that a playland is loud and it's okay to be loud here, and he's loud too sometimes! Ronald apparently had more sympathy.
My Mom made an amazing stir fry with Tofu. I've always made fun of tofu...it seems like a crazy health fanatic food, but man that stuff can be tasty! In fact I'm making a stir fry tonight with tofu, and I can't wait to try my hand at it.
This trip, Riley was GLUED to his Granny. I think he said "You know whaaaaat???" about ten thousand time during her visit. And if I tried to give her a break and say "What Riley?" he would quickly say "I'm not talkin' to you. I'm talkin' to Grandma. Grandma, you know whaaaaat?" In the above picture, they are starting their sleep over on our couches. They watched Night at The Museum, and even though it was very late, Riley made sure my mom didn't miss a minute of it. Every time she dozed off, he would tell her to wake up.
Well this time, my mom was smart enough to not stick her finger in Malia's mouth (last trip Malia made my mom's finger bleed). Rather than her finger, my mom offered Malia french fries! In case you can't tell, that is a french fry hanging out of her mouth.

Riley wants to write something now:

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My Dad, the Grandpa!

So I don't think I've put many pictures of my Dad up with my kids, but I have to say it has been a hoot watching how he interacts with them. He has an interesting relationship with Riley, sort of a love/hate although hate is a strong word. It's sort of a love/annoyed relationship, with Riley being the annoyed one because my Dad teases him and pushes his buttons, so it's really my Dad's fault when Riley glares at him. I never know who to scold, my Dad or Riley. Malia seems to really like my Dad. She's kind of a "man's lady", jut like Riley is a "ladies man". I have a feeling Malia and my Dad will get along just great :)

OH Riley....

I love this little guy so much, but the other day I just had to shake my head and say "Oh, Riley." as I often do. Here is why...I took him to the dentist a week ago, and we had built this event up in a positive light for two weeks. He was excited to go, excited to open his mouth, etc. So we get there and the second it's time for him to go back and see the dentist, he goes from brave, confident Riley to the clingy and pouty and will NOT even open his mouth. So after 10 minutes of trying to coax him, we leave and of course I am upset that he wouldn't cooperate. The next day he sais he wants to try again, and PROMISES he will open his mouth and let the dentist look and do whatever he needs to. I know the promises of a four year old are shaky at best, but he really meant it. So BEN takes him because heck if I'm going to go through it again if Riley decides to back out. Well, this time instead of the male dental hygienist who tried to help Riley last time, there was a lady. I guess Riley didn't want a lady. He told me this later. So the second try was no better than the first. To top it off, I keep hearing stories of how wonderful other people's kids have been at the dentist. Oh well, I guess we will just wait until he's a little older and keep brushing and flossing!

This kid is such a good helper with Malia! It's funny to watch him try to carry her. The way he picks her up under her arms, she always has a wedgie as he's carrying her around. Speaking of WEDGIES.............

Check out the wedgie here! I could not believe how far between her cheeks this fabric had migrated. But she didn't seem to mind at all. How does this even happen when she has a big diaper on! Somehow, it did. Look at those buns!! She's a very curvy gal.

My friend Holly came to visit the other day, and brought her little girl who is a month younger than Malia. I know Holly from highschool and we also went to Snow College together. I had never met her little girl and she hadn't met Malia either, plus we hadn't seen eachother since last June so it was a fun get together!
Don't they look like the best of friends! Well, actually Olivia kept beating on Malia's helmet and Malia kept pulling Olivia's socks off. At least Holly and I were nice to eachother!

Goodbye treats!

Ben and I have decided to eat no treats until we lose a certain amount of weight, and this time we are serious about it. So we had our final treat last night, a cake, which we ate plenty of. At the end of the night there was a bunch of cake left and obviously I didn't want it around the next day so I asked Ben if he wanted to do some sort of cermonial cake burning with me. I was holding the pan and he surprised me by coming up and sticking his hand in the cake and shoveling it into his face, yes, like a pig. It was sickening yet delightful to watch. So I thought I'd have a little fun and next thing I know my face is in the cake and it was so fun to eat cake with your face buried in it. Then of course Ben had to try it to, and what he ended up with on his face is truly scary. The picture makes me so glad he doesn't have a goatee! For all of you who think we are wierd, we agree...we ARE wierd.

Riley thought we were both "sgusting" but he couldn't stop laughing either. If you had asked me 5 minutes before this picture was taken I would have said I was 100% sure that no one in my family would be burying their faces in a cake anytime soon.

Ben has made some dominoes for Riley. Sometimes he'll come home from work with little blocks or other cool things for Riley to play with and build towers. What a nice Dad!

All three of them were in jail for a few minutes because they wouldn't stop bugging me :)

This looks so unsafe and yet I can't see any way for her to fall through or get her head stuck in the bars. But the way she is lately, I'm sure she would find a way to make this dangerous. She fell down a full flight of stairs at Ben's brother's house on New Year's Eve, but seemed unphased and even had time while she was at the bottom of the stairs to pop a piece of styrofoam in her mouth just in case falling down the stairs wasn't dangerous enough. Her personality is so funny lately. The way she is now, I have a feeling she is going to be a very goofy little girl.

Goodbye Big Bertha, and other Christmas stuff...

This tree was a good friend for the holidays! We got a lot of oohs and aahs about this one. And magically, even thought she only got water three times, she did not drop needles at all! If she had I would not have been nearly as fond of her.

Christmas Eve we started what I hope is a new tradition, although Ben's a little unsure. We opened all the presents from us to the kids and eachother, and then on Christmas morning the kids got whatever Santa left them. I love doing it this way, especially since we go to a family breakfast every Christmas morning at 10 am, and its an hour from home. This way we are not so rushed in the morning!

Riley and Malia in their Christmas Eve PJ's, another new tradition.
This picture is kind of out of order with the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day ones, but what the heck! Our friends Heidi and Whit came to visit from California. Heidi's family lives in SLC, so they were nice and paid us a visit too. It was fun to see them, and Riley at once fell in love with Heidi and wanted her to stay in his room the whole time. She kept having to politely excuse herself from what he thought was their playdate, to return to be with the adults :)
I gave Ben 10 chapsticks, so he should never be without and never have an excuse for chapped lips! This gift was for my benefit as much as his.

Have I ever mentioned that Ben is a REALLY good dad! He and I get such a kick out of our kids. It's fun to enjoy them together :)
Christmas morning, Riley was EXTREMELY happy that Santa brought him not just the batman costume (yes! it finally came Christmas eve at 4 pm!), but also Hulk Smash gloves, Ants in the pants, and his own snow shovel!
This kid means business with his new shovel. For a while he was even shoveling the grassy areas for us. It's actually a good little shovel!

This year Christmas as a season and as a day was so great! Now I'm ready for Spring!!!

C'mon Hong Kong!!!

On December 1, Santa Claus placed an order for a Batman costume. This costume was made by elves in Hong Kong, and they promised it would be delivered to our house by Christmas. Well, there are just three more mailing days before Christmas and still no delivery and I am getting nervous since this is what Riley told Santa Claus he wants. What do I do if it isn't here in time!!!! Do four year olds accept IOU's from Santa?

Today was the long awaited day that Santa came to preschool! It's amazing how much a child changes in one year. Last year there was no way Riley would talk to Santa, let alone sit on his lap. This year he couldn't wait to get his little bum on Santa's lap and eagerly told him he wanted a Batman costume *with muscles*. It has been so fun to see how excited Riley has been this year. It has been interesting trying to help him understand that Jesus is even more important than Santa. I have told him that Santa is trying to be like Jesus by helping people and giving to others, and that we can be like Jesus too. Today after seeing Santa Riley asked "When can we see Jesus?" Riley believes that Santa and Jesus are really good friends, and that's just fine with me! When I put Malia on Santa's lap, she began her usual staring contest, and if given enough time I'm sure his beard would have ended up in her mouth so I quickly took a picture and got her off.
Look how cute Mrs. Claus is! Yesterday Riley asked Ben "Daddy, do you know who Mrs. Claus is?" Ben asked who and Riley replied "She's santa's woman!"

This is Riley singing a solo for Santa. After all the children started filing out of the room to let the next little group of preschoolers come in, Riley yelled earnestly "WAIT!!!" and ran up to Santa and told him he needed to sing him a song. So he sang a shortened version of "You better watch out...." and ended it with "Santa Claus is coming.....to preschool!" Does it get any sweeter?
This was a fun girls day out with several nurses that I work with. Part of why I love my job is because I work with wonderful people and they make me laugh and sometimes they even laugh at my jokes. We went to Happy Sumo where I ate very teeny tiny orange eggs from some sea animal and it totally disgusted me but I put on a brave face to impress the ladies. My dish was just a stir fry type thing, but I did try some sushi and I had to close my eyes when I put it in my mouth because the little raw piece of fish was flopping around on my fork. But I did it and I guess that is some great accomplishment to try sushi for the first time. Now I will happily never eat it again.